So I'm driving down the road, juggling the appointments from one of the fifteen things I had to do on Saturday related to the four jobs I am having to work in order to put food on my table this Christmas, and I heard it. Some person on the radio making some claim that the tax-payers of the rest of the nation "owed it" to California to add yet another bailout to the tab.
Because?
California is a state that's "too big to fail!"
The screaming voices--that were slated in their introductions to the conversation as economic "experts"--were arguing that California was due because some Californians ponied up cash in the savings and loan crisis a generation ago. One lone voice on the panel spoke up and said, "Why can't states pay their own way?" And just like that the screaming at each other began all over again.
Once in the course of the discussion some horrible conservative voice spoke up and said, "States can't continue to spend more money than they have, and expect to stay in business." To which the pro-bailout morons began attacking with even greater ferocity.
But for all the screaming that is going on, when is someone going to speak up for people like me? Working four jobs to hold life and limb together and doing the best I can to generously help those in need while doing it? When do suddenly ALL of my earnings go to help some hapless schlep of a manager who doesn't know how to meet a budget? When does my maximum amount of earnings possible meet the criteria of officially solving the crunch that seems to have everyone standing at Congress' door with the hand outstretch saying, "please sir?"
So far I've bailed out decisions makers who sold fraudulent mortgage securities to a series of institutions (some of whom rather historic) who were forced to buy them under federal law that upon purchase deflated from default and left everyone holding the bag.
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Everyone except the racist Congressional black caucus who told those seeking oversight that they were racist, Franklin Raines who walked off with $90 million in his pocket, and Barney Frank and Maxine Waters who schemed behind the scenes for the promise of constituency payback, or a lover's job.
So far it also looks like I'll be bailing out three auto companies who haven't been competitive in perhaps a generation, who promise retirees things they can not deliver, who are bleeding to the tune of $2 billion every thirty days, who have made little promise to change much of anything, and who have spent millions on lobbying for the bailouts they are now begging for.
Now fiscally irresponsible states like California and New Jersey want in on the cash. (My cash, and yours mind you.)
Both California and New Jersey empower sanctuary cities to hoard illegal aliens, defying federal law, and costing the rest of the tax-payers in those states a sizable bills towards guaranteed emergency room health care, education, and crime prevention/law enforcement. In California the demand has so overwhelmed some school districts and hospitals that those organizations have already gone out of business. In other words they are spending more money than they have, keeping "promises" they are powerless to keep, and now they've come knocking on your door asking you to pony up some more.
Meanwhile the screaming heads on television keep getting more and more indignant as they repeat the mantra, "too big to fail."
And to top it all off, we just elected a President-elect who has promised even more "stimulus" (fancy word for giving people who don't work, the money of people who do) and bailout help (doing the same sort of thing for companies who are abysmal failures) and now, if we are to believe the screaming heads, incompetent state governments of New Jersey, California, and anyone else who may want to jump in line.
The McCullough's have long been a giving family. My parents gave to ministry and charities when I was little by the dozens even though we lived in a house that was purchased for $12,000, and my dad never made as much as $50,000 a year in his whole life.
Even though I personally experienced tremendous economic set-back, job loss, financial hardship, and major struggle in 2008, somehow--by God's grace--we still were able to help build homes for those without them, feed starving children, and numbers of other things. Yet if the bailouts continue, I may not be able to continue to do these or other acts of charity, that I feel strong conviction to do.
I don't say this to flaunt anything in public, but rather as justification.
Justification to tell Washington DC to shut the faucet off. Tell everyone who comes knocking, "No!"
Explain kindly that times are excruciating, that the average worker in America is not able to give more than they already are, and show them the door.
It may make for an uncomfortable set of meetings on Capitol Hill, but across the heartland it would win hearts, minds, and possibly votes.
The enthusiastic push that seems unquenchable from irresponsible companies, politicians who want or “have” to make good on favors, and the screaming manic voices on television and radio that insist we continue this cycle of crazed insanity are pushing us all into faster centralized control and socialized governance than ever before.
And when that happens we will be neither free to provide for ourselves, nor free to be ourselves. (And this doesn’t even begin to address the issue of defending ourselves from those in today’s world who wish us harm.)
Frankly, I'd just as soon depend upon my own creative problem-solving skills to insure my situation than Barney Frank's, because at least I know that my family's well being will be the central focus of my planning.
And though this holiday may be a little thin in numbers of presents under the tree, leaving our dignity in place, and allowing us a path to self reliant solutions may give us the best reason of all to think 2009 may in fact be a better year than 2008!
Everything else... is just white noise.
And I’ve “heard” enough!
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