Democrats in Spender-Land
While I’ve long been familiar, largely via Disney, but also through our popular culture, with Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I had never actually read the book. Having purchased it five years ago, I started reading it this past weekend, on George Eliot’s birthday to be exact.
This morning, shortly after learning that President-elect Obama will be proposing a stimulus plan (i.e. a vast increase in government spending) to jump-start the economy, I read about how Carroll’s fantastic monarch faced problems:
The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. “Off with his head! she said without even looking around.
Seems the Democrats are just like this impetuous but ultimately ineffective potentate. For every domestic difficulty, great or small, they favor increased government spending or regulation.
And like that inconsiderate queen, they don’t look around either, don’t bother to consider whether past spending increases have actually fixed the problems they were intended to solve.
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It is “Off with his head!”, if you think about it.
Who is “he”? (of “his”) It’s us. The taxpayers. The productive people. The golden geese. Damn the future, off with all of our heads.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — November 24, 2008 @ 4:39 pm - November 24, 2008
hmmm. what are the other options at this point? just looking to see if there are any other ideas?
Comment by rusty — November 24, 2008 @ 4:40 pm - November 24, 2008
Are you NUCKING FUTS?????
Obama isn’t even in office yet and you are BITCHING about HIS spending. WTF!!! Bush hasn’t grown government? Bush hasn’t spent us into oblivion… Oh god no – it’s the GODLESS DEMOCRATS
You people make me sick.
Comment by Kelly L — November 24, 2008 @ 4:57 pm - November 24, 2008
Rusty, a huge decrease in taxes accompanied by an equal decrease in spending would be a great idea. I can spend my money just fine on my own and that will provide just as much as a stimulus as my giving my money to the gubbement to spend. It would be nice to have the federal government get back to concentrating on the basics and not trying to solve every problem and right every wrong. I can think of only a handful of government programs that have been effective over the past thirty years or so. I say dump the ones that don’t work and reduce the overall tax burden.
Comment by Hunter — November 24, 2008 @ 5:16 pm - November 24, 2008
so Hunter, does that include the monies spent on Defense? and then Social Security, and the other Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP?
http://www.cbpp.org/4-14-08tax.htm
Yes there are monies being spent on silly things, cancel them, pay off the debt, and reduce our interest in foreign oil.
But how do we get there. . .
Comment by rusty — November 24, 2008 @ 5:28 pm - November 24, 2008
Isn’t a large increase in government spending the appropriate response in the face of a a looming recession/depression?
I don’t know how the GOP justifies its drunken-sailor spending spree of the last 12 years, nor Bush his last 8, but now that we’re starting the GOP’s Great Depression, isn’t the large spending, the large stimulus, the proper response?
BTW, I saw that the House GOP “rejected an effort to limit its members’ requests for special projects, or earmarks, in this case a short-term moratorium.” Wasn’t earmark reform a big part of GOP campaigning last cycle? Didn’t McCain promise to limit earmarks and magically balance the budget with this reform? Anyone?
Today’s GOP really doesn’t believe in anything, does it?
Comment by torrentprime — November 24, 2008 @ 5:28 pm - November 24, 2008
Gee, torrentprime, “[t]oday’s GOP…doesn’t believe in anything”? You don’t suppose…that might be why…so many of them got FIRED this year (and in previous years), do you?
The party’s various elected officials may have lost their conservatism, but the party’s voters seem to think if you’re going to have big-spending Democrats-lite, elect Democrats–who REALLY know how to spend.
Comment by Polly — November 24, 2008 @ 6:22 pm - November 24, 2008
Rusty, the only way we have a chance of getting there is to shut off the tap of tax money going to DC. The beginning of the end was passage of the Constitutional Amendment that allowed the income tax, and then the final nail in the coffin was when withholding started. Dump those two, and there might be a chance.
Comment by Hunter — November 24, 2008 @ 6:28 pm - November 24, 2008
Had the GOP held the line on spending and followed through on attempts to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a Democratic president-elect would not be proposing spending increases as the solution to a problem created, in large part, by unfettered government spending and unregulated government-sponsored enterprises.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — November 24, 2008 @ 6:32 pm - November 24, 2008
NO! Goverment spending is worthless. Roosevelt’s policies actually prolonged the Depression, making it a Great one.
The appropriate response is to get government the hell out of the economy, setting producers free to produce and capitalists free to capitalize. Repeal the last 80 years of regulation. Allow massive offshore and Alaska drilling. Stop deficit spending, stop wasteful government spending, stop the bailouts, slash taxes, let the failures fail, let the successes not only suceed, but take over. Move to a hard-money standard where government stops attacking people who save by its constant inflation of the currency. The prosperity would be unbelievable.
