The dollar in one graphic picture.

The article below has a great graphic on the decline in the value of the dollar since 1913 while showing the more accelerated decline that occurred  after 1973 when Nixon took us off the gold standard and rendered the dollar a 100% pure fiat paper currency. The "Dollar" graphic was compiled from data from the government's Bureau of Labor and Statistics. 

 

Ultimate Bailout: The $100 Trillion Cram Down

 

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/195/968/Ultimate_Bailout:_The_100_Trillion_Cram_Down.html

 

"As you are about to see, the motion is about to get a lot faster because there is a new, efficient tool being used to strip value away from savers known as the Bailout.

The first dollar Cram Down took about 100 years to strip 95% of the value from savers.  The next 95% devaluation will take just a handful of years.

A number of commentators have estimated we are already into the bailouts to the tune of at least $14 trillion."

Bill Clinton and his Republican NAFTA Baby Co-Conspirators

"[The task is to] covertly lower the standard of living, the whole social structure, of America so that we can be merged with all other nations." -- Rowan Gaither (1909-1961) Attorney, investment banker, President of the Ford Foundation (1953-1956)

Bill Clinton and his Republican NAFTA Baby Co-Conspirators

The “Free Trade” Boondoggle

Although inflation, taxation, lower wages and massive job losses have been bleeding the middle class dry, the history of the loss of good paying manufacturing jobs is quite interesting.  Even more interesting, it was actually planned!  And while there are other components to the systematic selloff of America, like our criminal Congress Critters passing bills that tax domestic corporate earnings at much higher rates if they produce and earn in the U.S. versus earning their dough offshore, another major component of our misery is NAFTA and other horrifying trade agreements supported by Republicans and Democrats alike.   The expediting of the real bleed of American jobs is fully attributable to Bill Clinton who enthusiastically supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).   Despite numerous warnings that NAFTA would be catastrophic to the American middle class and domestic manufacturing, the political class was more interested in filing its campaign coffers with special interest dough by selling multi-national corporatists legal protectionism.

NAFTA was a piece of legislation that was unprecedented in its scope and economic consequences as it conferred dictatorial powers of implementation upon the executive branch of government without any congressional oversight whatsoever. Moreover, NAFTA established secret working groups that are publicly funded, totally unaccountable to anyone and they operate off the radar of congressional and public scrutiny.  

NAFTA passed in both houses of a Democratic controlled Congress in 1993.  In the Senate, it passed with 61 yeas and 38 nays.  In the House, it was much closer at 234 yeas to 200 nays.  The Republicans in the House really came through for Clinton by providing 132 Yeas to counter 156 Democratic nays.  Still, 40% of the Democrats in the House voted for NAFTA. 

The vote itself is more than a bit intriguing.  Many of NAFTA’s congressional supporters ended up as presidential candidates or high ranking congressional office holders and government officials.  On the Senate side, the big name Democrats who voted for NAFTA includes Bill Bradley, Tom Daschle, Christopher Dodd, Ted Kennedy (deceased), Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and Joe Biden, now Vice President.  A lot of these Democrats had made various bids for the presidency or vice presidency of the United States.  Interestingly, big name NAFTA supporting Republicans includes John McCain, Bob Dole (defeated by Clinton), Mitch McConnell (current Senate Minority Leader) and many others who were none too eager to assist Bill Clinton in the sellout of the American worker.

On the House side, NAFTA supporters included big name GOPers like Dennis Hastert, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, John Boehner and Ron Portman, all of whom rose to leadership positions in the House or the Bush Administration.  Democrat Nancy Pelsoi, who voted yes on NAFTA, ended up Speaker of the House for her role in decimating U.S. manufacturing and jobs.

Clearly, these traitorous rogues were handsomely rewarded with greater political power for engineering the systematic dismantling of the world’s greatest manufacturing legend in all of human history.

But the wholesale slaughter of the American middle class doesn’t end with NAFTA.  It was immediately followed up by another Clinton initiative and victory with the aid of a Democratic controlled Congress hungry to continue wiping out the American middle class – subjecting America to the World Trade Organization, another boondoggle that savaged the American worker and has resulted in Chinese poison foods and other toxic products entering U.S. markets.   These horrors consist of Chinese seafood raised in sewage contaminated waters, poisonous ingredients that are killing our pets and the substituting of deadly industrial grade ingredients for pharmaceutical grade ingredients in many other products and raw materials.  

 In discussing the WTO, Republican Newt Gingrich admitted that by “transferring from the United States at a practical level significant authority to a new organization” that America would indeed experience radical changes in our system of governance.   In his own words Gingrich summarized the WTO, “This is not just another trade agreement.  This is adopting something which twice, once in the 1940’s and once in the 1950’s the U.S. Congress rejected.  I am not saying that we should reject it; I, in fact, lean toward it.  But I think we have to be very careful because it is a very big transfer of power.”

Not only did Gingrich vote for NAFTA, he was an active participant in using a lame duck session of a Democratic Congress in 12/94 to get the U.S. entry into the WTO quickly approved before newly elected Republicans, who had swept the 11/94 elections, were sworn into office.   At that time many Republicans tended to vote in favor of U.S. sovereignty and against entangling the U.S. in complex trade deals that were potentially destructive to the interests of the American worker and American manufacturing.

