It’s hard to narrow this down to just 10 – there’s just so
much bullshit to work with – but I have to start somewhere. In no particular
order …
Obama will go down as
one of our greatest Presidents.
At best he’ll go down as America’s first black President.
More likely years from now he’ll be remembered primarily as a divisive figure
who accelerated the polarization between races, between political parties, and
between economic classes. His abuse of
Executive powers – and his famous “pen and a phone” line – and his public scolding
of the sitting Justices of the Supreme Court at a State of the Union Address will
put him up there with FDR as Presidents who tried to run roughshod over the
Constitution to get their way.
Obama deserves credit
for pulling us out of the Great Recession.
His supporters often cite this as proof of Obama’s
greatness. The truth is the economy
would have recovered faster – entirely on its own – if he hadn’t interfered. It’s
also true he inherited an economic crisis from G.W. Bush, but also from the
Democrat-controlled Congress that fostered the growth in subprime lending that
ultimately led to the economic collapse.
However, by not allowing GM, Chrysler and the major investment-banking
firms to go into structured bankruptcy immediately and letting market forces
fix the problems permanently, the Obama Administration intervened with stop-gap
measures that papered over – at the cost of billions of shareholder and
taxpayer dollars – much deeper issues that still remain. And by forcing “too
big to fail” banking firms to consolidate he created even larger “too big to
fail” entities. Finally, his almost trillion-dollar “shovel-ready”
infrastructure spending was squandered by states on public employees rather
than fixing and improving roads, bridge and other infrastructure. If anything, he prolonged the Great Recession
and fixed nothing.
The rising national
debt is not a big problem.
It’s a huge problem.
Interest alone on the existing debt is in the hundreds of billions – a
year. For FY 2015 interest alone was
$228 billion. By 2025 the annual interest is estimated to be $808 billion. To
put this in perspective, the total Federal budget for FY 2015 was about $3.3
trillion; revenue was projected to be $438 billion less than the budget. How do we cover that deficit? Borrowing. Adding more to the national debt,
which at present stands at somewhere in the range of $19 trillion. You don’t have to be a genius to understand
that if annual GDP is $17.8 trillion and the national debt is $19 trillion,
we’re in serious trouble. Even the
dumbest consumer knows that the worse your credit the higher the interest you
have to pay. So the interest rates on
our national debt will continue to go higher the deeper in debt we go.
Democrats and Obama
are responsible for out-of-control spending.
Republicans talk about the need to reduce the national debt
but they are equally responsible for out-of-control spending as the Democrats.
The absolute fact is that regardless of who is President or which party
controls Congress, spending goes up. Some
of that happens automatically to pay our ever-growing Federal bureaucracy; some
of it is simply squandered by politicians of both parties to curry favor with
big campaign contributors or provide jobs in their area. Some is to pay interest on our growing debt. Then there are “crises” to fix. G.W. Bush spent trillions on the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars with the support of both Republicans and Democrats in
Congress. Obama spent a few trillion on
failed economic recovery and green energy programs, as well as on ObamaCare. But
he’s not alone: the Republican-controlled House just approved over $600 million
to fight the Zika virus, and a couple of hundred billion more than requested by
the Pentagon for Defense spending – mainly for weapons and personnel the
military doesn’t want. It all adds up,
no matter who is controlling the purse.
Cutting Federal
spending will hurt the poor.
There’s enormous fraud and waste in government
spending. Forget “teaching shrimp to
run on a treadmill” grants. Those are
nothing compared to the rampant fraud in government contracts (see above),
entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, earned income tax credits, and
disability claims alone. There’s fraud in government operations as well. The IRS alone admits it has hundreds
of employees who owe back taxes but refuses to take action. Overall, the waste
and fraud runs into the hundreds and hundreds of billions every year. The
problem is that no one wants to address this. Helping the truly poor, disabled,
and elderly wouldn’t suffer one bit if the government kicked illegals and the
ineligible off the benefits rolls, fired bad and corrupt Federal employees,
closed down agencies and programs that don’t accomplish anything, and better
managed defense contracts. The only people hurt by all this would be politicians,
Federal bureaucrats, grant vampires, scam artists, and defense
contractors. And trust me, these folks aren’t
poor.
Obama got us out of
Iraq and Afghanistan.
