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So Bush caves again. All his maneuvering will do is keep the car companies alive long enough to fail in the next president’s term. What a waste of our money! – FedUpEditor
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| Taxpayer Loans to Auto Manufacturers, Eliminating the Secret Ballot
I was very disappointed in the White House’s decision to use more of your hard-earned tax dollars in a manner that is not consistent with Congress’ intent. The allocation of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) dollars to two of the three American auto companies does not in any way guarantee that the companies will become competitive again. Instead, it prolongs the agony for autoworkers and their families who will continue to wonder whether their jobs will continue as the companies remain incapable of competing with other manufacturers.
Read the full column here.
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Think about this. We give the government $1,000 (for example) over a year and get back $400 in services. Is that what we want in socialized health care? Because that is what we are going to get… starting with the children!
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SCHIP
As you may recall, the Democratic-led 110th Congress has for the past two years tried to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) from $25 billion to as much as $75 billion over five years. Such a dramatic expansion would shift the financial burden for 2.8 million children’s health insurance from the private sector onto taxpayers and serve as the foundation for nationalizing healthcare in this country. CCAGW and our members like you led grassroots drives to block the SCHIP expansion in 2007, and President Bush responded by wielding his veto pen. With bigger Democratic majorities in both chambers of the 111th Congress and President-elect Barack Obama a proponent of the SCHIP expansion, we expect to see a revival of SCHIP legislation early in January, 2009. Read more about the impact of expanding SCHIP.
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As you may know, David Keene and I, along with the ACU staff, have been working hard to fight an auto ballot that could burden taxpayers with billions of dollars in additional debt.
Although we reached a quick victory in the Senate, the White House is considering going around Congress to shockingly use other funds to give the Detroit automakers a bailout.
We strongly disagree and we need your help to send this message.
Now is not the time to saddle taxpayers with additional debt to give companies who have been struggling for many years a taxpayer funded bailout.
Since we first joined this fight we have been picking up steam. Just this week 26 courageous Republican Members of Congress sent a letter to President Bush opposing efforts to unilaterally give troubled auto makers a taxpayer funded bailout.
Their letter, which is posted along with our bailout news releases at conservative.org, followed a press statement we sent thanking the Senate for voting down an auto bailout without the needed big labor union concessions.
Now we must ensure the White House hears that message and we need your help today.
As a former Deputy Secretary of Labor in President Reagan’s administration, I know that these companies and their Big Labor Unions must change to succeed. They will not change unless they are forced to change and a taxpayer funded bailout as presently planned will saddle the next several generations with debt.
After the Members of Congress sent their letter, we sent them thank you letters.
Two of these Members of Congress posted our letter or press release on this topic on their websites. To see ACU’s letter to Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn visit her website and the link below the photos here: Congresswoman Blackburn’s House Website. To read our news release in the last paragraph on Congressman John Culberson’s bailout story go here: http://www.culberson.house.gov/
These Members of Congress know that our voice holds weight in Washington. Now we need to use our voice to send a message to the White House opposing a taxpayer funded auto bailout.
Our voice is your voice.
Without you there is no ACU voice in Washington. Your help and support is what allows this action to happen.
That is why, right now, your voice and support urging the White House to oppose the bailout can have an impact today.
We hope you will continue to support our efforts to fight taxpayer waste today.
Please help us voice our concerns to the White House over a taxpayer funded Detroit auto bailout.
Sincerely,
Dennis Whitfield
Executive Vice President
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| Dear FairTax supporters,
The initial response from our supporters to tell President-Elect Obama and the GOP to back the FairTax has been outstanding. But we need more numbers–more voices from people just like you–and, to save our economy–we need them now.
Here are three things you can do now to promote the FairTax to both the new Obama administration and Democratic Congress, as well as a Republican party looking to rebuild its standing:
1. Ask President-Elect Obama to support the FairTax
http://www.fairtax.org/obama
President-elect Obama is asking citizens to, “Share your vision for what America can be.” That vision should include the FairTax. Tell the President-Elect why his administration should back the FairTax during this challenging economic time. And remember, regardless of who you voted for in the general election, we all need to win Mr. Obama over to the FairTax, so please be courteous in your message about the FairTax.
2. Tell Republicans to rebuild their party around the FairTax
http://www.fairtax.org/rebuild
Members of the GOP leadership are gathering ideas to revamp the Republican platform. Let’s make sure the FairTax is front and center of that mix. You can endorse the FairTax plan directly on their site.
