WAS IT ALL A LIE?

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

As countries develop their industry, rapid urbanization and higher living standards drive up energy use, most often of oil. Thriving economies such as China and India are quickly becoming large oil consumers. China has seen oil consumption grow by 8% yearly since 2002, doubling from 1996-2006.
It was about this time that people like "experts" Kenneth Deffeyert and Matthew Simmons began predicting that the world was running out of crude oil reserves, and the cry for the ethanol substitute reverberated throughout the USA. Congress stepped up their demands that American car makers had to make lighter more fuel efficient cars, even though the majority of Americans rejected them for SUVs and trucks.

The truth is the world price of crude oil is driven by supply and demand. In 1998( just ten years ago) a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Nymex crude sold for as little as US $12 - a low price that reflected a significant glut of crude available on the world market. The world price for crude oil has increased dramatically since 1998. WTI Nymex crude averaged US $56.69 in 2005 and hit a high of over US $90.25 in October 2006 due to world concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. The interaction between supply and demand of crude oil constantly affects the price.Fast forward to 11/26/08 and the price was $46.25! The world price for crude oil can be influenced by extreme weather and natural disasters as well as by political, civil and military unrest, particularly when these activities take place in a significant oil-producing region. Not by greedy Oil Companies as The Leftists in Congress would have you believe!


For example, 2005 saw record crude prices driven by increased demand during an unseasonably cold winter in North America, along with growing global demand in China and India. The supply of crude oil was further tightened when hurricanes along the Gulf of Mexico shut down crude production and distribution infrastructure, and affected refinery operations.

Fast forward to 2008 and we find that OPEC ministers have decided the supply of crude oil is too much for the demand, so they are going to cut back on the extraction and production of crude to drive the price back up! Thus, we have this report from Saudi Arabia:
"The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has scrambled since September to stem the fall in oil prices, which is putting pressure on OPEC budgets from Ecuador to Kuwait. Ineffective in blunting the price spike earlier this year, the organization is proving similarly hapless in putting a floor under collapsing prices".


Bloomberg News/Landov reports that:
OPEC's secretary-general, Abdalla Salem El-Badri, said the crude-oil market is oversupplied, as he arrived Thursday in Cairo for Saturday's meeting.
The group's 12 ministers will meet Saturday in Cairo to decide whether to move ahead on another cut of a million barrels or more after agreeing to a total cut of two million barrels a day at two meetings over the past two months.

After hitting a record of nearly $150 a barrel in July, crude prices have since fallen to nearly a third of that in just four months, the steepest price collapse since formal futures trading began in 1981.

Thursday afternoon, the front-month January Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was down 36 cents at $53.56 a barrel.


The cartel's de facto leader and the world's largest exporter, Saudi Arabia, finds itself in a bind. Most OPEC members will face real economic problems if crude prices see a sustained drop below $50 a barrel.I am sure the American consumer will not shed a tear for the Oil rich Arabs!

OPEC's ability to affect the market either way has been minimal, though, as demand continues to fall across the industrialized world and investment flows dry up.

Some analysts now predict that global demand could turn negative both this year and next, adding to a growing spare supply cushion that the world hasn't seen for years.

OPEC countries appear so far to have abided fairly well by pledges made since September to cut supply.

OPEC provides around 40% of the 86 million or so barrels of oil the world consumes daily. But that cohesion could begin to fray as exports and prices both fall.

With financial and social pressures rising, some OPEC nations are nearing an inflection point economically that could result in members such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Nigeria flatly ignoring additional production cuts.

A Nigerian oil official said the country doesn't want any more output reductions because Nigeria already is pumping below its OPEC allocation due to militant attacks on oil infrastructure that have shut around 600,000 barrels a day of production in past months. Nigeria is pumping around 1.95 million barrels a day, below its quota of 2.05 million barrels a day.

"We would have to go even farther below our quota if OPEC cuts more and that would hurt our government budget," the official said.

And less than six months ago the "tics"(blood sucking politicians and Leftists) were telling US that there was a finite limit to the crude oil supply! They cannot have it both ways! But then again, maybe they can with President Obama coming in with his bag full of promises of social welfare. A probable source for the money to fund some of them, and at the same time satisfy his eco freak supporters. A 50 cent increase in the gas tax "to offset the bad economy" might be in the winds of CHANGE!

