But Wait, I Wanted Anmest, Uh, Arnmast, Uh, what was it again that I wanted?

Wait, here’s the real story…works drying up, I really don’t need your stupid amnesty, don’t need your freebies, I’m going home since I can’t make my 23 dollar an hour job.  Why couldn’t the airheads in congress get this? 

Some Mexicans leaving US, planning never to return

By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press Writer Ivan Moreno, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 15, 5:16 am ET

AP – Vicenta Rodriguez Lopez, 40, holds 10-month-old grandson Duvan Rodriguez, at her home in Severance, Colo., …

DENVER – After going months without a full-time job, Daniel Ramirez has decided it’s time to return to family in Mexico.

Vicenta Rodriguez Lopez says she can’t afford to live in Colorado any more because her husband was deported.

Roberto Espinoza is going back, too. After 18 years as a mechanic for a General Motors dealership in Denver, his work permit wasn’t renewed and he didn’t want to remain in the country illegally. (AN 18 YEAR WORK PERMIT????)

All are leaving Colorado in time for Christmas — joining a traditional holiday migration that will number almost 1 million people, says Mexico’s interior ministry. But they have no intention of returning to Colorado, a place that promised prosperity.

Layoffs, dwindling job opportunities, anti-immigrant sentiment and the crackdown on illegal immigrants are forcing hard choices on many Mexican nationals in Colorado. Though not an exodus, some are returning to a nation they haven’t seen in years.

“You despair. You think, ‘I used to earn $600 a week and now I’m getting half of that a week?’” said Ramirez, 38, who lost his Denver construction job in August. He left last week, driving to San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.

Mexico’s consul general in Denver, Eduardo Arnal, said more people like Ramirez are going home for good.

He cites a rise in applications for import tax exemptions by Mexican nationals bringing home their belongings. The consulate hasn’t compiled statistics for 2008 but says it receives about three applications a day, compared to one per week in 2007.

“We’ve seen an increase in this service, which implies that there’s a tendency among a larger number of Mexicans who are returning home definitively,” Arnal said in an interview in Spanish.

Nationally, 1,809 Mexican immigrants filed for the exemption between January and August, compared to 1,447 the same period last year — a 25 percent increase, according to Mexico’s foreign affairs ministry.

That’s hardly an indicator of reverse migration, noted Carlos Rico, Mexico’s undersecretary for North American affairs. Rico said what is known is that Mexicans are moving to other U.S. states — often places that historically have not seen a large population of Mexicans. They include North Carolina, Georgia, Idaho and Alaska, Rico said.

Whether for economic or anti-immigrant reasons, Rico said, “People are looking for alternatives within the United States.”

An estimated 243,253 Mexicans lived in Colorado in 2007, down from 254,844 in 2006, according to the U.S. Census. The state’s construction industry, a traditional source of employment for Mexicans, is contracting, and University of Colorado economists expect the state to lose 11,200 construction jobs next year.

Nationally, remittances to Mexico are down, as is Mexican emigration to the U.S.

August remittances totaled $1.9 billion, down 12 percent from August 2007, Mexico’s Central Bank says. It’s the first drop since the bank began tracking remittances in 1996.

Mexico’s National Statistics and Geography Institute estimates that 814,000 Mexicans emigrated to the U.S. in 2006, compared to 1.2 million in 2007.

Arnal noted that Mexico’s economy is growing, albeit modestly. Mexico’s Treasury Department reported a 1.7 percent growth rate for the third quarter and forecasts 2 percent growth for the year.

But hard times, not tepid growth back home, are prompting some Colorado Mexicans to leave.

Espinoza said the recession’s onset took him by surprise. He’ll be seeing his country for the first time in nearly two decades.

“I miss my country,” said Espinoza, 34, who is returning to Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Vicenta Rodriguez Lopez lives in Severance, about 60 miles north of Denver. She’s leaving for the Mexican state of Sinaloa after 15 years because her husband, who worked at a ranch dairy, was deported for being here illegally.

“He told me to pack up everything,” Rodriguez, 40, said in Spanish. “We’re not young anymore.”

Her 21-year-old son, also in the country illegally, plans on staying.

Jesus Luna, 30, is returning to Puebla with his wife and two children after nearly four years in Colorado Springs. His reasons aren’t entirely economic. His parents are ailing. Packing things he said have been so easily accumulated here — bikes, toys, a washer and other appliances — he will be driving nearly 40 hours to arrive in time for Christmas parties.

“You know how it is — eating and more eating,” he said, smiling.

