'Occupy' Government

It is really sad and tragic that after almost four years this still has to be said. That after almost four years many people still do not know the true story behind the financial crisis. Do you not see America? Do not be misled by the politicians, political folk and the media who continue to hide the truth about the financial crisis and the resulting recession.

Government and ill-conceived regulations caused the financial collapse and the resulting recession. Most mortgage lenders would never have taken this amount of risk if government had not taken that risk away. That is the reason why government became involved in the first place. Government not only lowered lending standards but they set the quotas via the 'Community Reinvestment Act', for giving bad loans. When lending institutions did not meet these quotas they lowered the lending standards even more through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mortgage backed securities (MBS) were devised to satisfy the ever increasing demands of government. Government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought the bad debt from the lending institutions. They then bundled the bad debt into MBS to trade, thus spreading the toxicity throughout the system. Through its incompetence government took all the bad lending risk away. What is worse is that so called 'community organizers' went in and coerced many lending institutions to do this. The people they thought they were helping ended up losing their homes. Everyone is paying for this massive government incompetence and corruption. The tragic thing is many of the same people who were intimately involved in this giant scam, Barney Frank to name just one, are still in government. They should have been thrown out long ago. Many politicians were corrupt, they ignored the problems, they covered up the problems and they quieted the regulators that warned of impending problems.

What may be an even greater tragedy is that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank designed the financial bill that was supposed to fix this. It is ironic that the clueless and/or incompetent politicians passed a bill that is supposed to fix the problem they do not even think they created. The Dodd/Frank financial bill just institutionalizes the problems that created the financial crisis and 'too big to fail' which will ensure more bailouts. The little guy is already seeing the bad results of this bill. Debit card are more expensive. It will get worse.

The government through the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who by the way, we the taxpayer continue to bail out, are still giving out bad loans. Government continues the stupidity.

So yes, it is sad and unbelievable that this has to be said. The 'Occupy' protesters are occupying the wrong location. They should be occupying government. It is even more sad and tragic that those that know better are misleading the occupiers.

This will continue to happen until we all know the truth. Only then can we ensure this never happens again.

Unless your agenda is to destroy the system, the solution is not giving millions of people something they cannot afford thereby destroying the whole system and everyone in it. The solution is to ensure everyone has the opportunity and tools to be able to afford a home. They will also be able to create jobs and wealth for others to have the same opportunities they had.


The excellent resources below go into greater detail.
The Financial Crisis: Is Anyone Telling Us the Truth?
Who Do You Really Believe?
Smoking-Gun Document Ties Govt Policy To Housing Crisis
Making Homes Affordable Makes Others Poor
A list of Must Read Articles on the Financial Crisis

Freedom and Health Care Reform

In a society founded on individual freedom, most of the health care plans currently in Congress should not even be an option. If we have a shred of decency, most of the bills being worked on in Congress will be tossed out and reforms based on the individual freedoms our country was founded on will be devised. Most of the bills in Congress will do exactly what they claim will happen if things are not fixed, except it will happen even faster. There are very few people who say nothing should be done. Do not buy into that straw man argument.

Many jobless Americans would rather have the economy be the number one priority. This does not diminish the health care problems. But first show you can help the economy or at least not make it worse. A growing, healthy economy will alleviate many health care problems. Believe me there are many people and small businesses that are sitting back waiting for fear that cap & trade, all the taxes being talked about to pay for ObamaCare, the health coverage penalty taxes, surtaxes and others will be enacted. This uncertainty will keep jobs from being created and keep the recovery from happening. Many businesses have done all the cuts they can do. Some still offer their employees health insurance, especially those that have found the high-deductable variety with an HSA. Cap & tax, other taxes and the current health care bills in congress, with their included massive tax increases, will cause layoffs and most likely put many out of business, even if they dump health care onto a public option. There are so many in this situation. Small business should be fueling the recovery. Instead they are struggling. This is a bad sign for a recovery.

