PK'S NOTE: I'm not a fan of President Bush either because he's a Progressive, but...
By Thomas Lifson
In the face of five years
of Obama failure, the American Left still invokes the specter of George
W. Bush as the all-purpose explanation for everything that has gone
wrong. Yet the 43rd president is steadily climbing in public
esteem, as his sunny disposition and serious demeanor toward the duties
of office sit well in the public memory. So, too, his dignified behavior
as ex-president brings credit.
One good way to force the Left to confront President Obama's own responsibility for his conduct in office is to compare
his abuses of office with the record of President Bush 43, who was
reviled by by his opposition as a dictator-wannabe,
Constitution-abusing, moronic ogre straddling the line between simian
and human. Doug Ross of Director Blue has produced an amusing comic-book approach toward explaining the differences between the two men:
By Michelle Malkin
On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama promised the sun and the moon and the
stars. That was the day, five years ago, when he signed the $800 billion
"American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." President Modesty called it
"the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history." He
promised "unprecedented transparency and accountability." He claimed the
spending would lift "two million Americans from poverty." Ready for the
reality smackdown?
The actual cost of the $800 billion pork-laden stimulus has ballooned
to nearly $2 trillion. At the time of the law's signing, the
unemployment rate hovered near 8 percent. Obama's egghead economists
projected that the jobless rate would never rise above 8 percent and
would plunge to 5 percent by December 2013. The actual jobless rate in
January was 6.6 percent, with an abysmal labor force participation rate
of 63 percent (a teeny uptick from December, but still at a four-decade
low).
Five years after the Recovery Act, 10.2 million people are out of work.
The number of able-bodied Americans who have simply given up looking
for work or are "not in the labor force (but) who currently want a job"
has exploded. By some estimates, a record 90 million-plus people are
hopelessly sitting on the sidelines.
...Unprecedented transparency? Section 1513 of the Recovery Act required
the White House to submit a progress report every three months. Last
year, blogger Doug Powers noted: "Under their own guidelines, the
administration should have released 14 of these reports by now, but
they've only submitted eight of them for public review." Whatevs.
...While the lapdogs of the Fourth Estate snicker along with the White
House about their lies and cover-up, the Wreckovery Act wreckage
continues to pile up. And now the White House wants more money to burn
for Porkulus Redux.
Retiring Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was right when he warned five years
ago that the "morally reprehensible" stimulus represented "the worst act
of generational theft in our nation's history." It's no joke. It's a $2
trillion travesty built on criminal government malpractice. Take that
and shovel it.
By Mona Charen
Few have ever heard the name Debo Adegbile. He's President Barack
Obama's nominee to head the civil rights division of the Justice
Department.
...Before the Reid invocation of the "nuclear option" eliminating the
filibuster, Adegbile would have been considered too controversial. But
now, the administration can have its head on nominations.
Adegbile is a passionate advocate for racial quotas in hiring and
university admissions, and also urges that employers not be permitted to
do background checks on potential hires -- presumably because more
African-Americans have criminal records than other applicants. He has
encouraged the president to nominate judges who recognize that "ratified
treaties" are the law of land. Well, no argument there, but he goes
further. Adegbile wants judges who will decree that "customary
international law" is the law of the United States as well, asking for
God only knows what mischief. Who would decide what "customary
international law" is? By what authority would it be imposed on
Americans? Investor's Business Daily reports that Adegbile supports
George Soros's campaign to create a new "progressive" constitution. If
that doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, you're not
paying attention.
It was Adegbile's role in the case of convicted cop killer Mumia
Abu-Jamal that incurred the wrath of Justice Department employees
though.
...Ballistics confirmed that the bullets that killed Faulkner were from Abu-Jamal's gun, found with him at the scene.
Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death, but decades of litigation and
agitation on his behalf delayed the sentence. He has claimed ineffective
assistance of counsel (though at one point he represented himself),
racism by the judge, racism in jury selection -- the usual gamut. In
2011, prosecutors announced that they would no longer pursue the death
penalty.
