By Mr. Curmudgeon

If all you hear is the Democratic leadership, and their mouthpieces in the media, you’d think Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) wants to eat your kids. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused Bunning of “standing between these…families and the help they need while these benefits expire…” Reid was speaking of a Senate measure to extend funding for unemployment benefits and government make-work infrastructure projects. In reality, all Bunning did was object to a Senate unanimous consent order, which allowed the Senate to increase the nation’s debt by 10 billion dollars – breaking a pay-as-you-go law recently passed by the Senate at President Obama’s request. When confronted with this fact, Reid accused Bunning of “lecturing the country on pay-go, something he didn’t vote for.” That may be so, but Reid and his Democratic majority certainly did. But they won’t let the laws they pass get in the way of buying votes.

Not to be outdone by her Democratic colleagues, the Rhino Republican from Maine, Sen. Susan Collins, pleaded on behalf of adding to the nation’s crushing debt. “I want to emphasize that this issue is so important on senators on both side of the aisle. Many of my colleagues have expressed concerns to me that this was not done last week…”

Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) told the New York Times, “We have to quit complaining about unsustainable debt and passing new spending programs every week.”

In the end, Sen. Bunning, pressured by big-spending compassionate conservative Republicans, relented to allow billions more to be heaped on our mountainous national debt.

It’s disingenuous for Democrats to claim they couldn’t have found $10 billion dollars to siphon away from Obama’s pork-filled $3.5 trillion dollar budget. ACRON can certainly do without funding from sugar daddy Washington. And the aren’t the only ones.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Dim bulb Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is concerned about domestic violence. “I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand. Why? Men don’t have jobs…Men, when they’re out of work, tend to become abusive.” Reid made these claims to justify the $15 billion dollar Senate “jobs bill.” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi included domestic violence as a “pre-existing condition” covered under ObamaCare. “You’ve survived domestic violence, and now you are discriminated [against] in the insurance market because you have a pre-existing medical condition. Well, that will all be gone,” said Pelosi.

Reid’s comments seem like a not so veiled threat. With Nevadans unlikely to return Reid to the United States Senate, Reid will join the unemployed later this year, increasing his tendency “to become abusive.” Reid seems to be saying, “reelect me or I’ll go Neanderthal.”

By Mr. Curmudgeon

With nearly one trillion dollars spent to “stimulate” the economy, and nothing to show for it but a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, the president is suddenly interested in dealing with his massive budget deficit. And President Obama would like Republicans, in the spirit of “reaching across the aisle,” to lend a hand in fleecing the American public for more cash to spread around. “There are some on the right who won’t enter into serious discussions about deficits without preconditions. But those who preach fiscal discipline have to be willing to take the hard steps necessary to achieve it.” That’s Democrat-speak for, “we’ve ordered the meal and finished the dessert, now help us find some poor stiff to stick with the bill.”

Obama found just the Republican to provide cover for big-spending Democrats: accommodationist Alan Simpson, former Republican Senator from Wyoming. Both in 1982 and again in 1990, Simpson joined with Democrats in efforts that were supposed to reduce the federal budget deficit. In the 1990 deal negotiated at Andrews Air Force Base, the agreement called for $2 dollars in spending cuts for every $1 dollar in tax hikes. The Democrats kept the tax hikes and nixed the spending cuts. Simpson is just the kind of Republican Obama needs to co-chair his debt commission. Simpson was easy to distinguish at Obama’s White House ceremony to kick off the creation of the debt commission. He was the guy with the word “chump” written on his forehead with indelible felt marker and a “kick me” sign taped to his back.

Sandra Fabry at Americans for Tax Reform said of the former Senator, “Alan Simpson has a history of walking into a room with the stated goal of reform – and in both cases he voted for higher taxes and higher spending, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. There is no reason to believe that things would be different this time around – when you put everything on the table, including damaging tax hikes, taxpayers will more than likely be sold out.” Fabry is obviously not in tune with Washington terminology. Simpson isn’t “selling out,” he – like Sen. John McCain – just wants to “get things done for the country.” The term selling out sounds so harsh. Obama, Pelosi and Reid would rather we use “bipartisan compromise.” The honeyed words will lesson the sting of the dagger’s blade as they plunge it in our backs.

Gee, I wonder what term Joe-The-Plumber would use to describe Obama’s bipartisan debt commission, and if it’s appropriate to repeat in polite company?

