Webguy and Cristina tell me that I have a lot of thongs in a wad over a caller to the show on Friday. We haven't seen hate mail like this in a long time. Someone went to the Church of the Painful Truth and apparently didn't like the sermon. I love it! So if you want to hear how I stirred the puddin', listen to Nealz Nuze today during the Information Overload Hour at 12:35PM ET. Or if you missed it, just listen here. In the meantime, here is a taste of the emails:

• Name: john
  Subject: your attitude
  your conversation with the unemployed construction worker with 4 kids was so degrading!!! not everyone can be a college grad nor does that guarantee success in life. you are such a snob. i could see you treating the poor & unfortunate as hitler did the jews. my grandaughter just graduated gov school with a 4.2 average & started univ of central fla as a sophmore due to college accredited honor classes in high school. her parents were not irresponble but wonderful loving parents. not everyone can afford a private school. get real neal!!!
  Right ... invoke Hitler. That's always a good move for small minds. And would someone please teach John where the "shift" key is?

• Name: Robert
  Subject: todays show
  Today I was unimpressed with your show, in paticular the call from the construction worker, the one you cut off and railroaded for have 4 kids. You called him uneducated which just because someone didnt or couldnt go to collage does not make him stupid. I myself am a electrical contractor and take alook around your office and tell me could you do what you see? I bet not. We, like it or not are middle class America so you slamming us that make your privileged world go around isnt helping a thing, most times I can listen in , Today I think you crossed a line that I found offensive
  Huh? Slamming construction workers? This has nothing to do with the things in my office. It's about people, construction workers or airline pilots, having children they can't afford to raise. So many of our national problems can be blamed on this one behavior.
   

• Name: Jo
  Subject: Food stamp caller
  Your tirade against the father of four who now uses food stamps was a disgrace. His taxes, for years, went to pay for others to eat; now that he has need, you dare rail against him like he is some low-life deadbeat? You shot yourself in the head as far as I am concerned, pal. This listener is gone for good.
  Ahhhh ... another one of those "I'm never going to listen to you again" emails. If I lost a listener for every one of these emails I get I would have been off the radio years ago. By the way ... there is no evidence this man has ever paid income taxes.
  
  
• Name: Cecilia
  Subject: unemployed construction worker on today's show
  Iknow part of your spiel is "in your face" dialogue, but I just want to say I was disturbed with your message to the construction worker who called in and said he was currently unemployed. Your diatribe against him personally was shameful. Whenever one has to belittle someone and attack their personal integrity to try and make a point, really in my opinion has no valid point to make ... Your words to that gentleman were cruel and unnecessary. You could have given your perspective without the name calling (Mooch?) and insults. Blatant disrespect towards any human being will never further your agenda because it reveals a degraded heart. I hope you are really not that bitter towards your fellow man. I will pray for you!
  Sorry, Cecilia. I had a point to make, and it wasn't going to be made by me stroking this guy and telling him everything was going to be OK.

Well ... there's the reaction to that call from the construction worker. Now .. my response:

THE CONSTRUCTION WORKER VISITS THE CHURCH OF THE PAINFUL TRUTH

As you can see from those emails, more than a few of you were upset with my conversation with the construction worker last Friday. To recap: We had an out of work construction worker with six mouths to feed ... and he had made the decision to use the police power of government to seize someone else's property for his personal use. In other words .. he was on food stamps.

Ohhhhh .... that upsets you? Aw ... I'm sorry! Want me to kiss it and make it all better for you? What are you here for? Do you want me to just say things on the air that will make you nod your head and say "attaboy Neal!" You don't like your way of thinking challenged? Tell you what, why don't you write a set of rules and parameters for looters? Why don't you tell us when its OK to use the government to force the transfer of wealth from someone else to you, and when it's not. The world awaits your list of reasons that it would OK for you to use force to seize someone else's property. Theft is theft. Looting is looting .. no matter whether you do it for yourself, or use an agent like the government. Need is not a defense that will help you to escape punishment for your crime. If you hire someone to kill for you, you're guilty of murder. Why is it so different when you hire (vote for) someone to steal for you?

Your whining and moaning emails reminded me that this poor construction worker was out of work. He's not alone. You were upset that I have him a hard time for having four kids he couldn't feed.

Let's look at this situation without all the emotion for a minute. You ready? It's time for the PAINFUL TRUTH!

The estimate of what it takes to raise a child from fetus to 18 ranges from $200,000 to $250,000. That means our construction worker needs up to one million dollars to do an adequate job or raising his four kids. More than a million if he wants to put them through college.

