I have been running into more and more Americans here overseas who are grateful to be out of the country in this time of uncertainty. Why, they all cite the economy and the direction of the country. For all the white washing, name calling, and blame shifting the media is screaming at the public to such a deafening volume, the reality is just not in synch. I am not saying this as a sore loser conservative or doom and gloom nay-sayer but as an American who is watching the ship sink as it catches fire and burns on the way down. This is the reality of what is going on. Despite the love affair from all corners of the liberal community towards this new ‘golden age’ of American politics we are witnessing the total collapse of our free market economy and the beginnings to nationalization of all things to all people in the country.
The more the US government acts the more the markets go down. Pelosi ramrods a bill, the market tanks. Pelosi and Reid hold closed door stimulus deals, the market tanks. Obama signs a bill into law, the market tanks. Obama and his tax dodging economy geniuses make comments and testimony, the market tanks. Obama tries to calm down the markets, yep it tanks. Day in and day out I have seen my modest retirement savings plummet to near initial investment levels, despite pumping in more money to take advantage of low mutual fund and stock prices. Since Obama has been sworn in we have seen little if any impact on the markets from any newly identified source. We have had full knowledge of what has been going on since January; AIG, Citi Group, Bank of America, GM and Chrysler, all of it has had no shocking new or damaging revelations announced since January. Global markets and currencies are not falling dramatically and for the most part are declining in a steady yet stable glide down. Despite all this the markets have shed 23% of its value in this time, why?
I have stated on this blog I would give Obama a chance and some opportunities to show himself and his true colors before I began criticizing his leadership and administration. That time is now officially over. In less then 100 days Obama has taken a bad situation and made it drastically worse. The levels of incompetence, ignorance, and sheer lunacy going on in Washington DC is making me seriously consider the unthinkable, that my beloved country will only emerge from this crisis as a pale shadow of its former self. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid’s vision of America through their actions has done more damage and destroyed more progress in our country then Al Qaida has with all its attacks on our country, combined. I am not exaggerating, look at the results since November and where we are today and look at the same amount of time from the USS Cole, African embassy bombings, and both WTC attacks.
I am not going to back down or sugar coat this criticism under the hopes and desires to have the Obama dream presidency turn a corner and we are all delivered to the liberal promised land. Obama’s lack of real job experience is showing and this is being reflected by the confidence in our economy to recover and our country to return to a leadership position on the world stage. We Americans vote in many ways on many things everyday. The stark reality to the liberal dream is that nobody is buying it. The more Obama does and the more information that is released on the direction he is leading the country into is being voted against every day in the Stock Exchanges, Corporate employment departments, local governments, and households across the nation. Lack of confidence is causing the money to be saved and squatted on by all those who really matter in our economy, the ones who run our businesses. If Obama is trying to break the back of the free market system and establish a nanny state or a society solely dependant on the government for survival then congratulations, its working.
The armature dealings go far beyond our economic mess, to secret letters to Russia leaked to the NY Times (a liberal mouthpiece so we know it came from the White House itself), to protectionism legislation despite calls from around the world it will result in trade wars and even England’s Prime Minister coming to DC and saying directly not to do it, to their lack of response to North Korea on its attention getting remarks on saying it wants a war with us, to Iran who must be laughing at us for the Russian back door policy disaster with the very country who is building Iran’s enrichment facilities, to his lack of showing China the respect and gratitude he needs to for the help we will need from them over the next 2 years, to his top officials engaging in a media war with conservative talk show hosts for no other reason then to posture for the next election to help make more gains in mid term elections, to Obama’s sour grapes response to Republican opposition to his policy and legislation when he does not even need their votes or support to pass these things because his party controls everything anyway, the Republicans are irrelevant and impotent in the government so just let them speak out and scream because it will not matter at the end of the day because they don’t have the votes to stop anything.
