105 Comments

1. smitty:

Republicans, Democrats: why don’t we just admit the real problem is Progressivism?

Jul 16, 2009 - 12:39 pm 2. ET:

But of course, the typical middle- to low-income voter will see no problem at all with this, and will continue to support Obama, and even believe that he is somehow doing the right thing.

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to argue that all this is by design, and intended to ensure Democrat-voting majorities everywhere.

Add in a quasi-official, White House-sort-of-sponsored “Community Organizing” group like ACORN, and presto! Equality of results forever, and a permanent lock on power for the new elites. (Four legs good, Two legs, BETTER!)

Jul 16, 2009 - 12:45 pm 3. Gaffe Prices:

I don’t buy the notion that presidents balance the budget. But you are right, any president could, and this president could, but won’t.

The Reagan era deficits were the result of compromise: Reagan had his idea of fed spending and Tip O’Neill had his, neither stood much in the way of the others fed spending policy priorities.

However, Reagan’s repeal of previous higher tax rates, tripled the budget coming into D.C., as did Bush tax cuts in 2001. Fed govt can lower tax rates and increase revenue, but so far there is no check on the amount of spending, nor the growth of government at well fed level.

The GDP is still in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, and the agenda, as it stands now unchecked, is that there is always plenty of money somewhere to loot for the sake of the oligarchs. This has all been done previously through debate and compromise, but 0bama’s kleptocrats want, at the very least, at least 51% of GDP in their hands or more to fulfill 0bamas “Fundamentally Change Washington” promise to eliminate any last vestige of representation, debate or compromise.

The national debt or deficits is irrelevant compared with the well fed government’s ability to remove the checks on its power, which would default to the states, were it not for the principle that whenever states such as Michigan, California New York, Massachusetts become economic basket cases and wastelands, the strategy is to pit the successful states at the mercy of bailing out the ailing Failed States, but for how long?

The strategy from our end should be to stop or pressure the congress through emailing the senate, rumoured to be the one to put the brakes on the frivolous and fanciful House of Reps.

Call it Stress Redistribution if you like, but remember, The Federal effort to “Reform Immigration” went down in flames, in a democrat majority Congress in 2007, due to pressure from the populace, both democrat and republican voters and constituents.

Cap and Trade was on the fast track to a vote in Senate without debate following July 4 holiday, and has now been mysteriously “postponed” until september. The pressure is working and we cannot afford to lose this opportunity to pressure these frail fools in congress.

Its 105 here in Texas, above 80 degrees at night, there is little else to do except write these reps in senate and engage in some hardball heat transfer to them. Whit Chambers and Livitsky endured far worse at the hands of useful idiots and imperialists, respectively

Jul 16, 2009 - 1:47 pm 4. Dave the Kapampangan:

Nanny Obananarama says: “Taxes, schmaxes. If revenue falls in the forest, and my media doesn’t report it, then it never happened. What WILL get reported is that I SAVED tons of jobs and tons of money from an even worse future– my straw man BUSH future. And the polls will continue to report tons of support for my initiatives, whether there is or not because the media is my friend, and we will do what is for your own good.”

Jul 16, 2009 - 2:48 pm 5. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh?

Americans, vdh and others talking about debt, no debt, the value or negative value of debt or any BHO issue is like a conversation on the Titanic or like the conversations of dieing men. It is diversionary and escapism only. There will be no useful purpose. There is no useful purpose.

Action on any one individual issue means nothing to the nature of the problem nor will the conversations lead to any real solutions. Just the opposite. Misdirection is in play.

Why? Because BHO is not about the details of the last political or legislative move by BHO functionaries. BHO and his cronies are about control.

The BHO administration is about control of America and the Assets of American Citizens. A revolution and time of retributions and destruction of America is now ongoing.

A revolution transported only on Utopian words to Americans that have become indoctrinated functionaries. Not your real grandfather Americans. Just victim groups, just illegals looking for a handout, just shell Americans who by indoctrination substituted for education are helpless without the “government” taking care of them.

Stick around to see what happens if you do not believe this. It will only take about 4 years for the actual destruction of private enterprise to take place. 250+ years of building the high water mark in human culture destroyed in 4 years or less. Not a shot being fired. It is starting to occur now by impacting and holding decisions that are necessary for business to function.

Only BHO and other idiots think that a decision made today will be implemented tommorrow. Now we are in the land of unintended consequences without knowledge being lead by an AA idiot and his mentors and followers who are essentially anti American and subversive. Their intent is to destroy not to build. Most started with assets not earned thus their idiocy. Can their rich parents be blamed for the stupidity of a Bill Ayers or of a Ted Kennedy–yes.

Left over and warmed over Communist Utopian language raining down on idiots who believe. Idiots who don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain.

For everyone the BHO policy helps more Americans will be hurt or destroyed. All of this revolution is covered over and “perfumed” by the Utopian language that simple Americans dumbed down within the last 50 years cannot comprehend other than to believe something can be gotten for nothing. Who is not for universal medical care and perpetual motion.

There are no details only “grand Utopian pronouncements” that fit the 10 second attention span in our drug fed populations.

The known past results of other such con games in the world aka Communist games created millions of dead in addition to a “privileged class” determined only by a “loyalty” test. No merit in play here. Cult family members only.

We are now being indoctrinated into BHO’s version of African tribalism also known as communism. Also Supported and energized by political correctness and a requirement for party indoctrination that can be certified to produce a “follower”.

Other Americans especially those leaders that may stop such subversion simply by their common sense and leadership abilities must be destroyed and discredited–such as Sara. The MSM are the useful idiots of personnel destruction as needed by the BHO’s.

The MSM idiots such as a “Katie Couric” are truly ignorant and vicious. Most are subversive by simple ignorance and acting as parrots for the seeded info injected into their simple biological systems. They function on the level of ants using only scents.

Does anyone out there know that implementation of just one of the current plans on the table: Health Care, Banking, Insurance, Automotive, Cap and Trade will insure governmental control over most of the American Market place.

This is a full blown communist revolution taking place under the nose of primitive Americans who have been so dumbed down they don’t recognize that a revolution can take place without a shot being fired.

The Utopian language that our less “educated” but more experienced grand fathers laughed at__a chicken in every pot, a getting even with the “rich”, a taking from the haves and giving to the have nots’ did not impress them other than to humor them. They knew there is no “free lunch”. They saw the results of hard work and were not to be talked away from it.

They would fulfill the American promise of what hard work could deliver.

They knew what they were hearing was the simple lying and flim flam of a thief who himself had nothing to lose and a lot to gain by using them and their votes–but also destroying them for life–so be it if that is what it takes for the BHOs to gain power.

Eisenhower warned of the Industrial/Military Complex and the Government relationships between large Defense contractors and the government. It turns out he was worried about the wrong relationship.

The real subversion is now between the communist indoctrinated Utopian thinkers, most now are Democrats, that are primarily graduates of Ivy League Business and Political Science Schools and have been indoctrinated on how to manipulate and concentrate the power of government spending for their benefit. Billions now trillions of cash flow to suck up a “small percentage of”.

Indoctrinated on how to increase Government spending for “Utopian reasons” and in such a way that all government spending will be through false front government crony “private industry” that is so interlocked with their government counterparts that all of the bureaucrats, along with their crony “capitalists” will siphon off millions per year in compensation packages. Remember Fanny May and Freddie Mac–and the affirmative action leaders who it appears could only manage their bonus. No criminal prosecution just pay the bonus and ask them to leave. All this is still in play.

These government cronies and bureaucrat enablers will essentially become billionaires as they play musical chairs going in and out of government agencies using insider contacts and relationships and a simple dipping of their hands into the public sector cash flows that will be controlled by their “private” public companies”

No business Productivity involved? Not even the transfer of capital into private companies to produce goods and services now. They will be trading in government fines and penalties created out of nothing but taking money from production and job growth. It is called saving the planet. Who does not want to save the planet.

None of these “companies” will be profitable for investors simply due to the salaried bonus structures of the “employee” players that have negotiated within the interlocking relationships their “splits”.

The cap and trade provisions alone will generate billions of dollars of “credits” (fines and penalties) that will be sold based on the designated “players” who will be payed billions in commissions. All such loss of capital to the private sector will not increase production of energy but it will increase costs exponentially to the consumer because the penalty costs will have to be passed on.

Jul 16, 2009 - 2:56 pm 6. Professor Guvinoff:

Americans are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the new sheriff, but there is a psychological threshold: If mounting resentment comes to surpass tolerance, the switch will be abrupt.

If it was possible for the president to heed John Kyl’s admonishment to cancel whichever fraction of the misguided “stimulus” monster bill can still be retracted, the president may conceivably avoid the wave of public recrimination to come his way.

I wish I could imagine how a reckless driver could possibly throw the bus under the bus, but I don’t have anything to offer. How about you?

Jul 16, 2009 - 3:01 pm 7. Ron Kean:

I confess that I was an outspoken Democrat during the Reagan years. The debt at that time scared me. Then when Clinton seemed to turn that around, I wasn’t afraid of debt anymore. So when it happened again on ‘W’s watch I was confident that it could be managed somehow.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

But what if Obama’s motive is to hoard wealth for himself and his circle and destroy the larger financial system, create havoc and use the crisis to rationalize taking martial power? Is he capable of being diabolical? Is he an empty suit…a front for diabolical handlers? Who is he? Is he for real? The debt situation seems so obvious. Can they really be that %$*&%#* stupid?

One ray of hope and say what you will, a soldier was reassigned a mission recently. He refused combat because he questioned Obama’s eligibility to be president. He felt that he would be guilty of war crimes if he killed somebody under orders from an illegitimate commander. Very few people can give that order. Others may follow him. The irony is that he would really rather take the combat!

For dyed in the wool VDH fans, check out ‘On Shearing Sheep’, NationalReviewOnline 7-16-09.

Jul 16, 2009 - 3:07 pm 8. Strawman:

But what about the tingle?

Jul 16, 2009 - 3:54 pm 9. BRussell:

Dr. Hanson.

You’re kidding, right? The average voter, if we can use Californians as an example, could care less about the size of the deficit. The Dems maintained their control in Sacramento despite deficit problems that everyone knew the state was undergoing.

All that matters to the average voter is that abortion be legal, access to birth-control be abudant and that the spenders keep spending.

It will take this nation hitting critical mass before their realize fiscal policy matters. But by then it will be too late.

