Tag Archives: George W Bush

“Sorry, Chancellor Merkel”

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in United States

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

504px-John_O'Sullivan
  

The Manifest Destiny

  
John L. O’Sullivan, (15 November 1813 – 24 March 1895) sketched in 1874, was an influential columnist as a young man, but he is now generally remembered only for his use of the phrase “manifest destiny” to advocate the annexation of Texas and   Oregon. (See Manifest Destiny, Wikipedia.)
  

Micheline is sad, says Belaud the cat. She is sad because she does not think President Obama knew to what extent practices, proponents of the “Manifest Destiny” would have allowed, were used by United States President George W. Bush.  

She also thinks that, in all likelihood, abusive surveillance continued after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States because he did not know the US was listening in on the entire world, including its friends. We need to trust at least a few persons and nations, which fully explains Chancellor Merkel’s reaction. President Obama knew he had to protect his people, but may not have been aware that the NSA (National Security Agency) was monitoring Chancellor Merkel’s mobile telephone.

“Now Micheline” I said, “you know very well that people hear what they want or wish to hear and that the manner in which a message is understood depends largely on the way it is formulated. He may not have known.” 

“Manifest Destiny”

The term “Manifest Destiny” was coined by John O’Sullivan in the July-August 1845 issue of his United States Magazine and Democratic Review and, according to William Earl Weeks,[i] quoted in Wikipedia, its three themes were the following:

  1. The special virtues of the American people and their institutions;
  2. America’s mission to redeem and remake the world in the image of America;
  3. A divine destiny under God’s direction to accomplish this wonderful task.

Thomas Jefferson

Founding father Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 – 4 July 1826) was a proponent of the “Manifest Destiny.” Yet, he owned hundreds of slaves and fathered six children with slave Sally Hemings (c. 1773 – 1835). Four survived to adulthood, at which point they were freed. Sally Hemings was of mixed ancestry and the children were “seven-eighths European in ancestry” and white in appearance. (See Sally Hemings, Wikipedia.)  But he did not free Sally Hemings. She would have been auctioned off, had Jefferson’s daughter, Martha Washington Jefferson Randolph, not freed her.

George W. Bush

I also told Micheline that, although former US President George W. Bush (born July 6, 1946) adhered, knowingly or unknowingly, to the concept of the “Manifest Destiny” (see Manifest Destiny, Wikipedia), after the events of 9/11, former President G. W. Bush may have felt very distraught which could have led him to enter Iraq, a sovereign country. He was the President of the United States, its Commander-in-Chief, the US had been attacked by terrorists, and he had been influenced by the “Manifest Destiny.” 

And now we have learned that former President G. W. Bush did not know how far he could go too far. He let the NSA (National Security Agency) monitor the telephones of allies of the United States. If an individual adheres to the notions set forth in the “Manifest Destiny,” there is a risk that individual will not know that his or her rights end where the rights of others begin.  

President George W. Bush may not have been as great a president as Thomas Jefferson, but I’m quite certain he will never be made to answer for his actions. All is right under the mantle of the “Manifest Destiny,” which is why Micheline fears the notion of exceptionalism. 

Conclusion

“Don’t worry, Micheline, President Obama will do all that is needed to regain the confidence of his allies. Yes, some people will use this opportunity to fault him, but it will not work.  Too large a number of United States citizens will see the truth. What is really sad, Micheline, is that we have extremists right here who threaten Canadian unity.” 

Remember McCarthyism

“The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to Joseph McCarthy‘s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.” (See Joseph McCarthy, Wikipedia.)

The bottom line, Belaud said, is that one can fully expect citizens who insist on carrying firearms also to monitor their friend’s telephone conversations.

RELATED ARTICLES

______________________________
[i] Weeks, William Earl, Building the continental empire: American expansion from the Revolution to the Civil War (Ivan R. Dee, 1996).
 