Barack Obama has not had a real job in his life, much less a real leadership job in any facet of the definition of the word and we wonder why the world is crumbling down around us despite all the wonderful words and platitudes Obama spews from his golden tongued font. Talk is cheap, actions speak louder then words, if you talk the talk you better be able to walk the walk, proof is in the pudding, a bird in the hand is better then 2 in the bush. No matter how you want to put it the leadership of the nation is NOT happening. The direction the country is being steered in is NOT working. Confidence in our country is NOT there. Throwing money into the abyss in hopes it will fill is NOT working. Saying a single company is too big to fail is NOT the right answer. The Democratic vision of how to fix this mess is NOT resulting in anything coming close to the neighborhood of success. Yes it has been only 4 months since Obama won the election and 2 months since him taking office but how far are we willing to let things drop before we demand a different direction? Guess what, by the time Obama hits 100 days we are dangerously close to seeing some of the largest companies in US history fail which will cascade far beyond what anyone can imagine. Here is something else for you, George W. Bush is not to blame. His administration fell asleep at the switch over lending regulations, this stimulus plan authored proudly by Pelosi and Reid and signed into law by Obama will be judged by its real impact.
Obama’s eloquent public speaking skills have not steemed the tide of unemployment as over 1,000,000 jobs have been lost since Obama took office in January. That is the reality. Nationalizing healthcare talk and banks have not loosened up lending or instilled confidence in companies to stop laying off people. Delaying tax cuts and promising to bailout irresponsible homeowners who bought more home then they could afford has not spurred investment in small business expansion, creation, or investment into the very companies who are cutting back expansion and laying off workers left and right. Obama’s public charm and intoxication of inspiration has not worked on those very groups who employ or create jobs in our country. Obama’s building bridges and rebuilding our international reputation has not paid any dividends or promises of partnerships but has drawn warnings and promises of retaliation for his Buy American pledge from our staunches allies to at arm length partners. Canada, England, and Asian countries have all lectured Obama on this policy and yet, he is still going down this road. No, word are truly cheap, the cost of taking the wrong actions appear to be the wealth and economic power of our country. If Obama does not stop this insanity and Pelosi and Reid stopped with losing the majority of seats in Congress then is seems we will see the real cost of all these wrong actions. Talk is cheap, the actions taken are showing no way of fixing the mess we are in. There is something worse then inaction, the wrong action and that is what the far left liberals have pushed for and achieved at this particular moment. Our governments actions are causing much more harm then good and as the liberals sing songs of praise the ship is continuing to sink, but now the fires are beginning to burn and it may be too late to save the mess now.
Showing posts with label deficit spending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deficit spending. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Betsy McCaughey Identifies the beginning of Amerikan Socialism
Welcome to the People's Republic of Americka. The United States of America is about to be heaped up on the scrap heap of wrongly named countries like the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. A republic is a form of government where representatives debate and present government issues for the people they represent. According to our leaders, Obama in particular, we are not allowed to debate, review, oversee, or even think about this legislation, the largest spending package in human history! Trust us they say, Pelosi raises her hand on CNN stating there is no pork, Obama states there is no pork, if they say it long enough then it must be true. Here in China the people only know what the government is doing after it is done, America seems to be doing the same thing now, pass it now and find out what is in there later. The doom and gloom has made it too urgent to review, and it has to be passed NOW! We no long have open debate, exchange of ideas, or moderation of extreme fringe philosophies from being forced on us moderates or nonbelievers. This stimulus bill has much more then pork, even if they changed the name of pork and ear marks and placed them in the bill in a way that does not fit the definition of ear marks. Two wrongs don't make a right, so stop saying that all the conservative ear marks over the past 8 years justifies this round, and while we are there, didn't Pelosi and the Dems have control of Congress for the past 4 years, making all the pork, waste, and stupidity passed by Congress their faults, thought so. Glad I am in China and getting orientated in how to live in a socialists and non-republic country, all hail dear leader Obama.
Yesterday's Bloomberg has an opinion column by Betsy McCaughey that outlines the takeover of our healthcare system by the government. This shifts the bad care we have today from HMO's to Government. Now some government body will dictate what treatment you get and when you get it. Get ready to stand in line for that operation. Ask people in Canada and Briton how well this works out for them. Oh, and how does socializing healthcare stimulate the economy, please enlighten me. Excerpts below.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Yesterday's Bloomberg has an opinion column by Betsy McCaughey that outlines the takeover of our healthcare system by the government. This shifts the bad care we have today from HMO's to Government. Now some government body will dictate what treatment you get and when you get it. Get ready to stand in line for that operation. Ask people in Canada and Briton how well this works out for them. Oh, and how does socializing healthcare stimulate the economy, please enlighten me. Excerpts below.
Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”
Again, I am not joking. This is gravely serious. Add this to the now $3 trillion total cost of the next wave of TARP, Stimulus bill, and new spending initiatives and how is this going to be paid for? Do you think taxes can cover this? We are all getting a tax cut according to the NICP, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. So what is left, corporate taxes, windfall taxes, well in this economy you can count that out with double digit decline. The $3 trillion total spending will have to come from somewhere, $325 billion is paid for already, $850+ via taxes (stimulus bill), $1 trillion for freeing up credit markets by buying toxic paper that will have to be raised by selling American bonds to other countries, sovereign wealth funds, and private investors. Well, American investors have lost 50~70% of their worth in the current market downturn, and will be taxed more for it. China, Japan, Germany(number 2, 3, 4 economies in the world) and the EU have stated they can only purchase a few bonds and only of the stimulus legislation has NO protection measures in it, which in its current form it does not. So if only we can get them to buy this, which they don't want to, that still leaves $1 trillion for the spending our tax evading Treasury Secretary just outlined and caused the markets to sink 381 points in an hour! We will print it. Welcome to double digit inflation, meaning your $1 today will have about 0.90 or less depending on the inflation rate next year. Look at Mexico and Zimbabwe for insight on inflation. Just printing money to flood the market will overheat the economy to the point of creating inflation so bad it will make Japan's lost decade look like road bump compared to the Grand Canyon.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Mr. President, um, your shoes are untied… 5 day pledge evaporates
What other excuse can he, or his administration give for the first Major breakage of a campaign promise? Politicians sure do have an issue with the truth, promises, and doing what they pledge. Case in point; candidate Barack Obama’s pledge to have a five day public review of all non-vital legislation passed by Congress before he would sign it. President Barack Obama’s reality is completely the opposite in passing all legislation as soon as it passes Congress until the mid-term elections. The Democrats are scared that will be their reckoning day, and by the looks of it, it can’t come fast enough.
The below 3 images are screen captures that will illustrate the real issue for the liberals who will say I am making this issue up or that I am full of you know what, well here are the actual screen captures showing the reality and truth of our good President’s ability to keep his word and follow through on his campaign promises. You can do the same searches and find the same info, no doctored pictures here.
Why, well if you listen to his Chief of Staff on the ‘not letting a good crisis go to waste’ mantra jumped on by Congress and used more then a turnstile at the NYC subway system during rush hour. Next look at the tone of the government from ‘hope and change’ to preaching ‘fear and blame’ the Democrats blamed the GOP of using on the campaign trail, though it is good enough to use to get all their special pet projects and special interest paybacks that fear is the only way to get the American people behind this ever ballooning stimulus package that is now over $910 billion.
The first 3 bills Obama signed and did not post for HIS own 5-day pledge; #1 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (NEVER posted, signed in 2 days… 2 days!) signed 1/29/09, #2 State Children’s Health Insurance Program SCHIP (posted on the site for only 3.5 days posted Super Bowl Sunday afternoon, signed Wednesday morning) signed 2/4/09. The response by the White House…
White House spokesman Reid Cherlin: “During the campaign, the President committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting non-emergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The President remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the President’s desk online for comment.”
“We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar. In the meantime, we will continue to post legislation on our website for comment as it moves through Congress over the next few weeks.”
So much for change we can believe in, I believe in what I see, results and actions, I leave faith to religion and spirituality only and not the realm of politics. Thus far Obama and Congress which from this point forward I will refer to the NICP or national insane clown posse, no office to the rap group to whom I do appreciate some of their works. Seeing the insanity that is going on over there in DC it is unbelievable they are going to get this pork laden, earmarked from hell, lobbyist and political payback bill pushed through straddling America with massive national debt and increasing our deficit to two or three times that of the last 8 years. Oh, and I can’t accept Barack’s EXCUSE of it was handed to him neatly packed and in a bow on day one, how pathetic is that? Leaders lead, not lie, cheat, talk out of both sides of their mouths and they sure as hell don’t go around laying blame and making excuses for it when the situation starts to turn on them. Every day this package is not passes is more time we get to peak inside and see how much more pork we can find, and thus far there has been enough to last our national food assistance program for years to come.
