tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post1093094360309930482..comments2024-03-28T17:49:27.846-04:00Comments on Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org : Government MoneyDaniel Greenfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-6977405492989824052013-03-27T14:33:34.455-04:002013-03-27T14:33:34.455-04:00I am a voracious reader of economics, government a...I am a voracious reader of economics, government and law--of all that I've read, this article is the most timely and important of them all. Everyone needs to read this. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-31740338805479349662013-03-19T09:32:10.647-04:002013-03-19T09:32:10.647-04:00Mr. Greenfield,
You are entirely right about the G...Mr. Greenfield,<br />You are entirely right about the Govt. and their cronies, the insider deals, the influence pedlars and their clients. It is near to impossible for the electorate to modify federal Govt. behavior through appeals to their Congressional Representatives, which is why it is essential that power be devolved back to the states. <br />However if you go up a level, to the UN and it's attendant bureaucracy and cronies, you will see a cesspool of corruption, nepotism, cronyism and decadence that make our Fed . Govt. seem like Pollyanna. <br />regards<br />roger in florida Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-4166842872445163292013-03-19T05:38:26.813-04:002013-03-19T05:38:26.813-04:00But, but, but it's all for the children!But, but, but it's all for the children!Michael J Kubathttp://ergonom3.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-41139333749881327162013-03-19T00:03:15.476-04:002013-03-19T00:03:15.476-04:00And Obama will still be able to override it.
The ...And Obama will still be able to override it.<br /><br />The larger problem is we're all out the law abiding thing.<br /><br />The Government-Media Complex can no longer be stopped with laws or bills. <br /><br />If it could, it would be stopped by the Constitution.Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-33885288134744799162013-03-18T22:59:32.904-04:002013-03-18T22:59:32.904-04:00If there's an honest person left in the Congre...If there's an honest person left in the Congress s/he'll introduce a bill tomorrow making that Cyprus theft thing criminal here. Ah, but is there an honest person left in the Congress? Is there really? You have to wonder.Dick Stanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08928787462157704978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-69644093730104426722013-03-18T20:51:47.083-04:002013-03-18T20:51:47.083-04:00And just imagine how many more trillions the Thug ...And just imagine how many more trillions the Thug Governments believe they can scam using the scientisty Climate Trick - one of oldest long-cons in the playbook.NotClauswitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13460199597231661863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-41546383829819670322013-03-18T15:21:25.325-04:002013-03-18T15:21:25.325-04:00FrugalFrigate: Thanks for the seconding. Of cours...FrugalFrigate: Thanks for the seconding. Of course, a Constitutional amendment that would prohibit Congress from interfering with trade would need to be upheld by a Supreme Court not of its present composition, except perhaps for Clarence Thomas, who is a strict constitutionalist, and not an "interpretative one." Everyone else now on the bench would need to go, including the "wise Latina lady" and the other female of dubious gender and especially the one who said Arab countries should model their constitutions on the South African model, Ginsburg. I remarked in private correspondence that Obama is a nihilist who even destroys golf, and he has gone after the Supreme Court, as well, to reduce it to a robed marionette that does his bidding and sanctions his destruction. The idiotic dithering over whether or not ObamaCare represented a tax or "trade regulation" is a case in point. Lobbyists would never go away, even with such an amendment; they just wouldn't be able to make any headway in Congress if congressmen and senators knew they could be upbraided by the Court and actually punished if they tried to pull a fast one on the country. Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-10333306443184950222013-03-18T12:32:12.755-04:002013-03-18T12:32:12.755-04:00There are probably tens of thousands of people in ...There are probably tens of thousands of people in the country who could articulate conservatism better than any high-stature elected official. The reason none of them gets elected seems to be partially that it's in to many currently powerful people's interest to preserve the status quo, so the access to money needed to get elected isn't good for the good articulators, and partially that if you just come out with an unabashed articulation you are likely to get defeated in most places. Ted Cruz and Scott Walker are reasonably good, so regardless of their flaws I wish them well.IgorRhttp://www.gmail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-66847951435265488992013-03-18T12:18:06.895-04:002013-03-18T12:18:06.895-04:00Unfortunately there hasn't been anyone who was...Unfortunately there hasn't been anyone who was good for the brand since Reagan. The thinking in some circles that one term of O would lead to such an emergence backfired badly. The GOP is trying to tilt even further left in response.<br /><br />Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-84704459080516697362013-03-18T12:01:57.959-04:002013-03-18T12:01:57.959-04:00Daniel, yes, not only Kerry in 2004 but perhaps (a...Daniel, yes, not only Kerry in 2004 but perhaps (and of course we'll never know) Gore would have served our interests better in 2000. Look at it this way: a self-imposed Global Warming Tax (although not a treaty to that effect) can be fairly easily reversed, but an Amnesty cannot be at all, and Obamacare is proving to be not easily reversible.