America Moves Quickly to Democratic-Socialist State

[-Cp]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/379794_murdockonline20.html

There's no avoiding this conclusion: The federal government's breathtaking economic interventionism has turned America into a democratic-socialist state. The fact that these drastic incursions are happening under an allegedly conservative administration leaves this right-winger oscillating between head-spinning disbelief and exhausted disenchantment.

The $200 billion federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has given Washington control of some $5 trillion in home-mortgage debt. Roughly half of Americans now live, essentially, in public housing.

The nationalization of American Insurance Group puts Uncle Sam in charge of 80 percent of the nation's largest insurance company. Cost: $85 billion.
To finance this takeover, the Treasury Department will sell some $40 billion in bonds. After borrowing this money -- to be paid eventually by Americans not yet born, conceived, nor imagined -- Treasury officials will hand it to the Federal Reserve to help fund its seizure of AIG.

This month's brutish government intrusions arrive atop July's $300 billion bailout to refinance home mortgages up to $729,750 in value. This legislation has yielded a grotesque spectacle: the 34.7 percent of households that rent dwellings, and thus lack home equity, are subsidizing those who own homes that renters cannot afford. This program lifts the prices of those properties even more beyond reach, while further draining renters' pockets. This makes down payments that much tougher to accumulate.

The feds coughed up $29 billion in March to unplug Bear Stearns and sell it to J.P Morgan Chase. Bear was deemed "too big to fail," thus paradoxically requiring its federal euthanasia. Nevertheless, much-larger Lehman Brothers ($59 billion in sales last year vs. Bear's $16 billion) was allowed to declare bankruptcy and sell itself to Barclay's Bank. Still, taxpayers are reimbursing Chase $87 billion for covering some dodgy Lehman transactions.
Washington also has racked up some $200 billion in outstanding loans to banks through the Fed's Term Auction Facility.



...Rest at link

[Yurt]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/379794_murdockonline20.html

There's no avoiding this conclusion: The federal government's breathtaking economic interventionism has turned America into a democratic-socialist state. The fact that these drastic incursions are happening under an allegedly conservative administration leaves this right-winger oscillating between head-spinning disbelief and exhausted disenchantment.

.

i have to agree with this. i have been discussing this with my wife and am at a loss as to what is happening. even the so-called experts don't know. when i told her about the mortgages and how the government now owns them she was blown away (she is canadian and american). i remember talking with some folks here about section 8 housing and so forth and how government housing creates a false housing market and IMO this hurts the middle class the most. the poor get cheap or free housing, thus less units are on the market, the middle rents remain high thus affecting the middle class and the high rents remain somewhat stable, higher than the middle, but more stable because less people can afford such high rent.

i have no idea what the hell the government is going to do with all these mortgages? New World Order?

[hjmick]

I was making the argument twenty years ago that this nation was heading towards socialism, so, in my opinion, the move hasn't been that quick. What spurred my belief of this? It was the S&L crisis coupled with several large bank mergers.

Nobody listened to me.

[Immanuel]

Ah, big deal, who cares? As long as the government owns our houses, why should we worry? {gulp} Next they will be telling us where to work, when to work, how much we will make and how much of that we will give to the government for our protection.

Immie

[Joe Steel]

There's no avoiding this conclusion: The federal government's breathtaking economic interventionism has turned America into a democratic-socialist state.

Finally!

When do the purges start?

[Yurt]

Finally!

When do the purges start?

purge...what? why haven't you moved to cuba or venhugowala?

[mundame]

Paulson has a Plan for bailing out EVERYBODY, Wall Street rose incredibly for two days, everyone is relieved, Paulson and Bernanke look like heroes...................................

But McCain wants there to be no federal bailouts anymore?

Wow, talk about the Grinch who stole Christmas. McCain is about to become very, very irrelevant if he's going to talk like that. I think he said that about one day too late, after the train left.

What is his idea, to let us all fall into the bottomless pit and there be no actual money anywhere? We were headed down like the Titanic and here's McCain saying, "Sink the lifeboats!"

Obama is just shutting up and letting him talk: Second rule of politics, never get between your opponent and that cliff he's trying to run over.

[Yurt]

mccain should shut up

[diuretic]

Ah, big deal, who cares? As long as the government owns our houses, why should we worry? {gulp} Next they will be telling us where to work, when to work, how much we will make and how much of that we will give to the government for our protection.

Immie

They won't Immie. The Soviets did that in 1940 (and that was before the Great Patriotic War which commenced in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union) and they cranked it up even more during the war. It has been described as the "dictatorship over the proletariat" and truly it was. They only got away with it because by that time Stalin had been allowed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to become a dictator. Those lessons have been hard learned and you won't see those circumstances again.

[Immanuel]

They won't Immie. The Soviets did that in 1940 (and that was before the Great Patriotic War which commenced in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union) and they cranked it up even more during the war. It has been described as the "dictatorship over the proletariat" and truly it was. They only got away with it because by that time Stalin had been allowed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to become a dictator. Those lessons have been hard learned and you won't see those circumstances again.

Hmm, you think not? I pray not.

But then we have GWB who has lead this country for nearly 8 years now and he did his best to erode civil liberties during those 8 years. Next we will either have John McCain or Barack Obama to lead us for at least 4 years. Who knows how much further towards dictatorship we will travel in those 4 years?

Barack Obama is a socialist who believes in redistributing income and my guess is by force if necessary. He has questionable relationships with people who are not exactly friends of the U.S.

As for McCain, well, I really don't trust him very much. A Republican who claims to be conservative but seems to side more with the left than he does with the right.

Is it alarmist to say that we could end up like Soviet Russia? Yeah, probably, but then if people did raise alarms everyone aboard the Titanic would have drowned. :)

Immie

[Silver]

Ah, big deal, who cares? As long as the government owns our houses, why should we worry? {gulp} Next they will be telling us where to work, when to work, how much we will make and how much of that we will give to the government for our protection.

Immie

No...next they will tell you what doctor you can visit, when and how often....
(If you plan on getting sick in January, call for you appointment today.....)

they are working the "how much you get paid" .... they are starting with the CEO's and won't be getting around to you until 2010.....

And get rid of that sedan or SUV now...they will only be allowing electric and rubber band windups soon....10 yds. per volt or .5 mi. per elastic band....

[emmett]

i have to agree with this. i have been discussing this with my wife and am at a loss as to what is happening. even the so-called experts don't know. when i told her about the mortgages and how the government now owns them she was blown away (she is canadian and american). i remember talking with some folks here about section 8 housing and so forth and how government housing creates a false housing market and IMO this hurts the middle class the most. the poor get cheap or free housing, thus less units are on the market, the middle rents remain high thus affecting the middle class and the high rents remain somewhat stable, higher than the middle, but more stable because less people can afford such high rent.

i have no idea what the hell the government is going to do with all these mortgages? New World Order?


Yurt...............

I already told you the answer, along with everybody else. I've been actively telling you people on here for years that our country is moving toward socialism. I'm not blowing my horn just saying that maybe everybody shouldn't be so quick to discount the things I have been saying when I am trying to get people to discuss Libertarianism. When I do, everybody starts ignoring me because they know in their hearts that I am right.

Noone wants to climb the Libertarian hill because it appears too tough a challange. Not all things worth having are easy. You climb staircases one step at a time. Wow, the US GOvernment just used the biggest piece of your money EVER in history, are you ready to listen yet?

Probably not.....you'll probably have more excuses though about how Libertarians don't have the answer. WAKE UP DUDE!


VOTE LIBERTARIAN!