Presidents' Day, SOU & Rubio, Media, Budget & Dr. Carson

Presidents’ Day

As has become somewhat of a personal tradition, one of my Presidents’ Day activities was patriotically working on my tax returns.  Got to keep our government solvent, at least for a while longer.  Although more and more it seems like pouring money into a black hole.  And lest anyone take that racially, I do have an astronomy blog, and know whereof I speak.

While engaging in that tax-paying tradition, I look forward to being entertained by 2 radio shows that also have a Presidents’ Day tradition.  Michael Medved highlights certain presidents, and today it was the worst presidents in U.S. history – Buchanan, Johnson, Hoover, Carter.  And no doubt also soon to be welcomed into the ranks – Barack Obama.  Then Hugh Hewitt had a history expert go through all the presidents briefly, including shining stars like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, Coolidge (surprisingly), Eisenhower (also surprisingly) and Reagan. 

State of Disunion

And so Obama is now into building a legacy in his second term.  His second inaugural address, with all its divisiveness, was nothing close to Lincoln's classic healing one.  And this was followed up this past week with another divisive speech for the state of the union.

He lectured about growing the economy, as if he knows how, or has demonstrated any ability to do anything but keep it from growing. 

He said we can’t go from one manufactured crisis to another, and yet it is he and his cohorts in power who manufacture them to maintain a relentless progressive drumbeat – like sequestration, which was his idea, the almost annual government funding crises with lack of any budget from them, Dodd-Frank that precipitated the housing & finance bubbles, the latest crisis du jour of gun control, energy, etc., etc.  And he’s working hard on, and nearly succeeded in, single-handedly doubling the national debt, setting us up for a looming fiscal and possibly defense crisis.  Yes, he’s clearly focused on the manufacturing sector – crisis manufacturing.  Projection seems to be one of the liberals' most consistent qualities.

He lectures about doing what’s best for the country rather than politics – yet he is the one constantly demagogueing that he knows exactly what’s best, and never willing to compromise – as if he and his party have all the answers, and implying that what the Republicans want is not best for the country, and out of political motives.  Oh, that’s right, liberals are clairvoyant, and do know that all Republicans want is to protect the rich, dirty air & water, and oppose him out of racial as well as political motives – there could be no other reasonable explanation, right?  It is Obama who has been perhaps the most divisive president (class warfare, racial, gender, sexual identity, etc.) in our history – to clear political advantage in the last election – barely pulling it off by his coalition of “victims.”  As David Horowitz explained in "The Art of Political War,"  they wield those weapons of political warfare -- fear and hope, and championing the underdog -- to great advantage.  They truly demonize and create fear of their opponents.  And hope is all they can deliver -- never the realization of those hopes.

He wants to make college and home loans easier to get – so we can put more people deeper in debt they can’t pay, on top of the national debt burden.  And incidentally have more indoctrinated in the Left/Liberal temples of higher learning.  Oh, that’s right, Dodd-Frank-mandated cheap loans helped the housing and finance markets immeasurably.  And already incredible college costs have nothing to do with already-proliferated government loans, right?

And of course we need to spend more on (“invest in”) education.  After all, throwing more money at the problem has always improved things in places like California, right?  He repeatedly spoke of “investments” in this and that – government investments, of course.  As if he and government know how best to invest the wealth of this nation, as if it was government investment in the past that always produced great things like Apple, railroads, etc.  And as if he knows anything more about free-market capitalism and investment than a real expert like Mitt Romney.  “Investments” by a central government on his scale are nothing more than Solyndra-style crony capitalism and central control, and are not market-driven.  Which he partially acknowledges in his energy policies.

He’s always just brimming with new ideas and more hope – like any of the previous ones have borne fruit.  But apparently there are some who still have not awakened to the disconnect between his grandiose speaking and his reality and results.  They are apparently as seduced and mesmerized as the Hitler zombies.  Or just in it for the handouts.

He speaks of the fundamental right to vote – as if we’re still fighting the civil rights causes of the ‘60’s.  Of course requiring voter ID is inherently racially discriminating, somehow, and infringing on that right to vote.  And of course requiring gun registration & ID to give people their 2^nd amendment right is not excessive or discriminatory. 

He says the Chicago inner city gunshot victims deserves a gun bill vote, as do Gabby Gifford, the Newton & Aurora victims, etc., etc.  Of course the inner city violence in many cities, and conditions in general, are due to generations of Democratic policies and consequences of the welfare system on families.  And yet they just keep voting Democrat.  When will they realize they’ve been put on those welfare plantations by their new Democrat masters, just like their original slave-owning Democrats before the Republicans originally freed them?  Republicans can do it again, but not if they don’t want it, but prefer those inner-city conditions and handouts.

