Posts Tagged ‘Economy’
August 28, 2010
With unemployment hovering at 9.5 percent — real total unemployment, called U6, is much higher — what’s another 23,000 jobs lost? Apparently, not much to Barack Obama. Previously unreleased documents show that his administration issued the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling despite knowing the ban would kill thousands of jobs. According to The Wall Street Journal, the documents reveal that Michael Bromwich, the head regulator of offshore oil exploration, told Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar that the temporary ban “would result in ‘lost direct employment’ affecting approximately 9,450 workers and ‘lost jobs from indirect and induced effects’ affecting about 13,797 more.”
Also, regardless of confirmation from the region of the moratorium’s devastating impact, the government says the ban will continue. That’s right — the beatings will continue until morale improves. Reflecting its typical “we know best” disdain for the peasants, the administration has even claimed the impact wasn’t as bad as industry experts said. Try telling that to those 23,000 former workers.
In related news, House Republican Leader John Boehner has called on Obama to fire Treasury Secretary Tim “Tax Cheat” Geithner, National Economic Council Head Larry Summers, and the rest of the White House economic team. (Senior Economic Adviser Christina Romer and Budget Director Peter Orszag have already abandoned ship.) Pointing to “job-killing tax hike[s],” skyrocketing spending and a penchant for new regulations, Boehner said, “We’ve tried 19 months of government-as-community organizer. It hasn’t worked.” A political chess move to be sure, but we won’t argue that government-as-community organizer is getting rather expensive.
SOURCE
Tags:Economy, epic fail obama, News, Politics, regulatory czars
Posted in Czar Wars, Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Wordpress Political Blogs | 6 Comments »
June 17, 2010
The people that make up the Taxed Enough Already Party are indeed very angry. For a variety of reasons.
“The seething anger that seems to be an indigenous aspect of the Tea Party movement arises, I think, at the very place where politics and metaphysics meet, where metaphysical sentiment becomes political belief. More than their political ideas, it is the anger of Tea Party members that is already reshaping our political landscape. As Jeff Zeleny reported last Monday in The Times, the vast majority of House Democrats are now avoiding holding town-hall-style forums — just as you might sidestep an enraged, jilted lover on a subway platform — out of fear of confronting the incubus of Tea Party rage that routed last summer’s meetings. This fear-driven avoidance is, Zeleny stated, bringing the time-honored tradition of the political meeting to the brink of extinction.”
Full Story
One would think that those politicians would get the message. Rather than that, they are coming up with all sorts of excuses for not listening to the American people. Afraid of a little tar and feathering perhaps?
“In his brilliant exposition of why sweeping policy changes often have unintended consequences, the late sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote that leaders get things wrong when their “paramount concern with the foreseen immediate consequences excludes the consideration of further or other consequences” of their proposals. This leads policy makers to assert things that are false, wishing them to be true.
Which brings us to President Obama’s many claims about his health-care reform. Take his oft-expressed statement that if you like the coverage you have, you can keep it. That sounds good—but perverse incentives in his new law will cause most Americans to lose their existing insurance.”
Full Story HERE and it is more than simply another case of unintended consequences…
How’s the ECONOMY working out for you obamanites?
Tags:Economy, News, obamacare, Politics, Tar & Feathers, tea party
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Immigration, Law, mysandry, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 7 Comments »
May 29, 2010
“We have new ideas about how to spend government money wisely.” So said Vice President Joe “BFD” Biden this week while discussing the $787 billion “stimulus” passed by Congress last year. He continued, “I’m very proud to say that there’s been virtually no — knock on wood — virtually no fraud associated with the $787 billion program overall.” Unless you consider that most of the money spent so far has gone to Democrat constituents, that is.
The occasion of Biden’s comments was a Middle Class Task Force roundtable discussion on Wednesday with the aim of pushing the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010. The bill would extend the Sept. 30, 2010 expiration date of the Emergency Contingency Fund, which in turn is part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program created by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (Say that three times fast.) The extension would cost $2.4 billion over 10 years, but, hey, it’s all about “jobs,” which is apparently why we’re stuck at 9.9 percent unemployment.
