After a recent post, I was asked why Obama is trying to dismantle America. I could have answered it at the time, but I wanted to give it some thought.

Barack Obama said that he wanted to “fundamentally change America”, five days before the election in 2008. At the time, nobody gave that statement much thought. As the year has gone on and Obama has made one financial misstep after another, the statement has come under much more scrutiny. What did he mean when he said that he wanted to “fundamentally change America”? I think that he wanted to change America from a Constitutional Republic into a Marxist Utopia.

Obama could not just change the American Constitutional Republic into a Marxist Utopia by legislative fiat. There would have been too much opposition, even among some Democrats. So, he has to create a Constitutional Crisis. In other words, he has to create a situation where America itself is in danger of imploding from self-created disasters.

In the 1930’s two Columbia University professors, Cloward and Piven wrote a book on how to destroy the American economy. After about 50 years of Democrat leadership in the House and Senate, the budget of the United States was in perpetual deficit. That was bad, but not enough to destroy America by itself. More needed to be done and the housing and banking collapse was just the ticket to do it. President Bush and his administration started the slide with TARP. That was to bail out the banks and get them lending again. Had they done that right, it could have been a good thing. But, Democrats were in the majority, so there was little chance of it being done right.

When Barack Obama took office in January, it was set up for him to “fundamentally change America”. All he had to do was destroy the American economy. He decided to do that by creating a situation where hyper-inflation is inevitable. Once hyper-inflation occurs, the government will be in a crisis mode. Someone or some group will need to come in and provide the security that the country needs. That is why he is creating his shadow government of Czar’s. When the legitimate government collapses, the Czar’s can step in and “save” America on their terms. If you look at the backgrounds of most of these Czar’s, you will see that most of them lean toward the teachings of Chairman Mao instead of those of any of our Founding Fathers. When they step in to “save” America, they will save America on their terms and create a Maoist state.

The problem with that scenario is that it has to happen within the term of Barack Obama. He has made enough financial missteps to cause it to happen, but the economy is too resilient for it to happen too fast. It is important for the health plan to pass for the crisis to happen. The health care plan is so expensive that the economy will not be able to absorb the increase in the deficit. The Cap and Tax bill is also an important cog in the mix of things to destroy the economy. That some Democrats are getting cold feet because of the backlash against the votes on the healthcare bill is encouraging.

After the Tea Parties and the blow up over the health care bill, Obama and his leadership group know that their time is short to end the American economy. If they cannot get all the pieces in place before the 2010 elections, it will be impossible to accomplish because of the massive change that can be expected. That is why I applaud every delay that occurs in the health care bill. I also applaud all the people that are lining up to challenge the constitutionality of the health care bill. That should delay implementation of the bill until after the 2010 elections. If it is going to be implemented after the 2010 elections, it should be able to be repealed by the Congress that sits in 2011.

I just had a thought about the board that Harry Reid set up. He set it up so it could not be repealed or not funded. It could be funded at $1.00 per year and given no staff or offices. It could also have all of its authority eliminated. That would effectively eliminate the board as any kind of tool to be used against America.

Last night, I watched the Glenn Beck program at the Fox News website. I was shocked by what I heard. Not so much by the information that he provided. That was information that I either knew or sensed. The shocking thing was the conclusion that Glenn drew from the data available. The other shocking thing about the conclusion was that it made perfect sense.

The conclusion from last night’s show was that we are headed for big trouble. We had a spike in the money supply under Jimmy Carter and had to have 20% interest rates to get rid of that spike. That spike was only a 13% spike. We now have a 120% spike in the money supply. What kind of interest rate would be required to reduce that spike I do not know? What I do know is that whatever interest rate it is, it will shut down the US economy. The 20% interest rates under Carter almost shut down the economy. Anything higher would surely shut down the economy.

What was startling was that this kind of spike has happened in the past. The Weimar Republic of Germany had this same problem. After the huge spike which allowed them to pay the debt, they issued a new currency. This new currency was based on German land, not precious metals such as gold. That meant that the German government owned all the land in Germany at that point. Germans were outraged and rebelled. That helped to propel Hitler into power. Glenn’s conclusion is that this is what is intended for America. That Obama and the Democrats intend to inflate the dollar into a worthless piece of paper. Then, they will issue a new type of money based on American land. That would mean that the American government would have to own all the land at that point. Given America’s love of owning land, there will be a big fight over losing our ownership of land to the government.

Glenn then speculated that with the unrest that would follow such a move, that the government could call in help from governments that have an interest in America. The largest country that meets that qualification is China. If one Chinese soldier so much as touches the ground with his foot, it would mean instant war with the American public. American citizens will not be subjugated by a foreign power, even one invited by our own government. We would fight the Chinese tooth and nail, just like in the movie, “Red Dawn”. I believe that the American Armed Forces would fight a foreign invader, even one invited by our own government.

