http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/dems-target-private-retirement...

By Karen McMahan
November 04, 2008

RALEIGH - Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers personal retirement accounts including 401(k)s and IRAs and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.

Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.

The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, in prepared remarks for the hearing on The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Workers Retirement Security, blamed Wall Street for the financial crisis and said his committee will strengthen and protect Americans 401(k)s, pensions, and other retirement plans and the Democratic Congress will continue to conduct this much-needed oversight on behalf of the American people.

Currently, 401(k) plans allow Americans to invest pretax money and their employers match up to a defined percentage, which not only increases workers retirement savings but also reduces their annual income tax. The balances are fully inheritable, subject to income tax, meaning workers pass on their wealth to their heirs, unlike Social Security. Even when they leave an employer and go to one that doesn't offer a 401(k) or pension, workers can transfer their balances to a qualified IRA.

Mandating Equality

Ghilarducci's plan first appeared in a paper for the Economic Policy Institute: Agenda for Shared Prosperity on Nov. 20, 2007, in which she said GRAs will rescue the flawed American retirement income system (www.sharedprosperity.org/bp204/bp204.pdf).

The current retirement system, Ghilarducci said, exacerbates income and wealth inequalities because tax breaks for voluntary retirement accounts are skewed to the wealthy because it is easier for them to save, and because they receive bigger tax breaks when they do.

Lauding GRAs as a way to effectively increase retirement savings, Ghilarducci wrote that savings incentives are unequal for rich and poor families because tax deferrals provide a much larger carrot to wealthy families than to middle-class families and none whatsoever for families too poor to owe taxes.

GRAs would guarantee a fixed 3 percent annual rate of return, although later in her article Ghilarducci explained that participants would not earn a 3% real return in perpetuity. In place of tax breaks workers now receive for contributions and thus a lower tax rate, workers would receive $600 annually from the government, inflation-adjusted. For low-income workers whose annual contributions are less than $600, the government would deposit whatever amount it would take to equal the minimum $600 for all participants.

In a radio interview with Kirby Wilbur in Seattle on Oct. 27, 2008, Ghilarducci explained that her proposal doesn't eliminate the tax breaks, rather, I'm just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading the wealth.

All workers would have 5 percent of their annual pay deducted from their paychecks and deposited to the GRA. They would still be paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, as would the employers. The GRA contribution would be shared equally by the worker and the employee. Employers no longer would be able to write off their contributions. Any capital gains would be taxable year-on-year.

Analysts point to another disturbing part of the plan. With a GRA, workers could bequeath only half of their account balances to their heirs, unlike full balances from existing 401(k) and IRA accounts. For workers who die after retiring, they could bequeath just their own contributions plus the interest but minus any benefits received and minus the employer contributions.

Another justification for Ghilarducci's plan is to eliminate investment risk. In her testimony, Ghilarducci said, humans often lack the foresight, discipline, and investing skills required to sustain a savings plan. She cited the 2004 HSBC global survey on the Future of Retirement, in which she claimed that a third of Americans wanted the government to force them to save more for retirement.

What the survey actually reported was that 33 percent of Americans wanted the government to force additional private savings, a vastly different meaning than mandatory government-run savings. Of the four potential sources of retirement support, which were government, employer, family, and self, the majority of Americans said self was the most important contributor, followed by government. When broken out by family income, low-income U.S. households said the government was the most important retirement support, whereas high-income families ranked government last and self first (www.hsbc.com/retirement).

On Oct. 22, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Argentinean government had seized all private pension and retirement accounts to fund government programs and to address a ballooning deficit. Fearing an economic collapse, foreign investors quickly pulled out, forcing the Argentinean stock market to shut down several times. More than 10 years ago, nationalization of private savings sent Argentina's economy into a long-term downward spiral.

Income and Wealth Redistribution

The majority of witness testimony during recent hearings before the House Committee on Education and Labor showed that congressional Democrats intend to address income and wealth inequality through redistribution.

