| Stack of Stuff Quick Hits Page |
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October 3, 2008 |
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Story #1: When Bailout Bill Passed, the Dow Dropped
RUSH: Well, the bailout bill passed the House of Representatives. Now, when the bailout bill passed, the final vote was 263 to 171, and I'm told 108 Republicans voted against it. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is hovering around 230 to 250 when it passed, and it spiked up, but now it is free falling. Ha! It's down to 101. It was at 175 just three seconds ago. It was up to 230 or 250. This is exactly what happened in the Senate. The Senate passes the thing and the DJI went down 400 points. Now it's up 93. It just lost nine more as we give you the Dow Jones Industrial Average play-by-play here on the EIB Network. Oh, 84 now, plus 84. Obviously sell on the news has been sounded throughout Wall Street. Sell on the news, and people are selling on the news the bill passed. It's down to 77 up, ladies and gentlemen. They were only up 77. We're close to now having lost about 20 points today since it passed. Oops, it just went up to 79. Who can keep track?
Story #2: NC Poll: Half Blame Republicans for the Economy
RUSH: Here's a story from North Carolina. "Nearly half of North Carolina residents blame the Republican Party for the nation's economic crisis, according to a poll released today." Elon University," I never heard of it, "surveyed 477 people statewide," big whoop, "and found that 47.7% felt the Republicans are more responsible for current economic problems compared with 24.4% who blame the Democrats." There's a margin of error here plus or minus 4.6 points. Now, this is common. Republicans are perceived to be the party in power. President Bush is in the White House. But the Democrats for all these years been pounding Bush economic policies, "failed economic policies of the past," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We've got this October Surprise here with the bailout thing where it's now been turned around; it's the Republicans' fault.
But let me ask those of you in North Carolina: Do you know who runs Congress? Do you know who has been in charge of Congress for two years? Do you know who's responsible for the mortgage crisis? Do you know, those of you in North Carolina, who propped up failure after failure after failure on the basis of making sure that minorities and poor people who should have never qualified to buy houses were not kicked out of them? Do you know, you people in North Carolina, now who it was that made sure those banks -- under threat of investigation -- made those loans? It's the Democrat Party. To the extent that we've got an economic crisis that everybody's talking about here, you people in North Carolina, your Democrat Party gave it all to you. If there was a Republican they could blame this on, I guarantee -- you would've seen his face on television in front of congressional investigators for the last month.
Story #3: FBI Raids Home of Another Chicago Obama Crony
 RUSH: This is from the Commentary Magazine blog. The FBI has raided the home of another Obama Chicago crony. This one is somebody for whom Obama got millions of dollars earmarks. This is not just a guy in Obama's neighborhood, as Bill Ayers is, according to Obama. "Larry Walsh, a poker buddy and close political confidante of Barack Obama had seen home raided by the FBI." The Chicago Sun-Times reporting is this: "Mr. Walsh, who served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2005, was endorsed by Mr. Obama in his county executive election bid. With the support of some of Mr. Obama's U.S. Senate volunteers, he easily defeated incumbent [the Republican]. ... A corn farmer from Joliet, Mr. Walsh has supported his friend's presidential bid, and campaigned for him in rural and farming areas of the state." Obama got a lot of earmarks in there for Will County which is where the offices of Walsh are. "[T]he Walsh investigation may be tied to lobbying firm Smith Dawson and Andrews, which was hired in 2006 for $10,000 per month to help Will County acquire federal grants," and they got 'em through Obama. Now, this could be interesting. It could lead to something. But will McCain do anything with it?
