Stop Pulling the Wagon

IMAGINE THIS 

You are on a train that is moving down the rails at 80 miles per hour.  You have been notified that  the railway bridge is out ahead.  Suddenly you realize that the trains engineer and conductor are having an argument in the seat just behind you.  One is saying they should reduce the trains speed to 78 miles per hour before they reach the bridges location  and the other is arguing they need to reduce the trains speed to 74 miles per hour.  In this nightmare scenario you are shouting at them that they need to stop the train but they either can’t hear you or won’t listen to you.  

Now visualize this:  Our nation is racing toward a 1.6 Trillion Dollar Budget Deficit for the next fiscal year.  This will be added to the 14+ Trillion Dollar National Debt.  You hear members of Congress arguing over whether we should cut the budget by 6 Billion Dollars or 60 Billion Dollars.  This is “chump change” when compared to the 1 Trillion 600 Billion Dollars they plan to add to our childrens and grandchildrens national debt.  In this nightmare you are shouting at them to “Stop the Train” and balance the budget but they can’t hear you or won’t listen to you.  

Do they understand that history shows us governments have always “solved” fiscal mismanagement “problems” by de-valuing and inflating the money supply?  From Ancient Rome to 1920’s Germany to 20th century Zimbabwe the story has been repeated.  Hyperinflation is not a new model car.  It is fiscal disaster.  Do they care?  Can they spell Zimbabwe?  A country where they finally started printing 100 Trillion Dollar Notes because of fiscal stupidity and even those notes wouldn’t buy a loaf of bread.  It seems we are on the same “tracks” to financial ruin as a nation.

Think about it………….

Bob Bandy

The Simpsons Movie - 20th Century Fox - Matt Groening

I ask the question metaphorically as I do not advocate violence. 

Still, what does the citizenry do when government will not listen to the clear voice of the people?

Federally run and mandated Healthcare – We don’t want it!

Amnesty for illegal aliens – No! 

Porous and open borders – No!

Bailouts for poorly run Corporations and States -No!

Bankrupting our children and grandchildren with deficit spending – No!

Micro-manage every aspect of our lives – No!

Tax everything and every part of my daily life – No!

Leave me alone, get out of my way and stay out of my wallet – YES!

Are these people so self focused on their own failed ideology and so oblivious to the will of the American people?  Have they no eyes?  Have they no ears?  The American people are fast approaching the point of open rebellion.  The anger is building day by day.  Revolution is in the wind.  They have taken our America and trashed it. 

Pray that it will be only a peaceful rebellion and confined to the ballot box.                         …..Bob

I ONCE HEARD THAT IF YOU ARE UNDER THIRTY AND NOT A LIBERAL, YOU DON’T HAVE A HEART AND IF YOU ARE OVER THIRTY AND NOT A CONSERVATIVE, YOU DON’T HAVE A BRAIN.  

IN “WIZARD OF OZ” TERMS, ONE WOULD BE THE TIN MAN AND THE OTHER WOULD BE THE SCARCROW.

It is my view that neither Liberals or Conservatives are inherently and intentionally evil.  In my later years of life I have even considered myself to be something of a “Closet” Liberal.  I keep wishing that Liberal ideas would work but I have been around long enough to know that they do not.

BIG GOVERNMENT IS NOT NECESSARILY EVIL,  IT IS JUST BY NATURE HORRIBLY INEFFICENT!  THE MOST EFFECTIVE FORM OF GOVERNMENT IS LOCAL, ACCOUNTABLE AND CONCENTRATES ON DOING JUST A FEW THINGS WELL AND DOING THOSE WITHIN VERY SPECIFIC PARAMETERS AND ON A LIMITED BUDGET. 

I am thinking that we may be on the “cusp” of a very Un-Civil War as a Nation.  Not a war of guns and battles (I hope) but a War that would see our culture degenerate into “Unarmed Camps” of non-negotiable demands that are at polar opposition to one another.

THE TRUTH IS THAT NOT EVERTHING CAN BE NEGOTIATED.  I REMEMBER THAT MY FATHER TAUGHT ME THAT YOU CANNOT BE A LITTLE BIT DIS-HONEST ANYMORE THAN YOU CAN BE A LITTLE BIT PREGNANT. 

As just one example, how does a person who believes that life is sacred and begins at conception negotiate with another person who believes that it is all about a womans right to choose and its not a baby till after its born?  There is no middle ground here.  And this is only one example. 

Its sort of like being at war with an enemy who has only one non-negotiable demand.  That you and yours be dead.  Whats to negotiate? 

