Random Bit of Politics

The Scope of Obama's Spending Defies Words:

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Republicans are facing that obstacle as they try to explain the dimensions of Obama’s spending plan. The GOP pollster told me he tries to explain it by asking people to think of a dollar as a second — one dollar, one brief tick of your watch. A million seconds, the pollster explained, equals eleven days. A billion seconds equals 31 years. And a trillion seconds equals 310 centuries.

The task of educating voters got a little more urgent Monday, when the government announced the not-terribly-surprising news that federal tax revenues will be smaller this year than previously thought. After a review of the Obama budget’s numbers before formal submission to Congress, Budget Director Peter Orszag said this year’s deficit will be $1.841 trillion — $89 billion more than previously estimated. If you’re listening to the ticks of your watch, that’s about 570 centuries.

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He says he still wants to spend more on health care, in fact, he's quoted later in the article: "I’ve said repeatedly that getting health care costs under control is essential to reducing budget deficits, restoring fiscal discipline, and putting our economy on a path towards sustainable growth and shared prosperity.” I'd like to know how ANY of his plans are fiscally responsible?? It's lunacy to go into that much debt! And it just doesn't matter what it is that you think you are buying! Debt is not our friend!


Here's an interesting photo essay about how we treat our flag. I knew that Americans don't, in general, take care of the flag the way we ought to. It was really apparent at Niagara Falls last summer, when the Canadian side's American Flags looked better than the American side's. I was shamed to discover that it was the same thing in Michigan, after we drove across Canada before coming home to the US. But I had no idea how much of America's use of the flag is flat out illegal.



The Headmistress is still kindly monitoring the FLDS situation in Texas. Or, rather, what she is monitoring is the outrageous actions taken by the Texas state government against the FLDS. I've worked with kids who were removed by CPS. Those kids were removed for compelling, heartrending reasons. My aunt, who is a good woman, works with CPS in Utah. I know there is a place for CPS, a need to protect children from those who hurt them. But reading the Headmistress over the past several years has opened my eyes to all sorts of problems with the way it's being done there in Texas, and it makes me worry about the sorts of powers that are given to CPS and the sorts of people that sometimes get that power, get the bit in their teeth, and get out of control. The Headmistress wrote about the problems CPS has with the Constitution a while ago. Here's another of her criticisms of CPS: they practice legalized kidnapping. She also takes aim at the practice of accepting anonymous tips from the public as the basis of CPS actions. Makes some good points. Mind you, while this is a blog, she's citing her sources all the way through, and they're either regular media outlets or official documents released to the public or other similarly reputable sources. The Headmistress isn't just making this up. And it's chilling stuff.