I think there is very little argument that the country is in a hole. A deep, deep hole. So why, finding the country in this hole, a hole much deeper than he ever imagined, does Barack Obama find the need to not only keep digging but to bring in new tools to dig even faster?

Such is the case with the president’s misguided plan to create a new tax on banks and his blatantly misleading statements used to sell the proposition to the voting public.

The president is reinvigorating yet another attempt at all out class warfare. The “haves” versus the “have nots”, the “us” against “them” mentality that worked so well for him in the campaign. But make no mistake about it. This new tax has absolutely nothing to do with, as the president said, getting “our money back”. This is a political decision designed to help a failing Democrat Party reignite the victim mentality amongst the voting public that has worked so well for them in the past. The deception behind this plan is profound and the misdirection being used to sell it is so subtle yet complete that it would make even Siegfried and Roy take notes.

“We want our money back” said Barack Obama. What he neglected to say is that most of the banks that received TARP funds have not only already given us our money back, but have given us an additional $8 billion in interest. To say that all these banks owe an additional debt for the emergency funds they received ignores the fact that some, like Goldman Sacks, didn’t want or need the TARP money and only took it because they were forced to do so. It also doesn’t explain the fact that some of the financial institutions being charged this new tax never took TARP money in the first place.

It is indeed the battle cry of a president so diminished in his handling of every task set before him, like the war on terror, that now in an effort to regain some form of stature he must return to the old time tested war on class. Barack Obama talks about Wall Street as if it was located on the moon. He puts Wall Street and the financial institutions in a different class as if they have no bearing in the lives of those on Main Street. To believe that, as proven once again today by Obama’s comments, is to be completely ignorant of just how our economy works.

Excluded from this new tax are the bailed-out, UAW run auto manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler as well as the genesis generators of the financial collapse Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On September 30th, 1999 the very liberal New York Times published an article by the editor of their Washington Bureau Steven A. Holmes warning of the possible catastrophic consequences of the new policy being undertaken by the Clinton administration in forcing lenders to loan to unqualified buyers under the direction of Fannie May and Freddie Mac. In September of 2008, after the collapse, the equally liberal Senator Chuck Schumer all but admitted that it was this inane policy of lending money to people who could never pay it back that was the cause of the financial pandemic. Schumer said “Oh, the lowly mortgage, who would have ever thought that the lowly mortgage has brought us to the brink of financial ruin?” Uhhh…Steven A Holmes of the New York Times did Senator, along with past Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and a host of other economists worldwide. Those who did not think it were the Democrats, like Chuck Schumer and his pal the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank. It was Big Bad Barney who told Fannie and Freddie that the only reason for their existence was to lend to subprime and minority home buyers. Congressman Frank supports the president’s new tax. With his economic track record that in and of itself should be enough to tell the American people that it’s a bad idea.

Once again proving his ignorance of anything economic Barack Obama said the banks being hit with this new tax would not be able to pass this new $90 billion expense on to consumers through increased fees because it would make them uncompetitive with the banks not being charged. This comment is beyond stupid on any number of levels, not the least of which is constitutional. This may be why the president warned the banks not get their lawyers involved fighting against the selective and unfair tax.

In order to stimulate the economy and create jobs businesses need to have access to credit. In order for banks to offer that credit they need to be solvent and profitable. Adding a new tax on the driving force of the economic recovery at a time when unemployment is at 10% and consumer confidence is nonexistent is like dousing the embers of the backyard barbeque with a fire hose. Class warfare is a fine tactic for a community activist but it can be fatal to the economy for the President of the United States.

In November we the people need to take away this guys shovel or the hole we are in will look like the penthouse when he’s done.

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.

But in God’s perfect world of natural selection the swift and healthy zebras survive and procreate while the slow or careless zebras get served with toast points at a lion’s dinner party. The point is that there are winners and losers in these scenarios of survival. Even though the careless zebras suffer the ultimate penance for their carelessness, the lions benefit from their loss. It is the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest.

Unless of course the zebra happens to be designated as too important to fail, in which case congress steps in and provides him with life saving assistance. That action, regardless of intent, throws off the whole balance of a perfect program. It allows the careless zebras to live another day and forces the lions to go hungry until they too need assistance to prevent them from perishing. Such is the case with the current imbroglio centered on the bailout of AIG.

Aside from the fury being directed at AIG for their use of $165 million in taxpayer dollars to pay contracted bonuses to employees, the latest AIG outrage is focused on who they paid off with the bulk of the $105 billion they received.

Professional politicos and the media alike are investigating payments to foreign banks like Societe Generale of France, Deutsche Bank of Germany, Barclays of Britain and Switzerland’s UBS. These foreign financials received a collective $53 billion, or just over half of the bailout money given to AIG.

Several major American concerns also received AIG payment such as Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. In all the American banks were repaid approximately $27 billion. There was an additional $12 billion that went to municipalities covering their guaranteed investment agreements. The outrage being directed at these payments is beyond my ability to comprehend.

