Trickle-Down Stimulus

This is the phrase you must use twice in any debate with members of The Statist Flock.  Three little words. 

"Trickle-Down Stimulus". 

Try it. 

"I don't believe in any kind of Trickle Down Stimulus." 

"Reagan proved it.  Trickle Down Stimulus doesn't work." 

They're accustomed to sprinkling their political arguments with key words and phrases.  George Bush !  Sarah Palin ! Greedy Corporations !  A decent society should take care of it's ....! and finally, without even thinking, they're going to say "Trickle-Down doesn't work". 

I honestly don't know if "Trickle-Down" works or doesn't work.  I do know that it's not our damn government's job to try to make the economy work, though, and I'd rather live in an era when government didn't even pretend to be competent enough to manage money.

The more I read about the Reagan era, the more I see "Trickle-Down" as an unfortunate marketing term for whatever Reagan did.  But the Statists associate the phrase with breaks for the rich.  But here's the Oxford English Dictionary definition:  "Trickle-down, adj., of or based on the theory that economic benefits to particular groups will inevitably be passed on to those less well off...; orig. and chiefly U.S."

If the U.S. has ever experienced an outright gift from the taxpayers to the wealthy, it was in Obambi's stimulus package.  Lord have mercy, what a porkfest.    So don't hesitate to make it known.  

"I supported Obama until he introduced that Trickle Down Stimulus bill."    

6 Things Ron Paul Has To Explain

Here are 6 things that various ConservaPundits think that Ron Paul has to explain before getting any more traction in the (snicker) Party Of Small Government. 

•The “disaster” of Ronald Reagan’s conservative agenda


•Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional

•American drug laws are designed to fund rogue governments, CIA programs

•U.S. foreign policy “significantly contributed” to 9/11 attacks

•Returning white supremacist donation is “pandering”

•The Civil Rights Act “violated the Constitution”

Only one of them should be difficult. 

LateBlogging the Republican Debate. September 7, 2011 - total failure at pretending to be interested

If it weren't for Ron Paul, I wouldn't be doing this. 
I usually liveblog interesting debates.  This one won't be interesting.  I didn't even get home in time to liveblog the thing.  Thank you, Tivo. 

Ok, here we go. 

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry just finished a little argument over who created the most jobs as governor.  Perry claims that Michael Freakin' Dukakis created more jobs as Massachusetts governor than Romney did.  Romney claims that George W. Bush created more jobs as Texas governor than Perry did. 

Who gives a rip?  You know who isn't here at this debate?  Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.  He's wasn't invited to this thing because he's a libertarian-ish sort.  Johnson claims (truthfully) that he didn't create a single job as New Mexico governor.  He just got the government out of the way and let the private sector take care of it.  Can you imagine anyone at MSNBC letting that cat out of the bag to run around on this stage, making a mockery of the proceedings? 

The MSNBC moderators (and the rest of the lamestream media) ought to show how many government employees were on the payroll before and after the Romney and Perry administrations.  That's what matters. 

Michele Bachmann just ripped ObamaCare a new one. 

Brian Williams just asked Ron Paul how the world would survive without government regulations.  Ron Paul just gave a somewhat rambling answer, but got to the point.... we don't need the government to do it.  "But who would keep the airplanes from dropping out of the sky?"  Paul shoulda said "follow the Canadian model and privatize it.  Canadian Air Traffic Controllers don't fall asleep on the job."  But he just said, essentially, let the Free Market handle it. 

Why is there an airplane hanging over the audience? 

MSNBC, like most left-wing organizations, is having a hard time making things work properly.  They can't coordinate their video clips with the debate moderators' questions. 

The debate moderators are trying to hang the Massachusetts RomneyCare model on Mitt Romney (where it belongs).  Romney is dodging the question, and talking about what he would do in the future. 

These people are talking about jobs as if they're the goal of a business.  Jobs are not the goal.  They are a by-product.  Lordy. 

Michele Bachmann is claiming that she's the only person with the legislative experience to repeal ObamaCare. 

Gingrich is trying to get some party unity going, claiming that all of his brothers in pork are against ObamaCare, and he's not going to put up with MSDNC trying to get Republicans fighting with each other. 

Herman Cain, after multiple appearances on Stossel, Freedomwatch, and debates that I've seen, finally cut loose a rip on ObamaCare that I could agree with. 