The other unsaid thing that would have to happen to make Glenn’s scenario work would be for Obama and his cronies to take our guns away. If they tried to take them away directly, there would be heck to pay and it would not happen. They would have to use a stealth method. The stealth method that might work is to tax guns out of the hands of law abiding Americans. Just place a “Gun Safety Tax” on guns, because everyone knows that guns are dangerous. That would make the cost of owning a gun too much for most citizens. Most would be forced to give up their guns or break the law.

Glenn’s time frame for all this to happen is also scary. He suggested a 5-8 year window for all this to take place. That is too close for comfort. My oldest grandchild would be getting to the age where the fighting would take place. I am much too old to be of use in any real fighting situation.

When I became a practicing Christian, I heard stories about the Constitution hanging by a thread and the Christians having to save it. At the time, I dismissed those stories as pure fantasy. I thought that it was impossible for that scenario to happen in my lifetime. Now, I see where this scenario is playing out right in front of my eyes. I am hoping and praying that the members of the Church stand up and take their rightful place as saviors for the Constitution and this country. The problem I see is that I do not see any actions being initiated to thwart the enemies of the Constitution. I just hear talk. Talk is cheap. Action takes real guts and commitment. Do we have the same guts and commitment that our forefathers had in 1776? I hope that we do. I pray that we do. I want to help, but my age and health are going to make it difficult for me to be much help at all. People my children’s age are going to have to be the leaders of this movement. Do they have it in them? Only time will tell if that is the case. I pray for a rebirth of freedom in this country. It is sorely needed. We have too much government interference in our lives. Let’s get back to the ideals of our Founding Fathers. They got it right in 1787. Let’s get it right in 2009 and beyond.

At some fund raisers in Las Vegas and Hollywood, Barack Obama said that the “stimulus” plan was working. It had saved 150,000 jobs. The economy is turning around. Things are starting to look better. He also said that he is pleased with the performance of his administration. That, in my opinion, was entirely fiction.

Now for the facts, since taking office in January, 2009, the economy has lost approximately 1.8 million jobs. There is no way to say if the “stimulus” plan saved 150,000 jobs or not. To claim that it had saved 150,000 jobs is pure baloney. There is no data available to back up that comment. There is ample evidence to show that the economy is still losing jobs.

There are faint signs that the economy may be nearing bottom. Every now and then, you see a sign that this indicator is showing positive news. So far, there has not been any consistent indication that the economy has yet hit bottom. With all the new taxes that the Democrats in Congress want to impose, the economy will not have a chance to recover before it goes into another tailspin. With an economy in shambles, you cannot add new taxes and expect it to recover any time soon. If the economy was humming along like a well tuned engine, you might be able to add some taxes and not mess up the machinery. But, why mess with success?

The general performance of this administration is in the eye of the beholder. If you are a socialist, communist or other person from the far left, this administration has performed well. If you are from any freedom loving part of the United States, this administration has created one disaster after another. We would have to rate the administration’s performance as worse than extremely poor. I thought Jimmy Carter was the worst President in my lifetime or maybe even American History. I was wrong. Barack Obama has Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy, which was the worst ever. Obama also has a much worse economic policy than Carter. We may look back at Carter’s economy and wish we were there by the time Obama and the Democrats are through with us.

The interesting thing about these fund raisers in Las Vegas and Hollywood is that they have had to lower the price of admission. They were not getting many takers at the original prices. They had to slash the prices a lot to get enough people to attend. It shows that even Hollywood and Las Vegas fat cats are feeling the pinch of this economy. That is a good thing for us all. It may wake them up to the disaster that is occurring around them.

Obama did give his usual stirring speech, which said nothing, to the people that paid to hear him. In reading his speeches, I come away with the thought that I just read a jumble of nothing. He says things in generalities. He also gets it wrong when someone disagrees with him, so his examples of disagreement are always off the mark. That makes his arguments against the people that disagree also off the mark. You do not catch that when listening, just when you read. When you listen, you get caught up in the emotion of the speech and not the meaning of the words. It is the same with every Obama speech I have read. They all have the same pattern; stirring words, wrong straw men, poor arguments and wrong conclusions. All of that is then wrapped up in emotion. As a result, people that hear the speech are moved. People that read the speech think it is pedestrian at best.

We are in for a long period of bad times. Too bad we do not have a Presidential election in 2010. That way we could rid ourselves of this error very quickly.

Cap and Trade, what does that mean to you? To Democrats in Congress, who do not want you to know what it really is, it is a bill to make energy producing companies pay their share to clean up the environment. But, since everyone knows that companies do not pay taxes, people do, the costs the companies get will be passed on to us in the form of higher energy costs.

