Posted on 10/17/2014 5:00:49 AM PDT by LeoMcNeil
President Obama believes in big government. He truly believes that government is best able to decide the great issues of the day. He’s expanded government like no other President since LBJ in the 60’s. Obamacare alone is the biggest government program since the Great Society. Obama has added nearly $8 trillion in new debt. Yet for all of Obama’s belief in big government, his administration has done more to hurt the image of government than any administration since Nixon. In that, the damage Nixon did was about corruption at the top. With Obama the damage he is doing is to the image of government as even a remotely capable entity is massive. On one issue after another government is showing itself to be incompetent and incapable. It goes well beyond Obama, it goes to the rank and file bureaucrats as well.
The latest hit on government credibility is the Ebola “crisis.” Yours truly will be the first one to tell everyone to calm down about Ebola. However the government agency Centers For Disease Control (CDC) is so incompetent that they’re actually making the Ebola problem worse. Practically the entire country is screaming for a travel ban from West Africa. The CDC so far refuses, claiming that shutting down travel would destroy West African economies. Because of course Ebola on its own isn’t doing that. Meanwhile the CDC is wasting millions on nonsense nutrition programs and not setting up global health facilities like Congress directed them to. They’re also haven’t been spending money on Ebola research. They whine they don’t have enough money but Congress recently gave them more money than the Obama administration asked for. The CDC looks utterly clueless when it comes to Ebola, they appear to have no idea what they’re doing.
This is a common theme among government under Obama. Just last year, after four years of planning, the government couldn’t get the Obamacare website up and running. It took them months to work out all the kinks. People who depended upon the website to buy insurance were either unable to buy a policy or unable to confirm that they bought a policy. It was a complete nightmare that took months to fix. Arguably there are still security problems with the Obamacare website today. Can you imagine a for profit business having these problems with a website. Only government could spend years on something as basic as a website and mess it all up. Of course, no one was actually blamed for the problem. All the bureaucrats blamed each other.
Do people still believe that anyone in government has a clue with regards to the middle east? ISIS is on the brink of attacking Baghdad, Syria’s Assad is still in power despite Obama’s red line, Afghanistan continues to be a problem. Meanwhile the government refuses to secure our border and ISIS members and other terrorists are free to enter at will. Benghazi itself is evidence of government incompetence, help was asked for and no one in government was willing to provide assistance despite it being readily available. The President slept, the Secretary of State did nothing. We’re lobbing bombs into Syria, to attack ISIS which is the same organization we were going to support last year in opposing Assad. Now our bombs aid Assad. The problem here isn’t just that Obama flip flops and his foreign policy vision is poor at best. The problem is much deeper than this, it’s a problem of bureaucracy.
The Obama administration has given us no reason to trust that government can solve problems. If you’re a liberal, you must be very disappointed in the way this administration has gone. Obama hasn’t simply failed to deliver on the laundry list of promises he made in 2008. He’s discredited government in the process. If you believe in the ability of government to solve problems and if you believe government is more capable than the private sector, the Obamacare website alone has to enrage you. This fiasco alone has done a lot of damage to the image of government. To say nothing of the inability of anyone within the administration to make decisions when decisions have to be made. Liberals must be very disappointed in how Obama has governed.
The question going forward is whether the Republicans are willing to attack big government heading into 2016. Will a Ronald Reagan run and win the nomination. Reagan argued for smaller government because bureaucracy doesn’t work. Government does not have all the answers and isn’t the best source for solutions. Certainly men like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz will make these arguments. However the GOP has a history of nominating men like Mitt Romney and the Bush’s who argue that the Democrats are simply incompetent managers of government. If only they were in office, government would be run more efficiently. They tell at least half of the truth concerning Obama. He is an incompetent manager. However the Bush, 43, administration suggests that Republicans managing big government is only marginally more efficient. In reality, the Bush 43 administration incompetently rolled out the Rx drug program. The problem isn’t governmental efficiency, it’s competence and ability. Government does not have all the answers and its solutions usually make matters worse. The Republicans have a solid argument against big government heading into 2016. They’ll have an electorate willing to listen after eight years of big government and big spending. Don’t waste your money betting the GOP takes advantage though. Their track record speaks for itself.
WRONG. For liberals increasing the size and scope of government is an end in itself. They have no concrete expectations that anything will be done better. They worship government for its own sake. Government is what they've substitutied for God, and anyonw who tries to limit it isn't just an opponenet in their viewpoint, but a blasphemer.
To slightly paraphrase Stuart Chase, "For the true believer no proof is necessary and no disproof possible."
Less than three weeks till smackdown.