McCarthy MAY HAVE BEEN ON TO SOMETHING!

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

THE WORD McCarthyism HAS BEEN USED AS A PEJORATIVE DESCRIPTION OF ANYONE WHO POINTS OUT THAT THERE ARE ULTRA-LEFTISTS IN POSITIONS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE IN OUR COUNTRY.
The history surrounding the McCarthy era shows he was correct in his statements that people like the Rosenbergs, Wittaker Chambers, Alger Hiss and his brother Donald, Less Pressman of the AAA. The VENONA papers later showed that he was correct as this report from Wikapedia shows.
"McCarthy is said to have made the claim, "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party." The famous "List", as it has come to be known, has always engendered much controversy. The figure of 205 appears to have come from an oral briefing McCarthy had with Hoover regarding espionage suspects the FBI was then investigating. The FBI had discovered on its own five Soviet agents operating in the United States during World War II; defector Elizabeth Bentley further added another 81 known identities of espionage agents; Venona materials had provided the balance, and by the time a full accounting of true name identities was compiled in an FBI memo in 1957, one more subject had been added to the number, now totaling 206".

Many people believe that unlike the Russians, American Leftist do not pattern their quest upon Marx or Lenin, but today Marxist elements within American society endeavor to bring about revolutionary change with an ideology and methodology built on Critical Theory and Gramscian cultural Marxism. Critical Theory goes beyond traditional social analysis and seeks social transformation or revolution to foster conditions favorable to Marxism that will bring about the downfall of capitalism. Critical Theory is an anti-capitalist theory advocating destruction of free market democratic values, social and political structures and policies to further human emancipation. It is an outright rejection of western civilization and an endorsement of a Marxist, utopian society.
Gramscian cultural Marxism, based on the work of Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci, stems from the recognition that the structure of capitalist society was defined by the culture, faith and values of Christianity. Recognizing the central role of Christianity as the moral and cultural foundation of Western society, Gramsci endeavored to transform society by replacing the worship of God with the worship of man, "secular humanism." Gramsci was intent on destroying the "hegemony" of Christianity and its vast societal influences, including in government, education, media and the family. He sought creation of re-education and indoctrination programs to bring about a new moral and intellectual order based on Marxism.
The components of this progressive-socialist-Marxist attempt to take over the West include: 1) destruction of a free press, 2) educational revisionism, 3) infiltration of government and political systems, 4) destruction of the military and intelligence services, 5) development of an anti-globalist, anti-war philosophy, and 6) creation of a one world government.
Within the United States, the tentacles of the Kremlin-sponsored, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington and its vast network of affiliates aids in the promulgation of this anti-capitalist pro-Socialist agenda.
IPS in the United States and the Transnational Institute (TNI) based in Europe are the main Communist fronts promoting an anti-capitalist, pro-Socialist agenda for cultural transformation. The IPS purposely understated the Cold War threat to the West in order to shift America's priorities away from the military-industrial complex toward social programs. The organization has attempted to penetrate government, academia and the media to work toward disarmament, non-intervention against Soviet aggression and the termination of military alliances. They have targeted NATO, the Defense Department, defense contractors, arms manufacturers and intelligence agencies with disinformation and propaganda.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, TNI advocated environmental issues to slow economic growth and hasten the disarming of the West. IPS and TNI work with a cadre of intellectuals, journalists, professors, politicians and government officials who support and promulgate cultural Marxism by manipulating public opinion and structuring policies and legislation to undermine the government, subvert the U.S. Constitution and aid in the transformation and radicalization of U.S. institutions. The IPS has successfully advanced a laundry list of taxpayer-financed entitlement programs under the cover of "equality and fairness," endeavored to limit corporate power and damaged U.S. military supremacy by working to cut military and intelligence spending.

They are aided by the Main Stream Media. As part of its silent cultural revolution in America, the radical Left has successfully allied with the print and broadcast media and Hollywood to aid in the assault on traditional values and help spread propaganda and disinformation. The American media has become an unbalanced bastion of political correctness that advances a biased, Leftist agenda which obtains much of its disinformation from the IPS. The news media and Hollywood have helped shape public opinion to support the Marxist intent to destroy Western values, beliefs and institutions.