Many have read the bills that are in Congress and they have deemed them to be disastrous. Yes, many of the claims are exaggerated, however, those writing the bills and those who advise the President have said publicly they want a single-payer system. Those who devised the public option admit publicly that it was designed as the first step to a government-run single-payer system, and even the President has publicly said several times in the past he is in favor of a single-payer system. These facts just make people uneasy and wary of what is in the bills. The ideas the President’s advisors espouse and the fact that he would surround himself with these advisors is troubling. These ideas may be watered down or taken out of the bills. But I believe they should not be advising on something this personal. The bills in Congress have many aspects i.e. taxes, employer taxes and penalty fees, surtaxes, coverage mandates in the exchange and many other things in HR 3200 that will cause many to be dumped onto a public option or co-op if it is available.

Mandates will just raise health care costs. These bills do not address high costs; they just build on the problems without fixing them. Even a deficit neutral ObamaCare plan would cost more. Higher taxes would only pay for part of the trillions in cost. Costs would skyrocket year after year, like Medicare, Medicaid and other government entitlements, because these plans do not address the high costs, they just build on these crumbling foundations. If you have to raise taxes to pay for health care, you are not saving any money; you are making it more costly. The plans in Congress spend trillions and raise taxes, yet they still leave 17-34 million uninsured. This is not a good investment, especially considering it will slow the economy and lower the quality of health care.

You cannot dismiss the plans that are in congress just because they are a work in progress. They are similar and they represent the direction those in congress wish to go. Do not allow yourself to be deceived. Do not dismiss anything until you have vetted it out. Just because you hear it on TV does not make it true. In fact, those pushing the reforms in Congress and sometimes even the President have made wild claims.

Don’t forget the original plan was to get a bill done before the August break. Which means a bill similar to the House HR 3200, Baucus or Kennedy plans would have been voted on with an included public option. One could say that is what they really want. This is far too important for that amount of speed and deception. The American people should have been included from the beginning. That has added to the distrust and related falling poll numbers of Congress, the President and the current health care plans. This has added to the frustration that is now being released at town hall meetings across the country.

The framework for a panel to curb costs and build guidelines for treatments for doctors to follow has already been set up in the stimulus bill and it is in HR 3200. In medicine there is no one size fits all. Everyone is different, everyone responds differently to various treatments. The same form of cancer, for instance, responds differently to the same treatment from patient to patient. Sometimes there has to be fine-tuning or a combination of treatments. If certain treatments are mandated and others are deemed too expensive or take too long to be certified, many patients will not receive the care they deserve. A centralized panel would lower the standard of care. A panel or bureaucracy making these decisions would by their nature arbitrarily discriminate against some, with no recourse for the patient. For those who think health care is a right, this would infringe on that right. In any case, with real reforms there is no need for a panel to curb costs.

Rationing already happens in Oregon, MA (just started because of costs) and the VA. The pharmaceutical companies often pay for drug treatments for cancer patients themselves when these states will not cover it.

There were amendments introduced to add to the bills that would prohibit rationing etc. These amendments would have put to rest those rumors once and for all. They were defeated.

I urge everyone to take more time to research material even if only to debunk it.

A centralized, government mandated and controlled health care system with a “public option” that will lead to single payer health care will lead to disaster. This statement taken on its own is a true statement. I do not make this claim, rather history and current systems around the globe show this. The health care plans in congress have to be studied to make sure they are not going in this direction.

Until there is a plan that is going in the direction of true reform, many Americans will continue to fight for rational reforms and against what currently is in Congress.

