Government Incompetence

The Put-Off, Postpone and Procrastinate Generation

March 10, 2011March 10, 2011 by Orthodox Editors

by Victor Davis Hanson –

The Obama administration figures that it has read the national mood well. This therapeutic generation of Americans loves to talk and worry about problems and then assumes that either someone else will solve them or they will go away on their own. And why not, since we have had periodic “energy crises” since 1974, have run budget deficits in most years since World War II, and have been warned about a looming Social Security meltdown for the last decade — and yet remain wealthy and affluent.

But now gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon in many places in California, and averages more than $3.50 nationwide. In response, the Obama administration is reportedly considering tapping into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase supplies and drive down high prices brought on by a recovering world economy and unrest in the oil-rich Middle East.

Yet the reserve depot was not designed to alleviate periodic gas-price spikes, but to ensure our very survival during a global catastrophe that might result in a cutoff of most petroleum imports from overseas. [Read more…]

The Party of Big Government

February 23, 2011February 23, 2011 by Orthodox Editors

by Vasko Kohlmayer –
Having apparently realized that this country is bankrupt, President Obama recently proposed cutting deficit spending by $1.1 trillion over the next ten years.

Some people were impressed. Some people complained it was too much. After all, $1.1 trillion looks like a big pile of money.

The president’s proposal, however, is only symbolic. It is only meant for show. During that ten year period the federal government will spend well over $40 trillion. What Obama is proposing is a drop in the bucket.

But this does not stop him from going in front of the camera and posing as a deficit hawk. The president should be ashamed of himself. He is a quack who is taking this country down the road to fiscal doom.

There is only one group of people we should fear even more than Obama. They are Republicans. Republicans are quacks too, but this is a bit more difficult to perceive. [Read more…]

Can Truth Prevail in a Culture of Spin?

February 20, 2011February 21, 2011 by Orthodox Editors

by Judith Anderson –
The answer is yes. Absolutely! Truth is what is unequivocally true. It is not constrained by ideology, creed, or spin. Crushing debt destroys families and governments. Endless, deceitful war-making destroys republics. U.S. citizens are getting a huge dose of reality as our policies in Egypt are exposed to the light. For years we have borrowed money to prop up despots in the Middle-East who are out of touch with their own people. An insistent, vocal majority of Americans don’t want ObamaCare. They are ignored by politicians who intend to impose it on them against their will. Blatant, naked truth trumps spin.

Specious, false, fraudulent argument by czars, presidents, individuals and speakers for all manner of causes are being swept away in the bright glare of reality. Spin and in some cases outright lies in matters of national security, environmental protection and government spending are failing the smell test for all but the most ardent partisan ideologue. [Read more…]

Democrat Mythology, Part III: Helping The Poor

December 16, 2010December 16, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

12/15/2010 – John Hayward –
Socialist politics are based around the need to provide for the less fortunate, whose misfortune is entirely beyond their control. They’re either victims of a merciless system that won’t let them get ahead, or the hapless prey of the Evil Rich. Part of this mindset involves an essential disdain for the capabilities of lower-class individuals. The idea of elevating them by providing opportunity is dismissed as a smokescreen deployed by greedy fat-cats and their paid minions. The poor must be guided and cared for.

Since the poor cannot take care of their own needs, and the benevolence of greedy citizens is unreliable, the power of the State must be deployed on their behalf. Initially, this takes the form of relatively modest welfare programs, but it soon expands into the system of tax-and-spend liberalism we recognize today. The State appropriates huge sums of money from the upper and middle class, to fund various programs for selected constituencies, who reward the socialist with their loyal votes. [Read more…]

American Freedom and Religious Morality

December 7, 2010December 7, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

12/5/2010 – Andie Brownlow –

Liberals and conservatives both believe that as Americans, we should be moral people. The major difference is where their morality intersects with their politics. Most conservatives believe that our morality should come from religion, separate from government. Most progressives incorporate moral guidance as a function of government.

The humanistic tendencies of the political left assume that morality can be governed by state laws and dismiss religion as an origin and arbiter of moral law. Therefore, government must become a humanist’s ultimate authority to address and regulate human nature. [Read more…]

Liberals and the Coming Redistribution of Fault

December 2, 2010December 5, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

12/2/2010 – J. Robert Smith –
It’s coming. Expect it. Liberals blaming everyone and everything but themselves for the nation’s continuing economic crisis. And the mounting crisis of government. It’s already begun, in fact, over at U.S. News and World Report, where Mortimer B. Zuckerman dusts off Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West to mull over the notion that the West — including the United States — may be reaching the end of the line.

Let’s congratulate Zuckerman for pointing the way in the coming attempt to foist blame on Western civilization for what is, essentially, a failure of leftism. [Read more…]

The Death of Government

October 14, 2010October 15, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

10/14/2010 – Bruce Walker –
There is far too much government in our lives. Government regulates the light bulbs we can use, the process of hiring employees, the licenses which businesses need to operate, and, of course, the mammoth monster of public debt and taxes which have reached such surreal levels. Every American — man, woman, senior citizen, and infant — owes a mind-numbing $44,000 of federal debt. Each day, we are bombarded with the results of photo-ops for our president or his family, or with the president’s speeches against certain offending classes of Americans, such as the Chamber of Commerce or Fox News. [Read more…]

Obamacare is Even Worse Than Critics Thought

September 23, 2010September 23, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

9/22/2010 – Examiner Editorial –

Six months ago, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill’s passage, we know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations:

» Obamacare won’t decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare’s actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.

» As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama’s promise that it wouldn’t. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge. [Read more…]

The Curious Logic of Our Governing Elites

September 20, 2010September 20, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

9/20/2010 – Randall Hoven –
George Orwell said, “There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.” What follows is my beginning of a list of ideas that some very intelligent people seem to believe.

The air should be taxed. More precisely, what every animal on earth exhales and what every plant on earth inhales can and should be taxed.

President Bush was bad for the economy because he spent too much. President Obama is helping the economy by spending a lot.

A jury is better informed if evidence is withheld from it. [Read more…]

Poor in America Grow Under Obama

September 13, 2010September 13, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

9/12/2010 – Catholic Online –

Since President Barack Obama has taken office, the numbers of America’s poor has steadily climbed. Working-age poor people are reaching the levels of the 1960s, before the national war on poverty.

Census figures for 2009 are to be released this week, and demographers expect troubling statistics.

The findings come at a most unfortunate time – seven weeks before Congressional elections, with many Democrats and Obama supporters expected to be voted out. The expected increase, from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent people living below the poverty line, would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power.

If these estimates hold true, some 45 million people in this country — more than one in seven, were poor last year. It would be the highest single-year increase since the government began calculating poverty figures in 1959. The previous high was in 1980 when the rate jumped 1.3 percentage points to 13 percent during the energy crisis. [Read more…]