More Seattle Light Rail Stupidity

I know I am on break but I had to share this blog from Michael Medved, the very popular national talk radio host that resides in Seattle. The first 2/3 of the post are about the new light rail system in Seattle.

I have been saying the same thing for a long time and it is why I opposed the ballot measure last year.

Taking Some Time Off

Hello,

As you have noticed, I have not updated my blog recently. I have decided to take some time off from letting you know about the craziness that is going on. I hope to return in the fall, in time for the elections in November.

Thank you for visiting and commenting on the blog. I look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Matt

Poor Kids Go to College

On our dime. Here is the story from the Seattle Times. This program is STUPID. In order to enroll in the program your parents cannot earn over a certain amount of money at the time of enrollment, here is the income chart, and must remain below the threshold until they graduate from high school. Doesn't this encourage parents to not make anymore money because they risk their child's free education?

I'm all for giving kids a free education until they get done with high school, but come on, should we really be giving all these people free college educations too? This just amounts to another welfare program. I find it interesting that they call it a scholarship, when it is just welfare. A scholarship would indicate that the recipient is a scholar, however to be eligible all you need is a 2.0 GPA.

When I went to college a lot of my classmates parents couldn't pay for tuition, room and board, etc., but instead of taking a hand out they took student loans to pay for it. They are getting a college degree, they should be able to pay back the loans with the extra they will earn, that's why people are willing to give student loans. Maybe instead of giving them another handout the government could work on low cost loans for these students, it still isn't a perfect solution, but it is better than another government handout. Here is the website.

The Stimulus Has Failed

And the politicians lied to us to pass it. Not only did the President and the Democrats, and a few Republican Senators mortgage the future; the deficit has at least tripled since last year, but they lied to us to pass the stimulus bill.

Back in January and early February they told us that without the stimulus bill unemployment would reach 8.8% in 2010. While promoting the stimulus bill the administration said that the passage of it could hold unemployment to 7%. Well on Friday the unemployment rate reached 9.4%, a substantial amount higher than their estimates. Aren't these supposed to be the top economic minds? How could they be that far off with their estimate?

Answer, they made them up to get support for the bill. In other words they lied, because they knew we would believe them and we wouldn't do anything when we found out. In the last six years people called Bush a liar for the intelligence on Iraq, when are we going to start calling Obama a liar on the economic front and his domestic policies?

I believe that the next thing that will happen is the administration is going to push for another bigger stimulus package, maybe they will say with another stimulus they can hold unemployment under 10% by 2010. So far they have shown they will do anything to get their agenda passed.

Standard Insurance Does Not Cover Floods

As this article points out, a standard homeowners policy does not cover floods, and Seattle only has to reimburse for the depreciated value of belongings that were destroyed. I worked at an insurance company and I believe that most insurance companies will give you the depreciated value unless it says otherwise in your policy, if somebody knows differently let me know.

I believe in this case the city should do the right thing and not strictly adhere to the depreciated value thing. Most people do not have flood insurance because they don't expect three feet of water to flow through the city streets, and it is a good assumption as it hasn't happened in that area before. This was caused by the city and residents were unprepared for it. It would be different if the city told them this could happen, but they didn't. Instead most of the homeowners will be stuck with big out of pocket expenses.

As an aside, most homeowners policies don't cover earthquake damage either, so if you are worried about the next big one you may want to invest in an earthquake policy.