Posts Tagged ‘Economy’

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‘death panels and sales taxes’ : Whose money is it?

November 18, 2010

More leftest idiocy…

A new level of budget cutting: “I said something deliberately provocative on This Week, so I think I’d better clarify what I meant (which I did on the show, but it can’t hurt to say it again.) So, what I said is that the eventual resolution of the deficit problem both will and should rely on ‘death panels and sales taxes’. What I meant is that (a) health care costs will have to be controlled, which will surely require having Medicare and Medicaid decide what they’re willing to pay for — not really death panels, of course, but consideration of medical effectiveness and, at some point, how much we’re willing to spend for extreme care.” –New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

Whose money is it? “You know while you’re making these proposals, the Congress is about to come back and talk about whether to extend the tax cuts first passed under President Bush. By extending them, that’s going to cost about $4 trillion, about the amount that you save. Couldn’t some of this be avoided by keeping the tax rates where they are? I mean, by letting them go back to where they were in 1998 when you were White House chief of staff?” –ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles

Denial: “You wrote a book last year, I believe, that predicted 40 more years of Democratic dominance in Washington. Given what happened not long ago in those elections, do you stand by that prediction?” –ABC’s Dan Harris to former Clintonista James Carville, who responded in the affirmative

Historic defeat: “Nancy Pelosi did two things for which she will go down in history. She was an incredibly effective majority leader when, and speaker, there was an opposition president. She helped make the majority. And when she was in the majority, she was the hammer that got through President Obama’s agenda and sent it to the Senate. However, that is a completely different role than what she wants to do now. For which, I think she’s kind of like Winston Churchill. I mean, she accomplished historic things for the Democrats, and they should be sending her off in a blaze of glory and adjusting for this new regime.” –Fox News Sunday and NPR’s Mara Liasson (Her greatest accomplishment was that she turned the majority into the minority.)

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And the loser is? Epic Fail obama!

November 18, 2010

“The trade association of U.S. airlines — the Air Transport Association — says that it expects that about 24 million Americans will take to the air over the Thanksgiving holiday. That would be about 3 percent more air travelers than flew last Thanksgiving. I hope they are wrong. Travelers should drive, take the train, bicycle, walk or just stay home. Just don’t fly. If we stay on the ground, the message may finally get through to our government: stop harassing us and concentrate on finding the bad guys.” –columnist Jed Babbin

“Mr. Obama’s continued pursuit of romance with the Islamic world, little short of abasing both himself and his country, isn’t winning him a lot of points from Muslims at home. … The special pleaders are clear about the price they exact for returning Mr. Obama’s respect and attempts at affection. They define ‘progress’ as withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay at once, ‘protecting’ the civil rights of Muslim Americans, and compelling the Israelis to commit suicide. Do all that, Mr. President, and we’ll love you — maybe for a whole day. But eventually you’ll probably have to put Michelle in a burqa.” –Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

“After being chastened by the voters in one of the greatest electoral reversals in American history, the president flew away on the most expensive foreign junket ever taken by an American head of state. But his appearances … in India, Indonesia and South Korea have made it vividly clear to all that Obama is incapable of shaping events.” –columnist Oliver North

“President Obama’s fiercest obstacles as chief executive are neither recalcitrant Republicans nor the increasing complexity and demands of the job; they are his ideology and his political allegiances. Newsweek sees it differently. In its latest issue, it laments: ‘The presidency has grown, and grown and grown, into the most powerful, most impossible job in the world. … The issue is not Obama, it’s the office. … Can any single person fully meet the demands of the 21st-century presidency?’ Can you imagine any ‘mainstream’ media publication interposing such a lame excuse for a Republican president’s failures in office?” –columnist David Limbaugh

SOURCE

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Village idiots: Stuck on Stupid

November 12, 2010

Some things never change; like being stuck on stupid!

