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.