Surprise! (not) More hypocrisy in government

"When times are tough, you tighten your belts," the president said. "You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college." - President Barack Obama (source)

This is very true, but the President obviously doesn't believe his own words.

(Side note: and what, exactly, does the President have against Vegas????)

The most recent proposal by Obama is to limit the amount of monthly payments graduates have to make on student loans and forgive them after 20 years - reduced to 10 years if you happen to go into 'public service.'

If you know that you're not going to have to repay all your college loans, why not go to Vegas? If you're not going to be responsible for paying off your debt, you can take out as many loans as possible and then spend your 'other' dollars - well, in Vegas, if you want.

As for buying a boat when you can't pay your mortgage, the message is the same.

While people may not be buying boats, they know that if they just stop making their mortgage payments, the banks, which are being forced by governments to renegotiate loans, will have to do something to relieve homeowners of their contracted obligations. This leaves homeowners free to spend those dollars elsewhere.

The message coming from federal, state and local politicians is that you are not to blame for not being able to meet the obligations you entered into - it's all someone else's fault. It's not your fault you borrowed more than you could repay, you were taken advantage of by evil .... (fill in the blank).

Then those same politicians start allocating other people's money to 'help' you because it 'purchases' your support at the next election. And you, being grateful for their magnanimous behavior, no longer have to honor your obligations. So you have all that extra money for boats or trips to Vegas ...

Think this is just the lunatic rantings of a raving conservative? Look at what one individual had to say about free cell phones from the government:

"If they would give us free phones, that would be fantastic," said Lester Frasier, outside a welfare center in Los Angeles. "It will free up more money for me, that's one less bill for me."

The President's words tell you to spend your money wisely, but his actions tell you that you don't have to worry about doing so because they'll bail you out if you don't.

And what happens inside the logic-free zone of Washington D.C. is completely contrary to those very same words. The new Obama budget is outrageous in terms of spending, despite what he claims are cuts.

In what Obama and many members of Congress claim is the worst economy since the Great Depression, the federal government's payroll is at a record 2.15 million.

And when it comes to those same politicians actually acting in the fiscally responsible manner they tell you that you should adhere to - forget it!

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) says he's not a 'big supporter' of freezing congressional pay until after the budget is balanced. And the worst part about Congressional pay is that increases go into effect automatically, unless Congress votes to freeze them. How convenient!

You all know the joke about how to tell when a politician is lying...(his lips are moving). You also know that actions speak louder than words - so be sure to pay attention to what these politicians actually do while preaching to us and spout off about fiscal accountability.

Things I'd blog about if I had more time

I've been a bit busy the last couple of days, so here are some bullet points about things I'd blog about if I had more time:

* CNSNews is reporting that the global warming bill passed by the House could lead to increased regulations on fireworks.

"Americans use more than 200 million pounds of fireworks each year, the majority on July Fourth. Because fireworks emit carbon dioxide (CO2) as they burn, however, the fireworks industry may come under tighter regulation if cap-and-trade legislation passes in the Senate in coming months."

We have plenty of regulations on fireworks already - and local noise ordinances to boot. But none of that seems to matter when it comes to the Fourth of July celebrations. What makes anyone think that new regulations on fireworks because of the global-warming charade will have any impact whatsoever? And what could be more unpatriotic than to disallow the celebration of our liberties by infringing upon them in the name of some cooked-up crisis?

* "Democratic Leader Laughs at Idea That House Members Would Actually Read Health-Care Bill Before Voting On It" That's the headline in a story yesterday about when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was asked "whether he supported a pledge that asks members of the Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it and also make the full text of the bill available to the public for 72 hours before a vote."

In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.

“Members clearly--and staff and review boards, they read them in their entirety. They go over it with members, and members read substantial portions of the bill themselves, but the issue is--I don’t know who signed this (pledge), but frankly the opposition has been very vociferous, not of the verbiage and bill, but on the concept that it incorporates,” Hoyer said.

So the concept that our representatives should read what they vote on prior to voting is what he opposes? Amazing - just simply amazing!

* I might have missed it over the past couple of days, but I didn't see this story featured prominently in any of the news:

"Washington (CNSNews.com) – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the chief culprits in the housing crisis because they encouraged people who could not afford payments to borrow money, according to a congressional report released Tuesday.

The claims in the report have long been advanced by conservatives, who argue that the Community Reinvestment Act and other federal programs fed the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to the economic downfall in 2008.

But the report explains in detail how Fannie and Freddie -- government sponsored enterprises (GSE) that were not subject to the same oversight as other publicly traded firms -- “privatized their profits but socialized their risks.”

“In the short run, this government intervention was successful in its stated goal – raising the national homeownership rate,” says the report, the result of an investigation launched last fall by Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“However, the ultimate effect was to create a mortgage tsunami that wrought devastation on the American people and economy,” says the report. “While government intervention was not the sole cause of the financial crisis, its role was significant and has received too little attention.”"

Told you so!

'Don't know where Obama gets legal authority,' Hoyer says

Great! Here's the House Majority Leader saying he hasn't got a clue where the president gets the authority to order the restructuring of General Motors, but if he doesn't have the legal authority, Congress would give it to him after the fact.

Don't you think the legal authority to take an action should have been addressed PRIOR to actually doing it?????

CNSNews is reporting:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that he does not know where President Barack Obama gained legal authority to oversee a restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler. But if authority is a question, he said, then Congress will grant it to the administration.

However, when Congress tried to enact an auto industry bailout plan in December, the legislation was approved by the House but failed in the Senate where, under the rules, it needed 60 votes.

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.), meanwhile, toldCNSNews.com he was somewhat surprised that the administration did not consult with him at all about its auto industry plan despite his key committee chairmanship and that he had “been reading about it in the papers basically.”

Hoyer was similarly candid about his inability to cite the administration’s legal authority for the plan.

“The administration clearly believes it does have the authority to use some of the remaining TARP funds for the automobile industry,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com Tuesday.

“I don't know, technically. I would be kidding you to mouth some words on that, because I don't know technically where that authority would be,” Hoyer said. “But my own view is that if it is perceived they don't have that authority and it is perceived by the Congress they need to have that authority, the Congress would probably be willing to give that authority. But I don't know technically the answer to that question.”