Hocus Bonus! The Art Of Political Distraction

"Ladies and Gentlemen!

The Magician: Rom Emanuel

His Assistants: Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Franks

Sacrificial Assistant Who Gets Cut In Half: Timothy Geitner!"

I wrote earlier about the numbers that are being thrown around inside the Beltway and how we are kept from truly understanding the significance of the outrageous amount of money that is being spent. But I want to highlight a point that was briefly made in that article.

Of course, this is AIG again. But let's go back.

We now know that a year before the "stimulus" package was even in people's minds, AIG announced their bonus packages and the press made a big deal of them, publicizing them widely. Then, a year later, when the "stimulus" package for was being thrown together, Tim Geitner went to Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, and specifically had him include in the legislation that all of the recipient companies of the "stimulus" money would honor their contracts with their executives to receive their due bonuses. The "stimulus" bill passed and $788,000,000,000 ($788 B) started to be distributed to failing companies. Naturally, the companies receiving the money honored their contracts with their executives and paid them their bonuses, including AIG.

Instantly, AIG is the center of a nation's scrutiny. Put on trial in the major media, the executives are demonized. Then the storm starts heavily when it is reported that these executives got paid their bonuses and the number grows quickly to a total of $165 M to 75 executives. The prosecutors of this kangaroo court are Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Franks, Geitner, and many to follow, to include parties from both sides of the isle.

The public is outraged. So much so that they are protesting in the yards of the AIG executives along with press, making a spectacle of this handful of American businessmen. Franks and Pelosi go loud with calls that these men "RETURN THE MONEY TO THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS!"
The echo carries into the press and now all Americans jump on board insisting that the money be returned from these greedy few. How far does this go? Death threats to the executives and their families.

But who's really at fault?

The news gets out that Dodd actually created the vehicle to insist that these executives get their bonuses, and immediately throws Geitner under the bus. He reports that the Obama administration specifically instructed him to put this provision into the bill. Interesting. Obama and Geitner are embarrassed having been caught feining utter surprise and disgust that these executives would use their gifts in such a poor manner as to reward themselves, first.

But I have a question that I don't think we have the answer to. Who broke the news of the bonuses after they were paid? Before we go to an answer, let's ask one more question. How did the "stimulus" package work out? Hmmm. It didn't help the economy at all. Even with Obama flying to Ohio to announce the 25 jobs he created for one year to local police officers, still 655,000 jobs were lost in one month alone. 25 jobs for one year ain't stimulus. You know what? This is too much pressure because it isn't going right. Enter a scandal to divert people's attention. all of a sudden, the news of the AIG bonuses breaks. Amazing timing.

No one is talking about the millions of jobs lost since Obama became president. No one is discussing the $788,000,000,000 that was given out to banks who did not pass it on to the American consumer. Instead, 75 American citizens have been sacrificed while a $410,000,000,000 budget hangs in the balance, as do more "stimulus" packages hinted at by Obama on the Tonight Show.

Folks, this has Rom Emanuel written all over it and you have to hand it to him. It worked. Poke the press in the rib and let them know about the bonuses and all of a sudden, the attention is off of Obama's administration. News is leaked about the Geitner - Dodd connection and instantly, Geitner is left holding the bag. Must protect the president.

"Throw a dog a bone, and he'll miss the graveyard."

The press wants an Obama success and they are happy to chase the distractor story.

You have a decision to make. Are you concerned about the $165,000,000 that was paid out legally according to a solid contract, or are you concerned about the other $787,835,000,000 that we have no idea where it went? Come on people. Please, wake up and smell the roses. The magicians are at work and you are being duped.

The Ericator

The Shotgun Approach - The New Politics

Want an idea of what Obama is working on with his infamous $410,000,000,000 budget?

• The wealthiest 5 percent would pay a whopping $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade, while most others would get tax cuts.
• Industries would buy and trade permits to emit heat-trapping gases.
• Higher-income older people would pay more for government health insurance benefits.
• Drug companies would receive smaller profits from the government.
• Banks would play a much smaller role in student loans.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/28/obamas-massive-budget-faces-high-hurdles-congress/

These are just the highlights of what he is wanting to do. The point of the Fox News story highlighted above is that Obama faces huge hurdles trying to get these to pass. They say that any one of these is a political hotbed and would face huge opposition from the political right.

So the question is, why would he try so many expensive, radical, far-left programs at one time?

It's simple military tactics. Overwhelm the opposition and they can't fight all of the battles. This administration is not interested in working with those "across the isle". He wants his legislation passed, and the best way to do that is to overwhelm them. It does this in two significant ways.

