The best political smackdown I've ever seen . . . and it's aimed at British PM Gordon Brown. I just wish we had ONE senator or representative with the balls to address Obama this way . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs
It doesn't make any sense to address that speech to Obama, since the appropriate parallel is Bush. It was not Obama who wasted resources during good economic times. barfo
Hmm...I guess President Obama then voted to pay down debt in his time in the Illinois State Legislature and the US Senate.
BTW, that was a damning indictment of Gordon Brown, who was clearly held in check by Tony Blair all those years after "The Deal".
Man, there are hundreds of thousands of shits I don't give about what any of you people are talking about. However, that speech was incredible. GOD I wish American politics worked like that.
Yet you respond to many of these threads. Your actions speak louder than your words. Me thinks you do care.
Gordon Brown also governed during "good times". That being said, as much as I supported the Bush Administration's foreign policy, their domestic policy was shameful. I dislike big government, no matter who is in charge.
Exactly--and Obama is exploding the size of the federal government way beyond what Bush did. It's reckless, irresponsible spending on a scale that we have never seen before.
You don't see the parallel? The Brits are just further down the tracks than we are. This speech should be viewed as a warning from the future. The Dollar is different than the Pound Sterling. We have financed much of our standard of living on foreigners, because the USD is the de facto worldwide currency. What happens if we spend so much that another currency becomes that standard? It means that we won't even have the option of selling our debt. Now THAT would lead to a real depression, making this little dip look like an economic boom in comparison.
Amen to that! Well-spoken as always, maxiep. Unfortunately, the masses of Americans swallowed Obama's cheery platitudes and seem to think that the federal government has unlimited resources and can bail them out of any problem, no matter how big. It's an Alice in Wonderland attitude that is grounded in no known reality. Obama has never run a business, and knows nothing about economic principles. He's the blind leading the blind.
I think what should be further appreciated is that it was said in Strasbourg and not in London. This venue was more than just the House of Commons. I found the line "Brezhnev-era apparatchik" particularly chilling; then again I remember the Cold War.
This was hopefully a shot across the bow, so to speak. Daniel Hannan is an incredibly articulate guy, and he has framed the argument in terms than anyone can understand. The world had better start paying attention.
Wow after hearing that I'm both concerned about our future and pissed that Bush didn't take advantage of good economic times and wasted all that damn money on a war in Iraq . . . but hey we got sadam