As it is, we are headed down a path – the path of ever-larger deficits and ever-larger inflation of the money supply; a path of Obama *increasing* the damage Bush did – that must ultimately result in inflation and the destruction of the dollar. We’ll be lucky if we escape with another Carter-Volcker era – i.e., double-digit inflation followed by double-digit interest rates to restore the dollar’s value. In the worst case, we’ll destroy our society in a banana-republic type of hyperinflation, under Obama-Bernanke’s path.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — November 24, 2008 @ 7:05 pm - November 24, 2008
I agree with the first part, not the second. The problem with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is not that they were unregulated – although I do admit that timely regulation around 2003 or 2005, as proposed by both Bush and McCain, would have helped the current situation. The problem, rather, is that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae existed at all. The very term, *government-sponsored enterprise*, is an oxymoron; any such “enterprise” can only lead to bad things. Even the U.S. Postal Service is inferior to its competitors, if you’ll notice.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — November 24, 2008 @ 7:10 pm - November 24, 2008
Obama isn’t even in office yet and you are BITCHING about HIS spending. WTF!!! Bush hasn’t grown government? Bush hasn’t spent us into oblivion… Oh god no – it’s the GODLESS DEMOCRATS
Obama has already promised to spend trillions more dollars than Bush ever did.
So is it government spending you’re against, or is it simply that you’re hypocritically attacking Bush for doing something that you fully support and endorse Obama doing?
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — November 24, 2008 @ 8:15 pm - November 24, 2008
Today’s GOP really doesn’t believe in anything, does it?
This, of course, coming from torrentprime, whose party and politicians demand tax increases for everyone else and then refuse to pay themselves.
But of course, this is the Democrat mentality at work: anything that Democrats do is right, anything that Republicans do is wrong. Even though Democrats adamantly oppose earmark reform, torrentprime supports and endorses that; he’s merely trying to cast about for an excuse to attack Republicans, no matter how hypocritical it makes him look.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — November 24, 2008 @ 8:18 pm - November 24, 2008
Today’s GOP really doesn’t believe in anything, does it?
I see the Democrat torrentprime is again trying to divert attention away from the behavior that Pelosi, Obama, Reid, and Dean support.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — November 24, 2008 @ 8:24 pm - November 24, 2008
Today’s GOP really doesn’t believe in anything, does it?
Speaking for myself, I am a registered Republican but my politics are conservative/libertarian.
You won’t find me defending Bush and the GOP Congress. Conservatism didn’t put us into the mess we’re in.
Comment by SoCalRobert — November 24, 2008 @ 10:45 pm - November 24, 2008
As Rush says, it’s not about the results. It’s the intentions that matter. These are the same folks who pass failing students because “at least they tried”. The very same people who don’t keep score at kids sporting events because losing “hurts their feelings”. Nevermind they don’t know how to deal with failure later in life when it counts.
You’re right. What’s a few trillion dollars more?
For one thing, suspension of the Cap. Gains for a year or two would do far more than what these pinheads are proposing. All manner of money could be invested. More average folks might be inclined to invest as well.
Another thing, we could quit telling Peru, Colombia and SoKo to go fuck themselves. Seems to me that if we really care about what the world thinks of us, we would have initiated trade with these countries long ago.
If we really cared about what other countries think of us, we would lower our corporate tax rate like Europe and other countries have done. This would allow for more investment from international companies.
The UAE doesn’t have to rely on taxation for revenues due to the oil wealth. We have trillions of barrels of oil lying around. Why do we have to rely on punishing Americans? Why do we export billions in cash when we could be importing it? Why are companies falling over each other to move to Singapore or Dubai and not here?
We need to get away from the liberal lie the business is evil. Business is what provides money and jobs. The Fan/Fred kerfuffle was way bigger than Enron, but nobody’s being raked over the coals like Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling.
We need to get away from people like Comrade Obama who run around telling everybody who will listent that America sucks ass. Self loathers should not be given the press they get. It’s not inspiring at all.
We need to let people decide what they want to do with regard to Socialist Stupidity. Bush’s proposal to allow people, if they wanted to, to decide what they wanted to do with their retirement has already been tried and has been successful. I think Sean Hannity in Deliver Us From Evil provided examples of how some city employees in Corpus Christi, TX (?) were able to opt out of Socialist Stupidity and invest on their own. They were able to retire with far more than what the government offered.
What’s the rate of return on Socialist Stupidity anyway? I think I read that it’s less that 1.25%. I could do better if I put that money into a savings account at the bank. Better yet, I could to better with a 401(K) or T-bills. Why not a DRIP with WalMart or Coca Cola? Why shouldn’t I be allowed to decide?
If we’re able to save ass loads of money for our retirement? Why would we need Medicare? There was a time when healthcare and retirment was the responsibility of the individual. Now it’s the responsibility of everybody else. You wouldn’t share your medical records with me, why would you share the bill? I think I should know what I’m paying for, no?
Let businesses and people do what they do best and quit punishing them for doing it.
I can go on, if you like.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — November 25, 2008 @ 2:52 am - November 25, 2008
Obama isn’t even in office yet and you are BITCHING about HIS spending. WTF!!! Bush hasn’t grown government? Bush hasn’t spent us into oblivion… Oh god no – it’s the GODLESS DEMOCRATS
When America entered a recession in early 1999, Democrats and the media referred to it as “the BUSH economy” from January of 2001 on forward. Even though it had started before he was even nominated, even though nothing he had ever done as Governor of Texas had had the sightest effect on the national economy in either direction. Major networks put “BUSH Economy” on placards over figures on interest rates and unemployment, declared economic catastrophes, went into paroxysms. All before he submitted his first budget.
Payback is, et cetera et cetera.
Payback is, et ce
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What I love most about TP’s comment is the clarity offered on the fact that TP is unequivocally an advocate of Giant Government. I believe a year or two ago, TP was still claiming to be a libertarian somehow.
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