Jul 16, 2009 - 4:26 pm 10. Bohemond:

Well said, Professor. One clever chap recently called out current business climate neither a recession nor a depression, but a repression. Business, especially smaller ones, are indeed paralyzed by the horrors which continue to flow from the new-op’d leftist Tartarus in Washington.

Jul 16, 2009 - 4:36 pm 11. Mike McDaniel:

What is most dangerous is not the methods that Obama and his minions are using, and taxes, legislation, establishment of a huge and wastefully corrupt bureaucracy are among those methods, but their goal, which is a Europeanization of the American soul. Obama is smart, but it’s a kind of feral cunning, devoted to control, power and destruction. He knows that all of his initiatives must be done quickly before anyone can take the time to read and discover that what he proposes is not only unconstitutional, un-American and destructive, but quite insane.

But that’s the point. If he can change the nature of America, he wins. If Americans no longer see America as exceptional, but just another welfare state, he wins. If Americans see no reason to work hard, to innovate, to take risks, to pioneer and excel, Obama wins. If those who do excel flee, taking their productivity and income with them, Obama wins. When religious faith, hope and charity die, Obama wins. When Americans no longer care for their fellow man, expecting government to do everything, Obama wins. When Americans complacently accept whatever table scraps our betters see fit to provide, in terms of energy, health care or myriad other facets of life, Obama wins. When all of the positive character traits that have made America the last, best hope of mankind have been extinguished, Obama wins, for who will try to stop him from becoming ruler for life?

Paranoid? Hardly. Recall, please, Bill Clinton sending up trial balloons for a permanent Clinton presidency. Obama, who is surely more narcissistic and power-mad than Clinton (his securing the Democract nomination would cause the seas to recede and the planet to heal!–who even thinks that way?!), would do less? He’s already disintegrated bankruptcy laws, seized giant corporations and sent up the trial balloon of bypassing the constitutional requirement for the advice and consent of the Senate in treaties.

We will indeed get a good idea of what might happen in the midterm elections. If Obama looses his majority in the house or senate, America might survive. Anything less than an upset will only encourage him to believe he has a continuing divine mandate…ooops. Sorry. He’s the divine. I keep forgetting.

Jul 16, 2009 - 5:27 pm 12. whiskey:

Not true at all, Professor Hanson.

First, Obama like Clinton, but even more so, has “air cover” with the media preventing any negative words or images about him. So people will never hear or see anything the least bit negative about Obama, who is worshipped as a living God by Yuppies.

Second, Yuppies/SWPL will do quite well by Obama who will both degrade their blue collar and Middle Class competitors through a collapsing economy, inflation, high unemployment, and confiscatory taxes, and huge government spending for Yuppie/SWPL activities such as health care, social work, government unions, NPR, and the other “human infrastructure” beloved of that class.

Third, the gender component of the “mancession” (82% of the layoffs have been of men, women are now the majority of the workforce and quite happy to see the nation transition from manufacturing to female-oriented services) means that Obama will pay little price politically for high unemployment or deficits. Increased spending in female-dominated social work, welfare administrators, health care bureaucracy, and “green” nonsense means his core backers (Women) will be quite happy, while White men who by and large did not vote for him are punished.

Deficits don’t matter at all, what sunk Bush was the opposition of the Media Gentry, the SWPL folks, and women, all of whom detested him personally for his identity politics, unashamed Americanism, pro-Defense policies, and the horrors of killing enemies of America (which diminishes the political and cultural power of SWPL Yuppies, Women, Gays, Blacks, Hispanics, and other identity politics groups who share a default opposition to American patriotism and identity).

The Media loves Obama because they both loathe and hate the idea of America, and Straight White Men. This is true for Women, by and large, and non-Whites. It’s also true for wealthy, SWPL yuppies and trustafarians who by virtue of their unprecedented wealth have disproportionate power in America. Because of all of this, Obama could preside over a nuked wreck of America, and still get 52% of the vote.

Because what characterises America is the “Cold Civil War” between genders, classes, and races for absolute domination and power. This is not exceptional, either. Most of the West suffers the same divisions.

Jul 16, 2009 - 5:28 pm 13. Dr. T:

Obama cares nothing about larger deficits. Most of his supporters are unconcerned by them. Obama cares nothing about increasing income taxes on the upper middle class and upper class. Most of his supporters welcome the idea of soaking the rich. Obama cares nothing about increasing business and corporate taxes. He is unconcerned about their subsequent inability to compete internationally. If businesses fail, the government will take them over. Obama’s supporters did not squawk about government takeovers of financial institutions or automobile companies or about its near-fascistic control of commercial banks. They feel that those businesses are in good hands with Obama.

So, I don’t see high deficits and high taxes as lose/lose for Obama. If high taxes extend to the middle class and lower, there might be defections from among Obama’s supporters, which is why he’ll avoid such taxes if possible.

Jul 16, 2009 - 7:10 pm 14. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

I ask again why are existing checks and balances to protect the Constitution not being implemented against the BHO and Pelosi regime? Forget Joe Bidden. He is like a nervous dog that can’t decide on which bone to carry or who to bit or how to justify it. If somebody said BOO! he would piss all over the floor.

A large part of what BHO has accomplished is not even constitutional and the kind of control he is wielding is exactly the kind of control the founding fathers wanted the checks and balances for.

BHO is virtually setting up a shadow government, a select army of subversives call CZARS to assist him with taking down America. Do you know who they are America? Would it surprise anyone if they also were like Bill Ayers or long term communist and socialist thinkers and party members.

Forcing America to confess sins with BHO’s “pronouncements” on foreign soil against America.

BHO calling America imperialistic for fighting the Utopian worded communism plot to take over the world.

Fighting Totalitarian Fascist Communist governments, shedding American blood for freedom has been called imperialism by BHO and his followers. Who will admit BHO’s pronouncements about America true and know or think that he is not lying? No one.

Who is responsible for the citizen’s representatives sent to Washington? Who votes on bills that no one has read? Apparently voting like a puppets only because Nancy Pelosi says to do so.

Is Nancy Pelosi representing all Americans? If so, everyone else should be sent home to save money on idiots who apparently can’t read or think for themselves.

It should be easy to declare them incompetent just because of their demonstrated behavior. What does that say about the voters who continue to vote for and support them? They are effectively Anti American.

Any one who believes in the government or anything giving you “something for nothing” raise your hand so you can be declared incompetent and be knocked off the voter roles. You deserve it.

The rest of America does not deserve you voting for something that will destroy productivity in America. You will not benefit anyway. You are just to dumb to know it.

You are also destroying the lives of productive Americans who can’t possibly pay for the growing numbers who do nothing but exist to vote for their parasitic life style.

Look at what this lifestyle has done to the “generations of welfare” recipients over the last 40 years of the Great Society. Would anyone walk through SE Washington DC after dark. How about Detroit? Blame lack of character, blame lack of individual responsibility. Blame the thief for stealing someone Else’s money made with hard work and paying their way. It used to be the American way.

Jul 16, 2009 - 7:42 pm 15. Charles Gordon:

The Soviets and their autocratic Central European neighbors never faced waves of illegal immigrants.

The allure of better jobs, greater opportunities for their children, and access to quality healthcare adding a burden on services, schools, and hospitals from an undocumented, alien population did not challenge their central planners. Despite their vast natural bounty, there was no California on that side of the iron curtain.

Nor was taxing the rich to ensure obesity in the poor ever a page in their 5-year plans.

Without the rewards of innovation, the incentive to prosper, and free markets in which to trade, mules plowed alongside decrepit tractors, crops rotted unattended, and long lines formed each day in front of stores with nothing but empty shelves.

Though communism has failed, has Euro-socialism succeeded?

Western Europe’s irresponsible indulgence in Socialism is crumbling into the safety net formed by its post-war revival and pre-war (and in many areas centuries old) urban-centric infrastructure. In terms of GDP, Italy (6), Greece (8), Belgium (12), Hungary (16), France (17), Portugal (19), and Germany (20) have risen into the ranks of third-world country disasters (CIA data—that Germany is the only one with a significant Protestant heritage is for another discussion).

Our own politburo’s policies to level America to socialist or communist standards are those that only an historic first Islamic apostate president could be proud of.

Jul 16, 2009 - 8:32 pm 16. EvilDave:

I hope we [put Obama on the post-hyperinflation $100 bill, with a speech bubble that says “I just want to spread the wealth around”.

When do we start referring to this as “The Democrats’ Depression”?

Jul 17, 2009 - 5:21 am 17. George Best:

Not to go off topic, but I associate debt with lack of ability. I mean look at the person that is being nominated to be on our SUPREME COURT. I mean this person is an idiot. Forget the fact she is a liberal radical. Those Dems are just kissing her butt. Surely they could nominate someone with a sharp legal mind. It has to be absolutely embarrassing that you push someone forward for major jobs because they have the right race and politics. I accept the fact that if we are dumb enough to elect a liberal president that he is going to pick liberals for the SC, but this person is so underqualified and it is reflection on our country.

Jul 17, 2009 - 6:10 am 18. steve macdonald:

I agree that the country would welcome fiscal sanity with debt reduction. The fact that all current policy iniciatives take us in the opposite direction – totaly unaffordable programs (which in the case of the stimulus will also be viewed as a failure) with sky rocketing debt will have a catastrophic effect and will be unsustainable politically. Couple these with the phenominal uncertainty surrounding the future in taxes, growth and business expense structure and add to it the constant demonizing of success and you have a virtual guarantee of a very shallow recovery with high sustained unemployment.
Look as well for a river of investment money to head offshore – both business investment and individual investor money. The current environment being created by government ensures that there will be a lot of markets with higher growth potential and lower business costs than the USA. Investing abroad also provides a usefull currency hedge.
I think that the 2010 elections will be interesting and key – and that THE ONE is headed for a one term administration unless huge remedial changes are made after the mid term election.
I love Bohemond’s repression – it fits the current situation perfectly.

Jul 17, 2009 - 8:22 am 19. Dikehopper:

Excellent column – refreshing candor. But I’d like to add one thing.

While the tax cuts certainly helped stimulate the economy, it is too often overlooked at how much the deficit spending stimulated the economy. China, Japan, the oil producing nations and others financed trillions of dollars of our decades-long spending spree. We spent money lent to us from outsiders, not our own money.

Think of it like this. Say you, personally, borrow money like crazy, year after year, and just spend it all. You can live high on the hog for awhile. Until you get just too far in debt. That is what we have been doing as a nation.

I think that more of the increased tax revenues, all types of tax revenues, have come spending money that others have lent us than from tax rate cuts.

