Here we go. This post (and mainly the comments) are for one purpose — to attempt a discussion with Adam. Yes, Adam, you get your own personal post here (hope you don’t mind, Big Dog). I’m going to try not to tint the discussion by loading this post in any way. I am honestly curious to see how it goes.

The topic is the massive expense about to be undertaken by the US government for Obama’s trip to Bombay (I know it’s Mumbai now, but Bombay sounds neater to me). Honestly, this isn’t a real big deal to me, because I think the government spends way too much every day, anyway. But that might make things a little simpler and keep emotions out. I think the government is spending way too much — as much as $200 million a day. Adam?

Okay, so the “biggest election in your lifetime” is over (once again). I know, it was massive, it was huge, blah, blah, blah. Now it’s back to business as usual. No, really. Did you really think this was going to change anything?

Will this change health care? Nope. The Democrats still control the Senate. It is Obama’s signature legislation. He will veto any attempts to remove it, and that’s a done deal. Sure, Judges can still rule on it, but the election didn’t change that.

Do you think spending will change? Not likely. After all, we’re spending $200 million a day so the president can go on vacation. House Republicans, where spending is supposed to start, will have a choice: stand on principle, reduce spending massively, and have the Senate disagree. If the House Republicans stand firm, the government will shut down. I believe they won’t allow that to happen. Instead, the House Republicans will whine and complain, but in the end they will take their second option: pass a spending bill that increases spending across the board, “to keep government running.” Then they will claim they need you to vote for them in 2014 so they can do better. Net result? More spending. Lots more.

Do you think the economy will change? HA! Keep in mind, right now the government actually believes prices are too low. No, I’m serious. The fed is about to buy bonds. This is at the same time the treasury is borrowing more money. And the only reason you buy bonds is to increase inflation. I’m completely serious. The fed WANTS TO INCREASE PRICES. Only one guy in the Senate seems to get it. Prices are increasing massively. We are in a downward spiral, artificially supported by massive, record government spending. It will get worse before it gets better.

So, what signs would there be that I’m completely wrong?

Watch how the Republicans in the Senate treat people like Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski. Rand Paul ran as an outsider. If he is turned and starts supporting earmarks and like, there will be more of the same. Lisa Murkowski won on an independent ticket without the support of Republicans in her state. A principled Republican Party would let her start over, and let her ask for things. A Republican Party that’s doing business as usual will let her retain all her power and seniority.

Watch the House — this is supposedly a great “mandate for change.” But who will be running the house? Boehner? He’s been there 20 years. If he’s in charge, how will anything change? Sure, he says he’s for “smaller government,” but we’ll see, won’t we? A true, radical change, would be to elect one of these new people as House Speaker. Now THAT would be historic.

Watch North Carolina, and especially Wisconsin. North Carolina has a Republican legislature for the first time since the 1800s, even if it’s with a far-left governor. Wisconsin went from Democrat control to Republican legislature and governor. If there is actual change, these states will just completely slash spending by over 50%. They will throw out massive amounts of regulation. I mean radical actions that will bring out the press in record numbers (with criticism). If it’s business as usual, watch for tiny amounts of spending cuts (which will be portrayed as killing children).

Now I do hope I’m wrong. But I’m guessing I’m not. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb now and make some predictions for 2014 (yes, already, why not?).

The economy will continue to suck. Government spending will increase, the debt will increase, the dollar will continue to fall making things more expensive. Government will deny that things are more expensive and will trumpet that the recovery is awesome. More people will be on food stamps and government will spend more. This will be reported as success. The Bush tax cuts will expire, giving the government even more money to spend.

There will be a showdown in the House and Republicans will blink. The campaign in 2014 will be:
Republicans: Oh, we were so close. We almost did it this time. Send us back with a Republican president and we’ll really do good THIS time.
Democrats: Wow, that was too close! Those Republicans almost killed all the old people and children. And look how bad the economy is now with Republicans in power! You really need us Democrats back now.