Fighting for Pelosi: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the strongest, most progressive leaders in Washington. Her determination brought health care reform back to life last winter, when the Senate and the White House were ready to scale back. She fought harder than anyone for bigger, better job creation bills. And right now, she is the strongest voice in leadership for ending Bush’s millionaire tax bailout. But after Tuesday’s elections, some corporate Democrats are taking the wrong lesson — saying that Democrats should be less progressive and more like the Republicans. And they’re pushing Speaker Pelosi to step down. This would be a terrible loss for progressives, and for the country.” –MoveOn.org

Unbelievable: “The president himself has to reconnect with the people. Remember, President Clinton reconnected through [the Oklahoma City bombing], right? … And the president right now seems removed. And it wasn’t until that speech that he reclicked with the American public. Obama needs a similar — a similar kind of event.” –Democrat pollster Mark Penn (They “need” another terrorist attack?)

Advice: “Seriously, if we ran Tom Hanks, if we ran Oprah — there’s a whole column of people who are beloved people. Smart and good.” –Michael Moore suggesting a new slate of Democrat candidates

California dreaming: “We’re nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. You tend to manifest what you focus on. If you look around for what’s wrong, you’ll find it. But as all we know up here in San Francisco, when you focus on what’s right, you see it all around you. … There is absolutely nothing wrong with California that can’t be fixed by what’s right with California. … If you’re from another state, you’d love to have the problems of California.” –California Lt. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom

SOURCE

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Posted in Blogroll, Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Immigration, Law, mysandry, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Wordpress Political Blogs | 2 Comments »

The BIG Fake

November 12, 2010

“Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.” –Thomas Jefferson

Blaming voters for not getting the message: “I think that, over the course of two years we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that, we stopped paying attention to the fact that leadership isn’t just legislation. That it’s a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone. And making an argument that people can understand. And I think that we haven’t always been successful at that. And I take personal responsibility for that. And it’s something that I’ve got to examine closely as I go forward.” –Barack Obama

Editor’s Note: Obama gave 42 news conferences during his first year in office, which is twice as many as George W. Bush did in the same period. On top of that, he visited 58 cities in 30 states, held 21 town hall meetings and read 52 speeches off the teleprompter telling us the virtues of ObamaCare. The problem is not a failure to communicate — the problem is that he did communicate.

The BIG Fake: “This is a great opportunity to show everyone that we got the message and that we’re willing, in this post-election season, to come together and do what’s best for the country we all love.” –Barack Obama

She has some ‘splainin to do: “Because I’m effective. It’s why they had to do it. They had to put a stop to me because we were effective in passing health-care reform, which the health insurance industry wanted to stop; Wall Street reform, which Wall Street wanted to stop; [reforms of] students loans for taking the money out of the banks and giving it back to the taxpayer and to families. … I’m one of the most effective fundraisers that the Congress has had … because I believe in something.” –soon-to-be-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on why the Republicans attacked her

Whose money is it? “At a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children.” –Barack Obama with nothing to offer but class warfare and lies about “cost”

PC on Islam: “The phrase jihad has a lot of meaning within Islam and is subject to a lot of different interpretations, but I will say that first Islam is one of the world’s great religions. More than a billion people practice Islam and an overwhelming majority view their obligations to a religion that reaffirms peace, fairness, tolerance. I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted by violence.” –Barack Obama

Pot and kettle: “No one nation has a monopoly on wisdom, and no nation should ever try to impose its values on another.” –Barack Obama, who despite his rhetoric is always keen to impose his “values” on everybody else, no matter what.

SOURCE

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Do You Want A Congressional Pay Cut?‏

November 12, 2010

Quote of the Day: “I leave symbolism to the symbol minded.” — George Carlin

Some people are calling for a Congressional pay cut as a symbolic gesture.

The idea will be wildly popular, but I don’t care for it.

The proposed pay cut isn’t tied to performance, so it will do NOTHING to change Congressional behavior.

A one-time pay cut won’t, in any way, create an incentive for change. It’s just a token.

If you read the story behind the link above you’ll find that the word “symbol” is used six times. The word “gesture” also appears. That’s a bad sign. Symbols are for suckers. Gestures are for losers.

The right way to manage Congressional pay is tie it to performance, PERPETUALLY.