The below 3 images are screen captures that will illustrate the real issue for the liberals who will say I am making this issue up or that I am full of you know what, well here are the actual screen captures showing the reality and truth of our good President’s ability to keep his word and follow through on his campaign promises. You can do the same searches and find the same info, no doctored pictures here.
Five day review exists, Google found it and shows the results
Follow the link and Oops, error 404 - WhiteHouse.Gov states that page does not exist…
Follow the cashed link page and viola, the page DID exist and it WAS really there outlining the real pledge
Why, well if you listen to his Chief of Staff on the ‘not letting a good crisis go to waste’ mantra jumped on by Congress and used more then a turnstile at the NYC subway system during rush hour. Next look at the tone of the government from ‘hope and change’ to preaching ‘fear and blame’ the Democrats blamed the GOP of using on the campaign trail, though it is good enough to use to get all their special pet projects and special interest paybacks that fear is the only way to get the American people behind this ever ballooning stimulus package that is now over $910 billion.
The first 3 bills Obama signed and did not post for HIS own 5-day pledge; #1 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (NEVER posted, signed in 2 days… 2 days!) signed 1/29/09, #2 State Children’s Health Insurance Program SCHIP (posted on the site for only 3.5 days posted Super Bowl Sunday afternoon, signed Wednesday morning) signed 2/4/09. The response by the White House…
White House spokesman Reid Cherlin: “During the campaign, the President committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting non-emergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The President remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the President’s desk online for comment.”
“We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar. In the meantime, we will continue to post legislation on our website for comment as it moves through Congress over the next few weeks.”
So much for change we can believe in, I believe in what I see, results and actions, I leave faith to religion and spirituality only and not the realm of politics. Thus far Obama and Congress which from this point forward I will refer to the NICP or national insane clown posse, no office to the rap group to whom I do appreciate some of their works. Seeing the insanity that is going on over there in DC it is unbelievable they are going to get this pork laden, earmarked from hell, lobbyist and political payback bill pushed through straddling America with massive national debt and increasing our deficit to two or three times that of the last 8 years. Oh, and I can’t accept Barack’s EXCUSE of it was handed to him neatly packed and in a bow on day one, how pathetic is that? Leaders lead, not lie, cheat, talk out of both sides of their mouths and they sure as hell don’t go around laying blame and making excuses for it when the situation starts to turn on them. Every day this package is not passes is more time we get to peak inside and see how much more pork we can find, and thus far there has been enough to last our national food assistance program for years to come.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Buy American - Testing cooler heads and resolve as the insanity train keeps on rolling
It’s nice to see how so many highly positioned people in the American government are so clueless about how the modern world and its interconnected economies operate that they can start a storm in a tea cup. Senator Byron Dorgan D-ND and Rep Peter Visclosky D-IN both have sparked off an international debate that could well lead to a series of counterproductive nationalistic measures with their “Buy American” clause in the now $900 billion (and growing) US stimulus package. This has a real potential to slowing down global recovery and sending our current trading partners into stalled wheel spinning situation and possibly worse. President Obama is beginning to pull out the John Kerry style answers and flip flopping on the issue by endorsing it, remaining silent, and now weakly opposing it.
Senator Dorgan backtracked in USA Today and tried to explain himself more clearly, little good that did as the EU, Canada, Brazil, China, India, and others have all began to line up countermeasures and their own punishments against American if the already passed House bill passes the Senate and Obama signs it as is, and they all are strongly warning against it. Well Mr. Dorgan, I hope you are proud of yourself because the perception in the world is you are instituting protectionism policy and we all know perception is reality in the real world and not fantasy lefty bazaaro world where most liberal politicians live (exhibit 1 and 2, Pelosi and Reid). Their strong reactions all state clearly that these measures will not be taken lightly or sitting down but will be answered with action, so even if they are not intended to do such, thanks for the party Mr. Senator because you got it going on now!
