Posts Tagged ‘Debt’

Boehner Must Go

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

Holiday Spirit?

Back in the days of the early Cold War, Senator Joe McCarthy spent a good deal of effort trying to uncover crypto-communists, people in government and in popular culture who hid behind labels like “liberal” and “progressive,” but who were secretly working directly or indirectly for the world-wide communist movement.  The media (being dominated by crypto-communists) set out to destroy McCarthy’s reputation, and their friends in the historical community helped to blot all of the communist betrayals from future generations.  Today, we have a putative Republican majority in the House of Representatives, but for the second time in less than two years, the Republican leadership in the House is working to undermine its conservative members while offering deals on the “fiscal-cliff” to Barack Obama, both publicly and behind closed doors.

These so-called “”deals” are only good for President Obama, but they are disasters for our Republic and its future.  No conservative can possibly believe that any of the deals being discussed publicly are anything but destructive, and yet here is our Republican House leadership, the last firewall against the predations of Obama, and he’s making deals, planning for defections, with the intention of getting it through the House primarily with Democrat votes!  I believe this is evidence of more than mere incompetence because what these repeated sell-outs evince is a thoroughgoing contempt for the Republic.  I no longer believe Boehner is merely weak or foolish.  I don’t believe there’s a sober human being alive who could be this incompetent. Instead, I believe he is either a crypto-socialist plant of the leftist variety, or he has been compromised in other ways.  Either way, for the good of the country, John Boehner must go.

Never have I seen a Speaker of the House work so unashamedly for his adversary and against his own party.  This isn’t the behavior one should expect from a Republican, never mind somebody who claims to be a conservative, but if Boehner succeeds in throwing a deal to Obama, it will be on the strength of only a few hands-full of Republicans.  It will be the moderates who will pass this deal out of committee, and there will be a sudden bloom of support from across the aisle.  There’s no point in extenuating the matter.  When the election for Speaker occurs in the next Congress in January, we must get sufficient abstentions to ditch this jerk.  As Ned Ryun writes at RedState, it will take 218 votes to re-install him as Speaker, and that means we must work to prevent Boehner from obtaining that number.  It’s a long shot, but it’s our only chance to rid ourselves of this man, and the problem is that Cantor is no better.  We are going to need to say no to a number of these DC establishment Republicans, and we have just four weeks to bring sufficient pressure to do so.

On Wednesday, Boehner held a press conference during which he took several questions.  His answers indicated that he has already surrendered.  He talked about taxing the rich, saying:

“Now the revenues we’re going to put on the table come from…guess who?  The rich.”

What has happened to the so-called leadership of the Republican party?  Here, John Boehner adopted the language of the left, providing a de facto endorsement of it.  Boehner isn’t interested in fixing any of this, but is instead leading his party to doom.  As we know from earlier in the week, he dumped four conservatives from influential committees because they were not “loyal.” To whom or to what does a conservative owe his loyalty?  John Boehner?  Forgive me, but my representative does not owe his loyalty to John Boehner.  He must be faithful to the US Constitution and loyal to his home district, but not to freaking John Boehner, particularly when it means abandoning these higher principles.

This sort of damage is not accidental.  Either Boehner is corrupt and compromised because those FBI files (or their contemporary equivalents) have come back to haunt him, or because he’s simply a leftist who obtained his office and position as a Republican by playing a role.  One might have concluded that he is merely a fear-driven political animal acting due to a faulty perception of his political survival, but that doesn’t explain his behavior with respect to the conservatives in Congress. No, I suspect that Boehner is compromised, and that he is acting as an agent for the left, but even if it’s not that simple, the effect is precisely the same: The destruction of the United States as we have known it. You may be satisfied to leave him in place, but I am not.  For the good of the Republic, and in faithful service to that writ of our supreme law that had formed it, John Boehner must go.

 

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Posted in Budget, Congress, Cry-Baby Boehner, Featured, News, Politics | 11 Comments »

Another Downgrade on the Horizon?

