A Very Sad Day for America

Walter Pruden writing in The Washington Times:

[The Barack Obama Administration] has closed Washington down as tight as [they] dare, emphasizing the trivial and the petty in making life as inconvenient as he can for the greatest number. It’s all in a noble cause, of course. Access to most of the memorials is limited, and often in curious ways. The Lincoln Memorial is easy to reach, with the streets around it remaining open. But the Martin Luther King Memorial is made difficult to reach, relegating it, you might say, to the back of the bus. Not very nice. 

The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. 

It is important to note that NONE of this was ever done during any of earlier government shutdowns.  No previous President ever wasted the hundreds of thousands of dollars it has taken to inflict this personal pain on the American citizens.

Mike Flynn, writing for FOX NEWS:

Just before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was "closed" due to the shutdown. Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown.

The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban. Of access to an ocean. The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business.

This is governing by temper-tantrum. It is on par with the government's ham-fisted attempts to close the DC WWII Memorial, an open-air public monument that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. By accessible I mean, you walk up to it. When you have finished reflecting, you then walk away from it.

At least that Memorial is an actual structure, with some kind of perimeter that can be fenced off. Florida Bay is the ocean. How, pray tell, do you "close" 1,100 square miles of ocean? Why would one even need to do so? 

This is not, most assuredly, the America I grew up in. America has become a divided country filled with hate, vindictiveness and envy. People no longer help one another. They look for the advantage, the opportunity to profit from other's loss, to win at any cost. 

I'm not talking about big corporations here, although they can be greedy, too.  I'm talking about people, citizens, individuals.  People putting politics above morality.  People no longer loyal to each other, to their communities and their country, but loyal only to their political party, their so called leader.

It is the kind of personal animosity, hatred of those who might believe differently from you, that has driven the middle east into constant, centuries old conflict. Northern Ireland suffers from the same mindless hatred. Serbia, the list goes on.

How much of this petty vindictiveness comes right from the personal instructions of Barack Obama and how much comes from "the folks" who think they are doing what he would want I can't say.  But I do know Barack Obama could stop it instantly if he wanted.  Clearly he wants divide, class envy, pettiness and hatred. 

If the Republicans are the cause of the shutdown (and that can be argued), President Obama is certainly responsible for this temper tantrum of implementation, as he is for similar acts during the sequestration. This is a sad day indeed.  I pray our next President will actually work to bring this country back together.

You Want the Slow Death or the Quick Death?

"...we are now seeing weekly examples of this Administration’s inability to govern."
                                                                     ---Joe Klein From the article
                                                            ObamaCare Incompetence
                                                            Time Magazine, April 2, 2013

Is Barack Obama the worst President in History? Of course not. There are numerous examples of more dishonest Presidents and more incompetent Presidents.  None-the-less it is President Obama who is doing the most damage to this country and who just might bring our current era to an abrupt and very unpleasant end.

It is the perfect storm where the government's gross incompetence, the President's massive ego and faltering world economy all meet at once.

I've outlined in numerous articles including the one just a few days ago that the massive debt and continuing deficit spending will destroy both the government and our nation's economy in just a few years.  That's the slow death.

The quick death is coming courtesy of ObamaCare, The Affordable Care Act, the worst single piece of legislation in the history of government.  It was poorly conceived and horribly written with mercurial attention to a thousand details but no understanding of how today's medical industry actually works.  It was written in the back rooms by bureaucrats mostly under the influence of special interest groups and industry lobbyists   It was passed by a Congress where not one member ever read the 1,900 page bill and I believe that NONE have read it to this very day.

If you support UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, as I do, you have to be terrified of this act which will accomplish just the opposite.

It will abruptly increase the out-of-pocket cost of medical care for virtually every person, reduce the number of people receiving care, bankrupt large portions of the medical industry, drive up costs and explode the national deficit.

You will not be able to keep either your current insurance (it will no longer exist) or your doctor, who will likely retire or be stretched so thin he or she will rarely see patients.  Most care will fall to Nurse Practitioners, or Registered Nurses of other less well trained members of the medical establishment.

