That’s Right Nate

Today Eric Cantor released a Youtube video saluting himself and the other Republican members of the House for not voting for Obama’s stimulus plan.  I thought it was great and frankly it inspired me.  Here’s Mr. Cantor’s video:

Now that I know that Mr. Cantor is an Aerosmith fan, I chose appropriate music for my response as well:

John McCain today called Barrack Obama out today saying the economic stimulus plan was “a bad beginning,” out of step with the vow of bipartisanship both men made after Obama beat out the Republican presidential nominee for the White House in November. His BFF Lindsey Graham was even more blunt saying, “If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country’s screwed.”

Obviously, these are harsh words for a senator to utter about a sitting President, but consider that nobody is more hurt than Republicans. We really felt that Obama was somebody we could work with superficially and the stimulus package shows us that Obama isn’t really any different than any other Democrat. When Bill Clinton was in power we expected this sort of thing, but to have a President that we praised for being bipartisan pass a bill that we lauded for being very reasonable in such a partisan manner with only limited input from us is a low blow.  He even started trying to seduce our governors in the ultimate partisan low blow.  They’re our governors, not yours.

We need a President like George Bush who was “a uniter, not a divider”.  Obama’s managed to turn this whole situation critical during a time of economic crisis if there were a time of economic crisis, which I’m still not sure about.  With this kind of my way or the highway attitude, no wonder so many Republicans such as myself want Obama to fail.  We know we can’t work with such a partisan hack in the White House.  However, if Obama can manage to take a bill that we liked large parts of and that so many Republican governors supported and turn that into a classic example of partisanship, what will happen when he is faced with passing a bill that we don’t like.

I believe what everybody in this country wants right now is a stimulus package that is so badly designed and bloated with ridiculous earmarks that Republicans and Democrats can join together to vote against it. I’ve seen the videos of Republicans reaching out to Democrats this past week trying to get them to join us in our condemnation of the Obama plan. I applaud them for putting statesmanship over politics.

Unfortunately, the Democrats refuse to budge. During the vote in the House very few of them were willing to join us in unity by voting against Obama’s bill. Now that it has reached the Senate it feels like the problem has grown bigger. It is important that we do not let the truly awful be the enemy of the merely objectionable. We have done a great job opposing Obama on this. It is important that in arguing for more tax cuts that we do not cave in and agree to pass this bill. If we can’t get the Democrats to go along with us, we will have to stand alone in vilifying Obama’s stimulus plan. Let’s not let our desire to have Democrats condemn the bill with us lead us to a compromise.

Long time readers of this blog will remember Tom the Bartender from when the two of us discussed the election back in November.  Tom is what they call a man’s man.  He’s a throwback to an earlier time.  Life behind the bar has taught him a lot about life.  He’s had his share of ups and downs and knows how a woman can get a bit tipsy around closing time and pick up a bartender just to take him back to her place and stick with him a couple of years just so she can ride high on the child support gravy train.  Oh yeah, Tommy’s got some war stories.  He’s also a great judge of character, a trait that probably comes from seeing people stewing in their own vomit night in and night out.

“Heya Tommy!” I said as I took my customary stool at the end of the bar.

“Nate, it sure is good to see you,” he smiled as he poured me a draft, “business hasn’t been good”

“Really Tommy? I thought bars were recession proof,” I asked.

“Don’t I wish.  That Obama has messed up this economy and he’s only been President for like a week,” he grumbled.

“Its been 3 weeks Tom,” I corrected him.

“Geez, can’t we impeach him or something.  Did you hear what he said about my boy Rush?” he asked.

“He said people shouldn’t listen to Limbaugh.  I heard that.  Way to stand up for the 1st amendment Mr. President,” I agreed.

“He’s still sore that Limbaugh called him out on calling himself black a few years back,” chided Tom.

“He did?” I asked, “what did he say?”

Tom arched his brow deep in thought and replied, “He said Obama didn’t want to be black and should  just renounce being black and declare himself white.”

“Yeah,” I responded, “You’ve got to admit there are a lot of advantages in this country to not being white.”

“Tell me about it,” said Tom, “We’ve always got to be so politically correct.  Don’t get me wrong.  Rush and I have nothing against having a black President.  We just want him to be a miserable failure.”

“Yeah, I’ve been praying for the same thing, but I don’t think that’s racist.  I think its just being a patriot,” I agreed.

“And that’s one thing you are Nate.  Have the next one on me,” he said pouring me another draft.  “You know that stimulus package Obama is pushing is a load of crap and Rush is right to call him out on it.  All of our money is going to go to the unemployed and people without medical coverage.  How does that help me?  Those people don’t know how to manage their money.  That’s why their poor.  Give tax cuts to business and they’ll put those people to work.”

“That makes sense to me Tom.  When I’m doing well, I’m a big tipper,” I said.

“I don’t know about that, but you can bet I’m not getting huge tips from poor people.  They’re all concerned with feeding their family and paying for heat and stuff like that,” he said, “This stuff is all Keyesian Economics.   Don’t get me wrong, I like Alan Keyes, but he doesn’t know anything about economics.”

“So what does Rush want to do about the economy?” I asked.

“Well Rush says that since 46% of the country voted for John McCain, Rush should get to determine how to spend 46% of the stimulus package,” said Tom wiping down the bar.

“I read that in the Wall Street Journal,” I agreed, “I couldn’t believe he was willing to give him more than half.  I think Limbaugh really is very generous.”

“He’s a prince.  You know my wife’s uncle was one of his doctors.  He says Rush is a great guy.  You remember in 1994 when he pushed the Republican congress to shut down the government instead of compromising with Clinton,” He asked.

“Do I ever.  Those were some days,” I said.

“I think we can shut it down even longer this time.   You know you just have to have hope Nate,” said Tom.

“You sure Tommy.  You sure do,” I agreed and sipped my beer.

By all definitions one of the oldest and the most pervasive forms of socialism in the United States is so called public transportation.  Our taxes fund it and it allows people to ride downtown in style on the government dime instead of buying a car like a patriotic American.  The auto industry sure wouldn’t need government help if every person you saw on a bus or subway was buying their own car.  Think about it.  We’re paying for public transportation and then we’re paying to save the auto industry from people not buying cars.  We’re getting it on both ends.

The Republicans get it.  Refusing to be pressured or bullied by the all-powerful bus driver union, Republican Senators have managed to drastically cut the amount of the stimulus to $10,000,000 and the House intends to go even lower.  Meanwhile, we’re spending over three times that much on good old American roads.  Instead of using our hard earned tax dollars to pay for freeloaders to ride the bus.  The Democrats say we have to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but have you seen how cheap gas is now?    I can’t see it going back up anytime soon.

This is a moment for Republicans to pat themselves on the back.  Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee was in awe, “The reason for the reduction in overall funding — we took money out of Amtrak and out of aviation; we took money out of the Corps of Engineers, reduced the water infrastructure program, the drinking water and the wastewater treatment facilities and sewer lines, reduced that from $14 billion to roughly $9 billion — was the tax cut initiative that had to be paid for in some way by keeping the entire package in the range of $850 billion.”

Public transportation belongs to an older era.  It is a lot like those statues of Stalin they used to have in the Soviet Union, but thankfully its time has passed.  Transportation is far too important to be left to socialism.