Let’s look at what we can about the facts first. The passage in question is stated by its author as specifying that "if American tax dollars are used for construction or infrastructure work then domestically produced and manufactured goods need to be considered and used when all possible”, paraphrased of course. If you want to see how effective this is talk to the tax payers in San Francisco who funded a massive bridge repair and used similar policies and were fleeced out of $400 million that could have been used to fund any number of cockamamie liberal leftwing-nut ideas America’s most liberal city has. The state of California could sure use that $400 million now with their budget crisis, the worst of all 50 states! Reality is sure a bitch when it falls out of sync with ideal liberalism day dreams these rulling Democrats have. Sure the use of the steel in the bridge refitting project employed American steel workers, rail workers, and truckers, but how good of a deal was it?
The liberal Democrats are tripping all over themselves in Washington DC now trying to ‘save the day’ by nationalizing this or that, and spend spend spend our way out of the crisis so as to ‘not let a good crisis go to waste’. This particular buy American measure is just another shinning example of short sighted, illogical, out of touch with reality, (and in the pocket of lobbyist, special interest groups, and trade unions as well as how ignorant to how modern economies operate) these people passing our laws really are. Where is the ‘Hope and Change’? From here the government is being steered by the campaign contributors and special interest groups who funded the current lot of super liberals we have in power now instead of the ‘open, transparent, and accountable’ government we were all promised last fall. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction; politics is not exempt.
America, over the past 20 years, has made many trade pacts, treaties, and alliances we can not just back out of now, or afford to if we could. During this time the world has changed, modernized, and begun to raise in wealth, influence, and power. Europe has consolidated currencies and formed a super trade group we can not ignore. Emerging markets and rouge nations are exploiting their natural resources to fund expansion and projects we just don't want to see fulfilled. Our old enemies are striking allegiances to rebuild their power and they would love to see us crippled and isolated economically through this. We live in a global economy, period. Trying to turn back the clock now will disrupt the entire balance and spark off conflicts, digressions, and problems we really can not afford to see happen.
The benefactors of this buy American clause will be few and far between the much lauded 20,000 daily unemployed people Dorgan mentioned. Politicians may be many things, ignorant and stupid among them, but one thing they really know how to do and do well is to lie and manipulate those who elected them so smoothly it seems natural. Buy American and keep jobs here to help our people, they proclaim loudly. Sure, if Americans wanted to and could afford American made goods. Now this is the distracter they use to get deaf, dumb, and blind sheep of the masses to follow them. Their measure is mainly for the steel, concrete pre-fabrication, and construction industries. A real hard look at the jobs saved, created, and impact on the nation as a whole spells out the total opposite, net job loss!
How many of the 20,000 a day newly unemployed people can readily go to work in one of these fields today? 1,000, 500, 100? Steel workers are unionized, you have to join the union to get the job, and that could take years to go through plus the hassle of staying in a union. Concrete, its hard and dirty work, been there and done that and nearly ended up in the hospital for it. Construction, again mostly unionized, and they tightly limit the access to card carrying members only. So what jobs can be saved and how many real jobs can be created by this? How about saving this stimulus of tax payer money to put real SUSTAINABLE projects together? All the pork in this every expanding stimulus package is giving all us Americans high cholesterol and blood pressure and not a real long term survivability plan. Saving 5,000 steel jobs over the next year is great, but what about when the stimulus funds and programs run out? These steel workers will be on the unemployment lines then and have just delayed their fate by a few months. I keep saying it again and again, we can not compete with emerging markets cheap labor! Stop trying, instead shift the work force into a more highly trained, skilled, and educated one that can lead the world with new technologies, innovations, and specialties that emerging markets can’t! Stop clinging to the ways of the 20th century! Wasn’t this election about looking forward and not backward, oh sorry wrong party and candidate.