Presenting many plans at once breaks down the simple message that the opposition will want to get out to the people. If they come out with a laundry list of things that they have a problem with in the budget, as opposed to one great problem, they will be seen as playing the same old partisan politics.

Throwing many ideas at once also breaks down their ability to fight all of them. Much like a literal shotgun, you might be able to dodge one bullet or maybe two, but you can't dodge a spray of shotgun pellets. Some of them are going to get you. In the same way, some of these outrageous propositions will pass just by the sheer fact that the few conservatives in Congress can't fight them all, much less even learn about them before the left insists on their votes.

This is passing legislation by default, not by consensus. You should be livid about this because you are not getting a chance to be represented. A majority of the people are against these provisions that Obama is proposing, but we are not going to get a voice because he is going to push this through before we even get a chance to read it, consider it, and forecast the end result.

He was right. It's not politics as usual with Obama in office. It's Chicago politics. Shotgun politics.

Please get involved before it's too late. Call your State Representatives and give them the support they need to fight everything they can. They need us to tell them we are on their side, and we need them to be on ours.

The Ericator

Fun With Numbers

One Thousand $1,000
One Million $1,000,000
One Billion $1,000,000,000
One Trillion $1,000,000,000,000

How often to you see one trillion dollars displayed with all of the zeros? Why don’t you see it more often?

Two reasons, and one is not to save ink.

1. Written out, it is an unfathomable number.
2. “They” don’t want you to see it...and fathom it.

If you could actual relate to what a trillion, or even a billion, dollars is, you would be astounded that these numbers have been thrown around recently in the news and by politicians like it is a normal, every day number.

The most recent figures report that there are 138.5M workers that make up the US economy. That is 138,500,000 taxpayers (we will assume that they are all taxpayers for the sake of this argument). That is everything from trash men to corporate CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. All of them make up the essential infrastructure that makes our economy work.

Right now people are up in arms over the AIG bonuses being given to as many as 75 CEO’s. Right now, it appears that there is a minimum of $165,000,000 distributed among them. But for the sake of argument, let’s assume that it is $200,000,000 since they seem to think that the number is higher than the firm figure we’ve been throwing around. That is an average of $2,666,666 for each executive. Not a small sum of money since an individual with an average salary of $55,000 per year would take 48.5 years to accumulate that, assuming that they had no taxes taken out or had to pay for food, housing, etc. That means that the AIG executives, on average, made $7,305 per day. You can certainly see where average earners are upset with the “bailout” money being distributed that way. They make $150 per day.

That’s a lot of money and it is consuming the attention of all of the major news organizations. You literally cannot go 5 minutes on any news channel or program without hearing something about these executives and this outrageous waste of the taxpayers’ money. That must be huge to gain that much attention. In terms of tax dollars, we each paid these executives to run a failing company $1.44 last year.

But let’s talk about another figure that is a little harder to comprehend. Congress just passed a “stimulus” bill worth $787,000,000,000. That is $787 billion. I know it’s hard for your eyes to take in that many zeros. Of course, this is the number out of which those AIG executives were paid. This money was intended to get the banks offering loans and extending credit again to the American people and get the economy going again, and to save jobs. What this is essentially saying is that you as an American taxpayer gave $5,682 to failing businesses, to get the opportunity to borrow money from them.

When Obama went on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Leno asked the President, “where’s the money?” He said that the money went to these organizations months ago, and the banks still aren’t extending credit to American consumers. Why is that?

Obama’s answer?

OBAMA: Well, what's happening is a lot of these banks are keeping it in the bank because their balance sheets had gotten so bad that they decided, you know what, for us to stay solvent we need to maintain certain capital ratios; we've got to have a certain amount of capital in the bank -- and they haven't started lending it yet. And that's why what we've got to do -- right now what we're doing is essentially doing a diagnostic test -- trying to use some auto language here so you -- (laughter) -- we're doing a diagnostic on each of the banks, figuring out what are their capital levels? Can they sustain lending? And then I think we're going to separate out -- those banks that are in good shape, we're going to say to them, all right, you're on your own; go start lending again. Those banks that still have problems, we'll do a little more intervention to try to clean some of those toxic assets off their books.

But I actually have confidence that we'll get that done. In the meantime, we're taking a lot of steps to, for example, opening up -- open up separate credit lines outside of banks for small businesses so that they can get credit -- because there are a lot of small businesses out here who are just barely hanging on. Their credit lines are starting to be cut. We're trying to set up a securitized market for student loans and auto loans outside of the banking system. So there are other ways of getting credit flowing again.

