Michael Ramirez for July 26, 2013

A sea of debt created by 30+ years of Reaganomics and 13 years of Clintonomics. Let’s blame it all on the sphartzer.

Someone please explain this obsession with teleprompters. They have been used by every president for every speech since their introduction. Why is this suddenly a reason for derision? It can’t be because people think he can’t speak off the cuff; when Mr. Obama does it, he uses complete sentences, in stark contrast to his predecessor.

I thought Obama’s comments the other day about race were extremely eloquent and moving. And no teleprompter.

“And Standar & Poor (historically) downgraded the US credit rating.Another Obama historic first.”

First off, Standard and Poor was complicit in the Wall Street Great Taxpayer Giveaway, overvaluing the liquidity and reliability of Freddie, Fannie, Lehman, AIG, etc., so we cannot assume that they are strictly without agenda.

But their stated reason for reducing US credit rating was their uneasiness with the willingness of some parts of Congress to send the country into default in order to gain political points, intentionally destabilizing confidence in the US treasury. If Congress had been willing to vote up-or-down to raise the debt ceiling as in the past, as opposed to tying it to political footballs like tax cuts and the Keystone pipeline, it is quite likely that our credit rating would have not been downgraded. As a result of downgrading of credit rating, our interest rate on our debt went up.

This is not to say that Mr. Obama is blameless. It is to say there’s plenty of blame to go around.

But here’s the thing: blame does not solve problems. And it can make people less willing to work with one another to solve them. At this stage, our country cannot continue to wait for us to bicker before possibly getting down to the problems at hand. Yet we still do, and quite willingly, in some circles.

Iraq, Afghanistan, back to Iraq (with even less justification), F-22, F-35, more submarines and “litorial ships” that we don’t need, and don’t work, armored vehicles that don’t stop bullets, let alone RPGs, etc. Okay, then look at how many resources belonging to TAXPAYERS have been essentially given away for the taking, like gold, silver, oil and gas, timber, and grazing forage, and ask, if the government got “fair market value” for those resources, like private landowners, or some states do, what would the national debt be?

Well, while savings bonds and other “loans” the government takes out from our OWN PEOPLE are part of that debt, that represent SAVINGS for the people, and pensions etc, the answer is: IF Congress changed the laws on disposition of our public resources, the debt would be near ZERO!! (even if we spent MORE, like on health care or welfare, or something that saves lives, rather than killing more people (preferably "brown folks) around the world.)

I for one appreciate your posts because they save me from writing my own – you usually say what I would like to say, and say it much better.. Regarding this cartoon, our continuing world debt problem leads me first to ask who can deny the evil genius of bin Laden in taking the international financial network to the ground? For merely the expense of pilot lessons, box cutters and a few lost operatives he got an enormous return on investment. Whether he intended the extent of his success or not is speculation; but who can deny that we are still experiencing serious world-wide aftershocks? .I look to the past for examples when a force with limited resources brought down a larger foe through clever planning. From mythology, I think of Jason releasing the animating ichor from the heel of Talus (oil?). I also am reminded of the various maneuvers of the small Greek nations (militant forces?) in their repulse of a large Persian army. My favorite, however, refers to the destruction of Sybaris by Croton in 510 B.C..Part of this story may be apocryphal. Sybaris was a city in southern Italy, of enormous wealth and known for extravagant displays of it. Sybaris became arrogant and careless, and its neighboring rival Croton (supposedly aided by Pythagoras) saw an opportunity to invade. The warhorses of Sybaris were trained to dance in parades, in addition to carrying riders in fighting. They responded thus to a particular type of music, and musicians from Croton played this music during a battle. The horses began to dance, throwing the charge into disarray. Many of the riders were thus slaughtered by the Crotoniats. Over a few years , Sybaris was completely destroyed because its strength depended upon too greatly on affluence and luxury..Doesn’t this remind you of the knee-jerk reactions of the U.S. in the invasions of first Afghanistan and then Iraq? The music to elicit blind patriotism was played, and our politicians and militarists shot back in challenge and rage. And what is the tragic result, continuing 12 years later? We in our pride and overconfidence squandered trillions of dollars and caused many people to die or become dislocated. Nation building? Hardly..In addition, our national treasury has diminished, our physical infrastructure is in disrepair, jobs are not available to meet employment needs of our citizens, and education for our youth is underfunded. The only growth industries seem to be those that lend money, and those are internationalized so that even there U.S. financial institutions do not entirely benefit. Our wealth has been dissipated, things of value neglected. We are expected to be consoled by the death of bin Laden, but somewhere in Hell he must at least chuckle..No doubt, some of you will take issue with details of my conclusions, but who can deny the loss of status as well as wealth that the U.S. has suffered in the world? Why do we still squabble for political advantage? We can replenish things that connote superficial wealth (e.g. entertainment-based), but to build things of lasting value (transportation structures, scientific innovation, and quality education) is harder. We need to pull together, but instead we are pulling ourselves apart. The Crotoniats are watching..There are many foolish modern Sybarites in every faction to blame for all of this, not just those in the Obama administration – Obama is merely holding the hot potato at present. This cartoon is a simplistic representation of the situation, as are so many of Ramirez’s works, beautifully drawn though they are.

“How do you like your false profit now?”Can you post any credible evidence that anyone but “conservatives” ever called Obama a profit/messiah?

“Thanks Obama.”You say that as if the country was living within it’s means during any of the Republican administrations during the last 40 years.

“Other Presidents were able to speak without teleprompters at times. Obama can’t.”Name one US president in the last 40 years who didn’t use a teleprompter. That teleprompter meme is a total load of BS.

Sarah Palin just used a “Palm Pilot”???

onguard said “End of Obama”. Yep, he’ll never win a second term.

Presidents claim anything good that happened on their watch is entirely their doing, then it follows that anything bad that happens on their watch is entirely their doing as well!

onguard lives in an alternate universe where the election hasn’t happened yet. How his comments get to our universe I don’t know.