Progressive-socialist-Marxists also use America's democracy to lead the country toward acceptance of socialism. They exert tremendous influence on the liberal-dominated Democratic Party. Under the cover of "equality and fairness" the Left has attempted to use its influence to support politicians and policies that limit corporate power and undermine U.S. military and intelligence. The IPS has injected itself into the political process and changed the political culture of the Democratic Party. Through the Congressional Progressive Caucus, an IPS affiliate, it has amassed a base of 72 out of 232 members of the House (almost one-third) that promote its policies on immigration, fair trade, military spending and other issues dear to the progressive-Socialist-Marxist agenda.

In recent years, the "Shadow Party" -- a nationwide network of unions, non-profits groups and think tanks that subscribe to leftist ideology and receive funding from billionaire George Soros -- has infiltrated the Democratic Party. Their goal is to take control of U.S. politics using a strategy that includes think tanks, training centers and media centers. Using the radical, community-organizing methods of Saul Alinksy, they have engaged in questionable fundraising tactics, aggressive voter drives, oppositional research and media manipulation as they push a hard-left line of racial and sexual equality, abortion on demand, class inequity, drug legalization, anti-war positions, assaults on sovereignty and global taxation and government.Source: Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam By Robert Chandler

The only conclusion this blogger can come to is that United States is at a critical juncture in its history faced with threats from international Marxists, an internal socialist movement and global jihadists. Once any of these elements achieves significant positions of power within the United States, they will proceed with their plans to destroy Western civilization. Our freedom, sovereignty and way of life could be extinguished by any of these forces that are acting against our democratic republic.
Some will call me an alarmist, but some also called Patrick Henry and Paul Revere alarmists! We have two choices. Eternal vigilance or suffer the consequences!

THE ROBIN HOOD OF OUR TIMES

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

In my youth Errol Flynn made A movie about a Nobleman who turned robber to take from the rich to give to the poor Saxons in Great Britain. He was called Robin Hood!
Today, it appears, the Federal government is trying to play Robin Hood, but I believe their efforts are directed in the wrong direction.When the smoke clears and the dust settles in the fight going on in Congress. They will have run the tab for the so called bail out up to three trillion dollars!

We don't have that much free money in circulation to spend it on corporate welfare, but the key to this whole charade is that the government has printing presses that allow them to print money in vast amounts that have little or no backing. It will fall upon the taxpayer to pay for this government largess in the form of taxes. All kinds of hidden taxes and reductions or elimination of deductions that the average taxpayer has now when he/she files the annual Federal tax return.
Many tax deductions have been taken away from us in the last thirty years and I suspect many more will follow!

The following is an article released in today's edition of the Internetedition of the Wall Street Journal. It details the massive amounts of money that are being poured, literally dumped into the institutions that control the flow of money in the name of helping the economy. But I question if the intended results will reflect the actual affect of delaying the Crash that surely must come-sooner or later- due to the fact that as each industry is "helped" another comes to Washington with it's hand out for cash infusion. The potential list is never ending!

President Roosevelt tried to buy his way out of the Great depression,with make work programs and welfare, but if it were not for the War that started the military industrial complex. His efforts would have failed. Will we need a war to solve the dilema we now face?

We have the modern day equivalent of Robin Hood, Barrack H. Obama riding on a cloud of "CHANGE" in to Washington promising his supporters that he will give them many social welfare "goodies" at the expense of the RICH!

Meanwhile, "The Federal Reserve says it will buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-backed debt issued and backed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Banks in a bid to lower the elevated costs of home loans at a time when the housing market and wider financial markets are still stricken by the credit crunch. The Fed plans to lend an additional $200 billion to support entities willing to buy asset-backed securities collateralized by student loans, auto loans, credit card loans and small-business loans. In announcing that move, the Fed noted that interest rates for such debt have soared at a time when all credit is deemed a riskier investment, and said that its new loan program is aimed at making more loans available to consumers and businesses".
SOURCE: JOSEPH SCHUMAN OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Yesterday's moves mean the loans and other assets listed on the Fed's books will probably soon be at around $3 trillion -- triple what it was in mid-September, Business Week notes. And The Wall Street Journal adds that Washington at this point has now "made more than $4 trillion of financial commitments, ranging from direct investments to debt guarantees, through a wide range of rescue programs hatched by the Fed, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp," and that this number "could grow if markets worsen." The message from the Fed and the Treasury, as the New York Times puts it, is "that they would print as much money as needed to revive the nation's crippled banking system." And while yesterday's new measures are "gargantuan," they were "probably not the last of the federal government's initiatives to absorb the shocks that began with losses on sub prime mortgages and have spread to every corner of the economy,"

