Jobs: Bring back the WPA, ...Just Do it!

OK.

Since today is President Obama's Jobs summit I thought I'd discuss what I believe needs to be done for our country.

(Executive Summary: I believe we need a new version of FDR's "WPA-Work projects Administration", that will be focused on training, service, and helping our country. I contend that this massive stimulus package can help re-focus our economy, and also make our nation less energy dependent.

There are several inter-related problems

1) Job Availability
2) Job Training and Retraining
3) Education
4) Green Economy / New "Manhattan" Project

1) I believe that the entire United States economy has been destroyed by its transformation from a supplier of GOODS, into a consumer based SALES economy. Availability of jobs, both traditional, blue collar, to high tech (technology) have fled from the United States overseas.

It is NOT an option to re-introduce trade barriers. It's too late for that. However, we can STILL overcome this, and make a great number of skilled trade jobs available. By undervaluing blue collar, and not encouraging manufacturing of any sort anymore, we have eliminated a huge number of potential jobs.

2) Job training and retraining:
Detroit. 'nuff said? I think so...
seriously, job losses and jobs exported ALSO is very high in the technical (computer) sector.
besides overseas call centers, web and computer programming, almost everything, including technical support, can and IS outsourced to other countries.

We need programs to help newly graduated, as well as unemployed, (and even) OLDER 50 and older workers learn new trades.

3) There are a great deal of studies about how our educational system has failed a great deal of inner city and urban students. For argument's sake, lets just say that 80% of the urban HS population graduates, but does not go to college.

What are the realistic job prospects for these newly graduated teenagers? The Service industry.
Not a lot of skilled labor there. If I wanted to become a plumber or electrician, becoming an apprentice is the only difficult way to achieve this.

What we need is the ability to have someone learn a skilled trade, that will allow this person to become a productive member of society, that will earn a living wage. I say living wage, because this is also a key problem in our current service economy.

4) Green Economy / New "Manhattan" Project
The opportunity to re-engineer our entire country, and create a national 'home' grid, as well as re-creating the national highway system are potential recipients of this labor.

What I am proposing is simple:
We will create a new job program (I call it the training corp), that will take workers, and depending on their talents and interests, help to train them, apprentice them, and then become skilled journeymen craftsmen in their chosen fields.

This program will take both volunteers, and eventually, all HS graduates (or over 17, which-ever comes later) for a three year, gradual program to teach these new skills.

Several aspects of the program will be familiar. The concept of military boot camp will be useful to teach new survival skills to those who may not have previously had the best learning environment.

The concepts of the "Military Academy" (West Point, Annapolis, etc) is also a key goal, as is the concept of the permanent career (just like in the military...)

Many of these "military concepts" can help to guide these programs. An example of a new service path would be for those interested in becoming engineers, or architects (for the large number of future projects).

The Manhattan Project (for Energy)
Here's a key infrastructure project that will make our country much more competitive:

It cannot be implemented using the current private US rail system, but would inter-act and exchange cargo with it.

But first:

When I recently took a trip down the NJ Turnpike (Route 95-South), on a Sunday night at about 11PM, I counted over 500 tractor trailers in one 1/2 hour period. Imagine what could be achieved if we had a new national rail system.

This new rail system would become a brand new expansion of the existing Eisenhower Interstate Highway system (Originally created to speed military operations if needed inside our country).

One of the critical factors would be to create 4 lanes (2 heavy and 2 light rail) railroad tracks, that would run down the highway, and allow trucks to offload (or even entirely load the entire truck itself) onto newly designed rail cars.

As another example, you might get onto the highway (again Route 95) after the George Washington Bridge. You (or your Car/Truck), or (eventually, just your cargo trailer) would get onto the train, and the train would carry you, your cargo, and your car or truck to your desired stop.

Cargo (as well as cars/buses/etc) would be tracked with High tech RF-ID tags, to help enable automated routing to your final destination.

A system this complicated will take almost as long to be built and implemented as the National Interstate highway system did in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. It isn't for the faint hearted.

But that's why I say it is PART of a "Manhattan Project" for energy independence.

The crews, the skilled labor, (yes, pouring concrete accurately and perfectly IS ALSO a skilled trade!!!) as well as the ability to put a great deal of our young people to work in jobs that will help our country become a new model for the world is something that is visionary.

No, we won't have to develop a bomb. But eliminating Trucking via diesel rigs will be a huge step to controlling pollution, reducing our oil usage, as well as making transportation a new industry that can help our country become more competitive again.

Additional steps besides research for R&D (and to develop new types of small power generators (think solar and wind) as well as plans for deploying them across the country will help our economy better then paying bankers, or Car manufacturers.

Part of this plan would be to commercialize and economize a solar panel, so that an average house could become energy neutral, if not a major energy generator.

Combined with new energy distribution networks (grids), as well as positive (or negative) metering and billing, we can pray that we can reduce our country's addiction to coal fired power plants.


XYZZY. Oh. You're already inside.

Is this just a dream? I hope not.

Please take the time to comment, critique, and make suggestions!

thanks again..

The 100 Years War -- (aka the Bushki 100Yrs War)

I think I've previously mentioned that the Iraq war, The Afganistan War, as well as the BushI Gulf War are all part of what will one day be known as the BUSH wars or the Bush 100 years war.

Terri Gross has often had one local expert on Afghanistan and Pakistan on her show. Ahmed Rashid discusses in frank details what may happen.

Listen to Terri Gross's Fresh Air from Yesterday (10/1/09). I think if you listen, it is quite
scary...

Currently, The Prez needs to decide if he will send another "Troop Surge" to Afganistan.

Shades of Vietnam! Speaking of which, it IS discussed in this interview
(also in a profile in the New Yorker of Richard Holbrook a few weeks ago)

Are we about to head into a quagmire? I said THREE Years ago, that we needed 500,000 troops to successfully rebuild Iraq. (I included the bs count of CONTRACTOR in MY count, as I am not a DICK Cheney liar creating a "CONTRACTOR Army".

Health Care -- It's the LOBBYISTS, Stupid!

Here's a Link I think (if you read it) will be quite self-explanatory.

Hint. A certain Senator who has had his FILTHY (my description) little hands ALL over the health care bills has at least 10 alumni of his office that are now HEALTH care lobbyists.


I think it's time to BAN PAID lobbying in Washington (as well as state/city capitals too).

Someone will say, that our constitution depends on the first amendment (rights of speech)
to be exercised.

