Posted on 03/04/2011 2:03:09 AM PST by Rummyfan
HH: I begin this hour with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of Mark’s work at www.steynonline.com. I find him tonight in Canada. Hello, Mark, and good evening to you.
MS: No, no. I’m actually in Michigan, which actually isn’t in Canada, although in fact judging from what I got into trouble for saying about Detroit, it wouldn’t even rise to the standard of Canada. I’m in the state of Michigan.
HH: Well, I’m glad to hear you’re in the Wolverine state. Watch out for rappers driving big, black cars around. This is how we roll. Mark Steyn, I began this week to really hammer Republicans in the House, because they are moving so slow and they lack a message. So I’m going to test my concern against yours. Do you think the House Republicans are blowing it?
MS: Yeah. I think November seems a long way away. And I think they’re missing the big lesson of the last two years, which is that the Tea Party, and a broader swathe of the American public who are concerned about, particularly about American spending and the debt crisis, agreed in the last electoral cycle to work within the confines of the Republican Party they had very little regard for. The Republican leadership needed to get that message, because it’s not going to be good for this Republican party if they say okay, we forgave you for 2006, we forgave you for that, and we gave you a second chance, and now you’ve burned the second chance.
HH: Now the Wall Street Journal today put out one of these classic polls that begins to show the turning of the MSM tide against budget cutting, saying that less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare. This is one of those manufactured polls, Mark. They’re going to try and persuade the House GOP and other budget cutters that there really isn’t support in the country for cutting budgets.
MS: Well, and it doesn’t make any difference. I mean, polls show that more American males would rather date Ann Hathaway than Helen Thomas. But it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. And in this case, the polls can say what they like. But the fact is, these entitlements are unsustainable. So Americans can tell pollsters that they’re quite happy with 1930s entitlement provisions for Social Security, but it ain’t going to be there. And the longer it takes you to figure that out, the more likely it is that this country will simply slide off a cliff. And I mean that not entirely literally, but I mean that we will reduce vast swathes of the United States to a third world landscape. This country is broke. Don’t go from being broke to being bankrupt. This isn’t anything to do with mid-century projections. This is happening now. We’ve got maybe a couple of years to turn this around before the world abandons the dollar as the reserve currency.
HH: Now that I believe, and I believe that a lot of Americans, at least a majority of people who voted for Republicans believe that. But what I don’t see is that sense of urgency reflected in John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy’s engagement with the media. Have I missed it? Have you seen it, Mark Steyn?
MS: No, no. I don’t think so at all. I think they’re toying with symbolic gestures. This House vote on the 1099 provision, where 1099 is one of these tedious bits of government paperwork that the Congress thought it could actually increase the burden that this tedious paperwork imposes on small businesses. But these are, in the end, mainly symbolic gestures. Cutting $4 billion dollars when you’ve got a budget that’s crashing up against $4 trillion dollars is just not going to cut it. And that’s, as you say, that’s what’s missing, the sense of urgency. There’s a kind of complacency about this, as if the canoe’s just sort of drifting toward the falls, but we’ve still got plenty of time to paddle for shore in a couple of decades.
HH: Well, I had Sean Spicer as the new RNC communications director on yesterday, and look up, and I’m talking to Sean Spicer, and I see Eric Cantor chattering away with Wolf Blitzer. And I asked him, who does Eric think he’s talking to? And I wonder, Mark Steyn, none of the House leadership went to the Tea Party Patriots summit, not one of them.
MS: No.
HH: And it makes me think they’re in a cocoon inside of the Beltway.
MS: Yeah, and I think the cocoon, actually, isn’t up to speed on this, because I think if you listen to the way the conversation in the Beltway is going, they’re saying well, yes, perhaps we do need a spending cut here and a spending cut there, cutting the Great Lakes Restoration initiative, or whatever the President’s big idea is. But we also need to increase revenue by putting up taxes. There’s no, all the evidence shows you can’t get revenue up beyond about 19% of GDP. So if you’re spending 25% of GDP on government spending, you can’t increase that with revenue. And that’s the problem when John Boehner and the Republican leadership just talks to Wolf Blitzer and the New York Times and all the rest of it. They’re not actually even asking the right questions. And I think this will, I think that this is very dangerous as we go into the 2012 cycle, that the Republican leadership is already demonstrating how far out of touch it is.
HH: I agree with that. Now why is it that a Scott Walker, and especially in Ohio, nobody notices this, but yesterday, the Ohio State Senate passed a deeply important bill about reducing collective bargaining rights, far more significant than what’s happened in Wisconsin, because it’s guaranteed now of passing. What do Kasich and Walker know that the Beltway Republicans don’t?