How much will our energy go up? The estimated amount here in Phoenix for our electric to go up is just under $4000 per year. Gasoline costs are estimated to go up 74%. Those amounts are going to destroy the economy for sure. We are already in trouble from the banking and housing failures last fall. We have not even begun to get out of that hole. The Democrats in Congress must believe that adding thousands of dollars in new taxes for every American family is the way out of the recession/depression we are in? That is crazy talk. We need fewer tax dollars removed from our wallets, not more, to get us out of this problem.

Democrats never have been very good at understanding what gets us into or out of a recession. They believe that higher taxes got us out of the last recession. They are deluded in that thinking. They believe that higher spending is the way to get out of a recession. Higher spending usually puts us into a depression from a recession. That is why we are seeing this current recession last so long. We should be on our way out of the recession and have no signs that we have even hit bottom yet.

The Cap and Trade bill that the House of Representatives is supposed to pass out of committee within the next week is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately for you and me, the Republicans in the House have almost no power at all. They could not stop the bill unless a lot of Democrats had second thoughts and voted with them. With the power structure the Democrats have, that is extremely unlikely. There is a better chance in the Senate, but even there the chances are slim. There are those northeast Republicans that tend to vote Democrat on these types of issues. That means a massive tax increase is in store by the end of the year. It also means that any chance the Democrats have of holding onto the House of Representatives and the Senate are also gone by the end of the year.

The public will scream loudly when faced with the high energy costs. The blame will fall squarely on the backs of the Democrats in Congress who passed the bill. Any person running against those Democrats would be wise to focus the public’s attention on the fact that their Congressman/woman voted a massive tax increase when we are in a recession. I am not just talking your usual massive 10% tax increase. I am talking about a tax increase that would be in the nature of 40-50%. That will get people’s attention real quick. Any Democrat who votes for the bill will be guaranteeing that they will not be back to Congress after the 2010 elections. Unless there are more stupid Democrat voters than I think there are.

Even though the bill would destroy the economy of the country, the Republicans should just put up a token resistance to the bill. They should talk against it. They should work to have it defeated. They should not filibuster the bill in the Senate. The reason is that letting the bill pass will destroy the Democrats chances at winning in the 2010 elections. The bill would do a lot of damage in the mean time. The bill would pass anyway. The Democrats have the votes to push it through. This is one to let go. You have to fight the fights that you can win. I can’t see pulling enough Democrats into the light to make any difference. You might get a few in the House who are in competitive districts, but none in the Senate. If the Republicans put up a fight in the House, they would not even get the few from the competitive districts.

This bill will destroy what is left of our economy. All that could be done from then on would be to pick up the pieces. The Democrats would probably put in some provisions that people below a certain level of income could apply for relief from these taxes. That would just frost the people not receiving the subsidies even more. There is no good thing that can come out of this for Democrats.

Barack Hussein Obama has decided to take a page out of John McCain’s campaign playbook and say that the basics of the economy are sound. The difference is that when John McCain said that the economy was sound, the news media and Barack Obama savaged him for the comment. When Obama himself says the same thing, in a worse economy, every news outlet is silent.

Do we have news bias today? Of course we do. Anyone who says that we do not have an obvious bias to the left does not know what they are talking about. They either do not read or listen to the news or they believe from the left and cannot make a distinction. Anyone from the middle to the right should see the bias from a mile away. But, now back to the main idea.

When John McCain said that comment in September or October, he was correct. The basics of the economy are sound. What crumbled was the part of the economy that was the most highly regulated by Democrat controlled politics. The rest of the economy is basically sound. The problem with the highly regulated part of the economy is that it was so large that it is bringing down some of the more fragile poorly managed companies. When Barack Obama comes out and says the economy is sound, it is not as true as when John McCain said it in the fall. That is because we have pumped in trillions of dollars into the economy with no result, or a poor result. That means that the economy is headed for either high inflation or a long depression or both.

One company that had to be bailed out because it was too large to fail was, AIG. Democrats and Republicans fell over themselves on how important it was to make sure that this company remained alive through bailout funds. This weekend, AIG announced that it is giving $165 million in bonuses to top executives. That is not a company that feels that it is one step away from bankruptcy. They also were giving a large portion of their bailout funds to banks. News flash to the Obama administration, this company is thumbing its nose at you.

So far, we have pumped trillions into the economy with bailout and stimulus funds and still have a slow economy. With that much money you would think that something would happen. The problem is that they were doing exactly the wrong thing. They were trying to solve a problem of borrowing and spending by borrowing and spending. That cannot work. It is like being maxed on your credit cards and saying that you need to max another card to get you out of your problem. It will not happen.

