By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A. ROBBINS
Posted 08/25/2009 06:06 PM ET
It's not just that the wheels are coming off President Obama's credibility; they're also starting to come off the federal government in general.
Washington is no longer able to hide its failures behind the flag. Its mistakes are too obvious and too costly. Even ardent “my country, right or wrong” patriots are now distinguishing between America the nation, which we all rightly revere, and the political enterprise in Washington — which nearly everyone now distrusts.
The politicos in Washington have gone into business for themselves. And most folks — like newly price-conscious consumers — aren't any longer buying the elixirs that Washington is peddling. They all cost too much, almost none of them work, and most have severe side effects.
People are asking: “Is the government so incompetent that it can't foresee the obvious consequence of its actions?” “Is it deliberately trying to make us worse off?”
Washington taxes us in the way that is well-known to do the maximum amount of damage to us and our economy per dollar of revenue raised. It then spends our money in ways that often do more harm than good.
Phi Beta Iota:
Click on Investors.com above for the rest of the story. The graphic below may help. Not only has the chasm between those with power and those with knowledge gotten cataclysmic, as we said in 1997, but Washington makes decisions on the basis of bribes from those who RECEIVE the taxpayer's hard-earned funds, and no longer gives thoughts to the public interest. This is a betrayal of the public trust. It is an impeachable offense.