Obama will run again. He will get 102% of the black vote and 105% of the Democrat vote. Republicans will again pick some moderate wishy-washy guy (like McCain or Romney). A third-party will make a strong showing (Paul, Keyes, someone else?) so that Obama wins again. The press will evoke enough fear and enough people will have so little money, Democrats will show up to vote in droves. People will be told that if you don’t vote Obama again, you’re racist and slavery will be back in place the day after the election. Republicans and Tea Party people won’t show up in large numbers because they’re annoyed that 2012 elections gave them zero results. All 3 branches go back Democrat. Obama, in his last term, with the help of House Democrats will run the country into the ground and by 2016 the US dollar will be worthless and the government will declare bankruptcy for protection from Chinese-owned debt. Most people won’t notice, because they’re trying to make sure little Johnny isn’t late for soccer practice.

I hope I’m shown completely wrong.

But enough with the realism, how about a nice, rosy picture? Here’s what I’d love to see happen:

House Republicans grow a spine. On the first day in office, they make the so-called “Bush” tax cuts permanent. Next, they pass a rule that says that if the government “shuts down,” all spending levels continue at 50% of their current levels and there is no funding for Congress. They write a budget that actually reduces spending massively — not just reductions in increases. In the meantime, they start getting rid of moronic government regulations, starting by tossing out the EPA, the dept of Education, ATF, and the dept of Energy. They stand on the budget and refuse to give in when the Senate refuses to pass it. Obama, the Senate, and the media all start screaming about how evil the House Republicans are — and the House adjourns and they go home, leaving government running at half-speed.

Obama issues executive orders to spend money, but no one listens to him. Government workers, who now have only half-jobs, actually start looking for training and start trying to get jobs where they have to be productive. Due to the government reductions and reductions in regulations, businesses can actually start producing again and can hire the former government workers as burger flippers, as the former burger flippers, now that they have shown they can work, move up.

In 2014, Obama doesn’t run for re-election. He claims it’s because of his health or something, people don’t really notice or care. Ron Paul somehow secures the Republican nomination for president. Hillary runs on the Democrat ticket, but only wins NY, VT, FL, CA, WA, and OR. Republicans win the House (losing a few seats) and get 50 seats in the Senate. Paul then sets about setting up a government based on the US Constitution.

Hey, I can dream of a better world, right?

In February of this year, during a speech. Barack Obama admonished companies by exclaiming:

“You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.”

This was a direct stab at the companies that had taken, or in many cases forced to take, bailout money. He wanted to make it clear that as long as the taxpayer was footing the bill there would be no trips to these kinds of places no matter what the reason.

Of course this idea did not stop Obama from attending a fundraiser for Harry Reid in, you guessed it, Las Vegas. And he did it on the taxpayer dime.

It would appear as if it is OK to take these kinds of trips if you are the government because now we have word that the Social Security Administration sent at least 675 employees to Phoenix Arizona for a conference at the Valley resort. The cost of the trip was $700,000. This is 700 thousand dollars spent by an organization that has been raped of all its money by the federal government and will be in the red by 2016. They spent close to three quarters of a million dollars on a conference with classes such as “Techniques to Empower You,” “Mentoring the Generations,” and “Emotional Intelligence.”

The article also states that the SSA did not mention the after hours activities though I am not sure any of them cost the taxpayer because I would assume they were not paid for with taxpayer money (though it would not surprise me if taxpayer money was used).

Considering how terrible Social Security is and how it only allows people to live at poverty level while it plummets toward insolvency, one has to wonder who thought this would be a good idea.

Social Security is a boondoggle to begin with and should be gradually moved over to the private sector where the money people pay in belongs to them and they can decide how to invest it. This would generate more wealth and allow people to retire in comfort (something Democrats oppose because self sufficient voters are harder to scare into voting Democrat). This incident just demonstrates the atmosphere in the SSA. Waste money, make poor decisions, and don’t worry about it. The taxpayer will foot the bill.

If accounts were private we would not need 675 managers to run things (not to mention the tens of thousands of employees) and they could not go to training conferences that cost a fortune. There would be no need for all these people who run a poor system that has a return of less than 1% on investment.

Maybe that was their share of the bailout money.

You can’t waste taxpayer money unless you are the government.

