The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Unexpectedly, Puffington Host Editors Face Uncertainty About The Founders

Posted on | November 13, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

The Puffington Host editors offer this collection of GOP Congressmen using the word ‘uncertainty’. Props to Todd Young, USNA ’95, appearing at 0:55:

The Puffington Host, normally such a bastion of wisdom and erudition, is unexpectedly daft here:

With the economy in a slump for nearly four years, corporate executives and conservative politicians have repeatedly invoked “uncertainty” as a major barrier to American job-creation. The “uncertainty” jab is a go-to talking point for any congressional Republican looking to tag President Barack Obama as a tax-raising, regulation-obsessed foe of American businesses.
But according to banking data compiled by economic research firm Moebs Services, the uncertainty plaguing the American economy has nothing to do with government regulations or taxes on millionaires. It’s an uncertainty driven squarely by consumers and small-businesses who are worried about their short-term financial prospects. And it’s been going on since well before Obama took up residence in the White House.

It must be the case that Founding Father James Madison, and The Federalist #62 slipped their memory at the Puffington Host (emphasis mine):

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.

Another word for ‘no man. . .can guess’ would be. . .uncertainty?
Still further on:

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.

Capitalists are reduced to the role of mice in a cage with the government python, wondering who gets devoured next.

Less metaphorically, there is the Stupor Committee. We all sort of know the story ends badly, on November 23rd, but no one can tell yet whose ox will be gored.

It sure is a good thing we have Moebs to guide us in this brave new world, since we’ve Progressed beyond the simple, common-sense analysis of Dead White Guys like Madison.

Category: Economics, Huffington Post, Uncategorized

Comments

8 Responses to “Unexpectedly, Puffington Host Editors Face Uncertainty About The Founders”

  1. Anonymous
    November 13th, 2011 @ 6:47 pm

    And I feel uncertainty re the founder of HuffPo

    Not to mention her fashion sense 

  2. Anonymous
    November 13th, 2011 @ 8:39 pm

    Yeah, I mentioned a few things about that over there and got the usual idiocy from the usual suspects. I’m pretty much through reasoning with Copperheads.

  3. dad29
    November 13th, 2011 @ 9:29 pm

    Six of one, half-dozen of the other.

    Aside from the manufacturing sector, biz suffers from Lack of Demand.  The Nat’l Small Biz Ass’n polls confirm it. 

    Yes, Obozoites are a problem–but they’re simply throwing a very heavy, wet, blanket on a near-dead horse.

    Further:  a helluvalotta small-biz is construction contractors, whether home-builders or commercial.  They are in serious trouble.  Those are high-paying jobs–which are no longer there–and the people who filled those jobs are not buying ‘stuff.’  Ergo, lack of demand.

  4. McGehee
    November 14th, 2011 @ 12:28 am

    no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.

    Seems to me there is something about not undertaking actions that are “arbitrary and capricious” somewhere or other.

    And it seems to me that admonishment applies to the legislative as well as the executive authority.

  5. Adjoran
    November 14th, 2011 @ 12:51 am

    The number of federal crimes in the statutes runs from something over 2500 to nearly 5000 – no one, including the offices and agencies who have to track such things, can do more than guess.

    That’s just actual laws, too.  The regulations run many more thousands of pages, and the codes often incorporate regulations in criminal penalties. 

    And yet, for all the benevolent guidance handed down through law, regulation, and rule, still the announced goals are never closer.

    We need to take this great mountain of paperwork and cut it down to size – and not by snips about the edges, either.  Of course some regulations are necessary, but they should be able to be justified directly and in a short paragraph every ten years, or be dropped.  All laws and regulations should have a sunset provision, expiring on their own unless specifically passed again by Congress and signed by they President.

  6. Bob Belvedere
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:12 am

    Well put.

    At least the laws are passed with some level of light being shown on them [especially in the Age Of The Internet], but the most insidious practice is the Rule By Regulation. 

    Very little light, if any, get’s shown when these damn things are issued.  And if there is any light, shown, it is directional [a small ad in an obscure government publication announcing a public hearing that just –just – satisfies the absolute minimum of public notification].  Hell, in my checkered past, I’ve participated in this awful practice.

    Also, with the proliferation of so many thousands of departments, so many regulations are being proposed at one time that you can’t keep up with them.

  7. The Spot-On Quote Of The Day… « The Camp Of The Saints
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:32 am

    […] awarded to Adjoran, long-time blog commentator, for offering a brilliant explanation as to why government in this day and age is so inept and, more importantly, dangerous: The number […]

  8. Bob Belvedere
    November 14th, 2011 @ 8:34 am

    Adj: Awarded the THE SPOT-ON QUOTE OF THE DAY at:
    The Camp Of The Saints