Political Soapbox

Taking a break from my normal non-partisan-ish ranting to rant specifically about the current political candidates. Now, I consider myself an independent for the most part; socially liberal, financially conservative. That said...

I couldn't tell you who would be worse for the country: Hillary, Obama, Ron Paul, a random bystander, or a rock.

The democrats seem to be fairly identical; their platform is spend more, socialize medicine, tax the rich till they take their money and leave, encourage business to leave the country, evangelize Global Warming (the religion), expand welfare, destroy the currency, cripple the military, ignore problems outside of our border because people "over there" can't possibly hurt us, and ignore all long-term problems. Fortunately this platform plays well to the uneducated masses that are allowed to vote, so they should do well.

Ron Paul has some really good ideas (he's the only candidate with the first clue about encouraging financial responsibility), but he's hardcore isolationist. Gosh, I'm sure that will work out well in today's world...

A random bystander would be a step up from any of the democrat candidates in policies, because really how could anyone not be. On the other hand, you could get a crazy person, or a religious nut, or some other wacko. So kinda a toss-up.

A rock would almost certainly be the best of the above choices, just because it would be hard for a rock to sign any legislation or really create that bad of a mess. On the other hand, the government would grind to a halt because Congress could never get passed their partisan fighting to get a 2/3 majority to pass a budget, and that would be bad. Again, a toss-up.

So there you have it, a virtual tie for the bottom of the barrel. Gotta love this current crop of candidates.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Hate Obama-speak

Every time Obama speaks, it aggravates me. It's not because of his method of speaking or speech itself: he's a great public speaker who's clear, eloquent, and polished. It's also not because he uses a teleprompter obsessively, is very good at not straying from whatever canned message or pitch has been written for him, and dodges answering any probing questions with real information: most politicians have perfected these arts, and they have become so ingrained in our political process that they are as expected as they are unhelpful in conveying actual information. It's obviously also not because he lies: most politicians lie, usually very well, and Obama can state even laughable, preposterous fallacies without even breaking stride, but again, that's expected, normal, and uniform in today's politicians. No, none of these things are the reason Obama's speeches really get to me. See, Obama comes across as a smart guy, and every once in a while you get a semi...
Read more

If there was going to be a public health care plan...

I realize a public health care plan is a bad idea, but it did get me thinking: if I were making the bill, and everyone else strongly wanted a public plan, is there a form of the plan which I would be agreeable to? I thought about it, and I think a public plan would be eminently workable, provided it has some simple immutable provisions. Now, I don't think the Democrats are going to put anything like this into their disaster of a plan, much less be capable of adhering to all the requirements, but I would venture to say that if they truly wanted bipartisan support, this would be one way to get it; I strongly suspect most Republicans would back a public plan with my simple provisions. Without further ado, the provisions: - All public employees will be covered by the same public plan with the same benefits, from every level of government from janitors to the President. This will ensure that the plan is good, provides reasonable coverage, and Congress has a strong incentive to get it ri...
Read more

Why the housing market decline is far from over

Image
This chart shows the recast dates for various loans over the next five years, based on the current rate of negative amortization (copied from CalculatedRisk ). I think it would be fair to assume that most of these are going to be defaults, as soon as (or slightly after) the recast time; almost everyone who can afford their house is either already in a fixed-rate mortgage (and thus not appearing on this chart). This virtual tidal-wave of defaults represents roughly $25,000,000,000 worth of housing inventory being added to the market, per month, for the next five years . For reference, the NAR's latest statistics indicate there are only about $66B in sales of existing homes, per month, total, in the whole US. That lines up pretty well with the latest estimations of total home sales which are foreclosures, which is around 45% (REO's are selling slightly better than non-REO's, cause they are more realistically priced). Most people agree that the housing market is not likely to...
Read more