NAFTA was further strengthened by the passage of the Dominican Republic-Central American-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in July, 2005 when Caribbean nations were added.  Also, Bush followed in the steps of Clinton and  aggressively strengthened the anti-American worker agenda of Clinton.  To facilitate a more expeditious implementation of NAFTA/CAFTA, Bush signed the Security and Prosperity Agreement (SPP) with Mexico and Canada, which created more unaccountable layers of secretive government bureaucracy to merge the U.S. with Mexico and Canada via the North American Union. 

What are the effects of NAFTA/CAFTA on the American economy?

The Economic Policy Institute published a study of the effects of NAFTA on the U.S. worker more than a decade after its 1993 passage.   The results are alarming.

Despite its name, the primary purpose of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was not to facilitate trade among separate sovereign societies. Rather, it was to promote an integrated continental economy and establish the rules to govern it.

Twelve years later, it is clear that the costs to workers outweighed the benefits in all three nations.

The 1 million jobs displaced by NAFTA trade, primarily in manufacturing, would have paid $800 per week or more in 2004. The average job in the rest of the economy paid only $683 per week, 16% to 19% less than trade-related jobs. Growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have pushed more than 1 million workers out of higher-wage jobs and into lower-wage positions in non-trade related industries. Thus, the displacement of 1 million jobs from traded to non-traded goods industries reduced wage payments to U.S. workers by $7.6 billion in 2004 alone.

NAFTA alone is responsible for the loss of at least 1,000,000 good paying U.S. jobs, mostly in manufacturing while at the same time wages continue to be driven down.  But this EPI study is old and doesn’t even begin to include the current economic carnage.

Other job killing Clinton initiatives, besides NAFTA and the U.S. joining the WTO, include Clinton praising the approval of China into the WTO with the statement “This landmark act will extend our economic prosperity at home while increasing the prospects for more openness in China”.

Gee Bill, I wonder how prosperous Americans are feeling these days?  Hillary Clinton was forced to deal with the ravages of NATFA in her failed bid for the presidency.  Every politico in America campaigns on jobs and the economy but once they are elected, they all sellout the American worker.  Obama is no different.  If he were, he would be instructing the Democrat controlled Congress to nullify these nasty job destroying trade agreements and implement real reforms to restore middle class prosperity via a commitment to vastly strengthening our dwindling manufacturing base. 

Bill Clinton lied, as did his ruthless power hungry wife, and Bill continued his brutal manipulation of the American middle class; Bush was no different and now the latest electoral messiah, Obama, is continuing with Bush/Clinton economic policies.  There was no extension of economic prosperity in the U.S. resulting from America joining the WTO and approving the entry of China into the organization.  In an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis, the results of trade with China equated to staggering job losses in America. 

Contrary to the predictions of its supporters, China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) has failed to reduce its trade surplus with the United States or increase overall U.S. employment. The rise in the U.S. trade deficit with China between 1997 and 2006 has displaced production that could have supported 2,166,000 U.S. jobs. Most of these jobs (1.8 million) have been lost since China entered the WTO in 2001….Between 2001 and 2006, jobs were displaced in every state and the District of Columbia. Nearly three-quarters of the jobs displaced were in manufacturing industries. Simply put, the promised benefits of trade liberalization with China have been unfulfilled.

Many economists blame the catastrophic trade imbalances between China and the U.S. as nothing more than China deliberately keeping its currency devalued while imposing slave wage rates.   EPI suggests that this equates to a 40% Chinese subsidy on exports.

As a matter of policy, China tightly pegs its currency's value to that of the dollar at a rate that encourages a large bilateral surplus with the United States. Maintaining this peg required the purchase of about $200 billion in U.S. Treasury Bills and other securities in 2006 alone.¹ This intervention makes the yuan artificially cheap and provides an effective subsidy on Chinese exports; best estimates are that the rate of this effective subsidy is roughly 40%. China also engages in extensive suppression of labor rights; it has been estimated that wages in China would be 47% to 85% higher in the absence of labor repression.

As the Chinese cleverly manipulate their currency to give subsidized Chinese products price advantages in foreign markets, this is at the expense of the American worker.  More importantly, there is no way that the American worker can possibly compete with the slave wages in China or other third world cheap labor nations.

China’s inhuman labor practices are legendary.  Not long ago, UPI reported an incident about 31 Chinese workers who were forced to work as slaves in a brick factory owned by a Communist Party official.  They were emaciated and were fed nothing but bread and water.  The workers had burns all over their bodies from being forced to carry bricks that had not cooled.

Such is the reality of Clinton, Bush and now Obama defined “prosperity” and “free trade”.   The Clinton and Bush gangs represent the two premier crime families in America but apparently the Obama gang has wholehearted embraced Clinton/Bush economic policies.

These so-called free trade agreements are not free trade agreements.  In fact, they are nothing more than protectionism for special interests.  Besides multinational corporations carving out highly profitable spheres of influence and control, the real agony is always felt by ordinary folks in every nation that is a party to these agreements.  NAFTA forced Mexico to accept highly subsidized U.S. agricultural products which essentially drove Mexican farmers out of business and fleeing el Norte in search of low wage jobs just to feed their families.  Until NAFTA, farming was a springboard to middle class prosperity in Mexico as small farmers were thriving but NAFTA wiped them out.  It wasn’t a situation of “free trade” that wiped out the Mexican farmers; it was that they couldn’t compete with the mega subsidies so lavishly bestowed upon wealthy U.S. corporate agricultural welfare recipients.