I say.... that it's time to declare corporations "NON-Persons" that EXPLICITLY removes the RIGHT to lobby, and rights of 'injury'. That is, UNLESS the board of directors, CEO, and PRESIDENT/VP and all executives agree EXPLICITLY (every year) that THEY are liable and culpable for ANY actions, including JAIL for actions and infractions caused by the corporation.

Let's see how THAT chews against lobbyists for a while!!!

Here's the cartoon: thanks to Big Fat Whale, by Brian McFadden

Health Care -- It's the PUBLIC (single payer) option, stupid!

A brief review of the problem in current events (the comics).
I thank in advance;

candorville, Doonesbury, NonSequitur, and Buckets

The more things change, the more they remain the same...

(And I am very very glad Gary Trudeau is STILL relevent after all these years!)

---

and my favorite, a series:

Health Care -- It's the REPUBLICANS , Stupid!

EXCUSE ME while I whine.

It's MY blog, and I'll Whine if I want to. (repeat 3 times)...

End of Quoted song..

---

Here is the problem.

SIX TIMES in SIXTY Years, HEALTH care

has been TORPEDOED

KILLED

BY the REPUBLICAN PARTY. YES, the REPUBLICAN party of this country.

THIS time there is NO MORE Harry And Louise against Health Care.

So what are they doing? FAKE activists complaining to congressmen's hearings.

Let me tell YOU!

If I see that WOMAN at the Scotch Plains, NJ Post Office one more TIME, I will PERSONALLY pull out a SIGN saying:
"STUPID Republicans KILLED Health Care SIX times in SIXTY Years"
"Wanna try again? or FINALLY get health CARE"
<>

AND hold it up NEXT TO HER!!!!

(and I will have someone take a picture of it...)


JUST KILL The REPUBLIAN Bullshit.

Bring back the Equal TIME policy

IT's time to put people like RUSH Limbaugh back where they belong...
Leading the Republican party...

HERE's my analysis of this.

The 'pubs know that they DONT have a majority in congress.

They are praying that the vocal minority (as opposed to the MORAL majority)
can blow away health care, so that President Obama can be embarrassed.

In reality, what's happening is that there is YET ANOTHER loophole in the campaign contribution laws.

Large companies (such as Insurance companies, or drug companies), can fund (without ANY limits or requirements to PUBLISH what and how much it pays for this) ANY non-campaign type organization that they want.

They can (for example) give ONE million dollars to me, to so an example: )I can pay 1,000 of my friends $1,000 each) to join me at 100 different locations this summer.

SO, lets presume, myself and my 9 buddies show up at Senator X's Town hall meeting which is to discuss health care.

Now, we don't sit all together, but we sit in 5 different locations, 2 each (like couples).

AND we start screaming. NO new health care now.... NO changes ...

And

---

If you DIDN'T know better you'd think that there was a HUGE backlash against a
health care bill.

Instead of just seeing that there are 10 big mouth PAID "Agent Provocateurs"
who are just doing the will of these LARGE companies.

We need to ACTIVELY combat this. It is impossible. We CANNOT let HEALTH CARE slip away AGAIN!!!

support Health care for ALL. (KILL A REPUBLICAN today!!!) (just kidding, please no violence, just tape all their mouths closed.!)

In reality we need (what I proposed here : in my top ten list:

SINGLE payer Health care, phased in over 5-20 years, starting with EXACTLY what we have today, private companies, that will start to enroll the uninsured, at the government expense.

THIS is doable.

and NECESSARY...

Please comment here...

Commentary: How the 'major' media gets it wrong" Fortune Magazine 4/27/09 issue

Howdy all.

I spend my Saturdays, doing nothing, deliberately. It's my Sabbath, my day of rest, and besides going to services, I essentially do nothing except read, discuss the occasional political topic, and read.

Now, I SHOULD read torah commentary, but I'm not perfect.

So, I read other stuff, including the "New Yorker", Fortune, the "Atlantic", "Fast Company", and a whole slew of computer magazines.

So I decided that I would start by reviewing some of the more interesting stuff I read.

Here goes, in no particular order:

Victim # 1: Fortune Magazine, an AOL-Time Warner (Time Inc.) Publication.
General impression:
Fortune's sales staff is very busy, with at (usually) least one, and often two dedicated advertising supplements in each issue (interestingly enough, this issue has none.., so I am lying...)

update 4-30-09 -- I was mad, at not seeing the sales generated pages adding to the value (thickness) of my magazine UNTIL I saw the next issue-- the Fortune 500 issue with ad supplements on Corporate airplanes, and 4 other special supplements. A-HA!

This issue: Cover 'Warren Buffet's Electric Car', (green, and made in china)

A general discussion of this magazine would have to talk about how often this magazine seems to be a "Rah, Rah, Rah, Sis boom bah" booster of Wall Street, and big business.

In reading the magazine in the past 3 years, All I can say is that either the lead time is 9-12 months ahead of the market, or simply that the editorial staff is totally out of touch with reality.

In making a observation as pointed as this, I can point to a number of issues over the past several years, that touted real estate AFTER the market started tanking, STOCKS, as being a good buy, because the bull market was so steady, and generally, that the sub-prime mortgage crisis was totally over, and the banks would be fine.

In my crystal ball, (if you actually read this blog, you'd know that I think that we're in for a huge (75%) drop after the consumer credit market crashes.

One other complaint about this magazine.
Editorially, the magazine does not understand that
a) the voice of the press could be critical, and should try and be unified.
b) when different departments/writers 'snipe' at each other in the same issue, it becomes very difficult to understand the 'tone' of the magazine.

Example of this:
This issue, Page 31, the Investing column, Titled, "Time to bet on Oil Again"

This issue discusses AUTOMOBILES, and the future of the car, as well as electric cars. Is THIS really the issue to discuss how to drive oil prices higher?

I interrupt this Criticism for another criticism

I couldn't wait for Saturday to read the next issue (dated May 11, 2009), with a
interesting article on Bernie Madoff and how he did it.

In this issue:
A ode to Gun Manufacturers
A Businessman's guide to Congress
An ode to the 6 craziest fans of products
A supposed investigative article on Bernie Madoff


Oh heavens

---

I understand... I really do...

This must actually be the April 1st (fool's) Issue of Fortune for this year.

I'm really glad my subscription label says it expires in May 09.

I don't think I could deal with receiving another year of this hysterical magazine.

---

End of MY criticism of Fortune, their total, 'not getting it-ness', and general frustration!
but I do love Stanley Bing, and always have.

Health Care -- It's the COMPETITION , Stupid!

