Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
In Harry Reid’s Senate, this qualifies as dereliction of duty, as the Majority Leader said himself on Monday in defense of his frantic deal-making to get 60 votes. “I don’t know if there is a Senator that doesn’t have something in this bill that was important to them,” Mr. Reid said at a press conference that offered an unintentional commentary on modern democracy. “And if they don’t have something in it important to them, then it doesn’t speak well of them.” – Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2009
It kinda makes you feel warm all over, that our Congressional leaders are representing their constituents, selflessly doing what’s best for America in line with the consent of the governed (55% opposed according to latest Rasmussen poll).
Have you seen some of the commercials for Ally bank, where a man asks one little girl if she wants a pony and she gleefully says yes, so he hands her a toy pony. He then asks the next girl if she wants a pony and she says yes, so he calls out a live pony. The first girl, crestfallen, says, “You didn’t say I could have real pony.” To which he replies, “Well, you didn’t ask.” By now you probably know how Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Evan Byah of Indiana feel. They didn’t ask for a bribe in return for their vote on the health care bill, and like the creep in the commercial Harry Reid tells the world what a couple of saps they are for not doing so.
While Obama’s first stimulus plan lies sputtering on the ground, and he and his team tee up another one, they fail to realize that many small businesses that create most of the new jobs in this country, simply do not know what all this (health care, cap and trade, stimulus after stimulus) is going to cost them. Until they do, this uncertainty is what is keeping many of them from doing any hiring. How can you hire a new person when you no longer know how much your existing staff is going to cost when the music stops? So the unemployment picture will drag on no matter how may stimulus plans Obama rams through.
Coming to Their Senses
This is not over yet. The House version and the Senate version still have to be reconciled in committee. In the House Bart Stupak says he has 30 Democrats ready to vote against the bill, if his amendment against abortion is tampered with. The chumps in the Senate that Harry just made fools of, may re-think their support. The far left demands a public option be put in. Lieberman and a few others vow to vote against any public option. In addition, the members of Congress, when they return home to their districts, may not find them full of good cheer this Christmas, as incensed constituents express their opinions on why every Democrat in the Senate doesn’t understand 55% opposition, while they vote yea. Better watch out for flying fruitcakes, they can be lethal.
The Trick
You may have heard the Obama Administration touting the number of jobs they have saved or created through the stimulus and other economic policies. I am reminded of the old comedy routine:
Comic: (Stands alone on the stage snapping his fingers, then whistling while he clasps his hands and wiggles his fingers)
Straight man: (Walks on stage as if to pass the comic, sees him and stops) “What are you doing?”
Comic: “Keeping away the elephants.”
Straight man: “There isn’t an elephant within miles of here.”
Comic: “See, it’s working.”
There isn’t an economist around who knows how to count a job saved. There appears to be an informal survey among those who receive stimulus money to report how many jobs were saved by them receiving the funds. Do you think they may be encouraged to tell the government what it wants to hear? Here is my take on Obama’s performance.
Obama: “If we don’t approve this stimulus package immediatelywe’ll be in deep tapioca.”
Citizen: “What are you doing?”
Obama: “Saving jobs.”
Citizen: “It’s impossible to measure a job saved.”
Obama: “See, it’s working.”
The Treat(?)
Third quarter economic growth came in at 3.5%. That’s the good news and Obama is quick to credit the stimulus package that has hardly been spent. But if you look more closely at the numbers a large portion of the growth comes from:
Is it a real treat to a double dip to come?
BOO!!!
This just in, President Bush recently admitted that his administration saved 150 million jobs. When asked about this he tried not to take credit:
“I would talk Americans I met on the street and they would tell me that, well, sometimes they just felt like quitting their jobs. ‘Why should I keep gettin’ up in the morning every day and going to work, when I could just sit home and get a free house, free car, like that lady in Florida said to Obama. I couldn’t believe she said that, but he said he would have his staff get back to her.’ I would just tell the fella, that he needs to take care of himself and his family. The American economy is strong and it will pull out of this. That’s why I fought to cut your taxes.”
Truth be told, the man did not quit his job. Another job saved by President Bush, and there are millions more like it. Amazingly, it was all done without a stimulus package!!!
I know this story is hard to believe, but if you are skeptical, just go up and ask anybody who currently has a job and ask them, “Have you ever felt like quitting your job in the last eight years?” and you will have your answer. President Bush saved millions of jobs. Film at 11PM.
The Democratic mayor of Lexington, Kentucky appeared on Fox News to discuss the money he is asking for to stimulate the economy. Despite being asked three times, he dodged and never answered the question about how many jobs would be created. Wasn’t that the whole point of the stimulus plan, to create jobs? His hodgepodge of athletic field construction, and garden walkability enhancement are pork, plain and simple.
Am I alone in thinking that we will be hearing a lot more of these stories? Also, consider the number of people needed in the government to oversee this kind of massive spending, who do not currently exist. Anyone want to bet on the amount of fraud and mismanagement of massive proportions we are about to see as your children’s future is squandered?
“Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse” — Barack Obama, Op-ed piece in Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2009
Each day we wait…The most massive increase in government spending in the history of the Republic was passed on Friday night by the Senate, making it ready for President Obama’s signature. Even Senator Sherrod Brown, had a private plane take him from his mother’s wake to cast the deciding vote on Friday night.
No Time to Read the Bill
Despite the enormity of this deficit spending increase that will saddle our children and our children’s children with a huge debt burden, and despite promises from President Obama concerning transparency and time to adequately review legislation, no one had the time to read this bill before it was passed. You don’t believe me? Do the math. In 48 hours there are 2,880 minutes. The stimulus bill is over 1,100 pages long. So if you did nothing else for the 48 hours, you didn’t sleep, you didn’t eat, you didn’t go to the lavatory, you would have about 2 1/2 minutes to read and comprehend each page in the bill.
As President Obama said in the Post, we have no choice, this is URGENT! So naturally, President Obama was standing with pen ready as soon as the Senate passed the bill. It was raced up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to the waiting Chief Executive, or not.
Pretty urgent, huh? “Each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs.” So I guess the crisis has passed? I guess losing more jobs no longer matters?
Do you think it might have been prudent to give the members of Congress and the American people the extra four days to review the bill before signing it? Of course it would be prudent, but the more we examine this the more it becomes clear that this is not about stimulus. It is about rushing through a bevy of liberal spending programs under the guise of an emergency precisely so that it would not receive the scrutiny it deserves, because if it did, most Americans would be outraged.
The reason for delaying the signing for four days, is to get the most political mileage out of the signing. Signing it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the Monday holiday, would simply not have the news coverage for President Obama to bask in.
American’s Interest or Self Interest
So despite all the rhetoric, the American people get a massive debt burden, the Democrats in Congress get all the spending goodies that have been stored in the closet waiting for the right crisis opportunity, and President Obama gets just the right amount of limelight. Is that the change you were hoping for?
The neatly dressed man from Washington, tapped Joe the Plumber on the shoulder and said, “Good news, sir, you’re part of the stimulus program.”
“How, so?” Joe asked.
“Well, you’re a plumber, right?”
“Yes.”
The man from Washington grinned and snapped open his attache case and pulled out a contract. “We need to have the Community Pool repaired. It’s a ‘shovel ready’ project that will get the country moving again. But we need to start right away. So sign here.”
Joe’s business was a little slow so he looked over the contract, felt confident he could meet the requirements, signed on the dotted line and said, “I’ll get started right away.”
A Few Weeks Later
Joe was walking around the project with the building inspector, getting the final approval on the project. As they completed their circuit, the man from Washington showed up. “How’s it going?”
“It’s looks like we passed the inspection,” Joe said, “and we’ll be cleaning up now.”
“Great,” the young man said pulling two envelopes out of his attache case. “Here, you go.”
Now Joe recognized what looked to be a check so he opened that first. “Wow, that was fast.” Smiling, he folded it over and put it in his shirt pocket. He then looked down at the other envelope, and glanced quizzically at the government man, who was looking at the pool, “What’s this?”
“That? Oh, that’s your tax bill.”
“Tax bill? What tax bill?” Joe ripped open the envelope. “$19,000!!! What the hell is this?”
The Washington man looked sadly at Joe. “Well how did you think the stimulus package got funded? The Federal government gets its money from taxes.” Getting no reaction from Joe, he burst out laughing, “Did you think Uncle Sam was sitting on some massive inheritance? Do the math: $800 billion bailout, 3.5 million jobs, that’s $228,000 per job. Since you only got one month’s work out of this we divided it by 12, thus $19,000″
“How am I supposed to pay for this?”
The Washington man looked genuinely insulted. “Don’t worry about it. There’s no time limit. What you can’t pay, your kids will pay, and then your grand kids.” He snapped closed his briefcase, shook his head as he turned to walk away and muttered, “What an ingrate.”
The tax cut side of the Obama stimulus package relies on what will be $500 per individual and $1000 per couple. Do you remember the stimulative effect of the $300 tax rebate of 2008? If you think about it, it comes out to about $10 per week for an individual and $20 per week for a couple. Here in New York that will get the lovely couple a pizza pie, some soda, and a couple of dollars change. Wow! I can see the hiring binge that the pizza parlors, the sauce and cheese vendors, and the cardboard box makers will embark upon. We should have 4.1 million new jobs in no time.
But the class warfare crowd just can’t bring themselves to admit that the elimination of the capital gains tax, and an across the board tax rate cut is the best way to stimulate the economy, because some people who are wealthy might get a tax cut when they’re the people we’re supposed to be soaking. As for me, I much prefer the rich to put their money in play, rather than give it to the government to spend as those bureaucrats see fit. I just don’t think they are that good at it.
What do you think?
