Obama's Action August

So, the democrats are putting together another round of campaign style 'informatics' that will call our attention to the real problem (in their eye), the economy. More like pull our eyes away from the train wreck that is this administration. They want us to dismiss the 'republican manufactured' issues like Benghazi, the IRS, Fast and Furious and the Detroit bankruptcy. Let me get this straight, all of the problems in the last 12 years have Bush written all over them according to the liberals, however, all the aforementioned problems had democrat oversight. Even more than that, these debacles had democrat COVER UPS! They can try and sugar coat it all they want, these are their issues and they own them. Bring on Action August, I'm betting that even the people that ate the bullshit with a big spoon are starting to get a bad taste in their mouth.

Let's talk about the economy that Obama would like us to focus on. He comes out and states to the nation that "Things are getting better" and "Unemployment is falling". I can easily sum that up in the words from a readers 16 year old grand daughter. She said, "Why does HE have to tell us that things are getting better in our country ... shouldn't we know it? ... shouldn't we feel it? because I don't think things are getting better..." When I read that it actually lifted my spirit. A 16 year old that understands that things don't improve just because the President is telling us it is. Parents, heed my words: Teach your children that everything comes with a price. NOTHING IS FREE. In order for them to eat, have a roof over their head and clothes on their back someone had to pay. Whether that comes from a service you provided to an employer, or money that you get from the government, someone somewhere paid. It either comes from a wage or a tax. Teach them that getting something for 'free' if they are able to get that themselves then they should pay it forward sometime. Karma is a fickle bitch, stay on her good side. 

Obama spews out numbers, but he's cooked the books. The numbers he spoon feeds the masses are numbers that are generated by asking a certain question. When he says that unemployment is 7.6 he's looking at the number of people that APPLIED for unemployment insurance. What about the people that don't get an unemployment check that just stopped looking? Or the folks that suddenly found out they suffered from a disabling condition and applied for SSDI even though the worked with that same condition for years, but now can't find suitable work? Go ahead...look up those statistics. They are out there to see, just a little difficult to dig up. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm is a good link to start. Notice that the states with the highest unemployment rate voted Democrat? How about the U-6 number? Doesn't look so friggin' rosy does it there Barry? Ain't been below 8 since G.W. was prez, bet that stings a bit!

Unemployment rate U-6 2000-2013

The state I call home has surpassed the employed vs people who rely on government balance. There are now more people on the state than work in my state. This is a key point in this state's history. Do we climb out of the mire and create an economic atmosphere in which our children can work and live? Or do we start the downward spiral that has claimed once great cities like Detroit, Michigan and San Bernardino, California? We have a governor that has been called an obstructionist, but what do you do when the scales have turned in the negative?

Sometime in the near future, there will come a time when the government is going to have to say no. When that time comes, all these people that have come to rely on the handouts will be the ones to suffer the most. We the productive people of the United States are getting to the breaking point of being taxed to death. Pretty soon even the people low on the pay scale but high enough to be taxed like they are well off are going to start acting like the rich and hiding their money. The amount of tax revenue will continue to slide into the abyss which will trigger some screwed up liberal scheme to grab more or kick the can down the road by borrowing. This kick the can mentality is exactly what did in the cities that have and will claim bankruptcy.

I'm headed to Washington DC for some sight seeing in a couple of days, if any of you useless pricks in the White House read this blog, how's about hitting ol' Barry up for a meet and greet? I'd love to sit down and tell him what I think of him and his band of merry idiots right to his face! Maybe even try some of that beer that he makes in the basement, but if it tastes like the shit he's feeding us it's probably no good. Don't worry about me being a security risk, I'm a big softy, 250lbs 5'6'' and a knee that acts up from time to time. The only thing dangerous about me is my words, because I know what your up to and I intend to keep on running my mouth til I draw my last breath.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.

