Clunkergate is Coming.

When the government interferes to help one segment of the population, they will inevitably hurt another segment. The government has no money of its own. Every dollar it gives away must be taken from a citizen's pocket. And the repercussions most often go far deeper than the dollar they took.

Take for example the Cash for Clunkers program. People get $3500 to $4500 to turn in their old cars which will be scrapped. Good for the auto industry, says Obama. Good for the citizen who needs a new car, says Obama. Good for the environment, says Obama. But is it?

The program started out with one billion dollars, but quickly grew to three billion dollars. With approximately 130,000,000 individual tax returns filed each year, that roughly figures to an extra $25 per return. Well, that's not so bad, you say. But it doesn't end there.

"Clunkers" is a misnomer in this situation. Most of these cars are still running. I heard on the radio today that mechanics are hurting, and they're blaming this program. One mechanic said his business is down 25% this year, and he attributes it to the fact that people were waiting for this program to kick in, and they weren't getting their cars repaired. All those cars turned in will never darken the door of a mechanic's shop. And that means mechanics won't have as much money to spend, and they'll be laying off their helpers.

The scrapped cars will never be a low cost alternative to those who can't afford a new car. Their loss will, in fact, drive up the cost of the used cars that are still marketable. And that hurts the poor family who can't afford a new car even with a $4500 trade-in.

Good for the environment? Where do you suppose all these scrapped cars are going to end up? In a landfill somewhere? What about all those batteries and all that gunky old oil? What about that anti-freeze in the radiator? How about all those hydraulic fluids? And where are all those tires going to end up?

Then there's the fact that a lot of these people are going to be like the "victims" of the housing crisis. They're being encouraged to buy cars they can't really afford, and I guarantee at least some of them will default on their loans. Then instead of having an old car that's paid for and runs, they'll have no car and a bad credit rating. Then the banks will have a bunch of used cars to go with all the foreclosed houses they have. And I suppose we'll have to bail them out of that. Maybe they could offer a special - "Buy a car and we'll toss in a house for free!"

And we all know how fraud-prone government programs are. I predict that in a few months we're going to have Clunkergate. Some unscrupulous car dealer will be found selling the cars he scrapped, or there will be sales of cars to customers who never existed, or any number of schemes to get that $4500 per car.

The bottom line is, when the government gets involved, it does a whole lot more harm than it does good!

How many really need insurance?

I saw some updated figures this week on how many people actually fall into Obama's category of people who can't get insurance. It's far lower than most people realize when you filter out those who can afford it but don't buy it, non-citizens, and those who qualify for medicaid/CHIPS but haven't signed up - around five million instead of the 50 million figure that keeps popping up. Recent polls show somewhere around 85% of the American people are satisfied with their health care coverage. So why are they messing around with it? The only thing I can figure out is control. Think about it -- the estimated cost of this plan conservatively is a trillion dollars. If I put all my zeroes in the right spots, that's $200,000 per uninsured person. We could buy insurance for all those people for ten years for one tenth that amount. So why is our government insisting we all need their program? It has to be control. There is no other reason.

It's all about the money - Part II

The octonut has signed agreements for each of her 14 children to earn $250 a day to star in a reality television show. The children will earn a total of about $250,000 over three years. Now we know why she had all those kids.

"octuplets' mother signs TV contract for children." The Dallas Morning News; July 26, 2009; p. 6A.

It's all about the money.

There are a lot of things that bothered me about the Henry Gates arrest, but they're not the things that seem to bother our esteemed (Haha!) President.

The first thing that bothers me is that Henry Gates automatically assumed that the officer who arrested him for being disorderly was a racist. The party guilty of racial profiling was definitely NOT the officer.

The second thing that bothers me is that the media assumes that if the caller who reported the break-in gave the race of the suspected intruders, she was a racist. Not so -- a description of suspects is relevant, and you can eliminate or include a whole bunch of people in one fell swoop with the race of the individual(s).

The third thing that bothers me is that Obama shot off his mouth without knowing the facts. He automatically assumed that Crowley and not Gates was the racist. More racial profiling.

