2009 - America at the Abyss

Once again, the American system has won. When history writes about this period of time, it will talk about a fiscal calamity that opened the door to radical reformation of the American system of governance, and the subsequent failure of that reformation. It will talk about how the world financial system nearly collapsed. It will talk about a small cadre of extreme left wing activists with a charismatic front man following a basic leftist tenet: never let a crisis go to waste. It will talk about how close to the abyss the United States came to socialism and collectivism.

Seizing on the financial calamity of September, 2008, these folks lied to the American public, posing as political centrists. The press, enamored by a black presidential candidate who reinforced the press’s fundamental political belief, abdicated its responsibility of vetting, researching, and reporting. Instead, it deified the candidate. The press embraced a man with a political history of voting present on issues of consequence, with little national experience, no business experience, and who came from a background of affirmative action coupled with quota based scholarships and community organizing.

It was a brilliant move by the left wing plotters. Here was a man who was charismatic. Here was a man who was a brilliant orator. Here was a man who promised to transcend the divides of this country. His good looks and charm made it easy to overlook radical associations. He wanted to bring us together in a time of crisis....he said.

They didn’t pay attention when he said he was going to “spread the wealth around.” He meant what he said. When elected to office, he promptly turned economic policy over to those who were most likely responsible for the problem in the first place. Do whatever you want and spend whatever you want was the rule. Meanwhile, he and his left wing cabal moved to push through the takeover of 1/6th of the American economy…a government takeover of the American health care system. They almost succeeded.

Books upon books will be written about 2009. But not since the Vietnam War, where the right wing of the American political spectrum controlled American foreign policy, have I seen an American government completely ignore, and treat with disdain, the voice of the people. Obama, Pelosi and Reid head faked the public into voting for them promising moderation. What the public got was a radicalization of the political system backed by Chicago muscle.

While the members of Congress plotted behind closed doors, the public took to the streets; ignored by the press and demeaned by the political leadership. I won't forget the disdain for the American public exhibited by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. I won't forget how the Democratic congress followed these nut cases like cows with a cattle prod. Pelosi called the American public astro-turf. The protestors in the streets were called Nazis, and racists, bigots, and the obscene reference “tea-baggers.” Congressmen stopped meeting with constituents. Those that did ridiculed those who questioned them.

Legislation enacting these Draconian measures were passed at midnight on Saturday nights out of the public scrutiny. And in the worst piece of legislative chicanery I have ever seen, the Senate passed its version of health care on Christmas Eve, then quietly slinked out of Washington leaving only the echoes of their bribes and back door dealings between our political leaders and their friends.

But a Christmas Day near terrorist tragedy woke America up. The bloom was off the rose when a man with explosives strapped to his underwear nearly blew up a plane. Couple that with a down and dirty union tax deal hatched by Obama himself, in the White House, Americans finally began to ask in large numbers what is going on.

In a stunning reversal of fortune, Massachusetts halted the march toward socialism by sending a Republican to Washington to fill the Senate seat of Ted Kennedy. Scott Brown was elected to office on a platform built on defeating the legislation for which Ted Kennedy dedicated his entire political career. The disdain of the public for Obama’s double dealing health care strategy could not have been clearer.

So now we move to the future. Republicans shouldn’t be dancing in the streets. The problems facing our health care system are still there, and poised to get substantially worse as aging baby boomers enter into the Medicare system. Hopefully, moderate solutions can now be discussed in a civil manner and crafted true to our American values and our Constitution.

But 2009 will go down in history as the year almost lost our freedom to a bunch of far left whackos who honored their own ideology rather than the people. And for that, I am grateful.

Sleaze and Massachusetts

No matter how you slice or dice it, the election of Scott Brown to fill Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat marks a turning point in the political history of the United States. America is the big winner, and in many ways a big loser, in this landmark political event.

Why it happened is no big mystery. While Americans were grappling with the effects of the Great Recession, the political party and its leader elected in 2008 chose to promote an ideological agenda instead of a pragmatic economic agenda. Instead of dealing with an economy in shambles, Obama, Pelosi and Reid chose to go on an ideological spending spree (“we don’t need any more jobs for white construction workers”) and attempted to nationalize the health care industry. With a filibuster proof majority in both houses, it was time for fulfill the long time Democratic dream of nationalized health care. The rest of the country could wait.

The country would have survived, but what it couldn’t tolerate was the sleaze factor which grew geometrically over the past 4 months as the Democrats cut deal after deal with one special interest group after another, mostly those who were party supporters, at the expense of seniors and small business owners and their employees. We looked the other way with the payoff to Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. We bitched but tolerated the unprecedented bribe to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, pushing Nebraska’s Medicaid costs off on to the rest of the nation. We moaned when Florida was granted exemptions to allow it to maintain its Medicare Advantage program while eliminating it everywhere else.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the bribe to the unions, giving a tax exemption to union Cadillac health plans, while small business and the rest of us would have to pick up the slack. Let’s face it. The bulk of those exemptions were to go to government employees who were already making substantially more than the rest of us on the taxpayer dime, and the UAW who magnanimously gave up raises for 2 years, and the job bank, as part of an engineered bailout of the US auto industry. How many times do the rest of us have to pay for these people? At a cost of $60 billion, the sleaze even smelled in Boston.

If you look at the polls, the tide began to turn towards Scott Brown in December with the Louisiana and Nebraska deals…and completely turned with the union exemption deal. Sleaze is like pornography. You can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.

