I’ve said this from way back before the 2008 election – Barack Obama, like G W Bush was going to be a “mixed bag.”
Both men seem like personable and charming enough guys – affable and easy-going, even moderate in their approaches to most issues. Just as more liberal/left-leaning people had some issues with G W Bush's affiliations, like Bob Jones University, more Conservative and Libertarian people tend to have some serious issues with Barack Obama's ties to radical bigots, from Reverend Wright to the odious Van Jones and even more radical groups like the "Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now" - ACORN.
Both men seem like personable and charming enough guys – affable and easy-going, even moderate in their approaches to most issues. Just as more liberal/left-leaning people had some issues with G W Bush's affiliations, like Bob Jones University, more Conservative and Libertarian people tend to have some serious issues with Barack Obama's ties to radical bigots, from Reverend Wright to the odious Van Jones and even more radical groups like the "Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now" - ACORN.
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Both men have gotten some things right and some things wrong. G W Bush got the war on terror right (the most momentous issue in the last fifty years...and President Obama's continuing the bulk of the "Bush Doctrine" proves that out) and he got the tax cut issue right too – Bush’s Cap Gains cut (from 20% to 15%) had Capital Gains revenues skyrocketing in its wake. Likewise, his across-the-board income tax rate cuts also saw income tax revenues skyrocket.
Unfortunately, President Bush used those revenues NOT to pay down the already ponderous U.S. Debt, but to keep on spending (he spent MORE, even adjusted for inflation, on reckless, wasteful social spending than even, LBJ did), while conducting two massively expensive wars. He also joined with the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in expanding mortgages for “lower income” people (read “deadbeats). Bush signed the 0% down FHA mortgage that triggered the frenzy of subprime lending that Congress pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to GUARANTEE/”buy” and package as triple A rated “mortgage-backed securities” on an unsuspecting world market, ultimately resulting in a banking implosion here, that spread rapidly around the world.
For his part, Barack Obama, has looked at the Bush mistakes and come to a completely illogical and almost certainly disastrous conclusion, buying into the absurd meme that “Bush’s tax cuts and deregulation led to the financial meltdown and that MORE government intervention was necessary," President Obama has embarked on a massive spending program that has quadrupled the Deficit in just 8 months AND increased the Debt burden from 64% of GDP to nearly 75% of GDP virtually overnight.
Of course, MORE government intervention for a problem CAUSED BY government intervention is as foolish as believing that a problem (the exploding U.S. debt ratio) caused by excessive government spending could be cured by even MORE government spending!
But along the way, Obama’s also gotten some vital things right, and that’s why I’m often just as shocked and saddened by some Conservatives looking to fight Obama on EVERYTHING, as I am that Liberals who railed against things like the rendition program and the NSA Surveillance program, seem to have lost their principles, as well as their voices, in the face of Barack Obama continuing the bulk of the Bush anti-terror policies.
NO ONE gets it ALL wrong, ALL the time and both Barack Obama and G W Bush are no exceptions.
Barack Obama has NOT moved us out of Iraq. The last troop reduction happened over a year ago! He has NOT abandoned the NSA Surveillance program the nutty Left once claimed was “shredding the Constitution,” he’s even defended it in court and continued it, cloaked in secrecy, as it should be. Obama has also called for about $500 BILLION in cuts from Medicaid and Medicare and is proposing what would ultimately be a bare-bones tightly rationed and strictly restricted government healthcare option that would have to be supplemented with private insurance, if one were to avoid the rationing and restrictions. Bottom-line, it would actually end a “free” entitlement (employer-driven health insurance) and replace it with a bare-bones public option, complete with rationing of care and restrictions, that would ultimately deliver LESS care to those less able to pay!
Over the last two days President Obama has sought to ratchet up the war in Afghanistan, looking to deploy MORE U.S. troops there, in the face of strong Liberal opposition AND the Obama administration, just yesterday (Tuesday, 9/15/09) sought to extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year. Those key provisions would preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.
ALL three had been vehemently opposed by the far-Left...expect nothing but silence NOW.
Any time you get that silence from the far-Left, that’s proof that Obama got one right.
Unfortunately, President Bush used those revenues NOT to pay down the already ponderous U.S. Debt, but to keep on spending (he spent MORE, even adjusted for inflation, on reckless, wasteful social spending than even, LBJ did), while conducting two massively expensive wars. He also joined with the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in expanding mortgages for “lower income” people (read “deadbeats). Bush signed the 0% down FHA mortgage that triggered the frenzy of subprime lending that Congress pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to GUARANTEE/”buy” and package as triple A rated “mortgage-backed securities” on an unsuspecting world market, ultimately resulting in a banking implosion here, that spread rapidly around the world.
For his part, Barack Obama, has looked at the Bush mistakes and come to a completely illogical and almost certainly disastrous conclusion, buying into the absurd meme that “Bush’s tax cuts and deregulation led to the financial meltdown and that MORE government intervention was necessary," President Obama has embarked on a massive spending program that has quadrupled the Deficit in just 8 months AND increased the Debt burden from 64% of GDP to nearly 75% of GDP virtually overnight.
Of course, MORE government intervention for a problem CAUSED BY government intervention is as foolish as believing that a problem (the exploding U.S. debt ratio) caused by excessive government spending could be cured by even MORE government spending!
But along the way, Obama’s also gotten some vital things right, and that’s why I’m often just as shocked and saddened by some Conservatives looking to fight Obama on EVERYTHING, as I am that Liberals who railed against things like the rendition program and the NSA Surveillance program, seem to have lost their principles, as well as their voices, in the face of Barack Obama continuing the bulk of the Bush anti-terror policies.
NO ONE gets it ALL wrong, ALL the time and both Barack Obama and G W Bush are no exceptions.
Barack Obama has NOT moved us out of Iraq. The last troop reduction happened over a year ago! He has NOT abandoned the NSA Surveillance program the nutty Left once claimed was “shredding the Constitution,” he’s even defended it in court and continued it, cloaked in secrecy, as it should be. Obama has also called for about $500 BILLION in cuts from Medicaid and Medicare and is proposing what would ultimately be a bare-bones tightly rationed and strictly restricted government healthcare option that would have to be supplemented with private insurance, if one were to avoid the rationing and restrictions. Bottom-line, it would actually end a “free” entitlement (employer-driven health insurance) and replace it with a bare-bones public option, complete with rationing of care and restrictions, that would ultimately deliver LESS care to those less able to pay!
Over the last two days President Obama has sought to ratchet up the war in Afghanistan, looking to deploy MORE U.S. troops there, in the face of strong Liberal opposition AND the Obama administration, just yesterday (Tuesday, 9/15/09) sought to extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year. Those key provisions would preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.
ALL three had been vehemently opposed by the far-Left...expect nothing but silence NOW.
Any time you get that silence from the far-Left, that’s proof that Obama got one right.
2 comments:
LOL...and here I thought you were referring to the Prez calling Kanye West a "jackass". He got that one right, too.
YES!....He did get that one right too, SF.
But ratcheting up Afghanistan and seeking to up the troop numbers OVER liberal objections AND calling for the extension of those key Patriot Act provisions are also good calls.
Sometimes I wonder how hard it is for the far-Left to hold their collective noses over many of the decisions by this guy.
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