Links to Must Read information & resources.
Health Care Resource
What The Health Care Bill Actually Says
Physicians for Reform
Fix Health Care Policy Project
How To Fix the Health-Care 'Wedge'
Health Reform Requires Lawsuit Reform
Defend Your Health Care - Betsy McCaughey, PhD
Health Care - Heritage (Comprehensive Research)
The WSJ Guide to ObamaCare
Condition Critical: What Doctors Think About Health Reform, IBD Series
Health-Care Reform: How the Bills Stack Up
Hold The Mayo
The Whole Food Alternative to ObamaCare
We Don't Spend Enough on Health Care
Open Letter On Health Care
Deadly Doctors
CBO Expert Says Preventive Care Will Raise - Not Cut - Costs
FACT CHECK: Obama's health care claims adrift? -AP
Obama & the Practice of Medicine
Deception is at the Heart of Dems' Plans (Part 3) - Sowell
Whose Medical Decisions? (Part 2) - Sowell
Whose Medical Decisions? (Part 1) - Sowell
No Compromise On Health 'Reform'
A Federal Health Insurance Exchange Combined with a Public Plan: The House and Senate Bills
The Pelosi Jobs Tax
Undue Influence
Europe’s free, state-run health care has drawbacks

Freedom & Taxes

The more profitable a business, the more taxes it pays. When people get paid more and find jobs; they pay more taxes or start paying taxes. Government will then get more tax revenue. When businesses close and when people lose their jobs, their tax contribution stops. When people get paid less, they pay less in taxes. The government’s tax revenue will be lower.

A profitable business is self-sustaining and creates jobs and prosperity for many people and doesn’t need the government to wastefully spend tax dollars on it and on welfare.

The same goes for industries like the auto and health industries. There is no need for government to waste trillions of taxpayer money on health care. It can be done through a self-sustaining profitable private sector that supplies a very valuable service and provides incredible opportunity and prosperity for millions.

You would think Mr. Obama and Congress would want more tax revenue. You would think they would want more businesses and more successful ones that create jobs that help people make more income. So why does this Administration and Congress want to take away profits and kill jobs which will shrink the tax base and lower tax revenue? Why are all their policies slowing the economy and hurting businesses and jobs? Is it all about freedom and control?

You pay more taxes; you have less individual freedom to provide for yourself and your family. You then depend more and more on the government to provide for you. You are also giving more and more control over to the government.

Most of the money they take from you they squander and give to others. Those in power are buying their votes. They don’t realize it yet, but in exchange, they’ve given up their freedom for government control. Slowly as taxes go up, the government takes more control. Higher taxes equal less freedom and more government control. Lower taxes mean more freedom and opportunities for all.

Government is punishing the achievers and job creators, and rewarding the unproductive. It is human nature for the productive and job creators to therefore be less productive. That means there is less to go around and everyone has less, including government. They tax more and get less. There are fewer goods and food with less money to buy goods and food. You have more poor and starvation. Everyone is slowly becoming equally poor except the elite and those they pay off to support their power.

Of course, without a productive tax base, this is not sustainable and it crumbles. It can only limp along if a corrupt outside source, like the United Nations, IMF, World Bank or a nation props it up. This can be seen throughout history. The USSR, Cuba, Venezuela and others.

This can be a long process as well, like many countries in Europe. Socialist type policies slowly drag them down, an election happens, then they go the other way for awhile, sort of an ebb and flow. Suddenly a deep recession or worse happens, and there is a sizable shift to the “right,” towards fiscal responsibility. They have to or they won’t survive. They never learn though. They will eventually forget, ignore history and turn back.

This is why the situation in the U.S. is so absurd. While many in Europe have moved to the "right" to survive, those in power in the U.S. have moved to the "left," at the worst possible time. Is it that they would rather hurt this country than to look past their ideology and quest for power and save this country? That is their weakness and freedoms’ tragic advantage. It will make the results of their destructive policies happen much faster and also be more easily seen. People will wake up quicker and in greater numbers.

More individual freedom equals more prosperity. Less individual freedom means less prosperity. That is why the United States in only a little over 200 years has become the most prosperous and powerful nation on earth, while it has taken other nations hundreds of years longer to get where they are. Our freedom and values keep us from conquering the world and instead we help and defend the world, bringing hope and freedom to all.

