Aug 24 2009
Maybe Everyone’s Just Tired Of The DC BS?
Seems the Obama administration is getting a little testy over the fact that Americans are simply not enthralled with their efforts to date. Rasmussen is showing another precipitous drop in support for our young President today, which would indicate another group of one time supporters have moved to become opponents:
“Strongly Oppose” outnumbers “Strongly Supports” by 41-27% – incredible. This is rapidly turning into the liberal left verses everyone else – which is a recipe for disaster for the Democrats.
When politics in DC became the far right against everyone else (as they insulted everyone who dared propose solutions that could garner some Democrat votes) the American people dumped the GOP – hard. The centrists (who are not moderate, just not extreme in their passionate views) did not, however, go far left in response to the far right’ s purity wars. They backed centrist and conservative democrats in huge numbers. Sadly for them there are a lot of old guard liberals who have risen to the top ranks in Congress over the years, and these liberals decided it was their turn to wield the power in DC.
And they screwed up. Liberals make up, at most, around 20% of the population. In the Rassmussen numbers we are getting darn close to that number in terms of ‘strong’ support. Conversely, conservatives make up a much larger portion of society, but many of them are now independents. So who is making up that 41% who strongly oppose Obama now? It cannot be just the ‘true’ conservatives on the far right. The GOP only registers around 20% when you look at the Dem-Indy-GOP numbers. That 41% is going to include a lot of independents, and it may also start to include non-liberal democrats.
I really though this article summed up a lot of Team Obama’s problems:
Before White House press secretary Robert Gibbs left town, he tried to clarify President Barack Obama’s comment that “everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.†Gibbs explained to reporters that what the president meant was that they were a bunch of bed wetters who made too much out of the implosion of the White House health care strategy.
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Gibbs is so crabby because, incredibly, the administration blames the media for the president’s problems.
It tried blaming Republicans, but the GOP is too far out of power. When the leader of the free world is complaining about a posting on the former governor of Alaska’s Facebook page, he’s got problems.
Team Obama tried blaming special interests, but that was a bust too. The president’s deal with the pharmaceutical industry gets him $150 million worth of ads to boost his plan, whatever it is.
I posted on this over the weekend. The problem is not the opposition or the media, the problem is the message and its proponents. Liberals just don’t represent American interests or views. They are, of course, tolerated as a group of off-the-mainstream folks we share a country with, but that’s about it. At times these folks are quite humorous, with their 3rd grade, made for prime time TV, simpleton view of the world. But they do not represent America.
The Democrats were given a chance to REPRESENT Americans’ interests and desires with majorities in Congress and an inexperienced President. They were not given carte blanche to remake our country into some warped, left wing image of perfection (which has been shown over many decades to be disastrous).
That is part of the problem. But I think another part of the problem coming out now is the constant BS produced by DC in response to lack of progress. Obama has not been able to move out of platitude mode. If there is any depth to him, it is hard to find. Instead everything is a show, a facade. Mark Steyn started to poke at this yesterday in an article I could relate to, as I am sure just about everyone else can too:
The other day, wending my way from Woodsville, N.H., 40 miles south to Plymouth, I came across several “stimulus” projects – every few miles, and heralded by a two-tone sign, a hitherto rare sight on Granite State highways. The orange strip at the top said “PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK” with a silhouette of a man with a shovel, and the green part underneath informed you that what you were about to see was a “PROJECT FUNDED BY THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT.” There then followed a few yards of desolate, abandoned scarified pavement, followed by an “END OF ROAD WORKS” sign, until the next “stimulus” project a couple of bends down a quiet rural blacktop.
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Evidently, it’s stimulated the sign-making industry, putting America back to work by putting up “PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK” signs every 200 yards across the land. And at 300 bucks a pop the signage alone should be enough to launch an era of unparalleled prosperity, assuming America’s gilded sign magnates don’t spend their newfound wealth on Bahamian vacations and European imports.
