FANNIE MAE IS BADLY IN NEED OF REFORM & NEW LEADERSHIP MINUS CONGRESS' INTERVENTION (NO BAIL OUT)

FANNIE MAE IS BADLY IN NEED OF REFORM & NEW LEADERSHIP MINUS CONGRESS' INTERVENTION (NO BAIL OUT):

WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL INTERFERENCE, FANNIE MAE STAFF CAN NO LONGER USE POLITICS TO HURT HOMEOWNERS WHO VOTE OPPOSITE OF THEIR CHOSEN CANDIDATES.

WITHOUT CONGRESS' HELP, FANNIE MAE STAFF CAN NO LONGER STEAL HOMES WITH EQUITY FROM U.S. MILITARY VETERANS WHO VOTE OPPOSITE OF THEIR CHOSEN CANDIDATES.


Post Sources: American Banker, Forbes, Fox News, Youtube


********How next FHFA chief can reform Fannie, Freddie without Congress' help


The legislative stalemate over housing finance reform is likely to prolong the uncertain future for the government-sponsored enterprises. But it also illuminates the power of the next head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

With FHFA Director Mel Watt's term due to end in January, his successor — either a Senate-confirmed appointee or an interim chief — has substantial authority to set part of the path forward on GSE reform, including how far Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expand their mission and the status of a common securitization platform shared by the two mortgage giants.

“Reforms can move forward without legislation,” said Anne Canfield, executive director of the Consumer Mortgage Coalition. “There are things that can be done administratively that would reduce the government’s exposure and risk to the GSEs and bring private capital into the marketplace, but in a little bit of a different way.”

That highlights the importance of whomever the Trump administration selects for the job. It could be someone who differs from Watt — an Obama appointee — in style and policy, who could opt to go as far as placing the mortgage giants into receivership.

“I don’t think we’re going to have legislative GSE reform anytime, but the day-to-day decisions they make, whether to approve a pilot or fund the Housing Trust Fund, these are significant decisions that will impact the trajectory of mortgage finance,” said Isaac Boltansky, the director of policy research at Compass Point.

During his tenure, Watt has appeared cautious about changing Fannie and Freddie's role in the absence of congressional reforms.

"I am well aware, and regularly express my belief, that conservatorship should never be viewed as permanent or as a desirable end state and that housing finance reform is necessary," Watt said in a 2014 policy speech early in his FHFA tenure. "However, Congress and the administration have the important job of deciding on housing finance reform legislation, not FHFA. Instead, our task is to continue to fulfill our statutory mandates, to execute our strategic plan and to manage the present status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

But observers said his successor could take advantage of the agency's powers to move in the direction of reducing the GSEs' role.

Before Watt arrived, the agency was run on an acting basis by Ed DeMarco, who had joined the agency in the Bush administration and was seen as more opposed to expanding Fannie and Freddie's reach.

“It depends on the person," said Canfield. "It really depends on who they select.”

Some candidates who have been mentioned as possible successors to Watt — including DeMarco himself along with retiring House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling — have been vocal about reducing the government’s role in the mortgage market.

In February, when Fannie requested a $3.7 billion draw from the Treasury, Hensarling harshly criticized giving the company any more bailout funds.

“Today’s announcement that Fannie Mae has once again run out of money to pay its own bills is the latest example of why we need to repeal the GSEs’ government charters once and for all," he said then in a statement, adding criticism later of Watt's handling of the companies' fiscal situation.

"The even more troubling aspect of the GSEs financial crisis is FHFA Director Mel Watt’s continued insistence to siphon taxpayer dollars to prop up payments to the Housing Trust Fund that the GSEs cannot afford to make," Hensarling said. "If the GSEs don’t have the money to pay their own bills, they should not be making optional payments to outside entities."

While Watt's term will end in early 2019, a pair of recent scandals facing the agency has led some to speculate he could leave sooner. Watt has been accused of sexually harassing an FHFA staffer and is reportedly under a separate investigation for attempting to weaken the oversight of the FHFA Office of Inspector General.

Before a new nominee is Senate-confirmed, the White House could appoint one of Watt’s three lieutenants to serve as acting director or appoint a temporary director under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act when Watt leaves.

“If there’s a prolonged period where we have an acting director … I think that it would be a slower decision-making process and more of a caretaker,” said Boltansky.

But Canfield disagreed, saying that the administrative decisions made by an acting director could depend on the person.

“I think the acting director can do quite a bit,” she said. “I would hope that they would get a permanent director in there but if they’re not able to do that, I think they can all move forward with an acting director.”

If the White House were to move quickly to nominate a successor to Watt, it would signal that the administration wants to move quickly to end conservatorship and implement reforms of the mortgage finance system, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods wrote in recent a research note.

“However, it is difficult to say what policy path the administration will pursue until we see what personnel it intends to insert at FHFA,” the company said.

Of all the actions a director could take, the most significant would be to put Fannie and Freddie into a receivership, which supporters claim would restructure the GSEs without burdening taxpayers.

Among the other decisions the next FHFA director could make would be to determine the courts of efforts to implement a common securitization platform, which would allow Fannie and Freddie to issue uniform mortgage-backed securities. The FHFA has pushed the second phase of the process to June 2019 — after Watt’s departure.

The director will also be at liberty to decide whether or not to continue Fannie's pilot Enterprise-Paid Mortgage Insurance program and Freddie's similar Integrated Mortgage Insurance pilot, which both debuted this year. Some have criticized the mortgage insurance programs as being too far outside the bounds of the GSEs’ mission.

An FHFA director with the view that the GSEs' footprint should be reduced could oppose the mortgage insurance pilots.

