Michael Oberndorf
Pied Piper leadership
By Michael Oberndorf
Well, folks, looks like we've been snookered again. The Pied Piper "leadership" of the Republican Party is leading all right — right off the end of the fiscal wharf, to certain drowning for us children of Hamlin, in the Sea of Red Ink. They have made it pretty darn clear that they have no intention of learning a single thing from the 2010 election. "Ladies and gentlemen, the revolution is over! But, so as not to inconvenience anyone, nothing has been changed."
In the current theatrics, posturing as budget cutting, the Republican Pied Pipers sided with the Marxist Democrat Party, voting down an additional $22 billion in cuts, to be added to the $61 billion they support. To put this in perspective, $61 billion amounts to 0.016 percent of the proposed $3.75 trillion. The rejected $22 billion is 0.006 percent, which would have totaled 0.022 percent. Good G-d, screamed the Pied Pipers! Are they trying to destroy the country! That's OVER two whole hundredths of a percent! Outrageous!
Outrageous, indeed. They should be demanding at least 10 percent, across the board, with deeper cuts in lots of areas. And even more outrageous were the comments of apparent RINOs like Daniel Lungren (R-CA) who called those supporting across the board cuts "lazy." These RINOs who joined him and his Marxist allies in voting down the miniscule cuts are parasites on the Tree of Society and need to become unemployment statistics in 2012.
What makes this betrayal of the voters by the Pied Piper "leadership" even more egregious is the hysterical demands from them that the Congress vote to raise the federal debt limit. The lie they put out (unfortunately, Obama and his Democrats are not the only ones who lie to us) is that without borrowing more money, we will default on our loan payments, resulting in a total collapse of the economy. This, however, is like a drug addict saying he can't pay his rent because he needs the money to buy more drugs. How about not buying ANY drugs — cut the budget! — and use the savings to meet our financial obligations?
Speaking of debt payments, who is it that we owe the most money to? The Chinese, right? Wrong. Some other foreign country, then? Wrong again. In an article in the latest Silver Miners, a silver mining industry publication, editor David Bond points out some very interesting and little known facts (http://www.silverminers.com/commentary/wallace/index.php?&content_id=1290).
China is actually just our third largest creditor, holding a paltry $895.6 billion of our debt, only $18.4 billion more than number four debt holder, Japan. Coming in ahead of China, at number two, is the American Public, i.e., holders of $1.458 trillion in U.S. Savings Bonds. Surprised? Just wait.
The real winner by far in the race to suck up the wealth of the American people, in the form of interest on our ever-growing national debt — $14,123,589,307,190.53 (that's fourteen trillion, one-hundred twenty-three billion, five-hundred eighty-nine million, three-hundred seven thousand, one-hundred ninety dollars, and fifty-eight cents), as of February 17,according to the Treasury Department — with $5.351 trillion, is our own beloved, always-acting-in-our-best-interests, privately owned Federal Reserve.
One might add to the descriptors: unaccountable and untouchable. There is a video of a hearing in which a now-deposed-by-the-Tea Party Democrat Congressman and former prosecuter, Alan Grays of Florida, questions Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General and Official Watchdog of the Fed, about where all the hundreds of billions of taxpayer money handed out as "stimulus" by the Obama cabal has gone. This should terrify you (http://dailybail.com/home/there-are-no-words-to -describe-the-following-part-ii.html).
And yet, the Pied Pipers of the GOP, apparently privy to all this information, see nothing wrong here, no problems at all. And they think they can fool us once again, with a few symbolic gestures at cutting spending, and then return to the business of borrowing and spending, as usual.
One outstanding exception to this insulting, near-seditious farce is newly-elected Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). He wants $500 billion in cuts, now, with more to follow. I wish we had 534 more like him on Capitol Hill. 2012 is a long way off...
© Michael Oberndorf
February 19, 2011
Well, folks, looks like we've been snookered again. The Pied Piper "leadership" of the Republican Party is leading all right — right off the end of the fiscal wharf, to certain drowning for us children of Hamlin, in the Sea of Red Ink. They have made it pretty darn clear that they have no intention of learning a single thing from the 2010 election. "Ladies and gentlemen, the revolution is over! But, so as not to inconvenience anyone, nothing has been changed."
In the current theatrics, posturing as budget cutting, the Republican Pied Pipers sided with the Marxist Democrat Party, voting down an additional $22 billion in cuts, to be added to the $61 billion they support. To put this in perspective, $61 billion amounts to 0.016 percent of the proposed $3.75 trillion. The rejected $22 billion is 0.006 percent, which would have totaled 0.022 percent. Good G-d, screamed the Pied Pipers! Are they trying to destroy the country! That's OVER two whole hundredths of a percent! Outrageous!
Outrageous, indeed. They should be demanding at least 10 percent, across the board, with deeper cuts in lots of areas. And even more outrageous were the comments of apparent RINOs like Daniel Lungren (R-CA) who called those supporting across the board cuts "lazy." These RINOs who joined him and his Marxist allies in voting down the miniscule cuts are parasites on the Tree of Society and need to become unemployment statistics in 2012.
What makes this betrayal of the voters by the Pied Piper "leadership" even more egregious is the hysterical demands from them that the Congress vote to raise the federal debt limit. The lie they put out (unfortunately, Obama and his Democrats are not the only ones who lie to us) is that without borrowing more money, we will default on our loan payments, resulting in a total collapse of the economy. This, however, is like a drug addict saying he can't pay his rent because he needs the money to buy more drugs. How about not buying ANY drugs — cut the budget! — and use the savings to meet our financial obligations?
Speaking of debt payments, who is it that we owe the most money to? The Chinese, right? Wrong. Some other foreign country, then? Wrong again. In an article in the latest Silver Miners, a silver mining industry publication, editor David Bond points out some very interesting and little known facts (http://www.silverminers.com/commentary/wallace/index.php?&content_id=1290).
China is actually just our third largest creditor, holding a paltry $895.6 billion of our debt, only $18.4 billion more than number four debt holder, Japan. Coming in ahead of China, at number two, is the American Public, i.e., holders of $1.458 trillion in U.S. Savings Bonds. Surprised? Just wait.
The real winner by far in the race to suck up the wealth of the American people, in the form of interest on our ever-growing national debt — $14,123,589,307,190.53 (that's fourteen trillion, one-hundred twenty-three billion, five-hundred eighty-nine million, three-hundred seven thousand, one-hundred ninety dollars, and fifty-eight cents), as of February 17,according to the Treasury Department — with $5.351 trillion, is our own beloved, always-acting-in-our-best-interests, privately owned Federal Reserve.
One might add to the descriptors: unaccountable and untouchable. There is a video of a hearing in which a now-deposed-by-the-Tea Party Democrat Congressman and former prosecuter, Alan Grays of Florida, questions Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General and Official Watchdog of the Fed, about where all the hundreds of billions of taxpayer money handed out as "stimulus" by the Obama cabal has gone. This should terrify you (http://dailybail.com/home/there-are-no-words-to -describe-the-following-part-ii.html).
And yet, the Pied Pipers of the GOP, apparently privy to all this information, see nothing wrong here, no problems at all. And they think they can fool us once again, with a few symbolic gestures at cutting spending, and then return to the business of borrowing and spending, as usual.
One outstanding exception to this insulting, near-seditious farce is newly-elected Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). He wants $500 billion in cuts, now, with more to follow. I wish we had 534 more like him on Capitol Hill. 2012 is a long way off...
© Michael Oberndorf
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
