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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on July 08, 2011, 07:13:47 AM
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This country will not recover until Obama’s boot is lifted from our throats
Flopping Aces ^ | 07-08-11 | DrJohn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2745558/posts
So you thought the economy was bad before? You ain't seen nothin'.
After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the Obama policy for businesses in the US:
So the administration has embraced the violent imagery of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who said administration officials would keep their "boot on the throat" of the energy giant to make sure the company does all it can and more to address the problems caused by its uncontrolled ocean gusher.
Holding a "boot to the throat" of business has been exactly what this administration has done. Now Barack Obama transitions from President to dictator.
And here comes the deathblow for the United States economy. Obama is ruling by edict that which he could not achieve legislatively.
WASHINGTON — In the next weeks and months, Lisa P. Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, is scheduled to establish regulations on smog, mercury, carbon dioxide, mining waste and vehicle emissions that will affect every corner of the economy.
She is working under intense pressure from opponents in Congress, from powerful industries, from impatient environmentalists and from the Supreme Court, which just affirmed the agency’s duty to address global warming emissions, a project that carries profound economic implications.
Obama is proving that he has not learned from his failed stimulus, nor from his imposition of Obamacare, nor from his
knee-jerk over-regulation of banking.
Banks are less able or willing to lend than before the recession. Since the recovery started, banks have reduced money they make available through credit card lines from $3.04 trillion to $2.69 trillion and have reduced home equity credit lines from $1.33 trillion to $1.15 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Policy makers, meanwhile, are reluctant to do more to stimulate economic growth. The Federal Reserve has already pushed short-term interest rates to near zero. Two rounds of quantitative easing that including purchasing $1.425 trillion in mortgage bonds and $900 billion in Treasury debt helped to stabilize the economy but failed to spur a vigorous recovery.
He has not learned from his clumsy and obvious attempt to manhandle Boeing into obeying the demands of unions, even though unions have crippled Boeing repeatedly.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
We warned you assholes many times.
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regulations on smog, mercury, carbon dioxide, mining waste and vehicle emissions
I could think of worse regulations... but the economy will suffer
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Don't believe the Obama lies on taxes
Libertarian Republican ^ | Friday, July 8, 2011 | Wayne Allyn Root
Posted on July 9, 2011 11:05:16 PM EDT by FreeKeys
Here's the dirty little secret. Raising taxes kills jobs, kills the economy, and deepens a recession into a Great Depression.
Taxes aren't the lowest they've ever been. Obama and his friends (the FOOLS) are lying to you. Taxes are the highest in history when you add up federal income taxes, state, local, property, sales taxes, social security and medicare taxes, taxes disguised as fees, and the loss of deductions. The tax burden on small business owners has never been higher. And Obama threatens to make it far higher- perhaps an unimaginable ten times higher by taking away the home mortgage deduction and removing the cap on Social Security taxes.
This is all causing fear, loathing, depression and panic among the job creators. This is causing millions of Americans to consider leaving the U.S.A for places where business owners are appreciated and rewarded, not demonized and punished. That means they will take with them millions of jobs- gone forever.
Here's a simple lesson in this scenario. The New York Post reported recently that toll prices (ie taxes) at bridges throughout New York had increased dramatically. The result? Traffic has dropped dramatically at those bridges. Taxes ruin everything they touch.
That's the same reason over $1 trillion dollars of wealth has transferred from New York to Texas in the past decade. Taxes ruin business. Taxes force people to either spend less or re-locate to places with lower taxes. It's the same reason that NY, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan and California are bleeding- losing jobs, losing taxpayers, increasing debt by the billions. These high-tax and spend states lead the nation in debt and moving vans moving out of their state. Taxes kill whatever they touch.
Let's compare how different Presidents handled the issue of taxes.
When Reagan cut our taxes from 70% to 28% everyone had jobs, restaurants were booming, real estate was exploding, stocks were soaring, furniture was moving, auto sales were flying, it was one big party. It was morning in America.
Under tax and spend liberals like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama the country literally came to a grinding halt. The economy stood still. Commerce just...stopped. Jobs just...disappeared. All hope...vanished.
