The money is coming from…well, us …a blog response.

In my classmates blog “Where is the money coming from” ryt discusses the major issues she, like many other Americans, have with this excessive “bailout” scenario. No, neither the agriculture nor the tech industry received a bailout when they were suffering all those years ago. Of course neither one of those industries had a crony of their own in the presidential cabinet. Henry Paulson didn’t really have the best interest of this country in mind when he suggested a *gasp* $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. He was thinking of the poor, poor CEO’s of these mutli-million dollar companies who would not be receiving their ludicrous bonuses each year. The auto industry simply followed along on their coat tails. It’s almost like watching children begging for help from their parents, “You gave him that much what about me?” And what about the auto industry? They’re requests are meager in comparison to what Paulson’s buddies were asking for. I mean come on what’s $36 billion in comparison to $700 billion, why it’s chump change. But, of course asking for my and your tax dollars does not mean they have to give up life’s little luxuries like private jets. I mean everyone has one of those, right? How embarrassing that these men had to have this ridiculous blunder pointed out to them by Congress while they sat there with a stone face and asked for money.
I think that the when the financial bailout was agreed on it set a horrible precedent for industries of this country. Because, not only did the financial industry want a hand out they wanted it without any strings attached, meaning no government involvement. The auto industry should have kept up with the times and begun making fuel efficient cars about the same time the overseas auto makers were. But, of course the big money wasn’t in fuel efficient cars it was in huge 4x4 trucks and Hummers. Well, sometimes bad financial decisions lead to bad results, and sometimes that’s just a hard pill one needs to swallow.
I agree that President-elect Obama has his work quite cut out for him. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little concerned of the challenges he faces ahead of him. But, I’m also hopeful that with new blood come new ideas and a new start to changing the way this old game is played.

Delusions of Grandeur

In a recent interview with his sister, Dora Bush Koch, President George W. Bush stated that he would like to be remembered as the president “who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace” in Iraq. I am unsure how to even get passed this initial statement to comment on the rest of the interview. Invading a country under false pretenses, at the cost of thousands of American soldier and Iraqi civilian lives and doing so under the protest of the UN does not a grand legacy make. He claims that he came into office “with a set of values…and leaving with the same set of values”.
Bush has stated that his ‘No Child Left Behind’ program was also one of his greatest achievements. He was quoted as saying “The promise of No Child Left Behind has been fulfilled," it sounds like he was given misinformation on this front too. A program that started out with good intentions but ended being widely criticized by the very people it set out to help and managed to close down schools in the most needed parts of the country.
I have to believe that every dark cloud has a silver lining and the Bush administrations came in the form of Laura Bush. A person who did truly hold stead fast to the beliefs she came with and used her position for the greater good. The work she did with the women of Afghanistan and with the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, are the sort of acts one would expect to be linked back to the most powerful country in world.
Now, while I am hopeful for the new administration, I also fear the atrocity that the old one has left behind. The exit of the Bush administration will be bitter/sweet. It’s sort of like that old car you never get rid of. It always breaks down, leaks oil and the A/C doesn’t ever work quite right, but at least you already know that you’re going to be disappointed when you jump in behind the wheel.
Fair well President Bush we, as a country, took the plunge and traded in for a more eco-friendly model.

Blog Response. Election Goes down in history

While I agree whole heartedly that this election was historic, I do not agree with your take on what constitutes a viable platform. President-Elect Obama’s plan to raise taxes applies to those individuals who make over $250,000 a year. This represents less than 6% of families and households in the United States according to the US Census Bureau. These above average income individuals include CEO’s of large companies who just received $700 billion in tax money from citizens whose median income ranges from $48,000 - $70,000 a year. I would much rather see “the wealth” spread from top to bottom than from bottom to top. Maybe McCain does feel strongly about raising taxes in a volatile economic climate or maybe he doesn’t want taxes to go up on all the homes he has, which were apparently to numerous to recollect on demand.
As for the war in Iraq, I don’t see how losing over 4,000 Americans soldiers and over 45,000 Iraqi citizens can be viewed as a winning strategy. Bringing our troops home now would be the truly honorable thing to do. I agree that those troops lost their lives “for no reason”; America should never have been there to begin with. The current administration coerced the American public to believe the unsubstantiated claim that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction. Those men and women need to come home and protect our land here, not special interests abroad.
Only the ignorant and uniformed would create chaos and plot assassinations based on the outcome. This election has gone down in the history books and I’m glad the citizens of this country and Senator McCain had enough civility to end the race on a unified note.

The Politics of Education

As a future educator the education policies both candidates bring to their platform are of exceptional importance to me. Children in this country are struggling and the administration of the last eight years has been nothing short of a colossal detriment to the education system. It has become painfully obvious that this system needs to be uprooted, replanted, and given new and substantial life. Unfortunately this very vital issue has been swept aside in the media for more important topics like, what Sara Palin is wearing, who Barack Obama spoke with 20 some odd years ago, and whether John McCain will outlive the election. While these all make for wonderful commentary, it seems that preparing the future generation of our country, the ones that will inherit the great big mess this generation has made, is little more than a footnote on the debates. Both candidates have a policy on education and its time they were looked at with a little more scrutiny.
Under Barack Obama’s education plan the promises are big and hopeful. Starting with early childhood education, which is consistently overlooked, more funding would be funneled into the Head Start and early childhood programs in general. The “No Child Left Behind” plan will be reformed and properly funded and have schools and teachers rewarded not punished. It is a sad state of affairs when teaching our children cannot be a career option because it simply doesn’t pay the bills. Sen. Obama plans to implement monetary incentives to recruit new teachers and keep established teachers working harder to strive for more. Perhaps one of the most important issues of this plan is higher education. Every student from grades K-12 should constantly be reminded that college is the next step and that all though it isn’t mandatory, it is available. Finances should not be a deterrent for obtaining a degree above high school. Under this plan college will be obtainable for everyone and that’s as it should be.
John McCain’ education plan is short and simple. Give parents the opportunity to move their children from a low performing school to a higher performing school. This would include charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Under this plan a student wouldn’t have to be wealthy or elite to go to a better school. They would just have to be lucky. As wonderful as these schools are and as healthy as competition would be for the school districts, they have a limited amount of space for students. Not everyone gets in, not everyone gets the same opportunity. Teachers will be given a bonus, if they can prove that their efforts are working. On the higher education front McCain’s policy clarifies tax benefits and simplifies financial aid.
As everyone steps into the voting booth on Tuesday with lighter wallets and war weariness in their hearts, education policy needs to weigh heavily on their minds and demonstrate that this issue is just as important as every other policy the candidates stand for.