 The problem was compounded with the ethanol scam, a U.S. concocted “let’s make our rich big agricultural” industry even richer by mandating the idiotic churning of food into fuel.  As corn prices skyrocketed globally and shortages exploded, tortilla prices shot through the roof in Mexico and other third world nations.   Since tortillas and corn products are a staple food product in poor and third world nations, there were tortilla riots as hungry folks seeking subsistence level foodstuffs were being priced into acute hunger because of U.S. crony capitalism and U.S. agricultural welfare. 

But crony capitalism or fascism/oligarchy works both ways when the lobbyist lawyers who write these long and complex protectionist agreements start carving up the loot.   Carlos Slim is the richest man in Mexico and on any given day is even rich than Bill Gates.  His vast wealth is derived by a telecom monopoly and Slim’s virtual control over all landlines and wireless phones in Mexico has afforded him the status of a telecom monopoly czar.  Not surprisingly, Mexico has some of the highest telecom rates in the world.  Yet, super efficient, low cost U.S. telecom operators are banned from operating in Mexico.

Republicans are famous for getting high on protectionist “Free Trade” agreements.  It’s the GOP’s definition of economic liberty and capitalism even though they are pure fascism and corporatist protectionism.  It’s how our gangster government operates under the guise of “free market capitalism” while being nothing more than protectionist rackets that breed the kleptocracy of crony capitalism.

While witnessing Hillary Clinton loose the Democratic primary was sweet, make no mistake – Obama is very much a global player in destroying America and his agenda is to wipe out what remains of American prosperity, American freedom, American sovereignty and the American middle class.  John McCain was no different as he was an active participant in engineering the NAFT/CAFTA/WHO fiasco that has delivered us so much agony.  Besides being a warmonger extraordinaire and a mentally unstable danger to the entire world who wants to push the nuclear button and Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran, McCain has absolutely no understanding of the plight of the American people and what they are going through.   His economic ignorance during his campaign was so pronounced, it bordered on the hilarious.  While McCain was just a power hungry delusional neocon famous for his quick temper and insensitivity to American workers, Obama was smooth and articulate and his lies were as big as his legendary and exceedingly pleasant smile.

Yet, there are other moving parts to our “free trade” nightmares.  Personally, I absolutely support true free trade but not these protectionist economic weapons of mass destruction being paraded as “free trade” agreements or trade agreements that give Carlos Slim a telecom monopoly and U.S. agricultural welfare queens a monopoly on food. 

One of the worst problems in attempting to achieve true free trade, besides the weapon of currency manipulation, involves the issue of taxation.  The U.S. has a draconian corporate tax and many of our trading partners have a Value Added Tax (VAT).  A VAT is a tax on every component of a product’s journey to “finished” goods status, from raw materials, to purchased components, to everything utilized in the manufacturing process etc. 

When VAT nations export to the U.S., the producer is rebated in the form of a direct cash subsidy a cash payment that is the equivalent of the VAT.  This gives foreign produced goods from VAT nations a huge competitive price advantage when they arrive in U.S. markets as imports.  Conversely, when U.S. produced goods enter VAT nations as imports, U.S. goods are assessed the equivalent of a VAT which is nothing more than an indirect tariff on U.S. goods.  It has been estimated that automobiles imported into the U.S. from VAT nations have a 20% price advantage because of VAT rebates.   This VAT rebate situation has played a key role in harming U.S. producers domestically and in the arena of international trade.  VAT nations rig the system to protect domestic manufacturing at the expense of imports while the reverse is true in American where domestic producers are penalized in favor of products produced in VAT nations. 

Also, there is the issue of how subsidies affect true free trade.  Boeing and Airbus have been at each other’s throats for years as they file complaint after complaint against one another.  Boeing claims that direct European Union subsidies to Airbus violates the nature of free trade because once subsidies are part of the equation, free trade cannot function in the manipulative economic environment of subsidies.  Airbus claims that Boeing is so heavily subsidized by U.S. Department of Defense contracts that the sheer volume of U.S. government contracts functions as massive indirect subsidies.

Precisely because true free trade is difficult to identify, if it even occurs anywhere on the planet these days, the situation is made extraordinarily complex by the direct interventions of governments, defense contractors, subsidies and VAT. 

For trade to be truly “free”, it must, above all, be “fair” to all parties.   These destructive trade agreements shoved down our throats are neither fair nor do they constitute free trade.  Moreover, there is scant evidence of level playing fields anywhere. 

America used to have simple 1-2 page bi-national free trade agreements with nations that effectively eliminated tariffs.  These days, trade agreements are literally multi-national agreements that are thousands of pages long and written by special interests, their lawyers and their lobbyists.  Somehow, none of this can be considered a level playing field that promotes true free trade simply because the parties involved effectively accomplish nothing but carving out a protectionist niche for the respective players.   Not only is this a very bad situation, the folks who are hurt the most are American workers because they seem to get the short end of everything.  But the folks in other nations are also savaged by these agreements. 

Finally and pathetically, America has transitioned from a prosperous creditor nation to a pathetic debtor nation.  We literally go to foreign nations and tell them “loan us money to cover our massive deficits and you will get special trade preferences and deals”.  So they happily buy up our debt and gladly accept the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing that is literally packed up and shipped to foreign shores.  This is one component of our economic decline that that government avoids addressing at all costs simply because the government does not want the folks to know that all that deficit spending and the foreign debt to finance it is disastrously costly to the American people and their prosperity.  Congress shamelessly sells our jobs to foreign nations in exchange for loans.  

