“The economy is in a shambles because of Bush’s economic policies and his war in Iraq.”  As American Thinker’s Randall Hoven points out, that’s the message being peddled by the political Left.  The key point is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war.   Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as Hoven notes, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) puts the total cost at $709 billion. 

To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003, Hoven summarizes and highlights key points from the CBO data: 

• Obama’s stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War — more than $100 billion  (15 percent) more.
• Just the first two years of Obama’s stimulus cost more than the Iraq War under President Bush,    or six years of that war.
• Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2 percent of all federal spending while it lasted.
• Iraq War spending was not even one-quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame. 

Also: 

• Iraq War spending was not even 15 percent of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.
• The Iraq War accounts for less than 8 percent of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
• During Bush’s Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education than it did on the Iraq War.  

Source: Mark Tapscott, “Little-known fact: Obama’s failed stimulus program cost more than the Iraq war,” Washington Examiner, August 23, 2010. 

For text:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Little-known-fact-Obamas-failed-stimulus-program-cost-more-than-the-Iraq-war-101302919.html#ixzz0xUpw9hxv  

Did someone Say "Un-biased???"

by David Barton of www.wallbuilders.com

America’s first Tea Party in 1773 was not an act of wanton lawlessness but rather a deliberate protest against heavy-handed government and excessive taxation. Its leaders took great care to ensure that nothing but tea was thrown overboard – no other items were damaged. The “Indians” even swept the decks of the ships before they left.

Tea Parties occurred not only in Boston but also in numerous other locales. And those who participated were just ordinary citizens expressing their frustration over a government that had refused to listen to them for almost a decade. Their reasonable requests had fallen on deaf ears. Of course, the out-of-touch British claimed that the Tea Parties were lawless and violent, but such was not the case.

Interestingly, in many ways, today’s Tea Parties parallel those of long ago. But rather than protesting a tax on tea, today they are protesting dozens of taxes represented by what they call the Porkulus/Generational Theft Act of 2009 (officially called the “American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act”). For Tea Party members (and for most Americans), that act and the way it was passed epitomizes a broken system whose arrogant leaders often scorn the concerns of the citizens they purport to represent.

Tea Party folks agree with the economic logic of our Founders.

• “To contract new debts is not the way to pay off old ones.” “Avoid occasions of expense…and avoid likewise the accumulation of debt not only by shunning occasions of expense but by vigorous exertions…to discharge the debts.” George Washington
• “Nothing can more [affect] national credit and prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to…extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possible the incurring of any new debt.” Alexander Hamilton
• “The maxim of buying nothing but what we have money in our pockets to pay for lays the broadest foundation for happiness.” “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” Thomas Jefferson

These are not radical positions – nor are the others set forth in the Tea Party platform – that Congress should: (1) provide the constitutional basis for the bills it passes; (2) reduce intrusive government regulations; (3) balance the budget; (4) limit the increase of government spending to the rate of population growth; (5) and eliminate earmarks unless approved by 2/3rds of Congress. Are these positions dangerous or extreme? Certainly not. In fact, polling shows that while Americans differ on the way they view the Tea Parties, they support these Tea Party goals by a margin of two-to-one.

Citizens are angry about the current direction of government. As John Zubly, a member of the Continental Congress in 1775, reminded the British: “My Lord, the Americans are no idiots, and they appear determined not to be slaves. Oppression will make wise men mad.” But does that anger automatically equate to violence? Of course not. It does equate to action, however; but instead of throwing tea overboard, modern Tea Parties are throwing out-of-touch politicians from both parties overboard.

The Tea Parties represent much of what is right in America – citizens reacquainting themselves with the Constitution and holding their elected officials accountable to its standards. Two centuries ago, Daniel Webster could have been talking to today’s Tea Party rallies when he said: “Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution!”

At least two influential unions will spend close to $100 million on the 2010 election, with most of those funds going to protect incumbents.  Union officials told The Hill they plan to help endangered members — particularly freshmen — who made politically difficult votes in a year during which an anti-incumbent mood has filled the country.  The number will likely be even higher since the AFL-CIO declined to give its figures, says the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME): 

• Plans to spend in excess of $50 million during the 2010 campaign, part of which will fund “a massive incumbent protection program,” according to Gerry McEntee, president of the union.
• The $50 million slated for the 2010 elections is the largest expenditure the union will make in a midterm election, according to union officials; the money will go to help defend the union’s top tier of eight Senate seats and 34 House members.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU): 

• Plans to spend $44 million in total on its 2010 election program.
• The union spent $85 million on its 2008 campaign, according to union officials.

