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.
It’s 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 it’s 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 weren’t for these two in the White House, the Democrats wouldn’t 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 aren’t 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. He’s 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).
“As for the judges you mentioned, one of them was only appointed after we attacked Bush viciously for a laughable nomination he made in the first place.”
Roberts was his first pick and a great one.
“We would not be where we are today, if not for George Bush”
Yes... things could be better ... OR worse. Al Gore is an idiot and an exaggerator who thinks cars are more dangerous than nukes.
I kid you not, we’d be in a world of hurt if Gore was president on 9/11... then again, we might be right now in Mccain’s term ... how much fun would that be?
I can’t argue with any of that. I do believe we might have dodged the guy we have now if we would have bitten the bullet sooner. Who knows.
Still, defending Bush by throwing up Gore or Kerry doesn’t exactly instill respect for him.
We should have elevated a man who understood what Conservatism was. Look, if you can’t beat Gore or Kerry to a pulp at the polls as a Republican, something is seriously wrong.
We can add Obama to that list. Imagine us picking a worse candidate to go up against him. Our guy said, “I respect the Democrats, and you have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency.” And he’s still in the party, LOL.
We put up the wrong guy for three elections. We put off the inevitable for 12 years. And during this time, we have slid right down the toilet.
In 2012, it’s a Conservative or I fricken give up. It will have been 24 years by then. If we’re serious about saving this nation, it’s time to put up or shut up.
I’m going to be screaming bloody murder about it if someone acts like a RINO in any manner whatsoever too.
LOL!
So Obama is only a fascist dictator to fool the enemy.....LOL!
“Still, defending Bush by throwing up Gore or Kerry doesn’t exactly instill respect for him.”
Sure it does. It perfectionism to compare Bush to some ideal that has yet to happen in our lifetimes and I guess never will.
“We should have elevated a man who understood what Conservatism was. “
Well, get 51% of the electorate to understand that and maybe we’ll get there some day.
“... We put up the wrong guy for three elections.”
It’s not like Ike, Dewey, Ford, Nixon or Wilkie or Hoover were any better. We put up the ‘wrong guy’ as a rule, and I suspect any of the 2008 top contenders would be ‘wrong guy’ by that metric. The only Presidents more conservative than GWB in my lifetime was Reagan ...
Merry Christmas.
I think you throw up a guy like McCain to make him look better. If you’ve got to go clear down the Gore and Kerry, you’ve really lowered the bar to do it.
I don’t need to remind you, that Bush could barely eek out a win over these two.
I agree that we have put many people where were not the Conservative they should have been. And in those days, perhaps it wasn’t quite so bad.
Today, we’re barely hanging on to our nation. We either start moving back to the right, or we’re going to be no better than the U.S.S.R.
Folks can laugh at that if they want, but this health care bill is going to bring out the demons in the government. Good luck.
I agree about Reagan.
Merry Christmas to you too. Hope you and your family have a great time.
But even a more conservative President (and was there was any other Republican around who could win the White House in 2001?) would have gotten in trouble when the economy tanked.
Sure, it would have been better if Bush had controlled spending and the deficit, but it was the mess in the financial markets that did the GOP in and brought Obama to power, and I doubt Skousen had a recipe to prevent that.
“I think you throw up a guy like McCain to make him look better.” ... or I could have used Dole or GWB’s Dad.
Who’s better for 2008? Romney? I called Romney a smarter version of GWB, but many in FR think he’s Satan’s brother. Huck? A Huckster. Not a conservative. McCain won because there WAS no Reagan in the field. Real conservatives got single digits.
“I don’t need to remind you, that Bush could barely eek out a win over these two.”
True, but consider that a goofy uber-liberal like John Kerry getting 48% of the vote tells us a LOT about where most of the electorate has gone, not how bad Bush was (he actually ran a pretty good 2004 campaign and even 2000 it was difficult to win given the illusion of prosperity in 2000). That same electorate is REALLY who’s to blame for Obamacare - they voted for it!
