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I.O.U.S.A. Documentary

Johns Wu Posted in Personal Finance by Johns Wu
January 29, 2009 03:02 PM - 25 Comments

So… it seems like Obama’s plan to spend $825B of taxpayer money (that America doesn’t even have) has passed the House of Reps 244 to 188 (unanimous opposition from Republicans + 12 level-headed Democrats) and is on its way to the Senate where it will surely pass with or without GOP support (what happened to the checks and balances?!).

The “Stimulus” Bills Your Family – $825 Billion is equivalent to borrowing $10,520 from EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA.

Now that I have your attention, Heritage.org explains why this plan is wrong, and why you need to oppose this bailout! As a taxpayer it is your duty to read their article and understand the TRUTH behind this bailout.

Here is a 30 Minute Clip of I.O.U.S.A, a great documentary that discusses this country of debtors. Watch it and decide for yourself whether Obama’s plan is a good idea.

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  1. Tsunami Cid said:
    on January 29th at 03:16 pm

    http://www.recovery.gov

  2. Foreclosed said:
    on January 29th at 03:19 pm

    I think we should start giving principle reductions to commercial and credit card holders. Most people didn’t realize during the bubble years that credit cards are in business to make as much money as possible encouraging people to buy things they don’t need, and pay huge interest charges. The consumer had no choice, but to buy that jet ski!

  3. BloggingBanks said:
    on January 29th at 03:40 pm

    I would much rather bail out the consumer, rather than bail out the greedy wallstreet banks!

  4. SI Reasoning said:
    on January 29th at 05:02 pm

    Seriously, you were all in favor of sending about the same amount of money to Wall Street without any oversight with zero positive results. The economy is failing and if we do not act quickly to pump money back into the economy (and spending bills are the most effective way of doing this) then we can easily slide into a deep recession with dwindling incoming tax dollars and very little ability to recover from it.

    From what I can tell, most of the public spending will benefit all of us, so it is not wasted money. I was especially pleased to see an influx of money into public transportation (which can help a lot of people during difficult times) and into the green economy (which is our best bet to get the economy rolling again, like the tech economy did during the Clinton years.

  5. marketsense said:
    on January 29th at 06:38 pm

    When will the gvt realize that all the $ they are flooding into the banks to pass on to small business USA is being hoarded and not stimulating anything. Surely they’ve realized by now the bailout cash didn’t bailout businesses in America. Small local banks are reinvesting their bailout $$ with the Fed to earn interest to pay off the interest they are being charged on the bailout cash. Local banks aren’t lending to local businesses any more because they don’t want to risk losing the bailout money…so it’s a vicious cycle.
    They gave that TARP funding without including rules to compel lending…what’s different this time around?
    That’s right…nothing

  6. conservativetaxing said:
    on January 30th at 12:09 am

    This plan is a catastrophe waiting to happen. I saw in another blog someone recommending this blog: blog.sebastiengay.com
    This professor talks about the stimulus plan. He was even interviewed by business week about it.
    I agree with him that there is something wrong about the way this is all run, and I hope there will be a huge oversight on it. what separates us from countries like france now?

  7. Johns Wu said:
    on January 30th at 12:37 am

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

    We’ve looked it over, and even we can’t quite believe it. There’s $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

  8. Johns Wu said:
    on January 30th at 12:38 am

    Yea, I’m sure spending money on child care, digital TV, and museums is going to stimulate the economy.

  9. Terrin said:
    on January 30th at 12:39 am

    The stimulus plan is not meant to fix the economy, merely to patch it until more long term fixes can be applied. I for one would rather have consumers have a crack at some assistance then Wall Street types who didn’t do anything useful for the taxpayers footing the bill.

    The real fix will be to recognize, as the Country’s Founding Fathers did at the inception of our Country, that Free Trade Agreements are not free. You cannot expect to sustain, much less grow, a consumer economy, if the people in a Country do not have meaningful employment.

  10. Johns Wu said:
    on January 30th at 12:47 am

    That is one expensive band aid.

  11. kaidai said:
    on January 30th at 04:45 am

    time to kill all social welfare programs

    I and future generations, can care squat diddly about paying retirement/welfare/etc to people i have never met or care when our own are financial health are uncertain

    down with socialism!

  12. SI Reasoning said:
    on January 30th at 05:26 am

    Amtrak – it has been underfunded for so long that it has not been competitive. What’s worse, even though passenger trains are supposed to get priority over freight trains, in practice that does not always happen. This has lead to unpredictability in arrival times and made it further uncompetitive. What we really need is a massive investment in high speed rail, not only across the country and along the coasts, but also between major cities and college towns (for sports and weekend visitation traffic.)

    I don’t understand why anyone would object to child-care subsidies. Children shouldn’t have to suffer just because there was no oversight over bankers.

    National Endowment of the Arts – It is generally during times of bad economy, wars, etc, that the arts are often an escape from the misery index. The arts also play a very prominent role in transforming broken down neighborhoods into city centers, creating a hot spot for businesses and property values rise accordingly (running off most of the artists who can no longer afford to live there.)

    You seem to have a personal issue with Global Warming related issues so there will be little that I can say that would influence you on that, but by government standards, the sum is quite small. The Carbon Capture demos are kind of a band-aid approach to the problem, but considering the warnings that are coming out of the scientific community at this time, it may buy us some time.

    Finally, the digital TV conversion coupons are all out and we are approaching the conversion date. This is mostly for rural folks and the poor who depend on broadcast tv (as opposed to cable and satellite.) If I were to guess, a good amount of those coupons will never be used as many people will get them and find out later that they don’t need them or that they can use it towards the purchase of a converter box.

