Posts tagged ‘National Debt’
The Quiet Coup — How Bankers Seized America
The Quiet Coup — How Bankers Seized America (Mercola.com):
The economic crash has made many unpleasant truths about the United States apparent. One of the most alarming, according to a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the financial industry has effectively captured the U.S. government.
If the IMF’s staff could speak freely to the U.S. government, it would say what it says to every country in such a situation: Recovery will fail unless the financial oligarchy blocking essential reform is broken. And if the U.S. is to avoid a true depression, time is running out.
The article from The Atlantic linked below details how the U.S. financial crisis is shockingly similar to problems more commonly associated with the third world — and the harsh and necessary steps needed to get out of it.
Very interesting video with Bill Moyers and William K. Black linked on the article page and some great commentary by Dr. Mercola as well on this and an article from The Atlantic.
H.R.1207 84 Sponsors now!!
Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14] (introduced 2/26/2009)
As of today at 5PM:
COSPONSORS (84), ALPHABETICAL
Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] – 2/26/2009
Rep Akin, W. Todd [MO-2] – 3/19/2009
Rep Alexander, Rodney [LA-5] – 3/10/2009
Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] – 2/26/2009
Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] – 4/21/2009
Rep Bartlett, Roscoe G. [MD-6] – 2/26/2009
Rep Bilbray, Brian P. [CA-50] – 4/21/2009
Rep Bishop, Rob [UT-1] – 4/21/2009
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] – 3/16/2009
Rep Blunt, Roy [MO-7] – 3/24/2009
Rep Brady, Kevin [TX-8] – 4/22/2009
Rep Broun, Paul C. [GA-10] – 2/26/2009
Rep Buchanan, Vern [FL-13] – 3/17/2009
Rep Burgess, Michael C. [TX-26] – 3/19/2009
Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5] – 2/26/2009
Rep Capito, Shelley Moore [WV-2] – 4/1/2009
Rep Carter, John R. [TX-31] – 3/31/2009
Rep Castle, Michael N. [DE] – 3/17/2009
Rep Chaffetz, Jason [UT-3] – 3/6/2009
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4] – 4/21/2009
Rep Culberson, John Abney [TX-7] – 3/26/2009
Rep Deal, Nathan [GA-9] – 3/23/2009
Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] – 3/9/2009
Rep Doggett, Lloyd [TX-25] – 4/21/2009
Rep Duncan, John J., Jr. [TN-2] – 3/6/2009
Rep Ehlers, Vernon J. [MI-3] – 4/21/2009
Rep Fallin, Mary [OK-5] – 4/2/2009
Rep Fleming, John [LA-4] – 3/18/2009
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5] – 3/10/2009
Rep Franks, Trent [AZ-2] – 3/23/2009
Rep Garrett, Scott [NJ-5] – 3/5/2009
Rep Gingrey, Phil [GA-11] – 3/30/2009
Rep Gohmert, Louie [TX-1] – 4/23/2009
Rep Graves, Sam [MO-6] – 4/22/2009
Rep Grayson, Alan [FL-8] – 3/11/2009
Rep Heller, Dean [NV-2] – 3/6/2009
Rep Herger, Wally [CA-2] – 4/21/2009
Rep Inglis, Bob [SC-4] – 4/23/2009
Rep Jenkins, Lynn [KS-2] – 4/23/2009
Rep Johnson, Sam [TX-3] – 4/22/2009
Rep Johnson, Timothy V. [IL-15] – 4/23/2009
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [NC-3] – 2/26/2009
Rep Kagen, Steve [WI-8] – 2/26/2009
Rep Kaptur, Marcy [OH-9] – 4/23/2009
Rep Kingston, Jack [GA-1] – 3/6/2009
Rep Lamborn, Doug [CO-5] – 4/21/2009
Rep Latham, Tom [IA-4] – 4/21/2009
Rep Lucas, Frank D. [OK-3] – 4/21/2009
Rep Luetkemeyer, Blaine [MO-9] – 4/21/2009
Rep Lummis, Cynthia M. [WY] – 3/19/2009
Rep Manzullo, Donald A. [IL-16] – 4/21/2009
Rep Marchant, Kenny [TX-24] – 3/11/2009
Rep Massa, Eric J. J. [NY-29] – 4/22/2009
