OK, OK! So I took a few days off! Sue me!
(*GRIN*)
The labor day weekend... the Doctor Who marathon prior to the start of the new season... vacation planning... the U.S. Open... football season... nieces, nephews, godchildren, and assorted friends' kids returning to school...
(*HEAVY EXHALE*)
Oh... and some actual income producing work thrown in!
Anyway... how's this for a blast from the past newsbites theme song for today?
(Yeah... I knew you'd dig that one!)
Oh... politics? Fine. How'bout this as an illumination of who the Democrats (the ones in power... the ones controlling the Democratic Party) represent:
Don't like the source? Tough. The bottom line is that this is true... the video/audio evidence is what it is. As far as I can tell, both the news reporting and analysis are absolutely spot on.
* * * * * *
The original 2012 Democratic Party Platform had excised
all mention of God and Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.
Yep... the Platform Committee... representing a microcosm
of the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and will of the Democratic electorate...
deliberately removed all mention of God and all acknowledgement of Jerusalem
being the capital of Israel from their party's platform.
Last night, the Democratic National Committee suspended
the rules of the convention and inserted language regarding God and the State
of Israel back to its Platform. They had to vote three times to do it – and
they had to lie to "deem" it passed, even though it was clear that
the measure did not pass a voice vote in the chamber.
Yep. Disgusting. The fix was clearly in. The political
professionals obviously saw the writing on the wall evident from initial public
reaction to the Democratic Party Platform "reforms" and decided a
quick retreat - a 180-degree "unreform" - was in the best interests
of the President's re-election effort and indeed would best serve the party's
short-term interests.
Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio made the motion to change
the platform:
This summer, I was proud to serve this party as the Platform
Drafting Committee Chair. I came before you today to discuss the two important
matters related to our party's national platform. As an ordained United
Methodist Minister, I am here to attest and affirm that our faith and belief in
God is central to the American story and informs the value we have expressed in
our party's Platform. In addition, President Obama recognizes Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel and our party's Platform should as well. Mr. Chairman, I have
submitted my amendment in writing and I believe it is being projected on the
screen for the delegates to see. I move adoption of the amendment as submitted
and shown to the delegates.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, the head of
the Democratic National Convention, got up and asked for a two-thirds vote on
the amendments to the Platform. He took a voice vote, with people stating aloud
“aye” and “nay.”
The first time, he couldn’t determine if two-thirds of
the voters had said “aye”; a loud “no” vote was heard. He asked for a second
vote.
The second time, he couldn’t determine whether the voice
vote had passed. Again. Villaraigosa looked around in confusion.
Finally, on the third attempt, Villaraigosa took a voice
vote and simply declared, in the “opinion of the chair,” that it had been
passed.
There were widespread boos in the convention hall to the
renewed inclusion of God and language about Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
And Villaraigosa was lying, in any case; there is no way
that the voice vote had passed. Opponents stood up and protested, waving and
shouting. The fix was in. The Democratic leadership had to ram a mention of God
and a mention of Jerusalem through, violating their own rules, to avoid the
fallout within their own ranks.
Exactly right! Again... the video/audio doesn't lie!
Folks... forgive the pun, but... "For God's
Sake"... (*RUEFUL SMILE*)... isn't the sheer, stunning, unrestrained hypocrisy
of it nauseating?
If they'd stuck to their guns... stuck to their principles...
stuck to the basic rules of parliamentary procedure and an honest
acknowledgement of the clear failure of the voice vote to give the
"unreformers" the permission they sought to "unreform" the
platform...
(*SIGH*)
Sources also report that the language was changed
"to reflect the president's personal view."
This is bull.
President Obama has never recognized Jerusalem as
Israel's capital, and neither has his spokesperson or State Department.
True, folks... as far as I know... all true...
President Obama has never taken a public position against
the so-called "right of return," which would destroy Israel as a
Jewish state.
Again... true as far as I know!
And he has publicly stated that Israel should use the
1949 armistice lines as the baseline of any future negotiations.
(*NOD*)
This was obviously a political move designed to prevent
disillusioned Jewish voters from leaving the Democratic voters in droves.
And as to removing - and then at the behest of the
Democratic pollsters "reinstating" - God into the Platform... I doubt
many Christians... many Jews... or many Muslims... will be fooled.
Folks... today's Democratic Party doesn't simply
stand for secularism uber alles; today's Democratic Party is actively hostile
to the Judeo-Christian ethics and values this nation was founded upon.