The way to solve the problem is to reduce taxes on those that create jobs. Obama is increasing taxes on those that create jobs. Democrats have a horrible case of wealth envy and their voters have caught the fever. Wealth envy means you tax those that create jobs and give to those that create nothing. You call that a sound economic plan if you are a Democrat. The way to solve it is to lower taxes on those that create jobs. Also lower the cost of creating a job, which means lower corporate taxes. This will stimulate companies to add people to the workforce. That will increase the number of people making money and paying taxes. That will increase the amount of tax money coming in, even though you cut taxes. It has worked every time it has been tried. Unfortunately for us, the Democrats have not learned that lesson.

A faster way to fix our economic problem would be to enact the Fair Tax. That would eliminate corporate taxes and all income taxes. It would create a consumption tax in their place. The estimated $12 trillion that is held overseas would largely come home to the United States as investment. That would be a larger stimulus than the stimulus package and it would cost the government nothing. It would require no borrowing and would not have to be paid back in taxes. The problem is that Democrats would not be able to keep their thumb on you and claim that the Republicans are going to take that thumb away from you.

We have a solution to our economic problem staring us in the face. It costs the government nothing. It will not be enacted because Democrats could never bring themselves to actually vote for something so sensible. Republicans would even have a hard time giving up the power that most of them crave. If it passed, the country would have a boom that would last for decades or longer. Because of short sighted politicians, it will have a hard time even being heard, let alone passed.

Some supporters of Barack Hussein Obama are having problems. They do not like what is happening to the economy, but still feel the need to support the President. As a result, they spend a lot of time bashing the policies of the Obama administration, then say that they love Barack Obama and still support him. This is just like when they support the troops but bash President Bush over his support of the war against Islamo-Fascism.

You cannot have it both ways. If you support a President, any President, then you support what that President does. If you do not like what the President does and spend your time saying how much you dislike how the President is acting in a particular area, then you do not support the President. This is particularly so when talking about people putting their lives on the line to protect us. With the military, you either support everything that they are doing, or you do not. There is no support the troops but do not like what they do. You can disagree with the President on sending the troops, but then you have to decide whether you really support the troops or not. In areas where it is not a life or death situation, you can support someone and not like what they just did. If you continually do not like what they do, you do not support that particular President. In my case, I have continually disliked what this President has done since he was nominated for the office.

Liberals love to have things both ways. Liberals have to be right all the time in their minds. As a result, they have to be able to take two diametrically opposing positions and support them both. They see absolutely no conflict in their position. Any reasonable person would see that the liberal is being a hypocrite. Liberals are self-righteous. They always think that their position is superior to your position, even when their position is obviously in a hole.

Liberals can call a bill the, “Freedom of Choice Act”, and have the bill be taking away the freedom of choice for workers. They do this because their position is that more union workers is good, therefore any means necessary to get union workers is good. Liberals are famous for saying one thing and doing something quite different and seeing no conflict. I am always amazed at my liberal friends when they say and do two conflicting things and are perfectly content doing so. But, for me, words mean things. For a liberal, words mean whatever is prudent at the time. Liberals have no set of meanings for words. That way they can change meanings 180 degrees and not see any conflict. I am constantly driven nuts by this.

Warren Buffet and the others that are criticizing Barack Obama for his handling of the economy and the Porkulus bill are correct. Barack Obama is driving this country into a depression by his mishandling of the economy. Warren Buffet and the others are also afraid of what might happen if someone thought that they did not support Barack Obama on everything. That is why they are always adding that they support Barack Obama. That is sad. If the President had been President Bush, they would never add that they supported President Bush. They would not feel the need to because their friends are liberals. As liberals are not tolerant of any one dissenting from a liberal, they feel the need to add the support statements. We are entering a period of fascism. When people are afraid of what the government might do, it is time to stand up and say stop.

The Democrats have decided to target the biggest target in the Republican arsenal. They held a focus group of people (probably Democrats) last fall and found that Rush is not that popular. So, they decided that they could create a new boogey man to scare the Democrats.

Rush Limbaugh is in his element when he is being attacked by Democrats. He just loves the controversy. The controversy brings him new listeners as people start to wonder about this so-called boogey man. When they listen, they hear a funny confident person that can explain things in a way that everyone can understand. That gives Rush a new group of listeners. Rush Limbaugh always comes out of these scraps far better off than he went into these scraps.

Just like when the Democrats were having trouble pinning George W. Bush down in the early years of his administration, they will have a difficult time pinning down Rush Limbaugh. Sure he says things that are controversial. He is, after all, a talk show host. The purpose of a talk show host is to gain and hold listeners. One way to gain and hold listeners is to say things that are controversial. Another way is to do things that are unconventional. Rush Limbaugh does both extremely well. His timing is always impeccable. Frequently, I have said to myself, “Rush, don’t go there”. Every time Rush has been right and I have been wrong. That shows that his sense of what works with the public is much better than my sense or those of any liberal.

