Obama '08?

Senate Trying to Ram Through Another Bad Bill . . . Surprised?
Here's What You Need to Know
Dear Fellow Tea Party Patriots,

This Friday Senate Bill 3217, also known as the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, introduced by Democrat Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, is scheduled to hit the floor of the US Senate where it must wait 72 hours before it comes up for a full vote. CLICK HERE to read the actual 1,421 page bill.

The vast majority of Tea Party Patriots' Local Coordinators from all over the country agreed on our most recent weekly conference call that this is a bad bill and we oppose it.

In short it grants permanent, unlimited bailout authority to the Federal Reserve. It's like TARP forever without the nasty, unpopular debates and votes in Congress. Beyond that it gives the Fed the power to takeover vaguely defined "nonbank financial companies". And the Fed has the power to decide what constitutes a "nonbank financial company" on a case by case basis.
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http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19251&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD
MILLIONS FACE TAX INCREASES UNDER DEMS BUDGET PLAN
President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate promise to cut the deficit by almost two-thirds over the next five years, but their budget plan could threaten about 30 million people with tax increases averaging $3,700 in 2012 and after because of the alternative minimum tax, says the Associated Press (AP).

The alternative is tax increases elsewhere in the revenue code averaging up to $100 billion a year after 2011 to continue alternative minimum tax relief and also curb taxes on people inheriting large estates.

The Democratic plan released Wednesday by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota relies on such boosts in revenues to carve the deficit from $1.4 trillion last year down to $545 billion by 2015:

The minimum tax, or AMT, was enacted four decades ago to make sure wealthy people couldn't avoid taxes altogether.

But it wasn't indexed for inflation in people's incomes, so it gets "patched" every year or so in order to prevent people from being surprised by multi-thousand-dollar tax bills at tax time.

Estates larger than $7 million would also be threatened with higher taxes after 2011 if Conrad's plan is carried out.

Conrad says lawmakers will have to find revenues elsewhere in the budget to pay for AMT and estate tax relief after 2011, which could require tax increases averaging up to $100 billion a year elsewhere in the code if Congress is going to keep its promises under tough new budget rules.

Conrad says he hopes the dilemma will force Congress to overhaul the complicated and inefficient U.S. tax code. The Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, says that 33 million taxpayers would face the AMT in 2012, adding $3,700 on average to their tax liabilities.

Extending AMT and estate tax relief would save taxpayers $300-$400 billion over 2012-2015. Many observers say it'll be virtually impossible for Congress to produce offsetting revenues to extend the tax relief. GOP Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire predicted that when Congress confronts the problem in two years it will blink and simply borrow the money as it has done in the past.

Source: Andrew Taylor, "Millions face tax increases under Dems budget plan," Associated Press/Yahoo News, April 22, 2010.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19252&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD
ANGELS OUT OF AMERICA
Senator Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) 1,400-page financial reform bill contains many economic land mines, says the Wall Street Journal. Here's one of the worst: Provisions that would make it harder for business start-ups to raise seed capital.

Currently, wealthy individuals who want to invest directly in a new business can do so with minimum interference from regulators. The law requires only that the investor be "accredited" by meeting thresholds for net worth ($1 million) or income ($250,000). Entrepreneurs depend on these "angel" investors, since many new businesses lack the collateral for bank loans and are too small to interest venture capitalists.

Amazon, Yahoo, Google and Facebook all benefited from angel investors, who typically target companies under five years old:
• According to a 2009 Kaufman Foundation study, such firms are less than 1 percent of all companies yet generate about 10 percent of new jobs.
• Between 1980 and 2005, companies less than five years old accounted for all net job growth in the United States.
• In 2008, angels invested some $19 billion in more than 55,000 companies.

Dodd's bill would change all this for the worse, says the Journal. Most preposterously, it would require that start-ups seeking angel investments file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and endure a 120-day review. Rare is the new company that doesn't need immediate access to the capital it raises, and a four-month delay is the kind of rule popular in banana republics that create few new businesses.

The legislation also removes a federal pre-emption that prevents start-ups and investors from being subject to 50 different state regulators. The North American Securities Administrators Association, which represents state regulators, argues that federal pre-emption contributes to fraud. But angel investors don't use broker-dealers and other middlemen linked to recent investment scandals. Nascent companies often seek financing from multiple investors in different states, and a state-by-state regulatory regime would mean higher compliance costs and more legal risks.

Source: Editorial, "Angels Out of America: How the Dodd bill harms start-ups," Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2010.

"The whole issue would be a non-issue for me if he would just act like he actually liked this country, whether he was born here or not, that would be nice."

Odems (i.e., Obamademocrats) are working to curtail our liberty, our constitutional government, and our capitalist economy

the religious right was after doing the exact same thing, only differing on the view of capitalism....the Right wanted no limits on corporate America's ability to enslave the citizens, the Obamatrons want some kind of nebulous limits. Try to spin this in your old tired partisan bickering if you must, but the slime is on nearly everyone.