Still others return on their own terms, having accrued the wealth to let them live their dreams in Mexico.

“I can’t complain. I have a job and I am able to come back if I want,” said Gustavo Camacho, 43, who works for a firm digging trenches for electrical cables in Denver.

Camacho, who is from Jalisco, has been here twice, from 1999-2003 and again since 2005. The first time, he saved enough money for a house in Jalisco. This time, he has enough to start a business — either a car repair shop or selling food on the street.

He wants his six children to grow up in Mexico, where he thinks family values are stronger.

“I’ll miss it,” Camacho said about his time in Colorado. “But you always miss something, whether you’re here or in Mexico.

“I might even miss the weather.”

Budgets, Budgets, How to Inflate a Budget

I want to highlight a number of items in this story from the New York Times.  First, the reason that I want to do this, it that it’s from New York, the influential state from the North.  Lord knows we hear enough from the left coast about breaking the rules, lets look at the new governor from New York on how to take more money from the taxpayers to re-gorge the runaway coffers of state government.  What happens to me and you when we exceed our budgets?

 

 

 

New taxes, cuts in budget plan

Paterson sees $404M tax on non-diet soda; higher levies on health care

 

  

 

 By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau

First published: Sunday, December 14, 2008

 

 

 New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state’s economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson’s first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components.

The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the tax cap on gasoline and threatening to require Indian retailers to collect taxes on sales to non-Indians by signing into law a bill passed earlier this year by the Legislature.

Paterson will unveil the spending plan, aimed at closing a $12.5 billion deficit for next year, on Tuesday. The total size of the Paterson budget is unknown.  (UNKNOWN??????)

There is no word on Paterson’s plans for the state work force, although he has said he will adhere to a strict hiring freeze while looking to consolidate some components of government.

The cuts will be across the board and will build upon a deficit reduction plan Paterson proposed in November as he attempted to close the $1.5 billion shortfall in the $120 billion budget negotiated for this year. The plan was inherited from the executive budget introduced last January by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The health industry will be particularly upset, although Paterson’s cuts will raise blood pressure throughout. He will call for about $3.53 billion in health care cuts, not including federal share of matching Medicaid dollars, which could be another $2 billion in cuts. (BUT I THOUGHT OUR GOVERNMENT KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT HEALTH CARE!!!!)

The biggest hits will be to insurance companies, which will be asked to come up with about $855 million in extra assessments. Those amount to more taxes on health insurance plans, increased sales tax on hospital discharges and more shifting of general fund costs to the Insurance Department so that insurance companies pay for programs such as Timothy’s Law, the mandated coverage of mental health treatments.

Further, the governor also will propose a new tax on some physician services to raise $50 million.

The bottom line will be a net increase in costs that ultimately get paid by subscribers, thereby increasing the cost of coverage at a time that most upstate insurers are struggling.

Hospital cost saving initiatives will amount to $700 million next year and $50 million this year. Some of that will come from a 0.7 percent tax on gross receipts and Medicaid rate reductions. Graduate medical education funds will be redirected to save $141 million and another $23 million will be cut through reforming reimbursement.

Nursing homes will be cut by $4.2 million this year and $420 million next year. Home care will be cut $190 million next year.

A number of other public health programs will come with savings by, for instance, taxing non-diet sodas under an “obesity tax” that will raise $404 million. Prescription drug costs, a hit on pharmacies and drug makers, will cut by $111 million.

Among the reductions in education spending, public colleges will be directed to raise tuitions. But despite the cuts, Paterson will try to make it easier for SUNY schools to partner with private developers who want to build on campus property. The public/private initiative is seen as a way to stimulate construction of private housing for campus residents.

The Empire Zone program will be cut by at least 50 percent, saving the state tens of millions by not extending benefits as liberally.

The budget will come a day after Senate Republicans vote on a bill to stimulate the economy by phasing out the Empire Zone program through 2011 and using the savings as tax breaks for companies.

The governor has contemplated instituting a different pension system for new employees, but the so-called Tier 5 program may not make it to the budget. He is also expected to reiterate a call for greater health care payments from retirees and the closure of some juvenile detention facilities.

Where did he say there would be a cost reduction in his, his staff, and the legislators pay?  Ahhh, same story, like in the raise for congress this week. 

 

Steve

U.S. May Give Car Czar or Treasury Secretary Power to Force Bankruptcies

Well here we go after this has been batted around and looked like the Big 3 weren’t going to get any help. When you knew in reality they would….it’s just politics waiting for the Big 3 to give in to more government control and strings attached to the bailout. In this case a “Car Czar” whoever heard of such a thing. This won’t be popular for me to say, but our government getting involved in the banking, insurance and now auto industry with the power to make or break a business through forcing bankruptcy is turning our economy into facist economy whether you want to admit it or not.