MS: Well, I think because generally speaking, the closer government is to the people, the more real it is if things are working well. So there’s more chance of fixing some of these problems at state and country and municipal level. I think one of the problems with the government of the United States is that they, over the last few decades, is there’s been this colossal expansion of national government, national legislation, national agencies, national regulations. When you’re seen in Washington, you must feel like a kind of emperor. You’re sitting there…everything has, you know, zeroes upon zeroes stuck at the end of it, you’re legislating for 350 million people, and I think too many of these guys think it’s sort of still 1950, and American is the last superpower standing, and it will always be that way. And that’s what’s so depressing about Washington. Washington is like entering a time warp. It has no idea of the severity of the crisis, and how the world is already beginning to move on to the post-American era.
HH: Did you chance to read or hear Donald Trump on with Rush talking about the challenge from the Chinese yesterday or the day before, Mark Steyn?
MS: Yeah, I love the way every time he slammed a different nation state, whether it was the Chinese or the South Koreans, he said I’ve worked with these guys, I sold them some unwanted apartment development for $300 million dollars or whatever. And they’re lovely guys, but they’re, I don’t blame them for what they’re doing, for taking advantage of us. And I thought in that sense, actually, he has the kind of making, in a crude way, of some sort of political message there.
HH: Well, it was the echo of John Connally in 1980, saying to the Japanese you can park your cars on the dock, and we are not going to import them. That’s not the way to deal with this, though. I kind of think of him as the Aaron Burr of 2012. But the fact that Trump is out there and resonating, and Rush likes to hear it and it sounds good tells me that what he’s filling is a vacuum for blunt talk that the D.C. Republicans, the Beltway GOP, just doesn’t understand is everything in this cycle.
MS: Yeah, but just to go back to what he was saying, I mean, he did say, and my understanding of what he was saying is that he didn’t blame the Chinese and the South Koreans, and everyone else, for taking advantage of us.
HH: No, he didn’t. That’s right.
MS: I mean, basically, we can’t blame the Chinese. What they’re doing, but Beijing’s point of view, is highly rational. What the rest of the world is doing, from the rest of the world’s point of view, this is suicide. There’s no point looking for scapegoats. This is national suicide on a scale that no nation in history has contemplated.
HH: Mark Steyn, last question, do…does anyone inside the Beltway stand up and say to you, when you hear them talk, I understand what you just said, is it Paul Ryan, is it anybody, Tom Coburn, communicates to you effectively that they understand this?
MS: Yeah, I think the other day, I saw a couple of freshmen Congressmen who were elected in November, who certainly do understand it, and were specifically elected on a platform to address these issues. But the somnolent party leadership in Washington has basically just climbed back into the Bob Dole suits, and the whole idea is there’s no urgency, there’s no crisis. Okay, the numbers don’t look great for 2030 or 2040, but let’s not rush into anything. And that just ain’t going to cut it.
HH: Are you disappointed Mitch Daniels is not going to run, and John Thune have gotten out?
MS: Well, I think they’re, I think they have seen that actually, the House GOP is perhaps creating the circumstances in which Obama will be able to secure some kind of reelection. And I think a lot of these guys have just figured out that the way things are going, from their point of view, they’d rather wait for 2016. The question is whether America can wait until 2016.
HH: Mark Steyn of www.steynonline.com, thank you, Mark.
Steyn is being very generous when he says we have 2 years as the world’s currency reserve. It might take that long to implement it, but the decision to TRY has already been made by various players in the game.
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We might have 2 years if we actually prosecute the banksters instead of digging our country deeper in their 40:1 leveraged debt crisis...
“Steyn is being very generous when he says we have 2 years as the world’s currency reserve. It might take that long to implement it, but the decision to TRY has already been made by various players in the game.”
You’re right. Once we are no longer the reserve currency, we will be forced to borrow money in other currencies, lake the Yawn. At that point, once the dollar drops in value, the debt shoots up...the dollar drops more...the debt shoots up further and it’s game over...default...hyperinflation.
If we were willing to jettison Social Security as an entitlement and instead make it a much-cheaper means-tested program we could probably prevent that outcome. Since I have kids, I support that...many on this site and I guess none of the Democrats have kids, so that’s not going happen.
Instead we’ll simply wipe out the country, and those PRECIOUS Social Security checks will still go bye-bye (or be worthless)...but what the hell, that outcome’s ok because EVERYONE gets thrown into the gutter.
“I think we’re the ones who don’t get it. The politicians know we’re screwed.”
You might be right. If that’s the case, the politicians’ “Plan-B” to save themselves better be pretty damn good.
