If Only D'Souza Were Right (from the Austrian School)

Ludwig von Mises Institute ^ | September 1, 2012 | Gary North

[Arec Barrwin]

If Only D'Souza Were Right

Mises Daily: Monday, September 03, 2012 by Gary North

by Gary North

2016: Obama's America

I went to see 2016: Obama's America. Dinesh D'Souza wrote, stars in, directed, narrates, and did the original research for it. If we look at this from the point of view of its success as a documentary, I think it is effective. It is making money in theaters. This is amazing for a documentary. It is a campaign-year documentary, and it is a good one.

It is also dead wrong. That is because it misses the fundamental political fact of the last dozen years: the Obama administration is the operational successor of the Bush administration. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Guantanamo, on Wall Street, Barack Obama is George W. Bush in blackface. Obama is the star of a 21-century minstrel show.

This fact has been deliberately ignored for almost four years by both the neoconservative Right and the grin-and-bear-it Left. Neither side will admit what I regard as the fundamental fact of this documentary. It is a long whitewash of the policies of George W. Bush. The On-Budget Deficit

If you understand this early, you can see it in what is by far the best section of the movie. It appears at the end. It is an interview with the ever-eloquent David Walker, who resigned in 2008 from his job as comptroller general — senior accountant — of the United States.

This date is crucial: the last year of the Bush administration.

I need to make three observations. First, the deficit is vastly worse than the movie portrays. The movie sticks with the nonissue: the on-budget debt of $15 trillion, which is chump change, while never mentioning the central problem: the $222 trillion present value of the unfunded liabilities of the off-budget deficit, meaning the deficits of politically sacrosanct Social Security and Medicare. This is the heart of the federal government's highly entertaining Punch and Judy show over the deficit, with Paul Ryan as Punch and Obama cross-dressing as Judy.

Second, Walker has spent years warning the public about the unsustainable increase of the on-budget federal debt. He was eloquent on camera. But, central to that presentation is the fact that he blamed George W. Bush as much as he blamed Obama. He says on camera that the turning point on the deficit began with Bush's presidency. He showed that we are headed for a fiscal disaster, and it may overtake us during the presidency of whoever is elected in 2016.

In terms of the on-budget deficit, Obama's administration is an extension of Bush's. Dinesh D'Souza

Miss this, and you miss the whitewash. This documentary is an implicit whitewash. It relies on an assumption, namely, that we are not dealing in 2012 with a single political administration, which began in January 2001. Sadly, we are.

The key to understanding this is Timothy Geithner, who was the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank (privately owned) in 2008, and is the secretary of the Treasury now. He does not appear in the documentary.

Third, neither Walker nor D'Souza mentions on-screen what should be the obvious constitutional fact — namely, that it is the Congress that legally initiates all spending bills, and it is the House of Representatives that holds the hammer constitutionally. There was not one word in the movie about the Congress of the United States as being constitutionally in authority over the budget of the United States government. How in the world could anyone make a documentary that focuses at the very end on the central problem that the country faces, and then try to pin the tail on Obama as the donkey?

We are living in a bipartisan, congressionally mandated, slow-motion train wreck. The Congress of the United States could stop Obama today as easily as it could have stopped Bush. Congress is not interested in stopping the deficit; it is interested in avoiding all responsibility for the annual $1.2 trillion on-budget disaster that is the federal budgetary process.

The fiscal killer of killers in Bush's administration was never mentioned: the prescription-drug law that Bush signed in 2003. The vote was close in Congress. If he had vetoed it, it would never have passed. Instead, he turned the signing into a pageant. He brought in thousands of seniors to witness it. He announced: "You are here to witness the greatest advance in health care coverage for America's seniors since the founding of Medicare."

This sell-out to Teddy Kennedy (who refused to attend), added at least $8.7 trillion to the unfunded liability of Medicare. Yet it is never mentioned in the documentary. Instead, the documentary focuses on Obamacare, whose burden is mainly on the private sector and actually relieves some of the Medicare payments. In any case, that law was really Pelosicare. She was the ramrod. The documentary has one brief segment on her. It skips the point: bad as that law is, she was far more responsible for it than he was.

