Welcome Instapundit Readers! While you’re here, you might want to engage in a little thought experiment I set up for Jan Schakowsky (the Illinois Democrat who called the tea parties “despicable” and “shameful.”)
Just days after signing a near-trillion dollar “stimulus” package further increasing a deficit he ran against, President Obama convened a Fiscal Responsibility Summit at the White House. On the day when more than a quarter-million people across the nation protested (among other things) his spending plans, anticipating that he’ll have to raise taxes to pay for them, he promises to simply our “monstrous tax code.”
Even as he proposes doubling if not trebling the national debt, he regularly speaks about being responsible stewards of tax dollars, calling his latest budget, which increases the national debt at a far faster pace than did his predecessor, “A New Era of Responsibility.”
He knows this idea resonates with the American people. Heck, I think he and his campaign team were aware that it resonated particularly well with rank-and-file Republicans (and recently ex-Republicans) unhappy with how Republicans they elected, expecting them to hold the line on federal spending, lost sight of that mandate.
No wonder he regularly decried then-President Bush’s spending habits during his campaign, proposing “throughout” his campaign “a net spending cut.”
Given the high percentage of Ron Paul supporters and other non-Republican libertarians at yesterday’s rallies, there’s clearly a large crowd of people the GOP could reach should it return to its Reaganite roots. We’re not there yet, not nearly so.
But, the President’s record (both in his successful campaign and once in office) as well as the turnout yesterday show that fiscal responsibility resonates. Unless the President acts in accordance with his words (and there’s no sign of that at present), expect this phenomenon to spread.
If the GOP wants to tap into this success, it only need put forward policies which respond to our discontent and which recognize why the President repeatedly references “responsibility” when discussing federal spending.
Funny how you’re suddenly against doubling the national debt. What’s the matter, it’s okay to double the national debt for wars and tax cuts to Bush’s richest thousand buddies, but doubling it to save the U.S. economy is a horror show? There’s a reason why the public has rejected your party, its leaders, and its circus that masquerades as a “philosophy.”
Give it a rest. Obama’s projected debt makes Bush’s deficits look like pocket change.
Do you even read up on the topics you spout about?
Um, terrible, don’t you know we criticized Bush for increasing domestic spending?
I think TerLef is just whistling in the dark.
Yes, Terrible leftist, to be frank I *DO* excuse increasing the debt for war. War is expensive. Every war we have ever fought has put us in debt.
But your assertion that the Bush tax cuts put us is debt is a bald faced lie. The Bush tax cuts dramatically INCREASED tax revenue, meaning the government was bringing in MORE money because of them, not less. Those tax cuts are responsible for paying down the debt, not increasing it.
Furthermore, to refresh everyone’s memory, and correct the record, Republicans deficits reached their peak in 2004, and had DECREASED substantially, thanks to the Bush tax cuts, every year since.
The CBO estimated that Republican budgets would have eliminated the deficit by next year (2010) and entered into SURPLUS thus paying DOWN the national debt thereafter.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a balanced budget ….Democrats got elected decrying corruption that they have now made look like child’s play, and “fiscal irresponsibility” a claim so ridiculous on its face, it ought to be a crime.
And when Democrats got elected the very first budget they wrote (FY 2008) TRIPLED the Republican deficit, which up until then had been decreasing every year.
Then, when Obama got elected, he and Democrats more than QUADRUPLED the deficit that Democrats had already tripled.
And finally, your laughable claim that Obama is quadrupling the debt to save our economy. Even the Democrat Congressional Budget Office says that’s a lie. They say Obama’s policies will HARM the economy, and in a long term way.
Yes, there is. A large majority of them wrongly believed that Republicans controlled congress the past two years. They wrongly believed that Republicans were in control of policy and budgets when we went into recession. Polls prove this.
But the fact is that when Republicans handed over control of congress, the economy was still growing at well over 3%, the deficit was on track to be eliminated, and it wasnt until Democrats had been in control for over a year that we went into recession.
But Americans are starting to recognize that the only change Obama has brought is by making eveyrthing Democrats have done to destroy the economy and destroy liberty far, FAR worse!
AE, I do believe I’m getting the vapors. Very well chronicled.
Obama approves $40 Billion to the auto industry and they declare bankrupcy anyway. It’s all lost. He signs a $700 Billion spending bill loaded with pork that he had promised he would veto. All worse than Bush. 60 days ago they said the job producing projects were “shovel ready”. So much for the hope, change and promises. In the midst of horrible news this week on housing, jobs the King and Queen were in the mansion with their new dog BOO. Obama said things were improving.Talk about out of touch. Obama is just a regular pol. He bamboozeled the addle minded. When you hear YES WE CAN what do you think of now? The Obamaphiles are mostly a single minded pack of boobs. They aren’t clear thinkers.