The fourth thing that bothers me is the arrogant, condescending attitude of Gates who says he wants to take advantage of this "teaching" moment. What he needs to take advantage of is a "learning" moment! He says he hopes the Cambridge police department will "choose to work with me toward that goal." Kind of like he worked with them when they were investigating a possible burglary?

The fifth thing that bothers me is that it's all about the money. Gates says he's going to make a documentary on his arrest to tie into a larger project about racial profiling. Wonder how much he'll make off that and the subsequent speaking engagements?

"Arrested scholar ready to move on." The Dallas Morning News; July 26, 2009; p. 5A.

The Last Days

It seems lately every time I pick up the newspaper, the scripture that in the last days, "people will be without natural affection," comes to mind. How can people do the things that they do to their children?

Three of Abneris Santiago's children were found locked in a nasty motel room bathroom. They were literally starving and at least one has been sexually abused. Authorities say that the children are so malnourished that when they were fed, they couldn't keep the food down. Abneris is described as obese. The children would be there still if Abneris's brother hadn't become concerned and driven down from his home in Ohio. But Abneris is a good mother. She cleaned the broken toilet every day so the children "would be in a clean place." Well, let's make her mother of the year!

Since the original story came out, the boyfriend has said that he had to do what he did. These children, ages 6, 10, and 11, were dangerous, he said. They were rapists, he said. He had to protect people from them, he said. Bless his heart!

Abneris was so afraid of the boyfriend, that she didn't call police even though she left the motel daily to work in a barbecue restaurant. That's her story anyway. I figure it's because she didn't want the police to find her marijuana stash. But she had to smoke it, she says, in order to cope with the situation. She said she knew she had to get out of there before "something really bad happened." Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that nothing bad happened to those kids before they were found!

By the way, what do you want to bet they have a Lone Star Card? And what do you want to bet they're not citizens?

"Starved, but not able to eat." The Dallas Morning News; July 21, 2009; p. 1A.

We don't have enough government agencies!

I've posted several times on Obamacare -- its unfulfillable promises, its high cost, its rationed services. One thing I've not mentioned is the number of agencies it creates. How many of you think we need more government agencies? I don't see any raised hands out there!

This is not a complete list, but if Obamacare is passed, these are a few of the agencies and boards that will be created:

• Health Choices Administration
• Health Insurance Exchange
• Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund
• Government Health Plan
• Bureau of Health Information
• Health Benefits Advisory Committee

In looking at all this, the Congressional Budget Office has said that the bill will cost us more and dig us deeper into debt. And we can assume it will cost even more than they estimate -- look at the "Cash for Clunkers" program. One billion dollars was budgeted, but when money ran out this week, Obama promised the program would continue. At what cost? That doesn't seem to concern him. Let's just bill the taxpayers some more!

"Dems are trying to fix the wrong things." The Dallas Morning News; July 21, 2009; p. 11A.

Even the Democrats don't like him!

Obama's in trouble. As his poll numbers drop lower by the week, Democratic governors and congressmen are distancing themselves from him and his catastrophic health care plan (and I don't mean catastrophic in the usual medical insurance context of the word). Even if they don't say it in so many words, I'm sure many of them agree with Republican Michael Steele who said that Obama is "conducting a dangerous experiment with our health care." The Mayo Clinic does, as they came out with an official statement criticizing the plan.

Every American over the age of 50 should be terrified of what they're doing. It's they who will suffer the most under this plan -- a plan that deems senior citizens of no productive value. Obama took issue with Senator Jim DeMint who said that if they are able to stop this plan, it will be Obama's Waterloo. In response, Obama said, "This isn't about me." He's right there -- he's exempted himself and his family from Obamacare! It's about the ordinary American citizen who will be denied choices in his own health care -- who may even be denied health care completely if he's too old!

Yes, people are waking up. They're deciding they don't like the messiah they elected.

"Dems say tax hit in plan goes too far." The Dallas Morning News; July 21, 2009; p. 1A.