What Happens If the US Defaults?

The United States is supposed to be the world’s superpower and the dollar the world’s currency but America is unable to control its spending. Despite taking in record amounts of money the federal government continues to spend even more.

We have 18 TRILLION dollars of debt but we have over 100 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities. These are things the government has promised but cannot pay for. When the day comes for those items to be paid the US will not honor the obligations because it will be unable to.

The war cry from liberals is to tax the rich more. The wealthy folks in our country pay most of the taxes. The bottom 47% of earners pay NO federal tax and often get back more than was withheld in an income redistribution scheme overseen by the IRS.

Taxing the wealthy would not solve the problem. If we confiscated 100% of the money the wealthy have the government would run out of that money in a few months. Then there would be no more to take and we would still have huge bills to pay.

China, among other nations, holds a lot of our debt. If China ever called for us to pay them everything back we would go under. The Chinese could collapse our economy, and thus our nation, and it would never have to take a hostile act to do it.

We are in serious trouble and it is getting worse. Soon, if things do not change, we will be like Greece.

The government there is looking at every possibility to solve its financial woes and that includes confiscating money from citizens and limiting their access to their own money. The US has schemes and one of them is to confiscate all the money in the various retirement plans throughout the nation. Doing so would give the government TRILLIONS of dollars to spend. It would keep us from defaulting for a while but it would leave everyone penniless. We would all be wards of the state.

Nanny state types will insist it is for the greater good and that the money confiscated can pay bills and be used to evenly pay every person a retirement. It would allow them to redistribute to the poor who have little or no retirement money saved while forcing those who saved to accept small amounts and live meager lives in retirement.

This of course assumes that the public will not revolt and stop this from happening by any means possible. That is a distinct possibility since people do not like their money to be screwed with. The poor who stand to gain will likely support it as will politicians who want to enslave even more people to the government plantation. Those who stand to lose will likely not take any action lying down.

The unrest will make for an environment where any enemy can take advantage and start trouble.

This all because our government can’t live within our means. This because our government insists on spending money on things that are not authorized by the Constitution. This because the tax system is screwed up and complicated and because the money that is confiscated from the people of the states is held over the heads of the states to gain compliance with ever increasing federal rule.

We need to abolish the IRS, change to a simpler tax system where EVERY wage earner pays (and we all pay the same percentage) and we need to harness the out of control government to force it to only spend money on things it is allowed to spend on.

Troubling times are coming and we will all pay a heavy price for the things our arrogant government is doing.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

Thank God For August

It has been a long, hot summer down here in Texas, but then it is alway so here- I understand Al Gore is in Tennessee scratching his balding head, wondering where the hell the global warming went, and there are places in the Northeast that haven’t hit 90 degrees yet. Good for them- heat is only good for my arthritis, but I tend to feel the heat more than I used to. Getting older does that, I understand.

There are other reasons for being grateful for August than just that it means that for many, the summer is almost over, or that we have not had a hurricane yet- (knock on wood)- the main reason, for myself at least, is that it has managed to do what the minority party in Congress has not been able to do, slow down the passage of all these onerous, money grabbing, tax raising, freedom- restricting unconstitutional laws that the Dems have been passing so fast that they say they have not the time to read them.

It is rather funny in a sad sort of way, that the older people who this healthcare bill will affect the most, know more about the bill than do the people who wrote the monstrosity of a bill. Of course, it affects the older people directly, but the Lawmakers have opted out of taking the public option, and this is part of what fuels the flames of resentment. The “It’s good for you, but I have better,” sense of inequality that is a part of the institutional arrogance that is so pervasive in Washington.

It seems to be the same attitude that might come from a King to a serf, tossing the serf a bone, and claiming the serf has been fed. Dismissive, snobbish elitist behavior doesn’t sit well with the regular people who matter. And lawmakers, at least those with courage, are getting an earful from their constituents- the very people they are supposed to represent.

When people hear Arlen Specter, the democrat turncoat say that he has to “parcel” the billout to staffers in order to read it, he is not only not being honest with his constituents, he is not doing the job they elected him to do. He is not being paid so he can have lobster while his staff decides his position- if that is the case, he needs to be removed from his position as a Senator. It is probably time for that anyway, but his electorate will decide that.

When Sheila Jackson- Lee talks on a cell phone while her constituents try to talk with her, and explain the problems they see in this bill- well, that’s just rude. She should have had that phone put somewhere the sun don’t shine, just to make the point about politeness, but in the bigger picture, that just demonstrates the complete and utter ignorance and false “superiority” these people feel that they are entitled to.

Some of them truly do not care what the citizens have to say- they are determined to pass this bill regardless, and to them I say, Beware- just because you are in power now doesn’t mean that it will always be so. You are supposed to be responsive to the electorate, not to the Party. The Party is a collection of people who have similar opinions, the electorate are the people who decide if you are up to the task of representing them, and the Party cannot save you if the electorate decide that you are no longer fit for office. You will be on your butt looking for work like the rest of us.

Believe me, it’s not an easy life when you actually have to work for a living. Some of you lawmakers have never had to do this- you have not had a life outside of politics, so if you do not listen to your electorate, you might just be in for the rudest awakening you never wanted.

Sometimes bad laws can die an ugly death in August- and sometimes the best course of action is to allow that to happen.

It’s your career- it’s your call.

We’re watching.
Blake
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]

Just An Old Fashioned SNAFU

Here, for your perusal, is another in a long list of “What were they thinking?” As a part of the climate bill- you know, the one that costs money and does nothing? Oh wait- that is EVERY BILL we see nowadays- I see I must be more specific. 

This is the bill where there is 3.4 million dollars for the “turtle tunnel” on a less than one mile stretch of hiway 27 in Florida. Well, it turns out that this is not the only brain- dead piece of pork that was inserted into this Obamanation of a bill. 

