The Website home of Karl Bullock

June 13, 2011

If you have any economic sense at all, by now it is abundantly clear that current economic policies have not only failed, but have failed spectacularly. As those in charge talk about a "comeback", one has to ask the question "Comeback to what?".

Make no mistake - this all started in the waning year of the Bush administration when those who are laughingly called "moderates" decided the solution to the collapse of the government-sponsored housing crisis was to, get this, put the government in charge. The so-called "TARP", or the bail-out of FOGs (Friends of Government), a massive transfer of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to those who were complicit in the crisis, was the idea that was supposed to save the economy. That was on Bush's watch. Then along comes the Marxists where they took more of those tax dollars working Americans had been forced to turn over to the government, and redistributed them to people and companies they, the Marxists, liked. The result? $14 trillion in debt, 9+% unemployment, and a failing dollar (though if you bought a lot of gold, you probably like these guys right about now). The solution now from the Marxists? "Well, we just need to spend more to stimulated the economy". Are we stoned, or just stupid?

I was in Oxford the day the Presidential debate was canceled so McCain could return to Washington to "handle the crisis". Thanks, John. From the get-go, I knew the TARP was a dumb idea. Republicans and Democrats alike were bullied into a really stupid deal by people who claimed there was no other way out, when in fact, there was another way out: Let these businesses go into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, also know as re-organization; change the government's stance on forcing banks to make risky loans; enforce existing regulations rather than looking the other way (e.g. the Madoff scandal that shouldn't have been); and finally stimulate the economy with a tax holiday - a proposal which would have massively stimulated the economy immediately at all levels, and certainly wouldn't have cost what the TARP the the Stimuli did. This is what I and others were saying in 2008, but we were in "crisis" mode, and the weak-kneed in charge were also weak-minded. And all this before Anthony Weiner...

Common sense ain't so common any more!

Now we face a decision. Are we going to continue to enable the addiction to spending and throw common sense under the bus, or are we going to conjure up some intestinal fortitude and stop this madness?

Common sense stuff:

Congress should absolutely refuse to raise the debt limit under any circumstances. The Administration should be forced to get out the budget hatchet and get serious about spending.

This talk of another stimulus should cease, and a serious program of stimulating the economy the correct way by freeing up the private sector should immediately begin.

The States should get together and force the Federal government to forget all this mandate stuff that is outside the Constitution, even if it means convening a convention to force the issue.

A serious energy policy should replace this "Gee, I hope Buck Rogers shows up" stuff, and leverage the resources right under our own feet.

Finally, you and I - the people who actually are supposed to run this government - should fire these folks, and find some people with common sense to clean this mess up.

Do you understand now why I call my email newsletter "CommonSense"? Each of these proposals is simple, but they're all hard - exactly the formula Reagan told us would work, and I can defend each of them as eminently sensible. NO ONE can defend the current policies as making any sense.

Look, we outnumber them. Why don't we act like it???