And the Winner Is
Peggy the Moocher
Sorry to break the bad news to Joe the Plumber. But the winner of Campaign 2008 is Peggy the Moocher. No matter who moves into the White House, Peggy has good reason to do a happy dance. The plain, ugly fact is that both major political parties are committed to spreading the wealth in one form or another. It's all just a question of how much and how quickly.
Who is Peggy the Moocher? She's Peggy Joseph, a voter in Sarasota, Fla., who exulted earlier this week at a Barack Obama rally that this was "the most memorable time of my life." Why? As she told a Florida reporter on a YouTube video that has been viewed by hundreds of thousands: "Because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know. If I help [Obama], he's gonna help me."
You can't blame Peggy the Moocher for viewing Obama as the superior Santa Claus. With a relentless messianic campaign, a grievance-mongering wife touting him as the country's soul fixer and a national infomercial promising to take care of every need from night classes to medical bills to rent and fuel-efficient cars, Obama effectively channeled Oprah Winfrey's Big Give.
"Everybody gets a car!" "Everybody gets a car!" And gas. And mortgage payment relief.
But the damning reality for fiscal conservatives is that John McCain's plan for homeowners underwater on their mortgages was even more generous than Obama's.
His $300 billion "rescue" involved directing the Treasury Secretary to "purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers." That was on top of the trillion-plus-dollar "bank" bailout supported by both presidential candidates, the White House and the Democratic leadership; the $85-plus billion to AIG; the $25 billion to automakers; and the $200 billion in capital and credit lines to Fannie and Freddie. And who knows what else we'll be redistributing to the indebted states of New York, California, Massachusetts and all the other Peggy the Moochers, large and small, lining up for their piece of the bailout pie.
McCain assailed massive government spending — while promising to heap on more massive government spending to pursue home ownership and retention at all costs. It was the Republican, not the Democrat, who entrusted the Treasury Department to renegotiate individual home loans and become chief principal write-down agents for the nation. Both private and public entities are planning for a McCain-esque homeowner salvation plan for borrowers in the red.
It's a swell idea for everyone who bought overpriced homes with Adjustable Rate Mortgages. Those who rented, bought within their means or locked into fixed-rate loans that they could afford are out of luck, naturally. The only sane thing to do in response? Stop paying your mortgage and get in line.
"E Pluribus Unum" is no longer our national motto. These three words are: "Do For Me." As in: What will the government do for me?
On Election Day, the federal government quietly reported that it will borrow a record $550 billion in the current quarter to fund the bipartisan bailout. The Treasury Department plans to borrow more than a half-trillion dollars in the current October-December quarter and another $368 billion in the first three months of next year.
Estimated total for the whole year: $1.4 trillion. Democrats plan to add another $500 billion in "stimulus"-palooza legislation. Credit card companies, utilities, insurance companies, and car loan and student loan debtors await their turn.
The bailout bonanza blurred the differences between the two major political parties, but the Peggy the Moocher video shows there are still basically two starkly contrasting views of government in this country among the rank-and-file electorate. Unlike Joe the Plumber, Peggy sees government as her salvation and the president as her subsidizer-in-chief. She voted with the expectation that the Spreader of Wealth will reward her with payback. Joe just wants Washington to leave him alone to fend for himself.
Personal responsibility? Hah. Washington can't afford it.
Michelle Malkin is author of "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild." Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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8 Comments | Post Comment
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The ultimate sin, of course, is spreading wealth. We can handle folks starving to death in the street, but for God's sake, we must hold the line at spreading the wealth. It's God's will that a kid born to a wealthy family gets the most primo welfare life has to offer, but mother's milk for the kid born in the ghetto is jungle juice. That is the divine way, and we must not surrender it at any cost. Right, Malkin? Repeat after me, Malkin: "President Obama, the President of the United States, MY president."
