Catastrophe (39 page)

INTRODUCTION

1 In recent testimony: Bret Baier, “Terrorism Is a ‘Man-Caused’ Disaster?” FoxNews.com, March 17, 2009, www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509597,00.html.

2 $200,000 to fund: “A Sample of the 9,287 Omnibus Bill Earmarks,” www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/upload/porktable.html.

3 $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill: Ibid.

4 $2,192,000 for the Center: Ibid.

5 $1,791,000 to fund Swine Odor: Ibid.

1. OBAMA’S WAR ON PROSPERITY

6 9,287 earmarks: Brian M. Riedl, “Omnibus Spending Bill: Huge Spending and 9,000 Earmarks Represent Business as Usual,” Heritage.org, March 2, 2009, www.heritage.org/research/budget/wm2318.cfm.

7 $1,049,000 for control: “A Sample of the 9,287 Omnibus Bill Earmarks,” www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/upload/porktable.html.

8 $200,000 to fund: Ibid.

9 $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill: Ibid.

10 $2,673,000 for the Wood Education: Ibid.

11 $300,000 to promote women’s sports: Ibid.

12 $206,000 to promote “wool research”: Ibid.

13 $2,192,000 for the Center for Grape: Ibid.

14 $1,791,000 for Swine Odor: Ibid.

15 $45,000 for weed removal: Ibid.

16 $469,000 for a fruit fly: Ibid.

17 $800,000 for oyster rehabilitation: Ibid.

18 $4,545,000 for wood utilization: Jim Redden, “Federal Spending Bill Paves Way for State, Regional Projects,”
Portland Tribune
, March 11, 2009, www.westlinntidings.com/news/story.php?story_id=123679286085530500.

19 $75,000 to create a “totally teen zone”: “A Sample of the 9,287 Omnibus Bill Earmarks.”

20 $300,000 for research on migrating: “Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009,” GOP.gov, February 25, 2009, www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr1105.

21 $900,000 for Chicago planetarium “A Sample of the 9,287 Omnibus Bill Earmarks.”

22 $190,000 to buy trolleys: “Former Member Earmarks,”
USA Today
, www.usatoday.com/news/tabledata/formermemberearmarks.txt.

23 $380,000 for lighthouse renovation: Sue Clark, “Lighthouse Earmarks: Pork or Prize?,” March 15, 2009, http://lighthouse-news.com/2009/03/15/lighthouse-earmarks-pork-or-prize/.

24 $7,800,000 for sea turtle research: “Hawaii Related Projects in Omnibus Bill Will Receive $372 Million,” Akaka.Senate.Gov, March 10, 2009, http://akaka.senate.gov//files/11/30/55/f113055/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Home&month=3&year=2009&release_id=2579.

25 $2,600,000 to monitor the population: Ibid.

26 $1,500,000 for research on Pelagic: Ibid.

27 $650,000 for beaver research: Barbara Barrett, “‘Beaver’ Earmark in Budget Draws Attention,” McClatchyDC.Com, March 6, 2009, www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/63464.html.

28 $1,700,000 for a honey bee: “Weslaco Bee Lab Funded,”
Brownsville Herald
, http://home. ezezine.com/1636/1636-2009.03.12.08.34.archive.html.

29 Combined, the stimulus package: Paul Sherman, “U.S. Federal Deficit to Top 10% of GDP at End of 2009,” CapitalBeat.com, January 27, 2009, http://capitalbeat.com/?p=781.

30 Other, possibly more: “Wrap-Up 7, Obama Sees Soaring Deficits, Pushes Big Goals,” Reuters.com, February 26, 2009, www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2644850320090226?sp=true.

31 According to the Congressional: Matt Cover, “Only 23 Percent of Stimulus Will Be Spent This Fiscal Year, Congressional Budget Office Finds,” CNSNews.com, February 18, 2009, www.cnsnews.com/PUBLIC/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=43708.

32 of the $28 billion: Ibid.

33 of the $16.8 billion: Ibid.

34 More than $100 billion: Christian Broda and Jonathan A. Parker, “The Impact of the 2008 Rebate,” VoxEU.org, August 15, 2008, www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1541.

35 only 10 to 20 percent: Martin Feldstein, “The Tax Rebate Was a Flop. Obama’s Stimulus Plan Won’t Work Either,”
Wall Street Journal
, August 6, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121798022246515105.html.

36 In the last quarter of 2008: “Japan: Worst Crisis since War’s End,” CNNMoney.com, February 16, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/16/news/international/japan_gdp/.

37 When Japan Tried Obama’s Program: “Barack Obama-San,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 16, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122938932478509075.html.

38 “If a country falls”: Mark Skoursen,
The Big Three in Economics
(London: M. E. Sharpe, 2007), p. 213.

