The Government Sucks at Most Things

By Alan Caruba

On the eve before Daylight Savings Time, I managed to break a wall clock in the process of trying to grasp it to “spring ahead.” It crashed to a counter top and gave up the ghost. I then went online to Staples and 24 hours later I had a new wall clock. We take such efficiency for granted these days.

In the midst of the heated debate over healthcare “reform”, we need to remind ourselves of how superior the private sector is to our now bloated, wasteful, and inefficient government. The bill that the Democrats and the president are desperately trying to foist on Americans is a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

Recently I received a comparison between Wal-Mart and the U.S. government. Candidly, I do not know the source of the information provided, but I am inclined to believe it.

“Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour of every day. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Sears, Costco, and K-Mart combined. It employs 1.6 million people and is the nation’s largest private employer. It is the largest company in the history of the world.”

“Wal-Mart has approximately 3,906 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are super centers. This is more than 1,000 than it had a scant five years ago.”

If the economy is in trouble, maybe the people who run Wal-Mart should be consulted instead of the 535 members of Congress who appear to not only be utterly clueless, but who have assisted Obama in running up the largest budget deficit in American history.

This is not a Democrat, Republican or independent problem. It is a government problem starting with the federal government and mimicked by state governments who have also spent themselves into penury.

Consider the following examples.

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. It had 234 years to get it right, but it is broke.

Social Security was established in 1935. It has had 74 years to get it right, but it is broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938 to underwrite the provision of mortgages so that everyone could own a home. It has had 71 years to get it right and it is broke. As the result of the financial meltdown, the government had to seize control of it.

The War on Poverty started in 1964 and has 45 years to presumably eliminate poverty. $1 trillion in public funds is allocated to “the poor” every year and there is no evidence they are any less poor.

The Department of Energy was created in 1977 allegedly to lesson the nation’s dependence on foreign, imported oil. It has since ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year. The U.S. imports more oil than ever before because the U.S. government forbids exploration and extraction on 85% of the nation’s continental shelf. It forbids the same in ANWR. It has had 32 years to address the need and it is an abysmal failure.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. They have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

There aren’t that many things that the government does well or does right. Meanwhile, the private sector, corporations and small business enterprises continue to innovate and provide products and services with remarkable efficiency. Both are heavily taxed. U.S. taxes on corporations are the second highest in the world.

Right now, Americans have to ensure that a Democrat-controlled Congress does not pass a 2,700 page Medicare “reform” because our lives are literally on the line if they do.

After that, the government has to stop wasting billions to create jobs because the only jobs it creates are government jobs.

It’s not like we the People can escape responsibility for this. A majority of voters elected these morons.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Beau Soleil plays some of the best Cajun music

Did you miss Mardi Gras last month? Well, take four minutes to enjoy it right now!

Obama's Worst Interview Ever

By Alan Caruba

If Barack Obama had been engaged in an ordinary job interview on Wednesday evening, he would not have been hired. Any experienced interviewer would have instantly picked up on his avoidance of straight answers and body language that revealed deceptive behavior.

During the course of his interview with Fox News reporter and anchor, Brett Baier, the President did more damage to himself and to his alleged health care "reform" than in the entire period of time leading up to now.

Inaugurated in January 2009, Obama has largely ignored the financial crisis he inherited from the very end of George W. Bush’s last term. After an “apology tour” and media blitz lasting several months, most of his energy has been devoted to taking over the nation’s healthcare system.

Early on he paused to throw billions at the failed General Motors and Chrysler. He made the American people their owners instead of letting an ordinary bankruptcy proceeding restructure the companies. At the same time, his Secretary of the Treasury continued his predecessor’s policy of parceling out billions in bailouts to the very Wall Street firms that had caused the financial meltdown.

While that was occurring, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (an independent central bank, not really part of the federal government) was busy running the printing presses night and day to create fiat money.

During his first year, as millions of Americans found themselves unemployed, instead of concentrating on measures that would jump-start economic growth such as tax cuts and other incentives, Obama’s sole domestic policy concern was healthcare “reform.”

Desperate to get a vote on it, despite Democrat majorities in both the Senate and the House, Obama turned finally to Fox News in yet another effort to make his case. What he did not anticipate was the relentless questioning of a reporter who wanted real answers about the ugly process by which the Senate and House bills have reached this point.

