Who has the “tired” old ideas, Mr. President?
Just before setting off for San Francisco, I skimmed Peter Wehner’s piece in Commentary where he probed something other conservative pundits and bloggers (including yours truly) have observed, the contrast between the President’s description of himself and his actual record–and even rhetoric.
Obama, as Wehner puts it, portrays
. . . himself as America’s philosopher-king, the person standing not only above country but above politics itself [who is] uniquely able to transcend old, tired, and rutted debates, to think anew, and to bring a fresh, creative approach to the problems of our time.
Yet, the Democrat repeatedly dismisses Republicans as offering only “tired,” “worn” and “old” ideas, often misrepresenting those ideas by reducing the range of GOP proposals to tax cuts:
You got a problem with health care: tax cuts. You got problem with education: tax cuts. You got a problem with the economy: tax cuts. Poverty: tax cuts. That’s not a policy, it’s a dogma, a tired and cynical philosophy.
At the same time, he offers ideas which are little more than the recycled liberalism of the past three-quarters of a century or so–increase government spending and federal regulation. So, we could paraphrase Obama to criticize his own record in office:
You got a problem with health care: more government spending & increased regulation. You got problem with education: more government spending & increased regulation. You got a problem with the economy: more government spending & increased regulation. Poverty: more government spending & increased regulation. That’s not a policy, it’s a dogma, a tired and cynical philosophy.
And in each case where he proposes a solution, he’s adopting a policy which has been tried before, either here or abroad–and has failed.
Yes, his predecessor did propose tax cuts without corresponding cuts in federal domestic expenditures, but other Republicans, including his 2008 rival for the White House, have proposed far more comprehensive policies.
If he were truly the transcendent politician he claims to be, he would regularly do (as he has done on occasion) and acknowledge that conservatives have put forward such policies and criticize their proposals on the merits. He also should address the failures of past policies similar to his own and demonstrate how he has adapted these ideas to contemporary circumstances, so as to guarantee their success this time around.
Right now, all we see is the same tired, old statist solutions.
It would be nice if the president based his proposals on policies which actually succeeded.
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Tax Cuts for the Rich
No-Bid Contracts for Halliburton
God Hates Queers … and Liberals
Torture
Tax Cuts for the Rich
“W”a(R)
No-Bid Contracts for Halliburton
God Hates Queers … and Liberals
Torture
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Religious Based Science
No-Bid Contracts for Halliburton
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Cronyism
God Hates Queers … and Liberals
Torture
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Politicize the Dept of Justice
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Comment by Snerd Gronk — July 7, 2009 @ 3:16 am - July 7, 2009
Supporting Pedophile Sex
Welfare Cheats
Illegal Immigrant Criminals Receiving Welfare
Tax Cheats like Tim Geithner
Corruption and Spending
Illegal Campaign Contributions
Supporting Brutal Leftist Dictatorships
Lying About Taxes
Staging Press Conferences
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — July 7, 2009 @ 3:37 am - July 7, 2009
Come on there North …
Isn’t that, “Supporting Pedophile Sex with Dead Fetuses”
And “He’s a secret Muslim with a radical Christian pastor”
Or, “He wants to destroy America”
Or, “Because he wants to negotiate with enemies as opposed to friends, he supports One World Government”
Or the one I like best, “The census is Obama’s first step in Concentration Camp for (R)z”, when no man on earth could destroy the (R)z better than they are doin’ themselves
Snerd
Comment by Snerd Gronk — July 7, 2009 @ 3:45 am - July 7, 2009
Oh, look, the braindead cultist brought out his strawman. Isn’t it cute when a lefty can’t win a real argument against real ideas, they have to allege a bunch of bullsh-t?
Kind of like what Chairman Zero does every day.
Comment by V the K — July 7, 2009 @ 4:59 am - July 7, 2009
I can’t decide who’s a bigger buffoon, Chairman Obama or Snerd.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — July 7, 2009 @ 5:11 am - July 7, 2009
Speaking of tired old ideas, the Teleprompter Messiah went over to Moscow to agree to cutback our nuclear weapons arsenal. Whoa, Nelly! What a cutting edge idea. 1982 is so impressed!
Comment by V the K — July 7, 2009 @ 5:29 am - July 7, 2009
TGC, what you don’t realize is that among the left, Snerd is considered a genius. His fragmented, semi-coherent sentences are pretty much standard, but the way he symbolizes republicans by putting an R in parentheses with a z after it is a staggering work of unimaginable genius! I mean… wow… how can you not see the towering intellectual genius of symbolizing republicans by putting an R in parentheses with a z after it! This brilliant gambit of symbolizing republicans by putting an R in parentheses with a z after it is to blog-trolling what Andy Kaufman was to comedy! How dare you ask the intellectual Superman who invented the whole concept of symbolizing republicans by putting an R in parentheses with a z after it to construct coherent, intelligent arguments. You might as well tell Jackson Pollack to stay in the lines or David Lynch to put a cohesive narrative structure in his movies, you low-brow cretin.
