Since 1980, the idea that government is bad has dominated American politics — from Ronald Reagan’s maxim that government is the problem, not the solution, to Bill Clinton’s declaration that “the era of big government is over.” But President Barack Obama’s inaugural address marked the beginning of a new — or at least renewed — paradigm that shifts the balance between… return to article
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Reader Comments (13)Page 1 of 1 pagesObama vows to change inscription on Statue of Liberty….. See it here, http://stopthepresses2.blogspot.com/search/label/Socialist
Posted by stopthepresses2 on Mar 8, 2009 at 6:25 PM I have an immediate solution to all our economic problems.
The Federal Debt was approaching $9 trillion at the end of 2006.
LBJ’s War on Poverty cost $6.6 trillion over a thirty year period, and was a complete, total, absolute waste. The poverty rate was the same in 1995 as in 1965, and the WoP was ended because of fraud, waste, and lack of positive results. Moreover, the social costs (broken families, crime, drugs, prisons) were probably as great as the direct cost to the Treasury.
[DEMONICRATS complain bitterly that President Reagan increased the national debt, but the total increase in the national debt during the Reagan years was just 7% more than the War on Poverty mandate. Without LBJ’s WoP, Reagan’s national debt increase would have been $113 billion, instead of the $1.873 trillion actual.]
Carter passed CRA 1977 which did not do enough damage, so Clinton enhanced CRA by requiring loans to people who had no means to repay them, and approved the bundling of toxic mortgages with good mortgages, resulting in worldwide distribution of bad paper. The last time we had a coherent statement of the cost to the DEMONICRATS’ Mortgage Follies was the Paulson bailout, when the Mortgage Fiasco cost was $700 billion. This was a complete, total, absolute waste of American taxpayers’ money. But the markets and the mortgages have been in free fall since that time, and there is no way to ascertain the value of anything at this point.
The markets are in freefall because Obama was running for president, and then got elected. Everyone knows that Marxists are functionally inefficent and institutionally corrupt, so what sane person would leave his assets exposed to Marxist inefficiency, corruption, or confiscation? Fewer by the day.
The solution to our problems is for Obama to resign and for DEMONICRATS to reimburse the treasury, sort of like a tax on stupidity. Each DEMONICRAT who voted for Obama would be taxed a pro-rata amount ($20,000, $30,000, $40,000, whatever), to pay off their share of the national debt, and useless idiots like Moberg would have a special assessment of $500,000 to cover expenses. If Mr. Moberg is not in position to pay off his share of the national debt, he can go to re-education camp until it is paid off. This should be no problems since Marxists are big on re-education camps.
Posted by scorp on Mar 8, 2009 at 8:13 PM Bravo Scorp!
Truly one of your best ever.
I needed some cheering up and have you to thank for it.
God Bless you. And the United States.
Posted by Jiminy Cricket on Mar 11, 2009 at 4:57 AM Reagan said government is the problem — Absolutely right then and now!
Paulson left Goldman Sachs in time to save himself $200 million tax on the $500 million GS shares he “had to sell to eliminate possible conflict of interest” when he went to Treasury Sec. His major accomplishment there was the rescue of his Wall St. buddies with TARP 1.
He had already managed to get the Congress to boost the margin for banks from 20:1 to 40:1 while at Goldman.
Barney Frank gave his “spouse” at Fannie Mae a new pay package based on a percentage of loans issued (up to $400.000 each). Talk about “conflict of interest”! Then pushed the idea of the “right to own a home”.
Rubin as Sec. of Treasury allowed the repeal of Glass-Steagal and went back to the financial business to take advantage of its repeal.
Bush’s administration began this “too big to fail” fiasco and Obama grabbed the ball with his continued cries of “Emergency!” The bill he just signed was ” Flawed, (8,000 earmarks) but “the signal of an end to business as usual.”
A possible outcome we should be aware of with all this recent government activity.
“The roots of violence are wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principals.”—Mahatma Gandhi
Posted by whattheheck on Mar 12, 2009 at 1:00 PM Scorp,
Long time, but how did your enthusiasm for the economic conditions pay off last year?
I did my best to warn you, but still not too late to go for the gold.
Posted by whattheheck on Mar 12, 2009 at 1:02 PM WTH -
Hello again.
Long time, but how did your enthusiasm for the economic conditions pay off last year? I did my best to warn you, but still not too late to go for the gold.
I’m afraid you will have to be more specific. You certainly did not warn me about Obama, it was I who warned you about Him. My comments to you on Obama include:
“God help us all if Obama brings his tender Socialist ministrations to the economy.”
