We Did This To Ourselves by George Wolke

George Wolke has been a friend of mine since High School.  That means I've know him for more the 30 years.  We are basically on the same side of the political spectrum but we disagree on a number of issues.  He wrote me an e-mail yesterday after my e-mail and this article was the result.  George is an electrical engineer working in the civilian defense industry.

We Did This To Ourselves

As I was driving to work this morning, I received a one line email from my friend Frank DeMartini entitled, ‘The Unemployment Rate’.

It read, “It’s at 10.2%....Need I say more….”

For the past several months, Frank and I have gone back and forth about the merits of the Stimulus Package, and of Kensyean Economics in general. After considering how lucky I am to not be a member of this rather unfortunate club, I wrote the following as a response to Frank. Please take a look and let’s talk about it.

The situation we have today is the confluence of several events which have created ‘the perfect storm’. If this were a ‘normal’ recession, we’d see the unemployment rate bottom out and then return to the normal 4-5% range. Unfortunately, I think what we’re going to see is a jobless recovery and the further destruction of the middle class.

1. We no longer build things. As Frank is so apt to point out, we cannot compete against other countries whos standard of living is below ours. This makes it impossible for company’s to invest in manufacturing in America unless state or local governments sweeten the pie though incentives. Even with this, the era of American Manufacturing is over. And with it the blue collar jobs that helped to create our middle class.

2. Power is more concentrated than it ever has been before. The disparity between the top and the bottom has never been wider. And those in power are going to do everything they can to distort the message to the masses in order to stay in power.

3. As a people, we have no appetite for long term thinking. This is the single most reason we are hosed. Wall Street DEMANDS quarter by quarter financial gains at the expense of long term investment. Multi-million dollar bonuses for creating wealth though debt. The idea that housing prices will never go down. Need I say any more?

We are hosed and there is nothing in the short term that is going to make it better. But let me ask you what you think we can do to improve the situation? In the 30’s it took FDR to create the CCC to get people back to work, and then WWII to turn the economy around.

I bet if you asked the millions who just can’t find jobs, they’d jump at the chance to do anything productive at this point. But are we as a country ready to accept that there is going to need to be a dramatic reduction in the standard of living in order to create new jobs? To think otherwise seems a folly to me. It’s a fact that not everyone is capable of invention. That’s why we need to build things!!!!

Now, maybe we ought to be investing money in ways that encourages new industries to emerge. But these things take LOTS of money and lots of time to develop. What to do in the meantime?

There are no easy answers anymore. But, what needs to happen before we get this economy back on track is for people to get back to work. But, the catch-22 is that we won’t get people back to work until inventories are depleted, but….WE DON’T BUILD ANYTHING ANYMORE….plus, who can afford to buy anything anyway?

© 2009 by George Wolke. All rights reserved. Use by Permission.

Is The Republican Party Lost?

Every article you read these days from the liberal media has a very clear message: the Republican Party is dead and should be buried. Conservatism is in shambles. The Democrats have the upper hand and the correct solution for the country. Tax and Spend is working. The Stimulus is working. Foreign powers love us. All is happy in liberal land.

I beg to differ. In fact, I believe the evidence is stronger each day that the Republican Party is making inroads into the Democratic “majority.” The election happened and Obama and the Democrats are in power. We have to live with that for another 18 months. But when one looks at the trends a new picture begins to develop.

All evidence indicates that the country is going the other way and still leans center-right. Look at what happened in Virginia yesterday. In a hotly contested Democratic primary for governor, R. Creigh Deeds, a conservative Democrat, whooped an ex-head of the DNC and staunch supporter of the Clintons. Deeds is about as far to the right as the Democratic Party gets. He is so pro-gun that he supports concealed weapons in bars and nightclubs. I’m not even sure if I go that far.

Why did Deeds get the nomination? Well, according to every article and news report, it is because the Virginia Democrats are afraid of losing the governorship in November to the Republican candidate. Robert McDonnell is a staunch Republican Conservative and the Virginia populace is definitely to the right regardless of whether the state went with Obama. A liberal Democrat is never going to win Virginia right now and probably never.