10 comments:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48905756
The United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world's most competitive economies, according to a World Economic Forum survey released on Wednesday.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The survey, which has been conducted annually for over three decades, ranks the competitiveness of 144 countries based on 12 key indicators including infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, labor market efficiency and innovation.
[America in the Age of Obama], which was placed 5th last year, fell two positions to the 7th spot - marking its fourth year of decline.
* FOUR YEARS OF DECLINE, HMM? NOW WHY DOES THAT NUMBER - "FOUR YEARS" - (AS IN "THE LAST FOUR YEARS") RESONATE SO...?
(*SMIRK*)
Political deadlock over reducing the unsustainable federal government budget deficit – projected to hit $1.1 trillion this year – prompted Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating by one notch to AA+ from AAA last August.
* YEP! THE OBAMA ECONOMY IN ACTION!
* SO, FOLKS... FOUR MORE YEARS...? REALLY...?!
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.washingtonguardian.com/outsource-outrage
President Obama has made outsourcing a campaign issue and yet his jobs council - which is supposed to come up with policies to create more American jobs - is full of executives whose companies import a lot of material from overseas.
* AND ENGAGE IN A HUGE AMOUNT OF OURSOURCING OF JOBS AS WELL! (BUT THIS PARTICULAR ARTICLE STICKS TO THE IMPORT ISSUE...)
While President Barack Obama has attacked Mitt Romney for advising businesses that outsourced jobs, many of the executives on the president's own jobs creation council run or advise companies that import cheaper overseas goods instead of buying American alternatives, U.S. trade records show.
Commerce Department import records reviewed by the Washington Guardian show the companies affiliated with the 23 active and 3 ex-officio members of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness imported 12,366 shipments from China alone - totaling more than 20 billion pounds in weight - during the 18 months since they began advising the White House in January 2011.
[Obama Jobs Council Chairman] Jeffrey Immelt is CEO of technology giant General Electric. GE has received at least 1,500 shipments of Chinese goods since the Jobs Council began meeting, including a number of electrical and mechanical components such as refrigerator spare parts, water valves, and wind turbine parts. GE has been one of the largest importers of Chinese steel, including about 185 tons of stainless steel bars in the past year alone.
Chemical giant DuPont, which reported more than 1,400 shipments of Chinese imports over the last 18 months, told the Washington Guardian it gets about a third of its supply chain outside the United States.
Boeing, whose CEO, Jim McNerney, serves on both the Jobs Council and as chairman of the President’s Export Council, says it is Beijing's largest customer for aviation parts and boasts on its Web site that it has “manufacturing, service and technology partnerships" with companies around the world, including “contracts with 22,000 suppliers and partners globally.”
And the Hyatt Hotel chain - tied to major Obama fundraiser and Jobs Council member Penny Pritzker - imported from China and Singapore at least 83 shipments with 300 tons of chairs, sofas and safes enclosed in 4,500 crates.
White House and Obama campaign officials declined to comment...
(*SMIRK*)
But the single biggest importer in terms of shipments on the council has been Estee Lauder. Council member Richard Parsons sits on the board of the cosmetics company. The business received 2,800 shipments from China, including plastic bottles, paper boxes, and lipstick cases.
GE and Estee Lauder did not return calls or emails seeking comment.
(*SNICKER*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Democrats, while silent about the import records of the Jobs Council members, have said Romney would be an “outsourcer in chief,” citing his time as a corporate turnaround expert at Bain Capital, when he advised companies that in some cases shipped jobs overseas. The first prime-time speaker on the opening night of the Democratic convention, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, attacked Romney and running mate Paul Ryan on the issue. (Obama started the effort earlier this summer, when he unleashed a series of ads that declared "America doesn't need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office.")
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD AT THE SHEER HYPOCRISY*)
The Obama administration [claims to have] created some gains in domestic manufacturing jobs while aggressively pursuing trade complaints against China over steel and renewable energy technologies. The complaints accuse Beijing of unfair practices such as dumping and excessive government subsidies. The United States has prevailed in many of the cases. But the trade gap has only widened.
Americans imported nearly $36 billion in goods from China in June alone, four times as much the $8.5 billion they exported to Beijing, according to Commerce Department records.
The annualized trade deficit with Beijing in 2011 stood just over $295 billion, a record high.
