By William L. Garvin
“Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”
Proverbs 26:11
Recently Governor Rick Perry drew a lot of press, most of it flack, for saying that if Ben Bernanke printed money out of thin air, the act was “treasonous.” While his choice of words was less than artful, what would you call an act that deliberately deflates the value of your dollar? In essence, the various “Quantitative Easings” are establishing a fiat currency, i.e., “legal tender, especially paper currency, authorized by a government but not based on or convertible into gold or silver.” What you have saved is worth less and what you buy will cost more. These deliberate inflationary interventions never stand the test of time!
Vice President Biden also drew some criticism when he said he “understood” Communist China’s one-child policy and would not “second guess” it. Once he got back to the terra firma of the USA, he decided to second guess it after all and called it “repugnant.” Nice flip-flop, Joe, but as usual, you’re a day late and a dollar short. Why didn’t you immediately recognize that the government mandated abortions of (mostly female) babies is barbaric and morally reprehensible? Please don’t say you were just being diplomatic…it was a time for standing up and speaking out on principle.
Speaking of diplomacy, this is obviously not in the tool kit of Rep. Maxine Waters. While posing as a fearless crusader in front of her constituents, Maxine let us know that she was not afraid of the big bad wolf and then caterwauled that “The Tea Party can go straight to hell!” Sorry, Maxine but the Tea Party is not responsible for the 16% unemployment rate amongst black Americans that is undoubtedly much higher in your district. It is not responsible for the massive failure of your “war on poverty” that has consumed trillions of dollars. You and your Florida counterpart, Rep. Frederica Wilson, actually don’t know “who the real enemy is,” do you?
Someone who surprisingly ended up in the liberal crosshairs was Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. He channeled Bill Cosby with a straightforward message telling black men that they need to be more than just a "sperm donor" or a "human ATM." "That's part of the problem in our community. Let me speak plainer: That's part of the problem in the black community. ... We have too many men making too many babies they don't want to take care of and then we end up dealing with your children." He could have been speaking to many young men but he clearly was addressing black youth after another night of Philadelphia’s “flash robs” when he also said: “Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt. Nobody. If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you. They don’t hire you ’cause you look like you’re crazy!” One can only imagine the liberal conflagration that would have erupted if the mayor was white.
Finally, Candidate Obama said this in July, 2008: “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic.” Now that President Obama has added his own $4 trillion and raised the national debt to $14.6 trillion, in a world record thirty-one months, is he “super-irresponsible”? Is he “doubly unpatriotic”? Do you think he will apologize for his over-the-top and uncivil rhetoric? Will he apologize for raising each person’s share of the national debt from $30 thousand to $47, 125.26 (as of August 29)? You can bet you won’t hear that!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
All Play and No Work!
By William L. Garvin
We taxpayers recently bought two buses from a Canadian company so the President could spend three days touring the Midwest perfecting his campaign speeches. He chose to ride in a black $1.2 million “Mega-Hearse” that personified the gloom and doom permeating the American economy that he attributed to “bad luck.”
After three arduous days on the taxpayer funded campaign trail, President Obama announced that he had another economic plan that he would announce “after Labor Day.” Never mind the unemployment data, never mind the psychotic stock market, never mind the dismal GDP growth rates, never mind the national debt, and, most of all, never mind his leadership responsibilities. Exhausted from the sheer effort of announcing a coming announcement, it’s time to take another vacation. Don’t roll up your sleeves and get to work. Don’t pressure Congress to come back to town and roll up their sleeves. Don’t allay the national fears and show the taxpayers your plan. Nope, take a vacation.
And not just any vacation…take a Martha’s Vineyard vacation. The Vineyard (along with its smaller cousin, the infamous Chappaquiddick) is an island seven miles off Cape Cod. It’s the summer home of millionaires, billionaires, corporate jet owners and luxurious yachts. Doesn’t it seem rather unseemly of the President to want to rub elbows with those whom he has been excoriating for months? Doesn’t it seem rather nouveau riche? Doesn’t it seem rather insensitive to the 50 million Americans on food stamps? How does this luxurious lifestyle resonate with the 13.9 million who are unemployed, the 2.8 million who are only “marginally attached” to the workforce and the additional 1.1 million “discouraged workers” who have just plain given up?
