The other night I attended a Republican meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C.
A candidate for Senator was speaking and I wanted to hear what he had to say. His name is Ed Gillespie and he has been a volunteer and elected leader in the Republican party for 30 years.
I won’t bore you with his party platform policies or a description of his well polished demeanor and dress. Let me just assure you he looked and sounded the part.
But he said something that made me question him and the Republican party. He alluded to Obama spending a trillion dollars and having “nothing to show for it”. Really? I’ve heard this from many Republicans trying to refute the usefulness of the “Stimulus”. I have to restrain myself whenever an intelligent, involved, and current politician or media personality puts forth the idea that “Stimulus” failed. It did not!
The Obama administration used the “crisis” to spend an extra trillion + dollars and subsequently locked in this spending increase by including it in the “baseline” for every budget since. He also moved much of the spending from discretionary into mandatory thereby ensuring the new levels of spending would be unassailable. This money was to be used for “shovel-ready” construction and infrastructure jobs and the money was spent but somehow the infrastructure wasn’t really improved and the jobs never materialized.
So where did the money go and what was it used for? In short it was “invested” in pushing progressive socialism throughout America. Yes, we financed our own destruction. The state government unions were saved from required downsizing. Huge sums of money has been funneled into “community” groups to ensure their rabid allegiance and to ensure they had the free time and money to get out the vote and register agreeable voters– legal or not. Each piece of the progressive quilt has been bought using tax payer funds.
And the money used directly by the Federal government is being used to push progressiveness as well. Eric Holder’s actions against States trying to honor immigration law or marriage law or voting law make it clear how our money is used against citizens. Business is over regulated and welfare recipients are freed from having to get job training or education to receive benefits. Social Security has increased Americans receiving disability benefits by over 50% in less than 5 years. Obamacare is now being sold as relieving productive members of society of the need to work, making them less or non-productive– diminishing the lines between America’s middle class, the working poor, and the permanently (multi-generational) poor.
Socialism always creates a two-tier economy with party members on top and everyone else on the bottom– and the bottom keeps getting worse.
“Stimulus” was the progressives using the money and credit created by Capitalism to purchase “astro-turf” support and finance their base to move America toward Socialism. It was not “wasted” as Republicans would state. Republicans still take Democrats as meaning what they say rather than saying what will move their agenda forward. The effects of the “Stimulus” are obvious to anyone who understands what it was actually used for. Obama was re-elected and the Democrat party has an excellent chance of winning the next Presidential election which would move the Supreme Court further/majority left. Gay rights have progressed with out elected Democrats having to take any heat for it. Illegal immigration is accepted and the myriad of benefits they receive from the Democrats will lead them to vote Democrat in the future, and they are a fast growing demographic. Christianity is under attack. Conservatives are under attack from the government as well. The media has been funded via massive Ad Council marketing. Yes some is free, but most is paid for and those advertising dollars weigh on the executives minds. When I listen to WMAL conservative talk in DC I hear an Ad Council every commercial break. If they pull the plug on advertising on the station they would lose 25% of the income immediately.
Nice to see someone exposing these moves for what they really are. Keep up the good work and I’ll keep reading. I’ll be doing what I can to expose the purely racist motivations behind the Progressive movement. They really are some dirty rats
Good points. But truth is a layered thing, a bit like lasagna. The trick is to keep all the layers coordinated, so as you go deeper, you find the same thing. There is just more detail in it.
By that measure I say the average conservative is correct: ALL of obama’s overspending has been wasted. That is, it did nothing to directly further the cause of conservative politics. Looking deeper, I agree with you that the ‘stimulus’ advanced socialism in the US. It will continue to do so. When I look at the whole lasagna, both you and the politician are correct, and are part of the bigger story.
Paradoxically, obama is getting people to push ‘selfless’ socialism by paying them to do it. For example, Nancy Pelosi has expended great efforts to appear to be a ‘selfless’ socialist, and she has become quite rich in the process. If we want to stop socialism we must stop paying people to push socialism.
This is a key way of looking at the whole lasagna. Socialism is fundamentally flawed because all life forms are selfishly devoted to survival. If socialism were truly viable, Obama would not have to spend enormous sums to push it onto people. And Pelosi would give all her money away.
@DemocracyRules:
It seems to me they are pushing irresponsible selfish socialism as in “gimme, gimme, gimme.”
@DemocracyRules: #2
You’re being a conservative, and calling yourself, “DemocracyRules” proves that the propaganda media and school brainwashing is working. In the U. S. Constitution, and the Pledge of Allegiance, the USA is referred to as a REPUBLIC. Whenever the propaganda media see the USA being referred to as a democratic form of government, when it is actually a republican form of government, they are probably congratulating each other on what a good job they did.
