As the saying goes, this would be funny, if it was not so serious. As each day of the Obama Administration wears on, the disconnect between reality and the Administration, between America and Washington, just keeps growing. Consider these examples among many:
The Bank Bill: Does it bother anyone that the same Congress that is giving us $1.5 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see is writing a 2000 page bill telling banks how to balance their books? Unfortunately, by almost all accounts but Congress’ – this bill will make lending more difficult, and therefore prolong our recession, at the same time it exposes America to more bailouts for lack of leverage reform.
Russia Spies: According to a Justice Department official the charges are “‘the tip of the iceberg’ of a Russian intelligence conspiracy against the United States.” Obama knew about the charges prior to a meeting with the Russian President but there is no word on whether he brought it up let alone scolded the Russians. To the contrary, according to the State Department: “the arrests merely show that the two countries have not yet reached the level of “trust and cooperation” where they can be completely open with one another” and Obama “had no “personal reaction” to the case and that the arrests should not hurt the administration’s attempts to mend fences with Moscow. “I do not believe that this will affect the reset of our relationship with Russia,” according to White House Spokesman Gibbs. I am certain Putin (and Iran, the Taliban, and anyone else fighting the US) are so very relieved.
The Oil Spill. Government regulations push oil drilling farther and farther offshore thereby making it a riskier undertaking. BP takes even more risks and together we get an enormous spill. Obama says he is in charge of the clean-up – literally – yet day after day after day (70 to be exact) Obama stopped skilled, foreign parties from helping and allowed the damage to increase well and way beyond what should have been the case. Obama wants BP’s shareholders (they own BP and they are the people paying the price) to pay for it all but shouldn’t BP’s shareholders wonder why the US government made the problem worse and, therefore, demand what lawyers call a finding of comparative fault? – thereby making the US government (you and me) pay for some of the damage?
The Kagan Nomination. She has never been a Judge. Senator Feinstein says that her lack of experience is “refreshing.” Really? Would you go to a brain surgeon with a lack of experience and say that was refreshing? Surely I exaggerate – after all – merely the Constitution is at stake.
Perhaps the best (or worst) of their bizarro world, however, in which we live is . . .
The “Recovery Summer” Tour. The Obama Administration is out on the stump selling you a recovery they claim they fostered with the so-called Stimulus Bill. Every day Obama assures us that the recovery is taking hold or strengthening. Of course, that requires you to forget that for 15 months unemployment has been well above 9% – the unemployment rate the Obama Administration said would take hold if we did nothing. Does that mean we spent $800 billion (on non-shovel ready projects – ok, ok, 96% of it on non shovel ready projects) for nothing?
Certainly not. It bought us a lecture from the welfare states of Europe on fiscal imprudence and it is strangling our investment portfolios which causes consumer confidence to plunge, reduces our purchasing power, which results in fewer jobs, which results in lower tax revenues which make the unwise want to raise tax rates which further strangles our investment portfolios, which further causes consumer confidence to plunge . . . . well, you get the point – even if Obama and Washington don’t.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.