And speaking of victims who deserve better from our government, how about the upcoming generation that is being saddled with unprecedented debt, and hopelessness to get out from under it, and all the consequences that will entail, including even fewer entitlements and a lesser safety net than we have today, and potentially disastrous defense consequences?

He says as citizens we’re all the same.  Not so – apparently many want to go back to the European or socialist model, which has already failed, as the Europeans have already begun to realize, and turn around.  But the Dems are too slow to realize it – they’re still re-fighting the glory day battles of the ‘60’s -- at least in their minds.  Or any other cause du jour that may take their & our minds off the more weighty problems.

Obama has quite a history of saying one thing and then doing quite another -- even the opposite.  Like we need more fathers/families -- yet promoting the welfare system that's decimated the Black family especially in inner cities, and promoting all types of "families" as equal, changing his stance to pro-gay marriage.  And saying he'd halve the deficit, but instead doubling it as well as the national debt.  He's for the middle class -- but does nothing that lowers unemployment, and now threatens to raise their taxes.  Now that he's already raised the riches' taxes, that's the only way to raise more revenue, which he'd much rather do than cut any spending.  It's almost like he does (or should do) the exact opposite -- like George Castanza of Seinfeld.

Rubio’s Response

While government has some legitimate functions, it is not the answer to nearly every problem, and more government is hurting people.  Obamacare is hurting health coverage and jobs.  Our founding fathers wisely limited government.

Obama falsely attacks his opponents’ motives for limiting government, saying they want dirty water and air, and only care about rich people. 

Raising taxes won’t create jobs or significantly reduce the deficit. 

We can grow the economy with a legal immigration system, and secure borders.

Republicans offered a detailed plan to save Medicare, but Obama & the Dems wouldn’t consider it [as with various other proposals].

We need to grow the economy to create new taxpayers, not new taxes. 

Many of our problems are due to the breakdown of families.  [Yes!  The Dems/liberals/Left seem obsessed with Marxist materialism – it’s the disparity of wealth, the guns, the lack of money in the schools, ....]

The Media, Budget Cuts & a Voice in the Wilderness

Of course the liberal media swooned at the SOU with all the presidential trappings and magnificent oratory.  And utterly ignored any of the content of Rubio’s response, choosing rather to focus on a momentary dry-mouth incident & reaching for a bottle of water, and questioning whether that may have ended his political career.  As if Obama & Hillary haven’t taken sips on occasion on camera.  They’re a disgrace to their “journalistic” tradition and the role of a free press in a free society.  They’re not worthy of the self-aggrandizement and notoriety they dote on. 

Dorner (the LA cop-killer) praised the liberal media – they continue to fan the flames of racism, alluding to supposed LA police brutality/discrimination.  Again, they’re re-fighting old battles that have long passed, for a story & political gain.  And in doing so, they fan the anger and justification for revenge that supports such vengeful acts as Dorners, Newtown, etc.  They and their Hollywood and gaming industry cohorts & purveyors of violence who materially benefit.  Then they blame it on the guns.  That’s hutzpah!

Obama only knows how to grow government, not the economy. 

As usual, whenever there are threats to cut budgets – federal, California, L.A., etc. – the liberals scream bloody murder that it will hurt the most important legitimate functions of government like education, police & fire, FBI agents, TSA, and the most needy people.  As if there were no other areas to cut that would not affect essential services – like waste & abuse, fraud, etc.  And so they scare us into never cutting anything, and government only continues to grow, at the expense of the private sector, and national wealth & the economy.  As if Obama and the Dems have ever shown any wisdom or return on investment in that. 

And because Dems will not assent to cuts, sequestration appears to be inevitable, which will significantly hurt our national defense (already cutting us from 2 carriers to one in the Persian Gulf at a critical juncture), etc.  Oh, yes, and Nancy Pelosi has the audacity to say that cutting Congressional pay demeans the dignity of the office!  As if there was any dignity – especially in hers.  Congress has an approval rating that has been noted as lower than Al Qaida’s, etc.

But wisdom crops up in some of the most unexpected places – like Dr. Ben Carson’s (pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins) speech at the national prayer breakfast.  If you haven’t seen it, you at least have to take a look at the look on Obama’s face as he is blindsided by very common-sense yet profound stuff (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyyHegP255g).  We need more well-spoken conveyors of truth like Dr. Carson – some are even suggesting he run for president.  He’s authored a book, as well.  But of course liberals will dismiss him as an Uncle Tom, never arguing with the content of his message.  The real Uncle Toms are the Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons, etc. who keep unwary Blacks on the Democrat plantation.