More Straws on the Taxpayers Backs

Whether the news comes from television or a paper we are being bombarded by bombastic bullshit about our economy. Everyone either has their finger in our pocket or is trying to do so. From the Long Island lawyer who told the state he made millions more than he did in order to collect a huge undeserved pension; to LIPA who used the argument that lower energy demand caused a shortfall in their budget thus necessitating a rate hike everyone is at fault. We need our government to be our advocate and help us through these difficult times.

Here is a short list of our modern day criminals and their crimes against the taxpayer.

1. On top of the outrageous claim noted above LIPA wishes to add late charges to the bills of delinquent payers. So if you could not afford to pay the original bill you will now not be able to pay a larger one. This will allow LIPA to show a bigger gap between invoiced amounts and collections and afford them a better chance at a rate hike.
What a fantastic strategy!
I believe such creative thinking deserves to be rewarded. Top LIPA management should receive free room and board for around 10 to 20 with time off for good behavior.

2. The heads of the 3 families met with Congress in DC again this week to plead their case for more of our money. They need this gift to continue the same practices they used in squandering all their money over the past few decades. They claim they are trying to save the jobs of the auto workers. Such sincerity is touching and I believe we should listen to them and save the industry. However the first step in curing a sick patient is to rid the body of the virus causing the problem, namely the three heads and their familes. In order for the taxpayer to LOAN more money to the auto industry we must include certain stipulations.

a.Top management must be gone and without a parachute. They should be fined a small percentage of their salaries and bonuses over the last 2 years to defray costs.
b. The new management is given a timetable to turn around their company and begin paying back the loan.

c. Last and most importantly they must hire American citizens and immediately start working on alternative fuel vehicles; more hybrids and electric cars that use no foreign oil at all. And they must report any attempted interference by 'Big Oil' when doing so.

3. The MTA is asking for a huge rate increase to cover their needs. I also have needs and one of them is to not pay more money to an organization that is run as ineptly as the MTA. How long have we been reading about tunnels for a second avenue subway or an LIRR link to Grand Central Station? The only thing in those holes is our wasted money. If a house is a money pit then I say the MTA should fix their own house before coming into mine for more cash. (Remember when we were told that tolls were put in place to pay for their respective bridge or tunnel and when paid for the tolls would stop? Well? Now they want to add tolls to the as yet free East River bridges.)

The two things all of these groups have in common are bad management and huge cojones. Unfortunately we need these companies and organizations in order to have a well run country.

Long Island needs power and since LIPA is the only game in town we need them. But they must be under steadfast scrutiny.

All of us in the area need a well run MTA with the key words being 'well run' to keep our local economy going and stop businesses and resdients from moving out. But again we must demand better scrutiny and accountability.

And the country unfortunately needs an auto industry if for no other reason than to keep 3 million names off the unemployment roll call. There are already millions of Americans on that list who for no reason of their own were recently laid off and are not receiving bailouts. In fact they are being hit with higher rates and fares at a time when they can barely afford to heat their homes!

These companies exhibit true Chutzpah which is best described in the story of the boy who killed his parents and then requested leniency from the judge because he was an orphan! They beg us to forgive them their earlier discretions and grant absolution so that they may start over but they give us no guarantee that they will change their repugnant behavior. The jails are filled with individuals who made similar statements.

And throughout this crisis our government who sat idly by wasting their own share of our money is deciding which of their friends shall receive bailouts. Nearly one trillion of our taxpayer dollars have been given to Wall Street firms and nearly bankrupt banks with no accountability asked for or received for past failures or future promises.

As a recently and unfairly laid off unemployed taxpayer I ask where is the leadership, both local and national to turn this thing around and when will they do so?

Bail Out Detroit?

There is a push to bail out yet another failing bunch of SOBs using tax-payer money. After seeing the banks get help Detroit's Big Three (make that sort of big 2½) is saying "Me too." But I say not so fast.

