|
 |
6/30/2010
It's no wonder we're all cynics
Did I mention it was election season? Surely it must be, given the persistent and constant flow of press releases from Rep. Steve Kagen’s Washington office. Yesterday afternoon’s gem is more meaningless political-speak.
WASHINGTON , DC – Congressman Steve Kagen, M.D. is working hard to help small businesses secure access to the credit they need to help rebuild our economy. Today, the Senate voted to begin consideration of the “Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010,” including Kagen’s job-creating “Loans for Main Street” amendment.
…. [The] Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010 will help small businesses expand through investments in states and small banks that focus on lending to local small businesses. It also lowers the capital gains taxes on small business investments, and increases tax deductions to help entrepreneurs recover more start-up expenses.
This legislation, which expands much-needed lending to small businesses and offers tax incentives to help small businesses grow, is fully paid for and will save taxpayers $1 billion over the next ten years.
The summary of the Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010, HR 5297, is here if you care to sort through it. Dr. Kagen is not listed as a sponsor to the bill. In addition, none of the amendments to HR 5297 (17) were authored or even co-sponsored by Dr. Kagen. (Kagen’s June 17 press release touting the “Loans for Main Street” amendment includes no additional information to support the claim of sponsorship.)
Be that as it may, an alert FoxPolitics reader suggested Dr. Kagen should have read yesterday’s Wall Street Journal before producing yesterday’s yawner presser.
The End of Community Banking
The comprehensive financial reform agreed upon by the House and Senate on Friday, along with all the new regulations of the past year, could signal the end of community banking. The new reforms will give more power to the Federal Reserve to regulate how my bank and others like it do business.
What does all this mean for our customers? Less credit will be available, costs will increase, and we will be less able to make loans to regular people who were creditworthy in the past. This is the perfect storm for the small retail banking customer. We will start to see more small community bank failures and mergers because of voluminous regulation.
Read the whole thing – it’s pretty quick. An insightful article, the piece is written by the chairwoman of the board of directors of First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Newark, Ohio. She knows of what she speaks.
I don’t think Rep. Kagen has a clue.
It’s no wonder so many Americans are disgusted with Washington. Dang it.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
On another issue Jo. I am saddened by the death of Dr.Trager.
David (Wed Jun 30 08:21:49 2010)
Dave,
I was saddened to hear that news also. I did get to listen to him a few times at some forums and I thought he was both a good conservative and a good guy.
Dale (Wed Jun 30 09:25:41 2010)
It really hit me just now how eerily similar all these bills are, and how they are named, to the kind of insidious socialist laws that destroyed the economy in Ayn Rand's fiction, Atlas Shrugged.
Andrew Ellis (Wed Jun 30 09:26:37 2010)
Indeed Dave and Dale. My husband and I will continue to pray that the Lord will be a comfort to Dr. Trager's family. We are so saddened, and heartened to know that friends and neighbors are sharing the love and caring of the community.
Jo (Wed Jun 30 10:52:52 2010)
Unfortunately as is the case for many of our national Congressional Representatives and Senators, very few understand the basics of how money flows through the economy when the subject is lending. They know how to attack the process then label the institutions as greedy, and heartless-and as applies to any group we subject to scrutiny, be they a church, a government administration or bank-some fit the bill perfectly.
After approaching Senator Kohl's offices about a key section of the Financial Stability and Reform Act, to which this Small Business Act is ancillary, it took months of lobbying ( sometimes a good thing ) to bring to the committee's attention that their efforts to assign risk retention to lending, a good thing, was structured, unintentionally of course, to crush the willingness of small Community Banks to offer FIXED RATE mortgages, the least risky, most stable offering a bank can offer to homeowners. The large institutions, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase and maybe one or two more, would probably have weathered the provision, until such time as they had all borrowers in their purview, and would have successfully forced smaller community lenders to offer only adjustable rate mortgages and balloon notes as a means of mitigating their risk. The unintentional consequences of well meaning, but stupid people.