Analysts tell report that "the (bail-out) program will do little to reduce the tidal wave of home foreclosures ... because most of the foreclosures are on subprime mortgages and other high-risk loans that were not bought or guaranteed by government-sponsored finance companies like Fannie Mae." Bloomberg points out while the new programs are supposed to make credit more accessible to nervous consumers, those consumers may still not want to spend: "Households and lenders may not respond much because of the wealth destruction from plunging property and stock values, and the deepening economic slump.

DESPITE ALL THIS MONEY INFUSION INTO THE INSTITUTIONS THAT CONTROL OUR MONEY FLOW;
The Washington Post reports that "fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina."
It appears to me that we need more fiscal responsibility from our elected "Princes" in Congress, and less, not more hand outs to sate the appetite of a corrupt and inefficient monetary system that needs to be put on a diet not gorged with tax payers IOU's!

ANOTHER COST ASSOCIATED WITH OBAMA'S PLANS FOR CHANGE

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

Either through legislation or regu?lation, efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions will impose costs through?out the economy. The impact on the overall econ?omy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), is substantial. The cumulative GDP losses for 2010 to 2029 approach $7 trillion. Single-year losses exceed $600 billion in 2029, more than $5,000 per house?hold.

Job losses are expected to exceed 800,000 in some years, and exceed at least 500,000 from 2015 through 2026.(Note that these are net job losses, after any jobs created by compliance with the regulations--so-called green jobs--are taken into account.

Hardest-hit are man?ufacturing jobs, with losses approaching 3 million. Particularly vulnerable are jobs in durable manufacturing (28 percent job losses), machinery manufacturing (57 percent), textiles (27.6 percent), electrical equipment and appli?ances (22 percent), paper (36 percent), and plastics and rubber products (54 percent). It should be noted that since the EPA rule is unilateral and few other nations are likely to follow the U.S. lead, many of these manufacturing jobs will be out?sourced overseas.

The job losses or shifts to lower paying jobs are substantial, leading to declines in disposable income of $145 billion by 2015--more than $1,000 per household.

Conclusion

Virtually every concern heightened by the eco?nomic downturn, especially job losses, would be exacerbated under the ANPR. As with cap-and-trade legislation, the EPA's suggested rulemaking would be poison to an already sick economy. But even in the best of economic times, this policy would likely be the "death Knell" that ends them.

The estimated costs--close to $7 trillion dollars and 3 million manufacturing jobs lost--are staggering. So is the sweep of regula?tions that could severely affect nearly every major energy-using product from cars to lawnmowers, and a million or more businesses and buildings of all types. And all of this sacrifice is in order to make, at best, a minuscule contribution to an overstated environmental threat. Congress has wisely resisted implementing anything this costly and impractical. The fact that unelected and unaccountable EPA bureaucrats are trying to do the opposite is all the more objectionable.SOURCE: PATRIOT POST

While Obama is apparently planning to further destroy our economy and way of life to satisfy his ECO freak supporters. Russia is making money helping to build up our avowed enemies. The New media Journal had this piece of information in today's edition. I will pass it on to you with a tip of my hat to the ever informative NMJ!
"Gordon Thomas, The Epoch Times
MI6(the British version of our CIA) has warned that Russia is poised to sell its own sophisticated S-300 missile defense system to Iran if the European Union and Washington push for Georgia and Ukraine to have NATO membership. The revelation came hours after EU heads had met at a Brussels conference to discuss how best to handle the ever-mounting tensions with Moscow. The Secret Intelligence Service discovered Moscow’s plans after monitoring visits to Tehran last month by a team of Russian military scientists who had helped to create the S-300 system.