The President has demonstrated an affinity for campaigning, vacationing, and playing golf. He seems to like “being” President, making speeches, and basking in the glow of choreographed adoring crowds. He does not seem to like “doing” President, i.e., sitting down, buckling down and taking care of business as our nation’s Chief Executive. He has yet to demonstrate a significant work ethic or even a grasp of the basics of governance. In his academically insulated world, “the buck stops everywhere else but here.” Keep in mind that he voted for and supported TARP even though he has subsequently demagogued banks and Wall Street. He delegated and abrogated the details of the not so shovel ready Stimulus Bill to the Reid-Pelosi supermajority in Congress. The same scenario was followed for his signature Health Care bill. When you know there is no way the opposition can stop you, you have all the time necessary for quality control. The President failed and the programs failed.
No one is suggesting that Presidents don’t deserve vacations but timing and tone is everything. Maybe going home and clearing brush as Ronald Reagan did or building a pathway as George Bush did would be more appropriate in a time when so many Americans are struggling. Even toning down the size and scope of the ostentatious entourages that accompany foreign visits would be appreciated. As for golf, President George W. Bush was chided for the twenty-four rounds he played over eight years, President Obama has tripled that number in less than three years!
No one is suggesting that the President become some sort of eyeshade wearing policy wonk. However, when it comes to explanations of critical decisions, we deserve more than “pull off the band-aid,” “eat your peas,” “car in the ditch,” “pull the plug on grandma” bromides. It’s probable that when you have no experience making executive decisions, you will have even more trouble explaining them.
Texts on desirable leadership qualities generally cite honesty, competence, forward-looking, and inspiring. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Do you give the country what it needs to be successful? Do you have a positive vision for the future? Can you inspire the nation to get through the difficult times? Sadly the promises of the campaign are not translating into reality for this President. Even his oratorical gifts now sound as hollow as the Greek columns he once affected. We cannot afford four more years of leadership inexperience.
We taxpayers recently bought two buses from a Canadian company so the President could spend three days touring the Midwest perfecting his campaign speeches. He chose to ride in a black $1.2 million “Mega-Hearse” that personified the gloom and doom permeating the American economy that he attributed to “bad luck.”
After three arduous days on the taxpayer funded campaign trail, President Obama announced that he had another economic plan that he would announce “after Labor Day.” Never mind the unemployment data, never mind the psychotic stock market, never mind the dismal GDP growth rates, never mind the national debt, and, most of all, never mind his leadership responsibilities. Exhausted from the sheer effort of announcing a coming announcement, it’s time to take another vacation. Don’t roll up your sleeves and get to work. Don’t pressure Congress to come back to town and roll up their sleeves. Don’t allay the national fears and show the taxpayers your plan. Nope, take a vacation.
And not just any vacation…take a Martha’s Vineyard vacation. The Vineyard (along with its smaller cousin, the infamous Chappaquiddick) is an island seven miles off Cape Cod. It’s the summer home of millionaires, billionaires, corporate jet owners and luxurious yachts. Doesn’t it seem rather unseemly of the President to want to rub elbows with those whom he has been excoriating for months? Doesn’t it seem rather nouveau riche? Doesn’t it seem rather insensitive to the 50 million Americans on food stamps? How does this luxurious lifestyle resonate with the 13.9 million who are unemployed, the 2.8 million who are only “marginally attached” to the workforce and the additional 1.1 million “discouraged workers” who have just plain given up?
The President has demonstrated an affinity for campaigning, vacationing, and playing golf. He seems to like “being” President, making speeches, and basking in the glow of choreographed adoring crowds. He does not seem to like “doing” President, i.e., sitting down, buckling down and taking care of business as our nation’s Chief Executive. He has yet to demonstrate a significant work ethic or even a grasp of the basics of governance. In his academically insulated world, “the buck stops everywhere else but here.” Keep in mind that he voted for and supported TARP even though he has subsequently demagogued banks and Wall Street. He delegated and abrogated the details of the not so shovel ready Stimulus Bill to the Reid-Pelosi supermajority in Congress. The same scenario was followed for his signature Health Care bill. When you know there is no way the opposition can stop you, you have all the time necessary for quality control. The President failed and the programs failed.
