Now, a word from our Esteemed Leader
Last night President Obama held a press conference to attempt to convince all of us that this stimulus plan was the best thing for the country. Here are a few memorable quotes from that event....
“The Federal Government is the only entity left that has the resources to solve the problem”
This is just not true. He seems to forget, or refuses to admit, that it was government policy, specifically Barney Frank and his cronies making mortgages available to people that shouldn't have had them and artificially low interest rates offered by the Federal Reserve that caused the bubble in the first place. As much as he wants to think that a hundred Bernie Matoffs, fat cats on corporate jets and retreats to posh hotels caused this problem, he is wrong. Government caused it because lawmakers are, for the most part, ignorant of business and capitalism. The “entity” that will get us out of this is the American people. If the government would stop confiscating our resources and regulating what we do with them, we would be out of this slump rather quickly. It happened in 1920 and 1987, it would happen today. Finally, I would remind President Obama that the federal Government doesn’t have resources, it’s broke and only by bankrupting the next generation or two is he coming up with these “resources”.
“No pork, No earmarks”
That is all this bill is. It is a Democrat wish list of pork. He can call is anything he wants but the American people aren’t that stupid, they know pork when they see it.
“We inherited a trillion dollar deficit”
I’m never sure where he’s going with this. I think he’s saying its a bad thing but yet he wants to quadruple it. “They spent too much so I’m going to spend more.” Does this make any sense? Doesn’t he see the burden this puts on all of us and our children? It is worth it to put the next two or three generations in bondage to correct a temporary downturn in the business cycle aggravated by Washington policy? This spending cannot go on indefinitely. We may think we are indestructible but what happened to Japan, Argentina and Zimbabwe will surely happen to us. When our credit score drops and we’ve printed way too much money, everything will come crashing down in poverty and hyperinflation.
“The winter of our hardship”
Only a coddled American could look at our situation today and say this about it. No one born after the Great Depression has any inkling what hardship is in this country. The “poor” here, with their homes, cars, televisions and mobile phones, live better than a lot of the middle class in Europe. Yes, people have lost jobs and some have lost their homes but even if the Wall Street exec ends up moving from his mcmansion to public housing and lives on food stamps, it hardly qualifies as “the winter of our hardship”. Hardship once meant the sacrifices people made to come to this country. The Pilgrims, half of whom died the first winter. Immigrants who arrived with nothing and worked in sweatshops for a pittance for years to save enough to have a chance at the American dream. Men who suffered and died on the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima, that’s hardship. What is hardship today? Not having cell service, not having a digital conversion box for TV, having to move from a 5000 sq. ft. house to a 2000 sq. ft. house. Most Americans have no idea what real hardship is and that is a testament to our system. However, if we continue down this path, we may very well find out soon enough.
“I inherited the deficit and this economic situation”
What a whiner! Apparently the culture of victimhood in America has now reached the highest office in the land. If this bill passes and a year from now things are worse, what is he going to say? “George Bush screwed this up worse than I thought.”? Presidents are not elected to play the blame game, they are elected to lead.
“Philosophically, some people don’t think the government should be involved in the marketplace”
I would like to remind President Obama that he lives in the United States of America and this country was founded by men who believed “philosophically”, and practically, that the government should not be involved in the marketplace. It was the meddling of the British government, through taxes and regulation, that caused their rebellion in the first place. The Constitution was adopted for the express purpose of keeping the government out of our economic affairs. The market, as defined by the individual choices of millions of Americans, works. It is self sustaining and self correcting and should be left alone.
“Government doing nothing is not an option from my perspective”
This dovetails with his statement the previous day that if the stimulus package didn’t pass that the effects on the economy would be “irreversible”. Fearmongering aside, his idea that the government has to do something all the time is also contrary to our founding principles. He made this statement after saying that is was right for government to be involved in Energy, Health Care and Education. Hmmmm....let’s see. Government regulations keep us from using our own energy resources and gave us $4 gasoline last year. Government regulations and insurance have crippled the health care industry and government schools are a dismal failure. Sounds like it would be better if the government did nothing because their something is usually a disaster.
“There is no such thing as a free lunch”
Ah, truer words have never been spoken. Unfortunately, when it comes to government spending, Washington seems to forget this. They think they can put off the day of reckoning forever, or at least until they’re dead (I was going to say out of office but it would seem most of them want to stay there until they die). Just like the housing bubble and the stock market bubble, the bubble of deficit spending cannot last forever and it will fall with a crash larger than any we’ve ever seen. If Washington falls, there is no “entity left that has the resources to solve the problem.”