The Little Drummer Boy, by William Morris Hunt, 1862
Photo credit: Wikipedia
(Please click on the image to enlarge it.) 
display_image             

Manifest Destiny

 
American-Flag_Flat_
© Micheline Walker & Belaud
October 29, 2013
WordPress

Quebec on my Mind

14 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Sharing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Chantale Jean

Reaching for the Sky, by Chantale Jean (2011)

A friend is doing my income tax report.  In a telephone conversation, he told me that Madame Marois, Quebec‘s Premier, was demanding that tax payers provide her government with a new tax for medical care and medication.  Such a tax did not exist in Quebec a year ago and it does not exist outside Quebec.  To my knowledge, no one was told about this new tax.  In my case, it will amount to a minimum of $300.00.

How will persons living on welfare pay this amount of money?  Their monthly income is $600.00 and barely pays the rent.  As well, how will the disabled survive, particularly men?  If a man is disabled but was married at some point in his life, his former wife receives half of his disability benefits.  So, he must live on $300.00 a month.  This decision was one of Madame Marois’ victories.  She was then courting the feminists.  Finally, what about the elderly many of whom are working well into their seventies and early eighties, if they can find employment.

The Economy: 2008 & its aftermath

In fact, what about me?  My pension fund suffered because of George W. Bush’s totally useless wars and it is not growing, not in this economy.  So my current income is a combination of Old Age Security benefits and what little money I withdraw from my pension fund.  I can let it grow until I am seventy-one, which is what I must do if it is to provide me with a decent living when I am older.  Fortunately, I own my apartment and have accumulated good furniture, pots and pans, dishes, kitchen gadgets, books.  My income is therefore adequate, but…

From House to House

As you probably know, I have suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, since February 1976 when I had a flu which took away much of my energy.  I could teach despite this illness, provided I was assigned a reasonable workload.  However, the Chair of my department worked me out of my position by asking me to teach a new course: Animals in Literature, i.e. World Literature.  I wish I could have said ‘no,’ but I couldn’t.  He had lost his temper before causing me to faint and I was afraid it would happen again.  Later, when I started feeling extremely tired, he would not allow me to leave the classroom and the results were catastrophic.  I told that story in a post entitled From House to House, but I am trying not to remember.

Back to Madame Marois

To my knowledge the above changes were not announced.  Everything was done behind closed doors.  But I have now learned how Madame Marois will not increase tuition fees.  Quebecers pay higher taxes than other Canadians, 15% instead of 10% of their income, and, beginning now, they must pay an extra tax.

The poor in Quebec are not the students who get a nearly free education compared to Canadians living in provinces other than Quebec. Besides, the students have a future.  The poor in Quebec are the elderly, those who were not members of a powerful syndicate and those who did not have a position that provided fringe benefits, such as a pension plan.  Among the elderly, some find jobs, but indépendantisme has taken its toll.  Quebec could be a very rich province, but who wants to invest in a province that threatens to separate from the rest of Canada.

At any rate, the students are now paying $25.00 more than they did last year or will pay, next year, $25.00 more than they do at the moment.  The money will be taken from tax payers and, among them, needy persons and the elderly.

Artwork: with permission from La Galerie Klinkhoff

001846_jpg

—  The Conquerors, by Chantale Jean (2012)

The Truth

The truth is as follows.  I  wondered why Quebec’s mighty unions, les syndicats, had not supported the students in their last bid for a tuition-free education.  The reason is that the Unions needed the students to get rid of veteran political figure Jean Charest‘s Liberal and federalist government.  This goal was attained on 4 September 2012, when Madame Marois was elected to the premiership of Quebec.

My dear readers, I wish I could write more today.  We have one more bestiary to look at and there are so many fascinating subjects to discuss, but everything has to wait until tomorrow.

RELATED ARTICLES

© Micheline Walker
14 March 2013
WordPress
 
 
Related articles

The “Manifest Destiny” & the News

18 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in United States

≈ Comments Off on The “Manifest Destiny” & the News

Tags

, , , , , , ,

American westward expansion is idealized in Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) (please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Emanuel Leutze (24 May 1816 – 18 July 1868)

 

The Manifest Destiny

 (please click on the picture to enlarge it) 

John L. O’Sullivan as he appeared on the cover of Harper’s Weekly in November 1874. O’Sullivan was then attending a conference in Geneva that sought to create a process of international arbitration in order to prevent wars.