Symbolizing republicans by putting an R in parentheses with a z after it … gentlemen, we are the presence of unique and radiant intellect here.
Comment by V the K — July 7, 2009 @ 7:05 am - July 7, 2009
BTW, I may have been a little sarcastic in my last comment.
Comment by V the K — July 7, 2009 @ 7:06 am - July 7, 2009
#6 V the K, not only cutting our nuclear arsenal but our defense systems as well. It’s all the same to “THAT ONE”.
Comment by EDinTampa — July 7, 2009 @ 8:14 am - July 7, 2009
community organizer
baby got back
yaoh yaoh
chicago corruption
rev wright
more taxes
community organizer
major blago
sen burriss
tax cheats richardson
tax cheats sebelius
boob biden
unemployment won’t go above 8%
record 7 million unemployed
jimmy carter II
biden moron
pork bill
reid dummy
no one above 250k will pay one thin dime more in taxes
92 cent increase in cig taxes
polls tanking
now more ppl strongly disapprove than approve of Obama
can’t speak without a teleprompter
orders coffee with a teleprompter
baby got back
yaoh
(hey this is fun)
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — July 7, 2009 @ 9:18 am - July 7, 2009
Snerd is onto something. ACORN has replaced Hallibuton in the no-bid contract world. Since there is no God, how can “he” hate anyone? Torture comes in many forms, such as appearing endlessly on TV to pitch healthcare or Crap and Tax. Science by consensus is an act of faith and global warming is a religion. Putting your pals in position of power is not cronyism if you don’t hang out with them. So long as the Justice Department toes the line, it is not politicized. If you tax the crap out of the rich, you fight recession and get right to the bottom line: depression. Why go half way?
Diplomacy with your enemy works every time it is tried; ask Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Saddam, the Iran nuthouse, Mao, Kim, Hirohito, Chavez, Castro, Mugabe, Pol Pot, Hoh, the boys of Burma, half of Africa and the American left.
Comment by heliotrope — July 7, 2009 @ 9:25 am - July 7, 2009
Oh I forgot:
no jobs
no jobs
no jobs
no jobs
no jobs
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — July 7, 2009 @ 9:26 am - July 7, 2009
Well we’ve spent how much on the war on poverty? The tired old plans of LBJ have lost and it’s time we redeployed out of Chicago, Detroit and Dearbornistan.
Comment by The Livewire — July 7, 2009 @ 10:45 am - July 7, 2009
We’ve tried big government more often than tax cuts. Try to imagine how many times we’ve had a true conservative as President over the last 100 years, and compare that to the number of times we’ve had true liberals… there are bunch of moderates in there, but several times more liberals than conservatives. Let’s go back to the tax cut approach again- that seems to work better than big government.
Comment by A Conservative Teacher — July 7, 2009 @ 10:47 am - July 7, 2009
The Evidence Is In…
there is no wondering what “Change” means . . . Anyone in this country that still is uncertain after six months about the political philosophy of Barrack Obama is someone who is totally and completely clueless. Pause for a moment and think about everyt…
Trackback by NebraskaPatriot — July 7, 2009 @ 10:50 am - July 7, 2009
SOMEONE (make the EVERYONE) forgets that Our FIRST Black President, Bill Clinton, also let no-bid contracts to Haliburton.
I’m not sure what it is that Haliburton does so well that no one else is even considered, but I’m sure we’ll find out if The O ever decides to have it (whatever “it” is) performed (unless, of course, He decides ACORN can do “it” better).
I’m not quite sure why The Left has glommed onto that one, big time; it would almost seem to be a non-starter.
Comment by Polly — July 7, 2009 @ 10:52 am - July 7, 2009
Now why would you give a tax cut to those that hire people and are the producers in America?
Liberal Democrats want to give tax cuts to the losers who don’t pay any taxes. duhh that will create a lot of jobs. Boobs. So how’s that working out for ya?
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — July 7, 2009 @ 2:31 pm - July 7, 2009
Well, Haliburton is an American company. The next runner up would be Schlumberger which is French. Then there’s a Canadian company whose name eludes me at the moment. Long story short, I honestly believe that if Haliburton didn’t get the contracts, liberals would have bitched that the jobs were outsourced.
What’s more, Haliburton has been a government contractor for 50+ years.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — July 7, 2009 @ 4:03 pm - July 7, 2009
I sincerely do not understand you people. No republican I can think of has ever done one thing for gay people really (because if they wanted to, they can’t get buy-in from the party). I am a Vietnam Veteran and a liberal. If you voted for George Bush, you need to buy a mirror and look up self-hate. You people truly are Jews for Hitler. Pathetic bunch of morons.
