Talk About Slow Learners!

By William L. Garvin

After having been soundly refudiated in the November elections, you would think that the political establishment would begin to listen to “we the people.” (Note: before the self-appointed grammar police surge forth with their pretentious pontification, “refudiate” was chosen as the 2010 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. Thanks, Sarah!) It appears the President and the congressional leadership is either unwilling or unable to do so.

In California, Democrats ran the table and voters reelected the same old poker players who have bet the pot and lost for the last two decades. The rest of the country threw the Big Government rascals out by a resounding margin. Their message was very clear: STOP SPENDING AND STOP GROWING GOVERNMENT! Big Government isn’t listening!!

It’s no coincidence that leading liberal voices now prefer to “kill the messenger” rather than listen to the message. Such leading lights of liberal luminescence as Jimmy Carter, Al Sharpton, and Charles Schumer have all recently voiced a need to shut down Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and restrict the internet with their inappropriately named “fair use” doctrines. With such friends of freedom of speech, who needs enemies? Censorship of ideas, speech, and opposition is somewhat predictable. How could they successfully engage in a battle of ideas while their core philosophies revolve around eliminating babies (where’s the “choice” for the unborn?), breaking laws (sanctioning, supporting, and continuing illegal immigration), and irresponsible spending (combined with gargantuan growth of government)?

As was recently noted, the difference between a conservative and a liberal is that if conservatives don’t like what they are hearing, they change the station or the channel. If liberals don’t like what they are hearing, they try to shut the stations down. Curiously absent from their concern is the blatant bias supporting the radical/leftist positions by stations such as MSNBC. Similarly, although not quite so strident in their bias, is their parent station NBC. Both of course are owned by General Electric. The CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, is an unabashed supporter of President Obama. In a rather obvious quid pro quo, GE received huge amounts of stimulus funds and also massive bailouts from the Federal Reserve. None of the GE stations are about to bite the liberal hands that feed them. The same can essentially be said for all the main stream media.

For more proof of their bias, why is there so little discussion of the zombie, i.e., “back from the dead” earmarks contained in the recently enacted bill to prevent massive tax increases? Is the reason that there are ear marks or tax breaks for film and television producers because the vast majority of television and film productions have a liberal persuasion? In this new era of deficit hawks, why are Puerto Rican rum producers, race track owners, and American Samoa businesses getting preferential treatment in the form or earmarks? Rubbing salt in the fiscal wound is the earmark for the continuation of subsidies for ethanol production. The $.45 cents per gallon subsidy added up to $7.7 billion last year. Even Al Gore and Friends of the Earth recognize ethanol as another government mandated program gone wrong. Not only is it worse for the environment but it drove up the prices for foodstuffs that relied on corn. Furthermore, Gore actually admitted his early advocacy was for political not environmental reasons.

This continuing Rube Goldberg approach to governance begs the question, “what other Obama mandates are likely to go wrong?” The newly created food police is a very likely candidate. While Ms. Obama may think “we can’t leave it up to the parents,” parents will likely think differently. ObamaCare itself, the signature accomplishment of the brilliant Constitutional scholar has been found to be unconstitutional and an overreach of the commerce clause. Additionally, the Independent Payments Advisory Board, which will determine what will and will not be reimbursed under Medicare, also has the potential to be a more aptly named “death panel.”

The list goes on and on and on where Big Government is certain it knows what is best for you. Keep in mind, it is Big Government that has allowed 10-15 million illegal immigrants to enter this country. It is Big Government that has lost track of 119,000 airplanes. Let’s hope none of them come to visit you soon!