Well, looky here. a comment of mine from March 2006 where I beat Bush like one of Jackson Browne’s girlfriends on domestic spending. One of many critical Bush posts.
Sucks to be you, Terrified Leftist. Oh, and also, I found one of my comments that shows how full of crap you are vis-a-vis never criticizing Bush. It would suck to be you regardless.
The Most Expensive commodity we have in America is ignorance. (Rush Limbaugh)
Once people start realizing what this stimulus and budget will do, things will change. I just hope it won’t be too late.
Why do Republicans or conservatives always have to prove they ever disagreed with Bush or Reagan? To show we are balanced? When do liberals ever have to “prove” they disagreed with Carter or Clinton or Lenin? With 90% of the media hammering conservatives constantly, Republicans feel the need to say things like….”I dont’ agree with Limbaugh most of the time, or Sarah Palin, Obamas a great guy, ” yada yada. do you really think that gets you any credit with these leftists? They know they just got you to agree with them 10% of the time. When the hell do they ever agree with us 10% of the time? I dont’ give an inch to these morons who don’t think for themselves. A gay liberal, wow how unique. A gay, liberal, Democrat who hates corporations who employ people. Wow how special. I stress the great accomplishments of Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43. All were liberators of millions of people. Millions of Christians AND muslims as a matter of fact. All expanded freedom for mankind. You don’t have to apologize for any of these men.
Obamateleprompter triples the debt, then brags about how his projections will supposedly cut it in half in 9 years. (CBO disagrees)By then the national ongoing debt will hit $9 Trillion UP FROM $3 trillion. But the liberal sheep say wow look at him. He’s saving the economy. The liberals think they are so smart. You know inflation will skyrocket within 4 years. It has to happen. Carter had 12% inflation and 22% interest rates. Get ready baby. The only fun times in the future will be to hear liberals talk about the good ole days during the Bush years.
🙂 thanks PG
I almost forgot what I was originally going to say…
Obama’s rhetoric regarding the tax code should trouble everyone.
As usual with the president for whom deception is such an integral tool that he doesn’t trust himself to speak without a script, his weasel words require careful scrutiny to get at the truth.
And the problem Obama has with the complexity of the tax code, is NOT that it takes far too much time, effort and dollars to comply with, but that there are too many deductions for wealthy people at the very same time he proposed brand NEW “deductions” (handouts actually, but thats another post) for lower income earners.
In other words, right off the bat he is proposing making taxes MORE complicated for most Americans and disguising his monstrous tax increases on the rich and small businesses as “simplification”.
#8 V, good comment. And, for my part, I can’t believe I missed that thread. Oh well, I bashed Bush’s fiscal / domestic record plenty, elsewhere.
I pray you, how does spending ass loads of OPM save the US economy?
Mr. Obama is a psychopathic liar, but if you believe he’s more Clintonian in his parsing of words, then his ‘net spending cut’ would mean, Mr. Obama will raise the roof on spending for liberal causes but will impose a ‘net spending cut’ on defense related spending.
Once people start realizing what this stimulus and budget will do, things will change.
Bankruptcy will be a change, Dem kleptocracy won’t.
What’s the difference between Obama and Ali Baba? Ali Baba only had 40 thieves.
The lessons will be learned utlimately because even if there is a recovery from this trough coincident if not caused by all the stimulation it sets the next trough to be even deeper. The intentional re-inflation of home prices that EVERYONE agrees were bubble-high is a yet more towering stupidity than the CRA. The inflation will come. Dollar depriciation and price inflation is at least a tax that reaches everyone who holds greenbacks, even Tim Geithner. We just have to hold on collectively and publicly. The tea parties must continue and grow. The tea party sentiment must show some electoral cred. But opportunists like, in my opinion, Newt Gingrich, will try to turn it to their benefit. No one who is a global warmist should be allowed near a mic at one of these things, for instance. McCainism should be as reviled as Obamism to the extent they conflate, which is a lot. If there is a coherent message here it should be STOP! Legislators STOP what you are doing. Take a breath. LOOK at this stuff. Certainly that is as bi-partisan and simple a message as one could hope for. Once the train is at least slowed we can take some deliberative action. Or incation, but deliberative.
I’m getting tired of being accused of not protesting Bush’s deficits and expansion of government. We complained loudly. WHY DO YOU THINK HIS APPROVAL RATING WERE IN THE TANK? They couldn’t have been so low unless his own party was unhappy with him.
Whenever people on the left ask why I wasn’t concerned about the spending under Bush and why spend billions for the war, of course I answer that I was outraged at the excessive Bush spending but that the war costs while burdensome are sometimes necessary and has acheived a lot. I also point out that they must be missing some very important analytical skills if they don’t recognize now much larger $1.8 trillion is than $400 billion.
