Peter Schiff, who is running in the Republican primary for US Senate in Connecticut, just put out a good editorial on the Democrat’s next planned stimulus package “jobs bill.”
Schiff points out the noted “crowd out effect” that you may have learned about if you’ve taken a macroecon course.
Basically, there is only a limited amount of money that people in an economy are putting out to lend (just like there are only so many houses or cars on sale). The more the government runs a deficit, and has to borrow, the less lendable money there is to go around for everyone else.
A few short comments on the SOTUA from last night:
When Obama says “the best anti-poverty measure is a world class education,” he knows that the Democrats are the party of NO. They say no to school vouchers, which would offer an opportunity for the children of the “rural areas to the inner cities” to pursue that education which has been denied them by failing public schools. They say NO to merit pay to reward good teachers and punish the bad ones.
We are going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes…
All to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?
I remember a while back when Bush was snubbed a few handshakes from foreign dignitaries and it was a big deal. This video is awkward turtle times a thousand–I ascribe to “politics ends overseas,” so it makes me feel kind of annoyed that the US President was treated like this.
I see SNL has finally rolled up its sleeves and has taken a serious jab at Obama. “I am noticing that each of your plans to save money involves spending even more money…”
The video is from earlier this year, but it is still significant. As a sidenote, I find it ironic that Arlen Specter claimed to have switched sides because the Republican Party had grown far “too conservative” under Bush, and yet it was President Bush in 2004 who literally saved Specter from losing his senate seat to a far more conservative challenger in the primary.
If conservatism means enthusiasm for war, using the federal government to oppose gay marriage and flag burning, and increasing state and individual interference by the federal government… then yeah, we’ve probably been too conservative.
However, if conservatism means advocating limited government, defending the Constitution and the restraints it puts on government, supporting freedom, protecting individual rights, and keeping America’s defense strong but unencumbered–then I’d say it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start acting like true conservatives again.
As Barry Goldwater put it in The Conscience of a Conservative:
The conscience of the Conservative is pricked by anyone who would debase the dignity of the individual human being. Today, therefore, he is at odds with dictators who rule by terror, and equally with those gentler collectivists who ask our permission to play God with the human race.
With this view of the nature of man, it is understandable that the conservative looks upon politics as the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order… the Conservative’s first concern will always be: Are we maximizing freedom?
Gun control advocates like the people from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence have distorted the facts (and logic in general) of the Fort Hood shooting in order to make political hay for their arguments.
Quote the Brady Campaign:
This latest tragedy, at a heavily fortified army base, ought to convince more Americans to reject the argument that the solution to gun violence is to arm more people with more guns in more places.
Problem number one – they imply that the soldiers on this “heavily fortified” base were armed to the teeth. In truth, the soldiers at Ft. Hood were not allowed to carry weapons. All of the victims were unarmed when Hasan began his shooting rampage.
Second problem – the people who subdued Hasan happened to be the first two armed people at the scene, officers Munley and Todd. Hasan was only stopped when weapons were used against him.
Pfc. Marquest Smith, who was at the scene, took cover under a desk and “[laid] low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.”
Speaking of CPAC, conservative comedian P.J. O’Rourke gave a great speech at the convention back in 1995, I believe. This one is a gem and I hope we can see a speech half as good in February.
Replace “Clinton” with “Obama” and you have a great commentary on today’s outlook!
The SHU College Republicans is a student run group for conservative minded students and the opinions and views expressed in these commentaries are solely those of the individual authors and are not the views of Seton Hall University College Republicans, its advisor, nor the organization’s Executive Committee as a whole. Likewise, the opinions and views expressed in these commentaries are not the views of any part of Seton Hall University, its administration, or the University Community as a whole, and should never be read or understood as such.
Peter Schiff, who is running in the Republican primary for US Senate in Connecticut, just put out a good editorial on the Democrat’s next planned stimulus package “jobs bill.”
Gun control advocates like the people from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence have