Considering his being so eager....

to throw money at problems as if it's as easy to come by as cracking open a fortune cookie, it's good to see that Mr. Obama finally came up with a proposal to actually save money! Always being so negative and cynical concerning our new President, I thought I would write about this way that Mr. Obama is actually trying to save tax dollars. After all, you probably won't here about this story on DNCTV (a.k.a. MSNBC). So here is how it works. Let's say a young American decides to join the U.S. Army and gets stationed in Afghanistan. While on tour and laying his or her life on the line so that I might be able to enjoy my relatively comfortable life with my wife and children (thank you, by the way, and that was not sarcasm), this young soldier gets severely injured by a roadside bomb. Once this soldier is treated for injuries recieved in combat, the President wants the bill to be paid by the soldiers private insurance which, will save the V.A. an estimated $540 million. Veterans fear that this could hinder them from getting good affordable health insurance or even a job. After all, if the V.A. saves $540 million because they are passing those costs on to the veterans private health insurance, who do you think the private health insurance companies will pass these added costs on to? Now I understand that Mr. Obama has backed down on this proposal, however, once again not untill a huge backlash from concerned citizens and veterans. Now, I don't want to simply be critical, so I would like to give alternatives for saving tax dollars. How about the nearly $400 million the U.S. will spend annually on "family planning" in foreign countries! Or, how about $192 million for rum production in U.S. territories! Just those two items exceed what you were trying to save with veterans insurance, but if that's not enough there is a plethora of other earmarks in the omnibus spending bill for you to choose from! I'm just not sure if dumping medical costs on our veterans from injuries that they received in combat was the kind of "change" they were hoping for!

I understand that....

Mr. Obama is infuriated at the reported bonuses that AIG is doling out to executives. Mr. Obama has vowed to do everything within the confines of the law to get back and/or block the $165 million in bonuses being awarded to executives! How very noble of you, Mr. President....or is it? I know what you're thinking...."you're just cynical, don't like Barack Obama, and find fault in almost everything he does"! Well, that is just not true....ok....maybe it is true, but in my defense I tried! When Mr. Obama was elected, I wasn't exactly pleased....ok....I was depressed, dejected, and disconsolate. However, once I collected myself, I said "he is my President and I'll give him a chance". It was on his third day in office that some of my fears started to come to fruition and I knew this was going to be a long four years (please God let it not be eight). But, the point is, I tried. I did really good....for about two days! And another thing....I'm not cynical....ok....so maybe I am but, in my defense as to this, I am only cynical when it comes to anything touched by mortal human hands....most other things I'm good with. Now, back to the issue at hand and why I question the motives of Mr. Obama. When AIG was given the $173 billion in question there were no provisions to keep them from paying out bonuses. No strings attached. In fact there was language, included by Senator Dodd (he said he was pressured by the Obama administration), that protected bonuses that had been promised. The President must have known this. Once the money was given, bonuses were paid out and the President didn't say a word! In fact, after bonuses were paid out, an additional $30 billion was approved for AIG. It wasn't until the swelling public outcry that Mr. Obama decided to take action. Now, in his defense, Mr. Obama is still very "green" as a President and wasn't very long ago just a Jr. Senator without any substantive experience at managing a small town, let alone the most powerfull country in world in the midst of its greatest economic crisis in its history. He's still learning...give him a break! Yeah, Gibbs, you're not the only one capable of "dripping with sarcasm". So, to sum this up, we had a problem with a private sector company with irresponsible executives being irresponsible with billions of dollars that the government should have never gotten involved in but they did anyway and decided to give said irresponsible executives billions in tax dollars to fix the problem to spend as they saw fit but when the irresponsible executives spent the billions in tax dollars irresponsibly the government decided to give them more and then get mad about how they spent the previous money given and then decided to do something about the whole mess but only once the people who are really responsible for picking up the tab on the said billions given to the irresponsible executives that should have never been given in the first place got mad....Whew....yeah, that about sums it up!

I had an idea that I wanted to share....

with you and maybe see what you think. My wife and I are having some....let's call them financial challenges and I have this idea for getting out of them. First, keep in mind that we already have debt that we owe....and to be honest....some that we owe money to don't like us very much. Also, our home is quite old and in need of considerable updating and we have a couple of rather tired automobiles. I should probably tell you how we got into this mess. Well....we waste money! Even though we have always earned plenty, we insist on spending much more than we earn and pretty much buy whatever we want. Actually, I use "we" very loosely because most of this isn't my fault. It was my wifes previous two husbands that actually racked up the debt....alright, I guess I should explain because, if you are family, you are probably confused and thinking "huh....Bev was never married before" and if you're not family you are probably surprised and thinking "Wow....I didn't know Mark was Bevs' third husband". Focus and keep reading....you should understand shortly if you haven't figured it out yet. Alright....here is the plan....I'm going to borrow approximately $500,000. I'm going to use approx. $100,000 to update and remodel my home. I'm going to use approx. $100,000 to purchase two new vehicles. I'm then going to give each of my children and my wife approx. $100,000 each to spend and invest as they see fit. I'm going to keep approx. $100,000 for myself to do the same. I'm not exactly sure how this is all going to work and have no idea how I am going to pay this money back or how long that will take, but I think it's a good idea and am going to go with it. So....what do you think? Oh really....you think it's a bad idea! Since it wouldn't be practical to actually wait for you to respond, I've taken the liberty to respond for you....I hope you don't mind....anyway....I'm sure that's what you're thinking. May I ask, why is it so surprising that a report came out that the Obama administration received a failing grade from most of the top economists polled concerning economic policy? I guess most of the top economic minds don't think running up a trillion plus dollar debt is going to fix our economy. By the way, any idiot should have figured out that my preceding story was simply a metaphor loosely based on a true story (except for the previous two husbands and other embellished details....kinda like a lifetime movie). If you hadn't figure this out, I probably just offended you and should apologize....but, I'm not going to....it's for the best that you know these things about yourself. Yeah, I know, it's not very "politically correct" calling people idiots and some day, if I run for President, some liberal democrat will dig this up and say "See....he thinks all Americans are idiots". For the record, that is just not true....I only think about 10 to 20% of Americans are idiots, another 10 to 20% are in danger of becoming idiots if not careful, another 20 to 30% are just ignorant and 40 to 50% are resonable thinking people. Of that 40 to 50% come most of those reading this blog and you are just 1st string, grade A people! I'm not going to explain every aspect of the metaphor. If I need to do that, you should at least watch the news once in a while!