FDR’s Sweater Fable

President Obama said he is strengthening government 'not because I believe in bigger government—I don't.' Chant: Yes you do.

By George F. Will | NEWSWEEK
Published Feb 28, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Mar 9, 2009

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  • Posted By: mcclanok @ 03/23/2009 11:28:41 PM

    Robyn, I wish we had your unions here in NC. Our unions are "associations" that work hand-in-hand with the tenure system to keep those low quality teachers in place. Enjoy it! Not all states are so lucky.

  • Posted By: Endeavor40 @ 03/05/2009 12:30:21 AM

    George Will , Bill Kristol, Ann Phootenhour, Lars Larson,Boss Hog Limbaugh, Hannity are reasons enough to just literally Loath the Repiglican Party

    • Posted By: PMGNYC @ 03/16/2009 4:07:55 PM

      I'm a democrat, and probably feel as you do on many subjects. However, please do NOT use George Will's good name in the same statement as that FAT Nazi Pig Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Will does not deserve it. He's a genius, a wonderful writer, a very knowledgeable baseball historian (Had to throw it in) but most of all, very fair and balanced. I've been angered by his musings in the past, but always at least feel assured that he is stating opinions based on fact.

  • Posted By: PMGNYC @ 03/16/2009 3:53:55 PM

    I'm not UBER-EDUCATED regarding politics. I would never represent myself as someone who understands all that is going on...but I read everything I can. George Will, Dick Morris to Paul Begala...What I do seem to notice is that we are finally doing something different. The Rich get richer is not a good stance at the current time in America. When I read that Obama is angered by AIG attempting to pass off the bonuses as a contractual obligation to it's brokerage employees, I wanted to stand up and cheer. I could not, for the life of me understand how they had the *&^# to give additional compensation after receiving BILLIONS of taxpayer money to stay afloat - required due to the horrible business practices of the company...
    Again - not having the knowledge leads me to put my faith in the new administration...and I really find myself agreeing with just about EVERYTHING Obama says and does.

  • Posted By: robynhage @ 03/06/2009 1:53:53 PM

    I have been a subscriber to Newsweek for the past decade. Despite being at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Mr. Will, I always read his articles and often find common ground. However, I take exception to his jab at teachers??? unions in this latest editorial. This is not the first time that Mr. Will has targeted teachers' unions as the foundation for the demise of the American educational system. Instead of a war of words though, I invite Mr. Will to visit the Toledo Federation of Teachers in Toledo, Ohio to witness first hand a progressive union that demands high teacher quality. Long gone are the old days of unions protecting their own at the expense of students. Toledo has a teacher led peer review system that weeds out those who should not be in the classroom. I look forward to hearing from Mr. Will and helping educate him that unions still have a role to play in our education system.

    Robyn Hage
    Navarre Elementary School
    Toledo, Ohio

  • Posted By: robynhage @ 03/06/2009 1:53:28 PM

    I have been a subscriber to Newsweek for the past decade. Despite being at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Mr. Will, I always read his articles and often find common ground. However, I take exception to his jab at teachers' unions in this latest editorial. This is not the first time that Mr. Will has targeted teachers' unions as the foundation for the demise of the American educational system. Instead of a war of words though, I invite Mr. Will to visit the Toledo Federation of Teachers in Toledo, Ohio to witness first hand a progessive union that demands high teacher quality. Long gone are the old days of unions protecting their own at the expense of students. Toledo has a teacher led peer review system that weeds out those who should not be in the classroom. I look forward to hearing from Mr. Will and helping educate him that unions still have a role to play in our education system.

    Robyn Hage
    Navarre Elementary School
    Toledo, Ohio

  • Posted By: mastercabbie @ 03/05/2009 1:52:34 PM

    Obama is a hustler. Well educated I guess, well traveled I suppose, well intentioned??
    If you are one of his beneficiaries perhaps; BUT NOT IF YOU ARE ON HIS HIT LIST...Like bankers and brokers and small business owners, and people with rich parents, and people with good jobs, and people who are not in a union and do not wish to be, and people who are ALL TOO OFTEN not like THE Obama....that OBAMA presents.

