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A Contrarian View of History and Events
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Doug Wead's blog
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15 October, 2009, 23:16 Democrats let unemployment benefits expire
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The world is upside down. The Democrats have let unemployment compensation expire.
For years now the American public has endured the inane and ignorant stereotypes of Hollywood and none bring more howls of laughter than the clichéd, evil, Republican presidential candidate who wants to cut funding to school lunch programs or reduce time limits on unemployment benefits just to be mean. Ahem, you notice my last example? By the way, the president, in Hollywood dreamland movies and television shows, is always a principled, liberal Democrat.
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Now, sometimes in these movies, even the Democrat president needs a little nudging. Michael Douglas played such a character in the movie, The American President. It took a second wife, the gorgeous and common sense, woman of the people, Sydney Wade, played by Annette Bening, to convince a widowed president Andrew Shepherd not to give in to the evil Republicans and cut environmental programs. Oh, why are the Republicans so selfish? Why do they hate the planet and why do they hate the children? And why do they hate the innocent poor folks?
In Hollywood-land, the government has endless amounts of money and the programs cost nobody anything, except the very rich, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who actually want to pay more taxes, which prompts an immediate question. Why are Gates and Buffet giving billions of dollars to charities? If they believe in the government and are pleased with its spending and have no criticism of its bureaucracy and the efficacy of its social programs, why don’t they just give their donations to the government itself? In other words, why don’t they put their money where their mouth is?
It brings to mind that famous quote of Joseph Sobran. “Politicians never accuse you of greed for wanting other people’s money – only for wanting to keep your own money.”
Well, well. Yesterday I just flew back into the country from Europe to learn that Hollywood and the Democrat controlled congress had let unemployment compensation run out. It meant that hundreds of thousands of unemployed people have no more money from the government. They can’t pay rent, house payments or their electric and gas bills. And winter is upon us. What gives? Hollywood and the Democrats control congress. And they have shown that there is no end to the money they can spend. They just print more. Wheee, a trillion here, a trillion there.
Actually, I learned that the Democrat controlled House of Nancy Pelosi voted to extend the payments but only in 27 states? Like a lot of her recent legislation, “gotta reward our people and punish the people who didn’t vote for us.”
And the Democrat controlled Senate? It hasn’t even considered legislation to extend unemployment benefits. What’s the rush? After all, the people in the Red states won’t vote for us anyway and the unemployed people in the Blue States are so stupid they will vote for us whether we extend the benefits or not. Hmmm. Not quite like the movies is it?
Meanwhile, we are told that we still don’t have a health care plan because of the evil health insurance companies who are lobbying congress. Olympia Snowe is praised for voting a plan out of Committee today but they say we still need more Republicans onboard. But wait a minute? The Democrats control congress. You mean, the Democrats are accepting bribes to vote against their own conscience, against their very own programs? Put that in a movie.
Meanwhile, the BBC ran a hilarious segment on American discrimination. They interviewed an African American worker, asking him if the new government program rebuilding the infrastructure will help create jobs. “Well, not for us,” the man intoned seriously into the camera. “The government discriminates against us.”
The BBC correspondent did the segment straight and the anchor did not even bat an eyelash. No one but the audience seems to grasp the irony that the president is himself an African American and it is he who enforces the laws and appoints the Attorney General. And the Civil Rights Commission? Four are appointed by President Barack Obama, two by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and two by the Pro Tempore of the Senate, Harry Bryd. All Democrats.
Oh how the news media and Hollywood and Europe miss having the Republicans in power. How hard it is to govern. How hard it is to do it all right. How easy to criticize. Look at me? Ha. Well, don’t worry Hollywood. Don’t worry Democrats. Print as much play money as you can get away with. And stash it where the Republicans can’t find it because your celebration will not last forever. Play while you can. Ruin the country as quickly as possible. Because common sense is sure to return. And we can all again enjoy Hollywood angst in the cinema.
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07 October, 2009, 13:19 Obama’s changes. Can you believe in them?
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Once in office, presidents often change their opinion or just “forget” their campaign promises. And they are notorious for saying falsehoods. Of course, we all “forget” and misspeak but because presidents do it in living color on the public stage it can be a little more embarrassing. Obama’s situation is a bit different. We cut him a lot of slack because he is our first African American president and that alone makes us feel good about ourselves. But his changes have come so fast and furiously that he is on the verge of losing respect as a leader. And poll after poll affirms that leadership is the single most important quality we want in a president.
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In 1980, Ronald Reagan made prayer in school and abortion big deals in his campaign, but never touched the subjects or proposed legislation on them in the eight years of his presidency. He called for the abolition of the Department of Education - instead he grew it.