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How do you feel about discontinuing the Bush tax cuts for the rich people and businesses and give them to the middle-class and small/new companies? Yes or no?
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How do you feel about discontinuing the Bush tax cuts for the rich people and businesses and give them to the middle-class and small/new companies? Yes or no?
No. We have a spending problem first and foremost. The govt has enough money and needs to cut back.
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Lack of Jobs Could Cost Obama His
Townhall.com ^ | July 10, 2011 | Salena Zito
Posted on July 10, 2011 8:41:14 AM EDT by Kaslin
Where are the jobs?
Not the stimulus signs, not the rhetoric about “shovel-ready” economic voodoo, not the propping-up of an anemic manufacturing sector, but real jobs?
Polls showed at the beginning of July that President Obama is in an increasingly hazardous position with voters when it comes to jobs and the economy.
The McClatchy-Marist poll put his economic-approval favorable rating at just 37 percent of registered voters, and a Gallup poll found U.S. economic confidence has plummeted by seven percentage points since last month.
Last year in Pennsylvania, Obama used the Allentown Metal Works as backdrop to tout the success of his stimulus and job-creation programs. A couple of months later, the plant closed.
His vice-president, Joe Biden, told a crowd in Pittsburgh that 250,000 to 500,000 jobs would be created each month by the start of last summer. The numbers never even came close.
To date, this administration’s handling of our economy is a failure.
“Excepting some unanticipated major event, the election will largely ride on the state of the economy and public perceptions of how Obama has handled it,” said Mark Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University.
All that the political opposition must do is to seed as much doubt as possible about Obama’s economic leadership, to strike this tone early and often, and the president has a political problem more potent than his rhetorical skills.
On a “Factory Belt” tour last month, Obama spoke about new worker-training partnerships with government and academic elements in the political battlegrounds of Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
It was an attempt to project confidence in our economic future – but it’s hard to sell job growth that is moving at glacial speed.
“In the short term, there may be some support for the president because he is ‘doing something’ about the economy,” explained Rozell, “but, ultimately, the real test is whether economic circumstances improve in time for election day next year.”
In politics, perception is what counts.
Last weekend, the White House released its seventh quarterly report. Written by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, it showed the Obama stimulus effort added or saved fewer than 2.4 million jobs – at a cost to taxpayers of more than $250,000 per job.
Most Americans cannot understand how that can be considered sound economic reasoning. They find it difficult to rally around what, to them, looks like foolishness.
Since the recession began, the private sector has regained about 30 percent of the manufacturing jobs it lost. Those jobs were created in spite of an array of regulatory policies that are detrimental to manufacturing’s expansion.
Add to that the administration’s health-care policies (which drive up the cost of employment by increasing medical insurance costs) and its environmental policies (which drive up the price of energy, particularly in Western Pennsylvania where coal is a major source of energy), and you can see why private-sector companies are skittish about enlarging payrolls.
That means the president has not only a small-business problem but also a blue-collar worker problem. Both are sources of those independent voters who are so essential to winning elections.
And add to all that the Dodd-Frank bill, says former Federal Reserve governor Larry Lindsey, “which has made it much more difficult for banks to make business loans, as more of their resources must be devoted to regulatory compliance and (the) building of capital than to granting loans.”
Partnerships are the key to economic growth. One of the great economists of the 20th century, Joseph Schumpeter, described entrepreneurs as “gap-fillers and input-completers,” meaning that they brought together everything that is needed to create output and jobs in one place, basically by partnering with various groups.
Having entrepreneurs as central to this process is better than having government or academics, because entrepreneurs typically have the knowledge to get things done and have their own money at risk, thus creating real consequences if they fail.
“While the president often talks about having ‘created’ jobs … he didn’t,” explained Lindsey. “Such jobs that have been gained have been produced by risk-taking entrepreneurs.”
All of that “shovel-ready” government stimulus money filled many state budgets but not so many private-sector job rolls.
The president’s resume does not include much indication that he knows how to create jobs – which may, in the end, contribute to him losing his job.
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No. We have a spending problem first and foremost. The govt has enough money and needs to cut back.