No one is suggesting that Presidents don’t deserve vacations but timing and tone is everything. Maybe going home and clearing brush as Ronald Reagan did or building a pathway as George Bush did would be more appropriate in a time when so many Americans are struggling. Even toning down the size and scope of the ostentatious entourages that accompany foreign visits would be appreciated. As for golf, President George W. Bush was chided for the twenty-four rounds he played over eight years, President Obama has tripled that number in less than three years!
No one is suggesting that the President become some sort of eyeshade wearing policy wonk. However, when it comes to explanations of critical decisions, we deserve more than “pull off the band-aid,” “eat your peas,” “car in the ditch,” “pull the plug on grandma” bromides. It’s probable that when you have no experience making executive decisions, you will have even more trouble explaining them.
Texts on desirable leadership qualities generally cite honesty, competence, forward-looking, and inspiring. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Do you give the country what it needs to be successful? Do you have a positive vision for the future? Can you inspire the nation to get through the difficult times? Sadly the promises of the campaign are not translating into reality for this President. Even his oratorical gifts now sound as hollow as the Greek columns he once affected. We cannot afford four more years of leadership inexperience.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Committees, Compromise, and Calamity
By William L. Garvin
During the Republican presidential debate, Newt Gingrich called the debt reduction committee one of the “stupidest ideas that Washington has ever come up with.” That immediately brought to mind the old saying that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.” There is virtually no hope for a successful plan coming out of this committee unless you are looking for the welfare state to triumph over the Pentagon.
This recipe for disaster was clearly evidenced by Nancy Pelosi’s appointment of James Clyburn to the committee and Clyburn’s subsequent pontifications. Clyburn, the Representative from South Carolina is the third-ranking Democrat in the House and a lockstep Obama supporter. Predictably, on Monday morning he said he looked forward to the committee “narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor.” Naturally he ignored the mission of the committee which is to identify $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. When this was pointed out to him, he non-responsively declared that he was an “anomaly” who was not only a staunch defender of “entitlements” but also a strong defender of the military. His record shows him to be an unequivocal defender of entitlements but not so of the military. In fact, he had earlier specifically singled out the military for cuts! He had also upset the stage for compromise and cooperation by accusing Republicans of “taking the entire economy hostage.” Nevertheless, that begs the question, if entitlements and defense are off the table, where will the cuts come from? To Democrats, taxing “the rich” is the only answer because they never cut the constituencies they depend upon for votes.
The same theme dominates the “Debt Man Walking”, taxpayer funded, campaign bus tour the President is currently undertaking. He’s blaming the Tea Party; he’s blaming the Republicans; he’s blaming corporations; he’s blaming “the rich.” What of course he will not blame is the economic illiteracy that characterizes his failed policies, his failed administration, and the failing spend-spend-spend Keynesian theology he so religiously embraces.
He and his acolytes even blame the economic engine, private sector business, for not hiring and for sitting on their profits. Frankly, that is a wise course of action until the next moves of this job-destroying Administration are made clear. Laughably, they claim that hiring additional employees is a patriotic duty of all employers because it is “tax insensitive,” i.e., no cost to the employer. Restaurants should hire more cooks and waitpersons even if there are no diners. Manufacturers should put on another shift even if there is no demand for their products. The oil companies should hire more roughnecks even if the Feds won’t let them drill. The United States is in the business of business and it’s disastrous when our leaders don’t understand the first thing about making payroll!
