The Biggest Myth of the Midterms

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Our founding fathers envisioned that the small federal government would fund itself almost entirely on import fees and taxes, imposts, customs duties and taxes, docking fees, cargo inspection fees, and other such charges on imports into the USA. If the federal government was still required to entirely fund itself from those sources, we would have a much smaller government funded by the wealthy that could afford high import taxes.
Moreover, the high costs of importing into the USA would cause a lot of businesses to locate a manufacturing plants right here in the USA. It would be two steps forward (small federal government and much more manufacturing) for a loss of some exports. These few steps alone would put everything right again in a generation and start helping almost immediately as businesses started hiring in the construction fields to build their new stateside plants that would employ millions of Americans in good jobs.
It was the trade agreements signed by our leaders over the last 50 years that have destroyed America. Nothing about those agreements helped the average American. We have all seen that the meager rewards that were promised were far outweighed by the destruction of our manufacturing capacity.

Chuck of VA 11:44AM November 02, 2010

Actually, mostly of it's about free of proud, pride, sufficient, & satisfaction in mine to Praise the Lord, as well.

Andre Budianto 3:17AM November 01, 2010

If you're big business, Obama's the guy. If you're in a big union, Obama's the guy. If you're in the top 1%, Obama's the guy. If you're a small businessman or most working people, you get to pay for it all, and will continue to pay.
I'm a CPA. I work with small business. 30% of the corporate returns I prepared in 2010 were "final returns". None of those lost businesses or their employees were bailed out.
Why? You can control big business and big labor and oceans of union workers. The German industrialists in the 30's paid for their benefactor to come to power, and only found out that the power of the state ultimately trumps wealth.
But how can you control the entrepenuer and his employees? You can't.
So, destroy his business, put his employees on the breadline, and then run to the rescue with a bailout. Expand the power of unions, so when he has to take a job it is a union job. Have him pay his dues and shut up.
Perhaps some of you are willing to give up freedom the the false promise of security offered by the intellectual elite. Perhaps that's where we will go. Perhaps we have become so disfunctional and weak that we cannot move without government acting a a surogate dad. But think about that trade off now or you may wake up one day and realize you have neither freedom nor security. It will then be too late.
This is a story that has repeated itself over and over. Santayana was right.
We paid billions to bail out the union workers of a failed automaker. But they vote in a block. Millions of Americans who earn a fraction of the union workers get to pay for their lifestyle through taxes or higher prices.
Healthcare: The rationing board was set up not in the Healthcare Bill, but in the Stimulus bill that preceded Healthcare by nine months. A board of 19 people will soon decide what health care will be provided to the masses. That's freedom? Doesn't make me feed more secure. Of course, none of the provisions of the Healthcare Bill apply to the congress, or to the congressional staff that wrote it, or to the president.
"The other side would not cooperate"? They were locked out of the committee room when the bill was crafted - as were the American people.
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"
George Orwell - Animal Farm
For those who are products of our extremely expensive public school system that cannot read, Orwell's book was made into an animated movie.

Rick Podraza of AZ 11:36PM October 29, 2010

Rick is 100% right on. Obama has kept us out of a Depression, saved tens of thousands of jobs, and GM, Chrysler, AIG, many banks and thousands of businesses are still operating thanks to him. These Teabaggers would rather scream their lies than learn anything useful. Good luck to them at the soup kitchens when Boehner and Mitch McConnel take over.

Rob W of CA 7:30PM October 29, 2010

I see it here at work in banking.
The PAC's rant about how anti-business a piece of legislation is, like Dodd-Frank, then in internal publications usually only going to executives, they admit that the bill will probably be good against "too big to fail" and such.
Do they admit this in public? No. Why? Because they want the GOP in, so they will not give any credit to Obama's program. They are not honest, and prefer misleading the public - guilt by omission. They call bankers and ask them to do little tasks to promote an anti-Obama/Dem political agenda. Meanwhile, TARP funds are in many cases the only thing keeping troubled banks afloat by keeping them at acceptable capital levels.
Stimulus dollars are what paved all the roads around here. Stimulus dollars also paid extended unemployment to hundreds of thousands so they could keep going. Unemployment is improving here, and the stores, malls, roads and restaurants are packed evenings and weekends. The stock market is up almost 4,000 points, increasing the 401k funds privately held that were killed at the end of the Bush years. Sure - lots of empty offices for rent still. The recession was deep, and the economy will take years to heal. But it's on the mend - and Obama's programs largely did this.
Does the media cover this? Not enough. Gloom and doom gets much better coverage. Has everyone pandered to the ranting, rude and ignorant comments? Much more than a "leader of the free world"'s press should.
This country runs like lemmings from one crisis to the next. Look at the gulf oil spill - who's talking about that now? No one. This is "short attention span theater"....Business is recovering, learning some hard lessons, but they are too proud to admit they blew it, and it took a young, idealistic president to slowly turn it around. Especially in the "red states".
Oh well. People always complain real loud when they have to admit that THEY were part of the problem........Business is no different.

DeeToo of SC 4:31PM October 29, 2010

I wish the rest of America will open their eyes and minds to see what has happened over the last couple of years and not let the people with personal agenda with the President lie to them time and again.
This man has done some incredible things not only for businesses but also for the well being of the this nation. The fact is, jobs are coming back, i.e. businesses are hiring, unfortunately so many people are out of work, that it will take a little longer to bring unemployment down to a respectable figure.
Banks are lending, albeit, cautiously, which really isn't a bad thing. wish they had done this years ago.
The auto industry is slowly coming back, better cars are now being made in Detroit, and they are beginning to hire again in the auto sector.
Healthcare - although imperfect bill, (because the other side wouldn't participate) stand to benefit millions of Americans in the long haul. It can only get better if they choose to work together and make it so.
I don't if anybody with an open mind thought the economy the size of this can be turned around in a year or two, considering where we were just 2 years ago.
My fear is that if we don't want to give one party some time to fix things, and we continue to alternate power with the parties, our issues are only going to get worse, as the other party would never want to play ball, in hope that the other fails so they can take over.

Jon of IL 3:47PM October 29, 2010

There is no doubt Obama has given a lot to big business but what he giveth with one hand, he taketh away twice with the other. He has taken more than he has given to big business and he has only taken and given nothing to small business. The worst thing he has done is given eveyone uncertainty, first about healthcare costs and second about taxes. By pushing through the huge cost of healthcare, he single handedly stalled the economic recovery and created the possibility of a double dip. By doing nothing on taxes, he single handedly ensured that the economic slow down will continue as a result of the uncertainty and the risk of a huge tax increase on the horizon.

Stock-MD.com of FL 1:12PM October 29, 2010