Rep McCaul, Michael T. [TX-10] – 4/21/2009
Rep McClintock, Tom [CA-4] – 3/6/2009
Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [MI-11] – 3/19/2009
Rep Miller, Jeff [FL-1] – 3/24/2009
Rep Olson, Pete [TX-22] – 4/21/2009
Rep Paulsen, Erik [MN-3] – 3/30/2009
Rep Pence, Mike [IN-6] – 4/21/2009
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7] – 3/19/2009
Rep Petri, Thomas E. [WI-6] – 3/10/2009
Rep Platts, Todd Russell [PA-19] – 3/19/2009
Rep Poe, Ted [TX-2] – 2/26/2009
Rep Posey, Bill [FL-15] – 2/26/2009
Rep Price, Tom [GA-6] – 3/10/2009
Rep Rehberg, Denny [MT] – 2/26/2009
Rep Roe, David P. [TN-1] – 4/21/2009
Rep Rohrabacher, Dana [CA-46] – 3/6/2009
Rep Rooney, Thomas J. [FL-16] – 4/22/2009
Rep Sessions, Pete [TX-32] – 3/23/2009
Rep Shimkus, John [IL-19] – 4/22/2009
Rep Smith, Adam [WA-9] – 4/22/2009
Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] – 4/2/2009
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] – 3/26/2009
Rep Stearns, Cliff [FL-6] – 3/6/2009
Rep Taylor, Gene [MS-4] – 3/6/2009
Rep Terry, Lee [NE-2] – 3/30/2009
Rep Thompson, Glenn [PA-5] – 4/22/2009
Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] – 3/16/2009
Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [GA-3] – 4/2/2009
Rep Wittman, Robert J. [VA-1] – 4/1/2009
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] – 2/26/2009
Rep Young, Don [AK] – 3/6/2009
Where is Rep Bobby Scott (D-VA) ??
Related Bills: S.604
Title: A bill to amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Sanders, Bernard [VT] (introduced 3/16/2009)
Sen. Sanders needs some sponsors!
Fewer Taxes for Real Economic Stimulus
Fewer Taxes for Real Economic Stimulus (Ron Pauls’ Texas Straight Talk)
Taxes are the issue this week as Americans struggle to make the April 15th deadline to file their returns. It is a good time to contemplate the effects of big government and what it does to our country. The income tax is one of the most egregious encroachments on our liberties today. It is a form of involuntary servitude, which was supposed to have been outlawed by the 13th Amendment.
Much more in the article! Must read.
Time to Remember Joe Louis
I remember reading about Joe Louis, the boxing champ from Detroit back in the 30s and 40s.
And what I remember reading most was that he had a heart as big as all outdoors, and the IRS basically destroyed his life.
If you are not familiar with Joe Louis’ story, you might want to read the DetNews.com article.
…Joe Louis died on April 12, 1981. He was 66.
Ronald Reagan waived the eligibility rules for burial at Arlington National Cemetery, and Louis was buried there with full military honors on April 21, 1981.
The whole country mourned his passing. President Reagan praised his instinctive patriotism and extraordinary accomplishments.
Thomas Sowell praised his dignity, his gentlemanliness, sportsmanship and humor, the ‘unbought grace of life’ that was his gift.
“He was our Sampson; he was our David. With toughness he destroyed our enemy, with kindness he soothed our wounds and revived our psyche.” — Jesse Jackson
“Joe never lost his common touch, his love of Detroit. He stood for everything that was good about Detroit.” — Coleman Young
“Our loss is Heaven’s gain; he was a great fighter, and a great champion in and out of the ring. He was symbolic to all people, young and old, black and white.”– Jersey Joe Walcott
With the deficit and spending and bailouts, BONUS CHECKS FOR THE BANKING CARTELS out of our taxes, etc… who’s next in line to be destroyed?
