Why Cutting Spending Is Good Politics

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HEY, WHO'S THE NEW KID ON THE USN&WR OPINION BLOCK, THE ONE ADVANCING A KEY RON PAUL POSITION???
Nancy Pfotenhauer.
Former senior advisor to McCain.
Don't like the sound of that one.
Which points out that who says what is just as important as what is said. Two people can say the same thing with one being a BS artist and the other a truth-teller.
Primarily because the BS artist has a lot of exemptions to what he/she says while the truth-teller means what he/she says across the board.
In this case, if Pfotenhauer is a leftover McCain chicken hawk who wants the Af-Pak debacle to end later rather than sooner, she's a duplicitous BS artist when it comes to federal spending cuts.
But if Pfotenhauer is making the case for a Ron Paul presidency -- and federal spending cuts across the domestic/foreign board -- she's a truth-teller.
When it comes to spending cuts, only Paul means what he says. Across the board. Domestic and foreign.
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PS: At the least, Pfotenhauer should get a better head shot for her mini bio blurb.
The current one looks CGI, like something out of Avatar. And that looking-off-in-the-distance foto angle, what's up with that? If she was standing right in front of you, talking directly to you, would she look off into the distance while talking to you? Well, maybe.
Boggles me as to why a president of a national communications company doesn't pick up on how parallel streams of information are communicated continuously, in many ways -- and doesn't nail down a positive communication in every possible way.
I could be wrong but first whiff of Pfotenhauer suggests her USN&WR opinion-blogging purpose is to scatter rose petals in front of Romney or Gingrich as they walk.
Wherever they walk. In any direction. Which means Pfotenhauer better have double the amount of rose petals thought necessary, to cover all their back-tracking and flip-flopping paths.
Well, time will tell whasup with Pfotenhauer.
Ron Paul 2012. It's about leaving the dead (lefty/righty shills) to bury the dead (Obama and the republicans outside of Paul) while the rest of us move on to something much better. Across the board. Domestically and internationally.

dom youngross of OH 6:38AM December 04, 2011

DeeToo, what has divided our country is that useless POS in the White House. He has done nothing but continue to damage the economy, promote class warfare, and blame others for his total incompetence. If you are trying to call someone of connections with a billionaire, I would rather have someone who is connected with pro American, pro business billionaires such as the Koch brothers, than an anti American billionaire such as George Soros, who is a frequent visitor to the white House. I mean that useless economic idiot Soros puppet, put about 15000 American oil workers out of job, while going to Brazil promising 2 billion in loans to a Soros’ backed Brazilian oil drilling company, and then said he wanted the US to become their biggest customer. What a POS!
I have posted this before but here is how well Obama’s tax the billionaires and millionaires crap will work: The truth about rising taxes on the rich is it will do nothing for the debt; it will only make the wealth envy crowd feel better. There were about 350,000 tax returns over a million dollars, and of those about 8250 were over ten million. Guess what, if you tax the 8250 that made over 10,000,000 at a full $10,000,000 each you will raise 82,500,000,000 (eighty two billion, five hundred million), around 10% of our economic idiot in chief’s first stimulus. Then tax the rest of the 350,000 tax returns (341,750 returns) at a full $1,000,000 each, then you have raised $341,750,000,000 (three hundred forty one billion, seven hundred fifty million). Now add the two together, and you will get $424,250,000,000 (four hundred twenty four billion, two hundred fifty million), not even enough to pay for the new stimulus (which will be as big of a waste of money as the last one). To put this in perspective, our total debt is 14.5 trillion, so this added revenue will have the same effect as paying $29 for the year on your $1,000 credit card balance. Once again, it does nothing for the debt, it only makes the petty jealous little class warfare crowd feel good.

kewaal of GA 12:56PM November 29, 2011

Jim S of MO,
Maybe if you took the initiative to do a little research before you spoke you would have realized that she actually holds a Masters degree in Economics for George Mason University, which is consistently ranked one of the top Econ programs in the nation. So much for "no real background in economics". I'm not surprised by your sloppy and false accusations, I just wonder how much credit we should give you considering that you don't even take the time to do some basic background research before speaking and making yourself look foolish.