Story #4: AP: As Economy Sags, So Do Breasts and Faces
RUSH: All is not lost, ladies and gentlemen, as the AP headline reads: "As Economy Sags, So Do Faces and Breasts," and we can't have that. So it's getting serious now. "The economy isn't the only thing that's sagging -- so are faces, breasts and bellies as would-be cosmetic surgery patients increasingly opt against costly nips and tucks because of tough financial times. Anecdotal reports and a recent unscientific survey from an industry trade group suggest many cosmetic surgeons have been seeing a drop-off in costly operations, some by as much as 30 percent or more. Diane Lawyer, a software company manager in Atlanta, said belt-tightening has made her put off getting her eyes done, a procedure that would cost a few thousand dollars. 'I just can't justify that right now,' she said. Lawyer, 55, has started shopping at a discount grocery, rarely drives to save on gas, and loaned money to help keep her sister out of foreclosure."
Story #5: Oprah's Mother Says She was Tricked into Debt
RUSH: You know, Oprah Winfrey's mother owes some store $156,000. Now, Oprah has how many billion? Oprah's mother is equivalent to George Onyango Hussein Obama living in the hut in Kenya on $12 a year. Obama's rich and doesn't help out his brother, yet he says he's his brother's keeper. Where is Oprah paying this off? It would be a drop in the bucket. But Oprah's mother is fighting this, and you know what she said? She said, essentially, "They shouldn't have lent me the money in the first place. They shouldn't have let me charge all this in the first place. It's their fault! It's their fault for putting me in this situation because they should have never extended to me this kind of credit." Maybe Oprah's mom is in the bill, I don't know. Maybe Oprah's mom is getting bailed out.
Story #6: Forgotten Foot Soldiers in the War on Success
RUSH: A fascinating piece here by Brad O'Leary in Investor's Business Daily. It was posted yesterday afternoon after the program, is entitled, "Forgotten Foot Soldiers In War On Success." The War on Success. That's exactly what the Democrats are waging. "One of the greatest achievements in the life of an astronomer is to discover a new planet or solar system. In the political world, the equivalent is uncovering a new voting bloc. When writing my latest book, 'The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values,' I discovered a relatively unknown constituency: the 30% of American voters who do not pay federal income taxes. These Americans are exempt from paying income taxes either because their income level is below the threshold that would require them to pay, or their total deductions leave them with no income-tax liability.
"So I set out to determine exactly who these people are and what makes them tick. In conjunction with Zogby America, I conducted a series of carefully orchestrated polls. For more results than I can write about here, you'll have to buy my book or go to www.BarackObamaTest.com. First, I found that 60% of likely voters among non-taxpaying Americans favor Obama for president, whereas only 31% favor John McCain. In addition, a majority of the 30% of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes agree with Obama's $65 billion plan to institute taxpayer-funded, universal health coverage. On the other side, a majority of the 70% of Americans who pay federal income taxes (i.e., the folks who would have to foot the bill for this boondoggle) are opposed to Obama's health care plan.
"A majority of non-taxpayers (57%) also favor raising the individual income-tax rate for those in the highest bracket to 54% from 35%. A majority of non-taxpayers (59%) also favor raising Social Security taxes by 4% for any individual or business that makes at least $250,000." Stick with me on this, now. "Non-taxpayers support Obama's plans for increased tax deductions for lower-income Americans along with higher overall tax rates levied against middle- and upper-income households as well. They also want to expand their ranks..." The non-taxpaying Americans "want to expand their ranks from 30% of all Americans to 40%. Obama's tax plan, with its smorgasbord of deductions and credits aimed at lower-income households, would do exactly that. Today, 70% of Americans shoulder the majority of the federal budgetary burden for all Americans.
"These Americans, by and large, do most of the risk-taking and innovating that produces the wealth, jobs and products that drive the American economy -- not to mention pay the taxes that fund an ever expanding array of federal welfare programs and handouts. Obama claims 95% of Americans would get a tax cut under his tax plan. Yet only 70% of Americans actually pay federal income taxes. How does this compute? Is he going to give more money to non-taxpayers? The math simply does not add up. You can't give a tax cut to 95% of Americans if only 70% of them pay federal income taxes in the first place. Then again, math may not be Obama's strong suit, and judging by his earlier foray into 'improving' education, it isn't a priority.