The true cost of our massive $12 trillion in debt is far more than the interest costs of about $400 billion annually that is obscenely unaffordable anyway.   The fact that the desperate U.S. is gleefully trading jobs for foreign loans only attests to the depth of the criminality in DC.. 

Congress Critters and power brokers have understood this for a very long time.  Those who have aided and abetted in delivering the American middle class to economic hell have been extraordinarily rewarded with money and power. 

That’s something to think about when you cast a vote.

Until the unspeakable is finally spoken, we remain in denial. 

National Debt is $13.5 Trillion, Republicans gave us $8,178 of it since 1980.

Those who long for the fiscally conservative days of Reagan and Republicans are delusional.   Republicans have piled on way more debt than the Dems. 

When Reagan was sworn in, the national debt had just hit the $1 trillion mark.  As of 9/16/10, the national debt is $13,465 trillion.

Additions to the national debt since 1980. 

Republicans                                                                    

Reagan 2 terms                $1.692 trillion                                     

Bush 41                                 1.587                                                  

Bush 43                                 4.899

Total                                     8.178  trillion                                                 

          

Democrats

Clinton 2 terms                 $1.540 trillion

Obama, as if 9/16/10         2,838

Total                                      $4.378 trillion

Source:  http://thenationaldebtcrisis.com/the-national-debt-by-president/

http://www.theobamadebt.com/

Chart of National Debt as a percentage of GDP by president

Click link:

Source:  http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Quote:  Who Gave Us the National Debt?

"In 1981, the country had just elected Reagan to cure the "all-time-high, Trillion-Dollar debt." But compared with the size of the American economy, the debt was at its lowest point in fifty years (see graph). In eight years he pushed it from $1 to over $2.6 trillion. Or, did the Democrats do that? To find out, I checked the most pro-Reagan website, which lists Reagan's budgets and Congressional changes to the budgets. ..."

Congress Critters - The DC Wheel of Fortune

Congress Critters

The DC Wheel of Fortune

Washington, DC is full of dirty little secrets and a lot of tax dollars are spent on the propaganda machine that relentlessly stampedes truth, disclosure and accountability.   What make this well oiled machine function so effectively is that print and broadcast mainstream media is an arm of the government and is actively complicit in protecting the system and all the corruption and cover-ups that goes along with it.

Unquestionably, the U.S. Congress is the biggest and smelliest manure factory on the planet and Americans have become the most delusional folks on the planet for putting their trust in these dangerously worthless Congress Critters by constantly re-electing them over and over.  For starters, Americans actually believe that the folks they elect and send to Congress actually represents them and their interests.   Despite the fact that the job approval ratings of Congress are lower than whale dung, the same really bad Congress Critters keep getting re-elected.  Real Clear Politics keeps a running tab on the poll averages and the approval rating of Congress and it consistently runs about 25% and frequently much lower according to some polls.   A recent Gallop poll disclosed a Congressional approval rating of 21% and a disapproval of 72%.

The folks may not be happy with the job performance of Congress but they keep sending the bums back anyway.

The biggest problem is that Congress is 100% controlled by the almighty DNC and RNC machines that raise lots of special interest dough to fund warmongers, the military industrial/security complex, bloated government programs, insider corporate welfare, Banksterism and powerful special interests etc.   Nobody can compete with the big bucks of special interests when it comes to raising campaign cash.   In America, money is raw and absolute power.   Every Bankster figured that out long ago. 

With very minor exceptions, nearly every Congress Critter is a wholly owned subsidiary of some special interest.  They have been bought and paid for.  Every now and then I sit down and attempt to compose a list of who I would consider honest Congress Critters and few names come to mind.  On the Democratic side, Cong. Dennis Kucinich makes the list because he opposes war and understands the sellout of the American middle class.   However, Kucinich fell off my respect list when one trip on Air Force One bought his vote on Obamacare and expanding Federal Reserve powers.   On the Republican side, Cong. Ron Paul makes the list because he opposes our endless wars but also fully understands that central banking aka the Federal Reserve is blight upon humanity because of its license to steal.  While these two members of Congress may be ideological apart on many issues, they both recognize that our warmongering foreign policy is evil, that the American middle class has been sold down the river of permanent impoverishment and that the Federal Reserve and the Banksters are criminal organizations. 

Democrats and Republicans are the poison roots that have destroyed America, albeit for different reasons.  The Democrats cling to their fraudulent utopianism with promises of giving voters free food, free housing, free healthcare, free transportation, free education, free everything etc.  The Democrats are quite upfront about campaigning on a theme of “I will fully utilize the police powers of the government to steal from others to give you what you want but you will only get what I think you should have and that ain’t much”.  Voters drink the Fool-aid and grow frustrated, especially when the promised loot fails to arrive.   Government never delivers on its promises.  The only thing government ever accomplishes is conning folks into relinquishing their liberty and their prosperity and submitting to state tyranny and terrorism. 

The Republicans campaign on their phony baloney commitments to vague talking points like freedom, spreading democracy around the world at the point of a gun or F-16, fiscal conservatism, small government, family values and even capitalism.   But in fact, the Republicans grow government power, spend like drunker sailors, sacrifice capitalism on the altar of fascism, increase spending and in recent years have become The War Party. 