Another example can be seen by the current events in the New York Legislature. The Democrats which have had control of the New York Senate for as long as anyone can remember have physically locked the chamber to keep the new majority Republicans from enacting any legislation. How has this happened? Well, two members of the Senate switched sides tipping the scales in favor of the Republicans. The Democrats, according to Governor Patterson, a Democrat, are now acting like children and have physically taken the keys to the chamber to stop the Republicans from doing anything. In fact, they are refusing to recognize that two of their brethren have abandoned them.

Speaking of Governor Patterson maybe we should talk about his approval rating for a minute. This is the man that became governor after Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace about a year ago for being the typical Democratic hypocrite. He “played” with the people he took on. Governor Patterson’s approval ratings are so low that some people believe that a Republican may actually have a chance to win New York. That would be only the second Republican to hold office in New York since 1975. The last, George Pataki, took power during the Republican revolution in the mid-nineties and barely lasted two terms.

What would happen if New York gets a Republican governor in the next election cycle? With California currently having a Republican governor and a strong potential candidate in Meg Whitman, the top two states would be Republican. If you factor in Texas and Florida which are third and fourth in population, and both of which have Republican incumbents, you would have approximately 32% of the US Population controlled by Republican governors in just four states. To me that doesn’t sound like a dead party! Rather, it sounds like one that has the potential for a strong majority.

On the national front, Nancy Pelosi’s current popularity is at the lowest it’s ever been. According to a Gallup poll released on Friday, Pelosi’s ratings are currently at 34%. If I’m not mistaken, these are lower than President Bush’s at the end of his administration. In fact, the same poll showed that Ex Vice President Dick Cheney’s popularity is actually higher at 37%. Eight months ago, this was one of the most disliked men in the country. I guess that speech he gave a few weeks ago on National Security and the effects of 9/11 made a lot of the population think.

One of the most important facts about these poll numbers is where the change is actually coming from. Both Ms. Pelosi’s fall and Mr. Cheney’s rise are directly related to a change in independent electorate which went strongly Democratic last November. And, we all know that is where elections are won.

Just yesterday, the Obama spin started on the stimulus package. The President stopped talking about creating jobs and started talking about saving jobs. How will anyone prove the accuracy of his statement yesterday that 150,000 jobs were saved as a result of the stimulus package so far? Last month the economy lost more than 500,000 jobs net. That’s a loss, plain and simple. When that number turns around and there is job growth in a month, then he can start to claim credit. But, by saying that 150,000 jobs were saved last month, he is making it look like the stimulus worked when there is no proof one way or the other. It’s spin, pure and simple.

Newt Gingrich, it seems, is already running for President and his popularity is growing. At a conference in the past few days, he stated that Obama has already failed. And, he is strongly criticizing Ms. Sotomayor. Maybe, the American public is beginning to agree. For the first time, the President’s approval rating has sunk below 60%. I predict it will be teetering around 50% by the end of the year.

Jon Voight publicly stated at the same conference that he is embarrassed by the President and that the President will cause the downfall of this country. Jon Voight, who in my opinion is a great American, should probably think about running for Congress. I am still moved by his Memorial Day comments about Hollywood being in a sorry state when it cared more about Earth Day than Memorial Day.

Why is this change happening so shortly after the “Democratic Revolution?” I can answer that one, but it would take a book. To put it simply, the American people are beginning to see this Administration for what it is: A return to the failed policies of Jimmy Carter and Democrats of the seventies. Weakness in Foreign Affairs and out-of-control spending will not sit with the American electorate at either the national or state level. And, unfortunately, that is what the first five months of President Obama’s Administration has brought. And, unfortunately, that appears to be what the future will bring as well.

©2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. All rights reserved. Permission to copy will be freely granted upon request.

