Read the Fine Print Before You Buy

President Biden’s speech to Congress last night was long on platitudes as he lulled many to sleep with the Lullaby of the Left.  (See "Lullaby of the Left" here)   What it was short on was specifics.  It was also a bit short on honesty.  And it left out important facts and issues. 

First, what was left out.

The speech didn’t deal with the border crisis or Biden’s problem of migrant hoarding (See essay here )  Yes, he gave some nod to the divisive issue of amnesty and to the Vice President’s alleged leadership on the crisis (even though she has yet to visit our southern border or hold a press conference or answer questions about what she is doing).

Biden did not mention the radical Left plan to pack the Supreme court or to make Washington D.C. a state.  Both these plans are blatant political acts designed to ensure permanent power for the Democrats.

He also said little about H.R. 1 which is the Democrats’ bill that is intended to remove state control of elections, placing full control in the hands of the federal government.  He did not discuss that bill’s provisions that essentially destroy any election integrity: simply another Democrat power grab.

The speech failed to give credit to the work that went before him to get a vaccine ready and distribution started or that the return to normal (due in large part to efforts that began with the previous administration) will hopefully return to the booming economy achieved by the prior administration. 

Beyond the obvious omissions, the speech was short on honesty.

Ian Haworth examines this problem in detail HERE.   Let me just mention a few of the more glaring dishonest moments. 

The President repeatedly misstated figures, including: the amount of our GDP that we invest in research and development; the amount of time/travel/discussions he has had with China’s President XI; the gun violence and mass shooting numbers per year;

Biden often fudged to imply something that he did not say.   For example, he bragged that everyone is now eligible to get vaccinated right away.  What he left out was that just being eligible to be vaccinated does not mean one will be able to do so or that vaccine will actually be available for that person.    

Similarly, Biden seemed to take credit for a current booming economy while not mentioning that all he has done is remove some of the economic blocks enforced by Democrats or that the job increases under his administration pale in comparison to the 12.6 million jobs that were added by the Trump administration after the initial pandemic caused collapse.  He lamented the number of women who have left the workforce but ignored that a driving factor behind that statistic is the closure of schools due to Covid.

There were many more moments of intentionally misleading statements.  But that is just part of the lullaby – it all sounds good, and so people don’t notice.

The big stuff and the small print.

What is really disturbing are the grand Leftist plans that the President put forth without any specifics or any honesty about what they will cost this nation.  Again, the platitudes are lovely, but the reality may very well be quite different; it is that reality that the President and the Left do not want you to notice and which they try to cover with their soothing bromide.

I am not an economist, and you can yourself find a number of articles online that explain the devastating details of Biden’s latest money giveaway plan.  But just a few things of note.

The $1.8 trillion (that’s $1,800,000,000,000.00) American Families Plan comes on top of the $1.9 trillion ($1,900,000,000,000.00) Covid relief law and the $2.25 trillion ($2,250,000,000,000.00) “infrastructure” plan.  That is a total of $5.95 trillion in new spending in just the first 100 days. 

This money comes from taxpayers.  Yes, Biden says that it will not affect the middle class, but the reality is that it must, and it will.  He promised that he will only tax corporations and the wealthy, wealthy apparently being any family that makes more than $400,000 per year.  He ignores the fact that large corporations have ways of moving their tax base out of this country.  Then where does that money come from?  If not the middle class, then from the small and family-owned businesses that do not have the options that large corporations do.  And what will that do to employment opportunity and for the economy? 

Our national debt is currently around $28 trillion ($28,000,000,000,000.00).  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or an economist) to see that we are likely headed for economic collapse if Biden’s Leftist wish lists are passed.  It doesn’t take a genius to see what effect this debt will likely have on our children and grandchildren.

The President’s comments on his climate change and “infrastructure” agenda focused on how they will build jobs.  Yet he failed to even consider the research as well as real-world examples of how what he is proposing destroys rather than creates jobs.

Perhaps the worst is the continuing lie of “unity”.

By the end of the speech, those who were still awake heard a lot of platitudes about unity and America and how great we are.  Except that the entire speech that was given to that point was full of divisiveness and clear partisanship.  To that point the agenda that the President put forward would not maintain American greatness but would drastically remake this country and likely not for the better.