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

Worse This Time?

Leave it to Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to publish their fears of another credit-rating downgrade for the US government.  On Saturday, I brought you the story of how this very company is shifting some of its European derivatives over to its depository arms so that they will be insured under FDIC.  It’s a stunning development that an analyst for this very institution to  tell us they expect another credit downgrade, tells us something about how they believe that will work out for the American tax-payer that will now be on the hook for trillions. They don’t think it’s going to turn out well, I can assure you, but you can expect all sorts of hand-wringing excuses when the meltdown occurs.

In his dire analysis, Ethan Harris writes:

“We expect a moderate slowdown in the beginning of next year, as two small policy shocks—another debt downgrade and fiscal tightening—hit the economy. The “not-so-super” Deficit Commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. Since the fall-back plan is sharp cuts in discretionary spending, the whole point of the Committee is to put taxes and entitlements on the table. However, all the Republican members have signed the Norquist “no taxes” pledge and with taxes off the table it is hard to imagine the liberal Democrats on the Committee agreeing to significant entitlement cuts. The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan. Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the super Committee crashes.”

Of course, part of the problem is that everybody is waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Europe stands on the verge of a complete meltdown, and our Federal Reserve has gotten us so deeply tied to the success or failure of Europe at this point that if Europe goes down, we will likely fall down too.  Several outlets are reporting that a number of European banks are on the brink, and that this will trigger a sell-off and panic unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time.

At the same time Germany’s Angela Merkel is chastising Italy over its debt of 120% of GDP, I wonder if she’d do us a favor and look at the US, which isn’t far off from that ratio itself, and tell Obama a thing or two while she’s at it.  Merkel is among those who are urging further austerity measures, and she’s right. The trouble is that leftists never tire of pitching their best Keynesian plans at these sorts of problems, pretending that if only they can borrow and print a little more liquidity, the problem will solve itself.  Naturally, that’s nonsense, and while everybody knows it, the spenders will never, ever admit it.

Ladies and gentlemen, we stand on the precipice and wonder why this is happening, but anybody who has ever learned the hard lessons of running on credit must begin to see the simple truth of the matter:  You cannot consume more than you produce on an indefinite basis.  This entire fiasco is the result of runaway governments spending our future into oblivion.  While we’re at it, we must also rein in the Federal Reserve as the policies now in force are merely multiplying the trouble.  One year ago, as they began to plan out QE2(Quantitative Easing, Round 2,) Sarah Palin warned the world.  She was mocked by Krugman, the purveyor of Alien Attacks and other nonsense dressed up as economics, while she was being berated for her stance by a host of others, but in the end, who has been right?  We mustn’t permit ourselves to suffer under this comfortable illusion any longer: There is no alternative but to dramatically slash government spending.  We must do it now, or there may be no tomorrow.

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Posted in Business, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Federal Reserve, News, Politics, Sarah Palin | 5 Comments »

Update: Deeper into the Morass of Obama Demagoguery

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Presidential Hot Air

One e-mailer asked me a question about my most recent post on Barack Obama and his Deficit/Debt Plan, and his Jobs Plan. It’s a question worth further explanation:

Mark, Great Site!  I have one question for you. How does getting in good with his base help him win the general election? I can see how it helps him avoid a contested primary as you said, but won’t this hurt him in the general? Jim

That’s a great question, and thinking about it, my earlier post did neglect to explain that aspect, and as I thought about answering Jim’s question, a couple of things more.  First, to answer Jim’s question, by itself, it doesn’t.  That said, you must win the nomination to win the general, and a primary fight will hurt Obama because he’ll need to go way left to win a serious challenge, and that would happen in a time-frame when moderates and independents will already be watching, and since those voters are already abandoning him, he can’t afford a protracted primary fight.  Better to stop it cold now, when most people still aren’t watching.  If he kills off a primary challenge by moving way left, he still has plenty of time to move back nearer to center in time for the general election.