I spent some time over the weekend on the Internet trying to learn a bit more about just what the average construction worker brings home. CareerBuilder.com has a website where you can research salaries and wages for thousands of jobs. The average salary for construction workers across the country is $29,805. In Atlanta that number is $26,746.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services issues poverty guidelines referred to as the "federal poverty level." Our construction worker has a family of six. The federal poverty level for a family that size is $29,530. In other words, the average wage in Atlanta for our construction worker with his family of six is below the federal poverty level. And that is IF he can find work.

You want some reality? Try this: Looking at these average wage figures, this man needs to work steadily for over 37 years just to pay the cost of raising those four children. He's a construction worker! What are the chances for this type of steady employment year-after-year for 37 years! No construction worker with any sense expects to be employed week after week, year after year. Oh .. and buy the way, that 37-year figure is somewhat bogus. Let's say these kids are three years apart. The oldest was nine when the youngest was born. That gives him 27 years, not 37, to earn that million bucks ... or end up over his head in debt. That $37,000 a year. You're not going to do that on a construction worker's wages.

Here's the bottom line. Our construction worker made a conscious decision to have four children. He knew, or he should have know if he had paid any attention at all, that his chosen field of construction work was not barley going to allow him and his family to live at the poverty level. A college education for his children? Well, you can pretty much forget that unless they excel in sports, or they have a rich grandma somewhere.

Well here's someone who deserves our pity, right? Look at the decisions he's made. Education? Maybe high school. If there was a college degree in the picture he wouldn't be a construction worker. (Well .. he could, I guess, be one of those brainiacs who pursued a degree in English or history.) Then ... after deciding to forego higher education, he gets married and starts downloading children - each with a $200,000 or more price tag - at a pretty fair clip; stopping at four. He's chosen employment in an industry where continued and steady employment is, at best, problematic, ... and he starts having children like a hamster; children that he cannot afford to raise. Then the inevitable happens. The work dries up. He can't feed his family ... and he decides it's time to take advantage of the willingness of the political class to seize property from private citizens and give it to him in return for his support and vote. Then, of course, I'm the bad guy when I point all this out!

I'm sorry folks, but you can meekly submit to this looting, but I'm not going to. If a person asks my help, that's one thing. Most Americans are more than willing to step forward and offer help to people in a tough spot; especially when children are involved. There are many private charities out there; and a community of churches, synagogues and mosques more than willing to help. But that's not what our construction worker has done. Instead, he has gone to the government - the only entity out there that can use deadly force to accomplish its goals - and, pointing a finger at his more productive neighbor, tells the government to "take that guy's money and give it to me. I have mouths to feed." One person's good decision-making and hard work should not set him up as a target for plunder by someone who has made poor decisions.

No excuses. If you're using food stamps - by whatever name - you are using the government as an instrument of plunder. You are instructing your political representatives to steal - to transfer wealth from those who earned it to you. Make all the excuses you want .. but you're a thief. Ditto for Section 8 housing and a variety of other government welfare programs.

One more thing ... there's this argument which says "Well, he paid his taxes, so now there's nothing wrong if he goes on food stamps for a while." Oh really? How about a shoplifter saying "Hey, I shopped at this store for years and paid for everything! Now I don't have the money, so it should be OK for me to take a few things I need." Yeah .... Works for me.

George Soros has given his two-cents about greedy Wall Street and their profits. Soros says that the profits made by leading banks on Wall Street are nothing but "hidden gifts" from the state (and by that he means taxpayers). Therefore, he believes that taxpayers are "justified" in their outrage over CEO bonuses and salaries. Soros says, "Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers ... These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don't think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses. There's a resentment which I think is justified."

This is a typical leftist attitude. The basic premise of Soros' argument is that all wealth belongs to the government, and any portion of your earnings the government allows you to keep constitutes a "gift" from government. Since all wealth belongs to government, government gets to decide how it's distributed.

Then, there's this .... Will somebody then please explain this to me: The federal government set the pay package of Freddie Mac's CFO at $5.5 million, including a $2 million cash signing bonus. Remember, thanks to the taxpayer the government now owns 80% of Freddie Mac. We, the taxpayers, pumped $51 billion into this sucker. So within weeks of awarding a $5 million pay package to the Freddie Mac CFO, the federal government decides to slash the salaries of top executives at financial institutions receiving bailout money.