Democrats always say that they are against targeting individuals and the politics of personal destruction. The Republicans always get accused of using those tactics. Yet, it is always the Democrats that are actually practicing the art of personal destruction. It is their bread and butter tactic. It works for them so well because they cry about how often the Republicans use it. So, the main stream press accuses the Republicans of using the politics of personal destruction and may even find one example. The main stream press ignores the hundreds or more of examples of Democrats successfully using the politics of personal destruction. It is always the Democrats that go after the individual first. Republicans usually try to stay on the issues. Democrats know that the issues are a losing proposition, so they go after the individual knowing that everyone is not perfect. If they phrase things just right, they could make anyone look like Lucifer, even if they are much closer to perfect.

The Democrats see that the economy is going into the tank. They see that the stock market is down to levels not seen since 1997. They know that their “stimulus” package will not stimulate anything except for socialism. They also know that socialism will prolong the recession and maybe even make it into a depression. So, they have to find an individual to funnel all their hate toward. The most likely candidate they found was Rush Limbaugh. The reason they targeted Rush is because he is the best at what he does. He is the most successful talk show host, by far. They also know that if they can topple Rush Limbaugh, they can destroy the conservative movement in this country. For all those reasons and more, they had to target Rush Limbaugh for destruction. They will put the full brunt of the Democrat attack machine to work on Rush. The Democrat propaganda machine, commonly known as the main stream press, will write articles that are negative and broadcast negative news. Democrat politicians will say bad things about Rush and take what he says out of context. The Democrat bloggers will spew their hate towards Rush on their blog sites. When they are all done, Rush will come out on top. He will win because he has truth on his side. They only have hate on their side. Truth always trumps hate.

I support Rush Limbaugh and all that he stands for. He is not perfect and I understand that. But, that is not the issue. He is not running for saint, he is a talk show host. The agenda he talks about is the agenda I support. I support freedom wherever I find it. I support enforcing our borders to stop people from coming in illegally. I support reducing the size of the government bureaucracy. I would prefer that we get back to the Constitution and start living by its ideals. If the Constitution says the federal government can do it, then I support the government. If the Constitution does not say the federal government can do it, then that part of the federal government should be eliminated or transferred to the states. If we start following what we say we believe, then all of us will be happier.

Last night, Barack Obama gave a speech before Congress in prime time. The speech was delivered in his usual style. I cannot stand the stops and starts in his speech, so I was driven to distraction. Others thought this was a wonderful speech. The speech was a typical Democrat speech; it had something in it for everyone and was short on reality.

The best part of the speech was when he said he would increase the size of the Army and Marines. That would be great. With the size of our current force, we are frequently spread thin. Increasing the size of the force will reduce that dramatically. There are two problems with this scenario; first, where is he going to get the money? Second, we need to have more people volunteer for the military. Current military enlistments keep up with current needs and would need to be stepped up to meet increased demand.

The first problem of where is going to get the funds can be answered in one of two ways; he can either reduce the size of the Navy or borrow it from our great grandchildren. He does have a third option; he could reduce the size of the seriously bloated federal government to pay for it. That is probably not an option because he talked about increasing about every Democrat program that he could find. Democrats would scream if their beloved give away program was scuttled to protect the country.

The rest of the speech was typical Democrat give away talk. He wants to increase funding for every Democrat program. He also wants to introduce responsible budgeting to the federal government to reduce the deficit. I am not sure how he can pull that one off. He just increased the deficit by a trillion dollars and is now talking like a fiscal conservative and balancing the budget. He could actually do it within his term of office if he introduced permanent tax cuts to people that actually earn money, not phony tax give away programs to people that do not earn it. He would also have to seriously reduce the business taxes, particularly on small businesses. Then, within 3-4 years the federal budget would be balanced because of the increased economic activity. He would have to put a brake on increasing any federal spending to accomplish this goal, but it could be done. It will never happen. His philosophy of government is exactly the opposite of growing the private sector.

This speech was meant to calm the waters. Everyone is supposed to say that it was a wonderful speech and what he proposes will solve our problems. The problem with the speech is that it is long on promises and short on reality. It will not solve any problems to follow this plan and it will cause a host of new ones.

To show the power of Rush Limbaugh, Obama even put in the speech a comment about America succeeding. This was obviously in reference to the statements that Rush made that Rush wants Obama to fail. That comment would not have been in the speech if any other talk show host had made a similar comment. Only Rush Limbaugh has enough power to influence Presidential speech makers to insert comments that are out of place in that part of the speech.

To summarize the talk, it was good TV. It was creepy to see Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden grinning like Cheshire Cats in the background. It means absolutely nothing for the economy. It means absolutely nothing for the country. The talk will go down as a missed opportunity.

Now that the Trojan Horse Pork Spending Bill has been passed and signed, some of those that were opposed to the bill are all of a sudden showing a change of heart. It is really difficult to look at billions of dollars coming to your state and telling the federal government, no. That takes a monumental amount of courage and faith in what you believe. Most of the Republican Governors are willing to accept the federal money because it relieves budget crunches.