However, the pilot programs are too new to automatically write off, and the FHFA director could just as easily wait to see if the programs are effective before making a decision to implement them further, said Laurence Platt, an attorney at Mayer Brown.

“I don’t think this is an issue that will be dependent on who the new FHFA director is,” Platt said. “I don’t think there’s a partisan side to this, per se.”

To be sure, there are clear limits on what the next FHFA director can do administratively. Creating some new housing finance structure to replace the GSEs is the territory of Congress. Instituting an explicit government guarantee or changing the ownership charter or structure of the GSEs would need congressional approval, which is unlikely to happen in the short term.

Besides congressional reforms, there are other policy areas where the FHFA cannot move unilaterally. The FHFA would have to work with the Treasury Department to change the preferred stock purchase agreements, which require Fannie and Freddie to direct nearly all of their profit to Treasury. Investors have long claimed this is unfair, and have unsuccessfully challenged the legality of this agreement in court for several years.

FLINT WATER CRISIS REEKS OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION (OBAMA'S DIRTY DEALS)

FLINT WATER CRISIS REEKS OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION (OBAMA'S DIRTY DEALS):

GOV SNYDER & MIKE ROGERS' PREVIOUS POLITICAL DEALS WITH OBAMA ARE LINKED TO CURRENT FLINT WATER CRISIS.

NOW IN 2016 OBAMA USES FLINT WATER CRISIS TO DESTROY MICHIGAN'S GOP LEADERS & HELP DEMOCRATS.


In the video above I discuss how the current FLINT Water Crisis is directly linked to dirty Political deals between Pres OBAMA, Michigan governor RICK SNYDER and former Congressman MIKE ROGERS.

I also discuss the fall of BLACK former Detroit mayor KWAME KILPATRICK who was destined to become Michigan's governor before he was caught up in a CORRUPTION Scandal.


~ Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Releases Emails Tied To Flint Water Crisis

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder released his collection of emails from 2014 and 2015 surrounding the toxic water crisis in Flint today, hoping, as he said in Tuesday’s State of the State address, to provide a better understanding of how the municipal emergency unfolded.

More than 270 pages of emails were released to the public and posted to the governor's website.

The state's Department of Environmental Quality first became aware of the elevated lead levels in children's blood on Aug. 23, 2015, when Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards notified the department that the school would be studying Flint water quality issues "over the next few months," the emails indicate.

At that point, the city of Flint had already determined that it needed to install corrosion control treatment into the water system leading into the Flint River, the emails read.

Flint had stopped using Detroit's water system in 2014 while a connection to Lake Huron was established. The city switched back to the Detroit system in October 2015.

The DEQ disputed Edwards' test results indicating corrosion and lead leaching in early September, a timeline of the events leading up to Flint created by the Michigan government states.

On Sept. 5, Director of Urban Initiatives Harvey Hollins said to Snyder in an email that more than 1,500 water filters had been distributed to households and that were was a "demand for more."

On Sept. 26, Snyder's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, discussed the potential political ramifications, accusing officials in Flint of turning the crisis into "political football."

“The DEQ and DCH feel that some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children's exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football claiming the departments are underestimating the impacts on the populations and particularly trying to shift responsibility to the state,” Muchmore wrote.

Flint residents were urged not to drink the water on Oct. 1, the timeline says. But, a press release from DEQ on Oct. 2 said that the water in Flint's system was safe to drink, "but some families with lead plumbing in their homes or service connections could experience higher levels of lead in the water that comes out of their faucets."

A message from the Flint Water Advisory Task Force to Snyder on Dec. 29 ascribed much of blame to the DEQ for the contaminated water.

On Wednesday, Snyder committed $28 million to remedy the water crisis, according to a statement, calling the funding "just one more step toward a long-term solution." He apologized to Flint residents in his state of the state address Tuesday night and promised to take "full responsibility" in solving the problem.

"No citizen of this great state should endure this kind of catastrophe," Snyder said Tuesday.

In the address, Snyder outlined the actions that were taken last October in response to the contaminated water crisis, including daily door-to-door distribution of water, water filters, filter replacements and water testing kits.

More than 21,000 homes in Flint have been visited by emergency responders and volunteers. Snyder vowed to tend to every home that needs attention "until every person has clean water every single day no matter what."
"We need to make sure this never happens again in any Michigan city," he said.

The Michigan government has made budgetary recommendations to replace water supply pipes and fixtures in Flint schools and to fund specialized staff locally in Flint for follow-up care for affected residents, Snyder said.

Provisions in the budget have also been made to keep Flint on the Detroit water line until the end of 2016, Snyder said.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said today during a U.S. Conference of Mayors event in Washington, D.C., that aid provided so far to Flint water is "not enough," adding that the city has been "crying" about the issue for almost two years.

President Obama and White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett met with Weaver Tuesday to say that his administration will provide continued support to state and local officials.

Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint on Saturday after a request from Snyder on Jan. 14.

Snyder appealed Obama's decision to deny a federal major disaster declaration for Flint, his office said in a statement Wednesday.


Sources: ABC News, BBC News, Shoebat, USA Today, WXYZ, Youtube

Student Loan Debt Bail Out? Debt Hits $1 Trillion Dollars! Where's The Student Loan Bail Out?

Student Loans: The Next Bailout?

Here’s what we do know about student loan debt: it’s roughly $1 trillion in size, greater than either auto or credit-card debt and second only to mortgage debt in the U.S.

Borrowers in their 30s today owe $28,500, on average. The debt burden has soared just as — and partly because — the recession hit, so younger graduates carrying the highest balances are hit with the double whammy of a weak job market (that still isn’t showing any sign of rapid improvement).