AIG was once the biggest, fastest, smartest zebra in the herd. But resting on its legacy of being the smartest it lost focus of the risks in the environment in which it lived. It became careless of the risk and too slow to react once it became apparent, causing it to almost be devoured. The bloodletting of this giant would have been brutal, and while the hungry lion/creditors would have feasted on its lifeless carcass there would not have been enough left to sate any of the hungry diners.

In stepped congress with a bailout plan whose sole intent was to satisfy the entities that were owed their due from AIG’s loss of focus. As is the case in the law of the jungle, for every loser there is a winner. Where AIG had bet wrong on the housing and mortgage markets these other banks had bet right. While AIG invested heavily in credit default swaps that predicted continued growth in the housing market these foreign and American concerns had invested equally on its decline.

For politicians to shamelessly attempt to garner favor with the American public by feigning outrage at the payments to foreign banks is disingenuous if not downright disgraceful. Anybody with the IQ of a houseplant could have figured that a company named the American International Group, or AIG, would have international debts that would be paid out of the bailout funds. I simply can’t imagine what else congress thought AIG would do with all that money if not use it to pay their debts.

The reality is that the AIG bailout is probably the single best stimulus package congress put in place. By giving AIG $105 billion they saved not only this business from certain death, but equally as important the money was used to repay debts at other troubled financial firms helping to bolster their ailing capital as well.

Unknowingly congress not only saved the careless zebra but they also fed the hungry lions. But even when they actually do something correct somehow this congress can find a way to make it look bad.

This AIG zebra had better learn quickly that a lion looking for a bite is nowhere near as dangerous as a congress member looking for a sound bite.

Because in this political jungle its survival of the feckless.

There is great wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the taxpaying public regarding the recent $700 billion bailout of financial institutions and even more for the proposed automakers funding. Still whole market sectors and their lobbyists are lined up at Congresses doors like kids waiting to ride the tea cups at Disney. Everybody wants a piece if the tax payer pie. But if they pay close attention to what is beginning to transpire with those institutions foolish enough to sell their soul to for a bag of silver they may chose to reconsider their free money financing strategy.

In Illinois it began simply enough as a union organized sit in directed against a window and door company that informed its workers that they were closing. A company involved in the housing market closing up shop is not much of a surprise to anybody that has read a newspaper over the last 12 months. But now embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has entered the fray with an old tried and true method of getting money from folks who would rather not shell it out. It’s called blackmail.

While explaining why he was not concerned about the recent discovery that he was secretly taped recorded by a long time advisor for a federal corruption probe, the Governor announced he had instructed all Illinois governmental agencies to suspend doing business with Bank of America. It was Bank of America’s decision to not extend a line of credit that was the final nail in this coffin for the Republic Window and Door Company and its 200 union employees. Republic gave no advanced notice of the closing and further offered no severance packages claiming that they had simply run out of money and could not convince the bank to extend them anymore. The company had already enjoyed tax breaks and incentives from the state, county and city of Chicago.

The Governor said “We’re going to do everything possible here in Illinois to side with these workers”. He further stated that he was willing to go to federal court to help get these workers the money they claim they are owed. Officials from Illinois’s Cook County are now also threatening to cut off Bank of America business dealings. The only person that loves a camera more than that little boy Paris Hilton, the Reverend Jesse Jackson got his mug on the news. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin showed up and said of the federal financial bailout “It was money to be invested back in America. Cutting off the loans to Republic and losing hundreds of jobs as a result of it is exactly the opposite of what we need to have in this economy”. Durbin said he plans to begin discussions to see if banks are properly using the money given them. U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez has now installed himself in the process as a non-impartial mediator between the bank, the union and the company. That’s an awful lot of attention for one little window and door company. But we need to keep in mind that it’s not just 200 jobs, it’s 200 union jobs.

Democrats are beholding to their union voters and will not pass an opportunity to make a scene on their behalf, even if it’s not in the greater public’s best interest. Bank of America’s decision seems rather simple. They evaluated the risk of extending credit to an already incentivized company that is losing money and market share as a unionized manufacturer in the housing market and decided it is not in their best business interest to do so. They are particularly disinterested in extending money to pay for severance packages to a company that is going out of business. Anybody with any common economic sense would likely reach the same decision. But nobody is talking common sense here.

As politicians begin roiling against banks claiming they are misusing the federal bailout money, a clear pattern of blackmail and intimidation is beginning to take shape. Never mind the fact that in large part the genesis for the credit collapse was due to government insistence on extending credit to recipients that couldn’t pay it back. Politicians, like Rod Blagojevich who has directed the state of Illinois to near bankruptcy, are going to be instructing financial institutions on how they should run their businesses, and having sold their souls the banks are now forced to listen. Even if it means the new loans will put them in worse financial positions as then the old loans did.

The Democrats will go to any length to use this bailout money to their own political advantage. It could make this bailout the costliest free money any business has ever received.

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.