Jimmy Carter Is Looking Better & Better

Mr. Obama’s address to the nation, delivered in front of the joint session of congress, was a masterpiece. Too bad he is just the water boy for the heavy hitters who filled the left side of the chamber.

He correctly identified healthcare, education and energy as fault lines lying beneath the nation’s long term, economic viability. And he seems to understand that building solutions for these challenges will be cash intensive.

It was heartening to hear him mention the precarious financial state of Medicare and Social Security, and his intention to halve the national deficit in four years. Few could disagree with his assessment of the need to update the national energy grid and invest in alternative energy research.

That he plans to end some corporate welfare is a positive. Eliminating agricultural subsidies, cost-plus Pentagon contracts and the practice of rewarding companies that ship manufacturing jobs off-shore is long overdue. Of course, these measures won’t reduce the deficit, as the revenues will be seamlessly transferred to the new entitlements he ticked off.

It was a little disconcerting, and certainly disingenuous, for him to state that the $787 billion bailout was free of earmarks. That statement smacked of Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky word parsing when he said "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is” is. . . .”

The Bush White House and congress outspent their welcome. In just thirty-six days Obama and congress spent more than the cost of the Iraqi/Afghanistan conflict and the Katrina aftermath combined. Congress is the constant thread that weaves through both administrations.

And there sat Speaker Pelosi behind and to the left of Obama, grinning like a Cheshire cat. She has readied a $410 billion appropriation bill with over 9,000 earmarks embedded. Of course, technically these aren’t earmarks because they were added before the final, approved bill is rubber stamped by Obama.

Senator Schumer dismissed these fiscal indiscretions, reassuring the American taxpayers that less than 5% of the proposed expenditures are actually pork. This mindset permeates congress, and is the principle reason the deficit will continue to grow.

Obama soothed the fears of families making less than $250,000 annually, assuring them that their income taxes won’t increase. Just wait until they are blindsided by Pelosi’s anti-fossil energy rationing initiatives. The CBO estimates they will cost the average family about $4000 a year in additional energy outlays.

The leftwing parasites hope to drive the price of fossil fuels so high that windmills and sunshine will look like a bargain. Obama shares their enthusiasm. That’s why Americans didn’t hear any reference to expanded exploration and drilling for oil.

In Pelosi’s circles, that this deceit will cripple economic growth for decades is acceptable collateral damage. In their jargon, Obama “Gets it.” The only message that thinking Americans received from Obama is that the economy will be crushed by deficits, market and property deflation and staggering levels of unemployment. Within two years Jimmy Carter will look like the patron saint of sound fiscal policy.

An Alternative to the Obama Bailout

The American taxpayers had better get two things straight.

First, the Bush and Obama administrations saddled the nation with over 2 trillion dollars of debt to bailout a pack of thieves and to bury their own malfeasance. Secondly, Obama’s troops will again be screaming “catastrophe” to bailout their $787 billion bailout.

Pardon the redundancy, but perspective is important!

Two trillion dollars is enough money to mail every last household in the United States a check for $17,000. This sum would provide young, credit worthy couples the down payment on a home. Within a year the foreclosed houses glutting the market would disappear.

This would clear the mortgage debt clogging the financial system and push home values up. It would also revive the construction industry and bolster the sales at Home Depot and Lowes and every retailer hawking home furnishings and appliances.

It’s a safe bet that 15% of the recipients would purchase a new vehicle, which would give Detroit its best year in decades. The sale of 16.9 million vehicles would heal the tire industry and all the vendors in the supply and market chain, including advertising outlets and the local dealerships.

The remaining 75% of the recipients could eliminate credit card debt, bolster their savings and 401K and ROTH plans, weather-proof their homes, enroll their children in private schools, or spend it on frivolities. Restaurants, coffee houses and toy stores would welcome the latter.

The nation would be at full employment within 18 months and tax revenues would soar.

The manufacturing sector in the United States is going the way of the dinosaur. Within two years it could be booming if the federal government prorated corporate taxes to a low of 10% for any company that agreed to transition at least 50% of its production stateside over five years.

Any manufacturing company that currently meets this standard should receive the same reward.