Don’t think it will be the banks and corporations that mishandled things, but are supposedly ‘too big to fail’ ….. no, I think one will need to look MUCH closer to home.
The Big Takeover
The Big Takeover by Matt Taibbi over at RollingStone.com
The global economic crisis isn’t about money – it’s about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution
Thanks Mudhead for letting me know about this article at RollingStone!
It’s over — we’re officially, royally f**ked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country’s heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.
Much, much more in Matt Taibbi’s great 8 page article at RollingStone. Must Read.
And they wonder why many Citizens are so fed up and so angry about what they are doing?
This has been the largest transfer of wealth, actually it’s not wealth per se, it’s people’s livelihood’s and retirement’s into the hands of irresponsible government, banking cartels and corporations in the world’s known history.
They should all be ashamed but they are not. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
If you are very, very quiet, you can almost hear them laughing and patting themselves on the back at their own ability to scheme, use our own government against ‘We The People”, as well as their good fortune that the government was that gullible … while the rest of us are forced by our, errr, their paid ‘representatives’ in the government to quietly just bend over…
Why, oh, why didn’t the government heed the warnings of the likes of Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and so many others more responsible then they?
The Collapse of ’09 by Gerald Celente
The Collapse of ’09 by Gerald Celente (LewRockwell.com):
The “Panic of ’08″ will be followed by “The Collapse of ’09.” In 2008, when the world’s largest financial firms and equity markets crumbled, Wall Street’s woes preoccupied the media.
In 2009, the focus will broaden to include a range of calamities that will leave no sector unscathed. Next in line is retail, which accounts for some 70 percent of consumer spending, 26 percent of which is holiday sales.
After the numbers are tallied to reveal a dismal retail Christmas, more big chain bankruptcies will follow. Besides leaving masses unemployed, defunct retailers will leave behind thousands of empty stores. Who will rent them? Nobody!
Much more in the article. Must read.
Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of ’09.”
I do not think he has overstated things as some will claim. I think we will see this and much more before it’s all said and done. Even areas of the country that seemed to be somehow charmed initially seem to be feeling it now. With people trying to hold on to their money … and who can blame them.
Many who had much to start with may not be feeling it as badly as those who had little to lose, but I think everyone is now feeling it.
I know some folks who have excellent credit and had very low interest rates, all of a sudden, and out of the blue, been told their credit card rates would be going from the single digits to double digits plus prime! For no apparent reason. Their credit score hadn’t changed. Nothing had changed except the state of the economy. If I personally know folks that this has happened to, how wide spread do you think it really is?
This is like getting slapped in the face. Financial institutions get obscene amounts of money, from our taxes, and still they raise interest rates for folks with excellent credit? It’s like getting slapped with double, no triple (due to the tax liability from the bailouts), whammy!
If this is happening to those with excellent credit, what of those who not so great credit?!?! My God.
“I have a bad feeling about this.” (quote from movie Star Wars)
Remember the Constitution?
Remember the Constitution? by Dan Cooper
I’m having a hard time swallowing much more of the ridiculous television programming regarding our current economic crisis and the government’s fiasco of a stimulus.
If I have to hear one more economist or executive editor of some financial rag or former Wall Street insider address the merits of the government’s stimulus using double talk, armchair economics, half truths and massaged statistics I’m going shoot my cat.
They all babble about how it will create jobs, unlock the credit markets and stimulate investment. Horse-hockey.
I don’t understand how these self-proclaimed financial insiders can go on television with a straight face and lay out this crap.
No financial measures or calculated metrics are needed to analyze the situation. Any such numbers would favor the party presenting them anyway and thereby be biased by association.
Here’s the problem so even those mental midgets on CNN can understand it: there is nothing the government can do with our money to legally stimulate the economy except let us keep it!
I’m not advocating him killing his cat … but I totally agree otherwise. 
Must read article! Refreshing and encouraging. Now how do we get the government to open their bloody eyes!?!
