Curt's Politics

(Here's more of my husband's thoughts & opinions on politics. :) I love that Curt is always so willing to share his thoughts and opinions like I am. Actually, I think he's always MORE willing to share his thoughts and opinions than I am.... especially when it comes to politics. Here's Curt's latest thoughts on Politics and our New President Barack Hussein Obama.)

Don't get me wrong...I don't hate or dislike Obama.  I think he'll be a good President.  I think Clinton was a good president.  I think Obama got elected because a lot of conservatives, independents, minority, and young voters were "told" that things were so bad and we needed a BIG change.  He told Americans what they "wanted" to hear and it was popular.  If I had lost my job or wasn't able to find work, then I might have bought into his policies.  I might have been mad at rich people and big oil companies because I believed in Obama telling me that they're horrible people and we need to increase their taxes.  Or Biden saying that rich people and big companies need to be MORE patriotic and pay more taxes.  Or I would have believed that rich people are bad people and therefore are being selfish because they don't want to pay higher taxes.  It's always ironic that the most wealthy people in America are primarily democrats. (Oprah, War ren Buffet, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, the Google Guys, to name a few) yet in every election, they try to paint the picture that republicans are the evil rich ones.  I've come to the conclusion that the WEALTHIEST among us are democrats for financial purposes only...they benefit financially from govt. spending.  All of these successful democrats and republicans rose up from next to nothing and didn't use or need any help or assistance from the government.  So I can never understand why they think it will be good for everybody else.  I don't know how people forgot so quickly that things were actually pretty decent until the democrats took the majority of the House and Senate.  Unemployment was low, incomes were increasing, the dollar was gaining value, consumer optimism was high.  BUT we were involved in a war that was not popular and had been mismanaged.  So all these democrats ran for senate and house seats on the premise that they will MAKE GEORG E BUSH END HIS WAR.  I remember seeing ads here from Mayor Hickenlooper stating that he would help get our troops out of Iraq (as if he has ANY controld over that as a mayor).  The point is that they told people what they wanted to hear, got elected, broke all of those promises and ended up with a WORSE approval rating than George Bush, and one of the worst approval ratings of any congress.  That's why republicans picked John McCain, because at the time it appeared that the war would be the central issue on election day.  Well it was near the bottom along with education.  The majority of Americans voted based on the economy.  Barack Obama made the false claim that George Bush was responsible for the economy being the way it is.  People like to say that the economy finally crumbled because of deregulation by the Bush administration.  But they refuse to hear the facts that it was CLINTON'S administration that deregulated the financial industry, then it was Barney Frank and other democrats who fudged the books to make it appear the housing markets were good and continue to be a good investment.  They LIED to Americans to get their bonuses at Fannie and Freddie.  If that had happened in a publicly held company (think Enron, Qwest, or others) there would be prison sentences.  But because it happened on Bush's watch, he is partly to blame as well.  My frustration is that people deny the democrats had ANY part in the economy crumbling.  The truth is, (and Warren Buffett and Donald Trump will agree) that financial markets can change direction VERY quickly from minor events.  It's not something that happens over a period of 20 years or even 8 years.  It's something that happens over a period of 12-24 months on the SLOW side.  Look at what is happening to the oil industry in a period of one month!  Airline tickets are nearly half what they were a month ago.  Look at mortgage rate s now.  Look at the value of the dollar!  It's gone up like crazy in the last few MONTHS.  So the economy doesn't have much to do with the 8 years of George Bush.  It started heading towards a recession the day the democrats took control.  The stock markets took their biggest two day hit after Obama was elected.  It's not hard to see that democratic policies are bad for our economy.  Democrats wanted to deregulate the housing and credit markets so they could get more minorities and poor people into homes to realize the "American Dream."  Republicans didn't want this...not because they despise the lower class, but they knew there is something fundamentally wrong with loaning somebody money who can't afford to pay it back.  I think it was a valiant effort and sounded good to a lot of people...the idea of affordable housing.  But you can't make housing affordable by forcing banks to lower their lending standards.

 

See, I don't think that Obama will be bad for our country.  I think he'll be good because he an I share the same attitude of hope and properity.  What I think is going to be bad is the fact that there are a decreasing amount of checks and balances.  We will have the most tolerant and liberal government in history. All of that new spending and govt. that is proposed will be on top of George Bush's LARGEST expansion of government in history.  I don't truly believe that we're becoming socialist...but it starts somewhere.  We don't need a huge govt. to help people achieve the American Dream.  The American Dream is something that is achieved on an individual basis through hard work and perseverence...not govt. programs and and assistance. 

 

wow, this is getting long...but on another note...I was speaking with the owner of our company yesterday about the strong possibility of big tax increases, and he said something interesting (along these lines) "They can take everything I own and give it to the poor people who don't pay taxes and don't step out of their comfort zone to take risks...they can take it all and give it away.  I promise you, that in a couple more years, I will have earned all of that wealth back and those people will still have nothing."  You can't force prosperity on everybody.  You can't spread "wealth" around.  You can only spread "money" around.  Giving tax credits to 100 million americans that don't even pay taxes is wealth redistribution and the $500 or so they get each year is not going to change their character or their lives.  They'll use it for Christmas, maybe and it will just end up BACK in the pockets of wealthy companies like WalMart.  It's not going t o increase their opportunities.  In fact, it will decrease their opportunities to find work.  Because under a completely democrat govt, business will be mandated to provide healthcare for their workers, they'll have higher taxes, they'll have more regulations, which means there will be less jobs.  I don't see how jobs are going to increase.  I can see that there will be new jobs created in the energy sector for new green energy jobs, which is great.  But those will primarily be skilled labor jobs...not the type of jobs for unskilled people.

I don't hate democrats, I don't hate Obama, I don't hate anybody.  I am a traditionalist and have a fundamental difference with democrats, in that I believe government has no role in my success OR failure.  I would never blame George Bush if I lost my job.  I would never blame George Bush if I lost my investments.  I would FIRST look at my own actions.  If I lost everything I have tomorrow I would be thankful for the hard work ethic, the SELF paid education, the strong love and support network, and the various other assets I have that nobody can take away from me.  I would then take all of those assets I have and put them to work for me again and create my own success again.  I wouldn't waste a day in pitying myself or blaming the economy or any other negative thing that is goin on.  Jen and I had this discussion the other night and she asked me what would happen if I had a brain tumor or lost some function of my brain...w hat then?  I told her I would write a book, and get someone to help me if necessary.  I would sell tens of millions of books.  It's those unquantifiable assets that make ME who I am, not government, not George Bush, not even the chosen one Obama.  It's those qualities that are helping me to achieve the American Dream, not the big government.

 

Now I'll also say that if things go really well for our country the next 4 years I'll tip my hat to Obama.  I think he's a great man and he's overcome so much in his life to achieve greatness.  On the other hand, if things go really bad and we have another great depression, I won't blame him.  I'll find a way to win...again.  Curt