Uncle Sam gives GM $49.5 billion: $6.7 billion loan @7% interest + balance as purchase of 60.8% equity in company.

Uncle Sam puts an additional $13.4 billion in GM’s escrow account during bankruptcy.

In my math-challenged mind, this means the taxpayers have forked over a total of $62.9 billion.  (This does not include the $9.5 billion that Canada  “invested.”)

So how much of that $62.9 billion has GM “repaid?”  The initial $6.7 billion loan.

But … they need more money.  Knowing that another bailout would be less than popular, they’ve applied to the DEC for a $10 billion loan – at 5% interest, 2% less than the loan they just “repaid.”

As Forbes so succinctly put it:

In short, GM is using government money to pay back government money to get more government money.

If you or I tried this, 1) we’d call it refinancing, and 2) we’d get arrested.

Reality Check:. Because a billion has nine zeroes here in Amerika, I’ve used the” billion” word like the government does.  They do it to make it look like a smaller number.  I did it because if I typed it out each time, this post would be too long.  But here’s what it looks like just once:

1 billion = 1,000,000,000

Hat tip to Bluegrass Pundit.

But there seems to be a little more openness about this issue now that the bill has been made into law.  Listen.

A committee is twelve people doing the work of one.

Thanks to the brains in Washington, we’ve got another one.  The Post reports:

Faced with growing alarm over the nation’s soaring debt, the White House and congressional Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday to create an independent budget commission and to put its recommendations for fiscal solvency to a vote in Congress by the end of this year.

Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs — including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that threaten to drive the nation’s debt to levels not seen since World War II.

Only in Washington would you try to solve a budget problem by hiring more people.

Only in Washington would you need eighteen people instead of the standard twelve.

Only in Washington would those eighteen people be issued the “broad authority” to … propose changes.

Only in Washington.

• Our economy cannot help but collapse at some point under the weight of a national debt over $12 trillion, or almost $40,000 for every man, woman, and child.  This number continues to increase at an average of $3.81 billion per day, and someday the Chinese will either quit investing in a losing proposition – or they’ll own it outright.
• Al Quaeda has won the war on terror.  You won’t see that headline on the nightly news, but you can read an excellent article on the subject by Fred Reed.  Granted, the man is more than a little crude, but he’s honest in pointing out that the goal of a terrorist is to terrorize.  On that point alone, they have won hands down. [HT to Jim.]

• So little is necessary to terrorize the world’s hyperpower. A free-lance dingaling secretes a bomb of sorts in his shoe, whereupon the US goes into convulsions and long lines of Americans stand comically barefoot in airports. Dingaling Two popularizes liquid explosives, and so Washington frenziedly confiscates toothpaste. Yes, the world’s hyperpower is afraid of Colgate, with fluoride. Dinglaling Three hides the infernal machine in his skivvies, so Obama makes Firm Pronouncements, and we will now have to undergo examination by panty scanners. Always, over and over, the terrorists have the iniative. The country reacts hugely and predictably.

• We routinely kill and maim innocent men, women, and children all over the world, and can’t even be bothered to keep a tally, because as General Tommy Franks said, “We don’t do body counts.”
• We have murdered over 50 million innocent, unborn babies in this country calling it choice, when in actuality it’s a result of the demand for freedom from the consequences of our personal actions.
• The Bill of Rights is swiss cheese.  We willingly submit to arbitrary searches at airports, train stations, and driving anywhere within 100 miles of an external border – which includes more than 2/3 of the population; we have politically-correct hate laws to prevent Christians from speaking the truth of scripture; our every electronic transmission from private phone calls to internet searches are arbitrarily monitored and sold to the government; we need “permits” to gather in protest of the latest government outrage;  habeus corpus and the Posse Comitatus Act have become quaint historical traditions; and the list goes on.
• Government officials at every level have run amok.  They ram every imaginable law down the throats of an unwilling populace; they defend bribery, blackmail, and coercion as normal political practice; and their personal, financial, and sexual “scandals” have become commonplace.

So how did this happen?  Why is America dying?

We can blame the public school system that is hell-bent on indoctrinating our children with feel-good, anything-goes secular humanism, but neglects the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the historical significance of these documents.

We can blame big business, who courts corrupt politicians to pass laws to give them an unfair advantage over the competition.

Or we can blame the power-hungry politicians, who care not about the people they are elected to represent, but only about their own positions.

Or … we can look a little deeper and recognize that the above are just symptoms of a much deeper problem, one that we have been warned about from the beginning:

… there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; George Washington, his first inaugural address, 1789

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams, speech to the military, 1798

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835, 1840

Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid. Grover Cleveland, Second Inaugural Address, 1893

We do not need more national development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen. Calvin Coolidge, President 1923-1929

The basis of those ideals and principles is a commitment to freedom and personal liberty that, itself, is grounded in the much deeper realization that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted. Ronald Reagan, speech 1983

This sampling of wisdom is based, of course, on the Bible – that same Bible that is largely rejected or ignored in today’s America.  The latest evidence of this fact, and the one that prompted this post, comes from a recent Rasmussen poll.  These answers cannot come from Christians who put their faith in God.

