Orin Hatch has been bellyaching that the Tea Party threatens the GOP establishment. He joins a growing chorus of GOP regulars who are becoming very worried about the consequences of Tea Party activism. GREAT!!! They should be worried. While there are a small handful of good people in the GOP, most of the SOBs in the party need to get booted from office along with the Democrats.
I cast my first vote in 1980. I voted for Reagan. For 20 years, I listened to GOP excuses. Reagan couldn't cut spending in the 1980s because he had a Democrat congress. Gingrich and the GOP Congress couldn't cut spending in the 1990s because they were laboring under a Democrat President. For 20 years I said: I want to see the GOP run it all so that they can make the changes they talk about.
Well, now we've seen the GOP run it all under Bush and it wasn't a pretty site.
They created the first new entitlement program since LBJ. They initiated the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history. They created the largest pork barrel programs the world has ever seen. According to the Heritage Foundation, Bush oversaw Hurricane Katrina "victims" spending OUR TAX MONEY on things like Caribbean vacations, Dom Perignon champagne, Girls Gone Wild videos, and at least one SEX CHANGE OPERATION. They embarked on a costly, demented, and belligerent foreign policy that has left America weaker in the world.
As a result, they turned a balanced budget into a massive annual deficit. They doubled the national debt and had to borrow a TRILLION dollars from the Chinese to do so. They collapsed the economy. Then they gave Wall Street Banksters $700 BILLION dollars of OUR TAX MONEY, which was promptly used to lavish bonuses on FAILED executives.
Of course, one could point out that Obama is even worse, but to do so would be missing the entire point, which is: Both parties are sprinting towards hell. I don't want to go to hell. I want someone to turn around and go the other way. The GOP has shown that they won't. That's the problem.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Mounting debt points to dire consequences ahead
We learned last week that the Social Security system is finally paying out more each year than it is taking in. As a result of Carter raising Social Security taxes in the 70s, the Social Security system has been taking in more money than it was paying out over the last 30 years. Of course, the money wasn't being saved for a rainy day. Instead, the kleptomaniac politicians pilfered it to pay off special interests, including big agribusinesses, Wall Street Banksters, and other large corporations who don't want to compete in the market; leftist "community organizers" like Acorn; government union bosses; corrupt university scientists studying "climate change"; welfare queens; and an endless parade of other leeches. The politicians' theft of the Social Security surpluses masked the true magnitude of annual budget deficits for more than 30 years. Now those surpluses are gone.
Government economists predict that even when (if?) we come out of this recession, the growing demands of the baby boomers on Social Security and Medicare will force the debt to keep piling up.
Honest people have been warning about entitlement spending for more than 30 years. For a long time, nothing was done to reform anything because every time someone tried to tell the truth the left would demagogue the issue, accusing the reformers of being heartless sadists who wanted to throw grandma into the snow without her shawl.
To make matters worse, the last two knuckleheads in the Oval Office have made the situation even worse. George Bush created the first new entitlement since LBJ (a costly prescription drug program for the elderly). Not to be outdone, Obama created a $1 trillion "stimulus" bill that failed to stimulate anything except the salivary glads of power hungry politicians. He also proposed (and hopefully has failed) to expand government healthcare entitlements from 50% of healthcare spending today to 100%.
Given the endless orgy of spending, government economists predict that interest on the debt will gobble up a whopping 80% of all federal revenues by 2020. EIGHTY PERCENT. There won't be any money left to do anything else.
We're not going to be able to just switch out the Congress and make a few tweaks to the system like we did in 94. It's too late for that. Given that the politicians are too corrupt and cowardly to make real changes, we are looking a a grim future ahead.
Mark my words, one or more of these three things WILL happen long before 2020:
A.) The government will undertake a massive tax increase (probably in the form of a Value Added Tax) that will cripple the economy even further and decimate middle class living standards.
B.) The government will create a hyperinflation to pay off the debt with worthless dollars, and wipe out what remains of middle class savings and investment.
C.) The government will default on its debt and collapse the global economy.
All empires come to an end. Thanks to corrupt politicians, lobbyists, and Wall Street bankstes,the post WWII American empire may be next. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on what comes next.
