The American Spectator

Admit the unintended consequences of MtM accounting and repeal it or at the least put it in the footnotes.
— James M. Mulcahy
Grand Island, New York

BEDTIME READING FOR MR. JOSHPE
Re: Brett Joshpe’s The Real Threat to Democracy:

Brett, try reading the Constitution again. Congress and only Congress may declare war, then the Commander-In-Chief executes that war. You seem to me to be another apologist for another RINO. As a Conservative I believe that the Constitution is the law of the land, and that what we have now is one party (Democrats) whose entire foundation is in opposition to the law of the land, and another which is 50/50 and even then I really don’t hear many putting forward good Constitutionally based arguments. To rule apart from the Constitution is then to do so only by might, and this Tyranny.

Frankly, the Declaration of Independence was issued and the Revolution fought under less extreme circumstances than we have today — either we start to have legitimate government or we may need another Revolution. By the way, just in case one might say I haven’t read the legal arguments put forth concerning Presidential “War Powers,” I have. And go back to the Constitution: only Congress. George Bush may have meant well but was in a way an enemy to the Constitution. Federal (we act in this country as if it’s National) Government grew under him and he continued to use the presidential office far beyond the scope of what was laid out in the Constitution. Read the Constitutional Convention debates and see how the Founding Fathers feared what we are experiencing today.
— Len Lieber

DEPRESSED AND RUNNING OUT OF MONEY
Re: Gretchen L. Chellson’s letter (under “We’ll All Live in Obamavilles”) in Reader Mail’s Fumbling Around and Harrell Huff’s letter (under “Trick Question”) in Reader Mail’s Defending the State from Sec. of State:

Gretchen L. Chellson made the point that the Great Depression was ended by the spending on armaments for World War 2. Harrell Huff then made the counterpoint that if lavish government spending worked then, why can’t it work now? There are two significant reasons why this is not the case now. The first is that up to 1941 the spending on armaments that got the economy moving again came from Britain and France — American taxpayers got a free ride. Obamanomics does not have this advantage, it is reliant on taxpayers and overseas lenders for finance, not overseas purchasers of American products — the British and French. This is a huge difference and Gretchen Chellson is correct in making her point. The second point is that during World War 2 and for decades after, America was a creditor economy that had a large financial surplus and savings pool that was available for investment elsewhere. This surplus funded the war effort from 1941, when the financial resources of Britain and France were finished and after the war it funded the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe. There is no American savings pool now, America has been a major debtor for years, it is an economy heavily reliant on consumer spending funded by debt, with China and Japan being the major creditors.

There is a world of difference between the creditor, producer-based war and post-war economy of yesteryear compared to the debtor-, consumer-based economy of today. Obamanomics implicitly assumes that China and Japan will continue for some time yet to be the benevolent sugar daddies to American consumers living beyond their means. If this assumption turns out to be wrong, and it may well turn out that way, then no amount of government spending will be able to make up the difference. Soon or later, Americans will have to grow up and start saving rather than spending like there is no tomorrow. The party is over, the beer keg is empty and your credit is shot. Americans governments and American consumers both will have to balance their budgets and reduce their spending. Obamanomics has to recognize this point in the long term and at the moment, there is no sign that this will happen. Obamanomics is therefore fundamentally flawed; it is a house built on sand.
— Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia