Yesterday, I wrote about the current President’s “2 percent solution,” that is, his punitive tax raid on the top 2 percent of US tax filers.
The crucial thing to understand about that attack on achievement is that it is a histrionic, not an economic, gesture. Raising taxes on (while simultaneously cutting deductions for) top earners will not do much to improve the Treasury’s balance sheet. But it will cause pain among the affluent. It will also cause delight among the more than 43 percent of tax filers who pay no income tax. (Is that fair?) So the President scores two points: he punishes those whom he resents, and he panders to the crowd whose approbation he craves. Tertullian said that one of the pleasures of the blessed in heaven is witnessing the torments of the damned in hell. Tertullian’s teaching has been rejected as heresy by the Church, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t recognize a familiar psychological depravity when he saw it. Taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others is an unfortunate but not infrequent pastime of homo sapiens sapiens.
Many people, I believe, have been stunned by the President’s behavior in his first weeks in office. It’s been a shock and awe performance. Historians of this period will look back in wonder: how ever did a new President waltz into office and, before he had even finished unpacking, extract $800,000,000,000 from taxpayers for partisan spending programs? Partly, it was a matter of successful rebranding: the President managed to convince some important people that his spending package was really a stimulus package, i.e., something that would help the economy, not hobble it. We know better now, having just suffered the largest post-inauguration market rout in history. But those historians will note with interest how, even at the beginning of March, some reputable commentators still referred to the President’s poverty program as “stimulus package.”
The theme song of the coming Obama economic collapse will be “Guilty as Hell, free as a bird, America is a great country,” as befits the man whose political carreer was launched in Bill Ayers’ and Bernardine Dorn’s living room.
Obama is expecting catastrophe. He intends it. He wants it. The aim of the stimulus package is not to improve the economy, as improving the economy is generally understood. It is to get tens of millions on some form of welfare and to create a permanent majority class of democratic party supporters. There will be less money to give away, of course, and the country and everyone in it will be much poorer, but that does not matter, as long as there is redistribution and everyone’s house, car, TV, income is more alike than before obama’s time. Redistribution and enforced equality is goal. Envy is the impetus. Take away from that guy and give it to me.
His scheme will not work. Unfortunately the process of it not working is going to be very ugly, very nasty. At some point, race will become involved.
“We’re still in the first act of the President’s melodrama. A few weeks ago, he warned that of “catastrophe” if taxpayers didn’t fork over $800,000,000,000 instanter. In fact, the catastrophe of this drama is yet to come.”
No; catastrophe is already in progress, on the numbers alone. We have nothing at the moment (fortunately, of course) to block an autocatalytic economic catastrophe today in the way that World War II did block it for us (even before we were officially in the war)and for the New Deal in 1938 — 1941.
The Obamas are the Perons.
Good points. I would argue, however, that he most certainly does know that his programs will cause poverty and dependence, and that this is exactly why he’s enacting them at speed.
All of this awe and wonder at how president obama can “manage” to do all the things he’s done is patently ridiculous. Why anyone is shocked that all this is happening with Democrats holding *ALL* the power is frankly astounding to me. Besides which, Obama never really did much other than sign the bill… all the work is being in done in congress. Though I guess he did help woo the three liberal republicans in the senate… Tough job, that.
Essentially, people need to quit thinking that this was some miraculous happening. It was anything but.
I’ve spent the past ten years making six figures. I am seriously considering spending the next four living off college loans — in the long term, I have a feeling it will be a better economic move for me. I just hope something is left of my retirement savings after this bozo is run out of office.
Well I suspect that B. Hussein Obama’s mentors,William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, are dancing jigs over Obama sticking to this “evil” country.
It was painfully obvious from the beginning that Obama did not love or really even like this country or its citizens. I suspect that he and his wife actually despise it. His every association from birth to today is a never-ending string of anti-American nutjobs. You don’t sit in Wright’s church for 25 years or follow William Ayers around like a puppy without sharing similar goals and ideas.
And now he is in the most powerful position in America and has the largest, most efficient propaganda machine in the history of the world cheering his every move like star-struck teenagers.
A lot of damage is going to be done before this debacle is over.
