It Could Be Worse (Honest)
For the past couple weeks, President Obama’s defense of the failed stimulus bill has essentially been “It could’ve been worse.” Initially, I rejected that storyline but I’ve reconsidered. This WSJ article got me thinking, which ultimately led to my rethinking my position.
The one possibility the President and Congressional Democrats won’t entertain is that their own spending and taxing and regulating and labor union favoritism have become the main hindrance to job creation. Since February 2009, the jobless rate has climbed to 9.5% from 8.1%, and private industry has shed two million jobs. The overall economy has been expanding for at least a year, but employers still don’t seem confident enough to add new workers. The economists who sold us the stimulus say it’s a mystery. But maybe employers are afraid to hire because they don’t know what costs government will impose on them next.
This paragraph reminded me that things could be much worse. Think of what would’ve happened had President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had jammed Cap and Trade and Card Check down our throats, too.
Had this Democrat-dominated congress passed that legislation and had this Democratic president signed that legislation into law, the economy would’ve tanked by now. Had the Democrats passed these items, it isn’t a stretch to think that unemployment might be hitting 12 percent by now.
The Cap and Tax bill, if enacted, would represent the biggest tax increase in U.S. history. What’s worse is that it’s a highly regressive tax, hitting those hardest who can least afford it.
A smart politician would notice how unpopular tax increase legislation is and avoid it like the plague just 15 weeks before the tightly contested midterm elections. That isn’t what Harry Reid’s doing, though:
Reid said he would need to file another motion to cut off a filibuster of the military spending bill, but added, “I think we can work out the time on that so it doesn’t take an inordinate amount of time.”
Time is of the essence, as Reid has pledged to begin the energy debate the week of July 26. That would give Democrats two weeks to pass energy reform and confirm Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan by the August recess, scheduled to begin Aug. 6.
Harry Reid is stupid if he thinks that this legislation will pass. He’s a total idiot if he thinks voting on this legislation will help his incumbents in this fall’s elections. Senators facing tough races will hate taking this vote as much as the average person hates having their wisdom teeth removed.
Let this be a reminder to voters that the Democrats’ definition of energy ‘reform’ is the biggest regressive tax increase in U.S. history. Let’s remember that EFCA, aka the Employee Free Choice Act, aka Card Check, essentially eliminates a worker’s right to cast a secret ballot on whether or not to unionize.
The good news is that we’ll have a huge victory this November if everyone keeps campaigning like we’re 2 points behind with a month left in the campaign. With enough victories this November, then the worst will truly be behind us.
That’s motivation enough for me.
Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, ARRA, Porkulus, Unemployment, Cap And Tax, Energy Reform, Tax Increase, Regressive Tax, Card Check, Secret Ballot, Democrats, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
July 20th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
The jackass plan is to “push” such legislation before the election, and all the jackasses (Dem and Repub) can vote against it. End of story, right?
Wrong!
Dingy will find a way to re-introduce each of the favored pieces of legislation after the election, and the jackasses who voted against it before (but still lost their re-election bids) can freely vote for it this time around because they’ll have nothing to lose - they already lost.
And once passed, Duh-1 can veto any legislation in the next session of Congress cancelling what the jackasses pass after the election because he’ll still be veto-proof.
Words count, votes count, who is elected counts. It’s time the public wakes up and smells the socialism they’ve voted for in last few decades.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
The next Congress may try to de-fund some of this crap, but that, of course will only set up another Constitutional crisis for Il Duce to stamp his feet and blame Bush about.
And by the time 2012 rolls around, any dismanteling of anything will set a bunch of disgruntled government employees out of work, prolonging the depression, and giving the Dems. cannon fodder for 2016.
Face it, were going to be stuck with this bs, and the best we can probably do is reform it with another 2 or 3 thousand pages of legalese. Mean time the entitlement driven debt will grow and grow, thanks to all the dumb asses that bit the hook 2 years ago.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I’ve never posted here, but feel compelled to do so.
What kills me is that anyone who has looked into politics, and into cap-and-trade (I HATE intentionally mis-named items) knows it does not reduce carbon (and, so what, global warming wasn’t real - just a device to gain power), and it allows for redistribution of wealth into the hands of favored power elites.
It’s like dealing iwth additcs - I swear: “Just a LITTLE more and I’ll be straight, this is the last time….. I SWEAR.”
More power, more money, and a constant attempt to create a permanent voting bloc of dependent voters, class warfare, racial disharmony (to prove there IS racial disharmory), and a pure unadulterated lust for access to power … and thereby the power to hand out favors and gain still more power.
Honestly, we need to dismantle about 50% of gov’t - and while it’ll hurt all those sucking on the teat - those who are productive will be fine.
Yes, that means I won’t have any expectation of getting SS, or medicade etc - but, I’m fine with that - we’ve tried it the other way - and frankly, we’re freaking broke.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Like was recently noted in a cartoon somewhere (I would attribute it, but can’t remember where or who), “If you think Congress’ solutions to problems are expensive, wait till you see the fix to the solutions.”
July 21st, 2010 at 5:07 am
Mr. Beene , you’ve hit my nail at least, on the head.
I could do with out the pittance I get from SS, even though I paid the bastards all my working life for it. I never asked for it, but Id be happy just to get some of what I paid in to reinvest myself, its basically what Ive done with it anyway. I realize too, my own military retirement represents a big chunk of that entitlement debt.
SS could have been privatized, but we sensed that was a loosing fight when we asked for it a few years ago.
I suppose all any of us that pay attention to politics would like is for the government to just leave us the hell alone. They won’t, of course, because collectively, we are the source of what they want to redistribute.