The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-31-2011

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-31-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"The problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect." --James Madison

Editorial Exegesis

"Ben Bernanke's annual Jackson Hole policy speech on Friday ... contained little news about monetary policy. But such is the Federal Reserve Chairman's influence among the Wall Street-media establishment that his speech is being celebrated as a rebuke of Congress for its fiscal drama. ... Mr. Bernanke is shrewd enough not to take overt partisan sides, but his words were quickly interpreted as a rebuke to Republicans for their recent debt-limit showdown with President Obama. ... Mr. Bernanke also lectured that 'U.S. fiscal policy must be placed on a sustainable path,' though not by cutting spending in the short-term. So the Fed chief joins the Keynesian queue of spending St. Augustines -- Lord, make us fiscally chaste, but not yet. The Fed chief must not understand Congress if he thinks you can encourage it to spend more now and somehow expect it to discover discipline later. The natural instinct of any legislature is to spend, so whenever a Congress is willing to cut domestic outlays you have to grab the offer. Mr. Bernanke's riff undercuts the few reformers who really do want to put spending 'on a sustainable path.' ... The remarks also sound like an alibi for the Fed's own inability to midwife a faster recovery. Republicans have run the House for fewer than eight months. Mr. Bernanke has been Fed Chairman since February 2006 and has presided over 32 months of historically easy monetary policy in the name of spurring faster growth and avoiding deflation. What we have instead is a mild stagflation -- 1% GDP growth, 9.1% unemployment, and a commodity price bubble that has robbed middle-class real incomes. Is this John Boehner's fault? We certainly hope Republicans in Congress and on the Presidential trail are paying attention, though not in the way Mr. Bernanke intends. The Chairman's speech continues his habit of taking the Fed into political territory far beyond its mandate, and Republicans should be thinking carefully about ways to rein it back in." --The Wall Street Journal1

Upright

"The debt stood at $10.6 trillion when Barack Obama took office in January 2009. Now, it's about $14.4 trillion. ... By the time Obama finishes his first term, he will have increased the national debt by somewhere in the $5 trillion-to-$6 trillion range -- more than Bush did in two terms. None of this is to say that George W. Bush had a good record on spending. He didn't, and he's fair game for criticism. But is it honest to condemn reckless spending in 'eight years of Republican rule' when Democrats controlled the Senate for four of those years and the House for two? Is it honest to talk about the 'cost' of the Bush tax cuts when federal revenues increased significantly while they were in effect? And is it honest to refer to Bush's ballooning deficits when deficits actually trended down for much of his presidency -- at least before Democrats won control of Congress? Of course Obama partisans would like to pin the president's troubles on Bush. But they should get their facts straight first." --columnist Byron York

"Obama doesn't meditate, cogitate, contemplate or deliberate about job creation, because he thinks he's already got it figured out. The only thing he's doing is strategizing how best to convince the people, against all their reason and instincts, that his failed policies will work if he keeps trying. Meanwhile, he continues to wreak havoc on the market with his onerous tax, regulatory and administrative policies. We know better than to fall for his promise to cut $10 billion through regulatory relaxation. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the proposal was 'underwhelming,' and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the changes 'will not have a material impact on the economy.' Just more smoke and mirrors." --columnist David Limbaugh

"The vast uncertainties created by ObamaCare create a special problem. If employers knew that ObamaCare would add $1,000 to their costs of hiring an employee, then they could simply reduce the salaries they offer by $1,000 and start hiring. But, since it will take years to create all the regulations required to carry out ObamaCare, employers today don't know whether the ObamaCare costs that will hit them down the road will be $500 per employee or $5,000 per employee. Many businesses work their existing employees overtime or hire temporary workers, rather than get stuck with unknown and unknowable costs for expanding their permanent work force." --economist Thomas Sowell

"There are interesting stories that you have to catch up with when you can, like a moving train. The Justice Department's raid on four Gibson guitar factories [over supposedly illegal wood] is in that category. The raid took place last Wednesday. ... [CEO Henry] Juszkiewicz says that the government of the country where [their] rosewood comes from certified it for export, and Gibson jumps through rather elaborate hoops before it buys the wood after it is imported to the U.S. ... One of the ironies, as you might expect, is that America is a trivial importer of rosewood from Madagascar and India. ... If nothing else, this incident illustrates the misguided priorities of the Obama administration. Harassing American businesses on frivolous grounds is not exactly what our economy needs at the moment. But the anti-business Obama administration just can't help itself." --blogger John Hinderaker

Insight

"The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts." --English professor Bergan Evans (1904-1978 )

"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." --President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)

The Demo-gogues

All he needs is time: "What we went through, was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and typically after financial recessions, financial crises like this, it takes a long time for the patient to heal. This is a situation where the economy essentially had a heart attack, and the patient lived, and the patient is getting better, but it's getting better very slowly." --Barack Obama

Blame Game: "All these ideas [for jobs] are ones that have been presented to Congress. We'll be putting out several other additional ideas. We've got to do it, unfortunately, at a time when money is tight. George Bush left us a $1 trillion deficit." --Barack Obama, blaming Bush

Blame Game II: "My attitude is that my job is to present the best plans possible. Congress needs to act. If Congress does not act, then I'm going to be going on the road and talking to folks, and this next election very well may end up being a referendum on whose vision of America is better." --Barack Obama, blaming Congress

Blame Game III: "The Tea-Party driven Republicans -- it's made it very difficult to get progressive things done for this Congress." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), blaming the Tea Party

Government is the answer: "Government and politics are two different things. ... So don't be confused, as frustrated as you are about politics. Don't buy into this notion that somehow government is what's holding us back." --Barack Obama, blaming the voters