The problem with grading yourself
Posted by Ray on January 10, 2010 under Politics | 
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We are all a little biased towards ourselves and most people are likely to not judge themselves harshly. Even mass murderers tend to justify or view their actions as moral or for the greater good, well many of them anyhow. My point is that when we are faced with a question about our performance we tend to spin it in the best possible light, another great example is Goldman Sachs spinning their huge bonuses as God’s work. The reason why I bring this up is because our President was asked to grade himself during an interview a few weeks ago and he gave himself a “solid B+” which is absurd.
The reason why he should have avoided the question altogether is because he has not completed one campaign promise to the people, except for higher taxes. Health care was done behind closed doors, Gitmo is open, Iraq is still somewhere, Afghanistan is getting more involved 9a big mistake I might add), and unemployment is sky high (add back in those “marginally attached” people and we are pushing 11%). Let us not forget that the annual deficit is 4 times what it was under the last President, who was certainly no peach, and we are quickly approaching 100% debt to GDP, not good.
All of this while Democrats keep blaming Bush for everything and the Republicans accept that argument, what? Oh, how quickly we forget the recent past. Before I go any further I did not like Bush, at all, and firmly believe he was one of the worst President’s of all time, so save the hate mail. However, Democrats are just as guilty of where we are today as the Republicans as they were ushered into power in 2006 in congress, the real power in politics. They rebuffed any attempt to rein in the GSE’s and they rubber stamped all of bush’s policies for 2 years. So, to say “we inherited this problem” is utter nonsense and has to stop.
When you have the power to say no and stop crazy spending and you do not you are just as guilty as the person who proposed it. That is exactly what the Democrats did for 2 years and to make matters worse, they simply allowed things to continue the way they were without a peep. Don’t believe me, check YouTube.com for the GSE hearing meetings or go check Democrat voting records for raising the debt ceiling, 7 times. They did not inherit anything, they helped create it, end of story.
If you actually believe that they inherited all these messes and did nothing to create them then you have a poor knowledge of politics, history or simply are blinded by partisan politics. I, on the other hand, do not care as I see all politicians for what they are, parasites on the backs of the American people who care about 2 things, reelection and power, not necessarily in that order. To sit here now and say that the stimulus is working is simply crazy, babbling, rabid partisan bickering because it is clear that it did not. If it did work GDP would not be at 2.2% in 3Q09, I know we will get an initial estimate of 4 or 5% for 4Q09, but that to will be adjusted lower and will be all government heroin.
Never before had the US government spent $787B in any stimulus plan and not seen any results. Instead the best argument Democrats can muster is that it stopped us from going over the abyss, oh really? Are these the same Democrats who said that not all the money has come into the system yet so we don’t know how well the stimulus is working? So, how can you say that on one hand it stopped us from falling off a cliff, but on the other hand say we don’t know how well it is going to work? You can’t because that is political double talk for we spent a bunch of money on stuff and we made many mistakes, but will not admit it. Instead, they decide to lie to us and then launch secret stimulus packages, i.e. the jobs bill passed at the dead of night.
What no one ever talks about is this, what would have happened if the stimulus was not enacted? I am willing to bet that things would have probably followed about the same track it is following now. Well, I think there would have been an exception to that, employment would have bottomed sooner and we would be seeing real recovery a lot sooner. Considering even Jim Cramer has admitted that the CEO’s he has spoken to have not seen one dime of stimulus I am pretty sure that the stimulus did not work at all. I mean, even the government is not adding tons of jobs, yet, until the census begins. Of course we do have more government employees making over 100K than ever before in history, but who cares, right?
If the original stimulus saved us and is going to get us back to growth then why in the world do we need a second stimulus? Simple, the first one was the greatest fleecing of America next to TARP in the history of the world. However, never fear because it is all Bush’s fault, a year later. I absolutely hated it when Bush blamed Clinton for the recession in 2000 just as much as I hate Obama blaming Bush now for one simple reason, the President has very little to do with the economy. I say that with a caveat, unless they implement policies that impact the economy like ridiculous stimulus packages, unpaid for tax cuts or Medicare advantage plans and things like that. What I mean is that the last 2 administrations, in my opinion, have had a greater impact on the economy than previous administrations mostly because of their lackeys in Congress happen to be in power at the same time.
Because of the absurdity of what is going on, even though I cannot stand the hypocritical Republicans, I am praying the Republicans take all of Congress in November and grid lock this thing for the next couple of years. Why would I want that to happen? Simple, I do not want my currency to be toilet paper around the world and I certainly do not want more spending. I also do not want more unionization of government employees, we need more firings in government, not hiring’s or raises. What I am trying to say is that we need balance restored back in Washington, it worked in 1994 and perhaps it could work again.
In the meantime, our President should not be issuing any grades for himself as he certainly did not earn a “solid B+” as I am pretty sure his math teacher would have flunked based on his estimates on health care costs and budget deficits. I am fairly sure a big “I” is what the President should have given himself for incomplete since he has not even kept the transparency promise he made. When C-SPAN says what is going on, you got an image issue Mr. President. So, keep some promises, fire some government workers, starting with all of you Czars, and let’s really figure out the deficit before the dollar does crash.
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