As I said THOUSANDS of times in this blog, we need a NATIONAL SINGLE PAYERHealth care system.

OK. People like their particular (current) health care plan. FINE.

First Rule. Nothing changes (today).

Second Rule. The United States will phase into a Unified, National system.

Third Rule. Enrollment in Health care is not a benefit, it is a requirement.

Fourth Rule. Payment of health care WILL shift from employers to the government, but not at once.

Fifth Rule. We cannot do (implement) this alone, we need partners.

---

How do we reconcile these rules:

VERY EASY

Rule 5 starts to make this a unified system.

Rule 5 (Partners) tells us:

a) That current health insurance companies will not be thrown out of business today.

b) Current health care companies will become managers of the business (for now) as agents for the government. They will be given X (2 or 3) year contracts to manage and consolidate their health plans together.

b1) These management companies (they will no longer be called "health care companies", since they will be managing the NATIONAL health care system!) will start by combining their existing employer plans, and making the coverage levels equal between plans, working to achieve economies of scale.
b1- Example: Lets presume that Met Life handles both AT&T and IBM's health care plans.
They will work to merge these plans, keeping the best (and lowest costs) for both plans, so that instead of one plan with 100,000 employees, they have 200,000 employees, and can achieve more economies of scale.

c) As the years go by, these merged health plans will become more standard, and will become the standards (best practices) for ALL companies. As more and more of these plans are merged, duplicate providers in an area will be reduced and merged.

The fifth Rule, and paying for management of the health care system will lead to the fourth rule, that the government will begin to be responsible for health care in the country.

Rule Three: Mandatory Enrollment:
The (two or three) regional health care management companies will immediately start to enroll the unemployed, and uninsured. Payment for premiums will be {do something here,paid -contributed to} for by the government (which? {state/federal>})

Rule 2 and 5 are similar. The better managed and the better RUN management companies will get renewal contracts (just like the real world).

Rule 1: Everyone gets to keep their current plan as is.

Rule 1 corollary: There will be two basic plans that will evolve. Current plan (Status Quo), and the newly (to be developed) National plan (similar to, and pegged to the congressional health care plans).

These are a few thoughts.

It's the E*C*O*N*O*M*Y* Stupid, REGULATE it!!!

A quick word to the world's regulators

IT's the ECONOMY you stupid people

And it was ALL caused by the out-of-control FINANCIAL INDUSTRY
And despite being bailed out by the world's governments

THEY STILL INSIST on SPENDING MY bailout money,

LOBBYING congress to NOT pass laws against regulating them

Don't let the economists win this fight. MORE regulation, NOT LESS!

We need to have an OUTRIGHT ban on Securitized ( Mortgage/consumer/credit) Debt obligations.

We can NOT allow these people to have the unmitagated gall to give them the ability to shoot themselves in the foot again.

We must also make these companies SMALLER.

As In:

Sell a division, sell 1,000 East coast branches, sell X thousand west coast branches.


End of tirade

Nixon/Frost:: the Movie

Interesting.

I'm old enough to remember the Nixon/Frost Interviews from when I was a teenager.

We just got through the movie, and all I could say was, "please ABORT 'W', George Sr."

In my other blog (here) over THREE years ago, I came up with the answer, and I bet it becomes more popular as time goes on...

WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

Even Ron Howard (the director) said that 43's claims of executive 'rightness' was based on the criminal nixon's misdeeds.

Unfortunately, as I said in my post above,
bush's problems were not just his lack of lawful acts as president, but also that he was:

1. A self admitted Drunk Driver


2. A self admitted Cocaine abuser


3. The First (and Last I hope) MBA (Master BIZ administration) President

and I think that the final words about the Master Business administrator (and puppet), as well as his puppeteer (a new Tricky-Dicky) Cheney

will finally come when we do get the truth and reconciliation commission that I proposed.

GoodBye GM: Hello Government Motors

Oh, so it's official today. Just like I said on November 11th. (only way to save GM...) HERE

(or updated at the end, on 11-20), saying they needed to go into bankruptcy to reduce dealers.

Oh, and Chrysler is finally sold to Fiat, and will be OUT OF bankruptcy this week.

We are only forgetting the MOST important thing.

Making these companies become GREEN, and important employers of RETRAINED green workers (see my discussion at above location).

cheers to all, and good luck

RIP: Chrysler goes Chapter 11

Ok. I said in december (and November!) 2008, that Detroit needed to go into bankruptcy court to get out of the excessive dealer networks that they had.

Case in Point: GM.

But now, poor little chrysler is in Chapter 11.
Oh shades of Lee Iococca.

Oh those mean old bond-holders who wanted all their money.

oh mean Mr. Grinch, you steal me blind.

It will be good for them...

In a related AP/ABC article, I found this subtle quote:

The administration also said there will be no layoffs associated with the bankruptcy.

Although dealerships will eventually take a hit and will be closed over time, but it is unclear at this point exactly how many.

The company will be able to operate normally during the bankruptcy process. Americans will be able to buy Chrysler cars and warranties will be honored.

So, I guess my prediction rate is still pretty good...

Oh, and regarding those terrrible Hedge funds that refused to negotiate?

The article also says that:

...(statistics from (yeah?) "well-known bankruptcy expert Lynn LoPucki's Web site that tracks (bankruptcy) filings (and) found that from 2000 to the present,

that the length of the median "pre-negotiated" bankruptcy case was about 5.3 months. During the same period, the length of the median "prepackaged" case was about 52 days, according to the same data source.

"Prepackaged" means that the debtor drafted the plan and successfully solicited votes on it before filing the case. Prepackaged cases nearly always are filed solely to modify the company's liability on junk bonds. Once filed, these cases move very quickly.

"Prenegotiated" means that the debtor negotiated the terms of the plan with some, but not all creditor groups before filing -- even if no prefiling vote was taken on the plan. An example would be a plan to sell the debtor's business, which has been drafted and negotiated with a large secured creditor before filing, but not with trade creditors.

So it looks like the junk bond (and hedge funds) will LOSE this fight....
And who knows, maybe we will have a new viable car company...

We can pray.

Credit Card Reform: IT's the Usury Limit, STUPID...

Howdy.

Representative Carolyn Maloney was on Brian Lehrer's show Friday (listen to it here )
A link to the PDF of her bill is HERE.

COMMENTS:

1) It's the ECONOMY stupid(*). We need to eliminate USURY. Very simple to understand. The Supreme Court said it was ok (in 1978). We need to have a law from CONGRESS to override this. (and I mentioned this in comment # 2, # 5, #19, and #33, and most of all #39)
For Representative Maloney to say it isn't appropriate to legislate this, is just showing how little she knows or has researched this situation.

