The basis for today’s discussion was a research piece recently published by the Independent Journal Review that nominated the eight best, or worse, quotes from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The most kind word I can say about her quotes and political actions and perceptions is that she and I live in two completely different worlds, two different realities.
In my opinion, she must be in a different world, given her following quotes and outlooks on life, outlooks that are totally in conflict with reality, the numbers, and common sense of today‘s America:
1. No Spending Problem Here
"It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem. We have a budget deficit problem that we have to address."
Comments: No spending problem? Consider the following realities:
- The Federal government spends about $10 billion a day, 365 days a year. For comparison, if you had spent $1,000 a day since the day Christ was born, you would still not have spent a billion dollars. The Federal government spends ten times more than that in one day.
- It spends about $410 million an hour.
- It spends about $7 million a minute.
- On average, every U.S. household would have to pay about $31,000 a year to cover the $3.6 TRILLION annual Federal budget.
- Since the U.S. median household income is about $50,000, about 60% of what an average U.S. household makes, pre-tax, each year would theoretically go to funding the Federal government.
- Excessive spending by the Federal government over the years has burdened current and future American generations with $17 TRILLION worth of national debt burden.
- That national debt burden has gone up by a whopping $5 TRILLION just since Obama took office.
- This $17 TRILLION national debt is over $50,000 for every U.S. citizen, from the youngest baby to the oldest senior citizen.
- If you could somehow liquidate the total wealth, not income, of Bill Gates, you could fund about only one week of Federal government spending, having no impact at all on the already $17 TRILLION of national debt.
- More generally, even if you confiscated the total wealth of the “richest” Americans, you probably could not fund even one year’s worth of Federal spending or have any impact on reducing the national debt with that total wealth confiscation.
- The Federal government spending over the past few years has been used to fund research to find out when dogs became man’s best friend, built a robotic squirrel to see how poisonous snakes would react to it, built an underwater treadmill to see if shrimp could run, studied the sex lives of a New Zealand snail species, built two Navy ships for $300 million that were immediately turned into scrap metal without every being used in service, built an $80 million State Department consulate in Afghanistan and THEN realized it was not defensible against terror attacks, etc., etc. etc. The volume and originality of how Washington politicians waste taxpayer wealth is endless.
There is only an excessive spending problem in Washington since regardless of how much you raise taxes, up to and including total wealth confiscation of rich Americans, you could never balance the current Federal spending budget or pay down the debt by increasing taxes. At least in my reality.
2. Unemployment Creates Jobs
"[Unemployment benefits] creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name." Pelosi also said it has the "double benefit" of helping those who lost their jobs and acting as a "job creator" on the side.
Comments: So in her world, it would be best to create more unemployment since that is the best way to create jobs. I am sure that the chronically unemployed, the 23 million Americans are so who are unemployed or under employed, would disagree with this conclusion.
The Federal government and state governments have probably paid out more in unemployment benefits over the past five years than in any other five year period in our history. And all it has done is make over 20 million American unemployed/under employed and resulted in a record number of consecutive months where the unemployment rate has been stuck well above 7%. No, Ms. Pelosi, unemployment benefits are not a job creating program in this world.
3. Health Independence?
“This week marks one year since the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. It captures the spirit of our founders. The spirit they wrote in the Declaration of Independence."
Comments: The spirit of the Declaration of Independence in my world, is one of liberty, freedom, free choice, minimal government interference in my life. In her world, as it pertains to Obama Care, the spirit of independence must mean:
- The government can force you to buy a product that you may or may not want or may or may not be able to afford.
- Failure to adhere to the government dictates, will result in fines and criminal record.
- The government can force you to go to doctors and hospitals, and other medical options that they want you to go to, not what you want to choose.
- The government can force insurance companies to drop the health care insurance policy that you were perfectly happy with since it fit your needs, not the needs of the Federal bureaucracy, forcing you to purchase a replacement policy that is likely more expensive with fewer benefits.
- The government can force you through a website process that endangers your personal identify protection and security simply because they are incapable of building a secure website.
- Politicians can call ordinary Americans who disagree with the tenets of the Obama Care legislation racists, members of the KKK, obstructionists, and any other number of personal slurs.
- The government can force this legislation down our throats even though the majority of Americans dislike it and want it substantially changed, fixed or repealed.
