Archive for the ‘Bailouts’ Category

Robbing Taxpayer Peter to Pay for Michelle’s Veggie-eating Paul

Posted by NosferatusCoffin | August 16th, 2010

First, we had a good $600 billion in Medicare cuts that were said to be a “down payment” for the wonderful MengeleCare.

Now we have desperate, crackhead spending Dems looking under every family’s sofa cushions and pantry to pay for their ever expanding madness of Maoist Utopia.

As the Tea Party Patriots put it, “At this rate there won’t be a cookie jar to get their hand caught in!”

From The Hill:

Democrats who reluctantly slashed a food stamp program to fund a state aid bill may have to do so again to pay for a top priority of first lady Michelle Obama.

The House will soon consider an $8 billion child nutrition bill that’s at the center of the first lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative. Before leaving for the summer recess, the Senate passed a smaller version of the legislation that is paid for by trimming the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

The proposed cuts would come on top of a 13.6 percent food stamp reduction in the $26 billion Medicaid and education state funding bill that President Obama signed this week.

Food stamps have made multiple appearances on the fiscal chopping block because Democrats have few other places to turn to offset the cost of legislation.

Ummm, that $26 billion was not a “state funding bill”, but a naked payoff and “bailout” of the NEA. Who will use those funds to grease their palms and use the remainder to launder through to Democrat campaign coffers, so that they can help re-elect those Dems again and start the vicious, taxpayer funded, circle all over again.

This is just one reason that federal government unions not only need to be outlawed by federal statue, but also by a constitutional amendment. The time for this rape of the American taxpayer and for this political incest to stop is now. Not three years from now when a phony commission is appointed and “recommends” spending more time studying the issue. etc. etc etc. It must be a top priority for the incoming GOP House majority come January.

It is also not so ironic with these people that this is happening when there are now a record number of people on food stamps. With a lot of that due to the over eight million private sector jobs that have vanished (not saved, not created, but GONE) since Nancy Pelosi and her army of Bolshiveks took over Congress in 2007 and The Kenyan took over the White House in 2009.

Granted, this is nothing new. I seem to remember Al Franken and Air America stealing tens of thousands of New York state tax dollars that were earmarked for low-income New York elderly and youth, but instead ended up in Air America’s coffers. (And nothing of any substance has ever been done about that crime).

As for Michelle “60 Rooms” Obama telling anyone about diet or weight, she needs to stay in Spain, have a liposuction with a backhoe attached to that fat ass of hers and have those leavings put in her empty head. At least it will stop the whistling between those ears we hear everytime she opens her piehole.

Maybe it will make her more “proud” of America then before.

Rant over.


Filed Under: Bailouts

Outsourcing TARP Money: Billions In Taxpayer Money Ended Up In Foreign Banks

Posted by NosferatusCoffin | August 12th, 2010

Rep. John Boehner says, “Where are the jobs?”

American taxpayers can also say, “Where is the money going?”

All of those hundreds and hundreds of billions, that is.

Well, it looks like plenty of those dollars were outsourced to foreign banks the globe over.

From Newsmax:

Economists and conservatives reacted sharply Thursday to reports that tens of billions in TARP bailout money flowed out of the United States and into the coffers of big banks in France, Germany, and other nations during the government rescue of the U.S. financial system.

That news came as the U.S. economic picture continued to worsen, with rising unemployment claims and a surge in U.S. homes lost to foreclosure.

CATO Institute budget analyst Tad DeHaven tells Newsmax: “The economy has become increasingly global, so it’s not shocking that TARP bailout money ended up at foreign financial institutions. Nonetheless, bailing out U.S. financial firms was bad enough — that foreign institutions also benefitted from the largesse just adds insult to injury.”

J.D. Foster, senior economics fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said: “The overwhelming force slowing the economy down now is a lack of confidence among American businesses and consumers. The primary reason for that lack of confidence is the policies out of Washington seem completely out of touch with that reality.”

That reaction follows Thursday’s report from the Congressional Oversight Panel report that, when the United States injected hundreds of billions of TARP money to stabilize the U.S. financial system in September 2008, it also bailed out more than 40 major institutions based overseas that had invested in collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed securities.

“There were no data about where this money was going,” Elizabeth Warren, head of the panel investigating the bank bailout, explained in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “The American people have a right to know where the money went.”

The TARP money flowed to overseas banks largely because of their investment in AIG, which received about $182 billion in federal bailout funds. Roughly half of the 87 banks and investment firms who would have lost billions without the AIG bailout were headquartered overseas, the Oversight Panel reports.

Was there any left over for Rangel’s birthday bash?


Filed Under: Bailouts

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Bailout Could Cost $389 Billion; (Or Even $1 Trillion)

Posted by NosferatusCoffin | June 22nd, 2010

Wherever Leftists go, they cause destruction, bankruptcy, poverty and a breakdown of what Mark Levin has reintroduced into the modern lexicon, the “civil society”. And there is no more evident example of this than the housing market.