    Just because you say it doesn???t make it true... Just because you want it don't make it right...Usually when we need it we can't have it and must do without...Kind of like when Obama was a kid and his mother had to live on food stamps....You remember when he said that??? It kind of sounded like he was brought up poor, in the ghetto, the hood!!!! I don't know the HOOD of Indo China or Milasia..I know that when I heard the food stamp story and put it on the same examining table as all of Obama???s other statements I knew we had a world class hustler who would probably win the election and who would get us all into trouble...I did not know it would take less than 30 days for him to almost, utterly destroy the confidence of the American people and now he will spend 4 years blaming Bush for the word ???Catastrophe

    All I hear about is that we must sacrifice. I have been sacrificing for 52 years to support my family and build a nest egg. That I did it as an independent business person???NY Taxi Driver, Painter, laborer seems to make me a BAD GUY in the eyes of the Obama Nation???I smell Russia in my City Hall and Cuba in my bank account. And I feel Obama picking my pocket???.Unfortunately, Obama is about to be a disgraceful American.

  • Posted By: hanyap @ 03/05/2009 12:24:28 PM

    Re; CRA/risk loans
    Whoever claimed that they have a low default rate; I'd like to see where you are getting your data from... Media Matters perhaps? Countless economists and financial experts say it is the sub-prime or 'exotic' loans that brought this all crashing down. Moodys, the WSJ, hosts of financial shows talk about how Fannie & Freddie, aided by members of Congress, continued its reckless and 'creative' lending practices, despite warnings. Great WSJ article with direct quotes from Waters and Frank on how Fannie/Freddie always made their housing goals, and they should continue to 'roll the dice a bit more on this subsidised housing'.

    If the CRA wasn't such a big deal, why is it that Chase and JP Morgan made large donations to ACORN before they filed to merge? That's because part of the CRA stipulated that so called 'community organisations' like ACORN could offer comment during yearly bank reviews and challenge expansion plans or mergers.

    The overwhelming majority of Americans pay their mortgages and didn't over-reach; banks shouldn't be bailed out and neither should GM or borrowers. I'm tired of picking up everyone else's tab when I live within my means. Now the government will allow you to borrow from them and pay off credit cards! The only money government has is that which it steals from its citizens, so now I'm helping some anonymous person continue payments on that new car. Terrific.

    100% loans, interest only loans, and now the government is going to fiddle with the system so that delinquent borrowers get to stay in their houses, even though something like 40% will still be in danger of foreclosure in a year. This is just throwing good money after bad.

    DG, my interactions with social workers (during a time when a family member had some problems) was anything BUT an exercise in personal responsibility. If you're being honest, you're one of the few who teaches that.

  • Posted By: DG USA @ 03/05/2009 9:45:39 AM

    George W(ill) here uses the fuzzy thinking of George W (Bush) when he claims "no social worker left behind." As a professional social worker I counsel the use of natural and logical consequences--"tough love." Indeed Mr. Will's Republicans "liberally" applied 8 years of no accountability. This culminated in "no friends of Goldman Sachs left behind." Sadly, Mr. Obama's desire to be inclusive has resulted in the inept Tim Geithner continuing these practices. DG, LICSW.

  • Posted By: Hawki9112 @ 03/02/2009 3:59:28 PM

    You assume that companies like GM that declare bankruptcy are going to close their doors and send the entire workforce packing. Recall a few years ago, most major U.S. air carriers filed for bankruptcy protection, and most are still flying today. Would some autoworkers lose their jobs - absolutely! Would the job losses by "un-imaginable" - hardly. Perhaps if GM would actually make cars that people want to drive, they'd keep more auto sales with U.S. manufacturers. If we continue to bailout companies that are "too big to fail", we simply subsidize failure at the expense of everyone else - specifically our tax dollars. Perhaps if people had to actually write a check to GM every month for their "share" of the bailout, folks might actually start to push back on this massive re-distribution of the nation's wealth.

    • Posted By: akatz @ 03/05/2009 3:40:59 AM

      You wrote:

      "Perhaps if GM would actually make cars that people want to drive, they'd keep more auto sales with U.S. manufacturers."