It also appears they should invest in an “anger management” curriculum. With all the hatred they espouse toward “the rich,” Big Oil, Coal, Nuclear, Big Business, Small Business, Insurance, Doctors, Hospitals, Wall Street, Banks, Standard and Poor’s, etc., they are setting the stage for London coming to your city soon. The combination of “hate the rich” and a prevailing entitlement mentality created by generations of government dependency is ripe for spontaneous combustion. The “flash mobs” that have become “flash robs” in Philadelphia, Washington, Las Vegas, Chicago, and even Ottawa, are minor manifestations of the full scale riots across the pond. Groups of “miscreants,” mostly youth, some impoverished, others not so, arrive in droves at a store where they overwhelm the help and steal anything they can lay their hands on.
As with the Brits, they show no remorse since the mom and pop furniture store or the corner convenience store is indistinguishable from a corporate chain to their self-serving rapacious psyches. While stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise, they often destroy the premises. Rather than being remorseful, many of these looting, feral punks actually film their activities and post them online as some sort of significant accomplishment. When you are raised to feel “entitled” to anything that anyone else has and when you are encouraged to hate the rich and successful, the class warfare outcomes, the generational warfare outcomes are predictable. True leaders don’t exacerbate these problems and committees won’t solve them!
During the Republican presidential debate, Newt Gingrich called the debt reduction committee one of the “stupidest ideas that Washington has ever come up with.” That immediately brought to mind the old saying that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.” There is virtually no hope for a successful plan coming out of this committee unless you are looking for the welfare state to triumph over the Pentagon.
This recipe for disaster was clearly evidenced by Nancy Pelosi’s appointment of James Clyburn to the committee and Clyburn’s subsequent pontifications. Clyburn, the Representative from South Carolina is the third-ranking Democrat in the House and a lockstep Obama supporter. Predictably, on Monday morning he said he looked forward to the committee “narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor.” Naturally he ignored the mission of the committee which is to identify $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. When this was pointed out to him, he non-responsively declared that he was an “anomaly” who was not only a staunch defender of “entitlements” but also a strong defender of the military. His record shows him to be an unequivocal defender of entitlements but not so of the military. In fact, he had earlier specifically singled out the military for cuts! He had also upset the stage for compromise and cooperation by accusing Republicans of “taking the entire economy hostage.” Nevertheless, that begs the question, if entitlements and defense are off the table, where will the cuts come from? To Democrats, taxing “the rich” is the only answer because they never cut the constituencies they depend upon for votes.
The same theme dominates the “Debt Man Walking”, taxpayer funded, campaign bus tour the President is currently undertaking. He’s blaming the Tea Party; he’s blaming the Republicans; he’s blaming corporations; he’s blaming “the rich.” What of course he will not blame is the economic illiteracy that characterizes his failed policies, his failed administration, and the failing spend-spend-spend Keynesian theology he so religiously embraces.
He and his acolytes even blame the economic engine, private sector business, for not hiring and for sitting on their profits. Frankly, that is a wise course of action until the next moves of this job-destroying Administration are made clear. Laughably, they claim that hiring additional employees is a patriotic duty of all employers because it is “tax insensitive,” i.e., no cost to the employer. Restaurants should hire more cooks and waitpersons even if there are no diners. Manufacturers should put on another shift even if there is no demand for their products. The oil companies should hire more roughnecks even if the Feds won’t let them drill. The United States is in the business of business and it’s disastrous when our leaders don’t understand the first thing about making payroll!
It also appears they should invest in an “anger management” curriculum. With all the hatred they espouse toward “the rich,” Big Oil, Coal, Nuclear, Big Business, Small Business, Insurance, Doctors, Hospitals, Wall Street, Banks, Standard and Poor’s, etc., they are setting the stage for London coming to your city soon. The combination of “hate the rich” and a prevailing entitlement mentality created by generations of government dependency is ripe for spontaneous combustion. The “flash mobs” that have become “flash robs” in Philadelphia, Washington, Las Vegas, Chicago, and even Ottawa, are minor manifestations of the full scale riots across the pond. Groups of “miscreants,” mostly youth, some impoverished, others not so, arrive in droves at a store where they overwhelm the help and steal anything they can lay their hands on.
