National Debt

The Reagan Era Is Over: Obama Agenda Makes That Perfectly Clear!

Ronald 4 Comments

The Reagan Era, which lasted from 1981-2009, is over, and will be seen as constituting those years in the history books! This would include the time of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan promoted the idea of distrust of government; of greatly increased federal spending on defense and national security, while cutting domestic spending: helped to undermine labor rights and minority rights; allowed corporate dominance to grow without federal regulations; undermined the environment and consumer safety; engaged America into a major role in the Middle East, therefore promoting anti American terrorism; and caused through their taxation cuts on the upper class and their wild defense spending to cause most of the increase in the national debt from $1 trillion when Jimmy Carter left office to $10.5 trillion when George W. Bush left office.

Even Bill Clinton, the one Democratic President, accepted the idea of smaller government and less regulation, while, however, having the success of adding less to the national debt and having balanced budgets for several years, something that the Republican Presidents—Reagan and the two Bushes—were unable to accomplish during the 20 years out of 28 total in the era they were in charge.

And one must recall that Republicans controlled the Senate from 1981-1987, and from 1995-2007, except for the last half of 2001 and 2002. And they controlled the House of Representatives from 1995-2007. So they had an impact on policy making for a majority of the years of the Reagan era.

Barack Obama represents a diametrically opposite viewpoint on all of the characteristics of the Reagan era. While he will not be able to accomplish all of his goals in the second term, with the GOP control of the House, and the ability to use the Senate filibuster in the upper chamber, the Obama era can now be seen as a path breaking event, similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan representing fundamental change in their times!

Stock Market Hits Five Year High As Obama Is To Be Inaugurated For Second Term As President!

Ronald 2 Comments

After four tough years for the economy, Barack Obama is about to be inaugurated for his second term as President, and the stock market Dow Jones Industrial Average and S & P 500 have hit their highest point since December 2007, when the Great Recession was beginning.

Housing starts are up, and unemployment is staying below 8 percent, and many economists predict a good recovery becoming clear during 2013, as long as budget deals and debt ceilings controversies are resolved. But the debt ceiling issue is a troublesome one.

Obama has asked for a lifting of the debt ceiling only three times, while George W. Bush asked for it seven times, Bill Clinton a total of four times, George H. W. Bush four times, and Ronald Reagan a grand total of SEVENTEEN times!

In percentages, Obama has had the debt limit go up only 26 percent; Bush II 90 percent, Clinton 44 percent, Bush I 48 percent, and Reagan nearly 300 percent!

But now, it is suddenly a massive issue, when Republicans assert that, somehow, Obama has been more reckless than anyone else, when in fact, he has been far more responsible than any recent President, and particularly Reagan, who ranks at the bottom on this list of the past four Presidents and Barack Obama!

So Obama has a lot to be thankful for, relating to the stock market revival, but there are still many issues and problems that he will face in the next four years!

Barack Obama And The Debt Ceiling Crisis: A Moment Of Presidential Assertiveness Needed!

Ronald 19 Comments

President Barack Obama has done his best to avoid antagonizing opponents with his use of Presidential powers.

He has shown willingness to negotiate and make deals, but the Republican House has refused to do anything, other than threaten to have the good faith and credit of the United States destroyed, a calamity that could lead to a Second Great Depression and harm to the world wide economy.

The Republican Party in the House refuses to help create jobs through federal funding, or to work on building an infrastructure repair and expansion.

The Republicans have made it clear that they are willing to hold all Americans hostage, as they promote their extreme right wing ideology, and work to take America back to the Gilded Age and the 1920s.

So therefore, it is time for action soon by President Obama, a moment of Presidential courage, to refuse to allow the destruction of our economy!

So he has two alternatives.

Invoke the 14th Amendment, which includes language on the payment of government debts.

Use the concept of a trillion dollar coin minted by the US Treasury to cover all debts already incurred and more in the future.