And this all comes as globalization and technological change have upended once-reliable career paths, wiped out many mid-level professional jobs and leave low-paying fields in health, food and beverage services, and retail as among the fastest growing job markets over the next decade.

Oh, and consider that student loan debt remains one of the most difficult types to forgive or discharge in bankruptcy, in part because the federal government (i.e. taxpayers) made or guaranteed 80 percent of all outstanding student loan debt as of last year. And finally, that once loans in deferral or forbearance are excluded, the delinquency rate on student loan debt was an estimated 27 percent as of the third quarter of 2011, according to a study by the New York Fed.

Worried? Americans should be.

Still, acknowledging the problem is perhaps the easiest step. Much more difficult is the question of what to do about it. Not surprisingly, young, heavily indebted grads are calling for forgiveness in full or in part of their student loan burdens. Petitions on advocacy website Change.org include calls for federal student loan interest rates to be capped at 3 percent or eliminated altogether. (Indeed, President Obama is currently among those urging Congress not to allow the interest rate on federally subsidized Stafford loans, which are aimed at low — and middle-class borrowers, to double to 6.8 percent on July 1, matching the rate for unsubsidized loans.)

And yet the trouble with those initiatives, or with forgiving student loan debt in whole or part, is threefold. For starters, the straight mathematics: the losses from any such debt reduction scheme will have to be borne by someone, most likely taxpayers, at a time when government finances are already stretched.

Second is the issue of “moral hazard,” that is, rewarding and implicitly encouraging imprudent behavior rather than punishing it. (Of course, it is easier for the public at large to demand that over-leveraged banks be punished for imprudence than 24-year-olds trying to further their education.)

And third is the question of how to keep future graduates from accumulating a mountain of student loan debt just as large, if not larger, than the one just leveled.

It is this third issue which perhaps is most pressing — and most vexing —and which also offers the most opportunity for innovation. Levying an “education tax,” making college free and assigning students to institutions based on a lottery system? Abolishing “college” altogether for more specialized trade institutions instead, while at the same time requiring a “gap year” of liberal arts prior to entry? Offering high-school grads the choice between student loans or business loans to fund new ventures? These all seem ridiculous, but then so too is our current state of affairs.

Our current system, in fact, has so failed that it may now be exacerbating income inequality (by saddling low-income students with high loan balances and shaky job prospects), economic malaise (by keeping would-be homebuyers stuck in costly rentals because of already high debt loans and/or poor credit histories, thereby damaging both the housing market and potential consumer spending), and long-term economic vitality (by hampering household and family unit formations with a higher share of 20- and 30-somethings currently stuck at home with mom and dad).

This, in fact, is why it may be far less costly for taxpayers in the long run to forgive as much of the current student-loan burden as possible. Before doing anything like that, however, there must be systematic reform to ensure debt loads simply won’t start to pile up again. (Not to mention the need for repercussions for those borrowers who most benefit from any such initiative, for the sake of fairness.) That is why the need for innovation or overhaul is so pressing.

One thing is certain: if we do nothing to alter the status quo, we will have no one to blame but ourselves for the bleak outcome.




I'll continue to ask Pres. Obama & Congress, where is the Bail Out for Students Loan Debt? Wall Street was Bailed Out. Why NOT College Students?






How Student Debt Impacts Students of Color

On July 1 the interest rate on federally subsidized Stafford Loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent if Congress doesn’t act. Though this rate hike will have devastating consequences on more than 7 million students nationwide who currently hold a Stafford Loan, change will hit students of color especially hard.

The facts below show how students of color depend on financial aid to finance their college education and how they are uniquely impacted by student debt.

1.) Students are having trouble paying back their college loans. Studies show that only 37 percent of students are able to repay their loans on time. Students of color are more likely to depend on financial aid to attend college and have higher trends of student debt.

2.) For the first time, student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt in the United States. Student college loan debt is now higher than all credit card debt in the country put together. Nationwide, student debt is at $867 billion compared to credit card debt at $704 billion.

3.) People of color, particularly African Americans, are graduating with more student debt. African American students in particular are graduating with much more debt than white students. A 2010 study by the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center found that student loan debt levels of $30,500 or higher were more common among 27 percent of black bachelor's degree recipients compared to 16 percent of their white counterparts.

4.) Youth unemployment (ages 16 to 24) is higher for people of color, making student debt a significant financial burden. Youth unemployment is highest among youth of color, with rates for African American youth at 30 percent and Latino youth at 20 percent, compared to the white youth unemployment rate of 16 percent.

5.) Students of color rely on other forms of financial aid, such as Pell Grants, which are also facing significant cuts. Students who will lose eligibility or be cut from the Pell Grant program—a means of access to higher education and social opportunity for low-income families—will likely turn to loans to make up the difference. At a majority of historically black colleges and universities in particular, two-thirds or more of all enrolled students receive Pell Grants, with more than 90 percent of students receiving these grants at eight such institutions of higher learning.

6.) While educational attainment increases among Latinos, the achievement gap continues. From 2001 to 2011 the number of Latinos with a bachelor’s degree or higher education increased 80 percent from 2.1 million to 3.8 million. But there’s still an achievement gap: By 2012 only 14 percent of all U.S. Latinos over the age of 25 had bachelor’s degrees, compared to 34 percent of whites. A 2009 Pew Hispanic Center survey found the most common reason for the gap was pressure to support their families financially, forcing them to choose between college and their families. This means that low-interest-rate loans are that much more important to Latino youth in completing their college careers.

7.) More students of color are taking out private loans, exposing them to more financial risk. There was an approximate 16 percent increase and 12 percent increase among black and Hispanic students, respectively, that took out private loans, from the 2003­–04 to 2007­–08 school years. While federal loans have lower interest rates than private loans, doubling the rate will bring the two closer together, making students of color more vulnerable to defaulting on their loans.