Ok.
No subject: Have you seen the movie Inside Job?
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Ok.
No subject: Have you seen the movie Inside Job?
Yes. Has nothing to do w anything on why businesses refuse to hire people now. Obamacare, Dodd frank, EPA, NLRB, etc etc.
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The reason businesses dont hire is because the jobs is not there. If they needed more workers they would hire them you think they decide this upon who is president? Come on
My point was that to fix our economy we need heavily regulate banks/Wall Street. And neither Obama the corrupt bastard or the GOP's corrupt bastards is gonna change this because the money that get them elected will come from bankers/Wall Street.
So this discussion lib/repub is ridicilous
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The reason businesses dont hire is because the jobs is not there. If they needed more workers they would hire them you think they decide this upon who is president? Come on
My point was that to fix our economy we need heavily regulate banks/Wall Street. And neither Obama the corrupt bastard or the GOP's corrupt bastards is gonna change this because the money that get them elected will come from bankers/Wall Street.
So this discussion lib/repub is ridicilous
I didn't say dem GOP. I pointed out policies Obama is pursuing.
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I didn't say dem GOP. I pointed out policies Obama is pursuing.
My point is Wall Street/Banks are the reason we are in this mess so why not hate them with a passion instead?
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My point is Wall Street/Banks are the reason we are in this mess so why not hate them with a passion instead?
That's utter bullshit. The govt is equally if not more at blame for this shit.
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That's utter bullshit. The govt is equally if not more at blame for this shit.
SO you think the government should regulate Wall Street/Banks more?
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SO you think the government should regulate Wall Street/Banks more?
No.
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Don't believe the Obama lies on taxes
Libertarian Republican ^ | Friday, July 8, 2011 | Wayne Allyn Root
Posted on July 9, 2011 11:05:16 PM EDT by FreeKeys
Here's the dirty little secret. Raising taxes kills jobs, kills the economy, and deepens a recession into a Great Depression.
Taxes aren't the lowest they've ever been. Obama and his friends (the FOOLS) are lying to you. Taxes are the highest in history when you add up federal income taxes, state, local, property, sales taxes, social security and medicare taxes, taxes disguised as fees, and the loss of deductions. The tax burden on small business owners has never been higher. And Obama threatens to make it far higher- perhaps an unimaginable ten times higher by taking away the home mortgage deduction and removing the cap on Social Security taxes.
This is all causing fear, loathing, depression and panic among the job creators. This is causing millions of Americans to consider leaving the U.S.A for places where business owners are appreciated and rewarded, not demonized and punished. That means they will take with them millions of jobs- gone forever.
Here's a simple lesson in this scenario. The New York Post reported recently that toll prices (ie taxes) at bridges throughout New York had increased dramatically. The result? Traffic has dropped dramatically at those bridges. Taxes ruin everything they touch.
That's the same reason over $1 trillion dollars of wealth has transferred from New York to Texas in the past decade. Taxes ruin business. Taxes force people to either spend less or re-locate to places with lower taxes. It's the same reason that NY, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan and California are bleeding- losing jobs, losing taxpayers, increasing debt by the billions. These high-tax and spend states lead the nation in debt and moving vans moving out of their state. Taxes kill whatever they touch.
Let's compare how different Presidents handled the issue of taxes.
When Reagan cut our taxes from 70% to 28% everyone had jobs, restaurants were booming, real estate was exploding, stocks were soaring, furniture was moving, auto sales were flying, it was one big party. It was morning in America.
Under tax and spend liberals like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama the country literally came to a grinding halt. The economy stood still. Commerce just...stopped. Jobs just...disappeared. All hope...vanished.
Clinton raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Reagan raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Bush 1 raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Bush 2 lowered taxes and had the worst job creation record of any modern POTUS
Stop posting bloggers from FR.com. If we want to read their shit we'll go there and read it
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Clinton raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Reagan raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Bush 1 raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Bush 2 lowered taxes and had the worst job creation record of any modern POTUS
There is one small problem with your analysis, what was the unemployment rate under Bush II? Seems to me it was very low for most of his time in office, so how do you create jobs when your at 5% unemployment?