On July 31, 2008, Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, testified before the subcommittee on workforce protections that from the standpoint of equal treatment of people with different incomes, there is a fundamental flaw in tax code incentives because they are provided in the form of deductions, exemptions, and exclusions rather than in the form of refundable tax credits.

Even people who don't pay taxes should get money from the government, paid for by higher-income Americans, he said. There is no obvious reason why lower-income taxpayers or people who do not file income taxes should get smaller incentives (or no tax incentives at all), Greenstein said.

Moving to refundable tax credits for promoting socially worthwhile activities would be an important step toward enhancing progressivity in the tax code in a way that would improve economic efficiency and performance at the same time, Greenstein said, and reducing barriers to labor organizing, preserving the real value of the minimum wage, and the other workforce security concerns . . . would contribute to an economy with less glaring and sharply widening inequality.

When asked whether committee members seriously were considering Ghilarducci's proposal for GSAs, Aaron Albright, press secretary for the Committee on Education and Labor, said Miller and other members were listening to all ideas.

Miller's biggest priority has been on legislation aimed at greater transparency in 401(k)s and other retirement plan administration, specifically regarding fees, Albright said, and he sent a link to a Fox News interview of Miller on Oct. 24, 2008, to show that the congressman had not made a decision.

After repeated questions asked by Neil Cavuto of Fox News, Miller said he would not be in favor of killing the 401(k) or of killing the tax advantages for 401(k)s.

Arguing against liberal prescriptions, William Beach, director of the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation, testified on Oct. 24 that the roots of the current crisis are firmly planted in public policy mistakes by the Federal Reserve and Congress. He cautioned Congress against raising taxes, increasing burdensome regulations, or withdrawing from international product or capital markets. Congress can ill afford to repeat the awesome errors of its predecessor in the early days of the Great Depression, Beach said.

Instead, Beach said, Congress could best address the financial crisis by making the tax reductions of 2001 and 2003 permanent, stopping dependence on demand-side stimulus, lowering the corporate profits tax, and reducing or eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends.

Testifying before the same committee in early October, Jerry Bramlett, president and CEO of BenefitStreet, Inc., an independent 401(k) plan administrator, said one of the best ways to ensure retirement security would be to have the U.S. Department of Labor develop educational materials for workers so they could make better investment decisions, not exchange equity investments in retirement accounts for Treasury bills, as proposed in the GSAs.

Should Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency, congressional Democrats might have stronger support for their spreading the wealth agenda. On Oct. 27, the American Thinker posted a video of an interview with Obama on public radio station WBEZ-FM from 2001.

In the interview, Obama said, The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. The Constitution says only what the states can't do to you. Says what the Federal government can't do to you, and Obama added that the Warren Court wasn't that radical.

Although in 2001 Obama said he was not optimistic about bringing major redistributive change through the courts, as president, he would likely have the opportunity to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices.

The real tragedy of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused that I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change, Obama said.

Karen McMahan is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.

"I have studied Bible, Islamic and Jewish “End of Days” prophecies for the last 20+ years and what I have found within the 3 prophetic writings is so scary that no one is the same after they learn about it. We have never in the history of America have been so close to putting someone with links to Islam in the White House.
Let me back up just a bit and explain. In the Bible, Christians are warned of a person who will deny Christ as the “Son of God” and a false prophet who mimics Jesus.
Islam is waiting for a Messiah (mahdi) and a Jesus who really is no Jesus at all.
Their Jesus will claim that he is not the Son of God.
And Jews have rejected their Jesus Messiah and are waiting for “a conquering King”.
I believe that we are only a few years away from all three of these events coming together.
Here’s the story: the mahdi and false Jesus are the Antichrist and false prophet that Christians were warned is coming.