Dan Goure, a senior Pentagon arms adviser on the system, described it as “one that surely scares every Western air force”. It can track up to 100 targets at once and destroy aircraft at a range of 75 miles. Operational, it could dramatically affect any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. However, MI6 analysts believe the Moscow offer to provide the system to Iran is to create a foreign policy confrontation to test the mettle of a new US president.( note to President elect Obama, you cannot talk your way out of this threat, please do not try!)

It could also prove a test of resolve for Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who has been leading the EC drive to confront Moscow over militants in the Caucasus region. "Using the S-300 is a powerful bargaining move that has been clearly orchestrated by Vladimir Putin. He sees the steady encroachment of NATO into the former Soviet bloc and the recent granting of independence to the ex-Serbian province of Kosovo as a threat”, said an MI6 analyst. Last week MI6 agents confirmed that some of the basic components of the S-300 system had been transferred to its close ally, Belarus, ready for a possible transfer to Tehran.

Be thankful this Thanksgiving day that this has not happened, YET!

A CONSERVATIVE QUISLING AT WORK!!!

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

THE WAY THE CONGRESS AND THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT ARE GOING ABOUT THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD REMINDS ME OF THE NORWEGIAN TRAITOR QUISLING WHO BETRAYED THE NORWEGIANS TO THE NAZI OCCUPIERS, BECAUSE HE SAID HE BELIEVED IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THE NORWEGIANS IN THE LONG RUN THAN TO FIGHT THE GERMAN OCCUPIERS.

President-elect Barack Obama wants to project fiscal restraint even as his economic team assembles a massive recovery package that could cost several hundred billion dollars.
A day after introducing the captains of his economic team and promoting a giant jobs plan, Obama on Tuesday was to lay out his budget belt-tightening vision. The dual images(big spender and disciplined budget watcher)were designed to give both political and economic assurances to the public, the Congress and the financial markets.

Obama's economic team embodies what at first glance seem to be mutually exclusive goals.Save the economy and spend,spend, spend tax payers money!

Timothy Geithner, Obama's choice for treasury secretary; Lawrence Summers, who will head the National Economic Council, all have links to Robert Rubin, who as President Clinton's treasury secretary pushed for a balanced budget.
But all three will also be part of an administration that will drive deficits to new heights with an economic plan designed to save or create 2.5 million jobs( most will be govt. created and govt. controlled), and redirect the economy over the next two years. Economists from across the political spectrum, including some who have served as informal advisers to Obama, have put the size of an economic recovery package as high as $700 billion over two years.Considering that the a few months ago Henry Paulson gave $700 billion in taxpayers money to help taxpayers aid their "neighbors" who could not pay their mortgages, it would seem the estimate is low!

AS bizarre as it may seem, CitiGroup has announced that they have to lay off thousands of employees worldwide, but that they still will pay 500 million dollars to have their name on the new New York Mets stadium.
These are the same directors and officers that will receive taxpayers bail-out monies to the tune of a guarantee loan of $306 billion!

This fact was announced by a joint statement issued by the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.this week.
The deal involves Treasury injecting an additional $20 billion in capital into Citigroup. Citi had already received $25 billion in aid from TARP.

The Bush Administration surprisingly, said rescuing the battered bank was imperative to stabilizing the financial system, and ultimately putting the economy back on track. In my unhumble opinion, he is just delaying the inevitable debacle until Obama takes over the Oval Office!

This action was also cheered by Senator Schummer of New York, and I begin to believe that the Government is bailing out their New York friends and benefactors more than they are trying to help the American people.
The "fat cats", who just a few days ago were poised to leap out the windows of their corner offices. Can now breath deeply and exhale a sigh of relief for their friends in Washington have come to their rescue! Maybe they should invite a failed mortgagee over for Thanksgiving dinner as a token of thanksgiving!

How can it be a good thing, when the Congress and the President print worthless money to give to failing enterprises(in this case Banks, Mortgage Houses and later Detroit auto) without demanding a radical reshaping and structure of the way they run their business, and whom continues to show no signs of restraint!

During the campaign, Obama proposed a $175 billion stimulus package that included infrastructure spending, tax credits to small businesses for hiring new employees, targeted tax credits for middle class families, investments in alternative energy and aid to local and state governments.
Democrats now say the package will be much larger. Sen. Charles Schumer put the figure at $500 to $700 billion and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it would be "in the several hundred billion category," making it one of the largest spending bills for economic recovery since the New Deal.
Obama Senior Adviser David Axelrod wouldn't put a dollar figure on the package, but he said on "FOX News Sunday" that the plan "has to be big enough to deal with the huge problem we face."

