Giving Facts a Chance
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It’s harder to stay within the word limit when dealing with facts, but I’ll try to do that in this partial rebuttal to the Oct. 24 letter from Karl Killingstad, which was utterly devoid of facts.
In trying to prove that President Obama “has demonstrated loyalty for world socialism” (cringe), he says that the federal government purchased Chrysler and General Motors. The fact is that Obama braved the political storm to avert certain disaster for Detroit and the American economy. Had the administration allowed the auto giants to go under, it would have triggered a collapse of parts suppliers and dealerships nationwide, creating collateral damage that probably would have caused Ford to go bankrupt. Additionally, more than a million jobs would have been lost.
Rather than bail out the industry with condition-free cash as Bush had done, he used the government’s leverage to set them on a more competitive course. We bought a 61 percent stake in GM, ousted its CEO, forced both bondholders and the UAW to make concessions and steered the company through bankruptcy in a short time. The government invested $8 billion in Chrysler to enable its sale to Fiat.
Rather than criticizing these actions, we ought to be celebrating the fact that GM is profitable and preparing to go public in an IPO that could allow the government to recoup its $60 billion investment. Ford is beating out Japanese rivals on the quality front, and Chrysler is turning the corner.
I could go on to counter the ridiculous assertions on college loans and all the other statements on protecting union membership to glean votes for Democrats, but as I said, it takes words to lay out the facts. Would that many of the whiners who write in would give it a try.
Jane Deaton
Pinehurst
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Comments
dustyrhoades 2 years, 6 months ago
Well, that's the beauty of the Pilot's policy, if you're a wingnut...it lets liars casually toss off whopping untruths without fear of correction or contradiction.
nothingspecial 2 years, 6 months ago
I thought you were going to rebut Karl with facts?
Maybe the President had good intentions in these bailouts, but whetever the reasons, in retrospect they were bad ideas made during a time of craziness. The government screws things up when it messes with the free market system by choosing who will get bail outs and who will not. Both our recent Presidents did that, but we should have learned from the last auto company bail out decades before. The biggest screw up of the free market system was Fannie May and Freddie Mac and associated efforts by Democrats to pad their own pockets with their usual excuse of helping the little guy.
Think 2 years, 6 months ago
nothingspecial, what are your facts regarding the Fannie May and Freddie Mac fall? I was doing a little research on the net to get some answers before I replied and found this information:
"In 2000, because of a re-assessment of the housing market by HUD, anti-predatory lending rules were put into place that disallowed risky, high-cost loans from being credited toward affordable housing goals. In 2004, these rules were dropped and high-risk loans were again counted toward affordable housing goals."
I believe Bush and the Republicans were in office at that time. How does that relate to your claim that Democrats were trying to pad their own pockets?
nothingspecial 2 years, 6 months ago
http://www.newsmax.com/Stossel/Stossel-crony-capitalism-Obama/2010/01/13/id/346240
Housing Crisis And The Democrats by markedmannerf
Think 2 years, 6 months ago
My father always said there is never an easy answer. It's so unfortunate today where news information is so biased and people only want to hear and read what confirms their own fears and beliefs. It turns out that there is no one person or party to point at for the economic crisis. Both Democrats and Republicans had a hand in it and of course hindsight is always 20/20. Oboma and the Democrats have been under the microscope for two years and hopefully now that there is a Republican majority in the House there will be more accountability on both sides. I think FactCheck.org can be a good source for information, there's an interesting article worth reading. "Who caused the economic Crisis" http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
moonchild7 2 years, 6 months ago
News information is NOT biased. Information that CLAIMS to be news but is actually OPINION is biased. The public's mental capacity is so out-of-it though that they are being totally used by many organizations to get them to think in those same delusional patterns. The so-called Fannie&Freddie collapse happened because while it was originally felt that if the "lower-incomed" families many who lived in horrible "Project" conditions instead OWNED their homes they would inturn value them more and not let them deteriorate. What was unexpected was the apparently predatory practices that ensued to approve too many persons who were NOT QUALIFIED. Also, undercutting all of this was the unbelievable practice(I don't understand this at all)that was somehow approved to let WALL STREET BET AGAINST these lower-incomed families with mortgages to succeed and instead FAIL. WIN/WIN. Not enough attention has been paid to this. The United States Government was trying to do the right thing but the POWER of WALL STREET helped to undermine all of it's good intentions. Wall Street is still doing these types of things now and have not had nearly enough punishment for those actions.