I long ago warned people that Barack Obama is a shallow and poorly read individual who is not ready for prime time. As matter of fact, I may very well be the very first person who reached this conclusion. Unfortunately, the phenomenon of white guilt decided the election. Obama would have never obtained the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination if his skin was white. An individual possessing such a thin resume would have barely made a dent. Race guilt is the number one threat of our present era. We have no chance of survival if we don’t overcome it.
Obama was also able to con the general public because of his Harvard University credentials. The typical graduate from this vastly overrated academic institution may be an idiot. Roger Kimball is one of its great exceptions. Caroline Kennedy probably represents the majority.
David Brooks in this morning’s NYTimes :
“Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was.”
About 180 days too late and 3 trillion dollars too short Mr. Brooks….
If you locked Obama, Axelrod and Emmanuel in a room and gave them truth serium and ask them if in 2012 US growth would be zero or mildly negative and unemployment would be 12% to 15% but there would be universal healthcare, unions would represent a majority of workers, there would be a strict carbon regulation regime, the government would control the bounds of political discourse, there would be a real european style welfare state and BO would be re-elected, would they take the deal? I think the answer would be yes. Everyone acts like BO looks at the tanking market and economy as some kind of bug. I think he views it as a feature. BO and his advisors think they can blame any failings of the economy on Bush and use the “crisis” to enact their programs.
In the end real progressives like BO, don’t really have much use for economic growth and low unemployment. Progressives have held up Europe as a model for years. Europe generally has low growth and 10% or more unemployment. What do Progressives value? They value universal government benefits, income equality, and central government control. Further, growth in the Progressive view, is creates environmental damage and is generally at the expense of the less fortuneate.
BO is not troubled at all by the economy. Its downfall is a feature not a bug in his view, at least until he can’t blame it on Bush anymore. With what amounts to a state run media, I doubt he is too worried about that happening anytime soon.
I wish people would realize how important the wealthy are to job production. Last year, I had an internship at a start up company. I hoped to translate that into a full time job, and they certainly needed the help. But that opportunity depended directly on funding, specifically venture capital or angel investors. In other words, the company needed some rich person who was willing to risk hundreds of thousands of dollars in a highly risky investment. Only then would they have the money to hire me. At the time, there were no rich investors, no funding, and hence no job for me. I reluctantly left the company. By the way, the company was looking for drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease. I hope they get the funding they need to continue their work, but in this environment, it does not look good.
I am afraid our government, driven by the politics of envy, are going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Referring to Obama’s budget programs (or indeed, the entire administration’s approach) as “Tertullian” (adj.) has a nice ring to it.
Looks like we’re well on our way to a schadenfreude-based economy..
hopenchange!
John you are so correct. I read or heard on the BBC here in Europe, that the advantage to the French way of doing things is that when things go well, they don’t go as well as elsewhere, and when things go under things never go as far under as elsewhere. the statement was meant as a positive by the News person, wierd.
I hope we all enjoy our Golden Goose Liver Pate.
Yes, I guess Obama, in less than two months, has created a world financial collapse. This is a pretty powerful dude. And the ice-caps aren’t falling into the sea, and carbon doesn’t really impact the climate, and our weather isn’t growing cock-eyed, and the execs who’ve walked away with our pensions in the form of billions of dollars of bonuses really earned their money, and Exxon’s tax breaks were well worth it, and Haliburton having no-bid contracts worth billions was on the up and up, and the liberal media who cowered for the last 8 years and didn’t blow the whistle on illegal wiretaps of US citizens or defying the Geneva conventions … yep, all this points to how this inexperienced and un-American black guy can easily dupe this nation. Man, I can’t wait till Rush Limbaugh and Sara Palin run on a ticket together. They would get us back to individual freedom and the American way. I can’t wait. Well, actually, yes I can. Well, actually, yes we can. Those of you who want to whine, keep blogging. The rest of us have had it with trickle down, strong-arming, closed door, narrow-minded, elitism, and arrogance toward the world and each other. If you want to be part of legitimate debating and getting the country and world working together, join in. If you just want to attack …. talk to the hand.
Was the Sacred Schadenfreude doctrine Tertullian’s, and was it really condemned as heresy? I seem to recall St. Thomas Aquinas making the same point, and he seems to be in pretty good standing with the RCC.
