Nanny Rell And Her Utopian Entitlement Brainstorms: Helping, Or Hurting "CT FAMILIES"? by Doug Wrenn

Nanny Rell And Her Utopian Entitlement Brainstorms: Helping, Or Hurting "CT FAMILIES"?

By Doug Wrenn

May 14, 2008

The movie, "Sleepless In Seattle" should have a spin-off. We could call it, "Clueless In Hartford." That was one of my many thoughts after I finally regained both my composure and vehicular control as I was entering the highway this past Sunday afternoon, and as I listened to Nanny Rell doing a commercial on my car radio about her "CT FAMILIES Program." As long as cell phones are now considered such a distraction while driving, perhaps we should also now ban listening to the car radio while driving as well, at least until once Nanny Rell is long gone and safely out of office. She almost simultaneously killed both me and the poor, unknowing schmuck next to me in the adjacent lane. Where is the Surgeon General when you really need him? Governor "Nanny" Rell is as hazardous to the safety of our state's motoring public's health as she is to the economic survival of our state itself. This woman's dimwitted socialist policies make cigarettes look downright wholesome!

The "Mixmaster" that connects I-84 to Route 8 high over the Naugatuck River is in a massive and dangerous state of disrepair, as recently revealed in an investigative expose by WTNH Channel 8, but the state denies the crumbling and falling chunks of concrete on the multi-tiered structure, and the many large cracks in the high volume, but archaic and perilously ignored overpass. But denial seems to be a moot issue, as the state also denies even having the money to repair the bridge. (A similar expose, also done by Channel 8, a couple or so years ago also revealed that the state is also ignoring the debilitated and dangerous condition of our many failing dams, also for supposedly a lack of funds.) It's bad enough that the state's government has forgotten a chapter of its state's own history with the fatal collapse of the Mianus River Bridge over I-95 in Greenwich some years back, but it also seems oblivious to the far more recent collapse of the I-35 bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minnesota that also claimed several innocent and vulnerable lives. Ironically, Gov. Rell, in her State of the State address this past February, promised us 42 new bridge inspectors. Where are they, and if they have been hired, what are they doing?

Barbarically fatal home invasions within less than one year have plagued victims in Cheshire, New Britain, and New Haven, not to mention a less reported one that recently occurred at about 4am when an elderly Northford woman was nearly raped in her bed by her intruder. I have said this before, and I will keep banging this drum until the day six strong men plant me in the ground in a pine box: the primary function of government at all levels is to protect the people from harm. All other touchy-feely, warm & fuzzy knee-jerk, feel-good utopian brainstorms and entitlements are either secondary or not a proper function of government. Yet in her State of the State address, Nanny Rell came on like a gangbuster about crime prevention, but like all true liberals, she didn't really mean it, showed her true colors of being soft on crime, and tried to scrap the crime bill given to her by the General Assembly because amidst all this nonsense about billboards, plastic bags, idling cars, soda in vending machines, smoking in cars, clotheslines, global warming, light bulbs, and all the rest of the drivel I forgot to mention, Nanny Rell finally realized that she drank too much water (as well as the Kool-Aide) once too often, and now the trough is dry. Then it dawned on her, and probably for the first time of her tragically elected career, that there is this pesky little letter "R" often next to her name, so she puffs out her chest and proudly and defiantly announces that she is going to make a spending cut! And where? The crime bill, because for all the socialist, numb-brained crap and fluff she has obsessed over, she supposedly couldn't find $10 million for the crime bill, and only at the 11th hour, near the end of the legislative session, and under great pressure, did she swap some shells around to find room for this very necessary pittance in our already bloated state budget.

As it is, she has turned out surplus into a deficit within about a week's time, with little more than doublespeak, ambiguity and blaming the General Assembly for an explanation. Apparently, the "Governor," for lack of a better term, has forgotten who the state's chief executive is. I don't blame her, given her pathetic lack of leadership ability. Sometimes, I forget who's supposedly running the state, too. (And when I remember, I still question it!) She is also squandering $100 million on the sham called embryonic stem cell research, which unlike adult stem cell research, cures absolutely nothing and only creates mutated, cancerous cells, destroys human life and flushes state revenue down the toilet, as well as dispersing the money to the unethically formed (by our "ethically concerned" Governor) committee of "overseers" who are affiliated with institutions that will profit from these unscrupulous and senseless appropriations.

Follow me, here, folks, as together, we "follow the money." And, as those late night TV commercials often say, "But wait, there's more!" Yet another reason why Nanny Rell cannot protect us from the sociopath predators among us, or from woefully long-ignored and rapidly deteriorating highway infrastructure, is because she has also doled out $50 million for another big government feel-good debacle called, "The CT FAMILIES (Connecticut Fair Alternative Mortgage Lending Initiative and Education Services) Program."

As per news reports dating back to November of 2007, a press release from Nanny's office, dated February 29th of this year, and her recent public service announcement I heard on the car radio this past Sunday, which almost caused my untimely demise, this program has several disturbing facets.