What are the pitfalls of this folly of protectionism? Domestic downturn as tax dollars are wasted and run out faster, unemployment is only staved off until demand runs dry when the projects are completed, goods made from these sectors will increase in price and production time as oversea supplies collapse as trade reprisals and spats escalate, WTO legal action, US based companies like GE (50% of their work comes from overseas contracts) Caterpillar, AIG, BoA, Met Life, Goodyear, etc. all loose market share and profits as oversea work erodes or goes away completely, allied trade partners break alliances and begin trading with the EU, rouge nations, or worse our enemies therefore strengthening opposition to American products, goods, and reputation abroad, America’s image as a fair and friendly nation, America’s reputation as a friend to emerging markets and supporter of human rights, numerous devastating and destabilizing humanitarian crisis as foreign economies weaken more and unemployment takes root in nations who just recently clawed their way out of poverty, oh, that is all I can think of off the top of my head.
The truth is the reaction to this action would be bad for not only America but for the world in the long term. The media is now pouncing on this as stupidity, LA Times, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and others all state this would set off global trade wars that could put is into worse economic climates for the foreseeable future. The independent Peterson Institute for International Economics has stated in a published review this week of the measure that is will cost America more jobs then it saves in the short term! Now Obama can smell the political decay of those backing the measure and is getting an earful from Canada, Briton, the EU, Brazil, China, and others that if this happens they will act, act swiftly, and act decisively to protect their own interests against America and he his scared of being part of it. In an ABC interview this week President Obama stated “I think that would be a mistake right now. That is a potential source of trade wars that we can’t afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe.”
Buy American was a great idea in the 1990’s, but we consumers laughed at it all the way to the bank as we passed up over priced union made goods for cheap labor foreign produced goods. Well, that was almost 20 years ago and we can’t reverse course now. In the light of the crisis we are in, if we tried to force the country or even cities to buy American then prices, inflation, and taxes would have to rise to such a degree Mexico would look at us with pity and shake their heads in dismay. Just as the times of that Great Depression saw the end of the agriculture age in American as farmers flooded cities for work and jobs, the paradigm is shifting again. Instead of fighting it we need to embrace it, learn from the mistakes of the past and put the majority of our current manufacturing sector into history where it belongs. Spend stimulus funds on re-education, high-tech job training, and American unique job sectors instead of extending unemployment, pork barrel pet projects that will only lead to higher taxes to sustain after the stimulus money is gone. Spend the money on modernizing our education and medical sectors so we can compete with superior education systems in China, Japan, India, and other nations who have passed us up on reading, science, and math and STOP dumbing down education because you think inner-city youth are not as smart. Yes, we need help now, but we need the right kind of help, not the kind that postpones the pain for 6 months to a year. Use the money to push the country into a new era, a 21st century era, an era where we can dominate and excel, not scrape by and follow the same path we have for the last 90 years because that is not progress, that is stagnation.
Typical of liberal leftwing thinking, they are putting the cart before the horse and not thinking beyond their current Senate or House terms to the long range impact and message this measure would make to the world. They are being bullied by their union cronies, lobbyist financiers, and fellow crackpots who can only think up good ideas while stoned, drunk, or half asleep in their vacation homes or cocktail parties. The world is much smaller then it was in 1930, 1980, 1990, or 2000. The cold hard reality is China is the largest holder of US currency, debt, and the only country who can and is willing to look at buying enough treasury bonds to keep the Pelosi’s, Reid’s, and Obama’s of the Democratic party in a job and our country from falling apart. The cold hard truth is that our national security and survival depends on the existing trade alliances we have and keeping them strong enough to withstand the temptation of our trade partners from making our enemies richer and more powerful.
We Americans have been the richest and most powerful nation on the planet for 60 years and we are the example for emerging countries. Our actions are felt far beyond our borders as this present economic mess painfully demonstrates. If we begin to turn our back on the world now, and doing this will signal that we are doing so, then we can expect to lose the small shred of credibility we have left and Mr. Obama and the liberals ran their campaign’s on the mantra of restoring our place in the world to a respectable and honorable nation, protectionism and perceived protectionism policies will accomplish just the opposite, we will look like spoiled brat, pick up our toys and go home when upset, children that we are.
Senator Dorgan backtracked in USA Today and tried to explain himself more clearly, little good that did as the EU, Canada, Brazil, China, India, and others have all began to line up countermeasures and their own punishments against American if the already passed House bill passes the Senate and Obama signs it as is, and they all are strongly warning against it. Well Mr. Dorgan, I hope you are proud of yourself because the perception in the world is you are instituting protectionism policy and we all know perception is reality in the real world and not fantasy lefty bazaaro world where most liberal politicians live (exhibit 1 and 2, Pelosi and Reid). Their strong reactions all state clearly that these measures will not be taken lightly or sitting down but will be answered with action, so even if they are not intended to do such, thanks for the party Mr. Senator because you got it going on now!