The Islamic prophecies are a reverse mirror image of what we read in Revelation. The Jews will side with the Mahdi as their Messiah and sign a 7 year peace treaty. The Hadith (a book that helps translate the Qur’an) tells of the same exact thing yet not one Christian has any knowledge of this. Satan has kept American Christians busy with luxury, greed and other distractions so they are in the dark about what is about to come. Not to mention the false teaching within the Churches telling everyone not to worry because we’ll all be “raptured” prior to the Antichrist’s coming. Christians, I hate to break the news but you will be here for the persecution. the real Jesus does not come until there is a total abandonment of Christianity and the Antichrist is ruling the Earth!

What does this have to do with Obama?
Obama has every indication that he is the Antichrist to come.
He fulfills all of what the Bible has warned us to look for. Connections to a “One World Government” and with this connection, a religious government that forces people to convert or be killed (taking the mark of the Beast), loved globally, (remember Germany?) a peacemaker wanting to talk to ALL of our enemies (Islamic), promising wealth and prosperity to all and the most important thing of all, a denial of the Biblical Jesus as God’s Son.

The most important questions to ask Obama are these; Do you believe that the Biblical Jesus is the Jesus to come?
And do you believe that He is the Son of God and raised from the dead”?
You see, if he is who I think he is, he cannot answer the question without exposing himself.

Obama was originally raised Muslim, then became a “Christian”. I don’t believe he is truly Christian and asking these simple questions will clear the air. Simply asking him if he “believes in Jesus” is not enough. All Muslims believe in Jesus, it’s just that they deny that Jesus is God’s Son! Add to that, even the Devil Himself and all of his Demons will readily confess that God is Lord, and that Jesus is the son of God, so this confession does not mean that God or Jesus will find any true faith or obedience from anyone who claims that God is Lord and that Jesus us the son of God. On that note,
anyone who does deny the Christian Jesus is part of the Antichrist spirit that has been here from the beginning!

What to look for in the near future with an Obama presidency:

1. War between Israel and Islam (we are already at war with Islam)
2. Obama at center stage making peace treaties with the Islamic world.
3. A peace treaty lasting 7 years made between the Islamic world and the Jews through a Levite and Mahdi messiah
4. Jesus returning supernaturally but claiming to be Muslim and the Christian Jesus was a myth.
5. Someone calling himself the Messiah being slain and then the false Jesus raising him from the dead
6. Total and complete abandonment of Christianity within a very short period of time
7. Persecution and beheadings of non-believers, Christian and Jewish “holdouts” who will not convert to Islam

Cut and paste this to a text file and save it for the future.

If any of these events begin to happen, I will be posting links on Youtube or any other global media with instructions on what to expect and what to do. Islam is the only religion on Earth that has planned on taking over the world through violence since the beginning of its creation, converting non-believers, prophecies that mirror in reverse what Christians are looking for in the Antichrist and false prophet and a world leader with great power and authority. The devil has had a plan to rule the Earth. He is only a steps away from fulfilling what he told God. “He will be like the Most-High”.
Comments are welcome and I have all of the Biblical, Qur’anic links to prove my case.

I hope for the World that I’m wrong about Obama, but even his surname beans “Blessed One” and the Qur’an says that the “Mahdi will come from the line of the prophet Muhammad”. According to his surname links, the daughter of Muhammad is within his bloodline.I hope for the World that I’m wrong about Obama, but the daughter of Muhammad is within his bloodline...."

THE COMMENTS:

"Dear Dave,
i don’t really care if people will believe this myths you wrote or not , but being me a Muslim i should tell that, whatever was Obama’s religion, the policy will be the same against Arab and Muslim, cause any American president is just applying whatever his masters order, i mean Jews of course, which are leaded by the Antichrist that you’ve mentioned.
and because they are the one controlling the economy in your country they accordingly controlling the policy there, so, don’t worry of Muslims. they have nothing to do there. Jews already f'd you up.
about forcing the people to convert, i don’t remember that any of Arabs and Muslims came to your country killing your women and chider forcing you to convert to Islam, check what’s happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, ask what is the religion of the people they get killed there everyday? ask, why they get killed?" GZ