We’re still there. Our service people are still engaged in
combat there. They are also still dying there. But now they are far more
vulnerable. The only thing Obama did was
pull out the troops needed to keep those areas relatively stable – and I use
“relatively” loosely. In his haste to
fulfill a campaign promise to “end the wars” he also created a vacuum that
encouraged the rise of ISIS and a resurgence of the Taliban. His “lead from behind” strategy there and in
Libya threw under the bus the few Middle East allies we still had. With his continued lack of leadership,
reluctance to use sufficient force, and the Iran nuke deal, he’s managed to
make everyone in the region, especially Israel, feel betrayed. We may not have large forces in the field, but
make no mistake: we’re still there,
albeit in dangerously small numbers.
There are “good”
taxes that encourage better and healthier habits.
Politicians tax products like cigarettes, alcohol, and now
sugary drinks because they want the money – plain and simple. Claims that they are fighting against
smoking, pollution, or obesity are pure crap. When states and cities jacked
cigarette taxes so high – to “protect people from the hazards of smoking” –
cigarettes sales went down as people switched to other tobacco products, and
safer alternatives like e-cigarettes. So
did the tax revenues from cigarette taxes.
Now politicians want to put taxes on e-cigarettes, not because these are
evil or unhealthy or pollute the air, but because cigarette tax revenue is
down. Philly’s mayor wants a tax on sugary drinks “to fight childhood obesity”;
the reality is he wants the money for a Pre-K program. Most new taxes are about bringing in
additional revenue for politicians to squander, nothing else.
We can change the
world through diplomacy and sanctions.
The most dangerous bullshit of all. In reality, as
Al Capone was supposed to have said: Kind words and a gun will get you further
than kind words alone. When you are the most powerful, most feared country in
the world diplomacy works like a charm. Thanks to Obama’s
indecisiveness and timidity – and desire to be “just another nation” – we
aren’t that anymore. Diplomatic success
on the world stage today rests on the belief that one side is willing and able
to exact terrible consequences if diplomacy fails. Obama’s attitude is that diplomatic success
is only about getting a deal, no matter how bad, useless, or unenforceable that
is. After his “red line” fiasco in
Syria, and the Iran nuke deal, nobody he negotiates with takes him seriously.
In this day and age, if you are unwilling to back up your threats with military
force – and use that force – nobody will. That’s why the Chinese and Russians
can buzz our warships, and Iran can seize our sailors, without fear of
reprisals – they know Obama won’t do a damn thing except send a strongly worded
objection. Sanctions won’t work either as long as other countries know there
are really no consequences from us for ignoring any sanctions we place on another country.
Hillary’s track
record makes her more qualified to be President.
She was kicked off the House Judiciary Committee staff
investigating Watergate for submitting a fraudulent brief and removing and
hiding files so she could argue they never existed. She faced possible
disbarment for that. She lied about her role in the Whitewater / Rose Law firm
scandal and could never find any of the requested documents until they
magically reappeared in her room at the White House. In 1993 she headed up a healthcare reform
task force she was appointed to by her husband. After secret meetings – in
violation of several laws – and withering attacks from fellow Democrats, her
plans were shelved. When Bill was
confronted by numerous claims by women of sexual assault and harassment, she worked
aggressively to destroy those women. After proof emerged about Bill’s sexual predation,
including sex with a White House intern, she went on 60 Minutes to dismiss
these as lies from a “vast right wing conspiracy.” When leaving the White House
after Bill’s term in office, she tried to make off with the White House china.
But right before then she engineered Presidential pardons brokered for money by
her brother. As a NY Senator, she
accomplished absolutely nothing; in fact, most of the legislation she
introduced couldn’t attract a single co-sponsor. As Secretary of State she muffed a “reset”
with the Russians, did nothing except fly around a lot, and let 4 Americans
dies in Benghazi. Oh yeah, and after those deaths she lied to the families of
the dead about the cause.
Trump is not qualified
to be President.
Who is? The only
President in my lifetime who actually had the rock-solid credentials for the
job was George H.W. Bush, and he only got one term. It’s true that Trump has no
legislative experience, but that hasn’t stopped anybody else from becoming
President. Look at Obama. Does Trump
lack the temperament to be President? Is there an example of some other kind of
temperament that’s a hallmark of a successful President? Is he too crude for the job? Crudeness never stopped LBJ – famous for calling
his penis “Jumbo” and showing it off; or for that matter, Bill Clinton – famous
for putting his in a variety of places other than Hillary. Trump is certainly
not perfect yet he’s had the good fortune and business sense to grow a
multi-billion-dollar empire. Does that
alone qualify him to be President? Of
course not, but it doesn’t disqualify him either.
That’s it for now.
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