Since my employer, a small Community bank, as part of a group of 50 such smaller lenders, might slowly be unable to continue such stable, fixed rate lending under the structure the Senate Finance Committee was writing into the bill, it was only after much education and lobbying that it appears that small banks and credit unions may be able to continue to offer these good lending products to the home lending marketplace.
To sum up, I doubt that very few of our representatives understand the financial systems of this nation and like my illustration, their rush to act, the damn the torpedoes, we'll clean up the mess after the bill is passed approach, is destroying this Nation, eroding our civil liberties and crippling the very systems that fund our small businesses. Not everyone can work for the government, and we need to curtail the overwhelming wave of legislation, well-intended, that is unraveling and destroying the fabric of this Nation. I believe that enforcement of existing legislation is in most cases, adequate to the job, but frankly the dead-assed bureaucrats whose job continuance is based primarily on showing up, have failed to act.
Term limits and performance based job evaluations should now find it's way into our public workforce and representations; I'm sure the good folks who do their jobs would love to see that happen as well.
Richard Parins (Wed Jun 30 12:48:00 2010)
|
|
Blog Archives
| 2010 |
  December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Solberg: Healing After an Abortion
• Basketball fans eyeing extension of Miller Park sales tax
• Nanny sex-ed bill goes to Doyle
• A first. Village limits pension contribution for employees
• Nanny State update: Toothbrushing mandated
• Obama pushes education inflation
• WI Investment Board votes to borrow to juice up returns
• So Republicans have brought nothing to the table?
• You have got to be kidding me
• Nygren: Governor Continues Terms of Failure in State of the State
• Sen. Fitzgerald: Governor down the wrong track at high speed
• Phosphorus is the new CO2. $Billions in Wisconsin
• More Obama giveaways
• A reprimand? Would you keep him on the job?
• Burri: Sarah Palin for Prez troubles me
• Quote of the Day – Obama after the pie-eating contest
• Populism, abused and trampled
• Fitzgerald: Senate Republicans Propose Real Job Creation Agenda
• Stripped down health insurance – it’s about time
• Ok GOP, scrap the Party of NO; time to lead
• No way Feingold is a Coakley. Is Wall a Brown?
• Burri: Conservatives off the chart for a RINO?
• Paltry quid pro quo?
• Doyle says ARRA has ‘created or retained’ 44,000 WI jobs
• Does most of the public fall for this stuff?
• When you get signatures, always get a couple extra
• Blame it on the outmoded computers
• Scott Brown victory does not scuttle health bill
• 8th Congressional Candidate Forum, Jan. 25
• Scott Walker Meet-and-greet, Monday, Jan. 18
• Aren’t consumers taxpayers too?
• MORE taxes on investment income - dreadful and wrong
• Join the blaze orange army and say ‘Enough is Enough’
• The future of government-run health care
• Tax on banks is a really bad idea
• Roth, Savard on the stump, grassroots style
• Savard speaking in Appleton, 8 PM, Wed., Jan. 13.
• Rahmlow: Savard, Bies frontrunners for State Senate
• Burri: Failing Political Correctness 101
• School contracts and Race to the Top
• Senator Feingold worrisome and big red flags
• Psephological?
• This is really important. Contact Rep. Kagen. Now. Please.
• This is exactly what we need from Governor Doyle
• This guy is my hero
• Why am I not surprised?
• Talk health reform with Feingold (Th), Petri (today)
• Give the Mayor power over MPS - if he can break contracts
• Burri: Yup, Dems really are going to bypass a conference
• The $2.7 billion Wisconsin deficit no one told you about
• Walker launches county accountability website
• Rahmlow: Why is Van Hollen dodging the Nebraska deal?
|
| 2009 |
December
|
November
|
October
• The Lawton-Bader files
• Yup, it’s the TAX LEVY, not the tax RATE
• Ellis: costly automobile insurance laws must be rolled back
• If not Barrett, who?
• The subsidy game
• Burri: Bailouts, Banks, Health Care, and the Mob
• Attend Appleton Schools budget meeting tonight
• A public option WON’T increase costs? That’s delusional!
