"We inherited ..."

I don't know about you, but President Obama's whining about inheriting a $1.3 Trillion deficit is getting to be quite boring and a real sign of the hollowness that resides inside the man. Somehow he manages to complain about the $1.3 Trillion while in the same breath he defends the almost $6 Trillion he will leave if a one-term president and $10 Trillion if we a two-termer.

New technology alert --- at last night's press conference, Obama upgraded to a jumbotron at the back of the room. Apparently he was sensitive to the accusations of over-reliance on the teleprompter.

Bonus Vengeance - Soviet Style

So, certain members of congress and the Obama Administration are a bit nervous that the pitchfork-wielding populists may decide to point their weapons at them. After all, it was members of congress (Chris Dodd comes to mind) and members of the administration (Turbo Tax Tim for instance) that explicitly sanctioned the now scandalous AIG bonuses. I cannot imagine why they would think that this was any of their fault.

So, what do they do? Deflect of course - the tried and true political rat maneuver. Stand atop the Capitol building and the Treasury building and point at anyone and everyone. Divert criticism with vigor and with a megaphone and with a teleprompter. Whatever it takes -- retribution at all costs. Evade responsibility, in this the Obama proclaimed New Era of Responsibility. Blame others. 

Yes, blame others even by violating contract laws and the constitution. Abrogate existing contracts that they themselves approved -- even if they were inserted in bills that they irresponsibly passed without reading. Pass a bastardize excise/income tax on an ex post facto basis. And, for good measure, punitively tax only a select few -- no need to be concerned with Bills of Attainder when you are trying to save your own skin.

Joining the chorus of the usual suspects of Democrats supporting this Moscow-style action was a group of Republicans that is demonstrating their own lack of principles and respect for law and free markets.

Obama was off in Hollywood having fun on the Leno show getting into trouble for his total ineptness when not accompanied by his trusty teleprompter. Even Jimmy Carter's "malaise speeches" are starting to sound refreshing right about now. Good grief.

Change.

The Mission

For Barack Obama, social re-engineering through government control of the commanding heights of America's economy (1970s British socialism) is apparently his presidential mission. 

Income redistribution, pointed-finger harangues against "greedy capitalists", and demagoguery on the health care issue are part of his strategic design to incite class warfare and endear himself to the masses by making them forever dependent on his largesse (using our money of course). 

Rising tax rates has been the traditional way to redistribute income -- it lowers after-tax income. Not content with that, the recent limit on executive pay for certain private companies is a ploy to redistribute by controlling pre-tax income.

President Obama cares more about his mission than he does economic prosperity. He cares more about changing how the pie is sliced than he cares about the size of the pie. 

Alas, equal poverty is nobler than unequal prosperity. 

Change.

Squashing Possibilities of a Recovery

It has been said that the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. So is the case for the Obama administration's fervor to recklessly and savagely super-size the role of the federal government. 

Barack Obama delivered a huge spending bill thinly disguised as a stimulus package aimed at favoring run-of-the-mill democratic hand-outs. Now comes a budget filled with pork and candy for the same and more democratic interest groups. 

Our economic house is on fire and the Teleprompter Reader-in-Chief dedicates time to conjuring ways to spend more money on health care for the planet and controlling the global warming effects of sheep belches and cow flatulents.

Obama casually shrugs off plummeting stock markets as merely "day-to-day gyrations of the markets, similar to political tracking polls". Mr President, these are the life savings of Americans you are callously dismissing.

To counteract massive deficits we will doubtlessly incur massive tax increases. It will be touted by Barack Obama as a "I have no choice but to ..." type of decision. Then he will have succeeded in his grand plan of crowding out the private sector in favor of his beloved government sector. 

In truth, government can only spend money when by first taking it from someone else, either via debt or tax. If foreign debt, then other sovereigns will have a greater say in our country's affairs. If debt from American citizens, then that is money that cannot be loaned or invested in private business. If taxed, then that is the government's way of saying: "Hey you idiot, I know you earned the money but we, the government knows how to best spend it." We, the people, are at grave risk.

Mr Obama just last week, in a rare non-teleprompter moment, said that now may be a good time to buy stocks because the "profit-earnings ratio is good." That ratio does not exist in the finance world and only provided insight into his deep cluelessness. By the way, without a teleprompter all we hear is a series of "aaahhhhhhs".

The President is more concerned with a socialist, government-grab agenda than he is the prosperity of the country. Americans will catch on because they are smarter.

The Role of Government: Competing Ideologies

In January 1981, the United States was facing an inflation rate higher than today's; higher unemployment rate than today's; higher interest rates than today's; higher marginal tax rates than we have today; lower productivity than we experience today and lower GDP growth. Confronting that situation, Ronald Reagan said the following in his Inaugural Address:

The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.

From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

On February 9, 2009, addressing our present economic crisis, Barack Obama pronounced the following:

It is absolutely true that we can't depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs. And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that's moving through Congress is designed to do.