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Sixty years of Camelot is ending – not with a bang but a whimper. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), son of the late Edward Kennedy, announced his retirement from politics. “…My life has taken a new direction,” Kennedy said in a video to his dwindling supporters, “and I will not be a candidate for re-election this year.” Recollecting past glories, Kennedy thanked his constituents for looking past his family’s deep pathological character flaws, “When I made missteps or suffered setbacks,” Kennedy said, referring to his DUI conviction and addiction to drugs and alcohol, “you responded not with contempt but with compassion.” Looking at recent polls, however, Kennedy is lucid enough to know that the voter compassion once felt for him and many of his fellow Democrats has morphed into a bubbling caldron of contempt.

In a speech endorsing then candidate Obama for president, Sen. Ted Kennedy said, “I came to the Senate to get things done. We’ve been able to achieve a number of important achievements, and I want to continue that. My interest is in getting things done, and I think he [Obama] has the ability to bring people together.” The late “Lion of the Senate” was correct. Just a year after taking the oath of office, Barack Husain Obama has united a formidable army of Americans against his and Kennedy’s destructive agenda to “get things done.” That agenda has plunged the nation, Chappaquiddick- like, off the road of fiscal sanity and into the murky depths of red ink. The Tea Party rescued Massachusetts by installing Scott Brown in Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. With their help, they may rescue the rest of the country from the submerged vehicle in which Obama and the Kennedy clan have abandoned us.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

At a time when energy costs are starting to rise, President Obama is struggling to see that his Chinese partner, who imports 11 percent of its oil from Iran, is well supplied in the event China joins the West in placing economic sanctions on Persia’s mullahs. Obama is hoping and praying the economic giant will help his bankrupt country prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The question then arises: If China didn’t prevent its North Korea ally from developing nukes, what makes Obama think they’ll lift a finger to stop Iran? If anything, China reasons for helping Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are less craven and more threatening than the spineless weak sisters of the European Union.

Under pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia agreed to make up the loss to China in oil imports resulting from sanctions placed on Iran. Of America’s recent $6.5 billion dollar arms deal with Taiwan – which was arranged during the Bush administration – Obama nixed the sale of F-18 fighter jets and diesel-operated submarines. Obama, I’m sure, was surprised this bow to China didn’t curry much favor with our Asian “partner.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Nixon, the U.S. State Department and American industry believed material wealth would convert China from an aggressive totalitarian beast into a docile materialistic giant. It never occurred to them That China was nimble enough to be both. Like the old saying goes, “Fame and riches are fleeting. Stupidity is eternal.”

By Mr. Curmudgeon

A new movement is about to sweep the globe, and Greece – the cradle of democracy – seems to be leading the way. The debt-ridden Hellenic Republic is no longer able to sustain the socialist government’s behemoth budget deficit, and is unable to refinance the country’s upcoming $28 billion dollar payments to nervous investors come this April and May. The threat of default precipitated a fall in world markets as anxious investors eye the growing debt accumulation of nations around the world. Having exhausted other avenues to deal with its debt, ugly reality forced Greece to do what for many spendthrift governments is a last resort – they’re instituting austerity measures. But Greek civil servants are furious at the government’s attempts cut back the public sector. This is understandable in light of the fact that one out of three Greeks works for the state.

Klafthmonos Square, in the capitol city Athens, provided the venue for one angry bureaucrat who screamed through his bullhorn, “We won’t pay for their crisis! Not one euro to be sacrificed to the bankers!” In other words, he was more than willing to take money from bankers; he’s just not willing to pay it back. He exemplifies the child-like view of nanny state paper-pushers who believe governments are exempt from the treacherous crosscurrents of reality.

President Clinton once told a joint session of Congress “the era of big government is over.” Of course, he only said so after the Democratic Party lost control of both houses of Congress due to Hillary’s attempt to nationalize health care. The greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression is insuring that the age of big government is indeed over.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Scott Brown hasn’t been in Washington more than a week and Democrats are already trying to co-opt him. The Democratic Congress is now spending taxpayer dollars at such a furious pace it has to raise the debt ceiling another $1.9 trillion dollars, taking the nation’s total debt to $14.3 trillion dollars. Obama’s unsustainable spending has so alarmed Americans, Massachusetts voters put a Republican in Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat to curb the madness. In response, Congress – with Obama’s blessing – is proposing to create of a bipartisan commission designed to rein-in spending, a responsibility the Constitution mandates to Congress and not commissions.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a Brown spokesman, told POLITICO.com, “If he were present, Brown would vote yes for the bipartisan plan…” As with most Democratic plans calling for bipartisanship, this commission is designed to provide political cover for Democrats itching to raise taxes. If this proposed bipartisan body voted to raise taxes, even with all Republican members voting no, the New York Times can accurately report that a “commission made up of both Democrats and Republicans” recommended a tax hike. It’s a neat trick, and one Republicans continually fall for.

