The resounding win by the Republicans in November holds the promise of getting some control on spending in Washington. It seems, for the moment, that Congress is focusing on this goal, thanks to its members’ feet being held to the fire by the Tea Party.
Like the 2006 election, the 2010 midterms were decided by the only growing bloc of voters, independents and libertarians (up from 19% in 1970 to about 29% in 2010), who swung the election decisively to the GOP this year.
Democrats did not get the message. They continued their pork-laden ways by stuffing the next two spending bills like Michael Moore’s mouth on Thanksgiving. It is like getting caught stealing at Wal-Mart and, while being held in the security guard’s office waiting for the police, trying to steal some of his stuff, too. And “Dingy Harry” Reid of Nevada keeps stealing even after the store alarm has gone off, knowing the cops won’t be there till January 3rd.
When the Democrats took over Congress in 2006, the approval rating of that august body was only 31%. Nancy Pelosi said she wanted to reverse that, and she did. It is now 13%.
Some call the Democrats “socialists,” but I think it is worse than that. Centrally-controlled countries like Cuba guarantee everyone a job, a troubling prospect for most Democrat moochers who prefer to sit at home and get a check from the government. And no one will lend Cuba any money, so it cannot run up massive deficits while giving everything away to the hitchhikers of society.
Much of the Obama economic team has resigned. This shocked people; Obama has an economics team?
Even the head of his Budget Office, Peter Orszag, quit. Good riddance, since he squandered his credibility fiddling with Obamacare’s costs so Congress would pass it. After that, he spent most of his time deciding whether “gazillion” or “bazillion” should come after “trillion.”
Nerd Orszag accomplished what he came to Washington to do. He married a hot Good Morning America co-host who is four pay grades above his non-D.C. dating level. This is why I call Washington, D.C. “Hollywood for ugly people.” Where else could this happen? I know Henry Kissinger said “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac,” but Orszag must also have slipped his lady a mickey and some ecstasy.
Obama was forced to withdraw support for the biggest tax increase in history and agree instead to the Bush-era tax rate extension. As he always does, he blamed others by accusing the GOP of “holding the American middle class hostage.” Since they are “holding Americans hostage,” maybe Obama will say he voted for the measure because he suffered from Stockholm Syndrome. He, of course, is the hero in his own mind who rescued the fictitious hostages. I bet the Nobel Prize committee took notice. I smell an Oscar.
Poor leadership, rising gas prices, a poor economy and high unemployment make Obama seem just like Jimmy Carter. Now we have a “hostage” situation and problems with Russia over nuclear missiles. All that’s left is a revival of Emerson, Lake and Palmer to make it déjà vu all over again.
Running a $14 trillion economy is much harder than community organizing. Obama is a product of the Illinois Democrat political machine that, per 60 Minutes on December 19, rules a state on the edge of default. They owe many state vendors and are $5 billion in arrears.
Speaking of “in arrears,” Barney Frank has dug a trillion-dollar hole for us with his oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Democrats are awful economic stewards.
Taking a lesson from Bill Clinton, by backing the Bush-era tax rate continuation and not insisting on the biggest tax increase in history, Obama may have rescued his chestnuts from an open fire. The economy will recover, it always does, and Obama will try to take the credit. Always a revisionist of history, if it does not turn around by the 2012 election, he will once again blame the Republicans. Nothing would surprise me coming from a man who said he “created or saved millions of jobs” yet ran the unemployment rate up to 10%.
He is learning from Clinton and Bush to govern from the middle in order to be reelected. Next on his agenda is a sex scandal with an intern and invading the wrong country!
Ron Hart is a syndicated libertarian op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator. Email Ron@RonaldHart.com or visit: RonaldHart.com.