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5/19/2009
Burri: This time... maybe we can't turn back from the brink
It's hard to be optimistic these days. Normally, I’m not one to bemoan the state of things.
The world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket; things aren’t worse now than they were thirty years ago; somebody in Milwaukee or San Francisco or Washington D.C. whining for more government aid can’t stop me from leading a successful and happy life.
These days, though…especially that last one: I'm more pessimistic about that.
Someone once described American politics as a football game in which neither team ever gets across the other team's 40-yard-line. Today, it feels like Democrats and liberals have a first-and-ten on our 30, and the referee has money on the game.
Yeah, well, Democrats are in power across the board. They hold all the cards, state and federal. So maybe they should be on our thirty.
It’s just hard to imagine that we’ll ever – even if Republicans swept suddenly back into power – get back to midfield. Much less back to their forty.
Electoral politics works like a pendulum. It swings one way for a while, sending one side or the other into power. Then, as that party builds more and more of a record it has to defend, the pendulum starts swinging back.
Having power is a lot harder than trying to gain power. That’s just how it is.
For a variety of reasons, the pendulum swung hard and fast in 2006 and 2008. Like a big brother trying to scare his little brother by pushing the swing really hard.
And now it’s swinging back. 2010 will be a better year for Republicans. So will 2012.
Even so, even if Republicans get a house of Congress back (unlikely), we are where we are. There’s no reset button. No do-over. Will Republicans be able to roll back Obama administration excesses?
The numbers would be bleak if they weren’t so scary. A budget deficit four times bigger than last year’s record red ink. One year’s debt equal to 13% of GDP. A record $3,550,000,000,000 budget. And 46% of that spending will be “paid” for by new borrowing.
Will Republicans be able to deal with our looming, worsening entitlement problem?
…the total unfunded indebtedness of Social Security and Medicare comes to $106.4 trillion…But the nation’s total private net worth is only $51.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. In effect, we have promised the elderly benefits equal to more than twice the nation’s total wealth on top of the payroll tax. More: Can Republicans do it while shoulder-high stacks of post cards arrive in their offices, from people screaming: don’t take my benefits!
Politically speaking, will Republicans be able to stand? Stand in the road and force the bus to stop, while millions of Americans yell at them to get out of the way…because the money Uncle Sam promised them is on that bus!
More importantly, could Republicans – could anyone – do anything about a culture, which seems to more and more demand that its problems be solved, and solved by government action?
Even more important: given the behavior of Republicans the past four-ish years, will they want to stand in the way?
Oh, sure, we can speculate that Obama’s excesses will cause a backlash from the Right; from the libertarian-minded; from those who still believe that individual liberty – as risky as that can be – is preferable to a suffocating government safety net.
I’m just not sure. And if not, then we’ll keep playing on our side of the field. And that’s a fine way to keep losing, even if we do win elections.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
Lance, read this by arch-Dem Ted Rall: EXCUSES YOU MIGHT BELIEVE IN, Democrats Are More Powerful Than Ever. How Will They Justify Doing Nothing?
Dems will end up taking a whack at a 50 yard field goal, because actually passing their agenda leaves them at risk if it fails and without issues to run on.
timbeaux (Tue May 19 08:14:16 2009)
Take the state of WI...The liberals are the only ones on the field, moving the ball wherever they want, and we have just been sitting WATCHING the game on our TVs. But some of us are sick of it, and we're getting our own team together, to go out there, enter the game, and take the ball back.
No use waiting until things get even worse, and we hardly have a state left! We need to recall Doyle NOW, and we've gone from about 15 people to over 3000 in a handful of weeks.
This is a true grassroots nonpartisan effort by people determined to take our state back, and to send a message to ALL politicians that if they won't be responsible, we'll do something about it! (Remember, the Republicans quashed TABOR.)
Join us by going to www.recalldoyle.com. Look at the map, more push-pins are added daily. (If you only look at it on a weekly basis, the leaps are truly astounding.)
emily matthews (Tue May 19 08:22:06 2009)
I don't believe the question is CAN Republicans move the ball back to the opponent's 40. As Lance eluded to in this post, it's a question of whether they even WANT to move the ball back AT ALL.
The Republican Party no longer stands for Fiscal Conservatism and less government. If you dispute that statement, I invite you to revisit the Fall of 2008 (a.k.a. the Fall of a free market economy) when the "Republican" White House turned our nation's financial institutions in to an arm of the federal government.
Still have doubts? Listen to Michael Steele's comments today. If he's on the defensive line, he's pushing the running back further down the field, not trying to stop his progress. The Republican Party has to be more moderate? Please.
It's not good enough to just be Republican to get my vote - a candidate will need to actually be CONSERVATIVE. Republicrats (A.K.A. Rino's) need not knock on my door for a vote.
