The Reticulator

I wish President Obama had been thinking of his domestic policies when in his inaugural address he spoke in favor of “the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.”

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

Humility and restraint are two words that will never apply to the huge pork package sometimes known as a stimulus plan. Unfortunately Obama has the the same hubris with which George W. Bush to war in Iraq, except that this time, it’s taking us to war on our domestic economy.

I see that Obama is desperately trying to get some Republicans to sign on, too, so he can have someone to blame for the failures of his plan. It worked for George W. Bush — in recent years his followers kept pointing to Bush’s congressional critics, pointing out how it was a war they had voted in favor of. So I can see why Obama wants to try the same ploy the other way around.

President Obama said, “We don’t have a moment to spare.”

I presume what he meant was that if the House waited a day longer, people might get more information and realize the big stimulus is largely a big greedfest. They might at least want it cleaned up a little.

But he’s following in the grand footsteps of President George W. Bush who urged quick action on his big Patriot Acts. The ACLU and conservative Republicans wanted to slow down and tune the acts to protect civil liberties. But George W. Bush would have none of it, for much the same reason that Barak Obama does not want a delay in his Stimulus/Pork package.

George Will explains the need for speed this way. “When on thin ice, move quickly.”

I rarely listen to my hero Rush Limbaugh any more. He’s too whiney, too much invested in Republicans in general and Bush in particular, too dumb and ignorant on science issues and many others, and too fixated on racial issues. He’s still my hero, but he’s not worth my valuable listening time (to say nothing of the time in the car when I prefer to think quietly rather than listen to anything at all).

His article in today’s WSJ is brilliant, though. And President Obama asked for it by his snidely sophomoric reference to Rush when he met with Congressional Republicans a few days ago.

Fifty-three percent of American voters voted for Barack Obama; 46% voted for John McCain, and 1% voted for wackos. Give that 1% to President Obama. Let’s say the vote was 54% to 46%. As a way to bring the country together and at the same time determine the most effective way to deal with recessions, under the Obama-Limbaugh Stimulus Plan of 2009: 54% of the $900 billion — $486 billion — will be spent on infrastructure and pork as defined by Mr. Obama and the Democrats; 46% — $414 billion — will be directed toward tax cuts, as determined by me.

Then we compare. We see which stimulus actually works. This is bipartisanship! It would satisfy the American people’s wishes, as polls currently note; and it would also serve as a measurable test as to which approach best stimulates job growth….

The economic crisis is an opportunity to unify people, if we set aside the politics. The leader of the Democrats and the leader of the Republicans (me, according to Mr. Obama) can get it done. This will have the overwhelming support of the American people. Let’s stop the acrimony. Let’s start solving our problems, together. Why wait one more day?

One point I may as well disagree with, since I’m part of that 1% that he’s giving to President Obama. It’s not that 1% of the population voted for wackos in the last election. 100% of them did. But I’ll go along with this plan.

Less than a week after the inauguration, John Kerry and Kent Conrad choose fear over hope. Their article in Monday’s WSJ is not unlike the fear-mongering that sent us to war in Iraq and which established the USA Patriot Acts that gave us the Homeland Security department.

An extra nice touch is the way they blame the Bush administration for the TARP program which Congressional Democrats passed only after they bribed Republicans with extra pork to go along. They blame the TARP program for a list of items that will be bad about the new stimulus program, too, plus suggest a few new items that will make their new stimulus program even worse than TARP.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration failed to fix the problems in our financial system, refused to help homeowners, and didn’t pass stimulus measures to create jobs in order to lay the foundation for stronger economic growth in the future. Instead, it handed out large sums to struggling financial institutions under TARP in order to prevent a complete financial collapse. But it did so without consistency, without adequate transparency and accountability, and without restoring the credit availability that our economy desperately needs.