U.S. headed for Third World status?
Life size bronze statues depicting men standing in a line during the Great Depression at the FDR Memorial in D.C. (PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Wilson/GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The United States may be headed for Third World status... according to a new study by two economists and endorsed by a Nobel laureate.
It suggests that President Obama may be repeating mistakes made during the Great Depression, which caused the worst economic collapse ever. The authors say the administration's plan to put hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy will undermine it in the long run, hurt long-term growth and possibly delay recovery by years. They say the U.S. could fall from First to Third World status, much like Argentina did.
We might already be on our way. Consider the following: A report by The World Economic Forum shows Switzerland has toppled the U.S. as the world's most competitive economy, pointing to the collapse of our banking system as a key issue.
China - which holds lots and lots of our debt - is worried about the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy of printing more money to buy bonds.
One top Chinese official says if the U.S. keeps this up, it will lead to inflation and quote "after a year or two, the dollar will fall hard." That would be on top of the steep declines in the value of the dollar already recorded in the last few years. He suggests that might mean the Chinese will be forced to invest elsewhere.
And a United Nations panel is proposing that a new global currency replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The signs are beginning to mount that the mightiest economic engine the world has ever known is beginning to falter.
Here’s my question to you: Is the U.S. headed for Third World status?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Why won't SC Gov. Mark Sanford go away?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The writing seems to be on the wall for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford - even if he refuses to read it. There's a growing chorus of voices in that state calling on the governor to just go away.
Sanford has been under fire ever since he went MIA for a week in June, lied about his whereabouts, and then resurfaced only to admit he wasn't hiking the Appalachian trail, but was in Argentina visiting his mistress. Since then he's been under investigation for his use of state resources.
The head of the Republican Party in South Carolina is expected to ask later today for a party resolution calling for Sanford's resignation. They voted in July to censure Sanford for "repeated failures to act in accordance" with the GOP's core beliefs. But they didn't ask him to step down then.
This comes just a day after a majority of the Republicans in the state House of Representatives wrote a letter to Sanford demanding his resignation... they say his actions have been "destructive to our state's image on a worldwide stage."
Among the 60 Republicans who signed the letter are several lawmakers who would play key roles in an impeachment process, which has also been talked about.
But Sanford isn't listening.. he called this letter "both unpersuasive and unsurprising," and said he won't be railroaded out of office by his political enemies.
A of couple weeks ago, Sanford also rejected his lieutenant governor's request that he resign for the good of the state.
Here’s my question to you: Why won't South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford go away?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 5pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Should Rep. Wilson be punished for yelling 'You lie' at Pres. Obama?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
A Republican congressman from South Carolina made a complete fool of himself during a presidential address to a joint session of Congress last night, and in the process confirmed a lot of what the American public can't stand about politicians.
Rep. Joe Wilson shouts, "You lie!" after President Obama denies the health plan would cover illegal immigrants.
But he also had a point...
South Carolina's Joe Wilson shouted "You lie" at the president - after Mr. Obama denied that proposed health care legislation would mean free health coverage for illegal aliens. The fact is they get free health care now by just walking into any emergency room, and nothing in the proposed legislation would change that.
Nevertheless this was pretty low - even with our reduced expectations for our lawmakers.
Wilson stunned the room... everybody except the president. Republicans froze, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi frowned at him, and Vice President Joe Biden shook his head. But President Obama looked toward the outburst and said "that's not true" and then continued on.
There has been a steady and very noticeable decline in civil discourse in this country over the last few years. The entire month of August was filled with scenes of angry Americans yelling at each other at town hall meetings over the subject of health care reform.
And when a member of Congress yells at the President of the United States, calling him a liar in the middle of an address to a joint session of Congress, we have hit a new low. How do we get to the point where the highest office in the land is treated with such utter disrespect?
Here’s my question to you: Should Congressman Wilson face punishment for yelling "You lie" at President Obama during last night’s address to Congress?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
What would you give for dinner with Sarah Palin or Karl Rove?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
If you have a few extra dollars in your pocket, how about plunking it down for a dinner with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin?
E-bay is auctioning off the chance for a dinner for five with Palin and her husband, Todd.