Hospitals will become overcrowded ad under financed.  Some clinics will close. Others will be forced to operate on a cash only basis, refusing to take insurance.

It's going to get very ugly in a matter of months.  Read DEMOCRAT Joe Klein's Time Magazine article, ObamaCare Incompetence, to start. It's short and it's scary.  And it's the tip of the iceberg.

A Cautionary Tale: Detroit on the Verge of Bankruptcy

If you've got 5 minutes and 41 seconds I'll scare the heck out of you.

I realize it's Easter and Passover, not Halloween, but NPR put this horror story on the air Thursday anyway. Click it if you dare.

>>>> Bad Bets, Costly Promises Put Detroit On The Brink Of Bankruptcy <<<<

Of course this story is a tragedy.  A great city has fallen onto despair and large portions of the city are in ruin.  

But what's really frightening how many times the city leaders, mayor, city council and city fathers were warned of this apocalypse and how they always turned a deaf ear.  They steadfastly ignored the crisis and did absolutely nothing to prevent it.

FROM THE TRANSCRIPT:

HULETT: ...Joe Harris spent a decade as Detroit's auditor general. Shortly before he quit in 2005, he asked an outside consultant to look at the city's pension and retiree costs. 

 JOE HARRIS: This is his presentation to the council. 

 HULETT: The consultant's report was a shocker. It said the city was looking at more than $7 billion in retiree health care and fringe benefit costs it had not projected, let alone budgeted for. Seven billion dollars, seven times the city's annual operating budget. So, what was the response to this bombshell of a report? 

HARRIS: There was no response. There was no follow-up. There was no concern. There was no - not only by the council, there was no response by the administration either.

That's the trouble with government.  They always put off the tough decisions.  They don't listen. They never react. They deny there is a disaster and always proclaim that even IF a disaster is coming it's always dozens of years away.  They'll be plenty of time to fix the problem..... tomorrow.

This is, of course, what President Obama and the Democrats are doing today in Washington.  President Obama is kinda, sorta, maybe confident that the oncoming debt disaster won't happen until after he is out of office.  So he's ginning up the denial machine of loyal party legislators and pundits to echo his "do absolutely nothing" position. 

His position is all the more curious because only a few short years ago (before he was President) he and his fellow Democrats saw the disaster clearly and DEMANDED President Bush take instantaneous action!  In fact, Senator Obama and every single Democrat VOTED AGAINST RAISING THE DEBT CEILING.  

Of course Republicans all voted to raise the debt ceiling when George Bush was President but now that Barack Obama is President, they're all against it.

Politics rule, reality takes a back seat.  But the downfall is coming and all America is about to face a crisis that makes the current Detroit disaster look like.... an old fashioned Halloween horror story.

Empty Words

Happy Holidays! Here's President Obama's Gift to You

You Owe $51,252.21.  That is your personal share of the National Debt.  If you have a son or daughter, they each owe the exact same amount.

As a Nation we owe $16,353,231,308,750.00 at this second.  By the time you read this it will be more.

Tomorrow, we all will owe more.

When President Obama and his family return from their taxpayer paid $4 million vacation to Hawaii we all will owe more.

Leadership in Washington, D.C. does not exist today.

Sloganeering While America Burns

"The Republicans and Democrats should get in a room until they fix it. Instead, they seem to be sloganeering at each other.... And it's not helpful. And it's really, I think, starting to wear on the American people. It's time for them to stand up, and go in, and be adults and fix the problem."

"[President Obama], you're elected executive to lead. And I think it's incumbent on the president to put the plan out there. You cannot wait for members of a legislative body to lead. The executive has an obligation to lead."

---- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

Political Parties Are Our Biggest Enemy

I'll admit that Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is an idiot, but that is quite beside the point. Still, by making one of the most absurd speeches on record, she illustrates just how totally dysfunctional our two party system has become.

Jackson Lee said: "I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, only this one — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one."

