Sen. Graham was Right
July 12th 2008 23:42
We are truly a nation of whiners, and the media and Democrats know it. Before I go into that, let me clarify my feelings on this.
I feel bad for people losing their homes. I really do. I hate the gas prices shooting up and what that does to food prices. I know some people are suffering, and I have compassion for them. It has hit me too. My budget is tighter than it was a year ago, as is everybody else’s. Many of the people in trouble are investors, and many of those people are amateurs who tried to capitalize on the market and bought at the top. Of the non-investors, many are people who made poor financial decisions and borrowed the max on adjustable rate mortgages the bank knew they couldn’t pay if rates went up.
I could go into all the reasons why gas is high, food is rising, etc. But my goal for this blog entry is to defend Senator Phil Graham. Americans aren’t necessarily whiners, but we sure are told to be. The media and Democrats, who have the same goals, keep telling us how bad things are and choosing the worst to report on. It’s an old game. Find a few people who are doing badly, and you can find them in any economy, put them on the TV or hold them up as an example in a speech, and try to paint a broad picture from it. “This man lost his job, his health insurance and can’t pay for gas, and thanks for President Bush, we’ll all be in this boat soon!” It’s a lie.
Need proof? How many in the mainstream media reported the economy grew by 1% in the 2nd quarter of this year? Not one that I saw and I watch GMA every morning and read my news online. I found it in the Wall Street Journal. However, unemployment rises, while remaining lower than it was 28 years ago, and it’s blared from every corner, repeated over and over again.
If you felt great yesterday but have the flu today, you could say you’re doing worse than recent memory. If you had pneumonia a year ago and the flu today, you could say you’re doing better than last year at this time. So, the media and the Democrats pick the peak time and compare everything to that. The fact is, compared to eight years ago we’re all much, much better off. Compared to early 2006, we’re worse off.
We’re paying the price of the boom. Every period of rapid growth has to be followed by some pain. Kids experience it when they are growing up and their bones and muscles ache from how fast they are growing. Internet companies experienced it when the Internet bubble broke in 2001. Stock brokers experience it every fifteen years or so. Our economy is not a steady, constant, controlled environment, no matter what the feds do to interest rates, what happens to gas prices, etc. It will grow quick, and contract some. It will slow down and those who did more than they should, borrowed more than they should, built a bigger inventory than they could sell, bought a bigger house than they could afford, etc. will feel the hit.
However, it’s not as bad as the media and Democrats want to paint it for their own political gain. The economy is still growing, slower than it was, but it is still growing. Americans spend a lot of discretionary income on Starbucks, entertainment and other things that will be cut back to pay for gas and that is where the hurt will be felt. And as I already said, we are, overall, much better off than eight years ago.
Take me for example. My income is almost 50% larger than eight years ago, in 2000. Do I credit President Bush? No. I don’t blame him for today’s conditions any more than I blamed Clinton in 2000 for that recession.
Oh wait, there I go like the media. The definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the economy. The last two quarters had growth. Yet, I hear recession bantered around a lot.
Why is this? Senator Graham knows the reason. The worse people THINK they are doing, the longer the slowdown will last, and if it can last until November, than Barack has a better shot. So, if the media and Democrats can whine and get us whining and get that Carter sense of malaise going, it helps them. Never mind that part of the reason for high gas prices is that Democrats have been blocking new exploration, drilling and refinery construction for thirty years. They don’t want you to notice that some food price increase can be blamed on turning food crops into Ethanol, which creates three times as much carcinogenic pollution as gasoline. But hey, it doesn’t produce the dreaded carbon dioxide that gasoline does and we also do by breathing out.
They did a study, and I read this on Wall Street Journal, and found that overwhelming people rate their own lives and their immediate community as doing good or well. Those same people are currently saying the country as a whole is doing poorly. So, if most of the small pockets of people are doing well, how is the nation doing poorly? People think the country is doing poorly because they keep hearing the refrain over and over again.