As you read this remember…..“GM has a bigger presence outside the U.S. than in it, employs more people in other countries than here, and actually makes money selling cars everywhere from Sao Paulo to Shanghai. Its U.S. revenue has sunk 24% in the last three full years, but in the rest of the world, GM can boast a 28% increase.” <click to read entire article)

U.S. May Give Car Czar Power to Force Bankruptcies

The U.S. Treasury may adopt a plan that would let a car czar or the Treasury secretary force General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy if the automakers don’t show they can survive without government aid, a U.S. senator said.

GM and Chrysler would be required to submit viability plans by March 31 or lose any further U.S. support, Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, told reporters in Detroit yesterday. The Treasury plan would resemble a measure passed by the U.S. House last week that was rejected by the Senate.

“I expect that the terms would be similar to the ones that were in the House bill,” Levin said. “The power rests in the hands of either the czar or the Secretary of the Treasury to force bankruptcy by March 31.”

The administration isn’t likely to reach a decision on aid until later this week, with tomorrow being the earliest, a government official said on condition of anonymity. GM and Chrysler are seeking $14 billion to keep operating through the first quarter. Without an infusion of cash, the largest U.S. automaker and No. 3 Chrysler may be only weeks from insolvency.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined to speculate on when a plan might be finished, though he said yesterday on Bloomberg Television that the administration wants to make sure taxpayers will get their money back.

‘Rigorous Oversight’

“Of course there will be conditions to any taxpayer financing,” Fratto said. “There will be rigorous oversight to make sure that these companies are doing what they promised to do, and we want to make sure that everyone is making the concessions that they’re going to have to commit to make.” ( meanwhile the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary Paulson changed what they said they’d do after the banker bailout was passed and the Federal Reserve is declining Bloomberg’s Freedom of Information Act request to force the Federal Reserve to show where the $2 trillion of taxpayer money went.)

Levin said the Bush administration understands the urgency of the automakers’ situation. “It’s a matter of weeks before they absolutely must have the funds in hand,” he said.

Under the approach the administration is likely to use, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his successor would “in effect” be the car czar because the Treasury Department would oversee the aid, Levin said.

GM rose 7 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $4.15 at 9:51 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have tumbled 83 percent this year.

Paulson said yesterday the Bush administration was moving with “deliberative speed” in considering possible financing for U.S. automakers.

“We’ve got some time,” Paulson said in an interview with Fox News and Fox Business Network, according to a transcript.

‘Very Critical’

“The terms would be very critical, and we would have to assure ourselves that this was a step on the path to long-term viability,” he said. It was too soon to speculate on what terms might be required of the companies or unions if the government provided aid, Paulson said.

The likeliest U.S. aid package will be loans and a so- called prepackaged bankruptcy to get the automakers through to 2009, Moody’s Investors Service said in a note today. There’s only a one-in-four probability the U.S. will bail out the automakers with no bankruptcy, analyst J. Bruce Clark said.

The Bush administration agreed Dec. 12 to consider options, including use of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, after Senate Republicans refused to take up the plan passed by the House on Dec. 10. Senate Republicans sought more specific automaker conditions, such as pay in line with foreign manufacturers’ operations in the U.S.

GM spokesman Greg Martin declined to comment on the possible terms of a bailout. “I will say that as other options for aid are considered, our commitment to an aggressive restructuring plan remains unchanged,” Martin said in an e- mailed statement.

Levin said he believes there is $15 billion left in the TARP program to aid automakers’ operations.

‘Tipping Point’

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, a Republican, asked Bush in a letter yesterday not to consider the bank bailout fund for automakers because it would open the “floodgates” for other troubled industries.

“We are at a tipping point in moving from a market-based economy to a politically based economy,” Sanford said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at a news conference yesterday she expects the White House to approve the money for automakers and that something will have to happen “imminently.”

“All the signals coming from the White House are that they know that bankruptcy is not an option, and that TARP funds are the only recourse that they have,” Pelosi said.

Global Plight

The automakers’ global plight was illustrated today when European car sales recorded the biggest monthly decline since 1999. GM’s deliveries on the continent fell 39 percent in November and Chrysler vehicle sales plunged 56 percent, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. Overall deliveries dropped 26 percent.

Read the entire article at Bloomberg.com