Daily Archives: 18 September 2013

To Whom Was Putin Speaking

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…in his recent New York Times op-ed?  Peggy Noonan has an answer.

Why would Vladimir Putin take such an aggressive tone in parts of a piece supposedly addressed to Americans and supposedly explaining his views on Syria and, more largely, US foreign policy?  …he’s not really writing to America.  He chose as a venue a major American newspaper, but he’s writing to the world.  He is telling the world he knows how to correct America, tell it off, criticize it for its conceit.  And he does it right to their faces, not in a Moscow interview or a St Petersburg speech.  He is rubbing America’s nose in it for the delectation of its friends, occasional friends, foes, and occasional foes.  He wasn’t writing to us at all.  He’s attempting to show the world he’s its reliable voice, its real leader, not those other guys.

Indeed.  Congratulations, President Obama.  You’ve achieved your 2008 campaign goal of fundamentally changing America.  We’ll be years undoing your damage.

Government Spending

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…there are also liberal members of the party who have said the government has done too much to reduce the budget deficit and should focus on short-term spending to boost the economy.

A larger point, albeit outside the scope of Damien Paletta’s column, is that when “short-term spending” simply is repeated “short-term” after “short-term,” it becomes long-term—permanent.  And that’s disastrous for our economy, quite beyond what these liberal members’ hero, JM Keynes, had to say about government (deficit) spending; that man is spinning in his grave.