Do you remember the scene in the movie Jaws, the mayor is facing a group of local merchants upset over beach closings. As the noise level in the room increases, the mayor says, "It's only for a week" much to the police chief's surprise.

Well, our President's brave austerity initiative is only until the end of the fiscal year. That would be the end of September. This doesn't even rise to the level of style over substance. This is just "phony talking point for use in the fall elections" posturing.

I hope he gives this a little more thought. I don't want him rushing into anything.

A Bonus freeze????

Someone tell me again how intelligent Obama is.

Government now in "private" business
Government subsidizing those businesses
Government mandating what we must buy
Government the only jobs available
Time to reread "The Jungle"
I owe my soul to the company (government)store...

The President can't institute a federal wage freeze without congressional approval. Freezing bonuses for political appointees is the closest he can statutorily come.

The only 'bonus' a public sector job should have is NOT getting fired if you do the job you were hired to do.

Every time I hear about public sector employees getting a bonus; I think about Franklin Raines. You remember Frankie. $6 MILLION bonus after driving Fannie Mae over a cliff. But Maxine Waters thinks he was 'highly competent'. Yeah, and so were the bookkeepers at Enron.

In all the bashing of Wall Street CEO pay packages, no one in the Democratic Party thinks Raines compensation was "too much".

Wonder why?

Just in time to help pay for the Wookies little vacation to Spain.

Did George Bush do this to control his raging deficit?

No. In addition to actually putting us involved in an unncessary war.

We'll Rick,Thats why I coined the term "Potemkin Presidency' soon after his election.

The Government's New Genius Idea: The $1,000 Down Payment
http://www.businessinsider.com/1000-down-payment-2010-8#ixzz0voMUt0iG

$1,000 down payment to buy a home is effectively no down payment and amounts to renting with 100% government insured financing. Real Estate Brokers won't work selling homes where there is no equity to pay their commission. In such cases homeowners usually walk leaving a house to foreclosure, bringing down home values in a neighborhood. If this government experiment proliferates, making mortgages to home buyers with a mere $1,000 down payment, it will not only cost taxpayers billions covering no down payment foreclosures, it will force homes values down to where Americans may find it economically safer to rent not own. The Obama government could effectively socialize home ownership, transferring homeowner equities to the poor, making homes so undesirable as an investment that once valuable homes would sell and rent dirt cheap as poor housing. Subsequently, Government would not have to sell homes to the poor for a $1,000 down payment as home ownership plummeted, but provide millions of abandoned homes free or cheap rent to millions of poor.

If the Obama government's socialized housing proliferates it could in Obama's own words, "level the playing field" destroying the value of Americans' number one free enterprise investment their home. Next would be other investment properties like apartment buildings. Most Americans' savings have been the equity in their home. Once that is destroyed most Americans will have nothing. Historically when Citizens have little or nothing, they will support a socialist or communist government.