It will cost you though - with bids starting at $25,000. Proceeds will go to a veterans' charity, called Ride 2 Recovery that gives bicycles to wounded vets... and organizes rides for them as a way to help their recovery.
There are some restrictions - the winner has to pass a background check... Palin gets to choose the time and place of dinner, which will last no longer than four hours but could be less at the sole discretion of Ms. Palin. Plus she gets to bring along up to 3 guests, and you have to pick up the tab. Some things never change.
The dinner is described by the charity as "the chance of a lifetime"... adding that Palin is "quite simply, one of the most talked about people in the U.S." The value of the dinner is described as "priceless." So far, there are about a dozen bids.
And if $25,000 is out of your range... there's also the chance to have lunch with Karl Rove. Bids for that start at $7,500.
The lunch for three - with the man President George W. Bush affectionately called "turd blossom" - will take place at a steak house in Washington.
Here’s my question to you: What would you give to have dinner with Sarah Palin or Karl Rove?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Too late for Pres. Obama to change minds on health care?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
President Obama's speech to Congress tonight is seen as a turning point, one way or the other, when it comes to health care reform.
The month of August clearly didn't go according to the Democrats' plan; and even now, divisions within the president's own party threaten to stop his signature issue from moving forward.
Camille Paglia - who supports the president - writes on Salon.com that it's still possible for the president to turn things around with a strong speech tonight, but acknowledges that after a "summer of grisly hemorrhaging, too much damage has been done."
Paglia asks how a White House that couldn't even smoothly pull off an "innocuous back-to-school pep talk" will revamp health care, and criticizes the Democratic Party for becoming "arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans" and for not realizing that talk radio and the web is where the debate is at.
Maureen Dowd goes after the president in today's New York Times for not being tough enough:
"Sometimes, when you've got the mojo, you have to keep your foot on your opponent's neck. Civil discourse is fine, but when the other side is fighting dirty, you should get angry. Don't let the bully kick sand in your face."
Dowd suggests the president needs to be "less Spocky and more Rocky."
But despite all the gnashing of teeth, it's worth pointing out that the critical players in the industry are still at the table, and it's also worth remembering the political cost to Bill Clinton when reform didn't happen on his watch.
Here’s my question to you: Is it too late for Pres. Barack Obama to change people's minds on health care reform?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
President Obama overplayed his hand?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The stakes are high when it comes to President Obama's speech on health care to a joint session of Congress tomorrow night. If the president's call to action doesn't get more lawmakers on board and if some kind of health care reform legislation doesn't result, the political damage to Mr. Obama could be significant.
Meanwhile - critics are after the president for what they see as a wide range of missteps in his eight months in office. Some say Mr. Obama made a tactical mistake by putting Congress in charge of the details on a key issue like health care.
But conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer writes that Pres. Obama is in trouble and it's not Congress' fault. He says the president is to blame for an agenda too far to the left for a center-right country.
He says that Mr. Obama misread the election results and that he was not given a mandate to make sweeping changes to the American system, enlarge the government and spend trillions of dollars we don't have. Krauthammer suggests the president is jeopardizing the trust of the people who elected him.
He writes:
"Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity. But what has occurred - irreversibly - is this: He's become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic."
In other words, he says President Obama is a "mere mortal," a politician like all the others.
Here’s my question to you: Has President Obama overplayed his hand?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Changes in health care debate after Congress' vacation?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As Congress gets back to work following a 40-day vacation (hope they're rested!) things in Washington don't look all that different than they did before their summer recess - especially when it comes to health care reform.
House Democrats are returning to the same set of problems they left behind 40 days ago:
Conservatives in the party are unsure about backing the so-called public option"... freshman lawmakers from suburban areas are worried about increasing taxes on wealthy constituents... and liberals are threatening to oppose the bill if it doesn't contain the public option.
Something's gotta give.
Polls suggest Americans remain just as divided as they were a month ago - a new Gallup Poll shows 39 percent of those surveyed say they would tell their member of Congress to vote against a health care bill this fall, while 37 percent want their member to vote for it.