In the middle of the nineteen century a concept developed that supported the notion that the US had the right to expand and that expansion was “prearranged by Heaven.”[i]  The term “Manifest Destiny” was coined by John L. O’Sullivan (15 November 1813 – 24 March 1895), in the July–August 1845 issue of the Democratic Review.  In an article entitled Annexation, O’Sullivan advocated the annexation of Texas and, later, he would also advocate the annexation of the Oregon Country.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans used “Manifest Destiny” to justify expansion, at any cost, beyond Louisiana Territory.

And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.*

*(Manifest Destiny, Wikipedia)
 

States’ Rights

John O’Sullivan was also an advocate of States’ Rights.  It was his view that “the presidency had become too powerful and that states’ rights needed to be protected  against encroachment by the central government.” (Manifest Destiny, Wikipedia)

The Indian Removal Act (1830)

What stood in the way of “Manifest Destiny” was slavery.  John Quincy Adams (11 July 1767 – 23 February 1848), the sixth President of the United States (1825–1829), had adhered to the notion of “Manifest Destiny,” but he opposed expanding slavery.  Andrew Jackson (15 March 1767 – 8 June 1845), his successor, was a slave-owner who supported slavery and played a role in the Indian removal.  The Indian Removal Act (1830)[ii] was signed into law on 26 May 1830 and forced thousands of Indians living East of the Mississippi River to relocate West of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

The Indian Removal Act

The Divine Right of Kings

“Manifest Destiny” reminds me of the doctrine of the divine right of kings.  In the mind of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (born 25 Sept.  1627, Dijon, Fr.—died 12 April 1704, Paris), arguably the most eloquent preacher in the history of France, kings were accountable to God only.

According to Wikipedia “[t]he belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by Abraham Lincoln and later by Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush, continues to have an influence on American political ideology.”[iii]

The News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ 
Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN
 
CNN News: http://www.cnn.com/
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/ 
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
_________________________ 
[i] Frederick Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation (New York: Knopf, 1963; reprinted Harvard University Press, 1995)
[ii]The Indian Removal Act and the Dawes Act http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mille22c/classweb/american/dawesact.htm
[iii] National Humanities Center
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/mandestiny.htm 
 
 
 
© Micheline Walker
November 18th, 2012
WordPress

A New Marshall Plan for the United States

13 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Art, United States

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt, 1907-1908 (Photo credit: Wikipedia, all)

Tomorrow is Austrian Symbolist Painter Gustav Klimt‘s birthday.  He will be 150 years old.  Artists do not die.  Hence my featuring his most famous painting: The Kiss, and a second painting, his first portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Featuring Gustav Klimt may seem totally unrelated to a post on the Economy of the United States. But it seems everything is related.  In fact, I once knew at least one member of the Bloch-Bauer family and it could be…  Enough!

I will simply dedicate this post to Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918).

Background

The Treaty of Versailles was pitiless on the German people.  It demanded reparations totalling a punitive $31.4 billion.  As a result, the Treaty made it possible for Adolph Hitler to trap Germans into the dictatorship that led to World War II and its atrocities.  That war could have been been avoided.

Fortunately, at the conclusion of World War II, the United States and the world did not replay a Treaty of Versailles scenario.  The Marshall Plan was put into place and Europe was rebuilt. The plan went into operation beginning in April 1948 and the task was a four-year effort.  Japan also received the assistance it required to rebuild.

Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, les Ballets Russes and the Charleston

However, let us return to the 1920s.  As the proud, industrious and inventive people of Germany paid and paid, Americans danced the charleston and the very rich indulged in the lavish but ultimately meaningless life depicted in Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald‘s (24 September 1896 – 21 December 1940) Great Gatsby.  The novel was published in 1925, during the “Jazz Age,” when rich Americans travelled to the Paris and French Riviera of the roaring 1920s, years when Fitzgerald often joined Americans living in France.  The charleston was all the buzz and France was enthralled by Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes.