Sadly, the power hungry and those who’ve forgotten or ignore history have taken over. They are now misleading many. Those of us who have not forgotten are spreading the truth of freedom, and now many wake to join the fight to save our republic, our freedom and prosperity. Slowly more and more eyes are being opened and they are now seeing the results of the destructive policies of those in power.

A government that takes away liberty and free will is a government that is not owned by the people. It is a government that goes against our founding documents. It goes against what our founders and patriots fought for, to win their independence. All men are created equal with inalienable rights, rights that are grounded in natural law not bestowed on us by government. That is why we continue to fight for freedom and liberty for all. To fight for the freedom and opportunity for everyone to become all they can be.

Truth, liberty, freedom, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness were given to us. We must guard and protect them, even fight for them, as many have throughout the years. We must not throw it all away or they will have died in vain. God bless the United States of America.

Links to Must Read information & resources.
Historical Economics
Taxes: Election 2008 & Beyond
The Keynesians Were Wrong Again (Excellent-Must Read!)
Big Government, Big Recession (Excellent!)
Tax Increases Mean Less Revenue: Your Common Sense Guide

The Productive vs. The Unproductive

Now is the perfect time to streamline government and cut spending. When times are good they will never do it, but now that times are tough, with huge budget shortfalls, we should take advantage of it.

We need to make government more efficient and less wasteful. Get rid of the waste and inefficiencies, streamline pensions and welfare, clean up fraud and corruption, and layoff the unproductive government worker. Layoff the two or three people it takes to do the job of one person. All this will allow deep spending cuts. Combine all this with real tax cuts, not just token tax credits, and it will put money back into the private sector causing people and business to spend and create jobs.

The out of work unproductive government workers can then find productive private sector jobs and create goods and provide services. This will bring in more income that will create even more jobs and allow even more spending. The economy will grow exponentially, the GDP will skyrocket, and everyone will be able to provide for themselves, their retirement, health care, etc.

The small number of those that have legitimate needs can finally be helped. We would not need government bailouts, handouts, welfare, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions and definitely not government health care.

The fraud, waste, inefficiencies and unproductive government workers combined with the resulting higher taxes and spending, just drag down the economy. The economy will increasingly slow and unemployment will rise.

Links to Must Read information & resources.
Phantom Jobs

Stimulus Failure

The stimulus has failed in many ways. It does not stimulate. History tells us it will actually prolong the recession. It is not pro-growth policy but rather job kill policy. It is irresponsible, massive deficit spending and generational theft. It takes revenue away from the private sector and uses it to prop up public sector waste, failure and irresponsible spending.

The fact that only 10% has trickled out and the rest was designed to be spent in 2010 and beyond is a failure in and of itself. It is also a failure of those who wrote the bill.

Because it is government spending, the process of getting the money out is slow and it is subject to fraud and waste with no accountability, which we have already seen. Most of it is wasteful government deficit spending that ramps up in 2010 and will do more harm than good anyway. Even Keynesian's dropped their support for the bill before it was enacted. Most believe spending should be upfront and on infrastructure make-work projects, which are temporary. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the stimulus bill said that "in the longer run, the legislation would result in a slight decrease in gross domestic product compared with CBO's baseline economic forecast." Government spending does not grow the economy.

The tax credits are too small and the dispersal method makes them unnoticeable. The tax credits also increase your tax liability. They are also temporary and people know this. Real tax cuts would stimulate without being filtered through the bureaucratic waste machine. More bang for the buck. A $400 tax credit cost the taxpayer close to $800 in taxes. It basically amounts to the federal government taking close to $800 from the taxpayer and giving them back $400 which they then tax.

It will increase the deficit by a trillion or more by the time it is all done. Borrowing or raising taxes to pay for the stimulus has a negative job-killing impact on the economy as well, not to mention the inflationary impact of weakening the dollar by printing to pay for spending.

The economy will eventually start to recover despite the prolonging effect of the stimulus. But with the trillion dollar budget plan, the trillions this administration is adding in spending, debt and to the deficit, and if cap & tax, ObamaCare and other destructive bills, many which have built-in trade protectionism, are passed the economy will get worse. Indeed, a malaise that will last for decades. These bills will hurt many people and small businesses which will cause many to make less and lose jobs. They will also cause jobs to be shifted overseas.

