In a March 30 article, Sen. Corker expressed his concern about the
state of free enterprise in our nation, specifically as it relates to
the President's plans for the automotive industry. Apparently, he
thinks that government is grossly overstepping its proper sphere of
activity.
Excuse me for a moment while I check my universal translator, which
must be on the blink. Is this the same Bob Corker who used his
position as mayor of our fair city to pressure the city council to set
aside a conservation easement so that he could develop his commercial
land? The same Bob Corker who did not hesitate to apply the power of
government to increase his own personal wealth? As is evidenced by the number of decades that said land lay underdeveloped previously, he
could not have swung his Eastgate Wal-Mart deal without the aid and
intervention of government--and in this particular case, to the
benefit of nobody but himself.
If President Obama is making use of the full power of the federal
government to impact "enterprise," at least he is doing so with the
intention of saving our economy and ultimately benefitting all
Americans--not to line his own pockets.
As for the ludicrous accusation that "firing Rick Wagoner is a sideshow to distract us from the fact that the administration has no progress to announce today," I am utterly astounded that any Republican, from sea to shining sea, has the audacity to lift up his or her head to criticize anything that our President is doing to try to clean up the disaster that the Republicans left as their legacy. Sen. Corker could hold such a cynical opinion only because the Republicans are masters at "distraction" and assume that everybody works in this fashion.
Polls down? Invade Iraq. I guess it is beyond our senator's comprehension that the President might have the welfare of the nation in mind when he takes actions. It's been so long since
we've seen integrity in that office that many people appear to have
forgotten what it looks like.
The Republican administration made this economic nightmare. You guys
had eight years to revisit that old, failed experiment of unregulated
commerce--how'd that work for you? Now, instead of engaging in some
serious self-examination and trying to figure out what you did wrong
and what you can do to make a real contribution to our economic
recovery, you're wasting time and taxing our patience playing stupid,
transparent games.
Rather than criticize and play politics (and clumsy politics at that),please at least do us the courtesy of standing aside while the
President attempts to fix it. Help, or get out of the way.
Joy Day
* * *
Obama is not fixing any problems, he has created more. The stock market has lost half of its value since he was elected to office. Since November 2008 it is down that much. I thought he was the savior, the answer to global warming itself?
Now I lay a huge load of responsibility at the feet of the Republicans but not the way Joy does. The Republicans squandered their opportunity to change America and they did not. They were greedy with power and did nothing. Bush did nothing. Iraq and Afghanistan were the right things to do but he missed out by not working a real domestic agenda.
Obama is not the answer, he never was. People just followed after a guy who can read well. He cannot even give a good speech unless it is written down.
More government is not the answer. Less government is the right thing. Let the market correct itself. Don’t fire the head of GM, fire the head of the UAW. Unions are what are killing the American automakers. Union greed is the problem with Detroit.
Obama is leading us into government run everything. Every time the man opens his mouth, or his treasury secretary does, the markets plunge. If he would just shut up and do nothing we would be better off.
November 2012 cannot come fast enough. I for one will stand in his way if I can.
Johnny Franks
seechatt@yahoo.com
* * *
I totally agree that Sen. Corker should either step in and help, or stand aside, as our new President works to clean up the mess created by the Republicans.
Do these hypocritical Republicans not understand that by trying to undermine the economic recovery that they are hurting all of us, the very people who will decide whether or not to vote for them the next time around?
Constructive criticism combined with active participation is great. But the hypocrisy involved in undermining attempts to dig us out of the mess created by his own party is unacceptable from a person who is supposed to represent us and our interests.
Miranda Dunne
* * *
First, what led to the banking and financial problems we are seeing now was hugely influenced by Bill Clinton signing the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act while our current VP, Joe Biden, and current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, led the charge. The repeal of this bill opened the door for banks to consolidate with brokers and insurance companies. Do the names AIG and Citigroup ring a bell? What we are seeing now is a direct result of the repeal of that act.
Also, do not forget that much of the financial crisis we are seeing started with 9/11 and was then quickly followed by the financial frauds conducted for years (yes, mostly under Clinton) by Enron, Adelphia, Healthsouth, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Arthur Andersen, etc. Those events shook the foundation of the financial world.
Now it has come to light that the fraud conducted under Bernie Madoff was first reported to the S.E.C. over 10 years ago and, if I am not mistaken, Bill Clinton was still the president.
Further, it was the hard work of Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Barney Frank that prevented Republicans from further regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several years before the real estate bubble started to burst as Republicans cited inconsistencies in the financial statements of the two mortgage entities. As far back as 1997, HUD Secretary, Andrew Cuomo, issued various decisions that opened the door for sub-prime mortgages to be sold through the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac secondary markets. What this means is that the sub-prime mess really got its start during the Clinton administration.
Barack Obama was also instrumental in his work with ACORN in strong-arming banks independently as well as working with the state and federal governments to provide mortgage financing to those who could have never qualified previously. In other words, Obama contributed to the mortgage collapse in several ways yet now wants to disavow himself of any responsibility whatsoever. This is not my opinion. His actions are a matter of public record. Oh, did I mention that no two federal politicians have received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
than Chris Dodd and Barack Obama? That they led the way in fighting Republicans for increased regulation of the two mortgage giants is purely coincidence, right?
The administration for Barack Obama is also the most radical in history. In case you have forgotten, Barack Obama, on national television, stated that if Congress did not pass the "stimulus" bill, we were headed for economic collapse. Congress was given literally a few hours to review a 1,000+ page bill. What happened when they signed it? Obama took a four day vacation before signing the very same bill that was so "urgently needed."