Comment: #1
Posted by: Masako
Tue Nov 4, 2008 9:56 PM
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The best way to spread wealth is to spend it on goods and services. Also, everyone is free to voluntarily donate money, time and effort to charities and nonprofit organizations. When the state uses its coercive power to take wealth from those who've rightfully earned it and give it to those who haven't, that's something entirely different. It's government playing Robin Hood. And it's wrong.
Comment: #2
Posted by: Scot Penslar
Wed Nov 5, 2008 11:09 PM
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Ma'am;... I think you miss the point of Peggy's statement... It is that we are sick of worry; and sick of the feeling that government is holding us down while the wealthy rifle our pockets... Do you feel secure in your wealth???Few wealthy people do... Yet; if they take their security out of the mouths of everyone else, like candy from a baby, because they can, and the government allows it, then, insecurity is spread far and wide...Now; I like to worry about the quality of my thought, the accuracy of my quotes, the clarity of my punctuation, and the proximity of my spelling; but I can't bring myself to worry about security... I have had to worry about economic security all of my life, and if I actually broke a sweat doing so, I could never rest... And I have not had it bad... I have not had the rug of the economy pulled off from under me countless times. I have not had my job sold off from under me, forcing me to chase after it, or wave good bye, and start over... I have never suffered a family illness that left me without anything, trying to climb out of a deep hole. Even while the worry has been there, fortune has too, and health, hard work, and family... But we need more than good luck standing between us and ruin...The government is our fortress against the vicissitudes of fate... Where was the government when Wall Street suicided.??? Where was government before and during Katrina, and while millions of small disasters came and went in people's lives??? You rich folks cry about taxes when government actually works for you....What about all of us real people who pay taxes, and carry the society while the government expedites our exploitation.??? If we could just turn government away from the influence of wealth, and get it on our side, then people would understand that hard work would be enough to keep us out of the poor house, and raise us to respectability... Now, that destination of poverty is inevitable... And isn't it better that we all feel more secure??? Isn't general secuity the key to the security of wealth and property??? Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #3
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Thu Nov 6, 2008 4:35 AM
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Re: Masako; ... I love your sarcasm... But we really need some people starving in the street... It is bushit keeping people from death and absolute destitution at goverrnment expense while the whole society slips closer and closer to that end... And taxes do not correct it... If some guy makes a billion shipping your job over seas after spending generation evading taxes so that he leaves you with a ruined infrastructure, no job, and your job overseas wtih your capital making slaves of distant populations while giving you no products to buy with your own dwindling wealth but imports; then you could take all he has made and not touch a bit of the trouble he has caused... The object of governemnt control is not wealth redistribution, but to get these rich folks to do what is right to begin with... Government control is not any better that individual control, but economic anarchy ultimately is not good for anyone... Before industry is shipped; people should consider a national interest... People ought to consider if it really is a good having a fraction on top with the wealth of the bottom half... A shrinking middle class cannot keep a mountin of poor from waste... Everyone has to benefit... Everyone needs opportunity.. Everyone needs enough, and not given, but earned and with honor... Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #4
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Thu Nov 6, 2008 4:49 AM
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I read this column the morning of 11/04/08 and thought it was fantastic and should be printed in every paper in the United States. Just to prove the truth of that column, two incidents occurred that same day. I was calling an account that was overdue and the response to my request for some payment was "you're calling me on the day Obama was elected president? we don't have to pay bills any more." A friend in the mortgage business called me to say that she just had a phone call from someone whom she helped secure a mortgage and this person said " I don't have to pay my mortgage any more do I? since Obama was elected president.
More trouble will come from those voters who now feel they are "entitled" to free stuff from Obama and when this "entitlement" doesn't come through there will be some dark days.