Every day that goes by since Obama was elected, all I can think is “Who is John Galt”? The parallels of the current administration and policies are becoming more and more like the beginning of Atlas Shrugged each day. How long until the entrepreneurs, industrialists and inventors decide to go on “mind” strike? And then what?
Paul @ #3 — I don’t think the American economy needs a war to stop an economic collapse now, any more than it needed one in 1941. World War II may have stopped the Depression — but not the way everybody thinks. It stopped the Depression not by inducing wartime government spending, but rather by distracting FDR from his ghastly late-New Deal economic crusades, which were stifling investment.
I think that we’re approaching the point that the only effective means of constraining the political class will be the threat of violence.
Roger I’m shocked at your naivete! Everybody (political) knew it was not a stimulus package. More of a bloodless financial coup. Every democrat and every republican congressman and senator and department head and I imagine all the world’s political leaders. The rich people in the “know” are scrambling to get there assets somewhere safe.
We are experiencing a coup d’etat in the guise of democracy. This is a blatant overthrow of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is over.
The real issue is do you have a right to your life, no part of which the government owns? When you are ready to stand for that, the revolution will begin.
Don’t look asking the two percent of the top income as a “raid”, on their money. Instead look at it as paying their fair share. The people that will not pay income taxes at all are either poverty level or just above. The middleclass carries the nation. The wealthiest people in this country don’t have to worry if they get sick and can’t work. First, they and all the elected officials in BOTH parties have health coverage and second the greed of corporate America is the root cause for worldwide crisis. Sending American manufacturing jobs and corporate offices, which by the way are merely a file cabinet in some foreign country while their offices never move, caused all of this.
To address your statement about the “not infrequent pastime of homo sapiens taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others, it is unfortunately true, but the sons and daughters of the poor go and fight the wars, while the sons and daughters of the wealthiest people go to college, get corporate jobs, and avoid paying taxes legally of course. The notion that Mr. Obama is throwing away the taxpayers money is ludicrous we all drive on the same roads, over the same bridges, depend on the same fire, rescue and police departments. Should we pay for those services on an as needed basis?
Remember the ole “trickle-down theory”? Why don’t we hear about that now? The Republicans talk of class warfare like the wealthy are being attacked for being asked to pay their fair share of the responsibilities of maintaining the infrastructure of our country. They point out the earmarks, but ignore the “bridge to nowhere.” and countless other pet projects. There are countless examples of both parties having earmarks that are wasteful.
The Bush administration left Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain had he won, with a fabricated war that was cooked up by them for their own agendas. Bush’s agenda was to get rid of Saddam Hussein for his plot to kill his father and Cheney to get the no bid contracts for Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root. Halliburton charges each meal to the soldiers and KBR charged for their R&R. Bush and Cheney not only caused a huge loss our greatest our American fighting men and women, but our worldwide reputation and put unknown generations of our children, grandchildren and possibly our great grandchildren. The war in Iraq was costing forty million dollars a day in borrowed money from China, but Bush and Cheney’s friends get their money off the top and future generations get the tab.
You said you stunned by President Obama’s behaviour. Why? The President’s job of trying to put the country back on its feet, to me, is commendable, especially after the way Bush ran the country into the ground. Would you want him to keep on the same old path as Bush and Cheney, or start putting out the fires right away? To me this shows purpose, planning and true desire to turn the economy around.
You mentioned historians, when Bush was asked what he thought historians would write about him, he answered,” What do I care? I’ll be dead.” You quoted Madison, what about Teddy Roosevelt, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals, is to educate a menace to society.”
Obama and crew talk about soaking the rich, but it’s middle-class people like me whose retirement funds are melting away like snow in July. In Obama’s America, everyone will be equal: Those who have retirement accounts will be no better off than those who don’t.
David Thompson left one idiot off his list of Harvard graduates, George W Bush Jr.
Here is what regular folk in Houston think. you won’t see it in the papers though.
The protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgdWL8pjo6I
The crowd’s opinions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szXHdJcgu6E
Many anticipated such a calamity, but nobody spoke up in the mainstream media. Shame on them (and cancel your subscriptions).