The American people are not happy campers and increasingly they utterly despise both parties.  Tragically, the American people themselves do not have a political party who represents them.  They intuitively understand that Congress is nothing more than a filthy backroom where deals are cut with the big money – typically the Banksters, multinational corporations, defense contractors and an assortment of other interests.  But third parties do poorly and voters usually vote for the least evil candidate on the ballot who stands a chance of winning. 

The reason third parties do so poorly is because the RNC and DNC have a lock on fundraising money; all the big major corporate and special interest contributors to our political cesspool are the primary funders of the RNC and DNC.  That’s one of the big problems because the RNC and DNC machines totally control all candidates because they and they alone have access to that humongous pot of special interest dough.  If you hold a seat in congress and run amuck of your party by objecting to any component of its fruitcake agenda, the DNC and RNC will lavishly fund a primary opponent.  They effectively have unlimited money to totally control who gets to Congress and who stays in Congress.  Remember, it is big money that controls the RNC and DNC.  “We the People” are no longer a component of our political system or election process.  We are just useful idiots who participate in an already rigged election system. 

The RNC/DNC lock on political money doesn’t bode well for Americans seeking to raise new candidates and get rid of the “same old, same old” congressional institutionalists who thrive on power and fraud.   If you find a candidate that you like and would like to support, you are legally banned from contributing more than $2,300 to that candidate; contributing more than the legal limit makes you a criminal who can be prosecuted for violating campaign finance laws.  But you can give millions to the DNC and RNC who don’t have that limitation and this vastly contributes to their absolute power.   Independent thinking candidates are routinely squashed.   Big money only flows to those who can deliver the taxpayer largess to special interest campaign contributors and it’s nearly impossible for any honest politician to ever raise sufficient money to compete with the RNC/DNC money machines.  Corporate contributors don’t fund candidates who campaign on “I promise to reduce government power and end the fascist marriage of big business and big government”.

Top campaign contributors always include defense contractors, the Banksters, trial lawyers, big agricultural interests and energy contractors.  Except for the trial lawyers who own the DNC, big corporate contributors are not political ideologues.  They check their radar screens and simply fund the candidate they believe can win and, therefore, can be bought.  If the Republican Party is on a roll because folks are angry with the Dems, money flows to the RNC machine.  If the Dems are hot because folks are angry with the Republicans, money flows to the DNC machine.  Because Americans were downright furious after 8 long miserable years of Bush/Cheney, it was clear that the Democratic Party was destined to be the clear winner in the 2008 election cycle.  With the media hyping Obama as the latest messiah, his victory was easily predicted and guaranteed. 

The top 10 corporate PAC contributions for the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, are as follows: 

Obama:Goldman Sachs $739,521
UBS AG $419,550
Lehman Brothers $391,774
Citigroup Inc $492,548
Morgan Stanley $341,380
Latham & Watkins $328,879
Google Inc $487,355
JPMorgan Chase & Co $475,112
Sidley Austin LLP $370,916
Skadden, Arps et al $360,409

McCain:
Merrill Lynch $349,170
Citigroup Inc $287,801
Morgan Stanley $249,377
Wachovia Corp $147,456
Goldman Sachs $220,045
Lehman Brothers $115,707
Bear Stearns $108,000
JPMorgan Chase & Co $206,392
Bank of America $133,975
Credit Suisse Group $175,503

The Banksters are always lavishly rewarded for their campaign contributions.  Barry Ritholtz, a financial author and pundit, who runs the website Ritholtz.com put out quite an enlightening article that calculated TARP money (Bankster Bailout Bucks) as a return on lobbyist dollars spent and campaign contributions.  The Ritholtz list (prints to 7 pages) listed the banks that received TARP money and added political contributions and lobbying expenditures to arrive at a return on investment.

 Campaign Contributions   Lobbying Expenses    TARP Payment    Return on Investment

      $37.4 million                      $76.6 million            $305.2 billion           267,208%

There are a gazillion other special interests who are also engaged in the “pay to play” game at the DC Wheel of Fortune.  One of my favorite websites is Opensecrets.org and they do nothing but track the political money.

Analyzing 4th Quarter disclosure reports filed Jan. 20, 2009, the Center calculated that interest groups spent $17.4 million on lobbying for every day Congress was in session in 2008, or $32,523 per legislator per day.

Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/01/washington-lobbying-grew-to-32.html

Opensecrets.org reports the top spenders on lobbying for 2008 were: 

US Chamber of Commerce	$91,725,000
Exxon Mobil	$29,000,000
AARP	$27,900,000
PG&E Corp	$27,250,000
Northrop Grumman	$20,743,252
American Medical Assn	$20,555,000
Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America	$20,220,000
Koch Industries	$20,023,000
General Electric	$19,379,000
American Hospital Assn	$18,902,684
Verizon Communications	$18,020,000
Boeing Co	$17,540,000
National Assn of Realtors	$17,340,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield	$16,220,165
Lockheed Martin	$15,981,506
AT&T Inc	$15,076,675
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn	$14,500,000
Southern Co	$14,080,000
Altria Group	$13,840,000
General Motors	$13,351,000

They don’t sprinkle that kind of dough around DC without getting big paybacks.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is so powerful that it outspends the #2 biggest spender on lobbying by a margin of over 3:1 with a whopping $92 million.  What the Chamber of Commerce gets for its $92 million investment is the ability to load up America with cheap third world labor that drives American wages down while shifting the social costs of impoverished “slave” wage earners to the unemployed American taxpayers. 