The same people who for decades decried the lack of “affordable housing” (another Marxist Cloak Phrase, in the same vein as “living wage”) have, over the last 30+ years, caused a total breakdown in what was one of the more stable parts of the American economy over the last 100 years. That being the real estate market.

With foreclosures at a record rate, the number of mortgages underwater rising from about 5% around the time TARP I was passed to around 25% today and with the commercial real estate market also teetering, we could be in for not only a double-dip Depression, but a new housing crisis that could dwarf what started two years ago.

The major byproduct of this whole situation was of course, the passing of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 that was signed by President Carter. For a complete recap of how that act, along with ACORN and their chief attorney, Barack Obama helped to contribute to the current situation, read my post from last year, “ACORN: How A ‘Community Organization’ Helped Destroy the Mortgage Industry”.

Now comes word that the Barney Frank/Chris Dodd/Maxine Waters-led Crony Stalinist Slush Fund known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost the U.S. taxpayer at least $389 billion, if not a lot more.

From Newsmax:

For all the focus on the historic federal rescue of the banking industry, it is the government’s decision to seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008 that reportedly is likely to cost taxpayers the most money.

So far the tab stands at $145.9 billion and rising, the New York Times reports.

The Congressional Budget Office has predicted that the final bill could reach $389 billion.

Some analysts even estimate the total may reach $1 trillion, which Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings, recently told Bloomberg is “a reasonable worst-case scenario.”

Egan told Bloomberg that the final tally could hit $1 trillion assuming a 20 percent loss on the companies’ more than $5 trillion in loans and guarantees, similar to what other big mortgage companies, like Countrywide Financial, suffered.

The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) now own more houses than there are in Seattle and are foreclosing on homeowners whose mortgages they guaranteed, the Times said.

Fannie and Freddie maintain the houses for a while, then resell them at a huge loss.

Just another example of the Left’s Utopian Dream going up in flames, while pushing this country closer to total and complete insolvency. I cannot wait to see how expensive “free” health care will be.


Filed Under: ACORN, Bailouts, Congress

Sick of the Bailouts? You Will LOVE the Latest Obama Crony Stalinist One

Posted by NosferatusCoffin | May 22nd, 2010

Bailouts. Bankruptcies. Boondoggles. One of the major hallmarks of this administration.

Are you sick of them? Well, too bad, for here comes another one. One that is laden with political incest and ideological inbreeding that would make a Deliverance family member blanch.

From Michelle Malkin’s weekly column:

– ShoreBank co-founder Jan Piercy was a Wellesley College roommate of Hillary Clinton’s, who has long supported the bank along with former president Bill Clinton.

– Former ShoreBank Vice Chairman Bob Nash worked for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential bid as deputy campaign manager. Board of Directors member Howard Stanback is a Hyde Park neighborhood pal of President Obama, who served with Stanback on the board of the radical Woods Fund (where Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers also sat).

– White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett served on the board of Chicago Metropolis 2020 with ShoreBank Director Adele Simmons, former president of the liberal MacArthur Foundation, where she focused on “climate change” and “global governance” issues.

– The bank and its employees donated some $12,000 to the Obama 2008 presidential campaign, and co-founder Mary Houghton reportedly gave advice to Obama’s late mother about small business lending issues.

So, the American taxpayer now has to cough up more money for a Obama/Clinton (and Gore is probably in there as well, since this “bank” is big on “green” projects) money laundering front. Tony Soprano looks like a 5 year-old stealing a Baby Ruth in the local 7-11 compared to these Sticky Fingered robber barons. What next? A bailout for the hand sanitizers and toilet paper rolls in the Goldman Sachs throne rooms?

As Michelle so properly puts it:

In other words: ShoreBank is too politically connected to fail.

And the American worker (those that still actually have a job, that is) are too tapped out to support any more outrages like this.

I can see November from my checkbook.


Query: Could the feds require Americans to purchase GM cars?

Posted by Talismen | March 30th, 2010

I’ve been wondering this same thing since the “auto-bailouts” took place, so I’m glad someone finally asked the question.

Over at Hotair.com, one of their top bloggers, “Allahpundit”, authors this piece which is related to CNSNews’s article titled “Rep. Burgess: Government Can Force Us to Buy General Motors Products If Obamacare Mandate Upheld in Court”. This is, of course, in reference to the the ‘obamacare’ health bill which mandates (unconstitutionally) that individual citizens buy health care coverage (if they don’t already have it) or face fines or jail time.