ObaMarxist and theDEMONICRATS’ Mortgage Follies are the only things that have happened in this economy, $50 trillion and counting.
I went back and reviewed every single word I wrote to you since 3 December 2007 and I do not know a thing of what you are talking. One of your principal themes was restricting trade to preserve American jobs. That was bad policy in the 1930s when FDR used it to prolong the Great Depression, and it is bad policy now. Free trade contributed immeasurably to our economy in correcting the terrible effects of the Bubba Bubble and in the sterling economic performance during the middle years of the Bush Administration. And free trade will help to get us out of the Obama Depression, after the DEMONICRATS quit creating crises in order to waste the economy for their benefit.
Emanuel’s statement that, “A crisis is a a terrible thing to waste”, was cynical and Rahmboy did not bother to explain the DEMONICRATS long-term efforts to damage the economy: War on Poverty - $6.6 trillion dollars wasted, extremely bad social result (broken families, crime, drugs) and Mortgage Follies - $1+ trillion wasted (collapse of mortgages, banks, and financial institutions, followed by worldwide markets meltdown).
The recent downturn in the economy was the direct result of the DEMONICRATS passing laws to require banks to give loans to people who could not repay their mortgages. That was a disaster that morphed into a catastrophe as people realized that the USA was really going to elect a Marxist to the presidency, with all the inefficiency and corruption that would result.
On a different note, here is Obama’s recent take on the economy:
“Obama says US economy sound, reassures investors.”
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090314/D96U1UF02.html
Three weeks ago ObaMarxist was loud and clear that the economy was in crisis. To keep the economy from going from crisis to catastrophe, ObaMarxist proposed spending every cent our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren ever earn on government programs, extending into perpetuity. That is to say, ObaMarxist is proposing a Marxist state for the USA.
Now, before a single cent of that multi-trillion dollars has been spent, ObaMarxist says, “US economy sound, reassures investors”.
Weird.
Posted by scorp on Mar 15, 2009 at 5:09 PM Obama campaigned under the promise that he would significantly reduce our military forces in Iraq in his first year and a half in office, resulting in a savings to the taxpayer of billions of dollars each month.
However, he also made it clear that he would support a significant increase in our forces in Afghanistan-at least an additional 30,000 troops.
I don’t think he will be able to cut the forces in Iraq by the number that he desires during his term, and I predict that he will sign off on an even greater increase in Afghanistan over the next few years.
Where is the savings?
Posted by patrick hattman on Mar 16, 2009 at 3:31 PM Scorp,
You obviously missed my views on Obama. I voted for him once Illinois — never again. (In fairness to myself on this, the alternative was even wackier.)
You won’t hear any defense of Obama or any of his team of Clinton retreads from me. The only “change I can believe in” is for a Socialist takeover of our few remaining freedoms.
I my opinion Obama is the sound of one mouth flapping.
Obama has only ever had one thing in mind, his own career. He is a very politically savvy guy who knows how to campaign. He has never stopped campaigning even after being elected. He has NO leadership experience and has abdicated that role to Pelosi. He has written NO significant legislation, but has written two books about (surprise!) …himself.
He is now working on staying elected for another four.
As I recall the job issue and the effect on our economy is where we disagreed. You saw it as a plus and I as a minus. What has happened with the trade deficit (to trade profitably we need to have THINGS to sell other countries) and is now happening with the job losses is a product of irresponsible, lemming-like rushing to offshore our best paying jobs.
I have done well the past year and a half betting against the US and global economies.
We could/should have prevented CEOs from exporting jobs merely to boost share prices on their options. A slower move to globalization would have avoided our current lose of our middle class. Now even more of the best service jobs are going to the increased H1-b visas per requests by Bill Gates’ Microsoft and IBM. Indians are taking the jobs our own college grads should have. GIs when they come home will find no jobs for them.
Rampant greed is killing our country.
We will now probably see a Congressional verbal bashing of foreign job loss (too late) just to look pro—American. My own Congressman, Don Manzullo, reversed his view two years ago after 15 years of bragging about our local exports increasing — to all the US companies former which used to be within US borders.
We didn’t have real free trade, just legislatively backed free reign of big corporations sucking us dry.
The 2004 American Jobs Creation Act was nothing more than a sop to the EEU complaints of our subsidies to US businesses and a chance for US corps to bring home foreign profits at a reduced tax. No jobs were required to be created in the US under that bill.