As with the Brits, they show no remorse since the mom and pop furniture store or the corner convenience store is indistinguishable from a corporate chain to their self-serving rapacious psyches. While stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise, they often destroy the premises. Rather than being remorseful, many of these looting, feral punks actually film their activities and post them online as some sort of significant accomplishment. When you are raised to feel “entitled” to anything that anyone else has and when you are encouraged to hate the rich and successful, the class warfare outcomes, the generational warfare outcomes are predictable. True leaders don’t exacerbate these problems and committees won’t solve them!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Wrong as Wrong Can Be!
By William L. Garvin
So much has gone wrong over the last week, it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, there’s Timothy Geithner emphatically proclaiming there was “zero chance” of a U.S. credit downgrade. He was wrong as wrong can be. Not only did Standard and Poor’s downgrade the credit, they indicated there may be more to come. Other credit rating agencies have also hinted as to the possibility. Without the protection of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, at long last, the “toxic assets” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also been downgraded.
As usual, when liberal policies fail, they look for someone else to blame. The “kill the messenger” motif quickly and predictably came into play. It may be wrong as wrong can be, but it’s the only game they know. Liberal literary extremists set the stage by lambasting the Tea Party backed members of Congress who opposed tax increases. Apparently neo-Socialists who practice the Alinsky principle of having no principles are absolutely shocked by those who do! Having discovered that the “racist” charges would not work, the new tactic and Democrat talking point was to characterize them as “terrorists,” “hostage takers,” “extremists,” “holding a gun to the head of the President,” “ready to blow up the economy,” and so on. This all comes from the hypocrites who want conservatives to “tone down” the debate and engage in “civil discourse.” This hypocrisy was epitomized by Democrat Representative Mike Doyle who whined to Vice-President Joe Biden that: “We have negotiated with terrorists. This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.” That is exactly what they were elected to do.
Democrat attack dog and Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod immediately tried to muddy the waters by coining the inaccurate phrase “Tea Party downgrade.” Simultaneously, Democrat Senator John Kerry (not noted for his originality) spoke lugubriously about the “Tea Party downgrade.” As usual, they were wrong as wrong can be. Neither party offered a plan for deficit reduction or entitlement reform. Remember, this President wanted a “clean” debt limit bill—he wanted to raise the limit by $2.4 trillion with NO cuts attached. He never put a deficit reduction plan on the table in writing. Axelrod and Kerry also failed to explain why President Obama ignored the warnings by S&P that a $4 trillion deficit reduction would be a “good down payment” to maintain the AAA credit rating.
Curiously, no blame has been placed on the ninety-five House Democrats who also opposed the debt limit deal. Of course their opposition was founded on the class warfare principle of increasing taxes, the so called “balanced approach,” and fearing that the pitiful tax cuts (only $29 billion in 2012!) would damage our fragile economy. They must have forgotten the presidential economic philosophy that “The soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut taxes now. The purpose of cutting taxes now is…to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.” Those words were spoken by John F. Kennedy whose record subsequently showed tax cuts and revenue increases. He was as right then as today’s Democrats are wrong today.
Interestingly enough, the rates on treasury bills has fallen since so much new money is flowing in. That is primarily because the economies of other nations are in much greater peril than our own. The stock market drop last week was as much due to European economic turmoil as to the debt ceiling deal. Janet Daley, in a very insightful piece in The Telegraph, noted from London that “The truly fundamental question that is at the heart of the disaster toward which we are racing is being debated only in America: is it possible for a free market economy to support a democratic socialist society?” She noted that the Tea Party positions were neither naïve nor parochial but are being corroborated by the European experience. She concludes that “The hardest obstacle to overcome will be the idea that anyone who challenges the prevailing consensus of the past 50 years is irrational and irresponsible. That is what is being said about the Tea Partiers. In fact, what is irrational and irresponsible is the assumption that we can go on as we are.”
President Obama’s economic policies have resulted in the destruction of over $2 trillion in personal wealth over the last two weeks. We cannot go on as we are because it’s as wrong as wrong can be.
