Blog Archives
Auto Bailouts and Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company has not been directly impacted by the auto bailouts given to those at Chrysler and GM, and in fact, it has turned a profit recently. According to U.S. News and World Report, the auto manufacturer has cut costs, experiencing the gains from purchases on the new Taurus sedan and the Fusion hybrid, as well as reaping the benefits from the cash for clunkers program.
ABC News also speculated on Ford’s management style as being one of the reasons that the auto maker has turned a profit.
Three years ago, Ford was considered in the worst shape of the Detroit Three after posting what was at the time the worst annual loss in its history. The big quarterly profit is the fruit of changes Ford has been making for several years.
At the end of 2005, then-CEO Bill Ford Jr. and two other Ford executives developed a plan to shut down factories, slash the work force and speed the development of cars and trucks.
A year later, Bill Ford left the CEO job and installed Alan Mulally, a former Boeing executive, who further honed the plan and made a key decision — mortgaging assets like its blue oval logo to raise $23.4 billion.
When the economy faltered last year and took auto sales down with it, Ford had the cash to weather the storm.
“GM and Chrysler still have quite a bit of restructuring to do and simply don’t have the product competitiveness across their lineup that Ford does,” said Mark Oline, auto industry analyst for Fitch Ratings.
Perhaps, it is the innovation that is causing Ford to turn a profit. The new vehicles coming off the manufacturing line are fuel efficient and modern looking. In fact, the new Festiva will be on dealer lots soon, and it offers not only good fuel mileage, but the look is also sharp and sporty.
Overall, it might be too soon to tell what impact the auto bailouts will have on Ford Motor Company in the end. In fact, many UAW executives are worried about the impact Ford’s continued economic growth will have on Chrysler. Many of the UAW retirees have their health care and pension plans through Chrysler. Right now, it will be a wait and see moment for Detroit.
Flip Flop Creigh: ABC Stores and Privatization
Wow, what a difference a few months make for Creigh Deeds! In July 2009, Deeds said he would be open to the sale of ABC stores throughout the Commonwealth and allow for the privatization of alcohol sales to help generate revenue (Source: The Washington Post). Then, one month later, Deeds said he was against the sale of the ABC stores, because it is not a viable option, and now, after an appearance on WTOP’s Politics Program with Mark Plotkin, Deeds stated his support of privatizing ABC stores. You can listen to the clip here.
Can we trust a leader who flip flops on issues that will help generate revenue for Virginia without raising taxes? Again, the answer is no. We need a strong leader, who will not stray from his positions on getting the economy in Virginia back on track.
The Theoretical Perspective against Big Government
Cato Institute‘s Dan Mitchell explains from a theoretical perspective why big government is not good for the economy, and how government spending is not just affecting the United States, but other nations.
Does this look like tens of thousands to you?
Leave it to the mainstream media to distort the facts. The Washington Post reported that “tens of thousands appeared on the Capitol” Saturday to protest the health care bill, while Bloomberg reported that “thousands” showed up to protest.
Meanwhile, they forgot to get the real count. The Daily Mail reports that “as many as one million people flooded into Washington….”
These pictures should live to dispel the mainstream media.
If you still don’t believe the 1.2 million count, just check out this diagram from the Obama Inauguration (which was estimated at 1 million). People were still streaming down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Marching towards the Capitol
In a crowd of 1.5 million fellow patriots, we marched towards the Capitol to let our voices be heard that we oppose President Obama and Congress’s health care plan, excessive government spending, and the cap and trade tax, which will drive many businesses to close their doors. Despite the President calling us out during last week’s address to Congress, we showed up to stand up against policies that threaten our liberties and prosperity.
For more, visit 912 Project and Tea Party Patriots.
Live from 9-12 Rally
This is the first entry of many to follow from the 9-12 Rally in Washington, D.C. Right now, we are hearing from several speakers, some who are with the Tea Parties, some who are with organizations, and some who are celebrities in their own right.
So, why are 1.5 million people out on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol? Because, we are mad as hell at the leadership in Congress and our President, who would rather spend us into more and more debt, rather shove us into a health care plan that would steal our liberties to choose the right coverage, and rather avoid the principles our Founding Fathers built our country on.