39 “Keynesian ‘pump-priming’”: “Barack Obama-San,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 16, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122938932478509075.html.

40 “I tend to believe”: “Deficit Spending Stimulus Skeptics,” Heritage.org, January 21, 2009, http://blog.heritage.org/2009/01/21/deficit-spending-stimulus-skeptics/.

41 “We’re creating a real”: “Economist, Nebraska Reps. React to Stimulus Plan,” KETV.com, January 25, 2009, www.ketv.com/money/18561438/detail.html.

42 “That [large government spending]”: Larry Elder, “Do Economists Agree with Obama?,” TheAtlasphere.com, February 10, 2009, www.theatlasphere.com/columns/090210-elder-economists-disagree.php.

43 “This is probably the worst”: “Harvard Economist: ‘Stimulus Is Probably the Worst Bill That Has Been Put Forward Since the 1930s,’” Examiner.com, February 9, 2009, www.examiner.com/x-2304-DC-Republican-Examiner~y2009m2d9-Harvard-Economist-Stimulus-is-probably-the-worst-bill-that-has-been-put-forward-since-the-1930s.

44 “[T]he risks of a”: “Deficit Spending Stimulus Skeptics.”

45 “The calculations that”: Ibid.

46 “My advice to”: Ibid.

47 “Unfortunately, bailouts and”: Ibid.

48 “The theory that”: Ibid.

49 Even though Bush cut: Gerald Prante, “Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data,” TaxFoundation.org, July 18, 2008, www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/250.html.

50 the richest 1 percent: Ibid.

51 “We are in the”: Steve Holland, “Obama: U.S. in Worst Crisis since Depression,” Reuters. com, October 7, 2008, www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN0749084220081008.

52 “But I think what”: Associated Press, “Obama Meets Congress Leaders on Economic Rescue,” Cleveland.com, January 23, 2009, http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2009/01/obama_meets_congress_leaders_o.html.

53 “I want to say”: Scott Wilson, “Obama’s New Track: Blaming Bush,”
Washington Post
, March 15, 2009, http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/detail.jsp?key=362202&rc=to&p=1& all=1#___1__.

54 “We’ve inherited a terrible”: Ibid.

55 “We’ve inherited an economic”: Israelis Picking a New Leader; Race Against Time for Rescue Plan; Obama Administration’s Golden Parachutes,” The Situation Room, “CNN.com, February 10, 2009, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/10/sitroom.02.html.

56 “By any measure”: Wilson, “Obama’s New Track.”

57 “There are a lot of individual”: “Remarks by the President and Economic Recovery Advisory Board Chairman Paul Volcker after Meeting,” March 13, 2009, www.whitehouse.gov/
the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-and-Economic-Recovery-Advisory-Board-Chairman-Paul-Volcker-After-Meeting/.

58 According to the Federal Reserve: “How Much Is a Trillion?,” Econbrowser.com, March 3, 2009, www.econbrowser.com/archives/2009/03/how_much_is_a_t.html.

59 “The Fed prints”: Anthony Karydakis, “The Fed’s Interest Rate Experiments,” CNN.com, February 12, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/12/news/economy/karydakis_debt.for tune/.

60 So even though: “March 13, 2009,” “US Financial Data,” March 13, 2009, http://research. stlouisfed.org/publications/usfd/20090313/usfd.pdf.

61 And mortgage interest rates: “Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey,” FreddieMac.com, March 19, 2009, www.freddiemac.com/dlink/html/PMMS/display/PMMSOutputYr.jsp.

62 “The Fed is acutely”: Karydakis, “The Fed’s Interest Rate Experiments.”

63 It’s that top 1 percent: Gerald Prante, “Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data,” TaxFoundation.org, July 18, 2008, www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html.

64 43 million American households: Gregory V. Helvering, “Spreading the Wealth and Killing the Goose,” AmericanThinker.org, October 31, 2008, www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/spreading_the_wealth_and_killi.html.

65 More than 20 million: Jessica L. Dorrance, Daniel P. Gitterman, and Lucy S. Gorham, “Expanding the EITC for Single Workers and Couples without Children (AKA Relief for Low-Wage Workers,)” law.UNC.edu, January 2007, www.law.unc.edu/documents/poverty/publications/gittermanpolicybrief.pdf.

66 Gore noted that: “Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History,” TaxFoundation.org, www.taxfoundation.org/files/federalindividualratehistory-200901021.pdf.

67 Among other changes: “Economic Policy of the George W. Bush Administration,” Wikipedia.org, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_the_George_W._Bush_admin istration#cite_note-Tax_Policy_Center:_Urban_Institute_and_Brookings_Institution-44.

68 So President Bush: Brian M. Riedl, “The Myth of Spending Cuts for the Poor, Tax Cuts for the Rich,” Heritage.org, February 14, 2006, www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg1912.cfm.

