American Dream Turning Into A Nightmare
Hard questions are being asked as we confront major issues that will challenge our concepts of traditional American culture and society. The ongoing financial crisis is exposing the myth that America has no fiscal limitations and is able to provide the benefits, wealth and security that many believe they are “entitled to”, simply because they are Americans.
The reality for many is that the “American Dream” never arrived and for many others it is about to disappear. California is the example to the rest of the Nation that every promise made cannot be kept. Governments cannot create wealth by dividing wealth nor can they create wealth through unlimited borrowing and spending. The standard of living for many will decline as promises made cannot be kept.
Our President Isn’t Quite As Advertised - Karl Rove
As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to end the Iraq war by withdrawing all troops by March 2009. As president, he set a slower pace of drawdown. He has also said he will leave as many as 50,000 Americans troops there.
These reversals are both praiseworthy and evidence that, when it comes to national security, being briefed on terror threats as president is a lot different than placating MoveOn.org and Code Pink activists as a candidate. The realities of governing trump the realities of campaigning.
We are also seeing Mr. Obama reverse himself on the domestic front, but this time in a manner that will do more harm than good.
Mr. Obama campaigned on “responsible fiscal policies,” arguing in a speech on the Senate floor in 2006 that the “rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy.” In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, he pledged to “go through the federal budget line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work.” Even now, he says he’ll “cut the deficit . . . by half by the end of his first term in office” and is “rooting out waste and abuse” in the budget.
However, Mr. Obama’s fiscally conservative words are betrayed by his liberal actions. He offers an orgy of spending and a bacchanal of debt. His budget plans a 25% increase in the federal government’s share of the GDP, a doubling of the national debt in five years, and a near tripling of it in 10 years.
On health care, Mr. Obama’s election ads decried “government-run health care” as “extreme,” saying it would lead to “higher costs.” Now he is promoting a plan that would result in a de facto government-run health-care system. Even the Washington Post questions it, saying, “It is difficult to imagine . . . benefits from a government-run system.”
Mr. Obama either had very little grasp of what governing would involve or, if he did, he used words meant to mislead the public. Neither option is particularly encouraging.
Terminating Illusions In California - Wesley Pruden
California is the beta state, where everything new is tried and then exported, true or not. Rap, rock, lavender love, student riots, Arianna Huffington, hot rods and the Hula Hoop. Ronald Reagan and the tax revolt. The illusion that you can have it all, and somebody else will pay for it. This week California’s voters offered a view of what happens when big government finally grinds to a noisy halt. Barack Obama could take note.
Geithner Pledges To Cut Deficit
May 21 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration is committed to reducing the federal budget deficit after concerns rose that the U.S. debt rating may eventually be threatened with a downgrade.
The dollar, Treasuries and American stocks slumped today on concern about the U.S. government’s debt rating. Bill Gross, the co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. “eventually” will lose its AAA grade.
Thought Provoking Links
Obama Says US Long-Term Debt Load “Unsustainable”
May 14 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Is this honest straight talk out of Washington or just paying lip service to concerns about the long term finances of the US? Perhaps we have a President who understands that the United States cannot continue to borrow unlimited trillions of dollars without consequence.
It is difficult, however, to reconcile the President’s concerns with unsustainable debt to his proposed budget with a $2 trillion deficit. What’s the old saying - watch what they do, not what they say?
America’s Triple A Credit Rating - At The Precipice?
Our Nation has avoided the decline into the abyss that many have been predicting during the economic crisis. At the cost of approximately $13 trillion in government bailouts and guarantees the system has been held together but at a very high cost that future generations will bear through higher taxes or a much lower standard of living.
Has “saving” our economy destroyed our economic future?
As Cheney Seizes Spotlight, Many Republicans Wince
Today Cheney is the most visible — and controversial — critic of President Obama’s national security policies and, to the alarm of many people in the Republican Party, the most forceful and uncompromising defender of the Bush administration’s record.