And don't' forget Franklin Raines ... He was the chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae. He was also the White House budget director under Bill Clinton. I suppose that's how he got the Fannie Mae job. While Raines was at Fannie Mae he was accused of some accounting chicanery that allowed senior executives ... including Franklin Raines ... to earn huge bonuses. How much did Raines get? Try over 90 million dollars. Government insiders cook the books and get away with tens of millions ... and George Soros slams the private sector.

When it comes to our economic recovery, did you know that our government still has perhaps the most important decision yet to make? And it has to be made within the next six months ... and that decision is all up to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The guy who may single-handedly be responsible for sinking the US dollar. Yep. That guy. He will need to decide when to pull out $1 trillion from our US banking system that is currently keeping it a float.

As The Politico points out, this is a very difficult decision. And Barack Obama may have a different idea of what he would like to see Ben Bernanke do. Bernanke, though, is supposed to be an apolitical figure. He isn't supposed to care about the politics of the matter, or popularity or getting re-elected; he is supposed to make the unpopular decisions. Good thing for Barack Obama - we are coming to find that he is incapable of making decisions.

.... that due to the amazing --- dare I say ASTOUNDING --- success of The Community Organizer in handling the job of our nation's chief executive, executive search firms around the country are combing the 'hoods for undiscovered community organizers! Corporations are eager to hire them to mirror the incredible success of The Chosen One!

When in trouble ... appease the people by playing into their wealth envy. Right now, the liberals are upset with Obama and the Democrats for not being liberal ENOUGH. Republicans are upset about the impending government takeover of healthcare. But if there is one issue on which the two spheres may ... and that's a big "may" ... overlap, it is the issue of wealth envy. And so it has been since the dawn of civilized man. Thousands of years ago nomadic camel herders harbored seething envy over individuals or tribes with more stuff than they had. As you know, in ObamaLand everyone should have an equal amount of stuff.

So after weeks of focusing and floundering on healthcare and global warming; and ignoring the needs of our troops in Afghanistan, suddenly we get this announcement from Washington: we are going to cut top executive pay at the biggest corporations that took bailout money. Of course many Americans are now rejoicing! "Great! These evil rich people are getting exactly what they deserve!"

Then, the very next day we see the White House pulling away from bearing any reasonability on the issue. Officials in the administration say that they didn't have much to do with the decision at all. It all came from one man: Kenneth Feinberg. The Pay Czar. This Obama appointee (without any sort of Congressional approval), single-handedly decided to cut CEO pay for these executives. Is Obama going to take responsibility for ANYTHING that comes out of his White House?

So now the question is ... how far will this go? Just the other day, Obama also announced plans to increase lending to small businesses and give them access to rescue funds. Will Kenneth Feinberg eventually have the "authority" to slash salaries of top executives at these small businesses that take bailout funds?

Let's take a closer look at this Kenneth Feinberg fellow ... how did he come to have so much "authority" that he is able to cut salaries at private corporations in this country? If you'll remember months ago, Congress decided that it wanted to crack down on millions of dollars in AIG bonuses. There was only one slight, teeny-tiny little problem - Congress does not have the Constitutional authority to do so. Maybe you've heard of a little something called the "Bill of Attainder"? This basically limits Congress from passing legislation that would single out or punish specific people or groups (or companies).

Then magically, Obama creates a new czar in his administration. This man would be a "special master on compensation." Ta-da! Now if the government wants to punish certain companies, all it has to do is call on its compensation czar.

Pretty clever, huh? And we're supposed to think that The Community Organizer is oblivious to all of this.

Let's say that you have invested a pant-load of money in some business. The business is failing. You want it to succeed. You want the best executive talent you can find to step in and save the business ... and your investment. Now just how helpful do you think it would be if you told the search committee looking for a new CEO that you were going to appoint some political hack to make sure that the new boss doesn't make too much money? Can you see that any extraordinarily qualified candidate for the job would tell you to take it and shove it where even the TSA couldn't find it?

Do you ever sit around and just wonder at the type of idiots we have running the show right now?

The day after our special master on compensation decided to slash executive pay, the Obama administration decided that it would be a good idea to clamp down on banks while we are at it. The Federal Reserve decided to curb executive pay packages "that encouraged bankers and other executives to take the kinds of reckless risks that contributed to the housing bubble."

The housing bubble came from Washington, not from bank board rooms. It was Washington that told these banks that their future growth would be halted or curtailed if they didn't make sure that pretty much anyone with a pulse that wanted a home loan could get one. It was Washington that set up these extraordinary systems whereby banks could make the loans and then pass of the liability to the American taxpayers. It was WASHINGTON, not the banks, that took the reckless risks.

