RSSThe Bill Comes Due for Socialism … by Alan Caruba
J.D. Longstreet | January 31, 2010
The Bill Comes Due for Socialism
By Alan Caruba
By Alan Caruba
****************
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." -- Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister
It began as a beautiful cruise to a land of “hope and change”, but it has become a nightmare in which the ship of state is being deliberately steered toward a whirlpool of debt from which, if Obama is successful, the nation cannot escape.
One of the primary reasons the U.S. economy has grown over the years has been the confidence in its innovation and productivity. It has generated investment from around the world from those who wanted to profit from our success story. There was a time when U.S. securities were the safest in the world, but that is no longer the case.
On December 24, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to raise the ceiling of the government debt to $12.4 trillion, described by an Associated Press reporter as “a massive increase over the current limit and a political problem that President Barack Obama has promised to address next year.”
On January 20, 2010, barely a month later, Senate Democrats “proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.”
This is the reason, by virtue of the Massachusetts special election; the United States has dodged the bullet of a “reformed” healthcare system which would have slashed a half trillion dollars from Medicare coffers while adding millions more people to its rolls.
It would have turned the health insurance industry into a public utility. They would have ceased to be private enterprises of competing companies. It would have driven physicians out of practice. It would have bankrupted the nation and reduced a widely acknowledged excellent health system to that of a third world nation.
The proposed “Cap-and-Trade” bill, a huge tax on all energy use—the lifeblood of any economy, must be defeated. This will come most likely from a lack of votes as Senate Democrats are finally scared enough of the electorate to act with some degree of rationality.
In a recent commentary, Jerome R. Corsi, the author of “America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving the Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty”, wrote “With the recession and the huge stimulus package added to the beginning of the baby boomers retiring, United States debt is already at 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office estimates of the Obama administration plans as they currently stand.”
In other words, the U.S. government is committed through various “entitlement” programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, along with other expenditures, to spend more than it takes in via taxes. The other major expense is for defense. These three factors represent half of the annual U.S. budget.
The situation is so grave that, on January 18, The Washington Times editorialized that “Obama is killing the economy.”
The bill has finally come due for decades of socialism that began in the 1930s.
“The 2009 budget deficit tripled over 2008. The deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) went from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009. The deficit for the first month of fiscal year 2010 was $176 billion, which was greater than the $161 billion deficit for the entire 2007 fiscal year.”
At present rates, the public debt of the United States will reach 85 percent of GDP by 2018, just eight years from now, and 100 percent by 2022. It would be 200 percent by 2038 unless some brakes on spending are not applied before the ship of state gets sucked down beneath an ocean of debt.
What does President Obama propose? He wants to apply an unconstitutional special tax on banks! And not all banks, but just those banks on “Wall Street” whom he blames for the current recession.
His most recent proposal to regulate the banking system drove down the Dow Jones Average signaling further fears of his intention to micro-manage the economy. It is a recipe for disaster and shares of the big Wall Street banks in particular fell. He is deliberately attacking the great engine of the nation’s economy.
Wall Street is not the problem. The government is the problem.
Obama made no mention of the real culprits for the housing market meltdown, the reckless spending of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act that underwrote a program that put $12 trillion of mortgage loans, half of all such loans, in the hands of the federal government!
As John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out, “President Obama’s proposal (would) bring back 1930s-like separation of commercial and investment banks, dubbed Glass-Steagall II or Glass-Steagall 2.0, (and) would do little to prevent the problem of financial institutions being too big to fail. What it would do is hurt economic recovery, reduce types of financing available to businesses big and small, and give European and Asian financial services firm a huge competitive advantage over their U.S. counterparts.”
The billions still unspent in the so-called “Stimulus” bill should be returned to the Treasury. Plans to expand Medicare and Medicaid need to be scrapped. Taxes on greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, must be avoided if for no other reason that CO2 has nothing to do with a non-existent global warming.
The capacity of the United States to recover calls for an end or at least a cap on the mindless spending of taxpayer millions on the pet projects and crony deals of Representatives and Senators.
It calls for an end to the restrictions on the exploration for and extraction of the nation’s vast coal, oil and natural gas reserves, including in ANWR and aggressively in the offshore continental shelf.
It calls for an end to huge multi-million dollar subsidies for “renewable energy” schemes such as solar and wind power.
It calls for an end to the ethanol mandates that dilute the mileage of every gallon of gasoline and actually increase CO2 emissions!
It calls for an end to congressional mandates on the auto industry that have, in part, driven two of its largest manufacturers, General Motors and Chrysler, into bankruptcy. The U.S. must divest its ownership in both companies.
It calls for reining in the rogue government agency, the Environment Protection Agency that is attempting to unilaterally impose control of CO2 emissions and has long engaged in practices that impede economic growth for business, industry, and the nation’s agricultural sector.
There are many reasonable and rational steps that can and should be taken, but it seems clear that the President, with the support of a Democrat controlled Congress, has no intention of taking any of these steps and, indeed, is intent on bankrupting the U.S. government and its people.