Here’s “Allahpundit’s” take over at HotAir blog, which includes a vid clip of Representative Michael Burgess (R-TX) warning us about the issue:

Video: Could the feds require Americans to purchase GM cars?
posted at 8:41 pm on March 29, 2010 by Allahpundit

A fun new entry in CNS News’s “let’s ask Congress an uncomfortable question about ObamaCare” series. I’m not losing any sleep over the GM scenario and neither is Burgess (I think), but it’s a tasty hypothetical given the left’s basically correct assertion that Commerce Clause jurisprudence lets them do anything their hearts desire. Any legal eagles care to weigh in? If it’s constitutional to impose an insurance mandate, i.e. “you must purchase a product from this industry,” why would it be unconstitutional to refine that to “you must purchase our product from this industry”? In fact, assuming that the feds gave you a choice between not buying a car at all and having to buy GM if you did choose to buy one, the GM hypothetical would operate more like auto-insurance laws — which are, of course, fully constitutional — than the true mandate that’s found in ObamaCare. There’s no question, either, that the feds can monopolize certain industries, although in the past I believe it’s taken a specific constitutional grant of authority to enable that. What we’re talking about here is a free-floating monopoly power under the Commerce Clause. If the car hypothetical is too goofy for you, instead try, let’s say, education. Anything stopping the feds from saying, “You’re using our product from now on”? My poli sci is rusty, but nothing springs to mind.

Click the HotAir link above to access the vid, and also access embedded source links within the piece.


ObamaMotors and DealerGate: Air Coming out of the Tires

Posted by NosferatusCoffin | July 22nd, 2009

ObamaMotors skids off of the road:

From CNN: (Hat Tip: Jawa)

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors posted Wednesday a 22 percent global sales drop from a year earlier for the first six months of 2009 amid the economic slowdown and the automaker’s slide into bankruptcy.

GM said its global first-half sales, which include brands the automaker is trimming from its lineup, fell 21.8 percent to 3.55 million vehicles. The automaker’s sales in the second quarter fell 15.4 percent to 1.94 million vehicles.

The automaker said second-quarter sales reflected continuing economic pressures and production cuts in the United States. It estimated a 12 percent second-quarter global market share, down 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier.

Gee, he did such a wonderful job with Caterpillar, who would have guessed?

Meanwhile, DealerGate flares up again:

From Congresswoman’s Michele Bachmann’s site:

Washington, D.C. , Jul 21 – Looks like the Obama Administration is also going to great lengths to oppose H.R. 2743, the “Automobile Dealer Economic Rights Restoration Act of 2009.”

I’ve talked extensively about how on July 6th GM dealers received a letter from the General Motors National Dealer Council urging them to sign a sort of petition to Congress immediately; no later than 5:00 p.m. the very next day, saying that they opposed passage of the bill.

I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 2743 along with 241 other Members of Congress. If passed, it would essentially reinstate the economic and contract rights of dealers who were arbitrarily dropped by Chrysler and General Motors during their respective restructurings. In essence, H.R. 2473 makes these dealers whole instead of allowing their livelihoods to be taken from them with no legal recourse and no financial compensation.

According to TradingMarkets.com, the Obama Administration is urging opposition to this bill, too. The White House has said that reversing the closings would set a “dangerous precedent, potentially raising legal concerns, to intervene into a closed judicial bankruptcy proceeding on behalf of one particular group at this point.”

Translation: We cannot allow GOP donors to own dealerships and therefore have their profits end up in GOP campaign coffers.


Obama Auto Task Force Head: Secured Chrysler Bondholder Lawyer a “Terrorist”

Posted by NosferatusCoffin | June 13th, 2009

Some interesting testimony from Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) on the floor of the House yesterday in regards to the Chrysler Bankruptcy “procedure” (aka federal takeover).

It seems that the head of the President’s Auto Task Force has a problem with lawyers representing legal, secured bondholders actually requesting more time for his company and clients to negotiate with the government on the terms of the bankruptcy.

Hat Tip to Live Leak for the report and to Ragspierre over at Michelle Malkin for first alerting me to this:

Of course, the money line is:

Feldman: “It’s over. The President doesn’t negotiate second rounds. We’ve given and lent billions of dollars so your team could manage this properly…And now you’re telling me to bend over to a terrorist like Lauria? That’s B.S.”

Sounds like a line from a Z-Grade script for an “Uncle Vinnie” type of flick.

As LiveLeak mentions:

Why is this information not being talked about? Why haven’t we heard about that email exchange? Why does the Obama administration consider Thomas Lauria a “terrorist?” Is it because Lauria was trying to just get a fair shake? And Lauria is a Democrat!

Not only is Lauria is a Democrat, but we are talking about a teacher’s union pension fund for God’s sake. I wonder how the state NEA will feel about they and their membership getting screwed over like this? Well, we all probably know the answer as they will assume the fetal position, continue to fund Democrat campaigns and just ignore it, just as the OSM will give this no air time, anywhere, anytime, anyplace.