Herman Cain probably had the best reaction to the President’s speech: “We waited 30 months for this?”
My reaction yesterday was mixed. In some sense, I was almost embarrassed for the President. He demanded a speech to a joint session of Congress and then produced a list of recycled (regurgitated might be a better word) Keynesian gimmicks.
But I was also angry. Tens of millions of Americans are suffering, but Obama is unwilling to admit big government isn’t working. I don’t know whether it’s because of ideological blindness or short-term politics, but it’s a tragedy that ordinary people are hurting because of his mistakes.
The Wall Street Journal this morning offered a similar response, but said it in a nicer way.
This is not to say that Mr. Obama hasn’t made any intellectual progress across his 32 months in office. He now admits the damage that overregulation can do, though he can’t do much to stop it without repealing his own legislative achievements. He now acts as if he believes that taxes matter to investment and hiring, at least for the next year. And he now sees the wisdom of fiscal discipline, albeit starting only in 2013. Yet the underlying theory and practice of the familiar ideas that the President proposed last night are those of the government conjurer. More targeted, temporary tax cuts; more spending now with promises of restraint later; the fifth (or is it sixth?) plan to reduce housing foreclosures; and more public works spending, though this time we’re told the projects really will be shovel-ready.
And let’s also note that Obama had the gall to demand that Congress immediately enact his plan – even though he hasn’t actually produced anything on paper!
And then, for the cherry on the ice cream sundae, he says he wants the so-called supercommittee to impose a bunch of class-warfare taxes to finance his latest scheme.
What began as tragedy has now become farce.
If you didn’t see it when I posted it a month or so ago, here’s the video I did last year when Obama was proposing a second faux stimulus. Now that he’s on his fourth of fifth jobs-bill/stimulus/growth-package/whatever, it’s worth another look.
Though I must confess that I made a mistake when I put together this video. I mistakenly assumed the economy would have at least managed to get back to a semi-decent level of growth. More confirmation that economists are lousy forecasters.
It should be obvious to everyone by this time that Obama’s agenda is a blatant attempt to destroy our economy, our national defense, our national pride and our way of life. There is no other explanation for his actions, which are supported by almost every traitorous Democrat presently infesting the Capitol Building.
Farce is not a good description of Obama and his administration… Tragedy is a more apt description as it relates to the American people.
Obama’s provacative “pass my bill now” was partly a lure to goad Republicans to publicly “reject” it and fuel the perception that the Republicans are ideologically intransigent.
Obama’s “pass by bill now” also sounded like a snake oil salesman’s plea, “buy now while prices are low, “it” won’t be available later…. you don’t want to pass up this deal… this is the panacea YOU NEED!”
Republicans in the House should take the President’s bill and immediately “amend” it using sound economics, then send it to the Senate and the President with a big speech saying “Pass the people’s bill NOW”.
Obama isn’t trying to destroy the economy. We ought to at least give him the benefit of assuming his intentions are in the right place before agreeing his methods are destructively misguided. The real problem, I think, is that Keynesians actually, genuinely, inexplicably believe that Keynesianism works.
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Here is the the plan that I would have put forth (and Daniel, please don’t blow your top!).
1. Give notice that we will be dissolving our membership in GATT and NAFTA.
2. Create a NEW government agency called “The Institute for Industrial Infrastructure,” charged with restarting those industries that we have lost and making sure that those industries that remain are fully competitive in world markets and restore the tariff structure that existed prior to WWII.
3. Close all foreign military bases and disengage from Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
4. Repeal the family reunification provisions of the “Immigration Reform Act of 1965,” the “diversity lottery” and the Refugee Act of 1980.
5. Stop all foreign aid except emergency humanitarian aid and stop funding the UN.
6. Dissolve the Department of Education.
7. Repeal Obamcare and replace it with a voluntary system modeled after the British NHS (horror of horrors) where costs are strictly controlled and physicians are salaried.
8. Repeal onerous environmental laws that are not based on provable science.
9. Term limit senators to 12 years and congresscritters to 6; in other words, put a dent in the duopoly that got us into the current mess.
The president’s repeated cry to “pass this bill now” reminds me of a baby crying over and over for his binky. It’s a revealing glimpse into Obama’s malignant narcissism.
Of course the economists and the politicians are lousy forecasters. They are too busy responding to the static or examining their navels to recognize the long term, fundamental factors driving our supply-demand economy.
That major drag is demographic. How the hell can you have a prosperous economy with a 43% decline in the birth rate and after aborting 30% of our under-45 population (54.5 million to date)? It’s just not possible.
It would be like me trying to take off in my airplane on one engine with full flaps and 50% power. I had better stop before I hit the end of the runway.
You should certainly know better, Dan. You interviewed me twice on Paul Weyrich’s NET back in 1996 when I began forecasting a major economic crisis ahead because of our abortion policies. I even gave the dates — starting in 2000 and extending to 2010 and probably 2020. You were one of the few who listened then, but then you got lost in the static.
Yes, there are plenty of other mistaken policies that have affected the economy and compounded the problem, but simply cutting spending and taxes won’t bring this economy back until we change our population policies. I hesitate to use the “A” word because that brings down the PC police and shuts down the discussion.
Dan, you were one of the first to hear my warning in ’96. It is getting late. People better start listening now.
Art, wow, thank you for matching my sentiments on all 9 points (although I would improve on point 7 because we actually are close to a solution to Medicaid…. turn over Medicaid patients to managed care organizations like Amerigroup… funded at the State level.)
Within the past two decades, fertility rates have declined substantially among non- Hispanic blacks (from 91 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 1980 to 67 per 1,000
in 2005)* and among American Indian and Alaska Native women (from 83 births per 1,000 to 60 births per 1,000 women between 1980 and 2005)*. Fertility rates also
declined slightly overall among non-Hispanic whites (from 62 births per 1,000 women in
1980 to 58 births per 1,000 women in 2005)*.
Fertility rates among Hispanics, however, increased from 95 births per 1,000 women in 1980 to 108 per 1,000 women in 1990
[...] let’s be blunt about assigning blame. Yes, Obama has been a reckless big spender, but he is merely continuing the irresponsible statist policies of his [...]
[...] let’s be blunt about assigning blame. Yes, Obama has been a reckless big spender, but he is merely continuing the irresponsible statist policies of his [...]
[...] let’s be blunt about assigning blame. Yes, Obama has been a reckless big spender, but he is merely continuing the irresponsible statist policies of his [...]