One path points us in the direction of freedom. It requires that we stand up to the federal government and reassert our rights with state nullification of federal laws (which is already happening in a few states with regards to gun control), a constitutional amendment that strictly limits federal power (including closing the "interstate commerce clause" loop hole, which has been used by the politicians to get their grubby little fingers into every aspect of our lives), repeal of the 16th and 17th amendments (which are the root cause of our problems), and potentially secession, if need be.
The other path -- of more government spending and debt -- could very easily end up with a strong man in charge of the country. Remember, the hyperinflation in Germany directly led to the ascension of Der Führer. That's the last thing we need.
We're on an uncharted course, at least for America. But we can learn from history and the mistakes that other countries have made. Hell, we can learn from the mistakes that other countries are making TODAY, namely the PIGS -- Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. Frankly, the U.S. situation is about as dire as theirs in terms of debt to GDP ratio. The only difference is that the U.S. is such a large and important country that it will take longer before our day of reckoning arrives. Make no mistake, it will arrive, and when it does it will be even worse than theirs because there will be no one left to bail us out.
It's long past time to learn from history and get our fiscal house in order. The magic question is whether or not we will learn.
Government economists predict that even when (if?) we come out of this recession, the growing demands of the baby boomers on Social Security and Medicare will force the debt to keep piling up.
Honest people have been warning about entitlement spending for more than 30 years. For a long time, nothing was done to reform anything because every time someone tried to tell the truth the left would demagogue the issue, accusing the reformers of being heartless sadists who wanted to throw grandma into the snow without her shawl.
To make matters worse, the last two knuckleheads in the Oval Office have made the situation even worse. George Bush created the first new entitlement since LBJ (a costly prescription drug program for the elderly). Not to be outdone, Obama created a $1 trillion "stimulus" bill that failed to stimulate anything except the salivary glads of power hungry politicians. He also proposed (and hopefully has failed) to expand government healthcare entitlements from 50% of healthcare spending today to 100%.
Given the endless orgy of spending, government economists predict that interest on the debt will gobble up a whopping 80% of all federal revenues by 2020. EIGHTY PERCENT. There won't be any money left to do anything else.
We're not going to be able to just switch out the Congress and make a few tweaks to the system like we did in 94. It's too late for that. Given that the politicians are too corrupt and cowardly to make real changes, we are looking a a grim future ahead.
Mark my words, one or more of these three things WILL happen long before 2020:
A.) The government will undertake a massive tax increase (probably in the form of a Value Added Tax) that will cripple the economy even further and decimate middle class living standards.
B.) The government will create a hyperinflation to pay off the debt with worthless dollars, and wipe out what remains of middle class savings and investment.
C.) The government will default on its debt and collapse the global economy.
All empires come to an end. Thanks to corrupt politicians, lobbyists, and Wall Street bankstes,the post WWII American empire may be next. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on what comes next.
One path points us in the direction of freedom. It requires that we stand up to the federal government and reassert our rights with state nullification of federal laws (which is already happening in a few states with regards to gun control), a constitutional amendment that strictly limits federal power (including closing the "interstate commerce clause" loop hole, which has been used by the politicians to get their grubby little fingers into every aspect of our lives), repeal of the 16th and 17th amendments (which are the root cause of our problems), and potentially secession, if need be.
The other path -- of more government spending and debt -- could very easily end up with a strong man in charge of the country. Remember, the hyperinflation in Germany directly led to the ascension of Der Führer. That's the last thing we need.
We're on an uncharted course, at least for America. But we can learn from history and the mistakes that other countries have made. Hell, we can learn from the mistakes that other countries are making TODAY, namely the PIGS -- Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. Frankly, the U.S. situation is about as dire as theirs in terms of debt to GDP ratio. The only difference is that the U.S. is such a large and important country that it will take longer before our day of reckoning arrives. Make no mistake, it will arrive, and when it does it will be even worse than theirs because there will be no one left to bail us out.
It's long past time to learn from history and get our fiscal house in order. The magic question is whether or not we will learn.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Short, open letter to Glenn Beck
Glen,
A few minutes ago you told a caller not to worry about people going back to sleep after the next election. I disagree.
In 92, the country was every bit as angry as they are today. The result? We gave Ross Perot 19% of the popular vote -- the second highest total of any third party candidate in the 20th century (Teddy Roosevelt won 27% of the vote as a Progressive candidate in 1912. We did this even after we knew he was crazy (remember the whole "Bush is going to sabotage my daughter's wedding" thing???). If Perot had the type of voter concentration that Wallace did in 68, he could have swept the west the sent the election to the Congress.
