Calling John Galt

Brian Baird, congressional democrat in WA state’s 3rd district, representing Vancouver and other areas in S Washington, recently made the rounds at the Davos conference.  Baird is a rabid protectionist, telling a South American reporter that the world would “have to swallow the [buy-american] clause” that was added to the congressional “stimulus” bill. Baird’s district is home to several steel mills and thus “steel is one of those industries” that must be protected. Never mind that the steel tariffs of several years ago were just another nail in the domestic auto industry’s coffin.

Such protectionist instincts are resulting in retaliatory rhetoric from our trading partners. Such a cycle was one of several key factors in the great depression.

Something to keep in mind the next time Baird is up for re-election

A few precious quotes for a recent WashingtonTimes article:

“Now, in the past few days I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems,” the president said at the White House. “I reject that theory, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change.”

You can’t make this up…

While President Clinton’s first trip as president was to Detroit, where he held a town hall meeting with average Americans to talk about how to fix the economy, and President Bush flew to Fort Stewart, Ga., to visit soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division, Mr. Obama’s first trip aboard Air Force One will take him to a luxury resort in Williamsburg.

“Well, I’d — you know, I’d — Williamsburg is — has a lofty place in our country’s history,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, when asked if there was any special significance to the president’s choice. “I don’t know that there’s any great symbolism in this one in particular,” he added at Wednesday’s briefing off the West Wing.

Hmmm, not exactly on message…

“Are there lessons learned here?” a reporter asked the spokesman Wednesday.

“Well, as I said – I mean, you know, we – the president didn’t think that we were going to come in here and change everything about the way Washington worked in such a short period of time. You can rest assured that we understand that we’ve not yet marked off all of our to-dos.”

Let the fun times begin…

Stimulus. See if it’s right for you.

From Newsweek:

“Obama has allowed Congress to grow embroiled in nitpicking over efficiency when the central debate should be about whether the package is big enough. When you are dealing with a stimulus of this size, there are going to be wasteful expenditures and boondoggles. There’s no way anyone can spend $800 to $900 billion quickly without waste and boondoggles. It comes with the Keynesian territory. This is an emergency; the normal rules do not apply.”

Thanks for the clarification, Senator Palpatine. Can I fetch your robe and cowl from the cleaners?

Who does the government bureaucracy serve?  It isn’t customers.  If it was, then students would be doing a lot better.  Nope, they serve themselves.  They have to justify their own existence.

Business serves their customers.  They have to, or they go out of business.  Government doesn’t have that issue, which is the ultimate check and balance.

Thiiiisssss Maaannnnyyyy says Nancy Pelosi…

Victor Davis Hanson otherwise known simply as VDH has it right. The Obama Administration isn’t doing very well and it doesn’t bode well for the rest of us, at all.

Definitely worth a read!

Hmmm, this couldn’t be just for the saps at home could it?…  Saying he lived one way, while most certainly living another way.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Tom.

Can we add this to the reasons why term limits make sense?

(and Nathan… can we get embeds to work here?)