Marco Rubio, the Obama Stimulus and the Bush Bailout

Gary Fineout is a journalist who works in Florida. In October he blogged about the conservative senatorial candidate Marco Rubio's stand on the Obama stimulus. He wrote:

"Rubio has been highly critical of the $787 billion stimulus package for months, repeating that government spending can't create prosperity. In his latest pitch to donors, Rubio's campaign states that Crist's 'enthusiastic support for a big government spending policy' has failed to halt the rise in unemployment while adding to the deficit."

However, it is important to recognize that although the stimulus package was a nonsensical blunder, a much bigger subsidy has been bestowed upon Wall Street. That includes the Bush/Obama/McCain-supported bailout of Wall Street as well as considerable hidden subsidies to the street via the Federal Reserve Bank. Some experts estimate that the actual subsidies to the street have been as high as $14 trillion, 14 times what Obama said in his state of the union address.

There are various kinds of Republicans. One way of classifying them is big versus small government supporters. Small government supporters oppose the Wall Street subsidies. Big government supporters support the Bush/Paulson bailout. It is a sign of the failure of the majority of rank-and-file, small government Republicans that they have allowed big government types to dominate their party nationally.

Marco Rubio claims to be a small government type and so representative of the Tea Party. But did he support or oppose the Paulson bailout, which is the chief reason Obama was elected with such heavy support from the street and the mass media it finances?

In a Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times article Adam C. Smith and Alex Leary quote National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer:

"He was a big disappointment to us when he was the speaker...He talked the talk, but he didn't walk the walk."

The article adds:

"The 38-year-old campaigning as an authentic, from-the-gut conservative is the same person who spent tens of thousands of dollars to test political messages on focus groups, gave out big staff salaries and, like Crist, favored a $60 million subsidy for a new Florida Marlins stadium...The candidate Rubio rails against big-government spending and assures voters that as a senator he won't slip earmarks into the federal budget. As speaker, however, he didn't mind a state budget with $800,000 tucked away for artificial turf on Miami-Dade fields where he played flag football."

There is no reason to trust the Miami Herald any more than there is reason to trust Rubio or anyone else that MSNBC or other big media sources tout, as in the video below. But it is imperative that Republicans question Rubio as to his position, not on the partisan Obama "stimulus" issue, which Republicans have used as cover for the massive government spending bloat of the Bush era, but on the Bush/Paulson/Obama/McCain bailout of October 2008, which was a far more damaging, far reaching and larger subsidy.

If you favor small government, the bigger problem is the Fed subsidies, not the stimulus. Where does Rubio stand on this issue, which is orders of magnitude larger than the stimulus?

People need to ask Rubio this question. Then ask it again. And again.

CPAC in Three Weeks

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting is in three weeks. I will not attend for various practical reasons. Glenn Beck will be the keynote speaker and makes some useful comments in this video:



What CPAC ought to be asking of candidates is two things:

1. Did you support the Wall Street bailout? Will you support a future bailout?
2. What is your specific plan for overcoming bureaucratic resistance to cutting waste and incompetence?

Was Barack Obama Abducted by Aliens?

The famous blog impressario Larwyn (see my Larwyn's Linx icon on the right) just sent me an e-mail inquiring about this photo of a large scar on the side of President Obama's head:




The Power Hour has noted:

"Without medical records, we can only guess the cause of a 6 – 8 inch scar that begins by his right ear and ends somewhere on top of his head. Why didn’t he talk about that head injury and resulting scar in his book, yet he talked about the one on his arm? Why would he have an internist as his primary physician?"

The WTPOTUS site adds:

"None of Obama’s Medical Records were ever seen or subjected to media scrutiny like John McCain’s were. Like all Obama records, they are sealed."

Fortuitously, I live near Woodstock, NY, where there are several alien probe experts. All of them are Democrats, so theirs are not partisan opinions. I just consulted with Woodstock's best probe expert who told me that this scar is the exact same kind of scar that has appeared on alien abductees around the country, beginning with several cases in Roswell, New Mexico in the late 1940s.

Dollar Gains, Gold Falls--Can a Chimera Last Forever?

A couple of weeks ago I blogged that my coin flip test confirmed that the dollar was in a strengthening trend and gold in a weakening trend, and it seems that the coin (it was a 1982 penny) was right. Kitco's Jon Nadler notes (gold closed at $1,080 per ounce today):

"The final session of the final January trading day in New York opened with a $1.50 loss in the yellow metal, which was quoted at $1083.90 per ounce. Gold traded in a band of from $1078 to $1088 overnight, as few additional physical buyers (other than pre-Chinese New Year buyers) emerged to take advantage of yesterday’s further significant dip. Today’s GDP numbers may yet aim gold back towards yesterday’s lows."


Nadler adduces a chart that shows that gold supply exceeds demand this year by the largest amount in three years. He quotes bearish sentiment on gold at Goldessential.com and adds:

"George Soros said yesterday that despite the current headline-making woes that Greece is experiencing, he expects the country to get its act together and not collapse in terms of debt. He referenced a six-month turnaround by Hungary some time ago as an example of how a comeback can be achieved. That said, Mr. Soros also mentioned the fact that Germany is in no mood to pump money into the direction of what it sees as ‘profligate spenders in the southern parts of Europe.”

He also notes that Soros has said that he believes that there is a risk of a gold bubble because of low interest rates. But of course, monetary expansion causes both low interest rates and gold speculation. No great insight there. Nadler mentions $1,030 as a possible low-end targeting. As well, he quotes Bloomberg:

"Commodities headed for the biggest monthly drop in 13 months on concern that demand may wane as governments seek to control economic growth."

In the short run, traders like Soros and, more generally, Wall Street hedge funds, are likely to support the dollar. This will also be true if there is any kind of bad economic news.

But what are we seeing in Washington? Ever increasing deficits and insanity. If someone tells you they're a Democrat, send them to a psychiatrist.

This is hard to take. Short term, the dollar looks buoyant. Long term, there could be a breakdown in the dollar that could happen quickly. Prices of gold and stocks go up with monetary expansion. The world's monetary system is unstable unless everyone inflates along with the US, which has already expanded its potential money supply three-fold. So no currency seems safe, including the dollar.

So far, the international financial system has supported the dollar. But how long can a chimera last?