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No.
How will you prevent another crisis then?
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There is one small problem with your analysis, what was the unemployment rate under Bush II? Seems to me it was very low for most of his time in office, so how do you create jobs when your at 5% unemployment?
Shouldnt we have raised the taxes when the economy was good and then lowered them now to get things going again?
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Clinton raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Reagan raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Bush 1 raised taxes and it didn't kill jobs
Bush 2 lowered taxes and had the worst job creation record of any modern POTUS
Stop posting bloggers from FR.com. If we want to read their shit we'll go there and read it
Wayne Allen root was a friend of Obama in the past. Fail.
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Shouldnt we have raised the taxes when the economy was good and then lowered them now to get things going again?
No, we should cut spending you fuckng moron.
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How will you prevent another crisis then?
The government took steps after the great depression, and they seemed to work pretty damn well, then Glass/Steagal was repealed. Took what 10 years for the shit to hit the fan?
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Shouldnt we have raised the taxes when the economy was good and then lowered them now to get things going again?
A better question would be, why is the government involved in all sorts of shit that is well beyond their constitutional authority? How much do these activities add to the budget? It's all very simple, you can't spend 10x what you take in.
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There is one small problem with your analysis, what was the unemployment rate under Bush II? Seems to me it was very low for most of his time in office, so how do you create jobs when your at 5% unemployment?
when he started it was low (thanks Clinton)
when he ended we were hemorrhaging jobs and it looked very likely that we were headed to global financial collapse
I don't believe for a second that if we raise marginal tax rates by a few % points (say back to Clinton era levels) and get rid or corporate welfare, tax credits etc.. that it will harm the economy. I believe it will actually help the economy.
What would also help the economy is more governemnt spending. Public spending on infrastructure (for example) puts money in the hands of people who will turn around and spend it and primes the pump for private investment and spending. Tax cuts don't do shit for poor or unemployed people and marginal tax increases don't stop wealthly people from doing anything. We had much higher marginal tax rates prior to Reagan and wealthly people and companies kept working and producing. This idea that some small changes to the tax code are going to drive us into a depression is nonsense (not saying that you're saying that)
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Analysis: Flat jobs data signal weakest recovery in decades
http://news.yahoo.com/flat-jobs-data-signal-weakest-recovery-decades-211320802.html ^ | AP – Fri, Jul 8, 2011 | By PAUL WISEMAN - AP Economics Writer
Posted on July 9, 2011 9:40:33 PM EDT by Red in Blue PA
WASHINGTON (AP) — The job market is defying history.
A dismal June employment report shows that employers are adding nowhere near as many jobs as they normally do this long after a recession has ended.
Unemployment has climbed for three straight months and is now at 9.2 percent. There's no precedent, in data going back to 1948, for such a high rate two years into what economists say is a recovery.
The economy added just 18,000 jobs in June. That's a fraction of the 90,000 jobs economists had expected and a sliver of the 300,000 jobs needed each month to shrink unemployment significantly.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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More fucking spending straw????? Wtf is wrong w you?
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More fucking spending straw????? Wtf is wrong w you?
yes
on the right stuff and no more fucking tax cuts
taxes are actually lower now than under Bush
how did that stimulate jobs
the goverment has the ability to stimulate the economy through spending on worthwhile activities and we actually get more than a dollar in return for a dollar spent
contracting spending and giving more tax cuts to the uber wealthly does NOTHING to help teh economy
It does help wealthy people increase their wealth and that is all the Repubs care about.
I have not heard one Repub offer an plan on how they are going to help the 95% in this country
All I hear are threats that if we dont' give even more to the 5% who have virutually all the wealth then we'll all be fucked
I'm not buying it
It's a lie
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Hey moron Obamacare, Dodd frank, NLRB , EPA, and endless communist shit from Obama are killing the nation, not lack of pot hole replacement jobs.
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Hey moron Obamacare, Dodd frank, NLRB , EPA, and endless communist shit from Obama are killing the nation, not lack of pot hole replacement jobs.
Are you 12 years old ???