We have had a Financial Tsunami. The ABSOLUTE start of this overwhelming problem came from these lawsuits in 1978. Ever since then the ETHICS and obligations of the banking industry has become less and less responsible.

It is the RESPONSIBILITY and the OBLIGATION of Congress to OVER-RULE the Supreme Court in order to specifically undo (any) ruling of the court.

We need to start to lobby Ms. Maloney and her committee, to make sure that she knows that a law reinstating USURY must be part of THIS.
14 minutes into this segment, she says she thinks that the states need to have the flexibility to change rates.

I say the financial crisis we are NOW living through is proof enough that we can NO longer let the banks run the state legislatures through their campaign donations.

We have had thirty-four years of campaign donation afflicted state regulations of banking laws. Where has this led us? To the collective poorhouse as a country.

Where will we be if a nationwide ban on Usury is NOT re-established? Just where we are today.
Where COULD we be if this was part of the discussion? Past here.

2) The Second and final criticism of this bill is it does NOT specifically have an OUTRIGHT ban on the practice of 'universal default'. (This is the practice of raising ALL of your credit card interest rates if you even miss a payment on a utility bill).


On a final point: I wonder why no one is starting to realize that campaign contributions cause so much of the problems in our country, including finance. I wonder if Ms. Maloney would care to comment on how her campaign contributions affected this issue.

Oh, and for those who say banks should be allowed to charge what they want. We now own them. We should be able to at least suggest some nice ethical reforms.

Ms. Maloney (and Brian)... Please revisit this CRITICAL issue, and come CLEAN.

Who are your political contributors, and why won't you put in the language to over-rule the supreme court's 1978 decision.

It should be explicitly stated as part of the law that that supreme court ruling of 1978 is PART of this bill, and will EXPLICITLY limit interest rates as a matter of NATIONAL policy.

---

(*) stupid as in..., remembering all those campaigns of it's the economy stupid!)

Placeholder: Big OIL is TOO big to exist

Monopoly divestment time

Blow away Exxon/Mobile and the other oligarchs.

ALSO:
We need to make sure that OIL no loner becomes a Commodity.

Before a certain point (unsure of date) people trading in oil contracts HAD to take DELIVERY of the oil.

This loophole, when removed is what allowed OIL to skyrocket, when thousands and thousands of contracts of ???billions?? of barrels of oil was kept OUT of the market, to
(what I characterize as an illegal 'cornering' of the oil market to ARTIFICIALLY drive the prices higher--Think Howard Hunt and the silver market in the 1970's, but successfully).

And to add insult to injury, in the mid-april issue of Fortune, (the electric car issue), they say to buy oil stocks.

Haven't they (Fortune?) screwed up enough?

Sigh

blueprint for america: High speed Rail

Look HERE: for a discussion about fixing the RR system in our country, and the possibility of high speed rails.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/share-your-story

At any RATE:

The key ideas I see that are important for US RAIL policy are:

1. New Passenger Lines MUST not be owned (or sold to) Freight Companies.
2. New Development lines need to go along existing highways. (we can have 4 tracks, 2 freight, 2 high speed)
3. Example of the Chicago's train to the plane, vs the Robert Moses required bypass for the NYC Train to the plane (see HERE:)
4. Interconnections (as many as possible) to EVERY single Distribution warehouse along the specific highway, with a spur track, allowing multiple trains in/out (don't think ONE track so it doesnt become a "bottleneck" (*).

* Note: This entire project came forth after driving down to a job in Philadelphia on a Sunday night,driving down I-95, and seeing over 500 tractor trailers on the road in a ONE hour time span.

From fotos-US95

Additionally, there are a great number of "Truck-Farms" (distribution warehouses with 30-200 loading docks for trucks to load/unload). IF our new heavy Rail project has a spur to every single warehouse.

From fotos-US95

NOTES: To left of the photo above is Interstate 95. Imagine that Yellow line as being a Heavy rail line. Imagine a spur going into that neighborhood as a separate stop, with a terminal on outskirts of the park, and a track (or two) to EACH warehouse.

And the last photo, shows a closeup from above of ONE of the warehouses above.

From fotos-US95

Imagine the VOLUME of trucks that could be eliminated at this ONE truck farm, if the rail line allowed these companies to START shipping down these lines.

Imagine the possibilities!!!! It's EARTH DAY. THINK GREEN..!!!!

Proposal: Economic Reform (Very Simple) Usury limits

Heard today a (yes, NPR) report where Ben Bernenke mentioned that the banking crisis was creating very poor health for US consumers.

Very quick solution. (Source: wikipedia of course... Usury NEVER ever existed in our country until two lawsuits took place decades ago.

I think (and propose) that CONGRESS needs to re-establish a simple law, declaring that usury is any interest rate above 24.99 percent (per year). (I think this was a default decision until the lawsuits cited in the wiki article above.

Hey. Imagine if your credit card company was LIMITED to no more then 25% interest per YEAR...

---

Another proposal.

1) Eliminate (and legslate against) the concept the Credit Card companies call "Universal Default". This is when you have a late payment to your electric company, you are in automatic default on EVERY single credit card you own, and can now be charge WHATEVER interest rate they want.

2) Eliminate the concept of the "flyer in the envelope" credit and Terms and conditions (or even click through if online) changes.

To bring honesty and ETHICS back into our society, both parties will be required to sign for all changes to terms and conditions.

I may, however, be dead before this one comes to pass.

cheers

Proposal: The Milionaire problem: Easy Solution 1 &2

Problem: The General Accounting Office in August of 2008 released a survey (Look at this post for location) saying that 66 percent of all corporations in our country pay no taxes.

(partially stolen from my post above last summer).

RE-statement: 66% of the corporations in the United States DO NOT PAY ANY TAXES.

Simple Idea:
TAX the TOP!

Easy Solution #1: FICA and Medicaid taxes.

Currently taxed on income from 0 dollars, to 80,000.

Solution # 1: Start the FICA/Medicaid tax to only start to kick in at $50,000.
Solution # 1A: Remove the FICA/Medicaid top limit. In other words, the people who with income Under $50,000 who will no longer pay into the pool, will be counter-acted by higher wage earners who will no longer have this tax capped. I propose that this tax be extended to all corporations on their gross income.

If you think about it logically, the concept of the corporation is to essentially take a company, and make it seem like a "person", that has many of the same rights, and obligations as a person.
Therefore, making this tax appropriate on the GROSS income will assist in revenue generation.