In a Huffington Post piece titled The 15 Biggest Congressional Recipients Of Wall Street Campaign Cash, it’s amply clear that the Wall Street dough boys buy a lot of Congressional power.   The Huffington Post obtained its information from the most reliable tracker of campaign cash – Opensecrets.org.

Charles Schumer (D)       $2,167,300

Kristen Gillibrand (D)        1,173,400

Harry Reid (D)                    1,038,210

Chris Dodd (D)                      752,698

Michael Bennet (D)              612,808

Mark Kirk (R)                         557,375

Arlen Specter (D)                  557,175

Eric Cantor (R)                      516,197

Blanche Lincoln (D)              515,000

Richard Shelby (R)                502,150

Jim Himes (D)                        430,123

John Thune (R)                      407,750

Ron Wyden (D)                     404,750

Carolyn Maloney (D)            396,750

Barney Frank (D)                  387,749

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/17/the-15-biggest-congressio_n_360514.html?slidenumber=jkhcgaNkiI4%3D#slide_image

 B
ut it’s not always necessary to buy Congress, especially when the Banksters run the Federal Reserve and Treasury.  The $180 billion plus bailout of AIG was brokered by Treasury and the Fed, and Congress was shut out of larding up AIG with money to pay for Wall Street’s derivative gambling losses.  Friends in high places like Turbo Timmy and Helicopter Ben is like owning your own personal goldmine so long as you have access.  Still, few in Congress opposed the efforts of the Fed and Treasury on the AIG bailout and most were relieved that they didn’t have to add that criminal “vote” activity to their professional resumes as power brokers. 

Yes, there are folks who truly feel the “LOVE” when it comes to deep affection for Congress, Bush/Obama, Republicans and Democrats but they don’t include ordinary working stiff smucks – just rich elites, powerful insiders and Banksters.

Corrupt as Congress is, the Banksters are far from the only larcenous gang perpetually drinking from the Congressional Holy Water Font – the cornucopia of crony capitalism.  Everybody is lined up because there’s so much dirty money sloshing around DC that it is always explicitly clear that Congress genuflects before its masters and those masters are far removed from “We the People”.  

How much is spent on U.S. elections at the federal level?  A staggering $5.3 billion was spent in 2008 according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Quote:  The 2008 election for president and Congress is not only one of the most closely watched U.S. elections in years; it's also the most expensive in history. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics estimates that more than $5.3 billion will go toward financing the federal contests upcoming on Nov. 4.

The presidential race alone will cost nearly $2.4 billion, the Center predicts. Already the candidates alone have raised more than $1.5 billion since the election cycle's start in January 2007. This is the first time that candidates for the White House have raised and spent more than $1 billion, and this year's total is on track to nearly double candidate fundraising in 2004 and triple 2000.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/10/us-election-will-cost-53-billi.html

There is only one thing that drives the money flowing into DC and the corrupt political machine.  As government power accrues then vast wealth can be accumulated by being an insider.  To become a powerful insider, you need to have the big bucks to buy your ticket to taxpayer funded riches. 

But you don’t always need money to be an insider and those bundlers of campaign cash work miracles for those seeking “insider” status or an ambassadorship prize.  The Boston Globe reported that “fully one-fourth of his [Obama’s] envoy picks so far --24 of 99 -- were bundlers who raised at least $10.9 million for his presidential campaign or his inauguration committee.”  It’s a time honored practice to reward campaign bundlers with ambassadorships and the Man of Change is no different than those who preceded him.  

Folks who vote have no idea whatsoever how corporate welfare and influence peddling is robbing the American people of their wealth and liberty.  The sheer depth of corporate welfare is staggering and it is 100% erroneous to blame it on capitalism because the American economic system is now based on the marriage of big business and big government.  Capitalism doesn’t exist anywhere in America.  During the days of Mussolini, such an economic system was called fascism.  Hitler dubbed his partnership with German industry Nazism.    In the modern American context, it’s frequently dubbed corporatism which is also the deadly and liberty slashing horror of the marriage of big government and big corporations. The bottom line is always the same:  a handful of powerful elite essentially control the entire nation and “We the People” will remain “We the Sheeple” until the day dawns when the American people will rise up against tyranny and corruption.

But by far, the biggest obstacle to ending the practice of perpetually corrupted career politicians lies in the fact that our political cesspool is purposefully engineered financially and legally for incumbent protection.

Richard Nixon signed the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, dubbed just another incumbent protection act because it severely limited campaign contributions to candidates not vetted by the RNC/DNC machines.  Over the years, many campaign finance laws have been passed by Republican and Democratic congresses and each and every one of them vastly strengthened the insider takeover of DC, our election process and our political system.   