We must not respond to token populism, like eager lap-dogs settling for table scraps. We must instead hold out for real reforms that address the crucial problem of Congressional incentives.

That’s the problem with The State. Politicians have too many incentives to say “yes” to more spending, taxing and regulating. We need to replace the incentives for “yes” with even more powerful incentives leading to “no.”

This should be the principle . . .

If Congress runs a deficit, then, BY LAW, they take a pay cut, EVERY term they do so. And that’s why we made the Fiscal Responsibility Act one of six bills that comprise our Downsize DC Agenda.

Please support this REAL REFORM. Here’s a sample letter you can send to your member of Congress . . .

I hear talk about a Congressional pay cut. I’m not fond of this idea because it dismisses a genuine reform in favor of a one-time symbolic act.

Tokens won’t change anything.

Representatives Deal, Gingrey, Westmoreland, Linder, and Paul have introduced a bill that isn’t merely a gesture. They’ve tied Congressional pay to performance.

After all, the problem isn’t that you want us to like you — it’s that you spend too much!

If Congress runs a deficit, it should see a pay cut. This shouldn’t happen just once. It shouldn’t be a token. It should be the law.

Every term that you run a deficit, you and your colleagues should have your pay cut. If you feel a deficit is good for the country, if you support such “sacrifice,” then I’m sure you’ll be more than willing to take the lead.

Leave symbolic one-time pay cuts to the symbol-minded. I demand something more effective. Bring HR 4336 to the floor and vote for it.

END LETTER

You can send your letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

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Perhaps he needs his own reality show…

November 10, 2010

This is just to good not to republish! The epic fail obama, at his epic failing best!

“At his post-defeat press conference, Barack Obama worked hard to project an air of somber reflection, even as his remarks revealed that he had learned nothing from the defeat. Amidst the practiced pauses and detached narration of the crash came a litany of excuses, evasions, and arrogant denials. He more or less cast himself as the victim of a ‘bad economy,’ as if two years of sending anti-business signals to employers had nothing to do with the high jobless rate. He made sure to note that other presidents had gotten similarly clocked after two years. And he essentially blamed the American people for a lack of perception and patience. But since he couldn’t say that directly, he had to couch his self-justification in the form of patronizing blather about how he could have ‘accomplished’ more, made better ‘progress,’ and ‘communicated’ more effectively with the American people. … At the end of the day, he is nothing more than a shallow pol with little interest in or knowledge of governing. He backed into the White House through effortless luck (he ran against one of the worst Republican presidential candidates ever), and apparently assumed that running the White House would be just as easy. His shallowness also makes him obtuse, even from a rawly political and self-interested standpoint. He suffered one of the worst defeats in decades because of his environmental, socialist, and Brave New World dilettantism, yet spent much of the press conference talking about ‘electric cars,’ gays in the military, and 26-year-olds who, thanks to his largesse, will get to stay on the health care plans of their ‘parents.’ … Obama admitted that he lives in a ‘bubble,’ but that too was the fault of others. He presented himself as the passive victim of his own presidency. Near the end of the press conference, he allowed himself a particularly absurd and maudlin moment, complaining that because of the presidency’s inherently insular character no one can see the depth of his concern for the people. He said that ‘no one is filming him reading those letters’ from them which leave him so anguished and inspired. Perhaps he needs his own reality show.” –columnist George Neumayr

SOURCE

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Posted in Blogroll, Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Immigration, Law, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, States Rights, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

When is the federal government going to assume responsibility for the deficit spending?

November 10, 2010

“Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic ‘yes.’ To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy. In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed our economy and reduced productivity. Steps will be taken aimed at restoring the balance between the various levels of government. Progress may be slow — measured in inches and feet, not miles — but we will progress. It is time to reawaken this industrial giant, to get government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden. And these will be our first priorities, and on these principles, there will be no compromise.” —Ronald Reagan

