Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
photo by Kevin Dooley
One of the main reasons the current economic problem is so hard to solve and the battle lines are so starkly drawn is that there is strong disagreement on what the problem is and likewise the solutions. The mantra from the left is that the problem is Bush’s fault, there was too much deregulation under Bush, although no one points to any particular regulation repealed under Bush that caused the crisis, and that we don’t tax enough. Those on the right have a different view.
Mommy! Johnny Boehner didn’t return my phone call! Waaaah! Seriously? Is this what a president says in a press briefing? Good Grief!
(This is the second of a series of articles focusing on topics presented at the Cato Policy Perspectives 2011 conference held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel on Friday, April 8, 2011)
Kicking off the conference, Ed Crane, president of the Cato Institute, talked about American exceptionalism and how President Obama doesn’t believe in that. To illustrate, he gave the example where while in Europe the president was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism, and he hedged by saying he supposed so, just at the Germans believe in German exceptionalism, the British believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. President Obama doesn’t think that America is exceptional and to the extent that he might, he is doing everything in his power to root it out.
The other key point that Mr. Crane made concerned people talking about national goals and aspirations. Nations shouldn’t have goals. People should have goals and nations should protect their right to pursue them. Who wants Washington to set some goals and then have individuals reorder their lives to fit into the grand plan? To me that is the essence of the battle between libertarianism and statism. This is also a nice segue into the Cato presentation on education provided by Charles Murray.
“I always use the word extreme, that’s what the caucus instructed me to do the other week, extreme cuts and all these riders, and Boehner’s in a box but if he supports the Tea Party, there’s inevitably [be] a shutdown. – Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)
In an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Senator Marco Rubio said:
Every generation has had to confront and solve serious challenges and, because they did, each has left the next better off. Until now.
It brought to mind the movie Generation Zero, that chronicles the origins of the great financial meltdown that we have experienced. In that movie they point to one of the contributing factors the transition in power from those who lived through the Great Depression and World War II to the Baby Boomers, who knew little deprivation in their lives. Now as these boomers, of which I am one, took the reins of power, caution was thrown to the wind.
By now you are probably getting pretty tired of the comparisons of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and how Obama is/would/should apply the lessons learned by Bill Clinton and coast to a second term. I, however, have always seen Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as two very different politicians with different goals.
When President Obama and his team stood before their supporters and introduced ObamaCare you could almost hear them sing in unison the Carly Simon song, “Nobody does it better…”. They were going to bring us the health care we had been waiting for. Magically covering every soul in America whether they wanted it or not. If they did not, the government would be just like granny used to be, “Open wide, this won’t hurt a bit.” Come to think of it, was that granny or… never mind.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. – Unknown (often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville)
An article in The Hill newspaper titled “Teachers union expands playing field for midterms” describes how the teachers’ union is getting out supporting certain candidates.
After an anemic GDP report for the second quarter of 2010 of 1.7% growth, the third quarter barely topped it at 2.0%. With only four days left before the election and the mood against Obamanomics already at a boil, this is not good news for the Democrats. The Wall Street Journal reports:
With the holiday season just around the corner, the outlook for spending by Americans doesn’t look great either. A gauge of consumer confidence has been falling since June as Americans worry about weak home prices and jobs.
So much for the stimulus. The recession ended before dollar one of the stimulus hit the streets and over a year later the economy is still crawling. So don’t look for the unemployment numbers to be changing anytime soon under this administration’s plan.
Tuesday, November 2, will be interesting.
New York state government is a basket case. Earlier this week we were treated to the theater of the governor’s debate featuring such luminaries as Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is 2 Damn High party, and former madam Kristin Davis who seemed smarter on fiscal policy than half of her opponents on the stage. But let us not forget it was a stage and this is New York. Instead of being held at Hofstra University, it should have been held on Broadway, but I digress.
The government itself is one problem, the state pensions are quite another. A problem on the order of $30 billion to $80 billion. Harry Wilson is running for state comptroller. Mr. Wilson made his money on Wall Street, investing and turning around troubled companies. His opponent, Tom DiNapoli was appointed to the comptroller position after his predecessor, Alan Hevesi, was charged misconduct for trading access to the pension in return for favors.