The uncertainty caused by the unpredictability of this administration and congress i.e. “how bad will future taxes be and what other harmful bills and regulations will be enacted?” is causing businesses and consumers to not create jobs or spend. This administration’s and congress’ policies will do more harm to the economy than even the recession.

This didn't have to be. America will learn once again what history could have taught them, insane tax rates and spending will slow the economy and kill jobs. The progressive policies of CA, NY, NJ and many others are examples of how to destroy an economy. These examples can teach us what not to do. If everyone would study history with a basic understanding of economics this could be avoided.

The rest of the stimulus should be scrapped and real pro-growth policies like marginal tax-rate and spending cuts, and others should be implemented. Consistent, confidence inspiring policies will enable Americans to keep more income and businesses to create jobs, small business being the usual job creators that fuel the economy out of a recession.

Rather than tax income out of the economy, with the resulting bureaucratic waste, only to redistribute it back in mostly to non-productive public sector areas that do not grow the economy, why not leave it there in the first place? Real tax cuts. People would instantly have more income, business would have more to grow and create jobs. This would actually stimulate, cost less, and have quicker, more permanent results with smaller deficits and debt by trillions. There would be no need to spend money they don’t have on bailouts, cash for clunkers, more entitlements and extending unemployment and welfare. This would mean they don’t have to borrow and print trillions either. Combined with spending cuts, the economy would boom, bringing freedom & prosperity to all Americans.

Most of us know the economically illiterate in this Administration and Congress would never do this. There is only one other option, 2010 - 2012.

Links to Must Read information & resources.
The Pelosi-Obama Stimulus Plan
Historical Economics
Taxes: Election 2008 & Beyond
Washington & the Jobs Market (Excellent-Must Read!)
Stimulating Failure (Excellent-Must Read!)
More Stimulus Equals More Unemployment (Excellent Read!)
The Man Who Predicted the Depression (Excellent-Must Read!)
Phantom Jobs
Stimulus Spending Doesn't Work (Excellent-Must Read!)
Stop The Spending And Cut The Taxes (Excellent-Must Read!)
The Stimulus Didn't Work (Excellent-Must Read!)
The Keynesians Were Wrong Again (Excellent-Must Read!)
Big Government, Big Recession (Excellent!)
What's the Stimulus Have To Do With It?
A Jobs Bottom
The Lessons of the 'Stimulus' Bill
Obama Is Only Digging The Hole Deeper
Let's See What U.S. Economy Can Really Do
A Third Stimulus? Don't Repeat the Same Failures
Stop The Madness That's Killing Jobs
Why the Obama Stimulus Plan Must Fail
Another stimulus will have same result as first
Blue-State Stimulus?
The Stimulus - The Anatomy of a Failure
The Albany-Trenton-Sacramento Disease
Welcome Back, Carter
Not Everyone Guessed Wrong About Stimulus

Michigan Tax Day Tea Party Draws 5,000+

Photo by Mike Q

I really had been looking forward to this rally for some time. Yet the morning of April 15, I still had a moment of hesitation whether I should attend. This was, after all, the first protest rally I had ever attended.

I’ve never been involved in politics before but during the 2008 election I felt I had to, in some small way do something. So I started this blog. People are being misled by candidates, politicians, the media and education. Historic and economic truth was and is being drowned out. Now 100 days into the new administration not only has nothing changed, it is worse. The Tea Parties were a way to do something more and build from there.

I didn’t know what to expect, would there only be a small number of us? As I drove around looking for parking there were a lot of parked cars and the parking ramps were full. I thought it couldn’t possibly be all these cars were here because of the anti-bailout rallies? After I found parking, I had to walk a considerable distance. It wasn’t until I saw people carrying signs that I believed all these people walking were Tea Party protesters. I couldn’t believe how far away I was when I first heard the cheers of the crowd. It was quite loud and impressive. The amount of people I saw when I got to the capital was a great surprise.

