Madame Ace 71

An amazing letter from an amazing American. This is an actual letter sent to Obama. I have permission to pass it along. Please read.

Chris


Given the furor about "Joe the plumber" I've written an open letter to Mr. Obama, myself. I think it is worth the read. Maybe if Americans could take a closer look at what a small businessman is, they wouldn't want politicians penalizing their success. Feel free to forward it if you want…

Cory


Mr. Obama,

Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things to you myself.. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introduce myself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54 year old high school graduate. I didn't go to college like you, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at a time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from the government, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. My businesses did not start as a result of privilege. They are the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, self reliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. I couldn't afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).

A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs. Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on my income taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behind the second time... $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Of course, the personal stress endured through these experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now to memorialize it all.

I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas . 2 years along the way, I hired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work out for 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine working properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.

2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.

A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customers immediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for as many credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this 3rd business going.

Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas . Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers' product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I didn't expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.

Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the next few months. This should work out, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed our countrys' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get a business loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobs for more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.

You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, and would not demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it the most" that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land.

What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach of every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our country. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.

You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.

Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office - can you pronounce "politically motivated"), you averaged less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won't say what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you and Joe Biden… combined (don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.

In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.

God help us...

Cory Miller

just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.

P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American... C. Miller Drilling

__________________
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message and a very large number of electrons were asked for permission to be terribly inconvenienced. A party was thrown for them afterwards for being really cool about it.

JonPop

Just caught the tail end of a interview with Mr. Miller on Fox. Wish I could have seen the whole thing. So.. Madame, we aren't the only ones getting the word out.

__________________
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! AMEN!






I've got a Tiger by the Tail

JonPop

Fed bailout bill did more than rescue banks…

There was plenty of outrage when the federal government passed a bill recently spending billions of our dollars to bail out greedy banks. But in all the uproar, no one seemed to notice a provision in the bill that was long overdue – and could change the lives of millions of Americans.

The bill – through that magic art of Congress whereby unrelated bills piggyback on larger bills – carried a provision requiring insurance plans to provide better coverage for mental health.

The law does not mandate that insurance plans cover mental health treatment. It just says that insurance plans that do cover mental health treatment – such as psychiatric or addiction sessions – must provide a level of coverage equal to their coverage of physical ailments. As many as 113 million Americans may benefit from this bill.

All I can say is, this is long overdue. Insurance companies were content to let families go broke getting mental health care. I've read stories about parents who let their troubled teens go to jail, where they could get the mental health care the parents couldn't afford. It's an agonizing dilemma.

You see, insurance companies detest mental health treatment. With physical health, they know your doctor can see you for five minutes and write you a prescription – and the process is over cheaply. The last thing these profit- driven companies want to pay for is therapy sessions you may end up needing for years – even if this mental health treatment is critical to your well-being.

Our old system rewarded this bad behavior by the insurance companies. The new system won't. Every now and then, I guess Washington gets something right. It's just a shame, when you think about the importance of this legislation, that Congress couldn't pass it on its own. It had to hide behind the shadow of a $700 billion bailout

__________________
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! AMEN!






I've got a Tiger by the Tail

Betterman

I thought these links was informative.

Deaths in Iraq: A look at the American lives lost - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politic...obbyists_N.htm

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/02...coal-industry/

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

bozoballz

I haven't spent much time in this thread but there are some great posts here. Good show y'all.

__________________
So it goes like it goes, like the river flows. And time, it rolls right on.
And maybe what's good gets a little bit better, and maybe what's bad gets gone.

bozoballz

Now that this long election season is over I would like to extend my congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama and my sincere wishes that he make an excellent president.

God bless America.

__________________
So it goes like it goes, like the river flows. And time, it rolls right on.
And maybe what's good gets a little bit better, and maybe what's bad gets gone.

JonPop

One last little speach for me and then it will be my last on this subject.

I am a former warrior. I fought for MY country. I belive in the American ideals and the constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is now the President of America.
I will support him with the same loyalty that I have forever given to my country. I will not lower my values or change what I believe, but I will defend the system that has elected this man.
I freverntly hope that our new president will continue to work for this great nation and lead us to again regain the glory that is in our hearts.JP

__________________
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! AMEN!






I've got a Tiger by the Tail

Hairtrigger

Well said JP and Bozzo, I made my peace after his acceptance speech. I hope he will be the greatest thing that has happened to our country in a long time and put on the right track to prosper.

That doesn't mean I won't stop with the funnies though.

Betterman

I was browsing youtube and stumbled across this film. It's astonishing. It has numerous actual clips from all forms of media.

