VP Biden Was Right--We Are Barbarians!

In addition to Teamsters’ head, Jim Hoffa’s vile comments on Labor Day, which Governor Palin wrote about yesterday, there were Vice President Biden’s comments where he castigated those who oppose the views of the Leftist labor movement as “the barbarians at the gate”. However, much like the attempted maligning of the Tea Party by a Wall Street Journal columnist and Senator McCain in comparing the Tea Party to hobbits, this comparison really could be gleefully accepted. After all, the hobbits were among the protagonists of J.R. Tolkien’s trilogy. The term “barbarian” is generally used as a pejorative term for “uncivilized people”, but as Patrick S. Adams reminds us, Palin supporters embrace such a term, as Rebecca Mansour and Rob Harrison wrote about more than two years ago.

The term “barbarian” originated in ancient Greece to refer to a person who did not speak Greek and was first applied to the people of the Persian Empire and later the Turks. Considering we currently have a President whose economic philosophy is “it’s all Greek to me”, being called a “barbarian” is high praise! After all, we don’t speak the language of out-of-control debt, runaway entitlement programs, massive unemployment and credit downgrades. President Obama’s economic illiteracy and subsequent policies are leading us down a path similar to that of Greece (complete with the fake Greek columns). This comparison to Greece is something Governor Palin noted in her Tea Party speech in Iowa on Saturday:

Folks, the truth is Barack Obama is adrift with no plan because his “fundamental transformation” is at odds with everything that made this country great. It doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t make sense. Unbelievably our President declares that he “believes in American Exceptionalism… just as the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism.” Well, the path he has us on will make us just as “exceptional” as Greece, alright – with the debt crisis and the stagnation and the unemployment and uprisings and all.

In her speech, she noted several ways to address these Greek-like problems by outlining five key points to help put America on the right track: (1) Enforce the 10^th amendment (2) Repeal Obamacare (3)No more runaway debt—cancel unused stimulus funds and reform entitlements (4)Make America the energy superpower—increase drilling, build refineries and pipelines (5) Make America an attractive place to do business by eliminating the corporate tax while simultaneously eliminating corporate welfare, loopholes, and bailouts.

These points are not the empty rhetoric of a politician, but of a woman who has a proven record of implementing similar things as a Governor. As I noted last week, unlike Governors Perry and Romney, Governor Palin used the 10^th amendment to protect against bad federal policy. Perry and Romney have pled the tenth by using it to defend poor state level policies. Governor Palin was a leading voice in opposition to Obamacare’s passage in the first place, but in addition to that, she strove to implement patient centered, market focused health care reform in Alaska that was to remove red tape, rather than add more. Governor Palin reformed Alaska’s pension program which led to a 34.6% reduction in state liabilities and paved the way for a credit upgrade for the state. This coupled with a nearly 10% reduction in state spending over her tenure means that she has a better record on state debt than the current governors running for President. She is also the only potential or declared Presidential candidate to embrace Congressman Ryan’s Roadmap which called for true entitlement reform. Her energy policies as Governor included a natural gas pipeline project that when completed will be the largest private sector infrastructure project in North American history and a oil tax re-structuring that led to record number of oil industry jobs every year of her tenure following its passage. She also has been a consistent advocate for drilling in ANWR and the National Petroleum Reserve as well as offshore in Alaska, Gulf Coast, and other coastal areas. Her oil tax restructuring helped move Alaska from the 4^th best business tax state to the 2^nd best business tax state in the country. It also led to the doubling of the number of oil companies filing tax returns with the state of Alaska in 2009 and provided independent and foreign oil companies the opportunity to invest in development in Alaska. This is because her legislation was devoid of the crony capitalism and favor trading of previous administrations and provided a level playing field for all companies with enough initiative and innovation, not connections, to be successful.

While Vice President may have intended to insult us as uncivilized, he really complimented us as Americans who are not fluent in the Obama administration’s language of massive debt and soaring unemployment. Thankfully, we can support someone who speaks the same language of economic sanity and freedom that we do—Governor Palin.

Crossposted here and here.