8.) Students of color are more likely to enroll in for-profit schools, which currently account for nearly half of student loan defaults. For-profit colleges and universities tend to have higher tuition, increased dropout rates, and insurmountable debt for students. This puts economic and academic barriers on students of color, making it more difficult for them to graduate.

9.) Students of color with higher student debt are left with fewer options. Deferments and forbearances often provide short-term debt relief, but the interest on the loans may accrue and capitalize during the forbearance or deferment period, making the loans more expensive in the long term.

10.) Student debt hinders students of color from homeownership. Past-due payments hinder borrowers due to lower credit scores and having their wages used for loan repayment. According to the Federal Reserve, fewer young people are getting mortgages—just 9 percent of 29-to-34-year-olds got a first-time mortgage from 2009 to 2011, compared to 17 percent in 2001.

Allowing Stafford Loan interest rates to double would make the cost of college skyrocket—the cost of college for those relying on Stafford Loans would increase by 20 percent. Given that students of color are more likely to rely on financial aid to finance their college education and graduate with higher student debt, increasing these interest rates would disproportionately impact them. We need to focus on making college more affordable, particularly at a time when students need a good education to be competitive in the international economy.


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Sources: American Progress, NBC News, NY Times, Youtube, Google Maps

Cornel West Confronts Obama: "Where's Bail Out For Mainstreet Like You Bailed Out Wall Street?"

Dr. Cornel West To The Grio.com (Interview):
"The Poor Communities Of Color Need A Bail Out Just Like Wall Street. The BLACK Community Is Too Big To Fail."

"Pres. Obama has an Economics team that's composed of people with No history whatsoever of being concerned about Poor People.

Obama made it clear that when he moved into the White House and it was a Beautiful thing to see he & Michelle and the two precious girls...that he was going to reassure the Establishment.

And that's exactly what he's been doing.
Reassuring the Establishment.

Well there are many of us who believe the Establishment is on Our Necks!
And on the Necks of Brother Jamal & Sister Latisha!

Now Brother Jamal & Sister Latisha need to get their Acts together But...
they can get their Act together all they want.

If the Gov't also does not come through with the kind of Opportunities that a Determined Jamal & Latisha can take Advantage of, they still run up against a Wall.

I think Obama formed certain habits when he Campaigned.

One of the habits he formed was to Neutralize WHITE Fears & Anxieties as he Capitalized on BLACK Solidarity.

So he could have One Size Fitting All When He Campaigned.

To Govern is something else.
But he's still got that Same habit.

So when he talks about the Disproportionate Amount of Social Misery in Poor Communities, One Size Fits All Doesn't Work For The BLACK Community.

When Governing One Size Fits All Does NOT Fit The BLACK Community.

When it comes to the BLACK Community We have to Pull Ourselves Up By Our Bootstraps.

But Wall Street did NOT have to Pull itself up by its bootstraps or have Personal Responsibility!
Wall Street received a $787 Billion Bail Out!

Can you imagine giving $787 Billion Dollars to Poor People?
It Only takes $50 Billion to wipe out Poverty in this Country.

Afghanistan? Its going to take Billions of Dollars!

Its about Priorities!

Its definitely Economics but its also about Priorities in your Economics Policies.

That doesn't downplay Individual Initiative & Personal Responsibility because people Still Need To Get Their Act Together but....

Its just Not enough to have Individual Initiative!

You can have all the Individual Initiative in the World but if you live in the Hood where Bullets are flying, and families are collapsing , where Jobs are Disappearing, then its going to be 1 out of 10,000 to do what the Michael Jordan & Oprah did.

Without the Government's help & a Serious Comprehensive Jobs Policy, things will get Worse.

A Serious Jobs Policy like the New Deal, what the Manufacturing Sector used to do.

The Same way we had an Investment Bank Policy when they were in Trouble.

Communities with People of Color are Too Big To Fail, just like Wall Street was too big to fail.

Just like AIG, just like Goldman Sachs.

Well You know what?

My Partners Are Too Big To Fail."
Dr. Cornel West


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Sources: The Grio.com, Youtube, Google Maps

Romney vs Santorum: Michigan! Does Michigan Still Hate Romney?

Michigan to Romney: Go away


One very clear reason why Mitt Romney is far from a lock to win the Michigan primary, despite his ties to the state, is that he's not really tied to the state.

He was born here, he lived here. But he's not family. Not anymore.

That's why the characterization of Rick Santorum polling well in Romney's backyard is a bit misguided. The truth is, many of us disowned that two-faced liar years ago.

We remember how, back in 2008, Romney came home promising to do all he could to save the auto industry. And we believed him and voted for him and he won the primary here.

Then, after he dropped out of the race, he wrote a New York Times op-ed that carried the headline "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

The opening sentence: "If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."

What the hell?

I thought he said he was one of us.

Later in the piece, Romney talks about why we should let the auto industry go bankrupt. Although he lays out some very sound reasons for this -- including an anecdotal story of when his father, George, took over American Motors -- at the end of the day he fails to mention the most important thing. Us.

He forgot about the people back home who depended on the auto industry to put food on the table, pay mortgages, send the kids to college. He greeted us like family when he needed our votes, but when he left town he treated us like strangers.

If Romney didn't think a bailout was the best way to help the state, he should have said that when he came here looking for delegates and let the people at his rallies decide if they agreed with him. Instead he pandered, then kicked dirt in our faces on his way out the door -- an all too familiar pattern with Romney.

The reason Santorum is gaining votes in Michigan isn't because he's so liked here, though his social conservative rhetoric plays well in the western side of the state.