Gotcha.

ABC 15.com

Not the fact that Democrats are voting for a bill that is loaded with special interests and will do little to help the economy. No, why are people surprised they voted FOR something that they have not read and do not know about completely. These people supported Barack Obama. They voted for him even though he was not vetted and his troubles were ignored or covered up by the media. They voted FOR him without knowing much about him.

The whole stimulus plan is a sham. The bill, in its final form, was more than 1000 pages (earlier reports indicated it was nearly 1500) and it was distributed at 2300 last night. There is no way that anyone could have read the entire thing in that little bit of time. I hope that someone slipped in a provision for all Democrats and the three traitorous Republicans to resign and for Obama to have to provide a birth certificate. That would be absolutely hilarious. Obama wants to sign it Monday and you can bet he will not be able to read the entire thing before then. It does not matter because he is only interested in spending, not actually producing results.

Look at what we have in this mess:

• The bill passed with all but 7 Democrats voting for it and all but 2 Republicans voting against it. The 2 Republicans did not vote. This means that all who voted for it voted for something that they have not read and do not know.
• The bill was touted as one that provides tens of thousands of jobs even though no one has read it. No one knows what it includes or what it will do because they have not read it. In fact, one Congressman said they voted with one hand and crossed the fingers on the other. This is not leadership and it shows that even though they claim that something must be done now and that the bill is good, they don’t know.
• The so called administration of transparency has broken a campaign promise to post bills on the web 5 days before they are voted on so that the public can view them. The Democrats promised the bill would be posted on the internet for 48 hours before it was voted on. That did not happen. Does it surprise anyone that they broke their word? Nancy Pelosi needs to get out of town for her taxpayer paid vacation in Rome. She will have a few meetings while she is there.
• A Senator has predicted that none of his colleagues will have had the chance to read the bill before they vote on it. This is irresponsible. The Democrats in the Senate will vote for it and they have not read it. They are just like their House partners in crime.
• Barack Obama said that the lobbyists needed to be taken out of the process. He campaigned on changing DC and the politics as usual. The bill was on K Street in the hands of the lobbyists before staffers got it. The lobbyists had to go over it and make sure none of the payback they demanded had been left out. They had to ensure all the special interests were addressed. They had to ensure they knew what was in the trough they will be feeding from.

I have only read portions of the bill but from the lists I have seen it contains nothing but pet projects and items from the liberal wish list. It will not reduce the unemployment rate (I believe the extension of unemployment benefits is designed to make the numbers go up so the Dems can claim they are doing a good job when the numbers go down next year. It will be an election year) as FDR saw when he did the same things. The unemployment rate varied little under him and his plans and only went down markedly when the US entered WW II.

Barack Obama is unable to see this and his explanation for the failure under FDR is that he did not spend enough. Well one thing is certain. This bill spends enough. If it works and things get better then Obama can say he was right and if things get worse then we will know the real truth. Should that happen, Obama will say he did not spend enough and needs even more money.

The CBO says that the situation will improve by the second half of this year even if Congress does not spend one cent on the problem. That is what happens in recessions. Things get bad and then they get better all on their own. Government intervention makes things worse and prolongs the problem. FDR and Carter proved that. The reason Democrats are rushing this bill through is so that they can get their pet projects passed before the economy improves on its own. Once the economy improves they will not be able to use it and fear to get what they want. Obama is not letting this crisis go to waste…

If the economy begins to recover on its own the Dems will claim credit for the improvement. However, I think that the infusion of borrowed money will prolong the recession and things will not get better for quite some time. History shows us this will happen.

Spending money we do not have is a problem and up until this year Democrats were screaming about the deficit under Bush. They said it was irresponsible to run up a huge deficit (though they had done so in all the years past) and that we needed to get it under control. Obama entered office and all that went out the window even though he was one of the folks who leveled criticism at Bush.

Pelosi is off to Europe and the bill is heading to the Senate. Not one of the people elected to run the country has read it and yet they voted for it.

This is not leadership. It is a dereliction of duty.