Now here is the kicker. Lower the capital gains taxes to 10% on the stock of manufacturing companies which qualify. This would invite investment and reward the risk takers, and immediately add value to the common stock sitting in portfolios. In effect, it rewards companies that reward Americans; and rewards Americans that invest in American companies.

Building our manufacturing base would pull the trillions of dollars into Wall Street which are currently parked on the sidelines, or invested off-shore. The stock market will rebound.

Again, tax revenues would soar. Let the actuaries run the numbers. If tax revenues increased 20% (a modest estimate), the national debt, with interest, could be retired in 15 years without a tax increase.

The Obama/Pelosi/Reid stimulus sets aside $13/week for American families for one year. The rest of the $2 trillion is spent on the growth of government, entitlements, pork spending, a few bucks for infrastructure projects and the rest to reward the handful of thieves that deliberately screwed every American.

That’s why Obama and Pelosi will again be screaming “catastrophe.”

The Entitlements R' Us Party

Americans are fretful about the nation’s future. And with good cause. There are few politicians on either side of the aisle that haven’t contributed to this state of mind. President Bush and the Republicans were gutless spenders. Every literate American knows they didn’t practice what they preached.

The current administration is nothing special. It’s filled with two-bit players pulled from the ranks of the Clinton administration. There is no reason to believe they learned from their past mistakes. For that matter, there is no evidence that they care. But that’s the point. It’s party loyalty that keeps them in the game.

Stand above political affiliations and just watch the jockeying. It’s apparent that the politicians are there to take care of the politicians. They are all insiders, even those temporarily on the outside. And they are all there to preserve and protect each other. They have managed to give nepotism a good name.

Obama’s cabinet, appointees and personal advisers are a bunch of retreads. So were Bush’s selectees. Obama is just a new face playing the old game he learned in Chicago.

The business of government is predicated on the preservation of influence and the attainment of personal wealth. Power is used to solidify longevity. In politics, longevity is the key to wealth. That both sides vehemently united against term limits substantiates this observation.

Lobbyists provide the glue that holds the corruption together. They supply the private conference rooms to barter political contributions for favors. Their rewards are based on their ability to anonymously scam the system. It’s a closed shop. Outsiders need not apply.

Both sides of the aisle share a common mindset. The believe tax revenues are the spoils of war. Legislation is no longer based on objective analysis and need. It’s doubtful this consideration is anything more than a by-product of the real objectives.

Other than its nation crippling size, there is nothing unusual about the $787 billion stimulus package.

The Democrats used the fiscal crisis as a pretext to reward their constituencies and bolster their political longevity. The crisis was a gift from heaven, which goes to prove that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Obama knows the bill is loaded with pork. In fact, that is why he was eager to sign it. The legislation rewards his constituencies with revenues his party will confiscate from his adversary’s supporters. That’s what upset all but three Republicans. And only a fool would believe they voted “yes” because of their principles.

The stimulus package is the largest political slush fund ever created in the history of mankind.

The legislation will pay off Obama’s markers. Sweeter yet, it reserves hundreds of billions of dollars for markers that he can call in the future. And best of all, he ensured the reliance of future generations of Americans on government handouts, which will cement them to the Entitlements R’ Us Party.

Prepare for Inflation

Well, as Mr. Obama and Speaker Pelosi have repeatedly said, while thumbing their noses at the taxpayers, “We won.” The corollary to this fact is “The taxpayers lost.” And this mighty duo is on a mission to prove it.

In just twenty-eight days they have passed and approved legislation:

1) To begin the nationalization of healthcare, 2) to reward organizations that stuff ballot boxes and blackmail lenders, 3) to encourage illegal immigration, 4) to stifle Christian expression, 5) to create over 200 new government programs, manned by 600,000 new bureaucrats, and for good measure, 5) they added nearly a trillion dollars of stagnant debt to the national deficit.

And they and their fellow Democrats have publicly confirmed their intentions:

1) To weaken the nation’s security by gutting the Pentagon budget, 2) to end the secret ballot in union votes, 3) to crush the voices of dissension by implementing the Fairness Doctrine, 4) to pad the outcome of the 2010 national census, 5) to paint a happy face on terrorism, and 6) to raise taxes.

