I had a hard time deciding what to write about today. In the end I decided on timeliness. I chose not to talk about this:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/09/16-illegals-sue-arizona-rancher/
Even though it makes me want to gouge my eyes out.
Instead, my brief thoughts on President Obama’s speech last night.
1) I believe he has good intentions and has tried to at least appear bipartisan. He may just be doing it to score points, but regardless, it is nice he’s got a couple Republicans in his administration. Note they are probably the only ones who pay their taxes.
2) Despite his good intentions, he believes in a failed philosophy. He keeps pounding the table that the Bush tax cuts represent a failed philosophy over the past 8 years. The Bush tax cuts were extremely successful at getting us past the recession of 9/11 and the dotcom bust. The cause of the recession is housing. The government’s intervention in buying sub-prime loans and driving the real estate market up to unsustainable levels.
3) Mr. Obama’s third priority was housing. This should be #1. Not saving 4,000,000 jobs. You can’t focus on the goal without focusing on the problem. The problem is housing.
4) The tone was doom and gloom. He mentioned that we might sustain unrepairable damage if we don’t pass the stimulus plan. He basically wrote off 2009 and its only February. He never once promised this would work, only that if we don’t do something we are screwed. If I was betting possible $2 trillion dollars after interest payments, I would want more guarantee than, well if you don’t do something things are going to get really bad so you might as well try this.
5) Can anyone explain how digitizing medical records is going to bring the cost of healthcare down? Wouldn’t all these for-profit doctors, insurance companies, etc already figure this one out if it would save them money? I can’t for the life of me figure this one out.
Last 3 posts by Jason
- You Can't Make This Stuff Up - February 19th, 2010
- Washington Gridlock - February 11th, 2010
- I Guess I'm Not the Only One Who Thought This - January 28th, 2010
My guess on what’s happening with the health records is that right now, there are a number of different digital medical record standards — none of which work well with each other. The government is useful in these sort of situations because they, as a semi-neutral party, can step in and help the squabbling parties come to an agreement on one standard. Kinda like railroad tracks — there used to be multiple widths for railroad tracks but the gov stepped in and legislated that all tracks be one size.
Can someone please explain to me why illegals and the terrorists in Guantanamo have the same rights as I, a tax paying citizen do?
Wtf, this country is going down down down.
Can someone please explain to me why illegals and terrorists in Guantanamo have the same rights as I, a tax paying, law abiding citizen do? Wth.
I can’t handle it when Obama says Bush’s tax policy is a “failed philosophy”. That is absolutely false. Economic growth was huge since the tax cuts went into effect. While much of the was related to housing, the tax cuts were not what spurred an out of control real estate market.
I am so happy to hear many Republican senators say that no action is better than the stimulus plan. It made me sick to my stomach yesterday when 3 Republicans “crossed party lines” and supported the stimulus bill. Again, we’re just pushing the day of reconciliation further down the road and making it more disastrous.
Oh, and the trial of the AZ man is ludicrous.