Yes They Did?

Barack Obama has a new campaign slogan as the midterm elections approach, "Yes We Did."  Really?  The Democrats are going to run on their record over the last 2 years?  I figured since we are around the 100 day mark out from the midterms, the point at which things start to heat up, we should look back and see what Obama and the congressional Democrats have done over the last 2 years:

• Although Obama promised that if we passed his stimulus that unemployment would remain below 8%, unemployment has remained above 9% for several quarters, it has remained above 15% including an unprecedented high level of discouraged workers (also known as the U-6 index).  The chairman of tthe Fed has suggested it will remain above 7% for the rest of Obama's term. 

• Obama dithered when McChrystal asked for troops in Afghanistan last year even though the general warned of mission failure.  Obama eventually gave McChrystal a fraction of the requested troops after several months of delay and only after his nonresponse was leaked to the media.  July was the bloodiest month of the Afghan front and a Rolling Stone reporter recorded the general bashing the President, saying he wasn't taking the war seriously. 

• Obama seemed to take the oil spill unseriously, only lifting the Jones Act to let in foreign oil skimmer after two and a half months.    Although BP rightfully should have taken point on the clean-up, it is becoming more and more clear that Obama actually stood in the way of the clean-up.   From rejecting berms from being built, to demanding the Coast Guard call all boats back to check if they had adequate safety gear, to ridiculous OSHA regulations requiring cleanup workers to take mandatory breaks after 20 minutes of work, it is emerging that the federal government made the spill much worse than it had to be. 

• Obama is raising taxes the first of next year by letting the Bush tax cuts expire as explained in depth in my post "End The Recession By Taxing The Rich!"

• Obama alienated our allies.  Obama returned the bust of Churchill to the British shortly after taking office.  The bust was on loan after 9/11 and its return was considered a rude act by the Brits who expected the White House to hold onto it for another 4 years.  Obama has alienated Turkey, our only real Muslim ally, who is now going through a rapproachment with Iran.    Use of Turkey's airspace is crucial for the planned countermeasures necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons,  which many people believe could happen in the next year.

• Obama  has been quick to deny any systemic Islamofacist threat after every attempted attack on this country during his tenure.  Whether it be the Fort Hood shooter, who had business cards stating he was a "Soldier of Allah" or the Christmas Day bomber, whose father told the FBI his son had been radicalized, or the Times Square bomber who was seen in a video meeting with the head of the radical terrorist organization Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.  

• Despite supposedly being a "post-racial" candidate, Obama has repeatedly engaged in demagoguery to rally his base.  Whether it be saying that the cops "acted stupidly" in the Cambridge police case, dismissing voter intimidation charges against the Black Panthers in Philly or jumping the gun on firing Sherrod at the USDA, Obama seems mired in the race hustling politics that you would expect Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to participate in.  

• Obama spent much time both on the campaign trail and in office decrying the Bush administration tactics of rendition, military tribunals and using Guantanamo to house prisoners.  However, Obama still uses rendition, backed off of public civilian trials for terrorists after Americans became furious with the handling of Khalid-Sheikh Mohammed, and Gitmo is still running almost a year after Obama's self imposed deadline with no sign of closing during his first term.

When a party's record is grim, they typically go on offense.  They might say "I know we had a tough two years but the Republicans will be even worse!"  Although the American people say they dislike negative campaigning, studies show it is effective.  I expect a lot of negative campaigning in the next 100 days regardless of what the Democrats say (and I don't blame them their tactics) but to start off by putting their record front and center is ridiculous.   On the big questions of terrorism, the economy and the oil spill, there is no "Yes We Did!" moment, only examples of incompetence from a one-term senator and life-long community organizer and his congressional followers.  

Vacation Post = Short Post

Was in North Carolina this weekend and there was some interesting local news.  Congressman, Bob Etheridge, (D-NC) apparently was stumbling down the street drunk as a skunk during broad daylight when two students with a camera asked him if he supported Obama's agenda.  The congressman grabs them and tries to steal the camera eventually taking an awkward swipe at one while clutching the student's wrist.  Of course it is all on Youtube:


If he's this drunk now, just imagine how blotto he'll be after the midterm election results come in. 

Vacation Time

Due to an extended vacation, updates may be spotty or completely nonexistent for the next couple weeks.  Probably completely nonexistent.

If you find yourself unable to cope without conservative commentary, please visit some of my favorites:

Reason has great libertarian commentary, John Stossel's weekly column can be found there.  Nick Gillespie also does amazing work.  My hands down favorite.

George F. Will is a great level headed conservative who opposes the war, I don't always agree with him but he makes compelling arguments.

Pat Buchanan is a paleoconservative whose protectionist arguments I disagree with but he always makes his points.

Drudge Report is a great place to get headlines of current news.  Some commentary here but mostly articles from major newspapers like the NYT.

Charles Krauthammer is more of a Neocon but still has thoughtful pieces.  It's OK to call him a neocon because he is, in fact, Jewish.  Sorry liberal media, only Jews can be neocons, just ask Irving Kristol who invented the term. 

