Rahm Emanuel's Misguided Mantra: 'No Crisis Should Go to Waste'

What an arrogant thing to say! The meaning of 'never waste a crisis' is that the Left is happy to have a crisis, as severe as possible, so that they can herd desperate, frightened people into agreeing to things they never would have considered when times were good. It is a confession of complete moral bankruptcy; the moral bankruptcy of every self-important social engineer. These geniuses have a whole raft of plans they intend to inflict upon us for our own good, we're just too ignorant and reactionary to know what's good for us. If us ignorant and reactionary Americans really know what's good for us we will go to the polls this November and vote against EVERY Democrat, no matter how much they lie about how 'moderate' they are and how 'extreme' their opponent is, and show that pack of liberals the contempt we have for their bullying and their incredible incompetence. We need to be free of people who think they can brag happily about pushing the rest of us around.

Ok I says God bless Obama...but not for the reasons you might think. If this country is EVER going to reclaim what IS EXPECTED OF IT, then this social justice ,equal amount of stuff for all tripe has to be put down like a sick dog. Individuals, not collectives(unions) accelerated this country to the forefront and the top of the food chain. This administration is filled to the brim with educated(or so they think) eggheads who have to call in an electrician to change a light bulb. They are and remain the bain of this country's existence. The one and only thing this country can do to help itself is to elect those who have actually accomplished something meaningful ...Like start a corporation or run a company or managed a project of importance.....otherwise all you are getting is a Washington clock watchers who live to suck off the taxpayers to push around paper. Unless you has shown some kind of accomplishment in the real world ....no need to apply...we cannot endure tenured academics whose existence is dependent or a pseudo -intellectual publication that has little or no bearing to the immediate concerns of the nation. You can right all the research papers you want , just don't plan on running anything that has to do with the realities of today and the real world. The example of this is this administration...no experience and lots of theory and real good at spending other peoples money

Yup the crisis was JOBS, the glub glub of good paying secure employment for American workers was at that time 8% in 2007. Rmember IN NOVEMEBER. In addtion, 9/11 is fast approaching -- put your flag out in rememberance.

"Never let a crisis go to waste." Not a bad idea if you don't ignore the crisis

Had McCain won would there have been any different outcome? Well, certainly, there would have been no healthcare reform. However, the prevailing economic conditions were a critical mass, the cumulative effects of years, if not decades, of government deregulation, SEC and Treasury's failure to maintain effective oversight, a financial market making its own free-for-all laws including patently dangerous investments. Those calling for reform, sounding the alarm remained distant voices in the dark. So, yes, the president will be blamed and held accountable for a structure that needed-and still needs-to be drastically amended and more strictly, intelligently, fiscally regulated. The GOP should be equally held accountable for stalling and rewriting both TARP and the Stimulus package. Remember, it was the GOP that protested the administration's proposal to extend of unemployment benefits to those out-of-work Americans whose 16 weeks of benefits were due to expire. The GOP also wants to give business more tax cuts to stimulate job creation. Most economists have noted that this will do little to help Americans but much to inflate the bottom line of industry, banking and corporations that will use the cuts not as incentives to expand and reinvest and hire more workers but to provide a cushion that will enable them to comfortably ride out the recession. I do believe, though, that Mr Emmanuel's "mantra" elides the complex reality of any given crises. Crises are the result of long-term problems. Though Mr Emmanuel may remain hopeful that crises "provide the opportunity for us to do things that we could not do before" that hope has proved to be disproportionate to the severity of these seemingly intransigent crises.

Wow, put a dem in office and watch the wealthy worry. Everyone's willing to bash and throw him out without so much as take a wait and see how things go. Could he have done better in terms of getting people back to work.. yes ---- the economy would progressivley get better. But without people those "haves but could use more's" back to work you might as well deal with the fact that it takes time. Oh wait... Obama is really God and he will magically make things right in in two years... give me a break! Imagine: the amount of time it took us to get into this mucked up mess so it will equally take that much time to get it back on track. He's not prefect but his on the job learning will make him better. Do I like my taxes going up? hell no! but you need to invest in order to see investments coming out. So tell me.. he invested all this money - where is it? because the banks and companies sure as heck arent bringing people back but sitting on a nice stockpile..

The liberal and democratic economic model dictates that when in a severe business slowdown, the solution is to: increase the cost of health insurance to business, increase taxes on business, increase regulation on business, promote the growth of unions, increase taxes on investors and increase taxes on investment profits. Any one of these actions will reduce growth, jobs and hiring. They decided to employ all of them. They didn't waste this crisis; they guaranteed its continuation and its expansion. Are you still a liberal? Why?

Thanks Harvey! We're told: Transparency we get the opposite. Wall Street Reform Bill is a great example of "never let good crisis go to waste". See provision 9291 buried within 2,253 pages Dodd-Frank Wall St Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Allows SEC to deny inquiries from taxpayers! The bill hands the SEC the power to NOT "disclose records or information that are typically allowed in accordance with Freedom of Information Act requests." This from the same organization that buried information on Bernie Madoff despite a former employee, Harry Markopolos, blowing the whistle on Madoff to SEC regulators in 2000! Health Care's 1300 pages of UNREAD bill rammed through yet when people given chance to vote on it (Missouri) it gets trounced by "the people" 3 to 1. Example, it had a provision that would have required all businesses to file a 1099 Form to the IRS for any transaction over $600! Fortunately the Republicans killed this provision on July 30th. "Illegal" immigration ignored UNTIL Arizona takes action to enforce the current FEDERAL law that the administration does something (partisan politics to curry favor with a potentially large new voter block). When "The people" get a chance to vote on it, the people vote 4 to 1 against the administration. Seems the Obama admin doesn't really care that much about Narco - Human Trafficking if it can mean more votes. And YES the Republicans do the same thing, Bush with the so called "Patriot Act", and the Homeland Security and TSA expansion. Clinton did it after OKC bombing, it's the same old power grab by politicians. Both parties are culpable.

The Dems are on their death bed and will be buried and gone on Nov. 02 2010 by the American voter. Funny thing though... They do not even think they are sick!

What an article....obamas "sweeping passage of things culminting with the health care bill" these were not passed..they were RAMMMED DONW OUR THROATS