The Economy

A related thing that bothers me intensely is the fact that the documentary tries to pin the bad economy on Obama. The bad economy should be pinned on Alan Greenspan, with considerable help from his successor.

To suggest that the president of the United States has the power to make the economy worse to imply that he also has the power to make the economy terrible. He has limited power either way, unless he drags us into a war. Bush dragged us into two wars.

Ron Paul always was right for 36 years in not pointing to the president as the main economic problem, but rather the Federal Reserve System. So, any documentary that does not go after the Federal Reserve when it talks about economic problems but blames the president instead, and also ignores Congress, is doing the general public an enormous disservice. It keeps the Federal Reserve in the background in the thinking of the viewers, when the Federal Reserve ought to be in the foreground, with the presidency in the background. This is basic economics. D'Souza does not know what he is talking about with respect to economics.

[Lancey Howard]

When was TARP and the bailouts?

At the end of Bush's term. Those legislative actions arguably helped to keep the illusion of economic viability alive, at least so far. Obviously, there was no "Plan B" and there still isn't.

But FDR continued Hoover's policies? And Ubama continued Bush's? That's like comparing a kid playing with matches to a maniac spraying a village with napalm. Sorry, no sale.

FRegards,
LH

[GeronL]

we have been dealing with fiat money since the Bank of the United States

[Waywardson]

Regardless of how BAD Bush was.... he is NOT a Moslem influenced foreigner who has anti-american and anti-colonialism as the root motive for his actions. The Neo-cons are jerks and corrupt as hell, but they ARE still Americans. D’Souza IS right about that.

[rawcatslyentist]

>Congress is not interested in stopping the deficit; it is interested in avoiding all responsibility

Public service had become Public? Serve US!

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Bingo! You have a winner here Matthew.

When the ‘RATs went in to control Congress in January 2007 unemployment was 4.2.

[JLS]

You really have to be stuck on stupid to think that Obama is just a continuation of the George W. Bush regime. The differences are greater than any two administrations in American history.

[radpolis]

Never a fan of Bush, but if you look at Bush’s first four years where he had to deal with the recession he inherited and 9/11 and two wars simultaneously, he still never ran up $1.5 trillion deficits a year like Obama.

If he wants to attack Bush for prescription drug entitlements, no child left behind, amnesty for illegals and other left-wing compassionate conservative BS, that is his right, but that doesn’t mean Obama isn’t responsible for his own record.

Why do people always compare presidents?

Presidents are responsible for their own records.

Just because Bush sucked, Obama doesn’t get a pass for sucking worse.

[GeronL]

Bush was a big spending, pro-amnesty RINO on economics but the problems did not start the day GW Bush became President as Gary North is trying to say, or did say.

[GeronL]

bump!

[sand88]

and so he had to abandon the existing currency arrangement that been in effect since 1945

Yep, Nixon took us out of Bretton Woods in 71. Nixon's policies were hard-core Statist. Nixon believed first in government.

Liberty and limited government were as much an anathema to Nixon as any far-left Rat today.

Thanks a lot Nixon for your stupid EPA idea. I despise 99.9999 % of all politicians. They are mostly scum of the Earth. Reagan was the only Constitutional respecting President in the past 80 years.

[nathanbedford]

21 posters so far have been squabbling about whom to point fingers of blame at for our present fiscal predicament.

Let us assume that you are an honest and conscientious up-and-coming young politician who manages to win election to a district which might go either way and you become a representative in the United States Congress. If you want to do the right thing, your first problem is you must buck the structure of your own party.

The structure of your own party is determined by Representatives who have attained authority and responsibility by virtue of their survivability and tenure. They learned that if they permit their party to be painted as the party without compassion, that is the party of fiscal responsibility, the party loses power and they themselves risk losing their sinecure. So the leadership of the Republican Party is disinclined to suffer Mavericks in the ranks and certainly disinclined to permit the party to become tainted with the real essence of reform. They know the Democrats will quite literally charge them with throwing grandma over the Cliff. They know the donors of their own party expect the preferences of corporate welfare. They know the consequences of governing responsibly. Every pressure in Washington makes them disinclined to do so.

