Comments on: Comrade Obama?

By: John

John — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:04:04 +0000

Americans must work until late April to pay all their taxes.
If the date is moved back to May, is it socialist, or on a path
toward socialism. When we get to June 30, 1/2 our income
will go to the government. Hang on to your wallet.

By: ppcli

ppcli — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:08:19 +0000

“Indeed, in the “Communist Manifesto” of 1848, Karl Marx was himself among the first to call for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” ”

—–
Please spare us the cheap rhetorical tricks. Something is not a bad idea just because Marx thought it was a good idea.

In the section of the Communist Manifesto where he endorses things like the progressive income tax, he also endorses free public elementary schools and an end to child labor. So, Pat: do you think that public education should be abolished? Do you favor removing restrictions on allowing 10 year old children to work underground in coal mines?

You don’t? Heavens me, Pat Buchanan is a Marxist! Who knew? (See how easy it is?)

By: Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Morning Thoughts By Pat Buchanan

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Morning Thoughts By Pat Buchanan — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:43:20 +0000

[...] idea of an Obama landslide must torture the old guy for any number of reasons, but once in a while he looks over the table at his erstwhile [...]

By: M Trifiro

M Trifiro — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:16:33 +0000

Pat, You’re getting drunk on the talking points kool-aid.
I am no fan of the Democrat’s social platform and Senator Biden’s stance on the second amendment should frighten anyone who believes in the bill of rights as a document to be taken as a whole and not just a group of singular ideals to edited. But a nation such as ours needs income to support its infrastructure and promote a cohesive socioeconomic playing field if it is to avoid resentment and class warfare.
To nothing of it’s imperial fantasies.Perhaps a way of subsidizing this would be a tariff system but somehow the “Free traders” have convinced the masses that this is somehow antithetical to the American experience and as such is never to be discussed inside the beltway.
Another Taboo subject that impacts the nation financially is our foreign aid entanglements. This of course has other negative effects on our nations foreign policy as well.
But it is difficult explain why we continue to borrow money from China to give to Countries that have economies bigger than some European countries that receive no aid.
The disparages between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of us has grown exponentially since the eighties. As a result those at the top ten percentile have become much more of an international class than American. It is perhaps not surprising then that their priorities might not reflect those of this countries.
Charles E. Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower told a Senate subcommittee, “What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what’s good for General Motors is good for the country.”
This may have been true in 1952 but there are no longer any truly American companies and corporations are not patriotic entities willing to sacrifice for the greater good. There only allegiance is to their stockholders and in this regard, in many cases they have sold them out as well.
The new reality is that when our government attempts to stimulate the economy that they have turned from the manufacturing giant of the 40s and 50s to the consumer based economy of today, all they are left with is “stimulus” checks and the “Patriotic” mantra, lets go shopping.
In truth even this is not though out logically. When those in the higher income brackets received their “stimulas”checks they most likely saved it or spend it on an exotic vacation overseas.
Those at the lower end of the economic spectrum spend it as fast as they could cash it and on local goods and services. In the consumption based economy that we are now stuck with it would seem that the redistribution you fear is our only hope.

By: rrichardson

rrichardson — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:13:02 +0000

Those who think that George W. Bush has been a great president object to the way that the so-called Republican John McCain has treated George W. Bush, a great president, a true conservative, and a great man.

In this interview with the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, McCain treats Bush worse than Obama has. See http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/23/mccain-lambastes-bush-years/

Why vote for McCain?

By: Indya

Indya — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:22:00 +0000

I echo what Hotchney just said. This breathless red-scare tactic is worn and just makes the Republican Party look even more pathetic than it is now.