Fortunately, people stayed angry for two more years and we swept the GOP into control of the Congress.
The GOP congress did a great job in the 90s. But then most people went right back to sleep. They stayed asleep when George Bush and his GOP congress escalated spending faster than any President since LBJ, created the first new entitlement program since LBJ, and initiated the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history.
It took one of the worst economic collapses in our lifetimes to wake people up again.
My view is that we are in deep trouble for a long time. I am afraid that it is too late to simply elect some new people who can tweak the system and make it all better. We may have to entirely reboot the system from the bottom with a new a constitutional convention that puts the politicians into there place. Regardless of what happens this year and in 2012, we are in for a long, scary ride.
A few minutes ago you told a caller not to worry about people going back to sleep after the next election. I disagree.
In 92, the country was every bit as angry as they are today. The result? We gave Ross Perot 19% of the popular vote -- the second highest total of any third party candidate in the 20th century (Teddy Roosevelt won 27% of the vote as a Progressive candidate in 1912. We did this even after we knew he was crazy (remember the whole "Bush is going to sabotage my daughter's wedding" thing???). If Perot had the type of voter concentration that Wallace did in 68, he could have swept the west the sent the election to the Congress.
Fortunately, people stayed angry for two more years and we swept the GOP into control of the Congress.
The GOP congress did a great job in the 90s. But then most people went right back to sleep. They stayed asleep when George Bush and his GOP congress escalated spending faster than any President since LBJ, created the first new entitlement program since LBJ, and initiated the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history.
It took one of the worst economic collapses in our lifetimes to wake people up again.
My view is that we are in deep trouble for a long time. I am afraid that it is too late to simply elect some new people who can tweak the system and make it all better. We may have to entirely reboot the system from the bottom with a new a constitutional convention that puts the politicians into there place. Regardless of what happens this year and in 2012, we are in for a long, scary ride.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Why should we trust them again?
House minority leader John Boeher was on Michael Medved's show today. In response to a caller's question, Boeher said that the the GOP did indeed have a health care proposal. He gave the URL where it was posted.
REALLY??? I'll bet that most people have no idea that the GOP has a health care plan. Of course Boehner didn't articulate AT ALL what was actually in the plan.
Reagan and Gingrich understood something that Boehner doesn't -- being shy and keeping things quiet is NOT how one wins in the marketplace of ideas.
The sad fact is that the current GOP members in Congress lack the kind of great leadership and communication skills that they had in the 1990s under Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and Bill Archer. Not only did those guys accomplish a lot (welfare reform, capital gains tax cut, balanced budget, etc), they also set the stage for what would happen when the GOP took control of the Presidency. I remember the big debates between Armey and Archer on how they would scrap the current tax code in favor of either a flat rate income tax or a national sales tax. Even "moderates" like Pete Domenici (R) and Sam Nunn (D) came up with their own version of radical tax reform (a “consumption-oriented” income tax).
ALL reform (let alone talk of even more radical reform) died in January 2001 when George Bush became President. Instead, George Bush and Karl Rove tried to emulate the Democrats by buying votes with the first new entitlement program since LBJ and the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history. It didn't work and they got booted out of office. Boehner was part of the mess that Bush made.
The result was inevitable -- the Democrats now control the federal government and are doing everything possible to make it even larger.
I am so VERY happy that Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. It signals that virtually everyone except the most brain dead socialist is waking up to reality. However, this doesn't mean that we should automatically trust John Boehner and the Bush GOP sell-outs again. We need to take it candidate-by-candidate and really take a hard look at whether or not they going to return power to the people or continue to consolidate government in the hands of a few elitists.
REALLY??? I'll bet that most people have no idea that the GOP has a health care plan. Of course Boehner didn't articulate AT ALL what was actually in the plan.
Reagan and Gingrich understood something that Boehner doesn't -- being shy and keeping things quiet is NOT how one wins in the marketplace of ideas.
