Bail Outs for Governments

E-mail to Congress:

EIN News says, "Greece and Portugal Face 'Slow Death' Over Debt Crisis. Moody's Investors Service said unless the two countries reverse their large current account deficits, wealth generated would increasingly have to be used to pay off rising debt costs as investors demand more to hold Greek and Portuguese bonds. To compensate, the governments would have to keep raising taxes, which in turn could smother investment and drive out wealth creators, Moody's said. (telegraph.co.uk).

This is a prelude to the U.S. condition. Take heed. When you guys mess up, who is left to bail you out

Misguided Foreign Aid

Exchange of e-mails with Sen. Hutchison:

You responded to my earlier e-mail by saying,

"Thank you for contacting me regarding the budget for foreign operations. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue."

"The United States has a long history of extending a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, to recover from a disaster, or to live in a free and democratic country. It is this caring that stands as a hallmark of the United States around the world."

"The annual State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill is the primary legislative vehicle through which Congress funds U.S. international affairs operations. This is a critical bill because by providing funds for our State Department and foreign operations, we have an opportunity to help shape the world's perception of our nation."

"As Congress considers future funding, my support for any foreign aid component will continue to be predicated on its relevance to national security and other important U.S. interests."

"I appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you."

Caring and helping are fine, but pumping someone else's money down a rat hole is obscene, irresponsible, and immoral.

We have a human responsibility to help those who are trying to help themselves and to do so in such a manner as to be effective. 70 years of Foreign Aid have been ineffective, and it's long past time to reevaluate our strategy.

In these times of tremendous self-imposed debt, such as you and your fellow Senators are working on with respect to health care and global warming, there is little justification that we help others, when we can't help ourselves. This is what I call an abuse of compassion. It means helping others to the extent that one is unable to care for one's own self. Under those conditions everything goes down the drain.

Sec. Chu is going to give the people in Africa sun powered lamps. How ridiculous can one get?

Chu's New US Dollar Giveaway

E-mail to Congress:

EIN News says, "U.S. Unveils Plan to Rev Up Clean Technology in Poor Nations. Energy Secretary Steven Chu will announce on Monday an international plan to deploy clean technology in developing countries, a $350 million, five-year effort that will include everything from putting solar lanterns in poor households to promoting advanced energy-efficient appliances worldwide, administration officials said. (washingtonpost.com)".

Here we have another example of financial stupidity. We can't take care of ourselves, as evidenced by our tremendous government debt and our continuing annual budget deficits. Still we want to give money away. Why? To go deeper into debt? Nation building?

We have been involved in foreign aid for about 70 years. The only two nations which were successful in developing into major class economic entities were the former enemies Germany and Japan. Those countries were able to do well economically on their own, until they took on a military strategy of world domination, and we were forced to obliterate their productive capacity. They were able to recover not only because of US financial help, but because they had basic capabilities within their people.
Conversely, the so-called poor countries of the world have been soaking up financial aid like a sponge, without any progress to establishing a better lifestyle. It may be because of unstable governments or other political factors, but more likely it is because of the basic incapacity of the population.

In any event, it is ridiculous to keep pumping money into these so-called "developing" countries. If they want to develop, let their representatives visit US farming and industry establishments and learn from those successful productive enterprises how to do it. If US government compassion is such that they have to spend money, let a little be spent on airfares and hotels, while they study the US system. Let us also be sure that they are studying the basics and not present US government philosophy and operations, which are destined to ruin the US.


Steven Chu is one of the most misguided individuals in US government. We have here a very serious energy problem of unwillingness to develop our oil and gas resources and our fascination with the myth that man-made changes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere materially contribute to climate change. Chu should be thrown out of office, and if that is not possible because of political intrigues, some effort should be made to realign is thinking to concentrate on US interests, rather than the rest of the world, which has the responsibility of improving itself.

May I also remind you that you have the responsibility of Chu's foreign action. He doesn't get this money out of thin air. If he gives away $350 million, it is because you (Congress) have authorized it.

"Underwater" Housing

E-mail to Congress:

EIN News says, "Almost 1 in 4 U.S. Mortgage Borrowers Owe More Than Their Homes Are Worth. Nearly one in four U.S. borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, a worrisome sign that the housing recovery could be threatened by a wave of defaults, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. (msnbc.msn.com)".

This is a shame, it was caused by a social idealistic group in government to move people into houses whether they could afford them or not. This created an artificial construction boom. It took several years to create this damage and, and it will take several more years to have it undone.