Bush did not do a good job. I freely admit that. He made a lot of mistakes and unlike most here, I sent a scathing letter to the White House years ago regarding the Bush policies. My point is that I am not blinded by some party allegiance or affiliation that makes me gullible enough to not do my own research. Bush was dealt a bad hand by Clinton who did not deal with the growing terrorism threat when he had numerous chances to do so, including failing to act on taking out Bin Laden when informed by his own Chief of Staff, Sandy Berger, of the precise location of Bin Laden through C.I.A. sources. Had Clinton acted at that moment, 9/11 would have most likely never occurred. (For the record, Clinton was at a fund-raiser at a country club and did not want to be disturbed by Berger.)
Do not forget that Clinton also declined to take custody of Bin Laden when Sudan had him and literally offered him to the U.S. No fewer than five terrorist attacks against U.S. interests and installations took place under Clinton while he made terrorism a back burner issue.
Financial enforcement was also an unimportant issue to Clinton.
The bottom line is that to lay all that we are seeing at the feet of Republicans is absurd. When it comes to financial matters on Capitol Hill, Bob Corker is about the only one who knows what he is talking about because he is about the only one who has made his money in the real
estate and financial markets. Sen. Corker has stated very plainly that he would sign a true stimulus bill but will not sign one with billions upon billions of dollars going into agencies or programs that are unrelated to any kind of economic stimulus. Even the Congressional Budget Office has issued reports stating the the so-called "Stimulus Bill" will likely produce positive results for maybe two to three years but that the cost burden will create huge budget deficits like those never seen afterward. In other words, Obama is looking at short-term gains and leaving things far worse off financially for the next president.
Miss Day, there are reasons why both Germany and France walked out of economic meetings with our tax-evading (unprosecuted) Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner. When other countries are seeing how destructive the current economic policies are, should a reasonable person not take a second look at them? I am merely scratching the surface but suffice to say that nothing done by or initiated by the Obama administration has been good for anything substantive other than growing our national debt by unprecedented levels (to the point that China is now calling for the end of the dollar and the start of an international currency; you do know that most of the "stimulus" money was borrowed from China, right?)
Oh, and the tax cuts he promised, do you really believe those are coming? He has not done anything else he said he would do, why should those be any different? Bush may have left behind a huge mess (and he did) but if we keep on in the direction we are already heading under Obama, The Constitution, private ownership of anything, and the U.S. dollar will be utterly worthless.
Joel Walker
* * *
I would like to remind Joy that the Democrats controlled the Senate
four of those eight years and controlled the House of Representatives the last two years of Bush’s administration. The Democrats are every bit as culpable as the Republicans for the debacle in which we find ourselves.
Allen B. Anderson
* * *
Cleaning up a mess up with a dump truck load of manure, doesn't clean
up a mess. The Democrats sound like a bunch of two year olds. Bush ran up the deficit and we're going to do it too. Since when do two wrongs make a right?
If the Democratic plan works, we will be able to do away with every bankruptcy court in the nation. We'll just replace the judges with loan officers and let everyone spend their way out of bankruptcy. We need to make sure the loans are not used to pay down debt and everything will be alright.
I want this plan to succeed. Just think of the potential.
Richard Sims
Chattanooga
* * *
"Oh, and the tax cuts he promised, do you really believe those are coming? He has not done anything else he said he would do, why should those be any different?" Quote from Joel Walker.
One thing I have noticed is that I have not heard a single person talk about the increase on their payroll. I for one noticed that my direct deposit from my employer was "off" I pulled up my check stub online and found that the federal tax amount deducted was less than the previous
checks. In other words just like he said it wouldn't be a lump sum, but that we would see an increase in our take home pay. It may not seem like a lot to many people but for me the extra $500.00 that I will take home this year helps me.
What's funny is a lot of people will say yes Bush and Clinton did this and they did that but many don't want to give Obama a chance to prove himself. This man hasn't even been in office long enough to do this dramatic turn around that people are expecting. It took time to make this mess and it will take time to get us out of it.
We don't need a bunch of negative thoughts. We need solutions that will help the Republican and the Democrats or better yet America to get back to being the best country we can be.
Oneka Lowe
Chattanooga
* * *
I have a couple of questions. First, where in the constitution (the document our executive and legislative branches have sworn to uphold and defend) does the federal government have the authority to bail out any private industry? Second, where in the constitution (the document our executive and legislative branches have sworn to uphold and defend) does the federal government have the authority to fire a private citizen from a job at a private company?
If you can point to it in the constitution for either of those
questions, then I will agree that President Obama is cleaning something up.
Sadly, our constitution has not meant anything since the Roosevelt
days. I think he was the one that gave us the biggest ponzi scheme
ever (social security). Once we allowed the federal government to do
that, all was lost. Give them an inch, and they will take as much of
your money as they can.
Does either side have a good answer? Nope. Unfortunately, the G.O.P.
offers too little too late. Where were those morons the last 12 years?
If they were so interested in cutting taxes and reducing the deficit, then they should have been doing it before now.
Want to clean up this mess? Then, leave it alone and let the free
market correct itself. If America was destined to have an automotive
industry, then an American business will build a successful one. If
our banking system sucks, then maybe we should use a foreign one. In
my book there is only one good politician - the one that is buried. He can’t lie to you. He can’t take you money and give it to those the he
want to vote for him.
I could go on for days like this.
Thank you,
Robert Harvey
Chattanooga