Obama Delivers Key Speech on the Deficet

Yesterday the President addressed a friendly crowd for 45 minutes talking at length on his plans to deal with the national deficet, to counteract Paul Ryan's plan. According to Thom Hartman the President hit one out of the pack. Indeed the President brought up a lot of key issues pertaining to his vision of America, and what he believes to be our comon image of America. I particularly liked the part about goal oriented medical care rather than the current fee per service approach we have to medicare. People should see maintaning good health as a job, just as teachers should be result oriented seeing their job to raise the academic capacities of their student. If either one fails at this they ought not to receive the same reward as though they did. However I don't think the President went far enough. Obama talked about "mutual sacrifice" and to insure this I would recommend the imediate repeale of last years 916 billion dollar tax giveaway. This would go a real long way twords cutting the deficet. The President said "Never again will I go along with the Bush tax cuts" but he campaigned on this in 2008 and look what he did. Another key thing I would do is to reinstate pretty stiff import terrifs on goods particularly from places like China, which routinely undercut our economic development here. But I agree the speech was a good start. Of course even Hartman admits the President won't get everything he wants. That's why I would have added to my list of things I want, because I would be negotiating from a stronger position with more to make concessions on.

However Stephanie Miller's radio program featured numerous callers attacking Obama's plan from the left. And who can blame them. The President may have kept his promise to escalate in Afghanistan and to push for Nuclear power. The President has us in Afghanistan and we have killed people in Pakistan with our Drones. And now the President has appointed general Mc Crystal to some high post on military families. Pat Tillman's mother doesn't like this in light of the deceptive way the military handled and manipulated her son's death. Also the President has not closed Guantanamo down, and the military trials for 9 - 11 will proceed. Of course you don't want to hear about scrapping the "Public Option" in Health Care any more. President Obama has a yellow streak down his back a mile wide, perhaps more than any other US President this side of James Buchannon before the Civil War. I don't blame those callers one bit for their disgust at President Obama. However I question whether it was the time or place for such calls because right now even if the President comes off as a total centerist, he's still suspect by the right wing. Their response to the speech yesterday reminds me of my family after I've made a number of changes in my life they wanted me to make, and they act as though I had done exactly the opposite. So I know how the President feels. He's dealing with economic terrorists holding this country hostage. Dealing from weakness is a real bitch. This is why I failed as a Christian because I approached them from a position of weakness, and they felt they could walk all over me. Polls suggest that only 54% of the citizens feel the taxes they pay are fair. That leaves a large discontent number. It seems 65% would like to see the government cur servaces. I'd like to talk to these people. I bet they don't live in this facility. And only 29% think it's a good idea to raise taxes on the top two or three percent. It's like Thom Hartman says. We've seen too many Fresh Prince of Bel Air episodes on TV and we all believe that could be us.