(Ronald Reagan: “I’m not worried about the deficit — it’s big enough to take care of itself.” Is this your idea of a fiscal conservative? VDH is right about Reagan.)

Jul 17, 2009 - 9:33 am 20. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh.

#12. Whiskey: Are you drunk? Didn’t your momma tell you not the try anything that uses the mind when you are drunk. The fumes in your brain are leaving big holes in your thinking and logic. Sleep it off and come back as another “name”. Any one including a drunken idiot can redeem themselves. You have potential and there are slivers of truth in the islands of BS within your “piece”.

Jul 17, 2009 - 5:00 pm 21. steeple:

Treasury bills and bonds have been afforded the moniker of “riskless assets” for quite some time.

Given how this administration is treating US credit like a rented mule while we get confidence-inspiring comments from VP Biden, does anyone believe that “riskless” is the appropriate adjective now?

Jul 17, 2009 - 6:43 pm 22. J.E. Dyer:

So very true: Bush’s penchant for expensive federal programs was a key weight that sank him with many conservatives.

I have no patience whatever for leftists who only think deficits are bad when Republicans are in the Oval Office, and only think balanced budgets are good when Democrats are.

But there was plenty of reason for conservatives to oppose Bush’s “strong government” stance, or whatever it was supposed to be. A cow patty by any other name still sits there smelling to high heaven and attracting flies.

All that said, modern government spending patterns are a symptom of a disease, not the disease itself. The disease is government-itis.

It afflicts us with the deranged belief that government must take action on everything anyone has a beef with, and — perhaps most fundamentally — that government is there to immanentize the eschaton: advance us down the road toward (or perhaps more correctly, bring us in line with) an eschatological consummation, such as (at one time) a workers’ paradise emerging from a withered-away bourgeois state, or today, an eco-utopia in which no one gets sick or needs to eat because we’re all already dead.

There’s always graft, corruption, nepotism, favoritism — these goads to government spending we will always have with us. But our modern refinement is to overlay a facade of cosmological sanctimony on the crass and forcible process of prying money out of people and enslaving them to debt.

And the amazing thing is, we think we’re so smart doing it.

Jul 17, 2009 - 7:23 pm 23. Pajamas Media » Obama’s Rendezvous with Political Reality:

[...] Read the entire article here. [...]

Jul 18, 2009 - 12:37 am 24. seansarto:

This is an old post of mine, but it was a good one, so I gotta reiterate it here…
I just wish it could stop these people…all the con-artists an’ crooks..

Old Post:
Guess ya gotta know the difference between “Free bird” as in “Goin’ down ta the KFC with my Oprah coupon…”
an’ “Freebird” as in, “An’ this bird you cannot change…”

I’ve fought enough “white dudes” in my time as a “white dude” ta know that it all ends up boilin’ down to some kinda claim o’er possessions or properties…This brand of “we need not be racist until we have the powers to be such racism” and “boss cool” shtick adds up to my senses as bein’ nuthin’ more then, “We’ll gang up on you!” …Quite the heroic instinct there…Jest more territorial piss an’ spit spoilin’ the stew.
At some point, as a man, when ya keep havin’ to adjust to the spread of it…it loses its thrill…

George Will is the new Artie Fuffkin of “This is Spinal Tap”….

Jul 18, 2009 - 1:09 am 25. vb:

Obama sees the presidency as a larger (and more suited to his extraordinary talents) version of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Some rich guy gives him a pile of money to throw at flaky schemes. He supports the flakiest and gets praise for his innovation. The projects ends. No positive results are achieved, but no one cares. Wasn’t that fun?

I truly think that represents the depth of Obama’s thinking. People who worry about debt and dictators are just like those rubes clinging to their guns and religion. The people who count are those who can discuss the merits of wagyu beef with appropriate footnotes to philosophical works.

Jul 18, 2009 - 2:15 am 26. Meryl:

14. Jack Marcotte
“I ask again why are existing checks and balances to protect the Constitution not being implemented against the BHO and Pelosi regime?”

Your whole post, but at least this opening line, should be posted about 500X a day until the question gets answered.

Don’t they care? (or are they scared?)

Don’t they understand? (or are they stupid?)

Have they been threatened? (by whom? with what?)

Why? Can someone please answer the question?

Jul 18, 2009 - 2:20 am 27. ashok:

I disagree with this analysis entirely – I don’t think the President is going to suffer for the massive debt and deficits politically.

The thing you’re missing is just how pervasive the radicalism of the academy is: it’s not just control of the elites and the media, it’s control of nearly elementary school in the nation. No one even wants to look at the numbers, and the few that do have all sorts of theories about 9/11 and the Illuminati and are more than willing to share them on the way to the Tea Party. The “radicalism,” which is just really lazy thinking, is something like this: we can live in a world without war, because only the US causes wars; we can take the money we spend on war and pay for all kinds of entitlements.

Now granted, you can argue that there are plenty of people who believe in the free market and less regulation and just flat-out hate the assault on their wallet. But my bet is that the “entitlement society” is coming close to occurring, if not now, soon. A key thing to watch is how labor unions are protesting state cuts even though those unions’ demands caused the state to go into the red, and how those unions are not at all accountable and even getting good publicity.

As you’re aware, a large number of people don’t pay income taxes, but can vote. Hmmm.

For more – in some ways, this has happened before – cf. Plutarch, “Life of Pericles”

Jul 18, 2009 - 2:33 am 28. fear obama:

Great read.

Anyone else find it interesting that the majority of the 16 states that have the highest unemployment-
10 percent or above,
are so called blue states?
Many of the unemployed can’t afford to move because of their devalued properties.

Talk about kicking your supporters in the teeth.

I am optimistic that 2010 will be the great year we flush several cabbage heads- democrats and rhinos from office.

If not-
Many of my northern friends will be moving south into Texas and Florida that have already introduced ’states rights’ declaring their Independence from these loons that think they can control our government.

And I promise you
we won’t lose this next rebellion.

Jul 18, 2009 - 3:00 am 29. Terry Gain:

@24

Your old post is still incoherent. Read it when sober and then hit the delete key. And learn the difference between then and than.

Jul 18, 2009 - 3:30 am 30. seansarto:

I think what I see happening is that the US electorate has taken “showmanship” and has pushed it so far beyond it’s capacity as a sustainable commodity, (megalomania), that it now needs to rely on more persuasive elements such as an executive presence (military might and domestic law and order) to uphold it’ s preeminence. Of course the Constitution, at this point still limits that, but with the Bush I & II sequence we see the Nepotistic inclination being indoctrinated. What happens then, in due course, is that the only real powers with the capacity to unseat such insubstantialities would have to arise out of the military and domestic policing forces, (See Honduras,) for those forces become the last bastion of citizenry with the capacity and accessibility, (unless US citizens are given the right to bear bazookas) to do such. And by volunteering the precious commodity of their lives to enforce the mandates of the showmen (and women) who are merely demanding more reach in their persuasion, the soldiers, sailors, marines, police officers and firemen also have the rationale (i.e. “I’m gonna die so Springsteen’s son doesn’t have to work a day of his life and Madonna’s adopted African boy can be a President? Is that really in the services of the “greater good”?) ….That’s textbook tyranny….The economy can affect this and perhaps offer somewhat of a deterrent in terms of, “If you don’t sell Chrysler’s bub, what good are you?”, but in modern US society, the military has the only true power to enforce the Constitution, not car salesmen, lawyers, newsmen or college professors. The problem now is that desegregation has made military power convoluted in terms of that same Constitution under the auspices of “checks and balances”.. Since desegregation there has been far too much documented insurgencies and conspiracy within the military’s own disciplines and ranks for it to even be an effective measure of Constitutional Law (check out the attack on the CIA)…This is something the Founders could not have foreseen and it is being taken advantage of. In the modern US society even the military has become too easily persuaded. (Read Tony Zinni’s Battle Ready, and his experiences at his Japanese post in the 60’s to get an idea of this (He’s obscenely lenient and liberal in his conduct towards ethnic gangs within his ranks who actually physically try to takeover the base…Or for a more recent example, read yesterday’s national newspapers, where a Latin soldier was convicted of intentionally fatally shooting another soldier, “Sean McClure” (I think that was his name), in Iraq without being sentenced to death for it, which is really the only convincing punishment designated to such a crime against military discipline…especially being in the lines of battle.)

Jul 18, 2009 - 4:00 am 31. Main Street One:

I will open with this quote by Thomas Jefferson: “Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”

Right now, government is getting way too big. Government (via Main Street USA, ie taxpayers) now owns insurance companies, banks, automobile manufacturers and, with the BHO plan will be in the health care market. What is next? Uncle Sam’s Gas and Convenience Stores?

One of the problems, I think, is that the general populace has become numb to numbers. One trillion dollars. What is that anyway? Ask anyone to define it and actually try to picture that number in dollars and cents.

This is the easiest way I have come across to explain it, sort of. Imagine yourself spending one million dollars each day for one million days. That’s buying a one million dollar home every day for 2,740 years. Surprisingly, most people get this concept. And then their jaws drop.

And we would be lucky if the projected one trillion dollar pricetag ends up as a reality. Too many government budget projections fall short on expected revenue and do not calculate in every type of cost.

And if current projections of continued unemployment and a couple million more home foreclosures occur this year, what happens with that tax revenue? Has that been calculated into the mix? Doubtful.

While taxing the upper middle and upper tax brackets sort of keeps with a campaign promise, there will be many consumption taxes added to foot the health care reform bill. Granted, you don’t have to pay the tax if you don’t want to buy that particular product, but think about all the taxes and “surcharges” we already pay to fund our ever-increasing government entities.

Has any other chief executive of our country appointed so many new advisors, czars, envoys, etc., this early in an administration? Most of whom more than likely have offices, employees, expense accounts, etc.

America needs to wake up.

Regarding Liberty, I believe that James Madison said it best: “Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

Jul 18, 2009 - 4:35 am 32. tc:

Dr. Hanson:
Thank you for a succinct analysis of the political upsides and downsides of deficits through the Clinton and Bush years. It’s tempting to define past presidencies through singular issues (ie, 9/11, Lewinsky scandal etc.); however, you’ve done an excellent job describing the help and harm that the deficits each of these presidents controlled did to their political reality.

I was perplexed through the Clinton presidency at how he could maintain such support in light of his scandal. Now I know better and it makes more sense.