Bush had a great economy. It tanked when there was a Democratic Congress. And when the Democratic mortgage meltdown came.
All the rich bankers were paying off Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. And they will keep paying of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi.
@24 Gary:
“The notion that Mr. Obama is throwing away the taxpayers money is ludicrous we all drive on the same roads, over the same bridges, depend on the same fire, rescue and police departments.”
Well, if he were spending on roads and bridges, I might not object too much. 5 billion dollars to ACORN? What’s that buying me again?
“Don’t look asking the two percent of the top income as a “raid”, on their money. Instead look at it as paying their fair share”.
I’m not anywhere close to being one of those 2 percenters. But even I’m not naive enough to think the higher taxes will remain only for those making more than $250k. In next to no time, those taxes will be soaring at the income levels that the middle class actually makes. We as a nation have just incurred enormous spending expenses and incurred debt that we will likely never be rid of. There is no way that is covered only by those making over $250k.
Class warfare is nothing new, unfortunately. It’s a particularly virulent and dangerous strain of infectious political disease.
I had hopes that the killing fields of Cambodia, Stalin’s famine, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and all the other atrocities of the last century that were driven by false populism, envy, and class hatred might have spelled the end of it — burned it out of the human psyche.
Little did I suspect that these would be so thoroughly whitewashed that fawning movies would be made about Che Guevara, domestic bombers would be giving interviews on morning talk shows, and we’d have a President who knows Marx and Alinsky more than our founding fathers.
View from afar
BBC never check their sources, they invent them
Gary:
“Halliburton charges each meal to the soldiers and KBR charged for their R&R.”
Er…wasn’t that what Halliburton and KBR were *hired* to do?
See, when you “hire” someone to do something — like feed soldiers or arrange R&R — you “pay” them to do it. They don’t do it for free.
You object to the Halliburton LOGCAP contract as being “no-bid.” Who do you think would have done a better job? Bechtel? BBIC?
Fluor?
“Remember the ole “trickle-down theory”? Why don’t we hear about that now?”
Ask the jerk liberals who invented that misleading name for supply-side theory in the first place. They’re the only ones who ever used it.
Roger,
As usual, you’re always a day late and a dollar short(not that the dollar is worth much these days). My college prof was right about you 20 years ago, you have some brains but your always behind.
The stimulus should be (and ultimately will be) about $2 trillion. A deflation death spiral like the one in the 30′s will put a lot more of us in the poor house. Simply put, the nominal amount of debt will continue to grow despite deleveraging if the government makes no effort to reinflate.
This is not to say that a lot of the “stimulus” package isn’t misdirected. It is. We are not going to “green energize” our way out of this. The stimulus should have been 2/3 tax cuts aimed at small business owners – the real drivers of job growth.
@Red. I would absolutely love it if we could drain the swamp in DC and start with a whole new Congress. At the same time, blaming Congress exclusively for this mess is misguided. Vast fortunes were made by investment bankers and loan originators. I have many friends that were previously in loan origination. They were making $50,000 per month. Are you suggesting Congress should have told them to stop making so much money? Nobody told them to make “liar loans.” They did it because they were getting rich beyond their wildest dreams.
David Thompson left one idiot off his list of Harvard graduates, George W Bush Jr.
Well, you can’t really blame Thompson, as he’s not from the weird alternate dimension where George W. Bush had a son.
Conservatism really is no match for leftism. Leftism has not just one, it has totally won.
Look at the feminist-written divorce laws. Look at the way Obama got elected despite baggage that would have sunk any other politician in any other era.
Leftism has the structural advantages of being able to create more and more voters by placing them on the welfare dole (whether official welfare of government ‘jobs’). Leftism has the advantage of ‘coolness’ since a large block of the public worship celebrities. Leftism has the advantage of being the less ‘adult’ ideology. It is easier to ‘blame the rich’ than adopt a philosophy of personal responsibility.
Conservatism is a non-entity at this point.
“I know that the current President doesn’t think that poverty programs are supposed to produce poverty and dependence”
I respectfully disagree. I think he knows it, and wants it.
The more ordinary Americans are mired in poverty and dependence, the better it is for the so-called liberal elites in both parties. If the multitude isn’t mired in poverty and dependence, then the liberal democrat has no one looking up at him to see how much he cares, and the liberal republican has no one to look down on and feel superior to.