The Obama camp is upset with John McCain because he disclosed that the young Senator was on his way to the Middle East. The camp is upset because they have closely guarded the information regarding his departure even though the major networks have mobilized to follow him around like Bill Clinton following the scent of an intern.

For weeks now, Barack Obama has closely guarded the details of his planned fact-finding trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, citing security concerns.

But Friday, the Democratic presidential hopeful’s Republican rival, John McCain, may have let the secret out of the bag – infuriating some Obama supporters and putting Camp McCain on the defensive. Daily News

I understand the need for a certain amount of secrecy in order to ensure safety but the news has been abuzz about the anointed one and his trek across the world. The supposed “fact finding mission” is really a campaign ploy which explains why Obama has an army of advisers to keep him from making a mistake that might cost him votes. However, the reality of the situation is that a lot of people knew the Messiah was leaving the country and a lot had a pretty good idea when he was doing it.

Matter of fact, security is so tight that the New York Post has published Obama’s itinerary for the week. If anyone is looking to do him harm the Post has provided a wonderful chart showing exactly where he will be and with whom he will be meeting.

This is supposed to be a fact finding mission and not related to campaigning (we all know differently) so why is the Obama campaign upset. McCain let everyone know Obama is actually heading out to “find facts.”

One can bet this “fact finding mission” will involve a lot of media opportunities for the young Senator. He will be shown time and again by the sycophants in the media as an accomplished man who has a way with world leaders. The only facts that this mission is designed to provide are those “facts” that will show Obama as more than a novice in foreign affairs.

Besides, people had to know he was on the way. Whenever the Messiah is going somewhere an aura precedes him.

John McCain has been hammering B. Hussein Obama pretty hard because Obama has declared that the US lost in Iraq and that the surge was not working and he made these assessments even though he has not been to the country in over two years. Obama has also not spoken with General Petraeus other than to grandstand during the General’s last briefing to Congress. John McCain suggested that Obama needed to go to Iraq and see for himself. He also suggested that before Obama engages in unconditional talks with our enemies he should consider doing so with our top commanders, particularly General Petraeus.

Well lo and behold B. Hussein Obama is considering a trip to Iraq. His people say that he has been thinking about this for some time (sure) and Obama indicated that he did not want to go there just for some political stunt:

“I just don’t want to be involved in a political stunt.”

“I think that if I’m going to Iraq, then I’m there to talk to troops and talk to commanders,” he said in the interview. “I’m not there to try to score political points or perform. The work they’re doing there is too important.”

What Obama is saying is that he would never use Iraq as a political pawn because the work our men and women are doing there is too important. No, Obama would never play politics with this important issue. Just one problem. His people stated this about his plans:

Obama’s campaign has been considering an overseas trip since last year to beef up his foreign policy credentials, but the extended fight for the Democratic nomination with Hillary Rodham Clinton has delayed those plans.

So Obama does not want to be part of a political stunt but he has been considering a trip to Iraq to beef up his foreign policy credentials. In reality, he is not going to talk to the troops or commanders and the work they are doing is not that important because B. Hussein Obama needs to beef up his credentials by going to Iraq. Obama would never play politics with this important issue but going just to beef up your creds is playing politics with this important issue.

It is also playing politics with this important issue to talk about a complete and unconditional withdraw from Iraq regardless of what commanders on the ground advise just to appease (there is that word again) the nutroots on the left fringe of the party. To decide on withdraw with little or no regard for what the real military professionals have to say is pure politics and is a move designed to win votes from those who are tired of the conflict.

I have my doubts as to whether Obama was planning a trip to Iraq or not but the fact is this little tidbit was not revealed until McCain started hammering him about it. No matter what he or his people say it will always look like McCain shamed him into going.

I wonder if he will meet with General Petraeus? I think Obama is trying to avoid the man because he will then be forced to either agree with a commander on the ground or disregard what he says. The former will tick off Obama’s base and the latter will show an arrogance toward a man who is about eight years older and has a hell of a lot more military knowledge than Obama will ever have.

McCain backed Obama in a corner with this one and it will be fun to see how this plays out. I bet Obama comes out of it with a lot more gaffes. Who knows, maybe he will come back with some more family war stories.