It is now clearer that future unknown events may likely shatter the public support that President Obama is enjoying currently given the deficit picture he is painting. If he were to spend responsibly and reduce deficits, he would build a political bulwark and properly defend against the political threats of unknown events. Sadly, it does not appear that he is following that path. He is sowing the seeds of discord and one day the reaping shall begin.

Thank you for this enlightening article today. You are truly talented.

Jul 18, 2009 - 4:43 am 33. tc:

“it is too often overlooked at how much the deficit spending stimulated the economy. China, Japan, the oil producing nations and others financed trillions of dollars of our decades-long spending spree. We spent money lent to us from outsiders, not our own money.”

Do you recall the Cold War arms race where the Reagan Administration adopted a strategy of “spending the Soviet Union into collapse.” Well, is China “loaning the United States into collapse?” They’re continuing to loan us the rope that we’re hanging ourselves with.

Let’s stop this…

Jul 18, 2009 - 4:47 am 34. BillJ:

When Texas finally and reluctantly secedes, and it will, it will be because of the depraditions of the federal government. Fortunately, for Texas, the federal government will be too impoverished and dispirited to do anything about it. The only remaining question is how many other states will join Texas.

Jul 18, 2009 - 5:37 am 35. Gary Ogletree:

The administration is loaded up with opportunists, true believers and a mix of the two. Although they are maybe the sorriest lot of incompetents we have seen in DC in many generations, among the true believers are people who have a core of integrity and intelligence. A small army of potential John Deans. Some of them will begin blowing the whistle and they will have credibility with many of the wavering true believers in the Obama ranks. That’s when the National Socialists’ house of cards comes down. Conservatives could be positioned to reap the harvest when that happens. The current GOP leadership scored some points yet failed to close ranks against the Latina bigot. We have to do better. Then we can roll back the Obama disaster and establish honest government. The country hasn’t been in such peril since the civil war. Time to stop putzing around.

Jul 18, 2009 - 6:23 am 36. Sebastian Shaw:

President Obama has no credibility. On the campaign trail, he criticized President Bush of deficit spending, yet has increased deficit spending 4 times since he’s been in officie of only 6 months, spending all of the total past Presidents combined! President Obama’s madness continues with even more outrageous spending with Socialized medicine & the Crap & Tax bill constipated in Congress.

President Obama is going to become unhinged when all of these things fail to pass Congress since he spoke the magic words. He will not understand why they failed. He will become more militant in the passing days until he cracks. President Obama is on the verge of a meltdown. Here comes the lame duck President…

Jul 18, 2009 - 6:48 am 37. Sebastian Shaw:

PS:

President Obama is still unprepared for the coming hyper-inflation & rising unemployment (stagflation); blaming President Bush is not credible. The economy became President Obama & the Democrats when they rammed Porkulus through Congress without any Republicans input. They know they are in trouble. And are grasping at anything to make them look better. Corruption cannot be washed away until it is properly exposed by sunlight.

Jul 18, 2009 - 6:53 am 38. Войска ПВО:

7. Ron Kean writes:

“Can they really be that %$*&%#* stupid?”

Yes, Ron, my newly-minted brother, they can.

Googling for ‘economic depression’, my a$$.

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:08 am 39. pelaut:

#5,14: Jack Marcotte, and
#22: JE Dyer

BRRRRAAAAAVOOOO!!! Right ON! Thank you both.

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:10 am 40. John O'Neill:

In the simply put classical political paradign: America Nova delenda est….

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:26 am 41. Fred Beloit:

It would be wonderful if each of the above comments were to be sent to the congress persons of each respective writer’s district by the writers.

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:49 am 42. DavidD:

I’m afraid the last paragraph is just whistling past the graveyard. The great unwashed will just never care–the One is so dreamy, after all…

Jul 18, 2009 - 8:47 am 43. JED:

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called George III a
tyrant for having “erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither
swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

Jul 18, 2009 - 8:49 am 44. Blarty Blarckleblart:

Like a dog to its vomit, conservatives return to “deficits are bad” every four to eight years – as soon as a Democrat is in the White House.

At other times, to quote Dick Cheney, “deficits don’t matter.”

Jul 18, 2009 - 8:56 am 45. Moogie:

#41 Fred: Do you really think they would be read or adhered to by our “representatives?”

Thanks you, Dr. Hanson, for clarifying the difference between tax cuts, spending, surplus, and theft. At the end of it all, every single time our president, with the help of his Congress, passes yet another bill that requires spending, they are committing legal theft.

The liberal would counter: “Well, then, just vote them out of office!”

As the very first poster in this blog said, Democrat or Republican – this isn’t about the two party system. It’s about progressivism, aka socialism.

I am with Meryl and Jack Marcotte: why aren’t the fiscal conservatives in power demanding a closer scrutiny on the checks and balances? The big broad line that separates the powers is becoming more and more fuzzy with every decision coming out of the White House. The pres says “write it” so Nancy writes it. Nancy says “don’t read it – just sign it” and Congress signs it without reading it. When it comes time to challenge the legality (or practicality) of the thing, Obama’s court will deny it and leave it.

Somewhere in the process, despite whatever Obama et al believe, there are actual people being seriously injured by their actions – and many of those people don’t even know it (I’m speaking of his adoring fans). When the decisions being made today finally hit them tomorrow, they will be spoon fed by the MSM with whatever explanation Obama cooks up, and they’ll buy it without question.

Jul 18, 2009 - 9:13 am 46. Dave K.:

Hey,
you know what you should do:

more tea parties,
more inquiries about Obama’s birth certificate,
and getting Sarah Palin to run for the Presidency!

Remember those large protest against the Iraq war?
Boy, were they ever efficient!

Follow their example and let a thousand tea bags simmer!

Jul 18, 2009 - 9:32 am 47. Joshua:

Charles Gordon, #15: Though communism has failed, has Euro-socialism succeeded?

It’s often argued that the real, hidden purpose of Euro-socialism is to effectively make government revolution-proof, by making everyone so thoroughly dependent upon the state, and by extension the government, for life’s necessities that one would have to be certifiably insane to revolt under any circumstances.

Obama may be also pursuing a second, parallel approach toward the same end of revolution-proofing the federal government: a “poison-pill” strategy of running up such great national debts that only a leviathan government is perceived as being capable of ever paying them down again. Should the government falter – or be overthrown – its debt holders would have to eat staggering losses and (assuming they’re still left standing) would likely never do business with the U.S. again, leaving American society in chaos and destitution, and the nation relegated to third-world status for generations to come. Or at least, such is the unspoken threat implied by the strategy of making government itself “too big to fail”.

Jul 18, 2009 - 9:48 am 48. KDW:

Dr. Hanson gives way too much credit to President Clinton for
producing supluses in the late 90’s. If I remember correctly
Clinton had his wings clipped by a newly installed Republican
Congress that for a while actually showed some fiscal
responsibility. Clinton’s grandiose plan for deficit spending
was stopped dead in it’s tracks. The reprobate President
proposed the same kind of ruinous spending that Obama has
(government takeover of health care, BTU-energy taxes, transfer
payments to favored constituencies, et.) with the only difference
being Clinton couldn’t get any of his goofy ideas passed.
It was his failure in producing legislative victories that
saved Clinton’s Presidency not his supposed fiscal sobriety.
In essense, the Republican Congress saved Clinton from himself.

The idea that Clinton balanced the budget thru tax increases
is also faulty. Clinton proposed many tax increases but really
only got one he wanted – the increase in the highest bracket
to 39.6%. Though this was higher than when Reagan left office
it was far lower than the 70% Reagan himself had inherited.
More important Clinton signed off on the Republican
Congress’s cut in the capital gain’s rate to 20% which was
lower than when the Gipper left office. This is hardly a
repudiation of supply-side tax cuts.

Dr. Hanson is also wrong in implying that supply-side
adherents claimed that tax-rate cuts would lower the
deficit. They never took that position. What they said
was that lower tax-rates would produce stonger economic
growth which would in turn produce substantially higher
tax revenues which is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED! No amount
of extra revenue will produce a balanced budget if
government spends like a drunken sailor, whether the
drunken sailor is named Clinton, Bush or Obama.

There is no reason to cut Clinton any slack on his
handling of the economy. His lack of competence
and integrity made him an ineffectual legislator, which
limited the damage he could do. Clinton’s poll numbers
went up during the Lewinsky scandal because the American
people did not want to go thru with the conviction and
removal of a President with a short time left in office
not because they were overwhelmed with his Executive
abilities. He was never taken seriously after his
impeachment. If Clinton had been really popular, Al
Gore would have been ensconced in the Oval Office for
the last eight years.

President Obama’s problems only begin if he gets his
hyper-liberal agenda passed. Obama can raise tax rates
all he want; it doesn’t mean he will actually get more
tax revenues, which is what he will need to keep the
deficit from hitting the stratosphere. The question
is will Congress stop this nonsense and save Obama
from himself?

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:04 am 49. blotto:

Whiskey #12: Excellent.
Jack Marcotte#5: Extraordinary.

Both of you hit “it” right on the head. Both of you attack Obama and his administration’s motives from separate angles but yet have many points of confluence and agreement.

We are seeing the destruction of America. It took 65 years but the progressives were patient; they sought out and occupied positions in the MSM, colleges and universites, and state and federal governments all with the intent of seeing this take over.

They lulled our constituency in sleep through dumbed-down primary education, the buying of votes, the literal eviseration of the voting process, denigration of American traditions and character through PC and multiculturalism, and through their mastery (MSM)of Orwellian language.

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:12 am 50. Fred Beloit:

#41 Fred: Do you really think they would be read or adhered to by our “representatives?”
Don’t know, Moogie, but I think the more we contact them and express our dissatisfaction the better.

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:13 am 51. Banned by Huffpo:

34. BillJ:

When Texas finally and reluctantly secedes, and it will, it will be because of the depraditions of the federal government. Fortunately, for Texas, the federal government will be too impoverished and dispirited to do anything about it. The only remaining question is how many other states will join Texas.

Don’t know how many others will join them, but as soon as Texas pulls the plug, I’m on I-10 heading west to get there before they close the new border . . . .

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:21 am 52. Charm School:

Note to Commenter #3:

According to the US Gov’t, GDP for 2008 amounted to a little less than $14.3 trillion.
I don’t know where you deterermined that GDP is “hundreds of trillions of dollars”.
More important, the GDP is falling during the current recession and is reckoned currently at approx. $13.5 trillion. Given the size of the GDP, one can see that only so many trillion dollar babies can be whelped by the Prez & Congress before the total debt (now $11 trillion according to VDH) starts to exceed the GDP by many multiples.

