It's Not My Fault, I didn't Do It: Or...it's all Bush's fault dammit

via Ed Driscoll:

The President says, “most people would acknowledge that I’ve tried real hard”.
—The same President that for nearly four years has blamed his own trackless failures and protracted ineffectiveness on his predecessor, President Bush, when for his first two years in office his party had majorities and control of both the House and the Senate as well as the White House.
When that started to wear thin, he blamed a “particularly harsh Winter”.
When it wasn’t the snow anymore, he then blamed the Arab Spring, the uprisings in Egypt and the shortages of oil from Libya to Europe.

Then we were led to believe that his economic recovery plans of hundreds of billions in deficit spending could not withstand the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Tsunami in Japan, floods in the mid-west, and finally an earthquake and a tropical storm both within a week.

The President tells us that the villains are mother nature, big oil, wall street, corporations, the bankers, the insurance industry, the coal miners, the millionaires and billionaires, congress, global warming, and the Texas wild fires.

How are we are going to get back on track with an administration whose policies work contrary to an expanding private sector from which all of our prosperity comes —the creators of real sustaining jobs within organizations that have essential private risk taking and recourse to keep them going concerns with recurring and regular payrolls.
Dump this creed of redistributive wealth by government ration including a Secretary of Agriculture who sees his primary job as increasing participants in the SNAP Food Stamp program that now number 46 million Americans and is now spending $20 million in an advertising campaign seeking even more participants.

Dump this administration that believes in the folly of telling Americans that the collective will well provide for their individual healthcare.

Dump this administration that sees the federal government on a street corner handing out a $1,000 a second and thinks the line will someday get shorter, instead of bringing restraints on federal appropriations that are clearly unsustainable with a public debt nearing $16 trillion, that is now more than GDP, and 40 cents of every dollar spent by government today is borrowed.

There shall be consequences to this President’s legacy of multiple trillions of deficit spending —more than any other administration of government in the history of the world.
How easy it is to govern when you just spend, spend, spend, spend, spend without restraint, instead of rising to the occasion, taking responsibility and making hard decisions like the rest of us outside of Washington are having to do during these hard times —and we’re told, “I’ve tried real hard”.

At what ?

Just last week at a high school in Durham, New Hampshire this President told an audience of high school students,

“You can decide that instead of restricting access to birth control or defunding Planned Parenthood, we should make sure that in this country, women control their own health care choices. That’s up to you”.

—equating the failure of public funding of contraceptive birth controls and abortions the same as restricting access to the same.

Again, this is a President who chooses the venue of a high school to say all this.
This is the same President who rewards Sandra Fluke and her outspoken college behavior at Georgetown University with a telephone call from the White House last March.

At every opportunity this President repeatedly tells our young people at commencement how our Constitution is a “fundamentally flawed document” as he seeks to disassociate our young from the founding fathers of our republic and inculcates a huge false sense of entitlement in our young with his own revisionist account of American history.
Just what message is this to our young people from the President of the United States, and just what business does he have in doing this at all ?

This, together with seeking more and more on food stamps shows us that what you’ve tried so real hard at is to further the demoralization and debasement of American society.
I conclude the “fundamental change” of this collectivist President is a willful and deliberate attempt to separate our young people from their own parents, grandparents and any religious instruction, disassociate them from America’s founding and its noble history, and to undermine and destroy our American culture altogether with this spineless rhetoric of impotence and mendacity.

It is this depravity, degeneracy, and decadence of a secular creed that simply must be defeated.

This man, due to the victim blanket of the Progressive Liberal Left, has never, ever had to take responsibility for any damn thing in his life.  He has gone to great lengths to deny his culpability for what we are undergoing.  What ever happened to the Democratic Party of Harry "The Buck Stops Here" Truman?