“While ‘hope’ and ‘change’ were the mantras of yesterday’s elitists, ‘freedom’ and ‘truth’ are the rallying cries of today’s ordinary Americans. John Adams wrote, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’ That statement reminds us who we are called to be. That ‘faith’ is a verb — an ‘action word’. Our Constitution is the finest governing document of any country. And as voters, we need to work to make certain that our government protects our constitutional freedoms, whether they be economic, religious, or speech. We must demand that we remain free to associate with whom we choose, to travel where we wish, to work in the fields in which we feel called, and to teach our children in the manner we think is best. As citizens, we need to renew our commitment to live up to the moral and religious ideals that make it all work. Ordinary Americans need to continue to step forward and take charge.” –columnist Rebecca Hagelin

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” –George Washington

“The public is in the mood for repairing America’s crumbling financial house. Democrats will have a more difficult time demagoguing spending cuts when they have been primarily (though not entirely) responsible for the ocean of red ink. The Debt Commission will issue its report on Dec. 1. Many conservatives suspect it will include a call for tax increases. Republicans should say ‘no’ to any tax hikes and focus entirely on government overspending and misspending. Many of us are ready for strong medicine. ‘We can’t afford it’ still rings in the ears of those old enough to remember what parents or grandparents said when we asked for an expensive toy as a child, or a car at 16. That Puritan ethic remains in the DNA of many Americans. It is now up to Republicans to get it out and remind us of what fiscal and personal responsibility can do to restore financial solvency. It may take a while and there will be some discomfort and even pain involved. But in the end, we will all be better off than we are now and much better off than we will be if we fail to reduce our unsustainable debt.” –columnist Cal Thomas

“[W]here [does] all this talk of rich equaling $250,000 a year, a million a year … start? What right does Obama have to sit there and proclaim that people who earn X are gonna be punished with Y, people who earn less than X won’t be punished with Y? … Looked at within the prism of liberty and freedom, as our founding documents spell out, the Declaration, the Constitution, in nowhere in any of our founding documents was it ever said that people earning X would be punished for it. It was never said in our founding documents that people earning X would share a greater burden of funding the government than people who didn’t. … [A]ll this is nothing more than a direct attack on liberty, a direct attack on freedom and it creates class envy and resentment and anger between the classes, between people of different income groups. So all of a sudden we’re faced with a possibility here of the Bush tax cuts ending for people who earn $250,000 a year or more. Well, why are we even discussing it in the first place? What did those people do? What is the magic? Who sets arbitrarily this figure of $250,000 a year? Why are they targeted? And look how easily people fall into the trap of debating the premise, when the real question is when is the federal government going to assume responsibility for the deficit spending, for the irresponsible position they put this country in? When are they going to be forced to reduce the behavior, to limit the behavior they are engaging in that is causing a usurpation of our liberty and freedom?” –radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

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We’re Enemies…

November 4, 2010

“I think that the message is unmistakable that the Obama agenda is dead. … [N]ow it will depend on how Obama proceeds. He has now tried a two-year experiment in hyper-liberalism, and the country has said no.” –columnist Charles Krauthammer

“Democrats will spin Harry Reid’s victory and cling to it like the American people allegedly cling to their Bibles and guns, but I see a huge silver lining here for conservatives. … Yes, Reid would have made a great trophy on the GOP’s mantle. But cheer up: He’s even better as a leader of Senate Democrats — depending on your point of view.” –columnist Stephen Spruiell

“I so want to believe that the tea party marks the beginning of a comeback for small government. But I’m probably deluding myself. I know that big government usually wins. Remember the last time the Republicans took power? They promised fiscal responsibility, and for six of George W. Bush’s eight years, his party controlled Congress. What did we have to show for it? Federal spending increased by 54 percent. That’s more than any president in the last 50 years.” –columnist John Stossel

“[T]he GOP still faces significant challenges. Heck, an electoral bonanza notwithstanding, Republicans are still fairly unpopular. But if the first half of the Obama presidency proves anything, it is that straight-line predictions lead to political hubris. Events change and attitudes change with them, for every demographic.” –columnist Jonah Goldberg

“The Constitution cannot protect us and our freedoms as a self-governing people unless we protect the Constitution. That means zero tolerance at election time for people who circumvent the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. Freedom is too precious to give it up in exchange for brassy words from arrogant elites.” –economist Thomas Sowell

“America, its founding principles, its Constitution, its robust liberty tradition and its strength are being stolen out from under us by a man who has no appreciation for America’s greatness and who has contempt for ordinary Americans (we’re ‘enemies’), whom he considers beneath him and unworthy of their sovereign prerogative to preserve this nation. The people have had enough. Consequently, absent unimaginable, comprehensive voter fraud … we’re going to see an unprecedented housecleaning.” –columnist David Limbaugh

“Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.” So said Barack Obama earlier this year on the campaign trail. He made a difference alright, just not the one Democrats were hoping to see.