The price tag for the overall bill could be as high as $190 billion, the bulk of which Democrats aren’t concerned about how to pay for. Paygo rules don’t apply because, of course, this is another “emergency,” a tune that will change before November as Democrats crow about their fiscal responsibility. The Wall Street Journal calls it a “grab bag of political payoffs, corporate welfare and transfer payments,” including $65 billion for Medicare physician payments, $47 billion for unemployment insurance, $24 billion in Medicaid payments to the states (though this provision may be removed), and $1 billion for summer jobs for teens, to name a few.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) recently bragged on the House floor that such payments are “one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus” because “every unemployment dollar spent returns $1.64 of economic benefits.” Sounds like we should be cheering higher unemployment.
Speaking of spending, Barack Obama sent legislation to Congress this week seeking a new kind of line-item veto. The Associated Press reports, “The legislation would award Obama and his successors the ability to take two months or more to scrutinize spending bills that have already been signed into law for pork barrel projects and other dubious programs. He could then send Congress a package of spending cuts for a mandatory up-or-down vote on whether to accept or reject them.”
Though this serves to make Obama look tough on spending, toothpaste is pretty hard to put back in the tube.
As for the private sector, thanks to Democrat spendthrifts, it’s shrinking while the public sector grows. “Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year,” according to USA Today. “At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.”
“The truth of the matter is that the Recovery Act is working,” Joe Biden declared. All too well, as a matter of fact.
SOURCE
Tags:Economy, epic fail obama, Joe Biden, News, Politics, Taxes
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 2 Comments »
May 26, 2010
Texas versus California
A Governor is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the dog.
California :
#1. Governor starts to intervene, reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is only doing what is natural.
#2. He calls animal control. Animal control captures coyote and spends $200 testing it for diseases and $500 upon relocating it.
#3. He calls veterinarian. Vet collects dead dog and spends $200 testing it for diseases.
#4. Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting bite wound bandaged.
#5. Running trail gets shut down for 6 months while wildlife services conduct a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is clear of dangerous animals.
#6. Governor spends $50,000 of state funds implementing a “coyote awareness” program for residents of the area.
#7. State legislature spends $2 million investigating how to better handle rabies and how to possibly eradicate the disease.
#8.Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack and for letting the Governor intervene.
#9. Cost: $75,000 to train new security agent.
#10. PETA protests the coyote relocation and files suit against the state.
Texas :
#1. Governor shoots coyote and keeps jogging. Governor has spent $0.50 on a .380 cartridge. Buzzards eat dead coyote.
Any wonder why California is broke????
Courtesy of Texas Fred
Tags:California, Economy, Humor, Politics, Texas
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 5 Comments »
May 20, 2010
During the power outages that kept me from the important things in life, like blogging (jk). I started thinking about things on a Macro level. As in the economy. The similarities between the seventies and now are worrisome to say the least.
Our government keeps insisting that things are getting better. Yet everyday there are more and more reports that unemployment is still rising, and lay offs are also again on the rise. Supposedly, inflation is not happening. Yet, all of my bills are growing, and prices are continuing to surge. Even adjusting for the upcoming holiday fuel is rising in price well beyond what it plausibly should be. The power came back on, and here is what I found. The bane of times past…
Tags:Economy, epic fail obama, News, Politics, Socialism, stagflation
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »
May 15, 2010
After crusading for an $800 billion “stimulus” bill in 2009 and ramming through a trillion-dollar health care overhaul in 2010, the Obama administration wants to spend yet more of your money — in Greece. Entitlement-mania in that nation has cost more drachmas than it could raise in the next 50 years, and the U.S. Spender-in-Chief wants to lend a hand — yours. Here’s how: Of the $145 billion Greek bailout passed early this month, $40 billion will come from the International Monetary Fund. And guess where the IMF receives a big chunk of its money? You, again. Economist Stephen Moore writes, “Last year, the Obama administration muscled through a new authorization of $100 billion in funding for the IMF.” So first, the Obama administration pushed to fund the IMF; then, it pushed to bail out Greece using IMF funding. Welcome to Obamanomics.
