Posted on 12/22/2009 7:29:27 PM PST by rabscuttle385
This week the Senate grinches stole Christmas. The Obama Nation is getting Obamacare.
Its easy to blame the sixty Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal does, for "the worse bill ever." It solemnly declares: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command--and control regulation."
True enough. But what's the root cause of this permanent disaster?
Sorry, friends, but its not the Democrats, nor the American people who elected them.
The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove. If it werent for these two in the White House, the Democrats wouldnt have sixty senators, including a professional comedian from Minnesota, to close off debate and ram down our throats a bill worse than Hillary Care.
The fact is that the Bush & Rove act pushed through a litany of ruinous government policies that led to the lowest approval numbers in history:
the undeclared and costly War in Iraq and its stepchild the unconstitutional Patriot Act.
the monstrous No Child Left Behind Act that dramatically increased federal intervention in private education.
the Prescription Drug Act that gave the American people another benefit-corrupted entitlement and unfunded liability.
large and growing deficits and national debt.
the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, largely due to their failure to reform government-sponsored agencies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
large and growing deficits and national debt (according to the Cato Institute's latest report, George W. Bush was the biggest spender since LBJ!).
The supply-side tax cuts were probably the only major piece of economic legislation that Bush/Rove deserve credit for, but even then, they blundered in not making the tax cuts permanent. So now even if the Republicans take back Capitol Hill in the 2010 elections, all President Obama has to do is veto an extension of the Bush tax cuts, and voila, taxes will increase automatically.
In short, we are paying a heavy price for the "compassionate conservativism" of Bush/Rove.
Once Obamacare becomes law, like Medicare and other "Great Society" programs, it will never end. We will be stuck with national health care for the rest of our lives.
And how are Bush and Rove rewarded? We arent seeing much of George Bush, who is quietly ensconced in his new digs in Texas.
The tragedy is Karl Rove, who ironically has been rewarded by conservatives. Hes treated like a triumphant general on Fox News almost every night and was signed on as a regular columnist in the prestigious Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Skousen is a renowned financial economist, author and university professor. He has been the editor of the financial advice newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies, for 28 years. Two of his books highlight Milton Friedman's career: "The Making of Modern Economics" and "Vienna and Chicago, Friends or Foes?." Check out his latest book "The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, And John Maynard Keynes" or "Investing in One Lesson" and "EconoPower: How a New Generation of Economists is Transforming the World." He is the producer of FreedomFest, the world's largest gathering of free minds, in Las Vegas every July (www.freedomfest.com).
What it sounds like you’re saying, is that you believe every poll that comes out, and you believe every article written despite it’s source.
I’m not trying to be critical with that comment, but I don’t think I can be blamed for coming away with an impression something along those lines.
#148, Do you hear the crickets too? I saved the link last Fall figuring it would be needed.
“To blame the current Constitutional crisis on President George W. Bush and Rove is beyond preposterous.”
Bush and Rove did many things that pissed off liberals, but they weren’t the ones that voted for him.
Bush and Rove destroyed the Republican brand by infuriating conservatives with the CFR, Medicare drugs, pushing for amnesty for illegals, TARP, and never defending himself against liberal criticism. That’s quite a few abuses to the ones that elected him, and made many angry with the GOP.
When more than half the country (liberals and conservatives) is angry with the GOP, that definitely hurts their chances at staying in power.
How do you all like the fact that we will be forced to pay for this for four years before we are FORCED to use it?
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091223/NEWS/912230350
What must they be teaching journalism students these days, that they would think reporting with such bias was legitimate?
We are in a very dangerous position today, our populace being spoon fed ideology that is destroying our freedoms.
I knew these folks hated the Ozzie and Harriet model, but I didn’t realize they hated them this much.
Did you see the article on Big Government I get google news alerts so I went to read this and this fool claims obama is a republican plant!
http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/22/obama-a-republican-plant/
Saying the opposite. You cannot dismiss (or shut yourself off to ) stuff you don't want to believe solely by telling yourself that “The source is invalid because it promotes similar messages I don't like”. Democrats and Republicans do that.
Listening to Rush yesterday with a narrative about how this Senate bill is model liberalism, It fit his theme. But what didn't fit his theme was that liberals are livid over this Senate bill at the point of revolt, so he didn't talk about it.(The House bill liberals like, they hate this bill and feel betrayed). I want the Truth, not a canned theme(that was my only complaint yesterday).