In response to the public’s outrage over his spending, the president will use his State of the Union address to unveil his plan to freeze federal spending at last years levels. Obama claims this will save taxpayers money. The Washington Post reports, “…The freeze would shave no more than $15 billion off next year’s budget – barely denting a deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion for the third year in a row …”

Brown campaigned to oppose the Democrat’s runaway spending and ObamaCare. It would be unfortunate if in the name of empty bipartisanship Brown began his tenure in the U.S. Senate by providing political cover for the very people he promised to oppose.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Google decided to get out of China before becoming too dependant on the Asian dragon’s riches. Doing business in China is becoming increasingly difficult for the Internet search engine giant due to the Chinese government’s filtering of search results by their citizens. Google discovered that the communist government is hacking into the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Google, who earns $2 billions dollars internationally, currently generates a meager $300 million dollars doing business in China. By pulling out of the People’s Republic of China, it appears that Google is determined to live up to its motto “Don’t be evil.” That motto, however, is becoming increasingly difficult for the U.S. government to live up to due to President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s dependence on China’s purchase of U.S. Treasuries to finance the spending duos unprecedented debt.

The New York Times reports that Chinese government agencies launched cyberattacks against Google, Adobe Systems, Northrop Grumman, Juniper Networks and 33 other U.S. firms. The purpose of the attacks appears to be espionage (strategic and commercial) through the insertion of spyware. “President Obama, who has repeatedly warned of the country’s vulnerability to devastating cyberattacks,” reports New York Times “has said nothing in public about one of the biggest examples since he took office. And the White House, while repeating Mr. Obama’s calls for Internet freedom, has not publicly demanded a Chinese government investigation.” You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

While the administration warns that Al Qaeda is stepping up its efforts to inflict a catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, Obama is willing to look the other way as China steps up its cyberwarfare on America. And why not – he needs their cash for clunker health care.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The media was obsessed with analyzing the first decade of the new century. The most instructive year, however, was its last, 2009 - a year that marked the triumph of the utopians. The global economic calamity shook the American public’s faith in economic prudence and Constitutional restraints on government power – maybe even the law of gravity. They voted in a political party and president that promised to force the real world into conformity with the alternate universe of their imagination. They would heal the economy, join the United Nations in reversing global warming, speak soothingly of “mutual respect” to the Islamic world and throw a conciliatory bone to Al Qaeda by closing the Guantanamo Bay prison – granting holy warriors de facto American citizenship and the presumption of innocence before our courts. Utopians would “change” America into a transatlantic mirror images of a dying Europe by nationalizing health care as penance for two hundred years of American exceptionalism. And for their efforts, America would be prosperous, safe and the world would love us.

Reality has been less than accommodating. The Associated Press reports that Obama’s $790 billion “stimulus” package is a failure. Promising that “shovel-ready” road constructions projects were a quick way to save jobs and stimulate the economy, billions of dollars were shoveled into infrastructure projects. “…The AP’s analysis found there was nearly no connection between stimulus money and the number of construction workers hired or fired since Congress passed the recovery program. The effect was so small, one economist compared it to trying to move the Empire State Building by pushing against it.” And what is the Obama administration’s answer to this costly failure? Plans are in the works for a second stimulus.

Attending the United Nations global warming conference in Copenhagen last December, President Obama said, “…it’s better for us to choose action over inaction; the future over the past — and with courage and faith, I believe that we can meet our responsibility to our people, and the future of our planet.” Now the world is in the grip in one of the coldest winters on record. According to the London Daily Telegraphic, “Summers and winters will be cooler than in recent years, and the changes will mean that global warming will be ‘paused’ or even reversed, it was claimed. The predictions are based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. They are the work of respected climate scientists and not those routinely dismissed by environmentalists as ‘global warming deniers.’”