69 in 2005, the Child: Ibid.

70 Now Obama has: Robert Steere, “Implementing ‘Making Work Pay’ Tax Credit Is No April Fool’s Joke,” CompleteTax.com, www.completetax.com/taxguide/news/09-294taxcredit.asp.

71 After Bush got through: Helvering, “Spreading the Wealth and Killing the Goose.”

72 Today, the poorest: Ibid.

73 The Heritage Foundation: Riedl, “The Myth of Spending Cuts for the Poor, Tax Cuts for the Rich.”

74 The second quintile: Ibid.

75 In 1980, the richest: Prante, “Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data.”

76 By 2006, their share: Ibid.

77 The top quarter: Ibid.

78 Since 1980, the share: Ibid.

79 At the same time: Ibid.

80 During Obama’s presidential campaign: Matt Cover, “Obama’s Tax Cut Is Actually a Spending Increase, Says Non-Partisan Group,” CBSNews.com, October 15, 2008, www.cbsnews.com//files/11/30/55/f113055/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=37519.

81 The top 20 percent: “Should I Be Worried About the “Over-Extended” U.S. Consumer?,” PHN.com, https://www.phn.com/tabid/674/Default.aspx.

82 “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, “First Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1933, www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html.

83 “it cannot be emphasized”: George Bittlingmayer and Thomas W. Hazlett, “FDR’s Conservative 100 Days,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 19, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742216772378825.html.

84 “both Hoover and Roosevelt”: Amity Shlaes,
The Forgotten Man
(New York: Harper, 2007), p. 7.

85 “created regulatory, aid”: Ibid.

86 “frightened away capital”: Ibid., p. 10.

87 “Another problem”: Ibid.

88 “Roosevelt systematized”: Ibid., p. 11.

89 “I should like to”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Our Documents: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Address Announcing the Second New Deal,” FDRLibrary.marist.edu, October 31, 1936, www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od2ndst.html.

90 “more of them had”: Riedl, “The Myth of Spending Cuts for the Poor, Tax Cuts for the Rich.”

91 “In other words”: Ibid.

92 “A rising tide”: John F. Kennedy, “400—Remarks in Heber Springs, Arkansas, at the Dedication of Greers Ferry Dam,” Presidency.UCSB.edu, October 3, 1963, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9455.

93 “Americans…are”: Jeremy Rifkin,
The European Dream
(New York: Penguin, 2005), p. 43.

94 “there is a belief”: Ibid.

95 “reconcile France with”: Rifkin,
The European Dream.

96 “two-thirds of Americans”: Ibid.

97 When asked that question: Ibid.

98 “in Europe, a majority”: Ibid., p. 41.

99 “The European Dream”: Ibid., p. 3.

100 “the French experiment”: Ibid., p. 48.

101 “the European model”: Charles Murray, “The European Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism,”
The American
, March 16, 2009, www.american.com/archive/2009/march-2009/the-europe-syndrome-and-the-challenge-to-american-exceptionalism.

102 “providing generous child”: Ibid.

103 “most carefully protected”: Ibid.

104 “great time with”: Ibid.

105 Citing Europeans’” self-absorption”: Ibid.

106 “irreversible damage”: Ibid.

107 “the American project”: Ibid.

2. THE BANK BAILOUT THAT BOMBED

108 Though they’re now wallowing: Christopher S. Rugaber, “Largest Banks That Received Aid Cut Lending,” HuffingtonPost.com, February 17, 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/17/largest-banks-that-receiv_n_167748.html.

109 “‘Make more loans?’”: Mike McIntire, “Bailout Is a Windfall to Banks, If Not to Borrowers,”
New York Times
, January 17, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/business/18bank.html.

110 “To borrow a line”: Christopher Boyd, “Banks Won’t Open Loan Spigots until Economy Mends,”
Orlando Business Journal
, February 13, 2009, http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/02/16/focus1.html.

111 “it’s unreasonable to expect”: Ibid.

112 “a slow start”: Jon Hilsenrath and Liz Rappaport, “Consumer-Loan Plan Is Off to Slow Start,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 19, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123741859019977963.html.

113 “stillborn would be”: Ibid.

114 “a month ago”: Ibid.

115 “one reason for the”: Ibid.

116 “AIG alone had $500 billion: Author interview with Barry Elias, April 5, 2009.

117 “government cannot do this”: Deborah Soloman, “Geithner Banks on Private Cash,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 23, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123776474431608981.html?mod=googlenews_wsj.

118 “at a time when”: Ibid.

119 “win-win-lose”: Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Obama’s Ersatz Capitalism,”
New York Times
, March 31, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01stiglitz.html.

120 “the government would”: Ibid.

121 “the Obama Administration”: Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho, “U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms,”
Washington Post
, March 24, 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032302830.html?hpid=topnews.