Calling John Galt

“We’re in this situation because we, as a country, had been spending above our means.”

That was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in his “first morning-show interview” on Good Morning America. (It’s as close a direct transcription as I could muster without a DVR, and will be adjusted accordingly.)

UPDATE: Actual transcript:

We got into this because we borrowed too much. We lived beyond our means. Both as a country, many businesses did it, many families did it. Obviously, the financial sector did that. And part of what’s going to make this so hard to get out of this is we have to go back to a point where we’re saving more.

Had *I* been the interviewer, I would have been inclined to ask the Secretary:

When you say “we as a country,” what you really meant to say was “government, and the politicians who spent money they didn’t have in an effort to buy our votes,” right?

With the massive (whether that be 50k or 2MM) Tea Party protest in Washington DC yesterday, everyone seems to be asking about the outcome. Some have suggested that the Tea Party movement is being co-opted by the Republican party.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It seems that the Tea Party movement is more about holding both parties accountable to the people. In this case, the people are looking for fiscally conservative policies.

Lets see how this pans out, regardless, now the ball is in the politicians courts to see how they respond.

“We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren’t any healthier for it,” Obama said.

Excuse me, but that is plain wrong. True, life expectancy in the United States is shorter than in several countries. But America’s rates of homicide, suicide and traffic fatalities render life expectancy irrelevant as a measure of health.

from Don Surber

Some quick stories about American Exceptionalism

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JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO.

DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded “does that include those who are buried here?”

DeGaulle did not respond. You could have heard a pin drop.

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When in Switzerland, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

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There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?”

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?”

You could have heard a pin drop.

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A U..S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?”

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brit’s, Canadians, Aussie’s and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

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AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE…

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. “You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

“Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”

The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”

“Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!”

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ‘’Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

For the many Americans who simply can’t afford health insurance…

No American should have to choose between health insurance and getting drunk.

Do it for the children.

From Brattleboro, Vermont:

ROCKINGHAM — The Rockingham School District will have to borrow $600,000 to make payroll because the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union business office failed to get information to the Department of Education in time.

So the system is going to eat some interest penalties because it didn’t get paperwork finished on deadline. So, what exactly were employees in Rockingham doing that might have contributed to their delay?

The business office has been asking for more help for months, Allbee said, and she said the office got behind while waiting for the authority to bring an extra hand into the finance department.

The Rockingham School District approved the use of stimulus money to handle the extra work caused by the complicated stimulus process.

So, they have so much paperwork involved in using Stimulus money, they have to dip into Stimulus funds to pay for the paperwork – the volume of which prevented them from getting their mandatory statistical report to the state in time to qualify for the release of tax dollars.

I thought the whole point of Stimulus was to put a bunch of people out in a field digging holes; not pulling legitimate ditch-diggers away from ditches to dig additional holes elsewhere.

Stimulus – it’s not just for breakfast anymore.

John Stossel is leaving ABC News at the end of the month to join Fox News and the Fox Business Network.

28 years is a long time to stay in one place, so it may just be a new opportunity and nothing more sinister than that.

It’s been fascinating to watch his evolution as a journalist. He started as a decidedly anti-business consumer crusader, but had a self-described epiphany that government is a monopoly in and of itself – and it often more dangerous to citizens than the businesses we’re supposed to hate.

In the last few years, Stossel has openly cited F.A. Hayek and others on matters of economics, free markets and liberty.

However, I personally am not happy to hear of his switch. Here’s what I wrote in the comments:

John, I am disturbed.

I’m a big fan of yours, and considered it a high honor when the radio hosts here in town referred to ME as “The John Stossel of Birmingham.”

I remember the old John, and the transformation to the new John – who was simply the same John with the honesty to challenge his assumptions and live with the consequences.

I am not disturbed for you, but rather for ABC. For me, it meant a LOT that they would let you do your own thing, it was a sign of integrity that other networks did not seem to have evidence to back up.

In a month, the closest thing ABC News will have to a calls-it-as-he-sees-it presence is Jake Tapper, who calls things about as even-handedly as any high-profile political journalist in this generation. But there will be no contrarian, no voice of conscience challenging the assumptions of the group-think rampant in so many newsrooms.

You gave ABC credibility they will not be able to showcase in any other manner. And your departure to Fox will only reinforce a set of prejudices and idiotic notions for the very people who need to listen the most.

I wish you the best, and will watch with interest. But I can’t help think of the nay-sayers and gain-sayers who will never be exposed to your talent for humanizing the effects of an inhuman leviathan. The street preacher has left the neighborhood for the safety of an altar where he will be gladly received — but who will save the unwashed and the lost?

Now, I don’t agree with what Joe Wilson did, when he called the President a liar. He may be factually correct, but it wasn’t respectful to the President of the United States. However, wouldn’t it be nice if both sides would open up to a bit of actual discussion. Especially, where they don’t agree in a public forum?

Maybe we are on our way to a British style Parliament.

Defeated by all 21 Committee Democrats… Congress to not be covered by Public Option (if it makes it through).