The Government’s War on Recession (Lew Rockwell)
This phony stimulus seriously skews the job market as well, as people turn away from private-sector employment and look to government to provide no-risk employment. Really, this stimulus plan amounts to turning the hourglass upside down, so the sand can run from one bulb to the other bulb.
Bernanke is warning us that we are in a severe contraction right now, but the warning applies not to him or the rest of the public sector. They are all quite gleeful, actually.
Government stands to win while the rest of us will lose. Even if it had the perfect cure for recession, government has no incentive to implement it. Its prescriptions for the ailing economy are no different from the rest of the public sector, which serves itself at everyone’s expense.
*sigh*
How true.
Have to say it again … Ron Paul was right!
Ron Paul once said, “I lean toward a flat tax, but I want to make it real flat: like zero.”
The government at almost all levels want to add tax, upon tax: new proposed driving tax, cigarette/tobacco tax increases (but it will help ‘the children’), alcohol tax increases, gas taxes, green taxes, income taxes, manufacturing taxes, etc., etc., etc., and all the unintended consequences of each one.
We get taxed on so many levels these days that it is hard to tally the total tax burden on already struggling Citizens.
Does this sound like taxes we as Citizens would ask for? I think not. Sounds like taxation without representation when the Senate and House add taxes that The People would never agree to directly.
Seems like we are back in the days before we broke from English rule due in large part to oppressive taxes.
In this economy, these unwanted, obsessive taxes are unthinkable … but they think, they push, and they enact. It is really bad when people who don’t live in the real world make the rules for everyone. Between taxes, bailouts, stock market shenanigans, and more, this is very rapidly becoming a national disaster.
Ron Paul was right then, and he is still right about it today.
EVIL CONCEALED BY MONEY
Thanks to Kurt for bringing this article to my attention!
The following article by Walter E. Williams is very thought provoking and I hope it will speak to each person’s heart.
EVIL CONCEALED BY MONEY
We’ve become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders (Liberty-Watch.com)
Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let’s think about socialism.
Imagine there’s an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here’s my question to you that I’m almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady’s lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I’m hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.
Would there be the same condemnation if, instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow’s lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I’d say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate’s mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.
Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.
This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need, by reaching into one’s own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another’s pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation.
Much more in the article.
It is equally evil if these same socialistic means are used to back corporate bad judgment instead of allowing natural outcomes of bad judgment to take their natural course. In that case, it not only becomes socialism, but a form of socialistic fascism or corporatism. That is what I see happening here and it worries me; not only are they trying to make us feel good about being forced to ‘do good’ at their bidding, but also to save companies that should not prosper while in the process making smaller, or at least properly and ethically managed businesses that (are apparently not too big to fail) to fail or languish instead. AND worst of all, making some Citizens feel it is somehow EVERYONE’s duty to pay to make this happen so they don’t lose what they have worked their careers to build. What a twist of fate and I truly feel for them being put in this position. But it does not make it the proper way forward. It is a way down a terrible path that even they won’t appreciate in the end…
And all this while causing the value of the dollar to fall further. NOTE: Just because the dollar is doing a little better on prospect at any given moment due to pushing these horrible ideas does not mean it will do well consistently. If anyone follows the history of the Great Depression, they will see that they had what looked to be a reprieve for awhile, it did not all fail in a day, week or even a year. It actually did better for a short while till things ultimately went terribly wrong. Check it out for yourself (PDF).
In addition, this type of thinking and behavior creates a situation where enforcement of these new dictates will make life untenable for any freedom loving people. We, as Citizens can not allow a surveillance state to take over, or allow thinking free to become a danger, like some sort of thought crime.
Charity is a personal thing, and should remain so. If you want to give to a charity, or to a family, it is something that should be done on a personal level and out of the goodness of one’s heart; otherwise it is meaningless and becomes another form of entitlement to drag down our country. It can not be forced on the people as a tax (double tax because it is borrowed money) or it is less than meaningless.
I hope our leaders will open their eyes to the truth before it’s too late … if it’s not already.
EDIT: Added Professor Walter E. Williams homepage to this posting, and a link from his website: Great Myths of the Great Depression (PDF).