McChrystal Out, Petraeus In

What was McChrystal thinking?  While chatting up a Rolling Stone reporter, the general managed to trash the civilian leadership (read: the White House) of the war.  Some of the points I found enlightening like Obama meeting McChrystal for the first time and making nothing more than a photo-op out of the whole deal with no talk of substance.  Others I found merely redundant, apparently McChrystal thinks Biden is a moron which puts him in the company of not only most Americans but most Democrats (no poll linked, just ask one).  As bad as the photo-op meeting with the President must have been, Rolling Stone is not the place to voice your outrage.

It's hard to say what the result of McChrystal's dismissal might be.  Changing generals is a legitimate way to change the tide in a war.  With June facing up to be the bloodiest month in Afghanistan, this might merely be a less critical way to push a general with a flawed vision aside.  The question is was it for the that reason?   If instead it was due to the Rolling Stone article, Obama is not living up to his idol.  As Reason reports "Once, when Lincoln paid an evening visit to his top commander, George McClellan, the famously arrogant general came home and went to bed without so much as acknowledging the president. Lincoln shrugged it off, saying he would hold McClellan's horse if it would produce a victory." 

Obama inheriting two wars, one of which is going poorly at the moment, would be better served by a victory than a dismissal of a general who insulted him.  The AP is reporting that the Petraeus will continue McChrystal's strategy which begs the question, why was McChrystal not severely dressed down (as well he should have been) instead of dismissed entirely?  

Obama's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, certainly said worse in public about Obama and did so in paid advertisement running all over the country.  Bill Clinton, a White House insider, dismissed the Obama as a purely racial candidiate during the South Carolina primaries.  Many of Clinton's former advisers now serve the President, many of which have probably said rude or disparaging things in the past about the current Commander-in-Chief.  Obama reached out to these people for a political return as any good politician would do and many accepted his offer, also as any good politician would do.  Why didn't Obama reach out to McChrystal for political expediency since he still utilizes the general's strategy? 

Regardless of the President's reasoning, General Petraeus has my support and I hope he can turn around Afghanistan as he did Iraq.  If Obama made a misstep, he corrected himself quickly by replacing him with a genuine war hero with a proven track record.  I suppose I too am wary about the civilian leadership under this Administration.

End The Recession By Taxing the Rich!

After 9/11, the stock market tanked and unemployment rose.  Some economists predicted a massive recession bordering on depression.  America hadn't been hit by a major attack on the homeland since Pearl Harbor, they reasoned, anything could happen.  Then-President Bush enacted across-the-board tax cuts and the economy recovered.  Based on this reasoning, Obama has a blueprint of how to end the current recession if only he would use it.

The Bush tax cuts are due to expire January 1st, 2011.  Obama has said he will let them expire, thereby raising taxes on all Americans.  Once the taxes expire, the highest federal personal income tax rate will go to 39.6% from 35%.  But it is not only income taxes that will rise.  The highest federal dividend tax rate pops up  to 39.6% from 15%, the capital gains tax rate to 20% from 15%, and the estate tax rate to 55% from zero.  At a time when the stock market can lose a thousand points in a week and a half do we really want to raise taxes on dividends and capital gains?

Although the income tax will go up for all Americans and anyone with a 401K will be affected by the other hikes, the rich are all Obama and his team want to talk about.  Hillary Clinton recently said that the wealthy do not pay their fair share.  However, the New York Times found that "In 2006, the top quintile of households earned 55.7 percent of pretax income and paid 69.3 percent of federal taxes, while the top 1 percent of households earned 18.8 percent of income and paid 28.3 percent of taxes."  Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie explains this better in his video than I can so I defer to him:



But who cares if the rich are taxed into oblivion to pay for government services?  I'm not wealthy and no one I know is so it won't affect me, right?  Wrong.  Taxing the rich is the same as taxing investors and employers.  It is apparent from anemic performance of the market that we should not be raising taxing on those who would infuse the market with cash.  The unemployment rate similarly implies that no good would come from further taxing employers.  Raising taxes on everyone, including the rich, is the quickest way to kill off a recovery and lead us into a double dip recession.  Arthur Laffer, of the Laffer Curve fame, agrees.  In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the economist says that the expiration of the tax cuts is even fooling people into thinking we are in recovery now.  His reasoning is that companies are pushing as much production as possible into this year from next year due to tax incentives.  The results are twofold, unpredicted economic growth this year followed by lackluster performance next year. 

Even when the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers foot the bill for almost 30% of our nation's taxes, it is never enough for liberals.  They don't think in absolute terms when it comes to taxes or entitlement programs.  We are always told that we could do so much more with just a little more money but the request never ends no matter how much money the government takes.  In good economic times, this is an annoyance.  In bad economic times, it is a recipe for disaster. 

No Really, The Leak Isn't Obama's Responsibility

Obama is responsible for our anemic footing on the War on Terror.  Obama is responsible for nationalizing industries like Chevy and Chrysler.  Obama is responsible for the inevitable double dip recession due to his insistence on short term stimulus rather than long term tax relief.  Obama is responsible for puffing up tin-pot dictators around the world with his Blame-America-First mentality.  However, Obama is NOT responsible for the oil leak, nor is he repsonsible for cleaning it up, BP is.