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:38 am 53. Steve:

Brilliant analysis. Popularity is what politicians are all about. I think some will read this article and see the light with respect to the political value of being fiscally responsible.

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:50 am 54. Kim:

36. Sebastian Shaw:

President 0bama is going to become unhinged when all of these things fail to pass Congress since he spoke the magic words. He will not understand why they failed. He will become more militant in the passing days until he cracks.
President 0bama is on the verge of a meltdown.

Marxists are fundamentally disinterested in facts that contradict their world view because, according to their dialectical logic, contradictions don’t imply error — in other words, for them there is never a hard collision between mind and reality. Instead, the doctrine of realpolitik dictates a bob-and-weave shift in policy and rhetoric to adapt to the random flow of events.

0bama’s mind is not open to a soul-shattering moment of truth because he is always out of phase with reality. The chaotic now is his normal mode of perception, and in a metaphysical sense he believes that his past actions have no necessary connection to what he is now experiencing. This is the fundamental reason why nothing is ever his fault.

Jul 18, 2009 - 11:46 am 55. Phoenix48:

AS I am just now enjoying Jona Goldbergs ‘LIBERAL FASCISM’ I couldn’t agree more with #1 post Smitty. The Progressive history from Wilson’s facist war progressivism to Alinsky & Ayers 60’s is chillingly manifest in the current administration – and once you add in Pelosi & Reid and the congressional dominance – in a sick way it’s a bit shocking we aren’t already approaching 6 or 8 tillion.

I doubt it will be long before they try and take us there.

I always found Cheney’s quip ‘deficts don’t matter’ as all too telling on where conservatives have fallen. That said, Professor Hanson’s observation conserning the psychological effect is dead on.

Warren Buffet, hardly a conservative champion, was pointing out the dangerous gamble our elected officals were engaging long before he identified derivitives as the ‘weponds of mass destruction’ that drove him from stocks to bonds – preciently prior to the first of our three convulsive economic bubbles busting – back when Clinton was still spinning Monica Gate.

People forget that he was telling folks – in the midst of the Tech Boom – that we were on a catastrophic course with our TRADE DEFICIT.

Once the Tech bubble burst, and we managed to get through with a mild recession, we had the Corporate Scandals/Enron implosion coupled with 9/11. Greenspan gave us the ‘float’ by taking interest rates down to levels not seen since the Kennedy administration. Nobody hated Alan Greenspan when it worked – so it’s hardly either fair or relevant to want to hang him now in my opinion.

What followed in ‘07-’08 was exactly what Buffet had long been warning about. The faith that the American economy had ‘transcended’ to a service economy was a mirage and a deadly trap. Of course deficts matter! But five years ago when anyone argued we as Americans don’t make anything anymore – WHICH IS WHAT A TRADE DEFICIT IS!!!- it was poo poo’d by free market folk much the same way the talk of a budget defict is dismissed as Professor Hanson mentions.

The line that ‘we haven’t really lost that much manufacturing’ since it’s a relatively small percentage due to inovation – robotics with one worker where there used to be hundreds – is just as much a smokescreen as ‘a trillion here or a trillion there what does it matter?’ concerning spending by the gov.

How about 10% unemployment with a more realistic number being closer to 18% if unemeployment wasn’t irrationally computated by the Fed Gov in the same way they do inflation? Does that ‘mean anything’ to the American people?

Of course it does! Most people today know someone either close to them or close to a friend at church or work who does who is about to lose their house and face putting upon relatives or face living hand to mouth paycheck to paycheck renters or worse. The fear is palpable. The fear is real – and as history teaches us that is when Progressivism is at it’s most dangerous and most accessible.

It might just explain the messianic affection a great number of Americans have for ‘the one’ despite the increasing qualms they have about just what he is doing and what it is costing – now – and what it may even moreso in the future.

When Reagan coupled massive tax cuts with defict spending he also was engaged in more than just inviting the Soviets to implode when taking our challenge for an arms race. Defense spending was exactly the win win he said it would be – it not only resurrected the military as a estemed and honorable profession in this country, reclaiming it from the moral morass it had fallen after Vietnam – and re-establishing what Desert Storm would be all about – a resurgent America willing and able to fight if necesary – it was an economic boom. That defense spending CREATED JOBS. It also helped that people kept between 20-40% more of the money they earned too.

The Progressive Dem’s in both Obama’s White House and the Congress today are true believers unwilling to honestly admit they intend to do the same thing with energy – cap ‘n trade – that Reagan did with Defense. They won’t admit that they intend to gut Defense spending because American’s won’t buy it anymore than they did what the ‘nuclear freeze’ movement Liberals tried to sell when Reagan was busy rescuing both capitalism and this country.

They are idiots, and dangerous, but regrettably in charge. Elections do have consequences.

Nancy Pelosi actually believes that she will ’save the planet’ with this tripe, not just the science, but more importantly the POLITICAL SCIENCE – and it is every bit as insane as Stalin & Mao’s agricultural and industrial ‘plans’ were 60 years ago.

She was literaly a kid in a the candy store with the ’stimulus’ – $787 million that is more like a trillion and half to spread around – nothing more than bald faced political pork payoffs & buyoffs. When Biden argues ‘its working folks’ he in his blinded way isn’t really lying – because it was all about proping up state goverments everywhere in phase one.

People don’t feel the ‘Great Repression’ when the state government is still functioning with a such a massive cash infusion – California not with standing. So in six months Obama has basically started to erase the ten years of welfare reform hard won after Reagan;winning popular favor by saving gov jobs that in turn eases the pain of the economic costs.

And as for all the clamoring about ‘told ya so’ about the rest of the spending barely yet getting out of the gate – well think about that for a minute. We are repeatedly told that phase will kick in about a year – making it a year before the congressional elections folks.

If as conservatives you find the MSM love fest with Obama annoying now just wait until they are running all over the country reporting how Unemployment is now down to a ‘more reasonable 6%’ and people are getting back to work – be it real or just more of the same old smoke and mirrors bean counting.

What always struck me about Cheney’s quip on the deficit converges with much of what Professor Hanson mentions, and with what the Republicans did when Tommy the Hammer Delay was running Bush’s ‘regulators’ in congress before the Dems figuritively strung him up.

Many conservitives would be loath to adimit it but under Bush & Delay from 2002 until his demise they tried to create a Pax Republicana in congress with the so-called ‘K Street experiement’. While they kept selling that deficit spending was necessary for all the reasons Professor Hanson outlines, what in fact it was was an attempt to replace the old Progressive network of interconnected influence peddling – the dominate infrustructure that had been in place from the New Deal to the Great Society to the Clinton-Gorefest – not with limited government but with basically the same crony capitalism – only now it would be the good guys. Conservatives rather than Democrats.

Certainly it would have been an improvement – if you believe that the kind of graft that existed back in the Grant Administration during the Gilded Age is your idea of 21st century conservatism! Sure worked great when LBJ, Nixon & Carter pushed it didn’t it? (NOT!!!!)

If I could count the number of times George Bush SAID he was standing on Reagans shoulders (or some approximate butchered quote) I would gladly buy Professor Hanson a shuttered Starbucks franchise outlet as a rainy day investment. But I can’t – both math challenged and too angry to mount the effort. If Bush was truly that Reagan conservative he wouldn’t have been in bed with his fellow texas pigmy selling moldy LBJ ideas!

That was until it blew up in their faces – first with the
Abramoff mess – and then with Iraq and Katrina – crippling the Bush Presidency and basically posining the well despite any effort from an aging warrior like John McCain.

My final point is that I believe Cheney was both ernest and dead serious with his admission. Too many Conservatives have looked to defict spending since Reagan as an ‘insurance policy’ of sorts when and if voted out of power. Which was a huge miscalculation and under Bush proved a disaster.

I never believed that Clinton actually did balance anything – but he does deserve credit (along with a congressional conserviative majority who forced his hand & as much as loath to give it to him) for resisting his animal spirts after defeated on health care when listening to both Rubin and Greenspan. He couldn’t play Santa like Huey Long and go about fixing the country with every damnd liberal boondogle.

Unlike Obama – who had a financial crises and the legacy of a disgraced Republican Party after Bush’s 2nd term – Clinton had no choice but to do just what the Regean era conservatives like Cheney expected he would once inheriting Bush I’s economy and the Reagan/Bush accumulated deficits. It was the economy stupid that put the breaks on his unleashing his instinctive liberal inpulses to spend like a drunken salior.

And once Gingrich and congress obsessed about a sitting prez’ sexcapdes, along with a Republican Party who failed to run Jack Kemp with Bob Dole rather than the other way around, handed Clinton his 2nd term, and his chance to claim peace and prosperity as his achivement rather than conservative policies that worked; the Die was cast for W.

Neither Pelosi or Obama have been able to close the deal and sell Americans ‘the moral equivalency of war’ Progressivism yet – not on energy or health care or really anything.

What is so troubling is that the fear in the country is real. Which means it is a target rich environment for Progressives.

What would happen if god forbid there is an actual crises to go with the midling financial mess that surely will take 4-5 or 6-10 years yet to fully unwind? Undoubtably we will find out – beause there isn’t really too many holidays from history now is there.

I try not to think about that much and concentrate on paying the bills and smelling the arizona roses. Thanks again Professor for an excellent post.

Jul 18, 2009 - 12:36 pm 56. Kim:

On psychology as it bears on current politics, what do you suppose George Soros’ glitch is?

What’s his motivation for helping to bring national socialism to America?

Could it be that he is attempting to reproduce conditions that he experienced in his youth, in an attempt to reenact some trauma suffered under Nazi occupation?

Jul 18, 2009 - 1:27 pm 57. TLM:

30. seansarto:

“The problem now is that desegregation has made military power convoluted…”

I don’t know what you’re driving at in this post. Desegregation (ethnic? gender?) has not hampered the military, in fact the opposite. The military is the only institution that still functions, as witnessed by their success in Iraq, etc.

46. Dave K.:

I actually don’t remember “those large protest against the Iraq war”. I mean, there were a few, but considering the fierce moral urgency of stopping the Iraq War — at least on the part of some Americans — I was a bit surprised at the paucity of significant protests around the country. Then again, most of the anti-war crowd were liberals who are too frickin’ lazy to stand up for what they believe. Easier to just talk about it at parties, or whatnot. Like, where are these protesters now? We’re still at war, right?