Fabled Enemies (Super High Quality, full movie)

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

Betterman

The more I hear of the Bailout, the more I think we're getting dupped. This is right of the Congressional Floor.

Make sure your pop-up blocker is off.

House Session 281553-102 : C-SPAN Video Library | Created by Cable. Offered as a Public Service.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0..._n_128294.html

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

italiananglo69

this was true of the first proposed sec 8 bailout legislation but was deleted from the final approved bailout package

__________________
Starting stats ----------------------Current Stats
(6/07/06) -------------------------(10/25/07)
6:00 LOT --------------------------12:00 LOT
6.25" BPEL--------------------------7.25" BPEL
7.0" BPSFL --------------------------8.25"BPSFL
4.75" mid Girth----------------------5.00" Mid Girth
5.25" Base Girth--------------------6.50" Base Girth

Pegasus

You are true bushi jp.

Betterman

Check out these links. Also notice the related video on the right. The way I see it, America is being "played as chumps". What is quite ironic is that the general public doesn't even seem to want to see it. I guess entertainment takes precendence. I just hope America can put aside the football, and self interest long enough to notice before it's too late for legislative action. The American People For Generations Are Being Robbed.

Treasury Bailout Revamp Subject Of Contentious Hearing

YouTube - Cummings "We cannot afford to be chumps" AIG $503MN bonus


YouTube - Kucinich to Neel Kashkari...Who are you working for?

YouTube - "Taxpayer's $$ not go into failing banks" Kashkari Kucinich

I guess Andy Worhol had it right. "A sucker is born every minute."

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

Betterman

I looked into Executive Order 11110. I found this interesting, may you all also.

On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous. With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificates were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything. Executive Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the government the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money. Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver. After Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued. The Final Call has learned that the Executive Order was never repealed by any U.S. President through an Executive Order and is still valid. Why then has no president utilized it? Virtually all of the nearly $6 trillion in debt has been created since 1963, and if a U.S. president had utilized Executive Order 11110 the debt would be nowhere near the current level. Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to future presidents who would think to eliminate the U.S. debt by eliminating the Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. Mr. Kennedy challenged the government of money by challenging the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt - war and the creation of money by a privately-owned central bank. His efforts to have all troops out of Vietnam by 1965 and Executive Order 11110 would have severely cut into the profits and control of the New York banking establishment.

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

Betterman

No man did more to expose the power of the Fed than Louis T. McFadden, who was the Chairman of the House Banking Committee back in the 1930s. Constantly pointing out that monetary issues shouldn't be partisan, he criticized both the Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt administrations. In describing the Fed, he remarked in the Congressional Record, House pages 1295 and 1296 on June 10, 1932, that: Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government Board, has cheated the Government of the United States and he people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the maladministration of that law by which the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

JonPop

__________________
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! AMEN!






I've got a Tiger by the Tail

Betterman

Stratfor in the past has been very informative. I thought I had one up on you.

It appears will go-a-hunting terrorists in Pakistan next.

The founder of Stratfor wrote a book called America Alone a few years back. It was very insightful, it also dealt with demographics. Ya'll may want to give it a try. I would to be willing to let Mi Friends borrow the audiobook with some of the others I have collected.

JP, search out Operation Northwoods.

__________________
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. -Heinz Pagels

For new rollers only -
http://www.naturesaccents.com/cart/c...c&p=34392e3935

lifted

Got wood! hehehehehehehehe!

__________________
Three years ago 5.5" BPEL Now 8.25"BPEL by 5.9" EG, Now 6"EG-8" NBP as of

bozoballz

Here are few articles by a couple of conservatives..... I tend to be fiscally conservative so I find these to be informative and agreeable. Simple reading if you have a coffee and a couple of minutes.

The Budget: An Explainer, Feb 14, 2005
By: Tony Snow

For those of you bored or bemused by the federal budget, here's a word of encouragement. Everyone in Washington is bored, too — not because people here don't care about the expenditure of $2.6 trillion, but because most veterans of the political process understand that the early stages of political combat involve nothing more than cheesy political stagecraft. A president drafts a budget and sells it with blue-sky propaganda, while opponents mount their soap boxes and engage in old-fashioned hot-air chiliasm.

When members of Congress set about to spend your money (and waste considerable portions in the process), they begin by drafting a budget resolution. This has exactly as much binding authority as a New Year's resolution, and contains every bit as much sincerity. Within the next few weeks, members of Congress will draw up such a plan. It will set forth general goals for spending money, but deliberately will ignore at least $100 billion worth of outlays for combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for pork-barrel appropriations attached to the "invisible" spending bill, which is called an "emergency supplemental budget resolution."

