I was thinking about Ronald Reagan today, not really hard to do as I often pass the sign noting the freeway turn-off to the Reagan Presidential Library. How is policy of cutting taxes stimulated the economy and was roundly criticized by the democrats as either “trickle down” or “voodoo” economics.

It was interesting that the theory of funneling money to those in the top of the food chain was started long ago in the late 1800’s when it was referred to as the horse-and-sparrow theory. The theory was that if you fed a horse enough oats, they would crap enough to feed the sparrows on the road. Somewhat tasteless and inelegant, but you get the idea.

Although former President Reagan did not specifically develop the “trickle down” theory, it was generally believed, mostly by the democrats, that the Republican economic plan was fairly simple: cut tax rates at the top and that would encourage investment in our economy which would serve to benefit those at the lower end of the income scale. According to the democrats, this was pure hokum as the money stayed within the top tier of the economic spectrum and the “little people” suffered. But then again, the whole democratic party is about victimhood and suffering – where the only relief and redress can be found by voting democrat.

So I thought I would take a look back at what the democrats were saying …

Steny Hoyer (D-MD) now serves as the House Majority Leader and was the democrat House Whip in 2003. Here is one of Hoyer’s press releases in response to a Reagan speech.

Ironies abound …

Leaving aside the irony of President Obama blaming George Bush for every social and economic ill under the sun and the angst at losing 3 million jobs, has anyone noticed that President Obama is the epitome of “trickle down economics” – pumping  BILLIONS into failed companies at the top of the food chain and, with the exception of the Cash for Clunkers” program, little or nothing was done to stimulate growth at the bottom. For those who are quick to point out the stimulus checks, might I remind you that, for most of us, it represented an advance payment on our next year’s income tax refund. It was our money anyway!

Most of these top tier financial corporations either used the money to purchase the assets of other financial institutions or shore up their own balance sheets. In fact, much of the money is still in the Federal Reserve’s computers to meet the mandatory capital reserves requirement needed to avoid being judged “unsound” by the regulatory agencies. There was little or no commercial or consumer lending to be found.

That is except for the continuing amounts of money pumped into credit card transactions which were charged to consumers at a return rate of 18%-24% offering the consumer little or no relief.

As for mortgage mitigation efforts, the truth is that all of the efforts to-date are voluntary and favor the banks over the homeowner.

If President Obama wanted to really do something significant to shore up the housing industry, he could have urged the banks to write-off the worthless 2nd and 3rd lien and also consider sums owned under HELOCs (Home Equity Lines of Credit) to be similarly worthless. The he could have asked the banks to revalue the existing mortgage loans to their current value and re-price the payments accordingly. Of course this would mean that the financial institutions would have to book big losses and run the risk of having some of them being ruled as being “unsound.” Heaven forbid, Barack Obama, man of the people, would take this action against the big money boys who were getting richer and richer on his watch.

A paradox?

How can a grass-roots organizer pump billions of dollars into the big money crowd and ignore the little people? Probably by using the same media-driven Orwellian tactics they use to convince people black is white, up is down and evil is good. One need only remember that the democrats voted against most of the civil rights legislation and that the true reform was offered by the Republicans. That the democrats get away with fraud and corruption with impunity – only because the Republicans make a big deal out of “family values,” where democrats make no such claim to respect the family or even a moral code.

Look around you …

While Obama speaks those pretty pre-written and tested speeches using his dual TelePrompTers, look at what his Administration has done.

• Circumvented the Constitution and the Senate by appointing czars, forty-four at last count, to shadow positions within the government – bypassing the Constitutional requirement of Senate confirmation. Possibly because some of these people hold such radical views, divergent from the mainstream, they could not be confirmed or they forgot to pay their taxes or have similar foibles in their background.
• Putting forth a TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) which featured little or no accountability for funds use, was re-purposed into uses unintended by the Congress and, in general, remains to be spent.
• Then came the “no earmarks” spending package which contained approximately 9,000  earmarks – renamed to something else because they did not have a direct link to a specific congressional representative.
• Then there is the “cap and trade” program which does absolutely nothing to solve America’s energy needs and everything to assert political control, raise taxes, enlarge the government and curtail personal freedoms.
• Now comes healthcare reform which needed to be renamed to healthcare insurance reform because the spin-tests and focus groups indicated people hated insurance companies and were unlikely to notice that they were being royally screwed by a program which had yet to be written and which leaves the actual implementation up to unelected Administration officials.

I call bullshit!

Obama has attempted to move America down the road to socialism in one fell swoop. Mostly by adhering to the original Marxist/Communist plan of bankrupting America and gutting her social institutions – so the new Marxist institutions can arise and the government can assume control in a bloodless coup d'état. One need only look at the unions and the educational scene to find that socialism is alive and growing stronger in America.

But people are starting to wake up …

In fact, the only things that Obama seems to have mastered is his media message which confuses style with substance, oratory in which he often stumbles when forced to speak extemporaneously “off-the-cuff,” and basketball –- where it is common courtesy to let the Chief win the game. Even when he attempted to play the “race card” to divert the public’s attention from his failing programs, he screwed that up and wound up inviting two nobodies to the White House for a beer.

We are finding out that Obama is fast becoming a self-serving Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton: all words and the proponent of the “don’t do as I do, do as I say” victimhood philosophy.

The solution: starting with the 2010 election and culminating in the 2012 Presidential election …

Be well, be safe and take care of yourself and your family first.

-- steve

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OneCitizenSpeaking: Saying out loud what you may be thinking …

Reference Links: 

Office of the House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer