Posted on 02/09/2009 6:03:28 AM PST by IbJensen
Stimulus Shows Obama’s Inability To Deliver
The stimulus bill has failed. Barack Obama has failed. The Trojan Horse of Hope and Change crashed into the guardrail of reality, revealing an army of ideologues and activists inside.
Now, before I continue, let me say that Barack Obama will still be popular, he will still get things done and he will declare victory after signing a stimulus bill.
But Mr. Obama’s moment is gone, and politics is about nothing if not moments.
The stimulus bill was a bridge too far, an overplayed hand, 10 pounds of manure in a 5-pound bag. The legislation’s primary duty was never to stimulate the economy, but to stimulate the growth of government, the scope of the state.
By spending hundreds of billions on things that have absolutely nothing to do with providing an immediate stimulus for the economy, Democrats hoped to make a down payment on their dream government. The billions for student aid, expanded welfare and health-care benefits, and bailouts for profligate state governments; the hundreds of millions for better museums and prettier government buildings; and the millions for smoking-cessation programs and bee insurance aren’t just items on crapulent Democrats’ wish list. The budget bloating was deliberate.
Remember what passes for a “cut” in Washington. Any decrease in the rate of increase counts as reduced spending. If you spend 20 percent more this year than you did last year, that’s a spending increase. But next year, that additional 20 percent is part of the baseline. And if your budget grows by “only” an additional 10 percent, you’ve just “drastically cut” spending!
The stimulus bill was designed to give Democrats maximum maneuvering room. It would increase non-defense discretionary spending by more than 80 percent in a single year, in a single bill! Moving forward, they could grow government by smaller percentages while seeming to be responsible budget balancers. By putting chips on every square of social spending, they could let it ride for years to come.
Of course, this was more than a budgetary ploy. Democrats had good reason to believe that this was their moment. For the first time in a generation, they truly own the political commanding heights. They’ve won a string of elections, including the momentous presidential contest in which their candidate never really ran to the center the way Democrats normally do. He stayed on the liberal left all the way through Election Day, so liberals figured voters knew what they were getting with Mr. Obama. Indeed, that’s why the president keeps saying “I won,” as if that settles the issue. Funny how that argument didn’t work for the last president when he tried to reform Social Security.
Moreover, many actually believed Mr. Obama’s hype. This was the moment for this, that and the other thing. This was the time when we, as Americans, were going to have our cake and eat it, too. Future generations were going to look back and remember how Republicans and Democrats, cats and dogs, Klingons and Romulans came together and marched to the sunny uplands of history, where shopping carts have no wobbly wheels; airplane food is free, delicious and filling; and we get all of our energy from 100 percent renewable Loch Ness Monster poop.
Throw in the media’s shock-and-awe campaign — which has been softening enemy positions with obsequious coverage of Mr. Obama as Franklin Delano Lincoln, the Jedi-Lightworking-Messiah community organizer from the south side of Krypton, combined with near-daily autopsies of conservatism and the Republican Party (cue Richard Dreyfuss: “This was no voting accident!”) — and it’s no wonder liberals thought they had an open field in front of them.
The economic crisis was almost too good to be true. Like FDR and Lyndon Johnson, Mr. Obama was poised to act on Rahm’s Rule of Crisis Exploitation in a way that would not only guarantee a newer New Deal and an even greater Great Society, but would also receive bipartisan approval. That’s why Obama wanted so much GOP support — so as to ratify the left turn to European-style social democracy, particularly when voters cottoned on to the con.
But that didn’t happen. Mr. Obama and his party were undone by their hubris. There was just too much muchness in the bill. The once impressive support from conservative economists evaporated. Right-wing radio has been having one long tailgate party celebrating Mr. Obama’s overreach. According to the polls, voters are souring on the whole thing. Republicans finally discovered testicular fortitude — and they seem to like it.
There is still probably bipartisan support for a stimulus bill, but only for a measure intended to stimulate our market-based economy rather than one that hastens its Swedenization.
Again, Mr. Obama’s presidency has many victories ahead of it, and Democrats still run the show. But the perfect storm of liberalism has dissipated to mere scattered showers.
