Hollow victory

Yes, it looks like The Chosen One has his stimulus bill, and I have no doubt what the ultimate outcome of this monstrous debacle will be. Oh, how the Mighty will fall! And I want to set the record straight about how we’re all supposed to want him to succeed—I want his proposals for the economy to meet a resounding failure. Our Chump-in-Chief is about to prove what 59 million Americans knew when we voted for John McCain—that Obama is not qualified to be President; that he has no experience in or capacity for leadership; and that he is entirely too enamored of himself and the power of his charm to fully grasp America’s best interests. Sorry, Mr. Messiah, voting "present" won’t cut it in the big leagues.

Coincidentally, I started reading an outstanding history of the Great Depression and the New Deal around the New Year, and I just finished it today. The book "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes was published in 2007, and the paperback was issued in May of 2008. My husband gave me the paperback edition for Christmas last year, and the afterword added to this printing is profoundly chilling. On pages 395 and 396, Ms. Shlaes explains the relevance of critically analyzing the New Deal programs now:

"The relevance for today is simple. The famous ‘multiplier effect’ of public spending may exist. U.S. cities do indeed need new highways, new buildings, and new roads, maybe even from the government. There may also be a spillover effect, as historian Alexander Field has noted. When the government builds a road, it is easier for the trucker to get from one point to another, and the trucker makes higher profits. These merits should be weighed against damage that comes when officials create projects and jobs for political reasons.

An emergency such as a Great Depression can serve as a catalyst for job creation. But the dire moral quality of that emergency does not guarantee that a project undertaken in its name will be more efficient than your average earmark. In fact, infrastructure spending is often just a nicer name for what we used to call pork. Given the depth of modern capital markets, the New Deal’s old argument that ‘only the government can afford this’ looks particularly weak. The New Deal edifice is solid enough, but it doesn’t form the best basis for the national future."

Wow, what insight and prescience… One can only hope that Timothy Geithner has had a chance to peruse this book in between his desperate attempts to convince anyone that his deliberate tax evasion was an honest mistake. Give us a break, Mr. President! The mainstream media refused to expose your dishonesty and corruption for two years throughout your campaign, but you cannot hide from the spotlight now. You may have managed to take advantage of the American electorate on November 4th, but in time, we can always see through a phony. Before too long, you won’t be able to fool us anymore with your vague pronouncements of hope and change—your record isn’t matching your rhetoric. And I am one of many who say that we are not surprised in the least… You can take the community organizer out of Chicago, but you can’t take the Chicago out of the community organizer. He is not the light of the world—he is your typical Chicago thug, a sleazy politician tainted with the cesspool of the Chicago corruption. Were things not so critical, it would be great sport to watch Obama’s economic plans fail miserably. And mark my words—this stimulus will not work, and our country will face disaster if this bill becomes law. God bless the House Republicans and the GOP Senators (except for 3 cowards) for standing up for their principles, and I have to say that it’s about time they adhered to their conservative roots. They will be vindicated in less than one year’s time. When the house that Barack built crumbles and falls, Obama and the Dimocrats will only have themselves to blame, and the American people will know where to point their fingers as well.