Obama Does Something Right????

I really have been having a tough time trying to decide what to write about for the past few weeks. I am back in the states after three months in Thailand in which I made a lot of friends and worked really hard. I miss most of the people I met there, but I am glad to be back. I actually miss one a lot more than the others. But, that’s a whole different story and not necessarily for this column.

Now, onto politics which is now and will always be my passion, besides making movies of course! It seems that President Obama finally did something right this morning. He told the United Auto Workers to: “take a long walk off a short pier.” Well, not in so many words, but in reality, that is what happened. I agree with this wholeheartedly. Although, the implications of the rest of his speech have more far reaching and detrimental effects to the United States and not just its economy.

Obama’s decision this morning that the US Government will not give any more money to Chrysler and/or GM unless they come up with an acceptable restructuring plan in 30 days for Chrysler and 60 days for GM is a direct blow to the auto unions as well as the companies’ other vendors. In the event they both fail to comply within the time periods allotted, both will be put into Chapter 11 proceedings under the US Bankruptcy Code. As I have already discussed in this column, that will give the bankruptcy judge in each instance the ability to void the union contracts in order to make the companies viable when they come out of bankruptcy. It is also gives the judge the ability to void any other obligations as well. The bloated UAW will finally be put into its place.

This is a good thing and I applaud President Obama for having guts to go against one of the Democratic Party’s strongest allies! However, this announcement from the Obama administration is not necessarily as good as it may sound. Another part of the announcement is that the President ordered the firing of the Chairman of GM in the process. The White House demanded that Rick Wagoner, resign before any more federal aid would be forthcoming. This, my friends, is beyond Socialism and represents a very large leap in the direction of Communism.

Is the Obama Administration heading us down the road to Central Planning? Is this what the administration is trying to use the power of the US Government for? Is the man occupying the White House trying to set back Capitalism more than 100 years? It really is beginning to look that way. I thought President Reagan and Bush Sr., had beaten Communism once and for all in the late 1980s.

In the past few weeks, President Obama has started putting limitations on major businesses that really looks like central planning by the federal government. It all started with the limitation on executive pay for companies taking public money about six weeks ago. Then, it got really scary recently when the administration announced it would start regulating and limiting executive pay on companies that were financially sound if they were in an industry that could effect the economy as a whole or if they were too big to fail. Sounds to me like every business out there that is not a ‘mom and pop’ operation is now subject to Federal regulation and control.

Then, there was the brouhaha over the AIG bonuses. Didn’t the Obama administration approve those bonuses in the last bailout arrangement with AIG? That is what the evidence shows. Of course, this was all forgotten when the bonuses became publicized and the Obama administration had to turn its back on the AIG board. Unfortunately, for the Obama administration, it was a no win situation either way. If they agreed with the bonuses, as they initially did, the public was against him. If they came out against the bonuses which is what they ended up doing, it looks more like Central Planning.

I suggest that all of you immediately write your Congressmen and Senators and inform them that you will not allow this extreme regulation to continue. We must get tough now because there will be no turning back once it gets into place. This is a Capitalist country and must remain as such. You should also think about contacting Timothy Geithner since he seems to be the “brain” behind all of this.

However, so that it does not appear that all I do is bash the President, I must state that on foreign affairs, I have to give him a little more credit. He is planning on taking a real hard line with the Taliban. The latest news report shows that the President is planning on increasing troops in Afghanistan and has also told the Pakistani government that they must be actively involved in defeating the Taliban. Also, as of this morning, the US deployed two destroyers towards North Korea to monitor North Korea’s pending missile tests. The destroyers are equipped with the necessary equipment to take down a missile in mid-air.

Leonard Volpe, a friend of my brother’s forwarded this link to me for review. I suggest that all of you review this at your earliest convenience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1 This link makes a strong argument that the Bush Administration and Republicans argued to the Democratically controlled Congress the risks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsing long before it became an issue and that the Dems did nothing about it. If this is true, then the majority of the blame for these economic crises should be on the Democratic Party.

The Wall Street Journal published an article on March 13, 2009, entitled “Obama’s Poll Numbers are falling to Earth.” In it, the newspaper makes a strong argument that Obama’s approval ratings are not as high as they appear to be on their face. In fact, it goes on to say that his approval ratings are lower than President Bush’s were at the equivalent time in his presidency in 2001. According to the Article and Rasmussen, Obama has lost all of his Republican support and a good part of his independent support and that the current trend is against him.