Left Side, Strong Side

According to Erick Erickson’s blog “I guess Barry decided he already won” McCain came out guns blazing on this third debate to put Senator Obama in his place. No, not likely and well wrong. The distress the Republican Party is feeling right now is completely understandable. The first two debates were *cough* weak on the right side and gave an edge to Obama. Maybe it’s that the GOP is aiming for the silver lining; hoping that this debate would help McCain bring back some power to his people. Doubtful, all he managed to do was satiate some angry Republicans who were screaming for blood in the form Ayers and Acorn. They received some satisfaction with this debate but, there was never a “drive the issues home” moment for McCain.
He was obscenely misinformed in regards to the Obama health plan and it seemed every issue he brought against Obama was based on emotion rather than facts. The abortion issue for one; it's wonderful that he and Cindy are adoptive parents, more power to them. But, he did not once offer any sort of solution for women who want or need to terminate a pregnancy. It’s doubtful that his $5,000 insurance tax credit will be able to help people in these situations over the next 18 years.
The Joe Plumber rhetoric, which will be hitting airways all across the country tomorrow, also backfired. This only managed to give Obama the opportunity to positively answer the questions on everyone’s mind that saw that news segment. McCain also seemed to be on the verge of losing his temper, rolling his eyes and bringing forward his best Yosemite Sam impression. Can Americans afford to have that sort of ill tempered president with his finger on “the Button”? This country has had enough with leaders who shoot first and ask questions later.
Erickson, like every other wishful republican (Ann Coulter included), begins looking to past polls. Specifically the Jimmy Carter/ Ronald Regan race, when Carter was leading the polls over Reagan by six points and Regan came out to claim victory in the end. Polls have become a little more accurate in recent years and besides wasn’t it Sara Palin who was staunchly against looking backwards into the past in her debate with Joe Biden? It’s time to look forward people and in this future there is CHANGE.

*Erick Erickson is managing editor of Redstate.com and was an attorney for 6 years at Sell & Melton LLP. He has been a consultant for every type of election and has been a commentator on CNN and MSNBC. He is also a deacon at Vineville Presbyterian Church.

Whose intentions and for whose results?

This country sits at a great crossroads financially. The banks and investment companies that gave subprime mortgage loans to consumers that were not financially stable are in essence asking for a very hefty life line. According to Mr. Charles Krauthammer, an editorialist for the Washington Post and author of the article “Good intentions yield bad results”, the “Paulson Plan” is the way to go if everyone will just stick their heads in the sand and ignore the “extras” attached to it so that all those CEO’s will be just fine. His main argument for not capping the CEO pay packages is because “capping the pay of people brought in to lead wobbly companies back to health is a fine way to tell talented executives to look elsewhere for a job”. The other side of that argument is if they were that talented their companies would not be in a $700 billion predicament. The fact remains that it was the bad loans made in the housing boom that are at the core of this huge debacle. Then the question that should be posed is why isn’t the government looking into buying the mortgage debt and allowing these companies to fix their own mess? Mr. Krauthammer’s suggestion for appeasing the “mob”, or the citizens who are concerned about the spending of $700 billion of their tax money (I guess they’re interchangeable), is to have a few token CEO’s come on camera appearing guilty, sorry and reformed. Mr. Krauthammer even goes as far as suggesting that if they placed these employees on a reality TV show the advertisement fees alone would help pay for “the down payment” on the bailout. Assuming that the American public is ignorant and anything placed on the “boob tube” is enough to satiate even the angriest citizen is insulting. Ironic that in his column he did not mention that the Secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson, was once the CEO for Goldman Sachs and that this very crucial bail out could have a direct positive effect on this company; so essentially tax payer money would be used to elevate Mr. Paulson’s former employer. Or that section 8 of his plan states “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” These issues are clear conflicts of interest and expecting congress to just sign over a blank check is just plain irresponsible.

*Krauthammer is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, has earned a Pulitzer-Prize and is a regularly featured commentator on FOX news. He is generally conservative but takes a liberal stance on issues such as legalized abortion, stem cell research, the death penalty and intelligent design.

Sarah Palin and her Questionable Road to the White House.

In this new political race the main theme seems to be “don’t vote on a party, vote on the ‘team’ that will do the best job”. That is an agreeable statement. All difficult political decisions should be made on well researched and educated facts. Determinations can be based on this ABC news article as to wether or not Sarah Palin is the right person for the vice-presidential office. The article is a timeline of Palin’s life and gives an insight on her qualifications to hold the office she’s vying for. There have been several instances of people that happen to be at the right place at the right time. Actors, singers maybe even a couple of political figures. But this article proves that being in the right place at the right time may not be a qualification to occupy the office that is a hairs breath away from running the most powerful country in the world.