Quick, can you tell me the ceiling for our national debt limit? It's okay if you can't ... the Talkmaster is here to educate you. In the economic stimulus package passed in February, the Democrats raised the national debt limit to $12.1 trillion. Just eight months later, the Democrats are already looking to increase that limit yet again ... to $13 trillion. But don't blame it all on Democrats. Republicans are very adept at raising the debt limit when they're in charge as well.

A trillion here, a trillion there .. what's the difference? Your grandchildren will one day be able to tell you that difference. But in the meantime, the only thing stopping Democrats in Congress from raising the limit are the Republicans. The Democrats have already thought about the fact that a few of you taxpayers may not be too happy to hear about this raise ... and this would be a prime issue for the GOP to embrace and attack the Democrats for their spending habits. The Democrat solution? Attach this debt increase to a bill that MUST pass - like a Defense spending bill.

Let's noodle this one through.

• For the last ten years, our government spending has skyrocketed thanks to George Bush.
• Congress votes to increase the debt ceiling.
• Barack Obama gets into office and spends more in his first few months than all other presidents combined.
• Congress needs to increase the debt ceiling, but Democrats don't want to get blamed.
• Democrats attach the vote on the increase to a Defense spending bill to fund the troops in Afghanistan (a hot issue at the moment).
• The Democrats try to downplay the issue of increase so as to not spark public outrage.
• The Republicans say they don't want to vote for the bill because of the increase.
• The Democrats say that the Republicans don't want to support the troops.
• The Republicans end up voting for the bill anyway.
• Election time rolls around, and Democrats use the vote against Republicans saying that they voted to increase the debt limit to a whopping $13 trillion (neglecting to mention the fact that the increase was attached to a bill to fund the troops because the Democrats manipulated it that way).

Isn't this fun, folks?

Of course we need a thread to talk about the pay caps for TARP fund recipients, right?

In the 10 o'clock hour ET, or the first network hour of the show depending on where and how you're listening, Neal will get into his grave concern about the value of the American dollar and what it means for our economy.

By popular demand, listen here:

Part 1: Listen Download

Part 2: Listen Download

Knowing that the nation's schools are doing so poorly teaching basic math skills to our children; and assuming that parents, being the ultra-responsible lot that you are, will try to fill in the gaps with some home schooling --- I thought it might be useful to present you with some numbers you might want to use in your remedial education efforts. The added bonus here is that you can also use these numbers to reinforce in your children that President Barack Obama really is, as has been written, "sort of" a God and is clearly succeeding in his quest to lead America to a golden new economic age.

30,383 That's the number of jobs the Obama Administration claimed to have "saved or created" in a statement last Thursday. The trouble is, there is no clearly defined way to determine jobs "saved or created." You can pretty much choose any number and run with it. The New York Post tells us that the tab comes out to $71,500 per saved-or-created job. Ask you child what they think might happen if small businesses had this money through tax cuts to use to expand and grow their businesses.

48,000,000 Since we're speaking of jobs, that's the approximate number of people employed by America's small businesses - specifically the ones that employ between 1 and 49 people. Medium-sized businesses employing 50 to 499 workers count for another 42,000,000 jobs. What about large businesses that employ over 500 people? Try 17,000,000. Surprising, isn't it? Now while you're working through these numbers with your kids be sure to tell them that the vast majority of these small and medium-sized businesses report their business income on their owner's personal tax return. These business owners, then, will be the ones hit when Barack Obama gets his tax increases on people earning over $250,000 a year. They employ most of our workers, and they're going to take the tax hit. Ask your child how they think this is going to work out! If you work for one of these small businesses you may want to give that some thought yourself.

$2,300,000 That's the amount of borrowed stimulus money that was sent to beauty schools in the Tampa, Florida area to train hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians. People who are already licensed to do hair, nails and give massages in the Tampa area are looking for work. There will be no jobs waiting for the students who use this money to get their "beauty" licenses. The Florida Cosmetology Association says only 1% to 2% of beauty school grads will be working in that field five years after graduation. Use these numbers to try to convince your child that there are better things for them to train for than cutting hair, polishing nails and giving massages in Tampa.

61.4% Percentages are fun! It's bonus time when you can use percentages to teach your children about the perils of debt. At the end of 1999, as we were moving into the last year of the Clinton Administration, the amount of money our government owed was 61.4% of our GDP; the total value of all goods and services produced in this country during that year. By the time George Bush was through that figure had gone up by 8.8 percentage points to 70.2%. Not good. But ... by the time Barack Obama gets his first year all wrapped up that figure will have risen another 20.2 percentage points to 90.4%! We're on a roll! And here's your final fun percentage figure: In 2011 that figure will reach the magic 100%. At that point we owe more than the total value of our economy. That has to be the definition of something! Bankruptcy? Oh ... and we're not even talking unfunded liabilities here.