Dave's reply: "GZ,
What I say is fact and the “myth” that Jews are running America is just that; a myth. The Crusades were a very long time ago. Christians have NOT forced 1 arab to convert to Christianity. We do not force anyone to convert, that is what Islam will do very soon when the Mahdi and Isa comes. Islam is already doing just that all over the planet. We are not in Afganistan and Iraq to turn arabs into Christians. We are going after the Islamic terrorists that attacked our country. And if Muslims would simply understand that if they gave up Osama Bin Laden, we would go away and leave the Holy Lands. But Muslims hold Bin Laden up as a “hero”. Don’t you as a Mulsim condemn what he did? Before you answer, you better know what the Qur’an teaches or your answer will condemn you. You call Americans hypocrites yet Muslims claim to be peaceful yet allow this hatred within your culture. You operate under the belief that Jews are evil and since we suport them we are evil too…and we got what we were asking for. Why else would American Muslims when behind closed doors yell “Allah u akbar” !! when they see the planes hit the towers or when missiles hit Israel?

Call my post above hate speech or a myth, that’s fine. You are simply ignorant of the truth. I have studied Islam, Christianity and Judaism for nearly 30 years. There are many lies within Islam that are simply not true. There are NO facts at all to support that the Torah and Christian Bible has been “corrupted”. None. However, if you knew the truth about the last day, you would know that the Mahdi will come and find scrolls supposedly showing the world that the Qur’an was actually here first. These scrolls will be forgeries. Also, Isa will claim that he is the real Jesus and Christians made up the story about him being crucified. When he does this, the world will abandon Christianity. This might make you very happy, but what you fail to see is that the REAL Jesus prophecied all of this to happen BEFORE the Qur’an was written. He warned us what to look for and as I said in the last post, Obama fulfills many of the prophecies that the Christian Jesus foretold were to happen just prior to Islam becoming the only religion on Earth- the Antichrist religion. So if I were you, I would study more than the Qur’an. All three of these religions are linked together through Abraham and only one of these religions is the devil’s plan to have every human on Earth worship him instead of the real God of the Universe. You are ignorant of Satan’s plan. I will leave you with this question: What religion on Earth today gives 100% total submission to God? THis will be the religion Satan uses to fool the world into worshipping him. I don’t see Jews or Christians in full submission, do you?And one last thing….Obama will bring peace to Palistine and to the world. And when he does, you will know that Jews do not pull his strings. Bible prophecy is the only prophecy that has been 100% accurate. The Hadiths (there are many) cannot agree on many issues. So when Muslims use the argument that “the Bible contradicts it’self and cannot be accurate because man wrote it” then the same applies to ALL of the Sunnas ALSO written by men. And you cannot translate the Qur’an without the Sunna…..you cannot have it both ways….what part of this are you not getting?" Dave

This is Justanerd talking again : I have said that I do not believe that BO is the Anti-Christ but I do believe that he is one of the False Prophet's that are the ANTICEDENT of the Anti-Christ.

Barack Obama said “immediately after I become President, I will confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity.”

There are those who wonder why Barack Obama does not act now on behalf of America, although he is not president yet, he is still a member of the United States Senate, and he has the power to come up with a solution. But is it really that easy, I would say not.

Source

How do you thing Barack Obama’s conference went?

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends - so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring - when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The social and political narrative of the last eight years, if you're a young adult, has been "you are the first generation of the second half of the rest of human existence." That's a huge psychological undertaking, and I believe it's one that will someday be diagnosed on a massive scale as having led to a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Something has to explain away our premature obsession with 1980s nostalgia.) My generation has come to know itself as the generation that should have seen the good days, my, were they spectacular, now take off your shoes and place them on the belt.

To those who question whether hope is a tangible product worth building a campaign around, I'd say take a look at despair and how powerful that has been in reshaping how people think and live. I believe the definition of the "hope" that Barack Obama enthuses operates on the unspoken thesis that there has to be a polar opposite to the despair of 9/11. Because if we accept that there's not, the will to live becomes forever altered. To adults who will vote for him, Barack Obama represents a return to prosperity. To the youth, he represents an introduction to it.