This just struck a chord with me because this summer, as we do most summers, traveled from DC to West Virginia to attend my father’s family reunion. We always take the I-68 National Highway, which runs the panhandle of Maryland from I-70 (which we pick up outside DC).
On one stretch of this beautiful highway there has been construction for years. It is has been on the Eastern side of Cheat Lake in WV, and it is at one of the longest and steepest runs on the highway. This summer the work area was in place, as usual. But one new sign had shown up – those ridiculous ‘your stimulus at work’ signs. Except, these signs, claiming this grand project was being done by our hard earned tax dollars, is a blatant lie.
The project has been going on for years and is now in its final stages (check this article from 2007)! It was not ‘funded’ by the stimulus package, except they may have diverted some money to complete the job which has taken years to do.
What these signs are is an arrogant attempt at BS. They are just bogus! They are trying to claim this was all from the stimulus bill. Everyone who drives that road at least once a year knows those signs are BS.
Mark Steyn’s observations tell me there are tons of these BS postings all over the country, and they may be generating the same reaction.
American’s know this is all window dressing. Those people out of work, underemployed or concerned about their careers look at these signs and wonder if their future lies as a flagman on a highway under one of those stupid signs.
An maybe the next shoe is about to drop, because apparently the rest of the world wasn’t sold a faux stimulus package with Orwellian signs and no new jobs. According to Steyn, the other countries in the world are lifting themselves out of their recessions:
Meanwhile, in Brazil, India, China, Japan and much of Continental Europe the recession has ended. In the second quarter this year, both the French and German economies grew by 0.3 percent, while the U.S. economy shrank by 1 percent. How can that be? Unlike America, France and Germany had no government stimulus worth speaking of, the Germans declining to go the Obama route on the quaint grounds that they couldn’t afford it. They did not invest in the critical signage-in-front-of-holes-in-the-road sector. And yet their recession has gone away.
One thing I did not expect to see was everyone else arising out of the economic morass while Americans – who squandered our resources on liberal pork projects coming NEXT year – are stuck with frightening deficits with no pay off. Team Obama is in deep trouble if
- There is no positive change in the unemployment picture through Christmas (which is my prediction),
- The rest of the world starts growing themselves out of the recession while we stagnate through Christmas, and
- All we have to show for all our deficits are those stupid signs!
If this scenario pans out we will see a political tsunami the likes of which this nation has not seen in over a century, or more.
The biggest problem with the “stimulus” bill, of course, was that the vast bulk of it didn’t even pretend to go to anything except pork barrel giveaways to pet constituencies and contributors. These kind of things almost by definition will always be anti-stimulative.
But there was a huge conceptual mistake on the part of most of the Washington establishment and that is: Infrastructure maintenance spending, the darling of Congress under either party, is NOT stimulative! Of course many point to the interstate system, which of course was a great stimulus, without realizing that the key to that was that we were creating a completely new corridor for trade, one that never existed before. THAT is what anything that is intended to be a “Stimulus” needs to do.
Maintenance spending is of course necessary to keep your system from getting worse, but it NEVER stimulates – at best, you can only hope that it will maintain the status quo. In fact, it is slightly de-stimulatory, in that it uses up money that could be used for something more productive. (just as if a business uses money to buy a replacement roof rather than buying new and faster production equipment)
Maintenance is a necessary drag on the economy, but since it by definition does not create anything new, it cannot be stimulating. Projects such as turning a 2 lane road into a 4 lane are somewhat better, but still probably too incremental to make a large difference. Repaving a road, though, just isn’t going to do much of anything for anyone other than the contractor.
And that brings up the second problem – the idea that maintenance spending will have any impact at all on unemployment levels.
It won’t. It can’t.
Think about it – do we build roads like we did in the days of the old west, with thousands of chinese coolies swinging picks and shovels? Although it may be fun to envision a thousand laid off stockbrokers singing the blues under the hot sun, it just don’t work that way. Look at any contract going on near you – a relative handful of employees working for a very limited number of contractors (usually only one or two in any given area) are responsible for all of the work to be done. And there is usually very little actual competition. (at least in my neck of the woods)
So, that brings us to the question – who loves maintenance spending so much – who is vested in the idea that pumping money into this area is “stimulative”, even though it isn’t???