Greg of CA 12:34PM November 29, 2011

Jim S of MO
Kennedy, Reagan, Newt, and Bush tax cuts lead to the longest bull market in our history. That means companies expanded and created jobs.
Bill C. kick us into pushing home ownership to those who could not afford. That lead to Wall Street fall as well as job loss & recession.
barry's spending did not help jobs and massive $$$ 15 trillion in debt, not counting entitlement debt, does not make prospect of job creation ROSEY...

Bill Hedges of MO 3:11AM November 29, 2011

And how many of the spending cuts that the author refers to were made in a massive jobs recession the likes of which hasn't been seen in decades? Few of them, I'd guess. And given that the writer is basically a Republican partisan with no real background in economics that show up in her CV I wonder how much credit we should give her for understanding the difference.

Jim S of MO 1:43AM November 29, 2011

R.L. and the rest ,
It's liberalism , progresives , and the brainwashing of our children in the public education system that is leading us this way .
We can change it . We work , we care , we don't have time to OWS , we pay the taxes , we do have time to VOTE.
40 years of entiltements have gotten us here , it's gonna take a while to get people of the breast . They need glasses to look at Greece , Spain and Italy .

Hunter of WI 1:15AM November 29, 2011

Might be good to review Econ -101. Productive jobs can not be created by government. Government can only transfer funds from the private sector to the public sector - with a large percentage of the wealth lost in the process through government graft, pork-pie and inefficiency.
Thinking of jobs as being "created" is the first mistake. Tomatoes in a garden don't simply appear - they grow only after a proper environment is prepared for them. The EPA, and other out of control bureaucracies, have destroyed energy production and made America a very inhospitable place for industry and business.
Further, America has spent decades destroying manufacturing jobs through "out sourcing", regulation, crazy union demands/legacy benefits and taxation. We have become a nation of paper shufflers that imports most of its basic needs; energy, food and raw materials.
Environmentalist theology has made every human endeavor more time consuming and expensive. Industry and business have moved to countries where the Environmentalist religion hasn't yet taken full control - as it has here in the U.S..
For 50 years our schools have emphasized "white collar" jobs - "blue collar" jobs were referred to contemptuously by school counselors and administrators as, "dead end", "unfulfilling", "unskilled" and "going nowhere" jobs. I remember a high school counselor referring to my father's job as a machinist as a, "...meaningless job - a road to nowhere.".
Now, nearly everything we buy comes from China - That's worse than a road to nowhere - it's a road to dependency upon our enemies.
Corporate greed, government regulation/taxation, lack of character and self discipline, Environmentalist dogma, political correctness and educational/vocational bigotry have transformed America, in just 50 years, from the industrial giant of the world to a country that can't provide the basic necessities of life for its people or even control its borders.
I don't believe there is any way back. We lack the personal and political will to do the things necessary for our survival. We are a nation in decline and the ride to the bottom won't be comfortable.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 9:39PM November 28, 2011

Great article Nancy! Especially relevant is the point you make about how the so-called spending cuts are actually just reductions in the rate of growth in government spending.
We need to return spending to the 40-year historical average of 18% of GDP in order for the U.S. to avoid being shut out of the capital markets; an extremely unpleasant fate that the European welfare states are already experiencing.

Greg of CA 8:18PM November 28, 2011

Well articulated and well conceived--great piece, Nancy!

M of NC 8:13PM November 28, 2011

DeeToo of SC_ What does barry's man say
“Automatic spending cuts that could result from a special congressional committee's failure to reach a deficit-reduction agreement could "tear a seam" in defense, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/us-usa-debt-defense-panetta-idUSTRE7AL05220111122
“5. Freeze all health insurance insurance premiums”
So you want all insurance companies to go bankrupt ? Government requires insuring THOSE with previous conditions and you don't think that cost ?
They look at their cost for the year, new regulations, higher cost, etc., and try to figure out next years rate. With profit margin around 15 %.
At least Koch has not been convicted for INSIDER TRADING like SOROS...

Bill Hedges of MO 8:02PM November 28, 2011