Obama’s strategy must also include an uptick in the demagoguery over the differences in income.  This is typical leftist Class-Warfare rhetoric with which we’re all very familiar by now.  The tactic will be to move nearer the center again, as he did in 2008, and continue to attack “the rich” all while never mentioning that he’s deep into crony-capitalism.  He may even try to float some show-trials in the media aimed at some of his corporate cronies while he feigns innocence.  We will see a level of demagoguery that will push us to the brink of civil disorder if Obama has his way.  It’s really the only way he can win.

So thank you Jim for asking the question. I hope this helps explain what’s going on with Obama’s “Plan.”  It’s first a “No Primary Challenger Plan,” to be followed by a “Move slightly to center while playing demagogue against the rich and business re-election plan.”

One of the problems with a cornered irrational is that you never know how they may lash out.  Obama is cornered, and his entire philosophy, indeed the whole philosophy of the left, is completely irrational.  They will be lashing out.

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Posted in Barack Obama, Economics, Election 2012, Politics, Update | 1 Comment »

Barack Obama’s Desperately Phony Deficit Reduction Plan

Monday, September 19th, 2011

More Presidential Hot Air for His Base

On Monday, Barack Obama introduced an alleged deficit reduction jobs plan that offers three dollars in tax increases for every dollar off spending cuts it promises.  This is another extension of his outrageous spending policy.  There’s nothing new included in this plan, as he proposes a new “Buffett Tax” on wealthier people including small businesses.   This is a failure, and it’s not very likely to get through the House of Representatives, unless John Boehner is determined to be known as the Surrender-Monkey Speaker, but the question must be asked:  Since everybody knows this is a failed policy, why is he insisting on a leftist approach to an issue of such national import?   The answer may be as simpler:  He’s offering this as a way to stave off a primary challenge, as Ralph Nader and others begin to consider challenging him.

Weak as he is, this may be the most serious threat as Obama has fallen to all-time low approval among liberals.  That’s a shocking development, and his internal polls have been telling him this for weeks.  This is the reason for his pathetic Debt plan, and it speaks volumes about how subservient he is is rapidly becoming to the extreme left in his party for the sake of his own re-election.  We know Barack Obama can’t believe raising taxes in the midst of a re-emerging recession because he’s told us before that “the last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession.”  Or does he?  This is an example of how he’s unable to move toward the center, and he’s a prisoner of the radical left in his party’s base.  He dare not go along with reasonable spending cuts, tax cuts, or even tax freezes, because his base will politically crucify him.  The number of people on the extreme left end of his party now seriously discussing a primary challenge is the most thorough difficulty he faces.  If he loses his base, having lost the moderate or conservative Democrats, and most Independents, he’s well on his way to cratering.  He must serve his radical leftist friends, or concede his re-election altogether.

In trying to shore up his base, we are beginning to see the most pathetic sorts of posturing in the liberal press.  Now, they’re trying to paint him as the “first Jewish President” over at NewYorkMagazine.  This is because there has been some evidence that Obama is losing support among American Jews, and now, they’re taking  this approach to help him with this part of the base of the Democrat party.  Let’s be honest about it: He’s in significant political trouble, and no amount of window-dressing is going to turn that around.

Today’s Deficit and Debt Reduction Plan was merely another attempt to shore up his base.  It is in no way a serious proposal unless Boehner decides to treat it as one.  It will be your task to make sure that doesn’t  happen.  Barack Obama is trying to prevent a primary challenge, knowing that it will cause him more grief than any  Republican could dream of doing.  Of course, Joseph Farah over at WND has another idea, but I think it’s seriously flawed.  Still, Obama knows he’s in trouble which is why he will now rush to every microphone he can find to propose plans that demonstrate his hard-left commitment to his base.  That’s all this plan really is, and to treat it as anything else is to miss the important meaning it actually contains: Barack Obama is terrified of his own base, and for all the wrong reasons.

UPDATED: Deeper into the Morass of Obama Demagoguery

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Posted in Barack Obama, Business, Economics, Election 2012, Politics | 3 Comments »