Detroit is our future

The bankruptcy filing of Detroit us just a taste of things to come. Decades of mismanagement by politicians who gave people what they thought they deserved instead of being good stewards of the peoples money. Now a once great city is a burned out shell of it's former glory. The Motor City is no longer running on all cylinders. What was once the fourth largest city in the United States has falling into ruins. 1.8 million people at it's peak now barely cresting 700,000. 80,000+ distressed and abandoned properties.

How did this happen? It's simple, greed. Not greed from the big bad corporations that all the liberals seem to love blaming. Greed from people who didn't want to work for their 'just rewards'. During times of economic boon unions held a knife to the throat of the businesses and municipality to cement benefits and pensions long into their golden years. Benefits that at the time seemed sustainable. Benefits that were very, very lucrative to employees yet didn't account for future economic adjustments. The results are what we see now, large municipalities filing for bankruptcy protection from those same UNFUNDED LIABILITIES.

Unfunded Liability is defined as: The amount, at any given time, by which future payment obligations exceed the present value of funds available to pay them. For example, a pension plan's payment obligations, including all income, death and termination benefits owed, are compared to the plan's present investment experience, and if the total plan obligations exceed the projected plan assets at any point in time, the plan has an unfunded liability.

I worked in a union, so before any of my unionized readers start running your pie hole, I saw the waste and abuses that run rampant. And, to up the difficulty rating, I worked in a SMALL union operation. As a matter of fact, the very same union that Congressman Mike Michuad worked in, although Mike didn't work all that hard. My boss at the time told me all Mike ever did was punch in and politic on the phone with his feet up and I'll be damned that's all I ever saw him do too. It took them over a year to get rid of a guy that showed up drunk for his shift all the time. There was a guy that walked around with a box all day to make it look like he was busy. There was a guy, that I shit you not, could sleep standing up! And guess who the union spent all its time defending? The sick, lame and lazy. I was told by older guys that they didn't have to work hard, that I was last in first out (hiring order). Seniority ruled so a lot of the older guys did little to nothing. They were safe. Us young guys had to pick up the slack or we'd be the first out the door. And those bastards had the nerve to call the bosses greedy.

So, since these companies started to notice the young people busting their asses and the older ones gearing up for their big fat negotiated pension plans, they found it more lucrative to close up shop and move away. How can we blame them for that? The problem in Detroit was that these big bad companies were the ones paying the lion's share of the taxes in that city. So, when they packed up and moved, so did their money. And workers. And their money. The municipality kept right on chugging along like nothing was going on. Spending money on projected tax earnings that were based on the big bad companies hanging around spending their money and the workers hanging around and spending theirs. It has taken years for it to catch up to them, but it has...in a big way. Now, before you jump up and down, look up Detroit's liabilities. Over $12 billion of the $18.5 billion debt they are hoping to get bankrupcy help with are directly related to employment liabilities.

But...

In the heyday of Detroit the MUNICIPAL unions did the same thing that the big bad company unions did. Mandatory staffing levels, special pension rules (25yrs and 55yrs old full pension) lifetime medical benefits. Now that the city is a shadow of what it once was, these opulent benefits are crushing it under it's weight. The unions don't want to even talk about cuts. These benefits were hard fought and won (in a better time mind you). Women and men suffered in times of strike (when the company and municipality wasn't in a good position to bargain). The city made investments that someone ill equipped to judge investment potential and borrowed money for it. Some of those investments were never fully realized due to the mass exodus from portions of the city. Parks that were abandoned, infrastructure improvments no longer needed and other well-meaning yet poorly executed projects.

What does all this mean to me? I mean I'm from Maine and pretty much insulated from the sewage from Detroit. I'll tell ya what it means to me. I'm watching my federal government run the same way Detroit was being run. My federal government is hemorrhaging money so fast it has to have the Federal Reserve print $85 million a week and add it to the national money fund just to keep itself running. They are propping up a house of cards with more and more cards, eventually it's all coming down...just like Detroit. You know what the difference is between a criminal and a politician? A politician can steal from you and there is nothing you can do about it.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.