The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart
this you will build your life by, and this you will become.
James Lane Allen
The Canadian Administration is Better Than the Obama Administration
MJ Perry's excellent Carpe Diem blog noted a recent Reuters news item from Canada (my ancestral homeland predating my grandparents on both sides of the family):
Since 2008-09, the government has eliminated more than 1,800 tariff items, providing about C$435 million a year in tariff relief. Its stated goal is to make Canada a tariff-free zone for manufacturers by 2015. [The most recent cuts, part of the Conservative government's overall free trade policy] are custom duties on 70 items used by businesses in sectors such as food processing, furniture and transportation equipment, aiming to lower their costs and encourage more hiring.There used to be a time when Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Party used to be AGAINST tariffs as fundamentally anti-consumer. That's before the unions which essentially dictate terms for their political support, lobbied for any mercantilist/protectionist gimmick in the book in misguided attempts to protect globally uncompetitive business models featuring unsustainable compensation packages.
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty knows that tariffs add to the cost of goods being sold and make higher-value products less competitive in the retail marketplace. On the other hand, we have an economic illiterate President, whom after 7% increase in Black Friday sales, is still focusing policy towards the consumer sector of the economy, all but ignoring business needs (e.g., competitive tax rates, tax simplification, reduction in regulatory burden, more trade agreements, fewer, not more employee mandates, etc.), but pompously setting business export goals...
I'm willing to swap Treasury Department chair Tim Geithner, Fed Reserve chair Ben Bernanke, Vice President Joe Biden, Larry Summers, Christina Romer, Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, and three other clueless progressives to be named at a later date, for Flaherty....
Remembering Why We LOVE Governor Christie
I was angry this weekend listening to the spin coming out of the administration about the failure of the super committee and that ‘the president knew it was doomed for failure so he didn’t get involved. Well, then what the hell are we paying you for? ‘It’s doomed for failure so I’m not getting involved?’ What have you been doing, exactly?... We all know what the solutions to these problems are... but we don’t have the political will to get them done... When you’re president [you have] got to get something done [in Washington]. And it’s not good enough to say, ‘Well, I’ll get it done after the election.' -- transcript of Gov Christie's remarksWhat is even worse is Obama, the most radically left President in modern American history, putting on this absolutely ludicrous sham pretense that somehow he is above the fray, that he's the grownup in the room. This is a guy whom picks and chooses statistically negligible cuts so he can pay lip service to spending discipline. Federal employee compensation packages have increased while the standard of living for many American families has fallen; I recall when Obama first discussed things like freezes on employee compensation, he limited the application to political appointee positions, not the vast majority of well-compensated (six-figure) permanent positions. This deliberate misleading of the American people, where you constantly have to read the legal fine print to know the real story of what's going on, is unethical and unworthy of a legitimate President of the United States.
The reader might ask, well, the President SEEMS to be centrist--after all, he seemed to continue Bush's Iraq and Afghanistan, he cut a deal on the Bush tax cut extensions, he was for traditional marriage before he was against it, he has released some oil and gas areas for exploration, etc. Why in the world the average American would be gullible enough not to recognize one of the oldest tricks in the book--the bait and switch? He decides what the minimum he wants to do to in order to say to the American people, with a straight face, e.g., I'm working on the deficit. So while he's spending a $862B stimulus bill plus raising domestic spending by 24%, he has a $17B cut and a $100M cut; over the past 3 years, he's literally spent over $10T, and all he's managed to cut is that? And the only time he starts talking about fiscal responsibility is when he's discussing about "paying" for tax cuts--but only for those people whom already pay a disproportionately high share?
What the President is doing is hardly even-handed. The 6 Super Committee members from the Democratic side were all reliable progressives whom have NEVER voted for a REAL spending cut unless it involved the Defense Department. They know that spending cuts are deeply unpopular and their only real chance for success in next year's election is to play Good Cop to the GOP's Bad Cop. They continue to ignore $46T in unfunded entitlement liabilities and say there is no problem with social security.
The idea that the left-wing ideologues on the Super Committee would agree to austerity measures of any kind that flies in the face of the 2012 elections was laughable at the outset. Did you really believe that Obama or these leftists on the committee (acting on behalf of Obama's interests) would anger the recipients of the 60% of the budget under mandatory spending (including senior citizens)? This whole charade has ALWAYS been about how to reelect Obama--NOT closing a $1T-plus annual deficit.
Political Humor
"Well, the inside talk is that Sarah Palin is going to endorse Newt Gingrich. If you think Newt is happy, you should see Mitt Romney." - Jay Leno
[Nothing quite says 'maverick' like choosing a career politician whom became Speaker and whose last wedding reception song was 'Three Times a Lady'...
While Palin was hawking the state plane on eBay, Speaker Newt was bitching about not having enough frequent flier miles to upgrade his seat on Air Force One. Palin tells Newt that she knows people whom can get him that upgrade all the time.]
An original:
- What's the difference between Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama for President? Gingrich offers a Contract With America; Obama put a contract out on America.
Musical Interlude: Nostalgic/Instrumental Christmas
Sarah Brightman, "Child in a Manger". I loved Brightman's version of this traditional song so much I purchased the download last year from iTunes. Any faithful readers knows I'm a huge Neil Diamond fan; Cat Stevens had a major hit a decade earlier with his version of the alternatively-written Protestant hymn, but for me, Neil's interpretation (for his first Christmas album) backed by a choir is simply glorious; I never tire of hearing it.
Instrumental
Vocal
Cat Stevens, "Morning Has Broken"
Neil Diamond
