A Nation of Hope / A Nation of Despair

Barack Obama promised to fundamentally change America. What America thought it was going to get was an oratorical vision…there are no red states; there are no blue states; there is only the United States. Well, talk is cheap. What we actually got was a partisan of the worst degree whose idea of compromise was  my way or the highway.

Armed with a Democratic House and Senate, Obama moved unilaterally to spend us into oblivion. His definition of stimulus is different than mine. To me, stimulus is building hard projects…bridges and roads and airplanes and schools. His idea of stimulus was using the bulk of the money to fund liberal pet projects that produced few new jobs and were geared to saving government union jobs. Now the money has run out. Jobs that he did produce cost in excess of $500,000.00 per job, if any at all.

I saw a concert tonight that had an American Bandstand segment in it. For those of you under 40, that was Dick Clark’s pop music dance program…you know…the old guy ABC drags out on New Year’s Eve?? At any rate, flashed across the back of the stage were pictures of a simpler America filled with sock hops and poodle skirts. Is this the America Obama wanted to fundamentally change? And change to what?

On the 11:00 news right after the concert, a local television station ran a news story about an African American woman who wanted to do something about hunger in her neighborhood. She literally set up a soup line on a sidewalk in Youngstown’s south side. She runs it at the end of the month to help those whose monthly check has run out and still need to buy food. Children were lined up for take out containers filled with spaghetti and meatballs. Is this the America Barack Obama wants? Does he want a nation of dependents?

One little boy kept looking into the container, and at the food spread out on the table. It broke my heart. What did that little boy learn lining up for food? Did he learn how to shift for himself and how to make money…or did he learn that food comes from the government or charity, and he should be glad for whatever government largess gives to him? Does he learn true hope or true despair?  We did that to those people. 

Nobody wants to see anyone go hungry, but when 52% of the population does not make enough money to pay income tax…and almost 20% of the population is on food stamps…there is a big, big problem. Where are these folks going to work? You see, Obama doesn’t care about making jobs. He cares about increasing dependence on the government. He views business as dirty, and evil, and greedy…something that must be suppressed.  His priorities are world government, dissipation of American power, global warming, and social justice...translate social misery. His goals are loftier than worrying about someone standing in a soup line. That person is the price we pay to achieve those esoteric goals.   

The people of the United States have yet to fully understand what Obama has done: punish free enterprise and make a nation of dependents addicted to worthless government dollars. The people of the United States do not fully understand Obamacare, and when they do they will realize what a liar and manipulator Obama is. He is nothing more than a silver tongued snake oil salesman, the is the Bureaucrat in Chief with no understanding of the real world. He is the ultimate oligarch…the ultimate control freak.

Business has come to a standstill because percolating underneath that winning smile is a plethora of regulations too large for the American public to understand.  These are all set to kick in 2014/15, after the election.  Although most Americans don't understand what is happening in Washington, businessmen do.  And America will too when non-union company employees are booted off their health care plan as companies opt to pay a government "fine" and leave the employees to their own devices buying subsidized government health care in their local state insurance exchanges.  How good do you think THOSE policies are going to be...and we will be up to our chins in a sea of red ink for the next 100 years.

Under these circumstances, why would businesses hire anybody?

That little African American boy looking at that Styrofoam takeout package of spaghetti is the future of the United States unless we awake from our sweet smelling Obama stupor and see things as they are.   Folks, we can do better than this.

Blue Dog Democrats Resurgent?

In all the years I have been following politics I have never seen a presidency completely collapse. Left wing pundits out of excuses have put on their smarmy faces and are screaming warning, warning, warning about the those reactionary tea party devils who have shifted the center of the Republican Party to a spot somewhat right of Mussolini. As Congresswoman Maxine Waters expressed that sentitment the other day saying the Tea Party can all go to hell. The Progressive message: we don’t have anything to offer, but they are much worse. Hope that works out for them!!!!!

The fact is that America is slowly coming to the conclusion that Obama is finished, and is now systematically searching for an alternative. Republicans are not satisfied with the field of assorted candidates. Romney is the ghost candidate who is running a stealth political campaign. He is the front runner, but his appearances are few and far between. It’s tough to find anyone who is “for” him. He is the least objectionable opponent to Obama. Most people, including me, think he would do a good job; but enthusiasm is lacking. Like John McCain’s mother told us in the 2008 campaign, hold your nose and vote for him.

What seems to be happening now is a spontaneous effort to find a more acceptable Republican candidate, and this movement crosses the political spectrum clear into the Democratic Party. The vast majority of Republicans are in the undecided column as to who the nominee should be. Support for specific candidates is weak and fluid. Independents, while indicating they would vote overwhelmingly for a generic Republican, have Romney even with Obama, and all the rest somewhat behind. Where can I get a campaign sign for a generic Republican?

But I have noticed an interesting phenonoman on Fox News. Strange pundits seem to be showing up for commentary. These are folks from CBS, ABC, and the New York Times. Whoa!! What are they doing there? And the comments they are making indicate that there may be a resurgence of Blue Dog Democrats. Maybe, just maybe, the center/left Democrats have finally had their fill of social democratic Keynesian claptrap as the economy continues to go down the tubes. Maybe, just maybe, a segment of the Democratic true believers are coming out of their Obama stupor, realizing that they live in this country too, and as far as national leadership goes…Houston, we have a problem.

Those black busses of death that Obama spent two million dollars on (made in Canada), criss-crossing the Midwest in campaign mode at the taxpayers’ expense, may have been the tipping point. “See you in September” just doesn’t cut it when the future looks so bleak and Obama is going to Martha’s Vineyard to cavort with all of the millionaire jet owners he wants us to hate so much. Historians may view this past week as the week that marked the beginning of the end of the Obama administration, and the week that America finally emerged from the sweet smelling smoked induced Obama stupor propagated by the press. Dudes, put out the funny cigarettes, the country going down the crapper.

Deals are now being made with Republican candidates that are center right; that would generate Republican enthusiasm and may allow for quiet acceptance of fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats. Not that they would campaign or work for the Republican, they would just let Obama slip quietly into his Keynesian swamp of debt and despair. It’s important to some of these Dems that they get along with Republicans after the November election. It’s not only the Presidency at stake, but control of the Senate. They could end up with a Republican Trifecta, with Republicans controlling, once again, both houses of Congress and the Presidency.

Who is on the short list? Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio!!! In the VP column…Meg Whitman, Herman Cain, John Kasich.

Chris Christie was and remains my choice for President. His New Jersey swagger makes his political style familiar to Democrats. His tough love stance and masterful control of an out of control New Jersey government makes him appealing across the spectrum of Republican political thought. He is someone we can be “for”.

In the meantime, we look forward to Obama’s September address and plan….almost three years in the making!!! Maybe he can stand outside of one of those Canadian made busses when he gives it. The only redeeming thing was they weren't made in China....well maybe 50%.  I would have to check the sticker!!!!!

Mr. President: Show Me Now

I am absolutely flabbergasted at what I am reading on the editorial pages of the newspapers as they turn on Obama one by one. What is fascinating is they view the failure of Obama’s policies as the failure of Obama rather than the failure of the policies. These policies should have worked. They didn’t. Therefore it must be Obama’s fault. He didn’t fight hard enough. He caved too often. He should have done more.

The reality is that, outside of closing Gitmo, Obama gave his left wing base pretty much everything they asked for: Obamacare, global warming regs through the EPA rather than through legislation. Although he didn’t get card check for unions, he sued Boeing for building a plant in a non-union state. He increased banking regulations…stymied oil drilling growth (notwithstanding rhetoric to the contrary), and gave them the most massive spending bill in the history of the United States the effect of which was to double the national debt. Hidden in that bill was every pet project his base ever wanted and was denied. Now the economy is headed back into recession, and there are no more bullets in the liberal gun except for MORE spending…and that don’t work!!!!

Here’s the dirty little secret for those liberal media types criticizing Obama for his failures. It isn’t just Obama’s policies that have failed. It is YOUR policies that have failed. You can’t spend your way into prosperity, tax the people who are generating the money, sue the companies that generate the jobs while slapping more regulations on them, and turn the health care system upside down through a bill which I believe will ultimately be declared unconstitutional, and then wonder where the jobs are!!!!!

Every twenty years or so America flirts with liberalism and progressives hoping for that utopian life painted by these folks. It’s not there. It’s a lie. Life is hard. Government can help ease pain and nudge the country in various directions, but it cannot be the be all and end all of life as we know it without smothering the country using coercive efforts to get people not to do what people normally do naturally. If Prohibition taught us anything, it may look good on paper, but the cure is usually worse than the disease. Another generation has now learned the facts of life, and moves back to what made this country great, individual initiative and hard work. Here is the golden rule of economics: If you tax it, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it. Not a hard lesson to learn, but one that this country needs to learn over and over again.

I feel sorry of Obama. He physically looks bad. His lofty rhetoric doesn’t sound so lofty anymore. Hope and change are gone and replaced by despair and vindictiveness. The riots in England are a morality play showing where this country is headed. The credit downgrade is embarrassing. The death of the Navy Seals in the helicopter tragedy in Afghanistan brings into the question his self declared “right” war and his strategy in waging it (Here's a hint: Don’t tell the bad guys when you are leaving). His economic team deserted him. The one remaining, Tim Geithner, has lost all credibility. And now his media groupies are saying he didn’t do enough. What’s an Obama to do?

Pragmatic politicians would naturally shift to the center, but he is so dogmatic he can’t. So he is once again turning to his “political” abilities. He goes on vacation, then goes out campaigning. It won’t work this time. People have gotten sea sick following your head alternating between teleprompters. In the immortal words of Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady:

Don’t wait until wrinkle and lines

Pop up all over my brow

Show me now!!!!

Three Things the Government Can Do NOW to Save our Economy (and won't cost a cent!)

