Advice to A Vacationing Obama….

How do you keep your legacy of Obamacare from being cut and left to bleed?

Easy. You turn Obamacare into a low priority for Republicans, by seriously challenging them on other things far more important, forcing them to drop the fight for Obamacare, because they have other battle to fight over….  Ones they will lose unless they become very lucky.

• You apply tremendous force to raise taxes on the top 1%
• You allow businesses the writing off capital investments the full amount spent.
• You keep benefits on Social Security, and raise the fee on top incomes.
• You do a Kennediesque moon challenge, but this time to it’s High Speed Rail connecting all major cities by 2025.
• You proceed with a challenge to find a way to capture coal CO2, making it eco-friendly.
• You push for keeping guns out of those who are mentally ill.  Background checks and take on the NRA.
• You push for more union rights, and fewer right to work laws.
• You push for stronger controls on Wall Street.
• You push for more solar energy capture out west, more wind in the mid-west, and more tidal on both coasts….

You promise every American that if they  vote for no Republicans in 2014, your goal for 2018 is that every American will be making $10,000 more than they are now.…  Examples… If they are making $10,000, they’ll be up to $20,000.  If they are at $40,000, the’ll be up to $50,000.  And if they are making $100 million, they’ll be making $100 million plus $10,000 by the end of that time frame….

With a roaring economy, that is actually a conservative estimate…

The point is … as a lame duck president you have two options.  One you can play defensive, and try to foil Republicans, the wealthy, Wall Street, and the backwards Tea Partiers, as they try and chip away at the edifice you have built of Obamacare. This I argue against, because this puts you in the position of looking weak, It puts them in the position of appearing to grow stronger…  Just as does a football team which has a comfortable lead, and blows it by having their fourth string not play as aggressively as they would had they been playing a close game… The other team has nothing to lose, since they are already badly losing; therefore they play with a ferociousness unseen all previous season…  This is what will happen to you….

Or..Two…. you can choose to run up the scoreboard.  You can capitalize on how well the affordable health care will be received,(it’s reputation is starting to turn already).  You can twist the knife in Republicans by showing how Democratic states are getting good health insurance cheaper than before, and how Republicans governors in Republican states, jerked around their constituents forcing them to pay more than are Democrats in neighboring states…. All you have to do is compare their numbers….

You can run up the scoreboards by filling up all court vacancies.  You can run up the scoreboard by  mandating environmental protections, by raising taxes on the top 1%. by Pushing for immigration reform,  by floating the legalization of weak recreational drugs, by having them regulated and taxed as was done with liquor post-Prohibition.

You can run up the scoreboard by carrying the message to the American People that it is in everyone’s benefit if the top 1% are taxed and that money is used to pay for replacing a bridge that should fall, or a tunnel that will collapse into the river this decade or next.

You can run up the scoreboard by on every task, show that the Republican-way will hurt America, and the Democrat’s way will make it better….

Point is, you are a lame duck.  You got nothing to lose…   if you try all of these, you will no doubt be effective at some.  And some you won’t…

But if you create the environment where the House is too busy playing defense to re-argue another case of the Obama bill, because Republicans are in a desperate fight for their very survival….  Obamacare will probably survive along with Obama….

The best defense is a good offense…Mr. President…. Let’s go run up that score….

Obama’s Second Inaugrual Address:

(I occasionally need inspiration. So I’m keeping this close where I can remind myself why we do what we do. It is here if any of you need to charge your batteries over the next four years as well….)

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY

January 21, 2013

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Inaugural Address
Monday, January 21, 2013
Washington, DC

As Prepared for Delivery –

Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:

Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.

For more than two hundred years, we have.

Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.

Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers.

Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.

Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.

Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.

But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.

This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.

We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.

We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.

That is our generation’s task – to make these words, these rights, these values – of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time.

For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.

My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service. But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.

They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.

You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.

Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.

George Washington
Second Inaugural Address

Andrew Jackson
Second Inaugural Address

Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address

Grover Cleveland
Second Inaugural Address

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Second Inaugural Address

Bill Clinton
Second Inaugural Address

School Vouchers and Hurricane Sandy

Right click for full view.

In isolated argument the idea of school vouchers has appeal. If you can’t get the education you need, you go somewhere else to get it. The idea is that this forces those losing students to change in order to attract them back.

Everyone gets a better education.

There is a huge problem with that argument. I will use Hurricane Sandy to point it out.