God help me.  Rick Santorum just answered a trick question on welfare, using words that I could have possibly written.  I think the entire world, after the last 3 years, is now leaning Libertarian. 

Bachmann says that "energy" is one of the greatest opportunities for job creation that we have.  Bullshit.  Outlawing "energy" and digging ditches with spoons would create the most jobs.  But that's not the point.  We'll have good job creation when we allow entrepreneurs to get filthy stinkin' rich.  Jobs are merely a by-product of that process. Deal with it.  Thank you. 

They just asked Ron Paul if eliminating the minimum wage would create more jobs.  He answered that it would.  Didn't even think about it.  Why?  Because it would. 

Ron Paul just scared the shit out of me.  I thought he'd lost it.  He said he could create a gallon of gas for a dime.  Yes, for a dime.  But yes, if you have an old-school silver dime, it's now worth $3.50. 

Brilliant.  Freakin' brilliant. 

Now Perry is attacking Paul for quitting the party, and writing an anti-Reagan letter.  Paul says Reagan taxed too much and spent too much.  Yep.  Until Obama came along, more debt was rung up under presidents named Reagan and Bush than all other presidents combined.  Look it up.  Hit the Ronald Reagan label at the bottom of this post. 

Ok, the airplane hanging over the audience is Reagan's Air Force One plane.

Shortly after hitting Ron Paul with an anti-Reagan question, they're acknowledging Nancy Reagan in the audience and giving her a round of applause.  Nice. 

Rick Perry is saying good stuff about Social Security being as broke as The Ten Commandments, and that anyone who promises money to today's young workers is lying. 

Mitt Romney, bless his Mormon heart, is defending Social Security.  Let's see two workers support one retiree.  That's where we're headed. 

Rick Perry, bless his perfect hair, is calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme.  Because that's what it is. 

Herman Cain, bless his thick crust, just suggested that we go to the Chilean system for retirement plans.  Go here for info. 

The moderators have now taken us off into inoculations.  I bet fluoride in the water supply will be next. 

Ron Paul just hit a home run on a TSA question.  Now Brian Williams is going after him on FEMA.  Paul asks him back "What happened before 1979 when we didn't have FEMA?"  Let the states handle it.  Doh. 

Herman Cain wants to fix FEMA and fix Homeland Security.  Good luck, Herm. 

Jon Huntsman is bleating about what he did for job creation. 

I can't watch any more of this.  With the possible exception of Ron Paul, I can't drink enough beer to imagine any of these people being willing to cut out a single cabinet-level department.  I can't imagine MSDNC asking the question. 

If something happens that's remotely interesting, I might expand on this thing.  Dull, dull, dull.  Talking points, talking points, talking points.

Good night !!

If you're disappointed in this blog post, I apologize. Here's a fun video:

Ronald Reagan was a fiscal conservative ????

This post is about the funniest 3 word combination in the English language. 

But first, check out this movie trailer.  I WILL see this if it ever makes it to Texas:



There's only one problem. Why are they featuring Republican politicians?  Especially Ronald Reagan? 

Ronald Reagan was able to increase the amount of money coming into the Treasury by using a simple method.  He lowered taxes.  GDP increased as people hid less of their income and put it to work in sensible ways.  It's better to have 15% of a thousand dollars than 85% of a hundred dollars.
 
But under Reagan, our government spent money like, well, like Republicans. 

Here's a chart showing U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP.  It's from Wikipedia, but it roughly follows the info to be found here:

Look at the pink band running from 1981 to 1993, the Gipper/Poppy Bush era. 
Does that look like they believed "Government Is Not The Solution; Government Is The Problem?"

Here's another look at the same data, formatted for entertainment value....

Enough about Reagan.  Here's the Cato Institute's Veronique De Rugy on George W. Bush's spending habits:

During his eight years in office, President Bush oversaw a large increase in government spending. In fact, President Bush increased government spending more than any of the six presidents preceding him, including LBJ. In his last term in office, President Bush increased discretionary outlays by an estimated 48.6 percent.


During his eight years in office, President Bush spent almost twice as much as his predecessor, President Clinton. Adjusted for inflation, in eight years, President Clinton increased the federal budget by 11 percent. In eight years, President Bush increased it by a whopping 104 percent.