      GM was selling cars just fine before $4.50 gas hit us. It was, in fact, producing the cars the American consumer wanted, even as they were hideous gas-guzzlers.

      On the other hand, -no one- is buying cars now, American or any other kind because the credit markets have completely dried up, and unless you're already rich, it's almost impossible to get a car loan.

      How does GM survive that?

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/02/2009 11:27:30 AM

    STRUCTURAL98

    Maibe you should investigate a little about what you are talking about before you talk..... It will help.
    "If some one bought a 500K house on a 75K per year salary"..... I don't know where you live my friend, but in my world (planet Earth) if that some one in your example was given the loan by some greedy lender PROFESSIONAL that fully understood the ultimate consecuence of his/her bad loan. The bad loans given to your "irresponsible" home owners were fully understood by the lending industry. They knew the risk, but they also new that all they had to do was to collaterilize, and package the loans to then sale them to investors around the world. In the process they made enormous fees, and "spread" the risk by securitizing it (AIG) . If the home owner could not pay the 500 K (your example) they were supposed to LOOSE THE HOUSE WITHOUT TAKING THE ENTIRE WORLD FINANCIAL SYSTEM IN THE PROCESS.
    As we now know it did not happen that way. You and all Republicans use the tired old trick of pointing out the obvious and pretending that because it is obvious (home owners should have money to pay their homes) then, the rest of the mess that made this recession possible is their problem also.
    Tell me my friend if you let home owners go under what will happen to the valuation of your house ? And if home owners go under what will happen to your community tax base ? and your State tax base ? and since Republicans do not want taxes to go up... What will replace the revenue loss of thousands of home owners loosing their homes ?

    Again Republicans just complain.... But solutions ???

    • Posted By: used2bdemocrat @ 03/02/2009 10:39:12 PM

      Gvilliagran3.??????.. you seem to have all the answers, continuously want to insult others with your high and mighty know it all attitude. From your posts it is evident that you are a bleeding heart liberal/progressive or whatever it is those of your ilk want to be called this week. I am a lifelong democrat who is against all bailouts to any company or entity, no matter how big they are. I am against bailing out home owners who chose to take on mortgages they could not afford. I do not believe any mortgage loan officer twisted these peoples arm to take these loans. The lending industry had no choice but to give loans to anyone who could qualify based on the criteria that the congress, freddie mac and fannie mae had placed in the guidelines. I put to you and the world that this problem all belong at the doorstep of the democrats in congress/senate, acorn and the democrat party. The Community Reinvestment Act was forced down the throats of the banks, they had no choice but to lend per the guidelines, (no money down, 500 credit scores, etc.), or bleeding hearts like you would have made charges of racism or class warfare against them. Little do most know that all banks had an acorn paid employee with an office in these banks monitoring them to make sure they were giving loans to the poor and minority in the community. In fact the banks had to meet quotas. This problem with mortgages belongs at the feet of people who think like you. The franks, dodds, schumers, and those like you.

      Used2bemocrat

      • Posted By: akatz @ 03/05/2009 3:34:59 AM

        You are spreading a lie. Probably more than one.

        The Community Reinvestment Act has the lowest rate of defaults of any category of mortgage holders except the filthy rich.

        It's too bad you had to fall for the Rush propaganda instead of actually investigating the numbers. I know, facts are inconvenient in the face of hateful ideologi (you do really hate those less-advantaged than you, don't you?).

        Next time, before spouting garbage, look up some numbers so that you don't make yourself look like such an ignorant fool.

      • Posted By: danmjrFL @ 03/03/2009 9:04:40 AM

        One central problem with your theory on the housing bust is the same drum beat made by far right, that the CRA is root cause of the mortgage melt-down. Totally wrong. Greed was the cause. Greed by bankers, mortgage brokers, investors, and realtors. The CRA did not force banks to make loans to people who had no possible way to repay loans in the future once adjustable rates started ticking up. The bankers/mortgage brokers theory was that these buyers could refinance before the upticks in ARMs , because of course house prices would continue to rocket up and voila, they would have the 20% equity needed in one to 2 years. Also, the dollar volume of losses that has brought the banks to their knees came from California, Florida and Nevada where real estate investors buying 2nd, 3rd, etc homes to flip..(many upscale spec developments sold almost all units to these types, not end users), defaulted once prices got too high and the buyers for their investments vanished. We are not talking poor or minority buyers here as you would have us to believe. I saw it first hand in Ft. Laud and Miami, Fl. My best friend did it. buying a townhouse presale at say $329,000 from builder then flipping it before closing on contract to someone else for $389,000, who in turn flipped it to someone else for $425,000, all in course of 18mos. Problem was so many stayed in this market too long and once the market busted, thousands were stuck with $300K+ mortgages on properties they couldnt sell, not counting all the ones that walked away before closing, leaving developers with huge inventory of unsold properties (built with bank loans).