"When Obama worked with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the foundation doled out $160 million to effect education 'reform' in the Chicago school system. Yet students at Annenberg schools showed no marked improvement over non-Annenberg students. This is because Obama, Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge focused their resources on projects designed to promote an awareness of social injustice among students, as well as a general disrespect for authority -- as opposed to projects that focused on core subjects like math and science.... Obama's lack of devotion to math aside, he fails to understand that successful, hardworking, taxpaying Americans have created the world's No. 1 economy -- by far. Even when recession threatened earlier this year, U.S. gross domestic product still weighed in at an eye-popping $13.8 trillion."
Now, the point of this: "[I]f Barack Obama and his legions of non-taxpaying supporters are allowed to set America's economic policies and priorities, a wrench will be thrown into the gears of our remarkable economic machine. America will face a new war. Call it Obama's 'war on success.' In this war, there will be no winners -- only losers -- taxpayers and non-taxpayers alike." Remember how O'Leary started the piece. The greatest find, the greatest discovery in the political world is a new voting bloc, and his book and his research here is targeted at proving that Obama's big voting bloc is the thirty percent-plus of Americans who pay no income taxes. These people get polled a lot, they are played to constantly, and they are all for ever higher taxes on everybody else 'cause it means more for them, in their own version of "trickle down."
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Story #7: Hidden in Bailout: The Federal Housing Manager
RUSH: It's too late to do anything about this now, but I want to share with you something that's in the bailout bill. Michelle Malkin had this back on September 28th, and I'm sure it survived the bill. Remember, now, we gave you details on Biden last night promising that bankruptcy laws would allow  judges to determine interest rates, principal payments for people under foreclosure or threatened by bankruptcy. We had Obama call James Clyburn of the Congressional Black Caucus and assure him that this was going to be happening, not to worried about it. This is one of the things that got the black caucus to get some votes changed today to vote for this thing, but listen to Section 110 of the Assistance to Homeowners' Plan in the bailout bill. It is driven by one of the bill's key stated goals of preserving homeownership."
"General. To the extent that the Federal property manager holds, owns, or controls mortgages, mortgage backed securities, and other assets secured by residential real estate, including multifamily housing, the Federal property manager shall implement a plan that seeks to maximize assistance for homeowners and use its authority to encourage the servicers of the underlying mortgages, and considering net present value to the taxpayer, to take advantage of the HOPE for Homeowners Program under section 257 of the National Housing Act or other available programs to minimize foreclosures." They made some modifications. The modifications are: "In the case of a residential mortgage loan, modifications made under paragraph (1) may include: (A) reduction in interest rates; (B) reduction of loan principal; and (C) other similar modifications."
So in the quest to "preserve home ownership" here, the government will be determining the value of homes directly in the marketplace, even before they go into bankruptcy. Section 110 turns over the real estate market to the federal government. I want to see this operated in practice. I want to see you go to your bank, your lending institution and get a mortgage, and they tell you, "Okay, this is the down payment that's required. Here are the points. This is your principal, and this is your interest every month," and you don't like it and you say, "Why, I can't pay that much! I'm going to the federal housing manager!" And if you happen to be an approved Democrat constituent when you go to the federal housing manager, the federal housing manager will call the bank and say, "What are you doing to this poor Democrat constituent? Why are you loaning money at a rate he can't pay? You're going to lower the interest rate. You're going to lower the principal. You're going to reduce the points."
That's what the bill gives them power to do! Now, if I went in to try to get a mortgage, and I got a bank give me the deal and I didn't like the deal, if I go to the federal housing manager as an unapproved Democrat constituent, they'll go back to the bank and say, "Raise the principal. Increase the interest." They have the power to do this. "Affow-dable housing," Barney Frank said, "affow-dable housing!" Call it reparations. Call it $300 billion worth of reparations.
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