There are many other problems with Congress, particularly when it comes to voting on legislation.  The good old logrolling machine is rolled out on a red carpet.  Essentially, logrolling is the practice of “you vote for my pork and I’ll vote for your pork”.  But logrolling in American has ascended to new heights of corruption.  In the recent Senate committee vote on Obamacare, it is being widely reported that Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu got $300 million in pork for her vote.  Landrieu’s vote is being dubbed the “Louisiana Purchase”.   WOW.  For a paltry $15 million Jefferson negotiated quite a deal with Napoleon when he got “828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. The lands acquired stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Thirteen states were carved from the Louisiana Territory. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States, making it one of the largest nations in the world” according to archives.gov.   During the Bush years, Congress Critters were also larded up with pork to get their votes on key spending bills sought by the Bush/Cheney imperial presidency. 

Besides legislating themselves a monopoly on political money, other incumbent protection schemes involve districting, re-districting and gerrymandering.  The Republicans and Democrats simply get together and divide up political kingdoms that guarantee huge swaths of Republican or Democratic voters as well as perpetual carved out election victories.  

Precisely because the RNC and DNC machines control the big money, they also control primaries.  A candidate who loathes Bankster bailouts, Federal Reserve absolute power, high taxes, the slashing of civil liberties, endless wars and the growth of government power will never get RNC or DNC funding. 

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of law reported in 5/09 that “Like incumbency rates for Congress, incumbency rates for state assembly races hover around 95 percent.”

With 95% of elected officials at the federal and state level being guaranteed re-election, the prospects for any meaningful political change is quite dim and practically non-existent.  In discussing incumbent protection in the New York political cesspool, the NYT stated that “in 2008 more than half of the state’s 212 legislators were re-elected with more than 80 percent of their districts’ votes. In 57 districts, the incumbents ran unopposed. New faces appear rarely, usually when a lawmaker retires, dies or, increasingly, gets convicted of abusing the public trust.

This isn’t the way it is supposed to work…… There is little chance of changing Albany’s corrupt culture without real political competition and the possibility of a full legislative housecleaning. The only way to do that is to wring much of the party politics and self-interest out of the redistricting process.”

 Elections in America can never be competitive until the incumbent protection system is irretrievably broken and a high turnover of elected officials at the state and federal levels occurs.  Without such turnovers and competition, the political cesspool remains corrupt to the core and drunk on absolute power.  This isn’t an issue that has gone unnoticed.  Some have suggested that using computers to randomly calculate districting using mathematics would go a long way toward more competitive elections especially if it was done on a fairly frequent basis – like every 5-10 years. Separating politicians from their powers to gerrymander would absolutely result in far more election competition as well as lively and intense debates that politicians avoid like the plague.

With all the so-called Tea Party activities and all the ticked off folks of all political stripes, politics in America holds the potential to become fun if we start firing a lot of folks – like nearly all 535 in Congress.   Senators are much harder to get rid of because they get a lot more DNC/RNC funding, they serve for 6 years and as statewide races they really aren’t as up close and personal as a House race. 

Americans need be more focused on actual issues affecting prosperity and liberty instead of being Republican or Democrat loyalists because they would be far more knowledgeable on issues that affect their everyday lives. 

Moreover, Americans need to delve into the components of the thieving corporatist state and accept that it really only operates for the benefit of insiders and special interests.   Each and every one of us is affected by policy decisions and legislation on trade agreements, finance, real estate, transportation, the environment, energy, healthcare, immigration, education, taxes, civil liberties, Social Security/Medicare policies, social issues and the granddaddy of them all - foreign policy - because it costs us a trillion bucks a year and is bankrupting us.

 These are all issues that profoundly impact American families and their futures on a daily basis because public policy decisions and congressional activities kill their kids, steal their money, spend their money, rob their retirement, debase their currency, deliberately dumb down their kids, increase food costs, send energy costs spiraling, drive up healthcare costs, alienate folks of difference races and colors and dictate whether or not Americans have jobs at wages that make them independent and self sufficient.

For far too long, Americans have naively believed “government” to be a “good” with honorable intentions.  To be sure, there is nothing honorable about wholesale thievery, massive concentrations of power and wealth, corruption on steroids, advocating a global totalitarian industrial feudalism, promoting global governance, perpetual warmongering and the systematic takeover of a once free and prospering people by a handful of thieving ruling elites. 

The only way to break-up the fascist and confiscatory cartel operated by the elites and their congressional operatives and restore liberty and prosperity is to destroy the Republican/Democrat stranglehold on American politics.  

A Palin Truth: Alaska's Welfare Queen and Redistributionist

 A Palin Truth: Alaska's Welfare Queen and Redistributionist

As the Palinistas attempt to crown Palin the latest Republican version of an American absolute monarch, let's examine some truth.

Palin claims to be a supporter of free markets and low taxes. But in 2007 she raised the taxes on Big Oil operating in Alaska because she wanted to transfer wealth from Big Oil to Alaskans who actually get a direct annual cash stipend ranging from $1,500 to $2,000 depending on how much money is in Alaska's Permanent Fund.

Palin did what Democratics do best - redistribute wealth and this message is ballot box gold. However, instead of calling Palin's act of oil wealth confiscation an act of socialism, Republicans praised Palin for cutting a better deal for Alaska. When the Dems do what Palin did, they get bombarded by Republicans with vicious and accursed accusations that scream "socialism" and "Marxism".

Palin's oil tax has backfired because exploratory drilling in Alaska has slowed with negatiive economic consequences. Moreover, Alaska now seeks to tweak its oil tax by handing out special tax benefits.