A third labor group said it plans to spend big in 2010 but would not get into specific numbers.   Karen Ackerman, the AFL-CIO’s political director, said that the labor federation will be active in 18 states, will campaign in gubernatorial and Senate races, and will likely have a role in 60 to 70 House races this election. 

Source: Brad Peck, “A Massive Incumbent Protection Program,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, May 24, 2010. 

For text:

http://www.chamberpost.com/2010/05/a-massive-incumbent-protection-program.html 

For more on Unions:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=43

The cry of racism created the so-called war on poverty and is estimated to have cost America over $9T since the 1970’s.  Social engineering they call it. But the engineering was never meant to provide a way for minorities to succeed.  In fact the success of minorities had nothing to do with it.  The engineering was structured to line the pockets of the elite for decades, and it worked.

Here’s the wrap:

We’ve allowed a group of flower-children, drug-abusing ex-hippies to ruin our country, and for the most part we are still letting them get away with it. Their weapon is racism. They use the one thing that defines America’s greatness—America’s willingness to accept anybody and everybody—and they wield it recklessly, and for their own political agenda.  Because we don’t confront them, we find ourselves debating the absurd. 

For example, there is not ONE country in the world who allows for illegal immigration, and you certainly can’t expect ENTITLEMENTS! Yet we find ourselves discussing this subject with the Left as if it’s rational. 

We have a new Supreme Court pick who, like Obama…has no experience! Then again, why should experience matter, when you are hell bent on the destruction of America?!

The recent incident where the kids were suspended for wearing American flags on Cinco de Mayo, as if American children should sacrifice our sovereignty, because Mexicans want to celebrate something meaningless to us. And there are dozens of other examples.

Simply put, racism by the Left is killing America. It’s costing TRILLIONS, and I suggest somebody out there heed my warning, and help us—DONATE—to stop these morons. 

Try to imagine a political process where race is truly not an issue.

That’s my rant!

www.theblacksphere.net

© 2010 Kevin Jackson – The Black Sphere All Rights Reserved 

Against all this frenzy of agitation there is but one weapon available: reason.  Just common sense is needed to prevent man from falling prey to illusory fantasies and empty catchwords.”  (Mark Perry)

“The incredible explosion of government and the concentration of power in Washington, the money and the lobbyists, should give alarm to any traditional conservative…” Shirley says during an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV’s Kathleen Walter. 

Shirley, the CEO and president of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, has written a new book, “Rendezvous With Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America,” with a foreword by columnist George F. Will.

Shirley says eight years of governance by Republicans who veered away from conservative principles set the stage for Reagan’s emergence. And during the George W. Bush years, Shirley says, the GOP repeated its mistake of transforming itself into “the second big-government party in America.” 

Shirley says that in many ways the tea party movement “has overtaken the Republican Party.” As evidence, he cites the grass-roots organizations’ ability to draw hundreds of thousands of rally-goers to the Nation’s Capital.

“You have to ask yourself one question: Could the Republican Party turn those numbers out on the Mall here in Washington? The answer, I think everybody would agree, is no,” Shirley concludes. “So right now, in many ways, the tea party movement is more formidable, and more important, than the Republican Party establishment is itself.”

Shirley says the GOP should focus “on mending relations with the tea party, and making amends for the mistakes of the last eight years.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion, whether through my faith or my belief in enlightenment, that freedom is the inherent destiny of all people, especially here in this country. And that government poses the most direct threat to that freedom today,” he says. “I put my faith in the American people, and the individual dignity and privacy of the American individual today, so I come down firmly on the side of the citizenry over the state.”

Full article linked here:  http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/tea-party-gop-reagan/2010/03/29/id/354176?PROMO_CODE=7A0A-1

Let’s do a quick thought experiment.

The price of apples keeps going up. The government decides that every American must buy apples. But some can’t afford them.

Government starts controlling how much apple farmers are paid, it mandates that every single American buys apples and subsidizes those under a certain income level so they can.

Will the price of apples go down, stay the same or go up? Or, in economists’ language, if you limit the supply of a commodity and increase demand, will the price of that commodity go up or down?

Did you say “up”? You get an A. But if you did say “up,” you surely are not a Democrat.

Democrats have just committed multitrillions of our money, and, as a bonus, sold a big chunk of American freedom down the road, betting that everything a college freshman learns in basic economics is not true. Or, that health care doesn’t follow the rules of economics. Because our new health-care system is pretty much the apple scenario described above.

…as more Americans get herded onto the government plantation — 30 million more with this new bill — it’s easy to keep them there. So the most likely political outcome going forward is higher taxes and income redistribution to pay for it all, entrenching socialism more.

As I have written before, if you want to know where it all leads, look at our inner cities that were long ago taken over by government compassion. This is our future, my fellow Americans.