Budget Battle BS

After watching and hearing the wrangling over the budget battle from afar, I’m not optimistic that conservatism will win this round. What I’ve heard and seen has been so far removed from reality that it’s starting to resemble a circus. Not that Washington politics has ever been rooted in reality, but this is getting ridiculous.

As a bullshitter par excellence myself, I must say I’ve never heard so many lies of commission and omission in my life.

Never.

Let’s start with a few facts, shall we? Our esteemed President’s favorite sport, right after golf, is blaming his predecessor George Bush for each and every little thing that’s currently wrong with our economy, from the debt, to inflation, skyrocketing gasoline prices, to post-nasal drip and painful rectal itch. It’s what he does.

Well, that may have worked for a while, but two and a half years into his term, that just doesn’t cut it anymore. One thing is very clear: Obama owns this economy, lock, stock, and rotting barrel.

I’ve been wanting to run this graph for a while, since everyone else in the blogosphere has. I know, me, Alabama, slow, etc.

We Who Follow These Things So You Don’t Have To know that Congress was taken over by the Democrats following the little fit the American voters had in 2006 when they tossed Republicans out in a grand display of displeasure with their spendthrift ways. They had controlled Congress and the White House and yet had failed to rein in spending.

Granted, we were in two wars, which always tend to be rather expensive affairs, but the economy was still roaring along. If you remember, the Mainstream Media looked upon any downturn in what we’d all gladly return to today as signs of the Coming Apocalypse. I’m sure y’all remember when the talking heads claimed DOOM! (Hi, Monty!) when the unemployment number figure rose a mortifying two tenths of one percentage point.

President Bush was an economic terrorist! Soon, dogs and cats would be sleeping together, there would be a river of evil slime running through New York sewers, oh, wait, that was a movie, never mind.

Still, I think today, everyone in the country would gladly go back in time to the days of essentially full employment and nonexistent inflation.

And just so everyone remembers, here are a few numbers from those days that the MSM said were so horrible: Unemployment was dreadfully high at 4.6% Gasoline was an unthinkable $2.25/gal. (Click on the History tab)

The horror.

As the chart above clearly shows, this debt crisis didn’t start until the Dems controlled Congress and Obama became President. Bush’s TARP was just the beginning of federal spending, soon to be followed by the Stimulus, a debacle of near-Biblical proportion that did a great deal to add to the deficit and nothing to solve our economic problems. Next up was ObamaCare, then the Dodd-Frank takeover of Wall Street, the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, Cash 4 Clunkers, the student loan takeover, an avalanche of new environmental regulations, Obama’s illegal oil drilling moratoriums in the Gulf, the list goes on. At the same time that the Pelosi-Reid Congress was spending the country into ruin, President Obama was busy putting the clamps on the private sector, resulting in the lowest amount of federal revenue since 1950.

My point is that the very same Democrats who got us into this mess are the ones currently striving with all their might to keep us in it.

One would think that Republicans would have a large cache of rhetorical ammunition in the way of facts to launch against the Dems in this battle, and one would be quite correct. But have they used any of it? No. They. Haven't.

Why this is is a wonderment to me, as I’m sure it is to you. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi clearly started this mess and are now blaming the Republicans for it. But, hey, it’s what they do. If you want just a taste of what the Dems are saying, you need look no further than this quote by DNC ChairThing, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:

“Aren’t we at the point where the closer we get to chaos, the more concern that there should be about coming to the table and compromising with Democrats?” Wasserman Schultz asked. “This is not leadership. This is almost like dictatorship. I know they want to force the outcome that … their extremists would like to impose. But they are getting ready to spark panic and chaos, and they seem to be OK with that. And it’s just really disappointing, and potentially devastating.”

So, let me see if I have this straight: We’re the extremists for wanting Washington to act in a fiscally responsible way, just like we do in our lives? WTF? On what planet do you live, darlin’, where this makes any kind of sense?

Another thing, Debbie, your psychological projection is showing: it was President Obama who recently stated that he finds the idea of being a dictator “tempting” in a speech last week before the radical racist Mexican supremacist group La Raza.

I have a few questions for the GOP: why haven’t you called the Dems’ bluff yet? Why haven’t you guys used the word “obstructionist” to characterize the Senate Democrats repeated threats to squash any bill that comes out of the House? Or even used that term for the Presidents’ same threats? That’s a game anyone can play.