Simple – the winners are the governmental bodies who will get appropriated the money, the contractors who will be paid, and the unionized workers who work for the contractors. THEY are the big winners, and they constitute almost all of the insitutional support for these programs. And don’t discount what a HUGE impact the contractors have, since almost all of them have gotten to where they are in this near-monopoly business by learing how to cleverly disguise large kickbacks to anyone who helps them get the work. Whether it’s PAC contributions or just ghost jobs for relatives, a lot of this money always makes the circle right back to where it came from.
And this is why even the supposedly “Good” part of the stimulus bill will still do nothing to actually stimulate this economy or lower unemployment.
Remember Obama’s solution? Spend 23 trillion dollars.
AJ,
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The real objective of the Democratic health care plans is to nationalize the vast existing private health care oversight industry (insurance, etc.) and make them all public employees. Public employees who will then contribute money to the Democratic Party the way public education employees do.
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Note the consistent increase in non-teaching staff (mostly administrators) relative to teachers in shool systems is due to the ever-increasing paperwork requirements which add nothing to instructional value. With the administrators/non-teaching staff servicing left-wing causes in which they believe, and knowing that generous political donations to Democratic election groups keep their pay raises and promotions in an ever-increasing bureauracy coming.
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I.e., the Democrats intend to turn the existing huge, but as-yet mostly private, health bureacracy into another part of the Democratic Party’s public employee client base.
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A public employee client base paid for by constant reductions in actual health care, just as the public education budget is increasingly devoured by administrative overhead.
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This is what happened with Britain’s NHS. It is now a 1.3 million person British jobs program that has a payroll so large — bigger than the Chinese Army or the entire uniformed active duty American military — it can no longer deliver real medicine to those in need.
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The up shot is that Democrats’ real problem in selling their health care plans is that they are lying.
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It is much more difficult to promote a single consistent message which is inconsistent with the actual objective. This is particuarly with a national political objective.
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There is a real life example of this, also from the current headlines, the CIA’s hostile interrogations of Al Qaeda terrorists.
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It is far more difficult for a detainee to keep his story straight, if he lies about it, than if he tells the truth. The most effective deceptions are based on half-truths, by concealing facts to give a false impression.
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The Democrats health care message is falling apart under hostile cross examination by the American public just like Al Qaeda detainees have under CIA’s cross examination.
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And in both cases, Democratic Leftists think this is unfair, racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, and fattening…but most of all, an obstical to increasing their power at the expense of American freedom.
The signs are stupid. Most taxpayers think it is a waste of money and see through the trickery and waste.
At $1000 per sign average between cost and labor…..and no real records of how many signs or what we spent….
we may never know how big of a waste this was.
But, one thing is for sure……it is money that could have been better spent, especially during a recession.
See what I mean:
30 Stimulus Road Signs Cost $60,000 in Pennsylvania
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/stimulus-road-signs-in-pennsylvania-cost-60000-themorningcall-com
The somewhat disapprove is only 11%. When that number gets to 15% along with a 40% strongly disapprove the President will be in serious trouble. Although a 53% President polling in the high 40s is not good, given the fact that a majority of Americans will not blame him for the economy until after Christmas. One poll that is amazing is that Harry Reid can’t get above 40% for his re-election. 40% and he has won 3 previous elections. He first got elected in 1986 and he’s at 40%. Excuse me, I have to put my eyeballs back in my head……….
The economy is a different story. One reason the economy is stuck from an employment standpoint is that productivity is increasing. That is unusual for a recession. In most recessions, productivity decreases. Also, the uncertainty from DC is slowing the hiring of new employees even for growing companies. The risk of a double-dip recession with the second dip starting in the first quarter of 2010 is high. If that occurs the election of 2010 will be violent.
