The other night I attended a Republican meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C.
A candidate for Senator was speaking and I wanted to hear what he had to say. His name is Ed Gillespie and he has been a volunteer and elected leader in the Republican party for 30 years.
I won’t bore you with his party platform policies or a description of his well polished demeanor and dress. Let me just assure you he looked and sounded the part.
But he said something that made me question him and the Republican party. He alluded to Obama spending a trillion dollars and having “nothing to show for it”. Really? I’ve heard this from many Republicans trying to refute the usefulness of the “Stimulus”. I have to restrain myself whenever an intelligent, involved, and current politician or media personality puts forth the idea that “Stimulus” failed. It did not!
The Obama administration used the “crisis” to spend an extra trillion + dollars and subsequently locked in this spending increase by including it in the “baseline” for every budget since. He also moved much of the spending from discretionary into mandatory thereby ensuring the new levels of spending would be unassailable. This money was to be used for “shovel-ready” construction and infrastructure jobs and the money was spent but somehow the infrastructure wasn’t really improved and the jobs never materialized.
So where did the money go and what was it used for? In short it was “invested” in pushing progressive socialism throughout America. Yes, we financed our own destruction. The state government unions were saved from required downsizing. Huge sums of money has been funneled into “community” groups to ensure their rabid allegiance and to ensure they had the free time and money to get out the vote and register agreeable voters– legal or not. Each piece of the progressive quilt has been bought using tax payer funds.
And the money used directly by the Federal government is being used to push progressiveness as well. Eric Holder’s actions against States trying to honor immigration law or marriage law or voting law make it clear how our money is used against citizens. Business is over regulated and welfare recipients are freed from having to get job training or education to receive benefits. Social Security has increased Americans receiving disability benefits by over 50% in less than 5 years. Obamacare is now being sold as relieving productive members of society of the need to work, making them less or non-productive– diminishing the lines between America’s middle class, the working poor, and the permanently (multi-generational) poor.
Socialism always creates a two-tier economy with party members on top and everyone else on the bottom– and the bottom keeps getting worse.
“Stimulus” was the progressives using the money and credit created by Capitalism to purchase “astro-turf” support and finance their base to move America toward Socialism. It was not “wasted” as Republicans would state. Republicans still take Democrats as meaning what they say rather than saying what will move their agenda forward. The effects of the “Stimulus” are obvious to anyone who understands what it was actually used for. Obama was re-elected and the Democrat party has an excellent chance of winning the next Presidential election which would move the Supreme Court further/majority left. Gay rights have progressed with out elected Democrats having to take any heat for it. Illegal immigration is accepted and the myriad of benefits they receive from the Democrats will lead them to vote Democrat in the future, and they are a fast growing demographic. Christianity is under attack. Conservatives are under attack from the government as well. The media has been funded via massive Ad Council marketing. Yes some is free, but most is paid for and those advertising dollars weigh on the executives minds. When I listen to WMAL conservative talk in DC I hear an Ad Council every commercial break. If they pull the plug on advertising on the station they would lose 25% of the income immediately.
