The Patriot Post® · Chronicle

The Foundation

“[T]he duty imposed upon [the president] to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will ‘preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.’ The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose.” –Joseph Story

Upright

“At his Friday news conference-cum-tantrum, Barack Obama imperiously summoned congressional leaders to his presence: ‘I’ve told’ them ‘I want them here at 11 a.m.’ By Saturday, his administration seemed to be cultivating chaos by suddenly postulating a new deadline: The debt-ceiling impasse must end before Asian markets opened Sunday evening Eastern time, lest the heavens fall. Those markets opened; the heavens held. … Obama has marginalized himself. Inordinate self-regard is an occupational hazard of politics and part of the job description of the rhetorical presidency, this incessant tutor. Still, upon what meat doth this our current Caesar feed that he has grown so great that he presumes to command leaders of a coequal branch of government? He once boasted (June 3, 2008) that he could influence the oceans’ rise; he must be disabused of comparable delusions about controlling Congress.” –columnist George Will

“The national debt-ceiling law should be judged by what it actually does, not by how good an idea it seems to be. The one thing that the national debt-ceiling has never done is to put a ceiling on the rising national debt. Time and time again, for years on end, the national debt-ceiling has been raised whenever the national debt gets near whatever the current ceiling might be. Regardless of what it is supposed to do, what the national debt-ceiling actually does is enable any administration to get all the political benefits of runaway spending for the benefit of their favorite constituencies – and then invite the opposition party to share the blame, by either raising the national debt ceiling, or by voting for unpopular cutbacks in spending or increases in taxes.” –economist Thomas Sowell

“The Boehner [debt ceiling] proposal would cut $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending. There is no assurance that these cuts will occur, but let’s assume they do. Let’s even be generous and assume that they are – in the words of S&P – ‘enacted and maintained throughout the decade.’ This would cut debt held by the public from its projected $24.9 trillion in 2021 to $23.7 trillion, and when measured against the economy from 104% to 99.4%. Certainly, this is an improvement, but it is hardly declining from today’s levels, nor would these cuts fundamentally restructure entitlements – the real driver of our deficits in the future.” –Heritage Foundation’s Alison Acosta Fraser

“We have an entire Democrat party and a substantial portion of the Republican one engaged in economic appeasement. It’s most viable slogan is some variation about solving our economic mess by making the rich ‘pay their fair share.’ … Is it really about taxing people who earn in excess of a million dollars a year? Or is it closer to the $250,000 that would encompass substantially more Americans, including the small business owners who are the backbone of America’s job-creating engine? Moreover, what happens when taxing the rich ‘fairly’ still leaves us adding to the national debt?” –columnist Arnold Ahlert

The Demo-gogues

King for a day: “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. … But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That’s not how our Constitution is written. Let’s be honest, I need a dance partner here, and the floor is empty.” –Barack Obama

Past is prologue: “In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every president has signed it. … Bush did it seven times.” –Barack Obama (Wait – we thought “Bush did it” was a bad thing.)

Class warfare: “I want everybody in American to do well. I want everybody to have a chance to become a millionaire. I think the free market system is the greatest wealth generator we have ever known. This is not about punishing wealth. This is about asking people who have benefited the most over the last decade to share in the sacrifice, and I think these patriotic Americans are willing to pitch in – if they’re asked – because they know that middle class families shouldn’t have to pick up the whole tab for closing the deficit.” –Barack Obama

“Why do they cut and cap our hopes and dreams? To protect tax breaks for the millionaires and the billionaires. It’s quite obvious. They call them – what do they call them? The job creators. They say, ‘don’t tax the job creators.’ … [T]hat’s just so much bull. Let’s put that baby to rest.” –Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Just keep spending: “The current, so-called ‘debt crisis’ has been completely manufactured by House Republicans attempting to advance an extremist agenda. This should be a simple vote to allow the U.S. Treasury to fund all of the programs and obligations of the entire federal government that are already in the law. Enough is enough. We should immediately pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling so that we can work on the real crisis in this country – the jobs crisis.” –Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

Hot air: “[Many scientists] say that the heat waves, droughts, fires, and floods that are afflicting our nation are harbingers of the dangers we face if we continue to ignore the threat of climate change. Yet at the same time that the scientific evidence has grown stronger and extreme weather has become more frequent and intense, the public’s understanding of the danger has been diminishing. … I ask you to investigate the disconnect that appears to be growing between the scientific and the public understanding of climate change. I hope you will then decide to lead a national effort to ensure the public is fully and accurately informed about the science of climate change and its implications for human health and welfare.” –Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) in a letter to Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu

Dezinformatsia

Crazy Tea Party: “In an impressive display of mendacity, [House Speaker John] Boehner told the American people the president wants ‘a blank check’ to keep on spending, and the House GOP is serving ‘the American people’ by resisting. Instead of talking about how he and Obama might close the gap they faced only three days ago, Boehner went full-tilt Tea Party crazy and presented his own plan, which requires not only brutal spending cuts but a balanced budget amendment – as well as another congressional vote to hike the debt ceiling again at the height of the 2012 election season. Can there be any doubt that the Republicans’ only interest here is making Obama fail?” –Salon’s Joan Walsh

“Watching the extraordinary polarization in Washington today, many people have pointed the finger at the Tea Party. It’s ideologically extreme, refuses to compromise, and cares more about purity than problem solving.” –CNN’s Fareed Zakaria

“If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission.” –New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman

“What’s going on here, as I see it, is a kind of slow motion secession. This is an ending of the social compact. This is three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of the federal government. The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society. And the way to do it is to draw the line on spending and taxes, to starve the federal government so that it loses power, so that we aren’t part of the social compact anymore. And that’s the real argument that’s going on.” –former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman

Just raise taxes: “I don’t understand how 236 members, by the way, sign a pledge of no taxes before they even start coming in to compromise.” –NBC’s Andrea Mitchell

Belly Laugh of the Week: “[MSNBC’s] audience has a progressive point of view. Now, it’s not an ideology, because we differ often in how we get there, but it’s challenging all the status quo and trying to figure out how to make the world better. It’s challenging what’s going on in Washington. We’ve got smart people, and they do their research. But yes, we do have a sensibility and we embrace it, but we’re about ideas.” –MSNBC president Phil Griffin

Newspulper Headlines:

Out on a Limb: “Obama Says Election Assessment of His Leadership” –Associated Press

Shortest Books Ever Written: “The Unbelievable Brilliance of Barack Obama” –Irish Examiner USA

Could It Be … Communism?: “What’s Behind China’s Hard Line Against Catholics?” –Religious News Service

He Looks Black on Fox: “Juan Williams on NPR: Elitist and White” –Politico.com

Bottom Story of the Day: “Muslims, Non-Muslims Still Dislike Each Other” –Associated Press

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Just love paying taxes: “Most people who join country clubs, or gyms, or other exclusive entities in America, feel … proud to pay that monthly due, because they want to be part of that special privileged community in which they receive wonderful resources and benefits. [Americans] should feel that same kind of awe and respect for paying taxes. … [W]e shouldn’t have an aversion to paying some amount of taxes.” –Faiz Shakir, editor of ThinkProgress.org

Scare tactic or threat? “Just remember, this is the United States of America. We write 80 million checks a month. There are millions and millions of Americans that depend on those checks coming on time. Not just people that supply our military, but people who get Social Security benefits, Medicare [and] Medicaid benefits. And we cannot put those payments at risk and we do not have the ability to limit the damage on them if Congress fails to act in time.” –Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who by the way loved paying taxes enough to avoid them himself

That’s racist: “Is there any real reason to believe … that one of the reasons Congress will not vote to put the economy in the black because the economy is in the hands of the black? That seems extraordinarily harsh and divisive. But the reality is, there seems to be no logical or reasonable answer or response to the notion other than they want to deny this Democrat and this particular president the victory of having the ability to forge consensus here around the reality of American debt.” –Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson

Essential Liberty

“We must now add Norway to the expanding list of unsafe places that includes Columbine, Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center, London, Madrid, Ft. Hood and Virginia Tech. … Police are calling the gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, a ‘Christian fundamentalist’ because we must have labels (except when describing Muslim fundamentalists, which police, politicians and much of the media try to avoid for fear of angering Islamists). … Norway forbids civilians from carrying concealed weapons, or owning an automatic weapon, unless they are gun collectors. As in America, gun laws do not deter criminals who are determined to cause harm with a weapon. What would have deterred Breivik would have been a gun in the hands of a competent person capable of stopping his mass-murdering spree.” –columnist Cal Thomas

Editorial Exegesis

“New Census data show that the recent economic crash has erased decades of minority gains in wealth. The net worth of whites is now 20 times higher than for blacks and 18 times higher than for Hispanics, both records. For white households, the median net worth (assets minus liabilities) in 2009 was $113,149. That compares to $6,325 for Hispanics and $5,677 for black Americans. There are, of course, many reasons for this. While minority families gained from the economic growth of the the 1980s, 1990s and mid-2000s, much of their wealth was tied up in their homes. When the housing market crashed in 2008, so did their net worth. Meanwhile, whites have been helped by the rebound in stock prices in the last two years. Stock market investments, including IRAs, 401(k)s and other market-based accounts, make up 28% of white Americans’ wealth, vs. just 19% for blacks and 15% for Hispanics. If nothing else, these data point out the failure of federal welfare and anti-poverty policies to do what they intended: eradicate wealth differences in our country. … Today, some 44 million Americans are on food stamps. In 2007, it was 26 million. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently boasted that U.S. issues more than 80 million checks a month. But while the U.S. has more than 70 means-tested welfare programs, the poverty rate today is higher than it was in the late 1960s. How can that be? ‘(M)ost anti-poverty/welfare spending erodes work and marriage,’ wrote Robert Rector, a Heritage Foundation economist, in a recent report. ‘As a result … low-income Americans are less capable of self-support than when the War on Poverty began.’ … The road to hell, it’s said, is paved with good intentions. But sometimes it’s paved with taxpayers’ money.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Short Cuts

“American voters should have no patience for plans based on tax increases that never produce the amount of revenue they claim, in exchange for forming committees to discuss spending cuts that never actually happen, resulting in hypothetical deficit reduction that isn’t big enough to matter.” –columnist John Hayward

“President Obama named Rich Cordray to head the new Consumer Protection Agency. It is tasked to pressure banks to make more loans to people with bad credit in the interest of fairness to all. It’s part of a new cabinet-level agency called the Department of Future Recession.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“The heat index in Washington, DC was 114 degrees. Maybe the world actually did end in May and the people in Washington are actually in hell.” –comedian Jimmy Kimmel

“We have fantastic news. The two sides have come to an agreement. The crisis is over. We are going to have football.” –comedian Jay Leno

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
The Patriot Post Editorial Team