So much has gone wrong over the last week, it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, there’s Timothy Geithner emphatically proclaiming there was “zero chance” of a U.S. credit downgrade. He was wrong as wrong can be. Not only did Standard and Poor’s downgrade the credit, they indicated there may be more to come. Other credit rating agencies have also hinted as to the possibility. Without the protection of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, at long last, the “toxic assets” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also been downgraded.
As usual, when liberal policies fail, they look for someone else to blame. The “kill the messenger” motif quickly and predictably came into play. It may be wrong as wrong can be, but it’s the only game they know. Liberal literary extremists set the stage by lambasting the Tea Party backed members of Congress who opposed tax increases. Apparently neo-Socialists who practice the Alinsky principle of having no principles are absolutely shocked by those who do! Having discovered that the “racist” charges would not work, the new tactic and Democrat talking point was to characterize them as “terrorists,” “hostage takers,” “extremists,” “holding a gun to the head of the President,” “ready to blow up the economy,” and so on. This all comes from the hypocrites who want conservatives to “tone down” the debate and engage in “civil discourse.” This hypocrisy was epitomized by Democrat Representative Mike Doyle who whined to Vice-President Joe Biden that: “We have negotiated with terrorists. This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.” That is exactly what they were elected to do.
Democrat attack dog and Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod immediately tried to muddy the waters by coining the inaccurate phrase “Tea Party downgrade.” Simultaneously, Democrat Senator John Kerry (not noted for his originality) spoke lugubriously about the “Tea Party downgrade.” As usual, they were wrong as wrong can be. Neither party offered a plan for deficit reduction or entitlement reform. Remember, this President wanted a “clean” debt limit bill—he wanted to raise the limit by $2.4 trillion with NO cuts attached. He never put a deficit reduction plan on the table in writing. Axelrod and Kerry also failed to explain why President Obama ignored the warnings by S&P that a $4 trillion deficit reduction would be a “good down payment” to maintain the AAA credit rating.
Curiously, no blame has been placed on the ninety-five House Democrats who also opposed the debt limit deal. Of course their opposition was founded on the class warfare principle of increasing taxes, the so called “balanced approach,” and fearing that the pitiful tax cuts (only $29 billion in 2012!) would damage our fragile economy. They must have forgotten the presidential economic philosophy that “The soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut taxes now. The purpose of cutting taxes now is…to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.” Those words were spoken by John F. Kennedy whose record subsequently showed tax cuts and revenue increases. He was as right then as today’s Democrats are wrong today.
Interestingly enough, the rates on treasury bills has fallen since so much new money is flowing in. That is primarily because the economies of other nations are in much greater peril than our own. The stock market drop last week was as much due to European economic turmoil as to the debt ceiling deal. Janet Daley, in a very insightful piece in The Telegraph, noted from London that “The truly fundamental question that is at the heart of the disaster toward which we are racing is being debated only in America: is it possible for a free market economy to support a democratic socialist society?” She noted that the Tea Party positions were neither naïve nor parochial but are being corroborated by the European experience. She concludes that “The hardest obstacle to overcome will be the idea that anyone who challenges the prevailing consensus of the past 50 years is irrational and irresponsible. That is what is being said about the Tea Partiers. In fact, what is irrational and irresponsible is the assumption that we can go on as we are.”
President Obama’s economic policies have resulted in the destruction of over $2 trillion in personal wealth over the last two weeks. We cannot go on as we are because it’s as wrong as wrong can be.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Letter to the Editor, August 5, 2011
Dear Editor:
I am in total agreement with Janey Callahan-Chin's letter last week that encouraged citizens to call their congressional representatives. Since they are unable to balance the budget on their own volition, they should heartily support a Balanced Budget Amendment that will force them to exercise fiscal responsibility. Most city, county, and state governments already have this requirement.
I hope that she also agrees that Harry Reid should stop burying bills that are passed by the House and allow them to come up on the floor for debate and vote. Maybe that's his version of the "Texas Compromise."