“The Federal Government doesn’t have complete control over that”
Yet. This statement was made regarding housing. I ask you, what control should government have over housing? I don’t think it should have any. Housing prices should be set by the market and individuals should enter into private contracts for the sale or rental of such property. Where in that formula does the Federal Government belong? Of course, that goes for most economic and social issues in our country.
“The national government is detached from what is going on in the surrounding community”
President Obama said this about Afganistan. Perhaps he should look at his own house before he throws stones at theirs.
“Not everything we do is going to work out as we want it to”
No, really? This boondoggle put together by short sighted politicians who have no concept of economics in an attempt to further their own power and ensure a dependent and hopefully grateful electorate couldn’t possibly have unforeseen negative consequences, could it? Perhaps a reminder that the Great Society destroyed the black family and gave us a permanent underclass might make the point. That Social Security is going to bankrupt the country if all this stimulus doesn’t do it first. That Ted Kennedy’s HMO’s created a whole new set of problems in the heath care industry. Just a few reminders of how brilliant Washington solutions to whatever ails us usually turn out.
“Nobody is above the law”
Except your treasury secretary, the previous nominee for Heath and Human Services and a few others in your cabinet. We are very close to becoming a “banana republic” where the powerful do as they please and give favors to their supporters, print money like toilet paper and expect the support of an adoring populace.
Now, a note from the peanut gallery..
“The so called terrorists”
This was in Helen Thomas’ question about the “real” terrorist hiding in Pakistan. I can only credit President Obama for calling them what they are, terrorists, and not following her lead. What she would like to call them, I don’t know. Freedom fighters? Boy Scouts? They kill innocent men, women and children Helen! They are bad people and there is never an excuse for such actions!
In conclusion, this massive government intervention is very bad for the country. If it, and the ones that will follow don’t break the bank, they will hasten the day when it will break. The founders had it right. If government just gets out of the way, the capitalist system will work and work well. There will be ups and downs but the wisdom of the people and our ability to learn from our mistakes will keep the system running. All this bill will do is trip us up. If we allow it to go through, if we really buy into Newsweek's contention that we are all socialists now, then our fall will be permanent and the government will keep the market down just like it does in France and other European socialist countries. We will no longer be the “Land of Opportunity” because all the opportunities will be managed by government bureaucrats. I don’t want to go there, do you?
Patrick Samuels
Author of “Memoirs of a Former American”
www.patricksamuels.com
“The Federal Government is the only entity left that has the resources to solve the problem”
This is just not true. He seems to forget, or refuses to admit, that it was government policy, specifically Barney Frank and his cronies making mortgages available to people that shouldn't have had them and artificially low interest rates offered by the Federal Reserve that caused the bubble in the first place. As much as he wants to think that a hundred Bernie Matoffs, fat cats on corporate jets and retreats to posh hotels caused this problem, he is wrong. Government caused it because lawmakers are, for the most part, ignorant of business and capitalism. The “entity” that will get us out of this is the American people. If the government would stop confiscating our resources and regulating what we do with them, we would be out of this slump rather quickly. It happened in 1920 and 1987, it would happen today. Finally, I would remind President Obama that the federal Government doesn’t have resources, it’s broke and only by bankrupting the next generation or two is he coming up with these “resources”.
“No pork, No earmarks”
That is all this bill is. It is a Democrat wish list of pork. He can call is anything he wants but the American people aren’t that stupid, they know pork when they see it.
“We inherited a trillion dollar deficit”
I’m never sure where he’s going with this. I think he’s saying its a bad thing but yet he wants to quadruple it. “They spent too much so I’m going to spend more.” Does this make any sense? Doesn’t he see the burden this puts on all of us and our children? It is worth it to put the next two or three generations in bondage to correct a temporary downturn in the business cycle aggravated by Washington policy? This spending cannot go on indefinitely. We may think we are indestructible but what happened to Japan, Argentina and Zimbabwe will surely happen to us. When our credit score drops and we’ve printed way too much money, everything will come crashing down in poverty and hyperinflation.
“The winter of our hardship”
Only a coddled American could look at our situation today and say this about it. No one born after the Great Depression has any inkling what hardship is in this country. The “poor” here, with their homes, cars, televisions and mobile phones, live better than a lot of the middle class in Europe. Yes, people have lost jobs and some have lost their homes but even if the Wall Street exec ends up moving from his mcmansion to public housing and lives on food stamps, it hardly qualifies as “the winter of our hardship”. Hardship once meant the sacrifices people made to come to this country. The Pilgrims, half of whom died the first winter. Immigrants who arrived with nothing and worked in sweatshops for a pittance for years to save enough to have a chance at the American dream. Men who suffered and died on the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima, that’s hardship. What is hardship today? Not having cell service, not having a digital conversion box for TV, having to move from a 5000 sq. ft. house to a 2000 sq. ft. house. Most Americans have no idea what real hardship is and that is a testament to our system. However, if we continue down this path, we may very well find out soon enough.
