Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Murdering America
By Alan Caruba
We are all witnesses to the crime; the deliberate murder of the United States of America.
In just under a year and a half, the White House in collusion with the Democrats in Congress has conspired not to “save” America from a financial crisis they created, but to kill America through a series of multi-billion dollar “bailouts” that have two things in common. (1) They did not work and (2) they have created levels of national debt beyond anything in the entire previous history of the nation.
Seen in this light, they are a brilliant game plan for destroying what was once the greatest economy in the world. It was based entirely on capitalist principles of free market competition, constant innovation, and entrepreneurial enterprise. Tied now as we are to the economies of other nations, there’s not much good news of late.
The Obama administration has imposed the takeover of one sixth of the nation’s economy through its so-called health care “reform” and there are already revelations that it will not save money, but cost much more. It will deprive Americans of the right to make decisions with their physicians regarding all manner of treatment, some of which will literally determine life or death. It will reduce options for medical care as physicians, particularly in private practice, close their doors.
Writing in the June issue of Health Care News, John C. Goodman said, “Despite assurances, the Medicaid expansion included in the health care legislation signed by President Barack Obama is not another unfunded mandate foisted on the states, many states will find their budgets bloated with new Medicaid spending.” Goodman is CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis. It defied credibility that millions could be added to Medicare and Medicaid roles without raising the costs of these programs. In the end, Obamacare was forced upon Americans, the majority of whom opposed it and still do.
Among the priorities of a new Congress, in the event that power passes to the Republican Party, is the repeal of Obamacare.
The new financial “reforms” need to be rolled back as they too place limits on Wall Street that found itself victimized by the fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two “government sponsored entities” are directly responsible for the housing bubble. It is insane that the federal government should hold the majority of mortgage loans. Yet the “reforms” just passed make no mention of either agency!
The Cap-and-Trade Act, renamed a “climate” bill and awaiting a vote in the Senate, would raise the cost of all energy use in the nation and literally destroy the economy. Likewise, the effort of the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide would have the same effect.
Another priority is to take General Motors off life-support for the unions that destroyed it through their salary, healthcare and pension demands. Here again, the federal government has no rational justification for such ownership. The most recent proposed bailout at a cost of $165 billion is yet another bailout for union pensions and this, too, is not a responsibility of American taxpayers.
There was a time in the nation’s history when unions were needed, but now they are largely parasitic, draining the treasuries of the federal and state governments, and no where is this more obvious than in the Service Employees International Union. Obama is so closely allied with SEIU that one wonders why so little attention was paid during the 2008 campaign. This union alone is alleged to have spent as much as $60 million to secure his election.
There are other government worker’s unions such as the teacher’s unions that exert political power in money, campaign manpower, and votes. The teacher’s unions have largely failed their mission to impart the most basic skills, leaving American students behind their counterparts in other nations. Their health and pension benefits, well in excess of the private sector, are a massive drain on the public treasuries of state governments.
There are only two protections left to Americans, the courts and the ballot box. The courts appear to moving far too slowly on the issue of constitutionality regarding Obamacare and, in particular, Barack Obama’s eligibility to be President.
All this demonstrates an astounding lack of power that has always being attributed to Wall Street and to corporations in general. Environmental opponents popularly refer to them as Big Oil, Big Coal, or Big Pharma. They appear to have no power against an aggressively Marxist President, his administration, and a Congress dominated by progressives.
On May 22nd, Rasmussen Reports revealed that 72% of likely voters say they are not confident that Congress knows what it’s doing as regards the economy. There has been little change in this opinion since September 2008.
The voters, however, have demonstrated their power in the election of a Republican as Senator from Massachusetts and two Republican Governors in formerly Blue States. The primaries are demonstrating that the only way to win is to be anti-Obama and the best way to lose is to be an incumbent participating in the destruction of the nation.
The current national state of mind is understandably one of growing fears and it should be in the face of the determined effort to destroy America.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
From the socialist viewpoint, the destruction of the American economy is the necessary first step in ending capitalism on a world scale.
ReplyDeleteThus the Obama Regime from the same socialist point of view is already one of the most successful in the annals of history.
It boggles my mind that such a small number of people in this country - less than 10% of population in hardcore numbers - could bring about.
Of course, it still boggles my mind that Lenin could have destroyed Russia with only a few thousand hardcore radicals.
I'm no fan of the Democrats, but I'm sorry, they did not cause this financial crisis. They were brought in because the Repulicans caused the crisis and the People wanted someone else to clean it up.
ReplyDeleteActually, the blame for the crisis is thirty years of Reaganomics mixed in with some Clintonomics. Of course, Republicans love Clintonics now too. I don't see any of them trying to end NAFTA and all the free trade agreements and treaties that have been causing a Haiti-fication of the USA.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete@Lib:
ReplyDeleteThe problem goes back much further to Jimmy Carter and the repeal of the Glas-Steagal (sp?) Act. Indeed, it goes back to the creation of Fannie Mae and many years later, Freddie Mac.
Neither political party has clean hands, but this is mostly the result of liberalism at its worst.
We have to stop blaming politics for all that's going on. We need to observe what has happened in education since John Dewey, in religion, with the advent of "politically correct" homilies and in the general morality of our populace since it became "illegal" to reference God or (gasp!) ask for His guidance.
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't happened overnight but it has been according to the plan of the powers that be - be, as in the present tense.