As for her concerns that Social Security, Armed Services, and Medicare funds would not be available, that would only have happened if the President wanted it to happen. The government receives approximately $200 billion in revenue each month. Social Security costs $49.2 billion; our active duty military costs $2.9 billion; interest on our debt is $29 billion; and the feds provide $11 billion in educational funds. That's a total of $92.1 billion if the President prioritized and paid those bills. That leaves $108 billion yet to be allocated. There was never a need for concern about default on our national debt due to insufficient funds or a need to frighten social security recipients and military personnel. However, neither the President nor the Treasury Secretary would disclose their priorities for political reasons. They could easily have allayed the fears of those affected groups but they chose not to do so for political reasons.
Let's also keep in mind that it was the President and the Democrats that took $500 billion out of Medicare in order to make Obamacare "revenue neutral."
So call your representatives. Tell them no more blank checks, no more irresponsible and wasteful spending, no more borrowing and start lowering the national debt. Learn to live within your means as we all have to do. Our Republic cannot survive "womb to tomb" government dependency!
Sincerely,
Bill Garvin
I am in total agreement with Janey Callahan-Chin's letter last week that encouraged citizens to call their congressional representatives. Since they are unable to balance the budget on their own volition, they should heartily support a Balanced Budget Amendment that will force them to exercise fiscal responsibility. Most city, county, and state governments already have this requirement.
I hope that she also agrees that Harry Reid should stop burying bills that are passed by the House and allow them to come up on the floor for debate and vote. Maybe that's his version of the "Texas Compromise."
As for her concerns that Social Security, Armed Services, and Medicare funds would not be available, that would only have happened if the President wanted it to happen. The government receives approximately $200 billion in revenue each month. Social Security costs $49.2 billion; our active duty military costs $2.9 billion; interest on our debt is $29 billion; and the feds provide $11 billion in educational funds. That's a total of $92.1 billion if the President prioritized and paid those bills. That leaves $108 billion yet to be allocated. There was never a need for concern about default on our national debt due to insufficient funds or a need to frighten social security recipients and military personnel. However, neither the President nor the Treasury Secretary would disclose their priorities for political reasons. They could easily have allayed the fears of those affected groups but they chose not to do so for political reasons.
Let's also keep in mind that it was the President and the Democrats that took $500 billion out of Medicare in order to make Obamacare "revenue neutral."
So call your representatives. Tell them no more blank checks, no more irresponsible and wasteful spending, no more borrowing and start lowering the national debt. Learn to live within your means as we all have to do. Our Republic cannot survive "womb to tomb" government dependency!
Sincerely,
Bill Garvin
Monday, August 1, 2011
Kiss Your Triple A Goodbye!
By William L. Garvin
“An unlimited power to tax involves necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” Chief Justice John Marshall
First of all, you don’t deserve it! If the USA continues to elect leaders that are so incompetent that they can’t even balance a budget, if they continue to let the government spend far in excess of what they receive, then the credit rating should go down the toilet. The current Administration and its debt limit debacle give us absolutely no hope for the future. They are reminiscent of Wimpy, the character in the old Popeye cartoons. He was always trying to mooch a hamburger today for which he would pay tomorrow. That’s our wimpy government in a nutshell.
First of all, they intend to raise the debt limit $2.4 trillion dollars, the largest increase in the history of our nation. The President wants his hamburger today. Of course he will pay for it tomorrow. That is to say, he will let someone else pay for it AFTER he is out of office. That’s why they want to spread the spending cuts over the next ten years. Then again, they aren’t cuts in the traditional sense of the word. To a normal person, a “cut” means you have less to spend next year than you have this year. To our government, a cut means that you only get a two percent increase instead of a three percent increase. In Obamanomics, the national debt will only increase $8 trillion instead of $9 trillion over the next decade!