One reason offered for these large budget increases is that entitlement programs are growing rapidly. Although Social Security and Medicare spending growth outpaced most other programs in the mid-1990s, spending growth in discretionary programs has accelerated in the last 15 years, especially during Bush’s two terms. Between FY2002 and FY2009, discretionary spending rose 96 percent.

Some argue that federal spending during the Bush years was so high because security needs drove up the budget. It is true that defense spending increased dramatically since the late-1990s, particularly since 9/11 and the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, nondefense spending increased too. Some also argue that much of the increase in nondefense spending stemmed from increases in homeland security spending. Whether this is true, the overall rapid rise of discretionary spending indicates that, here too, the administration and Congress made no trade-offs in the budget. If the administration and Congress wanted more security spending and wanted to be fiscally responsible, they should have found savings elsewhere in the budget.

President Bush added thousands of new federal subsidy programs during his eight years in office. In 2008, there were 1,816 subsidy programs in the federal budget that spread hundreds of billions of dollars annually to special interest groups such as state governments, businesses, nonprofit groups, and individuals. The number of subsidy programs has grown by 30 percent since 2000 and by 54 percent since 1990.

Here's some more research from Ms. De Rugy, from the November 8th, 2008 issue of Reason magazine.  (Remember, this was written before the current Messiah started his spending spree):
 
"When it comes to out-of-control spending, conventional wisdom says the Democrats are most likely to bust open the coffers. That's why many fear an increased Democratic majority in Congress topped by a Democratic president. And we should be afraid. Democrats are indeed big spenders. Second only to Republicans."
 
She goes on to rank the possible combinations of Republican vs. Democrat control of Congress and the Presidency, going from kinda bad to worse:
 
1) Democratic White House, Republican Congress

2) Republican White House, Democratic Congress
3) Unified Republican or Democratic rule.

You cannot, you will not, get spending under control by electing Republicans.  Until recently, Republicans held all the spending records.  Democrat spending might be sillier, and easier to poke fun at, but by every measurement, until recently, the Democrats spend less money.  If you look at the long term, FREAKIN' DEMOCRATS are the fiscal conservatives ! 

We simply have to start electing Libertarians to high office.  There is no other solution. 

Oh, and the funniest 3 words in the English language? 
Small Government Republican

Happy Presidents Day

Happy Presidents Day

Here's a list of the United States presidents and first ladies that I've seen, along with the circumstances. I've given each encounter a numerical grade based on nothing more than the general vibe of the experience.

Let's start with the most recent president. In February of '08 I saw Barack Obama when he spoke at Reunion Arena in Dallas. This was the infamous appearance where he got applause for blowing his nose. Having re-read my post about the event, I'm proud to say that I didn't get suckered in, although I had a lot of respect for his rhetorical skills. I'm also proud that I contributed $12.50 to help him defeat She Whose Name Is Not Spoken in the Democrat primary. But Godalmighty, he's an economic disaster.

Score: 7

I used to manage the Bookstop store at Preston & Forest in Dallas. (We were bought out by Barnes & Noble, who eventually closed all the locations or converted them to B&N stores.) This store was in the same shopping center where one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot got his infamous $10.00 haircuts. In 1992, Perot was often in our store saying things like "Ahm lookin' fer yer books on guvment waste !" We'd go find whatever he was looking for, and two nights later the little man would be quoting the books on television. We were drunk with power.

Another celebrity of sorts often came into the same store to kill time. George W. Bush was then owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and he often came in the store and spent a lot of time in the History, Current Events, and Biography sections. He always bought more than one book. You can say a lot of things about the man, but illiterate he's not. In person, he's a really nice guy. We had more than one conversation about how 3rd baseman Steve Buechele's batting average was improving. Somewhere in my house I've got an autographed GW Bush business card that I've been trying to find for about 10 years.

Score: 9

I've never seen the current Secretary Of State, or her husband.

Score: 10 (out of gratitude)

The guy before The Clintons was George H.W. Bush. I saw him throw out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers baseball game in 1991. Papa Bush was captain of the Yale baseball team, and played first base. But the pitch he threw made it only 2/3rds of the way to home plate before bouncing in the dirt.

Score: 4

My mother went to high school in Merigold, Mississippi, and graduated in a senior class of maybe 7 people. One of these 7 was a guy named Larry Speakes. After running a few newspapers, Larry became press secretary for senator James Eastland, and then worked his way up to press secretary for president Ronald Reagan.