The point is that it was the Republican Congress which built up most of the massive debt we now face, and yet they are ready to refuse to pay the government bonds when due, unless they are able to destroy the social safety net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

This cannot be allowed, and although Obama is highly reluctant to take controversial action in either direction mentioned above, he owes it to the nation at large to do so if no alternative is available at that time, which seems likely to be the case!

What is the worst that would happen if Obama took unilateral action?

He would be bitterly condemned by the right wing, called every name in the book, so what else is new?

There might be greater death threats against him, but there are already more than ever before as it is.

The realization is that there would be the likelihood of the Republican House choosing to impeach President Obama for “high crimes and misdemeanors” in office.

But has Obama committed such crimes, or is about to do so?

No more than Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, or Franklin D. Roosevelt arranging the Destroyers for Bases Deal with Great Britain, or thousands of executive orders utilized by many of our Presidents!

And even were he to be impeached, the odds of Obama being removed from office with a Senate of 55 Democrats is totally out of the question, since 67 Senators would be needed to remove him from office, and there are only 45 Republicans!

Would an impeachment besmirch the reputation of Barack Obama? It would certainly be part of his obituary, as with Bill Clinton, but Clinton has survived very well from the impeachment, and his popularity went up during the impeachment crisis, and the Republican reputation suffered great harm.

The Republican Party would only be putting nails in its own coffin, if it decided that our economy should be destroyed and the President impeached.

The nation and the President would be the winners in such a scenario, so it is soon time for Obama to show guts and courage and do what is necessary, knowing the consequences are something he can deal with, although regrettable that he has to go through those consequences!

Vice President Joe Biden’s Eulogy Of New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman: A Mirror Image In So Many Ways!

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For once, many members of the US Senate, who these days are at odds much of the time, got together today to eulogize New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman, a reputable, decent moderate conservative Republican, who served from 1980 to 1993, and passed away earlier this month at age 82.

Rudman was always a person who was genuine, decent, caring, and willing to cross the aisle in a compromising manner without giving up his principles. Rudman often bemoaned the way the Senate has become in the nearly twenty years since he left the upper body..

Rudman brought up the importance of fiscal sanity, and came across as a man of principle, concerned about the growing national debt, even back in his time in office, when the Reagan Presidency tripled the national debt.

Biden’s eulogy was heartfelt, describing Rudman as a man who really cared, was sincere and genuine, very approachable, a person who never forgot where he came from, and always treated ordinary Americans with dignity and respect.

Watching that eulogy by Biden reminded me that these descriptive characterizations of Rudman also fit Biden perfectly!

That is the reason why this author has such admiration for Joe Biden, because he is REAL and a GOOD GUY in every conceivable way!

If Only: Jimmy Carter Had Been President For Second Term! How Would America Be Different?

Ronald 3 Comments

As we celebrate Barack Obama’s second term victory, and as we thank Bill Clinton for his super efforts for Obama, crucial to Obama’s victory, we can have a wistful moment and wonder:

How would America be different if Jimmy Carter had won a second term as President in 1980?

Ronald Reagan would never have been President, just be seen as a mediocre, second rate actor on Death Valley Days and the General Electric Theater on television, and a few good movies in Hollywood, and a mixed record as two term Governor of California. We would not have him being seen as an icon, a god like figure, totally misrepresented by those who adore him!

We would not have George H. W. Bush as Vice President for eight years, and then be the successor in office after Reagan left.

We would not have had George W. Bush as President, and we would not be speculating about Jeb Bush as possibly a candidate for the 2016 Presidential Election.

We would have had a much more responsive, sympathetic reaction to the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, and would have saved many lives in the process.

We would not have had a tripling of the national debt, as Carter was very tight fiscally, and added very little to the national debt.

We would have had a President who would have continued his great environmental work into a second term.

We would not have allowed the rich to get richer, and the poor to get poorer, and the maldistribution of wealth to accelerate, and then again occur again under George W. Bush.

