There's My Two Cents: American Economy: Suicide Watch

The weekend was a busy one for our spend-happy Senate. I'll try to sum up for you the current state of affairs in regard to our economy. I think it's safe to say that we have a full-blown suicide watch in effect.

The full text of the bill (with the GOP sell-out amendment) was made public late Saturday night, and a vote is scheduled sometime tonight. Thus, everyone has almost two whole days to read, analyze, and digest this 778-page tome before voting on it. It's a good thing it's not significant or anything; otherwise, there might be cause for concern about rushing things just a wee bit.

Still intent on forcing through the Generational Theft Act/Porkapalooza Bill, Obama continues to spout hysterical warnings of imminent doom if the Senate doesn't give him what he wants:

In his weekly presidential address, President Obama said the abysmal jobs numbers released Friday compel the Senate to pass his stimulus bill or risk a "national catastrophe."

Thanks for avoiding the politics of fear. That's very helpful, especially right now. One of the lesser publicized problems with this current recession is not so much the layoffs as the lack of hiring going on:

Isidore quotes Robert Brusca of FAO Economics as saying that “fear is running the show right now,” and small wonder. Instead of trying to calm the nation, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi have transformed themselves into Chicken Littles, abandoning FDR’s “All we have to fear is fear itself” in favor of “We’re all going to DIE!” Why? Their stimulus package keeps losing support, and only fear can propel it to passage, but that same hysteria has employers locking their doors, which creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic doom.

But, once again, political expediency determines how they spin things, and that means generating as much fear as possible. I predict to you the following things:
- the harsh rhetoric and fear-mongering will ramp up until this thing is signed into law
- in the meantime, it's not as bad as they say it is (actually, this isn't a prediction, it's a statement of fact)
- immediately after it is signed into law (assuming it goes through), they will suddenly become confident and 'in control' again, speaking positively about what's happening
- they'll cover up the true damage to the economy for so long that it will be too late for most people to do anything about it

This whole thing is also that much more foul in the context that Obama's own Congressional Budget Office is now saying that we'll pull out of this recession in 2009 without the 'stimulus' package!

On top of that, one of Obama's top advisers, Larry Summers, has more or less admitted that it's a purely political ploy:

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will postpone until Tuesday his new plan to boost the financial system with the rest of the $700 billion bailout money, one of President Obama's top economic advisers said on Sunday.

Lawrence Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, said on "This Week with George Stephanopolous" that the White House wants to keep the focus on the roughly $800 billion fiscal stimulus package making its way through Congress.

The unspoken conclusion here is that they know that the American people don't want this bill and don't buy the goods these hacks are selling, and that without a continued state of hysteria to ramrod this thing down our throats, they know it's dead. Otherwise, why would they delay the announcement of more TARP bailout funds until after the Senate votes on the Theft/Pork bill Monday night?

The sell-out Republicans seem to have been bought off by a few billion dollars. There's some 'tough' talk about getting rid of the pork, but that's an absolute joke (as you have seen for yourself if you've been following this blog over the past week) since this thing is almost ALL pork. And here's where we have to once again open up the Stupid Chronicles...several Democrat Senators are saying that all of the 'pork' that has been 'cut out' of the Theft/Pork bill will be added back into normal spending bills later on.

How can these Republican Senators be so utterly devoid of anything resembling the hint of a shred of intelligence?!

Republican Sen. Inhofe suggested that this bill was 93% pork and 7% stimulus. I guess that's why the Democrats like it so much. Also on the subject of pork, the final Senate bill came out at $827 billion, a full $7 billion more expensive than the House's bill. Now, which number do you think the final version will use? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too.

Oh, and by the way, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid admits this thing is almost $1 trillion (translate: it will be by the time they're through with it), that he thinks it's not big enough, and that he's thrilled about it. No, I'm not joking...the Democrats are genuinely excited because they're one vote away from destroying the American economy and thus cementing their leadership of a sinking ship (apparently the fact that the ship is sinking is of little importance to them):

To answer the question of capitalism versus socialism, I submit to you this video of eminent economist Milton Friedman. Tremendously good stuff:

Bingo.

