Every once in a while I have to shake my head and bite my tongue to keep from saying what I really think. Less face some facts . We are on the brink of financial collapse yet folks in Washington seem to think we should spend more money . I am against is irresponsible spending and that has become an American past time. Millions of people are out of work, no doubt about that. But what got us into this financial defunct in the first place. Americans have lived on credit for years. Hardly anyone saves for retirement, the average American lives from pay check to pay check with out ever saving a dime. One hiccup in the ole' pay check and they loose their homes or one medical disaster and they are filling bankruptcy.
WHY? The simple answer is they don't plan ahead. They fail to see tomorrow and live for today. The credit card is one of our nations biggest and worst enemies an only a few seem to understand the buy now pay now principles of sounds financial judgment.Folks get a credit card , run it to the hilt and when the bill comes due they pay the minimal payment. There in lies the first mistake. The minimum payment barely pays the interest on the balance and guess what making minimum payments each month you will never pay the debt off unless you live to be a thousand and never use the card again.
Well, a lot of things not just one, there is plenty of blame to go around one reckless mistake after another both on the governments part and "we the people" too are to blame no one complained when they were getting bridges to nowhere , 30 thousand dollar turtle crossings nor
Remember when those Pre-approved credit cards came in the mail day after day? I can , I got as many as three or four a day at one time in the early 90's. At one time I had over 25 thousand dollars in pre-approved credit available to me.
Roll the clock back to the financial banking crisis and the mortgage bust how quickly we have forgotten. I often wonder if folks can do simple math anymore. We can't continue to spend what we don't have it is just that simple. During the housing boom of the 90's and up until 2008 buying houses was made so easy everyone was buying one. Housing appraisers we inflating the prices of homes and real estate agents we doing whatever it took, even lying in order to get mortgages to sell homes. The banks were lending money to folks that did not even qualify for a mortgage. If you make $50,000.00 a year you can't afford a $350,000 dollar home but that sure didn't stop folks from buying one.
There are no new jobs being created with all the latest Green energy grants, loans and all that stimulus money as a matter of fact several of the companies that got millions for green energy went defunct Solyndra, a San Francisco Bay area solar company declared chapter 11 some 1,100 people lost their jobs. Those loans were government guarantees loans. So who eats that , We do ,the taxpayers. The green energy so far has been one disaster after the other.
"The company, Ener1, received a
$118 million grant
from DOE in 2010 as part of the president’s stimulus package. The
money, which went to Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, aimed to promote
renewable energy storage battery technology for electrical grid use.
But despite generous federal support for the company, Ener1 was
racked by problems last year. In October, NASDAQ delisted the company
due to non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission filing
requirements. A month later, the company’s president, chief executive,
and top financial officer were fired.
On Thursday, Ener1
announced
it will initiate a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan as part of
an agreement to restructure the company’s debt obligations."
I got a real kick out of Vice- President Biden's statement :" The stimulus was, Biden claimed, “not just creating new jobs, but
sparking whole new industries that will ensure our competitiveness for
decades to come — industries like electric vehicle manufacturing.” (Hey, Joe that Chevy Volt has been a real winner, drive down the road and catch on fire .. gotta love that.) He
went on to single out Ener1 specifically." I wonder how much stock he has in Ener1 ? News flash Joe, the money was suppose to create JOBS NOW , not 20 years down the road. Our government has become like the money pit dream house, it should have been torn down and started a new but you were assured you could fix it .. at the end of the day, you still have a money pit that cost you more then it is worth.
Here is a short list of government waste:
- Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
- The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
- The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
- Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
- Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
- A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
- The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
- Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to
enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally,
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense
budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
- Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
- Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year’s 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
- The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
- The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
- Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands
of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines,
plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and
signature machines — plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
- More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.[22]
- Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion.
In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay
for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, “Girls
Gone Wild” videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
- Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million
recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names,
addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple
applications.[24]
- Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
- The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight
for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of
Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) — but only on Monday mornings and Friday
evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a
member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation
Department’s budget.[26]
- Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches — even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
- A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in “stimulus” funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
