Their long fight to deny 32 million Americans health care was about to fail, and even though it was clear that no more huffing and puffing was about to change that, John Boenher, the House GOP leader couldn't hold back his frustration. Earlier yesterday he had said that the next 24 hours would be "Armageddon" and that the health care bill would "ruin our country."
A Republican congressman from North Carolina, Patrick McHenry wants to replace President Ulysses S. Grant with President Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill.
“Every generation needs its own heroes,” McHenry says on his web page. “One decade into the 21st century, it’s time to honor the last great president of the 20th and give President Reagan a place beside Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy.”The Princeton professor and author of The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 doesn't like the idea at all. Today he wrote in the New York Times:
"Though much of the public and even some historians haven’t yet heard the news, the vindication of Ulysses S. Grant is well under way. I expect that before too long Grant will be returned to the standing he deserves — not only as the military savior of the Union but as one of the great presidents of his era, and possibly one of the greatest in all American history.Hans Sandberg
Now, Ronald Reagan also has historic achievements — chiefly, discarding the advice of his hard-right supporters, embracing the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and taking the first important steps toward ending the cold war. On the other hand, his record on domestic affairs — especially his unsubtle winking at pro-segregationist Southerners and his administration’s fiercely reactionary policies on civil rights — was appalling.
To honor Reagan’s genuine achievements by downgrading those of Grant would deepen our chronic historical amnesia about the Civil War and Reconstruction, the central events of the first 250 years of American history, and their legacy of nationalism, freedom and equal rights. It’s hard to imagine that Ronald Reagan, whose modesty was part of his charm, would have approved of such a disgraceful act toward another president from Illinois."
Remember this when discussing the Chinese Economic Miracle. For all of its impressive economic growth, it still lags behind the EU and the U.S.
Here is Wikipedia's 2008 GNP-list:
1 United States $14,441 Billion
2 Japan $4,910 Billion
3 China $4,327 Billion
4 Germany $3,673 Billion
5 France $2,866 Billion
Also check out this graph: GDP in 2008, Millions of US Dollars
If you compare per capita, China ends up on 99th place in IMF's list (2009) with $3,566/capita compared to $46,443 for the U.S., $43,147 for Sweden, and $94,418 for tiny Luxembourg, which leads the pack. China's growth is astounding, and shows what a country can do if it can combine market incentives with a clever strategy for investments in infrastructure, education and a trade policy that is heavily focused on promoting it's export potential. The limits of growth will in China's case weigh in more and more as the country depletes its energy and water resources, and the population's willingness to accept severe pollution and social dislocation and inequalities abates, putting more pressure on it's ossified political system.
Hans Sandberg
The Hurt Locker: A very interesting movie, but not very good.
Avatar: A very good movie, but not very interesting.
Hans