    • Posted By: used2bdemocrat @ 03/02/2009 10:38:22 PM

      Gvilliagran3.??????.. you seem to have all the answers, continuously want to insult others with your high and mighty know it all attitude. From your posts it is evident that you are a bleeding heart liberal/progressive or whatever it is those of your ilk want to be called this week. I am a lifelong democrat who is against all bailouts to any company or entity, no matter how big they are. I am against bailing out home owners who chose to take on mortgages they could not afford. I do not believe any mortgage loan officer twisted these peoples arm to take these loans. The lending industry had no choice but to give loans to anyone who could qualify based on the criteria that the congress, freddie mac and fannie mae had placed in the guidelines. I put to you and the world that this problem all belong at the doorstep of the democrats in congress/senate, acorn and the democrat party. The Community Reinvestment Act was forced down the throats of the banks, they had no choice but to lend per the guidelines, (no money down, 500 credit scores, etc.), or bleeding hearts like you would have made charges of racism or class warfare against them. Little do most know that all banks had an acorn paid employee with an office in these banks monitoring them to make sure they were giving loans to the poor and minority in the community. In fact the banks had to meet quotas. This problem with mortgages belongs at the feet of people who think like you. The franks, dodds, schumers, and those like you.

      Used2bemocrat

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/03/2009 8:02:38 PM

    I wander . All these Republicans that complain about Obama's plan..... Do they have a better idea ?
    Let's take just one of the many complains (lack of space) and try and explore it in a fair and adult like way OK ?

    Complaint that we here a lot these days: Obama is spending way too much money !!!

    Yes indeed he is. But dear Republicans, it is not like Obama, and every Democrat have this insane need to bail out banks, the auto industry, home owners, and every looser, and greedy risk taker that ever lived in America, so that we can ruin the country and re-distribute the money to create socialism, and Comunism as you hysterically put it.
    So take a deep breath, and at least THINK (you do have brains I hope) why Obama and Democrats are doing what they are doing.
    For starters I'll ask you a very long question: Did Obama inherited TRILLIONS of Dollars in budget deficits, an un-budgeted (and now budgeted as it should have been all along) war in Iraq, 2008 fiscal year obligations under BUSH's Presidency that have to be included in the new budget, AND THE WORST RECESSION SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION WITH A TOTAL FINANCIAL WORLD WIDE COLLAPSE TO BOOT ?????

    ANSWER : YES INDEED HE DID.

    So then my dear Republican friends what do you expect Obama to do?

    Judging by your complains you don't expect him to help the banking sector. You don't expect him to help the automotive industry. You do not expect him to help the Insurance industry, or the mortgage and loan industry, or struggling home owners...... And of course you don't expect him to just sit down and do nothing, because you'll complain about that too... So what in the hell do you want the guy to do ??????

    You Republicans say things like " The Obama administration is trowing tax payer money at the banking system, and making it worst" . So my question (never asked in the networks) would be .... "Fair enough" ; So if Mr. Obama does not help banks, and the Financial system fails as it sureley will do if Bank of America, Citi Bank, AIG, and other gigants collapse at the same time, then would our nation not be worst off ??

    Let me give you one hint here Republicans because we already have the CRYSTAL CLEAR ANSWER as to what would happen if we let one more of these institutions fail.......... LEHMAN BROTHERS. September 16th, 2008 the Banking gigant filed for chapter 11. The Government desided to let it collapse. The result was a world wide panic that melted down our stock market by 7,000 in the S&P in just one month (October 2008) . The Markets (the very same idiots that now demand no intervention by the government ) DEMANDED a government intervention or else as they put it "we will see the destruction of our financial system".