Let’s look at what we can about the facts first. The passage in question is stated by its author as specifying that "if American tax dollars are used for construction or infrastructure work then domestically produced and manufactured goods need to be considered and used when all possible”, paraphrased of course. If you want to see how effective this is talk to the tax payers in San Francisco who funded a massive bridge repair and used similar policies and were fleeced out of $400 million that could have been used to fund any number of cockamamie liberal leftwing-nut ideas America’s most liberal city has. The state of California could sure use that $400 million now with their budget crisis, the worst of all 50 states! Reality is sure a bitch when it falls out of sync with ideal liberalism day dreams these rulling Democrats have. Sure the use of the steel in the bridge refitting project employed American steel workers, rail workers, and truckers, but how good of a deal was it?
The liberal Democrats are tripping all over themselves in Washington DC now trying to ‘save the day’ by nationalizing this or that, and spend spend spend our way out of the crisis so as to ‘not let a good crisis go to waste’. This particular buy American measure is just another shinning example of short sighted, illogical, out of touch with reality, (and in the pocket of lobbyist, special interest groups, and trade unions as well as how ignorant to how modern economies operate) these people passing our laws really are. Where is the ‘Hope and Change’? From here the government is being steered by the campaign contributors and special interest groups who funded the current lot of super liberals we have in power now instead of the ‘open, transparent, and accountable’ government we were all promised last fall. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction; politics is not exempt.
America, over the past 20 years, has made many trade pacts, treaties, and alliances we can not just back out of now, or afford to if we could. During this time the world has changed, modernized, and begun to raise in wealth, influence, and power. Europe has consolidated currencies and formed a super trade group we can not ignore. Emerging markets and rouge nations are exploiting their natural resources to fund expansion and projects we just don't want to see fulfilled. Our old enemies are striking allegiances to rebuild their power and they would love to see us crippled and isolated economically through this. We live in a global economy, period. Trying to turn back the clock now will disrupt the entire balance and spark off conflicts, digressions, and problems we really can not afford to see happen.
The benefactors of this buy American clause will be few and far between the much lauded 20,000 daily unemployed people Dorgan mentioned. Politicians may be many things, ignorant and stupid among them, but one thing they really know how to do and do well is to lie and manipulate those who elected them so smoothly it seems natural. Buy American and keep jobs here to help our people, they proclaim loudly. Sure, if Americans wanted to and could afford American made goods. Now this is the distracter they use to get deaf, dumb, and blind sheep of the masses to follow them. Their measure is mainly for the steel, concrete pre-fabrication, and construction industries. A real hard look at the jobs saved, created, and impact on the nation as a whole spells out the total opposite, net job loss!
How many of the 20,000 a day newly unemployed people can readily go to work in one of these fields today? 1,000, 500, 100? Steel workers are unionized, you have to join the union to get the job, and that could take years to go through plus the hassle of staying in a union. Concrete, its hard and dirty work, been there and done that and nearly ended up in the hospital for it. Construction, again mostly unionized, and they tightly limit the access to card carrying members only. So what jobs can be saved and how many real jobs can be created by this? How about saving this stimulus of tax payer money to put real SUSTAINABLE projects together? All the pork in this every expanding stimulus package is giving all us Americans high cholesterol and blood pressure and not a real long term survivability plan. Saving 5,000 steel jobs over the next year is great, but what about when the stimulus funds and programs run out? These steel workers will be on the unemployment lines then and have just delayed their fate by a few months. I keep saying it again and again, we can not compete with emerging markets cheap labor! Stop trying, instead shift the work force into a more highly trained, skilled, and educated one that can lead the world with new technologies, innovations, and specialties that emerging markets can’t! Stop clinging to the ways of the 20th century! Wasn’t this election about looking forward and not backward, oh sorry wrong party and candidate.
