Archive for September, 2009
Head For the Hills-Take You Family With You
Posted by Tom in Deficit, Nationalized Health Care on September 8, 2009
The news today is not good: the dollar is falling, Obama is sticking to his government health care public plan, and interest rates are rising. Dependent as we are on foreign creditors to sustain Obama’s growing deficits, with a falling dollar interest rates will necessarily rise dramatically. The Carter years will look mild by comparison. Thomas Sowell posits an ulterior motive to Obama’s rush into unending deficits and debt for his Obmancare plan which doesn’t take effect until after the next presidential election. Click the link to read it.
But the article that most impressed me was Martin Feldstein’s oped in the September 8th WSJ, ObamaCare’s Crippling Deficits. With a realistic eye he points up the fallacy of the static forecasting that CBO undertakes. This coupled with the deceptive timing of Obamacare’s effectiveness, means our children and grandchildren will bear an unsustainable debt burden. As we now see, other nations are recovering faster and other nations have not as yet undertaken Obama’s fall into massive deficit spending. It is reasonable to assume that other nations will compete with the Untied States economically. If Obama and the leftist in Congress continue on the current path, the United States will not, in the long term, be a good place to live or prosper. Martin Feldstein’s article, partially quoted below, is worth the read.
The deficits projected for the next decade and beyond are unprecedented. According to an assessment released in March by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the president’s budget implies that deficits will average 5.2% of GDP over the next decade and will be 5.5% of GDP in 2019. Without the president’s proposals, the budget office forecasts a 2019 deficit of only 2% of GDP.
The CBO’s deficit projections are based on the optimistic assumptions that the economy will grow at a healthy 3% pace with no recessions during the next decade; that there will be no new spending programs after this year’s budget; and that the rising national debt will increase the rate of interest on government bonds by less than 1%. More realistic assumptions would imply a 2019 deficit of more than 8% of GDP and a government debt of more than 100% of GDP.
via Martin Feldstein: ObamaCare’s Crippling Deficits – WSJ.com.
Tom Motherway, tom@renohayek.com
Musings: Soak the Rich? Doing Mi Amigo’s Bidding! Airport Non-Congestion! “Educate” Our Young!
Posted by Tom in Foreign Policy, Politics, Taxation on September 4, 2009
The UK is discovering that some of the “rich” will not wait for confiscatory taxation. As the August 26th WSJ piece by Walker and Foster notes “hedge fund managers and other financial-service professionals are quitting the UK, following plans to raise top personal tax rates to 51%.” They are moving to Switzerland. California has learned this lesson in the past and will learn it again. Obama too will learn the lesson that too many socialists forget. As Margaret Thatcher said, “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money to spend!” Ayn Rand illustrated it beautifully in Atlas Shrugged.
Honduras’s ousted president Manuel Zelaya, has his Amigo Obama doing his bidding. According to today’s WSJ news item the Obama administration has cut off some aid to Honduras and threatens not to recognize the upcoming results of the upcoming presidential election. Zelaya was ousted after the supreme court order which found him in violation of the constitution, essentially for attempted usurpation. How did Comrade Obama get to be his Amigo? Zelaya is Chavez’s Amigo. And Obama identifies himself as a Chavez Amigo.
Mi Amigo, Su Amigo! Amigo Obama has disdain for democracy but finds communist tyrants simpatico. US foreign policy has never seen the likes of this!
Tired of those long TSA lines at major airports? Then try Johnstown, PA. This thriving metropolitan airport has no lines, fewer than 30 passengers a day, free parking, 18 flights per day (subsidized), and one big benefactor, John Murtha! This unapologetic Democratic expropriator of your money has been responsible for $150 Million in federal largess to this “airport for no one,” according today’s editorial in the WSJ. Can your money be spent any better? I would suggest paying down the debt that Murtha, Pelosi, Reid, Obama and their ilk are piling on our children and grandchildren.
The Obama Administration is sounding more like Russia every day. We’ve seen the Homeland Security head question the loyalty of returning servicemen as right wing extremists, and we’ve seen Obama’s Health minions set up a “rat on your neighbor” website to find out the names of those who oppose his takeover of healthcare. Now we have his Education Department sending instructions to schools on how to inculcate Obama into our children. Teachers are told to “brainstorm” with students about the question “how will he inspire us.” Friday’s WSJ opines a mild rebuke, but when you take all these actions together and remember your history, it is truly frightening.
Tom Motherway, tom@renohayek.com