TELLING IT LIKE IT IS !

A trillion dollars in loans! Why is the taxpayers’ money even being utilized? Let the sorry lot borrow from someone else. For the most part mismanagement has been the order of the day. These corporations have looked out for themselves, with greedy salaries and greedy boards. Now the time, they knew was inevitable, has come.

Then we have the left seizing on the crisis telling us we are witnessing the failure of market economics … a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense! What we are witnessing is the collapse of the philosophical “Greed Is Good!” brand of capitalism … capitalism without morals. What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.

A true conservative cherishes forethought and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, and a self-reliant republic. He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, and in living within your means. Something most of America is NOT doing! Then, we lend money to people who should not be approved because they can’t cover it.

For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt – all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.

Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. Foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars.

We are going to have to learn to live again without our means … the party’s over!

Up through World War II, we followed the idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent. But this left-leaning generation decided that we must march bravely forward into a socialistic Global Economy, where we all depend on one another. American companies morphed into “global companies” and moved plants and factories to Mexico, Asia, China and India, and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.

As the trade deficits began inescapably to rise to 6% of GDP, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.

At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar.

Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2% of the nation that already carries 50% of the federal income tax load.

Then, John McCain is going to cut taxes, expand the military, move NATO into Georgia and Ukraine, confront Russia and force Iran to stop enriching uranium.

Who are we kidding? What we are witnessing today is how empires end. We are unable to defend our borders, protect our currency, or balance our budget. We are witnessing today nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.

Who is managing the crisis? Not our elected leaders! The Democrats talk about all they are doing … they have the majorities in both the house and the senate … but they have done nothing! Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid say it’s not their fault – then whose it? They keep saying it is all the Republicans’ fault but they are the ones in power.

There is no consistency in who gets bailed out and who doesn’t. Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U.S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages. (Many of those mortgages should never have been assigned.) Then they decided to assist AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves, who by the way has a trillion dollars in assets … so sell some assets and pay for it yourselves!

Now we have an unelected financial elite entrusted with the assignment of getting America out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. Now we watch the consequences of these foxes that have already raided the henhouse, while we reward them for bad behavior.

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us – the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved – will never be the same because of greed … capitalism without morals. But we can’t expect morals when we deny God’s instructions on how to live!