Even a free market champion like George W. bush though that the auto companies should have been given emergency loans to help them overcome the collapse in the finance market. And as president, he could and did put his (our) money where his mouth was.
Even a free market champion like George W. bush though that the auto companies should have been given emergency loans to help them overcome the collapse in the finance market. And as president, he could and did put his (our) money where his mouth was.
That act alone tells me he’s NOT a free market Champion. He’s like a lot of modern capitalists…they want a free market when it suits their pocketbooks…and a closed regulated market to stifle competition.
Well, JT, if that’s what you think the function of the government is, than I agree with Mike. Let’s just do away with freedom… um, free enterprise… altogether and just let the government take over all businesses.
However, you might want to read our founding documents. You might be shocked to learn that is not the function of the government. If you read how the founding documents came to be what they are, you might also discover that our founders feared that the newly formed federal government would abuse its authority and begin to take over the freedoms of private individuals including their right to run their businesses free of government oversight. And nowhere in any document anywhere was the government given the authority to take our money in taxes and give it to private enterprises. On the contrary, that’s what King George III did… taxed the colonialists heavily and used the money for his friends in England. You may recall that was one of the reasons independence was declared in 1776 and the constitution ratified in 1787, with Bill of Rights ratified in 1791. An estimated 25,000 patriots died in the revolutionary war to free us from government abuse.
Buuuut, I guess we can just forget about all that. Right?
Society has changed over the last 250 years and government did too. I’m not pleased with everything that occurred with the spect to the government either, but I am pretty sure that American society made the US government what it is today. Since representatives are elected by many of us (some refuse to vote), it seems logical to assume that we are still a government of the people.
The auto company loans were part of TARP because the real problem was that no one could get a loan for anything, including automobiles. TARP was $700 billion. But total loans and loan guarantees ended up over $10 trillion by 2011 and total federal expenditures besides the loans and loan guarantees were around $2.5 trillion. Less than $10 billion is a fraction of a percent. It would look large in my bank account, but is a drop in the bucket for a Federal government with total annual expenditures over $1 trillion. I don’t know for sure, but maybe they figured that such an insignificant sum wasn’t worth the extra cost to extract it. If you believe it is worth going after, contact your elected representatives and tell them. If enough people do so, it might get somewhere.
“some refuse to vote”
I slightly disagree with the term “refuse”
I’d say that many/most of those who don’t vote are ignorant, don’t care, or don’t feel like making time to go to the voting booth
I would say out of those that don’t vote, only a minority ACTIVELY refuse to vote
Since representatives are elected by many of us (some refuse to vote), it seems logical to assume that we are still a government of the people.
REALLY??? We are a government of big business and big money…The tea-party is just one example of that. A couple of billionaires funding a group of idiots can do a lot of damage.
The Tea Party is certainly different than the Democrat Party:
;-]
I’ll guess which way you’re leaning
But I won’t say what my guess is
If you want to, go right ahead
But I’m not dying to know
There are plenty of morons on both sides of the political aisles or issues.
I agree with that
Not only that, but I think that there have been a few presidents and politicians that have done things that seem “out of line” with the norms for their party
For example, I don’t believe Obama has been very good for the environment. He’s in bed with the frackers, after all
And former Governor Romney’s health care plan in his own home state . . . which he now apparently wishes he had no part of
I think Bobby Jindal is a moron
That’s balanced out by the fact that I think Charlie Rangle . . . ? . . . is corrupt
There certainly is a lot of big money in politics these days, but the big money candidates still have to convince enough of the voting public that they are the right scoundrel to vote for. There are fewer sausage makers than e were in the past, and that, it seems, is the reason for gridlock. Don’t ever expect to get all that you desire from your politicians, especially if you are at one of the political extremes.
Does Romney wish he never was part of Romneycare because it was the model for Obamacare?
I’ll bet you lunch that Mitt Romney cringes every time he hears the term “Romneycare”
I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading that a lot of people in his home state thought Romneycare worked out fairly well
But Mitt Romney himself now supposedly . . . at least in the media . . . would like to disassociate himself from it
^
Because the main talking point of his party was opposition to “Obamacare”, but “Obamacare” was essentially cloned from “Romneycare”, there was not very much left for Mitt to campaign on.
But…in order to keep this on an auto-related theme…Mitt stated during the campaign that his wife “drives two Cadillacs”. However, there was no verification as to whether she actually drove them simultaneously, as he had seemed to imply.
;-))
I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading that a lot of people in his home state thought Romneycare worked out fairly well
Romney’s home state is New Hampshire. He just had a small house in MA that he lived in part of the time…he has a huge house in Wolfboro NH on lake Winnipesaukee.
Fine
I seem to remember reading that a lot of people in the state in which Romneycare was started thought it worked out fairly well
There are plenty of morons on both sides of the political aisles or issues
None as bad as the Tea Party - that I can see. A good portion still think the Tea Party is a grass roots movement…even shown the facts it was started by and funded by the Koch brothers.
And then there’s Bachmann and Palin…You don’t get any dumber then that.
JT, it’s true that society has changed over the last 250 years, but I don’t recall a constitutional amendment authorizing the executive branch to use taxation to prop up failed private businesses. Can you tell me which one that is?
No loopier than left wing groups funded by people like George Soros and I fail to see how the Koch brothers are that bad.
There’s a boatload of people in my area alone who have good jobs because of the Koch brothers and if you enjoy things like natural gas or food on the table the Koch brothers are responsible for some of that.
Shut off the gas, quit eating, and hit the Koch brothers where it hurts…
speaking of the Koch brothers . . .
I seem to remember a line from a movie, and I may not be quoting it exactly
The smartest thing the devil did was making you think he doesn’t exist