For a change, the American public is paying more attention to this fiasco than ever before. Keep in mind that we have already had the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles committee offer suggestions to reduce the debt. President Obama ignored them. The Republican House passes the Ryan budget to help reduce the debt. The Democrat Senate voted it down. This is the same Democrat Senate that has failed to even produce a budget of its own for nearly three years. The House Republicans passed a “cut, cap and balance” effort to deal with the out of control spending. Senate Democrat Harry Reid buried it. He wouldn’t even let it come to the floor for debate let alone a vote. Democrats run from a a Balanced Budget Amendment just as vampires flee from daylight…and for the same reasons. House Republicans passed a second debt limit bill and again Senator Reid buried it. Now they are wrestling with another Rube Goldberg piece of legislation that has been concocted behind closed doors that will probably do nothing to systemically control the runaway federal government spending. The Democrat response is the usual “tax the rich” and “punish greedy corporate America” mantra.
Our federal government has long forgotten the caution provided by Thomas Jefferson: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” Jefferson would see “social justice” and its progeny “redistribution of wealth” as Constitutional abominations.
Individuals and families have tightened their belts and reduced their spending. Companies have tightened their belts, reduced spending and laid off employees. Cities and counties have tightened their belts reduced spending and laid off employees. State governments have done the same. The Federal government has not tightened its belt nor reduced spending nor furloughed let alone laid off employees. Congress and the President have suffered no hardship nor have they shared in any sacrifice. All of their lavish perks and benefits remain fully intact…and their incompetence continues to be subsidized by the American taxpayer.
One final Jeffersonian caution: “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt…I place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” It’s economic disaster when our leaders aren’t Constitutional scholars!
“An unlimited power to tax involves necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” Chief Justice John Marshall
First of all, you don’t deserve it! If the USA continues to elect leaders that are so incompetent that they can’t even balance a budget, if they continue to let the government spend far in excess of what they receive, then the credit rating should go down the toilet. The current Administration and its debt limit debacle give us absolutely no hope for the future. They are reminiscent of Wimpy, the character in the old Popeye cartoons. He was always trying to mooch a hamburger today for which he would pay tomorrow. That’s our wimpy government in a nutshell.
First of all, they intend to raise the debt limit $2.4 trillion dollars, the largest increase in the history of our nation. The President wants his hamburger today. Of course he will pay for it tomorrow. That is to say, he will let someone else pay for it AFTER he is out of office. That’s why they want to spread the spending cuts over the next ten years. Then again, they aren’t cuts in the traditional sense of the word. To a normal person, a “cut” means you have less to spend next year than you have this year. To our government, a cut means that you only get a two percent increase instead of a three percent increase. In Obamanomics, the national debt will only increase $8 trillion instead of $9 trillion over the next decade!
For a change, the American public is paying more attention to this fiasco than ever before. Keep in mind that we have already had the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles committee offer suggestions to reduce the debt. President Obama ignored them. The Republican House passes the Ryan budget to help reduce the debt. The Democrat Senate voted it down. This is the same Democrat Senate that has failed to even produce a budget of its own for nearly three years. The House Republicans passed a “cut, cap and balance” effort to deal with the out of control spending. Senate Democrat Harry Reid buried it. He wouldn’t even let it come to the floor for debate let alone a vote. Democrats run from a a Balanced Budget Amendment just as vampires flee from daylight…and for the same reasons. House Republicans passed a second debt limit bill and again Senator Reid buried it. Now they are wrestling with another Rube Goldberg piece of legislation that has been concocted behind closed doors that will probably do nothing to systemically control the runaway federal government spending. The Democrat response is the usual “tax the rich” and “punish greedy corporate America” mantra.
Our federal government has long forgotten the caution provided by Thomas Jefferson: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” Jefferson would see “social justice” and its progeny “redistribution of wealth” as Constitutional abominations.
Individuals and families have tightened their belts and reduced their spending. Companies have tightened their belts, reduced spending and laid off employees. Cities and counties have tightened their belts reduced spending and laid off employees. State governments have done the same. The Federal government has not tightened its belt nor reduced spending nor furloughed let alone laid off employees. Congress and the President have suffered no hardship nor have they shared in any sacrifice. All of their lavish perks and benefits remain fully intact…and their incompetence continues to be subsidized by the American taxpayer.
One final Jeffersonian caution: “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt…I place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” It’s economic disaster when our leaders aren’t Constitutional scholars!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)