America is the loser specifically because health care needs to be reformed. Democratic uber liberal Congressman Anthony Weiner said it best when he commented that Congress needs to listen to the people, and devise a simpler plan that is easily understandable, and fair to everyone, not just Democratic special interest groups. Democrats AND Republicans should heed his words and look at health care reform anew.

America also loses because we elected Barack Obama who promised a centrist platform, a post partisan administration, transparency and accountability. Instead, he ran to his ultra liberal base, shut out all Republicans, closed the door to the press, and made some of the sleaziest deals I have seen in all my years of following politics. He should be ashamed of himself.

So normally Democratic Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states, once again strikes a chord for freedom from tyrannical government as it did in 1776. In the best of worlds, Obama would learn from his mistakes and move to the center. He would re-open the health care debate, this time being honest about costs and solutions instead of trying to fool both the people and special interests. In his drive for his vision of health care reform, he has managed to screw everyone but his basic core constituent groups. But don’t bet the rent. Ideologues rarely know when to fold them. America should not blink in this cold hearted game of ideological poker. Now we know what they are capable of.

The New Bank Tax

President Obama’s bio shows that he taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. That’s nice. And that would be the constitution of what country? Did you say the United States?

There is no doubt in my mind that large portions of the proposed Health Care Reform bill, notwithstanding whatever form comes out of Congress, will be declared unconstitutional. The Federal Government can do many things, but forcing people to buy a health care policy just because they were born doesn’t cut muster.

Likewise, forcing insurance companies to sell pre-approved government plans, and only those plans, smacks of National Socialism…that’s what Germany did. And let's not even talk about the preferential classes and states built into this thing. I can go on and on, but it is scary…and you should be afraid. If this monstrosity ever passes, it will tie up the courts for years, and go the way of the McCain/Feingold Campaign Reform Act...death by a thousand cuts.

Now Obama wants to tax the banks on outstanding liabilities to “punish” the banks for bad behavior. On its face, this type of legislation is unconstitutional. In normal capitalist societies, punishment is meted out by letting the bad-behaved entity fail, and go into bankruptcy. Both Bush and Obama didn’t let that happen. I disagree, but I understand why they did what they did, and how TARP was SUPPOSED to act. But as in all things government, it got perverted.

Politically, both parties will use this proposed $90 billion mea culpa to the public to satisfy the populist strain currently running through our society, and demanding revenge from the evil doers. Barney Frank gleefully said the money will go into the general fund to pay for the war in Afghanistan, and to increase social security disability. Just what we need, another increased entitlement. The Republicans, even though it’s against every fiber of their being to pass this sort of thing, will do it claiming it will reduce the deficit. Of course it will.

The banks aren’t saying a whole lot, but I am sure their lawyers are already at work challenging this “punishment tax” for participating in the TARP program whether they wanted to or not, and any first year law student will tell you the banks have nothing to worry about. Ex post facto punishment legislation is prohibited.

But it does make for good political theater. Unfortunately, the public will once again pay the price for political grandstanding in higher fees, higher interest rates, and abysmally tight lending standards. That translates into a stagnant economy, and permanently high unemployment, and staggering deficits.

I hope the members of Congress on both sides of the aisle believe the show is worth the price of admission that we will pay to watch.

We Are At War...Really?

Finally, after two weeks and several false starts with questionable speeches re: the Christmas Day crotch bomber, President Obama’s widely anticipated, promoted to be shocking, and continually delayed speech was given from the White House in front of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Here is the shocking news….President Obama says we are war!!!!! Really??? Where the hell has he been for the past year? We are in deep doo-doo if he is just now figuring that out.

Watching his metamorphosis from “isolated” extremist to war warrior has almost been funny. It reminds of that television show from a few years back Boy Meets World. Yes, there is evil in the world. But it also makes me wonder whether or not he is actually learning the lesson, or if this is just another act where he chokes over the words saying one thing, but does something completely different. Yes Mr. President! You lie!

Why are we surprised that terrorist activity is on the upswing?

1) He continues to harp about Gitmo. He is obsessive about it to the point of being dangerous.

2) He unleashed Attorney General Holder on CIA agents already cleared of wrong doing by an independent panel of investigators on that torture thing. You are surprised the “dots weren’t connected”? Hello!!!! CIA agents are afraid if they cross Obama’s Maginot sensibility line, they will go to jail.

3) Obama went around the world kissing everybody’s ass. Oh…if we could only just get along….what a wonderful world it would be. Surprise!!!

4) If he can’t even bring himself to say radical Islam…then there is a problem in defining the enemy. We are at war with whom, Mr. President.

5) One of his security chiefs was criticized for going skiing after the bombing attempt on Christmas. Of course, Obama stayed in Hawaii and played golf. It’s always good to lead by example.

6) He is going to try those bad Gitmo dudes in New York for the 9/11 massacre. Is he serious? Can you spell “car bomb?”

7) Rather than question the crotch bomber under perfectly legitimate means when the jerk was taken off the plane, Obama’s Justice Department reads this dude his Miranda rights and gets him a lawyer. I think that says it all.

I heard a commentator once say that when liberals are in charge of national security…people die. We had ten dead in Texas with the jihadist psychiatrist dude, and almost 300 on Christmas Day.

You know what the government response to this will ultimately be? Taking naked pictures of granny at the airport.

When will America wake up? How many people will have to die?