
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
April 22, 2013
US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer
April 19, 2013
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy
Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds
April 17, 2013
Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom
Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
April 15, 2013
Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral
Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators
April 12, 2013
Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman
The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios
April 10, 2013
Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
Morgan Housel: Warning: Don't waste your capital being fooled by profit prophets
Donald Hensrud, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Take vitamin supplements with caution --- even approved, they may actually do damage
Eryn Brown: 74 DNA discoveries move cure closer for three cancers
April 8, 2013
Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?
Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?
|
| |
Jewish World Review
July 18, 2011
/ 16 Tamuz, 5771
Time to raise demagoguery ceiling
By
Jay Ambrose
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he was deferential, not belligerent, and just asking if he might speak when President Barack Obama took offense and walked huffily from the room, barking "enough is enough" and saying no one should try to call his bluff.
Others see it differently. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Cantor was "childish" during the White House debt ceiling negotiations, although a quick check of the record shows Reid has never, ever said anything perceptive, sensible, accurate or adult himself. The slur may have been improperly employed.
The worst thing, of course, would have been if Cantor had stood up and said, "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure." There would have been a gasp as Cantor continued, talking about "reckless fiscal policies" that weaken the country "internationally and domestically."
But Cantor did not utter that denunciation. President Obama uttered it when he was Senator Obama, and then went on to vote against raising the debt ceiling without murmuring a word about sure-enough defaults making us a banana republic or the elderly and disabled being immediately deprived of Social Security checks
No, all of that would be reserved for another time, when another mode of attack was necessary and when Obama would again burst through the demagoguery ceiling, which really should be raised for the sake of a skull that will otherwise be perennially bruised. That is not the whole story, however, for he is a truly sincere welfare-state enthusiast, a redistributionist, a devout believer in big government and, when recession wanders into the room, he is a Keynesian who thinks you can spend your way to glory.
Thus, on top of entitlement promises that cannot conceivably be kept, he gave us an unaffordable health-care abomination when an effective plan could have been adopted at a fraction of the cost. He backed a clumsily, corruptly crafted stimulus plan that is more a debt threat than a job creator. He added hundreds of billions to a 2009 George W. Bush budget and went crazy with a 2010 budget. The Heritage Foundation says our debt of $14 trillion-and-climbing comes to something like $45,000 per capita and is equivalent to every nickel's worth of value produced in the country in a year.
That's danger, friends, and not only as seen by Tea Party activists, but as seen by one of the world's foremost debt experts, Harvard's Kenneth Rogoff, who says you need a long-term plan with specifics right away. Obama's answer was to appoint a commission with some members who actually did something, saying we need really tough budget cuts over time and revenue-producing reform giving us an efficient, fair system without all the dodges that now exist. Our president said thanks and then came up with a 2011 budget that, in its insane deficit projections over the next decade, would essentially mean the sinking of the good ship USA.
When House Republicans devised a contrary plan with cuts over 10 years and passed it while saying they wouldn't go along with raising the debt ceiling minus spending cuts, Obama said he would get rid of trillions of dollars in expenditures. It was all mush with no details even for dessert. Skipping over seriousness about tax reform, which could well have garnered GOP support, he called for a tax on the rich that done at this moment would be a hindrance to new jobs.
Two good compromise ideas have come up, both from Republicans and one of which Obama has incredibly rejected because it does not cut as much as this brand new ambition of his demands. While Congress should stop regarding debt ceilings as if they were electronic speed signs adjusting to however fast cars are going, we do need to raise this one at this point, and my suspicion is we will if Obama quits walking out of the room.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Jay Ambrose, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers and the editor of dailies in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, is a columnist living in Colorado.
Previously:
• 07/13/11: Obama treating treaties badly
• 07/08/11: Is decline of U.S. exaggerated?
• 07/05/11: Not math deficiency, but demagoguery
© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|