    So Republicans ??? Do you have Amnesia, or are you just playing dumb here?

    • Posted By: akatz @ 03/05/2009 3:28:03 AM

      Not only is your statement wrong, it's an out-and-out lie.

      If you knew the numbers, you'd know that the low-income loans had the lowest default levels of all classes of loans, and did not contribute to this economic mess at all. It was the upper-middle-class buying $multi-million homes, flippers trying to make a quick buck, and homeowners using their home equity as a credit card. This crisis was not caused by the poor. It was caused, to a great extent, by the greedy loanmakers who just wanted to move mortgages that they held for only 15 minutes before selling them off as securities in mythical bundles and unregulated markets with no rules at all - no rules to value the bundles (they still can't value them today), no rules as to how much they can borrow against them, no rules to prevent them from leveraging them as high as 35 times. And why did they all do it? Because each trader could grab another 5% every time the bundles passed over their desks.

      And AIG was one of the worst culprits. Why? Because they insured these high-flying investors against the inevitable losses they incurred once their house of cards collapsed. Again, for the few points that passed over their desks in premiums without regard to risks.

      This is what your beloved "deregulation" did: let an entire industry, plagued with greed, disregard risk and the effect of their insane actions on the nation and the world.

      So please don't give us that idiotic "deregulation is good" rant. No one but you and a couple of other Rethug diehards still believe that cr$p. And to believe it, you have to deny reality with the evidence right before your eyes and the worlds'.

    • Posted By: alexanbd @ 03/03/2009 9:25:54 PM

      gvillagran3, please type your comment into a word processor first. Please fear the Murphy's Law that anytime you go to criticize someone you will make a mistake yourself.

      And just one point to take the wind out of your sail; the war is still not "budgeted" like you presume, it is not apart of Obama's budget like it was not apart of Bush's, the $3.6 trillion budget Obama is sent to Congress. The President asks Congress for funding as needed, because it is not budgeted like you're thinking. Obama merely released the cost to date of the war, he did not add future spending to the budget nor has he "actually" been added to the deficit number.

      But I wouldn't expect you to know that, it hasn't been reported on MSNBC or on the Rus Parr Morning Show.

    • Posted By: alexanbd @ 03/03/2009 9:24:52 PM

      gvillagran3, please type your comment into a word processor first. Please fear the Murphy's Law that anytime you go to criticize someone you will make a mistake yourself.

      And just one point to take the wind out of your sail; the war is still not "budgeted" like you presume, it is not apart of Obama's budget like it was not apart of Bush's, the $3.6 trillion budget Obama is sent to Congress. The President asks Congress for funding as needed, because it is not budgeted like you're thinking. Obama merely released the cost to date of the war, he did not add future spending to the budget nor has he "actually" been added to the deficit number.

      But I wouldn't expect you to know that, it hasn't been reported on MSNBC or on the Rus Parr Morning Show.

  • Posted By: stephenmurray88 @ 03/03/2009 3:49:57 PM

    Mr. Will:

    Your article is yet another piece by an angry conservative that continues to do the same thing every GOP member under the sun is doing: Criticizing without offering an alternative solution. Instead of writing the exact same piece over and over, why don't you take a few weeks off and come up with a different fix to our problem. You may not use "lower taxes" or "deregulation" or "free-market," because unfortunately for you and your party... that is what helped get us into this mess. I eagerly wait your proposal.

    S. Murray
    Democratic Committeeman

    • Posted By: Jmon @ 03/03/2009 4:59:12 PM

      Fool! If the Dummycrats new anything, they would realize that the credit crisis is the reuslt of overregulation. The department of Housing and Urban Development REQUIRED banks to make high risk loans to people who did not have the means to pay it back.
      If you want to fix the economy try, cutting government spending. Stop giving subsides to farmers for NOT growing crops. Stop this ridiculous notion of universal health care. Stop earmarking billions of dollars to fund useless projects. Our nation was founded on the principle of capitalism and free enterprise. Government regulation is a bane to this practice as it discourages competition and encourages complacency amongst the working class.