Something I don’t understand: if the regime won’t ban travel to and from West Africa, why don’t airlines just stop providing service? What’s Elmer Fudd going to do, threaten them with audits?
At this point, he is powerless if people just say “Pi$$ off”.
BTW, what is the IRS to do if people file income taxes with the “best available” data and attach a letter admitting that it is “probably incorrect but we had a computer crash and our records were destroyed.”
I think there are some progressives who believe in expanding government regardless of whether government is competent. Obama and his ilk may be of this belief. However, I think rank and file liberals truly expect government to do things better than the private sector. As the it becomes apparent that the Obama administration is completely inept at managing government, these people are increasingly disappointed. For moderates, they’re increasingly skeptical of the ability of government.
This works to the GOP’s advantage in two ways. Disappointed rank and file liberals may stay home next month, which increases the odds that the GOP wins the Senate. In 2016, skeptical moderates may be more inclined to vote for a Republican who articulates a smaller government approach. In the very least, the moderates are ripe for the taking from the GOP perspective.
An article V convention is the only peaceful solution other than secession and forming a new Republic.
Government is force, violence and coercion. It is not reason or cooperation. The bigger it gets, the more force and violence. When it is minimal, force and violence is minimal and just used against evil doers, criminals. As it grows it gains more and more victims.
The airlines could possibly refuse to offer service from these West African countries to the US. However, they may not be allowed under the law to ban a traveler from West Africa. For example, if someone from West Africa flew to Paris to catch a flight to the US, American Airline companies might be prohibited from discriminating against such a traveler. I get the impression that most, if not all, of the travelers from West Africa come to the US in this manner. We’re only talking about 150 travelers, most of whom go to 5 airports. I’m guessing there might be one or two direct flights each week but most are coming via airports in Europe.
Conservative Republicans:
Telling You that Big Government Just Doesn’t Work since 1964.
Obama doesn’t really believe in “big” government. He believes in killer government.
He is using the government to commit mass murder of Americans. He wants Ebola and the O’Malley-Gomez virus to kill as many Americans as possible.
An article V convention IS secession and forming a new Republic. No amount of safegaurds can possibly prevent this. Regardless of charters and promises conventioneers will have absolute authority to completely rewrite the Constitution. Do you honestly believe Marxists will not be in charge of this process?
Absolutely correct. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, whether vested in an individual or a class.
Limited government can be controlled by the election process. Massive government cannot be controlled by any means short of God's impending doom.
Invoking Article V is extremely dangerous for the cause of liberty. I wouldn’t trust that progressives would be prevented from taking over a Constitutional Convention.
Then ban all international travel until the “crisis” is over.
Might want to do something about the Southern border while we’re at it./s
I don’t think it’s necessary to ban all international travel. Instead, the government should ban all travel to the United States by people who have traveled in West African nations during the 30 days prior to attempting to come to the US.
Perhaps some, but 0's approval rating is STILL 39%, so that would indicate that 39% of the electorate are not sufficiently disappointed in the government's performance to disapprove of it. Hard core government worshipers.
Lets HOPE it's a smackdown for the Democrats.
...the government agency Centers For Disease Control (CDC) is so incompetent that they’re actually making the Ebola problem worse. Practically the entire country is screaming for a travel ban from West Africa. The CDC so far refuses, claiming that shutting down travel would destroy West African economies. Because of course Ebola on its own isn’t doing that. Meanwhile the CDC is wasting millions on nonsense nutrition programs and not setting up global health facilities like Congress directed them to. They’re also haven’t been spending money on Ebola research. They whine they don’t have enough money but Congress recently gave them more money than the Obama administration asked for. The CDC looks utterly clueless when it comes to Ebola, they appear to have no idea what they’re doing. This is a common theme among government under Obama.Zero was the first almost-half-black-president, and will be the last black president of any kind for generations.
There are any number of reasons why people might say they approve of Obama’s job performance that don’t include actual performance. There are a lot of Democrats who will say they approve of Obama no matter how much he’s disappointed them. There are blacks who will say they approve for no other reason than they feel they have to. The flip side is also true, there are any number of Republicans who will disapprove of Obama even if they really don’t have a problem with what he’s done. This is true of every President, a substantial number of people in his party approve no matter what and a substantial number of people in the other party disapprove no matter what.
A better indication of people’s disapproval of the President is their response to the question do you think the country is headed in the right or wrong direction? Wrong direction has been in the 60’s for years now. That suggests people don’t like the direction Obama is taking the country, even hardcore liberal Democrats.
People who laugh at the PO and DMV love “the government.” What overcomes first-hand experience?
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