Sunday Odds and Ends

by Steve

Some Sunday afternoon material for you to mull over.

Well, at least one part of the economy has shown job growth thanks to the Obama economic plan.

Remember all that right wing trashing of Canada and its health care system during the debate in this country? We were told that the Canadian health care system and their resulting taxation were crushing their economy. Then why is their economy rebounding better than ours and adding jobs that our tax cut dogma hasn’t? If Canada can add back all of the jobs they’ve lost since 2008 and have universal health care at the same time, can we please dispense with the tea party nonsense?

Guess which country is no longer a safe bet for cheap labor? Moreover, is there any comfort in knowing that “Made in the USA” may once again be a better option for all those firms who outsourced and destroyed our manufacturing base?

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post deserves credit for calling out Arizona governor Jan Brewer and John McCain for lying about the alleged crime wave affecting the state from the Mexican drug trade. Simply put, both politicians have been telling bald-faced lies about the issue in the tried-and-true GOP tactic of scaring the public with falsehoods to get the necessary hysteria with the Fox News crowd.

Obama’s debt commission chairpersons come out and confirm they are assuming the lame duck Congress will do the dirty work and slash entitlement spending. Both Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles then peddle a falsehood that growth cannot help the problem, and that the entire problem stems from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Both are silent about Bush's squandering of Clinton-era surpluses and Bush's deficit-financed wars. Nevertheless, this is what Obama wants to burnish his legacy as Lincoln's equal: he’s willing to cut the entitlement safety net to shreds while Wall Street finishes the job of killing this country.