Jeff R. (Tue May 19 08:27:02 2009)
Lnce
The problem with your pendulum analogy is that it never seems to swing fully back to the right. And even more, as one committed to fiscally responsible, limited government that sees its primary purpose as protecting my rights, not as an agent of wealth transfer (read theft,) there has not been much to cheer about even when Republicans were a majority. Now I am more optimistic than at any time since my eyes were opened back in the 1980's. SURE the system is going to crash, and the sooner the better. It is currently unsustainable. The good news lies in the fact that never in my lifetime have so many been awakened to the fact that the greatest threats to our liberty and prosperity are our own governments. And sure we are losing ground daily, but this only inspires more to see the light. It may be a close call, but an awakened public who is ready to throw out all incumbents, Democrat or Republican who have helped dig the hole we are in, is the only possibility there is to change things for the better. Otherwise, we will "progressively" continue to follow the path that leads to poverty in a totalitarian state.
I agree with Emily. Recall Doyle is the ONE thing we can do to show that the worm has turned here in WI.
Ken Van Doren (Tue May 19 13:29:06 2009)
Way to go Emily. I like your attitude and the fact that you are willing to do something about this mess rather than just complain. So if all of us got involved like Emily I think we could turn this around. Think of that the next time you are asked to join a conservative group or protest like the "Tea Parties". Sitting on the sidelines will not change things and just letting "George do it" will not make improvements. If you sit on the sidelines too long the field may disappear altogether.
Mike
Mike Thomas (Tue May 19 15:44:49 2009)
I have been writing editorials since 1983 about the "brink" with regards to the Social Security and Medicare debacles. That they are, in fact and affect, little more than a Ponzi scheme that makes Bernie Madoff look like Mother Teresa. In 1983 I calculated that these two programs ALONE would be $90 TRILLION Dollars in UNFUNDED liabilities by 2010, over the infinite horizon. An article in The Washington Times, July 2nd, 2008 confirmed my 1983 opinion pieces to the very dollar, except one year earlier at 2009. Even IF, The MATRIX doesn’t collapse under it’s own weight it will certainly collapse when the Government starts “withholding” 80% of our earnings to pay for these Socialist ponzi schemes.
About three years ago I found out and came to realize, in crystal clarity, that we live in a "REAL" MATRIX, an economy that doesn't really exist, except as programmed into our minds, which is based on little more than Monopoly money, that our minds have been programmed to believe are worth a whole dollar, printed by the TRILLIONS out of thin air on glorified monster computer printers at THE FEDERAL RESERVE company.
Mark my words: NATURAL LAW, the law that was created along with the laws of physics both of which exist throughout the universe as designed by our creator, will cause the "BLESSED" collapse of "The MATRIX" (our economy), so we can rebuild it and our UNION of SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT States with the lessons that each of us Americans INDIVIDUALLY but UNITED, must ENFORCE the LAW as We The People did ordain and establish upon our Government and public "servants" to protect our GOD GIVEN unalienable rights, from that Government, that the scofflaw tyrants in all three branches of the U.S. Government have been thwarting ever since the Constitutionally illegal passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the lie of the ratification of the 16th Amendment by the dishonorable scum Secretary of State Philanderer Knox; Plus, numerous other constitutionally contemptuous legislation, behaviors and actions by all three branches of the Federal Government.
Mark my words: Either "The MATRIX" (our economy) will collapse, God willing, from where the vast majority of INDIVIDUAL average workingmen, through hard work, perseverance and blessings of our creator, will become individually wealthy like we were before the Socialism, Communism and Fascism resultant from usurpation by our tyrants in Washington D.C. or we will realize the nightmare of a ONE WORLD U.N. style Politically Correct combination "hybrid" godless Government of Socialism, Communism, and Fascism with nowhere to run on Earth from the equal distribution of misery and gnashing of teeth.
Bottom line: The brink is unavoidable. The only question is: Is there enough God in an adequate amount of of us to righteously and properly choose our final destiny; The prosperity of Freedom and Liberty under God OR a Thousand Years of darkness under evil.
Capt. Karl – “The Liberty Tree Lantern” blog.
Capt. Karl (Fri May 22 09:11:59 2009)
Capt. Karl
I had my own revelation about 27 yrs ago, and have been one of the few advocating for limited government, sound money, and liberty ever since.
Are you aware of HR1207, audit the FEd bill, sponsored by Ron Paul? I predict if this passes, so will the Federal Reserve. Pass into history, that is..
And it may be a close call, but more and more folks are waking up to our plight all the time. No way we can save all the giveaway programs, and the sooner they crash, the better. Might even come down to the wire, but I am hopeful that we can save liberty, as FINALLY, the public is awakening.
Ken Van Doren (Mon May 25 09:59:29 2009)
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