Compare and contrast
If Obama’s first term is a different thing than GW’s third term, why is Obama’s Secretary of Defense telling US troops that that they’re in Iraq because the US was attacked on September 11?
If Obama’s first term is a different thing than GW’s third term, why is Obama’s Secretary of Defense telling US troops that that they’re in Iraq because the US was attacked on September 11?
Look who is making the money.
Eisenhower warned of this: “unwarranted influence”. The “sold” wars of choice are marketing, the people giving up the benefits of tecfhnology and growth for a few to make a lot of money.
How else do they keep the excess profits going to the war trough?
The little wars against terrists fill TV with drama and excitement, all propaganda. Profit!
Lots of money being made by very few, and it is going to keep going.
Both parties are bought and paid by the war PAC’s.
Keep this waste off the table of budget cuts, while Obomber can talk about raising medicare age!!!!
Stop the war proft machine.
Why? Why is the current SecDef, who just days before left his last job as Dir CIA saying something similar to what senior official as of the Bush administration? Could it be someone at the core of the intel community and privy to so much more information than the nay saying story tellers, might not quite stay on the party line. Nah. that’s not possible. Story telling always has a kernel of truth. Wait, doesn’t that mean Panetta…. Or doesn’t it mean that strategies are proving to be ….
Sigh.
Where is the parable?
I recommend the Golden Bough; a reveiw of magic, myth and religion from primitives through late 19th century.
If you keep doing the same old stuff over and over expecting results it is insanity.
Mass insanity seems to be a trait of human organization since the savages.
Bush, Obama, Gates, Panetta, etc……………..
The rainmakers, only very few benefit from the “rain” they get for the wasted money.
sigh!
Co Rev,
Don’t try and make sense of this post. It doesn’t make any. But it is the left trying to disassociate their policies from Obama. They recognize a sinking ship when they see it.
Sammy thanks. While I’m thanking folks, we really, really need to thank Dems for the 2008 elections. Their policy proposals have been implemented in part and total, and the quality of them is now known.
Wow, how could they have been so wrong?
CoRev,
Taxes back to Clinton levels, check.
Leave SS alone, check
Pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, check.
No further military adventures without Congessional declarations of war, check.
No more spying on Americans, check.
Accountability for past and present law-breaking, check.
Yeah, there’s no question, every policy Dems were expecting have come to pass. Things would be extremely different if the President was merely doing exactly what GW did before, right?
the total cost of the trade center bombing to al-Qaeda was 12 boxcutters (their airline tickets were charged & never paid for) and we’ve been borrowing to pay for it from the first day we started slamming million dollar tomahawk missles into mountains in afghanistan…its now estimated to be approaching $6 trillion, ballooning our debt & leading congress to call for evisceration of most domestic spending and the social safety net…
worse theyve warned that could happen would be militant islamists taking over iraq or iran gaining a puppet state…we heard the same thing during vietnam…it was called domino theory back then…if nam goes commie, so would all of indochina…
rdan,
This is just another in a long series of statements by Senior Obama staff acknowledging the victory in Iraq and Obama consolidating our victory. Even Gen Petreous has become a key member of Obama’s Democratic Team after serving so well in Iraq and Afghanistan. The fact that from the perspective of Iraq and Afghanistan Obama has continued or escalated Bush’s policies can’t be ignored. They just try not to talk about it so as not to get the wacky left mad. (its obvious the anti-war left was never anti-war, just anti-Bush). Pametta just got off-message by accident.
Now that a Dem is President wars are OK, even making new wars without congressional authorization like in Libya are fine with the left. At least Bush went to congress to get a vote – and won with overwelming bi-partisan support. And he got unswerving bi-partisan congressional support for his actions in Iraq and Afghanistan through his entire Presidency – even after Jan 2007 when the House and Senate became controlled by the Dems and they could have ended the wars. Instead Pelosi and Reid overwlemingly supported Bush’s war policies. One vote was even 93-2 in the Senate. Better than anything Obama got passed….heck Obama can’t even get his own party to vote for Obama’s budget!
BTW, has Obama met with Sheehan yet?
Islam will change
Co Rev,
Their policy proposals have been implemented in part and total, and the quality of them is now known.
Wow, how could they have been so wrong?
No, no, no. Obama is Bush III. He didn’t do liberalism right. Got it?
buff,
Define victory…………………………
93-2, the vote was to keep their bagmen flush with kick backs.
Mike, you’re one of the few economists that think raising taxes in a recession has merit.
SS is being attacked from both sides. SS and medicare are programs that long over due to shift from defined bnefit to defined contribution program. How many other countries need to default before you realize we are on the same path?