While it is impossible from the trade records to calculate how many jobs Americans lost from the shipments tied to Jobs Council members, government data analyzed by the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute details the decade-long toll Chinese imports have taken on the U.S. economy: The imbalance with China has eliminated or displaced about 2.7 million jobs in America - or about 2% of the workforce in the sectors affected - since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, according to the think tank's analysis of Commerce Department trade records.
(*SIGH*)
* IT'S THE HYPOCRISY, FOLKS...
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Man-Shot-Killed-While-Driving-Dan-Ryan-168744136.html?dr
A man was shot and killed Wednesday night while driving [in Chicago] onto the Dan Ryan Expressway, police said.
The 25-year-old, identified as Larry Porter of the 10000 block of South Parnell Avenue, was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee onto the southbound expressway just before midnight at 87th Street when shots were fired from another car, police said.
The driver was struck in the head. He lost control of the vehicle, crashing into an auto parts store in the 8600 block of South Lafayette Avenue, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The front seat passenger was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
* FOLKS... I'M NOT AN EXPERT ON CHICAGO GEOGRAPHY, BUT I'M ASSUMING THIS IS A ROAD WHERE NORMAL, LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS TRAVEL. IMAGINE YOU'RE DRIVING ON THAT ROAD... WRONG TIME... WRONG PLACE...
(*SHRUG*)
Police closed the 87th Street ramp for several hours to investigate. Authorities continue looking for the shooter.
The incident marks the latest shooting this summer in Chicago.
* CHICAGO. A DEMOCRATIC CITY IN A DEMOCRATIC STATE. OBAMA'S CITY. RAHM EMANUEL'S CITY.
(*SHRUG*)
Over the holiday weekend, two people were killed and 24 injured...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
...and nine were killed and 37 injured the weekend before.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
In response, the city again partnered with federal patrol, gang, narcotics and vice units, as well as the United States Marshals Service, to curb crime in more violence-prone neighborhoods.
* BUT... BUT... WHERE ARE THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS...?!
"We're making efforts I think to reduce the gang conflict, because it's gang-on-gang issues," Emanuel said Sunday on "Meet the Press." "It doesn't affect the whole city, but anywhere it happens we're going to be dealing with it."
* ACTUALLY... YEAH... IT DOES EFFECT THE WHOLE CITY. WHAT THAT SCUMBAG EMANUAL WAS REALLY SAYING WAS THAT IT MAINLY EFFECTS POOR BLACKS AND HISPANICS.
(*SNORT*) (*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Emanuel, who spoke Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention, shortened his trip to Charlotte to monitor a potential teachers strike ahead of next week's strike deadline. The Chicago GOP called on him to skip the speech entirely.
"While violence rages in the streets of several Chicago neighborhoods and teachers threaten a walkout, our Mayor is paying attention to the wrong things," read a statement.
* FRANKLY... SOUNDS LIKE A FAIR SHOT. (FORGIVE THE PUN...)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/israeli-ambassador-rebukes-dnc-chair_651629.html
Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed on Monday that Israel’s ambassador to the United States has accused Republicans of being “dangerous” to Israel by criticizing President Obama’s record.
* QUOTING: “We know, and I’ve heard no less than Ambassador Michael Oren say this, that what the Republicans are doing is dangerous for Israel.”
The Florida congresswoman made the charge at a training session for Jewish Democrats held by the Obama campaign here at the Democratic National Convention, aimed at teaching Jewish Democrats how to convince their fellow Jews to vote for Obama.
(*SNORT*)
Much of the session, which featured a string of speakers from the Obama campaign, was devoted to defending Obama’s record on Israel. During her talk, Wasserman Schultz said that Republicans, who “can’t get anywhere with our community on domestic issues” instead “do everything they can to lie and distort and mischaracterize this president’s stellar record on Israel.”
* AND... SPEAKING OF LYING...
(*DRUM ROLL*)
Ambassador Michael Oren just released this statement: "I categorically deny that I ever characterized Republican policies as harmful to Israel. Bipartisan support is a paramount national interest for Israel, and we have great friends on both sides of the aisle."
* FOLKS... THE DEMS ARE GONNA LIE AND LIE AND LIE AND LIE... AND THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS GONNA PROVIDE COVER.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bc1cf132-f831-11e1-bec8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz25jZMigCL
Barack Obama’s chances of re-election as U.S. president rose on Thursday and the words that did it were not his but Mario Draghi’s.