Quote: "Gov. Sean Parnell is asking the Legislature to change Alaska's oil tax laws so the companies won't have to pay as much in taxes if they spend money to drill. It's an incentive that could cost the state treasury hundreds of millions of dollars. Parnell said Thursday he doesn't want the tax rate lowered, but does want tax credits for investments. His announcement comes as the oil companies and many Republican state legislators maintain Alaska's oil taxes are too high and are driving away investment......

The Legislature raised oil taxes in 2007 at the prodding of then-Gov. Sarah Palin and created a new system to tax oil company profits that's known as Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share, or ACES. "

Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/82410.html

Not only is Palin ideologically much closer to "Queen Socialism" than she is to "Queen Capitalism", Alaska has always been America's top welfare state.

Quote: "Alaska receives nearly twice as much federal dollars than they contribute to federal income, making it one of the largest beneficiary states. They receive the highest per capita federal dollars and 3rd highest total fed dollars.

2. Alaska receives $13,950 per capital in federal dollars, the #1 state in the country in per capita fed spending dollars received.

3. Alaskans pay no state taxes."

Source: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081022001900AALIAfK

Let's see, Alaskans pay no state taxes because its welfare clout is so powerful that it can extract all the money it wants from the U.S. taxpayers in DC! What a deal!! In Alaska, they must sit back and laugh at the lower 48.

Because of Katrina and the massive amount of reconstruction money being poured into the affected states, Alaska has slipped slightly from its number 1 ranking in welfare recipient payments.

While Palin goes around talking the phony baloney hype about how independent Alaskans are, in truth Alaskans are the most dependent folks in America.

Does America really want its premier Redistributionist Welfare Governor on the throne in DC?

The Crimes of Sarah Palin

The Crimes of Sarah Palin

"I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it." Dwight D. Eisenhower


For those Palininsta’s out there who consider Sarah Palin the magical elixir for a conservative revival, I want to caution that she is very much bought and paid for by the anti-sovereignty gangs that includes the United Nations, the CFR, the Bilderbergs and every other sovereignty slashing initiative devoted to global governance and the utter destruction of the Constitution of the United States of America. Simply put, Palin is an absolute fraud. Conservatives have been deceived for far too long by the likes of Bush 41, Bush 43, McCain, Palin and ilk.

Palin is on record supporting ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), a sovereignty slashing UN global governance treaty that puts 70% of the earth’s surface under UN taxing authority and control. Moreover, LOST is also the equivalent of OPEC on steroids because it actually creates a global energy cartel.

The global governance group, Citizens for Global Solutions, specifically praised George Bush and Sarah Palin for their endorsement of ratifying LOST.

http://www.globalsolutions.org/in_the_beltway/united_states_and_law_sea_time_join

Quote: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska: "I want to put my administration on record in support of the convention as the predicate for asserting sovereign rights that will be of benefit to Alaska and the nation." (2007)

Another Smoking Gun on Palin’s support for LOST is where Palin actually goes out of her way to bash Republicans opposed to the ratification of LOST. http://opiniojuris.org/2008/10/09/sarah-palin%E2%80%99s-letter-in-support-of-the-law-of-the-sea-convention/

Quote: “However, as you know, ratification has been thwarted by a small group of senators concerned about the perceived loss of U.S. sovereignty. I believe quite the contrary is the case. If the U.S. does not ratify the convention, we will be denied access to the forum established by the international community to adjudicate claims to submerged lands in the arctic.”

Note: Those senators who opposed ratifying LOST were nearly all Republicans. John McCain was also a rabid supporter of ratifying LOST, as is Obama and gang.

Palin is on record supporting the Bankster Bailout Bill, along with John McCain. Palin, in her typical convoluted and inarticulate reasoning went even further in her defense of the Bankster Bailout by linking it to healthcare and jobs.

Palin Quote on the Bankster Bailout “Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too…” Source: http://rightsfield.com/category/candidates/sarah-palin/

Palin has publicly praised Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and his muscular interventionist foreign policy. Again, Palin adds a weird twist by declaring a moral imperative for war based on the fallen nature of man.

Palin Quote: "Wow, that really sounded familiar," said Palin, a frequent Obama critic. "I talked, too, in my book about the fallen nature of man and why war is necessary at times."

Palin’s Evangelical beliefs, deemed dangerous by many, even goes so far as to assert that the Iraq War is "a task that is from God." Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/03/Palin-says-Iraq-war-is-task-from-God/UPI-66481220457877/

Neither Saddam Hussein nor Iraq were ever involved in any acts of Islamist terrorism that include the 1993 WTC bombing, 911, the London bombings, the Mumbai bombings, the Madrid bombings, the Bali bombings, the bombings of 2 US African embassies, the USS Cole bombing and more. These were all acts committed by the ideology of Sunni Islam as embraced by “our friends” the Saudis, the biggest kingpin of Islamist terror on the planet and its chief financier.

Palin got her foreign policy indoctrination from one of the most evil global governance supporters in America – Henry Kissinger. In fact, Palin was immediately flown to UN Headquarters following the RNC Convention for her “Kissinger” foreign policy indoctrination.

Famous Henry Kissinger Quotes:

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."

"NAFTA represents the single most creative step towards a New World Order."

Bottom line: Palin is a clear and present danger to the Constitution of the United States of America. This theocon/neocon is anchored in a convoluted Biblically linked foreign policy that will keep America in a state of perpetual war. The outcome will be devastating to all the folks on the planet.