3. Vote for the FairTax, the bold new idea this country needs
http://www.fairtax.org/whitehouse2
The non-partisan site “White House 2″ is collecting new initiatives for the Obama administration. The FairTax is now ranked number one, but let’s build on this great progress and make our voice heard.
Again, thanks for taking the time to speak up and help make the FairTax a reality.
Sincerely,
Ken Hoagland
National Communications Director |
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Even with the ability to collect $800 up front as state income tax as well as estimated tax payments, California is now proposing a mandatory 3% tax on independent contractors! This is a state that can not balance the budget because of all the bloated social programs it has to fund every year, and now, to make up the budget deficit, they intend to GRAB more money from people who already pay their taxes at the end of the year!
If you want to see what the US is going to look like in a couple of years, look no further than the Socialist Republic of California. Red ink as far as the eye can see, and no hope of a balanced budget. A Republican governor (in name only – substitute Democrat president) who thinks placing more restrictions on companies in an already sagging economy is the answer to good times ahead. Rubbish. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now they want to grab more of your hard earned money for themselves. Afterall, it’s theirs to begin with anyway, right? If you voted Democrat, then that’s what you believe too.
Right now, this only applies to Realtors, but if you are an independent business owner, they will be coming for you too. Their goal is to take Independent Contractors to Dependent Contractor status as quickly as possible!!! – FedUpEditor
From CAR today, 12/18/08 – Merry Christmas!
Red Alert!
Stop Proposed Tax Withholding Change!
The Legislature will shortly be considering a budget proposal that, among other things, would require a
3% withholding on all payments to independent contractors. C.A.R. is adamantly OPPOSED to this proposal.
Action Item
Please call BOTH your legislators RIGHT NOW to OPPOSE this provision!!
Call your Assembly Member at (916) 319-2006.
Call your Senator at (916) 651-4003.
Talking Points
For More Information
Contact DeAnn Kerr at deannk@car.org or Christopher Carlisle at christopherc@car.org or call C.A.R.’s
Government Affairs office at 916-492-5200.
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API has produced a fact sheet with energy-saving tips for the holidays that also contains some timely factoids. For instance, just 10 strands of lights lit for 13 hours a day can add more than $50 to a monthly energy bill.
On a related note, API interviewed demographer Wendell Cox about this topic for this week’s podcast. Wendell provides a nice overview of the outlook for demand, both during the holidays and in future years. He also ties the trends behind those numbers to policy recommendations for our new President and Congress.
If you’re interested, the fact sheet is available here and you can listen to our podcast with Wendell here.
I will admit, I’ve had enough. Two out of every three advertisers on television and radio are giving me tips on how to save energy. Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) is telling me to dry my dishes in a dish rack rather than use my dishwasher! HUH??? Wasn’t the dishwasher designed to IMPROVE our lives? Make a tedious task easier? Do you get the idea that someone wants us to go back to the stone age?
What prompted this editorial was a holiday note from API. Their well meaning suggestions on saving energy were well intentioned, but, DAMMIT, we live in the greatest country on earth and much of our economy has been based on improving our lives. And what is happening now? We are trying to move back to the ways of old. Why not get rid of our washing machines and dryers and beat our clothes on rock (using biodegradable soaps, of course. Otherwise consider the pollution it would create versus the energy we would save!) and hanging our clothes on a line to dry. Get serious. I am FEDUP!
I am not saying we should waste energy, but if a company wants to leave its lights on at night so that vandals don’t tag their facilities with graffiti, then why shouldn’t they be able to do that? California is talking about charging them more for after hours use, or outlawing their ability to do this altogether. At least they were. Get REAL! If people want to move back to the wilderness, then GO. But leave the rest of us alone!
With that said, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Burn those Christmas lights, run the tree 24 hours. Light up the neighborhood with your strings of lights and Santa Claus figures or other celebrations of the season. This will not put our environment in jeopardy!
We need more energy. But the new administration has promised to bankrupt the coal power industry. Bad idea. Where will we get our electricity for those electric cars when judges won’t let dams provide power because of an endangered fish (though they claim to believe in evolution and it would be natural for things to die off…) or build nuclear power plants? Wind and solar are not what they have been touted to be.
I am ready to leave this country, not because of what it has been, but what the liberals are about to make it. So get in your Flintstones car and beat feet to a country that wants to move into the future, not bring about the past… And that includes a depression!!!