Before Hurricane Sandy struck, everyone went shopping the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before. By Sunday night, there was no bread in New Castle County. In every store, the shelves were empty.

At first it was the cheap bread that went. The dollar loaves which are the first pick of most bread eaters. As those were gone, then the basic bread of private bakers went, the brand names. Soon all the white bread was gone, and the wheat began disappearing. After the wheat was gone, the gourmet breads began disappearing, the 5 grains, the 7 grains, the 12 grains, the hearty grains… Then went the ryes, the Jewish ryes, the pumpernickels. Many people who came for white bread, who’d never paid $4 dollars a short loaf before, were snapping it up. When all the bread was sold out, hamburger buns went, hot dog buns went, dinner rolls went, starting from cheap all the way up to Arnold’s and Pepperidge Farms… The last person coming in to pick up a loaf of bread, got gourmet pumpernickel hot dog buns with oatmeal sprinkled on top…

You walked in Sunday night, October 28th, 2012… the shelves were bare…. from one end to the other….

How does this correspond to vouchers?

If everyone has the option of taking a voucher to improve their child’s education, you’ve created a crises and a lack of supply.

The best schools are snapped up first, then the 2nd best, then the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th, and at last the inner city schools being the last to go… So those shopping first get the good deal. Those say out of town, arriving late and picking out a school before the deadline, are stuck… And some, because of a shortage of schools, go without.

There was bread on the shelves the next day. But a school system that mis-allocates a student deals with that problem for a full year, seriously setting back the development of that child and possibly the room he is in….

The problem with school vouchers, is as a system, it doesn’t work. Oh it works for one individual. But it only helps the first in line. After that, it is all downhill.

For if you gave every bread shopper a number based on whether their purchase matched their expectation, those getting the store brand for a dollar would rate a +1, then if one settled for their second choice they’d get -1. Third choice would equal -2. Fourth choice a -3 and so on down the line. The total of the negative numbers would quickly balance the positive ones, making the total value of all zero, and then continue bringing the entire total further into the negative with every new purchase…. In the same way, school vouchers after the good schools were full, would increase the negatives to a point so big, they would soon swallow up any positive advantage the voucher program had every given…..

So as we approach the teaching crises. we must ask ourselves how we wish to be judged. Do we want to mandate that we will always have bread on our shelves, with plenty of choices for all? Or do we want to let anarchy or random chance decided who gets ahead, and who gets left behind?

So, why has no one looked at voucher’s impact on an entire school system before?

News You Won’t Hear…. It Was A Blowout!!!!

As of today Obama’s lead stands at more than 3.4 million votes – a victory margin a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t posted since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

The final results show Warren soundly beating Scott Brown by 8 percent.

Virginia! Tim Kaine ultimately won by 6 percent (over 186,000 votes). Meanwhile, President Obama won the state by 3 percent.

The Montana Senate race wasn’t called until late Wednesday morning, but the final tally has Democrat Jon Tester beating Republican Denny Rehberg by 4 percent! In Montana!

Today the story is of a Democratic House of Representative’s pickup. Democrats have already gained 6 House seats and are leading in 4 of 5 uncalled races.

It was no where near as close as election night pundits led us to believe.

Pretending They Never Happened……

Screech…. Stop…. Whoa, there… Did that just happen?

A voter to Ron Paul says: “We’ve had, in the past, a couple of presidents from Texas that said they weren’t interested in wars … like George W. Bush,” a voter said to Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who has been sharply critical of U.S. military entanglements overseas. “My question is: How can we trust another Texan?

Did someone just mention George W. Bush?

In the heat of the campaign, there has been no mention of the two term predecessor, who left office just 2 years plus, ago…. However, the president previous to this unmentioned two term republican,… yeah him? Remember that one? The one who was only the second president to ever be impeached? The one who actually had some type of sexual experience in the White House with someone other than his wife, the one who despite that, still left office with a 66% approval rating, the one who gets called back to each convention for a keynote address?

But until now, no one, not one person during the campaign, has dared whispered the words to muddy the waters with memories about George W. Bush… Not even Voldermort’s name was muttered less….

WE all know why…..

So why would anyone vote to continue that legacy in November? The only reason is because of a monstrous vacuum in the media, one that allows one-sided arguments to go unchallenged across it’s pages and its airwaves….

“Republicans talk a lot about losing their way during the last decade, and when they do they’re talking about the Bush years,”— Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont-McKenna College.

Rick Santorum told CNN on Sunday that he regretted voting for the No Child Left Behind education law Bush championed.

