My Election 08 Rant
Well, I’ve been absent from the FranknErnest blog for a long time! My focus has been on Multiple Sclerosis, advocacy for those with MS, government relations and fund raising for the cause. Maybe that’s tunnel vision and indicative of an inability to see the bigger picture! On the other hand maybe it indicates that I feel my spotlight is best used if it focuses on that small issue. Obviously, the latter must be the case. Just take a look at my www.msintheoc.blogspot.com blog and you’ll find all my recent postings.
But on to Election 08! Just exactly what are we trying to do? I thought the objective was to elect the next President of these United States! Instead, I’ve heard a lot about not extending the failed policies of the past eight years. But George Bush isn’t running, neither is Dick Cheney! And hey, were it not for a Congress that deferred it’s responsibility to the White House we would have never gotten into the Iraqi quagmire in the first place. And here we are again, entangled in another countries' civil strife. Let the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds work it out. Protect their border and keep other parties from preying on Iraq. But leave them alone. We don’t understand their differences, let alone their commonalities.
A lot is said about candidate qualifications. Be it Sarah Palin or Barack Obama. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the Constitution is pretty vague on this matter. The qualifications for the office of President are:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
We are all qualified! Each and every natural born U.S. citizen who has been a resident for the past 14 years and is above the age of 35 is qualified. Those are the qualifications! You’ve never had to register to vote, cast a vote or declare yourself to be either a Republican or Democrat. The beauty of this is that we the people on any given election day decide what the qualifications are, IN REAL TIME!
So, I guess it is best to say, “We get the Chief Executive we deserve.”
Then there is the economy! The housing bubble was not the fault of a lack of government regulation. The issue was quite the opposite, poor, unnecessary government interference in the banking system. I’ll even identify the major culprit. The Community Re-investment Act (CRIA or CRA)! Passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President. But guess what, the Community Re-investment Act was not a product of the George Bush administration! Without the CRA banks would not have floated loans without protecting their investment by insuring the borrowers were credit worthy! An entire industry of unscrupulous loan sharks would not have peddled the concept that we can all afford a 3000 square foot home on a 1200 square foot budget.
The fallout means a select few banks including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank buy up the assets of smaller banks at pennies on the dollar. And the Federal Government is going to bailout somebody to the tune of $750 billion dollars. Why do I get the feeling that the fat cat banks will use that $750 billion dollars to buy up the small guys at government expense? Pay the Treasury back with dollars borrowed at a marginal interest rate. Sell the assets back to the public at market rates as the economy improves and pocket the proceeds (remember they bought the assets for cents on the dollar).
My formative years were spent as a young guy living among the wheat and oil fields of Western Kansas. And as I remember, our High School Economics teacher emphasized the, “Invisible hand of the free market.” It must be allowed to flourish without the intervention of any entity. Uncle Sam’s hand is not an invisible force!
I doubt government on any level can deliver quality service! Elected officials are hung up on infrastructure. That’s stuff, physical, viewable and tangible. Service is intangible. When all is done, there is no physical evidence that government’s involvement in any way aided or impaired delivery of a service. There is simply no political advantage to providing excellent service.
So, the invisible hand of the market place is at work. Government is trying to wrest that hand from the market by infusing the market with huge amounts of cash. Our cash! It will not work! Government bureaucracy and Supply and Demand economics are conflicted. Any attempt at making it work is Socialism at best!
But on to Election 08! Just exactly what are we trying to do? I thought the objective was to elect the next President of these United States! Instead, I’ve heard a lot about not extending the failed policies of the past eight years. But George Bush isn’t running, neither is Dick Cheney! And hey, were it not for a Congress that deferred it’s responsibility to the White House we would have never gotten into the Iraqi quagmire in the first place. And here we are again, entangled in another countries' civil strife. Let the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds work it out. Protect their border and keep other parties from preying on Iraq. But leave them alone. We don’t understand their differences, let alone their commonalities.
A lot is said about candidate qualifications. Be it Sarah Palin or Barack Obama. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the Constitution is pretty vague on this matter. The qualifications for the office of President are:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
We are all qualified! Each and every natural born U.S. citizen who has been a resident for the past 14 years and is above the age of 35 is qualified. Those are the qualifications! You’ve never had to register to vote, cast a vote or declare yourself to be either a Republican or Democrat. The beauty of this is that we the people on any given election day decide what the qualifications are, IN REAL TIME!
So, I guess it is best to say, “We get the Chief Executive we deserve.”
Then there is the economy! The housing bubble was not the fault of a lack of government regulation. The issue was quite the opposite, poor, unnecessary government interference in the banking system. I’ll even identify the major culprit. The Community Re-investment Act (CRIA or CRA)! Passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President. But guess what, the Community Re-investment Act was not a product of the George Bush administration! Without the CRA banks would not have floated loans without protecting their investment by insuring the borrowers were credit worthy! An entire industry of unscrupulous loan sharks would not have peddled the concept that we can all afford a 3000 square foot home on a 1200 square foot budget.
The fallout means a select few banks including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank buy up the assets of smaller banks at pennies on the dollar. And the Federal Government is going to bailout somebody to the tune of $750 billion dollars. Why do I get the feeling that the fat cat banks will use that $750 billion dollars to buy up the small guys at government expense? Pay the Treasury back with dollars borrowed at a marginal interest rate. Sell the assets back to the public at market rates as the economy improves and pocket the proceeds (remember they bought the assets for cents on the dollar).
My formative years were spent as a young guy living among the wheat and oil fields of Western Kansas. And as I remember, our High School Economics teacher emphasized the, “Invisible hand of the free market.” It must be allowed to flourish without the intervention of any entity. Uncle Sam’s hand is not an invisible force!
I doubt government on any level can deliver quality service! Elected officials are hung up on infrastructure. That’s stuff, physical, viewable and tangible. Service is intangible. When all is done, there is no physical evidence that government’s involvement in any way aided or impaired delivery of a service. There is simply no political advantage to providing excellent service.
So, the invisible hand of the market place is at work. Government is trying to wrest that hand from the market by infusing the market with huge amounts of cash. Our cash! It will not work! Government bureaucracy and Supply and Demand economics are conflicted. Any attempt at making it work is Socialism at best!
posted by Frank at 4:52 PM
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