Then Jackson Lee decided to jump completely off the cliff: "Read between the lines. What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"

Here is EXACTLY WHY Jackson Lee is wrong. During the last (ultimately successful) attempt to raise the dept ceiling during the tenure of President George W. Bush, NOT ONE SINGLE DEMOCRAT SENATOR VOTED TO INCREASE THE DEBT CEILING. EVERY DEMOCRAT VOTED AGAINST THE BILL TO, as Sheila Jackson Lee so eloquently put it, "raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment."

So, in spite of Jackson Lee's faulty memory, Barack Obama is, in fact, being treated exactly the same way President Bush was treated. It could be argued Obama is being treated with more respect.

This entire Washington debate is just bullshit! If you are against raising the debt limit, you should hold fast to that position. If you believe it is necessary, you should support it. Period. False rhetoric,, race baiting (as Jackson Lee just engaged in), and political posturing should be stopped.

If the political parties would get out of the way we might actually get something done in this country.

- - - - - - - - - -

No doubt I'll get replies stating "Well, the Republicans did it, too." YES! THAT IS, OF COURSE, EXACTLY MY POINT!

It's The End of the World as We Know It

Well, faithful readers, it is time for the very lengthy third part of my trilogy. Parts one and two below were necessary to provide context for this third and most important discussion. Below is my analysis of the current economic crisis in the United States and, ultimately, the world. As my title above suggests, it is not a pleasant prognostication.

Long time readers know that I have been sounding the alarm siren for the last six months. As soon as it became obvious that our Congress and President were on the wrong track in handling the economic downturn, I've done my best to bring the keys issues to the forefront. This link here will take you to a dozen or more past blog entries where I've outlined the coming problems and condemned in no uncertain terms the horrific Economic Stimulus Package.

Sadly, a quick review of comments from many readers proved two tragic facts. First, most people simply want to "play politics" and never, under any circumstances, read legislation or consider alternative solutions. If our fellow Democrats did it, it must be good. If Republicans proposed it, it's stupid, lame, old school and wrong.

Second, all too many people are just here for the free lunch. As long as some other "rich guys" pay the bills and they believe they'll eat for free, then they'll line up at the trough. Every day is a holiday and every meal is a banquet.

So just how bad is it? It's very, very bad. And you're going to feel the pain as early as tomorrow.

Borrow and Spend Democrats

I am a rather proud "tax and spend" Democrat. There are many things I genuinely believe the government can do better than the private sector and many others that the government must do because the majority of people simply will not do them. The beauty of being a "tax and spend" Democrat is there was a natural barrier that prevented us from going overboard: TAXES. If taxes got too high, the electorate would reign us in. And, as long as we worked with a nearly balanced budget, this system was nearly prefect.

Plus, by answering to the actual tax payers, we were forced to be honest, efficient and logical. We were forced to prioritize.

Today, under the vacuum of leadership from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the naivete of President Obama, none of that is happening. Instead of tax and spend, the new priority is borrow and spend without restraint. There are literally no priorities. There is no restraint. Pork barrel spending abounds, in fact it has become the coin of the realm. Payoffs are common place, corruption is rampant and institutionalized.

Barack Obama was and is totally unprepared for his job as President. He is no more than the band leader on the Titanic. The ship is sinking and it will take him down.

Where We Stand

About 500,000 new people apply for unemployment each week. Over 9 million new unemployed have been added to the dole since the pathetic non-Stimulus Bill passed. Unemployment has reached a 30 year high at 9.5% and virtually every economist predicts is will be over 10% by August.

Because the non-Stimulus Bill was nothing more that a massive pork barrel spending give-away three horrible things have happened. First, only about 7% of the money has actually been spent. Only 11% will be spent by year's end. Did Barack Obama lie? No, I don't think so. He simply had no idea what Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were doing. Again, Barack Obama was (and still is) woefully unprepared to play at this level.

Second, the stimulus money turns out to be primarily rewards for contributors and patrons. I know this comes as a total surprise to everyone, but the vast majority of the money seems to be headed to states that supported and voted for Democrats! WOW! Who knew?