    Not all of the stimulus is intended to be used immediately though, but a good portion of it is. This is going to be a long term problem (best estimates are that it could take two years before things start to turn around.) So some of the stimulus will be like a time release capsule, continuing to pump money into the economy over an extended period of time.

  13. SI Reasoning said:
    on January 30th at 05:33 am

    One other thing, despite my approval of this round of governemtn spending to boost the economy, I am very conservative with my money. I generally don’t spend much and I have been finding ways of putting money away as backup just in case of times like these. However, one thing I noticed was that whenever our company went through a down period, our CEO would go borrow a bunch of money and spend rather freely to get the company going again (often times with my objection, encouraging tightening instead of borrowing and spending.) It always seemed to work though and as the business started to succeed again, then he would use the money to pay off our debts. Although I fought it, I finally started to see its wisdom.

  14. Roger said:
    on January 30th at 05:52 am

    Well, that sure cheered me up!

  15. Joe the Banker said:
    on January 31st at 07:55 am

    I think America will go bankrupt eventually. This is why I’ve been moving my money out of this country. Now I have nothing but debt in US.

  16. RoccoS said:
    on January 31st at 10:51 am

    Amtrak – Actually, priority goes to all freight trains, seeing as companies like UP, BNSF etc. own the actual rails and right away. Amtrak owns the NE corridor (about 730 miles), but that’s about it.

    Child-Care Subsidies – I would love to take care of your kids, as well as mine.

    NEA – Ah yes, nothing like a $20,000 jar of urine to make the neighborhood better.

    Global Warming – Glad to see the Goracle was up in DC this week to make sure he got something.

    Digital TV – I wasn’t alive back when TV replaced radio as the main form of information into the home. Who paid for the 1st TV sets? Washington? I guarantee you the next thing coming is free broadband to every household. Access to the internet is the next “right” for Americans.

    You do realize almost 1/2 the people in this county don’t even pay an income tax? Where will they steal the money from when that number hits 75%? Soon there won’t be anyone left to take from and then there will be no programs.

  17. worker30 said:
    on January 31st at 10:59 pm

    I think they should KILL all the Social Welfare Program right NOW, so everybody has to start working hard and save for their retirement.

    STOP having sex and making babies if you can’t afford!

    It is not fair for those who work hard and continue contribute to the social security and yet getting nothing when they are retired.

  18. flywill said:
    on February 1st at 02:27 am

    I think those people who could not control their spending are sick and they need medical attention not financial bailout. There are too many sick people in this land and the government is responsible for it. How can people save money if the government arbitrarily set the interest rate to 0? Just raise the interest rate to 10% and see how much money will be saved.

  19. Craig said:
    on February 3rd at 10:09 pm

    “Amtrak – it has been underfunded for so long that it has not been competitive. “
    It is not competitive because few want to be tied to a limited schedule and a relatively long travel time compared to air. Let’s not throw good money after bad; You might as well stimulate the economy by funding horseshoes and buggy whips.

    “I don’t understand why anyone would object to child-care subsidies. Children shouldn’t have to suffer just because there was no oversight over bankers.”
    This is the type of justification I would expect from someone who pushes for bigger government. So, children suffer because the general public may not want to subsidize >another< $2,000,000,000.00 worth of money that will do nothing to stimulate the economy? Baloney!

    “National Endowment of the Arts – It is generally during times of bad economy, wars, etc, that the arts are often an escape from the misery index.”
    Reduction of the ‘misery index’ does not stimulate the economy. However, funding new programs often leads to the money being spent by the government in perpetuity. Every dollar the government spends in new hand-outs generates another hundred that will follow it for years to come. Why not reduce the individual tax payer’s misery and give this money back to them?

    “ So some of the stimulus will be like a time release capsule, continuing to pump money into the economy over an extended period of time.”
    What it is going to do is continually pump money out of our children’s wallets as these programs carry on forever and continue to increase debt and taxes. This bill is almost pure pork to the left wing agenda supporters.

    “One other thing, despite my approval of this round of governemtn spending to boost the economy, I am very conservative with my money. I generally don’t spend much and I have been finding ways of putting money away as backup just in case of times like these.”
    Too bad your much more liberal spending everyone else’s money.

    “However, one thing I noticed was that whenever our company went through a down period, our CEO would go borrow a bunch of money and spend rather freely to get the company going again (often times with my objection, encouraging tightening instead of borrowing and spending.) It always seemed to work though and as the business started to succeed again, then he would use the money to pay off our debts.”
    Yeah, right … every corporation spends its way out of financial hard times … Where do you work again? I can always use a little info about stocks to short.

  20. Johns Wu said:
    on February 3rd at 10:35 pm

    Craig, nicely said.

  21. Craig said:
    on February 4th at 04:20 am

    Thanks Johns (and sorry for mispelling your name in prior posts)

  22. Marcia Robinson said:
    on February 8th at 11:12 pm

    Why would we rack up more debt if we are already unemployed? With another $10K in debt, it is important that we all find jobs soon!

    Marcie @ BullsEyeResumes

  23. Max said:
    on February 9th at 06:31 am

    Thanks, SI Reasoning, nicely said. Why would anyone use WSJ or Heritage Foundation as a basis for anything?

  24. wlc101 said:
    on February 10th at 03:57 pm

    Save To Pay For Those Who Don’t.

    One Word “Responsibility”

  25. Uma Kannan said:
    on March 14th at 08:00 am

    It is amazing to find Americans continue to believe they can spend their way out of trouble! Does the rest of the world owe us a living? We better buck up and save/invest just as our grandparents did. Our parents gen screwed it up – not so much by the Asians as the locals. God save them. Amen

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