It’s not that we have a deficit, we usually have had one, it’s that the deficit is 1.6 Trillion.
It’s not that we have illegal immigrants, we always have, it’s that the numbers are close to 20 million.
It’s not that we have debt, we always have, it’s that it is 14 Trillion.
It’s not that the stimulus package was passed, it’s that it was 787 billion.
It’s not that we passed TARP, it’s that no one understands it and it was projected to be 300 billion.
While the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS has said that Roe v Wade is settled law, we’ve had 50 million abortions plus since that decision.
It’s not that Iran supports terrorism, it’s that they do AND they are actively developing nuclear weapons.
And it’s not that we have unemployment, it’s that the rates range between 9.1% official and close to 17% in underemployed or those who have stopped looking for work.
It’s not that derivatives as a financial instrument exist, it’s that the notional value in the US is over 300 Trillion. No, dollars. 300 trillion. No, wait. It is that they exist.
We have some major issues and it’s not that have never had them; however, the scale of the issues we face as a nation is daunting. John King of CNN decides to ask “Spicy or Mild? Elvis or Johnny Cash?” John King or Intelligence?
So, if you plan on running for POTUS and you plan on making the front runner’s record as Governor of Massachusetts the primary difference between you two, you had better bring the haymaker. Pawlenty punted on first down. And shanked the punt to boot.
As I shared with you earlier, he’s not going to be president anyway, so in a way this kind of helps speed up the divvying up of his votes to those who remain in contention.
My top tier heading into the debate was, in alphabetical order, Cain – Huntsman – Perry and Romney. The others just will not win the general election. Again, not that they are bad people or are wrong on an issue, it’s just that they cannot beat Obama head to head.
To the nearest 10 million, guess how many more people voted in 2012 than voted in 1980. Try 45 million. Reagan won Independents (56%) Republicans -duh- (85%) whites (56%) and Catholics (52%) in 1980. He also got 14% of African Americans and 37% of Hispanics. Over 8 million more Hispanics voted in 2012 than in 1980 and over 7 million more African Americans voted in 2012 than 1980.
In other news ….
Al Qaeda has chosen Ayman Al Zawahiri to succeed Usama bin Missing The Back of My Skull. Apparently Al Qaeda does not announce vote totals or margins of victory.
Senator Claire McCaskill went on Frank Luntz’s show to speak with a focus group of Obama and McCain voters. She said DC needed to be able to compromise on issues to tackle our deficit and debt problems. Sen. McCaskill voted against ending ethanol subsidies. Three times. This week.
Sen. McCaskill also answered a member of the focus group who had agreed with Ronald Reagan’s policy of cutting taxes in order to get the economy growing by saying “but that started deficit spending”. Googled it. Wrong.
Since 1940 there have been 12 years in which the federal government has had a surplus. 12 out of 70 and it mysteriously began with Reagan. In fact, Bush II’s largest deficits were smaller when adjusted for inflation than the FDR/Truman budgets at the end of WWII. Not trying to compare our country’s plight today to the Second World War but Reagan is not to blame for deficit spending as a consistent policy of the federal government – which it is – regardless of party.
In other news….
Oprah has a dream that O.J. Simpson will confess to her to being a double murderer on her new network. She said this to a convention of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association in Chicago. Hmmm…Chicago. I wonder who else in a high position might have an opinion on that. Maybe Oprah should ask Obama what he thinks about O.J.
The president is going to announce a draw down of US troops in Afghanistan. For some reason he thinks this is deserving of a prime time Oval Office speech. He can’t do a press conference since he will draw questions on our military actions in Libya or Yemen sans Congressional approval as prescribed by law – that would be off message.
Real message – some laws are to be followed, others…well, it depends who you are.
In other news, the Obama Administration is trying to get the economy going by stopping Boeing from building planes in South Carolina. Apparently, this was not a recommendation of his photo op Jobs Council. Based on their recommendations, it’s clear that we will not be creating jobs anytime soon.
As the chief economist to the US Chamber of Commerce suggested on Christiane Amanpour’s show – “just get out of the way”.
In good news….the Joe Biden and Eric Cantor deficit and debt reduction talks seem to be making real progress. No seriously, they are.
An intrepid young freshman, and former colleague of mine, is enjoying his new job and taking up his time by *GASP* reading the bills. In one agriculture appropriations bill he found that someone actually wrote into the law a $75,000,000 appropriation for breastfeeding peer counseling. In the same paragraph, $7,500,000 was to be used for breastfeeding performance awards.
How the human race managed to get to 2011 AD without the US federal government all those years is beyond me. Apparently medical marijuana is very legal in DC, readily available and widely used.
Thankfully for Father’s Day, the family political scholar, my mom (3.92/Magna Cum Laude/2011 college grad!) gave me the book “The Quotable Hitchens”.
Christopher Hitchens is one of my favorite authors. Okay, he might just be my favorite.
No, I don’t agree with him all the time. Probably not even half the time. But his use and control of the English language is….well…let’s just say I would much prefer him to moderate the next GOP POTUS debate than have to endure John King again.
From a range of issues and people and ideas, Hitchens is brilliant and makes one think.
A lot. For instance –
“Just as no human being of average moral capacity could be indifferent to the sight of a woman being kicked in the stomach, so nobody could fail to be far more outraged if the woman in question were pregnant. Embryology confirms morality”.
“The decision to put an end to the regime of Saddam Hussein is the right one, and was also the only one…”
While not even close to being a fan of Reagan or Clinton, he also holds no affection for Gandhi or Mother Theresa. His description of Al Gore cannot be shared here, but it is jaw dropping. Oddly, as a leftist, he has respect and admiration for William F Buckley and Pope John Paul II.
I say leftist but he was excommunicated by the Left after the Iraq War. He really is a man of his own thoughts and really doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
His praise of Washington and Jefferson should be shared…but you really should get the book. There is too much to be challenged in your own thinking to let this chance be encapsulated here.
Had he been on stage behind one of the podiums at the GOP debate in Nashua, he no doubt would have delighted in having a drink and a cigarette while eviscerating an unknowing John King all the while trying to figure out why any of his compatriots on stage were actually there.
Oh, right….New Hampshire. Yeah. Romney will win that state.
Hitchens on the Subprime/Derivative “horror show” as he calls it ” everybody was promised everything and almost everybody fell for the populist bait”.
Here’s to more thought and less populous bait at the next debate.
Column by Chris Saxman
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