Well, that’s about it for now. I wish all of you the best in the coming few days. I will try to make these columns steadier in the weeks ahead as has been requested by a number of my readers.

©2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to use excerpts will be freely given upon request.

Tax and Spend is Back

My movie for the ABC/Family Channel and Millennium Films, “The Prince and Me 4,” is pretty much in the can. We have two more days of shooting in Bangkok and will be finished on Saturday. The last few weeks have been very hectic as we have been pretty much shooting in the jungle with all of the infestations that come with being in a jungle. I must say that I’ve seen more creatures that I never new existed during this adventure; all of them creepy and crawly.

But now we have a break for the first time in four weeks and I am ready to start thinking about the economy and politics again. After reviewing the news today and catching up on articles that were sent to me by my readers, it seems that the world truly is falling apart. Well, at least, that is what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama would want everyone to think.

The biggest spending package in the history of the United States, in the guise of a stimulus package, is now law. Unfortunately, as I have said many times in the past few months, it is not working and will not work. Unemployment is up. California has just hit double digits in that category. The banks are still not loaning and foreclosures were up 30% in February. The economy is shrinking, although at a much slower pace than Obama and Pelosi want you to think. And, what do our friendly Democrats say they want to do to end this recession? What do you think? Spend more. Congress is already contemplating another stimulus package after spending 870 billion dollars of “fake” money a few weeks ago.

Let’s give more people more free money. That’s what I always say. Oh, I’m sorry, not me, the Democrats. Well, it seems to be working with the public. Obama’s approval rating after less than two months is at 60%. However, major economists are not buying into the Obama euphoria. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, economists gave Obama an average score of 59 out of 100 on his economic performance. The majority sentiment from these economists is that whatever is being done is being done too late.

I beg to differ with these economists in one major way. I feel that too much money is being spent. This presidency is beginning to look like the traditional tax and spend policies of Democrats that go back to Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. The old world Democrats are back to haunt us. Maybe I should go back to my cave in the jungles of Thailand. Am I mistaken or did the United States reject this kind of thinking by not electing George McGovern, Walter Mondale, or Michael Dukakis president?

Stimulus packages do not work. Japan in the 1990’s passed one stimulus package after another. Nothing helped. The recession and zero percent interest rates lingered. The only thing that ends recessions is the end of the cycle. Just leave it alone and it will get better. That is the right way to deal with this. Putting the country deeper and deeper into debt will just make the recession worse.

This recession, as bad as it is, is not nearly as bad as Obama and his cohorts are claiming. It is more comparable to the recession of 1981-82 than that of the Great Depression. Bradley R. Schiller, an economics professor at Nevada–Reno in a recent article entitled, “Obama’s Rhetoric is the Real Catastrophe,” makes a strong case that the numbers in this recession do not pan out with the Great Depression and that Obama is “turning fear mongering into an art form.” Isn’t this exactly what people blamed the Republicans for in the last eight years? After 9/11, all we heard was that Bush and Company were using fear to keep the American populace at bay.

I agree with Professor Schiller. Unemployment now is at about 8% nationwide. In the 81-82 recession it peaked out at about 11%. Both of these numbers are way below that of the Great Depression where it peaked at more than 25%. The Congressional Budget Office is predicting that the economy will shrink by approximately 2% this year. That’s about four times less than the economy shrank for three years in a row in the early 1930’s.

Basically, Mr. Schiller is arguing that Obama’s words may be creating more of a catastrophe than the actual economic numbers are showing. If Obama does not stop, consumers will not purchase goods and services. Obama will have created a self fulfilling prophecy and we will be in the middle of a second Great Depression.

Wall Street seems to agree that Obama is failing as well. On February 10, Treasure Secretary Geithner unveiled Obama’s economic plan to the country. Since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off almost 20%. In fact, other than the last two trading sessions, the Dow has almost completely collapsed. At what point will people start believing in the economy again? Maybe, they need a little pep talk along the lines of Ronald Reagan, instead of the catastrophic talk that is coming out of Obama, Pelosi and Reid’s collective mouths.

