The Patriot Post Chronicle 5-9-2012

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 5-9-2012
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain." --James Madison

Editorial Exegesis

"François Hollande has become the newly elected president of France more by luck than by any quality he might possess. Almost anonymous, he has no ministerial experience. His platform nonetheless raised expectations mightily that he would be able to find employment and entitlements where Nicolas Sarkozy had failed to do so. Voters could conclude that there are jobs for all and everyone richer than them will pay more taxes. He likes to promise that France is not doomed to austerity, because he still believes that socialism is the magic formula for growth, and can simply be ordered up. When originally elected, Sarkozy proposed what he called rupture, meaning reform of the centralized powers of the state so traditional in France. Nothing of the kind then took place. In the campaign for reelection, this habitually competitive and ambitious man found himself unable convincingly to claim credit for achievements. ... Poor and insincere as Sarkozy's campaign was, in reality the Euro-crisis left him without a chance. No present head of government can hope to win an election in a Europe irrevocably tied to the single currency and the political structure erected in Brussels to enforce it. In the gathering climate of economic and political disaster, Sarkozy is the eleventh in a succession of office-holders in one nation after another to go down in electoral defeat. Germany sets the terms for Europe, and François Hollande now has to discover whether Chancellor Angela Merkel, the architect of austerity, is willing to permit a forlorn attempt at socialist-induced growth. She had let it be known that she wanted the like-minded Sarkozy to win. But then she herself has already lost regional elections, and until and unless something changes with Brussels and the euro, she too is likely to join the lengthening list of rejected European office-holders." --National Review1

Upright

"Higher taxes now, spending cuts later. That was the 'balanced approach' President Obama and the Democrats tried to force Republicans to accept last August. ... The exact same story has been playing out in Europe. ... Problem is, Europe has not been cutting spending. Mercatus Center Senior Fellow Veronique de Rugy has crunched the numbers and found that among some of Europe's worst economies (Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, and Italy) government spending cuts have either been tiny or non-existent. ... France and the United Kingdom have yet to cut spending at all. ... Obama's plan for the United States is identical to the new Socialist government's plan for France: higher spending and taxes now, spending cuts later." --Washington Examiner's Conn Carroll

"Europe is tremendously wealthy and productive, but Europeans sabotaged themselves by embracing the foolish idea that they could have an economic union without a political union. They are also paying the price for failing to come to terms with actuarial realities; their populations are graying. Without reforms of pension and other benefits, they cannot sustain their standard of living. Rather than face their own corruption, the Greeks principally, but also other Europeans, are disintegrating into raging extremists blaming anyone and everyone else. That's the object lesson for us. Here, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are promising Americans more of this fool's gold -- limitless government benefits with costs imposed on someone else ('the rich' or future generations). It's an engraved invitation to Athens." --columnist Mona Charen

"What is the history of the 'raise taxes and reduce spending' compromise that is so popular in elite circles today? It is this: We get the tax increases but not the spending cuts. After having already enacted major tax cuts in 1982, Ronald Reagan agreed to raise business and excise taxes in exchange for spending reductions. Taxes went up, but so did spending by $450 billion. President George H.W. Bush cut a similar deal with Democrats. Again, we got the taxes but the spending cuts never materialized. There is simply no proven way to guarantee that the spending-cuts part of the compromise will be implemented. Is it any wonder that Republicans are taking a hard line of this?" --former senator Fred Thompson

"Conservatives should refuse to cede the compassion argument to the left. There is more to caring than pumping an ever-increasing share of taxpayer dollars into programs that do virtually nothing to lift people out of poverty. And there is certainly nothing compassionate about standing idly on the sidelines while these programs bankrupt the federal government." --blogger Morgen Richmond

Insight

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." --theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous." --American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Essential Liberty

"Free enterprise isn't an economic alternative. It's a moral imperative. It's the means by which we can achieve our God-given right to what our Founders called 'the pursuit of happiness.' Only free enterprise allows us to find our own happiness by leading the lives we wish to live. Only free enterprise serves the goal of true, merit-based fairness. Only free enterprise really allows us to help the poor in massive numbers. We have to reclaim the moral high ground from the statists, and explain why free enterprise is the only truly fair, moral, and virtuous economic system. We are right for material reasons, and more importantly, we are right for moral reasons. We have to make that case first." --Arthur C. Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute

The Demo-gogues

If only this were true: "We believe the free market is one of the greatest forces for progress in human history; that businesses are the engine of growth; that risk-takers and innovators should be rewarded." --Barack Obama

Don't let go of failure: "We have come too far to abandon the change we fought for these past few years. We have to move forward, to the future we imagined in 2008, where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules. ... We measure prosperity not just by our total GDP; not just by how many billionaires we produce, but how well the typical family is doing -- whether they can go as far as their dreams and hard work will take them. ... So if you're willing to stick with me, if you're willing to fight with me, and press on with me; if you're willing to work even harder in this election than you did in the last election, I guarantee you -- we will move this country forward." --Barack Obama

Spending = compassion: "When you're talking about cutting meals on wheels, when you're talking about cutting food stamps which actually is money that goes directly to small businesses markets in communities versus giving tax subsidies to farming corporations, these are the type of cuts that the Republicans are talking about." --Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA)

Deliberate or gaffe? "Look, I am vice president of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights -- all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don't see much of a distinction beyond that." --Joe Biden