Easy Solution #2 (I wish...) The Milionaire MINIMUM tax:

I say (about once every two weeks I'd guess...) that we need to tax ANYONE with gross income over one million dollars, an ABSOLUTE Minimum tax, based on their GROSS incomes. So make 1M, pay 1% taxes ($10,000) as your base minimum tax.

Make 5million dollars? 50,000 is a good starting point. It keeps going up. It ain't rocket science, but VERY VERY simple.


So, you make

Your Input needed: Economy/Retail Sector

HERE HERE,

I need your help... see the end for your assignment.

---

Retail:

The Retail Sector is shrinking:

We have a major problem. Our country has become a series of "Big Box" retail and strip malls, all lined up in a row.

Many locations that used to be farmland, were developed in the past 20 years, and are now parking lots.

The second largest operator of retail malls in the country filed for bankruptcy today.

Here's the problem. According to the article, "

As more stores have closed, mall vacancies are at their highest point in almost a decade, according to Reis, a research company, which said the vacancy rate at the end of 2008 was 7.1 percent, compared with 5.8 percent at the end of 2007.

Heres more of the problem:

I said HERE, ( amazingly exactly ONE year ago!!...) that the problem with the falling economy will cause mall vacancies to rise, and eventually would cause a ripple effect in the economy, which would then affect local food and franchise operations.

Well it sounds worse and worse.

Here's my request:

(but first to explain it)

I live in NJ. (US) Route 22 is for a good part of NJ, a 2-4 lane Retail shopping strip. Parts of it have no traffic lights, but even have a central retail strip, and U-turn lanes.

In driving down RT 22 this past week I noticed:

1) a store next to a cell phone store was now vacant.
2) 5 other stores that were there last month are now gone.

I tried this exercise going down another road (just a major street) a few miles away (route 27).

Same exercise, same results, in a 3 mile strip, I saw 4 stores that had gone out of business.

---

Here's my request.

Please do the same thing. Look on the roads you drive to work. Are there any Obviously empty stores out there? (excluding new construction of course...)

Please report back here...
thanks again...

Failure of Media/Analysts to seIe the writing on the wall

I am so upset with Brian Lehrer in his broadcast today (look at the segment HERE).
Forget about the fact that I waited patiently on hold for over 38 minutes before he chose to not go to any listeners.

His question? How will we know when we are on the road to recovery.

His guests? Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at financial analysis and forecasting firm IHS Global Insight and author of Spin Free Economics; and Marisa Di Natale, senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com

Let's just say I was underwhelmed. At one point Dean Baker told Brian that the recession would stop this year(unemployment would take to the end of the year to level off...).

Of course, in his scenario, he presumes that everything on wall street will be 100% rosy.

This kills me.

3 years ago I started this blog because I predicted this economic crisis.
2 years ago I started coming up with ideas to prevent and minimize the problems with this 'depression 2.0'.
Since last year, I have been looking for an audience (I have a life, I can't post this everywhere...)


And among others, I forward posts from this blog to people at my home NPR station, WNYC in NY.

Where the response to my posts have been less then stellar. Either I am 'automagically' moved to their spam box, or the fact that I have no professional background in economics disqualify me from having valid opinions on this subject.

But the fact remains.

My predictions have been validated (even by real economists, and even Presidents.)
My predictions for saving the nation (based on the original 'new-deal') will change and improve our entire country.
My (personal) batting average for 'long term prognosticating' (or being a 'visionary').. is pretty good (see here on the blog).

So why am I still upset?

Even today, these so called experts keep feeding us lies. Everything will be OK. The economy will recover immediately.

I wish I could say I was just paranoid. It's more than that. You'll see in 6 months, that the consumer debt made into CDO's (see here: ) are going to cause VERY very bad pain.

Critical Issue: Banning CDO's from the market

I've said this before (here), and will continue to keep discussing this. (because it's my blog!)

We need an ABSOLUTE ban on all financial objects that are bundled (like CDO's) to OTHER objects.

Example:

• We need to ban CDO's that are/were based on sub-prime mortgages.
• We need to ban CDO's that are/were based on consumer based products like:

1. Credit Card debt.
2. Consumer loans (car and other loans)
3. Education (college/student) loans.

Review of the 6 top reasons we need to outlaw Collateralized debt obligations are as follows:

1. In the old days, when the Bailey Building & Loan Association made a loan, they DIDN'T try and sell it. They KEPT the loan ON their books, and the neighbor who had the loan or mortgage payed them DIRECTLY. They didn't have to have ANOTHER company SERVICE the loan.
2. CDO's in today's market have absolutely NO value. They cannot be traded, they are currenly what we call "toxic debt" (See great article from TWO years ago HERE!)
3. SELLING the mortgage (debt) does NOT make more money available for the bank. This is not real life. In real life, (today) NO Loans are being made, because banks are now what I call "chicken-S*it
4. CDO's are toxic. Attempting to take the risk from a loan, and apportion it to 100 different investors is nice. However, too little too late. I repeat, CDO's are toxic, and will NEVER be a worthwhile asset to ANY financial institution EVER again. I will also predict that ANY bank that ever purchases CDOs from ANY institution will need to have the brains of its board of directors scanned for metal from bullet fragments.
5. The days of "Greed Season" are over for Wall Street. Wall Street Bonuses got inflated because some 'genius' figured out how to "SCAM" the market, creating (for his company, and himself {his bonus}) a WIN-WIN scenario, where the ONLY loser (today) is US, the taxpayer.
6. The most important reason to ban CDO's? We now OWN the banks. We now need to EXERT FINANCIAL CONTROLS that will bring the market place BACK to a safer time, like when the Bailey Building & Loan Association made loans to their community.

We must ensure that the BANKS are RE-REGULATED. the Glass-Stengal repeal of 1999 and other similar "SLIME" last minute financial regulations MUST be undone.

We must also ensure the dirty "STINKY" political fireball launched by (now former) Senator Phil Gramm, in the last minutes of his 'duty' in the senate is FINALLY undone.


Again to review:
*No new CDO's.
*Existing CDO's must be settled NOW, not in 25 years.
*We must ensure that these large companies (like American Express, Citicorp, JPMorgan/Chase
are ALL broken up into smaller divisions, that (heaven forbid!! might even COMPETE against each other.
*We need to re-teach banks that they will loan people money, and get property in return, that they can hold (or resell to another bank). They cannot make illogical and illliquid theoretical property from something that doesnt exist.