Third, and perhaps most tragic, the paltry sums of money that are flowing out as being pirated away for bankrupt states and used to pay bills or lower debt, not for any stimulus at all. The report issued today by the General Accounting Office paints a tragic picture of misuse of funds.

But the surprises hardly end there. It turns out there actually were (and are) shovel ready projects needing funding and ready to hire people. Are they getting the money? Nope. Not according to an analysis by The New York Times.

In short, not one single job has been created and only a handful of jobs have been saved. This could have all been avoided. A stimulus package costing 1/3rd less was proposed and on the table from Republicans. Every single penny would have been spent to hire people for permanent, full time, high paying jobs. But, of course, none of it would have gone to pay off contributors. None would have been wasted. And it would be working hard today, not on hold until 2010 and 2011.

Where Are We Headed?

By borrowing insane amounts of money and not taxing anyone for anything yet, Democrats have appealed successfully to both the party partisans and the pigs down at the trough. But that's all about to end.

Interest rates are about to skyrocket. I know of no economist who predicts less than a doubling of interest rates in the next few months. While that assures there will be absolutely no recovery in the economy, it is actually much worse. As interest rates eclipse 7% the government will be totally unable to service the huge deficits. One hundred million dollars a day in interest!

Because of the inevitable collapse of the US economy, tax increases will move from counterproductive to impossible. My essay back on March 7th was tragically accurate, we are on the same economic policy path that led to The French Revolution. Let them eat cake!

President Obama's current drive for universal health care, a laudable goal, is moot. No matter what bill passes, the program will collapse, along with Social Security and the current Medicare/Medicaid in the next few years. We cannot borrow ourselves out of debt. We cannot service the debt. We cannot tax our way out of debt. Like a chess player who has been out maneuvered, we have no moves remaining. Checkmate.

Is there a way out? Like the immortal line from the movie War Games, the only way to win is not to play. Because of the non-Stimulus Bill and the pork filled Budget recently passed, it may already be too late. Inflation is coming. And the deficit is unsustainable. And Democrats are sadly still playing politics.

The public is about to explode. They are already feeling the pain. Even after siphoning off stimulus money, states are making critical cuts in goods and services. California, Illinois and New York are about to undertake massive layoffs that will further balloon stressed out welfare rolls. California is issuing virtually worthless IOU's to taxpayers and creditors as their bonds are being lowered to near junk status. Illinois is about to release 10,000 prisoners because they simply cannot pay the guards.

You are about to feel serious pain and it's just the beginning. We are entering The Greatest Depression.

It is likely Obama will end his single term as a badly failed President in spite of his many great talents. While Republicans are unprepared to regain control of both houses next election, they will make serious gains. And real, thinking Democrats will quickly break with Pelosi and Reid and Obama, if necessary, to demand repeal of most spending plans and reduced borrowing.

I'm not at all certain that is will be anywhere enough.

The French Revolution

As I watch television this weekend and watch the protesters in New York DEMAND that the governor "tax the rich" instead of cutting services, I feel like I'm watching the French Revolution unfold before my very eyes.

Class warfare was at the very heart of the French Revolution! In 1789 and for ten horrific years, the country of France imploded. Millions of people died. The government was overthrown and virtually the entire upper class of French society was executed, including King Louis XVI and the legendary Marie-Antoinette. It's the stuff of legend, including many great (if highly romanticized) movies.

While I don't think for even one second our country runs the risk of revolution, many of the factors that led up to the French Revolution are identical to the situation in the United States today.

Economists tell us that recessions and depressions are cyclical. In the late 1780's France was in the midst of a major depression. But here is where the parallels get much more interesting. France was saddled with a massive National Debt. Fighting two wars had caused King Louis XV to borrow huge sums of money. Keep on mind one of those wars was the American Revolution. France had sided with and aided the colonists against England.

But the huge National Debt was way too much for the government to handle. Faced with this crushing debt, the government instituted massive tax increases on every part of society, including and especially the rich. The gigantic tax burden brought the French economy to a complete standstill. The very financial backbone of the country was broken in a manner not unlike today's banking crisis! The movement of goods and services came to a halt!

