An Unclever Man

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ef·fete

 [ i ft ]   

1. decadent: characterized by decadence, overrefinement, or overindulgence
2. weak: lacking the strength or ability to get things done

Were Paul Krugman to confine his self-gratification to the privacy of his own porcelain thrown (oh, that he would) we would be spared from his flatulent ego but, alas, the ego must be fed, and the New York Times stands ever at the ready, shovel in hand.  Garbage in/garbage out.

Krugman's specialty is pointing out his own searing brilliance.  He is, he will tell you, not just an expert at all things economy, he is THE expert.  None other need apply.  Nor should they, those snippity pretenders to the Krugman expertise, speak until Krugman has given them permission to do so. 

Enter Paul Ryan.  Seems that Congressman Ryan doesn't understand the rules.  He came up with a plan without showing all due deference to Dr. Krugman.  Tsk, tsk.  In return, Dr. Krugman has pronounced Congressman Ryan "unserious".  By this he means "foolish".

Krugman believes that the way to turn the economy around is to spend more money and that if the economy doesn't turn around then we simply have not spent enough money.  That is what serious people do.   Serious people do not reform entitlements because entitlements cost a lot of money and that is good.  Chicken meet egg.  Or is it egg meet chicken?

In a nutshell, Dr. Krugman for all his scholarly one-upmanship, is an idiot.  Or he is dishonest.  They aren't mutually exclusive.   Where Ryan seeks solutions to empower individuals Krugman seeks to concentrate power among the elite.  And guess who Krugman considers to be the elite of the elite-himself.  In the end he is neither serious or clever, just self-involved.   

Want to see what "change" really looks like?

Here it is:

The picture is of union mine workers who walked straight out of the mine, joined by their families and friends, to attend a Mitt Romney rally near Beallsville, Ohio.  They did't come to heckle or boo Romney, no, they came for one reason:

The members of the United Mine Workers -- and just about every other private sector union in America -- are being sold down the river by Barack Obama and the Democrat Party. So beholden are Democrats to the environmental Statists that they would rather entire counties in California go without water, that America's electric grid struggle to survive without clean coal, and that all of the U.S. can go without oil from the Keystone XL pipeline.

This costs the union members a very important -- as Joe Biden might say -- three letter word: J-O-B-S. And methinks the results in November will be stunning.

BINGO.  In 2008 forty percent of union members voted Republican.  Anybody think that with Obama's election, and the resulting job losses tied directly to Obama's policies, that the number of Republican union workers won't increase?

There is a growing gap between union workers and union management.  Even in the smallest local the BA, organizer, and dispatcher are provided with all expense paid vehicles, cellphones and credit cards.  They are often paid journeyman wages plus a certain percent and enjoy perks like all expense paid trips for conventions and workshops.  This all comes directly from the worker's pockets-included the pockets of laid off workers.  Union management can afford to pimp for the Democratic party.  They get paid the same wage, have the same benefits whether their men are working or not. 

Obama has been a disaster for working men and women.  Few union members will change their voter registration to "Republican" but once in the privacy of the voting booth the truth will out.

From the "Don't piss on my leg and tell me its raining" file UPDATED





Photo courtesy of The World Freeman Society

There's spin and then there is outright Bull Hockey.  The Obama campaign's contention that it is intentionally limiting the crowds at its rallies falls firmly in the bull hockey category.

 
From Powerline:

Large and enthusiastic crowds greet Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wherever they go. You can get a better sense of this if you check out local media sources rather than the constantly-spun national news....

President Obama and Joe Biden? Not so much. On the contrary, it is painfully obvious that they are appearing before smaller and less enthusiastic crowds than in 2008. So I was bemused when the Obama campaign explained that the president is drawing small crowds on purpose. Big crowds are just too much of a hassle, don’t you know, and small groups are so much more intimate!

I seem to remember just a few years ago that Obama was partial to grand arenas filled with spectacular crowds.  But alas, that was then and this is Obama's new reality.  Pity. 

Obama is no longer "fresh" or "edgy".  He is yesterday's news and all those chumps who were once enamored by the new kid are now broke and unemployed.  Their houses are sitting in foreclosure and they can't afford gas for their tanks.  They've had a group epiphany, "it really was just words".

Yep, they're staying away-in droves.  Nobody wants a sign hanging around their neck that says "I'm with the Loser".  A wise and dear man once said it best, "He sucks."  Yes, yes he does.  And with all due apologies to Instapundit, I'm felling more than a bit cocky.

Update:

Looks like I'm not the only one calling bull on the nonsence coming from the Obama campaign or, as the Campaign to Re-Elect the President is also known, CREEP.

Paul Ryan draws a crowd at The Villages



Lee Greenwood warms up the crowd for Paul Ryan

 I got up at 4 a.m. this morning to drive to The Villages to see Paul Ryan.  I stood for three hours in unbelievable heat waiting for Ryan to arrive and I can tell you that it was absolutely worth it.

I have no idea how many people were there, I've never seen a crowd that large at any of the events I've attended at The Villages, and the crowd was not disappointed.

There was a ground of about ten protesters that would their way around the crowd with signs that read "Hands off my Medicare" and a plane constantly buzzed over the crowd with a banner that read:  Paul Ryan:  Hands off our Medicare.  The plane occassionally made it hard to hear the speakers but I just reminded myself that rude people will be rude and "progressives" have rudeness down to a science.

