The BIG Question
Where the hell is all this money coming from?
Do you remember when Jay Leno used to pitch Doritos’s? At the end of each commercial he closed with the tag line “Don’t worry, we’ll make more”. It seems to me that the Federal Reserve might be in line for a copyright infringement lawsuit because they are using the same tag line.
Each new dawn brings another group of companies being artificially propped up by unprecedented governmental largesse. It has become blatantly apparent that there are absolutely no limits to the level of deficit spending or corporate nationalization this congress or presidential administration are willing to heap on the backs of taxpayers yet unborn.
As the learned members of congress claw their way toward open microphones and television cameras, like brides-to-be at a Filenes Basement wedding dress sale, to renounce the recipients of the hundreds of billions they have already given away, they bring with them the now tired rhetoric of hope for a brighter tomorrow thanks to the hundreds of billions still to be spent. The biggest question that has yet to be asked or answered is “Where the hell is all this money coming from”?
It’s a vitally important question that nobody inside or outside the halls of congress seems to be asking. The federal government is not a profit center. They market nothing but hot air and according to Al Gore we have too much if that already. At what point will folks begin to realize that the government cannot give a single dime away unless it takes it from somebody else.
The front page picture of both the Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily showed embattled AIG CEO Edward Liddy appearing before a US House committee with a group of organized protesters holding bright pink signs behind him. The sign over Liddy’s left shoulder, written in black magic marker said “GIVE OUR $ BACK”. Catchy phrase, catchy sign, completely inane. Neither Liddy nor AIG took our money away. It was given to them by our congress. If you want to stop a robbery you first have to identify the robber.
And that may indeed be the exact reason the President and his congressional cronies are making such a public display of their feigned outrage at AIG. By deflecting attention away from the fact that it was congress and the Fed that developed the AIG bailout plan it keeps the heat on the recipient and off the flawed plan and its creator.
Congress and the President knew exactly where this money was going and what it would be used for. It was reported over six months ago. AIG’s books are public record. It wasn’t until the voting public got wind of the expenditures that suddenly congress went from dodging a bullet to hiding the smoking gun.
Congress and the Fed are like a dysfunctional codependent couple feeding off each other’s weakness and dysfunction. The latest group to be voted most likely to be nationalized is the auto parts manufacturers. Congress has developed yet another bailout plan consisting of over $5 billion tax dollars to keep these companies solvent through what appears to be the immanent bankruptcy of General Motors. The problem is that many of these companies have been teetering on the brink or been in and out of bankruptcy themselves for the last ten years. Allowing GM to go BK and keeping their suppliers artificially functioning will only delay the inevitable. The business plan is fatally flawed and has been for years within the automotive market. Pumping in an additional $5 billion dollars worth of debt will only allow these companies to continue for about $5 billion dollars worth before reality sets in again. The new national debt level will exceed $2 trillion thanks to the non-stimulating spending plans and temporary bailout measures taken by congress and the president. This will only further weaken the US dollar delaying any real economic recovery and making it far less likely that anybody will be buying the cars these parts go in to.
The recipients of this automotive bailout will be the next group of executives taking the heat from congress for accepting the money. They will quickly discover what many in the banking industry learned the hard way. In order for congress to sufficiently display themselves as feeling the taxpayer’s pain they must first transform from the perpetrator to the victim.
If you want your $ back just take a look at whose hand is in your pocket.