National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters
Conducted December 30, 2009

By Rasmussen Reports

1*Some people say that there is a natural tension between protecting individual rights and national security. In the United States today, does our legal system worry too much about protecting individual rights, too much about protecting national security, or is the balance about right?

43% Legal system worries too much about protecting individual rights
17% Legal system worries too much about protecting national security
28% Balance is about right
12% Not sure

2* In light of the recent attempt to blow up an airliner as it was landing in Detroit, should the United States take full control of security measures at foreign airports so that anyone flying to the U.S. would have to go through U.S. security?

54% Yes
29% No
16% Not sure

3* Should the attempt to blow up the airliner be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act or by civilian authorities as a criminal act?

71% By the military as a terrorist act
22% By civilian authorities as a criminal act
7% Not sure

4* Should waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques be used to gain information from the suspected bomber?

58% Yes
30% No
12% Not sure

5* How do you rate the U.S. government’s response to the attempted airline bombing – excellent, good, fair or poor?

5% Excellent
29% Good
27% Fair
35% Poor
4% Not sure

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence

Whether you agree or disagree with the majority, understand that these attitudes do not reflect Christianity.  They do not reflect the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.  And ultimately, God will give us what we ask for.

If you will fear the LORD and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God. If you will not listen to the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the command of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers. (1 Samuel 12:14-15)

President Obama last week told a group of Republican members of Congress who were at the White House that, every economist he has talked to said they need to spend more money to create jobs and stimulate the economy. The President then asked them to produce a list of economists that say we shouldn’t spend money to get us out of the problem.

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) today released such a list. 222 economists from across the nation signed on to support a statement that cautions against out of control federal spending and too much national debt. The economists all agree that the 2009 stimulus bill did not succeed in its goal of creating jobs.

Furthermore, the prominent group is in agreement that controlling spending now can be done without harming the economy.

Politicians in Washington have too often declared there to be a false consensus on an important issue, as if those that disagree with them do not exist. Far from being non-existent, the group of 222 harks from distinguished universities, including Harvard, The University of Chicago, Columbia, and Georgetown. White House staff who tell the President there is no disagreement on the merits of economic stimulus are just plain wrong.

The President can no longer cover his ears. This year’s 2009 Stimulus bill will end up costing taxpayer’s over $1 trillion dollars including interest costs which these many experts believe was a waste. Any progeny of stimulus would face a similar fate. 

-The Heritage Foundation

note:  The only problem with Boehner’s list is that all these economists are now wearing giant bull’s eyes on their backs.

Here’s some more truth from the Heritage Foundation that even a moron the economically-ignorant can understand.

President Obama is ratcheting up the pressure on Wall Street to back a financial regulatory overhaul winding its way through Congress, telling top CEOs gathered at the White House on Monday that they owe it the American people after receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in government assistance.

“The way I see it, having recovered with the help of the American government and the American taxpayers, our banks now have a greater obligation to the goal of a wider recovery, a more stable system and more broadly shared prosperity,” Mr. Obama said.

* * *

Mr. Obama stressed the need for banks to lend more to small and midsize businesses to help spur job growth, but he said he has no desire to micromanage the sector.

Just like he doesn’t want to control the auto industry with his “Car Czar.”

I have no great fondness for Wall Street or bank CEO’s, but this Washington Post article by Kara Rowland proves the old adage that money always has strings attached.  It also proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Obama has no morals, and will use whatever tools he can to force us all to follow his socialist agenda.

Moral of the story:

The next time someone offers you money and says, “We’re the government and we’re here to help,” remember the story of the Trojan Horse and the truth of God’s Word:

The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
(Proverbs 22:7)

The FDIC’s board voted Thursday to require banks to pay at the end of this year the amount they would owe the FDIC over the next three years. The agency collects insurance premiums from all banks, which it uses to reimburse depositors in failed banks. Washington Post

This is just insane!  Unless the FDIC gives exceptions, banks which are already financially unstable will be forced into bankruptcy!  Think about it this way:  You are eking out a living for yourself and have bought a nice car that you are still making payments on.  Basically, you are living paycheck to paycheck.  Your bank calls you up one day and says, “Oh, by the way, we need you to pay three years worth of car insurance within the next two months, or else we will repossess your car.”  What the heck do you do?  Pay for three years worth of insurance, or give up the car? Doctor Bulldog & Ronin

Does anybody remember MSM’s investigative reporting on WMD’s in Iraq, the supposed justification for invading a sovereign nation and killing thousands of people? Of course you don’t, because there was none. MSM obediently parroted what Bush & Company told them. They didn’t present any opposing views, and they didn’t investigate squat.

National news is now defined as anything the President says to a reporter.

I realize I can’t counter ABC’s influence, and even though they won’t present any opposing views to Obama’s health care plan, those views do exist. So if you’re going to hunker down and watch their propaganda, take 8 minutes right now to watch Ron Paul offer some alternate solutions. It just might prevent another war over imaginary WMD’s.