You are embarresing yourself with this kind of rethoric
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Are you 12 years old ???
You are embarresing yourself with this kind of rethoric
Wrong blacken, I have been dead right from day one. The failures like yourself, straw, Benny, Vince 240 have been dead wrong from the beginning. You voted for this disaster, own u to it.
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Hey moron Obamacare, Dodd frank, NLRB , EPA, and endless communist shit from Obama are killing the nation, not lack of pot hole replacement jobs.
hey moron
stop with the alphabet soup of shit you hate, most of which have nothing to do with the topic at hand
no offense, but you're simply too stupid to have an actual conversation on this topic
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hey moron
stop with the alphabet soup of shit you hate, most of which have nothing to do with the topic at hand
no offense, but you're simply too stupid to have an actual conversation on this topic
Ha ha ha a ha lmfao. Every month that Obama sinks the economy more and more you leftists get more desperate for excuses. Three years in to this shit show and you still are clueless.
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Ha ha ha a ha lmfao. Every month that Obama sinks the economy more and more you leftists get more desperate for excuses. Three years in to this shit show and you still are clueless.
The economy crashed under Bush. Seems like you are clueless and blinded by hate
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So how long before it stops getting worse? And also - what did bush do to crash the economy.
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So how long before it stops getting worse? And also - what did bush do to crash the economy.
Im not blaming Bush dont get me wrong
But you are blaming Obama for a economy that crashed when he wasnt president
Whats right is right make your opinions but dont fucking lie
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Obama is pouring kerosene on the fire and making this drastically worse.
Again - when are things supposed to get better?
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Obama is pouring kerosene on the fire and making this drastically worse.
Again - when are things supposed to get better?
When we dont have a Wall Street government
We need to change the electorial system
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Was clinton owned by wall street?
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Was clinton owned by wall street?
Im pretty sure he was, according to the movie Inside Job he continued the changes to our financial system that starting under Reagan making the system more unstable.
So i would say yes
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Was talking to an older gentleman yesterday who said he has been through tough economic times in the 50s, 70s, and 80s, and this is the worst he can recall. He doesn't believe things will improve. Pretty gloomy prediction. :-\
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Was talking to an older gentleman yesterday who said he has been through tough economic times in the 50s, 70s, and 80s, and this is the worst he can recall. He doesn't believe things will improve. Pretty gloomy prediction. :-\
It's not going to so long as we have a commie potus, academic hacks running agencies, businesses cursed and trashed, lazy parasites like Benny blacken etc robbing looting mobbing and grifting etc.
We need to clean house and send the parasite left to an island.
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It's not going to so long as we have a commie potus, academic hacks running agencies, businesses cursed and trashed, lazy parasites like Benny blacken etc robbing looting mobbing and grifting etc.
We need to clean house and send the parasite left to an island.
Step one was splitting up the Congress. Step two is getting rid of the current administration.
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NYC business owners sick over ObamaCare
NY Post ^ | July 2, 2011 | JOHN AIDAN BYRNE
Posted on July 3, 2011 8:45:22 AM EDT by lowbridge
Rohit Arora runs a small business credit service. His firm provides the much-needed capital for companies to grow, expand and to hire.
So when Arora, the CEO of Biz2Credit, a Midtown finance company, says his latest research shows businesses large and small are making every effort to avoid hiring full-time workers, Washington should take notice.
The reason, Arora says, is because of rising health-care costs and fears about ObamaCare, the red tape and paperwork. He is also practicing what he hears with his own firm.
"ObamaCare has cast a long shadow over my plans to hire more staff," Arora said.
Employers across the metro area have had to put off hiring workers. They blame spiraling health-care costs and the uncertain future price tag of ObamaCare.
Another owner, Frank Passantino, is furious.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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ECONOMY JULY 12, 2011, 12:07 P.M. ET
McConnell Says 'Real Deal' Not Possible With Obama
By COREY BOLES
www.wsj.com
WASHINGTON—A "real solution" to U.S. fiscal problems isn't possible as long as President Barack Obama remains in office, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, heightening the rhetoric surrounding the debt-ceiling debate.