This I fail to see. This experiment with electing an African-African as president filed before it got to the swearing in.
I must agree that putting a whispering wimp up as the Republicrat candidate was a hugh body blow to our nation. Sarah Palin was the only bright spot on that disgraceful ticket.
filed=flawed
So, am I missing something here? The Democrats overreached but Obama will still be signing a stimulus bill? How are we to rejoice about that? This entire article makes no sense.
We now have a spoiled brat 10 year old black child for a president. He is not my president though and never will be. Every time I see him I think of that US hating preacher of his and William Ayers.
To watch this empty-suited pinko smirk at people who are behind the podium and in front of the cameras where he wants to be, is just beyond aggravating.
The democrats had a golden opportunity to lead, to put country first during a crisis. Instead they put party first as usual and produced this crap sandwich porkulus plan. The porkulus won’t revive the economy. The democrat’s will own this failure.
Love the title. The rest of it seems to be one contradiction after another.
And Goldberg is writing from the perspective of someone who has read a lot about the stimulus package, not that of the average American, so his conclusions and assessments regarding Obama and the Dims are not representative of the general population.
Obama being black has nothing to do with it. But, I’m thinking of posting a poll:
Which is (or will prove to be) the bigger disaster?
a) Obama’s Presidency
b) Asteroid killing off the dinosaurs
c) Too close to call
Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell,Walter Williams, George Washington Carver, etc. etc.
However, none of these gentlemen were born in Kenya. None of these gentlemen were educated in a muslim school in Indonesia.
All of them had a father and a mother who were married. When Obomba's white-trash, marxist mother 'married' his 'father' he already had two or more wives waiting in Kenya.
Learning at the knee of a communist pedophile while drinking whiskey out of a Mason jar as an adolescent has everything to do with his philosophy and speaks volumes about parenting.
As far as the African-African label is concerned he is hardly an American.
I am a Danish-American, but don't insist on the label. That goes for my Italian-American, German-American and Polish-American friends.
They couldn’t lead a parade, unless it was devoted to gay deviancy.
This article depresses me. What it says to me is, Americans have changed their mind about what Obama and the Rats have in store for them, but it is too late. There is not a dang thing they can do to stop it. As if that isn’t bad enough, the Democrats have laid the groundwork to run as budget slashers in future elections, while actually ushering in the biggest era of Gov’t expansion ever, with an increase to federal deficit by $1 trillion in one fatal blow. Meanwhile, Americans shrug because they are to busy to be bothered with this. It makes their heads hurt and Oprah, Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, and the View say it is all good.
This is going to be a long day...
My greatest thrill would be to see someone paste him in the mouth and wipe that smirk off his face.
I think he thinks its a hate-love thing. I tend to agree.
Jonah should have thought this through before penning it. He seems to have a war going on in his head. LOL
I, too, am wary of calling the end of the show before it’s begun. A few stumbles does not failure make. I like Jonah Goldberg a lot but I think he’s overreaching here = exactly the same mistake he’s accusing 0bama et al of doing.
GREAT TITLE !!
good job Jonah
The nation can be taken back, but it will take a long time to undo the myriad of evil that this inept, America-hating gaggle of misfits have produced.
Those RINO Republicrats who have 'reached across the aisle' need to be tossed into the Potomac along with their socialist-communist pals they abetted.
(To us) it’s not about him being “black” (or half thereof), but about him being RED.
I’ve read Goldberg before. He’s not always right IMO, but he’s readable. This time it appears he had too little sleep or too much coffee before hitting the keyboard.
He essentially says that though Obama will be signing a stimulus, his “moment” is over. Who cares about “moments”? Then, be balance of the article never defines these statements. Poor writing, that leaves the reader confused.
As for depression, this is what we knew we’d be hit with after November 4th. The silver lining in all this is that Obama’s holiday with the American public may well be heading South much sooner than expected. Perhaps not with the media but with the public. And that’s a good thing. There’s nothing here to be depressed about (beyond what we’ve already known). It’s been expected. What we have to do now is let everyone know, not only Congress, exactly what’s in store for us because of America’s love affair with electing our first Black President.
0bama will be the next Lincoln,
you know,
the guy that caused a Civil War.
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