Fed up with the fiscal insanity, 45 House Republicans have signed a letter urging Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to prevent American tax dollars from supporting the bailout. Tellingly, no Democrats signed the letter.
The spendthrifts in Washington may not “get it,” but our friends across the Pond apparently do. Explaining Britain’s refusal to help fund the bailout, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling stated, “When it comes to supporting the euro, that is for the eurogroup countries.” What a thought.
Then we have…
Like the Sword of Damocles hanging over our collective heads, the national debt stands ready to cleave the central government’s fiscal credit ratings. It’s no longer a question of “if” the government’s credit rating will be reduced to the same junk bond level as Greece’s, but merely a question of “when.” While there is no bright line to notify the government how much debt is too much, what is certain is that investors will soon command higher yields for holding risky U.S. debt instruments. When that happens, the federal government will be forced to pay much, much more to continue borrowing more money than it takes in.
Moody’s Investors Service sovereign ratings analysis is shining much needed sunlight to disinfect our government’s spending problem. Their analysis suggests that the federal government’s credit score will be severely downgraded somewhere between 2013 and 2018. The key indicator for Moody’s is the point at which the interest paid by the government for existing debt hits 18 to 20 percent of federal revenue, the government will lose its AAA rating. Under the rosiest of scenarios predicted by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for Barack Obama’s budget, interest will top 18 percent of revenue by 2018 and 20 percent by 2020. Under more adverse scenarios than the narrow factors CBO considered, including higher interest rates, Moody’s projects interest may hit 22.4 percent by as soon as 2013.
Rather than waiting for re-evaluation by Moody’s, investors may instead choose to punish the government and trigger an increase in rates in advance of any ratings changes. As long as Democrats remain in charge of the government, we can predict their response will be no different from what precedes: Raise taxes instead of cut spending. That and regulating with newly introduced legislation independent credit rating agencies like Moody’s so that they can’t downgrade the U.S.’s rating.
SOURCE
Tags:Economy, epic fail obama, Greece bailout, News, Politics
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, News, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Wordpress Political Blogs | 1 Comment »
May 11, 2010
This may become a regular feature as the administration digs itself further and further into the dust bag of history. It is such a great thing that said bags can be emptied from time to time, and then we can go on about our business.
“So now, I gather, our only strategy is to hope the terrorists’ bombs keep fizzling. There’s no other line of defense. In the case of the Times Square car bomber, the Department of Homeland Security failed, the Immigration and Naturalization Service failed, the CIA failed and the TSA failed. (However, the Department of Alert T-Shirt Vendors came through with flying colors, as it always does.) Only the New York Police Department, a New York street vendor and Shahzad’s Rube Goldberg bomb (I do hope he’s not offended by how Jewish that sounds — Obama can apologize) prevented a major explosion in Times Square. Even after the NYPD de-wired the smoking car bomb, produced enough information to identify the bomb-maker, and handed it all to federal law enforcement authorities tied up in a bow, the federal government’s crack ‘no-fly’ list failed to stop Shahzad from boarding a plane to Dubai. To be fair, at Emirates Airlines, being on a ‘no-fly’ list makes you eligible for pre-boarding. Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security should consider creating a ‘Really, REALLY No-Fly’ list.” –columnist Ann Coulter
“There has been one high-profile violent incident perpetrated by a right-winger since Obama took office: the May 31, 2009 shooting of abortionist George Tiller. There have been a bevy of high-profile violent incidents by registered Democrats or liberals: the suicide airplane attack by Joseph Stack of Austin, Texas, against the IRS; the liberal who bit off the finger of an ObamaCare opponent in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; the murderous rampage by Obama-lover Amy Bishop at the University of Alabama; the beating of black man Kenneth Gladney by Service Employee International Union thugs in St. Louis; the Earth Liberation Front’s destruction of KRKO-AM’s radio towers in Seattle. None of these incidents by non-Muslim Americans were designed to create mass casualties among random Americans or members of the American military. All of the radical Muslim attacks were. Using rudimentary reasoning skills, it wouldn’t take long to hit on the hypothesis that perhaps the Times Square attempted bombing was linked to a radical Muslim. But we live in a country where rudimentary reasoning skills have been banned if they offend politically correct sensibilities. So our politicians suggest that tea partiers were behind the attempted bombing (that suggestion, not coincidentally, fits with President Obama’s attempts to label his domestic political opponents terrorists). They suggest that it could have been anybody — anybody! — behind the propane, gas and gunpowder. Meanwhile, they don’t place radical Muslim terrorists on no-fly lists. Only when the proof is indisputable do they finally confirm what everybody with half a brain suspected all along — and then they hope to get lucky.” –columnist Ben Shapiro