“This isn’t about partisan politics, it’s about what’s right for the country,” said Liz Cheney, the former vice president’s daughter and a former State Department official. “Every American, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat or independent, would agree that before critical decisions are made about national security of the nation, we ought to have a full and fair debate.”
Liz Cheney strongly disagreed with the claim that her father’s vocal defense of Bush administration policies has caused significant unrest within the GOP.
Rarely has an official from one administration moved so quickly and aggressively to criticize a new president.
Cheney may not be the best spokesman here, but at the present time, he seems to be the only one willing to initiate debate on major policy issues.
George F. Will - The Obama administration is bold. It also is careless regarding constitutional values and is acquiring a tincture of lawlessness.
In February, California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature, faced with a $42 billion budget deficit, trimmed $74 million (1.4 percent) from one of the state’s fastest-growing programs, which provides care for low-income…
But the Service Employees International Union collects nearly $5 million a month from 223,000 caregivers who are members. And the Obama administration has told California that unless the $74 million in cuts are rescinded, it will deny the state $6.8 billion in stimulus money.
The Obama administration’s agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of “economic planning” and “social justice” that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, and incompetence to fail. The administration’s central activity — the political allocation of wealth and opportunity — is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.
Apparently the rules don’t count, if the end result is deemed sacred.
Obama’s Big Fat Fibbing Budget
Is the White House lying to the American public about the economy? Or, if not outright lying, is it being awfully stingy with the truth?
They see April’s lousy retail numbers and record foreclosure rate. They see unemployment at 8.9%, state tax revenues facing double-digit declines, and a 14% fall in home prices last quarter.
So how can National Economic Council boss Larry Summers, Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer or Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner still believe in a 7.9% unemployment rate and 3.2% GDP growth for 2010…
It isn’t that President Obama wants to mislead the public on the economy. He probably thinks he has no other choice. He has a hugely ambitious agenda that requires huge amounts of money and a hugely aggressive budget.
And by the summer, when the Office of Management and Budget revisits its budget assumptions, the Obama economic mess will be apparent to all.
Sure, it was a mess he inherited. But with his big, fat, fibbing budget, Obama is making that mess his very own.
If the economy does not start to recover, the budget fibs will be the least of our problems.
Across the private sector, workers are swallowing hard as their employers freeze salaries, cancel bonuses, and institute longer work days.
Call it a tale of two economies. Private-sector workers — unionized and nonunion alike — can largely see that without compromises they may be forced to join unemployment lines. Not so in the public sector.
The results of such efforts are evident in the rich rewards that public-sector employees now enjoy. A study in 2005 by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated that the average public-sector worker earned 46% more in salary and benefits than comparable private-sector workers.
But the real power of the public sector is showing through in this economic crisis. Some five million private-sector workers have lost their jobs in the last year alone, and their unemployment rate is above 9% according to the BLS. By contrast, public-sector employment has grown in virtually every month of the recession, and the jobless rate for government workers is a mere 2.8%. For anyone who thinks such low unemployment numbers are good news, remember that the bulging public sector must be paid for with revenues that most governments don’t currently have. This is one reason for a spate of state and local tax increases, such as $5 billion in tax increases New York state passed in April, and $12 billion in tax increases California’s legislature agreed to …
In the private sector such efforts will still be subject to the demands of the marketplace. Employers who are too generous with pay and benefits will be punished. In the public sector, however, more union members means more voters. And more voters means more dollars for political campaigns to elect sympathetic politicians who will enact higher taxes to foot the bill for the upward arc of government spending on workers. That will be the pattern for the indefinite future unless taxpayers find a way to roll back the enormous power public workers have acquired.
The disparity between public vs. private employees in compensation, benefits and job security has reached outrageous levels - life should be so good for all of us. Few are benefiting hugely at the expense of many.
There is a reason why private enterprise cannot match the compensation levels of public employees - they would be bankrupt. This issue is starting to get a lot of attention since the unsustainable cost of public sector employees is starting to bankrupt many state and local governments.
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