Democrats and disaster

The State of Liberalism today

….“PUBLIC SECTOR LIBERALISM" represents the logical terminus for a movement that began in an effort to redraw the boundaries of government action in order to bring industrial capitalism to heel and grew in tandem with the expansion of government….

….The conflict today between democrats and republicans increasingly puts PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS AND BENEFICIARIES OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS AGAINST THE MIDDLE-CLASS TAXPAYER AND BUSINESS INTERESTS LARGE AND SMALL…

….How this standoff is resolved between popular conservatism and public sector liberalism is a legitimate subject for debate and speculation. It is obvious, however, that LIBERALISM CAN ONLY PROSPER IF IT CAN CONTINUE TO BUILD COALITIONS THROUGH PUBLIC SPENDING, PUBLIC BORROWING, AND PUBLICLY GUARANTEED CREDIT. These are the resources that underwrite their institutional advantages. Should those resources dry up, as they are now doing as a consequence of the long recession, LIBERALISM WILL UNWIND AS A POLITICAL FORCE AS PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE CUT, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ARE LET GO, AND RETIREMENT ARRANGEMENTS WITH PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ARE RENEGOTIATED. In some public sector states, such outcomes now appear inevitable. Conservatives are in a position to hasten this process along by refusing to approve the spending, borrowing, and federal bailouts that will be required to keep public sector liberalism afloat, though at the price of being blamed for the pain and suffering associated with its collapse. But this is undoubtedly a price worth paying to guide the nation through an adjustment that will otherwise take place later and under circumstances far less to anyone's liking

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/21/is-liberalism-dead/1


An excellent article which gives you a lot of insight into the stakes at play in Wisconsin and other states in the Union. Liberals are fighting for their lives. The recession combined with drying up of money in government coffers thereby neutering the left’s ability to buy support is the biggest challenge liberalism has faced in the past 100 years.

Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin

The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment. The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

At the federal level, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S BUDGET MAKES CLEAR THAT DEMOCRATS ARE DETERMINED TO DO NOTHING ABOUT THE DEBT CRISIS, while House Republicans have announced that beyond their proposed cuts in discretionary spending, their April budget will actually propose real entitlement reform. Simultaneously, in Wisconsin and other states, Republican governors are taking on unsustainable, fiscally ruinous pension and health-care obligations, WHILE DEMOCRATS ARE FULL-THROATED IN SUPPORT OF THE PUBLIC-EMPLOYEE UNIONS CRYING, "HELL, NO."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/24/AR2011022406520.html

The lines are drawn.  Democratic lawmakers are fleeing their state rather than accept reality.  In 2008 they told us that elections have consequences.  Now they are in denial of that fact.

New Study: Developing Alaska’s OCS

A new study says DRILLING ON ALASKA’S OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF (OCS) COULD MAKE ALASKA THE EIGHTH LARGEST OIL RESOURCE PROVINCE IN THE WORLD -- ahead of Nigeria, Libya, Russia and Norway.


The report -- by the consulting firm Northern Economics and the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research -- says that developing Alaska’s OCS could produce almost 10 BILLION BARRELS OF OIL AND 15 TRILLION CUBIC FEET OF NATURAL GAS, create around 55,000 NEW JOBS and produce $145 billion in new payroll nationally, generating a total of $193 billion in government revenue through the year 2057.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/new-study-shows-offshore-drilling-alaska


Too bad that liberals don’t want us to drill, produce the energy and the jobs.



Where has all the leadership gone?

…But after telling Tea Party Americans that HE WAS GOING TO "CALL THEIR BLUFF" AND PROPOSE "DIFFICULT CHOICES" to get our runaway deficits under control, what did the president offer in terms of a budget? HE PUT FORTH A PLAN THAT WOULD SEE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BORROW MORE MONEY IN HIS FOUR YEARS THAN UNDER THE PREVIOUS 43 PRESIDENTS COMBINED. And what tough choices did he recommend to rectify the massive unfunded liabilities that are preparing to devour our economy? None.


The president's budget is such a disgrace that EVEN EVAN THOMAS, THE NEWSWEEK WRITER WHO ONCE COMPARED OBAMA TO GOD, CALLED IT A "PROFILE IN COWARDICE." Obama has called for a scalpel to be taken to federal spending when a fleet of jackhammers and buzz saws are in order. Knowing the calamity that awaits us, HE PREFERS TO MORTGAGE OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE IN ORDER TO AVOID THE NECESSARY CUTS THAT MIGHT JEOPARDIZE HIS OWN RE-ELECTION BID. That's not hope. That's not change. That's not leadership.


But all is not lost. Despite the miserable failure in the Oval Office, THERE ARE LEADERS AMONG US. THEY ARE EMERGING IN MIDWESTERN STATES LIKE WISCONSIN, MICHIGAN AND OHIO. Indeed, while most political analysts were focusing on the historic turnover in the U.S. Congress, the most significant impact of the 2010 midterm elections is proving to be what happened in statehouses and governor mansions around the country. There, the people handed the machinery of government over to the Republican Party with one demand: STOP TELLING US WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR SIMPLY TO GET ELECTED, AND START TELLING US WHAT MUST BE DONE TO SAVE OUR REPUBLIC.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/leaders_among_us.html