Here in Arizona, the money will mean that there will be more money available to fund the normal budget items in the state budget for next year. That means good things for the community college budget. This is assuming that the state legislature restores the funding that they were going to take away. It will also be great for ASU. They were really facing tough budget crunches and even limiting enrollment. That is something they have never done in the past.

The problem with federal money is that it always comes with strings attached. Those strings usually lead to problems down the road, if you are not careful in how you manage those strings. Most states do not manage the strings and then the strings manage the states. The same holds true for education. When they accept federal money for anything, there are strings. The districts never allow for the strings, so the strings bite them. Then the district has to arrange things to allow for the strings that were attached to the funding. States manage their money in much the same way. They take the federal handout and do not allow for the strings. Then when the federal government reviews how the money was spent, the State has to spend additional funds to cover the strings.

We will see how the states that accept the money deal with the strings that are attached. Most states will take the money because the amounts are so large. If the funding was smaller, the states with Republican Governors would not take the money and the programs would fail. By making the dollar amounts huge, states cannot resist having large portions of their budget covered or their deficit covered by federal money. That is our position here in Arizona.

The correct position is not to ever take federal money unless you want to fund the strings. That has to be an up front decision or you get yourself in deep trouble. As a result, the best course is not to take the handout because it will rise up and bite you sooner or later.

Rick Santelli was right when he went on his rant last week. The Trojan Horse Pork Spending Bill is spending our grandchildren’s money to do absolutely nothing to help the economy. Anyone who voted for the bill should be run out of town on a rail. There is no justification to spend our grandchildren’s money to do nothing. In three or four years, this bill will have spent over $1 trillion and have nothing to show for it. The economy will be worse off for having had the bill and we will have the $1 trillion to pay off. Inflation will be on the rise because you cannot put that much money into the economy without increasing inflation. That will make everything worse less. If the people that voted for Obama knew anything about economics, there would be a tremendous revolt in this country. Unfortunately, there are few who know anything about economics and they will accept whatever the government says, especially if it is from Obama. That is, until he really screws up in their eyes.

What should have been done is give everyone tax cuts. I am not talking about the phony tax cuts the Democrats talk about. I am talking about tax cuts for the people and businesses that pay taxes. If you do not pay taxes you do not get a tax cut. That would stimulate the economy into producing new jobs at a fantastic rate with little or no inflation. You had put little to no new money into the economy. Putting money into the economy will increase inflation. Decreasing taxes on income earners will not increase the amount of inflation at all. We need to be smart in this economic mess the government got us into.

President Reagan said it best in the 1980’s when he said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” That is exactly the problem today. That is exactly the solution today. How come so many people cannot see that is beyond me.

Yesterday, the House passed the Emergency Pork Spending Bill. It passed with only Democrat votes. All Republicans and 11 Democrats voted no on the measure. The measure is basically a collection of Democrat spending measures that will kick in 2-15 years from now. There is little to nothing that will impact the economy right now. The highest estimate is that 12% of the $825 billion bill is actually to impact the economy. I suspect that the real number is much less after you subtract the government costs to any project.

The good news on the vote is that all the Republicans voted no on the vote. But, more than just voting no, the Republicans also put forward things that would actually work. They proposed a bill that would cost half as much and have at least twice as much impact on jobs as the measure passed by the Democrats. That was rejected. They proposed an amendment to the bill that anyone that has problems with the IRS could use the Rangel rule and write Rangel on the top of any IRS bill to eliminate any penalties. That was rejected. They also put forward some other measures that poked fun at Democrats and their difficulty living within the law. Each was rejected in turn. For the Republicans, it was fun to be a conservative again.

Now this Emergency Pork Spending Bill goes to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate. There are three things that can happen to the bill in the Senate. First, the bill could be brought to the Senate floor for a vote and passed. Second, the bill could be filibustered by a solid Republican minority. That would effectively kill the bill. Third, the Republicans could filibuster the bill until changes could be made to the bill so it could pass in a bipartisan manner.

The first option will happen if some Republicans decide not to hold fast on a filibuster. They can still vote no on the bill, but not to have a filibuster. This would allow the bill to come to a vote. The bill would pass with or without any Republican votes. The Democrats would love one or more Republicans to vote for the bill. Then, when the bill fails, the Republicans could take all the blame. If, by some miracle, the bill succeeded in producing jobs, the Democrats would take all the credit.

If all the Republicans, with no more than one Republican defector, vote to have a filibuster, the bill would not come to a vote. That would effectively kill the bill. The Republicans would have to have some better options for the public, or they will be labeled as stopping economic recovery. This is the highest risk option, yet one that is the most important to do. The bill effectively moves us toward socialism, so it needs to be killed. I am not sure that all the Republicans have enough backbone to stand up to the media frenzy that would occur if they actually killed this Emergency Pork Spending Bill. It would be the best thing for the country however.