“I inherited the deficit and this economic situation”
What a whiner! Apparently the culture of victimhood in America has now reached the highest office in the land. If this bill passes and a year from now things are worse, what is he going to say? “George Bush screwed this up worse than I thought.”? Presidents are not elected to play the blame game, they are elected to lead.
“Philosophically, some people don’t think the government should be involved in the marketplace”
I would like to remind President Obama that he lives in the United States of America and this country was founded by men who believed “philosophically”, and practically, that the government should not be involved in the marketplace. It was the meddling of the British government, through taxes and regulation, that caused their rebellion in the first place. The Constitution was adopted for the express purpose of keeping the government out of our economic affairs. The market, as defined by the individual choices of millions of Americans, works. It is self sustaining and self correcting and should be left alone.
“Government doing nothing is not an option from my perspective”
This dovetails with his statement the previous day that if the stimulus package didn’t pass that the effects on the economy would be “irreversible”. Fearmongering aside, his idea that the government has to do something all the time is also contrary to our founding principles. He made this statement after saying that is was right for government to be involved in Energy, Health Care and Education. Hmmmm....let’s see. Government regulations keep us from using our own energy resources and gave us $4 gasoline last year. Government regulations and insurance have crippled the health care industry and government schools are a dismal failure. Sounds like it would be better if the government did nothing because their something is usually a disaster.
“There is no such thing as a free lunch”
Ah, truer words have never been spoken. Unfortunately, when it comes to government spending, Washington seems to forget this. They think they can put off the day of reckoning forever, or at least until they’re dead (I was going to say out of office but it would seem most of them want to stay there until they die). Just like the housing bubble and the stock market bubble, the bubble of deficit spending cannot last forever and it will fall with a crash larger than any we’ve ever seen. If Washington falls, there is no “entity left that has the resources to solve the problem.”
“The Federal Government doesn’t have complete control over that”
Yet. This statement was made regarding housing. I ask you, what control should government have over housing? I don’t think it should have any. Housing prices should be set by the market and individuals should enter into private contracts for the sale or rental of such property. Where in that formula does the Federal Government belong? Of course, that goes for most economic and social issues in our country.
“The national government is detached from what is going on in the surrounding community”
President Obama said this about Afganistan. Perhaps he should look at his own house before he throws stones at theirs.
“Not everything we do is going to work out as we want it to”
No, really? This boondoggle put together by short sighted politicians who have no concept of economics in an attempt to further their own power and ensure a dependent and hopefully grateful electorate couldn’t possibly have unforeseen negative consequences, could it? Perhaps a reminder that the Great Society destroyed the black family and gave us a permanent underclass might make the point. That Social Security is going to bankrupt the country if all this stimulus doesn’t do it first. That Ted Kennedy’s HMO’s created a whole new set of problems in the heath care industry. Just a few reminders of how brilliant Washington solutions to whatever ails us usually turn out.
“Nobody is above the law”
Except your treasury secretary, the previous nominee for Heath and Human Services and a few others in your cabinet. We are very close to becoming a “banana republic” where the powerful do as they please and give favors to their supporters, print money like toilet paper and expect the support of an adoring populace.
Now, a note from the peanut gallery..
“The so called terrorists”
This was in Helen Thomas’ question about the “real” terrorist hiding in Pakistan. I can only credit President Obama for calling them what they are, terrorists, and not following her lead. What she would like to call them, I don’t know. Freedom fighters? Boy Scouts? They kill innocent men, women and children Helen! They are bad people and there is never an excuse for such actions!
In conclusion, this massive government intervention is very bad for the country. If it, and the ones that will follow don’t break the bank, they will hasten the day when it will break. The founders had it right. If government just gets out of the way, the capitalist system will work and work well. There will be ups and downs but the wisdom of the people and our ability to learn from our mistakes will keep the system running. All this bill will do is trip us up. If we allow it to go through, if we really buy into Newsweek's contention that we are all socialists now, then our fall will be permanent and the government will keep the market down just like it does in France and other European socialist countries. We will no longer be the “Land of Opportunity” because all the opportunities will be managed by government bureaucrats. I don’t want to go there, do you?
Patrick Samuels
Author of “Memoirs of a Former American”
www.patricksamuels.com
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