Three Legs or Four Pillars

There are few politicians these days that totally understand the dire situation Uncle Sam finds himself in these days, but one who does is Representative Paul Ryan, (R:WI), who made an appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box last week, and his commentary has been the talk of the blogosphere, including here on BAHL's Blog. Ryan is a real star on the Republican side, and his specialty is economics, which is critically important during these times.

With Ryan in as guest host, the crew welcomed Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D), a member of President Obama national commission on fiscal responsibility (stop laughing), to discuss the current economic conditions, which contrary to Obama's "Summer of Recovery Tour", are not pretty.

Not to bore the batcrap out of the audience, but we are really at a crossroads this November, and a stark contrast to Ryan's limited government and Schakowsky's Keynesian model of big government stimulus is made during this interview, which is a must see.



The stimulus spending has been a epic failure, as we predicted it would be. Unemployment is still hovering near 10% and will go higher in upcoming months. Rep. Schakowsky thinks government spending creates jobs, which Ryan accurately points out is created by small business, who remain afraid of excessive government regulatory encroachment, increased taxation and the uncertainty of future governmental action, which includes uncontrollable spending.

For example, under the control of the Democrats, the House has yet to put forth a budget. Can you imagine the biggest increase in governmental spending in our history being implemented without a budget!

Rep. Schakowsky, clearly struggling for friction in the interview, was contradictory in statements about decreasing the debt, labeling decreasing spending as one of the three legs of a stool to economic stability and reducing the debt. Schaloswky has supported all of Obama's expansive spending measures, which have exponentially increased the debt.

Schakowsky labeled the three legs of her stool to economic stability as decreased spending, raising revenue and growth. Well, do not sit on this stool because the policies of the Obama administration, with full support from Schakowsky, has increased spending, is losing tax revenue from business tax receipts and is barely growing, even with the astronomical levels of stimulus. In fact, the growth may be short lived as a double dip recession remains a strong possibility.

Ronald Reagan found four pillars to a strong economy; sound money, low taxes, limited regulation and free trade. Each of these pillars is currently being legislated against, so you make the call.

Ryan cleans Schakowsky's clock during this discussion, with CNBC's Becky Quick even getting in on the fun. Without question, Schakowsky should be among the very first voted out of office at the earliest opportunity.

Schalowsky, a progressive, it should be noted, was one of the strongest supporters of the health care bill. The goal of course was a single payer health care system, and she was quite giddy about how it would put insurance companies out of business, killing hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs.



In closing, did you hear Rep. Schakowsky mention how Rep. Ryan voted against more money to teachers. Funding for teachers, and in fact the entire budget for the public school system, is a train wreck, but not for the reasons you may think. You can place the blame on the National Educators Association. You would think they put kids first, but think again:



It is clear Rep. Schakowsky is borderline clueless, and I am not only one who recognizes this. With politicians like Rep. Jan Schakowsky in charge, the financial standing of our country, as well as your freedoms, is in substantial danger. Please be advised.