But it's because we've been burned by Romney before. He tells the people in front of him what they want to hear. But when he sets his sights on a new shiny object, he changes the script to fit his new needs.

We've seen him do it with abortion and health care reform.

We've seen him do it with taxes.

When Romney was running for the Senate in 1994, he sent the Log Cabin Republicans of Massachusetts, a gay rights organization, a letter saying "don't ask, don't tell" was the first of "a number of steps that will ultimately lead to gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military."

Then in 2007, when he was running for president, he said he would not change the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and that changing it would amount to a "social experiment."

I might not like a lot of Santorum's views, but at least I know what they are. Saying Romney flip-flops is an insult to flip-flops. That's why, according to a poll by the American Research Group, 33% of Michigan GOP voters say they support Santorum and only 27% support Romney.

In response to his unstable footing in his "home" state, Romney penned a new op-ed in Tuesday's Detroit News to defend his New York Times piece.

In true partisan fashion, he blasts President Obama for orchestrating the auto bailout while neglecting to mention in 2008 President Bush had moved to give Chrysler and GM billions of taxpayer's dollars at the beginning of 2009.

This is one of the reasons why Obama has to remind the public about the Bush years. If he doesn't, Republicans like Romney and Santorum will try to whitewash history and limit the economic conversation to the past three years as if we're in a vacuum.

Oh, and by the way, he was wrong.

The auto industry did not collapse.

In fact, reports show the bailouts saved an estimated 1.5 million jobs.

The auto industry is expected to grow by 28% by 2015, with the Big Three set to hire about 33,000 people in Michigan alone. And while Ford did not participate in the bailout, G.M. did, and was able to regain its place as the top automaker in the world.

Chrysler also took part and recorded its first annual net profit since 1997, and announced plans to invest $500 million in an assembly plant in nearby Toledo, Ohio, adding an entire second shift of jobs over the course of the year.

Couple all that with 23 consecutive months of job growth across the nation and what you have is good news for Michigan and choppy political waters for Romney.

He's scheduled to appear in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, presumably with a big ol' plate of crow.
He knows as the auto industry goes, so goes the state. He also knows we remember he said the country should let the auto industry hit rock bottom. Had Romney said that to our faces when he was campaigning here four years ago, we could at least respect what he has to say about the auto industry and the state of the economy today.

But it's going to be tough to sit and listen to Romney, knowing he will try to say whatever he thinks we want to hear. And besides, our backs are still sore from that knife he stuck in them in 2008.


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Sources: CNN, Fox News, GM, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Mitt Romney's Job Killing Record: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!!"

Romney's jobs record to be scrutinized in race

Republican heavyweight Mitt Romney, in a second bid for the White House, is promoting his private-sector business experience to show he could do better than President Barack Obama in creating jobs.

But opponents will find fault in his record as a corporate raider in the 1980s and as Massachusetts governor when his performance on employment was mixed at best.

Romney stressed his experience as head of private equity firm Bain Capital when he announced on Monday he was forming an exploratory committee on seeking the Republican 2012 nomination to challenge Obama, a Democrat.

He made a fortune wheeling and dealing in companies, some of which endured big job cuts as part of restructuring. Some ultimately went bankrupt.

"He was a corporate raider who often made companies profitable, not by helping them perform better -- but by simply laying off employees and killing jobs," said Ray Buckley, Democratic Party chairman of New Hampshire.

Bain Capital, which Romney headed for more than a decade, specialized in leveraged buyouts: buying companies with money borrowed against their assets, grooming them to be sold off, and in the interim collecting huge management fees.

Later, as Massachusetts governor from January 2003 to January 2007, Romney presided over one of the puniest rates of employment growth among the 50 U.S. states, at a time the nation's economy was booming.

Labor Department figures showed Massachusetts ranked 47th among the states in the rate of jobs growth in those four years -- ahead of only Ohio, Michigan and Louisiana.

The Democratic party will attempt to pick holes in Romney's jobs record if he wins the Republican nomination, a party strategist said. Romney is an early front-runner to win the nomination and some polls even show him ahead of Obama in states such as Florida, Georgia and New Hampshire. He has high name recognition and a powerful fund-raising machine.

A SHARP LINE

Romney announced his first formal step for a presidential run on Monday in a short video shot at the University of New Hampshire, in which he drew a line between himself and Obama, criticizing the president for surrounding himself with people who "have never worked in the real economy."

That could be a persuasive argument at a time the world's largest economy is not growing quickly enough to make a sizable dent in the jobless rate, still at 8.8 percent, after a recession that ended in 2009.

To bolster his image as a job creator, Romney, 64, said in his video that Bain Capital started with just 10 employees and grew to hundreds of workers.

While the firm certainly grew, the impact on Bain's targets was often different. "Sometimes I was successful and help create jobs, other times I was not," Romney said in the video.

Romney faces several hurdles to win the Republican nomination and get a shot at Obama: his Mormon faith, his ideological makeover since leaving the Massachusetts governor's post, and the Massachusetts healthcare reform program that became the basis for Obama's national policy.

Still, Romney does have attributes that could appeal to traditional Republicans and independent voters.

The fiscal conservative has the looks and clean-cut image of a 1950s matinee idol. He and wife Ann have been married since 1969, and have five sons and 16 grandchildren.

"Romney would be Obama's toughest challenge. Romney looks presidential -- teeth gleaming white, jaw perfectly sculpted," Robert Reich, labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, said of Romney.

In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last week, Romney came out on top, supported by 21 percent in a nine-candidate field.

Many voters also warm up to Romney's unbridled optimism about the United States.