      • Posted By: akatz @ 03/05/2009 3:20:06 AM

        He's getting his information from the truth. Too bad you can't deal with it.

        It wasn't the subprime mortgages that brought down the financial markets, it was derivatives - bundles of mortgages lashed together without any concern for value or viability, and then sold as securities in an unregulated market. An unregulated market that allowed our genius banks and financial firms to leverage them as high as 35 times their "supposed" value. It was a house of cards. It had to collapse.

    • Posted By: IMSnooping @ 03/03/2009 11:43:56 PM

      How the heck did lower taxes, deregulation, and free markets get us into this mess? It was the housing market where this started. Specifically, the subprime sector of it. And that wasn't a free market -- it was a market created out of whole cloth by HUD back in the 90s. Prior to that, most of these people who got subprime loans wouldn't have been able to get them (or would have had to pay handsomely).

      Where the heck are you getting your information, S. Murray?

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/04/2009 10:07:05 AM

    IMSNOOPING.

    You are incorrect Sir. Back in the late 70's we had our first full blown Savings and loan crisis. The root of the problem was exactly the same one that we are seeing today. Easy credit, greedy bankers, naive home buyers = disaster.

    By now Bankers know full well the possible problems associated with dropping their loan standards. We in fact had another crisis in the 90's for the very same reasons.

    NO Sir there is no excuse for bankers period. As for home owners... Let me tell you what happened to me back in the 70's to give you a taste of reality here . First home buyer looking for a modest home. Me & Wife go, look at a nice but too expensive house. Can't afford it, I tell my wife. WRONG !! Tells me the Sales Man (We are 23 years old renting an appartment) Sales guy tell us: "I can put you in this house tomorrow. We will pay your rental lease brake of contract, and you will live in your new home for free until you qualify. And, the Sales man said you will qualify because you and your wife are employed, and we can give you an ARM adjustable that can't go up more than 5% over prime... You can't loose on this deal period.
    We bought the home with our $10,000 in savings as down payment. 2 years later economy tanks, I loose my job, houses in my neighborhood go empty left and right, value on ours drops, and bank will not re-finance. We lost the house.

    Of course it was my fault. A 23 year old that is supposed to know better than a 50 year old Banking professional. That in a nut shell my friend is the Republican way of looking at the world that is to say upside down

    • Posted By: libertyfirst @ 03/04/2009 2:47:03 PM

      Oh, and by the way, the S&L "crisis" was in the 1980's and it PALES in comparison to what is going on right now.

      • Posted By: akatz @ 03/05/2009 3:17:01 AM

        A slight correction. The original S&L problem was not caused by mortgages, but by the government itself.

        It raised the capital requirements on S&Ls and in one day, bankrupted tons of banks on paper, since their reserves met the original limit requirements, but not the new ones.

        Whatever the reason for raising the reserve rate, it was handled badly and caused huge damage to the country. Had it been phased in over time so that banks had the opportunity to adjust, the entire S&L problem likely would not have happened.

    • Posted By: libertyfirst @ 03/04/2009 2:45:15 PM

      Maybe that 23 year old should of paid more attention in school. And maybe, just maybe, if we get out this victim mentality, then perhaps our children when they reach 23 will have the basic smarts to know that life is risky, that jobs can tank, and that government WILL NOT be there to pick you up so you best have another "iron in the fire" so to speak.

  • Posted By: akatz @ 03/05/2009 3:11:09 AM

    George, you got it wrong again.

    You conservatives and your markets unencumbered by "government regulation" just can't get real, for some reason. It was your cherished free-market that brought this great nation to its knees and spread incredible suffering throughout all classes of Americans except (as usual) the filthy rich, your heroes.

    If it takes big government to balance the scales, then I'm all for big government. Certainly, our experiment with "government as the enemy" that you espouse so heartily has been a pathetic failure.

    It's time for something new. I'm just sorry that you're so out-of-touch that you can't see it.

    I'm sure you make a lot of money. And that that's why you simply don't have a clue.

    Alan A. Katz

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/04/2009 9:45:48 AM

    RE:Alexandbd.

