RSS
Home
RedState's Morning Briefing for Tuesday, March17, 2009
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Morning Briefing for TUEDSAY, March 17, 2009
Sign up to get the morning briefing by email here.
1. Obama Backtracks on Bungled Mexico Policy
You Would Hope The Democrats Did Not Intend To Have Mexico Slap Tariffs On U.S. Goods
2. Obamanomics - “Revolutionary”
Only an Ivy League educated lefty economist could have the intellectual gall to argue that the Obama budget is both “conservative” in the details, yet “revolutionary” in scope.
3. Union’s Card Check is the New Jim Crow Poll Tax
The card check bill is un-American and must be defeated.
4. Obama launches propaganda war against Republicans
No wonder Obama must resort to a big lie style propaganda war to support his lurch to the left.
1. Obama Backtracks on Bungled Mexico Policy
You Would Hope The Democrats Did Not Intend To Have Mexico Slap Tariffs On U.S. Goods
President Bush’s critics often accused him of alienating key U.S. allies. Frequently that case was overstated, as the Bush Administration forged stronger bilateral ties with many strategically important allies, and as the Administration’s foreign critics were often engaged in faux outrage for domestic political purposes over purely symbolic issues. That said, at least when the Bush Administration set out to do something our allies didn’t like, it (1) did so to advance concrete U.S. interests and (2) stuck to its guns.
With the Obama Administration, neither is true. Fresh off a bizarre series of unnecessary gaffes in dealing with friend (the U.K.) and foe (Russia) alike, and after already rattling sabers and then caving on trade war threats with Canada and the EU, Obama and Congressional Democrats have brought us to the brink of a full-blown trade war with Mexico - and they are stuck trying to climb down from the ledge. Brian Faughnan has some of the background here; today’s news is the desperate scramble to avoid the consequences of the Democrats’ own policies as Mexico escalates with new tariffs for the Administration’s violation of our treaty obligations under NAFTA:
The White House says it wants to work with lawmakers to restore a program that allows cross-border trucking with Mexico.
Mexico Monday put in place tariffs on 90 U.S. products after Washington canceled a program that allowed some trucks from Mexico to operate in the U.S. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the administration wants to work with Congress to come up with a plan that would restore that program.
2. Obamanomics - “Revolutionary”
Only an Ivy League educated lefty economist could have the intellectual gall to argue that the Obama budget is both “conservative” in the details, yet “revolutionary” in scope.
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, argues in Salon today that President Obama’s brand of economics is “revolutionary.” Only an Ivy League educated lefty economist (i.e. - Keith Olbermann graduate of Cownell could not pull this one off) could have the intellectual gall to argue that the Obama budget is both “conservative” in the details, yet “revolutionary” in scope. The left is gearing up for a public relations campaign (some would say a propaganda war) to sell the Obama budget and it seems as if the left will use every catch phrase possible to sell this plan.
Reich argues that Obama’s brand of economics is ”an economic philosophy exactly the opposite of the one that’s dominated America for more than a quarter century.” If by economic philosophy Reich means capitalism, then I think conservatives agree that Obamanomics would move the United States away from the free market to expand the role of government in health care, environmental issues and tax policy. The era of big government is back and Robert Reich is cheerleading from the sidelines.
Reich’s column argues that “Obama’s budget projects that government spending by the end of the decade will drop to around 22.5 percent of GDP, which is about where it was under Reagan.” The Wall Street Journal’s Op Ed “The Obama Revolution” published on Feb. 27th, disputes the assumption that government spending will drop as a percentage of GDP, because the many of the entitlement spending initiatives in the stimulus spending are not temporary, the government’s proposed $1 trillion nationalization of the health care industry is fully funded, and massive tax increases will destroy the productive sector of the economy.
3. Union’s Card Check is the New Jim Crow Poll Tax
The card check bill is un-American and must be defeated.
One of the most odious aspects of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature gives unions the “option” to supplant a secret ballot election held among workers for instituting a union with a publicly signed card that announces the voter’s intentions for all to see. In this way, unions claim, “elections” will be easier. Unions also point out that the language of the act still makes provision for the normal secret ballot election should all involved still so desire.
Because the act does not specifically say in plain language that the secret ballot will necessarily be eliminated in all cases, union activists and apologists claim that fears of the elimination of the ages old democratic practice of the secret ballot to assure a fair election isn’t being eliminated. They claim that opponents of this act are merely engaging in hyperbole and fearmongering by claiming the secret ballot will be a thing of the past if the EFCA is passed.
Critics rightly see this feature as a way to eliminate the secret ballot without expressly saying so, however. As varied interests as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Heritage Foundation, and sundry business groups on one hand and many of America’s newspaper editorial boards and George McGovern on the other, stand against the EFCA. Opposition to this bill has made strange bedfellows of groups often allied against each other on most other issues.
For instance, Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institute says that no matter the language of the act the secret ballot will likely be displaced by the coercive card check process in all cases. Currently, he says, a union will not call an election unless they have yes pledges from workers well in excess of 50% of the workforce. Unions know that some that say yes in public (via a pledge) will likely say no in the privacy of the voting booth. So, unions need a cushion to be assured of success after the secret ballot.
4. Obama launches propaganda war against Republicans
No wonder Obama must resort to a big lie style propaganda war to support his lurch to the left.
Mike Allen reports that as resistance builds against President Obama’s extreme left-wing agenda that spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much, Obama counters with propaganda bold enough to match his audacious attempt to move the nation far to the left:
The White House on Sunday began harnessing every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.
Obama’s aides used the Sunday interview programs to launch the multifaceted and misleading propaganda assault.
The false idea behind Obama’s grand disinformation campaign is that Republicans are just saying “no” to the Obama agenda without offering their own alternative. This falsehood easily qualifies as a big lie. It is simply not true that Republicans are just saying no. As House Minority Whip Eric Cantor told David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Republicans did offer an alternative to Obama’s so-called stimulus bill, and they will issue their own budget proposal in the next few weeks.
According to Allen, the propaganda alliance hopes to at least change the conversation from criticism of the Obama agenda, the fact that Obama is going to raise taxes in the middle of a recession and Obama’s socialist tendencies.
Obama has invited the criticism with his huge bailout boondoggle and budget outline that calls for the largest deficit in U.S. history and a doubling of the national debt.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