Mark in NJ

More Depressing stuff written 4-7, posted 4-23

Written 4/7/09, the day before Alcoa is scheduled to release 1st quarter 09 earnings.
Not going to be a bellweather moment, I predict.

Sorry to be so glib. However, now that it looks quite likely that some of my scenarios are coming close to pass.

It DOES look like we're in a {rec/depr} ession . I don't think the most conservative republican around would dispute that.

---

SO, on posting on 4-23, this does NOT look like it was as bad as expected for the banks?

What gives?
Well the banks were given tons of lee-way to further spin their books because they were given wiggle room to NOT have to write down their losses, if they decide to "hold for future returns"

And that, dear readers, made ALL the difference in the world

Another "DEPRESSION" sighter: Robert Reich confirms my call of 6 months ago

Hey. I said it HERE on 10/30/08

I am not an economist. I am not a political hack. I am simply someone who can see long term trends and extrapolate from there.

I emailed EVERY single person I could. I think that Robert Reich, Brian Lehrer, and a few other public people are on my mailing list for this blog.


I kept saying (over two years ago) that we were headed for a terrible economic shock, and needed to bring the country together again, with a new version of Roosevelt's "new deal".

Also See the Next person to confirm my beliefs, former IMF chief on 2/9/09.

Anyone want to take on my next item, about Saving the car companies, and why we're asking the WRONG questions?

We DONT need to save GM and Chrysler. We need to save the JOBS they represent. However, we need to change detroit from car companies into TRANSPORTATION companies.

We (USA) will never again sell 5 million cars in our country in one year.
We will never ever have the same free open credit again.
We need to come to this realization.

We need to scrap attempts to save GM and Chrysler as is. We need to turn them into GREEN transportation companies. See the post above, or just search my blog for auto-bailout.

We need to start to DISCUSS these issues, especially the two issues that no-one (else) has started to discuss:

a) A mandatory service/training corp/conscription (let's call it national service for arguments sake). See HERE (comes under: Job training, education, minority assistance...)

b) Federally paid day care starting at six months. (head-start, education)

And: we need to start to undo the damage that wall street has done to the world.

Number one on my list is to BAN the concept or development of "CDO"'s (collateralized debt obligations)-- Banning CDO's is essential to get wall street under control, and under reasonable debt obligations. see here.

The reason we need to ban CDO's is simple. I believe that the 'sub-prime' mess was only 25% of the toxic debt on the books from the banks.

The rest of the shoe will start to drop later this year, when consumer debt created CDO's (like car loans, student loans, and Credit card debt), start to go belly up.

When that hits (and I think that is a 15-17 trillion dollar mark) we will think the 'sub-prime' mess was a walk in the park...

I wish I didn't have this ability to see long trends where other people don't.

I wish I could be predicting that the Dow Jones wasn't going to drop below 5600 (but it will bottom out around there.

I wish I had a degree in economics so that I could be quotable, and interesting to media types.

I wish I had a job that would allow me to bring my long term vision to a company that needed good long term (strategic) computer advice.

I can wish for a good lottery ticket, but I need to get one first.

Cheers to all. and I wish everyone to continue to be employed.

AUTO-Bailout - and the economy

ONE Last (I think) discussion piece on the Auto Industry.

Am I the only one (no, I don't thinkso....) that understands that about

One in ten jobs

in this country are related to the automobile industry???

What I see as the main (and perhaps only reason to save the Detroit auto industry is that the amount of new unemployment that would be created will throw us into what the Fed chairman (Mr. Ben B.) received his Doctorate for studying, what I call, "Depression 2.0.


The sudden demise of Chrysler, and closing of myriad auto plants will not only affect the 40-100,000 direct employees of this company, but will also affect workers in companies downstream from them.

(this paragraph really belongs in the 'useless facts you already should have know department')

---

The auto industry under Henry Ford quickly became a totally integrated industry, which started out creating everything, and slowly started to shed manufacture of some items, by either spinning out ownership of some plants or simply by subcontracting.

---

Now. With unemployment (as of 2/1/09) standing at 8.1 percent officially (with some estimates as high as 10% unofficially, and up to 28% in Detroit), we approach reason one why we need to save the automakers:

* Adding 300-500,000 jobs in One industry to the "been there, done that" department will not help our country recover.

Reason two adds critical details on what to do with all this idle labor.

* Using the manpower of these jobs to concentrate on "green manufacturing", and Mass/Heavy/Light ** transit will provide thousands if not hundreds of thousands of these jobs (AND will ALSO help to resolve some 'downstream' [read:Dealer related] job redirections that will need to happen.

Review:
Reason 1: 100K-500K jobs eliminated is not good in economic 'recession'
Reason 2: re-directing these jobs into GREEN economies will help US manufacturing base.

'nough said today.. Schluffy calls!

---

** My definitions of XXX Transit:

Mass Transit: High impact /(often underground=EXPENSIVE) Commuter rail projects that bring jobs to the people (and people to the jobs--the two are very different, see an older post I wrote about Robert Moses, how he destroyed the NYC /LI/NJ economy by deliberately refusing to consider anything but automobiles for transportation HERE.)

Light Transit: Think streetcar. Think electric powered bus in a dedicated lane . Think FAST construction, FAST payback times. Think Baltimore (?..)

Heavy Transit: NEW Freight Rail lines, designed to OFFLOAD existing (18 wheel) tractor trailers from existing highways, by running down the CENTER of existing highways.

Think Heavy construction, but the ABSOLUTE fastest and most critical infrastructure payback that we can create for our country. (See here) . Creating Heavy Rail will eventually lead to more interconnected rail systems and fewer trucks. This new system must NOT be owned by any existing rail-roads, or monopoly conditions will be re-created.

The AUTO-Bailout- Continued -- (some perspective)

• The Economy has CHANGED...

Duh

The US Car industry will NEVER ever be the same.

Duh!?

• Am I saying something that is in a foreign language?
• Am I saying something in some un-comprehensive sentence structure that isn't understandable?
• We need to preserve the manufacturing jobs and expertise of all of the associated trades involved in the creation and manufacture of automobiles in our country.
• Our Country will NEVER ever again support the purchase of five to ten million new cars per year in our country.
• 
  

Duh

Let me repeat that. (in bigger PRINT!)

Our Country will NEVER ever again support the purchase of five to ten million new cars per year in our country.

I re-peat... I re-peat...,I re-peat... We can never ever expect "Detroit" to become profitable on the old terms.

We MUST not allow the anti "BUY out/public money" backlash to prevent investing in
the CRITICAL asset of manufacturing in our country.