In 1988, George H. W. Bush ran as “the ethics president,” promising to upgrade the office of government ethics and make it answerable directly to the president. But he never did a thing about it. The position remained a low-level slot which answered to the Director of OPM. He also said, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” but he raised them anyway.
In 1992, Bill Clinton ran for health care reform but when his ideas crashed on the rocks in his first year and helped elect a Republican majority in congress the second year he never brought it back again. He ignored it for the rest of his eight years. And btw, he famously said, “I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.” But we all know about that.
In 2000, George W. Bush ran against nation building, but after the election committed billions of dollars to Iraq and Afghanistan. We know the story of Saddam Hussein’s bogus uranium purchases in his State of the Union address.
So all presidents forget or change their minds or tell lies. Even so, Reagan was a consistent foe to Soviet Imperial expansion and ended the Cold War. Clinton balanced the budget. Bush the younger kept us safe after 9/11. They all have some bragging rights. And they all have moments of leadership. The problem for President Obama, at least for now, is that nothing is clear. No promise is sacred. Everything is on the table. There are no fixed stars to guide his course. His liberalism is indeed open-ended existentialism.
He said he wouldn’t tax the middle class, but his massive infusion of new paper money will eventually amount to a tax on all Americans and will hurt the poor the hardest, as inflation always does. And it looks like he will tax the middle class anyway. He just won’t admit it. He is using devices, such as redefining the middle class as a means to confuse the public.
He promised a non-partisan Washington, but used the economic crisis as a cover for passing a massive political pay-out to unions, gays and democrat shill organizations.
He is on again, off again on tort reform and a “public option” in his health plan.
He promised new jobs through a program that would rebuild the infrastructure, it was one of the few suggestions that critics felt had some merit, but then he set the timetables so far off that no immediate meaningful jobs appeared. It provided little relief for the economic crisis and unemployment is up.
He ran against the Bush fumbling of the mortgage crisis but refuses even to tweak the simplest banking rules that would allow millions of homeowners to stay in their own homes and unleash new investors who which would raise the values of those homes. All of his noise and promises offer relief to a tiny percentage of homeowners. This is a tragic and extravagant lost opportunity.
He ran against the overstretched military that is breaking up families, causing divorces and spiking suicide rates and now he is sending those same boys back again and again. So what is different?
He is against tort reform, he is for tort reform. He thinks the doctors are scamming the system, he thinks doctors are the leading the way. He is for a public option in the healthcare plan, he is against it.
He ran for change you can believe in, but the only things changing are his daily positions. And yes, he has a lot of goodwill, especially in the liberal media, who cast any opposition to any policy or position as racist, although that tactic didn’t work with the International Olympic Committee, leaving the president and his team a bit stunned.
The problem is that some of these changes are beginning to reach critical mass.
From the standpoint of presidential history, once an opinion sets in – positive or negative – it is very hard to erase. So this president should be very careful. He needs to stand for something, whatever it may be. He needs to avoid the reputation of uncertain and unprincipled leadership. It would almost have been better politically for him to have stood up to the doctors yesterday and gotten booed, and let the nation see him as a leader, than to contradict himself again by playing to his audience.
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01 October, 2009, 15:12 Russia: Land of Opportunity
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What country’s individual tax rate tops out at 13%?
Hint: It isn’t the USA where federal and local taxes in New York are projected to reach a 57% bite. If you are rich? Move to Florida or Nevada to avoid State Income Tax. If you wanna be rich? Move to this new “land of opportunity.”
What country’s higher education fosters a curiosity and practical involvement for its student body in free enterprise?
Hint: It isn’t the USA where, ironically, the very corporations who fund university endowments are seen as the enemy by professors and students alike. They are viewed as polluters and exploiters of a beleaguered laboring class. But in this country, this new “land of opportunity,” the professors, themselves, own real estate businesses, factories and sit on the boards of directors of major corporations.
Meanwhile, state corporate taxes in the USA have reached scandalous proportions and all but kill chances for a new, emerging, small business. For example, all fifty states have higher corporate taxes than the nation of France, which has the fifth highest corporate taxes in the world and is frequently held out as the poster child of anti-small business and entrepreneurs. And in this country, the maximum federal and regional corporate tax is 20%.
What country has sensible consumers who pay their bills on time and save their money? Only one in 100 even carries a credit card? Where capital investment potential abounds?
Hint. It is surely not the USA where Americans carry 450 million Visa cards alone and where their credit card debt approaches $2 trillion.
