Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Slate Kook Dave Weigel Extremely Worried That the Actions of Governors Kasich, Scott and Walker Will Hurt the GOP in 2012

Some crackpot at Slate named "David Weigel" -- if that is his real name -- is concerned that the brave and necessary actions of Republican governors like Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Ohio's John Kasich will harm the GOP brand in '12.

Yes, seriously.

[Florida Governor Rick] Scott [is] pissing off too many people -- the Orlando-Tampa train he'd killed was popular -- and Democrats could win back independents in 2012, saving the state for Barack Obama.

Shhh... no one tell Weigel that the Governors' terms are only two months in and they are simply dealing with the results of Obama's failed policies.

You know, like the wonderful job the president has done with his "Stimulus" package, "Cash for Clunkers", "financial reform", the unlawful takeovers of GM and Chrysler, his "laser focus" on jobs, "Quantitative Easing", his brilliant outreach to the Muslim world, and his uncanny dedication to lowering his handicap.

Walker, Scott, and Kasich are doing exactly what they should do, and exactly what Barack Obama did in 2009. They won power; they're using the power to push through structural political and economic changes that
will be hard to reverse. They're making the same bet Obama did -- if they do this, the economy will rebound, and their political opponents will have been weakened in a way they may never recover from. If the economy does rebound in 2012, they're going to be in better shape politically. But so will Obama. In the long run, breaking down the power of public unions is going to help Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin. In the short run, if it fires up activists and alienates independents, it puts the next GOP presidential candidate in a tougher spot.

Eh, schmuck -- you better hope for your own family's sake that these heroic GOP governors succeed and that a conservative Republican wins the presidency in 2012.

This country is bankrupt. It is teetering on the brink of economic catastrophe. And that's not me opining, that's anyone who knows what a Ponzi scheme is.

I'll take my chances with the heroic governors like Kasich and Walker who are doing the thankless job that must be done, rather than kicking the can down the road.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Ya think? Rep. John Campbell: We Are a Ponzi Nation

Tyler Durden alerts us to at least one Congressman who really groks the gravity of American's tenuous financial position.

Zero Hedge first observed the duration mismatch in US Treasury holdings back in November 2009, when we highlighted the concerning amount of debt that the government has to roll every year courtesy of about 30-40% in outstanding paper that is of very short duration (under 2 years or so). We have also been pretty adamant that by now the US economic system is nothing but a ponzi scheme pure and simple. Today, we observe how this epiphany manifests itself when it occurs to a congressman, in this case John Campbell (California). The punchline: "I understand that the Fed and the Treasury are trying to keep interest rates low and improve the economy and the deficit. But, when coupled with the huge deficits, these moves look a bit like a Ponzi scheme that will soon unravel." Amen brother.

Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) explains the situation in plain English.

I learned something last week. I learned that fully 40% of the over $9 trillion in Treasury debt currently outstanding to the public has a maturity of 3 years or less. Put another way, it means that we are rapidly approaching $4 trillion in U.S. debt that matures by 2014 or sooner. As I write this, the yield (interest rate paid) on a 2-year Treasury note is 0.645% or about 2/3 of one percent. The yield, at the same time, on a 10 year Treasury note is 3.4%, and on a 30 year is 4.55%. In bond parlance, this is called a "steep yield curve" where interest rates get much higher as you go farther out in time.

It's pretty clear why the Treasury is doing this. By issuing mostly short-term notes, the Treasury is paying less interest, thereby keeping interest costs and, consequently, the deficit down. In addition, the Federal Reserve is in the middle of its "quantitative easing #2" (QE2) under which it is buying $600 billion of our own Treasury debt over about a 6 month period. The Fed is not buying the short-term notes, but is buying 10 year maturities and longer in order to hold those rates down. And, since the Fed is earning the interest thereon (paid by the U.S. Treasury), it is improving its yield. We are currently running a deficit of about $130 billion per month, so the Fed is basically buying all of the new bond issuance from the deficit for almost 5 months.

What does this all mean? I understand that the Fed and the Treasury are trying to keep interest rates low and improve the economy and the deficit. But, when coupled with the huge deficits, these moves look a bit like a Ponzi scheme that will soon unravel.

We are printing money ($600 billion) to buy our own debt so that the full effects of the deficit are not felt. We are buying long-term bonds to artificially hold down the rates on those bonds since home mortgages and many other things are based on those rates. We are selling the short-term bonds at cheaper rates to hold down costs now, but are leaving ourselves open to huge cost increases when interest rates go up. And, we are at historic lows on these short-term bond rates. If they were to rise by 3 points (which would put them where they were at as recently as 2008), our deficit would increase by another $150 billion per year, even if the long-term rates stay the same. And, once the Fed ends QE2, even if it doesn't reverse it, the markets will then have to absorb a new influx of long-term bonds at a time when our ability to pay them is in question. The Fed can cure a bunch of this simply by printing a lot more money. That, however, will result in an inflationary period with major wealth destruction and economic malaise.