Mr Obama could have instead responded to the weakened state of the private sector (debilitated largely due to government's intrusion into the marketplace) by stating that it will be the aim of his administration to refortify the private sector by cutting taxes and reducing government spending. But that would require Obama to trust individuals more than government. He does not. Reagan did.

Government by it's very nature injects politics into decision-making -- almost all acts and decisions have heavy doses of political calculation. Economic and financial problems require economic and financial solutions, not ones laden with political ploys. Hyping the crisis by loudly proclaiming that doom will befall us if we do not accept whatever Obama and Congress cook up is a sinister way to push through a political agenda that has little effect on the crisis itself, except to worsen it and therefore give rise to another round of socialist measures.

The excesses of government and politics have damaged us enough already. The Obama/Pelosi/Reid team is government on steroids. Political excesses can only lead to abuse and a loss of liberty, think of the madness of the French Revolution. Think of other instances when governments leeches on to a crisis as a power-grab excuse.

In his January 1996 State of the Union Address, President Bill Clinton announced that "the era of big government is over." I think of Mark Twain's rejoinder: "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

Watchtower Beams - The Week in Review

The Obama/Pelosi/Reid Political Spending Plan was approved by Congress and is due to be signed tomorrow. Contrary to what Mr Obama promised the bill had no transparency and no bipartisanship. However, it did have plenty of pork. Worst of all, this bill will not stimulate the economy, but it will gladden the hearts of the liberals.

Transparency is a term to be despised given its mindless overuse. But it was what Obama promised. He did not deliver. I do not think that one member of congress read the entire bill nor did anyone else. It was released after midnight on Thursday. The Bill was certainly not posted on a website for all to see, as promised. I guess it was simply too much of an emergency to approve 2011 spending programs. "If we do not approve these spending programs that will take effect beyond 2010 by next week, the economy will fall into the Greatest Depression."

Mr Obama's definition of bipartisanship appears to be having a 30 minute chat with Republicans and then expect them to go along with 95% of whatever Pelosi and Reid say. "We extended our hand and they just want to do the same ol' stuff of the past eight years. As Democrats, we have very good, fresh ideas from the 1930s on how to wreck an economy."

"This Stimulus Plan has no ear marks nor pet projects nor pork." It has loads of it. It is dripping with the sweet fat that falls from the ribs. 

This Bill was designed to "correct the mistakes from the awful Bush years" -- it was not meant to stimulate anything but the liberal base. This was 98% a political bill and 2% economic. However, by sending checks to so many who never paid income taxes, the Democrats figure to have bought sufficient votes to control national politics. Class warfare, baby -- it is as simple and disgusting as that. 

President Obama holds a press conference that is not a press conference. He is boring and a bit pedantic. His reply to a crisp 20 second question is a 13 minute weave through bits and pieces of his limited knowledge of the economy that makes re-runs of The Weather Channel appear interesting by comparison. He has thin skin when challenged to address the merits of his Plan on purely economic terms. That's because the Plan has a political, not an economic, rationale. Remember the "spread the wealth" off the cuff comment -- that is the plan.

Team Obama pre-selects questioners, has a seating chart, but apparently Obama can't read it because he calls out: "Where's Chuck? Where are you Chucky? Major? Major? Your turn Major." Good grief! What's next, Michelle Obama asking a question?: "Okay, let's see, who's next? Michelle? Is that you Michelle? Go ahead, ask a question."

Then we have Turbo Tax Tim Geithner and his much awaited presentation of TARP II, or whatever it is called these days. This is the man who members of congress thought we should look beyond his tax-cheating ways because only he had the brain, skills and ideas to save our economy. Well, he had no details other than "details will follow" and the guy came across as if he had only seen the outline for the bank plan for the first time that morning. I'm beginning to think I was wrong -- he did not stiff the IRS maliciously, he really may have been too stupid to properly understand the tax code. We're in worse shape than I thought. As Biden said (when ominously warning of an attack within the first six months of an Obama administration): "Gird your loins."

We now come to the politics of the 2010 Census. Historically under the control of the Secretary of Commerce, Obama wants to have the White House, Rahm Emanuel to be specific, have functional control of this. This would be totally consistent with all the other ploys and tactics contained in the Stimulus Bill with the sole purpose of garnering political power for the coming years. Republican Senator Judd Gregg was nominated for Secretary of Commerce and he correctly un-nominated himself upon seeing the sly tricks up the White House sleeves. Remember that Governor Bill Richardson was originally nominated for this cabinet post but he had "pay for play" scandal issues to deal with. So, who will be Commerce Secretary? "Chuck, where's Chuck? Howard? Where's Howard? Gimme Howard Dean."

Meanwhile, we travel further along the Road to Serfdom.

Change.

Only in D.C.

A tribunal organized by a gang of politicians excoriating bank CEOs for fiscal irresponsibility and general insensitivity to public opinion? Has congress not seen their dismal job approval numbers and the deficit heaved upon Americans?

This is truly the height of hypocrisy and shamelessness. Another step in the direction of socialism -- to demonize all corporate executives. They are all villains. Their decision-making authority should be replaced by the business wizards that roam through the halls of our capitol.