We need to invest ENOUGH money to STOP these companies from laying off EVERY one of their employees.

We need to invest ENOUGH money to get them to START to use their engineers to START building public (mass/heavy/light) rail transit projects.

We need to get the auto companies to accept a PRE-PACKAGED bankruptcy. THIS will allow all parties (dealers, workers, bankers) to EQUALLY share in the pain of the needed reductions.

GM has been estimated to have about 7,000 dealers in the US.

They need to reduce this to ONE GM dealership serving a (perhaps) 35 square mile area (who is able to sell all GM), and put 6,000 dealer networks Into new businesses.

Yes, this will also hurt the local populations, however this will eventually lead to new opportunities for the local networks (local rail installations, etc!)

Again, we MUST put money into these companies and NOT fire the workers but Push (SHOVE) them into the transportation business.

AUTO-Bailout

I should have posted this yesterday before the official plan was released:

PS: I agree Rick Wagoneer needed to be SURGICALLY separated from GM...



I've said it before (HERE, HERE, here, and HERE) :

that we MUST MUST MUST change the marketing, as WELL as the focus of the car companies.

And as I have said before.. (here!!!!)

ALL the companies need to go through a PRE-Packaged (5 minute) bankruptcy.

This will allow the companies to scrap both the labor AS well as the DEALER contracts


Detroit needs at least 75% fewer auto dealers.

GM can still have 5 car brands, but only ONE dealer network that can sell all 5 cars.


doy. This way they can CLEANLY eliminate almost 90 years of excessive marketing and dealers that happened.

It's time to ask the DEALERS (as well as GM itself) to take part in the bloodletting. NOT just the employees.


SO based on this, the Obama plan laid out today lacks certain appeal

However it DOES say that the Federal government will back the warranties of cars sold in the meantime (a great idea-- I said it last november!!!!)

UNLESS a federal bail-out (or takeover) of the car companies include DEALER givebacks or REMOVALS of dealerships the US Auto industry CANNOT be saved...

There are WAY too many dealerships in the US car industry to survive.

Perhaps a reduction from 7 (or 2 for chrysler) dealer networks into ONE each would be a start, and make those dealers have a 30 mile territory instead of a 5 mile territory.

Bad Idea?! Latest (bank) bailout

THIS IS TERRIBLE.

New bailout plan (toxic assets purchases)=Crazy

put $0.07 down, and the government will put 7 cents in and LOAN you 85 cents to buy ONE dollar of toxic assets.

You share the profits/losses (up to 15%) with the government.

so you put 7 cents in, you COULD lose another 15 cents =22.5cents lost.

How is this anything but PAYING the banks for poor work??


This year's Nobel Laureate (Paul Krugman of the NY Times) agrees that this is NOT a Good idea.

Also:

• I do NOT think that we (as a nation) are getting better.
• The recent stock drop (DOW)from 7500 to 6500 came 15 months before I predict the bottom of the market will come.
• Since the Dow has already dipped to 6500, I think the new bottom will be perhaps 4750. Still around june 30th of 2010.
• I STILL say that we are in for another major financial crisis, that of the OTHER collateralized debt obligations (financial obligations based on aggregated assets) when THEY collapse. Credit card, car loan, college loans and ALL consumer loans that were made into CDO's will collapse, and cause major havoc in our government (again!).
• I still say we need an OUTRIGHT ban on all CDO creation again
  

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

Everything I've predicted has come to pass.

Other sources have mentioned EVERY single * of my top 10 points in various media

(for example: fast Company asked for 10 ways to save the auto industry... Green, as well as making the companies TRANSPORTATION companies was high on the list.)

The Bad

It's hit us so fast, and so furious, I can't keep up with this, and give the blog and the ideas the time that they deserve (as well as keep up with my own life...){Yes, I DO actually have one!!!}

The Ugly

I'm taking a break. I may continue updating my other blog for a bit.

I may come back from time to time here to make a few points....
But, I just can't handle both the pressure of a cutting edge, yet sparsely read blog and real life.


...and I can't even force myself to the pain it involves...(yet I am going to post a few new posts!!!)




-----------------------------
* the talk of mandatory draft/service program (as a job training /educational tool) did NOT come up and that disappoints me no end...

Banking: Previously/more Sources

Interestingly enough tonight (2-19-09) on Marketplace Money a commentator discusses the concept of a TRILLION dollars.

###--->>> Look at this post from 1-19<<<---### I had to REVISE these predictions!!!

What scares me no end is this:

HERE: I predict that we've only seen 25% of the TOTAL financial crisis.

If you combine this statement (only 25%) with my prediction HERE
where I say it will take between 20 and 70 TRILLION dollars to clean up all the forthcoming mess, I start to shiver and get the shakes.


Please comment. My prediction rate is pretty good. I predicted $100/barrel oil one year before it came. I predicted this financial crisis three years ago.

More Sources: banking; Republicans, Auto-bailout

BANKING Crisis: Alternate views: Brian Lerhrer show 2-18-09 Here:

AUTO-BAILOUT (Brian Lerhrer-Andrea Bernstein: 2-18-09 :Here (and listen to my voice as first caller too!)

BANKING CRISIS: Frank Rich (op-ed) says on Brian Lerhrer, "there's plenty of blame to go around, especially since many consumers partook of the good times, specifically with the large amount of derivatives associated with the consumer credit card market (6 mins,30 seconds to 7:00 in link above on 2-23-09).

Republican Intransigence :
Frank Rich Interview on Brian Lerher 2-23 (see link above) 16mins 15 seconds into segment they discuss how,"

various republican governors are 'living in the past, and are seeming to bet for the country to fail (betting against the stimulus working) and almost ROOTING for more economic disarray and disaster, and,

at the same time, they are standing up for an ideology of being "deficit hawks" that they completely disregarded for the entire eight years of the Bush administration. Not just the trillion or so dollars spent on Iraq, but also on the Bush tax cuts.

And so now they're standing up for a principle that they didn't stand up for before, at a time when it's particularly questionable, and they look like complete hypocrites.

I think what we've got here is a southern, regional largely white male, aging party which is consigning itself to the margins of American politics...

And I don't think thats a good thing for the country, I think we need a serious opposition (party) to any government that we have.

And he concludes... These people are drinking their own kool-aid. Newt Gingrich was crying in the back of the plane during the Clinton years, I think it's just going to blow up in their faces, it already is.

Well (mark breathes...) Frank Rich said it for me today.

These people are drinking their own kool-aid.... I think it's just going to blow up in their faces...Republican governors are 'living in the past, and are seeming to bet for the country to fail...