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." -- Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister
It began as a beautiful cruise to a land of “hope and change”, but it has become a nightmare in which the ship of state is being deliberately steered toward a whirlpool of debt from which, if Obama is successful, the nation cannot escape.
One of the primary reasons the U.S. economy has grown over the years has been the confidence in its innovation and productivity. It has generated investment from around the world from those who wanted to profit from our success story. There was a time when U.S. securities were the safest in the world, but that is no longer the case.
On December 24, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to raise the ceiling of the government debt to $12.4 trillion, described by an Associated Press reporter as “a massive increase over the current limit and a political problem that President Barack Obama has promised to address next year.”
On January 20, 2010, barely a month later, Senate Democrats “proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.”
This is the reason, by virtue of the Massachusetts special election; the United States has dodged the bullet of a “reformed” healthcare system which would have slashed a half trillion dollars from Medicare coffers while adding millions more people to its rolls.
It would have turned the health insurance industry into a public utility. They would have ceased to be private enterprises of competing companies. It would have driven physicians out of practice. It would have bankrupted the nation and reduced a widely acknowledged excellent health system to that of a third world nation.
The proposed “Cap-and-Trade” bill, a huge tax on all energy use—the lifeblood of any economy, must be defeated. This will come most likely from a lack of votes as Senate Democrats are finally scared enough of the electorate to act with some degree of rationality.
In a recent commentary, Jerome R. Corsi, the author of “America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving the Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty”, wrote “With the recession and the huge stimulus package added to the beginning of the baby boomers retiring, United States debt is already at 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office estimates of the Obama administration plans as they currently stand.”
In other words, the U.S. government is committed through various “entitlement” programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, along with other expenditures, to spend more than it takes in via taxes. The other major expense is for defense. These three factors represent half of the annual U.S. budget.
The situation is so grave that, on January 18, The Washington Times editorialized that “Obama is killing the economy.”
The bill has finally come due for decades of socialism that began in the 1930s.
“The 2009 budget deficit tripled over 2008. The deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) went from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009. The deficit for the first month of fiscal year 2010 was $176 billion, which was greater than the $161 billion deficit for the entire 2007 fiscal year.”
At present rates, the public debt of the United States will reach 85 percent of GDP by 2018, just eight years from now, and 100 percent by 2022. It would be 200 percent by 2038 unless some brakes on spending are not applied before the ship of state gets sucked down beneath an ocean of debt.
What does President Obama propose? He wants to apply an unconstitutional special tax on banks! And not all banks, but just those banks on “Wall Street” whom he blames for the current recession.
His most recent proposal to regulate the banking system drove down the Dow Jones Average signaling further fears of his intention to micro-manage the economy. It is a recipe for disaster and shares of the big Wall Street banks in particular fell. He is deliberately attacking the great engine of the nation’s economy.
Wall Street is not the problem. The government is the problem.
Obama made no mention of the real culprits for the housing market meltdown, the reckless spending of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act that underwrote a program that put $12 trillion of mortgage loans, half of all such loans, in the hands of the federal government!
As John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out, “President Obama’s proposal (would) bring back 1930s-like separation of commercial and investment banks, dubbed Glass-Steagall II or Glass-Steagall 2.0, (and) would do little to prevent the problem of financial institutions being too big to fail. What it would do is hurt economic recovery, reduce types of financing available to businesses big and small, and give European and Asian financial services firm a huge competitive advantage over their U.S. counterparts.”
The billions still unspent in the so-called “Stimulus” bill should be returned to the Treasury. Plans to expand Medicare and Medicaid need to be scrapped. Taxes on greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, must be avoided if for no other reason that CO2 has nothing to do with a non-existent global warming.
The capacity of the United States to recover calls for an end or at least a cap on the mindless spending of taxpayer millions on the pet projects and crony deals of Representatives and Senators.
It calls for an end to the restrictions on the exploration for and extraction of the nation’s vast coal, oil and natural gas reserves, including in ANWR and aggressively in the offshore continental shelf.
It calls for an end to huge multi-million dollar subsidies for “renewable energy” schemes such as solar and wind power.
It calls for an end to the ethanol mandates that dilute the mileage of every gallon of gasoline and actually increase CO2 emissions!
It calls for an end to congressional mandates on the auto industry that have, in part, driven two of its largest manufacturers, General Motors and Chrysler, into bankruptcy. The U.S. must divest its ownership in both companies.
It calls for reining in the rogue government agency, the Environment Protection Agency that is attempting to unilaterally impose control of CO2 emissions and has long engaged in practices that impede economic growth for business, industry, and the nation’s agricultural sector.
There are many reasonable and rational steps that can and should be taken, but it seems clear that the President, with the support of a Democrat controlled Congress, has no intention of taking any of these steps and, indeed, is intent on bankrupting the U.S. government and its people.
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.