Despite all the talk about "deep cuts" in the president's budget, such things are few and far between. Nearly 80 percent of the federal budget right now has been spoken for already. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security gobble up more than half the free cash. Defense claims another large chunk, leaving Congress to tinker with the remaining 17 percent. After Congress has finished "deep cutting" the budget, expenditures will grow by at least 3.6 percent, and probably more than 5 percent. Only in Washington could someone spend an additional $125 billion a year and call it "deep cuts."

Economists have an explanation for this. They call it "rent seeking." Think of a politician's soul as an apartment. Think of lobbyists as renters. Each year, the renters show up, waving wads of cash. Politicians survey the throng. The winning contestants get to occupy the apartments on a one-year lease. It's a great deal for lobbyists: They spend millions and take home billions. It's not such a good deal for you or me, because we pay the billions and, if we use the goods and services promoted by the lobbyists, we pay the millions, too.

Worst of all, all this money changes hands for the purpose of maintaining a government that became obsolete decades ago. The Social Security system is a New Deal dinosaur. So are many of our regulatory agencies. Medicare and Medicaid bring us to the Mesozoic era of liberalism, but they also have run their course.

If you want to understand how little sense our system of government makes, walk down the cereal aisle at your local grocery store. Count how many brands you can buy. Then ask yourself: If I have this many options in cereal, why don't I have any options when it comes to really important stuff that every single American needs — health care and retirement security? Why must we deal with Ponzi-scheme remedies that clean out our wallets without giving us our money's worth?

Do we really believe our interests are best served by programs designed when Americans were driving Model A automobiles, where most washing machines had wringers, where refrigerators were scarce, interstates were nonexistent and air-conditioning a gewgaw reserved for futuristic exhibits at the World's Fair?

This year's budget fight promises to be more interesting than most because the president has proposed a couple of ideas that could unmask forever the idiocy of Big Government. He wants to privatize a small portion of Social Security and do the same with an eensy bit of the Medicare program. He hopes people will discover that they get more bang for their bucks when they manage their money than they get when somebody else gets to spend it. This is especially true because there is no incentive for the spender to economize. The people using your cash don't know you. They don't feel guilty if they waste your money. In fact, they actually get in trouble if they fail to use the cash. This is why most federal agencies go on shopping sprees during the final days of the fiscal year. They know that if they don't spend every penny, someone will cut them back.

The president's opponents, many of whom call Uncle Sam the world's most prolific dispenser of compassion, know that a real look under the hood of government would be enough to persuade voters to abandon New Deal liberalism forever. This explains why "Dinocrats" are so sore at George W. Bush, and fighting him tooth and nail.

But more of that some other time. The moral for this week is simple: Don't take too seriously what you are reading and hearing right now about the budget. It's mostly for show. The real battles will come soon enough. When they do, remember the analogy of the cereal aisle and ask yourself: Why is society so good at providing choco-blaster puffs and so bad at providing government services that don't make me feel like an insignificant, dust-engorged little mite?

---------------------------------------------

And one of my favorite columnists, Thomas Sowell:

‘Jolting’ the Economy 11-25-08

Barack Obama says that we have to "jolt" the economy. That certainly makes sense, if you take the media's account of the economy seriously — but should the media be taken seriously?

Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has declined by less than one-half of one percent. In fact, it may not have declined even that much — or at all — when the statistics are revised later, as they very often are.

We are not talking about the Great Depression, when output dropped by one-third and unemployment soared to 25 percent.

What we are talking about is a golden political opportunity for politicians to use the current financial crisis to fundamentally change an economy that has been successful for more than two centuries, so that politicians can henceforth micro-manage all sorts of businesses and play Robin Hood, taking from those who are not likely to vote for them and transferring part of their earnings to those who will vote for them.

For that, the politicians need lots of hype, and that is being generously supplied by the media.

Whatever the merits of trying to shore up some financial institutions, in order to prevent a major disruption of the credit flows that keep the whole economy going, what has in fact been done has been to create a huge pot of money — hundreds of billions of dollars — that politicians can use to give out goodies hither and yon, to whomever they please for whatever reason they please.

No doubt we could all use a few billion dollars every now and then. But the question of who actually gets it will be strictly in the hands of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It is one of the few parts of the legacy of the Bush administration that the Democrats are not likely to criticize.

Much as we may deplore partisanship in Washington, bipartisan disasters are often twice as bad as partisan disasters — and this is a bipartisan disaster in the making.

Too many people who argue that there is a beneficial role for the government to play in the economy glide swiftly from that to the conclusion that the government will in fact confine itself to playing suc