The title of his 2009 book/policy manifesto, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness" (the subtitle was revised to "Believe in America" for the paperback edition) was in part a dig at Obama's habit of showing humility on the world stage.




Let Detroit go bankrupt


If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for on Tuesday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course - the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support - banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around - and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit's automakers.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota's Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product - it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries - from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, "Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street."

You don't have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th.

This will mean a new direction for the UAW, profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms - all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options.

Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies - especially fuel-saving designs - that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.

Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don't want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don't fire the best dealers, and don't crush them with new financial or performance demands they can't meet.

It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research - on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like - that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others.

I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.

But don'task Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass - they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs.

The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk. In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.


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Sources: CNN, Fox News, NY Times, Reuters, Youtube, Google Maps

GOP Leaders Fail Voters On Jobs! 2010 Election Lie!

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From Early 2009 To November 2010, GOP Leaders On Capitol Hill Screamed This Particular Mantra To Pres. Obama Before America's Voters:

"WHERE ARE THE JOBS?"

"WHERE ARE THE JOBS?"

"WHERE ARE THE JOBS?"


In Fact The Subject Of Creating JOBS & Bringing Back Manufacturing JOBS From Overseas Is The MAIN Reason Why They Were So Successful During The 2010 Elections.

It Wasn't A Clarion Call For "DEFICIT REDUCTION" That Handed The U.S. House To Republicans, Instead It Was JOBS!

However Immediately After The 2010 Elections While Delivering A Speech At An Event Sponsored By The Heritage Foundation, What Was The FIRST Statement Of Focus Out Of GOP Senator Mitch McConnell's (R-K) Mouth?

"We're Going To Make Sure Pres. Obama Doesn't Get A 2nd Term".

Notice Mitch NEVER Mentioned The Word "JOBS", Only OBAMA!

Thus GOP Leaders Revealed To America's Voters They Lied About The Reason Why They Wanted To Win Last November.

Fast Forward To June Of 2011.

Guess What What GOP Leaders & Sarah "Barracuda" Palin Are STILL Focused On?

Getting Rid Of Our Nation's FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT: Barack Obama!

The Majority Of All Republican Leaders Could Care Absolutely Less About The Debt Ceiling Being Raised, Even Though They Raised It Several Times Under Pres. George W. Bush's Administration Without Giving Him Any Drama About It.

The Majority Of All Republican Leaders Could Care Absolutely Less About Saving Medicare Even Though They Supported George W. Bush's UNPAID For "Medicare Advantage" Program For Wealthy, White Senior Citizens.

(Remember Kathy Hocul's Recent NY-26 Win?)

The Majority Of All Republican Leaders Could Care Absolutely Less About Helping To Create Jobs Or Bringing Manufacturing Jobs From Overseas, Even Though It Was The Deregulated Wall Street Policies Of George W. Bush That Tanked The U.S. Economy, Costing Us Millions Of American Jobs.

The Majority Of All Republican Leaders Could Care Absolutely Less About Eliminating The "Bush Tax Cuts" For Wealthy Citizens, Even Though Its Those Same Tax Cuts Which Have Contributed Billions To Our Deficit.

And To Make Matters Worst, Those Same Wealthy Citizens Benefiting From The Bush Tax Cuts Have Sent Millions Of American Jobs Overseas For Cheap Labor.

NO!

GOP Leaders Could Care Absolutely Less About Those Vitally Important Issues!

They Are ONLY Laser-Focused On Pushing Pres. Barack Obama Out Of Office NOT Because Of His Policies.

Simply Because He's BLACK! That's It!!

Two Years Ago When Pres. Obama Was Working With A Democrat-Controlled Congress To Help Bailout The American Auto Industry, NO GOP Leaders Stepped Up.

In Fact They Slammed His Agenda To Save American Auto Industry Manufacturing Jobs.

Including The BORING, No New Ideas 2012 GOP Front Runner Mitt Romney.

Let's Fast Forward To 2011.

Pres. Obama's Auto Industry Bailout Is A Huge Success!

Who Tried To Take Credit For The Auto Industry Bailout Idea?

That's Right!

Yours Truly! GOP 2012 Presidential Front Runner: MITT ROMNEY!

The Author Of "ROMNEY CARE"!

FYI: "ROMNEY CARE" Is A Government-Mandated, Universal Health Care Program That Provided The Complete Framework For "OBAMA CARE"!!

What A Flip Flopping HYPOCRITE He Is!

Last Thursday Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) Had The Nerve To Put An SOS For Party "UNITY".

UNITY! For What?

NOT To Help America's Voters Recover From A Recession Caused By George W. Bush's Deregulated Wall Street Policies But UNITY To Help Get Rid Of Pres. Obama!

Many Voters Who Supported GOP Candidates Last Fall Are Now Experiencing "Buyers Remorse" Because They Need Help & Due To Political Games, GOP Congress Members Are Refusing To Give Those Voters Much Needed Relief .

In Fact GOP Leaders Even Want To Cut Off FEMA Assistance For Natural Disaster Victims!

But Do The Majority Of GOP Leaders Care About Needs Of Voters Or Their Constituents?

NO!

As I Mentioned Above They Are ONLY Concerned With Kicking Pres. Obama Out Of The White House! That's It!

Why?

Most GOP Leaders (Including Sarah "Barracuda" Palin") Don't Believe A BLACK President Is What Truly Represents America.

Herman Cain For President?

PLEASEEEEE!

Mr. Cain Is Nothing More Than A Paid, Southern Opportunist "Uncle Tom" For The GOP.

Mr. Cain ONLY Cares About Lining His Pockets (More) & Is The Kind Of Man Who Would Probably Sell His Family Members Out To Do It!