As of this writing, Republicans are expected to pick up between 60 and 70 House seats. They needed 39 to gain control of the chamber and oust Nancy Pelosi from the speakership. In the Senate, the GOP picked up at least six seats, with three races too close to call. Democrats will hold onto the Senate, however, with at least 51 seats.

Republicans also picked up at least 10 governorships from Democrat control: Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Along with numerous state house pickups, Republicans are now in position to control redistricting after the 2010 census.

Here are a few highlights (and lowlights) from congressional races. Republicans picked up Barack Obama’s former Senate seat in Illinois, but lost Joe Biden’s in Delaware. Marco Rubio easily won Florida’s Senate seat over two challengers, while Republicans ousted Democrat incumbents in Wisconsin (Russ Feingold) and Arkansas (Blanche Lincoln).

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the night was that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid beat Tea Party-backed challenger Sharron Angle. Then again, on the bright side, inept Harry Reid is still the Democrat leader.

On the House side, half of the Blue-Dog caucus of so-called “conservative” Democrats lost, dropping their numbers from 54 to 26. Of course, only 24 of those 54 voted against ObamaCare, which gives us an idea of just how “conservative” the caucus is. Numerous other Democrats went down in defeat, including longtime incumbents and even some committee chairmen.

We’ll have more as the week unfolds, but to be clear, yesterday was not an embrace of the Republican Party. Far from it. But it was certainly a repudiation of Barack Obama, who personalized the election around his cult of personality. He even told Latinos that they should be inspired to “punish” their “enemies” on Election Day. More important, it was a rebuke of Democrats’ hard push to the left with ObamaCare, cap and trade, financial regulation, looming tax increases for all Americans and massive deficit spending.

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Immigration, Law, Men's Issues, News, Politics, States Rights, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

Stuck on stupid: A tale of two states…

November 3, 2010

This will be a short post, but to the point. And surly there will be follow up postings.

Colorado and California. That says it all…

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Hoplophobia, Immigration, Law, Local Politics Colorado, mysandry, News, Politics, States Rights, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 9 Comments »

The BIG Lie: again…

October 30, 2010

It’s all about me … except when that’s inconvenient: “It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republicans] feel more responsible, either because they didn’t do as well as they anticipated, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and throwing bombs didn’t work for them, or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals and work with me in a serious way.” –Barack Obama

Psychotherapy for voters: “Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we’re hard-wired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country is scared.” –Barack Obama

Doesn’t say much: “The single best decision I have made was selecting Joe Biden as my running mate.” –Barack Obama

If only he understood his own claims: “I think families, as well as the federal government, have understood that you can’t just operate on the basis of debt.” –BO

Blame Bush, check; bash the Chamber, check: “We have lost millions of jobs to outsourcing under President Bush. We don’t intend to repeat that policy — no matter how much money the Chamber of Commerce dumps into our elections.” –House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) getting in all her talking points

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging: “When Barack Obama was elected president, he found himself in a hole so deep that he couldn’t see the outside world. It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man that he is, rolled up his sleeves and said, ‘I’m gonna get us out of this hole.'” –Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

The BIG Lie: “In the course of this year we will have created more jobs this year, 2010, than in the entire Bush administration of eight years.” –Nancy Pelosi, who also once infamously claimed, “Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs.” (To say the least, she’s not very good at math.)

Yeah, fewer of them: “The health care bill is about jobs, the energy bill is about jobs, the education bill is about jobs, and the recovery act is about jobs.” –Nancy Pelosi

SOURCE

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