TRUTH IS TRUTH.  SOME THINGS ARE SIMPLY RIGHT OR WRONG.  NOT EVERYTHING CAN BE FIXED.  SO WHAT DO WE DO?          – Bob 

Whether I agree with her politically in every area or not,  here are some of the things I like about Sara Palin:

Sarah Palin articulates and lives by many of the values I not only believe in but are the foundations of my life.

Sarah Palin shares my love of country and my vision of what America can be.

Sarah Palin believes that every human life is important and has something to contibute.  She believes, as I do, that babies with Down’s Syndrome are not “throw-a-ways” and have something to bring to our world.  I have personally known several  people who have had Down’s Syndrome and all of them had loving and kind personalities.  Not a single one was a liar, a thief or a murderer.

Sarah Palin makes members of the “far left” crazy and I enjoy watching their antics!  In their fear and revulsion of what she stands for, they go to such extremes and make such silly statements that I find them entertaining.         

As I said at the beginning,  I may disagree with Sarah Palin on some issues but I love the way she stands up for her values.    – Bob

Question:  What do you call a building where people prostitute themselves for money? 

Question:  What do you call the people who work in a building where they prostitute themselves for money?

I am ashamed of what is going on in the halls of Government.   I am ashamed of backroom deals.   I am ashamed of those who sell their votes.  I am ashamed of those who violate their promise to serve the people they were elected to  represent.   I am ashamed of those who betray both the letter and intent of our Constitution. 

I am ashamed that a man who has never run so much as a Lemonade Stand can bring in and lecture, in a condescending and contemptuous manner, those who have spent their lives making payrolls and working in business and commerce.  What arrogance!  And he wonders why jobs are not being created.  DUH!

When I served in the military I remember taking an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.  I took pride in that oath and I ncver violated it.  Countless others have done the same.

Too many of those who supposedly serve us in Congress serve only themselves.  They  have sold out the Country and  the  people they promised to serve. 

In their ambition, arrogance, greed and self indulgence they are Bankrupting us as a nation both financially and morally. 

Forget “Contempt of Congress”,  I have “Contempt for Congress”.   They do not Represent the American Values I believe in.    

Bob Bandy

I do not believe that I am the only one to recognize that what Osama Bin Laden tried, but failed,  to do to the United States, we have done to ourselves. 

When those planes flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 it was the intention of Osama Bin Laden to cripple or destroy the economy of the United States.

Many States (California, New York, Michigan and others) as well as the Federal Government are financially dysfunctional and  virtually Bankrupt.  The States have not filed the Bankruptcy paperwork (yet) and the Federal Government cannot file Bankruptcy but will finance its insolvency with inflation (more later).

California (where I live) is in a 25 Billion Dollar hole and is still digging deeper with no realistic options to get out of the hole.  They “burned” the ladder.

The Federal Government just blew past their 12 Trillion Dollar “credit card limit” and Congress is looking to raise the limit to 14 Trillion Dollars with the hope that this new limit will get them past the next election.

In California, the state has three major sources of revenue (plus an endless array of fees, assessments etc).  Those are Property Taxes, Sales Taxes and Income Taxes. When the housing “bubble” burst it triggered a financial “Perfect Storm”.  Since California was/is dependent on property taxes that are based on a percentage of property values, when those values declined 40-60%,  revenues plunged.  What followed was like a snowball going downhill.  Fiscal disaster.  And, the State has already “pre-spent” the planned for future revenues which are not going to come in.

At the Federal Government level our elected representatives are not willing to make the hard choices needed to cut spending and instead just keep running up the debt.  At some point just paying the interest on that debt will consume a significant portion of the nations annual tax revenues and then the “Feds” will have to greatly increase the printing of “Fiat” (worth less and less) paper money.  In this process any savings you have will be devalued.  If interest rates go up, and they will have to, “Katie Bar The Door”, we will either have hyper-inflation or we all need to learn to speak Chinese.

Our Leaders need to stop spending money we don’t have, stop creating “Entitlements” we can’t afford, stop borrowing the future of our Children and Grandchildren and stop lying to us.  So far, they are not showing any inclination of changing their ways. 

I don’t like gloom and doom scenarios any more than anyone else.  Somebody please show me where I am wrong in this analysis.  Its the old Ant and Grasshopper story.  We taxpayers are the ants and those in charge are the grasshoppers. 

Who do we blame?  We (the People) elected ‘Em!          

Bob Bandy