His Royal Telepromptness is Not Amused

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Our Crushing Burden of Debt

From Powerline:

Is the United States Greece? The short answer is: not yet, but it will be if the Democrats remain in control in Washington for two more election cycles.

In the Telegraph, Edmund Conway summarizes a lengthy report by the International Monetary Fund on sovereign debt that came out today:

[T]he really interesting stuff is the detail, and what leaps out again and again is how much of a hill the US has to climb. Exhibit a is the fact that under the Obama administration’s current fiscal plans, the national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 – a far steeper increase than almost any other country.

And that, my friends, cannot be sustained. I know our liberals can’t grasp this – this is because they’ve been told that government spending is the cure for the economy. We spent bags of money, the economy is getting better per bankster and bureaucrat statistics and soon spending will drop as people need less help and revenues will rise as the economy improves. While the GDP numbers continue to rise, there is no way to even possibly argue them out of this – but, the fact remains that government spending never cures a faltering economy.

And, so, here we are – spending money like mad and rapidly running up against the absolute limit of just how much we can owe before lenders start demanding extortionate interest rates. If we actually reach that point the resultant crash will be unimaginable – not just here, but all around the world. You really cannot put a limit to the baleful effects – up to an including a desperate Chinese government setting off WW III in order to distract the Chinese from their plight.

We still have a window of opportunity to fix this – preferably no later than 2013, but absolutely no later than 2015 we must balance our budget. And I’m not talking phony balanced as we had it in 2000 – really balanced where the absolute number of dollars leaving the federal government by any means is less than the absolute number of dollars coming in. We do this, we avoid the crash – or, to be more accurate, the really horrific crash. We’ll still have one – and a pretty bad one, at that. Think in terms of 20% unemployment, for a while.

But here’s the key – we’re in a race. The race involves this: which ever major, industrialized nation figures out that a balanced budget cures the problem, wins. And wins huge. Think about it – the problem people have is with concerns about the viability of sovereign debt…if there is a nation out there where people can be certain there won’t be a default, that is where the money will go…and not just in terms of bond purchases, but in terms of all types of investment (but why should we care about bond purchases if our budget is balanced – simple, as our bond rating becomes impervious while everyone else’s collapses, it will become almost a matter of people offering to pay us to sell them bonds…we can refinance our existing debt at a very low interest rate).

To be sure, a crash course in balancing the budget will cause a crash – the resultant withdrawal of government funding will cause lots of business activity to dry up for lack of funds. But such a crash would be temporary in nature and beneficial in long term effect – with the government not spending the money, it will become available for people to start up or expand existing, private enterprises which is a much more efficient and profitable use of capital. This will swiftly feed upon itself and restore the economy within a couple years time.

Its either do this, or face the very worst situation imaginable – absolute bankruptcy coupled with threats of war and revolution. It is our choice.

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Sorry I couldn’t get anything worthwhile up for the AM – try to have something better for you later.

Have at it.

If the Jobs Don't Come Back, Then it Isn't a Recovery

This story in the New York Times is just so typical of the MSM coverage of the economy these days:

…The economy is strengthening. But millions of jobs lost in the recession could be gone for good.

And unlike in past recessions, jobs in the beleaguered manufacturing sector aren’t the only ones likely lost forever. What sets the Great Recession apart is the variety of jobs that may not return.

That helps explain why economists think it will take at least five years for the economy to regain the 8.2 million jobs wiped out by the recession — longer than in any other recovery since World War II.

It means that even as the economy strengthens, more Americans could face years out of work…

They speak as though the economy were some how separate from the people who live in it. Of course, to them – the elite – this is just fine. To them the economy is the means whereby they get to enjoy vast wealth with minimal personal effort. The editor of the New York Times just wants it to be possible for his lifestyle to continue – if that is happening, then the economy is fine.

But that is not the truth. The economy is the thing we, the people, live in. It is how we make our living, provide for our children and plan for our future. The economy is functioning only so long as everyone who is willing to work can do so. Right now, it is clearly a non-functional economy – and reports like this indicate that it will continue to be so. The jobs are not coming back.