Stop whining, work hard and America always gets better. It may be six years forward and two years back, but having a long term perspective is key in every walk of life.
I feel bad for people losing their homes. I really do. I hate the gas prices shooting up and what that does to food prices. I know some people are suffering, and I have compassion for them. It has hit me too. My budget is tighter than it was a year ago, as is everybody else’s. Many of the people in trouble are investors, and many of those people are amateurs who tried to capitalize on the market and bought at the top. Of the non-investors, many are people who made poor financial decisions and borrowed the max on adjustable rate mortgages the bank knew they couldn’t pay if rates went up.
I could go into all the reasons why gas is high, food is rising, etc. But my goal for this blog entry is to defend Senator Phil Graham. Americans aren’t necessarily whiners, but we sure are told to be. The media and Democrats, who have the same goals, keep telling us how bad things are and choosing the worst to report on. It’s an old game. Find a few people who are doing badly, and you can find them in any economy, put them on the TV or hold them up as an example in a speech, and try to paint a broad picture from it. “This man lost his job, his health insurance and can’t pay for gas, and thanks for President Bush, we’ll all be in this boat soon!” It’s a lie.
Need proof? How many in the mainstream media reported the economy grew by 1% in the 2nd quarter of this year? Not one that I saw and I watch GMA every morning and read my news online. I found it in the Wall Street Journal. However, unemployment rises, while remaining lower than it was 28 years ago, and it’s blared from every corner, repeated over and over again.
If you felt great yesterday but have the flu today, you could say you’re doing worse than recent memory. If you had pneumonia a year ago and the flu today, you could say you’re doing better than last year at this time. So, the media and the Democrats pick the peak time and compare everything to that. The fact is, compared to eight years ago we’re all much, much better off. Compared to early 2006, we’re worse off.
We’re paying the price of the boom. Every period of rapid growth has to be followed by some pain. Kids experience it when they are growing up and their bones and muscles ache from how fast they are growing. Internet companies experienced it when the Internet bubble broke in 2001. Stock brokers experience it every fifteen years or so. Our economy is not a steady, constant, controlled environment, no matter what the feds do to interest rates, what happens to gas prices, etc. It will grow quick, and contract some. It will slow down and those who did more than they should, borrowed more than they should, built a bigger inventory than they could sell, bought a bigger house than they could afford, etc. will feel the hit.
However, it’s not as bad as the media and Democrats want to paint it for their own political gain. The economy is still growing, slower than it was, but it is still growing. Americans spend a lot of discretionary income on Starbucks, entertainment and other things that will be cut back to pay for gas and that is where the hurt will be felt. And as I already said, we are, overall, much better off than eight years ago.
Take me for example. My income is almost 50% larger than eight years ago, in 2000. Do I credit President Bush? No. I don’t blame him for today’s conditions any more than I blamed Clinton in 2000 for that recession.
Oh wait, there I go like the media. The definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the economy. The last two quarters had growth. Yet, I hear recession bantered around a lot.
Why is this? Senator Graham knows the reason. The worse people THINK they are doing, the longer the slowdown will last, and if it can last until November, than Barack has a better shot. So, if the media and Democrats can whine and get us whining and get that Carter sense of malaise going, it helps them. Never mind that part of the reason for high gas prices is that Democrats have been blocking new exploration, drilling and refinery construction for thirty years. They don’t want you to notice that some food price increase can be blamed on turning food crops into Ethanol, which creates three times as much carcinogenic pollution as gasoline. But hey, it doesn’t produce the dreaded carbon dioxide that gasoline does and we also do by breathing out.
They did a study, and I read this on Wall Street Journal, and found that overwhelming people rate their own lives and their immediate community as doing good or well. Those same people are currently saying the country as a whole is doing poorly. So, if most of the small pockets of people are doing well, how is the nation doing poorly? People think the country is doing poorly because they keep hearing the refrain over and over again.
Stop whining, work hard and America always gets better. It may be six years forward and two years back, but having a long term perspective is key in every walk of life.
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