The Burning Economy

I tried to think of a good analogy of Obama's goodwill babble as our economy sinks. This is what I came up with.

Imagine tens of thousands people in a auditorium listening to Obama speak. He gives a fantastic speech, and almost every one is mesmerized. Then the people in the back and the top tiers of the auditorium smell smoke. Someone mentions it to Obama. He tells everyone not to worry, that there is some smoke, but his staff has it taken care of. He continues with his soaring rhetoric.

Then the smoke smell is overwhelming, there is even some smoke in the building. Once again Obama tells everyone to stay calm, everything will be fine.

The people in the back start to tell everyone that we need to leave in an orderly fashion. Now. Before it gets worse. Some try to leave, but the doors are locked.

Now the people in the back start to panic. They realize the doors are locked and there is smoke and this could be deadly.

Still, Obama talks in soothing tones and tells everyone that everything will be fine.

Now the building starts to fill with smoke. Almost everyone is in a panic now. Some are trampling others trying to get out. But there are still those at the front who look adoringly at Obama, believing all he says, and just can't believe that there is any danger.

That's how I see it. Smoke is all around us. Half a million jobs a month have been lost since the stimulus passed. Unemployment at 9.5% is at a 26 year high. David Rosenberg, former chief economist for Merrill Lynch, reported that in June 2 million workers were pushed into part time work and that the average work week reached a record low of 33 hours. If work week hours had remained the same as they were in May, June's job losses would have been a shocking 800,000 decline.

We need to do something to get out of this, but the doors are locked by a Democratic Senate, House, and White House.

The Tea Parties are the people in the back who first see the smoke and try to warn people.

The time of warning is over now. We need to break down the doors for people to get out.

As we speak the Stimulus money is being wasted on useless programs. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla) issued a report in June saying, for example, about $15 million in taxpayer funds went to repairs for little-used bridges in rural Wisconsin. Nearly $10 million went to renovate an abandoned train station that has not been used in three decades. Also, $3.4 million went to an “eco-passage” for Florida wildlife to safely pass under a highway. This is always what happens with our hard earned tax money. Pet projects are funded that most of us would never approve of.

CNS reports:

The Coburn report also said that $800,000 in stimulus money went to the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa. The airport named for Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has been criticized by fiscal watchdogs as an airport that essentially no one uses.

In what the report called “the biggest earmark of all time,” $1 billion went to Mattoon, Ill., for a power plant that may never work.

A Nevada non-profit organization received $2 million in stimulus money for a weatherization contract, even though it had recently been fired from the same project, according to the report.

The Coburn report further cites $1.15 million for installation of a new guard rail “for the non-existent Optima Lake in Oklahoma.” In addition, the report said that 10,000 people received stimulus checks.

And the town of Union, N.Y., was “encouraged to spend a $578,000 grant it did not request for a homeless problem it claims it does not have,” the report said.

Most disturbing is that the stimulus does not help small businesses, the backbone of our economy, in the least. Even building infrastructure, a worthy goal, does nothing to stimulate the economy. Doling out government jobs may have an effect on unemployment, but it does nothing for our economy. Even Carter prevented rising unemployment by government created jobs, but look how that turned out.

Now, what do we do? The tea parties have been a good warning for America, but we need to do more than warn. First and foremost we need to replace as many Democrats as possible in 2010, but we need to make the Republicans understand that we will no longer put up with out of control spending from them either. No more RINO's. We demand back to the basics of Republican doctrine. Smaller government, GREATLY reduced spending, cutting useless spending programs, cutting special interest spending programs, and stopping intrusive government in our lives. Don't tell us how to live. Don't try to regulate how we live. Don't force government run healthcare on us. Don't tax our energy use and pretend it will help the environment. Remember state rights. Let us keep more of our own hard earned money, so we can hire more people, spend more, and truly stimulate the economy.

It's time to knock down the locked doors and prevent a true disaster.

Crossposted at The Houston Chronicle