Thanks again Mr Rich, for your words (again!) backing up my predictions.

NO No NoNO, a THOUSAND times NO. (Car

NO to Saving GM and Chrysler as is.

NO to giving more loans so they can 'cut jobs, and become more profitable' (my words)

That is just SICK... Asking these sick companies to FIRE more workers to try and become TRIM and slim and profitable are COUNTER-productive.

We need to take these valuable manufacturing job and SAVE them.

1. These companies need to be nationalized (or all stock purchased by government) for a period of time.
2. We need to do the following for these companies:
   

• Force these companies into a prepackaged bankruptcy. This will allow them to reduce number of dealers, renegotiate financing and union contracts, and ensure that warranty issues are covered by issuing INSURANCE policies to GUARANTY warranty and post warranty issues.

• "NUDGE" the car companies from being automobile producers into being transportation providers. This will involve:
  

1. Reducing and eliminating car "lines". Instead of 7 dealer networks, there can be one network, capable of selling any brand*.
2. If one dealer can sell any of the 7 cars, you don't need 7 different models, all slightly different (or with different plastic grills...) therefore you can eliminate MOST duplicates (from 4 SUV lines with perhaps 15 variations to 1 SUV brand with maybe 5 different variations.
3. With major reductions in dealer networks (from 7 dealers within 15 miles, to perhaps one dealer in 30 miles) will affect dealer downstream groups, which will also need to be 'nudged' into becoming green 'installation/maintenance' groups for the new rail projects.
   

Reductions as discussed above may help eliminate 50% of a car company's sales lineup of duplicated cars, excess manufacturing, and help save ca$h. Further reductions to the automobile business are needed due to factors such as the rise in gas prices, the current depression, and the world's global warming crisis.

Additionally with regards to new business opportunities, part of the reason for purchasing the auto companies outright is because we need to force them into new businesses, and ensure that their manufacturing capability is NOT destroyed.

1. The Detroit companies will IMMEDIATELY start to work on engineering planning and production of new {green,eco-friendly,commuter-friendly} transportation projects.

• This will be a major component of a future energy reduction plan. By using this crisis to redeploy its employees to green and {heavy and mass} transit projects it will position the companies to become ready to repay and repurchase their stock from the government. Specific initial projects will include:

1. Green expansion of the Eisenhower Highway project. Using the NY MTA's "Air-Train" from Jamaica to JFK airport as a model, MASS transit tracks will be built down the center of every highway in the original Eisenhower system. (See here)
   
2. Additionally a HEAVY rail line (2 additional tracks) will go down these highways. These will be used to take Tractor Trailers (and trucks) down the highway. These will also be available to take cars.. Toll rates (where charged) will be revised to make it cheaper to put your car on this line for more then 5 exits.
3. Light Rail systems: Immediate re-tooling to re-invigorate light rail in the country.

More to come

---

* A pre-packaged bankruptcy will be required for this reduction.

'Publican Complainers-- SHUT UP,

To quote a stand-up comedian from a older generation, Mr. Steve Martin (now simply a movie star) used to say to his audiences,

"Exxxxcusssse MEEEEEEE!"

Representative Peter King (R,NY) of New York complained on one of the 'talking head' shows sunday, that:

Republicans Left Out Of Stimulus Plan, that the stimulus bill that President Obama is expected to sign tomorrow doesn't include input from his party.

KING: This bill offers too many social programs, and by excluding house republicans it prevented it from being bipartisan. I'm hoping as we go forward with the housing and banking issues that there will be bipartisan cooperation from the start.

George Stephanopoulos (of ABC News) countered:

Only three Republicans, Congressman King, in the in the Senate, (and )zero in (the) House (supported the stimulus plan).

And I have to say, it -- it surprised me that zero Republicans in the House went along with this. And, for example, I know that you support infrastructure spending.

{Emp added...-- pause--pause--pause--continue}

I know you support Medicaid aid to the states, yet you -- you vote no on this. Was this more taking one for the team so the Republicans could be unified?

KING: No, not at all.
{emp. added: Pause. pause. pause. --Mark de-constructs King's testimony--hey- it's my blog...!)}

(KING: )First of all, I do support the Medicaid provisions in the bill.
{emp. added: Pause. pause. pause.}

(KING:) But as far as the infrastructure, less than 9.5 percent of the bill goes to infrastructure on transit and highway construction. That was a key part to me, which was really severely diminished. * (see note)

(KING:) As far as taxes, actually, Lindsey says 27 percent {of the stimulus bill}. Really, it's only 18 percent in new tax credits, because the fact that the AMT was put in, which would have been factored in anyway. So it's really only 18 percent in tax relief. **(see note)

{emp. added: Pause. pause. pause.}

(KING:)We give more tax relief to the arts than we do to small businesses.

{emp. added: Pause. pause. pause.}

That's interesting. Giving money to small non-profit arts companies is the fastest way (faster then infrastructure spending too) to get CA$H from the government to the small businesses.

• Giving a grant to an Arts project will take that money and send it directly to the pockets of the artists, the curators, and the craftsmen who actually make the scenery, picture frames, or even the posters for these shows.
  
• These people will then take their money and FEED their families, and buy milk from the corner bodega (delicatessen, for those not in NYC).
  

(King: {continues}) And, you know, obviously, we have to do a lot. I supported strong infrastructure, strong tax relief. We didn't do it.

---

Yeah Congressman King. We DID do it.. We CAN change, and we WILL change.
And you, {old fashioned, intransigent }Republicans will be Left Behind if you insist on complaining your way past your so called 'loyal opposition' voting against CHANGE.

And I say to the Republican Party:
GO and threaten to bring on a Filibuster in the Senate. We haven't had a real one of those in over forty years... Let's tie up the Senate in real time, so we can really show the American People WHO is stopping the Government from helping us citizens in this Depression 2.0

---

* Transit and highway infrastructure spending was AXED from this bill because Lawrence Summers (former {disgraced}president of Harh-vard) decided that transit and infrastructure spending needed to be SHOVEL-READY, to support the concept of an IMMEDIATE STIMULUS to the Economy, rather then a LONG term concept or funding plan.

** As I said previously in this blog the Republicans have {time after time} repeatedly been obstructionists in the congress, and have started to continue this behavior in this new administration.

(Do you) REALLY want a BIPARTISAN government?

THEN stop yer bitching and complaining that you want a bigger tax cut.

We should have REMOVED all references to a tax cut in the stimulus and made it TWICE as large, and told you we weren't negotiating.