!$%^@*%$!!!

Don’t miss that! “We’ll do a little more intervention to clean some of those toxic assets off their books.”!!!!! (Another stimulus package). Then he says that the money we just put into the banks and are about to put into them is for nothing because we are not going to rely on the banks for the loans anymore! The government wants to give the loans and bypass the banks completely. Is that what governments do?

Furthermore, Obama just signed a $410,000,000,000 ($410 B) budget for the Federal government next year saying that there was much work to be done, so a quadrupling of the previous budget was necessary. That means that for your government to work next year, you will be paying an additional $2,960. That does not include your State or local governments, where you are actually pay for your police, fire, schools, courts, and other civil services. This is for your military and Federal programs (as yet to be determined).

Now I know what you are thinking. If that is quadruple what I paid last year, why did I have to pay so much in taxes because I sure as heck paid more than $3,000! Yes, you did. Because not all of the 138,500,000 pay the same taxes as you. In fact, many of them did not pay last year at all because they fall below the “poverty line”. Many of those (not all...please don’t take it as all) could work, but select not to. Why should they? If they can get paid to stay in their government subsidized housing watching their big screen TV all day, why should they work? They are included in the number that are in the work force, but are “currently unemployed”. Also, because of our sliding scale, most of the people reading this are going to be in the higher tax brackets, and now you are starting to understand how the rule of thumb starts to play into just about everything: 20% of the people fund 80% of the budget. So, do those numbers make a little more sense?

So this means that the average salary earner of $55,000 is paying $8,642 in federal income tax and tacked on stimulus bill this year. That brings his new salary to $46,385. Remember, no school yet. No fire or police force. That’s in a much smaller pool in which you are a much larger fish. You’ll pay for those services along with your local community out of this remaining.

Let’s get back on track. AIG execs: $1.44 for a year. Obama: $8,640 this year (please note that I removed the amount going to the AIG execs for you purists).

Now let’s talk about a new number. Stay with me here. 10 Trillion dollars. ($10,000,000,000,000.) That is the number that Obama has committed us to over the next decade if he gets everything he wants.

You pay $72,202. But that’s not a fair figure. What was the multiplier when we figured out the difference between the computed figure you should have paid last year in federal taxes and the actual? Now apply that, but not so quickly. You see, you make more than $39,000, which was a number that Obama referred to in the election as the “average salary”. You will now be responsible for more of the pie, you see.

What if all else failed and you were solely responsible for the debt that will be incurred from this president? Let’s give you a really good salary of...how about $2,666,666 annual income. You will have your house, food, and all other necessities taken care of, but you have pay off the $10 trillion yourself. It will take you 3,750,000 years. You just made what the AIG execs made, and it is still going to take you three million, seven hundred and fifty THOUSAND years to pay off what this president is costing us right now.

Can we please focus on the real money wasters here and rein in these outrageous spenders in this administration and Congress?

The Ericator

They Are Out Of Control

You know, I love to learn new things, but I like to focus in areas of interest. For me it might be learning a new method of finishing a piece of woodwork, or improving my aim when I go shooting. For others it might be learning sports statistics, a new cooking technique, horticulture, or a unique sewing stitch. We all have hobbies and interests that we struggle to find time for, whether we are actually doing it or learning more about it to become proficient.

We can afford pass-times because we live in a society where we all contribute something that allows others to focus on their contributions. You don't have to be a farmer to enjoy the foods you buy from the grocery store, or a tailor to present yourself in the best clothes. You do your specialty so that others don't have to, and then you enjoy some time off to do what you want, while you count on others to do their jobs.

It's really a barter system where the goods or services you and I bring to the market place are given a value and we trade them according to that value. The system works well and allows you to save up equity in the form of currency.

That's why I get so angry when we have to learn someone else's specialty because they are dropping the ball. Have you noticed yourself becoming more proficient at someone else's job because they don't know what they are doing? And doing so robs you of your time to enjoy your interests.

For the system to work, we need a couple of things that are less tangible, but just as necessary. These include lawmaking, law enforcement, oversight, and defense against outside forces. We define it as the "government".

All that to say that there was a day when you could count on Congress to at least know the laws, and while they seemed to have a clever way around them, they didn't throw caution to the wind and do whatever they wanted. So let's ask a question.

Why is Congress full of lawyers? Because they are known as the "Legislative Branch" of government. That should mean that they are the supreme authority on law making, and they therefore should understand the Constitution on which all laws are based. It only stands to reason that they might even know the laws that they, as an institution, had already passed.

