"Stimulus" Bill Now Tops $900 Billion
Congress is sapping any possibility of US productivity for generations to come. Only a fraction of this so-called “stimulus” bill actually stimulates the economy. The vast majority of it is increased government oversight and additional government programs. By taking such a whopping amount from the American people, the US government is stifling productivity of the American people and small business where any chance of economic recovery must begin. By printing such a whopping amount of money to cover the spending that cannot be sold overseas as IOUs, the government will cause massive inflation for years and years to come.
The best and simple economic “stimulus” plan I’ve seen is to simly refund all individual taxes collected in 2008. It costs about the same and gives all the people’s money back to the people who would happily spend such a windfall.
Please, Congress, stop helping us now. Just put the checkbook down and back away.
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Presidential Actions, Week 1
I’m going to keep saying this so that I remember; “Obama is my President.” It’s important to remember we are called to be good citizens.
But that doesn’t mean we check our beliefs and feelings at the door and blindly follow our new Dear Leader. In one week -
He reestablished federal funding for overseas abortions. Why in the heck are we paying for that, anyway? Are we trying to control the population of future enemies? Is our top priority in economic uncertainty to abort unborn children of foreigners?
He reestablished embryonic stem cell research. Might as well start planning ahead for harvesting fetuses if we need unborn children for medical purposes.
He stopped military tribunals in Guantanamo and ordered the facility closed in a year. Nobody knows what to do with the 250+ terrorists held there. Send them to other countries? They end up back on the battlefield. Bring them to US soil? A writ of “habeas corpus” will have them released as they have not been charged with violating US criminal law.
He’s urging nearly a trillion dollars of spending to stimulate the economy. Who gets this money? Some of it goes to taxpayers. Where did they get this money? Er, taxpayers. And there are some hideous things in the bill, like spending on contraceptives, polishing tombstones, educating Americans about the benefits of government-sponsored healthcare. How in the heck will that stimulate the economy?
Obama’s bipartisan approach so far seems to consist of, “I won.”
Go help us all.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )What Did We Learn?
Obama beat McCain handily, 349 to 163 electoral votes.
What we should have learned, I don’t know that we did. What we should have learned is that we have principles and ideals and we should stick to them.
Ronald Reagan knew it, and we gave him victories. The 1994 Republican House knew that, and we gave them victories.
Ever since then, our leaders have been trying to reach across the isles. And we get trounced, every time.
George Bush Sr, “No New Taxes.” Until he reached across the isle, and we voted him out of office.
Republicans spent money in 2004-2006 like, well, like they were Democrats. And we voted them out of office.
What was McCain except a big reach across the isle? Part of the Gang of 14 that chose to work with Democrats instead of pushing for the judicial appointees which we will never get. Not in my lifetime. The Democrats will fill each and every one of those posts with liberal activist judges that should have been filled by conservative strict constructionists. Reaching across the isle hurt the conservative cause. Wait till Obama appoints 4 new judges in his first term to the Supreme Court, and then see if reaching across the isle helped us in any way.
McCain promised to take hatchet to the government spending and cut our earmarks, but when it came time for the $700 billion bailout of our economy, not only did he vote for it, but he also voted for an additional $150 billion in pork. That’s when he lost the election for sure.
Lesson learned. Stick to your principles.
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The Loss of Conservatism
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
If the major news media has succeeded today in discouraging conservatives from voting, the trifecta will be complete – Legislative, Executive, and Media.
The blame for such a loss can be spread to many people. Let’s start at the top.
I like President Bush, and I threw my entire support behind him for the Iraq War. I think he is a good, honest President. But as a communicator, he failed. The left managed to brand him with a paint of hate, and Bush stoically didn’t respond. Terrible mistake. He also mistakenly believed he could appease the left with vastly expanded programs; Medicare, prescription drugs, No Child Left Behind, etc. Soon the spending of the Republicans put the spending of the Liberals to shame.
McCain reflects that belief that if we’re more liberal, liberals will like us. They don’t. And they can out-liberal us any day of the week. The real reason Republicans are losing is that once in power, they forgot they were the party of limited government. Just like the elder George Bush losing office because of his broken “No new taxes” pledge, the Republicans are being voted out of office because they are too liberal.
Americans won’t stand for the ultra-liberal policies about to be imposed on us, but by the time the Democrats are tossed out, the next incremental step toward a socialist nanny-state will be firmly in place. We’re about to lurch to the left -
But much of their agenda — the “card check” proposal to end secret ballots in union elections, the Fairness Doctrine to stifle conservative talk radio, liberal judicial nominees, trade restrictions, retreat from Iraq, talks with Iran — doesn’t require spending. And after 14 years of Republican control of Congress, the presidency, or both, Democrats are impatient. They want to move quickly.
They’ll be able to do this because they hold nearly fillibuster-proof majorities, a far left puppet president who will vote “present” rather than tackle hard issues, and an ecstatic liberal news media. Toss in the liberal court system they will immediately appoint, and conservatism will be a little-remembered philosophy confined to the flyover states.