* WHAT THEY'RE GETTING AT IS THAT THE OLIGARCHS ARE ABOUT TO ARTIFICIALLY "STIMULATE" WALL STREET AND WORLD BANKING VIA CREATING YET MORE UNSUSTAINABLE DEBT AND CREATING A NEW STOCK MARKET BUBBLE. (REMEMBER THE HOUSING BUBBLE? IT WAS REAL. THAT'S WHY IT POPPED!)
Long before Mr. Obama stood up to accept the Democratic nomination in Charlotte, North Carolina, the head of the European Central Bank had sketched out a new plan to buy the bonds of troubled eurozone countries.
Mr. Draghi has lowered the gravest of risks to Mr. Obama: a pre-election meltdown in the eurozone that would have blown up banks, pulverised Wall Street, and routed a fragile U.S. economy back into recession.
* FOLKS... THEY'RE ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE... KNOWINGLY! THEY'RE KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD!
[A] eurozone implosion would create economic odds too great for Mr. Obama to surmount.
* FOLKS... (*TEARS LITERALLY WELLING UP*)
Behind the scenes, Mr Obama’s economic team has spent much of the past year fretting about the eurozone, and working every diplomatic angle to push the Europeans towards a credible solution.
* BUT THIS IS NOT A "CREDIBLE" SOLUTION. AND THEY KNOW IT. THAT'S WHAT'S SO FRUSTRATING. THESE BASTARDS ARE WILLING TO KEEP ON POURING GASOLINE ON THE FIRE TILL THE ENTIRE WORLD ECONOMY IS ENGULFED... AND OBAMA'S PRIMARY CONCERN IS TO WIN RE-ELECTION AND IF THE PRICE THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD PAYS IS A WORLDWIDE GREAT DEPRESSION... AS LONG AS IT CAN BE DELAYED TILL AFTER THE ELECTION OBAMA'S APPARENTLY OK WITH THAT. IT'S DISGUSTING.
Markets rallied strongly...
* OF COURSE THEY RALLIED STRONGLY! A BUBBLE IS BEING CREATED WITH NEW DEBT! ALL THE MIDDLEMEN ARE GETTING A PIECE OF THE TRANSACTION PIE! THIS WON'T CREATE JOBS... ALL IT'LL CREATE IS MORE GOVERNMENT DEBT WHILE ENRICHING THE WALL STREETERS AND BANKERS WHO PROFIT OFF OF SELLING AND TRADING THE PAPER! (REMEMBER THE HOUSING RALLY...?!?! REMEMBER THE ORIGINAL DOT COM RALLY...? REMEMBER THE ROARING '20's PRIOR TO THE CRASH OF '29? JEEZUS, PEOPLE... DON'T YOU SEE WHAT THEY'RE DOING...?!?!)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/state-dept-again-refuses-name-capital-israel_651863.html
* IN LINE WITH TODAY'S NEWSBITES FRONT PAGE OBSERVATIONS... YEAH... THE DEMS LIED. READ THE TRANSCRIPT. INDEED, THE ARTICLE INCLUDES A LINK TO THE OFFICIAL STATE DEPARTMENT TRANSCRIPT - READ THAT IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT THE WEEKLY STANDARD IS REPORTING ACCURATELY AND IN CONTEXT.
(*SHRUG*)
* REMINDER.... FROM TODAY'S NEWSBITES FRONT PAGE: "President Obama recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and our party's Platform should as well." -- Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio addressing the Democratic Convention yesterday.
* NOW... FROM TODAY'S STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS BRIEFING:
QUESTION: On Israel?
MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.
QUESTION: Which city does the U.S. Government recognize as the capital in the – Israel?
MR. VENTRELL: Well, as you know, longstanding Administration policy, both in this Administration and in previous administrations across both parties, is that the status of Jerusalem is an issue that should be resolved in final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. So that’s longstanding Administration policy and continues to be so.
QUESTION: I mean, no city is recognized as a capital by the U.S. Government?
MR. VENTRELL: Again, I just stated our position, and it’s one we’ve said here many times before.
QUESTION: That means Jerusalem is not a part of Israel?
MR. VENTRELL: What it means is that the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in final status negotiations.
QUESTION: But you do have an Embassy in a city which is not Jerusalem.
MR. VENTRELL: Our Embassy is in Tel Aviv, and we have a Consulate General in Jerusalem.
QUESTION: Right. But I mean, if you have an Embassy, usually it’s in the capital; so therefore, it would appear that you believe that Tel Aviv is the capital.