The small group of protesters aside, the seniors at The Villages have embraced Ryan's plan for reforming Medicare.  The Obama attempts to paint Ryan as a radical fall flat with this group.  The understand that no one over the age of fifty-five will be affected by the Ryan Plan and they also understand that without reform their children and grandchildren will be left with an impaired future. 
After listening to Ryan today I'm not sure it is fair to throw poor Joe Biden into the ring with him.  Not even a biased moderator can help Biden in this debate.

Thank you to Instapundit and Powerline for the links!

Today is a good day. Now on to tomorrow

Today is National Paul Ryan Day.  Good.  It feels good to be excited about the Republican ticket.  I hadn't been excited thus far.  Oh, I've had every intention to vote against Barack Obama.  But prior to today I haven't had been terribly enthusiastic about voting for Mitt Romney. 

Word on the street is that the Dems are chomping at the bit over the Ryan pick.  I have to give the Dems credit, the are consistently short sighted.  Or as Stacy said:

This is predictable, and is the best argument for picking a conservative like Ryan: No matter whom Romney had chosen, the Democrats would have demonized the GOP running mate as a Jekyll-and-Hyde combination of Dick Cheney and Martin Bormann.

In that kind of situation, why not go bold?

So we’ll have a few days of “evil heartless Paul Ryan,” then the Democrats will go back to the “clueless rich guy Romney” message and then, if the Romney-Ryan ticket moves ahead of Obama in the polls, they’ll start playing the Mormon card with frenzied desperation.

So, how do we stem the coming tide of lies, distortions and hysteria?  I say we take a path untrodden by our "progressive" brethren-let's combat idiocy with knowledge.  Let's start by familiarizing ourselves with Medicare and with Paul Ryan's plan.

Ryan seeks to reverse this impending cost disaster by instituting a new program beginning no earlier than January 2021 affecting only those aged 55 and younger. The plan has the following major elements: 

Part A and Part B trust funds are combined to create one unified trust fund.  The new Medicare Program and the existing program continue to be financed by trust fund revenues, Medicare payroll taxes, and general revenue contributions as done now.

• By January 2021, insurance companies must establish competing healthcare coverage plans with specified benefits and limitations.  Some would provide only high-deductible catastrophic coverage.  Others could provide more liberalized coverage.  Medicare would establish categories of generalized coverage.  All plans which met specified requirements would become "Medicare certified" and eligible for premium payment cost sharing.
• Each patient would select from the approved list a plan best matching his or her expected healthcare needs for the coming year.  Medicare would reimburse the health plan a fixed amount of money for each enrollee for premium payment support.  If the Medicare-provided assistance exceeded the premium required for the selected plan, that excess would be credited to a "Medical Savings Account" (MSA) for the beneficiary's future use.
• Ryan currently estimates the reimbursement amount at an average $11,000 -- with further adjustment determined by income level.  Higher-income patients would receive less premium assistance.  Beneficiaries with annual incomes below $80,000 ($160,000 for couples) would receive full standard payment amounts; beneficiaries with annual incomes between $80,000 and $200,000 ($160,000 to $400,000 for couples) would receive 50 percent of the standard; and beneficiaries with incomes above $200,000 ($400,000 for couples) would receive 30 percent.
• After enrollment in a plan, all beneficiaries could, at their option, undergo an annual health "risk adjustment" examination.  Results of this exam would be submitted to Medicare and become eligible for a higher risk-adjusted premium payment.
• To further assist those individuals with incomes near or below the poverty level, Ryan proposes additional payments above just premium support.  While any enrollee, regardless of income level, would be able to set up a tax-free MSA if desired, the new Medicare Program would specifically establish and fund an MSA for low-income beneficiaries to help them with deductible payments required for care procedures.  The amount paid to those below the government-established poverty level would be equal to the deductible for the average Medicare high-deductible health plan.  Those with incomes at or 50 percent above the poverty level would receive 75 percent of the full deposit
• Recognizing that Americans are becoming healthier than ever before and living much longer, Ryan further proposes that a phase-in of the start of the new Medicare program would, after 2021, be raised in a slow incremental fashion from the current age 65 to 69 years 6 months.

As proposed, the Ryan Medicare plan resembles the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).  In the FEHBP model the government provides a set financial contribution each year.  Employees and retirees have a variety of options, including catastrophic coverage plans with high deductibles, health maintenance organizations, and high-end plans with many choices of doctors and other providers.  Everyone has a choice of at least 10 fee-for-service plans, but the exact number varies by where an enrollee lives.

Hmmm.  The Ryan plan is good enough for federal employees but it is the end of the world for the rest of us peons?  And no one will be wheeling Grannie off a cliff 'cause Grannie is over the age of fifty-five and so Ryan's plan doesn't affect Grannie.  The point of Ryan's plan is to fulfill the promises made to our older citizens without bankrupting future generations. 

By choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate Romney has shown that he is serious about getting our fiscal house in order.  Let's help him.  Today is for feeling good.  Tomorrow we join the battle, armed with knowledge and conviction, and ready to fight for the future of our country.