The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-25-2010

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-25-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." --Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

"Speaking last Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, President Obama asked, 'How do we, over the long term, get control of our deficit?' Good question. Here's the answer suggested by last Thursday's semi-annual budget summary from the Congressional Budget Office: Stop spending so much. CBO's mid-year review largely reinforces the bad news we already knew -- to wit, that spending has exploded since Democrats took over Congress in 2007, first with the acquiescence of George W. Bush and then into hyperdrive after Mr. Obama entered the White House. To appreciate the magnitude of this spending blowout, compare CBO's budget 'baseline' estimate in January 2008 with the baseline it released Thursday. The baseline predicts future spending based on the law at the time. ... In a mere 31 months Congress has added more than $4.4 trillion to the 10-year spending baseline. ... As recently as 2005, total federal spending was only $2.47 trillion. Keep that $4.4 trillion in mind the next time you hear Mr. Obama or Speaker Nancy Pelosi say they 'inherited' this budget mess. Let's assume the recession that Mr. Obama inherited -- Mrs. Pelosi was already in power -- was responsible for causing $1 trillion or so in deficit spending. That still doesn't explain why the annual deficit of roughly $1.4 trillion will be nearly as high in fiscal 2010, after a year of economic growth, as it was in 2009. Or why CBO says the deficit will still be nearly $1.1 trillion in 2011 even if all of the Bush-era tax cuts are repealed. The deficit is barely declining because of the lackluster economic recovery, which continues to yield too little revenue, and especially because of the record levels of spending passed by the Democratic Congress and eagerly signed by Mr. Obama." --The Wall Street Journal

Insight

"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy." --British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"Those who have been intoxicated with power ... can never willingly abandon it." --British statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

"Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke." --American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Upright

"On Thursday the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced the federal budget deficit for 2010 will exceed $1.3 trillion. This is already on the heels of a 2009 budget deficit of $1.2 trillion and on top of a national debt of some $13.3 trillion. The word 'trillion' seems to have, almost overnight, crept into our standard economic parlance and by the looks of it is here to stay. And with the CBO's forecast of more than $6 trillion in federal budget deficits accruing over the next nine years from 2010 to 2019, many are logically wondering if the United States has effectively crossed, or is fast approaching, a virtual economic point of no return -- an economic Rubicon if you will." --columnist Matt O'Connor

"Progressively over these three decades the Republican party has exempted every material component of the budget from cuts, including middle-class entitlements, defense, veterans, education, housing, farm subsidies, and even Amtrak! Like Casey, the GOP has been in the anti-spending batter's box for 30 years, and has never stopped whiffing the ball. The final proof is that the one GOP spending cut plan with any integrity -- the 'roadmap' of Congressman Paul Ryan1 -- has the grand sum of 13 co-sponsors, and I dare say half would call in sick if it ever came to a vote." --former Reagan budget director David Stockman

"Why isn't the economy recovering? After previous recessions, unemployment didn't get stuck at close to 10 percent. If left alone, the economy can and does heal itself, as the mistakes of the previous inflationary boom are corrected. The problem today is that the economy is not being left alone. Instead, it is haunted by uncertainty on a hundred fronts. When rules are unintelligible and unpredictable, when new workers are potential threats because of Labor Department regulations, businesses have little confidence to hire. President Obama's vaunted legislative record not only left entrepreneurs with the burden of bigger government, it also makes it impossible for them to accurately estimate the new burden. In at least three big areas -- health insurance, financial regulation and taxes -- no one can know what will happen." --columnist John Stossel

"The conviction that government no longer works for the majority of Americans is spreading like wildfire. That nearly all of President Obama's major policies have gone against public will is fueling voter anger across the nation." --columnist Michael Goodwin

"Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again. Most have no common sense, and most never acknowledge that they were wrong." --economist Lawrence Kudlow

The Demo-gogues

Analogy rerun: "Imagine our economy is a car. And these guys, I don't know what they [Republicans] were doing. I don't know whether they were on their BlackBerry while they were driving, or they were doing something else irresponsible. They drive it into the ditch. And so me [sic] and Sherrod and Mary Jo and Steve and Ted and a whole bunch of folks, we're all putting our boots on, and we go down into the ditch. And it's muddy down there, and it's hot, and there are bugs swirling around. And we're pushing on the car, trying to get it out of the ditch, putting our shoulder -- shoving it, pushing it." --Barack Obama (Maybe if they had called a private towing company...)

If he does say so himself: "After 18 months, I have never been more confident that our nation is headed in the right direction." --Barack Obama on the economy

"We have three months to go [before the election] and so [Republicans have] decided we can politick for three months. They've forgotten I know how to politick pretty good." --Barack Obama

The BIG Lie: "It's a Wall Street tax cut, not a Main Street tax cut." --Vice President Joe Biden on the expiring Bush tax cuts

Ringing endorsement: "My dad was an automobile man, he said 'Joey there is good paying jobs there.' I went and applied for a job on the third shift. Had they hired me, I'd be a proud UAW member and you would be in real good luck -- I wouldn't be vice president." --Joe Biden in Toledo, Ohio