My first protest was great, I had a good time. America is a great country. We are truly blessed to be here, even if things don't look so good now. It was a great day, great weather, with great American patriots from all over. I was able to work my way through the crowds. People were polite and friendly. Such a diverse rally here at the steps of the Michigan capitol building; so many young people, children, college kids to senior citizens and families. This was a genuine grass roots rally of hard working Americans. The state police were friendly; chatting with the people. After the rally about fifty volunteers stayed after to clean up the area. The Democratic mayor even said there should be more protests because they bring business to the downtown area. If the protests were violent he definitely would not be saying that.

There were a lot of people who protested for the first time today, that really means something. It should be a lesson to all that something is wrong in D.C.



These Tax Day Tea Parties are not a republican thing. They’re about conservatives, libertarians, independents, moderates; Americans fed up with bailouts, irresponsible spending, trillions of debt, corruption, hypocrisy and dishonest politicians only serving themselves with no accountability. Americans fed up with out of control spending and taxing at all levels of government; local, city, state and federal. It’s about this administration and congress choosing to ignore history by pushing their own agenda of piling on trillions of irresponsible spending that will increase job loss, prolong the recession and undo the American economic engine. It’s about a government that is taking away the ability of the people to help each other; a government causing the poverty and oppression of its citizens. We want both parties to know, they serve us, they are not above the constitution and incompetence will not be tolerated. These Tax Day Tea Parties represent an America that understands economics better than this Administration and Congress.

These rallies are getting more people involved in the political process. I am glad I could be a part of America’s awakening. I can’t help but ask, like I am, how many are energized by fellow patriots you rallied with? How many feel you just need to be more involved?



On April 15, 2009 hundreds of thousands of people from over 800 cities, in 50 states attended the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party. We had 5000+ here in Lansing, Michigan; it was from 12 Noon to 1:00 PM. Michigan had 34 Tea Parties with 19,578 total attendees. According to PJTV, the official count is 832 events with 935,504 in attendance of the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party. There were events held the weekend after and there are links below for events in April, May, June, July and September.

PJTV attendance totals, top events, top states,view by state, by map, logs and event information.

See all events & totals with photos, video, etc. See future events as well, filter by state.

April 15th is past, now what? Check out AfterTheTeaParty.com and get involved.

MI Local Newspaper Coverage
The Lansing State Journal
The Detroit News


Photo by Sandy G (Great Sign) I blew my middle-class tax cut on this sign.

Tea Party Experience (blogs, photos, videos)
MI Capital Tea Party Photos, Saul Anuzis
Lansing, MI Photo-Blog, The Blogshevik
Lansing, MI Tax Day Tea Party Video, RightMichigan.com
My Tea Party Experience, Sarah Way Down South, Atlanta
Austin, TX Photos & Blog, PatriotWriter
Tax Day Tea Party, Mississippi Mama
Jackson, Mississippi Photos
Lafayette Sq Tea Party Photos, Heritage-Foundry
Dallas, TX Photos (Great Sign!)
Atlanta, GA Photos, Political Crave
Phoenix & Gilbert, AZ Photos, Sticker Patch
St. Louis, MO Photos
Everett, WA Photos
Boston Tea Party Photos
Tea Party Photos, ZooColony
Face of America Photos, UKnow I Am Right
Tea Party Directories
Tea Party Videos
Tea Party Update

Editorials
Tax Day Becomes Protest Day, WSJ
Tax Day Rallies Were Anything But 'Astroturf', IBD
Tea Party animals not boiling over, Mark Steyn
Big Government Backlash Brewing, Heritage-Foundry
Tea Party System, IBD
Republicans & the Tea Parties, WSJ

Tea Party Sites & Info
Tea Party Patriots
Tax Day Tea Party
Re Tea Party July 4
Tea Party Revolution
TEA Party Day