<br /><br />Regardless of any possible scenarios, everyone had to realize that Obama is a response to Bush. Of course Bush was in any meaningful sense more patriotic than Obama, but he spent like a drunken sailor and had a VP who had once famously claimed that deficits don't matter, he could not articulate conservatism if his life depended on it, he could not explain the financial crisis or his response to it, he did not deal with the "weapons of mass destruction" issue in a way that inspired confidence, he did not fight in Afghanistan to win and was totally confused about what it meant to spread democracy, he did do Medicare Part D that will wind up costing trillions, he advocated for Amnesty. Were it not for the Democrats becoming outright Communists, who in their right mind would want someone like Bush? An uncommunicative fake conservative Globalist with his love of the family values south of the Rio Grande and for various Saudi sheiks? A man whose whole career was orchestrated by the evil Karl Rove who skillfully and effectively fights true conservatism from the inside? Bush's family is like poison, the reaction of most conservatives to Jeb Bush and the possibility of him running for President is one of revulsion and dread.<br /><br />Bush poisoned the brand, confused the electorate, and is directly responsible for Obama and the resultant state of the country. Until the bulk of the Republican Party can easily articulate what was good and more importantly what was bad about him, this will indicate a lack of clarity, a lack of introspection and the inability to win elections.IgorRhttp://www.gmail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-9749181407067776452013-03-18T11:36:51.583-04:002013-03-18T11:36:51.583-04:00I agree with Edward Cline: "A Constitutional ...I agree with Edward Cline: "A Constitutional amendment that prohibited Congress and the Executive from restricting, regulating or controlling trade – which in effect would put an end to the lobbying business in Washington D.C. and all moneyed interests."<br /><br />I would add that repealing the 16th Amendment would prevent the government from getting so bloated and it would limit its scope to its proper and only role: protection of individual freedom and property. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-22406003336136276352013-03-18T11:09:06.576-04:002013-03-18T11:09:06.576-04:00A Kerry victory in 2004 would have, in retrospect,...A Kerry victory in 2004 would have, in retrospect, served our interests better, especially if the economic crisis would have made Kerry a one term president.<br /><br />Obama could still have run in 2012 and President Romney or McCain in 2008 wouldn't have been that great a prize, but it would have been better than what we have now.Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-23769392211677560942013-03-18T10:47:49.637-04:002013-03-18T10:47:49.637-04:00IgorR: If you want a dramatization of how the loot...IgorR: If you want a dramatization of how the looters' economy works – or doesn't work, because all such a system can guarantee is collapse – read Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." AG: If you want a dramatization of how a looters' government works internally – complete with extortion, blackmail, arm-twisting, fraud, log-rolling, compromise, media-bias, posturing, corporate lobbying, and even murder – watch Netflix's "House of Cards," particularly the Kevin Spacey version, in which all the villains are popularly-elected Democrats. MindReader: An electorate bent on looting the rich would vote for naught if there were a Constitutional amendment that prohibited Congress and the Executive from restricting, regulating or controlling trade – which in effect would put an end to the lobbying business in Washington D.C. and all moneyed interests. Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-57298470290637133632013-03-18T10:45:56.423-04:002013-03-18T10:45:56.423-04:00Tabitha, no I was not suggesting that Kerry would ...Tabitha, no I was not suggesting that Kerry would have been better, although he would have been better than Obama, and without Bush's profligacy we would not get Obama, so think about the implications of that. What I was suggesting was that Karl Rove essentially admitted that he had made a calculation that to win reelection he needed the seniors' votes, and Medicare Part D was a deliberate attempt to buy them. The seniors responded, and George Bush was reelected. The fact that the American electorate is so easily bought off by expenditures that are not paid for and cannot be reasonably paid for indicates that something is fundamentally wrong about it, and explains how the worst President in history, namely Obama, can win reelection after fully demonstrating what he is all about. You can call them idiots, you can call them selfish, but whatever it is they are not thinking correctly or at all about the interest the country.IgorRhttp://www.gmail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-65161504928601268512013-03-18T10:06:35.734-04:002013-03-18T10:06:35.734-04:00A great article. I just wish everyone in America c...A great article. I just wish everyone in America could read and understand it. Maybe then people would finally be able to do something before the whole country self-destructs.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09518677967627217789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-57859577383202437772013-03-18T10:00:09.777-04:002013-03-18T10:00:09.777-04:00As a readers living in Europe, I can tell you this...As a readers living in Europe, I can tell you this article is spot on. The cost of government in the EU has become massive, with the MEPs being essentially unanswerable to an electorate for long periods of time, but the appointed bureaucrats of the EU not answerable at all. The regulations spew out like a flood, costing societies ever more money while diminishing freedom. The press is largely at fault in the moment, for a new movement such as Alternativen für Deutschland is ridiculed, when all it proposes is taking back fiscal sovereignty. Socialism is dying because no amount of funding can satisfy it, and its politicians are both voracious and now angry that the game begins to come to its end. Limiting government, and probably severely, is an answer, but the slow and consistent building down as is happening in Sweden is another, while Iceland's recovery is another. All the gloom and doom of the socialists are lies, and all the elite want is more -- both power and money, from all else who should have less of both. It becomes a time ripe for revolution, but not of the Marxist sort. Rather the inverse. Thank you for a fine article which I will pass on in translation to interested parties.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-15901839824899624152013-03-18T09:50:19.463-04:002013-03-18T09:50:19.463-04:00arasina, yes you're rightarasina, yes you're rightDaniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-6183759608932054052013-03-18T09:09:52.719-04:002013-03-18T09:09:52.719-04:00Even before OKKKupy Wall St movement where the Lef...Even before OKKKupy Wall St movement where the Left started to glob onto this clarion call of Wealth disparity and redistributionist ideals, they claimed that wealthy outsiders have bought and paid for the politicians. Logically this makes little sense to me. How could wealthy people buy wealthy people? It's like the "what do you buy the guy with everything" thing. <br /><br />Look at our politicians, they have plenty of money. The only thing they ever need or want is more power. And this pitting Americans against wealthy people grants them more power. It is the greatest bait and switch ever pulled off. It is a bigger illusion than David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear. <br /><br />Then you realize, if politicians seeing this popular sentiment really wanted to get more power, they could easily with the stroke of a pen, legislate a wealthy person into the poor house. DC holds all the power. And they have ne need for more wealth. Big Oil makes a 2% profit per gallon of gas; this would put any company under. But Government currently with State and Fed combined make a 48% per gallon profit. And gas is now almost $4 a gallon. And the Government's profits were meant to go to maintenance of infrastructure. But now they need Trillions in stimulus to do that. <br /><br />Wealth establishments don't own politicians, the politicians own them. The donations are simply to be allowed to continue playing. The bigger the contribution, the more favorability they get. And when you read the New Leviathan, you'll see that this is the only reason Microsoft ever did so well. Gates knew this from day one.<br />AGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-14173002232087720272013-03-18T05:56:28.098-04:002013-03-18T05:56:28.098-04:00Excellent piece, Daniel. I'm going to dare to...Excellent piece, Daniel. I'm going to dare to share it with people who aren't among the choir to whom we all preach. I hope it gets some thick noggins thinking.<br /><br />Side note: I hope you'll forgive me for pointing this out, but I'm a proofreader and this sentence bothers me: "Even the worst company in the world isn't as larcenously extortionate as the politicians who spend and kick back, and then raise cry poverty and raise taxes." (It looks to me like an extra "raise" was left in when editing; am I wrong?) :-)<br /><br />~arasina~Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-83823486950512986822013-03-18T05:46:36.263-04:002013-03-18T05:46:36.263-04:00"We have met the enemy... and he is us"...."We have met the enemy... and he is us".<br />Marcelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14390860623982451091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-89419264890626061872013-03-18T02:08:10.895-04:002013-03-18T02:08:10.895-04:00and Yes Daniel, you may be on the spot with this f...and Yes Daniel, you may be on the spot with this filleting analysis, but what? Do you think that even if the conservatives ever manage to get back in office against the tide of immigrant/entitlement voters of the left they could shrink this water-headed government/bunch-o'-crooks more than marginally? A non-/or bloody revolution with lobbed of heads and hundreds of thousand of death? Even after such a cleansing, in the day and age of speedy everything the system would be back to near bloat within a decade look at Russia where the names of the thieves hardly changed and only a veneer of liberty has been applied. You are great at pointing out the hurts of today's America even world, but due to our being a mass we have reached Titanic like inertia of motion, once sailing almost impossible to steer into an other direction.mindRiderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160934421830568737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-21728657125445544472013-03-18T01:52:50.114-04:002013-03-18T01:52:50.114-04:00IgorR;
Are you really suggesting the 'progres...IgorR; <br />Are you really suggesting the 'progressive' John Kerry would have done a better job with the economy? Comeon! LOL<br />The GOP seriously needs to start putting up conservative candidates though.. Bush was a big gov't operator & not typical of the GOP base. That's been the problem with every candidate in the GOP's recent past. They'd actually win with a true fiscal conservative!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14003614722337024086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-9931532502042524032013-03-18T01:18:43.545-04:002013-03-18T01:18:43.545-04:00One of Daniel's best essays on the looters'...One of Daniel's best essays on the looters' economy, and how it won't work for those with no "pull," "connections," or "input." If you can't grasp his points here, you ought to be sent to a teachers' college, which notoriously, given the caliber of teachers such colleges turn out, is a kind of "finishing school" for the obtuse and the thick-headed. My hat is off to the author. I think he ought to have adopted the title instead of "The Road to Serfdom, and How to Get There." Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-46823862616187598902013-03-18T01:15:27.008-04:002013-03-18T01:15:27.008-04:00Well whose fault is it? The idiot voters who love...Well whose fault is it? The idiot voters who love Obama and who re-elected George Bush because of Medicare Part D. But don't worry, Japan will disintegrate because it's further down along the Krugman Highway, so maybe everybody will look and learn not to do that. So in the end it all comes down to how educable the idiots are. If that doesn't make you feel safe nothing will.IgorRhttp://www.gmail.comnoreply@blogger.com