It was shocking to read the headlines saying that the government is ‘backing off’ from the tight mortgage requirements for both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The very policies that ignited the worldwide recession starting in 2008-2009 are being reinstated. There may be minor alterations that will amount to tweaks, defined as barely perceptible changes. Mel Watt, the new overseer of Fannie and Freddie, has created these modifications.
People without business experience or discipline want more people to believe they can step over the threshold of their new home whether or not they can afford it. This is “déjà vu all over again” with new names employing old failed policies. Reversing field, the government is moving toward more political control of housing finance along with other failures of financial influence and domination.
Examples include the 2010 Student Loan Act that corralled nearly all student loans into the government investment portfolio. Overlooking the consequences of such a move, student loan debt now stands at $1.2 trillion with 13% delinquency. Let’s do the math; simply multiply 13% X $1.2 trillion and the answer is $156 billion that our President has obligated taxpayers to cover.
That amounts to $492 for each of us to pay for a person in one of the following categories: a college graduate who can’t pay the debt, a college dropout that is barely employed or not working, a person that has taken advantage of the abundant welfare programs available and is living on other taxpayer-funded benefits or a person who is gaming the system and eludes student debt and other obligations. The government is forcing us to pay for someone else’s education while we are working hard to help our own kids achieve the dream of college graduation.
College-bound high school graduates are being converted to indentured government bondage. These maturing teenagers that have just been unleashed into the wide world of occupational careers are being told that they are not up to assuming adult responsibilities so our paternal government is providing low-interest loans and generous repayment schedules.
In many cases the loans will be forgiven meaning that our President is deliberately giving away taxpayer funds in exchange for education for votes. Students could mitigate their education costs by working summers and part time, by joining the military, by attending community colleges for a couple years and by foraging for scholarship opportunities.
Another forlorn example of wasted opportunities is the United States Postal Service (USPS). For the seventh straight year the USPS lost money, $5 billion in 2013 and another $354 million in the first (fiscal) quarter of 2014. While the Postal Service looks for ways to meet today’s challenges, the elephant in the room is the $100 billion unfunded benefits for current and retired workers. The Postmaster General and his lieutenants are simply dancing the tunes played by union leaders who have no interest in the financial well being of the Postal Service or other entities they control.
The main union organizations representing Postal workers are the APWU, the NALC, the NPMHU and the NRLCA. In attempts to privatize some postal functions in a public-private partnership, 82 Staples stores in New England offer postal services. The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) has protested saying there is a problem with Staples becoming the postal service for the people of this country.
Government workers at all levels are not worthy trustees of our hard-earned tax extractions. Those who abuse the privilege of spending our money are not accountable and face no consequences. There are signs that this great nation is in decline domestically and internationally. We are blundering into welfare state status where there will not be enough money if the earnings of those who work are confiscated to sustain those who shirk. It is an ominous and gloomy outlook for everyone alive today to believe that our nation will never be out of debt in our lifetime.
Money is the tender of world trade. But unscrupulous politics is the contaminated currency of power without precept or principle.
– Dick Baynton
