Miscellany: 7/29/11 Happy Third Blogiversary!

Quote of he Day

He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
John Milton

Debt Ceiling Crisis & the Gang of Idiots: Obama, Dems, and Others

The amount of stupidity ACROSS THE BOARD is staggering. The Democrats are absolutely, incontrovertibly out of their minds.

Let me give just a telling example: the House Democrats tried to amend the Boehner bill to implement a disingenuous, blatantly superficial talking point by the "President" regarding the accounting/tax treatment for certain oil and gas developments and corporate jets. Is there anyone in this country STUPID ENOUGH, other than Democrats, to believe that the Obama $1.3T-plus hat trick, with TRILLIONS projected over the entire coming decade--that the Democrats (name ANYBODY: "President" Obama, Reid, Pelosi or any other clueless, political spin as usual Democrat) have presented an honest attempt to bridging a baked-in structural deficit?  And we're not even talking about a phony $500B double-counting Medicare cut underlying the break-the-bank ObamaCare and a way of resolving $50T in unfunded entitlement liabilities just beginning since the Baby Boomers started retiring (at 65) last year? Did any Democrat even stop to think about the relative magnitude of these cuts? Brief answer: $40-45B over 10 years. Or, say, $4.25B per year? In the context of  $3.7T annual budget? We are literally talking about a tiny fraction of 1%.  And we are not even considering the unintended consequences of punitively taxing these industries.

Even many polled Americans are either hopelessly clueless or ignorant of current events or out of their minds. A June 9 Quinnipiac poll suggested that the GOP would be blamed more than Obama 48-34 if the debt ceiling efforts fail. Now, granted, we have had more recent events, including 2 GOP-controlled House bills passed and sent to the Senate but tabled.

How stupid do voters have to be not to know if you taxed stole all of the assets of the richest people in America, it would merely cover one fiscal year? Where do they think the money is going to come from, once all the rich people are gone? What part of confiscating ALL the income of the top earners  not enough to close the gap doesn't America get? I mean, we haven't even talked about things like a 10% budget cut across the board, but somehow it's okay to demand higher-income earners bankroll the huge budget deficits driven by Democrat-controlled Congresses since 2007? What part of honest thinking believes Bush should be held responsible for the housing bubble burst economic tsunami when Democrats were behind the growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchased speculative mortgage loans using an implicit federal government guarantee, Democrats were responsible for pushing mortgages to higher-risk lower-income groups, Democrats have had their say in super-regulating the banking industry at both the state and federal level for years? Never mind the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate since 2007. What did Bush do--press a red button in the White House blowing up the Democratic house of cards? I mean, give me a break! This whole crisis was the inevitable outcome of crony capitalism run amok... And never mind the pot-calling-the-kettle-black Democrats lashing out at "special interests" (i.e., businesses wanting dysfunctional government out of its hair), while giving their special interests, like unions, a seat at the bankruptcy courts, to bypass the established pecking order of liquidated assets... Because everyone knows (it's intuitively obvious) that Democratic special interests are "more equal" than Republican ones...

The Democrats are being totally hypocritical and political. Let's have a reality check: even after the mid-term elections last November, the Democrats had super-majorities with Obama to "lead". So what do we see for priorities? I mean, we just saw one of the biggest Congressional turnovers over the past 4 generations in large part dealing with in part with overspending and uncontrolled government growth and what did we see as a brief lessons learned during the lame duck session? Did the Dems pass an omnibus spending bill? No. Did we see the Dems pass a new mini-stimulus bill? Yes. Did we see the Dems pass at the time a debt ceiling increase preemptively pass the 2012 election? Of course not! In tribute to the infinite wisdom of those Nevada voters whom, with 14% unemployment, put a corrupt deal-making Harry Reid back in the Senate, Harry Reid said that he wanted the Republicans to share the political hit for raising the debt ceiling, so he left it to the next Congress. It's not as if he might recognize that new Republican officeholders running against an unsustainable federal government and budget would push back. What did the Democrat manage to do in their astute management of the lame-duck session? Things like allowing gay soldiers to be open vs. discreet about their sexuality (obviously that was on everybody's top 5 list of priorities), a food safety bill, the START treaty, etc.

What about our proactive "glorious leader"? His debt reduction initiatives over the 2.5 years of adding $4T to the national debt? About $18B. He waited until the Bush tax cuts were within 3 weeks of expiring to get a deal done. Any attempt to proactively co-opt spending cuts before the GOP take control of the House? Are you kidding? And this clown lectures a divided Congress, something directly attributable to his "leadership" and rhetoric, unfavorably comparing them to his own daughters being more responsible in the classroom?

No, this "brilliant" man at the beginning wants a simple debt extension but later insists class warfare tax hike is critical. We are running into a financial Apocalypse, but, hey, he's going to veto anything that doesn't cover the 40% of the budget we're not paying off until after his reelection. He doesn't think the role of the President is coming up with a constructive solution that will be picked over by the Congress and by the press.

No, the Republicans are the only ones putting actual solutions on paper and passing legislation, and then  Democrats are dismissive. Reid told Boehner that Boehner's SECOND passed bill was DOA: BEFORE the bill was even on paper over the last day. Talk about 'fair'. Well, guess what, Reid? Your phony bill that has no enforcement mechanism, is full of phantom cuts and accounting gimmicks and papers over the 40% deficit spending until after Obama's reelection battle next year will NEVER pass a filibuster threshold, never mind the much higher bar that even Boehner found difficult to meet.

Reid isn't intelligent enough to realize the game has changed. It has been the case that the Senate, because of perennial filibusters, was the focus for large-scale legislation like ObamaCare: the House could put the public option in its bill, but it couldn't even pass the super-majority in the Senate.

The 218-210 passage of the revised Boehner bill included 22 Republicans whom voted against it, not because they agreed with the dysfunctional minority Democrats, but they felt Boehner didn't go far enough. On Fox News, I listened to the Senate Democrat Clown Posse (Reid, Durbin and Schumer) describe the tabling as "bipartisan" (a handful out of 47).  Three of these (DeMint, Paul, Lee) are part of the Tea Party caucus, reflecting the ideological standpoint of the 22 GOP in the House which refused to support Boehner. All of the Republicans consider Reid's bill a nonstarter.

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups

The Eagles, "Tequila Sunrise"