Fact, Fiction, and Floundering

By William L. Garvin

As our Peace Prize President opens his “kinetic military action” on yet a third front, many confusing issues rise to the surface. Apparently helping Libyian rebels kill other Libyians serves a strategic United States interest and will save our country from imminent danger. One might pause to consider why Al Queda is also supporting these same rebels. Politics makes strange bedfellows but why we would want to get in bed with terrorists boggles the mind!

So far, we have remained offshore and in the skies but the killing will continue until there are boots on the ground. The President strove to allay the fears by passing the command and control to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Of course, the United States is the Big Dog in NATO, controls the joint forces, and supplies 22% of the NATO funding. This is merely passing the baton from the right hand to the left hand but making it go through an international committee along the way. Good luck with that sort of command and control model!

Then there is the African Union and the Arab League, many of which are oil rich, cash rich, and militarily strong in comparison to Libya. Since they cried out for United States intervention, why aren’t they ponying up the men, money, and materials for this military intervention? They are the ones with the real strategic interest in policing their membership. And yes, Libya is a member of the Arab League. Many of these Middle East and African nations take our foreign aid up front, vote against us at the United Nations, and support terrorism behind our back.

Since several other Arab and African governments are currently killing their citizens, some cynics suggest that this entire Libyan muddle is a “wag the dog” scenario to draw attention away from economic issues. For instance, there’s the one-year anniversary of Obamacare. Sorry, Nancy. We passed the bill, we found out what’s in it, and we don’t like it. Foremost and in particular, we don’t like the numbers. Over 1,040 waivers have been granted to many unions such as the UAW as well as the entire state of Maine. Nevada, Kentucky, and New Hampshire are now standing in line. Second, there are the 16 million people on Medicaid roles who were passed on to the cash strapped states. The Congressional Budget Office says this will cost the states nearly twice its original estimate of sixty billion dollars.

Another CBO number of note is the cost of the Stimulus Bill is now up to $821 billion. For this we got the newly invented “jobs created or saved” category that ranges from 1.4 million to 3.6 million. With that disparate a range, you can be sure that no one really knows or can have an accurate figure. In any event, at its most optimistic number, each job cost $228,055. At the most pessimistic number, each job cost $586,428! In February, 2009, when the bill was passed, unemployment stood at 8.2%. Two years and nearly a trillion dollars later, it’s at 8.9%. Keep in mind that the administration doesn’t count long term unemployed. If we can get everyone to give up looking for a job, then unemployment will be at zero! This is similar to saying there’s no inflation because the Consumer Price Index isn’t going up. Of course, they don’t bother to mention that food and energy aren’t considered in computing the Bernanke Inflation Myth. Virtually all the commodities have skyrocketed over the last year so you can expect food, clothing, and energy to be increasingly expensive.
Some final numbers of note: the New York Times reported that General Electric had worldwide profits of $14.2 billion in 2010 and $5.1 billion of the total came from its United States operations. It paid ZERO in American taxes. In fact, GE claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. The fact that Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s CEO, is a supporter, advisor, presidential traveling companion, and stands to make huge profits from government subsidized green energy initiatives is purely coincidental. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along and check out the latest kinetic military action. Move along. Move along.