Comment by Vietvet — July 7, 2009 @ 4:55 pm - July 7, 2009
The appalling ignorance and prejudice and racism on this site is appalling. Bet you motherfuckers are all CHRISTIANS, too. Disgusting people.
Comment by Vietvet — July 7, 2009 @ 5:01 pm - July 7, 2009
TGC you are trying to locically explain and teach something to people who don’t want to learn. They want to attack.
It would be the equivilent to liberal Democrats whinning about ….”why is it that NASA always gets the contracts to fly in space and go to the moon. Huh? Why? How come? It’s because it’s a Republican company huh?”
Hard to argue and educate a bunch of boobs and morons who’s only information has come from the public education system. Tragic.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — July 7, 2009 @ 5:02 pm - July 7, 2009
Snerd,
You know your ideology is wrong when you cant even portray your opponents views accurately but have to lie and misrepresent them instead.
what you call “tax cuts for the rich” were tax cuts for EVERYONE that paid income tax, including removing 6 million low income tax payers from the tax rolls altogether. People who paid the least taxes got proportionally larger tax cuts than the wealthy, so if anything, they were tax cuts unfairly weighted towards the poor.
Halliburton got no-bid contracts all throughout the Clinton administration as well, precisely because they are the ONLY company in the world capable of doing many of the things we need done. When your list of qualified candidates only includes one name, there is no point asking for bids that wont come.
The ONLY people I know who say “God Hates Queers” are Democrat Fred Phelps and his family who fund-raised for both Gore and Clinton, attended both Clinton inaugurations and ran for Governor as a Democrat and got over 30% of the Democrat base’s vote.
Nobody in the Bush administration advocated torture. Liberals are just such flaming pussies that they have redefined the meaning of the word torture to the point that it is now meaningless.
“W”a(R) LOL. A (R) Republican war that the vast majority of Democrats voted for in both houses of congress.
Yes, Republicans supported the war, and still do. A rogue dictator, monstrous tyrant, and enemy of his own people is dead and gone and is replaced by a free and democratic state that is an ally of the United States. Obama has already started trying to take credit for it, and Democrats will increasingly try to align themselves with the war again as time goes on and it becomes increasingly clear that Iraq is a great success.
“Religious Based Science” LOL. No, you mistake science restrained by ETHICS for religious based science. You see, its not that Republicans hate science, as so many other liberals put it, its that Liberals LOATHE ethics.
Pretty funny coming from those who cling to anthropogenic global warming AS their religion DESPITE the enormous body of evidence against it.
And pretty laughable coming from Democrats who just were caught suppressing a scientific report by a career scientist at EPA because it contradicted their political agenda.
You are a fool.
Comment by American Elephant — July 7, 2009 @ 5:03 pm - July 7, 2009
Ace reveals the template for every foreign Obama speech.
Comment by V the K — July 7, 2009 @ 7:20 pm - July 7, 2009
viet vet, you must be new.
This blog is full of free thinking, smart, conservatives, most of us gay.
We do not belong to the Democrat plantation. Our conservative values reach much farther than our own sexuality. We are concerned about freedom, country, family, economics and tradition. Why in the world would we support any political class that only gives lip service to ” gay rights” while undermining all of our other values?
Your description in #18 with a few words changed could pertain to blacks in the Democrat party.
And #19 is just sheer religious hatred.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — July 7, 2009 @ 9:09 pm - July 7, 2009
VietVet,
#1 Thanks for your service. You won’t get that from your fellow liberals who shat all over you and your pards when you got home.
#2 You’re a frickin’ idiot. The left has shown their homophobia via legislation too many times.
#3 “You people truly are Jews for Hitler.” Originality’s not one of your strong suits, is it? And what of those gay liberals that have had it with Chairman Obama (who consorts with homophobic bigots)? Are they “Jews for Hitler” too?
#4 “Bet you motherfuckers are all CHRISTIANS, too.” Well obviously I don’t have relations with my mother, but I am a Christian. I’m guessing you do and you aren’t.
#5 If anyone’s a prejudiced bigot around here, it’s you as proven by your comments. Take your hate elsewhere and save it for the book burning, Adolf.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — July 8, 2009 @ 4:25 am - July 8, 2009
During the campaign, people who said Obama was a socialist were ridiculed as paranoid, and the notion that his administration would nationalize industries and impose draconian regulations on people’s lives was dismissed as absurd.
Yet, under his Crap and Trade bill, the government has the authority to energy audit every private home in America.
Comment by V the K — July 8, 2009 @ 1:42 pm - July 8, 2009
It occurs to me there is at least one significant difference between the “tired dogma” of tax cuts and the “tired dogma” of spend and regulate.
Tax cuts actually work.
Comment by V the K — July 8, 2009 @ 6:12 pm - July 8, 2009