He Should Be Ashamed Of Himself! SELL OUT!!

With That Said I Have Just One Question For GOP Leaders"

"WHERE ARE THE JOBS?"

There Is No Better Time For Democrats & Independents To Work Together To Help America's Voters Get Back On Their Feet Than Right NOW!

VOTE OBAMA IN 2012!

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Why jobs no longer top Washington's agenda


"Where are the jobs?"

In Washington, it's a question that Republicans brandished like a sword during the first two years of Barack Obama's presidency and one that Democrats used when the GOP took control of the House of Representatives in January.

For both parties heading into another campaign, the question remains the same, and the answers aren't any closer. While there are plenty of ideas about job creation, political realities make implementation unlikely.

So a softening of the economy — reflected in Friday's dismal jobs data from the Department of Labor — doesn't mean Congress will pass a new stimulus program. Deficits and debt dominate the Washington agenda, not new ways to create jobs.

Only 54,000 jobs were added in May, and the unemployment rate, which had declined since last year, ticked up to 9.1 percent.

It isn’t that Obama and congressional Republicans aren’t offering job creation proposals — they have been for months. And it isn’t that Obama hasn’t signed job creation legislation — he did last December.

In an interview on CNBC Friday morning, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis emphasized the positive trend of the previous few months: "If you look back on the last four months, we've on average put (on) about 200,000 jobs each month.... And if you look at the past 15 months, it's well over 2.1 million private-sector jobs. We're on the right path. We knew all along we were going to have some bumps in the road."

During a visit to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio Friday Obama celebrated the revival of the American automobile industry and defended the bailout of Chrysler and General Motors which began in 2008.

But he alluded to the lackluster employment data by saying, "I don't want to pretend like everything is solved. We've still got a long way to go, not just in this industry but in our economy: all our friends, all our neighbors who are still feeling the sting of recession. There's nobody here who doesn't know someone who's looking for work and hasn't found something yet."

Talking about the need for reliable jobs as anchors for cities such as Toledo, he cited the example of a woman working at the Chrysler plant whose mother, stepfather, uncle and husband also had worked or were working at the plant.

"What would be life like here in Toledo if you didn't make these cars?" he asked. "Two years ago we came pretty close to finding out."

It "would have been a brutal and irreversible shock" to the nation's economy to have allowed GM and Chrysler to be liquidated, he said.

But Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, reacted to the discouraging data by saying, "Another month, and another data point on the failure of Obamanomics. The administration still doesn't seem to understand that you cannot spend, borrow, tax, and bail out your way to economic prosperity."

Even as their political leaders talk about job creation, there's some evidence Americans don't have faith Washington can even do much to help produce those jobs.

Voters 'very skeptical' on job creation

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, unveiling new research Thursday based on his polling and focus groups, said Americans are dubious even when the government announces that more than 200,000 jobs have been created in a given month.

“When they hear that, their response is: ‘Ah, what kind of jobs are those? 240,000 jobs that don’t pay anything? Or two million people applying for those jobs?’ They are very skeptical on the jobs numbers,” Greenberg said.

Speaking before Friday’s jobs report was released, Greenberg said disappointing data may cause Democrats on the ballot in 2012 to want to “rethink how much you want to link your fate to the ups and downs of the monthly jobs report.”

The voters in his recent surveys and focus groups, Greenberg said, “are more self-reliant and individualistic” than they were two years ago.

“There’s a sense that ‘you’re on your own.’ And it’s combined with a tremendous distrust of government and who it’s for," he said. "The biggest problem, frankly, is not a lack of ideas about how to address the economy, it's skepticism and a sense of powerlessness that government can do something ... because of the way they think the economy and politics works in this country.”

His survey found that roughly two-thirds of Americans are just as pessimistic today about the economy as they were in the spring of 2009.

Greenberg said his research also showed voters are open to new ideas about spurring economic growth. “They don’t like the idea of stimulus, or special projects,” but they would be open to long-term investments that would build the country for future decades.

What House GOP proposes on jobs

Once one of the Republican presidential contenders wins the party’s nomination, he or she will offer an economic plan in contrast with Obama’s. But for now the House GOP leadership is speaking for Republicans.

Its plan includes a variety of business-friendly steps:

* Easing regulation of business, for example by requiring congressional approval of any proposed rule that would “have a significant impact on the economy or burden small businesses.”
* Eliminating “special interest tax breaks” and reducing the top tax rate to no more than 25 percent for businesses and individuals including small business owners.
* Reforming the visa system “keeping the most accomplished graduates in math, science and other critical fields here in America as well as making it easier for start-up entrepreneurs to obtain visas.”
* Allowing states flexibility to use federal unemployment compensation funds to balance their budgets or pay for job training programs, rather than paying additional unemployment benefits.

For his part Obama has spoken often about the need for new “green jobs” such as those at the General Electric plant he visited last January in Schenectady, N.Y.

“Ultimately winning this global competition comes down to living up to the promise of places like this,” he said pointing to the job training partnership between the local community college and the GE factory.

Obama's jobs bills

Obama has signed two major pieces of job creation legislation: the $830 billion stimulus plan in 2009 and a tax reduction bill he signed last December that he touted as a spur to job creation.

Last December’s tax cut bill included a one-year lowering of the Social Security payroll tax, as well as an extension of the current income tax rates until the end of 2012. The total amount of tax cuts in 2011 will be $374 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

As Obama signed the bill into law he said it “will protect the middle class, will grow our economy, and will create jobs for the American people.”

“I think we are past the crisis point in the economy, but we now have to pivot and focus on jobs and growth,” he said.

Six months later, employment is higher, but there are still 2.3 million fewer people employed than when Obama took office in January 2009.