In response to homeowners caught up in the sub prime mortgage crisis, a market-caused and market-fixable situation, requiring little, if any government intervention, the CT FAMILIES Program, in conjunction with some of the banks in the state, transfers these risky mortgage holders into mortgages with fixed rates. What? Hold the phone, there, Nanny!

First of all, despite all the media hype, this "crisis," while large in individual numbers, is infinitesimal in terms of the percentage of the number of mortgages in existence. Many of these actually few, from that perspective, of at-risk mortgage holders never should have been given a mortgage in the first place. Many of these people were victimized by greedy lenders, and yet, many more, which the so-called "mainstream media somehow neglects to mention, lied to the lenders in applying for their mortgages. This is not a one-sided issue. Plenty of blame rightfully belongs to both sides. Any mortgage applicant lying on his or her paperwork is essentially committing fraud. Any lender who knowingly puts a buyer into a bad mortgage is definitely acting unethically, but criminally? Questionable, at best.

As the sage adage reminds us, "Buyer beware." There comes a point at which common sense must be relied upon. People who are either too stupid or too irresponsible to know their own fiscal abilities and limitations have themselves first to blame for even accepting a mortgage that they knew, or should known, is over their head.

A parallel can be drawn here to education. Our colleges and universities have been dumbed down in large part because in our liberal society of today, where emotion rules over logic, no parent wants to deny a college education, which despite the higher cost, is now much lesser in significance than it once was, to his or her precious little cherub. That fact, in turn, is why we now have dumber kids in college, who need more remedial training, and why a "BS" degree now means less of "Bachelor of Science," and more of, well… the other more common and graphic phrase. (Think residual from farm animals!) As an unintended consequence of that trend, we now have a near- crisis level shortage of trades people because kids who do have mechanical aptitudes are being steered away from otherwise good paying career choices, like becoming electricians, plumbers, carpenters, iron workers, builders, HVAC technicians, mechanics, etc.. because Mommy and Daddy consider such genuinely noble and necessary work as being beneath their little darling, who is above having dirty hands. In the same kind of elitist but naïve mindset, we now have the false notion that everybody should own a house or a condo, and clearly, many cannot, and should not, given their finances. Contrary to popular belief, no one has a right to home ownership or an advanced (past high school) education. They only have a right to have the opportunity to such privileges, and they are privileges, and such opportunity does exist in our country. The rest is up to the individual. Yes, there is the rub- personal accountability!

So getting back to Nanny Rell, since when is it incumbent upon our state government to provide a way out of bad mortgages for people who should not have them in the first place, and on the taxpayers' dime no less? Besides, there is already a solution to that problem, partially in place by the market, and partially in place by the taxpayers' dime anyway. It's called find a way to pay your bills (like with financial counseling, cutting expenses, maybe a second job, and overall, applying much more self-discipline and common sense), sell your house, or go into collections, and possibly later foreclosure, and last but not least, bankruptcy. Beyond that, I see no criminal matter to be legitimately foisted upon unethical lenders, barring them lying to the borrowers, and in such a case, that is also fraud, and then, criminal sanctions should apply. Before anyone accuses me of being an advocate of the fat cats, I have a newsflash for you: not only do I strongly oppose the government (at any level) bailing out individual mortgage borrowers in trouble, but given my druthers, I would have let Bear Stearns go under as well. Not only was it wrong for the feds to intervene in that market-created, and market-fixable situation, but it was also unconstitutional. Once again, what the market makes, the market can fix, in most, if not all situations, and thus, the market should be allowed to naturally do so, and without government intrusion, for matters pertaining to small fish, big fish, borrowers, or lenders. The problem in our country today is that too many liberals and conservatives are choosing and supporting sides and not seeing or admitting to the equal guilt on the side they have sympathetically but blindly chosen. Being liberal or conservative, after all, means being left or right, and not necessarily being right or wrong.

There is also another way to look at foreclosures. A foreclosure for one borrower who is irresponsible means a cheaper house for another more responsible borrower who legitimately needs to catch a break. Callous? Cruel, even? Maybe, but so is life itself. People die every day, and in doing so, they make room for new people who are born every day. The Chinese alphabet has one character that simultaneously symbolizes both tragedy and hope, or something like that, because the ancient Chinese even realized that from every tragedy comes something good, or some otherwise unrecognized opportunity. What occurs in life, and in nature in general, is what also occurs in the financial market: survival of the fittest, as thus it should be. If government generally stays out of the mix, market blemishes will heal themselves by the market's own system. It's all a cycle of balance that can be easily tilted by outside and unnecessary forces that don't know their place.