What country is a true melting pot of religion, culture and race, where Muslims, Jews and Christians live and work side by side and their values are openly appreciated?
Hint. Not here in the good old USA, where government and big business restrict language and clothing in schools and the public marketplace. (I have a friend who writes screenplays for television movies. He tells me that “Jesus” cannot be mentioned on one of the networks except as a curse word.)
What country boasts an airline where the stewardesses are still tall, trim, bright and attractive? They still smile at their passengers, and wear elegant white gloves as part of their smart uniforms.
Hint. It isn’t the USA where a $15,000, first class, round trip international ticket on a US airline will get you a bitter, grouchy stewardess, who hates her job, her passengers but has union guarantees that virtually prevent her from ever being fired.
Answer to all the above?
Russia.
Welcome to the new land of opportunity.
Yes, there are still problems galore in Russia. The roads outside of the major cities are still in disrepair. Grade schools are awful. Airline equipment is dated, even for the clever, well-run, Rossiya Airline. The government still struggles to deal with endemic corruption. (If security personnel at the airport will steal your coins going through the x-ray machine, which happened to me, it kinda makes you wonder how vulnerable they would be to a bribe by a terrorist).
The biggest problem of all? Excessive regulation. Perhaps it’s a hangover from the Soviet years that was needed to combat corruption, or maybe it’s just part of the Russian DNA. A new restaurant, for example, faces endless government regulations not only regarding hiring, but even regarding the choice of entrees on a menu also. And such rules not only limit the imagination of their people, they are cleverly exploited by competitors to block the emergence of any newcomers.
In complex industries, like “Direct Sales”, the state parliament Duma is vulnerable to manipulation by big companies who seek monopolies by regulating competitors out of the market. Members of the Duma must be generalists and cannot be experts on everything so some will be innocently led by foreign companies seeking to “clean up” their industry. The result? Expect new regulations that will confine and harass their own Russian workforce and limit their income opportunities, all to the advantage of big foreign corporations.
Nevertheless, Russia under Putin brought law and order to the streets, began an aggressive campaign against corruption and released an entrepreneurial spirit that is quickly producing a growing middle class and a Russian nouveau riche. When the “dreamers” and “doers” outnumber the “takers” Russia will truly explode. The atmosphere is right. Immigrants, the bane of fortress America, are welcome in Russia where they are needed and wanted.
And the Russian Miracle is not just a Moscow–St. Petersburg phenomenon. There are business and cultural zones now popping up all over the Russian landscape. For example, Putin helped the city of Kazan win the 2013 Universiade. The city is being transformed in preparation. Yekaterinburg is a showcase city. Distant Khabarovsk has it all. Booming Black Sea resort Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympics and anyone who has visited this exotic city can tell you that it will forever after become one of the world’s glamour spots.
So when President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin sit down together in the coming days to discuss their relationship and their future, they hold the hopes and dreams of millions in their hands. And they are on the verge of history. What has happened in Russia, its diversification, its wise use of the oil boom, its new freedoms for the marketplace now make it a “land of opportunity.” And just in time for a world in global crisis.
About author
Doug Wead is a presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author. He served in the White House of George Herbert Walker Bush and is the co-founder of Mercy Corps, a relief organization that has distributed $US 1.5 billion of food and medicine around the world.
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15 November, 2009, 12:36
While filing for my benefits this morning, the automated system said that my benefits will epire 11/29/09, and I haven't even received my 26 weeks of benefits yet. I still have over $5000.00 in benefits to claim, and I haven't found a job yet. What gives?
29 October, 2009, 06:18
Democrats or Republicans no difference. This is the same evil. One party state.
29 October, 2009, 02:07
Our problem is that we the people are not players in the huge money pit that is Washington, D.C. It's apparent to me that we have no seat at the poker table because we can't 'buy in.' Hell, I opt out.
27 October, 2009, 20:44
Actually, there is no difference between Republican or Democrat. They are best that MONEY can buy. Corporate Lobbyist run the United States, not elected officials.
18 October, 2009, 22:49
I could not agree more!!!!
18 October, 2009, 17:47
Organized Labor, Knows they cannot count on the Democrats to save them. More workers who believed the promises of polticians, and the company they Work for, are turning to Socalism for solutions to their problems. We have allowed large corporations to take over our Media. the only place we can learn the Truth is on the internet, but we have to filter that also. Most people that work everyday, can visit english language News programs around the World, read articles from foreign news organizations. but little the Truth is coming out. We can not afford never ending war that makes Wall Street rich. evenually unemployment Benefits will increased. But how many will starve waiting for a Check.