Coming Down the Line in 2010?

Coming Down the Line
By Ryan Riell

Looking into, what I hope is an incorrect magic little ball, here are a few things that are coming down the line in 2010.

1. Stimulus Money
In January and February 2009, we were told that it was essential for the Nation that we pass the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the stimulus package, in order to bring us back from the brink of disaster. There wasn’t time to read the bill, there wasn’t time to debate the bill, we had to hurry up and pass it.

Eleven (11) months later, the progressive controlled government has only distributed 23.69% ($253.5 billion of $757 billion). I’m not going to be the dead horse that is Congressional districts and zip codes don’t exist... that had money disbursed to them. According to recovery.gov, the ARRA has “created or saved” 640,329 jobs as of 10/30/2009. Considering the aforementioned Congressional districts and the zip codes, the 640,329 jobs cannot be trusted. BUT… lets say that the number correct. 640,329 jobs at the cost of 253.5 billion dollars is $395,890.24 per job that has been created or saved. Does anyone see the problem with this? Heck, if we overestimated the US population at 310 million, that’s roughly $817.74 per person in the US, to include everyone that doesn’t pay Federal Taxes. That’s one months rent or mortgage payment for a LOT of Americans. If you only want to split this $253.5 billion up amongst taxpayers that actually pay Federal Income tax, you will have to cut off 20-30% of the already overinflated 310 million Americans. Does anyone see a problem with this? Why is common sense such a taboo?

That being said, were we being lied to AGAIN (I guess this would actually be one of the first major lies we were told under the Obama administration and the progressive controlled Congress)?

Does anyone have any idea why they have only distributed 23.69% of the funds? I submit to you that President Obama, his henchman Rahm Emanuel and David Axlerod along with progressive Congress and their flunkies are holding onto over 75% of the $787 billion in order to distribute that money this coming summer in order to buy the elections in November 2010.

The progressive movement, that has found a dynamic figurehead (President Obama) has an agenda. The sooner you realize that agenda is to “fundamentally change” America via “redistributive change” the better off you’re going to be. The progressives that are in charge are more than willing to sacrifice themselves in the 2010 and 2012 elections (see the growing list of democratic congressman, senators and governors that have already declared they will not seek reelection) in order to pass their progressive (that’s a nice term for at best- socialism and at worst- communism) agenda. They think you are to STUPID to remember in 2014 and 2016 when they are sure you’ll forget and they’ll win the seats back.

What is really sad: their inability to learn from history. The “New Deal” from Franklin Roosevelt didn’t work. World War II is the event that saved this country and our economy. His Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1939) said “ We tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong… somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises… I say after eight years of the Administration (Franklin Roosevelt from 1931-1939) we have just as much unemployment as when we started… And an enormous debt to boot!”1-3 before the democrats that ran the House Ways and Means Committee on May 9, 1939.

Do the progressive flunkies of our time really thing they are going to magically make it work this time? I hope I’m wrong about this, I hope we aren’t wasting $787 billion dollars to pay back campaign contributors and other political flunkies.


2. Fannie and Freddy
On December 24th, the Federal Reserve said that it would provide an unlimited amount of assistance to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (two government sponsored entities) as needed for the next three years to reduce market concerns that the US Governments lifeline will not lapse or be exhausted. Time Magazines person of the year, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the genius who didn’t see the bubble and missed all of the signs of impending doom did just that… missed the bubble that was CREATED in large part by Fannie and Freddie, the first time around. Why are we giving Bernanke, Fannie, Freddie or any toxic combination of the three a chance to do it again? The housing market still hasn’t settled… quick, quick… throw some more money at it!?

To top that off, Peter Wallison, a former general counsel at the Treasury and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute is predicting that the American taxpayers will LOSE $400 billion for supporting Fannie and Freddie, in 20

Is this OK with anyone?

Does everyone know that the Fed, who refuses to let anyone actually look at their books, was created by the progressive movement in the early 1900’s? What has to happen to the economy of this country for someone (my apologies to Ron Paul, but you just don’t have the credibility to make your demands count...yet) to actually demand an audit of the Fed?


3. Collapse of the Democratic Party
If the healthcare bill passes, in any form resembling either the House or Senate version, that will be the beginning of the end of the democratic party in America. The country does NOT want this healthcare bill. They do not want to government getting between them and their doctors. They do NOT want the government to be in control of 1/6th of the economy. They do NOT want to be told they HAVE to purchase something or go to jail. The Tea Party movement is polling at over 60% when run against ANY republican or democratic candidate.

If they have the audacity to ram their heads even further into the sand when it comes to “climate change” and ram Cap and Trade through, that might very well lead to civil disorder in this country. The progressive movement has pushed to far and to hard… they have enraged 60+% of Americans and we’ve had enough. Unlike their European counterparts, when Americans get pushed to far, we push back. We have never had and never will have a caste system in America, we believe in our right to make something out of ourselves and that hard work will pay off for ourselves and our families, NOT 3rd world countries in the form of “carbon credits.”


4. Hyperinflation
Just in case you have been watching CBS, NBC or ABC and haven’t already heard, the Federal Reserve has monetized the National debt, which, if history holds true, WILL LEAD TO HYPERINFLATION.

Let me break this down for you in simpler terms- they are printing money to suit their own needs! The Federal government seems to be having a hard time finding people to buy up the debt it is issuing, therefore, the Federal Reserve is now buying up the debt and issuing a check to the government. When the government starts running its own printing press to generate the money it needs, it makes its own money worthless. Would you ever imagine spending $200 on a gallon of milk? If we ever hit hyperinflation, that might be a conservative estimate of the cost of a gallon of milk.

In 2003, then Federal Reserve Board Member Ben Bernanke made the following observation: Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the United States government has a technology, called a printing press, or today, its electronic equivalent, that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.

There are two alarming actions that the Fed has undertaken in 2009 that if left unchecked, has a very high probability of creating hyperinflation:
1. It made a $300 billion commitment to purchase Treasuries.
2. They are playing a very slick shell game with the debt that looks like this:
First- foreign central banks are selling “agency debt” (a security, usually a bond that has been issued by the US Government) directly out of their custody account (the account created by the US Government to “hold” the US bonds that have been sold to foreign central banks)
Second- The Federal Reserve is has then bought up those agency bonds with money they have printed off out of thin air
Third- the same foreign banks then use that very same money to purchase new Treasuries at the next government auction.

What’s not very funny about this… Bernie Madoff is in jail for running the same scheme in the private sector… it’s called a ponzi scheme.

I’ll be honest, I hope that I am wrong, I really hope that I’m wrong. I don’t have $200 to spend on a gallon of milk.

References:
1. Burton Folsom Jr New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s economic legacy has damaged America. New York: Threshold Editions, 2008.
2. Morgenthau Diary, May 9, 1939, Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library.
3. Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway, Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1993.