The central bank on Wednesday reduced its target for the federal funds rate, the interest banks charge on overnight loans, to 1 percent, a low last seen in 2003-2004. The funds rate has not been lower since 1958, when Dwight Eisenhower was president.

The cut marked the second half-point reduction in the funds rate this month. The Fed slashed the rate by that amount in a coordinated move with foreign central banks on Oct. 8.

In a brief statement explaining Wednesday's action, the Fed said that the"intensification of financial market turmoil is likely to exert additional restraint on spending, partly by further reducing the ability of households and business to obtain credit."

The central bank said that "downside risks to growth remain" holding out the promise of further rate cuts if needed. The rate-cut decision was unanimous.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues pledged that they would "monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will act as needed to promote sustainable economic growth and price stability."

Wall Street had staged its second biggest point surge ever on Tuesday with the Dow Jones industrial average climbing by 889 points in anticipation of the Fed's action. Trading was more subdued on Wednesday with the Dow actually down by about 30 points in the first 15 minutes after the afternoon announcement, and then showing a roughly 30-point gain shortly after that.

Many analysts believe the Fed will not stop at 1 percent if officials see the need to cut rates further. Some are forecasting another half-point move at the Fed's last meeting of the year on Dec. 16.

But other economists said with rates already so low, the Fed may decide to hold at 1 percent, leaving some room for a further reduction if needed next year should the country's economic troubles intensify.

In its statement, the Fed indicated it had room to lower rates because the spreading economic weakness was lowering the risks that inflation would get out of control. Indeed, the weakness has caused dramatic declines in the price of oil and other commodities.

While many economists believe the country has already fallen into a recession, they think the aggressive efforts by the Fed to cut rates and take other actions to unfreeze credit markets will keep the country from plunging into a prolonged and deep downturn.

The Fed's action was expected to be quickly followed by a reduction by commercial banks in their prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans, by a similar half-point.

The central bank also announced that it was lowering its discount rate, the interest it charges to make direct loans to banks, by a half-point to 1.25 percent. This rate has become increasingly important as the central bank has dramatically increased direct loans to banks in an effort to break the grip of the credit crisis.

Bernanke pledged in a speech earlier this month that the Fed "will not stand down until we have achieved our goals of repairing and reforming our financial system and restoring prosperity."

In addition to the rate cuts, the Fed has been moving to pump billions of dollars into the banking system to help unfreeze markets that seized up in dramatic fashion last month. The ensuing meltdown of financial markets caused the Bush administration to successfully lobby Congress to pass on Oct. 3 a $700 billion rescue package to make direct purchases of bank stock and buy up bad assets as a way of getting financial institutions to start lending again.

That money started flowing earlier this week with $125 billion going to nine of the nation's biggest banks. Other industries, including automakers and insurance companies, are in talks with the administration to get a share of the bailout funds.

And there is pressure from lawmakers to deploy some of the bailout resources to provide mortgage guarantees to encourage more banks to rework home loans to stem a record tide of foreclosures.

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081029/fed_interest_rates.html

Barack Obama explicitly calls for the “redistribution of wealth” in a 2001 interview on Chicago public radio station WBEZ FM.

In the audio, which can be heard below, Obama is straightforward in his view that redistribution of wealth is a civil right which the civil rights movement failed to obtain.

 Obama laments in the interview that the Warren Supreme Court failed to reinterpret the Constitution to read into it what was not there: Redistribution of wealth for “political and economic justice in this society.”

Barack Obama continues, and notes that one of the “great tragedies of the civil rights movement” was that it was court-centric and got away from “political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change.”

Left-wing liberals can try to spin this however they want, however, Obama’s sentiments are clear.

I received an email today with quotes that sum up my thoughts on the subject.  The quotes were published in 1942 by William J. H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister.

1.  You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2.  You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong
3.  You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
4.  You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
5.  You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
6.  You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
7.  You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
8.  You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
9.  You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Listen to the Obama Redistribution of Wealth audio below.

(more…)

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