The "Reckless Generation"

The Perspective:

Our parents and grandparents were part of what has been recognized as the “Greatest Generation.” With sheer grit and unflinching will they conquered fascism, saved freedom, and put America on course to a level of prosperity never before seen. Through their efforts, they left us a legacy that even centuries from now, history will regard with awe.

But, if we are not careful, the legacy of our generation will be very different. If we follow the course set forth in Washington by Democrats’ stunning budget proposal, we will shirk our responsibilities to our children and grandchildren, burying our nation in an avalanche of debt.

The Democrats’ budget proposal will double the national debt in five years and triple it in ten! Our nation’s debt will increase to more than 82% of our nation’s entire GDP by the last year of the budget. We are talking year after year of record spending, record taxes, and record deficits.

When Americans are feeling the squeeze of a painful recession and tightening their belts, this budget will squeeze them even tighter -– and it will take from, instead of providing for, generations to come.

It’s time to stop mortgaging our children’s future and time to start building them a better tomorrow. We cannot let history record that we were the “Reckless Generation.”

The expansion of the federal government in this budget is shocking. Call your representatives in Congress today, and tell them to vote against this massive increase in spending and debt and put America on the road to recovery –- not bankruptcy.

Let me make it easy for you. Here’s the number for the Congressional switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Not what I promised, still adding the finishing touches to that segment, you should get it by Sunday.

Mr. Obama WHAT ABOUT FORD?

The Perspective:

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

With billions of TARP dollars being tossed to GM, interim CEO Fritz Henderson today said that they need to change big and change fast. My guess is that they will cut brands and "lines" (models within the brand). I would recommend that they keep Cadillac and Chevrolet and let the rest go to the junkyard in the sky. Bye, see ya later, alligator, sayonara... You cannot compete with so many different makes and models. The bailed-out auto maker should focus its marketing dollars and design talent toward the two relatively successful brands already within GM domestic.

Chrysler is majority owned by Cerberus Capital, a hedge fund. It still infuriates me that a hedge fund is the ultimate beneficiary of my tax dollars. Cerberus, for those who have forgotten, bought Chrysler in a move of financial bravado. They overpaid massively, but justified it by claiming Chrysler was an American brand that would thrive. Thrive it did not -- and now our tax dollars are bailing out a hedge-fund bet gone bad.

What has been lost in all this? The fate of the one U.S. car manufacturer that has done things right: Ford. With billions of dollars of free money being thrown at GM and Chrysler, Ford has been placed at a competitive disadvantage. While Ford is still paying high fees to service its debt the old fashion way, its major competitors GM and Chrysler are receiving free cash to shore up their businesses.

Think of it as a neighborhood where homeowner Ford is making its high-rate mortgage payments on time while you and me are paying for neighbors GM’s and Chrysler’s mortgages. Ridiculous, isn't it?

Where are you, Obama administration? Why aren't you pointing out that Ford is doing things right? Why aren't you arranging deals for Ford internationally?

Will you join me to promote Ford as the one U.S. auto corporation that is actually doing things right ...

Tomorrow, another short one, but one that will open your mind...

Here's To A One Term President Obama

The Perspective:

On Monday, the president of the United States, a man who never had to meet a payroll in his life, fired the chief executive officer of General Motors. Obama did so because he didn’t like General Motors’ reorganization plan–it was reportedly not tough enough on the bondholders. In Old America, GM would have gone into bankruptcy and been forced to sit down with bondholders, shareholders, unions and other creditors and worked it out. But no more. Obama, having failed to deliver on card checks to his union constituency, wasn’t about to let established bankruptcy procedure resolve the problem possibly at the expense of unions.

Welcome to the New America.

What should we call this place? Lately, on the right, and in various Tea Parties held across the country, the word “socialism” has cropped up. But this doesn’t quite fit.

New America: Authoritarian.

New America’s Managerial State has not been that programmatic. There’s no wholesale nationalization or expropriation. Instead, these statist elites seem to be operating more episodically, accumulating power in increments large and small, and here and there — to what cumulative end none can say.

But it’s not too early to label what to call this New America: Authoritarian. At the moment, it’s a mild authoritarianism, not too burdensome, more conceptual than actual.

Sound too paranoid? Perhaps. But consider some recent troubling events. Congress passes a 400 page, $780 billion dollar budget without bothering to read it! – If this happened in a country called Nicamala, we’d smile and call it a “rubber stamp” legislature; then, when President Obama gets caught including AIG bonuses in that budget — an tax subsidized organization with suspiciously close ties to the president’s resume and campaign — he helps deflect attention by sponsoring menacing visits to the homes of AIG executives. Meanwhile, paid political hacks and presidential surrogates are sent forth to attack radio talk show hosts, TV stock gurus, all the while whispering “Fairness Doctrine.” If this happened in a country called Venezil, we’d call it political thuggery and figure that one can’t expect any better from banana republics. Obamistas?

Meanwhile, the private sector is breathlessly hyper-focused on Washington rather than building a better mousetrap. The irony of all this is that owing to voters’ bad judgment and stupidity (yes, I’ll be among the first to publicly say it), we’ve elected a man to find us jobs who has never had a real job and a guy with no corporate experience to straighten out our largest companies.

As Howard Dirksen says, there are reasons why state governments don’t let 11-year-olds drive cars. There are also reasons why Americans have generally not elected neophytes to high office. But to paraphrase another old saying, if you’re having bad presidency, make it a short one.

Here’s to a one-term President Obama.

Tomorrow I have a short one on FORD.