Mr. McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, said he had gone into negotiations in good faith over how to formulate a deficit-reduction package to accompany an increase in the statutory borrowing limit.
The Treasury has said the limit must be raised by Aug. 2 to avoid the potential of a U.S. default on its debts, while Mr. Obama has said he wants a deal by July 22.
After the latest negotiations, led by Mr. Obama, Mr. McConnell said he concluded that the administration had "expressed a fundamental unwillingness" to agree to significant spending cuts.
"But after years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is unattainable," Mr. McConnell said in a Senate floor speech.
More
President's Focus: $4 Trillion Talks Reveal Tension Between GOP Leaders Capital Journal: Why Obama Wants a Big Deal 300 Business Leaders Push for Debt Compromise Romney Silent Over Debt Talks Opinion: Conrad Wants $2 Trillion Mr. McConnell gave the speech hours before congressional leaders are set to return to the White House for a third negotiating session in as many days in an attempt to overcome the impasse over how to raise the debt ceiling. A senior aide to the Kentucky lawmaker said he still intended to participate in the White House meeting.
Mr. Obama pressed congressional leaders Monday to forge a $4 trillion, 10-year deal during a contentious negotiating session at the White House. Yet the odds appeared to diminish that Democrats and Republicans can bridge their differences over taxes and social programs to reach such a sweeping plan ahead of the debt-limit deadline.
Meanwhile, major business trade groups urged Mr. Obama and Congress to boost the debt ceiling and reach agreement on a long-term deficit-reduction plan.
"Now is the time for our political leaders to put aside partisan differences and act in the nation's best interests," according to the letter, signed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, the Financial Services Forum, the National Association of Manufacturers and others. "We believe that our nation's economic future is reliant upon their actions and urge them to reach an agreement. It is time to pull together rather than pull apart."
—Jeffrey Sparshott contributed to this article.
Write to Corey Boles at corey.boles@dowjones.com
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Bingo - he must be reading my posts.
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Impediment to reform
By George F. Will
Friday, July 22, 2011
WASHINGTON
The tea party, the most welcome political development since the Goldwater insurgency in 1964, lacks only the patience necessary when America lacks the consensus required to propel fundamental change through our constitutional system of checks and balances. If Washington's trajectory could be turned as quickly as tea partyers wish, their movement would not be as necessary as it is. Fortunately, not much patience is required.
The Goldwater impulse took 16 years to reach fruition in the election of Ronald Reagan. The tea party can succeed in 16 months by helping elect a president who will not veto necessary reforms. To achieve that, however, tea partyers must not help the incumbent achieve his objectives in the debt-ceiling dispute.
One of those is to strike a bargain involving big -- but hypothetical and nonbinding -- numbers. This would enable President Obama to run away from his record and run as a debt-reducing centrist. Another Obama objective is tax increases that shatter Republican unity and dampen the tea party's election-turning intensity. Because he probably can achieve neither, he might want market chaos in coming days so Republicans can be cast as complicit in the wretched recovery that is his administration's ugly signature.
Mitch McConnell's proposal would require Obama to make three requests for additional debt-ceiling increases. Each time he would be required to recommend commensurate spending reductions. Congress would, of course, retain its constitutional power to do what it wishes. Obama could muster sufficient Democrat votes to sustain his veto of Congress' disapproval of his requests. But this would not enhance presidential power. Rather, McConnell's proposal would put a harness on the president, tightly confining him within a one-time process.
Congressional primacy would be further enhanced by McConnell's proposed special congressional committee. Its proposals would be unamendable and would be voted on this year.
The debt-ceiling vote has demonstrated that Obama is, strictly speaking, unbelievable. Five months ago he submitted a budget that would have accelerated indebtedness and that the Democrat-controlled Senate rejected in May, 97-0. Just three months ago he was demanding a "clean" increase in the debt ceiling, containing nothing to slow the spending carousel. Now he calls for "the largest possible" debt-reduction deal. Today, he says "if you look at the numbers, then Medicare ... will run out of money and we will not be able to sustain that program no matter how much taxes go up." Last year he advertised ObamaCare as a sufficient reform of health care.