Contrast them with the Tea Partiers, who protest despite the media running them down (or ignoring them), show up in force in all kinds of weather, are grass-roots and broad-based without a Soros fund stream or coordination, take off work to protest, ignore their government implying they are terrorists, and seem to have made a dent in the public and congressional support for Obama’s ignorant policies.

In short, I don’t think your sarcasm is warranted, nor do I think the Tea Party organizations will be modeling themselves after the anti-war protest movement (if you can call it that). They are a little more serious minded, and they don’t quit.

Jul 18, 2009 - 2:16 pm 58. Kim:

55. Phoenix48:

You’ve made a good start at forming an integrated idea of our economic situation. If I may make a suggestion, you need to go deeper than trade deficit — pick up some monetary and business cycle theory.

The economic bust was primarily caused by the Fed – they forced interest rates below the natural rate of interest, fueling an unsustainable credit expansion boom.

For essential orientation, one of the best articles on the crisis is “The Crisis in 10 Points” by Robert Stewart, http://mises.org/story/3263

Roger W. Garrison explains how the Fed lost its way in this paper: “Interest-Rate Targeting During the Great Moderation: A Reappraisal”, http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/fedmess.pdf See also Roger Garrison’s other work on business cycle theory.

Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. explains how the Fed naturally causes asset bubbles in this article: “Asset Bubbles and Their Consequences”, http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp103.pdf

A great collection of articles and videos on the economic crisis can be found here: http://hayekcenter.org/?p=159

There is no shorter or surer way to learn economics than the book “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt, http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/Economics_in_one_lesson.pdf

Jul 18, 2009 - 3:10 pm 59. AtheistConservative:

When people credit Clinton with budget surplus, they tend to overlook what got him there:

- The payoff from all the defense spending during the Reagan years, in terms of DARPA/Defense projects coming to fruition (e.g. the Internet and the IPO boom)
- The attached industries such as the coming-of-age of Microsoft, Yahoo!, et al
- The fact that there was no ‘great enemy’ to spend huge amounts of money guarding against, resulting in military cuts (disgraceful)
- The Republican Congress which kept a tight leash on entitlement spending

Jul 18, 2009 - 3:15 pm 60. Meryl:

54. Kim

“0bama’s mind is not open to a soul-shattering moment of truth because he is always out of phase with reality. The chaotic now is his normal mode of perception, and in a metaphysical sense he believes that his past actions have no necessary connection to what he is now experiencing. This is the fundamental reason why nothing is ever his fault.”

Oh, dear.

Your comments certainly shed some light on what we’re watching, but they don’t make me feel much better about it.

Jul 18, 2009 - 3:22 pm 61. Blarty Blarckleblart:

59 AtheistConservative

But if we acknowledge that the economy and the national budget is not entirely within the president’s control, then we might have to admit that everything bad that happens to the economy for the next 4-8 years is not necessarily Obama’s fault.

AND WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN. EVERYTHING MUST BE OBAMA’S FAULT.

Jul 18, 2009 - 3:32 pm 62. Sebastian Shaw:

President Obama better teach the peasants how to do the Neutron Dance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK9h4Lw7QAI&feature=related

(Listen to the lyrics carefully)

But I think it’s laughable for President Obama to cogently teach anyone anything other than being a snake oil salesman.

Jul 18, 2009 - 4:52 pm 63. seansarto:

TLM.

In response:

Every time I have looked in the newspaper at the faces of the United States soldiers who have died in the Iraq conflict, I have seen primarily the “faces” of “white males”…This suggests, without looking at the statistics of the ethnic diversity of the combat forces involved, (as an impartial reader), that “white males” are either just “worse” soldiers or there are very few other “ethnicities” of “genders” involved. Kind of a win-win situation for this administration. My experiences in the NAVY of 1999 attest to something of the later: My experiences witnessed that desegregation allowed the various ethnic and gender contingents that were now being enlisted to posit themselves in the military’s vast array of low-risk administrative roles that basically manipulate and officiate the “fish in a barrel” scenario of a battlefield in terms of a soldier’s chances of survival. I think after the Vietnam draft, the post-Vietnam incentive was to establish more calculated measures through enlisting by such caucuses. By limiting the capacity of the military’s technological arsenal, (basically by not staying out of harm’s way and using airpower where the enemy has none and missile and nuke power to wipe them all out or until an unconditional surrender is achieved. (See Japan)) by not doing such, and instead insisting on ground troops…You are consciously setting those forces up for a “theater of showmanship” where “White Male” can be implemented as a caricature, prodded and induced to engage in a form of “reality-TV” “Ultimate Fighting” scenario while also being perceived as a stupid beast by the diversity and gender specifics who, because of Constitutional Amendment, have their hands and hustle on the rod…Thus they can brag more “sophisticated”, “clever” and “superior” because they are “peaceful” folks.
Show me the fanfare for success in Iraq? Oh…why…no…Of course not! I think the money for such got allocated towards the Muslim US President’s inauguration. This Administration is pulling the same administrative “moral war” (insurgency) on the United States citizenship that I saw going on within the military’s administration prior to 9/11..Same strategy….Fish in a barrel…Constitutional mandates of desegregation as entitlement….Entitlements where there is no rational or material criteria for such….Only agenda and threat.
Gotta go do my exercises now because I’m a stupid beast

Jul 18, 2009 - 5:07 pm 64. seansarto:

TLM.

I think the legal phrase I’m lookin’ for is along the lines of “entrapment”.

Jul 18, 2009 - 5:19 pm 65. myth buster:

Here’s what we’ve learned: tax rate cuts stimulate the economy, while tax hikes lead to stagflation. Deficits based on manufacturing and R&D (war machine, road construction, power grid, NASA, etc.) stimulate the economy, but deficits based on transfer payments and bureaucracy drag the economy down.

Jul 18, 2009 - 5:26 pm 66. Strawman:

On psychology as it bears on current politics, what do you suppose George Soros’ glitch is?

What’s his motivation for helping to bring national socialism to America?

The twin vanities: moral vanity, and intellectual vanity. Each one is attractive to the narcissist, but the combination is irresistible.

Jul 18, 2009 - 6:28 pm 67. AtheistConservative:

“But if we acknowledge that the economy and the national budget is not entirely within the president’s control, then we might have to admit that everything bad that happens to the economy for the next 4-8 years is not necessarily Obama’s fault.”

I certainly don’t claim that the economy, as it was when he took office, was Obama’s fault.

But it is rather ridiculous to claim that you cannot put blame for the economy on the person who decided to ‘command’ Congress to spend trillions of dollars.

I don’t blame Obama alone. He needs the backing of the spend-happy Democrats (some of whom ARE to blame for the economy he inherited, yet are not held accountable). He also has benefited from some RINO’s who, like many politicians, are primarily concerned with kickbacks, slush funds, and keeping their job.

But Obama’s case is a special one. He has spent more money in his first six months than any other President in their entire term. He spent his first six months spreading doom-and-gloom, saying the word ‘crisis’ whenever he could, and saying that his spending would magically fix everything immediately.

The only parallel that comes to mind is FDR, and not in a flattering way – FDR was the president most directly involved in the cratering of the US economy … until Obama came along.

Issues aside, I find the President’s reaction to his failed policies both funny and scary. He’s acting like a child. He openly lies (you can watch a great video called “Obama versus Obama on the Stimulus”), and has pulled into his narcissistic little shell as his threats and demands to Congress have gone unmet. What will this man do when Cap & Trade and the health care boondoggle fail? Will he take his ball and go home?

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:02 pm 68. Войска ПВО:

61. Blarty Blarckleblart writes:

“AND WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN. EVERYTHING MUST BE OBAMA’S FAULT.”

..just like you clowns were/are desperately trying to nail Bush’s ass to the flagpole and hoisting up Clinton as the paragon of fiduciary virture, eh?

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:20 pm 69. Dero:

Bush’s popularity sunk because of Iraq. With Katrina playing no small part Those deficits were high long before 2006.

The problem with deficits is that they have no immediate affects on voters. We may get high inflation in a few years? That’s not a damn argument. In fact if you have a public who’s main concern is deficits, you’re in the driver seat as an administration. Crime, unemployment, and how well the war effort is going… if those things aren’t in the negative then you get reelected. Deficit… are you kidding me?

Jul 18, 2009 - 7:35 pm 70. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh
#65? Soros is a currency trader. He bets on which way the dollar will go versus other currency. Up or down. He can make a lot of money selling the dollar short. He can lose a lot of money also.

How does one effect the value of currency? By getting involved in the politics of a nation. The US dollar is/was pretty much the preferred currency of the world when it comes to payment and holding. Does Soros stand to make millions/billions if the value of the dollar falls? What do you think? Which way do you think he is betting? Know that and he is completely understandable.

Nothing new. Just like seedy race track betters may try to “drug a horse” to effect the outcome of the race.

By using the Utopian language of communist revolutionaries Soros can try to manipulate a country’s currency value while being patted on the back as a true humanitarian. Typical left wing BS. Nothing new here.

Soros is a true perfumed scorpion whose danger is not seen by most Americans now due to the dumbed down educations that seems to insist to only need more money more money to be “better”.

I continue to be amazed at the ignorance of Americans today about what the meaning of Western Culture and what its foundations mean and what the individual who makes up Western Culture should have been taught to take his rightful place and contribute to mankind and advancement.

It believe it started in the 1800’s with Intellectuals who dumped “God” for arm chair Utopian thoughts and the revolutions needed to implement them.

Marxism/communism as especially believed by blank stare intellectuals blew idiot holes in Western Culture, then along with accelerated dumbed down results when such as Dr Seuss replaced the Classic Western Culture nursery rhymes and stories hundreds of years old that parents read that told interest holding,character building stories.

These classic tales helped establish a child’s character and insight into human behavior on a sophisticated level and thus allowed children to grow into adults that were knowing about things like this life on earth.

One also must think about who thought about making Dr Seuss required reading for all properly “educated” parents. Replacing truly productive and informative children’s tales of sophisticated meaning and understanding with nonsense syllables.

The developing child’s brains synapses make all kinds of nonsense connections. Dr Seuss is subversion? Why not? after all it is just as important to know what to read as to what not to read given the constraints of a child’s life. This is not about choice. This is much to complex a problem to blame any one issue but there it is. One important issue.

How did we get from Soros to Children’s Stories is a question that all now ignorant Americans should be asking if their brains can hold a thought for more than a couple of minutes.

