Obama calling for more infrastructure spending

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is asking Congress to approve at least $50 billion in long-term spending in the nation’s roads, railways and runways in a pre-election effort to show he’s trying to stimulate the sputtering economy.

The infrastructure spending is part of a package of targeted proposals the White House announced on Monday. With November’s elections for control of Congress approaching, Obama planned to discuss the proposal later Monday at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee.

The proposals would require congressional approval, which is highly uncertain with many legislators and voters worried about adding to federal deficits that are already sky-high. With Republicans saying spending is out of control and polls showing many people want to end Democrats’ control of Congress, even many Democratic lawmakers are reluctant to approve new spending so close to Election Day.

Even if legislators could pass a bill in the short window between their return to Capitol Hill in mid-September and the elections, the early projects would not create jobs immediately. Senior administration officials, who would not be quoted by name before Obama’s announcement, said the initial projects would lead to new jobs over the course of 2011.

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Obama calling for more infrastructure spending

What do you get when you elect a community organizer to the highest office in the land?

A community organizer. Nothing more.

All Barack Hussein Obama and his band of ne’er do wells have done is bankrupt America. Now he wants to take America even further into the abyss with deficit spending that is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

It’s not that the USA doesn’t NEED to spend money on our crumbling infrastructure, we do, but it’s a simple fact that we don’t have the money to spend. Most Americans know that, Obama isn’t most Americans. The Democrats that worship their Obamessiah aren’t most Americans.

This nation is hurting, and Obama sends his wife on holiday to Spain, on OUR dime.

Obama has a plethora of known TAX CHEATS in his administration.

Obama himself takes more vacations than ANY president ever has.

Soon, that will change. Watch this video.

I’m not at all convinced that the Obama regime understands what a deficit, or deficit spending is. But once again the Obama administration is about to attempt the launch of one of their we can spend our way out of this thing programs.

deficit - noun

1. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Accounting & Book-keeping) the amount by which an actual sum is lower than that expected or required
2. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Accounting & Book-keeping)
a. an excess of liabilities over assets
b. an excess of expenditures over revenues during a certain period
c. an excess of payments over receipts on the balance of payments

Let me make this very simple for the simple minds that are running our nation; we are BROKE! America is SO broke, we can’t pay attention. And Obama wants to spend MORE!

AIG sells Asian unit in bid to pay back bailout

LONDON - British insurer Prudential PLC said Monday it will buy the Asian unit of bailed out American International Group Inc. in a deal worth $35.5 billion that will allow AIG to pay back some of the money it owes U.S. taxpayers.

AIG, which was kept alive by a $182.5 billion rescue by the U.S. government in September 2008, will get $25 billion in cash — $20 billion of that from a Prudential rights issue — and $10.5 billion in new shares and securities for the sale of AIA Group Ltd.

The combined group will be the leading life insurer in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as the biggest foreign life insurer in China and India, Prudential said.

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AIG sells Asian unit in bid to pay back bailout

Paying back some is good, paying back ALL is a lot better. But ALL will NEVER happen. AIG is a losing proposition. I don’t care how you look at it, AIG is bankrupting the American economy.

Don’t take me wrong, $35 Billion is a lot of money, but it’s only a stop-gap in the grand scheme of things. AIG is still bleeding money.

AIG, which is now 80 percent owned by the U.S. government, said Friday it lost $8.87 billion in the fourth quarter as its general insurance business remained weak.

As of Dec. 31, AIG’s outstanding assistance from the U.S. government totaled $129.26 billion, up 5.7 percent from the end of the third quarter due to accrued interest.

That total includes $94.76 billion in loans and interest, and $34.5 billion tied to the value of investments the government bought from AIG. As those investments pay off or rise in value, the government recoups more money.

No matter how you look at it, AIG is killing the American economy. When Obama and Company decided that AIG was ‘too big to fail’ they bought AIG, and all the accrued debt OF AIG.

These other companies buying AIG, part and/or parcel, that’s a good thing, right?

If these companies assume the debt of AIG, how do you suppose they are going to pay that debt off? Do you think they may pass the costs along to their customers with higher rates, higher costs of doing business with their particular company?