Pulling out, but isn’t that what we are doing? Leaving a small force for stability is normal process. Negotiations now underway in Iraq and soon to be in Afghanistan.
Every president defies Congress and the War Powers Act. Some follow minimalist conformance (Bush) and some are far more imperial ( you guess.)
This administration is far more active with internal spying than the past.
Watch that ole law-breaking demand. It goes both ways, and there are many discussions on blogs like this (left leaning that is) on how the Prez should just ignore (fill in your favorite here.)
Don’t make me list the failed policies. Many here will not be happy. If we take just one, stimu….
Go ahead, list the failed policies. But stick to the ones that aren’t extensions of GW’s policies, or that GW would never have considered. E.g., if it was proposed by the Heritage Foundation and previously implemented by a Republican governor on the state level, it would have been more likely to have been implemented by a Republican President than a Democrat, which seems to be the point of this post.
Oh, sorry. I got it! 🙂
1. Obamacare!
2. Major portions of ARRA
3. NLRB ruling against Boeing. If done on a republican watch it would have been reversed by executive order, while Congress corrected.
4. Libya.
5. Gun Walker.
6. Closing Guantanamo.
7. Bringing the latest Jihadi to the US for civilian trial.
8. The FICA holiday.
9. EPA expansion into non-polluting CO2.
10. Interior rulings on drilling.
11. Expanded restrictions on new drilling/mining/forestry.
12. DADT.
13. Abortion/stem cell support.
14. NLRB rulings to speed union elections (administrative implementation of card check.)
15. Israel policy confusion. What is Obama’s policy toward Israel?
16. Attacks on nearly every segment of the business community.
17. Expanded funding for “Green Energy/Jobs”. Like the stimulus a business segment that will collapse after subsidies are removed.
18. That’s just a start.
CoRev,
Don’t forget not defending DOMA. (I think gays should be allowed to marry, but not having the justice department defend a federal law starts a very bad precedant).
Cactus – Obama is a DEMOCRAT. And Pelosi and Reid are also and they are the ones running the show now. Its Obama’s war(s). Its Obama’s tax cuts. etc etc.
The idea you can just duck all this by saying Obama is no true Scotsman is ludicrous. He’s a Democrat tried and true and you guys get him lock, stock, and barrel.
Islam will change
ilsm,
I will ask why you didn’t think we won? How do you define defeat?
BTW – How’s the anti-corruption campaign going? Has it kicked off yet?
Islam will change
1. Obamacare = Romneycare = Proposal by Heritage Foundation. Put another way, its a Republican approach, not a Democrat’s approach. That’s the point of this post.
2. ARRA. You mean, the pieces that weren’t tax cuts.
3. This one is definitely not a GW action. I’ll give you this one.
4. Libya? You mean going into another country that isn’t a threat to the US without a declaration of war? Not like Iraq or anything.
5. Gun Walker? Seriously? Unless you can point to efforts by the previous administration to keep guns from crossing into Mexico, I’m not seeing a difference.
6. Closing Guantanamo. Yeah, and GW said he’d pay down the debt. But seriously, moving folks from one secret prison to another is not a change.
7. Like John Walker Lindh?
8. Any excuse for a tax cut doesn’t sound like GW at all.
9. OK. Here’s one.
10. Maybe
11. This is pretty minor.
12. I’ll grant this.
13. Support means what exactly? Again, GW supported paying down debt.
14. Very small given where unions are today.
15. What was GW’s?
16. Oh? Be specific.
17. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9886334-54.html
18. Most of that is nothing. You’ve got a few mostly minor items on your list. On the big ticket items, he’s been just like GW.
The transition from the Bush to the Obama administration has been seamless. One is indistinguishable from the other. Obama is a Dem in label only. His administration is that of a moderate Republican. In a severe deificit situation one expects to cut waste and raise revenue. Obama is not even close.
How is it that Social Security benefits are even a part of the discussion. Social Security has a dedicated funding stream in the form of FICA deductions from our pay checks. That money is not available to the general budget fund other than the excess after benefit payments in a given year. Payment of Trust Fund interest and principal has no less stature than payment of interest due on all other Treasury notes. Including Social Security in the discussion is outside of the current legally defined boundaries.
Jack,
How is it that Social Security benefits are even a part of the discussion…..
It’s not like nobody tried to explain this to you before.
Mike all you have provided is opinion. Your opinion trumps…???? BTW, Romney is not Bush and was not president.
You think making energy more readily available and cheaper is minor? That’s like thinking a president drives the economy. All we can confirm with that is they can seriously reduce recoveries by extending them with poor policies.
We have new example of how NOT to write stimulus bills.
I realize Obama is a huge disappointment, but backing away from what he has failed to accomplish, especially if you are a liberal, is too obvious. Embrace him! He’s yours.
Jack said: “Including Social Security in the discussion is outside of the current legally defined boundaries.” Politics is a bitch, especially when those messing with the, how did you define it, Oh yes, “outside of the current legally defined boundaries.” They are the definers of legal boundaries.
They allowed borrowing using the SSTF in 96. If they wish they can do almost anything they want with it and pay the political consequences. But, my bet is they can make a solid case that it is no longer needed if they fix SS long term. And they can use the “robbing from the SSTF” argument to use it.
Mike, you said: “Accountability for past and present law-breaking, check.“
and this:
“Gun Walker? Seriously? Unless you can point to efforts by the previous administration to keep guns from crossing into Mexico, I’m not seeing a difference. “
Now we have this interesting story:
Smoking Gun: Email Shows ATF Intent to Use Gunwalker Guns to Push Gun Control
The question is this grounds for a RICO case against ATF (and perhaps other agency) officials. The first stories also explained that the Gun Walker Plan was to create enough “walked” guns to foster gun control.
BTW, we need to add gun control to the list. With Buff’s and my larest are we no up to 20?
buff,
I concede the strategic outcome of bankrupting the US is being achieved. But that was al Qaeda and bin Laden’s goal (Bush and the MICC took it too far) and the anti New Deal crowd, nothing won for the lower 95% of the US citizenry. The US is still there, and the Iranians run Iraq. While it is too early to see if the Pakistani intel agency is running Afghanistan with the drug money. Bro Karzai had to go.
US forces are still there is a massive defeat for any operational or tactical outcome. Enough of rehashed COIN winning the hearts and minds, that is so 60’s.
BTW: See what they are talking about DoD FWA in the senate/house.
Trout fishing on hold for the hot weather to pass.
TEST
UN PRESIDENT TIM KALEMKARIAN, US PRESIDENT TIM KALEMKARIAN, US SENATE TIM KALEMKARIAN, US HOUSE TIM KALEMKARIAN: BEST MAJOR CANDIDATE.
What the both of you are suggesting is just that, suggestion only. Politicians are well known for talking trash and all the talk about Social Security is just that, trash talking. There is no current legal basis for spending FICA revenues on anything other than SS benefits and that too is true of the assets of the Trust Fund. It would require a significant revision of the Social Security Act to change how FICA revenues are spent. The Congress can’t even pass a budget bill or agree on anything else these days. I’d be almost amused at the debate over such changes to the Social Security Act. This has little to do with party politics. Obama has been no more honest in this regard than have the Republicans. Unfortunately there seems to be nothing but trash candidates awaiting an opportunity to replace O.
Pelosi is “running the show now”?
Dan,
It’s like this, see,
when Bush I invaded Iraq it was because the vision thing enabled him to see 9-11 coming
Jack,
I’d be almost amused at the debate over such changes to the Social Security Act.
That’s why the debate is going on behind closed doors. Entitlement reform, including Social Security and Medicare, is essential to getting the deficit down, but no one wants to get the blame.
“Could it be someone at the core of the intel community and privy to so much more information than the nay saying story tellers, might not quite stay on the party line.”
LOL! CoRev finds the 9/11 pony in Iraq!
The reason there is no evidence for a connection between 9/11 and Iraq, CoRev, is because there is no connection. Not because our CIA overlords know of a connection and have hidden it from the proles. There just is no connection.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, CoRev.
Joel, shows how easy it is to stay on the story line. So, what’s your answer to why he strayed?
Joel, careful of those cigar analogies. Cigar has its own political history. 😉
I prefer a Chuchill on occasion.
“So, what’s your answer to why he strayed?”
Who knows? Who cares? No reason to invent new facts, CoRev. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Let it go already.
“Joel, careful of those cigar analogies. Cigar has its own political history.”
Ah, CoRev. Always looking for a partisan angle.
A woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.
Not only is Obama an extension of GW Bush he has unfortunately extended the worst of GWB – the illegal torture, insanely expensive wars of empire etc. When he was elected I tried to calm freaked out conservatives I worked with by observing that he was likely to govern as an Eisenhower Republican based on his earlier legislative history. Now I only wish he had Ike’s common sense and skepticism of the MIC.
