On December 6th, the President spoke at Osawatomie, Kansas. Not much has been said about this speech, possibly because the leftist media doesn't want a whole lot of attention paid to this speech. During the 2008 campaign, Obama portrayed himself as a moderate. This speech is anything but moderate; it shows what Obama really thinks. In case you didn't get to hear it, I present a few highlights – well, lowlights – of this socialist manifesto:
The Housing Bust:
For many years, credit cards and home equity loans papered over the harsh realities of this new economy. But in 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We all know the story by now: Mortgages sold to people who couldn't afford them, or sometimes even understand them. Banks and investors allowed to keep packaging the risk and selling it off. Huge bets – and huge bonuses – made with other people's money on the line. Regulators who were supposed to warn us about the dangers of all this, but looked the other way or didn't have the authority to look at all.
Those mortgages were forced on banks under laws passed by Democrat-controlled Congresses. The regulators were career federal bureaucrats. It was the Republican Party (and you can find the videos on youtube.com) who warned Congress that this was a house of cards and Democratic majorities that ignored the warnings.
Democracy:
In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here, to Osawatomie, and laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism. "Our country," he said, ". . . means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy . . . of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him."
A "triumph of a real democracy," as we have shown in a previous post would be a defeat of America's constitutional republic.
Economic Policy:
It's a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here's the problem: It doesn't work. It's never worked. It didn't work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It's not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn't work when we tried it during the last decade.
Wholesale lie of the most transparent sort – oh, that's the "most transparent administration" that Obama promised! We've been looking for it for years! Apparently, Obama hasn't heard of "The Roaring Twenties," the "post-World War II boom," or "the longest period of sustained economic growth in US history." The largest periods of economic growth are the ones which Obama claims never happened. By the way, in the last decade, Bush the Younger started his presidency with an inherited recession founded on the dot-com bust and the fallout from 9/11. The Bush tax cuts brought us from three quarters of shrinkage to a growth rate of 7% in just two years!
Falling Incomes:
We simply cannot return to this brand of your-on-your-own economics if we're serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. We know that it doesn't result in a strong economy. It results in an economy that invests too little in its people and its future. It doesn't result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that's enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens. . . . over the last decade, the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about six percent.
Another lie, as shown by the Washington Times: "Real personal income for Americans . . . has fallen by 3.2 percent since President Obama took office in January 2009. . . . Income excluding government payouts increased 12.7 percent during Mr. Bush’s eight years in office."
Green Jobs:
In today's innovation economy, we also need a world-class commitment to science, research, and the next generation of high-tech manufacturing. Our factories and their workers shouldn't be idle. We should be giving people the chance to get new skills and training at community colleges, so they can learn to make wind turbines and semiconductors and high-powered batteries.
Ah, yes, we need to continue to invest time, effort and money in proven failures like "green" jobs. Let's face it folks, we have a fossil-fuel-based economy, and we're going to continue to have one for a generation or two or three. Maybe in 20 or 50 or 100 years, these technologies will replace coal, oil and natural gas, but not in this decade.
Job Growth:
Yes, businesses, not government, will always be the primary generator of good jobs with incomes that lift people into the middle class and keep them there.
And yet, government payrolls are the only ones that have increased under Obama.
Deficit Reduction:
Today that choice is very clear. To reduce our deficit, I've already signed nearly $1 trillion of spending cuts into law, and proposed trillions more – including reforms that would lower the cost of Medicare and Medicaid.
No, he hasn't. He hasn't cut a single government program, he's added more. He hasn't cut federal spending, his are the three largest budgets in US history, a total of approx. $5 trillion in new debt in 3 years – compared to the $5 trillion increase during Bush's 8 years.
Taxes:
It is wrong for Warren Buffett's secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.
To this, I will agree; if anything, they should pay exactly the same rate. But Obama fails to mention that Warren Buffet shouldn't have a delinquent tax bill of almost $1 billion, as the Huffington Post reported in August.
A tax code that makes sure everybody pays their fair share.
Yeah? Under Jimmy Carter, the "fair share" maxxed out at 70% of your income.
The Bottom Line:
This speech was the real Obama – bigger government, higher taxes, less freedom – in other words, less a republic and more a socialist-democracy, a political system which didn't work in the 17th Century or the 18th Century or the 19th Century or the 20th Century and which won't work in the 21st Century.
Thanks for listening, tune in next week for another rant.
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