In this time of crisis and never-ending bailouts, President Obama has denounced Wall Street’s $18.4 billion in bonuses last year as “the height of irresponsibility.”
The height? I’m sorry. Obama ought to save that hyperbole for some of his own plans to transform America into a socialist welfare state, long on incentives to live on the dole, and short on the opportunities and prosperity that free markets over the generations have richly delivered.
When it comes to irresponsibility, Wall Street can’t possibly compete with the U.S. government. Washington is right now ascending the heights of what is probably the world’s biggest ever money-printing binge, spending spree, rapid-fire entitlement expansion and eco-cult blowout. $700 billion for TARP. $800 or maybe $900 billion for a so-called stimulus bill that ought to be called the Congressional Gluttony Act.
We now have a President who even before taking office was trumpeting the millions of job his administration promises to “create” by issuing regulations and gushing money. I keep waiting for an accompanying estimate — and I think it would be vast — of how many millions of jobs these same government programs are going to destroy — because the taxes, and regulations, and inflation ahead, are going to further ravage the already reeling private sector. The subprime mortgage crisis has its roots not in Wall Street, but in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with their fat bonuses and their government-backed push to re-engineer supply and demand in the housing market. The result? Responsible taxpayers are now on the hook for that whole irresponsible and colossal food chain, from Fannie to Freddie to banks to borrowers. How many jobs has that destroyed already?
We are deep into an entire mountain range of feckless sleaze, in which derelictions of the private sector are becoming ever less relevant because there is ever less genuinely private sector. In these Rockies of Irresponsibility, our own government commands the heights.
And while we’re on the subject of irresponsibility, maybe the President should set a personal limit on how many tax fumblers he’s willing to include in his cabinet. First Tim Geithner for Treasury; now the discoveries spilling out about Tom Daschle’s $140,000 in back taxes and whatnot. I’m starting to wonder if (never mind the philosophical differences) the main thing disqualifying Joe the Plumber from a post in Obama’s cabinet is that Joe didn’t owe nearly enough in back taxes.
And what about this: http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2009/01/us-mint-contemplates-putting-obama-on.html
Didn’t Congress just vote another self-imposed increase?
What’s “irresponsible” about it is that Obama knows very well that none of his policies will produce jobs. It’s Hayek’s “serfdom” that he wants to impose upon us. Big difference.
What you have written here is absolutely right.
A less baldfaced case of irresponsibility, but nevertheless real, the almost daily fear mongering as to the awful state of the economy coming from the new President. Pessimism seems to come naturally to him, any optimism, more forced. Plus, it’s characteristic of those favoring socialism to de-emphasize the power of individual human endeavor.
In Obama’s contradictory statements between saying only the federal government can bail us out of this mess and, then, turning around and paying verbal homage to the power of the “private sector”, he sounds a bit uncertain as to how to proceed.
My instincts tell me he’s in the first camp, bigger & bigger & BIGGER government instrusion into all aspects of American life.
Rangel has a huge hand in tax policy and cheats on his taxes while enjoying Citibank junkets after they have bailout funds injected.
Dodd has still not released his loan documents on the sweetheart deal he recieved from the industry he was supposed to be regulating.
Both Rangel and Dodd are pointing to everyone under the sun besides themselves as creators of the debacle.
The man in charge of the IRS is a tax cheat – even if you buy the story of his lapse on IMF funds, the summer camp items are simply fraud. The man who wants to take over 1/6 of the USA economy (Health Care) is another tax cheat. One of these has already been confirmed by the US Senate and the other shortly will be.
The husband of the just confirmed Sec State recieves millions from foreign govt., and nary a comment in the confirmation process, re. potential conflicts of interest. nade more remarkable given the couple’s track record of questionable dealings.
Congress is working vigorously with administrantion support on a trillion dollars in pork.
Naivete on an almost criminal level on outreach to terrorist sponsoring despotic governments. Designing a network of Special representatives and ambassadors whose structure is guaranteed to be at best, dysfunctional.
Change we can believe in? If our August political “leaders” were attempting to execute a plan to destroy the country and destroy any basis for rational support, I would judge their effort so far to be brilliant.
The man who wants to take over 1/6 of the USA economy (Health Care) is another tax cheat.
You mean Tommy Daschle, who didn’t pay up the tax debt on the car deal until he knew he was in contention for the appointment ?
The guy who said in 1998…
“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter. ”
~Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.
steve @ 5
“If our August political ‘leaders’ were attempting to execute a plan to destroy the country … I would judge their effort so far to be brilliant.”
No “if” about it, that’s exactly what Obama is trying to do, and brilliantly, as you say.
Also, his “outreach to terrorist sponsoring despotic governments” isn’t out of “naivete” at all, but born of pure savvy, cold, calculated, and it’s outright criminal.