Mike,
You’ve been walking away from the DEMOCRATIC Pres. Obama has fast as you can. The first time was over a year ago when you posted the Pres vs GDP growth and didn’t color Obama in with the rest of the Dems. Well, in case you missed it, Obama is a DEM. He’s got support from Pelosi and Reid, the Dem leaders in Congress. Obama is the leader of the Democrat party.
All those policies listed by CoRev are OBMAMA’s policy’s supported by the Dem party which he’s a leader.
Come to grips with the reality of your Dem party and your Dem leaders!
Oh, and add the Obama Tax cuts as of Nov 2010. Bush is gone and keeping out of the spotlight. Its all the Dems now.
Live with it, embrace it. Becuase this is the Hope and Change you voted for!!!
Islam will change
ilsm,
In case you failed to notice. We are still in Germany, Japan, Korea, etc long after we won those wars. So the fact that we are still there points to victory not defeat. You guys really have a problem understanding we won don’t you?
As for BKing the US. Talk to the Dems who are running up the $1.4 Trillion per year deficits. Makes Bush look positively spendthrift in comparison.
Islam will change
Joel asks: ““So, what’s your answer to why he strayed?”
Who knows? Who cares?” You and Dan for two!
Jack,
You have missed the obvious way around this that I pointed out a long time ago. Even coberly understood it. Its rather simple.
The adjust the FICA tax, say the 40 cents/week that coberly has mentioned, so the tax covers the SS outflow. Thus the FICA Tax = SS Checks + admin. Then the SS Trust Fund just sits there, on the books collecting interest, but never gets one dollar from the general fund. This allows Congress to skim off the excess FICA revenues without ever actually redeeming the SS Trust Fund. Its neat, simple and well within the law.
And the best part, everyone gets to say they ‘saved’ SS.
As coberly and Bruce have repeatedly pointed out the SS Trust fund is just a giant IOU (in the form of T-Bills) from the General fund to SS. I see no interest in Congress to ever send 1 dime from the general fund to SS. This is how I read the tea leaves, but your crystal ball may be better.
Islam will change
AS, go back up to my and Buff’s earlier comments explaining how Obama is a long way from Bush. Walking away from Obama is also walking away from your preferred policies, isn’t it? From that list, with which do you not agree?
AS,
I’ll beleive your serious when I see the anti war left protesting in the mall against Obama. Short of obama using nukes on Pakistani villages I doubt I will ever see the left doing anything that might hurt Obama’s re-election chances and you guys will vote for him.
He’s your Democrat. You got him there – I caucused for Hillery. So you get to follow ‘the one’. This is today’s Democrat party and you lefties won’t/can’t do anything about it.
Islam will change
Buff, and I add the next obvious thought. Why let it sit there and collect interest, an accounting artifact at that point, growing to infinity. Let’s go ahead and use it as borrowing head space, until it reaches some minimalist value, ~$60B for use to cover short term variances in FICA revenues.
it still is used to pay the SS checks. It continues to level theSS revenue flows. It will be used for some logical purpose, while allowing the budget deficits to be controlled.
For the “save SS at any cost crowd” it is threatening, but it implements what they repeatedly recommend, and removes a large debt dead albatross from around our necks.
For those who think it is a major legislative change, think back to the FICA holiday. Notice any legislative tidal waves? Thought not! It’s what they do every day, and have that huge staff to perform.
“Joel asks: ““So, what’s your answer to why he strayed?””
Wrong, CoRev. You were the one who asked. I just quoted you. Do try to pay attention.
“You and Dan for two!”
Ah, CoRev. Projecting again, I see.
Please point out where I said I cared what Panetta said.
CoRev, this is just more of your trolling. It’s why you have zero credibility
“Entitlement reform, including Social Security and Medicare, is essential to getting the deficit down, but no one wants to get the blame.”
Uh, no. Social Security has nothing whatsoever to do with the deficit.
Buff
Except that the reality of the situation is that the Congress and Obama agreed to cut SS revenue recently in spite of the FICA deductions being below benefits. Also, your suggestion begs the question, How then is Social Security a part of the deficit problem? Furthermore, if the Trust Fund only continues to grow as a result of interest earned and FICA being equal to benefits + administration the budget will be burdened by an ever increasing interest debt to the Fund. In effect your “solution” makes little sense in real terms, and is little more than more of the same misunderstanding of the relationship between the Social Security aystem and the general budget.
Are you saying the ‘object of WW II’ and one of the criteria was we get to bankrupt our grandkids holding the places forever, and that is winning?
Why are “we” still in Germany, Japan, Korea, etc?
Not much to do with winning WW II.