One thing we can do to combat liberalism is to call the USA the REPUBLIC that it is, or the different names I have heard it called that had the word REPUBLIC in it. Calling it a republic could get people to ask why you call it that, then you can tell them why.
Everything you said I agree with. I don’t think I had thought about our government actually paying people to bring the USA down, but that is exactly what is going on. Instead of the government paying for it’s CONSTRUCTION, it is pay for it’s DESTRUCTION.
Thank you all for reading and replying.
@Smorgasbord- The wholesale use of Federal spending to support progressives has been the cornerstone of Obama’s administration. It is why they have become so successful. By controlling the money faucet, they have convinced all Democrat pressure groups to stand together to achieve their goals. The black community now fully supports gay marriage. Gays fully support abortion on demand. Jews remain silent about Iran gaining nuclear missiles and Israeli security in general. The money from the Federal government has taken the loosely woven quilt of progressives, gay and women rights advocates, race pimps, unions, environmentalists, etc… and turned them into a tightly woven quilt with each member fully supporting the others regardless of direct effect on them self or even detrimental effect. They have all learned that by supporting each other they will get what they want individually. Gay marriage (and all the perks of group family savings for medical, auto, and life insurance) has been legalized because all the citizens who recognized it was not their best interest before have been bought with the promise that if they support others now, they’ll get theirs soon enough.
The use of Obamacare money to hire community organizers to assist in the signing up of suckers for the program is an obvious use of federal money to reward supporters. These same people were hired for the census, but not paid as well. Other groups paid to recruit include unions, planned parenthood, NAACP, and no-longer-called ACORN spin off groups.
@blowhard: #5
If the liberals are using my money to destroy MY country, I want my money back.
“If we want to stop socialism we must stop paying people to push socialism.”
” I don’t think I had thought about our government actually paying people to bring the USA down, but that is exactly what is going on. Instead of the government paying for it’s CONSTRUCTION, it is pay for it’s DESTRUCTION. ”
I have asked the very question – exactly where has trillions of dollars gone -…I am quite sure plenty of it has gone to ‘prop up’ this utterly stagnant economy…and ‘prop up’ those who are out of work (states need to borrow for UE) and the many safety nets that are at this point needed. And, as you say Dr. John – pay for the destruction of our country funneling money to and through ‘programs’ and ‘groups’ intent on and happy to do just that.
The big question here is exactly to who’s advantage? Everyone even the liberals who worship him should see by now how Barry Obama tosses out ‘used’ people – his ‘useful idiots’ once their ‘usefulness’ is complete and he does this without a care… are they so blind to this? they don’t see this yet??
Why the IRS, and our Government trying to shut down Conservative Groups – and Conservatives period.
The republicans are really stupid caving into the rhetoric of the liberal left for every demand for a new debt ceiling and not demanding ‘something’ in return….and the end result is basically funding the liberals, liberal groups and unions to quicken our demise….
The only people who are really going to come out ahead in this destruction are the elitist…it is NEVER the PEOPLE…
Those in congress and the senate who participated in this demise should LOOSE THEIR JOBS like so many of WE THE PEOPLE…let THEM know the feeling…VOTE THEM OUT!
I see articles mentioning ‘impeachment’ before it is too late…Sadly the Senate is squarely in corner of the one who is the front man, the puppet if you will… and them voting for that by the overly democratic senate is pretty much null and void…unless of course a few can be convinced it is the right thing to do…
@FAITH7: #7
For a long time after the stimulus bill was passed there was still billions of dollars not spent. Some went to overseas banks. Most of the money spent in the USA went to areas that donated heavily to obama’s campaign fund.
This is why I say we now have a one-party system.
@notonmyown: @notonmyown: #9
I suggest reading the book, “How To Win Friends And Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It should be REQUIRED reading in every high school. One thing it emphasizes is that people like to talk about themselves. The ones who LISTEN to them the most are the ones they like to associate with. You seem to like to confront people.
Over the years I have heard of people FINALLY proving that they didn’t do something, but it took a lot of time and effort. The same Internet that people can use to find out about you can be used to find out about others. I don’t know anything about how to find out that info. There is an organization that tries to get people they think have been wrongly convicted out of jail. I don’t remember the name, but they might help you by telling you what to do.
Excellent graph showing Obama’s stimulus in context:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/011013romerbernsteinfinal-600×361.jpg
From here:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/02/the-obama-stimulus-at-5-did-it-work-on-humility-and-high-causal-density/
Really pathetic when you consider the light blue line on the original graph FROM OBAMA.
It shows that with or without the stimulus, had policies not retarded our nation’s work incentive, we would be recovered by now.
In other words, Obama’s policies alone are why we are suffering instead of recovered by now.
@Nanny G: #10
When obama sees charts like this, he tells his court, “Mission accomplished!”