The President’s body language said as much as his efforts to filibuster his answers to Baier. The obvious effort was to run out the clock and end the hammering he took.

His hands were always gesticulating a plea that Baier stop asking why the bill was filled with horrendous provisions such as the “Louisiana purchase” or the gift of a $100 million hospital in Connecticut.

What Obama wanted to do was repeat his stale talking points for the Fox audience of viewers, stressing his attack on insurance company’s profits. Those profits, however, are a mere 6% at most, far less than other industries. For both the insurance companies and consumers, the lack of free market competition is the real problem.

Following the interview, Fox commentator Charles Krauthammer called Obama’s answers “a very clever rope-a-dope”, noting that “He did not have a lot of answers.” His colleague, commentator Steve Hayes, called the president “simply dishonest."

Anyone watching and listening would have come to the same conclusion.

The interview showed a man who discovered that the sheer power of the office of president and the automatic respect it engenders was not enough to protect him from an intense and long overdue grilling.

The particulars of a plan—-which he refused to discuss—-would dramatically change the relationship of every American to their physician and the ability of their physician to prescribe the procedures necessary to overcome an illness or injury.

To casually explain a vote on Obamacare as “the right thing to do” looked and sounded lame.

The vast majority of Americans of all political persuasions want this bill killed. Obama is spectacularly indifferent to public opinion.

Even Fox commentator, Juan Williams, a liberal voice, noted that the failure to get his healthcare “reform” bill passed would leave Obama “mortally damaged” as the leader of the Democrat Party and as president in general.

The simple fact is that, from the day he entered the office, Obama has damaged his credibility and confidence in his judgment. In just over a year he has gone from polling around 70% approval of his performance in office to the mid-40% percentile and it just keeps getting worse.

The interview may, indeed, turn out to be a turning point because, if I was a member of the House of Representatives, a Democrat, and up for reelection in November, I would conclude that this president was not worth following off the cliff.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Obamacare: Dead Man Walking

By Alan Caruba

Don’t you think, if the Democrats had the votes for Obamacare, it would be the law of the land right now?

I have been telling friends for days that it doesn’t matter if Obamacare is somehow “passed” by the House and sent to the White House for the President’s signature. It is as dead as Marley’s ghost.

The law will be challenged by law suits or possibly nullified because of the manner of passage and elements of its content that require citizens to buy health insurance. That is manifestly unconstitutional.

I know the common wisdom among the Democrat denizens of Washington, D.C. is that once Obamacare becomes law the great heaving mass of ignorant and unwashed citizens will quickly forget about the whole thing. They are wrong.

Obamacare is the equivalent of the Confederate States declaring secession and the first shots fired at Fort Sumter. That time it took a war to restore the Union, but this time a huge majority of people, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, independents, and every other political flag other than the Communist and Socialist Parties USA is opposed to this 2,700 page monstrosity.

Truly, Barack Hussein Obama has brought us all together. Against him!

With regard to the States, one after another is passing resolutions and laws to exempt themselves from the authority of Obamacare and it is likely to reignite and vivify the Tenth Amendment as nothing has in decades.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The people. That’s us.

The people who got Prohibition repealed. The people who finally granted suffrage to women. The people who volunteer to be in our Armed Forces. The people in our police and fire departments. The people in the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. The people who drive trucks providing goods to the rest of us. The people who marry and raise kids. You know who they are. They are your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers.

In his iconic novel, “On the Road”, Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) wrote, “This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.”

That’s how the Tea Party movement exploded out of nowhere and suddenly was everywhere. It’s all those people jamming the phones on Capital Hill, burning up its fax machines, overheating its email system. It is quintessentially American.

And, as for the States, they are all sovereign republics! They have their own constitutions. And they will fight back, too.

There isn’t a governor breathing who (a) doesn’t know his State is broke and (b) knows Obamacare will aggravate that condition to a point where they no longer will have any budget over which they can exercise any control because this “entitlement” is the ultimate deal-breaker.

So let Madame Pelosi babble away about leaping over fences and parachuting in as if America was some enemy nation to conquer. It does not matter whether she gets Obamacare “passed” or not.

For now, I am going to assume that it will be defeated in the House.

Even if Obamacare passes the House and is sent to the President, Obamacare will still be a dead man walking.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

A Tale of Two Billboards

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's so nice of the Irish to let all of us join in the celebration!

To put you in the mood for St. Pat's Day!