Food for (Weekend) Thought
From Kevin Williamson writes:
Between the candidates’ debates and my conversations with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, it seems to me that there is a persistent, dangerous disconnect between our political conversation and reality.
He lists some points:
1. There is no austerity.
2. There was no deregulation.
3. You can’t trust Republicans on spending.
4. Wall Street loves Democrats.
5. People who voted for Barack Obama on civil-liberties grounds are fools.
6. If you aren’t for massive entitlement reform, you’re for massive tax hikes.
7. But taxing the rich won’t close the deficit.
8. The housing bubble was largely a political creation.
9. Well-meaning politicians are just as dangerous as self-serving ones.
10. There’s no way out of this jam without big cuts to popular programs.
And here’s some additional support for a couple of the above points:
8. The housing bubble was largely a political creation.
4. Wall Street loves Democrats.
So yeah… using The National Review as a reliable “source”? About as valid as listing the DLC on the left for the same reason… insane bias that doesn’t even pretend to present facts.
#2: I was in the Senate when we voted for Telecom deregulation that resulted in the creation of SBC-AT&T — something regulation had tried to break up in the 1970’s.
We certainly deregulated Energy and the Environment under Mr. Bush (see Executive Order 13422 = Science means nothing, just do what OMB says).
We furthermore deregulated prescription drugs and medical devices by defunding parts of the organizations that are supposed to regulate those products: CPSC and FDA.
And the deregulation of the banking industry? If it makes you feel better, the Democrats have at least as much blame to take there.
But to say “Deregulation Didn’t Happen” to me is like saying “The sky might obviously look blue, but it isn’t blue”.
Sorry, I can’t trust the rest of the post, even though I completely agree with at least points #3 and #4 on premise.
And then the taxation fallacy is repeated ad-nauseum — the one where rich people paying more of their fair share won’t help our country AT ALL — so we need to cut teachers, police, fire, rescue, and everything domestically without even considering reforming our “free” trade agreements or non-civilian spending (at least here).
Come on…
“The housing bubble was largely a political creation.”
Largely??? More like, almost entirely. (The bond rating agencies were criminally culpable.)
There would never have been a housing bubble (artificially high prices; artificially high demand) if Congress had not mandated that “everyone has the right to own a house” (whether they can pay for it or not) and then put our money where their mouth was by guaranteeing all of the mortgages issued to people (I would have been in that category) who never should have “qualified”.
Monique and I agree on something! I want a badge or a pat on the back.