Of course, Obama didn't do himself any favors by offering to take "full responsibility" for the disaster.   He thought the Top Kill was going to work and the matter would be resolved in days.  Taking responsibility when what you think is a winning strategy is already being implemented is a cheap way to take credit for the win itself.  Unfortunately for Obama, the plan didn't work and his approval ratings hit a new low.  Now the spill is being compared to Bush's Hurricane Katrina and Carter's Iran Hostage Crisis.  As Obama weaves and bobs on the issue of the spill, which the federal government is ill-equipped to deal with, he seems like he is trying to shirk his responsibility now that the task has become more difficult.  Pointing the finger at BP (which is correct, even if it is superfluous for him to do so) is looking to more and more people like he is merely trying to take the attention off of himself. 

If Obama is getting an unfair shake in the media, BP is being savaged by comparison.  A federal criminal investigation has been launched into why the leak occurred and what has been done to contain it since.  BP should make full and complete restitution to everyone affected and pay to clean up the mess but clamoring for executives to go to jail spooks the industry and, in turn, the stock market as a whole.  It also doesn't help speed up the process one iota.  Obama pledges to keep his "boot to the neck" of BP but knowing that they will have to make full restitution, aren't market forces already putting the "boot to the neck" more effectively than government ever could?  Isn't BP looking to minimize the damage done to the coast for the purpose of minimizing damage done to their bottom line?  Isn't government (as it always does) just looking for a politically good outcome, either taking credit for fixing the leak or pushing blame off on BP entirely? 

Because Obama believes government oversight is necessary for practically everything, he raced to make this a political story.  Of course, Obama's faith in government is misplaced and the government's response has disappointed him as many conservatives could have predicted.  Government's only proper role in all of this is to ensure that BP cleans up their mess in toto. 

Government should only do what people are unable to do for themselves.  In short that might only be command the armed forces, run the court system, police the streets and a few other narrowly defined tasks.  BP can and will plug the leak. They will do so as quickly as they can at whatever cost necessary because the financial responsibility put upon them to clean up the aftermath is easily greater than any consequence Obama could dream up.

BP and Moral Hazard

Rumors have it that earlier this week President Obama yelled at his aides, "Plug the damn hole!"  It's no wonder that Obama wants the hole in the rig plugged as it is not only expelling oil but also dragging down his poll numbers.  To use Top Kill or not to use Top Kill, to plug the hole or to encass the pipe in cement, to allow BP to fix the problem or nationalize the effort, these questions have been debated nonstop for the last several weeks.  Even if Obama had invented a cure for cancer and instituted Pizza Party Fridays it seems that all the media would talk about would be the leak.

Of course there is good reason to talk about the leak.  Some reports say the damage might exceed that of the Exxon-Valdez.  Many more say that this will destroy most agriculture along the Louisiana shoreline.  You can't watch the evening news without seeing video of an oil soaked bird.  Yes, this will be something that the region will be dealing with for the next few years.

Fortunately for Obama, BP is getting most of the blame.  That blame is rightfully deserved, BP certified that the rig was sound and it was not.  A Plan B was not in place in case something went wrong.  Eleven men died and the Louisiana shoreline will suffer as a result.  BP should make full restitution.

However, because of government, BP does not have to.  The government sets a statutory cap of 75 million dollars on oil spills through the Oil Pollution Act.  BP has said that they will pay more than the cap since not doing so would have huge PR implications on their business.  Also with pundits like James Carville demanding the Department of Justice indict BP representatives on crimes, the oil company is probably more than happy to pony up a few extra dollars.

The media is running with Carville's lines and demanding a criminal investigation be started but isn't this a matter of negligence, not malevalence?  BP had no motive to intentionally cause the spill, and all the reasons in the world not to.  Even if they scaled down safety is that not a result from having their liability capped?  If you have less to lose, you will spend less to avoid losing it.  The negligence is not even merely their own, the Obama administration gave the very same rig that exploded a safety award last year.  The articles goes on to say that even though the government agency responsible for safety requires inspections every month, the agency had "fell well short of its own policy."  The government's statement is proof in action that vagueness rules where specificity fears to tread.

Obama even said he took "full responsibility" for plugging the leak.
The truth of the matter is Obama didn't have anything to do with the leak.  It was an unholy alliance of big government and big business.  When gains are privatized and losses are socialized, it creates a situation known as moral hazard.  Moral hazard prevents the prudence that might normally temper a company's activity and make it act responsibly.  After all, if you keep your winnings and your losses are subsidized, is not the proper route to go for broke?  A free market may not have prevented this accident but we would not have to rely on BP's public relations department to accept financial responsibility for the spill. 

But even after the spill, capitalism works its magic.  BP will pay millions in damages and will probably upgrade their safety.  If they do not, they will fail and the company will go under or be bought out by a larger, safer company.  As for the government agency that failed, it will receive more money and more personnel.  Talk about moral hazard.