• Appleton Schools budget meeting Monday
• Wisconsin should be screaming for accountability
• Burri: If anything, we need more obstructionism around here
• WI on the leading edge - in the wrong direction
• Rep. Montgomery: Utility Customers Join State’s Crime-Fighting Efforts
• Public Conservation and Recreation Lands Total 16.5% of State
• In the crow's nest of the Titanic, shouting 'Iceberg!'
• Is Rep. Nelson a political hack?
• Health care: The road ahead will be brutal
• Kagen's pandering again
• Birthers - good stuff for you
• How much do we bend over backward for seniors?
• The trouble with health care is paying for it
• Two-parent families: The Gold Standard
• Burri: Kids... the joys and blessings
• Very, very worried about health care
• Rep. Huebsch: Wisconsin is proof government health care isn’t the answer
• School district contracts push up tax levy
• What? Obama, the Peace Prize?
• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
• Appleton School District tax levy up way too much
• CBO report is out - and the bill isn't even written yet?
• So, how much do YOU budget for health care?
• Burri: Copenhagen trip was amateurish
• “Sotomayor, you have blood on your hands...”
• Cap and Trade. Always follow the money
• Rep. Kagen gets (almost) free health services
• I actually agree with Rep. Kagen
• Future Wisconsin Conference for Conservatives, October 10, Wauwatosa
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
|
| 2008 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
• Democrats are becoming supply siders??
• Further debunking Hillary myths
• WEAC has created an unsustainable monopoly
• From Mark Gundrum: One of the greatest honors an American can experience
• 'Operation Chaos' working?
• Joe Martin the best candidate in Appleton's 8th
• State programs to cut? - Volume II
• Oh the naivete of youth
• Not just disingenuous - flat wrong
• Steve - you will be missed
• Make cuts only AFTER you're elected....
• Getting serious: What programs can we cut?
• Rep. Steve Kagen joining me on Jerry Bader Show today
• Rep. Van Roy: Dental Care Pilot Program
• Has Dave Obey turned the corner on earmarks?
• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
• As taxpayers, how do we know if it's a Chevy or a Lexus?
• This is trash talk - about a veteran
• Frank Lasee: Take time to get the Compact right
• 'The Gableman Ad' - is it racist?
• Roth thankful, Kagen shaking money tree
• Gov. Doyle's office not enamored with Freedom of Information
• Governor Doyle will never do it
• Leadership on smoking ban? Not Hanna
• Rep. Van Roy speaks out about smear ads
• You're threatening me about potholes?
• Losing the Hastert seat is NOT a trend and NOT curtians for the GOP
• First suggestion for 'slashing' programs
• Big money-saver for municipalities
• More one time fixes. Nuts.
• Any chances???
• I'm doing the Jerry Bader Show, today, the 11th
• Representative Frank Lasee: Final Waltz of the Season
• Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
• Yup, Hillary won Texas and Ohio
• Gableman/Butler race featured - and it isn't pretty
• Lies from Planned Parenthood and NARAL
• He who sacrifices liberty.....
• Duh.
• The Troha sentencing, Doyle and that $200K
• Guns, passion and "originality"
• How hard is it anyway, to shut down a government program?
• Voting is a PRIVILEGE. And so are property taxes....
• Guest Blog: Governor Doyle, cancel your Ireland trip
|
February
|
January
|
| 2007 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Lots of ideas. No money.
• The Cigarette Tax - "Poor Policy Instrument?"
• School budget Lite?
• Frankenstein - not in the library, but in the legislature
• A librarian, a legislator, a president
• $1.25/pack - NO, NO, NO, and NO
• Kagen and Reagan in the same breath?
• Menasha: behind the 8-ball, but not biting the dust
• Any way you slice it, Wisconsin government wants (further) in on health care
• The World is Flat...what about health care?
• The PAC - too precious to fail. Day 3
• News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail - Day 2
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail
• New Transit Tax coming your way
• Rep. Petri has his finger in the dike - I guess
• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
• Health care, health care, health care, health care
• Water rate increase was no slam dunk
• Education for all is just a bad dream
• New Year's resolutions from a parade snob
|
| 2006 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
| 2000 |
May
|
|