Obama vaguely promises to "look at" savings from entitlements because "we need to find trillions in savings over the next decade." But when McConnell learned that negotiations chaired by Vice President Joe Biden had identified a risible $2 billion in 2012 discretionary spending cuts, McConnell concluded that Obama's frugality pantomime required a response that will define the 2012 election choice.
Richard Miniter, a Forbes columnist, is right: "Obama is not the new FDR, but the new Gorbachev." Beneath the tattered banner of reactionary liberalism, Obama struggles to sustain a doomed system. Democrats' dependency agenda is buckling under an intractable contradiction: It is incompatible with economic growth sufficient to create enough wealth to feed the multiplying tax eaters.
Events are validating the tea partyers' arguments. Time is on their side -- but not on America's, unless the impediment to reform is removed in 16 months.
George F. Will can be reached at georgewill@washpost.com or .
Images and text copyright © 2011 by Trib Total Media, Inc.
Reproduction or reuse prohibited without written consent.
Read more: Impediment to reform - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/print_747817.html#ixzz1Sps8J2EC
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OUTSIDE THE BOXJULY 27, 2011
The Antidote for Socialism
We'll have to wait for 2012, because this administration won't administer it.
By PETE DU PONT
Last year I wrote that the enactment of ObamaCare meant "the Europeanization of America is coming to pass, for individual choice and opportunity are being replaced by statism." That law is transferring 17% of our national economy from the marketplace to full control and regulation by the federal government.
And that is just part of the problem. Over the past three years, our nation's economy has become more and more like some of the fragile and overextended statist European economies. The federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP was 40.3% in 2008, 53.5% in 2009, and 62.2% in 2010, and it is estimated at 72% this fiscal year. Everyone can agree that we must change our policies before it is too late, so that we do not end up like Greece or Italy.
But things are looking bleak. While Standard & Poor's and Moody's threaten our nation's credit ratings over our level of debt, one smaller ratings agency has already lowered it. Egan-Jones Ratings Co. downgraded the U.S sovereign debt from triple-A to double-A plus, understanding that the lack of spending control is an essential challenge to our economy in the future. S&P's and Moody's may eventually come to similar conclusions.
All of which suggests it may be too late already. Earlier this month Dan Henninger quoted Robert Lucas, a Nobel laureate in economics, who speculated that "by imitating European policies on labor markets, welfare and taxes," the U.S. has "chosen a new, lower GDP trend." These policies look much like Europe over the past few decades--or America in the 1930s.
As Mr. Lucas points out, in the first 70 years of the 20th century European and American economic growth increased together. But starting in the 1970s, Europe's growth lagged due to larger welfare-state costs and much higher taxes. The Obama administration has put America on a similar trajectory.
How do we get America away from European-style socialism? We can all agree that the debt ceiling needs to be raised, for we cannot default and there is not enough we can immediately cut to stay under the current limit
We can also agree that it would be harmful to the economy to focus on increased tax revenues to try and dig us out of the economic hole. Raising tax rates in a counterproductive attempt to raise more revenues would depress economic growth and hurt any chance of a significant increase in jobs, especially since the new taxes would fall on employers who are just beginning to feel the costs of ObamaCare, not to mention a bevy of other new and threatened regulations.
Republicans in the House hoped the debt ceiling negotiation process would have been a chance to reset the trajectory of huge increases in government spending. But it is not likely to happen, for the president will not move enough to fix our worsening financial position. That means the 2012 election is the most likely opportunity to change America's fiscal policies.
So the public policy results of the next election must be business and individual tax reform—lower rates on a flatter and broader base, repeal of ObamaCare, and reform of entitlement programs (slowly raising the Social Security retirement age, adding in block grants to the states for their own Medicaid rules, etc.). Add in the elimination of farm and "green" subsidies like ethanol,continue banning earmarks, and get federal spending down to 20 percent of GDP.
None of these policy changes will be possible with President Obama in the White House or Democrats in control of the Senate. America needs new political leadership to get our economy back on track, leadership in the hands of those willing to actually make the basic decisions needed. We need the kind of leaders who made America great in the last century so that it can remain successful in this one.
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