Random Nuclear Strikes

When the Leftists say “For the Children”, they mean “For the School System”.

The DC voucher program was knifed in the back with the passage of the Omnibus Bill. Democrats stated their tired and old blather about how “vouchers take money out of the system” and “private schools don’t do that much better than public schools on average”.

Republicans talked about the “Right to “Choose” (something the Dems always forget about on this issue, oddly enough) and how, if Democrat politicians can send their kids to private schools, why shouldn’t middle-class Americans?

Steve Benen, at Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog wrote those typical leftist lines and then attempted an analogy which proved, to anyone who can think analytically, that he is an idiot.

But my problem with Ensign’s pitch isn’t just that it’s personal and unpersuasive; it’s also rather selective. To hear Ensign tell it, Durbin has the choice to send his kids to private schools, so he should support giving all Americans the same choice. If it’s good enough for the senator, the argument goes, shouldn’t regular ol’ families who can’t afford parochial schools have the same option?

What I’d like is for Ensign to consider this same dynamic outside of education spending. For example, every member of Congress has access to top-notch, taxpayer-subsidized health care. Does Ensign support extending the same opportunities to regular ol’ families who can’t afford insurance? After all, if it’s good enough for the senator, shouldn’t everyone else have the same option?

First of all, by the time you reach the wealth-point of “federal elected official” you are of means to be able to pay for your own private insurance. That they keep the above mentioned program for themselves up and running is corruption, pure and simple (well stay away from repeated mention of the ironic situation wherein Teddy “Splash” Kennedy uses his private funds to prolong his life so he can campaign for socialized medicine).

Secondly, last I checked, local governments don’t make it illegal to not have medical insurance coverage for your children.

Now, while I don’t like mentioning that second fact because it might give some hyper-leftists the idea that the government should do that, it is a fact that if you don’t register and ship your kids off to public schools, you have to file paperwork stating which private school they are attending. IF (and this is a big if) your state ALLOWS you to home school your children, your paperwork burden is mountainous. Failure to keep up with the paperwork will (not may) result in fines, arrest and removal of your children from your home.

If ever there were an apples to oranges comparison made to propagate one’s insipid opinion, Benen made it right there. That his sycophants either can’t see it or don’t want to see it is proof of both their lack of intelligence and their willingness to lie to themselves.

On February 9th I posted a CBO report stating that without the stimulus package, America was track to begin rebounding out of this recession by the latter half of 2009.

CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II.

…..

CBO expects the economy to begin a slow recovery in the second half of 2009 and to grow by a modest 1.5 percent in 2010.

So when I saw the numbers in this report from Reuters yesterday there was a bell going off telling me that I’d heard this somewhere before.

The recession-hit U.S. economy is proving weaker than economists expected just a month ago, but forecasters still think a recovery is in the cards for later this year, a survey released on Tuesday showed.

Consumer spending and residential investment are expected to turn positive and begin boosting GDP growth in the third quarter of this year,” the newsletter Blue Chip Economic Indicators said, summarizing its survey of private economists.

The consensus of the 51 forecasters surveyed looks for U.S. gross domestic product to tumble at a sharp 5.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter and to decline at a 2 percent pace in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, however, economists expect the economy to expand at a 0.5 percent rate, followed by a 1.8 percent fourth-quarter gain.

So when the ZMSM starts singing the praises of the Obamessiah from the rooftops, do try and point out that people who were actually paying attention during the so called “debate” on the so called “Stimulus Packacge” knew that this would happen without having to kick-start inflation.