    The Budget presented by Obama includes expenditures in Iraq for 2008, and 2009. If you care to check you will find out that in the entire Bush Presidency the budget for the war in Iraq was "off the budget" to reflect an artificially lower number. Obama to his credit is including the Iraq war in his budget stopping once and for all the Lala land B.S. dreams that Republicans like to live in.

    Wind is not the issue here my friend... Or my spelling for that matter. What is the issue is what the Republican can offer as an alternative to Obama's plan. And the alternative is to listen to Rush Limbaugh as their Economis in Chief, and defacto leader of what's left of your party, and simply parrot everithing the fat drug addict comes up with on a daily basis.
    Neither I , nor the rest of the American people that do not listen to Rush, and actually consider the guy an idiot (that would be 280 Million of us) feel a particular inclination to commit collective Economic suicide ... But you guys are welcomed to continue down this suicidal road.... If two National elections trashings in a row is not enough for you, we the American people will keep on providing you with a tax free shovel, so that you people can keep on digging yourselves into an even deeper hole you are allready into.

    Hey !!! Look at it from the bright side. Rush Limbaugh and friends maibe do have a point and you guys will find a new profession as coal miners. God knows you in the GOP are becoming a nuck out at digging holes, so let's put you guys to do something productive for a change.

    • Posted By: alexanbd2010 @ 03/04/2009 3:49:54 PM

      MSNBC called, they would like their talking points back. And no, you are still misunderstanding the import of your own statements claiming the war is "on the budget". But I suppose that ignorance is incurable, in your case, since it's not on "Countdown".

  • Posted By: stiv84 @ 03/04/2009 3:27:52 PM

    you are a bleeding heart liberal/progressive or whatever it is those of your ilk want to be called this week

    We're calling ourselves The Majority now that we've cleaned up in the White House and congress.

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/03/2009 7:21:01 PM

    RE: jamon.

    I was going to answer your post... But it's so dumb is not even worth my time.

  • Posted By: vito vera @ 03/03/2009 4:23:34 PM

    How can the Republicans say they are against big government? Deick Cheney stayed huddled in his office with his lawyer and tried to find ways to extend executive priviledge. Bush and company tired to do away with the first amendment. The only time they are in favor of less governemnt is when it comes to controling the wealthy. Deregulating Wall Street and legalizing leverage buyouts worked wonders for this country, Gave us two depressions.

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/03/2009 10:10:05 AM

    RE: Misterbhan.

    About your observation that Obama is not supporting business in helping GM, but unions... Does Citi has a union ?, does Bank of America, or AGI have unions ?
    The first rule in credibility is to be consistent in your ideas. If Obama is anti-business and pro-union then Obama most help only companies like GM , and not companies like the Republican darlings in Wall Street (citi, AIG, etc) .. But if that is not the case, then my friend you most at the very least consider that your "Obama is anti-business" idea has some rather big holes in my opnion.
    In my opinion Obama is simply a pragmatist politician with a lot of problems to solve and little time to solve them. I do believe he is smart enough to understand that if he does not produce solutions he, and his party will be out in 4 years. I also believe that he is followingthe best advice possible by Nobel laureates, and the best Economists in the world.

    So I don't know about you but I'll put my money on these Obama advisers, not in Rush "the Pill Poper" Limbaugh like a lot of Republicans are actually doing it with a straight face.

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 03/03/2009 9:53:39 AM

    RE: misterharban.

    Obama and any other leader of any stripe can only try and seek the best advice possible at the time . Obama to his credit is doing just that. You might, or might not agree with that advice, but if you are a realist you would understand that that's as good as it gets. There are no "magic" advice, or know it all Guru that we can look up to in a situation such as the one we are living.
    Logic, and common sence will tell you this however. If we do not pull together, and stop playing political games at this time we will all fail for this is not a game . Our life style, our economy is at stake. The fact is that Republicans are not offering alternatives, only complains. The fact is that Republicans do not have any credibility left in economic matters after supporting Bush's economic policies for 8 years.
    Obama is what we have.... Obama good or bad is what we were delt. Republicans should be wise to learn to live with it... Unless they like Rush want Obama to fail, and in doing so our country goes down the drain.
    What a patriot this guy Rush !!! He thinks this is a game of win and loose.

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