Dissonance 2

More of the political warp messages shared with you this day. This is Friday so I will be on another topic next week! Just had to vent my spleen on these issues. Thanks for allowing me this forum.

First quote:

“Never in the history of the United States has a political party devoted all of its efforts to the destruction of the Presidency at any cost to the American people.  We cannot in good conscience reward them with our votes this November.”

                        ~Len Miller, Occupy Democrats

I don’t know if it is the only time in US history this has occurred, but the pattern is clear. I seem to recall an all out vendetta against Bill Clinton, too. Remember the lawsuits that were personally levied against him?  $16 million in personal legal fees and court costs. This was some strange kind of blackmail. It makes you wonder why anyone allows themselves to be a target every time they run for public office? The payoffs are generally not worth the aggravation and personal costs. Congress people I can understand. They are well paid, work part time, get terrific benefits and have a worry free retirement.

Second quote:

“Next time someone blames Obama for our struggling economy, kindly remind them that every time he tries to do something to fix it, it’s blocked by Republicans in the House or filibustered in the Senate.  Want to see some real progress? Vote Democrat in 2014 and send the obstructers packing.”  ~The Blue Street Journal

The Constitution allows some minute safeguards to block votes on technical bases. How come the republicans seem to engineer use of these little known tricks and the Democrats don’t? I've never figure that one out. But a 60% super majority is not needed on every vote in the Senate. The ill-used technical rule has become THE rule and it needs to be repealed.  In the House clearly the republicans do not believe they are the board of directors elected by the people to serve the needs of the nation. They must believe they are in office only to serve their own narrow interests. They need to be removed.

Quote three:

I’m disillusioned by the people who are disillusioned by Obama, quite honestly, I am. Democrats eat their own. Democrats find singular issues and go, ‘Well, I didn't get everything I wanted.’

I’m a firm believer in sticking by and sticking up for the people who you've elected. If Obama was a Republican running, because Republicans are better at this, they’d be selling him as the guy who stopped 400,000 jobs a month from leaving the country. They’d be selling him as the guy who saved the auto-industry. If they had the beliefs, they’d be selling him as the guy who got rid of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, who got Osama Bin Laden. You could be selling this as a very successful three years.”  ~George Clooney

The recession alone killed government jobs and private sector jobs by the millions. This was the work of George W. Bush.  With nearly 8 million jobs eliminated, Obama entered the White House and reversed that toll. He has helped create 6 million private sector jobs by policy determination alone. The obstructionism of the House republicans have killed another 6 million jobs that could have been created.  And don’t forget, with a recessed economy and budget stinginess by the Congress, the federal government shed employees by the hundreds of thousands. The same occurred for state, county and municipal governments. Without the economy humming along creating employment and tax revenues, they had to cut their employment to fit their budgets.  Smaller government. Get it? There are millions of jobs nationwide that used to be in governments of all shapes and sizes. Those folks have not been asked to return to work yet.

Quote, four:

“The Bush tax cuts have cost Americans as much as $6.6 trillion in personal income, an amount that could easily pay off every car loan, student loan, and all credit card debt in the United States.” ~ Source: David Cay Johnston

The tax cuts were supposed to stimulate the economy. You remember, the ‘trickle down theory’? Well it didn't work. Instead it starved every government entity in the nation of revenues that had been used to support the economy. And the rich did not invest their expanded wealth. That’s why interest rates are so low. There’s now about $6 trillion of idle cash bouncing around the nation and global economy looking for investment opportunities. There are few. So large corporations use their cash pots to buy out other companies, giving those out of business a new cash pot to idle away time with. How utterly unproductive. And not inventive.

Quote number five: (this came off the internet; the quote is G.W. Bush’s. The comment cited is anonymous)

            “I promise a stronger and better economy.” ~ George W. Bush

“Then he completely destroyed the economy. He took 879 vacation days during his presidency. That is 2 years and 5 months of pure vacation time. Now it all makes sense. You would have to be totally stupid to trust the again.”

            ~Anonymous (assume a Democrat!)

What Bush said he wanted for the country he could not deliver because he didn't understand economics. He starved the federal government of needed funds and the ripple effect stunted all lower levels of government throughout the states as well. Then he went to war in Afghanistan (understandable) but with the wrong partner (Pakistan) and then adventured into Iraq with a war under totally false representations.  Those wars have cost the US Treasury about $5 trillion and still counting, not to mention the cost of taking care of our veterans and their families.

Bush’s stewardship of the American economy was a travesty of the largest proportions. And somehow the republicans blame this all on Obama while they continue to obstruct every move he makes to fix the long term problems.

One day Americans will better understand economics or we will go the way of the Roman Empire.  One must understand the basics to govern. Clearly many do not. And we all pay dearly for that.

August 22, 2014