Talking of Plan-B: I think the Cayman islands are going to offer ‘permanent residency’ to anyone who can pay them a million bucks.
They're ignoring the fact that Federal spending has gone up 25% in the past two years. The best the Republicans can muster is a 2% cut? I call BS. 25% right off the top should be easy. There is so much overlap in gubmint programs, waste, fraud, abuse, etc., if anything there are so many places to cut and cut deep that the task is overwhelming. The Republicans give me the impression that they aren't serious about anything. Either they don't understand the dire circumstances we are in or they want the USA to fail. I'm starting to think more and more with every passing day it's the latter.....
Yup. Someone needs to correlate and publish a graphic of worldwide per capita public debt by country. The US citizens would rank amongst the world's poorest. Way behind Zimbabweans and most other 3rd world nations. The politicians know this and are just looting the last debt-funded pickings they can before the nation's credit is exhausted.
Cutting waste will save millions. Maybe -- maybe! -- billions.
We need to cut entire Depts. -- Education, EPA, Homeland security, USDA, just defund them. That's how you save hundreds of billions. And entitlements. They need to be radically re-configured, and millions of Americans have to lose stuff that they think they deserve to have.
Government bureaucrats will get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse all by themselves when really serious budget cuts are forced upon them. We need to make two trillion dollars in cuts, at least. Looking for fraud won't get us there, and if we get people focused on looking for fraud they won't focus on what we need to do.
Just my two cents.
The GAO came out with a report, must have been about 7-8 years ago now, that stated 1/3rd of every dollar taken in in taxes is wasted or stolen. That would be a good place to start if you axe me. If you could eliminate half that it would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars alone. Shut down the Department of Energy, Department of Education, HUD, privatize TVA, end AMTRAK, and on and on and on. I think it’d be really easy to cut a trillion dollars out of the budget......
The amount of potential waste, fraud and abuse that we could find is enormous. The amount that politicians and bureaucrats would find is minuscule. I think a meat cleaver approach is the only way that makes sense. I wouldn't specifically target waste -- I'd target entire $200B Dept budgets and say "Gone!"
If we stumble over $50,000 spent on ash trays, then, sure, I'd cut that as well. But it wouldn't be what I'd focus on. You can't empty the septic tank with a teaspoon.
Yep, they’re all out to lunch—including Paul Ryan, who has battled against the freshman Reps. Too many people see him as a savior here, but he’s fiddling away precious time—and our country’s precious money.
The insanity is thinking that career politicians, and the political dynamics that have created “career politicians”, perpetually promising more, basking in power, and kicking the can down the road, will suddenly do a 180 and forget about their own perks and power for the benefit of the country.
Nothing that has been done in D.C, for decades now has been about personal sacrifice of power and perks for the benefit of the country. And most definitely, nothing about D.C. has been about blunt, honest communication.
Where are these guys on entitlement reform? It’s not as if they haven’t had a few decades to hone their proposals—or had four months now to get their newly elected colleagues up to speed.
Obama didn’t waste any time after being sworn in to start jamming Obamacare through. If he’d fiddled like Ryan and the rest of the GOP leadership, it never would have passed.
Ping.....
As I read this....I think of the movie”On The Beach”...The scene where Fred Astaire realizes at long last that the end is near. He closes the garage door,puts a blanket against the bottom of the door..gets into his sports car, starts the engine..revs it and smiles in resignation as the scene fades...I think of that scene frequently these days..
It amazes me that the focus is on cutting social security and medicare.
Why do we hear nothing about cutting welfare, section 8, food stamps, free cars and cell phones?
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
10 ¶ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Depressing, because when Mark Steyn sees it happening, it usually is...
Yep. The GOP took power because of the Tea Party and others with similar views, yet the GOP elite is still setting the agenda.
Mark Steyn ping.
Freep mail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.
Thanks for the ping knews_hound.
When that happens, dems will keep spending at an ever faster rate ON THEIR PET VICTIM GROUPS. Tax money will go to gang bangers, drug addicts, and Bill Ayers type radicals etc. WHILE grannie goes hungry and Grannies' kids go broke trying to keep her alive.
The MSM will showcases the misery - blaming the GOP every step of the way. And the country will still go broke.
While dems are spending it up on Unions, GM, the VOLT, PBS, fat pensions for Gov. workers etc (see above) - any and everyone liberal. All the sacrifice by the conservative elderly middle class will become a joke as same old liberal groups get MORE money than ever.
Remember when dems talked the first President Bush to go back on his word about 'no new taxes' - said he had to do it for the good of the country. Then when he did, they hung and beat him with his goodness. Really, it's a trap. We can't make this mess better if dems have eliminated us. Steyn doesn't get this one.
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