On the bureaucracy front, that will be the next violent encounter. First on the state and local level it will be the taxpayer versus the public employee unions. Take the Post Office, that now famous example for the future of health care. 80% of the USPS revenues goes toward salaries and benefits. At UPS and FedEx, it is 50%. Taxpayers will have to ensure the massive layoffs (and salary and benefit reductions) in the public sector once the current far left pols are thrown out.
Patco times 1000. We may need to safeguard our 2nd amendment right. If the GOP wants to stay in power it will have to take on the public sector unions. Then make the public sector look more like the private sector. Then replace the left wing bureaucrats with center-left to right wing bureaucrats. That will take time, dedication, and focus. Not very known quantities for pols.
AJ does have one good point. The next leader of the GOP will not be a far right winger. It will be a center-right pol who has the trust of the mainstream conservatives. This will drive the far right nuts but when they see that they can’t sway the right and the popularity of the leader they will quiet down or lay low for awhile. The time is ripe, we shall see if Sarah Palin has what it takes.
My personal favorite is Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Paul who? Please make him Speaker in 2011.
When the leader of the free world is complaining about a posting on the former governor of Alaska’s Facebook page, he’s got problems.
Damned near says it all, doesn’t it?
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Is anyone surprised that there is $10 billion secreted away in the current House bill union health care plans and exempts their members from being forced into the “public option”?
So you think you want to trust government employees with all of your medical information and direct access to your financial accounts?
Think again.
There’s more, that is just a sample.
Imagine this … you are running for office as a conservative Republican. Unbeknown to you, your wife of 15 years had an abortion 10 years ago. The news “leaks” during your campaign. It also leaks that your step-son from a previous marriage had an STD while in college and sought treatment for it … and then it leaks that you have a prescription for Viagra and were once being treated for depression.
Or lets say you get a call one day from the “Health Commissioner’s office” from an employee there who threatens to tell your employer that you recently sought treatment for a drug problem unless you pay several thousand dollars.
Illegal snooping into people’s data seems pretty commonplace among government workers. Government workers tend to be SEIU members. The SEIU probably knows more about you than you know about you.
No thanks.
LMAO… Puurfect, Aj… In Alaska, we have signs with mileage on them… Just a small green sign with a number… So I can tell some one we live at “116.5 Sterling [Hwy is understood]” and they know exactly where we live… [A zero point is selected… for instance the intersection of the Steward Hwy and Sterling Hwy & count from there]
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Used to be a sign every 5-10 miles or so…
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However, some brainiac at the signs department with nothing to do when oil prices were HiiiGH decided we needed the signs EVERY SINGLE MILE… Cannot tell you folks how annoying it is [every] [single] [minute] driving to see a mfing green sign with a number… 100 – 101 – 102 -103 – 104 -105 – e.t.c.e.t.e.r.a… Wouldn’t anyone rather be enjoying the beautiful Alaska scenery?
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I have learned to just focus somewhere else so as to not see them… cursing whenever I accidentally focus on one…
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What is the lesson of this little anecdote? Just this… Alaska had LOTS of extra $$ due to high oil prices… and… therefore… the bureaucrats found a totally unnecessary way to spend it… They always will…
Phil Gramm said during the 1993 Healthcare debate stuff that if Hillarycare passed, within 10 years we’d be hunting Democrats with dogs. If Obama isn’t stopped very soon, it we’ll be hunting Democrats with dogs before the end of his first term.
AJ,
You really need to brush up on your history. So, what do we learn if we consider a little historical context.
1. Almost every president’s approval ratings drops in their first year in office. Here is a graph plotting the presidential approval ratings since Truman. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/presidential-approval-tracker.htm. That is what happens when reality crashed into the campaign promises.
2. Presidents who inherit recessions experience significant drops in their approval ratings the first couple years. Here is a graph comparing Reagan’s approval rating to Obama. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/presidential-approval-tracker.htm The two graphs are almost identical at this point in their presidency. Note the fact that Reagan’s approval rating continued to decline until January of 1983, two years after taking office, when it reached a low of 35%. So apparently under your rationale, Reagan was a failure because he went too far to the right and lost the middle of the country.