Unemployment exploded! People were unable to find work. The French monetary system stopped working and massive inflation robbed the poor from even the most basic necessities. People literally people could not afford bread.

Meanwhile King Louis and his advisers were unable to cope with the rapidly deterioration of the country's economy. Ultimately the entire country collapsed under the weight of an unrepayable National Debt.

The people of France blamed the rich! They felt, however incorrectly, that the rich were causing the problems as a ruse just to rob the poor and enslave them. This was, of course, untrue and the rich, the aristocracy, were also suffering from the complete breakdown of society. None-the less, massive protests occurred that deteriorated into riots and, ultimately, into revolution.

The goals of the revolution were noble, at least in theory. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity! The rich were forced to pay the ultimate price with the invention of the guillotine.

George Mason University has built a magnificent on-line library and resource center to study the French Revolution with hundreds of essays, text documents, images and even songs. I continue to be amazed with the sheer power of the Internet.

In another interesting parallel, it was King Louis XIV who began a centralization of power that led to the very downfall of France. Prior to that, France was a very model of decentralized capitalism. Only when Louis XIV centralized power to the Monarchy was it even possible to build the huge National debt that led the country to its downfall. But Louis XIV and Louis VX felt the government could run society better than the free market!

The sections of the George Mason University Website that discuss the monarchy are especially interesting.

Other eighteenth-century descriptions of monarchy advocated centralizing power in the hands of the King. When the Franks first decided to establish their own government to replace the fading Roman Empire, argued Jacob-Nicolas Moreau, they entrusted the King with all authority. To spread ideas such as Moreau's, French monarchs published newspapers supporting their actions. In one such periodical, the Gazette of France, the crown took a subtle rather than a propagandistic approach: it never mentioned its opponents and treated royalty with total reverence—even though the news being reported was not necessarily the most important events of the day.

Can anybody say "Rush Limbaugh?" But I digress.

The conflicts of 1787 to 1789 over the monarchy's financial problems led to a major shift in the way France was governed. In part because of the long drawn-out wars of the eighteenth century, the French government had for some time been spending much more than its annual revenue. Usually this money was borrowed. However, for reasons that historians still argue about, this source of funds dried up in the 1780s. Mounting debt and a continuing high level of expenses then forced the monarchy to seek fundamental financial change to put the state on a secure fiscal foundation.

Like Louis XVI, our President is failing to focus on the rapid deterioration of the economy or on the National debt. Instead, like the French monarchy, he is centralizing authority and control of society. We defend Obama because he wants to help the poor and improve their life. But, keep in mind, so did King Louis the XVI.

As the economy falters, President Obama is determined to implement a wide array of social programs and isn't letting the economic situation distract him from his predetermined agenda.

Don't think for even a minute that the United States can't fail under the weight of massive national debt. It can, and if the problem isn't addressed quickly, it will.

Again, revolution isn't going to happen, but a peaceful mini-revolt in Congress and on Wall Street is well underway. While Obama has failed to notice the revolt so far, it will soon slam him into with the force of a Hurricane. He will lose the support of his party and he will lose the support of the public.

We are in a full blown Depression. The stock market has crashed. People's entire life savings have been wiped out. President Obama is spending hundreds of billions of dollars completely without regard to the widespread damage the non-stop borrowing and spending is causing.

We are a peaceful and enlightened country. The lofty goals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity born in the French Revolution have taken root and grown here in the United States.

Revolution will not happen in the United States. The guillotine will not return. But the collapse of our modern day Camelot is not an impossibility. We are in a full blown Depression, just like France in the 1790's.

POST SCRIPT: Two very interesting things struck me as I read about the French Revolution. First, King Louis XVI was enormously popular throughout the revolution. He had very broad support of the people right up to, and even after, his execution!!

Second, the relative democracy of King Louis XVI's France (there was an elected Parliament with three houses of government (nobles, commoners and clergy) and an independent court system) was replaced with an absolute dictatorship of Napoleon.