FedUpEditor
We’re starting a new feature that points out where Rush Limbaugh, as good as he is, has missed an opportunity to point something out. On today’s show, he addressed global warming, a place where we waste a lot of tax money, and cited that species are disappearing because of it…
I thought these people believed in evolution? So what happens with evolution? Species die out and new ones show up. Yet environmentalists constantly use our tax money to “save” various species. From now on, my reply to animals going extinct will be:
“That’s the way Darwin intended it to be.”
-FedUpEditor
While you and I are making our credit card and mortgage payments, the government is finding that people who were not paying their mortgages and credit card payments (because of unscrupulous lenders) are still not paying their debts even after being given favorable terms and payment amounts.
After six months of that “bailout”, our wonderful, compassionate government has found that deadbeats don’t pay their bills, even when they’ve bargained for a reduced debt and lower payments. Surprise! Surprise!
What mystifies me is, this is the same government who, if you fail to pay your income taxes, comes down on you like the hounds of HELL. My suggestion is to let the IRS handle these people. Then the loans would get repaid. Better yet, let loan sharks Lenny or Rocko go collect the payments plus the vig.
Conclusion… our government is INSANE! We need to restructure now. Is anyone out there interested in taking over a state and then leaving the United States to form our own perfect union? I’m in, just tell me when and where!
FedUpEditor
Speaking of government fixing things… (Illinois Governor, for example)… it is in their best interests to keep it broken. Have you noticed that everytime our politicians promise to fix something it gets worse? Education, energy, health care, Social Security and now the auto bailout. Bush is the only one talking sanely about making sure the companies that get the money have a viable plan to GET OUT OF DEBT, but Democrats just want to throw the money at them. Know why? UNIONS. That’s the real reason they want to kick the can down the road and let the problem fall on some other administration’s shoulders. I don’t know about you, but I am getting tired of it, and so are a lot of other entrepeneurs.
Can you handle the truth? I am in business. If I don’t produce a product that creates a sale, then I don’t make money. If I do it long enough, then I have to go out of business and either start a new company or go to work for someone else. Why doesn’t that work for the Big 3 auto makers? Afterall, there are car companies doing business in southern states who have gotten attractive deals to open plants there and they are doing fine. Granted, they are foreign companies, but so what? The work is being done by Americans (just not union workers). Buildings and equipment are being bought from American companies to put them together. Energy to power the plant is being generated by American companies and these companies pay taxes, both state and federal, which go to America. Why can’t Detroit do this?
American automobile manufactures have these things to worry about:
- Union Workers and bloated benefits paid to people who have retired or are no longer working due to lay offs.
- Government CAFE standards that may be unrealistic and expensive to implement.
- High taxes… Michigan needs high taxes to pay for all the programs they are supporting and that is still not enough. California is in a similar situation, but you NEVER hear of government DOING WITH LESS!
We are being told that Detroit manufacturers got into trouble by producing big cars that nobody wants. BULL! Try and go through Mill Valley, where I live, without seeing a single SUV. You just can’t transport skis and bicycles and surfboards in a Smart Car! Practically EVERY family has at least 1 SUV. Big cars are not the problem… big UNION is. The fact that car companies have made these deals with them is disconcerting. Surely the Big 3 knew it was unsustainable at some point. They made they deal… now they want US to bail THEM out? It’s coming whether we like it or now.
Finally, let’s talk about the Car Czar. DEMOCRATS love this idea. One person responsible for making sure auto companies do what they said they would if given the money. GREAT another bureaucrat with his or her staff with nobody to account to. It’s like the Hawaii mongoose theory. It sounds like a good idea at the time to have the mongoose eat the rats, but they are daytime animals while rats are nocturnal. So what happens is they eat eggs from all the ground-nesting birds who had no natural predators and now they are all extinct. Chalk one up for man intervening in nature!
Red Clay Citizen is a great blog and today’s article talks about what we stand for here: government can not fix the economy. Only Americans can!
Not government.
Government can not “fix” an economy – they can only break it. The only government action that can help matters is shrinking government’s role and intrusion into the market. That’s the prevailing theme of this article by Sheldon Richman.
An economy is people pursuing their preferences by engaging in endless varieties of exchanges with others while coordinating disparate plans founded on unspoken expectations. It’s an amazingly orderly process — when it is allowed to operate in peace and without government intervention.
Unfortunately, governments rarely let it operate in peace. Government planning is power, and with only a few exceptions, most people attracted to top government jobs want to wield power. While they are incapable of fixing an economy — if that means restoring it to its consumer-serving function — they are capable of skewing it to their own purposes.
The massive power grab we are seeing now in DC will likely only get worse, and as government power over our economic affairs grows, our liberty recedes.
Red Clay Citizen may be found here.