Tax and Spend is Back

My movie for the ABC/Family Channel and Millennium Films, “The Prince and Me 4,” is pretty much in the can. We have two more days of shooting in Bangkok and will be finished on Saturday. The last few weeks have been very hectic as we have been pretty much shooting in the jungle with all of the infestations that come with being in a jungle. I must say that I’ve seen more creatures that I never new existed during this adventure; all of them creepy and crawly.

But now we have a break for the first time in four weeks and I am ready to start thinking about the economy and politics again. After reviewing the news today and catching up on articles that were sent to me by my readers, it seems that the world truly is falling apart. Well, at least, that is what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama would want everyone to think.

The biggest spending package in the history of the United States, in the guise of a stimulus package, is now law. Unfortunately, as I have said many times in the past few months, it is not working and will not work. Unemployment is up. California has just hit double digits in that category. The banks are still not loaning and foreclosures were up 30% in February. The economy is shrinking, although at a much slower pace than Obama and Pelosi want you to think. And, what do our friendly Democrats say they want to do to end this recession? What do you think? Spend more. Congress is already contemplating another stimulus package after spending 870 billion dollars of “fake” money a few weeks ago.

Let’s give more people more free money. That’s what I always say. Oh, I’m sorry, not me, the Democrats. Well, it seems to be working with the public. Obama’s approval rating after less than two months is at 60%. However, major economists are not buying into the Obama euphoria. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, economists gave Obama an average score of 59 out of 100 on his economic performance. The majority sentiment from these economists is that whatever is being done is being done too late.

I beg to differ with these economists in one major way. I feel that too much money is being spent. This presidency is beginning to look like the traditional tax and spend policies of Democrats that go back to Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. The old world Democrats are back to haunt us. Maybe I should go back to my cave in the jungles of Thailand. Am I mistaken or did the United States reject this kind of thinking by not electing George McGovern, Walter Mondale, or Michael Dukakis president?

Stimulus packages do not work. Japan in the 1990’s passed one stimulus package after another. Nothing helped. The recession and zero percent interest rates lingered. The only thing that ends recessions is the end of the cycle. Just leave it alone and it will get better. That is the right way to deal with this. Putting the country deeper and deeper into debt will just make the recession worse.

This recession, as bad as it is, is not nearly as bad as Obama and his cohorts are claiming. It is more comparable to the recession of 1981-82 than that of the Great Depression. Bradley R. Schiller, an economics professor at Nevada–Reno in a recent article entitled, “Obama’s Rhetoric is the Real Catastrophe,” makes a strong case that the numbers in this recession do not pan out with the Great Depression and that Obama is “turning fear mongering into an art form.” Isn’t this exactly what people blamed the Republicans for in the last eight years? After 9/11, all we heard was that Bush and Company were using fear to keep the American populace at bay.

I agree with Professor Schiller. Unemployment now is at about 8% nationwide. In the 81-82 recession it peaked out at about 11%. Both of these numbers are way below that of the Great Depression where it peaked at more than 25%. The Congressional Budget Office is predicting that the economy will shrink by approximately 2% this year. That’s about four times less than the economy shrank for three years in a row in the early 1930’s.

Basically, Mr. Schiller is arguing that Obama’s words may be creating more of a catastrophe than the actual economic numbers are showing. If Obama does not stop, consumers will not purchase goods and services. Obama will have created a self fulfilling prophecy and we will be in the middle of a second Great Depression.

Wall Street seems to agree that Obama is failing as well. On February 10, Treasure Secretary Geithner unveiled Obama’s economic plan to the country. Since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off almost 20%. In fact, other than the last two trading sessions, the Dow has almost completely collapsed. At what point will people start believing in the economy again? Maybe, they need a little pep talk along the lines of Ronald Reagan, instead of the catastrophic talk that is coming out of Obama, Pelosi and Reid’s collective mouths.

Senator John McCain has recently been quoted as saying that the 870 billion dollar stimulus package is full of earmarks. One of his recent TV appearances had him stating that Obama ran on a platform against earmarks and now he has passed the biggest earmark in Congressional history. I guess he forgot his campaign promise or just ignored it.

