Long's Joyful Journey: September 2008

Let me start off by saying that I fully believe in the FREE Market! I think the Bailout Bill would have been a huge mistake!!!! Bailing out AIG/Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac would devastate our democracy! That bill would totally turn us into a socialist country!

I have never been so disgusted with our elected leaders in Washington! What is going on up there? I do not know how they can sleep at night with their delusion! They say falsehoods as if they are truth! Stop blaming left or right! This is a basic accounting lesson!

The government should stay out of the housing market! Requiring companies to give loans to people who could not pay for them! Government greed is all around us!

Best Quote:
“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.”

Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, in 1832

Repeating the Sins of the Past! Will we ever learn?

I think there should be no bail out at all! (I know many people disagree with me, even close to home) Sell Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac/AIG assets! Those companies should be dissolved! America is built on the fact that the strong, inventive, smart, survive.

Just think if Jonathan's company had a bad year, could we get the government to pay us if a customer stiffed us? Could we sue the government because uninsured illegals get work and we can not bid as low because of government requirements! No we can't! We work hard because we want a future! We have the American work ethic! If you dream it, work hard, you can achieve it! So many people now want the government to solve your problems, regulate things, give you pay that is guaranteed! But you lose so many rights/freedoms in the process!

Sorry I have thought about this topic for a while and am sorry that the words do not flow as easily on the blog as they do in my head!

Representatives in favor of the bill:

Lindsay Graham
(202) 224-5972
Bob Inglis
(202) 225-6030

Representatives against the bill:

Jim DeMint
(202) 224-6121

Demint has a plan for the failed Bailout:

DeMint Statement on Failed Bailout
Americans demand Congress “do the right thing to grow our economy and reform our government”

September 29, 2008 - Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) made the following statement after the House defeated the Wall Street bailout bill:

“President Bush and the Democrat Congress gave Americans two bad choices: do nothing or pass this bailout. Americans have said 'no' to both and demanded that we take a third way and do the right thing to grow our economy and reform our government.

“Our economy is going through difficult times, but the American people are resilient. Americans have told Congress they are willing to work through this problem instead of expanding the failed government that created it.

“It’s now time to reform the misguided government policies that caused this mess. It’s now time to enact real solutions that grow our economy and increase opportunity for all Americans. It’s now time to stop the knee-jerk political reactions that have earned this Congress the worst approval ratings in history, and focus on real solutions to secure our nation’s future.”

Senator DeMint has outlined a Plan for Economic Growth:

REFORM A TAX CODE THAT DISCOURAGES CAPITAL FORMATION
• Suspend Capital Gains Tax for 2 Years, Index it for Inflation: Immediately suspend the capital gains rate from 15% for individuals and 35% for corporations on assets, including stocks, homes, and commercial real estate investments. This provision would unleash funds and materials to create jobs and grow the economy. After the two-year suspension, capital gains rates would return to present levels but assets would be indexed permanently for any inflationary gains.

• Reduce the Corporate Income Tax Rate: Reduce the corporate income tax rate, which discourages job creation and investment in the U.S., from 35% to 25%. For over a decade, the U.S. corporate tax rate has been 50% higher than the average among our counterparts in the industrialized world and nine key trading partners cut their rates during 2007. According to the Tax Foundation, the corporate tax quietly taps family pocketbooks for nearly $370 billion per year, over $3,000 per household, in the form of higher prices, lower wages and poorer return on investment.

REFORM FAILED GOVERNMENT REGULATION
• Suspend “Mark to Market” Accounting: Suspend the mark-to-market regulatory rules for long-term assets. These rules require financial firms to mark assets at current market levels, even where no market exists and any immediate transactions would result in fire-sale prices. Instead of allowing firms to mark these assets to their true economic value, these rules contribute to a downward spiral as firms have to evaluate their assets not on the basis of their long-term investment but rather on a short-term panic.

• Reform Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley: Make voluntary the duplicative reporting requirements under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, allowing companies to comply with standards that better fit their size while still insuring that they protect their investors. The average compliance cost for a business under Section 404 is $3.8 million, with smaller businesses paying over twice as much in percentage of revenue as large businesses. Relieving this burden will reverse a policy that is chasing capital offshore and encourage more companies to go public in the United States.

• Repeal federal mandates for risky loans: Repeal the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to make loans available to borrowers who would otherwise be deemed as too high a credit risk, and who often cannot afford to repay the loans. Under this law that contributed to our current crisis, if banks don’t make enough risky loans, community organizers can take financial institutions hostage during regulatory proceedings when banks try to merge, acquire or otherwise alter their status.

EXPAND ENERGY EXPLORATION
• Permanently Repeal Bans on Energy Exploration and Expedite Production: Expedite offshore and oil shale exploration, ensure states share in energy revenues, and prevent endless litigation from frivolous environmental lawsuits. American reserves offshore are estimated to hold over 20 billion barrels of oil and 97 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. In the West, oil shale is estimated to be between 800 billion and 2 trillion barrels of oil -- that is more than three times the proven oil reserves in Saudi Arabia alone. Permanently ending these bans on American energy will help fuel our economy and stop sending billions of dollars overseas for foreign oil.

REFORM FAILED GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS
• Schedule the GSEs for Privatization: Transition Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over a reasonable time period to truly private companies without special government privileges and expose them to real market competition. This reform would 1) establish commonsense limits for their capital requirements and portfolio holdings relative to their size, 2) focus their mission on affordable housing only, not profit making, 3) require them to pay an appropriate risk-based amount for the government guarantee they enjoy, 4) subject them to state and local taxes and accurate SEC filings like every other private for-profit corporation, and 5) ultimately provide for the phase out of their GSE charters once their conservatorship has ended.

• Stabilize the Dollar: Repeal the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, which diverts the Federal Reserve’s attention from long-term price stability to short-term economic growth. In an effort to fuel the economy, this additional mandate has encouraged the Fed to keep rates artificially low, leading to economic booms and busts, a rise in inflation and the decline of the dollar. This reform would require the Fed to establish a numerical definition for price stability and maintain a policy that promotes it over the long-term.

I have emailed and called my senators and representative! Please do the same which ever way you feel!

Oh, how I love you Sadie May! But sometimes I don't know what to think! She really challenges me as a parent, I have had to redefine my discipline code. She is very unique and takes different methods! Lately(since we took her pacy away), some of her fits have seem to be unbearable! Constant crying(LOUD, very LOUD), fit throwing, frozen statue, and she pees in her pants just to get me upset, are just some of the fits she throws! On Tuesday, it was really bad! She cried as soon as we picked up Carpenter from MC! We picked him up from his classroom and she cried all the way down 385 to home! I had had enough! The constant crying, Carpenter had his poor hands over his ears, and Rowan starting crying because the noise made him scared! I almost lost it, I was very close to pulling over and having a cry! I haven't slept in 4 years and sometimes you reach that breaking point! I just know that her behavior can not go on like this forever, right?

But on the other hand, she is our funniest child! She does not call me "mom" anymore! I am "Mommy Long," the only way I can figure it our because I call her my her full name, Sadie May Long, when she is in trouble! Sadie and Carpenter were having a little argument in Carpenter's room! I try to let them work it out sometimes, and just listen in! So I heard Sadie hit Carpenter, and Carpenter hit Sadie back, so then she runs into the living room and says "Car-pen-der hit me!" I told her to tell him not to! So she runs into Carpenter's bedroom and yells "NOT TOO!!!" She also can not take a nap because there are alligators in her room and they will bite her toes!

Sadie, I love you! Lord, please help me with creative problem solving skills to deal with my children!