The dumping of Glass-Steagall, boosting (at Paulson’s urging) of the banks margin from 20:1 to 40:1, the Barney Frank’s payoffs to his lover-boy at Fannie Mae — by allowing pay based on a percentage of loans issued — and now the bailout of Wall St. bond holders by the rest of us are all examples of of what passes for “free trade”.
IMO, the recent downturn in the economy you refer to began with NAFTA, followed by the legislation above and the Greenspan credit binge of far too long, too low rates and the idea that everyone has a “right” to own a home — regardless of ability to pay. It is being extended and by policies begun under Bush and is being expanded under Obama.
The 70% US consumer dependent economy is in deep trouble with the coninuing job losses and fear of loss causing people to save.
All the talk of restoring trust in the system is BS.
As long as the same guys are allowed to keep their jobs, their bonuses and no one at the SEC, Moodys, S&P rating agencies is prosecuted the only trust will be the manufactured media “good news” which began last week with Obama and Larry Summers doing the TV bit.
My biggest laugh came frm the report that Citicorp made a profit! If I had been given one percent of the cash they have taken, I would still have a business. Most people don’t no the difference between profit and operating profit.
Posted by whattheheck on Mar 16, 2009 at 3:38 PM hey, where did all of you MOUTH BREATHING, SLACK JAWED, BED WETTING ,cynical ,right wing crybabies come from? Go relinquish your wealth ( it was made possible through Marxist agendas from FDR and LBJ) now move your crying cuntservative cynical whiny Rush Limpballs fawning ass over to a good old squalid gun brandishing third world hell hole and try to survive over there. They have the best freedom money can buy
Posted by bigbrass1s on Mar 22, 2009 at 6:00 AM scorp is one of these idiots who actually bought these anti tax payer/anti labor canards
Posted by bigbrass1s on Mar 22, 2009 at 6:07 AM Yes, deep in his heart Obama is a politician first. He knows that those that vote, vote their 401k’s. Reagan was a brilliant destructor of populism by getting everyone to put their retirement eggs in with the large corporations, he also started taxing my student stipend and unemployment benefits (a self-fulfilling prophecy of inefficient government). Lets stop for a moment to be thankful that social security didn’t go to Wall St too—that was one of the few things that was denied GWB during his reign of plunder. Also, let me remind the wingnut posters that a Republican congress put the demise of Glass-Steagal on Bill Clinton’s desk.
I supported Obama, especially during the primary. One of the reasons for my not supporting H. Clinton was knowing that NYC banks would be asking for tax money. Well, BHO is a crook too (my bad), and McCain would have done the same thing.
How did I know that economic crisis was on the horizon as early as 2005? I knew by getting news from financial blogs, not CNBC. Many blogs were warning of the housing bubble, though few thought we were headed for GD 2.0. I got out of the stock market long before it went bust. Then, I got out of the money market and into an fdic insured account a full year before the problems of fannie and freddie were publicized. Now I’ve bought a gold ETF to hedge against the collapse of the dollar.
Those that were screaming about impending doom were ignored by the corporate controlled MSM because there was lots of money to be made on the way up the debt-fueled bubbles. The guy that started the tea parties, Rick Santelli (a rational voice among the CNBC clowns) ranted about how the taxes were being SPENT, he did not even mention how the taxes were being COLLECTED. He was against the corporate welfare before Obama was elected. His concept has been hijacked by the top 2% income earners (whiners).
Posted by Bill Leonard on Apr 18, 2009 at 5:21 AM Having slept on it, I would like to retract the “BHO is a crook” comment. I’m withholding judgement. He’s the first candidate to whom I have donated a significant amount of money. Its hard to watch the bailouts of the wealthy, but he’s a lawyer, not an economist. He is relying on the advice of the same people who profited from the debt-fueled bubble and all they want is to shift the blame and the burden to others.
Given Bush’s disrespect for the law, BHO seemed like an ideal successor (editor of the Harvard law review). Also, Bill Clinton’s outsourcing of jobs to ramp up profits on those 401k monsters and Hillary’s position on the board of Walmart leave me suspect of the Clintons.
If they just let the ponzi bubble collapse now, people would become really worried about the future of the social security safety net. But will those dollars be worth anything? Even with no increase in spending, the tax base is about to be halved. Ask Icelanders what happened when their debt-to-GDP went to 800%.
Posted by Bill Leonard on Apr 18, 2009 at 2:27 PM Not sure that I agree with all of your points but certainly a well written article.
Posted by Jason Coo on May 15, 2009 at 3:33 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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