President Obama more than once last week called it “inexcusable” for Congress to get “bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual” over the anti-stimulus legislation. Actually, there never was such a bog-down, since the bill already passed the House by the Democratic majority, and he never needed much Republican support to make a package of substantial magnitude happen in the Senate. Obama is seeking a sheen of bipartisanship, but if he’s convinced it’s right and he occupies the moral high-ground, it’s not entirely clear why he would talk about an imaginary bog-down of what’s become a “faith-based initiative” that no one can or will stop. Obama’s right–he did win in November, as he taunted detractors last week, and nobody can stop him. It’s just curious that he feels the need to seek rivals’ approval of a highly destructive measure like this when it’s a train that can’t (or won’t) be stopped anyway.
I remember a comedy called “Moon Over Parador;” you could vote for the dictator…but only the red-tinted picture of him or the blue-tinted one. That’s how I felt watching the “debate” this past week over the size of the package: The House passed a package of $819 billion; the Senate, after hyped-up wrangling, appears set to vote on one of $780 billion late Monday afternoon. Rounding them, they’re still both $800 billion.
The bottom line is we’re getting a trillion-dollar stimulus once interest is taken into account, and the past week’s battle has been about shaving off some cost, but not the underlying premise or the fundamental merit of political stimulus.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said, “We are passing a bold and responsible plan that will help our economy get back on its feet, put people to work and put more money in their pockets.”
This kind of statement embodies the essence of the policy crisis our country faces. It’s hardly “bold and responsible” to redistribute other people’s wealth: it’s the easiest thing in the world to do when you’re a career politician; it’s dismally less “bold” when that wealth hasn’t even been created yet and must be borrowed from our descendants who have no recourse against you now. So the package is actually reckless and irresponsible beyond Thunderdome. Like much government spending, whether routine or that squandered during past recessions, it’s politically motivated and unconnected to economic recovery.
And for Reid’s comment to “put more money in…pockets”; Apart from what he’s taking from our descendents, that’s where the money is now. To implement the anti-stimulus, he has to take it out of pockets of some to give it to others. Behold, leadership during a crisis. The many alternative “liberate to stimulate” ideas we and others have been proposing for months are ignored by the political class (only as they can get away with it!), because they don’t increase the power of politicians. Alas, politicians are now salivating at the prospect of the greatest one-time lurch in the size of the State they’ve ever known. This is a stimulus for politicians and the State, not the economy.
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{ 7 comments }
No to “stimulus” bill. Here’s why:
Since Obama’s earnest drive to convince the nation to weaken its economic strength through redistribution as well as weaken its national defense, has confirmed the very threats to our Republic’s survival that the Constitution was designed to avert, it no longer is sustainable for the United States Supreme Court and Military Joint Chiefs to refrain from exercising WHAT IS THEIR ABSOLUTE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO DEFEND THE NATION FROM UNLAWFUL USURPATION. The questions of Obama’s Kenyan birth and his father’s Kenyan/British citizenship (admitted on his own website) have been conflated by his sustained unwillingnes to supply his long form birth certificate now under seal, and compounded by his internet posting of a discredited ‘after-the-fact’ short form ‘certificate’. In the absence of these issues being acknowledged and addressed, IT IS MANIFEST THAT OBAMA REMAINS INELIGIBLE TO BE PRESIDENT UNDER ARTICLE 2 OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. Being a 14th Amendment ‘citizen’ is not sufficient. A ‘President’ MUST BE an Article 2 ‘natural born citizen’ AS DEFINED BY THE FRAMERS’ INTENT.
We need a reality check, not a stimulus check.
We’re a country full of gluttons, Mr. President. We spend more than we earn, care more about ourselves than we do our children’s future, and in our arrogance we feel we hold the answers to the rest of the world’s problems. We manufacture nothing worthwhile and yet we consume the goods other countries dump on our shores with reckless abandon. We represent less than 7% of the world’s population and we consume 20% of its natural recourses and sooner or later the math just won’t add up.
That time is now, sir, and things will never be the same again. No country deserves to have more than any other, especially when so much of the world’s population is starving. We need to face facts, tighten our belts, and learn to appreciate what we have, and we most certainly do not need to turn this country into a bigger welfare state than it already is.
So give us an energy policy and start fixing our crumbling infrastructure. Provide us with enough short term income to pay off our debts and the confidence to help get us through this mess and please, stop feeding into the notion that no one in this country should have to do without.
You have young children, sir. Doing without builds character, and that’s the one hard lesson the people of this country most need to learn.
What this most recent election and this "Porkulous" package prove, more than anything else, is the absolute folly of "Universal Suffrage". We MUST institute a reasonable form of proof of "citizenship", not just being "born" somewhere, but proof that you understand the significance and importance of the welfare of your fellow man sufficiently to be trusted with both voting and holding public office. By any reasonable citizenship test, less than 1/2 of Congress and most recent presidents would have been ineligible. Probably about 15-20% of the current electorate should actually have the privileges associated with "Full Citizenship".
I personally say let the Economy go to S$!T let it go into a depression. THere is no need for all of the what it to be governmental spending. Yes I know that we are spending a crap load of money on the "war on Terrosim" but wars are not free.
Take away the free to locost housing provided to the "poor" make them get off thier butts and go find work. If you cannot even stuff envilopes for a living to make an honest wage then those people should be put out to pasture.
THen you have the Penial system. Eye fpr an Eye. THere are too many people sitting on thier buts in better living conditions that alot of the General population. You kill some one Death penalty, NO retrial sentanced and off with in a month. Drugs well, I can see Marijuana it does have other porposes other that purely recreational. but the people who are caught Selling or Manufacturing are the ones who would go to Prision and go ahead keep making it in there. Turn the product in to something that can be usful. If the Prision system can not support itself then it goes away.
Banks are another great way to Waist money. Yes they are great. but if you can not afford something then you should not be buying it. If you loose your income and "cant find"work then you get a set period of time to find work and get your payments started back up again. credit cards are about the worst of them all. look at the CEO's that are getting over a milion dollar bonouses almost every year and for what. I understand that running a company is one thing, but in turn they have a hand in running thier coustomers lives into the ground. You want to buy this thing that you can not afford sure we will give you the money but oh wait we will charge 4% to those wo could have just paid for it but 25 % to those who can not afford it.
I understand that this seems like a lot of rambling but I know that I am not the only one that feels this way.
Its sort of like we are in the situation of a double edge sword. We are in this recession situation due to the fact that as a country we dont save enough, and now with the stimulus checks we are expected to spend more.
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