Barack Obama and the Bottomless Bucket

It's All an Illusion

The highly anticipated Obama jobs plan has been unveiled after a tantalizing few days tease. The big news is that the president has decided since lighter fluid is wet, that's what should be poured on this economic fire.


Remember that he said this would be "paid for"? Turns out it will be, ostensibly, by taxes on the "rich"; those making $200,000 per year. Oh sure, it was $250,000 originally, but now it's been lowered by fifty grand. Prime territory for small business owners, who file as individuals. How will that create job incentives? And it's odd that Obama makes this revelation in a speech to a labor-friendly crowd, but in his televised speech to a joint session of Congress, he gave the impression that his plan already had all the bases covered.

Oh yeah, Obama will take the increased taxes and offer a small business a $4000 credit as long as they hire a $50-70,000 employee that they don't really need. That, my friends, is the epitome of insanity.

While all this goes on, our media seems to have forgotten the first "stimulus" program that created nearly no new jobs. In a blushing, faux-mea culpa, Obama giggled and said that those jobs "weren't quite shovel ready", despite his and Joe Biden's insistence that they were at the time. Now he wants to "create" construction jobs, put teachers back in the classrooms, and "get this economy moving".

And Obama is still harping on this high-speed rail boondoggle that will never be self-sustaining -- much less profitable -- in a country like ours.  Oh, and according to David Axelrod, Obama wants to put veterans back to work.

The problem with this "plan" of his is that government never created a job, the private sector always has done that, but when people aren't consuming like they have in the past because they can't afford it -- and therefore companies aren't selling like they used to -- then there is no need to hire anyone, despite all the carrots Obama can dangle.

Pointless Work

Just like the magical "faucet from nowhere" and the "bottomless bucket" it appears to fill, Obama's economic plan is an illusion that creates not a bit of wealth, but rather, attempts to create busy-work for people in order to create yet another illusion of productive employment. In order for the government to pay its workers, it must first take taxes from the people. Then the government worker pays taxes, and receives a check. It recycles money just as the faucet and bucket recycle the same water, over and over.

What government can, and must, do is to create an environment let will allow the private sector -- the American people -- to do that which we do best; create actual jobs and genuine product. That is the surest way to kick-start our economy.

Sadly, this president either doesn't know that or simply doesn't want to believe it, because it's antithetical to the very core of his existence. The only other explanation is that he truly does know precisely what he is doing. I would hope that is not the case.

Sphere: Related Content

The Rationale of a Self-Loathing Liberal

Are You Ashamed? 

Paul Krugman is fast becoming perhaps the most valuable accelerant for my creative juices. Gracing the safe haven that is the New York Times -- yet again -- with the radiance of his razor sharp intellect, Krugman manages to insult virtually every one of his fellow countrymen on a day when we are nearly unanimous in our thoughts. While offending us, he is also brazen in his contempt for the people who so valiantly guided us through the awful events of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath.

Early on Sunday morning, five minutes before the first plane struck the first tower ten years earlier, Krugman filed an OpEd piece in the New York Times that would be better described as an exercise in projection rather than an actual article. Better yet, it more closely resembles a brief vomiting of built up loathing for his own people or perhaps his own guilt. The big question is whether the timing was accidental or deliberate.

Titled The Years of Shame, this vile diatribe actually refers to police chief Bernard Kerik, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and President Bush as "fake heroes", then baldly hides behind his closing declaration that, "I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons."

Perhaps that's because many, like myself, would like to ask for an example of how any of these "fake heroes" cashed in on the horror of those attacks, or who the "lot of other people" who "behaved badly" are, and what they did to earn Krugman's condemnation.

Come on, Paulie, open it up for discussion. No? Well, that's to be expected from a coward.

Paul Krugman

My biggest problem is not the attacks on the three aforementioned public figures, however. They expect this level of vitriol. They knew going into public life that they would be subjected to it, and they are tougher as a result. When I think of some kid -- maybe the one who today read a note to the father he never met --reading Krugman's hatred, though, I am both saddened and angered.

The biggest brain-rattler in Krugman's lament comes when he declares that, "the memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned." One must wonder if he believes that this "article" of his is supposed to be some form of antidote.  I'd ask him, but he has decided that he would not field questions. Darn.

Finally, just to be additionally annoying I suppose, Krugman insists twice that we know he is right even if we won't admit it. Finishing -- just before he slams the door to challenge, that is -- with this bit of wisdom:

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

Krugman makes a leaping assumption that has no basis in reality, but only serves to infuriate an already tender populace as we commemorate this occasion.  Then he retreats into seclusion.

Good job, Paul, and I mean that most insincerely.

Sphere: Related Content

Cometh the Proletariat

Labor Declares War on America

I doubt that most of our fellow citizens are aware, but the "Soviet invasion" has begun in earnest. Oh yeah, we we're busy hunkering down in school hallways or under our desks in the myriad drills we participated in as kids, but then we saw the old USSR fall in the 80's and complacency set in; we believed it was over.

When Nikita Khrushchev bellowed, "We will bury you!", we naturally assumed that meant with bombs. The truth today is that "they" are already throwing the dirt on our bodies without so much as a small "boom" being heard.

"They", of course, are not the Soviets or even the Russians, but our own neighbors who adhere to the same ideology of our former enemies. The labor movement; the working class. The proletariat.

In separate speeches over the Labor Day weekend, TEA Party members and proponents were called barbarians by Vice President Joe Biden, and sons of female dogs by Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa Jr., who went a step further by threatening to "take [us] out". Joe Biden's comment was particularly amusing, however, considering his choice of target and the characterization of them.

While union thugs routinely bully and beat people and destroy property when "protesting" something, TEA Party rallies are calm and respectful. Heck, look at a park a few hours after a TEA Party rally has taken place...one wouldn't know there was anyone there. Those rallies are attended by people who were raised properly, people who respect the property on which they stand, and who clean up after themselves. There really isn't much to clean up since they don't litter in the first place.

So Joe, really? Barbarians? I hardly think so.

Hoffa's comments were more vicious, hinting at the violent nature of union members that we have come to know and loathe. Part of what he said:

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war.

President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bi**hes out and give America back to an America where we belong."

Hoffa's words were part of a crowd-warmer for Obama's own "jobs" speech. How troublesome, then, that the president never bothered to repudiate those words, even declaring during his speech that he was "proud" of  Junior and other labor leaders in attendance. And despite his appeals for civility in our political dialogue, Obama didn't even mention Hoffa's speech.

Compare that with the losing tactics of John McCain in February of 2008. As a warm up and introduction for then-candidate McCain, syndicated talk radio host Bill Cunningham whipped up the crowd by twice referring to Obama by his full name (gasp!), Barack Hussein Obama. Cunningham also called Obama a "hack, Chicago-style Daley politician". When McCain was told of Cunningham's comments, he issued a rebuke:

 "I take responsibility and I repudiate what he said. I will not tolerate anything in this campaign that denigrates either Sen. Obama or Sen. (Hillary) Clinton."

What a barbarian!

As the labor movement gets ever more bolder, it becomes more radical and determined to remake America into a soviet-style nation. It is a socialist's dream come true, and they will do all that they can to bring it to fruition. Perhaps that is why the Communist Party U.S.A. endorsed Obama in 2008, and why they will probably do so again next year. Obama's platform mirrors that of the CPUSA.

I wonder if our media watchdogs will ever get off of Obama's porch long enough to actually do what they're supposed to do; report the truth.

Sphere: Related Content