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Jewish World Review June 30, 2010 / 18 Tamuz 5770 Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"When I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step up, because I'm calling their bluff."--Barack Obama
Our pathological Liar-in-Chief is at it once again. The man who has given America a trillion dollar-plus deficit, the man who, with ample help from our Democratically-controlled Congress, literally quadrupled the worst excesses of a spendthrift Bush administration's worst year, is going to call someone else's bluff? Utterly amazing.
The above quote suggests one of two possibilities: we either have a Chief Executive who is literally unhinged--or one with such contempt for the average American's intelligence that he believes we can't discern the difference between what he says and what he actually does. The bet here is the latter, for the simplest of reasons: a groveling, see-no-evil media willing to compromise their last shred of integrity--even to the point of their own fiscal demise--to protect an ideological soulmate.
Here's what Americans need to know about so-called "difficult choices:" for the first time since modern-day budgeting began, the House of Representatives has refused to pass a budget resolution. Why? Because it's an election year, and the last thing these progressive hacks want Americans to know is exactly how monumentally irresponsible they actually are.
How irresponsible is that? Here's what we already know: we're $1.4 trillion in the hole just this year, without a budget resolution. Incredibly, Democrats are selling the excuse that they're waiting for the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to make their recommendations before they get down to business.
The subterfuge here? The Commission isn't expected to issue a report before December--one month after the mid-term elections.
Like the president himself, Democrats in Congress have nothing but contempt for ordinary Americans. It is a contempt so ingrained that they're attempting to pass a financial "reform" bill that doesn't even address the key players--Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--in the financial meltdown of 2008. Taxpayers have already shelled out $150 billion dollars to keep these mortgage guarantors afloat, and that may only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A worst case scenario--or, as the "experts" love to say, an "unexpected" development--could raise the final price tag on these two behemoths to a trillion dollars.
How in the world do you pass "comprehensive" financial reform without addressing this?
Everyone knows the answer to that one: the same way you pass a "comprehensive" healthcare bill without a single word about tort reform in 2700 pages of progressive garbage. That would be the same bill in which 58% of Americans have already "stepped up" to call your bluff, Mr. President.
How corrupt are modern-day Democrats? I doubt anyone would have believed that another one of them could top Nancy Pelosi's immortal statement about the health care bill, "we have to pass it, so you can see what's in it." But the soon-to-retire Chris "Countrywide" Dodd was up to the task. His take on financial reform?
"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works."
Not so, Mr. Dodd. Maybe Americans don't how another 2000 page "comprehensive whatever" works, but a lot of us know how big-government socialism does: the national debt is exploding, unemployment remains steady at close to ten percent, and two of the chief perpetrators of the financial meltdown have their names attached to yet another attempted government shakedown of the private sector. The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill?
The only name missing is Bernie Madoff.
Once again, Americans wanted reform. Genuine reform. Once again, Democrats proved themselves utterly incapable of doing the right thing. Their "fix" for Wall Street, et al, is everything but.
Ironically, that would be the very same Wall Street which gave the lion's share of their political campaign contributions--nearly two-thirds of the $34.7 million donated by the entire securities and investment industry since Jan. 1, 2009, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics--to Democrats.
This reality is something that no doubt puzzles many Americans. Why would Wall Street and the banking industry give more money to a Democrat Party which regularly demonizes them, whose president referred to them as "fat cats," and who blames them for everything that went wrong in 2008?
For the same reason a Brooklyn pizzeria owner "donates" cash to a certain unsavory looking character who shows up every week: it's a protection racket. And it's done for exactly the same reason: the crony capitalist element on Wall Street wants protection from competition and their own irresponsible excess, aka "too big to fail."
It is absolutely critical that Americans understand what's really going on here. Progressive Democrats, the very same ones who forced the banks--and that is the correct term, forced--to make mortgages available to people who were manifestly unqualified to own a home, are the people telling America that capitalism itself is to blame for the ensuing debacle. Thus, America needs to be "rescued" by big-government Democrats.
But not until next year. This year? Duck and cover--and hope the rest of the "stimulus" package stimulates enough of the American parasite class to show up at the voting booth and minimize the damage to the Democrats' Congressional majority.
The bet here is most Americans have had enough. The bet here is that before the president calls our bluff "next year," we're going to call his in November. And I'm betting even more on the idea that it will be the least difficult choice the electorate has made in a long time.
Only the Kool-aid drinkers believe we can keep spending money we don't have, and after last week's G-20 economic summit, it's apparent that their ranks are shrinking: most of Europe, coming to grips with their own economic realities, essentially told Mr. Hope and Change to take his Keynesian, double-down-on-deficit-spending, economic model--and stick it where the sun don't shine.
Bluff already called, Mr. President.
Lastly, one more bluff that desperately needs calling: for years, liberals have told us that tax cuts caused the budget deficits we have today. That is an abject lie. The three presidents who engineered the largest modern-day tax cuts were JFK, Reagan, and George W. Bush. In all three cases more money flowed into federal coffers than did prior to those cuts.
So why did deficits increase? Because government spending vastly overwhelmed increased revenues. Only leftists could fail to mention a "detail" like that, even as they demand Americans dig deeper into their pockets to pay for runaway government.
Shame on them.
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© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
