Catfish-and-Grits

Now they are [ denying ] the availability of SBA (Small Business Administration) loans to survivors that are trying to get there lives together. Jesus what the hell is going on.

I guess Kanye West was right.......

According to U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, "The administration now projects that the statutory debt limit, currently $8.184 trillion, will be reached in mid-February 2006" he wrote in a letter to 21 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate released by Treasury after financial markets had closed on Dec. 29, 2006.

Why are we just hearing about this? -- First, here's the Associated Press [ article ]

The letter was deliberately released on Friday (12/29/2005) because APPARENTLY the MEDIA disappeared for Christmas/New Year just like Congress, and the White House, and generally when you don't want a story to gain traction in the media you release it late Friday 7:00pm - 9:00pm. It is a bi-partisan tactic.

Let's parallel the Clinton and Bush administrations:

• Clinton
  
  • 20+ million NEW jobs
  • 8+ million came out of poverty
  • $5 trillion dollar surplus; We had started paying down our foreign debt; America would have been financially independent in a couple of years.
  • Record money given to education; highest number of people enrolled in college/university in 20 years
• Bush
  
  • 4+ million NEW jobs (in 5 years)
  • According to GAO (Governmental Accountability Office), proverty has increased each year Bush has been in office ( with it increasing from 12.5 to 12.7 in 2005 -- those numbers are adjusted for inflation
  • What surplus? We are about to raise the debt ceiling higher than 8 TRILLION dollars ( Congress is not going to let America default on it's financial responsibilities so expect the debt ceiling to be raised to ≈ 9+ TRILLION dollars)
  • As far as education goes, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) issued a scathing report in 2005 about the "No Child Left Behind" program not reflecting in graduation rates increasing in correlation to the amount of money spent for the program.

You decide.......

I am so glad that the President thought the world of the Congress so much so he signed into law a 2% raise. While the minimum wage has NOT been raised in 6-8 years, but CEO bonuses have increased by millions. And those wonderful spending cuts to medicare, medicaid, education, and health care industries like Hospice are just delightful with glass sweet tea ( you'll need it to swallow what this administration is tryng to feed you ). And lets not even get into those tax cuts for the rich. Then that AMT tax bracket that's attacking more middle-class people who make between 70-90K a year.

And you PEOPLE still believe that the national unemployment rate 5.0, if that's the case I got a bridge in Alaska I want to sell you.

Just some appetizer's my little liberalites, and peeking conservatives. This GM layoff is something we can all coelesce around.

Mr. Wagoner's earnings for 2004 (includes stock options + bonuses)..................get this:

$ 9,957,020 dollars.

And that's just the CEO, we haven't even calculated the other executive level positions. GM's problem is not medical insurance, 401K's, or even pension plans the company contributes to. They pay their executives TOO DAMN MUCH, and have a bad business plan....lol.

I'm just in shock and in awe (wink, wink) at this amazing economy. The Bush economic policy is working. He's killing two birds with one stone: the military recruiting issue and keeping mega, uber corporation satisfied.

Here's how it goes:

1) Lay off enough people and subsequently the militaty looks to be a more savory opportunity to the newly poor.

2)The corporation gets the same production quality, and quantity, with less employees. Mainly because those employees who survive the ax are going to be so scured (ebonics), they will over-work, and over-compensate, for their lost coworkers. Meahwhile, the top executives, continue to make their gluttonous booty (bonuses, salary raise, etc.)

GM is laying off 30,000 people by 2008

Ford will be laying off 4000 people.