3. Severe recessions take a lot of time to work out regardless of what policies are adopted. Reagan passed the Economic Recovery Act in July of 1981, but we didn’t start seeing tangible recovery until 1983. Unemployment, which you love to cite as evidence that Obama’s policies aren’t working, steadily rose from 7.5% in Jan. 1981 to 10.9% in Nov. 1982. http://www.applet-magic.com/rec1980.htm Unemployment stayed above 10% from Sept. 1982 to June 1983. Keep in mind that the recession Reagan inherited from Carter was less severe than the one Obama inherited from Bush. So again, apparently Reagan was a failure because he didn’t wave his magic wand and make everything immediately better.
4. Conservatives are not supposed to care about deficits because Republicans are the ones that have historically increased the deficit. Here is a graph of the deficit since 1940. You will see that the deficit soared during Reagan, Bush I and Bush II’s terms. http://zfacts.com/p/318.html Now suddenly you folks are worried about deficits?
“When politics in DC became the far right against everyone else (as they insulted everyone who dared propose solutions that could garner some Democrat votes) the American people dumped the GOP – hard.”
AJ,
You just can’t help yourself.
What grudge do you carry?
What is your goal in your jihad against the conservatives?
being in Alaska, you may not know this, Toes – but there’s a mile marker on every single mile of every interstate hiway in the US. They’re small, not very high, and easy to miss if you aren’t looking for them – but they’re there. And actually, they’re pretty useful for accident reporting in places where there aren’t many reference points. (Of course, I realize you must be talking about a State Hiway)
And as an aside, I know Alaska is bigger than Texas, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Texas has a lot more miles of lonely roads out there than anybody else. I’ve been on quite a few of them.
Conman, your argument on deficits seems to be “hey, Bush doubled the deficit, so it’s OK if Obama quadruples it.” Really??? Is that all you have??? Don’t you have even one semi-plausible argument for why running $9 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years (hey, those are Obama’s own numbers now) is a good idea? How in any conceivable world is that sustainable?
And you say that conservatives shouldn’t care – ignore the fact that the deficits are the one thing above all else that has pissed off conservatives about the people that keep getting sent to Washington, and consider this: On what basis would you claim that Independants have no cause to care about the deficit? Because it looks like the Independants are starting to care quite a bit. Aren’t these the people that Obama and the democrats need to keep on their side if they ever want to win another election? What arguments do you have to convince them that Obama isn’t hell bent on the financial destruction of this country?
“New polling shows Democrats are failing to connect with a key group of voters. According to a recent Gallup Poll, a whopping 70 percent of independents now disapprove of how the Democrat-controlled Congress is doing its job, while just 22 percent say they approve.”
JP Morgan Chase gave $5 million to ACORN. Wonder why?
Conman needs to watch this every couple of weeks or so. If he doesn’t have speakers, he can simply check this list if the times Bush attempted to stop this disaster before it got started but was thwarted every time by Congress.
dbostan,
I hold no grudge. It’s the scientist/engineer in me. Couldn’t help notice the drubbing the GOP took in the last two elections.
By chance, did you see it?
LOL! Simple, cold observations – nothing more.
Have you not seen the *actual* graph of the deficit under the Bush Administration?
After 9/11 on which day the World Financial Center was attacked and we finally decided to go after the terrorist thugs (thank you, George W. Bus!), the Bush Administration REDUCED the deficit THREE years in a row until that very fishy day in September 2008 when the money markets were being drained and the President had to act or there would have been complete chaos. And, as others have noted it was the d.e.m.o.c.r.a.t.s in congress that blocked the reform of Fannie and Freddie *over and over and over* again. Yes, they are on tape.
AJ,
The engineer in me also saw that, but your interpretation is not correct, in my opinion.
Not talking about misleading, in that it provides cover to the real responsible people for the debacle(s).
Some are not in politics anymore, some still are but the real damage is in their philosophy (or lack thereof…).
Denis Hughes, president of the New York state branch of the AFL-CIO has been named chairman of the New York Federal Reserve.
God save us all.