“Black Tuesday” and the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 

The bubble burst.  They danced all the way to 29 October 1929, the day the stock market was allowed to crash, Black Tuesday, and, unlike President George W. Bush who listened and had the decency to sign TARP into law, in 1930, President Herbert Hoover (10 August 1874 – 20 October 1964) did not veto the Smoot-Hawley defective remedy to the crash, but signed it into law: the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.  It could be that he signed out of ignorance, but whatever his circumstances, when President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, he plunged the world into an economic depression, the Great Depression, that lasted until World War II. The Stock Market had crashed on 29 October 1929, Black Tuesday, but the Depression did not spread into a worldwide tragedy until the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

The people had danced and continued to dance, but this time they danced not until a drunken stupor, clad in silk and Italian wool, but until they not only dropped, but dropped dead.  What had been a fad in the 1920s, the dance marathon, had become a way of life.

There is another book, among other books, Horace McCoy‘s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, a novel published by Simon and Schuster, in 1935.

The story goes as follows.  Gloria Beatty and Robert Syverten have danced for 879 hours in a dance marathon, when the woman, Mrs. Layden, whose favorites they are, is shot and killed by a stray bullet.  Participants are given $50.00 and Gloria takes her gun out of her bag and begs Robert to shoot her, which he does as a merciful gesture.  When the police ask Robert why he has shot Gloria, he says “They shoot horses, don’t they?”  This novel clings to the human imagination as does its film version, a 1969 film by Sydney Pollack starring Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin and Gig Young. (Wikipedia)

Cutbacks and Unemployment

And now, as I browse through online newspapers and other sources of information, I keep reading and hearing that cutbacks are taking place and that people are losing their jobs, jobs they need so they can put bread on the table, spend money, and be tax-payers, thereby ensuring a functional economy.  There has to be money in the public purse to put into operation and keep in operation the social programs that guarantee not only the wealth of nations, coincidentally the title of Adam Smith’s epochal book (1776), but also the welfare of nations.

The Welfare of Nations: taxes, social programs and Job Creation

It will take money and all citizens will have to pay their fair share of taxes, but if jobs are not created, the US and its financial partners could well be on the road to a financial demise.  TARP was not enough.  Jobs have to be created so a catastrope is averted.  A very short time ago and very late into President Obama’s current term, the American Supreme Court ruled, by one vote, one vote only, that the President’s health-care reforms were constitutional, as though they could be otherwise!

Now that President Obama seems to be looked upon as credible, as if matters could be otherwise, let him, and help him, create jobs, even if he is a person of colour.  Because of the voter purge currently taking place, I suspect a degree of racism that may extend to the White House.  However, this is mere speculation and, be that as it may, it remains that among the victims of the wars waged against Iraq and Afghanistan, one must include the citizens of the United States, whatever their ethnicity, and its financial partners, again, whatever their ethnicity.

The US has to help Iraq and Afghanistan, but it must also help itself and patriate, metaphorically speaking, a Marshall Plan, no matter who inhabits the White House. To its immense credit, the US voted President Obama into office, which was the right thing to do, and, to what would again be to its immense credit, at the moment, the US could and should help the leader they chose.  The Obama administration has changed the face of America.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has worked diplomatic wonders.  She has ushered in a new age of diplomacy.  But now everyone must pay taxes and people need jobs.

So let my conclusion be that the US needs a Marshall Plan so it can rebuild.

 
images99NUY2R7
Adele Bloch-Bauer
© Micheline Walker
13 July 2012
WordPress

The Right to Vote: “It is wrong – deadly wrong… “

06 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Creation of Adam, The Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarotti (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564)  Photo credit: Wikipedia

It is wrong – deadly wrong – to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.  (Lyndon Baines Johnson on the 1965 Voting Rights Act.) 

In a speech related to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, President (1963-1969) Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) stated that:

“Rarely are we met with a challenge…. to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation.  The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such as an issue…. the command of the Constitution is plain.  It is wrong – deadly wrong – to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.” LBJ on the 1965 Voting Rights Act

1)  Yet, after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which followed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Democrats ceased to be elected into office in the southern states where there is a greater concentration of African Americans than in the northern states.  Since 1965, in these southern states, Republicans have been elected into office.