Hence the Kennedys love the poor and want them to stay that way, and the Rockefellers hate the poor and want them to stay that way.
Conservativism could be a match for Leftism if those lost souls on its boat could find a rudder with which to steer. I am not, however, holding my breath.
By the way, add these to our reading list if you haven’t already: ” The Road To Serfdom” F.A Hayek and ” Economics In One Lesson” Henry Hazlitt. These two works are relatively short in length and long on economic wisdom. They’ll also prevent the need to return to “Kindergarten Economics”.
@40
Conservatism can be called moribund in the GOP. A lot of Republicans and so called ‘conservatives’ pay lip-service to conservative positions, but will still defend the completely un-conservative George W. Bush. The man was a disaster for his country, party and the label ‘conservative.’
After Obama, the candidate who caused the biggest stir among the young and ‘cool’ this past election cycle was Ron Paul, a true conservative. Naturally, the bigwigs of his party wanted nothing to do with him, but the movement continues in the form of Young Americans for Liberty.
http://blog.yaliberty.org/
May they grow and prosper.
Why the surprise? After all, this is the man who would be king. His intentions are to sow dissent and create divisiveness through class warfare and he keeps the race card like an Ace up his sleeve. In more ways than he will ever admit, he is a puppet very much like Bush; one beholden to the oil men, Obama to the Chicago political machine.
This goes far beyond earmarks and big spending, at the heart of the rhetoric are assaults on our basic freedoms. There’s no relying on the media any more to stay informed, you have to actually READ the bills before Congress to understand the ugliness of the spin (example: http://smokebreak.blogshevik.com/2009/03/02/the-fairness-doctrine-lives-on-in-senate-dc-voting-bill/).
Then you write your elected officials until your keyboard wears out and pray we all manage to live through the next 1,418 days and they can all be voted out of office. That is, if we still have the right to vote.
Gary, you poor misguided soul…
“The wealthiest people in this country don’t have to worry if they get sick and can’t work.”
According to comrade Obama, a couple, both working, both earning 125,000 are wealthy. Are you saying that such a family that lives in California does not have to worry about losing half of its income, which becomes 125k. Obama has successfully deflated the term “rich”. Next thing you know, a family which earns 150k will be considered rich.
@43
Agreed, calling Mrs Bushs’ little boy Georgie “conservative” would be like calling Benedict the XIII an atheist.
May the true conservativism of our founding fathers rise from the ashes. I admit it’s a bit of wishful thinking, but at least it’s still there until some government whack job decides it’s no longer in our interests to have it.
Paul wrote:
“We have nothing at the moment (fortunately, of course) to block an autocatalytic economic catastrophe today in the way that World War II did block it for us (even before we were officially in the war)and for the New Deal in 1938 — 1941.”
Oh, but we do. You have been paying attention to Iran and Russia haven’t you?
Welcome to the opening acts of World War III.
Gary:
re, the Iraq War:
“The Bush administration left Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain had he won, with a fabricated war that was cooked up by them for their own agendas . . . .”
________________________________
Well, I don’t believe that and, based on the fact that Obama plans to maintain 50,000 troops in Iraq after his so-called “withdrawal,” I suspect he doesn’t believe it either.
Here are a few reasons why:
First, making a stand in Iraq has forced Al Qaeda (and their like minded allies) to marshall their forces across the region. Because its virtually impossible to engage such a diffuse, anonymous enemy, this “call to arms” has effectively neutralized one of Al Qaeda’s primary tactical advantages – while simultaneously solving one of our primary disadvantages. Stated simply, terrorists who show up in Iraq stand a good chance of being apprehended or shot, just like all the terrorists who showed up before them – and that’s very good thing.
Second, after declaring Iraq the “central front” in its war against the kaffir and massively marshalling its forces (as described above), Al Qaeda and their ilk proved themselves to be first class butchers – of other muslims no less – and wholly incapable of preventing free elections. In short, they suffered a massive, public, humiliating defeat while generally alienating the population of one of the largest middle Eastern countries in the world. A free Iraq is a testament to that defeat.
Third, Iran is about to become a nuclear power. When dealing with a burgeoning and hostile nuclear power it’s always a good idea to place a large military contingent on their flank (and directly upwind from their territory in the event of fall out). It tends to make them more amenable to negotiation.
Fourth, Iraq – a vast territory that we now largely control – squarely separates Iran from its nasty little proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza (i.e. Hezbollah and Hamas) making communication and resupply more difficult and potentially more vulnerable.
Fifth, oil. Oil is power in the middle East, and if we didn’t have control of those northern fields, those much, much worse than us would.
Sixth, Iraq is now an ally. It’s a genuine, though fragile, democracy in sea of tyrrants. We have full access to its territory and will have profound need of it given the war in Afghanistan and the possibility of future conflict on the immediate horizon.
These a few of the reasons why Obama will keep us in iraq now (and for the foreseeable future).
All of what i think, dream and talk about is TEA PARTY!!!!!!
James Madison was, apparently, a seer.
“Historians of this period will look back in wonder: how ever did a new President waltz into office and, before he had even finished unpacking, extract $800,000,000,000 from taxpayers for partisan spending programs?”
By screaming “wolf” and threatening everything short of martial law.
Obama’s belief in the stupidity of his supporters is solid policy.
“Yesterday, I wrote about the current President’s “2 percent solution,” that is, his punitive tax raid on the top 2 percent of US tax filers.”
Only for a short while. Soon everyone who makes money will be “rich.” It’s not fair to those who do not contribute anything.
The irony: B.O. is calling the economic successes of the past 25 years “failures” but is using them as his basis for increasing taxes.
CEOs will be more than willing to take pay cuts. I’m guessing most will be under $250K in the next year or two so that their taxes don’t increase. So, with higher unemployment and less peole earning high salaries (as compared to the past 25 years), where will the additional tax revenue come from to pay for the spending bill?
Are you surprised the “rich” salary isn’t closer to $174K (a congressman’s salary)?
“How ever did a new President waltz into office and, before he had even finished unpacking, extract $800,000,000,000 from taxpayers for partisan spending programs?”
I think Obama is given way too much credit. The obscene spending came from Congress, led by the socialists Pelosi and Reid. Left-wing radical Obama just said “sounds good to me!” and signed it — after he returned from his 3-day weekend of course.
I do give Obama some credit — at least he is taking advantage of the left-wing Democrat controlled Congress. G.W. Bush had a Republican controlled Congress for six years and squandered the opportunity. Imagine what could have been done: reduced government, immigration reform, fix social security and medicare, withdraw from the UN and kick them out of NY, regime-change in Iran …
Gary, 40% pay no taxes. Are 40% of Americans on welfare or at the poverty level? No, the average poverty levels are between %12 & %17 percent.
The top 1% of income earners paid 40% of all the taxes.
The wealthiest people in this country are also the ones that employ the most people. How many poor people have ever offered you a job or paid you to do something. Take more of their money and there will be less jobs.
The wealthiest people also don’t have to worry about you or me. They could sell all of their investments, take a pay cut, down size their businesses, and lay off hundreds or thousands of employees without batting an eye. They will be fine and they will survive. What happenens to those who are now unemployed? Of course, the government should take care of them, but where does the money come from? The wealthy guy is now making a modest salary with no investment income, and the hundreds who had jobs and were paying taxes are now unemployed.
B.O.’s mistake is thinking that the rich will keep expanding their wealth and keep working as hard even with higher taxes. Using past successes, which he calls failures, to fund his spending bill will be one of his many failures.
@47
The statement was that G.W.B was “un-conservative”. “The man was a disaster for his country, party and the label ‘conservative.’ This is the part I’m responding to. Anyone, and this includes our beloveved commanders in chief, past, present or future who wishes to relieve himself upon our long held tradition of civil rights is anything but conservative.
We are only just beginning. After the Johnson social experiment came inflation, price controls and stagflation – and as you note, this is great Society on steroids. The carefully built up over decades net worth meant for retirement has taken a heavy hit and the worst is yet to come. Inflation and ever increasing taxes will eat up the rest.
but don’t despair, government will “help” us along.
The old saying that in Democracy you get the government you deserve is true. What I find remarkable is that ours has become less transparent and reliable than many banana republics I know. They generally steal with reckless abandon but normally do not kill the golden goose that keeps them wealthy.
So sad.
58. “The man was a disaster for his country”
Geneally speaking and overall, things were pretty good for 7 1/2 years of the G.W. Bush administration: no more terrorist attacks after 911, liberated tens of millions of people, full employment, low interest rates, …We will be learning in the next few years what disaster really means.
@59 Amen.
I gave up on retiring 10 years ago. At least I have for now.
Verily I say unto thee, reach deep into your hearts and pocket-books and take the governments hand; join them on the road to perdition, and by all means-don’t ask any questions along the way.
Mugabe Obama, the Kenyan, is a Trojan horse who became President because millions of white Americans were convinced by a corrupt media and political system that they would be racists if they didn’t vote for the black.
Even now, as honest Americans lose all they and their children own, the media and the liberals cry that he must be supported no matter how stupid or criminal his administrations’ action because to do otherwise would be racist.
s macdonald. They are deliberately destroying the middle class in this country.
It is a raw grab for pwoer from the Left wing elites.
If thy succeed the country will be like Mexico. This could have been a 5 quarter recession, instead it will destroy us as a republic.
How these people hate us. How they hate America.
Regime change in Iran?
The deranged, war-mongering neo-con fantasies never cease to amaze and sadden me. Our economy is on the verge of collapse and they still don’t end. We can no longer afford our empire. If you want to do something to fight terrorism (which is a tactic not an enemy), let’s start with securing our borders and essentially ending immigration into this country. Though both of those things are fantasies with BHO in office, as they would have been with McCain.
And Russia is no threat to us either.
Why are we baffled by Barak Hussein Obama’s socialist actions? Is it because a lot of us are sheep,and can’t think fot ourselves?
As I was explaining to my daugher the other day, Producers tend to vote Republican, while Parasites almost always vote Democrat. The more Producers that can be converted to Parasite status, the longer the Communists masquarading as Democrats can stay in power.
Rockford,
Oh yes, we will be learning what not one, but two successive presidents and their terms have done to our once great nation. Both I might add from different ends of the political spectrum: Socialism (Democrapic) and Socialism-Light (Republicon) puns intended.
“Things were pretty good for 7.5 years…” according to whom? You are kidding, aren’t you, Rockford?
64. As Michael Ledeen said so many times, regime change in Iran could have been accomplished without military action — like Reagan did in Poland by helping organizations like Solidarity.
7.5 years? Hmm…and other then that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
The size of government grew, tens upon tens of thousands died in Iraq for a pointless and destructive war, the invasion of this country continued from our south, we got further in debt, the housing/credit bubble got to the point where it burst in his last months. Yeah, things were peachy keen.
The reason Obama can do this is that uneducated people voted for him. They had no clue what he was all about and the print media failed in their duty to print facts and history. The Democratic rulers who don’t have to live in the real world the rest of us have to are having a field day robbing the Treasury under the mantra “Stimulus”. No elected jerk off wants to preserve the basic premise and rights our founding fathers so carefully scripted.
Think ‘MAGIC CHRISTIAN” with invitations from the clueless Obamanation. We have been fed the hype and consumed it with glee….now we are faced with total disaster and failure in our economic systems…..Obama calls it a normal daily gyrations….from a man who does not understand what a P/E ratio means….are we in trouble? Me thinks so. Since his election, we have lost 1.5 million jobs, over 4,000 points on the Dow and he signed the largest PORK bill in the history of mankind, without one individual reading it! TAX AND SPEND…this is not good nor prudent. Is is possible to impeach him for incompetency????
Wiz,
Nope, can’t impeach him, not enought time to do that; lets work on “impeaching” him by getting him voted out of office,(okay, this is pipe dream, I know) but I bet someone’s gonna want to reward him.
…and while we’re at it, lets impeach Bernanke, Paulson and their ilk.
Lordy, lordy. Sounds like most of the commenters here would have preferred that Obama did nothing, in order to hasten the impending collapse, die-off and long-delayed equalization of global living standards.
What’s the big gripe? Capitalism is doing what it’s supposed to do — dictating the value of products and services and determining the best distribution of resources, while enforcing the lowest possible costs of production and distribution. The overhead and labor costs of advanced nations are too goddamn high…and nations no longer matter anyway, since our corporations (and their capital) have become untethered from the restraints of geography and patriotic allegiance. This is “Free Trade,” guys, and our temporary post-WWII domination of the world — and the world’s willingness to subsidize the American Dream — has pretty much run out.
Cutting taxes and deregulating business (the usual Conservative prescription) wouldn’t do dick to reverse the forces now at work. Obama’s policies probably won’t either…but since both roads inevitably pass through World War III before the New Global Order shakes out, I’m all for a huge spending spree — and (possibly) one last decent summer — before the crap hits the fan.
Trying to make political hay out of this is a worthless exercise. Historical forces are partnering with “The Invisible Hand” to reset the game. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge.
Anyone who really believes Obama is taking the proper course of action is insane. The democratic party wants the economy to tank. Dont be fooled. The quickest way to have more Americans with their hands out is to choke this economy. They want us to feel we need the goverment.
I am amazed how foolish the average person buys into the liberal agenda.
More unions for better pay ( the car industry is in shambles)
Give the poor more and more (feed a bear and the bear will never look for food)
Tax the rich, they dont pay their share (in the last 5 years I have paid over $280000 dollars in taxes.) DON’T TELL ME WE HAVE NOT PAID OUR SHARE.
I think every person should pay $2,500 dollars each. I dont care if you are rich or poor. Thats your dues. Then every $100,000 in extra income over $100,000 would add another $2,500, MAKE ALL PEOPLE RICH AND POOR PAY TAX!
Take away wellfare. Any person who doesn’t have a job can collect $500 a week but they must report to work doing goverment labor jobs. Every person in this senario must clock in with a fingerprint ID system. Every unemployed worker who is seeking other employment can take up to 16 hrs per week to attend job interviews. They must pay taxes like everyone else.
People in present day low income housing can purchase their present day housing project for $1 All members of the building can now take ownership. They must set up a housing board, pay dues etc. If they leave the housing project they can sell it for $1.
Now, I know this may offend many. but who gives a sh!!!!
Listen Republicans are not money sucking pigs. Im tired of MSNBC crap!
We feel that you must work and strive to achieve. We are most tired of the lazy behavior of Americans. We are both rich and poor. Those rich have worked hard for our rewards. Those poor understand the meaning behind work. That is what Republican’s stand for. Family, faith ( I mean the principles behind the 10 commandments. ) We love our country and respect all. We blame ourselves for our successes and our failures.
But as Rush has said (we do not want the path we are traveling)
Rotwang,
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, my man. I say do nothing for the parasites who got buyouts, let them die on the self created diseased vines they’re clinging to; or, as grandpa used to say: “give em’ a long rope and let em’ hang themselves”.
Obama is converting the moderates, undecideds and even his True Believers into opponents at a frenzied pace. He’s so efficient at alienating the faithful that you have to wonder: is he a double agent for Rush Limbaugh?
Sounds like most of the commenters here would have preferred that Obama did nothing,…
Of COURSE we’d prefer he had done nothing! Why are we rewarding incompetency & irresponsibility with bailouts? Failures & liars are SUPPOSED to fail. Why am I being punished for living within my means?
Let the competent pick up the pieces & move on.
Have you ever noticed the White House fence? You can stick a lot of severed heads on those spear points.
Roger:
You are wrong. He did unpack.
I’m going to have to go back and read Federalist #10. It doesn’t surprise me that Madison forsaw this, not after reading how Hamilton forsaw the events leading up to the War Between the States (#22, I think). And it proves one thing: Communism is itself a rebranding, a diabolical rebranding of the deadly sin of Envy.
He’s a smooth operator. Get used to it.
We’ve been fighting the “war on poverty” for 40 years using government handouts as our tactic. Clearly it is a failed strategy. BO’s new surge tactic of even more handouts will be another failure. How much better would everyone be if we had used those trillions of dollars to rebuild the industry of this country and allow these people to get real jobs?
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There is nothing funny about Obama. They said that he is an evil, tyrannical despot whose goal is to destroy our constutional republic. Lies are not funny and neither is contempt for the intelligence of Americans because as we prove time and time again that we are NOT stupid..
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