“Greece has cultural problems that contribute to its economic implosion. But there are similarities to the U.S. as well — and because we have elected Democrats, they are growing. By the end of 2011, Greece’s debt will be 150 percent of its GDP. According to a March report by the Congressional Budget Office, President Obama’s 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years — $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected — which will increase our debt to GDP ratio to 90 percent by 2020. One in three Greeks works for the government. Government employees enjoy higher wages, more munificent benefits, and earlier retirements than private sector employees. … Public sector unions are growing in the U.S. More than 50 percent of all union members are now public employees who have negotiated sweet deals with local, state, and federal governments. As economic historian John Steele Gordon points out, ‘Federal workers now earn, in wages and benefits, about twice what their private-sector equivalents get paid. State workers often have Cadillac health plans and retirement benefits far above the private sector average: 80 percent of public-sector workers have pension benefits, only 50 percent in the private sector. Many can retire at age 50.’ While private employers were shedding jobs during the recession, state and local governments hired 110,000 new workers. Obama’s new spending will result in a 14.5 percent increase in the number of federal employees in just two years. … And in a corrupt feedback loop that may not be so very different after all from the Greek practice, public employee unions give generously to Democratic candidates, both in cash contributions and by manning phone banks, getting out the vote, and so on. It’s no coincidence that the states with the most powerful public sector unions — New Jersey, California, and New York — are facing the most severe budget crises. Greece is in flames, but if you look around, you can smell the smoke here as well.” –columnist Mona Charen
Tags:Economy, epic fail obama, EU, government, Greece, News, Politics, Terrorism
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »
May 4, 2010
“Strangely enough — for a bill that allegedly sticks it to Wall Street — during the Senate Banking Committee hearing [last] week, Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein endorsed the Dodd bill. Someone should have asked him who from Goldman wrote it. In 2008, Goldman employees gave a record-breaking $1,007,370 to the Obama campaign. This year, the ‘securities and investment’ industry has already given twice as much money to the Democrats as to the Republicans. ABC News reports that ‘the five biggest hedge fund donors all gave almost all their donations to Democrats.’ Among the biggest recipients of hedge fund money were Senators Harry Reid (Democrat), Chris Dodd (Democrat) and Charles Schumer (Democrat). Even with the evidence right in front of their eyes, people still believe that it’s the Republicans who are in Wall Street’s pocket. How out of touch with reality would a comedy writer have to be to write the following joke for Jay Leno [last] week: ‘The head of Goldman Sachs was going through security and was asked to empty his pockets — and five Republican senators fell out.’ Why didn’t Barack Obama or Chuck Schumer fall out? Why not Rahm Emanuel, who worked for Goldman? Or Greg Craig, who used to work for Obama but just took a job with Goldman? The fact that anyone laughed at that joke proves that Republicans have a serious PR problem.” –columnist Ann Coulter
“The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals … it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government … it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen’s protection against the government.” –philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
SOURCE
Tags:Economics, Economy, epic fail obama, News, Politics, wall street
Posted in Czar Wars, Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 1 Comment »
March 5, 2010
Around the Nation: Public Debt Bombs
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once observed, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” One facet of that problem has arrived in the form of unfunded liabilities for public “servant” benefits. According to the Pew Center, a $1 trillion gap exists between $3.35 trillion in pension, health care and other retirement benefits promised to current and retired state employees as of fiscal year 2008 and the $2.35 trillion available to pay them. That’s $1 trillion in unfunded liabilities that must be resolved through higher taxes in concert with drastic benefit reductions.