MR. VENTRELL: What we believe is that the status of Jerusalem should be determined in final status negotiations between the two parties. And currently, our Embassy is in Tel Aviv.
QUESTION: Are there any other countries in the world where the U.S. doesn’t know what the capital is or won’t say what the capital of a country is?
QUESTION: What does the U.S. think the capital of Israel is? What do you --
MR. VENTRELL: As I’ve just said, we believe that the status of Jerusalem is an issue that should be resolved in final status --
QUESTION: I’m not asking you that question. I’m asking you what you think the capital is.
MR. VENTRELL: And my response is that Jerusalem is an issue that should be resolved in final status negotiations.
QUESTION: She didn’t ask about Jerusalem, though.
MR. VENTRELL: Look, this is something we’ve been through at this podium. Toria has been through it before. We’ve repeated it many times. You know what the position is. It hasn’t changed for decades.
QUESTION: Wait, I know that. And I don’t want to play the verbal game, I’m just very curious if you actually have a position about a capital of that country. And if you don’t, if – I just would like to hear you say you don’t.
MR. VENTRELL: Well, right now, Nicole...
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. VENTRELL: -- the situation is that we have an Embassy in Tel Aviv that represents our interests with the Government of Israel but that the issue of Jerusalem is one that has to be resolved between the two parties. That’s all I can say on this.
Anything else? Thank you.
* PRETTY FRIGGIN' CLEAR, FOLKS! THE U.S. GOVERNMENT... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION... DOES NOT... REPEAT, NOT... RECOGNIZE JERUSALEM AS THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL. NOW WHETHER WE SHOULD OR SHOULDN'T IS UP FOR DISCUSSION AND DEBATE. BUT WHAT'S NOT UP FOR DEBATE IS THE FACT THAT STRICKLAND AND VILLARAIGOSA LIED. THEY BALDFACED LIED. IT'S A PATTERN, FOLKS.
* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444914904577615392065706990.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Democrats in Charlotte are pounding away at the "savage" budget cuts that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan supposedly favor and their phantom plan for "raising taxes on the middle class," as President Obama puts it.
The truth is the opposite, but table that for a moment. The President seems not to realize his critique is really a scorching if implicit indictment of his own time in office.
Think about his logic like this: Mr. Ryan's House budget details a long-range plan to equalize spending and tax revenues without — ahem — raising tax rates. But if such fiscal restraint is as deep and draconian as Mr. Obama claims, then as a matter of arithmetic the White House must favor a tax increase of an equal size, or something close to it, in order to pay for the amount of government he wants to sustain.
* RIGHT? LOGICAL? MAKES SENSE...??? (RE-READ IF NECESSARY.)
The nearby chart dramatizes this reality.
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AP726_1wedge_D_20120905181504.jpg
It shows the accumulation of outstanding debt as a share of the economy in the modern era. This is debt held by the public — the kind the country has to pay back to bond investors, and not the IOUs that one part of the government owes to another part.
(These debt projections are highly speculative, and faster economic growth would do a great deal to mitigate them. But we offer them to help readers compare the Ryan and Obama budget visions.)
For reference, the top line shows the Congressional Budget Office's "alternative fiscal scenario," which it considers the most realistic prediction if current tax and spending policies continue. In that model, debt grows two times as large as GDP by 2037 and the economy crashes. Not good.
Barely better is Mr. Obama's 2013 budget, which is the second line from the top.
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 3)
The White House purports to "stabilize" the deficit and therefore the debt boom over the next decade.
After four consecutive $1 trillion-plus deficits and a more than 70% leap in publicly held debt since Mr. Obama's inauguration, that's a pretty modest goal.
But even discounting the usual accounting gimmicks that the White House uses to show this "stability," check out the fine print. There, the document concedes that beyond 2022 "the fiscal position gradually deteriorates" and the deficit "continues to rise for the next 75 years, and the publicly held debt is also projected to rise persistently relative to GDP."
* AGAIN, FOLKS... RE-READ IF NECESSARY - BUT MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS.
In other words, Mr. Obama's budget does not change the spending and debt trajectory.
(*NOD*)
Even in this "best-case" scenario - by Mr. Obama's own lights - debt soon exceeds the 112.7% debt-to-GDP high-water mark in 1945, incurred to win a war for civilization across the world.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
The U.S. would now be taking on a larger liability — well above the 90% ratio that most economists consider the general boundary between safety and crisis — simply because the political class refused to modernize the entitlement state that drives the debt.