Obama: Increasing US Debt Unpatriotic

During the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama called George Bush, "unpatriotic" for increasing the US Debt by $4 trillion dollars over 8 years

...“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,” Obama complained, ”driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents, [and] number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have now to pay back.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/17/obama-gop-unpatriotic-for-spending-and-for-not-spending/#ixzz1dxeDQYc7 ...but what does candidate Obama have to say to the hypocrisy of President Obama increasing the federal debt by $6 trillion dollars in under 3 years...crickets...

It's All Bush's Fault; Part 428

During his speech inaugerating the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument (which was made in China by slave labour), he spent most of the speech pushing for "redistribution of wealth" and blaming his predecessor for the country's economic woes.

Barack Obama bashed Bush and pushed “change” and redistribution of wealth during his speech today at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. What could have been a unifying moment turned into a campaign speech. Nice work, Barack.

Transcript:

Nearly 50 years after the March on Washington, our work, Dr. King’s work, is not yet complete. We gather here at a moment of great challenge and great change. In the first decade of this new century, we have been tested by war and by tragedy; by an economic crisis and its aftermath that has left millions out of work, and poverty on the rise, and millions more just struggling to get by. Indeed, even before this crisis struck, we had endured a decade of rising inequality and stagnant wages. In too many troubled neighborhoods across the country, the conditions of our poorest citizens appear little changed from what existed 50 years ago -– neighborhoods with underfunded schools and broken-down slums, inadequate health care, constant violence, neighborhoods in which too many young people grow up with little hope and few prospects for the future.  

Our work is not done. And so on this day, in which we celebrate a man and a movement that did so much for this country, let us draw strength from those earlier struggles. First and foremost, let us remember that change has never been quick. Change has never been simple, or without controversy. Change depends on persistence. Change requires determination. It took a full decade before the moral guidance of Brown v. Board of Education was translated into the enforcement measures of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but those 10 long years did not lead Dr. King to give up. He kept on pushing, he kept on speaking, he kept on marching until change finally came. (Applause.)  

And then when, even after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed, African Americans still found themselves trapped in pockets of poverty across the country, Dr. King didn’t say those laws were a failure; he didn’t say this is too hard; he didn’t say, let’s settle for what we got and go home. Instead he said, let’s take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but also economic justice; let’s fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. In other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the “isness” of today. He kept pushing towards the “oughtness” of tomorrow… {All emphasis is mine, Ed.}

Eventually, Mr. Obama will realize that this isn't what the country wants...that "Class War" just doesn't sell very well in America. Here's the new face of the [Social] Democratic Party.

Liz Cheney said on FoxNews this morning that,

“In terms of President Obama, what he’s doing politically he may think makes sense. I think it’s actually scarier than that, though. I think he really believes it. I think that he’s not put forward so many policies that aren’t working economically and that are not working for him politically that you’ve got to at some point it must be ideology. It must be that he really believes in redistribution of the wealth. He really believes in increasing capital gains tax even if it means lower revenues to the treasury. It’s something new that we’ve seen from a president in a long time and I think it’s very concerning.”

When Mr. Obama was confronted by Joe the Plumber in 2008, he was merely saying what he really believes...that the only way to economic prosperity for this country is to take away from those who do the work, and give it to those who won't work.

Pakistani Informant

It's been recently been leaked that the below informant desires to claim the $25 million dollar reward for the capture-killing of Osama bin Laden.

It's the Economy STUPID!

A reader asked me how long a bounce Mr. Obama would get from the killing of OBL...I predict 2 weeks.  That's about how long the MSM will be able to wind this out.  The love fest was evident on ABC tonight with their "news breaks" on "late breaking news."  What'shername, the ABC evening news anchor, just gushed about "our brave seals."...