Their disinclination is reinforced by the fact that they know that they will not get an even chance in the media. They know they will be depicted to the electorate as mean-spirited. They know the media will seek out and concentrate on some diversionary topic such as the misbehavior of one of their members, and so indoctrinate the electorate that they will throw the election against those who advocate fiscal responsibility.

So you as a young and up and coming libertarian reformer are very soon faced with the choice of crying in the wilderness or becoming a careerist. The system is so strong that virtually everyone goes along to get along.

Senators and the President face similar structural problems.

Ultimately we should think about pointing the fingers at ourselves because we are the ones who make ourselves susceptible to pandering, payoffs, and propaganda.

There is, after all, a school of thought that says that in a democracy the people ultimately get the government they deserve.

[Pontiac]

Try Wilson.

Signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 on December 23, 1913

[Lancey Howard]

Try Taft.

Launched the 16th Amendment in June, 1909.

[Jim from C-Town]

FDR and his Relief efforts where absolute nightmares for business and much like Obama’s efforts caused what should have been a sharp and short recession in 2008 to be a long drawn out depression, almost as bad as that of the 1930’s.

FDR did a lousy job New Dealing. He spent and spent and continuously changed courses keeping business off balance.. Sound Familiar? Hoover was bad and his incessant tinkering with the economy surely caused problems, FDR caused and sustained the Depression for at least eight years longer than if he had done nothing.

Most of North's points are reasonable, but the deficit was almost nonexistent when Pelosi took over the Speaker ship in 2007. Bush and his new tone always prevented him from stopping the bleeding by VETO. He failed, O’Bumbler did far more damage.

One p[oint as to the Wars. Bush received over whelming Biparisan approval from congress to go into Afghanistan AND Iraq. Sometimes being the hyper power REQUIRES that belligerent countries pay the price. The wars where fine, The hanging around trying to salvage mentally ill societies from their own desire to live like 12th century idiots was the problem. Get in kill as many as you can, get out. Rinse & Repeat as necessary.

[Eccl 10:2]

Clearly still scratching my head why our former president never appeared at the Republican convention. I’ve never seen anything like it. My liberal co-workers joke about it at work.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I tell my Liberal friends that when it comes to spending, (and spending is our most problematic symptom), Bush was a Liberal. He never vetoed any spending, until some minor things late in his second term.

Therefore, Obama is not the opposite of Bush - he’s Bush in a hurry. Obama is Bush on steroids. So if you hated Bush, you must REALLY loathe Obama.

[JediJones]

Instead, the documentary focuses on Obamacare, whose burden is mainly on the private sector and actually relieves some of the Medicare payments.

Is he counting the expansion of Medicaid at the state level or merely looking at the federal spending side?

[Pontiac]

Another evil that occurred on Wilson’s watch is the ratification of the 16th Amendment giving us the infernal Income Tax.

Between the Income Tax and the Federal Reserve I think we can lay the planting of the seed of our present debacle at the feet of Woodrow Wilson (despite his constitutionally having nothing to do with it and it being proposed under Teddy Roosevelt).

[Lancey Howard]

There is, after all, a school of thought that says that in a democracy the people ultimately get the government they deserve.

Amen, you are preaching to the choir.

Dear old Dad always said, "Once the parasites outnumber the hosts, it's all over."
Of course, it was inevitable that the parasites would eventually outnumber the hosts. This is because natural political gravity dictates that the path of least resistance to re-election is to create more and more victims and parasites from whom to purchase votes (using fiat money from IOUs stashed in the "other people's" immense, completely devoid of honest accounting, and hopelessly complex, treasury). It was always only a matter of time before the parasites outnumbered the hosts.

America has committed suicide.

[GeronL]

You are correct.

Everyone wants to blame them, they, he, it, “the system”, a conspiracy or just say that is just how the world is. But the world is made up of people, “the people” is made up of individuals... us!

Instead of trying to evade responsibility for the state of the world by waving a hand vaguely and dismissively, we should start by admitting that we are part of it. If we can admit that then we admit that we can change it, even if only in a small way.

[pallis]

Once we are rid of Obama in the White House, we can get back to blaming Bush, and maybe with Ryan in the picture, we can start fixing things. While it is the “economy stupid,” there is much more about Obama that makes him dangerous, not the least of which is the fact the media won’t investigate him. We need to dethrone the media god.