Another odious detail that you won't hear reported on the mainstream media is that the Democrats fully intend to give 'stimulus' checks to illegal aliens:

GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions and Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson attempted several times to bring their bipartisan amendment to the floor last week. SA 239 would require local governments and businesses that receive porkulus money to use the federal E-Verify citizenship check system.

On the House side, a long term extension of the E-Verify program passed there 407-2 (Conservative Oasis).
But Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow it to come to the floor.

It's a bipartisan amendment. It passed almost unanimously in the House. It will give millions of dollars to illegal aliens who shouldn't be here, are breaking the law, and draining the economy all at the same time. And the Democrats won't even entertain a vote on it. When is America going to learn that the Democrat party is no longer on the side of the American people?

This bill is true madness. It will destroy the American economy with unrepayable debt, massive expansions of government through massive new entitlements, and entrench the power of Democrats who are some of the most radical Leftist, socialist operators in the world.

And guess what? Yep, you got it...it gets worse.

Amidst all this wrangling over the Theft/Pork bill, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced that they will once again loosen credit requirements for homeowners wishing to refinance their loans.

WHAT?!

That's precisely the thing that started this whole meltdown in the first place!!!

So, naturally, we should do it again. And the Democrats in charge are pushing it again.

The one good piece of news is that the Obamessiah's approval ratings are dropping almost as fast as most people's 401k values:

Obama's approval rating continues to drop like it's hot.
Rasmussen reported today:

"Overall, 59% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance so far while 39% disapprove. Today’s results mark the first time that Obama’s overall rating has fallen below 60% as either President-elect or President."
This chart shows yesterday's slide:

Today Obama is down another 3 points in the overall spread.

Obama was at 69 (approve) to 28 (disapprove) on January 4th.
All it took was one month, a few tax cheats, expanding abortion funding, closing Gitmo, moving the US Census to the White House, putting 25,000 US companies at risk and the most expensive piece of legislation in American history to drive his numbers southward to 59-39.
That's all.

If you're curious to see where your Senators stand, go here.

So, where does that leave us? Despite 90% (or more) of the flood of contacts that Americans all over the country are dumping onto the Senate being angry and in opposition to this bill, our Senators are still going to push the gun down the throat of the American economy. So, we have less than one day left to irritate the crap out of our Senators in the hopes that they will find their brains and spines at the same time. Call them as many times as you can, e-mail them, fax them, all of the above...whatever. I'd suggest citing that CBO study that says we'll pull out of the recession in the next year without the stimulus, and also point out to GOP Senators that the Dems are promising to put any spending cut in the compromise back into other bills later in the year. The goal is to get every single GOP Senator to vote no.

Focusing on the wafflers is an especially good idea...here's a list of people that need persuading and/or encouragement:

# Richard Shelby
# Lisa Murkowski
# Thad Cochran
# Judd Gregg
# Joe Lieberman
# Mel Martinez
# Saxby Chambliss
# George Voinovich
# Johnny Isakson
# Arlen Specter
# Richard Lugar
# Chuck Grassley
# Roger Wicker
# Lamar Alexander
# John Cornyn
# Kay Bailey Hutchison
# Susan Collins
# Olympia Snowe
# Michael Enzi

They're not necessarily a 'yes', but they're at least not a confirmed 'no'.

I leave you with a few quotes that I hope you will take to heart. Read and ponder:

"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority."
-- Alexander Hamilton --

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke (probably) --

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
-- Plato --

“Ultimately, the choice before the American people is the choice between two visions: on the one hand, the policies of limited government, economic growth, a strong defense, and a firm foreign policy; and on the other hand, policies of tax and spend, economic stagnation, international weakness and accommodation, and always, always, from them, ‘Blame America first.’ It’s the choice between the policies of liberalism or the policies of America’s political mainstream.”
-- Ronald Reagan --

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
--George Washington--

"I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe - Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy."
-- Daniel Webster --