Not without irony, President Obama’s adopted home state of Illinois is in the worst shape of all, managing to fund only 54 percent of those benefits while carrying an astounding unfunded liability of more than $54 billion.
Similar data from the crucibles of democracy also show a strong correlation between states with concentrations of liberals and a state’s budgetary health. The five states in the worst financial shape are all bastions of leftist policies — California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. Each shares strong appetites for public sector unions and pricey social programs. Illinois, again, is in the worst financial condition, with per-capita debt of $1,877 and unfunded pensions of $17,230. Moody’s rates Illinois’ general obligation just ahead of dead-last California. On the other side of the equation, three of the top five fiscally healthiest states are conservative states (Utah, Nebraska and Texas), while the other two (New Hampshire and Virginia) are swing states.
Considering the unchecked acceleration of the federal government’s looming fiscal Armageddon, voters must ask themselves this November if they wish to call the tune and deal with the issue before debt becomes uncontrollable. Allowing this current crop of suicidal spenders two additional years is an unacceptable alternative.
SOURCE
Tags:Economy, fiscal insanity, News, Politics, public debt
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York
February 15, 2010
“How could such smart people do so many stupid things? That question, or variations on it, is being asked in Washington and around the country about the Obama administration. The same people who directed the campaign that defeated Hillary Clinton and routed John McCain, a campaign that raised far more money and attracted far more volunteers than any before it, have within a year come up with a legislative program that is crashing in ruins and that, to judge from recent polls, has left the Democratic Party weaker than I have seen it in almost 50 years of closely following politics. … Team Obama failed to realize they were no longer running in Chicago or in the Democratic primaries or facing an electorate fed up with Republicans. And, more important, they failed to realize that vastly expanding government goes deeply against the American grain — and against the basic appeal of their successful campaign.” –political analyst Michael Barone
“If you’ve been paying attention to the left-wing punditry these days, you may be under the impression that the nation’s institutions are on the verge of collapse. Or that the rule of law is unraveling. Or maybe that this once-great nation is crippled and nearly beyond repair. You know why? Because the 40 percent (or so) political minority has far too much influence in Washington. Don’t you know? This minority, egged on by a howling mob of nitwits, is holding progress hostage using its revolting politics and parliamentary trickery. … President Barack Obama, after his agenda had come to a halt, claimed democracy is a ‘messy’ process — as if that were a bad thing. Actually, ‘democracy’ is not only messy but also immoral and unworkable. The Founding Fathers saw that coming, as well. So we don’t live under a system of simple majority rule for a reason, as most readers already know. The minority political party, luckily, has the ability to obstruct, nag, and filibuster the majority’s agenda. Otherwise, those in absolute power would run wild — or, in other words, you all would be living that Super Bowl Audi commercial by now. … [T]oday’s argument that the ruling party doesn’t have enough power is a reflection of a nearly spiritual belief in the wonders of government, not democracy.” –columnist David Harsanyi
“Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn’t just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit. F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote ‘The Road to Serfdom’ in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. … Hayek meant that governments can’t plan economies without planning people’s lives. After all, an economy is just individuals engaging in exchanges. The scientific-sounding language of President Obama’s economic planning hides the fact that people must shelve their own plans in favor of government’s single plan. At the beginning of ‘The Road to Serfdom,’ Hayek acknowledges that mere material wealth is not all that’s at stake when the government controls our lives: ‘The most important change … is a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people.’ This shouldn’t be controversial. If government relieves us of the responsibility of living by bailing us out, character will atrophy. The welfare state, however good its intentions of creating material equality, can’t help but make us dependent. That changes the psychology of society. According to the Tax Foundation, 60 percent of the population now gets more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. What does it say about a society in which more than half the people live at the expense of the rest?” –columnist John Stossel
SOURCE
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America!
h/t Texas Fred
Tags:Democracy, Economy, epic fail obama, News, Politics, Republic, serfdom, Taxes
Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Immigration, Law, mysandry, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on O.B.A.M.A. : An epic failure
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 