Why haven’t you pointed out that all this wild spending started when the Dems took over congress in 2007? And that Obama said it was only temporary? And that he also said he wanted to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office? You could even use a little bit of snark by saying you only want to help him fulfill his promise.

What are you guys waiting for? You’re clearly losing the public relations battle and yet you seem stricken by Bush’s Disease: you refuse to defend yourself with even a few simple facts that a lot of Americans already know. Facts that would work in your favor if only you'd say them out loud. Facts that would expose the Dems for the tax-and-spend radicals that they are.

You guys could be winning this and enjoying a much-needed boost in your popularity, and yet you seem reluctant to do so. I mean, hell, if I can do it, certainly you can too. It’s not rocket surgery.

You guys can’t even defend the concept of a free market economy nor point out how this administration is twisting it into something unrecognizable. All you’re doing is giving ammunition to those who wildly claim that capitalism doesn’t work. How can it, under these circumstances, when those we’ve elected to act in our place don’t understand even the basics of how our economy is supposed to work and pat themselves on the back for placing mountains of restrictions on it?

Mr. Boehner, why don’t you realize that you will be attacked for anything you do or say? You might as well be criticized for stating the truth. Doing that will strike a chord with the nation. You could step up to the podium armed with facts, yet you refuse to do so.

You can be cordial and biting at the same time without appearing to be whatever it is that you’re trying to avoid. We know you’re trying to be the adult in the room and you’re almost there. Almost.

If you were to try to appeal to the vast majority of hard working Americans who understand what it will take to get the country out of the Obama Depression, you’d find your own and congressional Republicans’ poll numbers would start climbing, thereby preparing the ground for the 2012 elections, which the GOP stands poised to win.

Your reluctance to embrace a truly smaller government makes the rest of us who are rooting for you question whether you really want that or if you are just another big government bureaucrat in disguise. Please stop acting as if last November’s elections didn’t mean anything and that Congressional Republicans don’t have a clear mandate to stop this Marxist/Socialist administration from further crippling our country’s economy.

It’s up to you, Mr. Speaker. An anxious country is waiting for you to tell us the truth and counter the lies and propaganda coming from the radical, leftist Alinskyites who have infested Washington.

It’s time to get your own ass in line.

Our Current Economic Crisis and How to Solve it

It’s Monday and time to get out the razor blades and draw a warm bath.

Good Morning!

I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend free from the political shenanigans going on in Washington over the debt crisis, I really was. But Friday nights’ dueling press conferences between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner was too good to miss.

The contrast was glaring. President Obama held his presser first. Thanks to NiceDeb, here is the video.


What we saw was a president who is clearly aware he’s losing the battle of the budget. He was petulant and impatient; it was all over his face. His demeanor was unseemly for the Leader of the Free World. There was very little in the way of facts. All he did was try to shift the blame for the budget crisis onto the Republicans.

By comparison, Speaker Boehner was calm and collected, one could almost say defiant. Again, from NiceDeb, Boehner’s press conference.


Overall, I get the impression that Boehner is the adult in the room, not Obama, despite the presidents’ attempt to appear that way, aided and abetted by a compliant (and lying) media.

At some point, reality will intrude. I don’t think it will happen all at once, but there are growing signs that President Obama and the Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, are losing the public debate over the debt and the deficit.

If it weren’t so serious, it would be comical. On the one hand, there is Obama desperately trying to bankrupt the country and using every rhetorical trick in the Progressive playbook to make it appear as though it’s the Republicans who got us into this mess. Obama seems to be saying, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

On the other hand is Boehner, whose exasperation level seems to be rising exponentially with every passing day. He truly does realize that something has to be done to cut spending and that right soon.

And so do the American people. Polls are showing the President losing support, even among Democrats. That’s a bit misleading, though, as the Dems are unhappy that he appears to be waffling in his insistence upon a larger and more intrusive federal government than the country has ever seen before.

Someone needs to explain that to me. How can anyone look around today and say that anything this president and the last Congress has done has worked to America’s benefit?

Unemployment stands at 9.2%. It was 7.8% at the beginning of Obama’s term. Real inflation is around 10%, not the miniscule number of around 1.5% that Washington uses. Gasoline prices are nearly double what they were in January of ’09. And I don’t have to tell you that the price of groceries has nearly doubled in four years.

Gentle reader, none of this is happening by accident. None of it.

It’s the direct result of a command-and-control economy that is being commanded and controlled by people who want us to suffer.