Larry's now known for two quotes: "I would dodge, not lie, in the national interest," and "Those who talk don't know what is going on and those who know what is going on won't talk."

In 1981 or 82, my father bought a used Winnebago motor home for about $2,500.00
That was about $2,000.00 more than it was worth. We worked on it for a few weeks, and decided to take it on a shakedown cruise.
From Mississippi to Washington D.C.
My mother made arrangements with Larry for us to get a private tour of the White House. My father's farm co-op gave us a 50-pound bag of Mississippi Delta rice to take to the Reagans. Larry's father was still the town banker in Merigold, and he gave us two fishing poles that he wanted to give his grandsons as birthday presents.

So my parents, two sisters, brother and I drove a ramshackle motor home all the way to the White House parking lot, got out of it with a 50-pound bag of rice and two fishing poles, went through security, and carried the stuff inside. We didn't get to go into the Oval Office, but Larry took us to the press briefing room where they have all the news conferences. Somewhere there's a picture of me behind the podium looking very un-presidential.

We got to see Reagan's helicopter land in the back yard of the White House. He was a very tall, very healthy looking man. The helicopter prop wash was blowing everyone's hair all over the place, but Reagan's didn't budge. He waved at us. I don't know if Nancy ever cooked the rice.

Score: 8

Before I worked at Bookstop, I managed stores for a Mom & Pop company called Taylors Books. I once had to help work the door for a Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter book signing when they came to Dallas. They were publicizing their book "Everything to Gain: Making The Most Of The Rest Of Your Life". The line of customers zigzagged down every aisle of the store, out the front door, around the store, and into the back alley. Carter seemed nice enough, and Miss Rosalynn seemed mildly sedated. Their publicist would hand them a book, the former president would write "Jimmy &", and his wife would write "Rosalynn Carter". They could get it done in less than 8 seconds per copy.

We had plenty of copies of the book. Acres of it. But the Carters could only stay for about two hours. Even at 8 seconds per copy, some customers were going to be turned away.

This would have been in 1987 or 1988. Reagan had been in office for most of his second term by then. History had already passed judgement on the Carter presidency, and that judgement wasn't very kind.

The people waiting in line to see JIMMY CARTER OF PLAINS GEORGIA with their own two eyes? They didn't care. These were die-hard democrats, the last of the true believers. Jesus Christ himself was inside Taylors Books, turning water into wine, and I was the one who had to keep letting them in at the rate of only one customer every 8 seconds.

This was my first experience with The Herd Mentality. It wasn't pleasant when Jimmy and Rosalynn left us to do radio and TV appearances.

Score: 2

I never saw Gerald Ford, although I had one supervisor in the early 80's who thought I should go to his wife's clinic.

In April of 1973, my parents got us up in the middle of the night to go to the new Naval Air Station in Meridian, Mississippi. Richard Nixon was going to be guest speaker at the opening of the base. Daddy fired up the station wagon, Mama threw some peanut butter and crackers in the back seat, and we took off.
(This was near the peak of the Watergate scandal, and the only places that Nixon could appear without being booed were military bases in the Deep South.)
When we got to Meridian, we'd eaten all the peanut butter and there was already a mob in the open field that surrounded the podium. The best we could have honestly done for seats was about 75 yards away from the president. But we are not a shy family.
Daddy saw some empty chairs in the second row of the VIP area, and we started plowing toward them. The seats had signs on the backs, reserving them for assorted high ranking officers. My parents STEPPED OVER THE ROPE BARRIERS WITH THE SECRET SERVICE MEN WATCHING, and led us to the chairs.
We got to hear Nixon speak from about 10 yards away. When the speeches were over, my mother was impressed that Pat Nixon got down on her knees at the edge of the stage to shake hands with a woman in a wheelchair.
Daddy's theory on why we got away with it: The Secret Service knew that any family smelling that much like peanut butter couldn't be a threat to the president.

Score: 8

I never got to see LBJ, but I saw his wife Lady Bird get the BRIT International Award of Excellence for her work in preserving Texas plants and wildlife. Fort Worth's own Van Cliburn played the piano and sang for her. It was a great night.

Score: 7

That's all the presidents and first ladies that I've seen. Hope you enjoyed hearing about it. I've enjoyed remembering it.