By: Hotchney

Hotchney — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:52:25 +0000

Pat, Obama is not great but to say he’s a socialist because of his tax policy is a bit much. Stop the republican propaganda. It’s not like McCain is getting rid of the current “progressive” system so until he agrees to a flat tax or something not so “progressive” I see no real difference between the two. It’s semantics, that’s all. Increase a little here, decrease a little there. As far as I know, Obama has no plan to purchase all of the bad mortgages, unlike the supposed “conservative.” Stop trying to fool us Pat. There’s two bad options here and one’s supposed to be the good one. I’ll take the bad one that’s not pretending to be good over the “good” one who’s lying to us blatantly.

By: James

James — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:06:22 +0000

Pat, you have really disappointed me. Rather than being socialist, Obamas ideas are meant to get us back to when we were most successful. Reading of history for what works, and for that successful, pragmatic, balance=Conservative, or so I always thought. Take a look at these thoughts by some other promient “socialists”.

“Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense.”… “We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.”"The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us.”
New York State Fair, Syracuse, September 7, 1903 Teddy Roosevelt

“Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures. But there is another harm; and it is evident that we should try to do away with that. The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.”
o Teddy Roosevelt Speech at Providence, Rhode Island (1902-08-23), Presidential Addresses and State Papers (1910), p. 103

“We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.”
o Teddy Roosevelt Speech at Progressive Party Convention, Chicago (1912-06-17)

Abraham Lincoln, quotes about Wealth:
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. … Is there no other way the world may live?”
o Dwight D. Eisenhower Speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, “The Chance for Peace” (1953-04-16)

“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
o Dwight D. Eisenhower Letter to his brother Edgar, November 8, 1954

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
Abraham Lincoln

By: Steve Donegal

Steve Donegal — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:19:37 +0000

If I remember correctly, the Earned Income Tax Credit was advocated by the famed socialist Milton Friedman

By: RK

RK — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:40:09 +0000

Like clockwork, every four years, as Nov 4th approaches, you can always count on Pat to come home to the GOP clutching at any and every bit of straws he could find!

By: Hassan

Hassan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:04:04 +0000

Come on Pat! You are more clever than that! What is the difference between Bush’s tax cuts and Obama’s tax increase? The only thing Bush did was to transfer the burden to the future tax payers. Isn’t it better for people to pay for what the government spends right away? That way people know the real cost of the government programs and wars. The best thing real conservatives can emphasize right now is: “tax
to the full extent of spending!”

Moreover, isn’t it a little hypocritical right now to call Obama a socialist for wanting to transfer the wealth from up to down, when Bush and Co (including McCain) did the reverse just a few weeks ago? Wasn’t bailout one of the biggest redistribution of wealth in history? Have I seen you anywhere calling Bush specifically a socialist?

By: Redman

Redman — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:54:51 +0000

To rawshark et al,
And when the wolf does come and the alarm is raised and no one listens, what happens then? You and your loved ones die. Is that what you desire, the final nail in the coffin of the once great US constitutional republic? Surely, say it ain’t so!

By: rawshark

rawshark — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:07:37 +0000

The old trick of labeling every democrat a socialist isn’t going to work anymore. We no longer believe you. You’ve said it too often and it’s never been true. It still works on the biased and the know nothings but that group is smaller than you think.
Chicken Littles can spend all day writing and yelling that the sky will fall if we elect a democrat but we know it won’t happen and now you’ve cried wolf once too often.

By: KXB

KXB — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:41:01 +0000

I’m sure Mr. Buchanan has reserved outrage for all those federal checks going to Haliburton, Blackwater, banks, and defense contractors.

By: RP

RP — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:37:40 +0000

Socialist? You can argue against Obama’s tax policies, but no intelligent person can call them “socialist” and mean it.

If we did mean it, then let us consider whom else we would need to call “socialist”:

“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. . . . The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. . . . It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.” –Adam Smith

Since Mr. Buchanan is ready to say that the Republicans are also socialist, there is no need to mention Alaska’s “share the wealth” oil dividend for all its citizens, or John McCain’s clear support for progressive taxation in 2000.

“Socialists,” all of them: McCain, Palin, Obama, and Smith!