The middle ground and the one most likely to be taken is the revision option. This is where the Republicans threaten filibuster until the bill gets fixed to their liking. The Republican leadership and the Democrat leadership then get together and hammer out an agreement that the Democrats will not keep, for a bill. That revised bill will be put to the Senate for a vote. Since the Senate bill and the House bill would not be the same, it would go to a conference of House and Senate leaders. This conference of House and Senate leaders would probably put the original bill back on the table, because almost all of them would be Democrats. We would then be back to square one, but have taken a month or two to get there.

Eventually, this bill or something much like this bill will probably be passed. If Obama is true to his word, he would veto the bill. However, he is a Democrat and wants this Emergency Pork Spending Bill as much as any Democrat. That means he will not veto the bill. By not vetoing the bill it will signal that Obama is in the pocket of Pelosi and Reid. That will move the balance of power from the President to the Congress. Obama will have a difficult time getting that power back from the Congress for the rest of his Presidency. This would be interesting to see.

Last night, President Bush gave his final talk as President. He basically thanked people and looked forward to the future. In his opinion, the history has been written and it is up to the historians to write it correctly.

A lot of good things happened under George W. Bush and some bad things happened under George W. Bush. First, the bad things: the economy tanked at exactly the wrong time. For the economy to go into a recession is a bad thing at any time, but the timing on this one could not have been worse because President Bush couldn’t do much to fix it. He had to try draconian measures that were basically Democrat in design to try and deflect the effects of the recession. So far, nothing has worked because they are the wrong fixes for the problem. What caused the problem? Democrats and reporters blame the recession on too little regulation of the markets and the economy. The real problem was too much regulation of the markets and the economy. A truly free economy will have its ups and downs, but the ups are higher and the downs are smaller than the regulated economy that we have now. The problem with a truly free economy is that the people involved have to be aware that people might try and take advantage. That is happening under regulation, but people believe the regulators are catching the people trying to fool them. That allows crooks like Bernie Madoff to run up huge paydays until he gets caught. Under a truly free economy, Bernie Madoff would have been detected sooner.

Second, spending got out of control. President Bush never said that he would veto a spending bill and he never did. That was a mistake. He should have stood firm against Democrat excesses. But, he allowed the Democrats and some Republicans to run away with spending. That cost the Republicans the House and Senate in 2006 and 2008.

Third, is related to the second but it is the increase in Medicare with adding prescription drugs. There was not a call to add this benefit, but he added it anyway. Now, we are stuck with the bill because it will never be repealed.

Now for the good things, first up is the handling of 9/11. On that day and the days that followed, President Bush was the best President that anyone could ever want. He was strong and brave. The only flaw was allowing his handlers to delay his return to Washington. He should have insisted on returning to Washington sooner. It would have made him look even better.

Second is how President Bush has handled the subsequent war against Islamo Fascism. President Bush decided that the best defense is a good offense, so he took the fight to the terrorists. By doing that, he kept the terrorists from having the time or ability to strike the United States again. On 9/11 everyone expected the US to be hit again. It is now over 7 years later and we are still free from terrorist strikes within the US. That is a remarkable achievement.

Third, is his handling of the economy in general, specifically in getting tax cuts through Congress. The tax cuts were the corner stone of his economic boom for most of the 8 years he was in office. Unfortunately for President Bush, he will be remembered for the economy that tanked at the end of his administration, not for the economy that boomed for the 7 years before that. It can be argued and is probably true that Senator Schumer from New York is primarily responsible for the economy tanking just prior to the election. Senator Schumer set in motion a series of events that culminated in the economy entering a recession.

Overall, President Bush will be seen as a good President. He, like all Presidents, is not perfect. He made mistakes. But, overall he did most things right. His most important job, he did perfectly and that is remarkable. History will judge President Bush much like history has judged President Truman. The people with Bush derangement syndrome will have to get over it before that can happen, however.

The never ending bailout is continuing. Barack Obama has requested that the remaining $350 billion be made available so that he can decide what to do with it when he takes office. Banks are back to ask for more funding. States and cities are in line to ask for bail outs because they could not control their spending. The list of groups that want bailout money never seems to end and everyone is treated like they are essential. Even the porn industry got in line and made their case. That is how bad it has gotten.

What can be done about it? We started down this road by bailing out companies that were “too big to go under”. That was our first mistake. Then, we started bailing out the next level of company like the car companies that are large, but are not “too large to go under”. At that point, every group or company that lost money when the economy went south jumped on the bailout band wagon and here we are.