In a presidential contest dominated by concerns over the weak economy, government spending and the $15 trillion federal debt, the Republican candidates have been loath to acknowledge the extent to which Bush administration policies contributed to those problems. Republicans also controlled Congress for six of the eight years Bush was in the White House, clearing the way for many of his policies to be enacted.

Remember, Republicans inherited a surplus when they took over power. First thing they did, was blow it with a tax cut costing $1.8 Trillion. Then, they funded two wars on borrowing, so the wealthy wouldn’t have to pay any more in taxes, costing everyday Americans, $1.4 trillion… Then the Bush Gift to pharmaceuticals which gave seniors prescriptions to be funded by borrowing, put another $1.2 trillion. Compared to the Bush cumulative damage, $4.4 Trillion, the Obama TARP plan, his effective effort to stop the free falling economy, has a diminutive price tag of $000.7 Trillion amounting to causing only 16% of the deficit problem.

Simple math shows us that 84% of the deficit problem was created from out of a surplus, by a majority Republican government…

84% Republican’s fault: 16% Democrats fault.. It is no wonder the name of the former president, is missing in action…..

In A Perfect World….

Call it temporary insanity but let’s pretend, let’s just say, …that at one moment in time, if I chose to donate my youth out for my country, to be compensated back in the form of low pay; to completely and unjudgingly offer my fate up to the will of bureaucrats, all for the loss of my own self esteem, all for unending stretches of boredom, sparsed with interludes of a few intense seconds, that fortunately thorough my reactions and training, enabled me to continue living as I do today………….

I could reasonably be expected to be honored for that service to my nation, right?

In a perfect world, that is….

One would think, that in a perfect world, as needs were being debated across the universe of public funding, that a hierarchy resembling this, would sort of be the guideline, if not the rule?

National Heroes…..

over

We, The People…..

over

LLC corporations….

After all, if it weren’t for us, there’s a good chance those LLC. corporations wouldn’t be able to do business in a free and prosperous society, you would think?….

One would think, that if one of these heroes needed medical care, with the tremendous amounts of money being thrown away by our government daily, in the forms of corporate tax breaks enabling corporations to make “record breaking profits”…. that they would be put at the top of the list.. don’t you think?

Sorry, CEO… your operation will have to wait… We have a veteran who is in dire need ahead of you….

In a perfect world….

One would think, that a voucher system would be in place, or a blank check, where any veteran could walk into any hospital, and get immediate, necessary medical attention, have his prescriptions filled as a privilege for his service, and that the bill would be willing be paid by those with monetary resources more than adequate for their own needs?

One would think, (right?)… that it would be CEO’s, those who give pink slips so they can break profit records, those who cut benefits so they can break profit records, those who don’t invest in America so they can break record profits, ….who should be the ones finding themselves regulated to CEO hospitals, where they would then have to settle in on a waiting list for the next opening to occur, where they had to endure budget cutbacks and go without life-saving medicine because there was no money left in the CEO fund, perhaps because it had all gone to Veterans to pay THEIR expenses?

In a perfect world…..

In a perfect world, veterans would need no freebies…. They would not need welfare, or a pension, or a humble stipend to eke an existence… They would be working, contributing to society, in any way they could… If they had no legs, they would be outfitted at corporate’s expense, so that would not be an issue… If they had no arms, they could be outfitted at corporate’s expense so that was not an issue. If they had psychological damage, (and who wouldn’t?) they could be treated at corporate’s expense… so that was not an issue.

If they were so badly damaged that they create an efficiency drain on society, they could be honored for their sacrifice, and a useful voluntary capacity could be created to honor that commitment once made so long ago… Perhaps speaking about serving one’s country in every class, in every school, in every county? Can you think of any better civic’s lesson?

There’s a lot that can be done…

The problem is that veterans are deemed as just another expense…. Because to corporate America, that is just what they are… An expense, an obligation to be met that gets in the way of their making more money…

Unfortunately, our Congress is owned by Corporate America….

What should and does need to happen, is this relationship needs to be exposed. We need to call them out on it…

Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in allowing corporate raiders this unprecedented power. But Republicans are the symbol of Corporate America. Republicans are the ones who championed the Corporate Takeover. Republicans are the ones who dismanteled the safeguards that had been put in place to prevent that takeover from happening. That is why they need to go. Disappear… Whoever is left, the remainder, most likely after seeing the elimination of a large majority of their peers, will think twice before following their Dark Lord, now a soul less wanderer eking existence.. ……

In a perfect world…

Unfortunately, today we need to contend with obscene amounts of money saying Corporate is Good; Government Fairness is Bad….

