Writing from his perch at the New York Times (2/8/10) Paul Krugman notes “We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.”
It isn’t clear who the “we” is in this paragraph, nor is “downfall” as obvious as Mr. Krugman infers. But the position is part of a declinist stance that has insinuated itself into elitist positions. And there is some justification for it.
After all, the Obama administration acts as if the U.S. should engage in withdrawal from all international obligations except those channeled through the United Nations or other international organizations.
With Obama’s 2010 budget, 42 cents of every dollar the federal government spends will have to be borrowed. In the last decade, foreign investors wound up lending the U.S. about half of the federal debt – with China and Japan providing about 50 percent of that sum through the purchase of U.S. Treasury securities. In fact, China is the largest holder of U.S. dollars in the world, a position that might compromise U.S. foreign policy decisions in the Pacific and elsewhere.
"New York Republican Rick Lazio's lackluster gubernatorial campaign has propelled some members of his own party to court a Democrat to switch sides and lead the charge against likely Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo this fall.
Top Republican officials are scheduled to meet Tuesday with Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy in Albany, signaling a lack of confidence in Mr. Lazio's low-buzz campaign and his anemic fund raising.
"People just don't see the campaign taking off the way they would hope a Republican campaign would," said John Graziano, chairman of the Albany County Republican Committee. "There's still a lingering understanding that maybe somebody else will come on board that might be better able to win the governor's race for us."
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Rick Lazio in New York after Rudy Giuliani endorsed him in December
Mr. Levy suggested Republicans were interested in him running in part because Mr. Lazio was short on detailed policy prescriptions. "No one even comes close to the type of specifics that I've laid out to radically change this state," Mr. Levy said.
Mr. Lazio, a 51-year-old from Long Island who served four terms in Congress, is best known for his unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2000. He is the only major announced candidate for the GOP nomination in the governor's race. In December, Mr. Lazio won the backing of fellow Republican Rudy Giuliani, after the former New York City mayor announced he wouldn't join the contest...
Post your caption in the comments section and we will choose the top two captions at the end of the week. First place gets 2 points and second place will receive 1 point. Enjoy!!
Thank you to last week's players. The results are below.
The DN's Erin Einhorn reports Administrative Law Judge Robert Beltrani - the Republican running against Hiram Monserrate and Assemblyman Jose Peralta in the March 16 special election for Monserrate’s seat - attended the event at City Hall.
“I'm here...to support this measure and to bring attention to the seriousness of the domestic violence issue, and to let people know that the people in government, in courts, are here to stand up and protect both men and women but more often than not we hear about the women,” Beltrani said.
After, the press conference, Beltrani made the (rather obvious) point that domestic violence is an issue in the 13th SD race.
...In 2007, Erika Delia was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Beltrani and Ortiz were joined by members of Erika Delia's family, including Forest Hills Republican leader, Dee Maddis who was Erika's Aunt...
add this to the list of outrages by our government workforce...
...Charlie Rangel isn't alone. Our federal workforce refuses to pay nearly a billion dollars a year worth of overdue taxes? They all should be fired - and this doesn't even take into account what many say is happening in our local bureacracy as well. Municipal union leaders really are puppeteers...
Democrats in Congress pushing health care “reform” are looking more dubious by the day.Still spewing the same talking points from last year – even though we are led to believe this is a different, more acceptable bill – are trying to convince the public and themselves that Obamacare is everything and more than what the President promised.
But when you take a look at the 1,000+ pages of proposed law, as difficult as that may be, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that none of the President’s promises will be kept and in fact – will do the opposite.Signing into law Obamacare will be a devastating blow to the economy, the medical industry, medical innovation, health insurance, drug companies, the public and the world – this is crystal clear.(If only this statement was a scare tactic instead of being just scary, I wouldn’t be so concerned.)...
Word comes today that House Democrats might be poised to torpedo ObamaCare all on their own. Based on the previous vote, minus retirements and resignations, if another vote were held right now it could end in a tie of 216-216. Some people counting the votes though have found at least two block of Democrats who either stated they won't vote for the current bill or haven't publicly signed up to support reconciliation.
Support for dropping Saturday delivery by the U.S. Postal Service is 58% according to Rassmussen. What would it be for every other day delivery? Rick Newman's at U.S. News & World Report puts forth the idea.
Carl Rove's "Courage and Consequence." will be on sale next week. Peter Barker has a list of the characters Rove discusses.
On economic policy and VAT (the value-added tax beloved of European socialist governments), is the GOP moving from the party of Ronald Reagan to the party of Nelson Rockefeller once again? The Republican position: "If it's true that the level of spending cuts needed to shrink deficits are politically unrealistic" . . . then we must subject ourselves to astronomical tax increases by way of VAT, a new national sales tax.
That's precisely why the GOP needs to begin making the argument to replace the welfare state now. We cannot jump on the slippery slope of abandoning substantial cuts in government spending because they supposedly are "politically unrealistic". Let's replace all government spending on entitlements with a cash benefit to all adult U.S. citizens over age 21.
"Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, the former chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, recently wrote in favor of a VAT if part of the revenue was dedicated to deficit reduction. If it's true that the level of spending cuts needed to shrink deficits are politically unrealistic, explains Mankiw, then "a VAT is...the best of a bunch of bad alternatives. Conservatives...should be willing to swallow a VAT as long as they get enough other things from the deal.” For Mankiw, the "other things" are primarily deficit reduction....
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is the “father of the subprime crisis” and his aggressive attacks on Wall Street could make him dangerous to the banking sector if he becomes the next governor of New York, well-known banking analyst Dick Bove told CNBC.
“One of the key reasons why [Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac are] bankrupt today, and why the government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in supporting them, is because of the edicts pushed through by Mr. Cuomo,” said Bove, of Rochdale Securities, in a live interview...
Have you been reading what's going on across the Hudson? New Jersians put aside their liberal leanings and decided to elect a law enforcer to manager the state. For someone who was being criticized for not being more specific on how he'd fix things, Chris Christie has been dropping the gauntlet on out of control spending, while fighting to prevent any tax increases.
Recently, the governor spoke to one hundred of the state's mayors to explain how it's time to act and fix the problem. The state has a spending fever. It needs to sweat it out and deal whether it takes six months, a year, or his whole term...
In a fit of bipartisanship Congress voted earlier today, not once but twice, to defeat a measure to tack on additional $13 billion to a $108 billion job-creation package pending in the Senate. Who says the Congress is broken.
Writing from his perch at the New York Times (2/8/10) Paul Krugman notes “We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.”