Then I ask them why, if they are so concerned about spending billions on the war, do they support a president that is on a war spending binge? Obama has not curtailed anything with regard to the Iraq war, and he is asking for huge additional funding for Afghanistan. Where is the outrage from the left? where are the protests? why has Code Pick abandoned protesting the ongoing wars and instead focusing on CEO’s?
of course no answer is needed because I already know the answer to all these questions. They’re hypocrits who put politics above all else.
The GOP party cannot be trusted. They’ll lie just like the democrats. Throw them all out. We need a new party.
Le’see, here…
Counting state legislatures and a few odd bureaucrats here and there, plus some five hundred and fifty-odd folks in D.C., there’s about ten thousand people in America telling three hundred million Americans how to live. If you don’t jump when they say “Boo!” those ten thousand people always find some way to punish the rest of us if we don’t toe the line.
This is freedom?
Is someone around here gonna buy a vowel and tell Vanna to turn over that last letter?
Why weren’t you guys in my blog list?
Well, you are now.
George Bush’s spending, while I did in fact decry it, in large part freed 50,000,000 people in the Middle East and Asia.
Barack Obama’s spending promises to enslave 300,000,000 in North America.
At some point folks like you are going to have to stop hating George Bush more than you love America, because the idea that you can somehow give a pass to Obama for ringing up 10 Trillion in debt because Bush rang up 5 is one you will eventually have to face your own conscience about. Bush is gone. Can’t be changed. Obama’s just getting started, and there’s still time to stop it. Get with the program. Pretty please.
Until then, please forgive those of us who think your plan for financial soundness lies in doubling the debt, which you were telling us was breaking us just a few months ago, is anything other than continuing BDS.
I wonder if anyone has previously discussed the “Political Class” of Americans who thrive on achieving the ability to control members of society (whether for good or bad) just for the “rush.” In California the Republicans sold out “the people” of the State by colluding with the Democrat Party. Obama (the epitomy) of the Political Class gave the apolitical intellectuals hope for change – and they bought it!!! Now, he continues to make statements that people want to believe merely because he presumes to be a “Black Man” and couldnt possibly behave like a “depraved white man.” Dont buy it for a second – he is going to rip off American just like any other member of the “Political Class.”
If there are any economists here, now is the time to have another look at what was written by J.M. Keynes. I have seen quite a few mention that Keynesian economics but none of them seem to really evaluate what Keynes actually did or wrote.
I mention this because I believe that Keynes never advocated what is being done by Obama. In fact according to Wikpedia Keynes advocated the opposite to what Bush was doing as well – in times of war there should be an increase in taxation to cover the war expenditure, rather than a reduction in taxes. It is legitimate to criticize Bush on this point.
However, this is not the point that is being made by the pseudo-intellectual elites who are canvassing the conservative blogs with their mumbo-jumbo talking points and lies, or half-truths if you prefer. A good example is the way in which the alleged Bush debt seems to be constantly rising, yet the figures and graphs that have been published do not agree with their talking points!!! It seems to me that the expenditure under GWB was very modest in comparison to the pork expenditure that has happened within a 2 month period under Obama.
I am certain that what is happening is the direct opposite of what Keynes had advocated as the best course of action in a downturn. For starters we were not heading towards depression, yet in the USA and in Australia the government leaders were making the ridiculous claim that if a stimulus package was not agreed then there would be a depression. It seems to me that they failed to look at the other side of the coin – that an increase of government spending by such a high magnitude will lead to further problems down the track – hyperinflation, stagflation and eventually extremely high levels of unemployment.
Jobs are being lost at both the high end and the lower end of the job market. We are fast losing our industrial capability. Industries are closing down because of union demands for better working conditions and that includes maternity and paternity leave.
There is a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money due to these government interventions. It should not matter which party has control, for if they are wasting taxpayers’ money then they should be called to account. However, in both countries I hear taxpayers getting upset because people are protesting the fact that there will be a little bonus payment that only goes to some, not all taxpayers. In the meantime there are many individuals who have lost their jobs and they have no services to help them through the tough times – this is what happens when services are means tested.
The colour of Obama’s skin is totally irrelevant. What is relevant is what he actually advocated that was hidden or wrapped up in newspeak so that the chattering classes did not understand and the elitist class could continue the subterfuge.
strait female love this site all my gay friends are conservative which might seem strange if you buy into the steriotype which I don`t, they are also soldiers and I thank God for them. How did we get to this point ?
It amazes me that conservatives are much less judgemental than the left. I fear the propaganda in the media is just getting started and I don`t know if it can be stopped.