And guess who will have to pay for all of this so called "stimulus"! There is only one way to get the money--from the taxpayers unless they want to continue the printing of worthless money!!!

SO THIS IS HOW LIBERALS REWARD THE PUBLIC!

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

Just last April gas stations were selling gas for more than $4 a gallon. At that time
"experts" were saying that part of the blame for the jump at the pump is a lack of supply.They backed up there assertions with the statement that the latest government data showed a sharp drop in gasoline supplies. Never considering the off-shore or ANWR capacity for exploration and production.

"Unfortunately demand for gasoline has been rising faster than our ability to produce it domestically, “said Geoff Sundstrom, AAA spokesperson.

Even President Bush bought into the "ecofreaks" assertion that a big part of the problem is America's addiction to oil. And of course there were the socialists who hate "big-business", that said the oil companies "greed" was the cause for the gas price spikes.

Judy Dugan of Oilwatchdog.org said, "The oil companies have found that it is more profitable for them to sell less gasoline at a higher price and because current laws do not do anything to stop them, they do it."She obviously had a biased approach!

The so called experts were quoted as saying, "most Americans are not changing their driving habits because of the high prices"! Well, fast forward 7 or 8 months and we find that they all were wrong!

Today the U.S. Department of Transportation said that gasoline taxes paid into the highway trust fund fell by $3 billion in the 2008 fiscal year.

"Our current approach has us encouraging Americans to change their driving habits and burn less fuel while secretly hoping they drive more so we can finance new bridges, repair interstates and expand transit systems," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in a statement. "We need a new approach that compliments, instead of contradicts, our energy policies and infrastructure needs."

So guess what "experts" have to say about how to recapture the tax moneies lost due to the changing driving habits of the consumer and the rapid drop of gasoline.

One new approach would be to raise the federal gasoline tax from its current 18.4 cents a gallon. By comparison, the tax rate in the U.K. is about $2.85 a gallon. So it seems as likely in the current economic climate that Congress will entertain a plan to raise gasoline taxes. Especially if the Democrats achieve the super majority they need in the Senate. Tax and spend President-elect Obama would love to sign such a bill!And is right in line with Obama's promise not to tax the middle class, RIGHT!

Higher gas taxes they say, would finance improvements to roads and mass transit, encourage further conservation or offset the costs of the various federal bailouts. But the collapse of gasoline prices since the summer,a drop of more than $2 a gallon in my neighborhood, is an economic stimulus worth an estimated $200 billion a year.If gasoline prices stay low, demand for vehicles that use sophisticated technology to consume less gasoline per mile will depend on consumers making long-term decisions that aren't in their short-term economic interests. Otherwise, these new high-mileage cars might not sell for high enough prices to cover their higher costs.

And the ethanol industry , high cost alternative for gasoline, will become just one more industry to come, "with hat in hand", to the Congress for a bail-out! Which you can bet the farm that they will give them all they need. And guess whose pocket and pay check this money will come from. The middle class working man/woman!

OBAMA SOCIALIST CO-CONSPIRATORS BEGIN THEIR MARCH

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

Senator Ron Wyden and the co-sponsors of the Healthy Americans Act sent Barack Obama a letter today:
“As former colleagues in the United States Senate, we would like to congratulate you on your election as the 44th President of the United States and offer our commitment to working with you in a bipartisan fashion to reform our health care system,” wrote the group of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one Independent. “Over the last two years, we have come together as Democrats and Republicans because we believe that for health reform to succeed it must be bipartisan… we believe [these] principles outline the best way to reform the nation’s health care system and create the best “roadmap” to build bipartisan consensus on reform.”
The principles include: Ensuring that all Americans have health care coverage; Making health care coverage both affordable and portable; Implementing strong private insurance market reforms; Modernizing federal tax rules for health coverage; Promoting improved disease prevention and wellness activities, as well as better management of chronic illnesses; Making health care prices and choices more transparent so that consumers and providers can make the best choices for their health and health care dollars; and Improving the quality and value of health care services.