Not sure where you got polls from, Hannity was reporting last minute republican surges in 2006+2008.
I used to say that about Bush LOL
You know what is going on? Obama has to be pragmatic as president and cant deliver on all his left wing promises. So they see him as another Bush. Personally I like the theme and suggested using it last year after the election to turn voters off to democrats.
I’m willing to look at any poll, but as soon as I see it’s from a leftist source, it looses about 98% of it’s credibility. I know how they game their polls. I’ve seen how they manipulate information and try to pass on falsehoods.
There is a difference between CNN and FoxNews. One tells truth and the other flat ass lies.
This isn’t subjective.
Right now MSNBC cannot even find poll results in what they want anymore , they are showing poll results that look like FNCs, bad news for Democrats. I must admit I enjoyed their demoralization.
I know now that I must watch the media that tends to oppose the side in power, that the sympathetic side cannot be trusted meaning talk radio.
There are those I like at FNC, Neil Cavuto, Megn Kelly, Special Report news show is good. Cavuto ripped Mccain for TARP1 a few days before the election. .
To a certain extent, I agree that you need to hear opposing voices. At the same time, I look at those opposing voices under Bush from the left, and it looks like an insane asylum burst open and the patients had taken over left wing media outlets.
Very little of it was worth hearing. And most of it was downright scary, the lengths to which these people would out and out lie.
You touched on that poll at MSNBC 70% vs <50%. That poll wasn’t the only evidence of that. Their whole network bias operated on a basis that had a wider spread than that poll IMO.
They attacked Bush 24-7 for everything under the sun, especially once things started going wrong. The problem is when conservatives assumed that is proof he was doing right.
Every once in a while I would see something they hit on and say “That is going to stick” and it usually did.
Goody two shoes for you. You'll get behind Sarah Palin? You have obviously read my signature (snicker).
The KOS kiddies and the DU are out in force today. It is all Bush's fault so let's absolve the Democrats in 2010. We don't want the Republican party of Bush to get more seats in congress now do we, eh?
Keep going KOS kiddies. Free Republic needs you -- not!
Democraps and democraps alone are responsible for this crap.
“People who are not BushBots, were/are able to see his negatives for what they were. BushBots didnt have clue one that Bush could make a mistake.”
“BushBots” is just an ad hominem by those who want to turn Bush’s flaws into the whole picture. They can’t abide the fact that (a) Bush was not that conservative in many ways and want us to forget that (b) Bush was a decent, honorable and otherwise effective President in many ways.
Bush 43 had the unfortunate legacy, like his father, of weakening the GOP by not projecting a forceful enough articulation of conservative principles, and crossing the base on issues like spending and immigration.
However, I for one will thank him for how he responded after 9/11, for Roberts and Alito and other good conservative Judges, for the 2003 tax cuts, for prolife bills like partial birth abortion ban, for opposing same-sex marriage, for standing up against Kyoto and for good parts of energy bill, for at least trying reform on Soc Sec, and for working to destroy Al Qaeda as best he could. All of that is more than we are getting from the President both before and after him.
Those who can’t see both the good and the bad, but want to focus on one or the other, have blinders on or some other agenda in mind.
Your side lost to Bush in '04. The reasons for Operation Iraqi Freedom remain the same, and your side voted for the same legislation that Bush did.
Every so often someone defends Bush by claiming that it was really Democrats that pushed us into Iraq.
Strawman. Both sides favored intervention against Iraq. It was the Democrats that rallied against the war after the troops had been deployed.
he got Democrats polled higher than republicans on National security
What poll numbers? Are you claiming that the nation would have been safer if we abandoned Iraq to al-qaeda? And how's Obama's poll numbers been lately?
“Personally I like the theme and suggested using it last year after the election to turn voters off to democrats.”
Calling Obama “Bush’s Third Term” is one way to highlight that many of the libs complaints about Bush were a bunch of hooey. The guys in power end up doing things out of necessity. Gitmo is a perfect example - they whined about the necessary activity of holding terrorists.
Or maybe the American people get the government they deserve, and a good number of them just aren't too moral or smart these days. They are a good bit smarter than they were a year ago, but now it's too late.
Afghanistan is not being as has not been mismaganged?
Why is the Taliban still extant 8 years after 9/11? The strategy has been bad. We should have gone in hard as necessary, destroyed the enemy as fast as possible and then left.
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