By Ben Howe VIA Red State
President Obama, it’s been almost three years. Three years since you ‘inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression.’ Three years since you busted out your ‘mop‘ to clean up this mess. Three years since you pushed through a trillion dollar spending bill that would fix everything.
Things are not better. They are worse. It’s time for you to stop passing the buck, stop blaming others, stop making excuses, and accept responsibility.
Own it, Mr. President.
President Obama’s 2012 budget was released on Valentine’s Day, just in time to break conservative hearts everywhere. How many times do we have to say that we want less spending before he’ll listen to us? It’s more frustrating than trying to make a phone call using AT&T Wireless.
The President’s self-proclaimed ‘responsible’ budget will double the national debt from $13.56 trillion to $26.3 trillion by the end of 2021. Keep in mind that neither contractors nor the government ever comes in under budget.
President Obama claims that his budget reduces spending. Someone needs to tell him that two plus two does not equal three. It’s true that Obama’s budget reduces discretionary spending. It does this byredefining Pell grants (government- sponsored college scholarships for poor kids) and surface transportation spending as mandatory spending. The budget also reduces spending in Iraq and Afghanistan by $38.2 billion in 2012.
Obama’s 2012 budget increases spending, and it increases taxes on job creators. Probably not the best idea in an economic climate where Americans believe that unemployment is the number one issue to be tackled. Remember, a boss has to pay his taxes from somewhere. She might have to let an employee or two go to foot the bill.
Read the rest at The Stir
In a post I wrote regarding Michelle Obama and her plans to parent our children for us, I remarked about her $495 Tory Burch gardening boots. A few of the comments wondered why I brought them up, and why, as acapitalist, would I have a problem with pricey shoes?
The boots were mentioned to remind readers of how out of touch with reality the First Lady is. The average American mama doesn’t have a single pair of shoes in her closet that cost that much, let alone gardening boots. When I’m inclined to work outdoors, I put on a pair of three-year-old sneakers that are practically falling apart.
Referring to the self-appointed mom-in-chief’s aloofness when it comes to relating to us regular moms was useful to drive home the point that she is not qualified to make our parenting decisions for us. Only the best for the Obamas, whether it’s boots, school, vacation, vacation, vacation, or vacation. The rest of us can eat cake. Or carrot sticks.
Read the rest at The Stir
The left loves illegal immigrants. Let’s make all the criminals that sneak into our country citizens, with full access to social services! The right loves legal immigrants. We say, let’s reform the system and let anyone (that isn’t a criminal) that wants a shot at the American dream to come on over.
Oh yeah, and let’s build a big fence with armed guards to keep the drug traffickers, sex slave traders, kidnappers, and murderers out.
You know what else the left loves? The European Union. Especially countries like Greece, where an extravagant redistribution of wealth in the name of social justice has bankrupt the entire country.
I wonder if liberals still love the EU since news leaked of their strict border enforcement policy. Greece is the entry point for 90% of illegal immigrants trying to make it into Western Europe. The EU sent 175 border agents with guns to the Greek border with Turkey, but the Greeks have deemed it insufficient:
The socialist government has recently announced that it plans to build a razor-wire fence along the border. It will, say officials, be equipped with sonar systems and thermal sensors and be modelled [sic] along the lines of similar “walls” in Spain, Lithuania and France.
“If we could have it up tomorrow, we would,” said Christos Papoutsis, the country’s minister for citizen protection. “Greece is not a paradise… it is in the midst of economic crisis, wages are going down, unemployment is surging and there is not enough work for our own people or the migrants who are already here. Our hope is that this fence will send a message.”
You can’t have socialism and open immigration. Two plus two does not equal five. Liberals in our country can’t have it both ways. Either you allow everyone in and give them a chance to make a living, or you batten down the hatches and tell would-be immigrants, “No soup for you!”
Personally, I favor the approach that made America great to begin with. Let them in. Give them property rights. Don’t punish success with excessive taxation. Let anyone willing to work for it come in and take a shot at the American dream. We might be welcoming the next Andrew Carnegie or Levi Strauss.
When I was little, my mama always taught me that actions speak louder than words. Co-opting a phrase from the most widely owned and read book in the world, she told me that I would be able to discern a tree by the fruit it bore.
In other words, talk is cheap.
I’ve been reminded of this so often over the past couple of years while watching the Obama administration. Barack Obama claimed to be forbetter education, and then he ended the DC voucher program. He said he wouldn’t hire lobbyists, and then he hired lobbyists. He said he wanted make sure every American had health insurance, then he gavewaivers to businesses so they wouldn’t have to provide health insurance for their employees. Anyone else notice a trend?
The latest round of hypocrisy has to do with energy. In 2008, then-Senator Obama vowed to implement a cap and trade law that would limit carbon emissions and ‘necessarily skyrocket’ energy costs. Unable to pass cap & tax through congress, President Obama has decided to do whatever he wants anyway by expanding EPA regulation. Since I’m remembering phrases from my childhood, ‘more than one way to skin a cat’ comes to mind.
For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency will regulate greenhouse gases from power plants and other major polluters — which will stifle growth, kill jobs, and raise the cost of electricity. But if you’re lucky, a polar bear will come hug you. Polar bear hugs are far superior to being able to turn on your heat in the middle of a snowpocalypse.
Read the rest at The Stir