“Today, we’re barely hanging on to our nation. We either start moving back to the right, or we’re going to be no better than the U.S.S.R.”
I hear ya on that... But let’s persevere. We have a country to save. We can never give up.
Polls were done every month, you never saw them??? Bush got Dems polled higher than Rs on national security by election day 2006(The ”Who do you trust more on National security .?” polls) . This was confirmed November 2006 although talk radio was telling listeners up until the election the polls were not accurate, that it would be another 2004. If listeners were smart they would have questioned this.
RE :” And how's Obama’s poll numbers been lately? “
Are you changing the subject to Obama because you admit you were wrong about Bush? Isnt this a Bush thread?
“We don't want the Republican party of Bush to get more seats in congress now do we, eh?” sounds alot like you are telling us to lie about Republicans to win an election. Instead of proving that Bush was really a success, you tie creating a fake Bush legacy (which no one will believe it's so silly) to winning election 2010. Here is a new idea not tried in 2006+2008 you havent considered, win on the truth.
You still didnt explain your text attacking Rab's sounding like you are attacking Palin too. She had to admit Bush eight years was a disaster because it is true.
You might want to review my 191. It plays in.
nice pile of BS ...too bad its not reality
Nice try Woofie.
Before he was elected, you folks couldn’t be honest and wouldn’t let us be.
After he was elected, you folks couldn’t be honest and wouldn’t let us be.
When it was time for him to go up for re-election, you folks couldn’t be honest and wouldn’t let us be.
When he was re-elected, you folks couldn’t be honest and wouldn’t let us be.
And now that he’s out of office, you folks still can’t be honest and won’t let us be.
You have my deepest sympathy Woofie. Reality is a bitch, when folks won’t shut up about it, and I won’t.
Can you explain Dick Cheney or was he too “not a real conservative”?
Dick Cheney was president? Wow. Hey Woofie thank you. I really slipped up. Could you please tell me what his term was and which number he was in the succession of Presidents.
Yes, Cheney did make some speeches, but if you’re going to try to pass him off as the top of the ticket, and therefore Bush didn’t have to address Conservatism in all it’s splendor, or implement cost reductions, and other Conservative measures, then I’m going to call B.S. on you.
Most powerful VP ever....Better come out of your utopian cloud
This is not about who voted for who. Voters picked Bush over Kerry as the lesser of two evils, and then picked Obama over the soiled Republican brand as the lesser of two evils (I know that sounds silly now but it actually made sense.) But we dont get good choices, the debates are jokes, candidates never answer questions and rarely tell the truth. Both Obama and McCain promised us all goodies no pain, but Obama was selected to “put up”.
The Bush Truth watch is about the future. Something went very wrong. Opinions are all over the place on what he did wrong: from nothing, to everything. (I am closer to the latter.)
We cannot elect a Republican president who will keep a single purpose ‘to oppose Democrats’. It doesnt work that way. They will want to fix things. They will want to compromise to get things passed. So we need to know how they would have done things different.
Woofie, I think he was the most powerful V.P. ever. I might even go so far as to say the best ever. I like Cheney. It still doesn’t make up for the President allowing the national deficit to go up 87% under his tenure. It’s doesn’t make big spending okay, even if Congress is tasked with it. It doesn’t make implementing “Great Society” programs a good thing to do. It doesn’t excuse Bush taking a pass on fixing the economic problem that was ticking away, while he had a Republican Congress.
Look, we passed off a terrible situation. I can’t stand here and act as if I’m being honest, if I don’t honestly address it.
Yes Obama has made things worse, but things were on the slippery slope when he took over.
Look, I didn’t blame Reagan when the economy was tough for two years after he took over. Carter handed off a miserable situation. In some ways it was worse then this situation, but in other important real tangible ways, it wasn’t as bad.
Thanks for the comments. I still say we can’t sell Conservatism, if we don’t have Conservative salesmen in the field. Either we merchandise our beliefs or our beliefs die.
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