Last June, Obama reached out to the Muslim world in a speech delivered in Cairo, Egypt. “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” the president said, “one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

Then an Al Qaeda operative tried but failed to detonate a bomb on a passenger airliner bound for Detroit. In taking credit for the failed attack, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said the terror attempt was revenge for “the savage bombardment of cluster bombs and cruise missiles launched from US ships occupying the Gulf of Aden against the courageous Yemeni tribes in Abyan, Arhab, and finally, Shabwah, where they killed dozens of Muslim women, children, and entire families.” Not once did Al Qaeda make reference to Guantanamo Bay – only Obama’s air campaign against Yemeni terrorist camps.

Saudi Arabia’s government controlled Arab News said of Obama:

“Unlike his predecessor, our hero believes in what he says: From America’s place in the world to the noble ideals and guiding principles that inspired its founding fathers. I don’t have to quote from Obama’s heart-warming speeches, full of sublime rhetoric, to make my point. Unlike Bush, America’s first nonwhite president clearly believes in dialogue and reconciliation with the world, rather than conflict and confrontation. This has been made repeatedly apparent in his reaching out to the world, including Muslims

“…However, if you pause for a moment and look beyond what Obama says, we are still stuck where W. had left us a year ago. The chasm between this Cicero-like president’s rhetoric and reality of America’s policies and actions is as breathtaking as ever.

“…While Iraq and Afghanistan are still burning and Pakistan is hurtling down the precipice, the hawks at Pentagon and Capitol Hill are sharpening their claws for Yemen and Somalia.”

Islam’s problem with the United States does not derive from Gitmo, but that “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” will not submit to Allah.

Then, the supposed crowning achievement of his administration, ObamaCare, turned into a nightmare for Democrats, a cause for muscular Tea Party conservatives and an unexpected political windfall for doddering Republicans. The process was rife with corruption, with billions of dollars given to Democratic senators skeptical of the plan’s benefits. The legislation’s final crafting continues behind closed doors…away from the prying eyes of We the People. The utopians say the authoritarian powers the plan gives the government to force supposed free citizens into compliance will drive down health care costs and insure more Americans. Yet the utopians have never adequately explained just how this behemoth new entitlement program will fare any better at curbing costs than the Medicare program, which is near bankruptcy.

Ultimately, reality is the greatest enemy of the utopian. Even that, however, does not impede them. Apologists for the failures of utopia’s make-believe world, like Janet Napolitano, just look you in the eye and say, “the system worked.”

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The Bloomberg News Service reports that while U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was heading the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he requested that “too big to fail” American International Group (AIG) not make public that billions of taxpayer dollars earmarked for the ailing insurer was actually being funneled into some of the nation’s major banks and brokerages. E-mails from the New York Fed to AIG executives show Golman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Generale SA received “100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm,” Bloomberg reported.

As you may recall, AIG issued insurance policies to protect investors against losses should mortgage-backed securities decline in value. When real estate prices looked as if they would never come down, AIG thought issuing such policies was like taking candy from a baby. When the real estate bubble eventually popped, due to an avalanche of sub-prime mortgage defaults, investors dusted off their old insurance policies – or credit-default swaps – and headed to AIG. Making good on these policies would have swamped AIG, driving them out of business and, many believe, pushed the world into an economic depression worse than that experienced in the 1930s. The Fed, it seems, was eager to head off any public outcry that might have curtailed Congress from enacting a bailout scheme that allowed AIG to make good on policies issued to a favored few. In other words, the game was rigged from the beginning.

Oh, I almost forgot; last Christmas Eve, as Sen. Harry Reid and his Democrats voted to saddle you with a costly and dictatorial health care bill, President Obama signed an executive order before heading off for a little rest and relaxation in tropical Hawaii. Obama ordered the Treasury Department’s $200 billion dollar cap on taxpayer funds provided each of the semi-governmental mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae be removed. Obama’s Christmas gift to little Freddie and Fannie is access to unlimited taxpayer funds until the year 2012. Just in case you have forgotten, it was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae who, at the urging of such worthies as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), bought a mountain of bad sub-prime loans in the name of “affordable housing.” The collapse in home prices caused by these policies has had its desired effect – homes have never been more affordable.

Whether it’s bailouts to AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or the bottomless pit of a new and dangerous health care program, the dwindling number of employed Americans is going to have to work a lot harder if our masters in Washington are going to keep up with the demand for our money. It’s all for our good, Obama assures us. It’s an investment in the future. It’s the same kind of investment made by Freddie and Fannie, AIG and the financial firms on Wall Street. Like them, Obama is operating on the erroneous in assumption that the United States is too big to fail.