What are the pitfalls of this folly of protectionism? Domestic downturn as tax dollars are wasted and run out faster, unemployment is only staved off until demand runs dry when the projects are completed, goods made from these sectors will increase in price and production time as oversea supplies collapse as trade reprisals and spats escalate, WTO legal action, US based companies like GE (50% of their work comes from overseas contracts) Caterpillar, AIG, BoA, Met Life, Goodyear, etc. all loose market share and profits as oversea work erodes or goes away completely, allied trade partners break alliances and begin trading with the EU, rouge nations, or worse our enemies therefore strengthening opposition to American products, goods, and reputation abroad, America’s image as a fair and friendly nation, America’s reputation as a friend to emerging markets and supporter of human rights, numerous devastating and destabilizing humanitarian crisis as foreign economies weaken more and unemployment takes root in nations who just recently clawed their way out of poverty, oh, that is all I can think of off the top of my head.
The truth is the reaction to this action would be bad for not only America but for the world in the long term. The media is now pouncing on this as stupidity, LA Times, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and others all state this would set off global trade wars that could put is into worse economic climates for the foreseeable future. The independent Peterson Institute for International Economics has stated in a published review this week of the measure that is will cost America more jobs then it saves in the short term! Now Obama can smell the political decay of those backing the measure and is getting an earful from Canada, Briton, the EU, Brazil, China, and others that if this happens they will act, act swiftly, and act decisively to protect their own interests against America and he his scared of being part of it. In an ABC interview this week President Obama stated “I think that would be a mistake right now. That is a potential source of trade wars that we can’t afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe.”
Buy American was a great idea in the 1990’s, but we consumers laughed at it all the way to the bank as we passed up over priced union made goods for cheap labor foreign produced goods. Well, that was almost 20 years ago and we can’t reverse course now. In the light of the crisis we are in, if we tried to force the country or even cities to buy American then prices, inflation, and taxes would have to rise to such a degree Mexico would look at us with pity and shake their heads in dismay. Just as the times of that Great Depression saw the end of the agriculture age in American as farmers flooded cities for work and jobs, the paradigm is shifting again. Instead of fighting it we need to embrace it, learn from the mistakes of the past and put the majority of our current manufacturing sector into history where it belongs. Spend stimulus funds on re-education, high-tech job training, and American unique job sectors instead of extending unemployment, pork barrel pet projects that will only lead to higher taxes to sustain after the stimulus money is gone. Spend the money on modernizing our education and medical sectors so we can compete with superior education systems in China, Japan, India, and other nations who have passed us up on reading, science, and math and STOP dumbing down education because you think inner-city youth are not as smart. Yes, we need help now, but we need the right kind of help, not the kind that postpones the pain for 6 months to a year. Use the money to push the country into a new era, a 21st century era, an era where we can dominate and excel, not scrape by and follow the same path we have for the last 90 years because that is not progress, that is stagnation.
Typical of liberal leftwing thinking, they are putting the cart before the horse and not thinking beyond their current Senate or House terms to the long range impact and message this measure would make to the world. They are being bullied by their union cronies, lobbyist financiers, and fellow crackpots who can only think up good ideas while stoned, drunk, or half asleep in their vacation homes or cocktail parties. The world is much smaller then it was in 1930, 1980, 1990, or 2000. The cold hard reality is China is the largest holder of US currency, debt, and the only country who can and is willing to look at buying enough treasury bonds to keep the Pelosi’s, Reid’s, and Obama’s of the Democratic party in a job and our country from falling apart. The cold hard truth is that our national security and survival depends on the existing trade alliances we have and keeping them strong enough to withstand the temptation of our trade partners from making our enemies richer and more powerful.
We Americans have been the richest and most powerful nation on the planet for 60 years and we are the example for emerging countries. Our actions are felt far beyond our borders as this present economic mess painfully demonstrates. If we begin to turn our back on the world now, and doing this will signal that we are doing so, then we can expect to lose the small shred of credibility we have left and Mr. Obama and the liberals ran their campaign’s on the mantra of restoring our place in the world to a respectable and honorable nation, protectionism and perceived protectionism policies will accomplish just the opposite, we will look like spoiled brat, pick up our toys and go home when upset, children that we are.
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