2)  Mr George Zimmerman, who stands accused of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, has received donations that will give him a better chance of being found not guilty of the afore-mentioned crime.  Why was Troy Davis executed when all pointed to his innocence?

Related blog: Troy Davis: the Lex Talionis

3)  In 2000, Al Gore won the Presidential elections.

Let’s go back in time: “Shortly before 8 p.m. EST, all of the major television networks estimate that Gore has beaten Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the key state of Florida — but as the night goes on and results come in from the state’s Panhandle region, networks are forced to retract the estimate.” (CNN, December 13, 2000)

What happened is as follows.  When the time came to close the doors on voters, Jed Bush, then Governor of Florida, “worked to rule” and closed the doors to voting facilities even if many among one’s “fellow Americans,” in this case persons of colour, had yet to vote.  There was queue of persons still waiting to vote.  It appears that the Florida recount was not altogether the Florida recount.

There is the letter of the law, but then there is its spirit.  In a just society, the spirit overrides the letter.

4) And now I hear that a voter purge is presently taking place in the State of Florida, under the direction of Republican Governor Rick Scott which could eliminate persons of colour from the list of voters.  Consequently, I am inclined to take seriously the comments contained in the following video.  This is perturbing.

 
Ignudo, The Sistine Chapel (detail), Michelangelo
 
 
 
Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo 
This video cannot be embedded.  Please click on Sistine Chapel to view it.  It is beautiful.
 
© Micheline Walker
6 July 2012
WordPress
 
 
 
 

A Glimpse at the Obama Years: Statesmanship

30 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in United States

≈ Comments Off on A Glimpse at the Obama Years: Statesmanship

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The School of Athens, by Raphael

“Sprezzatura,” I can’t believe it!   This is Wikipedia on Raphael’s paintings:

“They give a highly idealised depiction of the forms represented, and the compositions, though very carefully conceived in drawings, achieve “sprezzatura”, a term invented by his friend Castiglione, who defined it as “a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless …”  (Wikipedia)

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”  Plato

A few weeks before the 2008 Presidential election, President George W Bush was told that the economy was about to collapse and that Americans and their financial partners in what has become a global economy were sinking faster and deeper than the Titanic.

Much to his credit, Henry Paulson (R), the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury, went to President Bush and explained that a crisis was imminent and that unless something were done immediately, we would be entering a recession that might well dwarf the Great Depression (1929-1939).  At this point, Henry Paulson (R) talked to Senator Christopher “Chris” Dobb (D) who drafted the necessary legislation.

The Democrats listened and unlike Herbert Hoover (R), who did not veto the proposed Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act, but signed it into law on June 17, 1930; in the fall of 2008, both Republicans and Democrats decided to act immediately and in the interest of the people.  On October 3, 2008, TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program) was signed into law by President Bush, bless him, as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

It was a huge expense: “The TARP program originally authorized expenditures of $700 billion. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reduced the amount authorized to $475 billion.” (Wikipedia)  But had it not been for TARP, Americans and yours truly here in Canada would be going to soup kitchens and the family pooch would suffer.

I would suppose that approving TARP did not help Mr Paulson’s career.  But had Democrats and Republicans not acted jointly and responsibly, people like you and me would have suffered and it may have been for a very long time

In short, TARP saved the United States and its trading partners.  Yet when President Obama was elected into office, he did not say a word against his predecessor.  The previous administration’s wars had nearly ruined the US economy and, by extension, our global economy.

And now, thanks to the Supreme Court, the Health-Care reform program Mitt Romney brought to Massachusetts and which President Obama more or less adopted has been deemed “constitutional.”  Mr Romney, please tell the truth.  If you say you will do away with health-care reforms, it will seriously endanger your credibility.  As a matter of fact, it has already.  In today’s Beast (June 29-2012), I read that Mitt Romney, “[t]he presumptive Republican nominee was quick to promise a repeal of the health-care act if elected president, but he proposed no alternative—throwing out only the usual Medi-scare, deficit-bomb, and ‘government takeover’ bromides.” (John Avlon)

At this stage in life, I know that, in the pursuit of power, candidates will attack one another.  But, I have heard Mr Romney discredit President Obama’s health-care reforms when these are the reforms he brought to the people of Massachusetts.