The sad fact is that the current GOP members in Congress lack the kind of great leadership and communication skills that they had in the 1990s under Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and Bill Archer. Not only did those guys accomplish a lot (welfare reform, capital gains tax cut, balanced budget, etc), they also set the stage for what would happen when the GOP took control of the Presidency. I remember the big debates between Armey and Archer on how they would scrap the current tax code in favor of either a flat rate income tax or a national sales tax. Even "moderates" like Pete Domenici (R) and Sam Nunn (D) came up with their own version of radical tax reform (a “consumption-oriented” income tax).
ALL reform (let alone talk of even more radical reform) died in January 2001 when George Bush became President. Instead, George Bush and Karl Rove tried to emulate the Democrats by buying votes with the first new entitlement program since LBJ and the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history. It didn't work and they got booted out of office. Boehner was part of the mess that Bush made.
The result was inevitable -- the Democrats now control the federal government and are doing everything possible to make it even larger.
I am so VERY happy that Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. It signals that virtually everyone except the most brain dead socialist is waking up to reality. However, this doesn't mean that we should automatically trust John Boehner and the Bush GOP sell-outs again. We need to take it candidate-by-candidate and really take a hard look at whether or not they going to return power to the people or continue to consolidate government in the hands of a few elitists.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Obama Care goes to Senate Floor
All of the Democratic Senators plus Socialist Bernie Saunders and "Independent" Joe Lieberman voted to send the government healthcare take over bill to the floor for debate.
Lieberman still claims that he will not vote for the final bill if it includes the "public option" (government run program). Is he serious or just posturing???
At one point, Senator Mary Landrieu was making similar noises, but then she got a $300 million payoff from Harry Reid. She bragged about it and then voted for the bill.
This is how your government actually works. This is why we are in so much trouble.
Lieberman still claims that he will not vote for the final bill if it includes the "public option" (government run program). Is he serious or just posturing???
At one point, Senator Mary Landrieu was making similar noises, but then she got a $300 million payoff from Harry Reid. She bragged about it and then voted for the bill.
This is how your government actually works. This is why we are in so much trouble.
Ron Paul bill to Audit Fed wins in House Committe
Well, here is some good news for once. Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve Bank passed the House Financial Services committee by a vote of 43-26. The bill has 309 co-sponsors, so it should sail through the House.
The the Federal Reserve and the rest of the financial establishment are up in arms, panicked with the thought of us rubes on main street finding out what goes on behind their closed doors.
So, at the last minute, Barney Frank tried to sabotage the bill by proposing an amendment that would have essentially gutted the bill.
The bill still has to pass the House, without being gutted by Barney Frank, Mel Watt, and the rest of the establishment. Then it has to pass the Senate. Then the two bills needs to be reconciled and pass the House and Senate again.
We're still along way from knowing what goes on behind the closed doors of the fed. But it's a good start. Congratulations Dr. Paul!
The the Federal Reserve and the rest of the financial establishment are up in arms, panicked with the thought of us rubes on main street finding out what goes on behind their closed doors.
So, at the last minute, Barney Frank tried to sabotage the bill by proposing an amendment that would have essentially gutted the bill.
The bill still has to pass the House, without being gutted by Barney Frank, Mel Watt, and the rest of the establishment. Then it has to pass the Senate. Then the two bills needs to be reconciled and pass the House and Senate again.
We're still along way from knowing what goes on behind the closed doors of the fed. But it's a good start. Congratulations Dr. Paul!
Republican lawmaker says he would 'consider' a war tax as last resort
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he would "consider" supporting the Democrats war surtax should President Barack Obama withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan.
I have news for Mr. King -- the "war" (actually a misguided nation building exercise) cannot be won. The Russians couldn't subdue the unruly Afghanis. Neither could Bush. Obama won't be able to either.
A REAL conservative would not be in favor of flushing American tax money down the toilet.
We need to get out of Afghanistan and then spend a fraction of war money on bribing the Afghani war loads to do what we want. It worked in Egypt -- we've been paying the dictator Mubarak a relatively small amount every year to make nice with Israel. He has.
I have news for Mr. King -- the "war" (actually a misguided nation building exercise) cannot be won. The Russians couldn't subdue the unruly Afghanis. Neither could Bush. Obama won't be able to either.
A REAL conservative would not be in favor of flushing American tax money down the toilet.
We need to get out of Afghanistan and then spend a fraction of war money on bribing the Afghani war loads to do what we want. It worked in Egypt -- we've been paying the dictator Mubarak a relatively small amount every year to make nice with Israel. He has.
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