We would not have seen the decline of labor unions, caused by Ronald Reagan being our President.

We would have had Vice President Walter Mondale having a much better opportunity to be our President in 1984, a continuation of the tradition and principles of Hubert Humphrey and Minnesota progressivism.

The Iran hostage seizure crisis would have been resolved sooner with Carter having defeated Reagan in November 1980.

The early 1980s would have seen further promotion of human rights, a policy backtracked by Ronald Reagan.

There would have been no friendship with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and no backing of the South African Apartheid regime.

These are just 12 ways life would have been different if Jimmy Carter had been reelected in 1980. And Carter would not have been constantly attacked and ridiculed as a failed President if he had served a second term.

Oh well……

Eleven Years Since September 11: What It Has Done To America

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Eleven years ago, on a bright, sunny New York morning, just as today it is in New York, and on the same day of the week, Tuesday, America was struck by Al Qaeda and forces backed by Osama Bin Laden, causing the deaths of about 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, along with those slaughtered at the Pentagon in suburban Virginia, and those on the plane bound for the US Capitol or the White House, and forced into a crash by its courageous passengers in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

This is a day of commemoration and mourning for the loss of life, plus the deaths of over 6,000 Americans in unsuccessful wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since then, and the nearly 50,000 young men and women wounded, many of them severely, as a result of those wars.

We also mourn the loss of innocence that we had, that somehow, as the super power of the world, we were immune from such a shocking attack, and the sense of insecurity that it brought upon all of us.

Our lives have been transformed in so many ways that we can never reverse, and we can say that we have become ever more divided in the years since, politically, economically, and socially, and that we have a divided America more so now than ever since the Civil War and Reconstruction period in the middle to late 19th century.

We are a more stratified society economically, and we have become, more than ever, a nation of the coastlines versus the massive interior, a nation of blue versus red in political terms, and our country is rapidly changing in a way that worries us about the future, as to whether there is the potential for internal violence in the future, that might make the terrorism of September 11 seem like something minor, as compared to what could happen between the sections of the nation, the religious groups, the racial groups, the age groups, the gender groups, and the cultural groups that make America a complex nation in the 21st century.

Imagine going back to the year 2000, before the divisive Presidential Election of 2000, at a time when most Americans had never heard of Osama Bin Laden; when the World Trade Center dominated the Manhattan skyline; when there was no Facebook, Twitter, or Steve Jobs technology; when unemployment was only 3.9 percent; when the national debt was only $5.7 trillion; when gasoline was only $1.79 a gallon; and when the previous year, the biggest controversy was Bill Clinton’s sex life and his impeachment trial.

As America was entering the new century, we were extremely naive, worrying more about the effects of “Y2K” on computers, than the reality of what we were going to face in the first decade of the 21st century, which has worsened the outlook for America’s future in a dramatic way.

Oh, for the “good old days!”

Romney And Ryan: Spreading Lies And Myths Unashamedly!

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Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are setting a record for spreading the most lies and myths of any Presidential campaign team in American history!

Apparently, it does not matter that even Fox News Channel and the Wall Street Journal are calling them out for making their own facts, along with other news media!

What are the lies and myths?

Barack Obama is cutting Medicare benefits for recipients, when Paul Ryan’s plan is to make Medicare a voucher system and raise the age for eligibility for future recipients from 65 to 67.

Barack Obama is to blame for the downgrading of America’s credit rating, when it was the GOP Congressional leadership that refused to raise the debt limit before the deadline, and everyone knows that to be the fact.

Barack Obama has added more to the national debt than all Presidents before him, while in reality the Republican Presidents are responsible for more debt than Democratic Presidents, and much of the debt increase is due to Bush policies, including war spending, the unpaid for prescription drug plan, the Great Recession that occurred under George W. Bush, and the constantly growing interest on the national debt, no matter who is the President.