In less than a month this duo, according to the Wall Street Journal, has the major bond raters (those who evaluate credit worthiness) discussing the reduction of the nation’s AAA credit rating. It should be noted that Pelosi’s homeland, California, where she received her economic training, is on the brink of having its credit rating reduced.

Lose one A and add hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments to the federal budget. Loose two A’s and foreign investment will completely dry up and the stock market and the dollar will collapse. Lose a third A and join the ranks of the Third World Countries.

The entire nation should pray that the stimulus package works, while simultaneously preparing for the consequences of failure. The stock market’s funk indicates the international and domestic money managers aren’t pleased with the direction Obama and Pelosi are leading the nation.

Economists, who aren’t on the White House payroll or hoping for federal grants, fall into two categories, the skeptical and those who are scared out of their minds. Runaway inflation is the most common prediction among these realists.

The federal government traditionally slows the ravages of inflation by increasing interest rates. Of course, increased interest rates reduce businesses’ incentive to expand. This results in unemployment figures eventually falling off the top of the charts. In turn, reduced productivity and consumer purchasing shrinks the tax receipts of the government (local, state and federal).

The liberal knee-jerk reaction to this scenario is to raise taxes to feed the bureaucracy and entitlement hounds. This solution further bleeds the economy of investment capital. Once this downward spiral begins, it moves exponentially. Please note that Pelosi is screaming for higher taxes.

There is a term for this fiscal nightmare: stagflation. President Jimmy Carter mastered the ability to create stagflation. By comparison, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal only added six additional years to the economic depression by raising taxes, strengthening unions and increasing government spending. World War II bailed out his reputation. Ronald Reagan bailed out Jimmy Carter.

The Obama/Pelosi duo just shoved the US economy to the edge of this whirlpool. And in so doing they burned the last of the nation’s reserves and put its economic good will (trust in the dollar) in limbo.

Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy.

President Chicken Little spent most of the last ten days predicting economic catastrophe if congress doesn’t pass the stimulus package before the American people get a glimpse of it.

That the Congressional Budget Office all but condemned the pending legislation suggests that it’s time to slow down the process. Not convinced by its conclusion?

Mr. Obama is still in campaign mode. His press conference, February 9, 2009 was a tawdry display of lip synching. It is obvious that he doesn’t understand economics, nor does he comprehend the ramifications of adding a trillion dollars of pork to the national deficit.

He started the conference with a lie, or in kindness, maybe he is not familiar with US history. In either case, he stated that the current economic condition is worse than at any time since the Great Depression. Evidently he is not familiar with President Carter’s administration. Inflation, unemployment and interest rates were substantially worse than currently being experienced.

He was quick to condemn the Bush administration’s fiscal polices. Agreed, the over spending stunk! Obama neglected to mention that 9/11 and Katrina cost the nation nearly a trillion dollars shortly after the tech bubble burst. The military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security added another 500 billion dollars.

The negative impact of these expenditures was compounded by the need to rebuild the military, after President Clinton pillaged the Pentagon and Intelligence budgets. Please note that Obama recently asked the Pentagon to submit a budget 10% lower than its current level. That has a “here we go again” smell to it.

Obama also failed to mention that the Bush tax cuts kept the economy growing for seven years despite the headwinds. Nor did he acknowledge the housing market crash was catapulted by government mandated policies which the proposed legislation doesn’t correct. In fact, the small print endorses more of the same, namely, $5.2 billion for ACORN.

It is also evident that Obama has no faith in the Pelosi/Reid stimulus package creating jobs in the private sector. He changed his stance, clearly stating it will “create and save” about 4 million jobs. Those are weasel words. If the legislation fails to create jobs, he can claim it saved 4 million. That statistic can’t be measured.

This is the same doublespeak that Al Gore has employed. The term Climate Change has replaced Global Warming in his bag of tricks. After the last six consecutive years of planet cooling, his environmental message was looking foolish. Now he can forecast a pending environmental catastrophe if the normal cyclic temperatures move up or down the scale.

Obama’s defense of the stimulus package was mired in campaign mud. Never once did he specifically defend its ingredients. He substituted urgency for results. Naturally, he condemned the Republicans for dragging their feet. He begged the American people not to look before crossing.

With Obama’s endorsement, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid sent congressional pages into the corridors yesterday, shouting “Here piggy, piggy, piggy,” to gather the Democratic faithful. They were followed by three despicable Republicans who held the fate of the nation in their hands.