But we have our lives telling us the opposite… It will take courage and strong will, to override all the overload of sensory data being pipelined into our soul, but we still have hearts, and those hearts are attuned to what makes America special. great, and the best place to live on this earth….

WE can still dream….

And those dreams should include a perfect world… one we CAN make happen, at least for those without whom we would not have the freedom, the resources, the nation, we have today….

Here’s to a perfect world?

Which President Increased Jobs The Highest?

Reagan? Close, Jimmy Carter? Don’t make me laugh? George Bush the One, not quite. Calvin Coolidge? No. Gerald Ford? Ha, ha…

Actually, William Jefferson Clinton leads the pack with increasing jobs 11.5% in his first term, and then another 11.2% on top of his first term results. That is the highest any president in recorded history increased the amount of work available for its nation’s citizens. Who was second? Reagan’s second term, 10.8… His first term was a modest 5.1%… Who will you guess is third?

Jimmy Carter, the much maligned president who put peace in the Middle East, and generated an increase of 10.3 % new jobs, which started to collapse almost as soon as Reagan began to talk about cutting taxes…

The president behind the greatest tax cut in history, George W. Bush, created the second lowest number of jobs, Zero point zero 0.0 his first term, and 1.1% his second. He is only beaten on the low end by Herbert Hoover, the last person who pushed tax cuts through Congress….

Harding was 4.5%…. Coolidge, the darling of the tax cutting Republicans, held at a 2.2% increase….

Just looking at this chart of number of jobs created under each president, is it obvious that under the tax increasors… Bill Clinton,(11.5) RONALD REAGAN (10.8), and Jimmy Carter (10.3)…

When you want to destroy, crash and burn the economy, you give the wealthy tax cuts, just like Hoover (-6.9), George W. Bush (0.0). or Dwight Eisenhower (0.8), or Calvin Coolidge, (2.6)…..

Incidentally following Coolidge, Eisenhower, Bush (W), and Hoover, were devastating depressions. The years of Carter, Reagan and Clinton, we were all doing pretty well……….

Tax cuts are bad. America is bleeding red… Slashing more open wounds, certainly won’t heal it…. Eliminate the Bush tax cuts and America will be at full steam in 6 months. Things will look better in 3….

Legacy of a “W”

Is ex-president Bush hard of hearing?

At a recent SMU sypmposium he had the opportunity to take questions from a number of midwestern students, whose residencies ranged from Fargo to Texas. The moderator, C Span’s Brian Lamb said “we have enough time for one more student question”….

“Their questions aren’t stupid….”

Thinking it was a joke, Brian quickly explained I said….”S T U D E N T” question….

As if nothing was said at all, …. “I think they’re pretty good questions. Not stupid at all…..”

The host stayed silent…..

“In fact, their questions are better than yours …….” …

Things moved on… Those of us watching kinda laughed a little, remembering some episodes along both campaign trails and in front of cameras… Some things never change….

But there are a couple of things to ponder. When asked what he was most proud of, his rapid response was to increase money to help Africa with AIDS.

He did, over the dead body of his party, pursue and get passed, large increases to fight AIDS.

“It was a national security issue, or one that would become one in the next generation. Imagine a child seeing his parents dying from AIDS, and the richest country, with unimaginable wealth relative to him, stood by and offered nothing?”

“We had the capacity to do something, and with little sacrifice to us, .. we did it.”

This, not only is a window into the soul of a man but also illuminates that which makes the soul of this country, great. This nation, which was at the time preparing to unilaterally invade another country while unprovoked, was simultaneously funding the largest amount ever voted, to help impoverished African countries combat a killer disease. In other words, the US is not all bad.

And secondly, the Bush tax cuts made it two more years beyond their expiration. That is a lasting legacy. Even though I argue those cuts are the sole reason this nation’s economy is in the bed it’s lying in, even though the opposite party held all the cards, they still got a buy for two more years. That means something. One can’t say they were a worthless mistake that bankrupted the government, railroaded through both chambers by ignorant Republicans at the expense of our country.. …. because we passed them again.

All one can say now,….. it that our government is economically illiterate. 🙂

Metaphor

If only this had been offered up as evidence to the Supreme Court in December 2000.

I guess you get what you vote for.

Delaware Congressmen Mike Castle’ Legacy

Courtesy of DelawareLiberal.net