That’s how business works, if MY costs go up, I pass those increases off to MY customers with an increase in the price of MY goods and/or services.

Last month, MetLife Inc. confirmed that it is in talks with AIG to buy one of AIG’s insurance units. Media reports price the deal at as much as $15 billion. The two companies have been in discussions for months about a potential deal for AIG’s American Life Insurance Co., known as Alico.

Here’s the deal, if you are insured by MetLife, you’re going to pay a lot more money to watch Ol’ Snoopy fly along in the MetLife blimp!

Prudential estimated pretax savings of $340 million per year within three years.

To recoup their $35 BILLION investment in AIG, at this rate, Prudential should break even, if their three year estimate is correct, in something like, what? 300 years maybe?

Long term investment is one thing, but that’s a bit of a stretch in MY opinion.

AIG is, according to the financial whiz kids in the Obama administration, just too big to let fail. Those are their words.

If AIG had been allowed to fail, or do a full reorganization, not as government bailout or buyout, and IF the U.S. taxpayer hadn’t been raped for the $182.5 billion rescue by the U.S. government in September 2008, under George W. Bush, and HIS financial whiz kids, wouldn’t the American economy have been, at least, NO worse off?

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Ford earns $2.7B in 2009, first profit in 4 years

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Defying economic conditions that sent its U.S. rivals into bankruptcy court, Ford Motor Co. clawed its way to a $2.7 billion profit in 2009 and expects to stay in the black in 2010. It was the automaker’s first annual profit in four years.

Ford’s full-year revenue of $118.3 billion fell 14 percent from 2008, but the Dearborn-based automaker benefited from $5.1 billion in cuts to manufacturing, engineering and advertising and a $1.3 billion profit at Ford Credit. It gained market share in North and South America and Europe despite the worst U.S. sales climate in 30 years. Share in Asia was flat.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally said 2009 was “pivotal” but Ford has work to do.

“Ford’s transformation remains a work in progress and is far from complete,” he said in a conference call with analysts and media. Back in 2006, Ford was considered the weakest of the three domestic automakers.

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Ford earns $2.7B in 2009, first profit in 4 years

Maybe Ford really DOES have a Better Idea! Remember that slogan?

GM and Chrysler took federal bailout money. Have they shown a profit? Of any kind? I can’t find any data that says PROFIT made. But I did find this, a promise of profit.

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre promised Monday that taxpayers will make a profit on the $50 billion that Treasury has sunk into the company over the past 13 months. SOURCE

A $50 BILLION bailout from the government, and so far, we get a promise from GM?? That’s about all we’re going to get from Chrysler too I’m afraid.

On June 10, 2009, the sale of most of Chrysler assets to “New Chrysler”, formally known as Chrysler Group LLC was completed. The federal government financed the deal with US$6.6 billion in financing, paid to the “Old Chrysler”, formally called Old Carco LLC. The transfer does not include eight manufacturing locations, nor many parcels of real estate, nor equipment leases. Contracts with 789 U.S. auto dealerships, who are being dropped, were not transferred. SOURCE

Some sources are saying that IF Chrysler is able to show a profit at all, it will likely be sometime in 2010, if it happens. According to Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, “Chrysler can be profitable this year if its sells 1.1 million vehicles in the U.S. and 1.65 million worldwide.”

Those sales targets represent an 18% improvement over Chrysler’s 2009 U.S. sales and a 27% jump from last year’s global total, both tall orders given that most industry leaders say they expect U.S. sales to rise about 10% this year to 11.5 million. SOURCE

I’m not a business major, but even I know that those sales figures are unrealistic in todays down economy. Unemployment is at least 10%, that’s what the government is willing to admit to. If the truth were told, those figures are several points lower that the actual number that makes the news. Americans aren’t going to buy enough Chrysler automobiles to cause that needed spike in sales. I know that I personally wouldn’t buy a Chrysler product.

I have to wonder, if Ford is doing so well, while GM and Chrysler are still struggling, where do you suppose Ford would be if they had taken federal bailout funds? I am guessing they would still be in financial trouble with no end in sight! Bailouts were handouts, on a massive scale, and handouts rarely help the recipient past some small, but immediate relief.

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