But you explain.
I think “we” just want an empire, given there are no Red Army tanks in Bohemia.
What I have been saying for years:
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2011/07/cuts-in-military-spending-to-reduce-the-deficit.html
Jack,
As coberly and Bruce will tell you, SS is NOT part of the deficit problem as long as the general fund does not have to redeem the SS special treasuries. My plan avoids the general fund ever having to actually wrtie a check to SS. Ever. The accounting of the SS Trust Fund is just noise on the books. There is no actual money going from the general fund to the SS Trust Fund (and then to the SS checks going out). Congress never repays the debt – just leaves it on the books. Your idea that the general funds PAYS SS is incorrect. Until they actually cut checks there is no burden.
CoRev just takes it one step further and gets rid of the fiction that the general fund will ever repay the SS Treasuries.
You really need to go back into the AB archives to understand how SS works.
As for the 2% holiday. Yep it was a mistake and that will increase the debt as money flows from the general fund to the SS by redemption of the special treasuries. I thought it was a misguided attempt at stimulous. Might has well sent out checks direct from the general fund, now Obama must ‘raise taxes’ to get that 2% back.
Islam will change
Buff,
It all stems from the fact that they protested the war that they actually believed we should have been fighting……there is no other explaination. It was all about politics not principle.
Now that they have exactly who they wanted in power, and they are finally starting to realize how horrible Democratic policies are, they want to claim that Obama is “Republican Light”
It’s Pathetic!
Joel,
“no evidence for a connection between 9/11 and Iraq”
You cannot fight a War in the Middle East from Afghanistan. The most logical strategic move was to remove Saddam. Just because they “Lied,” while our enemies listened doesn’t mean anything. Most of us in the Military understood perfectly well why it had to be done this way.
If we didn’t go to Iraq, we would have ended up in either Iran or Northern Africa. So your whole point that your government lied to you….Well So What? The United States has been lieing to it’s population during times of war since it’s inception…there are reasons for it….learn to except it.
“The United States has been lieing [sic] to it’s [sic] population during times of war since it’s [sic]inception…there are reasons for it….learn to except [sic] it.”
Darren, my statement stands. Moreover, I consider it immoral to accept being lied into a war. There was no “reason” for the US to undertake a military invasion and occupation of Iraq. Ultimately, it was destabilizing, and created a power opportunity for Iran that we will be paying for for years. It was a terrible mistake.
Oh, and if you want to be treated seriously, try writing like an adult.
Joel,
“Ultimately, it was destabilizing, and created a power opportunity for Iran that we will be paying for for years. It was a terrible mistake.”
What just because you and MSNBC say so?
“Your idea that the general funds PAYS SS is incorrect. Until they actually cut checks there is no burden.” Buff misquoting Jack
As noted I never said that. The general fund only owes the amount represented by the Special Treasury notes and the interest which accrues on that debt. It is paid only by issuing yet more debt there by exacerbating the deficit issue. However, the use by the Treasury Dept of excess FICA as it was available is what created the Fund, and done so in accordance with the Social Security Act, especially as revised c. 1984. That’s the money intended to buttress the benefits paid to the so called “baby boomers” at a point in time (now would be that time) when FICA contributions would be out paced by benefits. I believe that that time is now upon us and benefits currently are greater than FICA requiring the Treasury Dept to make use of the Special Treasury notes to supplement FICA deductions in order to meet benefits due.
That burden on the Treasury, if burden is the word you choose to use, is of its own making. The benefits being supplemented are “entitlements” only because they were already subscribed by the beneficiaries during the past thirty years of their work lives. This is not a hand out as some would have it believed. The benefits have the same character as an insurance annuity for those who have lived long enough to become beneficiaries. Yes, the claimants are entitled to their benefits and the Fund which assures those benefits is a debt holder to the Treasury with equal claim to any bank, retirement fund, foreign country or individual citizen. If the Special Treasuries can be voided so too can any other Treasury note. That’s the default option that has everyone in DC so up in arms. Pay me now or pay me later, but pay me you must for the debt has legal and equal standing to all other debts of the US Government.
“
What just because you and MSNBC say so?”
Ah, little Darren. Even your favorite propaganda machine concedes that the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq has created a power opportunity for Iran:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104504,00.html
But you can also read about it here:
http://www.suite101.com/content/despite-us-presence-iran-controls-iraq-a328946
There’s lots more out there, Darren. Google is your friend. Break out of your GOP information bubble and join the rest of us in the real world!
You site FoxNews as a source on Geopolitics and Military Affairs just because they appear to support your position? WOW!