Cash For Clunkers - My Two Cents Worth

On the surface, it looks nice. After just one week the government went through $1B our taxpayer's money to subsidize those affluent enough to purchase a car, and as of this writing congress is debating and will probably vote on printing another $2B to inject more money into this project.

I received an email from my Congressman, Bart Gordon earlier this week on how proud he was to have been one of the sponsors of the PAYGO bill, which was voted on and passed the House a few days prior.

In it he states that Congress will have to come up with the cash to pay for any money spent from here on out. So my question is: Where's these extra $2B coming from? and how will Bart Gordon vote?

I would hope that the banks acted responsibly this time around and only approved funds to those qualified to pay it back. I would hope that this time around we're not going to get stuck with this bill as well. Only time will tell.

If you're affluent enough to have been able to purchase a car without government help, I just helped make your down payment... shame on you! If you're not affluent enough to be purchasing a new car today, and you did... shame on you.

"Beer Summit" - My Two Cents Worth

With all the hoopla surrounding the White House Beer Summit is it proper to ask: "What have we learned?"

Well, I tell you what I have learned.

I have learned that we have a Yahoo for President! Well, actually I didn't just learn this, this is something I have suspected for some time, but with each passing day, I am more convinced that this is a fact.

Never mind for a moment the hope he has brought to our country, the unity he has created, the transparency he's working under, just never mind all that if just for a moment. Focus on his ability to speak "off the cuff". An ability that demonstrated to the world just what type of person he is.

I'm not so sure the remark about the "police acting stupidly" was written on his teleprompter. This had to be an impromptu remark, a remark that overshadowed the entire content of the purpose of the news conference.

Oh, wait a minute. Was this his intention? Was the news conference going so badly that he had to create a distraction so that the news would focus on this one comment instead of the entire subject at hand? Clever!

We all know by now that he did not have all the facts. We all know now that had he had the facts he would have thought twice about making such remark. Or did he have the facts? An opportunist he is, I tell you.

The White House Beer Summit is nothing more and nothing less than a great photo op. Nothing will come out of this. This will get a couple of more days of headlines and will be forgotten, that is at least until re-election time when the media and the dems will bring this out as proof that Øbama kept his promise to work on race relations.

Bart Gordon and "PAYGO" - My Two Cents Worth

I have just received an e-mail from the offices of Rep. Bart Gordon (D) TN-06 explaining to me why he is supporting HR-2920 aka "PAYGO" or the Pay-as-you-go bill.

You can view said email by clicking here.

I was overwhelmed and flabbergasted by my congressman's arrogance. Does he really pretend to believe that we cannot see right through him?

Sir, with you support and votes you have run up the deficit to levels never seen before. Additionally you say that "in 1998, the federal government saw its first budget surplus since 1969."

Had we spent responsibly, during the glory years of budget surplus, as we should have in programs that would have protected our country from terrorism, the events of September 11, 2001 would never had happened and therefore the spending that you Democrats so willingly point to as often as you can, would have never had happened and life would have been great.

There's plenty of blame to go around... both sides should take their hits. To continue to point to the spending between 2002 - 2008 as the culprit of our present day woes is useless and serves no purpose other than self promotion.

So that I understand Mr. Gordon his email tells us that, "PAYGO" means that "for every dollar we spend on a new program, we must find a U.S. dollar to pay for it." Why is he not telling us where we're going to find this dollar? Is it in a reduction of spending somewhere else? Is it in new taxes? Will this include the Healthcare program? Will they make this retroactive to the auto-bailout and stimulus fiasco?

Mr. Gordon, at first glance your email looks nice and responsible, but upon further review your finger pointing is what we here on main street are sick and tired of, and lack of further explanations and specifics leaves us wondering: How will your next junket to Europe be paid for?