Contributor's website: http://csadispatch.blogspot.com/
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2 Responses to “The Bill Comes Due for Socialism … by Alan Caruba”
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Mr Longstreet , you seem a pretty reasonable guy , but the Idea of a national health service is not necessarilly a socialist one . You in the USA are still realing from the McArthyisum of “reds under the bed” , and are blind to the reality for millions of people in your country that cannot afford basic healthcare services or insurence for such , this bill you proposed to crush is also an attack on the poor of your country , or are you one of those who proclaim that there no poor in the USA , and those that are poor are only there by the fact of their own mental deficientcy , or have you ever considered what it would be like with little or no money , paying into a tax system all of your life , finding at age 70 that you’ve got a cureable big “C” , but cannot afford the drug , What are you going to do? ……….Beg on the streets for the money , no there are things seriously wrong with the USA when poor people flood the streets , to stop such a bill which is designed to help them , and yes if you must have private practice so be it , we in the UK have a good system of private and public practice running side by side , I suggest before you get on the soap box shouting about all this , do some research about health services world wide …you know beyond your national borders.
And do something positive for own people , what’s the use of having an army ect. flying missions to the moon , when the great majority of your citizens cannot afford basic healthcare , people who’d rather die and have a half decent funeral instead of half decent health services which could save their life is LUDERCROUS.
Funny how socialists spend so many words trying to convince everyone that they are not socialists.
M. Bonner, let’s address this shall we? As my role as moderator permits I have decided to moderate your comments and address your points, correct them and ask you to please refrain from such senseless babbling in the future.
“the Idea of a national health service is not necessarilly (sic) a socialist one”
It is not? Let us look at what socialism is. Webster’s dictionary states socialism as: “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.” What does a national health service do? It is government ownership and administration of the distribution of goods, such as your health care.
“You in the USA are still realing (sic) from the McArthyisum of “reds under the bed””
I think you mean McCarthyism, there M. Bonner. How can anyone take you seriously when you don’t even know what you are talking about. Left wingers always want to try and make people think that they do not exist so that they can grab power while no one is looking. That is a fact. There are plenty of self-professed “reds” in our current government who have praised Mao, Stalin, Chavez, etc to make it beyond doubt that they are there and trying to push things in a socialist direction.
“and are blind to the reality for millions of people in your country that cannot afford basic healthcare services or insurence (sic) for such”
You are blind to the fact that millions, if not billions, of dollars of free medical care are given away each year to people in America who cannot afford to buy insurance and who have often chosen to no save for their own well-being.
“this bill you proposed to crush is also an attack on the poor of your country”
Yes, liberals always try to portray those who are against taxing one person (at the point of a gun) and paying someone else’s way as being anti-poor. The “poor” in this country have no trouble getting health care IF the seek it. That is a fact. Heaven forbid that they have to take some initiative and maybe actually pay for it right?
“or are you one of those who proclaim that there no poor in the USA”
Hold on, let me throw you a life line here! You are drifting away from the boat!
“and those that are poor are only there by the fact of their own mental deficientcy (sic)”
Still drifting … sounds more like what liberals have claimed about people throughout history actually to me and to explain why some people are better than others. And of course we know what liberals believe should be the fate of such undesirables. Right? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more!
“or have you ever considered what it would be like with little or no money”
Have you ever considered that you are still drifting? Your initial premise was so blatantly wrong that I suspect even you know it and are now just of the opinion that if you spout enough words you will win the argument?
“paying into a tax system all of your life, finding at age 70 that you’ve got a cureable (sic)big “C” , but cannot afford the drug , What are you going to do?”
In the United States, again huge sums of money is given away in free care for such people, but thanks for trying to find a thought in that brain of yours.
“Beg on the streets for the money”
Or you could be in Great Britain or Canada where you have to beg the government to give you the care that you need yet which a policy wonk has denied right? Only to be smacked down and told to die!
“no there are things seriously wrong with the USA when poor people flood the streets , to stop such a bill which is designed to help them”
How exactly does taxing one person to pay another’s way help the person that received the aid in the long run? Short run maybe, but eventually when the producers are taxed beyond their breaking point we get the Soviet Union. Yeah … the poor did really good in that failed country huh?
“and yes if you must have private practice so be it , we in the UK have a good system of private and public practice running side by side”
ROFL! Yes, again a system that decides who lives and who dies based on government mandate. A good system indeed if you are a socialist!
“I suggest before you get on the soap box shouting about all this”
I suggest you get a clue.
“do some research about health services world wide”
I dare say he knows more about such things than you do.
“…you know beyond your national borders.”
Take you own advice. And maybe read a book other than one by Hitler, Mao, or Stalin.
“And do something positive for own people”
Fighting against oppressive government control is not doing something position for people? I guess not, again, if you are a socialist.
“what’s the use of having an army ect. flying missions to the moon , when the great majority of your citizens cannot afford basic healthcare , people who’d rather die and have a half decent funeral instead of half decent health services which could save their life is LUDERCROUS (sic).”
Thank you for your ignorance. It has been properly and circularly filed.