DOOM seems to be the hardest word....

"Come on, geezers of America: Take one for the kids."

Keith Hennessey summarizes the "cut, cap, and balance" plan being put forward by the GOP. Like Hennessey, I feel that while it has its bad aspects, it's actually a fairly good piece of legislation. Which of course means that it has no chance in hell of getting past the Democrats.

Improving our debt-to-GDP ratio may have unexpected benefits.

Larry Summers drops the hammer on FDR:

Never forget, never forget, and I think it’s very important for Democrats especially to remember this, that if Hitler had not come along, Franklin Roosevelt would have left office in 1941 with an unemployment rate in excess of 15 percent and an economic recovery strategy that had basically failed.

Protip: Don't threaten to kill 47 regulators and call them "“fucking corrupt piece[s] of shit!". They don't appreciate it, and a judge will probably want to have a severe word with you. Remember: gentlemen of good will may disagree and yet remain civil.

Uncle Sam, Sugar Daddy.

Richard Rahn asks, "Is this the end of progress?" Only if we allow it -- decline is a choice, not a destiny.

Thomas Sowell brings down the thunder on the "tax the rich" crowd: "Dissecting The Demagoguery About 'Tax Cuts For The Rich'". Sowell is the anti-Krugman -- a miracle of clarity, insight, and common sense.

Norman Ornstein doesn't like this talk of a balanced-budget amendment. The argument is the same tired and discredited Keynesianism we've seen a thousand times before: consumers aren't spending, so government has to step up and do it. Never mind the complete failure of Keynesian "stimulus" over the past three years -- this is yet another economist for whom theory trumps reality.

James Pethokoukis delves into Obama's tax-hike obsession. The liberal answer to every problem (both real and imagined) is "more government!". And it's never enough -- the government will never be big enough nor the cash-hoard vast enough to satisfy them. The liberal Utopia is not a paradise free from want and care; it is a dirty cave where everyone can sit together in the dark, starving. But at least they'll all be equal.

UPDATE 1: I think it's fair to say that Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, isn't going to renew his Obama Fan Club card this year. "And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime." L'affaire, c'est fini.

UPDATE 2: From Kratos in the comments -- Downfall: Europe's failed political class.

UPDATE 3: Michael Barone (who is not prone to hyperbole): "Things are worse than I said." The crisis is now, not two or five or ten years from now. If we don't act now, we may not be able to act later.

UPDATE 4: What does 'poor' mean in modern America? It's much more pleasant to be poor now than it was back in the 1930's, and much much more pleasant than it was in any human age prior to that. There are very few genuinely "poor" Americans, compared to poor people in, say, Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

I'm sleepy, but I'm also hungry. What to do?

posted by Monty at 09:09 AM

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