Unfortunately for us, it appears that the lawyers in Congress are not quite as proficient as we might have hoped at their primary task. One more area where we as citizens must take up the slack and learn some things that we could have probably gone without knowing for the rest of our lives and been happy.

By now, we are all familiar with the "stimulus package" put together by the current administration and his loyal followers in Congress. We are also aware of the attack against AIG for fulfilling their contractual obligations to their executives in the order of about $165M. An outrageous number? Perhaps. Although, I thought most outrageous number nowadays were in the Billions. What do I know?

So anyway, now Congress, looking stupid (ahem, sorry)...looking less than savvy about the whole stimulus package since it hasn't helped, has positioned itself against a handful of executives at AIG telling them that they had better give the money back or it will be taxed out of them. Now this brings up two very interesting things. The first is, why aren't they told to re-allocate the money? Wasn't it given to AIG in the first place to build in "stimulus"? Now Congress is having a cow because they want these millions back, as if it was theirs in the first place. But the second is even more disturbing and here is where we have to sit through Law 101. Congress has threatened these few individuals that if they do not give the money "back", they will tax it out of them. The following is undisputed:

Article I of the U.S. Constitution -- a section stating Congress cannot pass any "Bill of Attainder" or "ex post facto" law. A Bill of Attainder is an act of the legislature that singles out and punishes a group or individual without trial. An ex post facto law retroactively changes the legal consequences of an act.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/congress-invites-court-challenge-aig-taxation-plan-lawyers-say/

I'm not sure I can put that any clearer than that. Congress can't focus in on you with any law or taxes without a trial, and they can't go back and make illegal an act, which you did legally, and hold you liable for it.

Folks, it should send shivers down your back that our Congress right now, with everything that is going on nationally and internationally, is focused on $165M bonus plan that was part of a previously standing contract and could not legally be withheld. Meanwhile, a 410 Bbbbbbbillion dollar budget was "signed in protest" by Obama for the government to "continue running". Why in protest you ask? He said it was "imperfect".

Hmmm. How imperfect? Could it be that there were moneys in excess of $165M that could be, let's say, wasted? Do you think there will be a special task force to go out and punish those in government who might waste that? And what would have happened if Obama hadn't signed? They wouldn't have shut down. They would have defaulted to the previous year's budget. That, Obama, couldn't allow because last year's budget will not pay for all of the spending he has in mind. By the way, the last time I checked signing a bill was not any kind of protest, but in fact was a "sign" of approval.

Is your head spinning yet? We aren't done yet.

...Rep. Charlie Rangel, the Democratic chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, authored a resolution that would place a 90 percent income tax on bonuses for employees with family incomes above $250,000 for firms, like AIG, that received at least $5 billion in bailout money. Initially, Rangel said he was uncomfortable with the idea of meddling with the tax code as a solution to the AIG problem, but he told FOX News he "had an obligation to respond to the fears and anger of the people."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/congress-invites-court-challenge-aig-taxation-plan-lawyers-say/

Wow! The people speak and Rangel hears them! In fact, they speak so loud, he forgets that he is bound by the Constitution of the United States! He's not alone.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that recouping a "substantial portion" through taxation is one of several viable possibilities... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also said Tuesday that legislation being crafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., would subject the bonuses to a tax of more than 90 percent... Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants to require AIG to pay back the money to the government and deduct that amount from the $30 billion bailout commitment, as well as subject future bonuses to tough restrictions... Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "If (AIG CEO Edward) Liddy does nothing, we will act and will take this money back and return it to its rightful owners, the American taxpayers. We will take this money back by taxing virtually all of it."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/congress-invites-court-challenge-aig-taxation-plan-lawyers-say/

Since when does our Legislative branch KNOWINGLY pass an ILLEGAL law and say, "You don't like it? Take us to court! I dare you"?

Why do we have to know their job? We put them there. "We the people" interview and hire these people into these positions. If they are not going to do their job legally (according to their own laws), and they are going to focus their powers against individual citizens in an attempt to cover up their own wanton waste and abuse, then we can't afford to keep them on the payroll. These people are dangerous. Tell them that you are planning on firing them if they don't straighten up and fly right, and then use your vote and influence to follow through on your warning.

Then fire them -- because these people won't change. And you might be their next target.

The Ericator


UPDATE: I wrote this last night and in unprecedented time, the House of Representatives passed the aforementioned bill, which will tax the bonuses of all of the companies who received $5B or more at a rate of 90% (retroactively). The Senate is expected to make changes, but that doesn't matter. The Congress is out of control. This is proof. There isn't enough time in the day to even write about the atrocities being perpetrated by our government.