Barack Obama is ending the work requirement under welfare, while in fact that is not the case, and many GOP Governors have asked for the right to use different plans on welfare that change the requirements under the Bill Clinton welfare to work plan.

The Janesville, Wisconsin auto plant, in Ryan’s home district, was shut down by Barack Obama, while it was actually ordered to close in 2008 during the Bush Administration, and Obama worked to save the auto industry in the Midwest successfully, once he came to office, and Mitt Romney wanted the industry to go bankrupt.

The Republicans want to protect the poor and the sick, when in actual fact, they wish to cut food stamps, Pell Grants, and other assistance to the poor, including a drastic cut in Medicaid, under the Ryan budget plan.

Barack Obama raised taxes on the middle class, when in actuality, he LOWERED taxes for the middle class.

Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are against the statements of Todd Akin about rape and abortion, when in reality Ryan sponsored legislation on the matter with Akin, and both Ryan and Romney had no problem with the party plank on abortion, which opposed abortion on any grounds whatsoever.

Higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations harm economic growth, when pursuing exactly that policy spurred the greatest economic growth in American history under Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Barack Obama has created no job growth, when he has, in reality, presided over greater job growth in the past three and a half years than eight years under George W. Bush.

Barack Obama has been involved in his administration in an “apology tour”, and has favored Muslim nations, when in fact he has never “apologized” for America, and has been aggressive in pursuit of Muslim terrorists in Al Qaeda and the Taliban, killing more terrorists than anyone could ever have imagined, and also was able to get rid of Osama Bin Laden and Moammar Gaddafi.

Both Romney and Ryan and other Republicans wanted Obama to succeed, when there is no doubt that all Republicans made it their mission to insure that Obama would be a one term President with no accomplishments, which they well know has not been the case, as he has accomplished more in one term than any President since Lyndon B. Johnson domestically, has changed the image of America to a positive one in the world, and has made as much progress in the worst times of an economic downturn as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in his first term during the Great Depression, similarly making progress against difficult economic times, but not resolving the crisis in one term, but being attacked as Socialist, Communist, radical, Fascist by right wing critics!

The lies and myths will not carry the day, and Barack Obama will be reelected as FDR was in 1936, although not by the massive landslide of FDR!

Three Subjects Ignored At Republican National Convention: George W. Bush, Foreign Policy And Constitutional Law

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The Republican Party is holding its national convention in Tampa, and so far has not mentioned President George W. Bush by name, or referred to the issues of foreign policy and constitutional law.

It is as if Bush was never President, and instead Democrat Barack Obama is being blamed for everything, including original sin! The economy was apparently fine, until Obama became President in 2009. This is what is called the rewriting of history, and making Bush a non person.

But Bush also took us into two foreign wars that have bankrupted us, and caused a large portion of the national debt growth, but neither Paul Ryan nor Mitt Romney seems anxious to run a campaign on foreign policy, something neither have them have any experience in dealing with. Of course, the critics say what experience did Barack Obama have, forgetting that he did serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for four years, and did important work with the respect and support of Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, who was, for a period of year, the Chairman of that committee. This, of course, probably helped to contribute to the defeat of Senator Lugar in the Indiana Senatorial primary this year, leading to his forced retirement this December.

And, of course, to bring up constitutional law would make people realize that the President, whoever he is next term, will have a dramatic effect on constitutional law and the Supreme Court, and that this matters more than economic policy in the long run!

So the GOP is ignoring these three issues, hoping to sail through to victory on promotion of ignorance of the citizenry, and creating falsehoods and myths about the Barack Obama record!

Will they succeed? That seems highly doubtful!

Reality: No Balanced Budget For Long Time, And National Debt Will Continue To Rise!

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In the midst of all the debates about who is “better” for the country, the team of Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or the team of Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, something is being forgotten or ignored!

There will be no balanced budget for a long time, and the national debt will continue to rise!

There is no magic potion to bring about a balanced budget, or to prevent the national debt from rising!

So whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is elected, one will see both the budget issue and the national debt issue continue to be a center of heated debate!

The difference is who will “benefit” from what government does–the middle class and the poor, if Obama wins; or the wealthy top two percent if Romney wins!

But it is more than that!

It is also which man will cause the national defense budget and foreign interventions to grow, adding to our burden, and it is clear that Mitt Romney, with his loose, reckless rhetoric toward Iran, Russia and China, will cause us a lot more financial burden and many more lost American military lives than Barack Obama!

And it is also what direction do we want the nation to go regarding constitutional law! Do we want more Antonin Scalias, Clarence Thomases, and Samuel Alitos? Or do we want more Ruth Bader Ginsbergs, Stephen Breyers, Sonia Sotomayors, and Elena Kagans? This will determine more of the future, economically and socially, than anything else!

It is foreign policy and constitutional law, two areas most people are ignoring, that will have a greater impact on our future than the false argument that, somehow, one or the other candidate for President will, magically, balance the budget, or stop the rise in the national debt, when neither will be able to do anything about either of those matters!

Triumph Of Progressivism: A Turning Point Challenge Fifty Years Apart: 1912, 1964, 2012!

Ronald 6 Comments

The battle between conservatism and progressivism/liberalism has been an never ending struggle throughout American history, going back to the time of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, and the creation of the first political party system in the Federalist Era of the 1790s.

After a half century of conservatism in charge in the Gilded Age and early Progressive Era, in 1912, we finally had the triumph of progressivism with the election of Woodrow Wilson, and the stellar second place finish of Theodore Roosevelt on the Progressive Party line. Wilson proceeded to promote economic and social reforms, partly based on Roosevelt’s ideas, and partly his own, and much of what was accomplished in the second decade of the 20th century remains with us today.

Reversion to Gilded Age mentality occurred under GOP Presidents in the 1920s and early 1930s, and the Great Depression led to a smashing landslide for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s, with the New Deal expanding much of what TR and Wilson had advocated, and additional ideas growing out of the economic crisis.

Harry Truman attempted more reforms in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but most were stymied by a conservative resurgence, and a similar situation existed in the Eisenhower years, and the Kennedy Presidency.

But when Lyndon B. Johnson came in after the assassination of President Kennedy, he dedicated himself to accomplishment of what FDR, Truman, and Kennedy could not achieve, and to expand beyond the New Deal of FDR with the Great Society.

The Republican Party and conservatives saw an opportunity to negate all of the economic and social changes of TR, Wilson and FDR, and Barry Goldwater, the 1964 right wing opponent of Johnson, declared war on the New Deal, and the result was a landslide defeat, and the greatest expansion of progressivism yet in our history.

By the time that Ronald Reagan won a victory for conservatives in 1980, and continuing through George W. Bush leaving in 2009, Republicans and the right wing set out to reverse the Great Society and New Deal, one program at a time, with Democrats being able to stop complete destruction, but Republicans and conservatives nipping away at one area of policy after another, and in the process increasing our national debt from $1 trillion when Reagan became President to $10.5 trillion when George W. Bush left office.

Barack Obama came in with the intention of solidifying the New Deal and Great Society, and also bringing a new Progressive Era. And now Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are declaring war on everything that has been done by the federal government in the past century—from TR, to Wilson, to FDR, to Truman, even to Ike, to JFK, LBJ, even Nixon, Carter, even George H. W. Bush, to Clinton, to Obama–in their desire to make America ever more an oligarchy, a corporate dominated nation, and to destroy the middle class and the poor, and return us to the Gilded Age that began in the 1870s!

So 2012 is the most ideological election since 1964, as that election was the most ideological election since 1912!

The future of every social and economic reform of the past century is at stake in this election, and progressives and liberals cannot afford to sit on the sidelines, as this is as Theodore Roosevelt dramatically called it a century ago, an ultimate battle of Armageddon for the future of America!