Presidents "serve" their country?

...telling ingrates like us what we have to do and how much of our earning we have to give up to the government.

The right has never done anything for this country but create problems that the left has had to solve. Obama, however, is a centrist as was Clinton, much to the chagrin of the whole thinking population.

Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the Obama administration lied to all of us about
Obamacare just as they are lying about financial reform, V.A.T. and everything else.

Don't trust these people or their supporters!

Assuming they did this lying, and they did not

Executive Summary for Busy People:

(1) Obama forced bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar. This was a clear violation of the ordinary bankruptcy laws.

(2) Last Friday, Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Goldman Sachs.

(3) The complaint seems flimsy, and, Commissioners approved the complaint 3-2 party-line vote. Ordinarily, the SEC issues such complaints only when the commissioners unanimously approve.

(4) Fishy thing No. 3: Democrats immediately used the complaint to jam Sen. Christopher Dodd's financial regulation through the Senate.

(5) The Dodd bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to "too big to fail" firms.

(6) CEOs of these firms might want to have receipts for their contributions to Sen. Charles Schumer and the Obama campaign in hand when they apply.

(7) The Dodd bill "Just give Chairman Dodd and Chuck Schumer a s---load of money."

(8) Gangster Government may look good to those currently in favor, but as some of Al Capone's confederates found out, that status is not permanent, and there is always more room under the bus.

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Gangster Government Becomes a Long-Running Series
A Commentary By Michael Barone

Almost a year ago, in a Washington Examiner column on the Chrysler bailout, I reflected on the Obama administration's decision to force bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar on unsecured debts.

This was a clear violation of the ordinary bankruptcy rule that secured creditors are fully paid off before unsecured creditors get anything. The politically connected UAW folk got preference over politically unconnected bondholders. "We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government," I wrote. "It is likely to be a continuing series."

Fast forward to last Friday, when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Goldman Sachs, alleging that the firm violated the law when it sold a collateralized debt obligation based on mortgage-backed securities without disclosing that the CDO was assembled with the help of hedge fund investor John Paulson.

On its face, the complaint seems flimsy. Paulson has since become famous because his firm made billions by betting against mortgage-backed securities. But he wasn't a big name then, and the sophisticated firm buying the CDO must have assumed the seller believed its value would go down.
That's not the only fishy thing about the complaint. Yesterday came the news, undisclosed by the SEC Friday, that the commissioners approved the complaint by a 3-2 party-line vote. Ordinarily, the SEC issues such complaints only when the commissioners unanimously approve.

Fishy thing No. 3: Democrats immediately used the complaint to jam Sen. Christopher Dodd's financial regulation through the Senate.
You may want to believe the denials that the Democratic commissioners timed the action in coordination with the administration or congressional leaders. But then you may want to believe there was no political favoritism in the Chrysler deal, too. The SEC complaint looks a lot like Gangster Government to me.

The Dodd bill, however, has it trumped. Its provisions promise to give us one episode of Gangster Government after another.

At the top of the list is the $50 billion fund that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp could use to pay off creditors of firms identified as systemically risky -- i.e., "too big to fail."

"The Dodd bill," writes Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, "has unlimited executive bailout authority. That's something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn't dare ask for."

Politically connected creditors would have every reason to assume they'd get favorable treatment. The Dodd bill specifically authorizes the FDIC to treat "creditors similarly situated" differently.

Second, as former Bush administration economist Larry Lindsey points out, the Dodd bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to "too big to fail" firms. CEOs might want to have receipts for their contributions to Sen. Charles Schumer and the Obama campaign in hand when they apply.

Lindsey ticks off other special favors. "Labor gets 'proxy access' to bring its agenda items before shareholders as well as annual 'say on pay' for executives. Consumer activists get a brand new agency funded directly out of the seniorage the Fed earns. No oversight by the Federal Reserve Board or by Congress on how the money is spent."

Then there are carve-out provisions provided for particular interests. "Obtaining a carve-out isn't rocket science," one Republican K Street lobbyist told the Huffington Post. "Just give Chairman Dodd and Chuck Schumer a s---load of money."

The Obama Democrats portray the Dodd bill as a brave attempt to clamp tougher regulation on Wall Street. They know that polls show voters strongly reject just about all their programs to expand the size and scope of government, with the conspicuous exception of financial regulation.

Republicans have been accurately attacking the Dodd bill for authorizing bailouts of big Wall Street firms and giving them unfair advantages over small competitors. They might want to add that it authorizes Gangster Government -- the channeling of vast sums from the politically unprotected to the politically connected.

That can boomerang even against the latter. Goldman Sachs employees gave nearly $1 million to the Obama campaign and $4.5 million to Democrats in 2008. That didn't prevent Goldman from being shoved under the SEC bus.

Gangster Government may look good to those currently in favor, but as some of Al Capone's confederates found out, that status is not permanent, and there is always more room under the bus.

Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.