—ooo—

The US made a very smart decision on November 4, 2008, when it elected into office a man of integrity, a superior mind, an educated intellect, a person eminently qualified for the position, a Nobel-prize laureate and the President-elect who asked Senator Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State.  He trusts her and she has been magnificent.    

So back to the economy and other matters of state, allow me to say that given the obstructionism and scapegoating he has had to face for the last three years, Barack Obama’s record as the duly-elected President of the United States of America is very impressive.

The music is by Vangelis (film: 1492 Conquest of Paradise).

© Micheline Walker
June 29, 2012
WordPress
 
English: President George W. Bush and Presiden...
President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama meet in the Oval Office of the White House Monday, November 10, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Related articles

A Glimpse at the Obama Years: Statesmanship

29 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The School of Athens, by Raphael

“Sprezzatura,” I can’t believe it!   This is Wikipedia on Raphael’s paintings:

“They give a highly idealised depiction of the forms represented, and the compositions, though very carefully conceived in drawings, achieve “sprezzatura”, a term invented by his friend Castiglione, who defined it as “a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless …”  (Wikipedia)

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”  Plato

A few weeks before the 2008 Presidential election, President George W Bush was told that the economy was about to collapse and that Americans and their financial partners in what has become a global economy were sinking faster and deeper than the Titanic.

Much to his credit, Henry Paulson (R), the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury, went to President Bush and explained that a crisis was imminent and that unless something were done immediately, we would be entering a recession that might well dwarf the Great Depression (1929-1939).  At this point, Henry Paulson (R) talked to Senator Christopher “Chris” Dobb (D) who drafted the necessary legislation.

The Democrats listened and unlike Herbert Hoover (R), who did not veto the proposed Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act, but signed it into law on June 17, 1930; in the fall of 2008, both Republicans and Democrats decided to act immediately and in the interest of the people.  On October 3, 2008, TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program) was signed into law by President Bush, bless him, as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

It was a huge expense: “The TARP program originally authorized expenditures of $700 billion. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reduced the amount authorized to $475 billion.” (Wikipedia)  But had it not been for TARP, Americans and yours truly here in Canada would be going to soup kitchens and the family pooch would suffer.

I would suppose that approving TARP did not help Mr Paulson’s career.  But had Democrats and Republicans not acted jointly and responsibly, people like you and me would have suffered and it may have been for a very long time

In short, TARP saved the United States and its trading partners.  Yet when President Obama was elected into office, he did not say a word against his predecessor.  The previous administration’s wars had nearly ruined the US economy and, by extension, our global economy.

English: President George W. Bush and Presiden...
President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama meet in the Oval Office of the White House Monday, November 10, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And now, thanks to the Supreme Court, the Health-Care reform program Mitt Romney brought to Massachusetts and which President Obama more or less adopted has been deemed “constitutional.”  Mr Romney, please tell the truth.  If you say you will do away with health-care reforms, it will seriously endanger your credibility.  As a matter of fact, it has already.  In today’s Beast (June 29-2012), I read that Mitt Romney, “[t]he presumptive Republican nominee was quick to promise a repeal of the health-care act if elected president, but he proposed no alternative—throwing out only the usual Medi-scare, deficit-bomb, and ‘government takeover’ bromides.” (John Avlon)

At this stage in life, I know that, in the pursuit of power, candidates will attack one another.  But, I have heard Mr Romney discredit President Obama’s health-care reforms when these are the reforms he brought to the people of Massachusetts.

* * *

The US made a very smart decision on November 4, 2008, when it elected into office a man of integrity, a superior mind, an educated intellect, a person eminently qualified for the position, a Nobel-prize laureate and the President-elect who asked Senator Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State.  He trusts her and she has been magnificent.     

So back to the economy and other matters of state, allow me to say that given the obstructionism and scapegoating he has had to face for the last three years, Barack Obama’s record as the duly-elected President of the United States of America is very impressive.

© Micheline Walker
29 June 2012
WordPress