Next up: Bubble Watch

But first:
Today is an historic day in my hometown. Today is the day where the immediate future of "4 million" displaces the long-term future of 400 million. Today Barack Obama descends on Denver to sign the Declaration of Dependence. Today is a great day for Democrats. Tomorrow will be a bad day for all Americans.

When Barack Obama took the oath, most of us wondered what we were going to get. Some braced for the worst, some hoped for the best. After a few weeks in office, here is what we know about him.

He has the ability to redefine words.
Bipartisanship: convincing Republicans they are wrong and Democrats are right. Example: "Mr. President, what have you learned about the lack of bipartisanship associated with this stimulus bill?" "There are a lot of bad habits in Washington."
Bad habits: voting conservatively, or against Democrats. Example: we need to change those bad habits.
Change: making everyone else's viewpoints align with Barack Obama's.
Open to good ideas from anybody, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat: listening to anybody who validates your own personal viewpoint. Example: I will listen to good ideas, but don't talk to me about tax cuts, don't talk to me about doing nothing, don't talk to me about how the stimulus spends too much money. Hey, Mr. President, those are 3 good ideas, I thought you were open to those.
Unanimous, or nearly unanimous: everyone that I don't ignore because they disagree with me agrees with me. Example: it's nearly unanimous among economists that this stimulus is a good idea. Ignore the letter sent to you in January with the signature of over 300 economists and universities that state it is a bad idea. Ignore the Wall Street Journal. Ignore the market response. Just because a few economists on both sides say it is a good idea, does not mean all economists feel this way.

He can contradict himself numerous times without being called on it.
After predicting doom and gloom and eternal, spiralling-downward depression if the stimulus bill does not pass he says later: I am an eternal optimist. Bravo. No one caught on.
He says that he will not fund things that do not work. He emphatically states that tax breaks do not work: these are the failed policies that got us into this mess (because they were Republican ideas). Shortly before that, he praised his own efforts to ensure that tax breaks/relief would come to hard-working Americans as a result of the bill and talked about how much this will help. 35% of the stimulus is tax cuts, so, Mr. Obama, you are throwing away $275 billion into a failed policy, while championing Democrats for their great idea of giving money to the people (i.e. those tax cuts Republicans have been talking about). I would also like to point out, if you make a lot of money you are not a hard-working American, only people who don't make much work hard.
"Companies that receive tax-payer funds should not be hosting conventions in Las Vegas." The president (who receives nothing but tax-payer funds-hopefully) can take his entire entourage most of the way across the country just to sign a bill that was placed on his desk in Washington. Oh, and Americans should turn their thermostats down to conserve energy, but Mr. President's house can be a balmy 82 degrees.
"The stimulus bill is urgent and must be passed immediately, without debate/delay." However, once it is ready for the president's signature, a couple of days is no big deal. If you ask me, a couple of days to discuss the bill are better spent than a couple of days waiting for a signature (when it is too late to remove horrible provisions and wasteful spending). According to Democrats' forecasts, the 4 days between passing and signing cost the economy 77,000 jobs (since they said every day we lose about 20,000 jobs!).
"The government is the only entity with the resources to stimulate the economy." Really, are you paying cash for this? You are borrowing EVERY penny of this money. You do not have the resources. If I ran my house the way Obama is set on running his, I wouldn't be able to get a loan for a pack of gum.

Specific data or research are not required, blanket statements should not be questioned, and if I talk about one person who is struggling, it is representative of the entire country.
"This bill will create (and recently he added "or save") 3-4 million jobs." How? In what industries? Also, if you create a job in renewable energy you have displaced a worker in non-renewable energy. What does that guy do? Just because you give a construction company money to do a project, does not mean they will hire anybody new. Even if they did, maybe a 5', 110 pound woman who lost her job won't be able to get a job tossing around concrete, steel bars, etc. Even if this creates 3-4 million jobs, that's a cool quarter million per job. How much are we paying these people?
"I have heard there are people questioning whether or not FDR did the right thing. They are fighting battles that I thought were decided a long time ago." Yes, silly people who actually look at data to determine the validity of a policy enacted by the Democratic-controlled government, how dare they! America is the only country that calls it the Great Depression, because we were in it longer than everybody else (because our government tried to fix it and just prolonged it).
"This is the worst economic crisis since the great depression." In what way? The unemployment rate now: just over 7%. The unemployment rate during the great depression ranged anywhere from 13-23%. Yeah, 7% is horrible! Most countries in the world would love to only have 7% unemployment, especially countries like Japan, whose government has been trying for 20 years to enact the right "stimulus" unsuccessfully. The biggest difference between the 1930's and 2009: during the great depression people were looking for jobs, today, people are looking for handouts.

This is the change he told us about in the campaign, without any specifics. I believe it, I believe he will bring change, I just don't believe in it.