Finally ...

9% That's an unemployment figure. That's how high Barack Obama said our unemployment figure would go if we did not quickly pass his super-effective stimulus plan earlier this year.

7.9% That's how high Obama said unemployment would rise if we would just give him over $750 billion dollars to stimulate our economy. We did; and ....

9.8% That's our latest unemployment figure. Looks like the stimulus worked! The figure includes hairdressers, nail techs and massage therapists - in case you're wondering.

#1 As in Rule No. 1. Elections have consequences.

Ron Bloom. Ever heard the name? He is Obama's manufacturing czar. Last year, Bloom gave a speech to some union members in New York. He apparently was giving a speech on the union role in bankruptcy and restructuring of the auto industry. Here's what the guy had to say:

"Generally speaking, we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system ... we know that this is largely about power. That this is an adults only, no limit game. We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it that if you want a friend you should get a dog."

Can you believe this? This character is The Community Organizer's manufacturing czar! Manufacturing is part of the private sector! It is at the core of our free market economy! And this moonbat is saying that the "free market is nonsense?" He believes that the whole point of free enterprise is to "game the system?"

Let's do a little recap here:

1. Obama writes of his gravitation toward Communist student groups and Marxist professors in college.
2. Obama appoints an avowed Communist to be his green jobs czar.
3. Obama's communications director sings the praises of Mao
4. Now we have Obama's manufacturing Czar citing Mao and calling the free market "nonsense."

What am I missing here?

I don't think I'm missing anything at all. I believe we have a president who feels great animosity toward the free markets and everything-not-government.

I think if the American voters ... and this includes black voters who voted for this menace simply because of skin pigmentation ... need to freaking wake up or this country is royally screwed.

Barack Obama and the White House have decided that their $787 billion economic stimulus bill has been a success. How do they figure?? They base this on the fact that as many as a quarter of the jobs that have "saved or created" are government school teachers.

The chief economic advisor for Joe Biden says that recent data shows that at least 250,000 educational jobs have been saved or created. Oddly enough, no one has actually SEEN this report. The Republicans point out that 250,000 jobs were lost last month alone and 3 million have been lost since the economic stimulus bill was signed. But don't slow us down with the facts! Let's celebrate that we have done exactly what we wanted to do: get more people on the government payroll. After all, folks, remember that these teachers are nothing more than glorified government bureaucrats. They are paid by the government, report to the government, abide by government regulations to fulfill their jobs requirement ... they are government employees.

So we spend $787 billion to provide pork barrel projects and hire more government workers. That sounds like stimulus to me!

Keep in mind that data released last week by the federal government found that federal contracts paid for with stimulus money created or saved 30,383 jobs. That is not a lot of jobs, folks. In fact, the White House at one point had a goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over two years. There is a pretty big gap between 30,000 and 3.5 million, wouldn't you say? So when in doubt, emphasize the fact that you kept the government school teachers around and hope that Americans are too ignorant to realize that the darn thing isn't working.

And while we're at it .. you do know this whole "created or saved" thing is a crock, don't you? There is no way the government can accurately tell you how many jobs have been "saved" by stimulus spending. What we have here is the local governments telling the federal government "Oh yeah! Thanks for the money! If it hadn't been for that money we would have fired a bunch of people!" Hogwash. This is nothing but a transparent PR scam designed to convince the public that this stimulus plan is working. Try to get some private business to talk about jobs saved

The Community Reinvestment Act is back ... but disguised as a different animal. This report should scare the tar out of you. From the Hill:

The Obama administration launched a new initiative Monday aimed at supporting affordable mortgages, backed by the federal government.

Several cabinet agencies announced a new program to provide assistance to state housing financing agencies (HFAs), administered in part by the government-run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac companies.

The U.S. departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), will allow state financing agencies to issue new bonds, while Freddie and Fannie will provide the state funds with credit lines, which the federal government will backstop.

The program puts the government in the interesting role of using Fannie and Freddie, which were taken into conservatorship last year in the midst of the mortgage crisis, of administering the credit lines to the state agencies.

Administration officials maintained Monday that the program would not mirror those from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the late 1990s that inflated the mortgage market, saying the state agencies would be more judicious about lending to subprime borrowers.

Government does not learn from mistakes. Government and politicians profit from mistakes. Yet another difference between the government and the private sector.