Time to Get Out of The Dark

Remember those old light bulb jokes? How many (fill in the blanks) does it take to change a light bulb?  The punch line always made fun of the changers.  Well, here’s a variation on that theme: How many lies, failed policies, and scandals does it take to change an administration?

When President Obama continually misrepresents facts – “We have run out of places to drill oil in the US. The health care package will pay for itself.  The US is producing more oil than ever before”- (not an exhaustive list), and the “watchdog” press fails to pursue the divergence between facts and statements, the country is left in the dark.

When the administration’s economic policies consistently fail to produce promised results and the solution is to do the same thing over again with more money, the burned out policies need changing.

Nancy Pelosi famously argued that unemployment benefits create jobs.  As one Wall Street Journal letter writer observed, if that is the case, “we should be taking all steps necessary to insure that more people lose their jobs!”

Aside from the obvious lunacy of such thinking, experience (FDR’s and Obama’s) has already demonstrated that draining money from the private sector for the government to spend is a job killer, not a job creator. Since Obama’s stimulus bill 1.7 million jobs have been lost and unemployment seems stuck at 9.1 %, and that doesn’t include the folks who have stopped looking for work. No new light bulbs here.

For scandals, one need look no further than Solyndra, the “green” company that received a half-billion dollar federal loan. White House emails indicate pressure to move ahead with the loan despite an Energy Department analysis that the firm’s financial condition was shaky.

Did politics have anything to do with the loan? George Kaiser, the largest stockholder in Solyndra, is described in news accounts as “a major fundraising bundler for Obama.” Did the 20 times officials from Solydra visited the White House indicate inappropriate White House involvement? After being highly touted by the President as the wave of the future, Solyndra, declared bankruptcy and is laying off 1,100 workers.  The President was right about one thing; under his administration bankruptcy probably is the wave of the future. The Solyndra loan process casts a dark shadow over the White House that no light bulb can dissipate.

Fast and Furious, the Justice Department’s gun running sting that ran a-muck, was a poorly thought out foul-up whose tragic consequences are still being revealed.  The usual questions apply: Who in the administration knew about this operation, and when did they know it?  Forget the light bulbs.  Bring in the spotlights.  It’s time for a change.