Conservatives, we did this to ourselves by trying to out-liberal the liberals. I sure hope we learn the lesson this time. We only win when we hold to our conservative principles. We didn’t do that thel ast 4 years, and we’re about to pay heavily for it.
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The Scariest Part of Tuesday's Election
It can be summed up in this little quote:
Democrats are looking ahead to expanded power.
New New Deal. Unfettered ability to impose government oversight, appoint activist judges, raise taxes, and spend whatever they want on whatever they want.
I am so not looking forward to the next 4 years.
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Rob from the Rich, Stiff the Poor, Too
I stared writing about “Joe the Plumber” yesterday based on a story at the New York Post. Little did I know how huge the story was about to become. John McCain launched Joe the Plumber into the national spotlight during last night’s debate.
My post was going to be about how Obama’s strategy results in everybody getting poorer. While the poor may vote for a policy that takes from the rich, they delude themselves if they think they’ll get any of it. The US Government will absorb it all and then some. It’s like a monstrous black hole.
Anyway, life got in the way, and I abandoned the post, but today, Joe is headlines. American people do not like socialism, and Obama’s “spread the wealth around” rubs people the wrong way.
Drudgereport is now reporting that Gallup now shows McCain within 2 points among likely voters (by which I assume voters not recruited by ACORN). That’s quite a jump; perhaps the nervousness about Obama’s comments (along with the William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright associations) are giving McCain some momentum.
But the response by the Democrats and the mainstream media is atrocious. Biden questioned whether Joe the Plumber really was a plumber, saying he made too much money to be a blue collar worker, and reports now show that Joe is behind on taxes and doesn’t have a plumber’s license to work in his county.
Joe’s learning the hard way that questioning the Chosen One has repercussions. Is this a foreboding indication of things to come if the Chosen One is elected?
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US Government Restricts Free Speech and Expression of Religion
The “separation of church and state,” such as it is, should keep the government from imposing a religion upon the people of this country.
But regulations that squelch the speech of pastors? Can the US Government tell pastors what they can and cannot talk about?
There is no law that I’m aware of that restricts the speech of pastors, but IRS regulations in place for over 50 years threaten to withdraw the tax-exempt status of churches that speak on politics. I am convinced this is a contributing factor to the decline of morality in the USA. The churches are the center of what we consider moral in the country, and if the pulpits are silent, immorality blossoms.
Some pastors have begun specifically defying this regulation by specifically mentioning candidates by name. Their goal is to overturn the IRS regulation through the court system. Listen: all rules and regulations in this country should follow the US Constitution, right? Here’s the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution -
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
That tells me that the government can’t pass any laws on what churches can and cannot say, anymore than they can tell newspapers what they can and cannot print. Read that amendment and explain to me how it could be interpreted otherwise.
If you’d like to read more, the Alliance Defense Fund is spearheading this project.
“Pastors have a right to speak about Biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment. No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights,†said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley.
It’s a government restriction on the freedom of speech and the expression of religion. I cant see how anyone could interpret the Constitution any other way.
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Mortgage Meltdown
- Image via Wikipedia
I had been thinking this, but hadn’t seen anybody writing about it.
Sub-prime mortgages have led to a financial crisis. The blame for sub-prime mortgages generally get laid on the greed of the mortgage bankers, but is that all there is to it?
Twenty years ago I remember the push to get banks and lending into low-income minority neighborhoods. There was a push at the time to make mortgages easier for those who could least afford them because it was good for the neighborhood.
Stan Liebowitz’s book, Housing America: Building out of a Crisis, puts the blame back on the federal government. I agree – without the government pushing banks to lend to risky people, there would have been less risk. Simple, no?
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Update from A Mortgage Fable -
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )- The Community Reinvestment Act. This 1977 law compels banks to make loans to poor borrowers who often cannot repay them. Banks that failed to make enough of these loans were often held hostage by activists when they next sought some regulatory approval.
Robert Litan, an economist at the Brookings Institution, told the Washington Post this year that banks “had to show they were making a conscious effort to make loans to subprime borrowers.” The much-maligned Phil Gramm fought to limit these CRA requirements in the 1990s, albeit to little effect and much political jeering.
Russia Will Get Away With It
Russia invades Georgia, and we’ll make mewing-like complaints. Russia will conquer our ally Georgia and we will do nothing useful to stop it.
Georgia, once part of the Soviet Union, has become a strong ally of the US. Three quarters of their country voted to join Nato. That must gall Russia.
So they weighed their options, and decided to invade. Because it’s Russia, because they have so much of Europe’s energy supplies, because Georgia is so small, Russia knows we will do nothing except watch and complain.
This letter from the Georgia president, Mikheil Saakashvili, will document the historical and future significance of this invasion. And then he and his government will be replaced with former Russian KGB agents.
We are losing an ally and doing nothing except lobbing opinion articles at Russia.
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