But that doesn't stop "Minister X" from saying that "all the president wants to do is to stop us from drilling for oil". Of course I confronted "Minister X" on the issue of the Clinton economy and how higher taxes were a good thing and all he said was "Well, I don't know". Well since he "doesn't know" and I do, shouldn't he defer to me? (Selah) Bill and Hillary Clinton need to come forth now and fight for the president' current plan. People use talking point campaign slogans such as "deficits cost jobs", and "federal spending costs jobs". This is nonsense. It's silly to say because of a 4% higher rate of a business owner he can't afford to buy a new bulldozer, for instance. This ignoramus in congress knows bulldozers are a business expense and can be written off and don't count as income. Another congressman produced a chart showing job gains under higher taxes with Clinton and job losses under lower Bush taxes. I've never heard a successful comeback to this reality from "Minister X" or anybody. Under Clinton the deficet was turned to a surplus and Bush threw it all away. Rush Limbaugh predicted in 1993 that in two years unemployment, inflation, and the deficets would all be up. All three assertions by Rush proved to be false. According to Rush Limbaugh "Anybody who would talk about the Bush tax shortfalls ammounting to Trillions of dollars would have to be a Socialist, because no American would think that way". All the Republican wax works appear to getting behind the Ryan Plan, and even Oran Hatch has gotten into the act. And I thought Hatch was moderating. Santaurum is now posturing for a Presidential run. We hear further hysterics from people like Dennis Miller who say "The lazy workers are just getting lazier and the bosses are the only people who work hard and now they're being taxed for it". Miller went on to talk about the Serengetti plain where "If you get wounded, you should be abandoned and not supported, and left to get eaten by some other animal". I thought Mankind had progressed farther than that in the past fifty thousand years. Others go on to call Woodrow Wilson the first socialist president, even though he threw Eugene Debbs in jail for only preaching his politics. Of course Franklin Roosevelt is routinely vilified. Apparently Roosevelt consulted with Stalin personally to best learn how to pattern the New Deal. And of course people on the right are always talking about "Class warfare". Well I've got a flash for you. There was a class war and we in the poor and middle class lost- - and the rich won. Not that these young Turk republicans like Paul Ryan are all that seasoned. You know they aren't. Like "Minister X" they seem to exhibit an apalling lack of economic history or knowledge. You know back in the early 1970's I watched KWHY channel 22 all the time on the stock market and the economy. I've seen all the fads come and go. These doom sayers of the right have been wrong more times than I care to remember. And yet people like Paul Ryan have their "talking points" handed to them by the Koch brothers or something. Somebody said they ought to be turned over the knee and spanked like seven year olds. I have a better idea. Put them in wood stocks and have them stand out by the curb and bend over so people can whack their butts as they drive by. I also rather like the idea of a bond fire on TV as Paul Ryan's plan is taken apart page by page and mocked and then wadded up and set on fire. And then the President can say something "Well, that's a way of producing alternate energy I haven't thought of". You know- - people at the tea parties used to say "No socialized medicine and keep your hands off of my Medicare". I wonder what all these retirees now think of Paul Ryan's plan. You know that's going to create a whole new class of old people with a new choice to make. Whether to have Allpo for dinner or Cycle Four. Apparently it would take thirty three old people donating six thousand dollars of their meager pensions to support the tax cuts of one rich person. It may come to that. I don't know what the economic future holds. Like I say we may have already gone past the point of no return, regardless of what we do at this point. But I'll tell you this. According to Randy Rhodes, Paul Ryan's plan "doubles down" on tax cuts for rich people. Apparently there is a fresh round of perks for the ultra rich. Because of this continuing short fall, Paul Ryan's plan will still show a budget deficet in the year 2040. I may not live to see another budget surplus in this country if he gets his way. It's scarey, huh?

You know I am getting tired of hearing these stories about no pizza for school at lunch, and no donuts and no soda and all of that. A lot of people even think dairy products are awful, so there go your ice cream and your sundaes. I sometimes wonder whether these food police are like certain guilt ridden Christian pastors who have secret sexual addictions so sex is all they can talk about, as if engaging in some sort of psychotherapy with the congragation. I'm tired of hearing about how smoking ruined your life, or some mercury vaccine they took off the market ten years ago gave your four year old autism. And the Nanny State never lets up. They won't approve any drug or even some health store herb, unless it passes their approval, even if the rest of the world is using it and is happy with it. And I think they are trying to discourage organically grown produce because they want to irradiate all of our food to kill off any potential germs and more importantly valuable enzymes in the produce. And after this at some point there will be some government mandated vitamin pill we all have to take. And Lord knows they don't want us using marijuana. Now the Republicans don't want woman going to Planned Parenthood for any form of medical help. Government appears to dislike the idea of confidentiality, or dealing with your own health issues privately. If the government is against something then we all have to be against it. Why can't the government be, shall we say, just a little bit less meddlesome. We hear now of corporations investigating the private lives of their employees or their clients, in case of health insurance companies. They want to regulate your weight and whether you smoke, and if you have diabetes it must be your fault, too. Some people want to have a thirteen hour school day like they do in Japan. Some say every hour of time even in a small child's live ought to be occupied with one program or another, as though this were communist China. It's funny all this is occurring, including the almost total bans on smoking in public in many places, this is occurring in light of a general conservative tide. I'm kind of a libertarian myself. I don't want the Nanny State running my life. But apparently many people associate the Nanny State as a part of their whole new conservative utopia.