From the time, I got to the Franconia Metro Station, it was crowded with other patriots, who headed to Freedom Plaza to march towards the Capitol. I met several fellow patriots from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Ohio, who traveled to be here for the cause of liberty.
There will be more posts to come, along with video. Right now, the proposed blog vacation is postponed to a later date.
ACORN Corruption Continues On…
It seems ACORN is up to their usual hijinks of breaking the law. This time, though, it involves aiding and abetting underage prostitution and exploitation.Yesterday, the story broke on Big Government about an ACORN clinic in Baltimore, Md., where James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles went uncover to expose the trafficking of young girls and tax evasion. ACORN receives billions from the federal government, and the illegal schemes still continue.
Watch the videos below to see ACORN and their slimy dealings:
Now they can add teaching tax evasion to “community organizing” and voter fraud. Will Congress investigate this and cut off the taxpayer funds that go to them? I wouldn’t bet on it.
UPDATE: O’Keefe and Giles did the same thing to the ACORN in D.C. Click here to watch the videos.
Kaine Proposes Furloughs for Virginia Employees
Could Virginia Governor Tim Kaine be following in the steps of his neighbor to the north, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley by forcing state employees (all non-essentials) to take a unpaid furlough day? According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the state budget projections are so bad that Kaine is considering forcing non-essential state employees to take a day off work unpaid (around Memorial Day 2010), in addition to, laying off close to 600 employees, along with cuts to higher education.
Now, one could look back on Kaine’s term as Governor and try to figure out why Virginia would even be facing this situation. After all, the Commonwealth is noted for being one of the best managed states, so we should have a balanced budget in a down economy, right? Well, it is kind of difficult, when the Secretary of Finance, who was appointed by the Governor, missed budget projections and went over these projections. Kaine’s Secretary of Finance, Jody Wagner, went over the budget projections, thus placing Virginia in our current situation. In fact, Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch pointed out that,
“As Virginia’s top numbers-cruncher for more than two years — years marked by muff-ups and miscalculations — Wagner, to Republicans, is a poster child for a budget gone bad.
She was routinely roughed up by the ruffian Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee. It was sport for them, the prerogative of a shrill majority party that delights in drawing black-and-white distinctions.
But even Senate Republicans, usually more decorous than those in the House, got in on the fun after slipping back to the minority last year. After all, it was the only way for them to seem relevant.
There are legitimate reasons for taking a hammer to Wagner, and Bolling — a potential firewall for a GOP doing a better job of losing than winning — may be able to wield it in 2009.
The Kaine administration’s fiscal sins, perceived and actual, are numerous.
Among them: pushing for higher transportation taxes even as the economy began its decline, and missing revenue projections by a mile — or two or three.
Perhaps, we should look at it from this perspective. If our budget situation is in dire straits, shouldn’t the furlough day be enacted sooner rather than later? A furlough is much better than laying off state employees, but this could have been avoided had there been accurate budget projections.
Keep Things the Same: Part-Time Legislature
After reading Shaun Kenney’s post debating the need for continuing the part-time legislature, I was compelled to write my own response.
First and foremost, I do not think it was in our founding fathers’ mindset to create a full-time legislature. The legislature was created to keep government minimal and working on behalf of those who elected them to serve. A full-time legislature would continue to place an overwhelming influence of the government on our lives, which could create more laws that would impact our liberties. If we look around the country, a majority of state legislatures are part-time. Some even meet every other year, while some meet from January-April. Virginia meets every year from January-April, and it provides ample time for essential legislation to get pushed through for votes.
Right now, with some of the scandals (Shaun points those out in his post) in the General Assembly, shouldn’t we look at enacting reform? Would this reform push for a full-time legislature or as Shaun points out, “will we open the debate to real solutions and bold reform?”
Here's Another Way to Look at Government Run Health Care
Imagine there was universal car care, if it were modeled on a government run health care model. The government would tax and regulate all of your automotive repair. Additionally, if you couldn’t afford a car repair, you can rest assured that the car could be repaired by the government. On the other hand, the wait times would be long and drawn out, and any immediate repairs for the car would have a wait time of two to three months.
Could you imagine if this happened for health care? After all, universal health care would result in wait times for necessary life saving procedures (unless you had money and could pay the doctor up front), doctors would be forced out of business, and innovative medical technologies would cease to exist.
H/T to Below the Beltway