(*NOD*)
Mr. Ryan's budget, as shown by the third line, would gradually reduce debt by 36% relative to the status quo by the end of the decade, by 59% in 2030 and 80% less by 2040.
* YEP. THESE ARE THE "SAVAGE" CUTS... THE "DRACONIAN" CUTS YOU HEAR ABOUT.
* FRANKLY, THE RYAN PLAN MAKES ME NEARLY AS SICK AS THE OBAMA PLAN, BUT THAT SAID... OF THE TWO EVILS... OBAMA'S IS CLEARLY THE GREAT EVIL.
No question that requires reforms that by conventional political standards are large.
* MEANING NOT LARGE. MEANING TIMID. MEANING PATHETIC AND IRRESPONSIBLE... BUT LESS IRRESPONSIBLE THAN OBAMA'S PLAN - WHICH JUST GROWS AND GROWS AND GROWS THE DEBTS DECADE AFTER DECADE.
Mr. Ryan's major contribution has been to expose the illusion that Mr. Obama's re-election campaign rests on: pretending that raising taxes on a few thousand "millionaires and billionaires" can fund an ever-growing government.
The shaded wedge represents the smallest possible tax increase Mr. Obama would need to achieve the same fiscal balance as Mr. Ryan — except that in his budget spending would be at a quarter of the economy and climbing fast.
(And that's by the White House's own most optimistic projections. The reality will be far messier.)
Every time Mr. Obama warns about Mr. Ryan "gutting" this or that "investment," what he's not saying, but is unavoidably implying, is that taxes must be far higher to finance this spending. Assuming he can read the budget tables, he knows the government has made promises it cannot mathematically keep — but he hopes nobody notices.
* HARSH? YES! SNARKY? YES! TRUE...? YES! YES! YES! UNDENIABLY SO!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 3 of 3)
* FOLKS... READ THE FOLLOWING VERY CAREFULL:
Mr. Ryan had an instructive colloquy with Tim Geithner on this point in February.
Ryan noted that the Administration doesn't "have a plan to make good" on the promises the political class has made to voters.
Geithner replied, "As I said, we're not disagreeing in that sense. I made it absolutely clear that what our budget does is get our deficit down to a sustainable path over the budget window."
Mr. Ryan: "And then it takes off."
Mr. Geithner: "Let's ask ourselves why they take off again. Why do they do that?"
Mr. Ryan: "Because we have 10,000 people retiring every day and health-care costs going up."
Mr. Geithner: "That's right. . . . We're not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is that we don't like yours."
* JEEZUS... FOLKS... THE WSJ ISN'T MAKING THIS UP! THIS IS A FRIGGIN' TRANSCRIPT!
The only omission in Mr. Geithner's remarkable candor is that Democrats do have a plan... kind of. As debt continues to build, at some point U.S. creditors will lose confidence in the Treasury's ability to repay. Then Democrats and even some Republicans will impose a European-style value-added tax or another money machine to appease the bond markets.
* YEP!
What voters should know is that this taxing big bang won't only hit the affluent. Far from it. For evidence, consult a recent study by Eric Toder, Jim Nunns and Joseph Rosenberg of the Tax Policy Center. We know this Brookings-Urban Institute shop has credibility with liberals, because it is the source of the fiction that the Romney-Ryan team wants to boost middle-class taxes. The researchers looked at how high income-tax rates would have to rise in the top two or even three tax brackets to lower debt to sustainable levels under something akin to CBO's alternative fiscal scenario. They conclude that even if the top rates hit 100%, the budget "cannot achieve the debt-reduction targets in some or any of the target years." Though conceding that near-total confiscation is "completely unrealistic," they report the results anyway "to indicate the infeasibility of achieving a high debt-reduction target simply by increasing top individual income tax rates."
And this is from economists who favor higher taxes.
(*BLOOD PRESSURE SHOOTING THROUGH THE ROOF*)
Another way of putting it is that the rich aren't nearly rich enough to finance Mr. Obama's spending ambitions. Sooner rather than later, Washington will come for the middle class, because that's where the real money is.
(*NOD*)
Another thing Mr. Obama likes to say is that Messrs. Romney and Ryan "know their economic plan is not popular." Perhaps he can read minds, but at least they have a plan they're willing to put before voters. The President knows that voters won't like his, which is why he isn't honest about it.
* FOLKS... DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT OUR KIDS? DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT OUR GRANDCHILDREN TO BE?
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