Whether we like it or not, America is the economic engine that drives the rest of the world. As of late, we have failed in our responsibility. As the country stood on the precipice of economic disaster in 2008, a knee jerk reaction elected a man who has no business sense, no business background, and whose political ideology is rooted in the social justice rhetoric of the 1960’s. Now our credit has been downgraded. The following stock market “correction” is investors voting with their feet, walking away from a deficit that has skyrocketed out of control and is perceived as being beyond repair.

I disagree. With the downgrade in our credit rating, further stimulus is a non starter. On the revenue side, the country needs tax reform, not tax reduction. That makes either of the approaches problematic. But there are three things the government can do that won’t cost us or it one solitary dime, and push the economy into overdrive.

1) Remove restrictions on energy production NOW. Tens of thousands of direct jobs, and hundreds of thousands of indirect support jobs would blossom within months. Drill here. Drill now. It would have the added bonus of driving down gasoline costs, keeping the money here at home instead of being sent to OPEC. This is a no brainer, but Obama’s EPA director said this morning that she is only interested in training for green jobs. Like all others in the Obama administration, the EPA is clueless.

2) Rein in the EPA so manufacturing can experience a rebirth in the country. Speed up the approval process. All permit rejections and/or new regulations must be subject to a test of reasonableness. The loss of tens of thousands of jobs to save some obscure snail is not reasonable. Congress created the EPA, and Congress can limit what it does. Any bets on this one?

3) Repeal Obamacare. It is a disaster. The general public doesn’t know what is going on because it is hidden by an ignorant and/or corrupt press. Obama has given compliance exemptions to all of his cronies, but not to the average small businessman, and not to you and to me. As business find out what’s in this monstrosity, many are making decisions to eliminate health care as a benefit and pay a penalty, or simply close up shop. THERE IS NO FREE RIDE. Obama lied to the public as to what this bill does, and he will continue to lie until it is operational and bankrupting businesses and the nation. Eliminating Obamacare has a shot. The Supreme Court will take it up this fall with a ruling expected as to its constitutionality next spring or summer ( I believe they will kill it). The debt commission this fall may address many of the more offensive parts of the bill. And if the Republicans take the Senate and the Presidency in 2012…bye bye bye Obamacare in 2013.

These three things will add nothing to the national debt, and stimulate in business in ways that will bring a windfall into the US Treasury. If you want to give them a steroid boost, eliminate the capital gains tax and the money will rush into this country like water through a broken dam. Capital always finds the easy sweet spot.

But that assumes Obama will finally figure out his whack job Keynesian economics didn’t work. And if you believe he is capable of doing that, would you be interested in a bridge in Brooklyn?

The Triple Noose Around America's Neck: OPEC, China, the EPA

By the time you read this, Congress may or may not have passed legislation relating to the debt ceiling and budget cuts. All of this is interesting, but it is the symptom and not the problem. All of the cutting and raising and easing doesn’t mean a thing. The problem is energy, China and the EPA. Until those things are resolved, you might as well bend over and kiss your behind goodbye.

The root of our problem is energy. Instead of listening to common sense, we have buried our heads in a bunch of environmental crap and junk science global warming.  Recent statistics compiled by NASA show that computer models used by the United Nations predicting global catastrophe are based on heat dissipation figures that are pure fiction.  NASA has the real figures, and those UN models are not even close. The transfer of money from the United States to OPEC is in excess of $1 billion/day. It is the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, and we let it happen while listening to every whack job do-gooder that comes down the pike rather than our good common sense. Until we become energy independent, including opening up the country for drilling, establishment of wind farms, building nuclear energy plants, solar energy production, and building an infrastructure to allow for the development of natural gas, hydrogen, and electric powered cars…NOTHING WILL GET BETTER. We cannot continue to allow the greenbacks printed by our treasury to be converted into petrodollars controlled by our enemies.

China is not our friend. Is it a military competitor like the Soviet Union? No. It is a commercial predator that has systematically horded most of the world’s cash reserves using slave labor and violating human rights. It has violated every financial convention there is by manipulating its currency. And it doesn’t even deny it!!! It just says it will address the problem in due time. ENOUGH. What isn’t going to OPEC is going to China. America…wake up.

And one of the reasons everything is going to China is what little is left of our manufacturing base in this country is being smothered by the EPA. The EPA is strangling us. The environment is the religion of the left, and used to punish those evil capitalists who are wasting the world’s resources. Horse manure! The EPA has turned into an institution geared towards wealth redistribution at the behest of the loony left. One volcanic eruption can spew as much junk into the atmosphere as all the cars in the world can produce in year. If you want to America to prosper once again, the EPA has to be reined in as it starts to implement by fiat the cap and trade regulations defeated by Congress. FYI, China has surpassed the United States in energy consumption, yet you won’t hear the do-gooders complain about that. No, that is still the worker’s paradise. If you think for one minute China gives a rip about the environment, think again.

America has turned into a pauper nation through bad energy policy, bad trade policy, and bad environmental policy. No monetary or fiscal policy can fix the problem.  There is no money left. It’s time for America to wake up before it is to late. I have seen the enemy, and it is us.