Jul 18, 2009 - 10:28 pm 71. Rachel Peepers:

Barack Obama has done so much screwing up in the last six months that if he were running a soup company, for instance, he would have been fired point blank.

He’s well on his way to bankrupting America, in affect killing the American dream for generations to come.

He’s made shambles of the free enterprise system. Spent money like a drunken politician, money we as a country don’t have to spend.

Lied about allowing earmarks.

Put people in power at the treasury department who’ve made a science of not paying their taxes.

Set the stage to kill the unborn at a rate unparalleled in the history of human kind.

Began his plan to gut the military so he can say we’re all equal and in this together. Stopped advancements on the missile shield defense that our allies need more than we do because rogue countries are now bragging they’re going to blow our friends off the face of the face.

With all these mess ups or, worse, intentional
actions; to ignore Obama’s disingenuous oath of office to preserve, protect and preserve the constitution of the United States, Barack Obama must now be investigated by the FBI to see if he’s a clear and present danger to this great country. Maybe he attended so many closed dinners with domestic terrorists that he finally came around to their way of thinking.

Sotomayor wants to destroy this country; shread the constituion, see things in the constitution that aren’t there to spread her brand of, (let’s call it like it is) socialism. And Barack goes and nominates her. What’s he thinking?

Most of us want to see this country move forward and prosper. Barack Obama talked about change. Now we know what he meant. to Bankrupt this country, neuter the military. Make us vulnerable to every mentally deranged head of state who states in clear language a hate for us, and a hope that we suffer nuclear anniliation.

Barack Obama isn’t a leader. Except if you define a leader as someone who takes you down the road of defeat, humiliation, and destruction. This is not a political game people. This is about our national survival.

Jul 19, 2009 - 3:34 am 72. Andrew P:

Sorry Mike. The Democrats are certain to do exceptionally well in the 2010 elections. Probably better than most people expect. They will lose no more than half a dozen house seats, and could easily gain that many in the Senate. It will be like 2002 – the president’s party gains in the midterms. And this makes the president’s party more cocky and arrogant than they were before. Of course 2012 is another matter entirely.

“11. Mike McDaniel:
…………………..We will indeed get a good idea of what might happen in the midterm elections. If Obama looses his majority in the house or senate, America might survive. Anything less than an upset will only encourage him to believe he has a continuing divine mandate…ooops. Sorry. He’s the divine. I keep forgetting.

Jul 16, 2009 – 5:27 pm”

Jul 19, 2009 - 6:03 am 73. pelaut:

#70 Marcotte: “blank stare intellectuals” (gotta love it).
Once again you confirm you’re a man with good liberal (in the 18th Century sense) education and possess an integrated knowledge of the sweep of our history back to the Greeks. You’re right about Seuss, although I read him to my kids. But I also read them Aesop’s Fables, Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Lewis Stevenson . . .

But the last three generations jumped from Seuss to Capt. Kangaroo and Hollywood films, and from there they received their educations. What happened at Yorktown? Grasse, Rochambeau, Wayne, Laffayette, von Steuben? No, that was when Mel Gibson said to whats-her-name . . .

The population educated by Hollywood has its precepts defined by unrelated frame-grabs, indefinable and illogical and therefore irrefutable. Their heads don’t hold mush, but rigid gestalts from unknowable visual fragments. You can’t beat these True Believers with argument.

During the 60s turbulence I asked Margaret Mead what our future held given the degeneration of our youth. She said that they’d grow up, get married, pay taxes and have children. That I shouldn’t worry. It’s just all part of the marvelous haphazardnous of human experience …

They grew up all right. They made children all right. But they didn’t get married, and they didn’t pay their taxes. and their children became worse than they. They now run and ruin our financial institutions, our corporations, our universities-community colleges-high schools, our government agencies and NGOs and all media propaganda mills.

The “great” anthropologist was dead wrong. She knew less after her lifetime in academia than my young man’s common sense knew. Probably because I didn’t have TV and I did read Child’s Garden of Verses and Aesop.

Jul 19, 2009 - 7:04 am 74. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

Conservative Atheist, Atheist Conservative is an oxymoron. You may want to try another name. Then again the name you picked says an awful lot about who ever you are.

Jul 19, 2009 - 7:08 am 75. Frank Logan:

You don’t like what’s happening? Bookmark yor Congressman and Senators. Write them every week if you must, and let them know you, and your friends are not happy. They only care about one thing, retaining personal power. If enough of us write or call, they will listen. It will certainly be more productive than preaching to the choir at PJM.

Jul 19, 2009 - 7:18 am 76. TLM:

seansarto:

Not my experience in the military. I was in the Army not the Navy, so I won’t speak to that.

On another note: Deficits are good/Deficits are bad. Competing memes, one or the other being offered simplistically by whoever is in power to do what they want. The merit of deficit spending — if there is any — depends on the circumstances in which it occurs (eg, wartime), what the money is used for (political cronyism, eg our current president) and the absolute amount of debt taken on (ie, not related to GDP or any other metric). People don’t like being in debt — I still believe this — especially for the wrong reasons at the wrong time. The Dems unprecedented spending spree should incur a substantial amount of political blowback, but that depends on how the media chooses to portray it.

Then again, the MSM are a bigger problem then deficit spending, having spent their last dime of credibility a long time ago. People need to be informed, not just fed media memes to swallow uncritically. I think Americans are waking up to the information deficit they’ve been saddled with and are rectifying the situation themselves. Obama’s drop in the polls, despite the MSM’s connivance in his swindling, is case in point.

Jul 19, 2009 - 7:40 am 77. TLM:

Correction:

– are a bigger problem than deficit spending…

Jul 19, 2009 - 7:42 am 78. Nostromo:

An hereditary sceptic, it took me while to buy into this, but I am coming to believe that Hope-a-Dope adheres to a modern variant of the Cloward-Piven Strategy. The major differences are that racist war is a bit out of fashion and unlikely, and instead of having to create a crisis to evolve us into socialism, Hope-a Dope had one handed to him. How else to explain the gasoline he is pouring onto the fiscal fire, rather than water?

Jul 19, 2009 - 7:43 am 79. Citizen Jones:

Dr. Hanson

I hope you’re right about people getting fed up with Obama – and so vote for someone else in 2012 – someone truly conservative, maybe?

My fear is that Mr. Obama’s charismatic persona will still hold many in thrall and propel him into the WH once more. All in all, I don’t think the country can really take 4 years of his Presidency, and 8 years may well be disastrous. The social fabric of our nation may be resilient, but it can only take so much stress before it rips asunder.

I am not sanguine about the nation’s chances, but I am glad you are optimistic. I will do exactly as you say and “Just watch…”

I’m hoping for a change in 2012

Jul 19, 2009 - 9:05 am 80. getobama:

Drudge is reporting that a retired two star general and a reserve lt. colonel have joined the suit initiated by an Army Major to have clarification on the illegality of President Disaster. The major’s worry is that he will be prosecuted for war crimes if he fights under an illegal commander-in-chief. His suit was dismissed as moot because his orders to deploy to Afganistan were revoked when he raised the issue of the legality of the current POTUS. Drudge reports that a hearing is to be held today in a federal court to determine if any future call ups under this administration will result in any illegalalty the Major, General and Colonel will incur if they fight for Zero.

Jul 19, 2009 - 9:31 am 81. Michael H.:

I have a lot of genuine respect for Mr. Hanson. However, I just don’t see the logic of his argument here. The reason why President Clinton was so popular in his final years was the economy and skyrocketing stock rates while gas prices and interest rates were at tolerable levels. I think one merely has to look back to the Reagan administration to see that this is true. Towards the end of President Reagan’s administration, he was also amidst much scandal (Iran/Contra). However, the economy had turned around to be quite positive, interest rates and gas prices were down, and the stock market (except for that blip in 87) did relatively well. So, he was very popular on his way out. The one big difference between him and Mr. Clinton? Budget Deficits! The budget deficits of the 80’s were record-breakingly high. This didn’t really become an issue until Ross Perot came along and convinced many Americans that the deficit was the reason for the flagging economy under Bush (41). But really, in the end, who looks at the deficit numbers? People don’t internalize those numbers like they do the gas prices they see everyday, the interest rates on their homes and credit cards, their wages or if they even have a job or not. No, Mr. Bush’s flagging popularity had little to do with the deficit and Mr. Clinton’s high popularity had even less to do with the budget surplus. Mr. Obama may find his reelection in question, but I doubt it will be over this issue.

Jul 19, 2009 - 2:19 pm 82. Dan Sales:

I’ll keep my job, my money and my freedom.
You keep the change.

Jul 19, 2009 - 2:38 pm 83. TLM:

73. pelaut:

Great story about Margaret Mead. Unfortunately, defective social science theories about human behavior persist for generations before being debunked, after which we have to clean up the mess they caused. We’re still working through latent manifestations of the dumb ideas taught at universities in the 60’s & 70’s. And while we’re shoveling that sh*t out of the barn, a new breed of academics is crappin’ out even worse nonsense.

Jul 19, 2009 - 2:50 pm 84. ER White:

Want a recap as to what happened in the Thirties?

http://www.bloggybayou.com/2009/07/fdrs-fireside-chat-april-14-1938-new.html

Want to know how to explain the US Prosperity from 1941-1970?

http://www.bloggybayou.com/2009/04/we-all-know-that-current-administration.html

Jul 19, 2009 - 3:24 pm 85. Gary Marchinke:

Obama will go the way of jimmy Carter. Carter and Obama are dreamers. Dreams are good but reality is better!! For a good laugh allow me to recommend, :The Congressional Spending Psalm … SpendingPsalm.com … “Big government is our shepherd; the bigger it gets the more we lack!!

Jul 19, 2009 - 3:24 pm 86. Ed Hominem:

62. Sebastian Shaw:

“But I think it’s laughable for President Obama to cogently teach anyone anything other than being a snake oil salesman.”

Smiling Faces Tell Lies – The Undisputed Truth, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5mcaOm7KE

(Listen to the lyrics carefully)

Jul 19, 2009 - 3:46 pm 87. VDH on Obamanomics - Political Wrinkles:

[...] [...]

Jul 19, 2009 - 5:08 pm 88. seansarto:

TLM.

All under the same UCMJ.

Jul 19, 2009 - 8:19 pm 89. grannieb:

IT’S TIME TO STOP POINTING THE FINGER AT POLITICANS AND START LOOKING AT THE IDIOTS THAT VOTED THEM IN. YOU AND ME. 2010 VOTE THEM ALL OUT.