Obama’s visit to the Chrysler plant in Toledo, while underscoring his interest in keeping that state’s 18 electoral votes in his column, also conveyed his message that government interventionism does work to save companies and jobs.

And while some Republicans such as Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., ran for re-election in 2008 proudly noting they'd voted against bailouts of banks and car companies, interventionism was at least partly a bipartisan idea in 2008.

President George W. Bush approved $13.4 billion in loans in late 2008 to prevent the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler, and Obama provided more support in 2009.

Even Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., now the chairman of the House Budget Committee, voted for the 2008 House version of the auto industry bailout.

Fears of a double-dip recession

Democrats don’t begrudge Obama celebrating Chrysler’s survival, but some on the left side of Obama’s party are now fretting that the economy is faltering; they’re wishing that an old-fashioned Democratic job creation program were feasible.

“The possibility of a double dip (recession) cannot be dismissed,” warned former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich Thursday in an op-ed in the Financial Times, lamenting “Washington’s paralysis in the face of a stalled recovery.”

He said, “Under normal circumstances, this would be the time for the federal government to take bold action to ward off a double dip,” such as a new version of the Works Progress Administration that Franklin Roosevelt created in the 1930s.

But that issue was settled last November when Republicans won control of the House of Representatives.

The jobs debate is a sideshow to the main event in nation’s capital: bargaining between Obama and congressional Republicans over an agreement to raise the government’s borrowing limit.

If the two sides clinched a deal, it wouldn’t in itself create jobs.

But Obama economic advisor Gene Sperling argues a deficit-cutting deal would give financial markets greater confidence that government wasn’t dysfunctional.

By passing a fiscal discipline bill, “you will create confidence in your country,” Sperling told the Peterson Institute fiscal summit last week. “You will create confidence for people to make long-term investments because they believe we have the political will to compromise and do things that are significant to get our fiscal house in order and live within our means.”

Fiscal responsibility has now replaced job creation as the order of the day; whether fiscal responsibility will be enacted, and whether it will lead to job creation, remain open questions.


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Sources: Boston Herald, Daily Kos, Fox News, MSNBC, NY Times, Politico, Think Progress, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama Touts Auto Industry Manufacturing Jobs Success! 2012 Political Victory!

The Success Of Pres. Obama's Investment In The American Auto Industry (Manufacturing Jobs) Are The Type Of Political Successes He Should Be Throwing Back In GOP Leaders' Faces As They Slam His Efforts To Restore An Economy Previously Destroyed By George W. Bush's Deregulated Wall Street Policies.

Great Job Pres. Obama!

VOTE OBAMA IN 2012






In Ohio, Obama defends policies in face of disappointing jobs report

President Obama on Friday strongly defended his policies, especially the federal bailout of the auto industry, and pledged to fight to improve the economy, which still faces challenges to recover from a grueling recession that he inherited.

Speaking at a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, the president indirectly noted the poor jobs report that was released earlier in the day.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.1% in May, But Even More Striking The Net Increase In Jobs Was Just 54,000 A Relatively Lackluster Number.

"There are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery. We're going to pass through some rough terrain, that even a Wrangler would have a hard time with," Obama told the workers, citing the Chrysler Corp.'s off-road SUV.

The audience shouted back "No!" and Obama added with a grin: "Wrangler can go over anything, huh?"

Though he didn't directly mention the poor jobs report, it was clearly on the president's mind as he praised the government bailout of the auto industry as necessary to help some workers keep their jobs and to aid businesses that depended on workers' spending money in their communities. He carefully noted that Chrysler had paid back its loans from his administration earlier than expected.

"I don't want to pretend like everything's solved. We've still got a long way to go, not just in this industry, but in our economy," Obama said, mentioning "all of our friends, all of our neighbors who are still feeling the sting of recession. There's nobody here who doesn't know somebody who is looking for work and hasn't found something yet.

"This economy took a big hit. You know, it's just like if you had a bad illness," Obama said of the recession. "If you got hit by a truck, it's going to take a while for you to mend. That's what's happened to the economy, it's taking a while to mend.

"There are still some headwinds coming at us," Obama said, citing rising gasoline prices, political instability in the Mideast and the economic disruption from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan as among the difficulties that have hurt the economic recovery.

The economy is expected to be the key battleground in the 2012 elections, and Republicans lost no time in citing the new jobs report as an indication of what they called the failure of the Obama administration.

"Today, three years into his term, we have more news that unemployment has ticked up again," Republican challenger Mitt Romney said at a town hall meeting at the University of New Hampshire. "We have 16 million people out of work or who just stopped looking for work, millions more are in jobs that are well beneath their capacities. We have home values continuing to decline three years later. Three years later, we have a record number of foreclosures; three years later, higher gasoline prices, higher food prices. People are feeling more squeezed."

Romney is considered one of the leaders for the GOP presidential nomination, according to most polls. But the rest of the Republican field also chimed in.

"Today's underwhelming job numbers report demonstrates President Obama's failure to address the tough challenges we face as a nation," stated Tim Pawlenty. "We need a leader to stand up and make the difficult choices essential to spur economic growth and create new jobs."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in a prepared statement said, "Once again weak job creation and an increase in unemployment to 9.1% is further evidence that the administration's policies are failing and the Obama recession could become much worse. America cannot wait, we must take immediate steps to put America back on the path of economic growth and job creation."

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who is considering whether to enter the GOP sweepstakes for the presidential nomination, argued that he had created jobs in his state. "As governor of Utah -- while our country faded into recession -- we created an environment that brought jobs to the state without resorting to out-of-control spending and debt," Huntsman said in a statement.


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Sources: AP, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps