Barack Obama - American Idiot?

Twice on Thursday I heard (I guess that I now have to call them “former”) Bushies refer to Barack Obama as an “idiot”. And one of these guys isn’t quite bright enough to tie his shoes. Okay, that’s a little harsh, but he’s not bright. I realized that when I found myself explaining to him that we KNOW that humans and dinosaurs didn’t coexist (as some creationists now insist) by the fact that the human bones are in a layer of Earth MILES shallower than the dinosaur bones.

A lot of this “idiot” talk seems focused around the economic stimulus package.

Okay, let’s review and see who the idiots are here, okay?

1) 42% of the economic stimulus package is tax breaks. Yes, you math whizzes, that’s pretty close to half. But the republicans aren’t happy because it’s forty percent instead of sixty percent. Personally, I think that if ANY of the stimulus package goes to major corporations or the wealthy, then we’re getting ripped off. I’ve said it before and, dog help me, I’ll probably have to say it again… the idea that giving MORE tax breaks to corporations will help the economy is so much of a fairy tale that it should actually read like this: “Once upon a time, tax breaks to corporations will help the American economy, and they all lived happily ever after.” IF WE GIVE PHIL KNIGHT A BIGGER TAX CUT, HE WILL NOT OPEN PLANTS IN AMERICA. HE STATED THIS VERY CLEARLY TEN YEARS AGO. HE WILL NOT EMPLOY AMERICANS. PERIOD. He’d probably buy a new yacht or something.

2) Most of the tax breaks are aimed at America’s diminishing and dying middle class. That’s right folks, tax relief for you and me all of a sudden and ain’t that grand? It still amazes me, though, that middle-class republicans will still argue that it would be better for Phil Knight and Bill Gates to get tax cuts than them. Talk about idiots.

3) Yes, there is a chunk of pork in the stimulus package. But 3-A) we are dealing with politicians and they will ALWAYS try to wedge their pork into ANYTHING and 3-B) some of this pork, regardless of how stupid it seems (like a million dollars for a butterfly enclosure) can be spelled like this: J-O-B-S. Think about Ms. Palin’s much-maligned “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska. It was actually from Ketchikan, Alaska to Gravina Island where the Ketchikan airport is. But realize, folks, than when Congress killed that particular piece of pork, they put people out of work. Or, at the very least, they cancelled a construction company’s project which equates to the same. How about if we did this instead… John Keynes, possibly the most quoted economist in history, said that when the economy was bad that the government should pay people to dig holes. Then it should pay them to fill the holes back in. How about if we did some of that, but in a beneficial way. For instance, building a bridge from the Alaskan mainland to Siberia? Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to drive from Alaska to Eastern Europe or Asia? And how much fun would it be to ride the Trans-Siberian railway from Anchorage across the Pacific Ocean to China? Or, to leave from Seattle in your car and wind up ten days later in France or Germany? I think that something like this would not only stimulate America’s economy, but it would do wonders for world peace and understanding.

4) The majority of the stimulus package is job creation. People grouse because that “idiot” Obama isn’t going to give us $300 worth of dope money each like that great economic genius George W. Bush did. TWICE! At the beginning and end of his reign of error. Guys, if he has to do it twice in eight years, that means that it didn’t work the first time! Get it? The very definition of insanity (or idiocy, in this case) is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different result. Do we want the same thing a third time to see if it works this time? NO! How about we try some long-term creation of jobs instead. Hey, what a concept. Maybe putting Americans to work instead of giving all of our jobs to 12 year old Chinese kids will boost our economy.

No, you’re not going to see the results of this economic package tomorrow. Probably not by the end of this year. Hopefully you’ll start seeing some results before the end of President Obama’s first term. But it is going to take time. It’s taken us almost thirty years of electing one corporatized president after another, each worse than the last, from Reagan to Bush to Clinton to Bush to get our economy in this shape, it’s going to take some time to get it back. And it’s going to take the determination of NOT voting for corporatized presidential candidates anymore. NO president who is beholden to corporations will do right by the American people. Period.

So let’s re-elect this “idiot” Obama who actually seems to have a PLAN for restoring America’s economy instead of just a lot of hot air about it, and then elect some other president without an endorsement deal after that. Or maybe we can overturn the 22nd amendment and just keep President Obama in office until he dies like we did Roosevelt… the LAST president to inherit and fix and seriously SNAFU American economy.

Peace.

Randal