15 thoughts on ““A National Conversation””

  1. Actually, I think on the National Debt thing we are barking up the wrong tree. It really is just a number, and anyone else as president would have rung up the same tab, and if they didn’t, they would have collapsed the Financial System and put us into a Dark Age, where not only the knowledge of our tech would be lost, even the existance of that tech would be regarded as a magic spell.

    No, I fault Mr. Obama with 1) Health Care Reform (I don’t even want to call it “Obamacare” — maybe Pelosi Care is closer to reality, which tells you how bad it is). And no Jim, I am not one of those gol-dang Libertarians who think poor people should die. I even think that if Mr. Romney were President we would still have the PPACA law, but he would put someone in there with a few more brain cells than (cough, Governor Sibelius, cough) and actually get it to work, causing Libertarian heads to explode everywhere. But did I suggest that the Obama Administration cannot administer itself out of a wet paper bag, so why are you defending these people, Jim?

    I fault Mr. Obama for keeping energy costs high out of stoopid leftoid understanding of the Environment and Economics. It is kind of like these people would regard the TVA as a Republican dream and FDR as the worst enviro villain. It is not that the gummint is involved in Energy — fracking came out of the gummint, it is just that this gummint is stupid about Energy, stupid, stupid, and more stupid. I only wish we had something like the TVA.

    1. Without a doubt, our debt would have continued to rise without Obama but it certainly would not have gone up as much. TARP was mostly paid back and the “stimulus” was supposed to be a one time deal but spending levels never dropped. Although, I am not sure what you mean by preventing the collapse of the financial sector, do you mean something specific, keeping interest rates low forcing savers into the stock market, printing money, or some other Obama policy?

      There is a lot that has happened since Obama’s first year in terms of spending and very little had anything to do with the saving the financial sector.

      People are less upset with TARP or even the totally ineffective stimulus than they are with what has happened since then, a depression according to Obama’s favorite economist, Krugman. And that the government has shown no inclination to rein in spending, that has a negative money multiplier effect, while trying to take more and more from people who have less and less.

      1. it certainly would not have gone up as much

        It isn’t hard to make a case that McCain would have spent more (we’d have troops on the ground in Iraq, Libya and Syria, if not Iran) and taxed less.

        the “stimulus” was supposed to be a one time deal but spending levels never dropped

        The stimulus spending stopped because it was a one-time deal. The spending that didn’t stop was automatic stuff, like unemployment benefits and food stamps. It’s a shame that the stimulus wasn’t set up to have its spending levels continue until unemployment was, say, under 6%.

        printing money, or some other Obama policy

        Printing money is a Fed policy, not an Obama policy.

        That said, Obama should have run up bigger deficits, and the Fed should be printing more money. Debt and inflation aren’t problems today, growth and unemployment are.

        1. The stimulus spending stopped because it was a one-time deal. The spending that didn’t stop was automatic stuff, like unemployment benefits and food stamps.

          Typical dishonesty from Baghdad Jim. Jim, if the stimulus spending dropped off and all else were equal, the Fed wouldn’t be spending a trillion-plus dollars a year it didn’t have. But the Democrat-“led” Congress jacked up spending to maintain stimulus-level deficits.

          Since you’re such a fan of Obama and his drunken spendthrift ways, would you care to weigh in on why deficit spending was bad when Obama thought so, when he was only a Senator?

      2. Obama’s favorite economist, Krugman

        Both Obama and Krugman would reject that characterization; Krugman has been on Obama’s case since before he was elected.

        1. Regardless, Krugman said we are in a depression. Our economy is in the stinker due in large part to Obama’s mismanagement. Deal with the reality of that just like the hundreds of millions of Americans who have to deal with it every day.

    2. the Obama Administration cannot administer itself out of a wet paper bag, so why are you defending these people, Jim?

      Because I think their administrative competence has been above average compared to other recent administrations.

      I fault Mr. Obama for keeping energy costs high

      I think you overestimate his influence on the global energy market.

      1. Keystone XL.

        One meelyon barrels of oil per day. 5 percent of U.S. oil consumption. Prices are decided “on the margin.”

      2. The Bush Administration is still sending ripples of incompetence forward into the space-time fabric that make Mr. Obama look like General MacArthur.

        The Bush Administration had a cow-state governor preside over the roll-out of a new mega-entitlement health care program (which appears to be working) whereas the Obama Administration has its cow-state governor presiding over the roll-out of a mega health care program that appears to be making everybody mad.

        Mr. Bush doubled down on a war resulting in thousands of US casualties and many more of persons over there costing eventually multiple trillions whereas Mr. Obama doubled down an “the right war” resulting in thousands of US casualties and many more others costing eventually multiple trillions.

        Mr. Bush entered office with an “energy plan” almost 100% focused on hydrocarbon sources along with electric grid expansion that drew a lot of heat, the benefits of which we are starting to reap, along with the “fracking” tech, developed years prior under other incompentent administrations, being the one bright spot in our economy whereas Mr. Obama has been trying every which way to shut down electric power capacity and limit drilling, especially after Macando Prospect while at the same time being utterly and completely unsuccessful getting and CO2 emission cooperation from India and China, owing to his “community organizer” negotiating style, which may be successful in U.S. cities when pitched against wealthy slum landlords, but fails spectacularly when it is the slum landlord nation scolding the low-income tenants.

        And so it goes. This administration is “above average”, the soft tyranny of low expectations.

  5. I agree with Klavan’s final thought….that this whole Trayvon thing is a distraction from Benghazi. Benghazi is so awful and the truth coming out would be so destructive to the Obama reign that it’s better to take a much smaller hit on the IRS stuff and us Trayvon Martin to distract from both of those.

  6. A conversation implies that more than one side gets to speak. No one is calling for a national conversation about race. What they want is yet another protracted monologue on race where only approved opinions are expressed. They consider this a “teachable moment”. No, thanks. When the people who obscess endlessly about skin color can finally admit that there is only one race (human), then we can talk.

  7. Hey guys (and Andrea — Andrea? Where did she go?)

    You really, really need to watch the Klavan video. Everyone, Rand, you, me, everyone, is commenting on the written essay at that link, but you need to view that video. Trust me, it is safe for work and it will brighten your day.

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