Barrel Strength

Private wages from companies shrank to their smallest share of personal income in US history during the first quarter of 2010 and correspondingly, government provided benefits rose to the highest amount as Obama continues to expand the role of the government.  This would be seem to be a failure of policy but some liberal economist seem to have other ideas.

The shift in income shows that the federal government’s stimulus efforts have been effective, says Paul Van de Water, an economist at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“It’s the system working as it should,” Van de Water says. Government is stimulating growth and helping people in need, he says. As the economy recovers, private wages will rebound, he says.

The role of the stimulus was and is to expand the economic growth.  So far there is no evidence that government has succeeded in stimulating growth and to claim that the “stimulus efforts have been effective” is absurd, because the proof of their effectiveness would be in the GDP growth and employment statistics.  Well, Napolitano thought the system worked too in the aftermath of NWA Flight 253 failed bombing.

It was only seven years ago that the leftist were fond of telling us that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism“.  It is quite amazing how quickly that view has been discarded.

Yesterday the Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said that the Republican opposition to President Obama’s agenda has become so obstinate that it “is almost at the level of sedition.”  Oban in this post stated the same, “I am appalled by much of the political blackbrushing that has been evident around Obama, and think the rightest blogosphere and commentariocracy spews sedition if not treason”, a few days ago and that view has been prevalent amongst Obama believers for quite some time now.  What happened to all the chest thumping patriotism of the Bush years?  Perhaps it left town with the “cowboy”.