These socialists agreed to tie a $789 billion anchor to an economy already faltering. They just spent America’s margin for error. There are no reserves left, other than printing worthless dollars. Americans should have tears in their eyes.

A Day of Infamy

Mr. Obama just signed the State Children’s’ Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (SCHIP). The proclaimed intent of the measure, according to Democrats, is to guarantee that the poor children living in the United States receive “free medical and dental care.”

And Mr. Obama said it was just the beginning during the signing ceremony. That was a truthful statement, and one of the saddest and most fearsome forecasts ever made by a president.

The legislation is officially intended to increase SCHIP enrollment from 7 million to 11 million children. This humanitarian goal will be accomplished because the original family income cap of $42,000 was raised. Now children, under the age of 25, living with families that have incomes below $66,000/year qualify.

The increased enrollment will bring the annual cost to about $10 billion a year. Only in the Democratic lexicon is that “free medical and dental care.”

The average household income of 60% of US families is less than $62,000; the medium income is about $50,000. It was shocking to discover that the United States has nearly 4 million hungry, bare footed children in the Middle Class.

Of course, the 11 million number is eyewash. Any parents with an income under $66,000, who removes their children’s names from their private medical insurance policy, can enroll them in SCHIP. In truth, 42 million US children are eligible to participate.

Do the arithmetic! Within a decade the annual cost for SCHIP will approach 40 billion dollars. And that number doesn’t include the cost of “free medical and dental care” for the children of immigrants on the first day they receive their green cards, or for the maternity benefits immediately granted their mothers.

The medical costs currently absorbed by the states for providing care to 12-16 million illegal aliens has them swimming in red ink. Does any taxpayer believe the states won’t turn a blind eye to the legal status of the immigrant patients? This is a sweetheart deal for the states that put out the welcome mat for illegal aliens. They are blue in color.

SCHIP is an invitation to disaster. Its real cost will exceed $50 billion annually within ten years, unless Mexico collapses financially. And it is teetering on the edge. Its disintegration will drive millions of Mexicans across the border. Be alarmed! Nearly one-half of Mexico’s 119 million population is under the age of twenty-five.

If Obama, Pelosi and Reid accomplish nothing else in the coming four years, they can point to anchoring universal healthcare. That was, and is, the primary objective of the legislation. Secondly, they hope to entice Mexicans into the Democratic Party which will guarantee the liberals’ lock on congress for generations.

This is the same party which is currently planning to add nearly $1.5 trillion in expanded entitlements under the auspices of a stimulus plan. They have abandoned every principle in their quest to displace capitalism with socialism, and solidify their power.

SCHIP sounded the death knell for private medical practices, capitalism, national security and the deterioration of the medical industry. Its signing on February 4, 2009 pushed the nation into the jaws of the same style of socialism crushing every European economy. It was a day of infamy.

PLEASE NOTE: The Democrats raised the tax on a package of cigarettes to $1.00 to cover the cost of SCHIP. Every American man, woman and child will soon have to smoke 166 packages of cigarettes each year to defray the cost.

Pork Land Vs. Reality

The tug of war over the content of the stimulus package does more than exemplify the gulf between conservatives and liberals.

The final version of the appropriation will determine whether Mr. Obama’s presidency will be a prolonged national agony or the gate to a successful economic triumph. And don’t be deceived. He has only one chance to get it right.

The time for pretense is over. Neither he, nor Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid can make a trillion dollar mistake and recover. The stone and chisels are out, ready to engrave his epitaph. No amount of soaring rhetoric will camouflage the outcome. In sports jargon, this is match point.

It is understood that Obama won the election promising a massive income redistribution. His recent statement condemning companies that make profits during a recession either epitomizes his utter lack of business acumen, or is an acknowledgement that he is an anti-business socialist. There is no middle ground to plant another interpretation.

It’s clear that Obama’s advisors have enough historical perspective to delay raising taxes during a recession. They know the economy would completely unravel. Of course, this hasn’t stopped Speaker Pelosi’s quest to vanquish the last remaining productive segment of society. It’s equally clear that Obama is dithering over the subject.

