Tag Archives: taxpayer dollars

Green Jobs, Clean Air, Secure Future

Posted on by
3

If I were running for election in 2012, these are the three issues I’d run on:

  1. Green jobs
  2. Clean air and water
  3. Strong national security

Green Jobs: Move our workforce into a sustainable future. For example, take workers off the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and put them to work making wind generators and solar panels. You heard me: the pay is the same; it’s less dangerous; and it’s sustainable. Like Pres. Obama says:

We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if — I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.

…and this leads to Big Thing #2…

Clean Air and Water: No more oil rigs in the Gulf means no more volcanos of oil soiling the water, the beaches and marshes of the Gulf coast. Come on, stop being in denial — you know it’s going to happen again and again and again. So stop tempting fate. There’s too much at stake.

And another thing: hunters and fishermen — not typically a Democratic constituency — will be with you on this. You will get their votes in great numbers because they respect what a clean environment means to them and their children.

In Lousiana, for example, it means giving your children what your parents gave you: an opportunity for a job, an opportunity for recreation, an opportunity for freedom. A filthy environment takes all of that away from you. It forecloses the future.

[Sotto voce: You're also doing the right thing to mitigate climate change.]

All Americans have that common goal: to eventually give the environment to our children so that they can carry on the legacy we received from our parents.

Strong National Security: Energy independence means you can eventually stop being held hostage by hostile oil-producing states that use the money we pay at the pump to fund terrorism around the globe. Dry up that money and you take away a lot of their power.

Again, this is something that everyone — Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives — can agree on: when you buy foreign oil, you are funding terrorists. So move our economy into a greener future. It will provide sustainable jobs and will give our children a cleaner safer world — and make us safer against the outside forces of terror.

So my imaginary stump speech would conclude with this: No one — no nation — has ever cut its way to prosperity. To prosper, you have to do big things.

UPDATE: Here’s what my Congressman Rep. Bill Cassidy (LA-06) says:

“We in Louisiana understand that wind and solar can never replace natural gas and oil, and that’s what he spoke about doing tonight,” Cassidy said after the president’s speech.

That reminds me of what Henry Ford once said: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

…Or what I’ve seen on more than one motivational poster: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

…Or what Marshall McLuhan said: “The future of the future is the present. And this is what people are terrified of.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on by
Reply

Joe Klein takes the opportunity to look at how Obama’s doing (so far).

Let’s see:

1) Hasn’t inherited peace and prosperity and turned them into wars and deficits as far as the eye can see.

2) Hasn’t let terrorists destroy landmark buildings and kill thousands of people in New York and Washington after being warned of a gathering threat.

3) Hasn’t launched two unwinnable wars and occupations, costing trillions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of American soldiers’ lives and destroyed the lives of millions of innocent non-combatants.

Considering that he inherited all of that as well as a near global financial collapse and depression, and we still have groceries and electricity, I give him a B+.

Eat the Rich

Posted on by
Reply

by shep

One congressional reaction that emerged — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) response to the rescue package — wasn’t favorable to many of K Street’s banking clients, who oppose one provision in particular: giving bankruptcy judges the power to lower mortgages for distressed homeowners.

“We are vigorously opposing that,” said Steve Verdier, a lobbyist for the Independent Community Bankers Association (ICBA). “If that happens, then the mortgage rates for other consumers are going to go up.”

[H/T: dday]

Well, what can I say except fuck you, Mr. Verdier and the limo you rode in on.

OK, perhaps our next president puts it more…politically:

“First, the plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. There has been talk that some CEOs may refuse to cooperate with this plan if they have to forgo multi-million-dollar salaries. I cannot imagine a position more selfish and greedy at a time of national crisis. And I would like to speak directly to those CEOs right now: Do not make that mistake. You are stewards for workers and communities all across our country who have put their trust in you. With the enormous rewards you have reaped come responsibilities, and we expect and demand that you to live up to them. This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives.”
—Barack Obama

And don’t even try blackmail us you rich asshole (and that goes for you too Paulson), we’re in no mood and no longer care what you idiots think. Not one thin dime should be spent on this problem until every single ARM in this country is turned into a reasonable fixed-rate mortgage for every homeowner who can afford it. If that doesn’t fix the problem then you can get in line behind them. And while you’re bent over the hood of your Towncar, you can explain to me a bigger “moral hazard” that giving you corrupt traitors hundreds of billions more taxpayer-backed dollar so you can keep ripping us off and sending a mortgage for the country’s future to the Chinese.

[Cross-posted at Dispassionate Liberal]