After 2 weeks, reality will return, and people will see the cost of gasoline rise above $4.50...and begin it's inexorable climb to the $5 dollar rung.  Of course, pretty much our entire economy is tied to the price of fuel.  Very soon, we'll see real inflation rates approach 10%.  The current system for measuring inflation doesn't count the cost of energy or food...both of which require intensive use of petroleum products to reach market, not just to grow.  Thus, the GAO continues to insist that there is no inflation...but then, they don't do any grocery shopping.
Mr. Obama claims he can't do anything about the cost of gasoline in the immediate future (the next few months).  While technically, that's correct, we as a nation, have some of the largest reserves of oil in the world.  We are continually finding new oil fields.  What this government has refused to do is permit new drilling.  The reason that the deep water BP spill happened at all is that environmentalists have successfully blocked the exploitation of newly discovered (over the past 20 years) of  oil fields located on the continental shelf (The CS lies in waters from 0 feet to approximately 500 feet deep).   This has forced us to exploit very deep water fields.  But now, even that's off limits.

But not for Brazil.  We gave Brazil's Petrobaz (spelling?) $2,000,000,000.00 to exploit  a new field discovered in deep water off the south east coast of Brazil.  Now, just who holds the largest block of privately held stock in that partially publically (Brazillian government) owned company?  Why George Soros, one of the huge contributors to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Then throw in Mr. Obama's faux "deficit reduction plan" (which budget is still 25% larger than the largest signed by Mr. G. W. Bush)...that has markets in flux, and has caused Stardard & Poors, among other bond rating agencies to down-grade US Treasury bonds...plus the Chinese have started to sell off  US T-Bills (one common indicator that an attack on the dollar is imminent)...and IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!

Now, the real question is...will Washington listen?

CBS Continues With BDS

When will CBS end it's war with George W. Bush?  Here's the fake cover they showed on a news story recently on a revue of his new book.

Eventually, they're going to have to stop this...but then, they'd have to stop husting for the Obama socialist agenda as well...like that will ever happen.

H/T InstaPundit

Halloween: A Scarry Liberal Pumpkin

While I'm sure that many on the left think this is scary...how about this?  48% of Americans now think W was a better President than the current encumbent...that has to be down-right terrifying!

H/T Instapundit

It's ALL Bush's Fault, PT2

This started as an answer to a comment in "It's All Bush's Fault"...

First, Bush didn't use up a surplus. That existed only as an accounting mirage. The way the government "counts" spending/tax receipts depends hugely upon WHO is doing the counting, and how. Much spending is excluded are are many sources of receipts. If a business was run the way our government is, it would have been bankrupt decades ago.

Bush didn't "lie" us into 2 wars. If you recall, every country in the west's intelligence services were reporting much the same thing about Iraq: Hussein was actively pursuing a nuclear agenda and possessed chemical weapons. Do a google search and you'll see ALL of the Democratic leadership said much the same thing. Also, it it now believed, in the 6 months prior to the Iraq invasion, that Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria (who was then his closest ally--Syria is still ruled by the Baath Party, the same the USED to rule Iraq). However, have you forgotten that Al Queda, from it's safe havens in Afghanistan attacked us first? Not just in 2001, but several times over the previous decade.

Historically, CEO salaries have been about 50 times the national average, at least since the 1930's. This is a historical fact, they just didn't baloon since the Reagan era. I've always decried management compensation, especially bonuses for CEO's whose companies LOST money. You don't get an "attaboy" when you don't post a profit! Moreover, companies began to leave this country during the 1970's when federal regulation and rapidly rising wages created an atmosphere wherein producing both raw materials (i.e. steel) and finished products (cars, etc.) began to be uncompetetive in the world market place. The Reagan administration attempted to reduce the amount of regulations that burdened corporations, and reduced taxes to a level competative with the rest of the world. Right now, with the heavy burden of business taxation (we have some of the highest rates in the world) and strangling amount of regulation, it's no longer profitable (and that's not a dirty word) to produce many basic goods here, so those jobs have fled to parts of the world where regulation or wage levels are much lower than here

If you'd really like to see a simple economic model work, you should try playing the game Sim City. While admittedly, it's not an ideal model, it will give you an excellent idea on what taxation/regulation can do to an economy. Start a city and get it to "fill" the map, then see what happens when you raise taxation levels beyond the "tipping point."

