Adios 111th Congress!The Worst Congress Ever has finally, mercifully ground to a creaking, stinking, pork-laden halt.
Unfortunately, we can't say the same of Harry and Nancy, although Harry comes back with a shrunken, threadbare majority, and Nan gets booted from her ceremonial Speaker's chambers by Republican John Boehner.
These past two years witnessed governmental abuses not seen since FDR's time. FCC grabs, government health care grabs, governmental arrogance reaching even higher heights... The only bright spot was The Revenge of the Voters this past November. Unfortunately, it was mostly the more moderate Dems who bit the dust. The strident statists will be back for more.
Obama admirer Ron Brownstein has a different take. Here's his headline:
111th Congress was one for the Books
Yeah, comic books... Or maybe a Steven King novel.
That headline is right up there with Vanity Fair's:
Obama Suffering because of His Achievements
Right... Kinda like a convicted arsonist suffers because of his "achievements." The American people are not so stupid. Here's the voters' headline:
Opinion Of Congress Reaches All Time Low
(Princeton, NJ) -- A newly released Gallup survey that asks Americans their opinion of Congress finds that opinion at an all time low.Worst. Congress. Ever.
Pollsters found only 13-percent of respondents approve of the way Congress is handling its duties. (Reuters)
Kimberley Strassel - Congress's Monstrous Legal Legacy
11 comments:
Just how will we (not schools) explain this to our grandchildren?
Well, you could tell them that Obama and the Dems began to ease the profiteering burdens on healthcare, education, and consumer credit. You can tell them that probably averted another Great Depression. He improved relations with Russia and China, and regarding vital national security matter. You really could say quite a bit.
It's funny that Silver, and the rest of the Right, attack FDR in this way. If it wasn't for FDR, we wouldn't have the social safety net that we have today, and when this latest recession came along, it would have quickly become another depression and the speople would be out in the streets calling for the heads of the kinds of people who bash FDR today.
Ironic.
JMJ
You're living in a dream world, Jersey...
Removed the profiteering? If only...
The banking bill has a provision of over $500 billion for failing banks, AARP got a huge reward for their supplemental Medicare plan...
I don't know what you mean by "improved relations???"
Hoover's ham-handed intervention and then FDR's iron-fisted statism turned a panic into a 10-year lost decade for America.
Obama is following in their footsteps.
That "woulda been worse..." and "jobs saved" crap don't fly over here in Right Blogistan. We deal in facts, not Democratic Socialist propaganda.
Jersey,
My question was not about the politicians you speak of but rather how to explain to our grandchildren the irresponsible voters such as yourself.
Silver said "dream world" and I believe that to be an understatement.
>If it wasn't for FDR, we wouldn't have the social safety net
If it wasn't for FDR, we wouldn't have the oppressive federal government that we have today with daily plundering of the fruits of the labor of the citizenry.
And the Depression would have been seven years shorter. (http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx)
>and when this latest recession came along, it would have quickly become another depression
Without FDR and other totalitarian collectivists that build more slavery on the foundation of the Raw Deal, we wouldn't have had a recession in the first place. A free market would have allowed normal economic cycles. Government meddling and its requisite theft of property are the sole source of the economic hardships of the U.S.
After over 100 years of statist meddling, I think it's time to trust the Founding Fathers and give the free market (a real free market, not the abomination we've got now that is ultimately at the mercy of the regulation-crazy federal government) a chance.
>He improved relations with Russia and China
Russian and China certainly do like Obama's America better. Willing victims are always liked by the victimizers.
youre spot on the ratings couldnt get any lower eh!!! wer'e snowed under big time in NYC!!!
Now Silver, let's be honest here. I never ever ever have said that Obama and the Dems "removed Removed the profiteering" of any sector or industry ever. EVER.
They did legislate some needed regulations and reforms to the "healthcare, education, and consumer credit" markets as I pointed out. By "consumer credit" of course I mean credit card business. "Consumer credit" is just a popular and easier way of saying "private, individual, consumer credit cards, especially high-interest, low credit general usage cards." I think former is easier to say and understand.
Obama hasn't done much for the banks. Half the TARP has been repaid, and one good thing he and the Dems did was to actually (imagine that!) impose Paulson's once empty demands on the banks, and the banks have been all too happy to pay the mooney back just as soon as possible. The same goes for most of the Recovery Act industry bail-outs. Those corporations have been bouncing back fast. They do not want the government telling them what they can do with our money, so they're converting it to their money at breakneck speed. If anything, the greatest failing of the bail-outs was that we did not impose more and demand more before they cashed out.
Now. You're comparisons to the Depression are lost on me. I just don't see them. We're in a very different position today. America is a very different place from where it was 80 years ago. You just conveniently forget the Dust Bowl, the closed, intranational nature of the stock market at that time, the collapse and then frenetic rise of Germany, and so many other factors.
There are some general comparisons to be made, but if you try to narrow any of this down to picture-perfect reimages of the Depression, then you lose me. I can not follow that logic. It makes no sense.
Christopher,
If you think I live in a Dream World and that I agree with everything the Dems and Obama do and that I think Obama is some liberal savior or that anyone is any savior at all, then you need to read me more, because you haven't a clue how I think.
Bastiatarian,
Your moniker tells me that you are a radical libertarian. Just the same, since you use that moniker, let me ask you this - Bastiat believed in the invisible hand working through consumerism, and we happen to live in the most consumeristic society on the planet, so, what the hell exactly is your friggin' complaint???
JMJ
>you are a radical libertarian
No, just a person who believes that nobody has the right to take my life, liberty, or property from me. Or in other words, nobody has the right to enslave me, whether doing so is "legal" or not, or whether it's done by a single private individual or a group of individuals calling themselves "government."
>your friggin' complaint???
My "friggin'" complaint is that the natural processes of a free market cannot operate with the artificial intrusion of the government always getting in the way. As anyone who understands basic economics knows, short-term mass consumerism does not require a free market. (Heavily regulated markets, such as what we have in the United States, do, however, eventually kill the power of consumers and producers, so long-term consumption requires a free market.)
Of course, you would already know the answer to your question if you had actually read Bastiat.
OFFICIAL WESTERN HERO RETRACTION:
OK, Jersey, I misquoted you.
Jersey said: "Obama and the Dems began to ease the profiteering burdens..."
Your assessment is still wrong, based on information I provided above. This administration is handing out sweetheart deals at an unprecedented rate.
>This administration is handing out sweetheart deals at an unprecedented rate.
The corruption of the Obama regime rivals even third-world countries.
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