Let's see how the last bail out worked.

We gave money to the banks who had gone into ridiculously risky mortgages given without income or background checks to people who had a hard time buying bread. Then when the mortgages went into default and they couldn't collect they were stumped as to why. So they stopped loaning money altogether. Their errors were hard to hide and pretty soon they showed terrible losses. Then one by one all of the once great financial giants toppled and took our economy and retirement funds with them. Most of the hard working tax paying Americans are now hurting tremendously. Many of them have lost their jobs and many more are about to.

The financial brain trust asked Congress for help and they got billions to the industry to jump start the economy. All the banks had to do was start loaning money again and the economy would not stagnate. The problem was that Congress fell into the trap of answering the proverbial e-mail from Nicaragua. they sent our money out without any stipulations attached.

The banks could not believe their good fortune, literally. Here was money they could use to hide their debt and make the books look good again, almost. And with the money they had left they were able to buy up weaker institutions making it even harder for normal people to get loans in the future.

Two officers (sic) come to mind. The first is for Congress and the second for Detroit.
First Sting who I would like to paraphrase here:
Every move you make - Every breath you take - Every dollar of ours you spend - Every rule you bend - You'll be screwing us.
But since the latest farce is about to take place by helping the auto industry I believe the real policeman I would like to have is Robo Cop.

The incredible, unprecedented, unregulated greed that signaled the end of our current banking industry is well documented and it is not necessary to repeat it here. But I wish to caution against moving forward on the highway of help for Detroit without a GPS (Governmental Planning System.) Of course there is no such thing and the last two words could never fit with the first one but...

So now let's review the auto industry.
Back in the 70's we had a small gas shortage. The disgusting smelly rag-heads of OPEC decided to see if they could screw the world and turned off the pipelines. This caused long lines at any open gas station. I witnessed a scam when a man wearing an apron sold tickets to all the cars on a gas line for $5 each. The tickets were to be handed to the gas attendant to save time at the pump. He left with over $100. I'll bet today he is either a bank CEO or working in congress.

So how did the Big Three react to the gas shortage?
Did they promote fuel efficient cars?
Did they start working on better and safer vehicles?
Did they even notice the pain at the pump?
The best answer comes from the now defunct American Motors Corp. (AMC) Their stable of vehicle was the Nash, the Hudson, the Ramble, and the Gremlin. The last one looked like a half a car and had the best gas mileage of probably any car in the country.
So AMC went out and made more of them and promoted them and advertised them, right?
Wrong!
AMC ignored the car and instead went whole hog for their other product , the gas guzzling Jeep. And AMC was bought at a next to nothing price back in 1987 by Chrysler.

Since that time Detroit forgot about things. Actually they didn't gforget since they never really understood what happened.
But Japan sure did.

The Toyota Prius is the best selling hybrid in America and has been on the road for 8 years. General Motors is touting their "Volt" to be ready ina few years, assuming GM is still around. Eight years ago I had an electric car but we all know how hard Detroit, Exxon, and the Saudis fought against those vehicles.

So Japan and other foreign companies got it right and Detroit could not. So why reward them? The currently structured auto industry that teams the grubby, greedy, grabby hands of both the CEOS of Detroit and the auto-worker's union in a waltz of immense ineptitude is seeking a bailout. Okay let me be careful and clear about my opinion and answer with a well thought out, OVER MY DEAD BODY!

If we just hand more money to morons such as these then we are the true idiots. Lets instead help the auto workers by getting them jobs with the new Big Three, uh Four. Let proven winners take over our auto making for a while. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Kia and the like should be allowed to move in and take over with the restriction that they build their factories and therefore their cars here in America. They must hire the skilled American workers first and continue to make vehicles as safe and efficient as they have been doing for oh so long.

As for the big wigs of the big 2½ Congress should not only not give them a handout but rather ask them for some of their bonuses and parahutes back to be used by hard working Americans as, you know, gas money.