A careful look at this stimulus package proves McCain is correct. The biggest individual earmark in history, two billion dollars to build a power plant with zero emissions, is a guaranteed failure. Even the best minds at MIT say that this technology is not available yet. Maybe, Obama is just beginning to realize that this is how Congress works? Or, maybe he knew that all along and he should just tell the American public the truth. He is going to do whatever is necessary to get his Socialist agenda passed into law, including bankrupting the American government. In fact, some of the pundits are beginning to call him “Comrade Obama.”

Another wonderful earmark that was in the spending bill is a pet project of Senator Harry Reid: A beautiful museum for his home state of Nevada. I don’t care what kind of museum it is, the federal government should not be paying for it. But do not tell Harry Reid that. It is something he really wants. Maybe if he screams and yells loud enough he will get the Federal Government to pay for the high speed railway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles which is another of his pet projects. At least, I will get some enjoyment out of that. No more driving on Interstate 15 on Friday afternoons. However, I am sure the businesses along Interstate 15 would suffer tremendously. No more “Bun Boy,” “Barstow Station,” or “Peggy Sue’s Fifties Diner.”

A reader of mine, Tay Voye from Spokane, Washington stated to me in an e-mail that the, “870 Billion raid on the treasury is the biggest theft in the history of mankind and most people I know think it is just great…scares the hell out of me.” Right on, my brother. This, coupled with Obama’s recent budget proposals show that our Democratic friends do not care how much they spend, even if its borrowed money.

Obama’s recent budget proposal has an expected deficit of 1.7 trillion dollars. That’s right, trillion. Even in Bush’s worst deficit year, he spent only about 500 billion more than the government collected. President Bush may have doubled the deficit in his eight years in office, but Obama is going to try and double it in his first four. In fact, at the current pace, he may triple it if he gets reelected. Obama’s proposed budget deficit is 12% of the GDP. The last time we saw that number was in 1945 during the highest spending period in World War 2. Bush’s absolute worst number does not even come close. But, President Bush is one of the most hated men in the country and Obama is one of the most loved. I just do not understand this.

Another one of my readers, Lew Whitehill from Kentucky stated that Obama is, “On a dangerous path for the country. Wall Street is voting every day with the Dow as the ballot. . . .undisciplined spending and uncertainty keeps the Dow moving lower. This is just a bare bones starter regarding Obama who is most ambitious in attempting to dismantle the free market and discourage risk reward incentives. Those that I know have seen their net worth plummet without any real signs that their net worth is recoupable. In other words, I can’t stand him and what he stands for. Neither can most of the people that I deal with. So, I ask myself, where is the 50-60% of the populace that support him? Those idiots are out there somewhere.”

If Obama’s approval rating is still pretty darn high, at least, the majority of the country feels that Congress is failing. The latest average of polls has their disapproval rating at 55%. Maybe, we can get rid of them in two years and then Mr. Obama will have no more power. He may have to live with a hostile Congress that will not let him do whatever he wants. Although, his beloved Democratic Congress is not letting him do too much without their earmarking anyway.

I must state for the record that Obama is keeping some of his campaign promises. He is doing everything he can to keep the pro-abortionists and pro-death supporters happy. One of his first acts was to sign an executive order cancelling one of President Bush’s executive orders that was anti-abortion. And, just this week, he signed or should I say executed an order making stem-cell research more readily available in the country. I am sure this makes a bunch of Republicans in the south that voted for him really happy. Of course, I am sure he does not care about them anyway. He just needs to keep Illinois, New York and California on his side. They support him financially and that is all he needs. Maybe, they will abandon him as they see their pockets getting progressively emptier.

It’s time for me to close this week and in closing I would like to say that I will be back in the United States in about one week. I hope it is the same as when I left it. Of course, I am definitely a lot poorer than when I left. Shooting this film in Bangkok has been a pleasure and I want to thank all of my hosts in this wonderful country. You all know who you are. Now, it’s on to post-production.

© Copyright 2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to use excerpts will be freely given.