Come Monday...Beyond Stimulating

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about, websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time. Be assured that they will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.” This is subject to change, however. In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while. For rants promote change, and change can be good—right? Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant can be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

I must admit that I do not understand very much about the [most recent edition] of President Obama’s Economic Stimulus Plan. Oh, I’ve heard plenty from both sides of the political divide, but hearing about something does not always equate to understanding in my case.

One of the things that I’ve heard is that it provides for many public works projects, which is very good. For our highways and bridges are crumbling, and many of our schools are in even worse shape.

I’ve also heard that it provides for the purchasing of many bad mortgages, which does hold some concern for me. For it is good to actually take care of the problem that the banking industry has saddled itself with instead of just giving them dump truck loads of money to do with as they like, but what about the people who have lost their homes?

Yes, this is America, and we don’t do that sort of thing—according to my staunchly conservative roots. Why, I can still hear them say, “Everyone should lie in the bed they have made, and if that bed gets tossed out in the street, well, they shouldn’t have made it there!”

Since becoming much more of a bleeding-heart liberal than I care to publicly admit to, I wonder why we cannot have our cake and eat it too when it comes to cleaning up the sub-prime mortgage mess? For the Federal government could buy up mortgages just like a private broker would, and then have the residents of the homes pay off their loans at a substantially lower rate.

Oh yes, special terms and conditions would have to apply. For I would be a lot less lenient towards those who purchased properties just for the sake of selling them at a profit as the market went higher and higher than those who meant to actually live there, and some provision would have to made for those who have been already foreclosed on months ago, just to be fair.

Aside from being fair, it would make good economic sense. For people who live in homes have a tendency to pay more taxes than receive government benefits. Whereas homeless people do not.

Speaking of making good economic sense, why couldn’t the Federal government contract with the major auto manufacturers to retool some of their idle factories to produce a bunch of those new generation [blast-resistant vehicles] that the military has been in such desperate need of? Yes, it could be argued that there would not be so much need for such vehicles if we would just keep our troops out of harm’s way, but that’s an argument for another day.

Yes, I think I’ve heard something or another about some provisions to encourage the production of alternative fuel vehicles for the general public, which is good, I suppose. For I am a much bigger fan of power than economy, which means that there may still be some hope left for me yet.

What I haven’t heard anything about is a drastic overhaul of the federal bureaucracy itself. For billions upon billions of dollars in federal budget could be diverted to actually doing something good if there was not redundant level upon level in every agency to pay for.

Speaking of redundancies, why do we need more than the [FBI] and the [CIA] to take care of our national security and law enforcement issues? For I understand that there is a danger in giving too much power to too few, but is that not what congressional oversight is supposed to be guarding against?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am basking in the glow of a very high fever with this fit. For I would also like to see what would be left of the federal bureaucracy after a good spring cleaning get much more personally involved in the allocation of the funds that they are entrusted with. For no one in their right mind is going to just thrown money out of their office window if they look at it as being their own money that is meant to help their own family members in one way or another.

Alas, I may very well be quite mad, and not in a good way, neither. For I want to believe that there really are enough good people in this country to pull it off.

Hey, it has something for everyone. For there would be more than enough money to pay for all of the social welfare programs that the Democrats could dream up, and cut taxes for the sake of Republican sanity.

Yeah, you’re probably right. They would never go for it. For the leaders on both sides of the political divide like the bed they are laying in, even at this time, just the way it is.