Obama is a Great Salesman, but do Americans Know What They are Buying?

By Bill Glynn

There is no doubt that a stimulus package will be passed. We are paying a board of directors, CEO, and management, and this is the plan they come up with? You've got to be kidding me! The worst thing is we are all shareholders and I know if America were a company, our stock price would be in the tank, our balance sheet destroyed, and management and the board fired by the shareholders. But we go on, never really having a voice in this mess and certainly don't have a voice in policy and this bailout – as ineffective as I know it will be.

Can you imagine if you were a CEO and you took the stage with a huge audience of shareholders... Start with 25% of all company revenue, which was simply to pay interest on debt. Worse, you ask to borrow more; and even worse, you plan to cut revenue by another $500 billion or so. America paid and mostly accrued $318 billion last year just in interest on the debt. We only collect $1.2 trillion is tax revenue. So, simply put, you cut revenue, pile on debt, and continue to finance interest on that debt. Cut revenue and increase borrowing? Wasn't the problem with the banks that they kept buying and selling mortgage debt and paying it forward just like America's debt? When do you think the house of cards is going to tumble? In our lifetime? In our children's? You'd better believe it. [more...]