Day: July 9, 2010

How The Wealthy Stay Wealthy: Default On Mortgages Without Guilt! :(

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The news has emerged that wealthy people are defaulting on their mortgages at a faster rate than average Americans, proving that the condemnation of people for taking on mortgages they can ill afford has been improperly exaggerated!

Conservatives love to blame poor people and middle class people for irresponsibility, when the indications are that it is rich people who are exploiting the system of mortgages, and greatly contributing to the rapidly growing housing market crisis!

More than one in seven home owners with a mortgage over one million dollars has defaulted, while the rate for those with lower mortgages is one out of twelve!

These wealthy people are ruthless, and have no conscience, as the burden on the economy can be borne by the average person, in their mind! These people have no shame and do not care about the effect their actions have on their communities!

Consider the fact that wealthy people in this country, the top one percent, have 17 percent of all assets and income in this country AFTER payment of all taxes! Is this not an indication of the maldistribution of wealth, and shows how these people have no patriotism or civic concern, as long as they can hoard their money and pass on their massive assets to offspring who will never learn what it is like to face the problems of everyday average people? 🙁

Barack Obama: From “Yes, We Can!” to “Yes, We Did!”

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Barack Obama is beginning an aggressive campaign in the midterm elections, attacking the Republicans as the Party of NO, which they certainly have been!

Instead of being the “gentleman” who is criticized as unwilling to go after the critics of the administration, Obama is showing the courage to hold the GOP accountable for its record, and to go after Republican candidates who, in many cases, if elected, would be worse than those now in office in Washington, DC! 🙁

The slogan during the Presidential campaign was “Yes, We Can!”, and now the new slogan in the midterm campaign is “Yes, We Did!”

This is a well reasoned but easy message to voters: Barack Obama and his administration have accomplished more in domestic policy changes and foreign policy initiatives than any Democratic President since Lyndon B. Johnson and any Republican President since Ronald Reagan!

And realize that there are still 30 months left in this term, with only 18 months finished, so it is obvious many more of the pledges he made during the 2008 campaign will be fulfilled!

People rightfully can be angry and insecure about the future, but if anyone rationally looks at the record of Obama as against what the GOP promises, or what they fail to make specific that they plan to do, how can anyone not see that real progress has been made in what is, unfortunately, a long road to economic recovery?

Common sense is, hopefully, going to rise to the surface between now and November 2!

Obama Appointment Of Medicare-Medicaid Administrator By Recess Appointment Totally Justified!

Ronald 1 Comment

President Obama has appointed Donald Berwick as the head of the Center For Medicare and Medicaid Services as a means to move ahead on the reforms brought about in the Health Care Reform legislation signed into law in March!

The Republicans in the Senate were intending to block the appointment by use of the filibuster, as they have done on many judicial nominees! Their intention has been to do everything to prevent enforcement and establishment of the changes required by the law, as a first step to what they hope is repeal of the legislation!

So Obama is playing “hardball”, not bending anymore to the GOP opposition! By doing this, he may alienate the Republicans, but what is new, as they have shown no intention to cooperate!

Also, recess appointments are nothing new, as past Presidents, and particularly President George W. Bush, utilized this tactic on a regular basis!

Even though there may be some animus created, it is important for President Obama to show that he is not going to be “pushed around” and blocked from doing what is necessary to accomplish his goals in office!

A Conservative Schism Developing Over Afghanistan: An Opening For Obama To Change Policy!

Ronald 1 Comment

Amazingly, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele’s comment last week, that Afghanistan was an unwinnable war, and that history tells us it is a place that was the graveyard for many military forces in the past, has led to an open conservative schism over support of President Obama’s Afghan War strategy!

This offers the President the option to reconsider policy, and change it over the next year, as now we have people on the Right, as well as the Left, who are openly opposed to escalation of the war in Afghanistan!

Among those who criticized Steele were Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney; and Bill Kristol, publisher of The Weekly Standard, and Fox News contributor and commentator; and even Independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut!

But at the same time, Ann Coulter, the conservative ideologue, has condemned the war and agreed with Steele! Also, George Will (commentator on ABC News This Week and syndicated columnist); Joe Scarborough (former Florida Congressman and host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe); Pat Buchanan (MSNBC commentator and two time candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination); Tony Blankley (former spokesman for House Speaker Newt Gingrich and commentator); Ron Paul (Texas Congressman, libertarian, and candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2008); and his son, Rand Paul (GOP and Tea Party Movement nominee for Kentucky Senator this fall) all have denounced the war as “Obama’s War” as Michael Steele has done!

This split may seem to be unbelievable, and the author does not wish to try to connect himself to any of these people directly! 🙂 LOL BUT it clearly offers the President the opportunity to say that he tried the “Neoconservative” strategy, and now has come to the conclusion that the conservative opponents of the “neocons” are correct, along with many liberals, and that he has decided to cut our losses, save billions upon billions of dollars in the process, and spend money on the restoration of the American economy and the reinforcement of American security internally against terrorism!

Were he to announce this, with the reality that a majority of Americans are opposed to the Afghanistan war effort as it is, he would restore faith in his administration and improve his odds of being reelected in 2012!

And as far as the “neocons” are concerned, they have had too much dominance under George W. Bush, and it is time to “send them packing”, something that should have been done before they ever had the detrimental impact and influence that they have had over the past decade!

This would be a final repudiation of Dick Cheney as well, and none too soon! 🙁