Jul 19, 2009 - 9:05 pm 90. Al Reasin:

American’s may not have appreciated the Bush tax cuts, but they will rue the day on 1/1/2011 when they expire. That ~ 5% tax increase (reverting to the 2001 basis with no 10% rate) for those making less than $42,100 and for a lower income net to pay taxes to boot will hurt. And why are the pundits quiet about this?

Jul 19, 2009 - 10:27 pm 91. Typos_R_Us:

My new title for the Usurper; ‘Useful fool in chief’.
Not exactly a Marxist but certainly a willing dupe.

Jul 20, 2009 - 5:45 am 92. sean sarto:

TLM:

All under the same UCMJ.

Jul 20, 2009 - 6:23 am 93. larry:

“…progress in paying down the national debt.” Go to treasurydirect DOT gov/NP/NPGateway, where you will see that the public debt increased every year of Clinton’s administrations. The last time the budget was in surplus was in the Ford administration.

Jul 20, 2009 - 10:11 am 94. SukieTawdry:

I know we’re supposed to “ignore” this for the sake of VDH’s argument, but Clinton could not have achieved his “surpluses” without intra-governmental borrowing. If you take Social Security/Medicare tax revenue and expenditures out of the equation, no administration or, more properly, Congress has spent less than it’s taken in for over 40 years. Clinton paid down national debt by increasing intra-governmental debt.

Jul 20, 2009 - 10:42 am 95. Pops in Vienna:

I doubt if most Americans recognize how serious the current situation is. Just check out Jay Leno’s Jaywalking to confirm your suspicions that Americans are stupid. The segment that troubled me the most was when he was interviewing college students at their graduation ceremony.

Look at California, the state is paying its bills with IOUs, their bond rating is crashing and there’s no expectation that the politicos will change their evil ways.

America will crash and burn. Let’s hope we can rebuild it from the ashes.

Jul 20, 2009 - 11:45 am 96. Joseph:

95. Pops in Vienna:
“America will crash and burn. Let’s hope we can rebuild it from the ashes.”

That is quite a prediction. Could you give us all a time line. I would like to know when I should start worrying about my neighbors trying to kill me for my hoard of peanut butter.

Jul 20, 2009 - 10:55 pm 97. sako shooter:

Debt as a means to an end. What we are seeing with BHO is the fusion of socialism and fascism under the umbrella of a cult of personality. BHO is determined to destroy the rugged individualist, property rights and the Constitution; the very things that made our country great and the very concepts which threaten his ability to seize absolute control. We are either on the Road to Serfdom, or the road to the eventual breaking up of the republic. Alternatively, with much less malice of intent, but the same results simply taking longer, BHO and the Dems are in the last stages of creating a majority of voters who pay no taxes and look to the rich to subsidize their health care, home ownership, food purchases, etc. If more than 50 percent of the voters pay no tax and have no vested interest in success, what do they care about deficits, or throwing out the Dems? Their interest is to continue to elect Dems who will maintain the flow of handouts. Alexis de Tocqueville had it right: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” Dark days are on the horizon for our once great Republic.

Jul 21, 2009 - 12:53 am 98. dck:

VDH:

I still don’t think this guy is going to have a “Come to Jesus” moment.

I heard “some Frenchman” on Michael Savage the other night say roughly the same thing: That Obama, being smart, ambitious, and self-interested, would eventually slow to a moderate trot restrained by the bit of circumstance.

Horsefeathers. That’s what a statesman or fully-integrated Washington professional might do. I don’t think Obama is either.

He’s a Pony league player given an unexpected chance to play in a major league game. He’s swinging for the centerfield fence of History and he’ll either pop-up in four years or strike out swinging like a demon in eight–unless the Democrats put a coach at his side after strike two.

You have the right reasoning but it’s applied to the wrong man.

–dck

#1: “Progressivism”

Glenn Beck is wrong. Ideology doesn’t drive Washington Elites; at most, it justifies,inspires, and covers them. It’s a lubricant.

“Progressivism” is not the problem in Washington, anymore than “pirate theory” is responsible for piracy.

The problem of piracy is the result of a gathering of pirates, the successful daily practice of the art of piracy over the long term and without prohibitive cost, and the establishment of a powerful and exclusive culture of pirates as a result.

We don’t need to craft a well-defined “theory of piracy,” we need to hang pirates, burn their ships, and drive them from their lairs. Pirate theory can then be safely debated in the hushed halls of the Academy and become the subject of learned doctoral theses.

Likewise,if you eliminate the professional politician, and if Congress can no longer print, borrow, or steal any money it chooses, the worst troublemaking disappears and balanced budgets follow naturally.

Read the Declaration: we have the power to correct the problem. All we have to do is see it and act. Just prime your pistols and boil a new rope, Glenn.

#38: What is “Force PVO,” Bratishka?

(Obama is full of hooey. Can I say that?)

Jul 21, 2009 - 11:45 am 99. Yaacov Ben Moshe:

Now is the time that the progressives learn that the very worst thing about being a freeloader is that when your host has no more money, your job skills are obsolete.

Jul 21, 2009 - 1:08 pm 100. dck:

A bit more:

You see Obama through a disciplined framework of logical analysis. I don’t.

You consider objective circumstances: economic and political realities; Public Opinion, Obama’s political skills; and the fact that he was “smart,” ambitious, and skillful enough to have been elected President–no mean feat.

Ergo: According to any predictable accounting of human nature, faced with “political reality” he should come to his senses, saving the country and his presidency by moderating his most ill-advised actions on the economy.

I don’t deny the logic of this analysis; but I use a different tool to understand Obama: metaphor.

I see the recent presidential election as akin to competitive surfing of the point break at Santa Cruz.

A small knot of serious contenders line up for the big wave they’ve been maneuvering to catch all afternoon. It looks straighforward enough from the parking lot, but a lot more is going on down there.

True, you have to have unusual skill and grit to be out there at all, but that alone doesn’t determine who catches the Wave, nor who is successful in riding it to the beach.

First, you have to deal with established locals, the Hillarys and McCains whose turn it is, by custom and dues paid, to ride the next big wave. Cut into THAT line and you’ll need stitches.

If you are bold as brass (or paying dues yourself) you take a position politely to one side, as one of the pro forma pretenders who will shear off or be easily outmaneuvered by the Heir Apparent once the final mad paddle begins to take possession.

What Obama did was wholly unexpected, and completely outside the unspoken rules. Without showing the slightest respect or intimidation, he cut Hillary off, and using Race as a weapon to unbalance her, finally knocked her off her board just as the wave broke.

At the moment he is showboating in the pipeline, trying to build points with the judges and impress the crowd. But it’s a bigger, more dynamic wave than he expected; he’s beginning to bobble and it’s a long way to the beach.

I say there are too many unpredictable variables shown in Obama’s nature and character for anyone reasonably to analyse him and predict his future behavior at this point.

Whoever winds up as President by a process like that of 2008 is not predictable on the basis of the past behavior of presidents (even the pathological Bill Clinton), nor by the ordinary qualities of human nature under stress.

Massive ego, astonishing nerve, ruthlessness, and elegant poise seem in equal measure to be the qualities that got Obama the presidency–none of which, individually or in combination, seem likely to produce balanced decisions at the end of the day.

I see a tumbling rendezvous with a rocky bottom.

Jul 21, 2009 - 7:05 pm 101. Eme:

Ya? MAYBE

Jul 21, 2009 - 10:09 pm 102. dck:

#38 “Force PVO”

Ok, I got it.

PVO=
ProtivoVozdushnaya Oborona

The air defense forces of the old Soviet Union. You are a veteran of that force, perhaps.

Jul 22, 2009 - 12:49 pm 103. Gaffe Prices:

Harry Reid has just announced the “postponement” of a vote for senate health scare/death care bill.

Go ahead you coward, bring it to a vote, so it can go down in flames. Calls and emails totaling 15 to 1 against. Bring on the vote Reid, you filthy stinking cowards, you’ll lose no matter how long you try to postpone the inevitable.

Go ahead and make my day

Jul 23, 2009 - 12:41 pm 104. Al Reasin:

A lobbyist told me that Democratic congresspeople are getting 100 to 1 calls against ObamaCare but still support it. Seemly only the Democrats in Red states are worried; worried about being reelected more than what is right.

Jul 24, 2009 - 4:48 am 105. Colony14:

Alot of very smart folks on here especially, Jack Marcotte.
“For everyone the BHO policy helps more Americans will be hurt or destroyed.”
Yup. I was fortunate enough to see the Sacramento homeless campgrounds outside the State Capital.
All White Families. No Minorities in sight. That’s because they are on the TOP of the HUD-Section 8 Housing Voucher List.
And, it will probably take those White Middle Class former workers a long time to ‘get into the system’ and wait in line, of which they will perpetually stay on the BOTTOM of that list, minorities first!
California is such a good example of Obama’s style of thinking. I would like to re-name California, California Cloward-Piven Strategy.
When Obama was asked for help from Obama he said “NO”, go and make a Budget and stick with it.
What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander, unless your Obama.
He wants the whole Nation to become as California, it’s part of the Cloward-Piven thinking.
Then the “shadow government” which is just about all in place can take over, and you have a perfect Neo-Marxist-Socialist, and eventually, no far off, totalitarian tyranical Communist Nation.
And, yes, Obama is after an neverending Presidenty/Totalitarian USSA.
There’s no suprise to me that RIO was excited when Obama became President. He will implement AGENDA 21 as they wish, by depopulating with his Health Care and re-populating his 3rd Worlders into ‘Resettlement Sustainable Developments’.
I’ve read about what these Resettlements are like and how much suffering and loss of life, disease, starvation and disasterous results come from this forced Eco-Manical Rewilding pursuit.
Obama has pleased the Uber Rich Elites within this movement and they want him to begin the Depopulation so he will depopulate starting with the vote block groups that did not vote/bow down to him.
Do you know who these groups are? I do, and I’m sure you can see what will become of these people when they are denied medical care because of rasioning.
I do think it might, just a tiny bit bother Obama to have to use so much destruction to rid himself of the people that plague him at these townhalls and tea parties, but never the less he will do it, for himself and for his Uber Rich Elite Ecomanicals.
Will Obama be able to Rein Supreme with no more than a little trouble from the right, that he will easily take care of with Martial Law, or will it become more of a battle with deserters from the Obama Throne that cannot genocide their fellow man?

Aug 20, 2009 - 10:20 pm

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