Why should this be? Well, if you read the linked story you’ll find that there are a lot of explanations offered. At the back of all of them is this “global economy” thing – because there are people in China willing to make shirts, Americans will not be able to do so. That, boiled down, is the story we’re being told – the ultimate explanation for why a “recovery” will still leave millions of people unemployed.

The real reason that the economy won’t recover is because it isn’t supposed to. Not, at least, at the cost of discomfort to the ruling elite. You see, an economy for the people is all well and good, but it can also be quite a bother.

Factories are rather gritty things, and you certainly don’t want them within sight of your estate. Oil wells and coal mines are nothing but a bother. Farms take up land which could best be used for country get-aways for rich people. Cutting down trees can spoil the view at the ski lodge. It would also be terribly inconvenient to have to employ citizens or legal aliens as housekeepers, gardeners and such – they would want to be paid properly and where is the upside in that?

Meanwhile, having a fake-money economy based on usury allows the well connected to pile up vast sums of money without having to work – and being well connected means that if things fall apart in the financial world, the government can hit up the taxpayers for bail outs. If we returned to real money then one would have to get back in to knowing how to invest – researching wants and needs and seeking out persons and enterprises who seem likely to successfully provide such over time, thus paying dividends. Who wants dividends when you can just have your stock price run up 5% in a week and then sell the stock?

We can have a recovery – a real recovery of the real economy. All it takes is massive, revolutionary change in the way we do business. We can, to put it in a nutshell, make a shirt in the United States and sell it at a competitive price with any shirt made in China and then shipped thousands of miles to the United States. Whatever reasons we can’t are based upon our tax and regulatory environment – change the tax and regulatory environment and whatever advantage China has in cheap labor will be wiped out and the jobs will flow back in to America.

Nothing else will be of any use, or even matter. Unless we start getting farms, factories and mines running in the United States, all else we do is a waste of time. If regular folks are not able to support themselves, then there’s no point to whatever it is you’re doing. We can do this – our first step is in voting the Democrats out in November – and we must do this.

I Just Love This Guy, Chris Christie

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone'

GOP Introduces Bill to Forbid Euro Bail Out

I think this will resonate with the American people:

After a week of preemptive attacks on a possible IMF bailout of Greece, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) introduces the European Bailout Protection Act, aimed at preventing taxpayer dollars from going to a rescue plan.

“This legislation would require that countries like Greece cut spending and put their own fiscal house in order,” says Pence, backed up by other members of the House GOP, “instead of looking to the United States for a bailout. We face record unemployment and a debt crisis of our own, and American taxpayers should not be forced to bear the risk for nations that have avoided making tough choices.”

Hopefully, Democrats will rise in opposition to this. After all, if the liberal theories about government spending are true, then spending on Greece will work wonders for the global economy, right? Come on, Democrats – be true to your tax and spend principles!

Joking aside, this is a vital law – not a dime of American money should go to pay off the gamblers who bet on Greek or other European bonds. Let them crash – let the banksters who made these bets go broke…there is no “too big to fail”.

The Liberal Ponzi Scheme Unravels

From Wizbang:

The world’s largest entity in terms of gross revenue had a bad month in April. The IRS collected only $245 billion dollars in April 2010 compared with collections of $266 billion in April 2009. This was only part of the reason the U S government ran up an $82 billion dollar deficit in April of this year because the government spent $327 billion dollars in that month versus $287 billion in April of last year. For 43 of the past 56 years there has been a budget surplus in April owing to the fact that tax collections occur then.

Of course, none of this is news to voters in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Utah and, as of last night, West Virginia. In all of these states the “surprise” losers were either irreparably tainted by an Obama/Pelosi/Reid connection or ossified incumbents that finally felt the wrath of an electorate that has had enough of giving at the office, giving at home, giving at the store ad infinitum, ad nauseum and giving everywhere else the government has extended its insatiable desire for taxes. Add to that anger a state immigration law in Arizona that a majority of Americans broadly support but is wildly unpopular in the establishment media, academia and other elitist strongholds and you get one of those rare moments in U S history when events converge to create a wave.

We are witnessing a worldwide repudiation of big government and Keynesian economics…

Yep – and the “surprise” losers are akin to all that bad economic news which is always “unexpected” in the news reports – in other words, the elite doesn’t understand what is happening, doesn’t want to know about it and is whistling past the graveyard.