The Keynesian economic model that is being used by the current administration doesn't work. In 1934/35, FDR attempted to do much the same as Mr. Obama is doing now, and strangled the nascent recovery and extended the Great Depression by nearly 7 years. The 2nd great myth of 20th Century America is the FDR got us out of the Depression, nothing of sort occured, it was WW2 that did so a study by economists from UCLA (a bastion of conservatism) shows that this is simply not the case.  More over, a Harvard study has shown the Keynesian/Government spending has had the opposite effect of reducing jobs...While much of the rest of world was emerging, albeit slowly, from the Depression in the late '30's, the US continued to languish for many years longer than necessary.

Now, what would I do if I had the ability to "fix things"? First I would reduce taxes across the board. I would eliminate the death tax and capital gains tax (contrary to popular wisdom, small investors pay much more of this tax do than do large investors). additionally, I would eliminate several Secretarial departments whose sole reason for existence is to create employment (Education, HHS/HUD, Commerce, Homeland Security [ummm Doesn't the DoD have responsibility for defending/securing the homeland?], etc.-many departments now have overlapping duties) and greatly reduce the scope of government...additionally, I would veto any bill that Congress passed that increased spending w/o comensurate cuts in other areas (i.e. require Congress to spend responsibly-balance the budget). After all, if I will go to jail for spending money I don't have, WTF can Congress get away with it? 

Additionally, I would veto any bill that was so large as to be incomprehensible.  There is no excuse to "we won't know what's in the bill until after it's passed."  Because,

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood ."--James Madison

Because in the past, landmark legislation that changed the way our country opperates, hasn't had to be more than 2,000 pages long: 

• Homestead Act (1862) - 9 pages.
• National Labor Relations Act (1935) [aka "Wagner Act"] - 25 pages.
• Social Security Act (1935) - 82 pages.
• Civil Rights Act (1964) - 74 pages.

These bills were all landmark legislation that was passed in a bipartisan fashion, something that this President and this Congress don't seem to be able to remember.

I would also require that Congress repealed the provisions of ObamaCare (the Massachusetts Model, whis is the basis for ObamaCare is currently running $40 Bil in the red...) because it WONT reduce any costs it will only run them up. In my state of Maryland, only 6 companies (of the 1300+ available) are permitted to provide health insurance. If we eliminated state barriers to companies and allow a genuine free market, prices for coverage would be greatly reduced. Another thing would be to limit/cap lawsuits, with the loser to pay winner's court/lawyer costs, this would seriously reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits...

At this point, I think that under the Obama Administration, a redux of the disasterous Carter administration is a best case senario. If you look at the amount of fraud in the 2008 election (in WI, it looks like illegal [convicted felons, fake ballots] voting put the Dem Sen candidate over the top-not my conclusion but that of the very liberal Star Tribune) ballots and fraud in various caucuses (as opposed to secret ballot primaries) threw the nomination to Obama. But then, I wasn't happy with Mr. McCain either...

Be that as it may, there are several possible solutions to what is ailing America right now. I firmly believe that the solution chosen my Congress and this Administration were among the worst. I know a number of academic economists who spend a great deal of time looking at the economy, and they tell me that they don't believe we'll see a real recovery for 2-3 years, at least, if not longer...

While all this is said, I don't believe that government has no place regulating business, but I believe that their scope in doing so must be greatly reduced. Government's proper role is to keep business "reasonably" honest, provide for the common defense, protect us from those who seek to lie-cheat or steal, and to not interfere in our everyday lives...that's the mandate that our forefather's gave it, not the huge role that it has assumed over the course of the last century. It's well past time to roll back the behemouth that's built up and to vastly reduce the roll that it has undertaken. We, as a nation can do this, but we have to begin now, before the real pain begins...

But I've published my ideas in a much longer form here and here, unfortunately, since I'm not either a "mover" or a "shaker" none of my ideas will ever be implemented.  So Arthur, I hope that I've answered your comments.

Billboard of the Day

Reportedly on I-35 in Wyoming, MN..via The Corner on National Review.

UPDATE: here's the url to NPR's article...READ THE COMMENTS you'll be VERY surprised.