Colossus Mistakus
I give deference to Emma Lazarus and her beautiful poem “The New Colossus” that graces the Statue of Liberty. If you haven’t read the poem or at least haven’t read it in a while, please do so. It is a beautiful piece. But with all the changes in our nation’s capitol and with the socialist mentality of the free money Democratic Congress I respectfully submit a re-write:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a checkbook, whose free cash game
Is the imprisoning stimulus, and
her nameMother of Corporate Welfare. From her check writing-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that Wall Street and Detroit frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp, we can out-socialize the best of them!” cries she
With not so silent lips. “Give me your union shops, your businesses run poor,
Your huddled masses yearning for what’s free,
The wretched refuse of your businesses galore.
Send these, the adjustable rated and no interest loaned, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp to melt and redistribute the golden door!”
As Barney Frank and his Frankfurters have been able to successfully bamboozle the American public by deflecting the genesis of the credit crisis that they created and we now endure, he now turns their collective attention to the unionized auto industry in Detroit. It will be interesting to see what form of verbal subterfuge they use to get people believing that the government bailing out and taking over of major business sectors is a good idea. New speak alert: Keep score of all the new words and phrases that will likely come out of this.
The bail out of the credit markets was done in an effort to free banks, which were holding more bad paper then taco stand restroom, of their economic millstones and allow them to extend credit. The banks were actually victims in the government’s Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac mortgage ponzi scheme. Along with all the bad loans that weren’t being paid, the General Accounting Office changed the rules on how these mortgage backed securities could be valued. These securities had to be revalued on the banks ledger from what the original purchase value was to what the security could be sold for on that day. The term used is “mark to market”. In other words the banks had to mark their assets to whatever the current market price was for those assets. As the market demand for these tainted mortgage backed securities was slightly less than the demand for a “Best of Dennis Kucinich” DVD, their value was almost nothing. When banks lost the ability to show these securities as collateral they lost the ability to borrow money and thus the ability lend it out.
The Democratic Congress passed the 700 billion dollar bailout plan intended to stimulate lending and allow businesses to access their lines of credit. For this free money the U.S. government will be in essence taking on an ownership stake in these financial institutions. The cash infusion has just begun but already there are problems. Some of the major banks and holding companies that would be the direct recipients of the money have stated their intent is to use it to buy other banks. While this may help them with their deposits on hand numbers it would do very little to loosen credit as was the intent. The Congress is likely to step in and mandate that this money be used to extend credit thereby beginning the same type of ponzie scheme that started the whole mess in the first place. The government can’t balance their own check book, what in the hell makes anybody think they should dictate to banks how to best balance theirs? Let me ask you, would you do business with a bank that ran itself like the government runs Social Security?
While the 700 billion dollar bailout was passed expressly to benefit the credit markets the Democrats led by the head ponzie, Barney Frank, are now looking to use some of the money to bail out the Detroit automakers. The ruse and new speak they will likely use is to say that the “American auto industry” is the backbone of the nation and that the support industries to the auto industry must be protected as well. Truth be told Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes Benz and Hyundai are all American made cars. In many cases they are more American made cars then Ford, GM or Chrysler made cars. They are just not Detroit autoworkers union made cars. As such they will not be entitled to getting any of this new Barney pie.
The irony is almost breathtaking when you consider that Barack Hussein Obama just ran on the promise to end tax breaks to companies that send jobs overseas. Johnny “Little Ditty” Cougar Melencamp did a “good old boy” radio commercial for him promising the same thing. The ink on the fake ACORN voters registration cards is barely dry and here we are talking about giving tens of billions more to an industry that sends more American jobs overseas than any other. This bailout will be in addition to the 25 billion dollar low interest loan program just put into place to help these automakers retool to make more fuel efficient cars. This inane program is basically nothing more than a government backed loan to help the Detroit companies catch up to the better run foreign companies.
You don’t suppose that it is by coincidence that the hearings BF (create your own translation) is scheduling for the lame duck session of Congress next will include the heads of Ford, GM and Chrysler along with the Grand Poobah of the American Auto Workers Union, do you? The near fatal infection in the credit markets caused by the Democrats welfare mentality will be equally as infectious in the auto industry. The Democratically led U.S. Congress is poised to inject billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the poorly run union autoworkers companies at the expense of all the better run non-union autoworker companies. Once again, businesses are being penalized for their success and rewarded for their failures. No matter what unique term you use to justify it, it just won’t work. And what of the shockingly stupid unfairness of taking the tax dollars from the non-union autoworkers and their children and grandchildren and giving it directly to their biggest competitors? You don’t need to look up the definition of socialism, I just defined it for you.
I am not one who believes unions are intrinsically evil, I just believe that they are fundamentally unrealistic. The Detroit auto companies are awash in red ink due to union contracts that make it impossible for them to be profitable over the long term. The non-union automakers located elsewhere in the country do not pay significantly less per hour then the Big Three. The difference in the worker’s paycheck is a buck or two an hour less. But these non-union companies do not have the same absurd level of benefits and legacy. They are also much more productive per man hour. The work environment and mentality of the average autoworker is completely different between the Detroit companies and those located down south. Throwing money down this rank and file sink hole will do nothing to improve the Detroit companies production levels, profitability or unionized work mentality. It’s a global marketplace boys, deal with it or get run over by it.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” How many more business welfare programs do we have to endure before the reality that they just won’t work becomes apparent? How many more of our tax dollars need to go to poorly run businesses before we realize that sometimes the cost of failure is failure? How many more business sectors will be lining up outside the halls of Congress looking for a free hand-out, necessary to offset the ramifications of the last hand-out to the other guys? How many times will the American people have to grab their ankles before they start crying uncle? Barney, maybe you can help us with that one.
