Bailout Blues

From Blue-dot-Blues:

Total to date, including the Citi bailout, is $4.6165 trillion.

Numbers from Bianco Research:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
  
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
  
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
  
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
  
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
  
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
  
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
  
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
  
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
  

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

Commentary on these numbers from Red County.com.

Freedom Ain't Free: Honk to Save Our Homes

Freedom Ain't Free: Honk to Save Our Homes

Hensarling introduces alternative rescue plan

Rep Hensarling has an alternative to the bailout bill to repair the financial sector - H.R. 7223 - and has 50 co-sponsors, including Rep Carter and Rep McCaul. CNBC reports that components of the alternative plan include the following:

• Require the Treasury Department to guarantee, at up to 100 percent, bank losses resulting from failed mortgage-backed securities originated prior to the plan's enactment. Such insurance, supporters say, would provide immediate value to the securities and a foundation for which they could then be sold. The Treasury Department would finance that insurance by assessing a premium on outstanding mortgage-backed securities.
  
• Allow companies to carry back losses arising in tax years ending in 2007, 2008, or 2009 back five years, generating a tax refund and immediate capital
  
• Allow a "repatriation window" for profits earned by U.S. firms overseas. Such repatriation amounts would not be taxed if invested in distressed debt (as defined by Treasury) for at least one year.
  
• Allow banks to treat losses on shares of preferred stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as ordinary losses, not as capital losses
  
• Suspend the capital gains tax rate for two years
  
• Limit backing of high-risk loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
  
• Schedule Fannie and Freddie for privatization
  
• Suspend "mark-to-market" accounting until the SEC can issue new guidelines that will allow firms to mark these assets to their true economic value
  
• Stabilize the dollar by repealing the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, which alternative bailout supporters say diverts the Federal Reserve's attention from long-term price stability to short-term economic growth
  
• Require the Treasury to write rules prohibiting excessive compensation or golden parachutes to executives of failed companies
  
• Task the SEC with regular, annual audit reports of entities the federal government has brought under conservatorship or now owns

The basic point is that hensarling is relying on tax reductions and regulators changes to improve credit conditions, rather than an expensive RTC-like asset purchase. This is a superior approach and other Republicans (Cornyn? Smith?) should get on board and support it.

A Quick Point on "Rights"

The liberal Democrat platform has tried to make many things rights over the last 60 years. One of those is "affordable housing." What this really means is that people who cannot qualify to purchase a home because of poor credit and job history, are now receiving credit due in large part to the demands Congress put on Freddie and Fannie in the 1990's and 2000's.

When rent controls were proven to not provide sufficient affordable housing, the new policy that was brought forward is the "right to credit" to force private institutions to make bad loans. We are now seeing how that is ending up as the taxpayers are now asked to bail out the banks and in essence, subsidize "the right to affordable housing."

The philosopshy of liberals is misguided. There are no rights to success in America; only the right to pursue success, which can and does lead to failure many times.

Of course, you can always follow the money. In unearthing this scandal, you will find that many ranking Democrats, including Congressman Frank, Senator Kerry, and Senator Obama, are receiving PAC contributions from Freddie and Fannie to perpetuate bad lending practices and to achieve the socialist goals of the liberal elite.

The liberals have succeeded in guaranteeing affordable housing, not through legislation and elections, but through scandals and underhanded deals with monopolistic banks that are now controlled by the government and taxpayer money. The "banks" can now make "business policies" for lending practices and, if Congressman Frank has his way, the government will become the landlord for homes in America with the courts making decisions as to property rights, loans, and evictions.

If you continue to follow the money, hold on to your pockets for the next "right." The next "right" that the liberal elite want to guarantee is health care. We have to look for the next "crisis" which will lead to a socialization of health insurance and medical care through more taxpayer funded bailouts.

Conservatives are losing the war on philosophy by not being active in the debate and maintaining partisan rancor. The debate on these philosphies and shifting to personal responsibilities is the key to creating a better society for all. More failing bureaucracies is not the solution.