Senator John McCain has recently been quoted as saying that the 870 billion dollar stimulus package is full of earmarks. One of his recent TV appearances had him stating that Obama ran on a platform against earmarks and now he has passed the biggest earmark in Congressional history. I guess he forgot his campaign promise or just ignored it.

A careful look at this stimulus package proves McCain is correct. The biggest individual earmark in history, two billion dollars to build a power plant with zero emissions, is a guaranteed failure. Even the best minds at MIT say that this technology is not available yet. Maybe, Obama is just beginning to realize that this is how Congress works? Or, maybe he knew that all along and he should just tell the American public the truth. He is going to do whatever is necessary to get his Socialist agenda passed into law, including bankrupting the American government. In fact, some of the pundits are beginning to call him “Comrade Obama.”

Another wonderful earmark that was in the spending bill is a pet project of Senator Harry Reid: A beautiful museum for his home state of Nevada. I don’t care what kind of museum it is, the federal government should not be paying for it. But do not tell Harry Reid that. It is something he really wants. Maybe if he screams and yells loud enough he will get the Federal Government to pay for the high speed railway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles which is another of his pet projects. At least, I will get some enjoyment out of that. No more driving on Interstate 15 on Friday afternoons. However, I am sure the businesses along Interstate 15 would suffer tremendously. No more “Bun Boy,” “Barstow Station,” or “Peggy Sue’s Fifties Diner.”

A reader of mine, Tay Voye from Spokane, Washington stated to me in an e-mail that the, “870 Billion raid on the treasury is the biggest theft in the history of mankind and most people I know think it is just great…scares the hell out of me.” Right on, my brother. This, coupled with Obama’s recent budget proposals show that our Democratic friends do not care how much they spend, even if its borrowed money.

Obama’s recent budget proposal has an expected deficit of 1.7 trillion dollars. That’s right, trillion. Even in Bush’s worst deficit year, he spent only about 500 billion more than the government collected. President Bush may have doubled the deficit in his eight years in office, but Obama is going to try and double it in his first four. In fact, at the current pace, he may triple it if he gets reelected. Obama’s proposed budget deficit is 12% of the GDP. The last time we saw that number was in 1945 during the highest spending period in World War 2. Bush’s absolute worst number does not even come close. But, President Bush is one of the most hated men in the country and Obama is one of the most loved. I just do not understand this.

Another one of my readers, Lew Whitehill from Kentucky stated that Obama is, “On a dangerous path for the country. Wall Street is voting every day with the Dow as the ballot. . . .undisciplined spending and uncertainty keeps the Dow moving lower. This is just a bare bones starter regarding Obama who is most ambitious in attempting to dismantle the free market and discourage risk reward incentives. Those that I know have seen their net worth plummet without any real signs that their net worth is recoupable. In other words, I can’t stand him and what he stands for. Neither can most of the people that I deal with. So, I ask myself, where is the 50-60% of the populace that support him? Those idiots are out there somewhere.”

If Obama’s approval rating is still pretty darn high, at least, the majority of the country feels that Congress is failing. The latest average of polls has their disapproval rating at 55%. Maybe, we can get rid of them in two years and then Mr. Obama will have no more power. He may have to live with a hostile Congress that will not let him do whatever he wants. Although, his beloved Democratic Congress is not letting him do too much without their earmarking anyway.

I must state for the record that Obama is keeping some of his campaign promises. He is doing everything he can to keep the pro-abortionists and pro-death supporters happy. One of his first acts was to sign an executive order cancelling one of President Bush’s executive orders that was anti-abortion. And, just this week, he signed or should I say executed an order making stem-cell research more readily available in the country. I am sure this makes a bunch of Republicans in the south that voted for him really happy. Of course, I am sure he does not care about them anyway. He just needs to keep Illinois, New York and California on his side. They support him financially and that is all he needs. Maybe, they will abandon him as they see their pockets getting progressively emptier.

It’s time for me to close this week and in closing I would like to say that I will be back in the United States in about one week. I hope it is the same as when I left it. Of course, I am definitely a lot poorer than when I left. Shooting this film in Bangkok has been a pleasure and I want to thank all of my hosts in this wonderful country. You all know who you are. Now, it’s on to post-production.

© Copyright 2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to use excerpts will be freely given.