Three Steps to Change Our Nation's Future

Dave Ramsey has an interesting post today at Dave Ramsey to help with our financial situation. It would be a good idea if you have time to cut/paste and send to your reps.

Here's the verbage:

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:

Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while
working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to
stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

A True Image from False Kiva

"Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics.com/TWAN)
Explanation: Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band's left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure."

17 Amputees Fighting in Iraq

This is a pretty amazing story: Pat Dollard

Ike

There's some really great pictures of Ike here:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Banana Spider

We have one of these in our neighborhood... Eeeeeeee! I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Spiders make my skin crawl!

Patience and Wisdom

Refueling Over Iraq

Hat tip Pointniner

911

Thank you President Bush for keeping us safe for 7 years. Those of us who have the intelligence to understand the danger, and patience to read the Koran, know that it's been a tough job. You've done well. Thank you.

Sarah Palin

I think it's amazing that the Dhimmicrats, or anyone, would complain about Sarah Palin's experience. She was the Governor of Alaska for a short time, but look at what she accomplished! I guess the Dhimmicrats would give a bigger applause to the person who could run a mile in 10 days, rather than the person who could do it in 4 minutes.

Dhimmicrats would rather everybody have nothing, than everybody have something if it meant anyone would have more than them. They're basically greedy, insecure people. Keep going though.. in the end, nobody will have anything, except the tyrants who will stop at nothing to get everything.

Three things to think about:
- When taxes are high, people will get laid off, and businesses will move offshore.
- When taxes are high, people will move their money offshore.
- When taxes are high, taxes collected by the government will decease.

Make sense? Just look at history and you can see it in action...

CNN

I NEVER watch CNN, but once in a while I like to surf the channels and see what the liberals are moaning and groaning about... Today I watched CNN for a while, and they were covering BHO like he IS THE PRESIDENT! They're not even waiting for the election. In the above photo, they were attending a press conference he was having on the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac mess. Incredible. I wonder if they'll give up when he loses in November? Totally insane.

Milky Way

Peak-A-Boo!

Moon and Earth