While the tradgedy of Haiti rightly moves us all to help, there are some reasons to think about what kind of help Haiti needs in the long term, not just in this emergency, in part because Haiti has been in crisis almost continually for decades. Perhaps the way we have been helping them ISNOTWORKING.
A few facts to consider (sorry, no time for footnotes, you can correct me if you need to):
Since 1992, the US alone has poured in over $3B dollars into Haiti, and the UN has done more on top.
Haiti’s population is only 10M, so how much money has been spent per capita?
The current earthquake in Haiti was about the same strength as the big Loma Prieta quake in CA. Some 60+ people died in CA, while the body count in Haiti is now easily over 100,000
Some experts say that the reason that Haiti’s economy hasn’t grown (besides the rampant corruption and thuggery) is it’s dependence on foreign aid
I don’t often curse, especially in print, but can I just say that the current administration’s health care and climate plans are the height of idiocy! Especially since these crises are largely manufactured, and not real. The health care ‘crisis’ is really a crisis of EMPLOYMENT, which the Obama admin, despite their claims of saving jobs (‘Mission accomplished’), has run into the ground since Bush, promising us that it would have been worse without it (even though under their plan, unemployment got even worse than their projections had we done nothing).
So here’s some conservative ‘spam’ that is making the viral rounds. OBAMACAREISANABOMINATION, and he is turning out to be one of the worst presidents in history.
—————————————————————
Senator Bayh,
As a practicing physician I have major concerns with the health care bill
before Congress. I actually have read the bill and am shocked by the
brazenness of the government’s proposed involvement in the
patient-physician relationship. The very idea that the government will
dictate and ration patient care is dangerous and certainly not helpful in
designing a health care system that works for all. Every physician I work
with agrees that we need to fix our health care system, but the proposed
bills currently making their way through congress will be a disaster if
passed.
I ask you respectfully and as a patriotic American to look at the following
troubling lines that I have read in the bill. You cannot possibly believe
that these proposals are in the best interests of the country and our
fellow citizens.
Page 22 of the HC Bill: Mandates that the Govt will audit books of
all employers that self-insure!!
Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill: THEREWILLBE A GOVTCOMMITTEE that
decides what treatments/benefits you get.
Page 29 lines 4–16 in the HC bill: YOURHEALTHCAREISRATIONED!!!
Conservatives are getting tired of Obamanomics — it’s just plain idiotic to think that we can tax, spend, and borrow our way out of our economic problems. It’s contrary to reason and history. In fact, as Orrin Hatch recently remarked in exasperation at this anti-sense position, it’s stupid.
The data show government transfers and rebates have not increased consumption at all.
Consider first the part of the chart pertaining to the spring of this
year and observe that disposable personal income (DPI)–the total
amount of income people have left to spend after they pay taxes and
receive transfers from the government–jumped. The increase is due to
the transfer and rebate payments in the 2009 stimulus package. However,
as the chart also shows, there was no noticeable impact on personal
consumption expenditures. Because the boost to income is temporary, at
best only a very small fraction was consumed.
I think it’s time to get one of these:
Seriously, though, the only thing that worked about the stimulus was getting taxpayer money into the hands of liberal cronies. I am serious about the legacies of GWB and Obama being the opposite of what many think — GWB’s will be good, Obama’s will be a setback for both liberals and African Americans. Long live Clarence Thomas!
It is a pervasive myth that the President is the one who kills or saves the economy, but in reality, the President can only set a tone and direction through his proposals, as well as what he may approve or veto.
It is the Congress that creates the bills and determines the spending. In fact, the Congress can totally ignore the President if they have a super majority, and in times when the Congressional majority is from the opposing party of the President, they often do. The American thinker has a great article entitled Whose Mess?, in which they use unemployment numbers to show that the economy ALWAYS worsens under Democratic congresses. Why? Because liberal economics do not work. Overtaxing the successful is the failed model of pseudo-socialism, not free-market capitalism.
The graph above speaks for itself — see the pattern? Every time a DEM Senate takes over (blue), unemployment goes up. When a GOP Senate is in session (red), it goes down. Maybe you read this differently — I mean, in 1993, it did begin to go down, but that’s probably because of Bill Clinton approving NAFTA, which the majority of the DEMs voted AGAINST. So again, the only successful reduction of unemployment during a Democratic Congress may have been due to the minority GOP.
The world that fails? Government programs. Obama was not mistaken when he compared the quality of private services (FedEx) and government (Post Office) to health care — DOH! Correct! Government healthcare sucks and WILL suck! Gingrich uses this example, plus the difference between private banking knowing your unique PIN, and the Social Security Admin not recognizing the same SSN used over 40 times. Enjoy the vids.
Here’s an Obama spam making its rounds among us neocons. It reminds me of A lesson in economics using beer. These allegories are always a bit oversimplified, but they are important in that they:
Communicate the essence of the proposed plans in a simple to understand analogy
Communicate the clear and simple problems of the proposed plans
Communicate the real concerns, fears, and anger of the opposition
Involve ridicule from the minority, which should be viewed as a warning that failing to heed the concerns will lead to the next step — public defiance (can you say “Town Hall meetings”?)
What such allegories lack in sophistication they easily make up for in clarity, something most political plans, including Obama’s, lack.
Don’t know? It’s not because it does not exist, it’s because the MSM could care less, and so could the Obama administration. It seems to me that all he is doing is trying to streamroll his ideological and non-sustainable program through as fast as possible.
But ask Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona if the GOP is just trying to make Obama fail, he responds “that’s just a political ad.” In a short interview this morning on NPR, he was clear, calm, and sensible. Please, may sense prevail, because
Health care in America is still better than elsewhere in the world, not on the verge of catastrophe (like all liberal issues which are trumped up to emergencies)
The Obama plan will make it WORSE, not better.
I mean, wanna see government run healthcare? Look at Medicare (insolvent), Veterans Care (poor), Native American Care (poor), and Social Security (insolvent). They can’t even run the “Cash for Clunkers” program well.
While the tradgedy of Haiti rightly moves us all to help, there are some reasons to think about what kind of help Haiti needs in the long term, not just in this emergency, in part because Haiti has been in crisis almost continually for decades. Perhaps the way we have been helping them IS NOT WORKING.
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