marathonman 2 years, 6 months ago
When the lefties, nicer sounding than wingnuts, come to opine, they do it up right. Not many facts showed up here that I can see. The problems addressed, or grazed, are filled with the left leaning jargon done by the media who are in the hip pocket of whomever the Dem, (whats in a word), President at the time. There is plenty of blame to throw at Bush, but do not believe for one second that the lefties have not been in there all the time doing their best to raise capital for the ongoing battle with conservatives. The housing crisis is just egregious and blame falls on both camps; conservatives when in office did not exercise the proper amount of oversight on loans, wall street and any policy that allowed less than qualified folks to buy houses out of their range. The lefties originally orchestrated the practice with the goal of affordable housing for eveyone only they caused lending institutions to lower their standards, through bullying, to give loans to those who otherwise would not qualify. The intent here is not clear to any conservative since we buy homes as the one major investment in life and believe everyone else has the same dream. However, those rascally folks on Wall Street saw a venture to making lots of money betting that the mortgagees would fail. The whole thing is screwy to right thinking people, those whose brains think on a bias saw merit in the scheme. Now we all know how foolhardy it was, so the blame game will go on. And there is blame to mount on both sides. However, the most egregious thing done to date is to prop up Freddy and Fannie and expect the good honest middle of the road tax payers to shoulder the freight of all the failed mortgages. Make no mistake, Wall Street is not how it was envisoned by those thoughtful men many years ago who conceived it to save the Nation from financial collapse. It is now no better than any lottery....unless you use a computer to watch your money every millisecond.
Think 2 years, 6 months ago
Thanks moonchild7, you are right. I think I was responding to the links nothingspecial posted, I wouldn't call them reliable news sources. It's hard for people to find information that is legitimate and not just designed to be scare tactics.
moonchild7 2 years, 6 months ago
To try to get the BEST news possible a person should start with the NYTimes(leans left) and then the Wall Street Journal(leans right). The Washington Post is also a must read at times. A person can catchup with their reading on the weekends if busy during the week. The evening news shows(NBC, CBS, ABC)can also help with just the news stories more or less. But when you want OPINION it's MSNBC, FOX and CNN. To hear it "straight from the horses mouth" check the Congress out once in awhile on C-SPAN. The best is left for last though and that's "THE DAILY SHOW" and "THE COLBERT REPORT". Those guys tend to lean left but will roast all of them when they deserve it(sometimes when they don't). Colbert is in character as a "Rightie" but twists it all up to hilarious conclusions. All of these shows and papers are online if you can't get them at home. The papers are also at the Libraries. After a person at least tries to expand their knowledge and insight after reading and watching some of these can their OPINIONS perhaps be taken a little more seriously. But if a person sticks to only that one side whatever it is they cannot offer any credible opinions.
Amazed 2 years, 6 months ago
why not just go to the source and read the bills currently making their way through the house and senate. thehill.com is a much better source for the goings on in DC, as well as your own senators and representatives websites. I choose not to let anyone give me their slant and instead read the facts as presented and come to my own conclusions.
Can't believe moonchild thinks that the Comedy shows are good sources for news...
moonchild7 2 years, 6 months ago
The reason a person should listen to or read other peoples "PERSPECTIVES" is simply that. Maybe you'll hear or learn something that you NEVER thought about. That doesn't make it true or false but it does let you and your mind give that opinion time to "bake" and prove itself credible or ludacris. I don't get my news from COMEDY CENTRAL, but I do let Stewart and Colbert take the days "news" and at least put a fun(sometime's thought provoking)twist on things. To give him credit though, Jon Stewart asked President Obama questions the other nite that other reporters seem afraid to ask. When a comedian asks our President more relevant and important questions than any from the "MAIN STREAM MEDIA", who really is in charge? What kind of journalism do we have going on here? In fact what are they teaching in Journalism School?
Zoey 2 years, 6 months ago
Just when you think you got moonchild7 cornered, you get the ole "rope a dope"!
Sally244 2 years, 6 months ago
Amazed, thanks for the info on thehill.com . Great source. Hay have fun in your life and make fun of yourself and others; that's what the COLBERT REPORT is all about.
marathonman 2 years, 6 months ago
Moonchild, I actually agree with you on how, what and when to watch news. However, I do not see your comments tempered by those which differ from your opinions. We should hold our media, particularly those not on cable, to a higher standard than we do. They spin to much and tend to offer the slant to the left.