The letter was signed by: U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

Healthy Americans Act. The fundamental principle of that bill was the end of the employer-based market and the total reorganization of how most Americans purchased health insurance. That made it harder to pass, but much better than the alternatives. The plans we're seeing from Obama and Baucus and other players, however, don't take that risk, and so this letter isn't defining it as core to the legislation's principles. It's important for everyone involved to be able to claim some intellectual influence on the final legislation, and that means they have to stick to principles that might be in the final legislation. But even if we pass the sort of bills we're looking at, and even if they show themselves a happy improvement over the current arrangement, in 10 years, we'll be looking at cost estimates, and wishing we'd been more attentive to Mr. Wyden. That said, I've heard that Obama has actually looked fairly closely at the HAA, and was rather impressed by its structure. So we could see some of its more radical lessons given life yet. But no one is willing to bet in that direction. SOURCE:EZRA KLEIN THE AMERICAN PROSPECT

Meanwhile, the Country that has had Socialized Medicine for decades has a new report out that was published in the Telegraph today that illustrates the severe problem that has developed in the government run Health Care system.
"The Healthcare Commission tested 51 trusts unannounced and found that only five adhered to Government rules. Its sample represents around a third of acute health trusts in England and were part of the largest ever programme of hygiene inspections in the NHS.
While most of the failures did not pose an immediate risk to patient safety,(blogger comment;since when does the spread of infection not pose an immediate risk?) the Commission found almost all acute trusts had more work to do to control the spread of infection.

In the areas where breaches did cause a serious risk, managers were told to take immediate action.(How about reporting what they will do to correct the problem?0

Three trusts were given improvement notices to tackle failures in decontamination processes.

Just over half of the 51 trusts failed to keep all areas clean and well-maintained, the Commission said.( This is probably the one most common cause of the spread of infection!)

However, it found that most had improved in relation to leadership and ensuring uniforms were clean and fit for purpose.(I would hope so!)

Anna Walker, chief executive, said: "At nearly all trusts we have found gaps that need closing. It is important to be clear that at these trusts we are not talking about the most serious kind of breaches. ( That would be deaths caused by post -operative infections!)

"But these are important warning signs to trust boards that there may be a weakness in their systems.( The whole system run by a bureaucracy is the problem-and I was privy to a serious one three years ago in the hospital in Italy. One of many European Countries that have "universal health care!)

"In particular, trusts need to ensure that their wards are consistently clean and well maintained, and that they have good decontamination and isolation arrangements.
( And the Obamaistas want us to have a system like this to replace the sterile and clean environment we now have that may be expensive, but is not a threat to your life!)

And to top it off the British Government announced today that: "Workers face higher tax and national insurance payments to fund a £20 billion package meant to help Britain spend its way out of recession, Alistair Darling has announced.

National insurance contributions will rise by half a penny in the pound for everyone earning more than £20,000 from April 2011 under the Chancellor's plans. Taxes will rise by a total of £7.5 billion in 2011/12.

However markets welcomed the announcement, with the FTSE posting its biggest ever daily gain." But the workers who cannot buy stock on the FTSE will not look at their paycheck with pleasure as it shrinks once again to pay for a bloated bureaucracy!
And as an added note, after 60 years of National Health Service, the British people finally get the freedom to choose hospitals! This article appears in today's addition of NHS's "About Choice Bulletin".

"A dramatic expansion of patient choice in the NHS got under way in April 2008.

Surveys have consistently shown that patients want choice. The 2005 British Social Attitudes survey revealed that 65% of patients said they wanted choice of treatment, 63% wanted a choice of hospital and 53% welcomed a choice of appointment time.

The introduction of free choice means that patients referred to see a specialist are themselves able to choose where they are treated from any hospital that meets NHS standards.

The list includes many private hospitals as well as all NHS providers. Between them offer everything from treatment to your cataracts to open-heart surgery.

Under the move to free choice, if you and your GP decide that you need to see a specialist, you'll be able to choose the hospital that best suits your needs.

Tell me the average person in the USA wants to change the excellent health care we now have for this type travesty!? British National health Service began in 1948, and it took sixty years to give the 61.4 million people covered by NHS to get freedom to choose their doctors and hospitals! Guess what over 200 million people will bring to a NHS in the USA. If you think Wall Street and the Banks are a mess just wait to see what the Obama people do to our health system!