Here's a Republican congressman from Ohio, Steve LaTourette, on
ReplyDeleteThe most recent proposed bailout at a cost of $165 billion is yet another bailout for union pensions and this, too, is not a responsibility of American taxpayers.
I think as a Republican, I’m supposed to love Fox News and hate MSNBC. Now, I’m going to tell you, I do hate MSNBC, but something just happened on Fox News that compelled me to come to the floor... They’ve run this diagram and it really is a, I think, blaspheming my good friend Pat Tiberi from Ohio [Republican] and indicating that there are nine Republicans supporting a bill that will bail out unions. Well, that’s nonsense and I don’t know who the pin head and weenie is at Fox News that decided to put that story together. But the true facts of this piece of legislation are as follows. This bill will save the taxpayers by saying to those corporations that have union pension plans, if you find yourselves in a bind, rather than thrusting that upon the taxpayer, it spreads out over five years the ability to bring those pension plans up to speed. That’s good government, it’s a good bill. It’s a good Tiberi bill and I don’t know what they’re doing at Fox News, but they should stop smoking it and get back to reporting the facts.
Fox will never get back to reporting "the facts." But what do people like them, and you, care about facts? All you care about is winning! Joining the reality-based community — that's so 19th century, isn't it, Alan? So I guess I should stop writing, since it's clear by now that NONE of my comments on your meretricious scum will ever see the light of day.
Okay, so now one of your comments has been posted. Feel better? Good. Now go away, please.
ReplyDeleteOOOOOH, AAAAAAH! The use of meretricious in a blog. Makes this old talk show host tingle.
ReplyDeleteLarry should stop writing because none of what he wrote makes any sense. Is he FOR or AGAINST the bill? Who said what? Is he quoting LaTourette or is that his ranting and raving? Larry, if you learn how to write, learn how to use quotation marks, and try to be more coherent, maybe people will be more inclined to post your comments....
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as Libertarian's comment is concerned, here's my take on the subject:
People are frantically trying to place blame for the financial meltdown on Republicans, Democrats, "evil" bankers, or corporations, but any fool can see what precipitated this mess. For at least three decades, the American public spent more than they earned, and believed the lie that their "increasing property values" were somehow going to cover their deficit spending.
Equity lines, refinances, and second mortgages were being pushed like hot dogs at a ballgame, and the old "you deserve it, you can afford it, you can have it now" philosophy was rampant.
When Freddie and Fannie started handing "government backed" loans to anyone who could crawl in with a pay stub, the house of cards was bound to collapse. Freddie and Fannie type loans are only possible when the rest of the economy is solid. With 90% of Americans' loan to value ratios upside down, and a federal government that was/is deficit spending along with the rest of us, it was a system destined to collapse.
I never thought loans like that were a good idea in the first place. Home ownership is a huge responsibility, and if you don't have the money for the down payment, you aren't likely to be able to afford the payments or the maintenance. It was a program destined to destroy lives and neighborhoods. Of course, they are still out there making those loans today ... crazy.
Now, it's time to pay the piper, and everyone is scrambling around trying to find a new way to hide the ugly truth. We're overspent, we're still spending, and in a short time, if we don't fess up and reign ourselves in, it's all going to blow up in our faces, making the financial unrest we're seeing today look look tame.
In response to Guy's confusion, here's a roadmap to my previous comment. The italicized sentence is lifted from the ninth paragraph of Mr. Caruba's original post.
ReplyDeleteThe boldface paragraph provides the impromptu words of Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) on the floor of the House of Representatives. Since he is from the party that most closely combines a degree of power with your own views, I thought that his speech might prove a corrective to Fox's interpretation, which Mr. Caruba has swallowed wholesale.
Anything else is my own contribution to the debate.
I haven't studied the bill so I won't comment on it. My interest is in correcting the fantasies not facts that appear under Mr. Caruba's name. I offered a lot more but evidently he prefers his sycophants.
I do appreciate the publication of one of my several comments on this blog. I won't bother with more.
Larry, that helps ... I just didn't understand what you were trying to say.
ReplyDeleteI have not read the bill either, but I can't imagine any good coming out of more bailout money being handed to auto companies, teachers, or any other heavily union sectors. There appears to be an unmistakable pattern here. Can you deny that all the groups receiving bailouts are ones that Obama is looking to for votes in November? Auto unions, teachers unions, Wall Street, SEIU, the list goes on and on.
Pretty much all these handouts, not to mention the "hands off" attitude we're seeing toward illegal immigration, will clearly benefit historically heavily Democratic voter blocks.
It smacks of corruption no matter how you look at it. The thinking people among us predicted a surge or spending going into the elections when the stimulus was passed and they didn't spend the money right away as promised, so it's pretty hard to ignore what they're doing or explain it any other way.
Now, we're hearing stories of huge campaign donations coming from organizations that claim to be broke and on the verge of collapse. It's insulting, and I find it quite offensive that my tax dollars are obviously being funneled through the unions and right into the campaigns coffers of Democratic candidates.
Of course, you may not see it the same way, but that's what blogs are all about. We air our thoughts and ideas, and hope to make some sense out of it all. Nobody here is any more intent on "winning" than those on the left, and they happen to have control of the purse strings at the moment. I'd be watching them a little more closely if I were you....
Note to Larry:
ReplyDeleteWhat part of "go away" did you not understand.
One of your error-filled comments snuck through and has been removed. ALL future comments will suffer the same fate.
You would be tolerated if your facts were accurate, but they are not.
Now, once again, GO AWAY.