Every defendant deserves a defense, of course. But Abu-Jamal has had a
celebrity lineup of lefty lawyers. That Adegbile wanted to join their
ranks is a sign of his sympathies. That Obama believes Adegbile can get
confirmed by the neutered Senate is a sign of the times.
By Daniel J Mitchell
What’s the defining characteristic of our political masters?
Going all the way back to when they ran for student council in 6th
grade, is it a craven desire to say or do anything to get elected?
Is it the corrupt compulsion to trade earmarks, loopholes, and favors in exchange for campaign cash?
Or is it the knee-jerk desire to buy votes by spending other people’s money?
The answer is yes, yes, and yes, but I want to add something else to the list.
One of the most odious features of politicians is that they think
they’re entitled to all of our money. But it goes beyond that. They also
think they’re doing us a favor and being magnanimous if they let us
keep some of what we earn.
Think I’m joking or exaggerating?
Consider the fact that the crowd in Washington says that provisions in
the internal revenue code such as IRAs are “tax expenditures” and should
be considered akin to government spending.
So if you save for retirement and aren’t subject to double taxation, you’re not making a prudent decision with your own money. Instead, you’re the beneficiary of kindness and mercy by politicians that graciously have decided to give you something.
And the statists at the Washington Postwill agree, writing that folks with IRAs are getting “a helping hand” from the government.
Or if you have a business and the government doesn’t impose a tax on your investment expenditures,
don’t think that you’re being left alone with neutral tax policy.
Instead, you should get on your knees and give thanks to politicians
that have given you a less-punitive depreciation schedule.
And the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and theGovernment Accountability Office will all agree, saying that you’re benefiting from a “tax expenditure.”
By Pat Buchanan
...A clamor to pass a clean debt ceiling bill or risk a new recession
would have arisen. And the House Republicans would have caved, as they
finally had to cave on the budget bill last fall.
Rather than play Lord Raglan and lead his cavalry in another Charge of
the Light Brigade, Boehner chose to withdraw to fight another day on
another field.
Yet, the Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.
When does the Republican Party, put in power by the Tea Party, plan to
honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and
bring the budget back into balance? Is there any hope things will be
different, should the Tea Party help produce a GOP Senate in 2014?
If the Tea Party is in some despair, is it not understandable?
For while there are countless proposals and plans to cut back on
federal spending, from Simpson-Bowles on, it is impossible today to see
in either party the political will to do the surgery.
Consider what would be needed to roll back Big Government.
First, the major entitlement programs Medicare and Social Security
would have to be peeled back. But any effort to raise the age of
eligibility, or reduce the benefits, or trim cost-of-living adjustments,
would meet with ferocious resistance, led by the AARP.
Indeed, many Tea Party members are themselves among those enjoying, or
about to enjoy, the benefits of these programs. Would they back cuts in
either one? Democrats say these programs must be expanded, and they will
resist any cuts as fiercely as the Republicans would resist any
increase in payroll or income taxes.
Social Security and Medicare recipients number in the scores of
millions. Four million Baby Boomers reach eligibility every year now.
That is more then 10,000 every day. Is any party, even a GOP that
controls the White House and Congress, going to take on this army?
Consider that other entitlement, Medicaid.
Thanks to Obamacare, the number of beneficiaries of Medicaid is
soaring. And even should the GOP capture the Senate in 2016, a
Democratic minority would filibuster to death any bill to cut Medicaid.
As for interest on the debt, another major element in the budget, it
has only one way to go, up. For the Fed freeze that has held interest
rates near zero for five years must some day end.
Defense is the other big item in the budget. But while the wind-down of
our trillion-dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has made cuts possible
here, most of these have already been made.
And this week the House voted 326-90 to repeal the small cut in the
COLA in pensions for working-age military retirees under 62, which was
part of the bipartisan budget deal last fall. Members of Congress panic
at any suggestion they are shortchanging the troops.