His advisors are also aware that no government can spend itself out of a recession. But it can spend itself into a depression. So far it appears that Obama is prone to ignore the odds predicated on a century of economic experience.

Pelosi’s proposed stimulus legislation is a trillion dollars of pork. This welfare bazaar satiates the appetites of every loony leftwing cause. This feast will relinquish America’s control of its economy to the Chinese (the money lenders), and/or send inflation into the stratosphere.

Obama is at a crossroad. Will he appease his fellow socialists or strengthen the engine of capitalism with tax cuts? The Great Society legislation of the 1960’s, and the cascade of entitlements that followed, confiscated the seed money needed for personal growth. Income, payroll, excise and sales taxes have since choked the upward mobility of Americans, and have kept them swimming against the tide of prosperity.

Today, a decent standard of living generally requires both parents in the job market to merely survive from payday to payday. This standard is not remotely equal to the Middle Class standards of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The advent of daycare centers should have been a warning.

Currently more people are employed in government than in manufacturing. In a time of fiscal crisis, no sound company adds to its overhead. If corporations can’t stop the growth of government and the taxation required to pay this overhead, they are forced to slash employment, or move their operations off-shore.

Of course, they have a third option. About 35,000 registered lobbyists work diligently to encourage the members of congress to share the tax receipts with them in return for political contributions.

This coziness explains congress’ reluctance to stop the influx of cheap illegal labor coming in the backdoor, and the 1.5 million HB-1 workers scheduled to come through the front door. No wonder wages are stagnant.

If you are not worried about the tax and inflationary consequences of the Pelosi welfare bazaar, you are probably among the Americans who have moved $13 trillion off-shore to avoid the confiscatory taxation, or you simply can’t count. Or maybe you are one of the lucky few who will be considered for a post in the Obama administration.

Diaper Dipolmacy

Conservatives had conniptions over Mr. Obama’s granting an Arabic news outlet an interview/press conference. It was his first effort to directly communicate with the moderate Muslims in the Middle East.

In simple declarative sentences, the President admitted the US has made policy mistakes and that its diplomatic history is replete with goal oriented objectives which favor the US. Both statements are true, so the message didn’t break new ground.

Obama didn’t waiver on his support of Israel’s right to exist. Throwing Israel to the wolves would have pleased the Muslims. Of course, had he even inferred that Israel’s existence was open to debate, his presidency would have ended.

So what did his interview accomplish? It merely confirmed the direction of his administration, which was a fatal error. He informed every Muslim that the US military will continue to stand behind this line in the sand. Obama’s debut in direct diplomacy tipped his hole card. He backed himself into a corner by foolishly admitting it is going to be business as usual.

And that wasn’t the message he intended to give.

Obama should have known better. He won the Oval Office on promises of hope and change which he never defined. His campaign cleverly allowed the voters to interpret the meaning of the words. When promises are vague, and open to conjecture, everyone can envision sharing the potential opportunities.

It’s becoming more and more obvious. Obama believes the world was waiting for his arrival. He actually believes the media hype which describes him as a transformational president; that his ascendency was miraculous; that his wife is the Holy Grail.

Too bad the Arabic press conference, Obama’s initiation into international relations, defined his naivety and arrogance, and confirmed his powers of insight are not supernatural. It’s going to be a treacherous four years if he continues down this path of delusional Diaper Diplomacy.

He thought a change of diapers would solve the world’s problems. He ignored one fact. The procedure merely addresses the comfort of the subject between biological outpourings. Until the subject realizes that the discomfiture is self-inflicted, and can be avoided, the problem won’t be solved.

His rush to lay hands on the Middle East was based on a false assumption. Contrary to the mainstream media’s portrayal of this overture, he is not the first president to reach out to moderates. He is the first president who doesn’t understand they are powerless without the backing of the US and Europe.

Did his message open a dialogue with the dictators in the Middle East? The answer is yes. Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, responded to Obama’s call for change with a wish list. His prerequisites for peace are the destruction of Israel, allowing his country to build nuclear weapons and to pursue and underwrite global terrorism. That’s dialogue.

The messenger of hope and change will continue to publicly condemn the previous administration’s foreign policy, while stumbling about. He just discovered that it’s difficult to walk in diplomatic circles with his pants around his ankles. That tends to happen when you are too big for your britches.