I hate to sound so pessimistic about that, but there’s no other explanation. We’re being screwed on purpose. And make no mistake, there are people who are profiting quite nicely, thank you, from our travails.

One of the most prominent beneficiaries just so happens to be one of the architects of this crisis, Nancy Pelosi. Her net worth increased, and you’d better sit down for this one, a whopping 62% last year. I’ll bet y’all know of at least one friend whose worth decreased that much over the last few years.

Harry Reid’s personal worth increased also, and to be fair, so did John Boehner’s. So it would seem everyone in Washington is on the gravy train.

Too bad we’re not on it too.

Now, there is a very popular misconception amongst radical leftists and Progressives (but I repeat myself) that capitalism is a zero-sum game. To decode this for you, that means that in order for one person to gain, that gain must come from someone else’s loss.

I’m sorry, but if you really believe that, you need a constant reminder to breathe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If that were true, then no economy would experience any growth, period. Think about it and you’ll come to the inevitable conclusion that those who think that way have been conditioned, which is merely a polite word for brainwashed.

For the longest time, I, and probably you too, gave this administration the benefit of the doubt when it came to their economic policies. However, that was then and this is now. After two years of declining economic numbers, we are coming to the sad conclusion that what’s happening to our economy is being done on purpose.

I’ve outlined one possible cause, that of outside pressures being brought on our economy for the expressed reason of bringing us down. I’m not alone in considering that possibility. Here’s a link to an interview that you should hear. Yeah, it’s dull and dry, since it’s about economics, but it’s well worth listening to. It’s from an economist named Catherine Austin Fitts and its entitled “Now That We Got Your Money, We’re Going to Change the Deal.” Once more, thanks to NiceDeb, who’s proving to be a valuable source of the obscure, and a good blog buddy, too.

Of course, no discussion on economics would be complete without me doing my Ron White imitation and dancing on my soapbox. So, for your consideration, I’d like to propose a solution to our problem. I’m generous that way.

We need to retreat from this whole idea of a global economy. I know, we’re being told it’s the wave of the future and everybody’s doing it and there will be rainbows, unicorns and skittles for everyone if we do.

Much like global warming or climate change or whatever that’s being called this week, this whole notion of a global economy is based on the false premise of multiculturalism. As you know, that’s the idea that all cultures are equal and therefore equally good. We all share the same values and ideals and we will all work together in glorious harmony for the greater good of mankind.

Kinda sounds like a workers’ paradise, doesn’t it? Now, where have I heard that before? Hmmm...

It’s worth noting that environmentalism is part and parcel of the New World Order of things. Check any study on it, particularly from that august body of internationalism, the United Nations, and you’ll see the environmental buzzword “sustainability.”

Let me get my decoder ring out again for you. That word doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s another false premise, that there are too many people in the world consuming too much of its natural resources and that the industrial economic model cannot support this growing population.

That’s just a lie, plain and simple. The only thing restricting the exploration and harvesting of our natural resources is government. Capitalism and freedom have done more to elevate the condition of man than any other form of economy.

And that’s a fact.

Why are third-world countries third-world countries? You need look no further than their governments, the overwhelming majority of which are dictatorships. The people aren’t free, nor will their strongman governments permit such freedom. Such is power.

Here’s my solution. I know that I’ll be called all sorts of names for even suggesting this like xenophobic and nationalist and all that, but I really don’t care.

A global economy cannot work. What we need to do is concentrate our efforts on America first. This means that we should be enacting new laws to spur investment by American companies here at home. We should also repeal laws that have been shown to be detrimental to our economy, like NAFTA and GATT. A robust and diverse economy at home should be the policy of our government along with a dedication for us to have the highest standard of living in the world.

We are still the world’s largest economy. We should be taking advantage of that market by making our own products here while producing enough extra for export and trade with other countries. We can compete in a global market, but it must be favorable to us first. And as this effort towards a global economy is currently being implemented, the goal is not for other countries to move to more freedom for their people, the goal is to dismantle our freedoms and our economy for redistribution to the rest of the enslaved world.

This is the wrong way to go and we know it.

The world isn’t fair or equal, despite the intentions of many powerful people to make it that way. They see our success as something to be plundered. This is nothing but envy on their part.

If we keep on electing politicians who think of themselves as ”citizens of the world” instead of Americans, we are doomed for no good reason.

It’s time for America to rediscover and reinvent herself.