Obama no different than any other post war candidate turned president

President Obama, hailed as a "Messianic figure" during the election (WTF??!!) yesterday said he might have to raise taxes on MOST taxpayers if the economy does not grow sufficiently to pay down the deficit.

He left open the possibility he would have to raise taxes on most Americans to decrease the deficit if growth were too weak. He also indicated he might tax the most-expensive employer-provided benefits to help pay for his health-care revamp. Both would reverse pledges he made during the campaign.

I have no problem with a President doing what needs to be done. Of course, Obama is not doing THAT - that would be cutting the federal government expenditures rather than raising taxes (2 sides of the same coin). My problem is that Obama, his campaign, and his supporters, were as miserably deceitful during the campaign as Richard Nixon, Al Gore, GWB, John Kerry, and Lyndon Johnson - all of whom lied through their teeth repeatedly - were during their campaigns. I could list the campaign promises that were either out right lies or complete fabrications but it would take far too long - I don't make a living writing this blog.

Further, Obama's abuse of MONEY during the campaign simply cannot be tolerated in a democratic society - As Chris Matthews (a Democrat) candidly said on his program "Hardball": "the ends do not justify the means". What a terrible precedent you, and especially your supporters have set.

(Frequent commentor Donal Lang recently pointed out that I have a predilection for offending every special interest group I can get my hands on... how very perspicacious of you, Donal!)

Not that the true believers, the Special Interest Groups, would be able to think this through.

Political Special Interest Groups ("SIG"), by definition harm everyone not associated or benefiting from the SIG's efforts. Doubt this? Politics is about control or power, and money. "Control" or power over others that the others did not wish to relinquish, and use of tax revenues to benefit the SIG - there is no other reason for a political SIG to exist! How does taking your money and having someone else use it for their purposes not hurt YOU?

Every political SIG, political movement, cause... will outlive its usefulness. EVERY SINGLE ONE. You might debate the actual date a particular SIG fell into superannuated Limbo, but not that it does, and WILL happen. It is just like death and taxes.

What is the purpose of the NAACP? The President is black for crying out loud, can you get any more "advanced" than that? (What is the definition of "black"? Or as in the case of the NAACP - "colored"? What "color"? My wife is decidedly brown - is she "colored"? Our children are more of a Mocha Cappuccino - are they "colored"? Why should the NAACP be trying to "advance" anything for very, very upper middle class "colored" children? I wrote a letter to the New York Times years ago asking why Jesse Jackson, Jr. the black son of a multi millionaire establishment family should receive considerations unavailable to me, the white son of a furnace mechanic from the Bronx? What are we trying to accomplish here?

What about the National Organization for Women ("N.O.W.")? Women represent more than 1/2 of the people earning college degrees earned since 1990 in the U.S. Women represented only 25% of the people that lost their job in this recession. Women outlive men by 5 years! What is the purpose of N.O.W. in this era? (To be fair, N.O.W. is slipping away, as it should be at this time. It might have a last gasp if it elects a new, young, and BLACK woman as president. What, exactly, does the NAACP want to advance?)

(I can do the same trick with Cubans in Miami, Gays, Little People, Fat People, Smokers, Addicts, Muslims, Christian, Jews, Triple AAA Members, AARP, Mortgage Holders... and all of the other "victims" out there.  Every special interest group uses the same playbook, just some use it a little differntly.)

There was a time when groups like this mattered, when they served a purpose, when they had a use. That is the problem with SIG's. They live longer than they should and frequently cause more damage during their "walking dead" years than they served during their productive years.

But live on they do.  All organizations become consumed by organizational politics and continue to exist only for the benefit of that political effort, but in the end "all revolutions eat their children."

Barak Obama could have done some good stuff. Instead, it appears that his administration will be steared by supporters championing such issues as Gay marriage, abortion rights, and confiscatory tax and spend policies, and that's OK, to the winners go the spoils... but not exactly the stuff of Watershed Presidents. He could have taken on some tough stuff that a white man could not - like calling black men on the carpet about responsible parenting, not dropping out of high school, and the disproportionate level of convicted felons and inmates within the black male community (and I am NO FAN of Law Enforcement).  Now that is the kind of thing that might define a Watershed President. (If a white man from a rich family (GWB) tried to do that, the NAACP would be marching on Washington.) He could have directed the Federal HHS agency, among others, to teach people how to do for themselves instead of counting on a government that is absolutely, positively going to go broke. He could have LED, instead of being pushed around by his supporters - SIG's that only wanted something from him, not for the country.

The U.S. is going BROKE. BROKE! Because of these SIG's (AARP anyone?). (Spare me the "its the military budget" that is causing our fiscal woes... it is part of it, I will grant you that, but it is not the Lion's share, not even the cub's share. We need a military, we just don't need a military big enough to support an empire.)  

The U.S. and its citizens do not appear to be able to see that SOMEONE out there is selling our bonds and our currency and buying Oil, Copper, Gold, etc... A funding crisis could hit the U.S. Treasury market at any time from this point forward - and under no circumstance can I envision that said funding crisis would be more than 3 years hence.

There is no solution possible given the political realities - I am just venting here. Keep your own house in order. It is the best thing you can do.  For myself, I have begun to take delivery of precious metals and I am buying farmland and agricultural investments.  I still believe that the odds of one more serious deflationary scare remain better than 50/50 - so I have made contingencies for that, but I would not stake my life's savings, our family's security, and my children's education on that.

Mentatt (at) yahoo. come