There is now surplus housing, which is why market prices are low and considerably below the inflated values caused by the previous construction boom.. New housing construction is at a low level, which it should be, until the market catches up with housing availability. Anyone now making mortgage payments on a higher loan than the present market value of the house should continue to do so. When the market value of a house was higher two months after an original purchase, that was unrealistic. There was no actual profit, because the house was not sold. Similarly, a present low market value is unrealistic, because the house is not being sold. It is a place to live.

The only justifications for now selling and either renting or purchasing a lower-cost house is if one is in the real estate business or one cannot meet the mortgage payments. If the latter, one must take one's lumps after having been suckered into a bad financial deal by trusting government. Government will now do its best work by staying out of the mess it created and letting market forces correct the error.

Rep. Neugebauer's Roundup

E-mail to Rep. Neugebauer:

I have read your October 19 Roundup.

Nice job in introducing H.R. 534, the Responsible Government Empowerment Act (RGEA). However, I say again you need support for these bills or they are a waste of time. 10% of your time should be spent in preparing the bills and 90% of your time should be spent in gaining support to accept them. Keep talking to fiscally conservative Democrats, particularly the Blue Dogs.
On healthcare, I agree reform needs to happen, just like reform needs to happen in government. However, that doesn't mean we throw out the whole original process and start from scratch. Instead, we fix the things in the system that are wrong. The Baucus bill cuts too deeply into the original system. It must be defeated.

We support the removal of Kevin Jennings. Promotion of various sexual lifestyles should not be part of any educational curriculum. Our society is strongly based on traditional families of mother, father, and children. We should leave it at that. There is also no room for criticism of homosexual couples or childless couples. If there is a majority objection from these groups to the use of mommy, daddy, and children in early grade reading, we should consider that. If we need to determine whether there is a majority, the question can be put to the voting public as a "proposition".

E-mail to Congress:

EIN News says, "U.S. House Begins Assembly of Financial Reform Plan. The House Financial Services Committee is to begin work on Wednesday on a top priority for the U.S. Congress -- legislation to mend regulatory holes exposed by last fall's financial crisis. The committee will focus this week on bringing the $450 trillion market in over-the-counter derivatives under federal regulation and creation of an agency to protect consumers from risky financial products. (reuters.com)".

Good move, after you have killed the healthcare and climate control bills!

May I respectfully remind you that any effective legislation is a combination of rules involving penalties for non-adherents AND PROPER SUBSEQUENT ENFORCEMENT ACTION. It is the latter in which we have been sorely deficient in our legislative actions. You are undoubtedly more familiar than I am in how this can be done. My only suggestion is to pressure the Justice Department and other Law Enforcement Agencies.

Randy's October 12 Roundup

Open letter to Rep. Neugebauer:

I have read your October 12 Roundup and have taken your Spending Survey.

You are moving in the right direction to control federal spending but don't have sufficient allies. You need to cross party lines and coordinate with people who have similar opinions on government spending. Start with the Blue Dog Democrats.

With respect to military activities in Afghanistan, I don't believe in fighting half wars at half strength. My first preference is to bail out of Afghanistan. We have no business trying to "save" people who don't want to be saved. When the Russians were in Afghanistan, they least had a major point, which was to pull it into the Soviet bloc. They learned that was a difficult fight and pulled out, even though they had an incentive to win. We learned in Vietnam that if there is not sufficient US public support to "save the world for democracy", the minimal troops we send there with their hands tied behind their backs, are scheduled for slaughter.

The idea of controlling terrorists on their home ground, so that they not perform their terrorist activities here, has some merit. However, no one seems to believe that the Taliban is planning terrorist activities in the US. If Al Qaeda has terrorist training camps in the area, they can likely be identified by aerial reconnaissance, and we can bomb the bejeebers out of them, without setting foot on the ground.

With respect to Pakistani atomic weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, we will have little control over that no matter what we do. Afghan and Pakistani neighbors, such as Russia and Iran have the capability and incentive to control that development. Let's leave it to them, while we concentrate on maintaining and refining our own atomic weapon capability. Similarly, the nations of the EU have a stake. Let us give them an opportunity for an independent show of force.

Let us recognize that the US is rapidly sinking as a world leader for two reasons; loss of financial power and misguided attempts to do good in the world. When the UK gave up its so-called "colonialism", the African countries, which it left, reverted to shambles and the UK itself fell into semi-oblivion.