Comment: #5
Posted by: helene
Thu Nov 6, 2008 8:52 AM
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Masako, thanks for volunteering to share your wealth. Make checks payable to me. Now, for the rest of America that's NOT an idiot...people starving on the street is an awful thing. People giving to the less fortunate OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL is a beautiful thing. Government handouts do nothing to reduce the former, but do ALOT to reduce the latter. Government hand-outs encourage a subsistence mentality that perpetuates itself from generation to generation. Neighbors helping neighbors benefits both the giver and the receiver.
Liberals like Obama/Biden would rather pay as little tax as possible themselves, donate nothing to charity, then further their political aspirations by keeping the poor poor and feeding them lines about how conservatives hate them.
Yes, Masako, Obama is my president-elect...1459 days and counting down.
Comment: #6
Posted by: james
Thu Nov 6, 2008 4:26 PM
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Hey folks;...What does it tell you when your government and the people go broke at almost the same cosmic instant??? Ding dong.... Time's up.... It means the rich got all the loot, and since the government can print money while they jail people for that crime, we are in trouble, and so is the government -if the rich won't loan them our money to give back to the rich to keep the whole mess going... You babes on the right can give the finger to the poor all you want... Ultimately, if the society and economy work it will work for all, and we will all be poor together, or rich together... And, if people cannot use a political process to reform our relationships, and adjust the rules by which we play, then politics has failed us, and a solution waits on a spark of violence to light up the situation... Let me tell you folks the lesson of history... There are two ways every situation like this can be resolved... One is legal because people make it legal, and the other way is illegal, and it is made legal after it is fact... Do you folks want the legal way, or do you want to resist the legal way??? Because what the people say is law, -is the law, if they can enforce it. And whether the people can enforce their law is most surely the question. And it is the question because you guys own the army, and it is only a question of whether you will use the army to destroy democratic government, or whether you will follow the will of the people... But how can you do that, when you have such contempt for your fellow citizens????.....Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #7
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Thu Nov 6, 2008 6:36 PM
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Re: Scot Penslar;... If I was playing philosopher I would have fun with your statement... The power of the government to tax is the same power that put all the property in the hands of the government to begin with... It is called the fast fish principal, which is a real legal principal even if it did have some coverage in Moby Dick...Another expression of it is: first come, first serve... But ultimately no title to any property, which is the original wealth, is any better than the willingness of government to defend the original title it had, and passed on, and so no title can be considered absolute... It is found necessary to support the government which defends your title, and if you choose to not do so, then the government goes broke, and all wealth and property is free to be seized literally, as all property was originally; and not just figuratively... So property, which once supported the country with tax, has used tax on labor to break the population, until labor can no longer support government. Wealth runs the government, and wealth refuses to tax itself... So, the whole thing is going belly up because the natural, and normal situation of the wealthy paying government for the protection of their special rights has been laid aside to empoverish the working people... Now; what do we do??? You must consider the justice of "rightfully earned" as you say it... Right, as we have the word is the German, and French words for Law... Ultimately, what is right can be defended as law... Here or there... But there is no rightfully earned that is not first earned, and if you can believe Dr. Johnson, Money is not made, but earned, or minted... Profit is made, and not earned, but only by the exploitation of labor, or of the resources of all the people, and that profit is the source of wealth... So, again, it is profit and wealth which should support its privilage... It is not a matter of taking from the rich to give to the poor... It is about justice.... Taxes used properly -puts property in all hands willing to make it pay for ones support and taxes... It puts a certain pressure on wealth, because wealth cannot defend itself, but demands defense... We are, as a republic, a Common Wealth... The property, that was once the sole wealth of the nation because the nation took it, together from king and natives, is only allowed as private property so long as it serves a public purpose. We think private property serves a public good... Does it???Does it IF it will not pay its way, and it cannot defend itself??? It is built up in private hands as a bank of wealth on taxes, and profit, paid by labor.. I think it is a curse... There is no absolute right to property... It is only as good as the good it does, and now wealth only means poverty for the great masses of people...To be a public good in private hands, wealth and property must pay taxes......Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #8
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Thu Nov 6, 2008 7:27 PM
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