The latest is an attempt to revive the marshland that was lost during Hurricane Ike, on Galveston Island. Look- I know their heart is in the right place, but one has to ask- where are their brains? Allow me to explain my logic- In 1883, there was the town of Indianola, on the Texas coast, near Matagorda Bay. There was a rail line that ran through the town, and because of its position on the Bay, was poised to become a freight depot for stores and goods that had been transshipped from overseas. Then came the Hurricane, and it wiped everything out except the rail tracks. People clung in trees for 20 hours to avoid the flood surge.

When the storm diminished, the survivors climbed down, surveyed the damage, and decided to rebuild, based on the idea that this was a once in a lifetime storm- which was a possible scenario. Unfortunately, it was not the correct one.

They rebuilt, and got life back to normal, but the very next year, another, even deadlier Hurricane came along and completely wiped out the town, even the rail tracks were washed away this time.

My point is that this Wetlands restoration will not succeed- oh, it might be around for a couple of years, but sooner or later, there will come along another hurricane, and there goes all the work and money that went into this project.

More than $5 million in federal stimulus money will help in the restoration of West Galveston Bay’s rapidly dying marshes, officials said Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration selected the project as part of a $167 million effort to create jobs by rebuilding damaged wetlands, shellfish beds and coral reefs along the nation’s coasts and the Great Lakes.

The money for West Galveston Bay will be used to rebuild 328 acres of marshes with dredged sand. It will be the largest in a series of restoration projects for an area that has lost more than 5,200 acres of marsh since the 1950s because of erosion, sea-level rise and subsidence — the sinking of soft soils.

The intertidal wetlands are critical because they act as nature’s speed bumps against wind and waves. They also serve as a productive nursery for a variety of sea life, including white and brown shrimp, blue crab and red drum.

chron.com

Once again, I am reminded how illogical liberals can be- and inconsistent in their philosophies also. On the one hand, they rant that Darwin MUST be taught as “settled science” in our classrooms, but then they ignore his theories regarding survival of the fittest in their futile quests to “save” the snaildarter, or spotted owl, or animal du jour, rather than allowing nature to determine the species’ viability. 

The hurricane destroyed these wetlands- and the next hurricane will destroy some other wetlands- look at Louisiana. There were plenty of wetlands destroyed there. This is what hurricanes do- they carve new shoreline out of old. To try and deny that is insanity at its worst, because this is insanity with our money, and it will, by the very definition of what hurricanes do, be wasted money.

Hurricanes carve out their own “wetlands”. and they do this naturally- it is the height of arrogance to think that we should even attempt to do this, especially in this time of no money. If we were flush with money, I would still feel this was a foolish project, but if we had the money to waste, (in other words, not tax money, but private money), then my objections would be less vocal.

Private money can do whatever it wants, however illogical it may appear to be.

Our money, however, should be targeted to what will immediately help us, not on “feel good” projects that will just get blown away with the next storm.

Idiocy of that scope is a province reserved for the liberals who feel they know best- an ingrained delusion they will probably never lose.

They should be playing in a rubber room, but certainly NOT with our money.

Blake
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]

Obama was Planning Trip to Iraq

John McCain has been hammering B. Hussein Obama pretty hard because Obama has declared that the US lost in Iraq and that the surge was not working and he made these assessments even though he has not been to the country in over two years. Obama has also not spoken with General Petraeus other than to grandstand during the General’s last briefing to Congress. John McCain suggested that Obama needed to go to Iraq and see for himself. He also suggested that before Obama engages in unconditional talks with our enemies he should consider doing so with our top commanders, particularly General Petraeus.

Well lo and behold B. Hussein Obama is considering a trip to Iraq. His people say that he has been thinking about this for some time (sure) and Obama indicated that he did not want to go there just for some political stunt:

“I just don’t want to be involved in a political stunt.”

“I think that if I’m going to Iraq, then I’m there to talk to troops and talk to commanders,” he said in the interview. “I’m not there to try to score political points or perform. The work they’re doing there is too important.”

What Obama is saying is that he would never use Iraq as a political pawn because the work our men and women are doing there is too important. No, Obama would never play politics with this important issue. Just one problem. His people stated this about his plans:

Obama’s campaign has been considering an overseas trip since last year to beef up his foreign policy credentials, but the extended fight for the Democratic nomination with Hillary Rodham Clinton has delayed those plans.

So Obama does not want to be part of a political stunt but he has been considering a trip to Iraq to beef up his foreign policy credentials. In reality, he is not going to talk to the troops or commanders and the work they are doing is not that important because B. Hussein Obama needs to beef up his credentials by going to Iraq. Obama would never play politics with this important issue but going just to beef up your creds is playing politics with this important issue.

It is also playing politics with this important issue to talk about a complete and unconditional withdraw from Iraq regardless of what commanders on the ground advise just to appease (there is that word again) the nutroots on the left fringe of the party. To decide on withdraw with little or no regard for what the real military professionals have to say is pure politics and is a move designed to win votes from those who are tired of the conflict.

I have my doubts as to whether Obama was planning a trip to Iraq or not but the fact is this little tidbit was not revealed until McCain started hammering him about it. No matter what he or his people say it will always look like McCain shamed him into going.

I wonder if he will meet with General Petraeus? I think Obama is trying to avoid the man because he will then be forced to either agree with a commander on the ground or disregard what he says. The former will tick off Obama’s base and the latter will show an arrogance toward a man who is about eight years older and has a hell of a lot more military knowledge than Obama will ever have.

McCain backed Obama in a corner with this one and it will be fun to see how this plays out. I bet Obama comes out of it with a lot more gaffes. Who knows, maybe he will come back with some more family war stories.