Yet, since Y2K, the cost of military personnel has doubled, while the number of those on active duty has fallen by 10 percent.
Last December, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray, in their budget
deal, raised discretionary spending in 2014 from the $967 billion it
would have been under the sequester to $1.012 trillion.
Invariably, bipartisan budget deals between Capitol Hill liberals and
conservatives move the ball further toward the liberals' goal line.
The farm bill just signed by President Obama contains a tiny cut in a
food stamp budget that has exploded during his days in office. But nice
new subsidies are in there for peanut and corn growers and producers of
maple syrup. Embarrassed at what the House went along with, not one
Republican Congressman showed up at the signing ceremony.
Can it be that the Tea Party's dream of a balanced budget, and of a
government that ceases to eat up ever more of the GDP, is simply an act
of self-delusion?
Have the beneficiaries of Big Government become so powerful that any
champion of the national interest who challenges them in fixed battle
invites almost certain defeat?
For today, America appears to be maintaining speed, or even accelerating, toward that cliff that they all warn us is out there.
By Wayne Allen Root
....Personally, I think “choice” is great. You can choose to not work
anytime you want. But if you need to steal my money to do it, that’s
called theft, not choice. Middle class wage earners are being ripped off
to pay for free-loaders. That means middle class people are having
their “choices” taken away from them. I guess in Obama’s playbook one
man’s choice is another man’s slavery.
But, that was only the start of the week. Next Obama illegally re-wrote his own Obamacare law - again. Mimicking
the traits of communist dictators and tin-pot tyrants, Obama obviously
believes he can change any law he wants, at any given hour, of any given
day.
One of the main chapters of my book was titled: “America the Banana Republic.” Just this week Charles Krauthammer said what’s happening under Obama “is the stuff you do in a banana republic.” Welcome to the club, Charles. It’s nice to see D.C. establishment Republicans are finally seeing the light.
In America it’s a violation of the Constitution for the president to
wake up on the wrong side of the bed and decide to make, arbitrarily
change, or break laws. This is the behavior of Fidel Castro, or the late
tyrant Hugo Chavez.
But wait, it gets far worse. As part of the new illegal Obamacare
directive to postpone the law for businesses with 50 to 99 employees,
Obama put the IRS in direct control of critical U.S. business decisions.
He demanded that businesses must “justify” hiring and firing decisions to the IRS
to qualify for the exemption. Plain and simple, putting government in
charge of the decisions of a private business is the very foundation of
communism. It is how communist economies like North Korea, Cuba, the old
Soviet Union, and East Germany have always been run.
Still, Obama wasn’t done.
To show his total distain for Congress and the American people he unilaterally loosened the rules for citizenship to allow foreigners with only a “minor” connection to terrorism to become citizens. Dennis
Miller once said on Monday Night Football, “there is no such thing as a
minor groin injury.” Well there is no such thing as a “minor” terrorist
either.
Why is our president desperate to open the borders and let in “minor”
terrorists? It’s not like we have a surplus of jobs. What is the
pressing need in a country with 92 million unemployed working-age
Americans? Has corporate America put out an emergency request for
“minor” terrorist employees? Or is this how Obama creates instant
Democratic voters?
Much along the same lines, Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder announced this week how “unjust” it is to not allow felons to vote.
No Mr. Attorney General, the only thing “unjust” was the crimes these
felons committed. What’s the emergency here? Is there a shortage of
Democratic voters? Obama’s game plan is clearly to combine felons with
radical Muslim terrorists in order to guarantee Democrat dominance for
years to come.
This was just one week in America. The evil and terrible news is
coming in waves. And it’s all coming from one man. A man no longer
hiding the fact that he is a tyrant, dictator, communist, and hater of
America, capitalism and Judeo Christian values.
Obama no longer cares to hide his radical Marxist ideology. It’s now
clear it’s “pedal to the metal” towards the destruction of America.
The question is…Who will stop him?
, the needy and the handicapped.”
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