Meanwhile - expect Congress to focus on health care mostly as to how it may or may not affect their chances of holding onto their jobs.
At the end of the day, politicians worry about their own political hides first and the public welfare whenever. Polls show that only about one-third of Americans approve of Congress.
And since the Democrats control both Congress and the White House, expect the voters to take out more of their displeasure on them during next fall's midterm elections.
Here’s my question to you: How has the health care debate changed during the 40 days Congress was on vacation?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
White House "czars" a good idea?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It's getting to the point where the White House has more "czars" than Russia used to have. The latest estimates put the number at 30. These special advisers are nothing new... many presidents have had them, including Republicans.
Van Jones served as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the White House Council on Environmental Quality from March until earlier this month.
The "czars" work on issues ranging from health care to Middle East peace. But - the problem is how many President Obama has - combined with the fact that they're not subject to congressional oversight or Senate confirmation.
Republicans were already steamed about this - but now it's boiling over with the resignation over the weekend of the president's green jobs czar. Van Jones quit under pressure from many of his past statements and affiliations. He was on the record referring to Republicans using a vulgar collective noun; and he signed a petition calling for an investigation into a 9/11 cover-up by the federal government.
It's all just more ammunition for Republicans to go after President Obama. And it's yet another political miscalculation by the president.
One Republican calls the number of czars in the Obama White House an "affront to the Constitution"... and another GOP lawmaker has called on the president to suspend any future czar positions until Congress can check out those already in place... But that hasn't stopped President Obama... who just yesterday appointed an auto czar.
Democrats say the number of czars isn't the issue... because all administrations have them. The problem is no one apparently vets these people very well until it's too late and a Van Jones manages to embarrass the entire administration. Sort of like nominating people to cabinet posts who didn't bother to pay their taxes.
Here’s my question to you: Are White House "czars" a good idea?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Has your opinion of labor unions changed?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As we head into Labor Day weekend, consider this: For the first time since the question was first asked in the 1930s, fewer than half of Americans approve of labor unions. A new Gallup poll shows organized labor taking a big image hit in the last year...
Workers at SK Hand Tools in Chicago picketed outside their plant last week after their health insurance benefits were cut without notification.
- The poll finds only 48-percent of those surveyed approve of labor unions, that's down from 59-percent a year ago. While approval of unions is down among most groups, the biggest drop comes among independents.
- While 66-percent of Americans say unions are beneficial to their own members, 51-percent say that unions mostly hurt the economy. That number is up from 36-percent in 2006.
- And, 42-percent say they want unions to have less influence, compared with 25 percent who want more influence... last year, these numbers were about even.
But in the past year - a whole lot has changed. These new poll numbers come during an economic recession with record unemployment, and in the aftermath of major taxpayer-funded bailouts of two of the Big Three auto companies.
When Congress was considering these bailouts last winter - polls showed many Americans blamed the unions for the auto industry's problems.
Here’s my question to you: In light of the Labor Day holiday, has your opinion of labor unions changed in the past few years?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Rep. Rangel says race is at the center of the health care debate
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Congressman Charlie Rangel played the race card in the health care debate. Rangel says racial bias and prejudice against President Obama because he's an African-American are behind the opposition to health care reform.
U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Rangel stated: "Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, 'how did this happen?'"
It's a cheap shot and probably just about the last thing that President Obama needs in the already-heated debate. And it's even more of a cheap shot coming from Rangel, considering the fact that the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is under investigation for several ethics violations.
Mr. Rangel was forced to file amended financial reports to the House Ethics Committee after it was discovered he apparently "forgot" to report millions of dollars in assets and income. Just another hack politician who when the going gets tough resorts to race politics.
The Washington Post is calling on Rangel to resign as chairman of that committee.
But I'm sure he's not going anywhere - any more than Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina or Larry Craig of Idaho or any of a number of so-called public servants who use their elected office as a way of avoiding the rules the rest of us live by.
For his part, Rangel says it's not fair for him to comment until the ethics committee wraps up its investigation. In the meantime, he should just go away.
Here’s my question to you: Is Congressman Charlie Rangel, up to his ears in ethics investigations, out of line in saying race is at the center of the health care debate?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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