As I’ve been saying, people are fed up – and the results in West Virginia and, I expect, in Pennsylvania show that even a substantial portion of Democrats have had enough. In the end, the catalyst for this was Obama.

He campaigned as a post-partisan, post-racial healer – someone who was an Outsider going to DC to knock heads together, clean up the mess and get things done. He’s been none of these things – and while the left will grumble and stay with him, the dismay on the center-left may prove fatal to the Democrats.

Its getting a little hard to remember, but 16 months ago the world was at Obama’s feet. We Republicans were shell-shocked at our defeat. Everyone was willing to give Obama his chance. What did Obama do? Immediately start to ram a highly partisan agenda through Congress. Compounding this error, he and his Democrats went out of their way to insult and disparage the opposition.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. November is coming.

GOP Gains Popularity

From the Wall Street Journal:

Republicans have solidified support among voters who had drifted from the party in recent elections, putting the GOP in position for a strong comeback in November’s mid-term campaign, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The findings suggest that public opinion has hardened in advance of the 2010 elections, making it tougher for Democrats to translate their legislative successes, or a tentatively improving U.S. economy, into gains among voters.

Which has been my view for a while now – and the level of Democrat support right is sustained by the allegedly improving US economy. If the wheels come off the economic cart before November, then all bets are off.

But let us assume that Obama, Timmy and Ben keep the economic ball in the air until at least November 3rd – the year still bodes very ill for Democrats. This is because while the economy and unemployment are playing a large role, the fervor in the center and the right is being driven by disgust with government as an entity.

My bet is that the “victory” of ObamaCare will be seen in hindsight as the undoing of the coalition which elected Obama and the Democrats in 2008. Such depths upon depths of political skullduggery are not often seen – and have engendered a feeling of revulsion among the center and right electorate without any compensating enthusiasm on the left.

I can’t see any way for Democrats to avoid serious losses in November. I make no prediction as to number of seats to change hands, but November 2nd will be a rough night for Democrats.

The UN: A Sick, Orwellian Joke

Libya to be a watch dog for human rights:

On Wednesday, the General Assembly elected 14 members to its top human-rights body, the U.N. Human Rights Council. U.N. human-rights policymakers now include Libya, Angola, Malaysia, Qatar, and Uganda. On a secret ballot, a whopping 155 countries, or 80 percent of U.N. members, thought Libya would be a great addition.

Obama’s diplomats, sitting in the General Assembly Hall throughout the election, made no attempt to prevent the farce or even to object. On the contrary, Ambassador Susan Rice left the hall before the results were announced in order to hightail it to the microphone. Attempting to spin what was a foregone conclusion, she refused to divulge those states which the U.S. supported. When pressed, she said only that the Obama administration regretted some states on the ballot, but “I am not going to name names. I don’t think that it’s particularly constructive at this point.”

Which is true, but not in the way Rice meant – its not constructive to take exception to this UN action because taking any note, at all, of the UN is not constructive.

In reality, the United Nations hampers the defense of liberty and helps tyrants to rivet even more chains on their people. As in all liberal activities, the UN works out doing the exact opposite of what was intended. It is not something we can fix – the UN, as the UN, will just get worse like this as time goes on.

The reason for this is the fundamental flaw of the UN. The UN is made up of representatives of governments, not representatives of people. The Libyan ambassador won’t represent the people of Libya on the human rights panel – he’ll represent the tyrannical regime which governs Libya. And as such a representative, it will be his main concern to prevent any actions which advance the cause of human freedom – or, indeed, human decency.

A rational international organization would not have a concern about a government like Libya’s getting on the human rights panel because a government like Libya’s would not be a member. No tyrannical regime can gather in congress with non-tyrannical regimes and do anything other than defeat the purpose of the gathering. It is in the nature of things – tyrants are anti-human, and thus are incapable of doing good things for humanity.

We need a President who will recognize the worthlessness of the UN and get us out and kick it out of the United States. Then we can get together with other free peoples and start a new organization which would advance the cause of human freedom.

Holder Hasn't Read Arizona Law

The news:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona’s new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn’t yet read the law and is going by what he’s read in newspapers or seen on television.

Nothing more need be said about how cretinous the opponents of the law are: they don’t even know what they’re opposing.