Besides hearing the $50 million dollar price tag, another part of Nanny Rell's radio PSA that almost caused my recent near-collision was that included in this inane and socialist program is assistance to borrowers in despair in finding sources for credit counseling and financial assistance. What? Why is that part of the $50 million debacle that you and I are subsidizing? Where does this lunacy end? Will we soon also have a multi-million dollar state-run program to wipe us after completing nature's biological demands and before we exit the bathroom? This is another problem with liberals: not only do they see everyone as helpless and dependent, but they also see them as stupid. Nobody with an IQ score higher than the number of shoelaces on their feet needs any part of 50 million bucks to find credit counseling or financial assistance. What they need is a large, thick book, usually printed on yellow, white and blue pages, that is printed and distributed by the telephone companies on an annual basis, free of charge. For those on state assistance, first of all, despite the fact that none of you ever say, "Thank you," you're welcome! (And that's only for some of you!) Secondly, that publication I referred to is commonly known by most people as "the phone book." If you own a non-cellular phone in your dwelling (owned, subsidized, or otherwise), you most likely have a phone book lying around somewhere, if not by your phone. Just look under your welfare check stubs, which can often be found somewhere near your empty booze bottles, cigarette cartons, or near either your 50 inch plasma screen HDTV, top shelf stereo system, or the battery you usually remove from your smoke detector, which results in that incessantly annoying chirping noise from your ceiling. (Yes, I know all about it! You can't fool me. I'm not Jodi Rell. I have been in many of your homes many times!) Anyway, keep looking, and you're sure to find it. In the worst-case scenario, call 411, which is directory assistance. (Not to be confused with 911, which you typically and inappropriately call for expeditious taxi service to the hospital ER whenever you have a sore throat or a hang nail to be treated, and also on the public dole. Yup. I know first hand all about that common practice, too!) Directory assistance, AKA, "information," will be able to help you, also. Oops, wait a minute! I think they might actually charge you for that call, and after all, you are all supposedly too poor to afford that, not to mention too stupid, helpless and dependent. How do I know that? Well, liberals such as Jodi Rell tell us that all the time, so it simply must be true, right? OK, no problem. So here is what you do: call 411, and then send me your bill. I'll gladly pay the 50 cents, or whatever it is for that call to 411. OK? I would rather pay 50 cents for you to make a phone call than $50 million for the Omnipotent State Government of Connecticut to hold your hand and do it for you.

What I find most disturbing about this whole debacle is that to quote Sigmund Freud, "Sometimes, a cigar is still just a cigar." Someone who, for whatever reason, is a poor risk in a privately funded loan with a variable rate will most likely still be a poor risk in a state assisted loan with a fixed rate. It's like painting your old Chevy a different color; it looks different on the surface, but it's still just the same old Chevy underneath. The risk might be slightly diminished, but in many of these cases, errant human behavior is still very much the problem. Sometimes, there just is no miracle cure, and wishing it so will not make that happen. One illustration of this is the numerous people I have known who have desperately gone through radical surgery to lose weight, only to gain all or most of it back again later on. Until a surgeon's scalpel can fix both errant human behavior as well as obesity, such a radical procedure is little more than a large, costly and deceptive band-aid for those patients still in denial, or unwilling or incapable of changing their self-destructive behavior.

Speaking of dieting, I once sought counsel from a dietician (who, by the way, was listed in the phone book, and I didn't need a bureaucrat, or 50 million bucks to find him!). He made an analogy between dieting and a bank account, or as he put it, "deposits" and "withdrawals." He said in some cases, I could still eat that coveted slice of pizza, but I then I also better eat extra vegetables and fewer fats at another meal to compensate for it. Likewise, he told me that there was nothing wrong with enjoying an ice cream sundae on a warm summer evening, as long as I walked the mile or two to the ice cream parlor instead of driving there. Indeed, "deposits" and "withdrawals." I have another analogy of my own for our state government: think of three jars, one full of jellybeans, symbolizing resources, and two empty jars, each respectively symbolizing fluffy, feel-good, but otherwise unnecessary entitlements, and the other jar symbolizing actual needs. As you transfer more jellybeans from jar # 1 into jar # 2, less jellybeans will be available for jar # 3, and eventually, if you continue your lopsided distribution, at some point, even if it takes a while, jar # 1 will be empty, and thus, jar #'s 2 and 3 will receive no more jelly beans at all, like it or not. This scenario clearly illustrates our state's abysmal economy under the current far left liberal policies of "Jodi & The Democrats," or as Lenin would have aptly labeled them, the "Useful Idiots." What these wannabe socialists fail to grasp, or simply don't care about, is that their needless, feel-good, knee-jerk utopian brainstorms in the fantasyland panacea they consider Connecticut, hurt more "families" and individuals than they help, if or when they even truly help anyone at all. This isn't rocket science. It's just basic arithmetic, but with larger numbers. For anyone under the big, tarnished dome who can't follow the money, then they should at least, play with a few jars and count some jellybeans until this principle finally and hopefully begins to sink in.

Ronald Reagan reputedly loved jellybeans, and always kept a jar of them on his desk in the Oval Office, and/or nearby. And that is just one more illustration of why our "Republican In Name Only" ("RINO") Governor "Nanny" Rell, would do well for her "panacea-induced" and ever-increasing majority of oppressed and beleaguered taxpaying constituents statewide to emulate our once great and true Republican President. But after barely surviving one near-death event this week already, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for any real changes for the better to happen any time soon from Jodi, Inc. Based on recent history of "The Jodi-crats" under the big, tarnished dome, my cynicism is sadly well warranted.

Doug Wrenn