The first thing that should happen is that all bailouts should stop. By stop, I mean stop now. The bailouts were not needed at the time and are needed even less today. The bottom of the recession has been reached and the economy will find its own way out of the mess. If the government sticks its nose into the mess much more, the recession might just turn into a depression. That would be a real problem. Barack Obama in requesting the bailout funds obviously does not understand the situation that is going to confront him when he takes office. He feels like he has to do something to justify his presence. He is wrong.

The bailout that Barack Obama is talking about is all wrong. It is targeting Democrat constituents and not places in the economy that really needs the help. The biggest portion of his bailout proposal will go to fund education. Education may be underfunded, but that is another issue and one not needed to be addressed in a bailout. A bailout of education will do little to nothing to help the economy. Education should be funded by states and local districts, not the federal government. I say this as someone who actually is in education. The rest of the Obama bailout is much of the same. It targets groups that helped elect him President and maybe need some help, but hardly need a bailout.

If Obama wants to do something to bailout the economy, he should do something that will actually help the economy in the long term. One suggestion I read from Hugh Hewitt was that he should build nuclear power plants and revamp the electrical power grid. That would give a boost to local economies by providing jobs, both short term in construction and long term in running the nuclear plants. It would provide power to the country to address the power needs of the 21^st century. It is a win/win situation for everyone. There would be enough money to put set aside areas to please environmentalists (not conservationists, but that is another story). Nobody could object to this for long, except for the attorneys for the environmental extremist groups that usually hamstring nuclear plants because they would be settling disputes instead of just making it impossible for them to build.

To do something like that would cement Obama’s legacy as a great President. What he is planning to do will be forgotten within a couple of years and he will be another failed Democrat President who could have been great, but wasn’t. The problem with Democrats is that they look to the immediate, what will get me re-elected, philosophy. They need to have a longer term outlook like President Bush who took a longer term outlook with the terrorists and has defeated them everywhere. Democrats only look to the next election and never beyond to define what they will do or not do.

My fear is that Obama will take this recession and turn it into a depression by trying to “fix” what is wrong with the economy. He cannot “fix” what is wrong with the economy because he does not understand the economy. If he did understand the economy, he would be talking about reducing taxes and unleashing the American public. Instead, he is talking about raising taxes and doing other things that will make it harder for Americans to recover from the recession. I guess it is good for Republicans that Democrats do not understand anything about the economy. It is just bad for America to have the country in a recession for all that time. I am an American first and a Republican second. Democrats are Democrats first and I wonder some times about whether they ever think about being Americans.

This information is just too juicy to pass up writing about. It turns out that the Governor of Michigan is on Barack Obama economic transition team. Michigan has the highest rate of people leaving their state in the country. That means that the worst economy in the country is in Michigan and the Governor of Michigan is going to help Barack Obama to develop economic plans. How great is that?

Governor Granholm has destroyed the economy of Michigan with tax increase after tax increase coupled with ever increasing government spending. No business would want to start up in Michigan with the tax rates they currently have. Since businesses are closing up shop left and right, people are leaving Michigan to find work elsewhere.

The economy of the country is in poor shape right now. The plans that Barack Obama has for the country are exactly the same kinds of plans that Governor Granholm had for Michigan. Since they worked so well in Michigan, maybe we should try it in the entire country. Unfortunately for the rest of us, there is no place to go if the country’s economy gets destroyed like Michigan’s economy has been destroyed. We cannot leave, we have to stay and take it.

I had been wondering why Barack Obama was persisting in putting forth plans that were obviously not going to work. Now, I know why he has been pushing those plans. Governor Granholm has obviously been touting the work she has done in Michigan and would like it to expand to the rest of the country. Of course, if the rest of the country goes into the tank like Michigan then people will stop leaving Michigan because everywhere else will be just as bad. I guess that makes sense if you are from Michigan. It would make more sense to put out plans to grow the economy and make everyone rich.

Barack Obama really has a good record at picking people as advisors. Bill Richardson from New Mexico is accused of using the pay to play system that got the Illinois Governor in trouble. That would be graft for those that do not grasp the significance. Graft is illegal activity or to put it less delicately, it is criminal activity. Governor Granholm destroyed the economy of Michigan.

Why do I say that Governor Granholm destroyed the economy of Michigan? Before she took office the Governor was a Republican. He had low taxes and a vibrant economy. The unions do not like Republicans so they got him voted out for Governor Granholm. Ever since she took office the economy of Michigan has been heading down, in double digit numbers for most years. I am not sure if the Michigan economy can get much worse, but if Governor Granholm is there much longer we will find out.

Obama’s choices for other important positions do not make me any more hopeful for his administration. I still hope that he fools me and is a great President. Why, because I am an American and I want my country successful. I will be shocked if he manages to pull that off, however. He has surrounded himself with scientific illiterates, crooks and liars. That is no way to run an effective government. If his advisors are any sample of his governing ability, we are in for a very bad four years. I just hope that we have another election to get rid of him in 2012. I have my doubts that we will be able to do so.