Read the fine print.

I look at this speech as something of a sales pitch by a deceitful salesman.  I want to see the fine print and read it carefully.  Every American should do the same.  Platitudes and pretty words might make us feel good but the Devil is in the details. 

And then there is the rebuttal.

I think that Senator Tim Scott said more in his 15 minutes than the President said in over an hour.  Sen. Scott seemed to be truly speaking from his heart, not just reciting a list of campaign promises that would lull the audience into ignorance.  If you missed his rebuttal, you can watch it HERE. 

What does Sen. Tim Scott get for his honest rebuttal that disagreed with the Biden agenda?  An attack from the Left calling him “Uncle Tim”, an obvious reference to Uncle Tom, a derogatory reference for a subservient Black person.  But that shouldn’t surprise us:  you will recall that candidate Biden said to Blacks that “If you don’t vote for me then you ain’t really Black.” 

The Biden-Left agenda has no room for dissenters.  It is about power and not really about America or her people.  Read the fine print before you sign on. 

About Gun Control

So, as always after a mass shooting, the calls for gun control begin. 

Now, understand, I am not a fan of guns.  I don’t like hunting; if I’m in danger I’m going to feel a lot more comfortable calling 911 or even just screaming rather than trying to unlock, load, lock, aim, and shoot a firearm.  On the other hand, I have been to a shooting range a few times and really enjoyed the challenge and competition of target shooting (in the same sort of way that one enjoys striving for and getting a strike in bowling; so maybe we could all just go bowling together). 

Nonetheless, it doesn’t really matter whether or not I favor guns, because we have the Second Amendment which provides for the right to bear arms.  I don’t particularly like this amendment, but, then, there are people who don’t seem to particularly like the first amendment or various other parts of the Constitution.  I defend the Constitution to them, and so I do the same to myself for the Second Amendment, because certain parts of our Constitution are not more important than others.   We cannot pick and choose which parts of our Constitution we will enforce and follow – it all carries equal weight and as citizens we must defend it in its entirety.

But, here’s the thing – why do we only seem to hear the screams for gun control after a mass shooting. Why don’t we hear similar advocacy every day when we have thousands of shootings across the country and especially in big cities like Chicago.  Children are injured and die there almost every day from gunshots, so where are the screams for better gun control there and why not on a daily basis?  Better regulation of gun and ammunition sales to the people who use guns daily seems to make a lot more sense than trying to figure out a way to keep guns from the hands of a mass murderer who, until the time of the heinous act, appears totally sane and normal and who, until the act, avoids discovery of whatever plans and motives he or she might have.    

We have the Constitutional right to bear arms.  That right can be reasonably regulated.  So let’s aim our regulations at the everyday people who commit the everyday murders that kill a lot more people over the course of the year than any single mass shooting.   Personally, I don’t think we can ever create background checks that will catch all or even nearly all people who should not have guns.  And I don’t think prohibiting guns to the insane will prevent gun violence from those who appear sane until they suddenly snap.  And then there’s the plain fact that there’s probably already enough guns out there for every citizen to have at least one. 

So, what would I do? First, make it much harder to purchase ammunition.  I think it may be easier to buy a quantity of ammo at Walmart than it is to buy spray paint.  A gun is not going to be much good without ammo (and yes, I know there would be a black market and people could make their own, but it would at least make acquisition somewhat more difficult which might delay or even stop some gun violence).  I would also ban some of the types of guns that are currently available.  I would allow small pistols, etc. for self-protection, basic rifles for hunting, guns for target shooting.  Beyond that, do we really need to generally sell the warlike weapons that are now easily available? (I do realize that there are some good arguments for a Yes answer to this question) At least make then much harder to purchase with significantly greater restrictions than the basic guns.  

That’s what I’d do, though honestly I don’t think it would make much difference. People who want to kill with guns are going to find a way to do so.  I know it is a cliché, but the problem is not the guns.  We seem to have a growing number of people in this country who see violence up to and including murder, as a way to solve problems.  We seem to have more and more people who do not value human life.  We have a country that is filled with divisiveness and anger.  It is this sickness of the soul that needs our attention far more than, or at least concurrent with, revisions to our gun laws.