4. Obama Care Allows People to Quit Their Day-Jobs
"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or, eh, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance, or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk but not [be] job-locked because a child has asthma or someone in the family is bipolar. You name it. Any condition is job-blocking."
Comment: The problem is that the majority of Americans do not want to quit their day jobs. They want to keep their day jobs and also keep the health insurance coverage their day jobs include.
That is unlikely to happen with Obama Care since reputable researchers note that tens of millions of Americans are likely to lose their insurance next year when Obama Care causes employers to drop their current health insurance policies and programs.
As far as an artist, photographer or entrepreneurial being able to quit their day job, they can still do that but will still be without health insurance coverage since we now know that insurance coverage under Obama Care is likely to be more expensive for both deductibles and premiums and offer far fewer options for doctors, hospitals, and benefits. Nobody wins in this world.
5. Obama Care is Slashing Deficits
"Many of the initiatives that he passed are what are coming to bear now -- including the Affordable Care Act," Pelosi said. "The Affordable Care Act is bringing the cost of health care in our country down in both the public and private sector, and that is what is largely responsible for the deficit coming down."
The Affordable Care Act is already three times original cost estimates, now at $2.7 trillion over ten years and will add $6.2 trillion to the long-term debt. That’s how basic math works in this reality, Ms. Pelosi. How does it work in yours?
Oh, and be the way, according to analyses done of insurance costs listed under Obama Care health exchanges, the cost of insurance will not be coming down as you promise, in either the private or the public sector.
6. Government Fulfills Americans
“To some of us the role of government is about doing things for the American people to help them reach fulfillment."
Comment: I think most Americans agree that if we only could keep the 30% of so of our annual income that we send to Washington and other local politicians, we would find it much easier to reach fulfillment on our own.
If we did not send so much of our money to the political class to waste in so many ways, we could send our kids to better schools, we could take more vacations, we could start our own businesses, etc., finding individual fulfillment without your help.
Instead, not only to you get to confiscate a large percentage of our wages and earnings, you mismanage the economy so that just finding a job is so difficult, you read our emails, social media posts, and listen to our phone calls without our permission, you slander and demand those of us that do not agree with you positions on the issues, and you waste our wealth. You could not be any further away from helping us reach fulfillment if you tried.
7. Finding Out What's In Obama Care
"It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..."
Comment: This has to be her most inane comment ever. If, as Speaker of the House, she has no clue what was in the legislation, than why are we paying her and her 434 peers in Congress? What else do they have to do in Washington but develop legislation, READ legislation, and pass or not pass legislation?
She and the rest of them in Congress should be giving us a refund on their pay and benefits if they do not even know what they are voting on. An insult to our intelligence and common sense. Absolutely pathetic performance and quote in this reality.
8. Politics Getting in Obama's Way
"I don't think [Obama's] ever done anything for political reasons [...] This has been a president as bipartisan as any that I've seen."
Comment: Second most inane comment. Obama rammed Obama Care through Congress with absolutely no input from Republicans.
He has stood idly by as his political allies have called common citizens racists, homophobes, terrorists, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, a__h___s, whores, sluts, and other slanderous names simply for having a different opinion than him through the past few years.
When a Congressional member of his party said that a group of concerned citizens could just go to hell, he was silent.
He has directed the IRS to hassle, hinder, and abuse First Amendment rights of citizens who wanted to become actively politically.
He has ordered IRS audits on individuals who publicly condemned any of his policies.
Everything this President does is for political reasons, he is from the Chicago school of thug politics. If this is being bipartisan, I would truly hate to see him being partisan.
Different realities and perceptions of reality between Ms. Pelosi and myself. I would be laughing at her view of reality if it was not so destructive to the economy, the freedoms, and wealth in the reality that I and most Americans live in. To think that this individual was just two spots away from running the country is frightening to me.
For other memorable, out of this world quotes from Ms. Pelosi, please access the following ink, a link where we try hard to determine if her quotes and views would be best served by the SYFY channel of Comedy Central:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/12/nancy-pelosi-comedy-central-or-syfy.html
Her other world views are why we need to implement Federal term limits as soon as possible because, really, how much worse could it be if we replaced her and her peers with a whole new set of people:
www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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