PrintJanuary 8, 2009
Obama displayed ignorance while promising miracles
Upon listening to president-elect Barack Obama as he addressed the nation this morning about the state of this nation's economy and what is needed to fix it, I was appalled by Obama's ignorance. Rush Limbaugh on his radio program in the aftermath of Obama's address likened Obama's cure to putting an undertaker in charge of the economy.
The giant $1 trillion stimulus package -- this seems to be the spending floor -- that Obama wanted on his desk by his swearing-in on January 21, but whose date could be postponed until mid-February, is nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme marketed as a way to spend ourselves out of this economic downturn. It will involve money that this nation doesn't have to spend. It would be the biggest government spending bill in world history, charged to this nation's credit card for our children to pay without safeguards and appropriate hearings to scrutinize how the tax dollars are being spent. The money will either have to be borrowed or printed (unbacked paper) which could cause double-digit inflation in 6-to-18 months, as it is not possible to raise enough taxes from people or businesses in a down economy.
All this is happening at a time when we in the private sector are tightening our belts. One day the piper will have to be paid.
In truth, behind the promise of jobs and an economic rebound seems to be is political motive that seeks to build an enduring and a lasting Democrat majority through the doling out of government money to Democrat mayors, Labor Unions, environmental groups, etc. All are lining up like pigs at a trough to feast for a piece of the pork from what amounts to a large government slush fund. Already the U.S. Conference of Mayors has forwarded to Congress a list of 11,391 infrastructure projects. There are likely to be many "bridges to nowhere." Remember the "Big Dig" in Boston? What was suppose to cost 1.4 billion dollars escalated to 22 billion. Still taxpayers face a yearly bill of 100 million dollars for maintenance. It is not reasonable to think that the 25,000 workers losing their jobs in financial services on Wall Street will regain them as government-paid construction workers laboring on infrastructure projects.
Concerning Chicago and Illinois, Tom F. Roeser -- chairman of the editorial board of Chicago's internet newspaper, "The Chicago Daily Observer", and a radio talk show host, writer, lecturer, and teacher -- wrote astutely in his blog on 12/12/08: "Daley hopes Obama will open the federal spigot of his stimulus package so a floodtide of new construction, land acquisition and jobs will flow into Chicago, not so much to satisfy his zest for winning the Olympics for Chicago in 2016, but out of his desire to nurture in perpetuity his machine politics."
Jon Holkevitch in his "Tribune" commentary of Dec. 25, 2008, "Illinois transportation projects sought as part of the federal stimulus package," wrote how planning and transportation experts are expressing concern that "the state's track record of too much politicking and too little discipline over project selection creates a risk that the one-time-only infrastructure bailout could be frittered away."
Of concern is that Obama's $1 trillion stimulus plan is patterned after FDR's New Deal which did nothing to pull this nation out of the Great Depression. Lyndon Johnson's socialist-based Great Society programs also failed in the 60's. While there is some controversy over the rate of employment in the 30's under Roosevelt's New Deal frantic spending programs (Roosevelt was elected president in 1932), it is well to note that in 1939, five years into the New Deal, unemployment still stood at 17.2%. At the time Henry Morgenthau, FDR's Treasury secretary, lamented: "I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started." It took the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese to jump start this nation's economy through the start up of war time industry and production.
Where are the expressions of outrage over the national debt? Debt no longer seems to matters to many Americans. Debt certainly factored as an issue during the presidency of George W. Bush. Unfortunately the American people have been scared into believing that this nation is in a hopeless mess, that because this is an emergency spending has no limits, and that free enterprise and capitalism have failed.
Fearful of the freedom to make choices and the responsibility that comes with it, and captivated by rhetoric that spoke of hope and change and the promise of a free lunch, 52.7% of the American voters, lured into accepting that centralization of power under government can solve economic and societal problems better than capitalism under the free enterprise system, elected Barack Obama as president last November.
This nation stands on the brink of a socialist abyss which could very easily morph into a full-blown socialist society, minus a despot. We are becoming a "government with people" instead of a "people with a government" as envisioned by our founding Fathers and set forth in our nation's Constitution. Its people are becoming like sheep.
Obama's stimulus package could suck a trillion dollars out of the private economy. Has any consideration been given to what will happen down the road if all the bullets have been used up and the economy has still not responded? Possible consequences could be 2 - 3% inflation every month with prime rates rising to 6 - 7% and even 10%.
From now until mid-February when Obama is likely to sign the stimulus bill, the final bill will undoubtedly have under gone many changes. Even now there are tugs of war going on. What Republican legislators want included in the final bill conflicts with Democrat ideology of more government bureaucracy and spending, which, minus competition from the private sector, routinely results in waste, fraud, and inferior service.
The solution to resurrecting this nation's economy lies in restricting the growth of government, legislating tax cuts across the board, and slashing regulations. It is unbelievable that corporate taxes here in the U.S. are 1/3 higher than in the socialist utopia of Sweden! Democrat legislators seem inclined to direct America back to the frightful economic conditions of the 30's. There is no way this nation can survive if the national debt continues to expand, as some feel it will, to 20 billion dollars under eight years of an Obama presidency. Also looming ahead is 52 trillion dollars of unfunded debt that is owed to America's Baby Boomers. All will result in economic bankruptcy. It is our children and future generation of Americans who will suffer.
Republican legislators should not sell their souls to the devil for token tax cuts offered by Democrats under the guise of making the bill appear bi-partisan to the American people, for down the road at the next election the American people will surely judge those who fashioned the stimulus recovery bill and the effectiveness of its measures.
This country was founded on individual liberty and a self-reliant citizenry with an entrepreneurial spirit. By restricting the resources of the American people to create, invest and achieve wealth under a free market, capitalist system, lost will be the survival instinct which served this nation so well in the past.
As America moves increasingly toward the undesirable and destructive nature of a socialist welfare state, it is well to remember the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson when he wrote: "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated (in the Constitution)."
In 2009 the "general welfare" has come to mean to many Americans the right to have a college education, to have health care, to be employed, to be able to afford a house, etc. These rights are not enumerated in our Constitution. As such our nation's Constitution is being eroded and with it our constitutional form of government. Sadly, most Americans seem not to care. They realize not that socialism has failed whenever and wherever it has been tried.