In the period between 2005-2007, we were sowing the seeds of the 2008 financial crisis through too much leverage in the private sector. But, very few people could see it coming. Today, we are sowing the seeds of another crisis with too much leverage in the public sector. This time, though, it's easy to see it coming.

I have only two words for you.

Cloward. And Piven.


Update: As Treasury Cash Drops To Just $14.2 Billion, And No Bond Auctions Until Next Week, Is America About To Run Out Of Cash?

Democrat Chickens Come Home to Roost: Oil Prices Expected to Jump Again as Japan's Demand Skyrockets With Its Nuclear Facilities Offline

Why is America the only country in the world that restricts access to its own abundant natural energy sources? I keep asking that question and not one Democrat has ever answered it.

Well, as Obama's beloved preacher used to say, "America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Stratfor Research is predicting that Japan will have to dramatically increase its importation of oil and natural gas, of which it is wholly dependent upon foreign sources.

Stratfor estimates that roughly one-sixth of Japan's generation capacity is currently offline, much of it permanently.

Even before this news broke, Americans supported more offshore oil drilling by a 66 to 25 margin.

Can I just say it one more time? Everything the Democrat Party touches turns to crap. In fact, you can't name any program that a Democrat has created -- any one! -- that isn't a complete cluster. And their policy of preventing Americans from tapping our own rich energy reserves is literally choking the economy at the worst possible time.

So every time you fill up your gas tank, thank a Democrat.


Hat tip: Stratfor Research.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Outstanding: National Labor Relations Board ruled Friday that threats of physical violence by union organizers 'aren't coercive'

If it hadn't been apparent before, it's now crystal clear that the Obama administration has declared open season on American businesses. Please consider Union-Controlled NLRB Approves Union Thuggery in Union Elections.

On Friday, in its continuing attempt to hand over the American workplace to union bosses at all costs, the union-controlled National Labor Relations Board has thrown employees’ rights under the bus once again. This time, however, the NLRB’s obedience to union bosses could cause employees to get hurt...

Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees are presumably free to choose to unionize or not to unionize free from coercion or interference. In previous cases, the National Labor Relations Board had considered threats (even by third parties) enough cause for an election to be overturned. This was the case even recently...

...Unbelievably, on Friday, the union-controlled NLRB ruled that threats of physical violence by pro-union supporters is not coercive.

On August 22, 2008 the NLRB conducted an election where, by a vote of 14 to 12, the red-shirted Communications Workers of America (CWA) won the vote. Following the election, the employer filed objections, requesting the NLRB to overturn the election based upon alleged threats of physical violence made by pro-union supporters to their co-workers.

Specifically, the objections cite a statement by prounion employee Anthony Hodges to employee Matthew Abel that Hodges could “whip [employee Dennis Sheil’s] a*s” or sabotage his work; an anonymous telephone threat to employee Lou Mays that the caller would “get even” with him if he “backstab[bed] us”; and statements by prounion employee Chris Verbal to a group of three or four employees that Verbal would “b*tch slap” two other employees (who were not present at the time) or “whip their f—in’ ass” if they “cost us the election,” and that he would “whip [supervisor] Eddie’s ass” if the Union lost.

According to the union-controlled NLRB, the above threats were approved because... well... they just weren’t bad enough.

...Given that the entire voting unit in this case was less than 30, it is hard to imagine that the threats from the pro-union supporters did not have some bearing on the outcome of the election—especially as the union only won by two votes.

We are now seeing the fabric of our institutions fray at their edges and begin to tear.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the modern Democrat Party is operating lawlessly and without the slightest regard for America's past, present or future. I hope and pray that we can survive another two years of this president.


Linked by: Ace o' Spades. Thanks!

Good News: Progressives Now Trying to Destroy Private Financial Institutions in Wisconsin by Organizing Bank Runs

It would seem, despite what President Obama told us, that elections really don't have consequences -- at least when it comes to Democrats. When the electorate pitched out the progressive kooks in Madison, it was trying to bring some semblance of fiscal sanity to the state.

But apparently Democracy is an excuse for riots, death threats, incivility and -- now -- intentional destruction of private businesses.

M & I Bank of Wisconsin has committed an unpardonable offense. This bank took bailout funds and thanks to the magic of Citizens United our own tax dollars flowed through their executives hands into the coffers of Scott Walker's gubernatorial campaign. We haven't dug deeply yet, but I think when we do we're going to find that we no longer have Russ Feingold's voice in the Senate because of this as well.

The mainstream media isn't covering it, but I'd like to show you a few images of what poetic justice looks like ... ...What these pictures show are six hundred ordinary citizens descending on the M&I branch near the Wisconsin Capitol after learning of their purchase of the gubernatorial election last November. Two firefighters with old school ideas about saving had over $600,000 between the two of them and they demanded cashier's checks on the spot.

Not everyone has the purchase price of a couple of homes sitting in the bank, but if the 60% of Wisconsin that's sick to death of Scott Walker's behavior simply go close their accounts the bank will crash and they'll have stripped him of the funds he needs to fight the recall next January.

A couple of people have the documentation and my money is on @Karoli over at Crooks & Liars getting the job done first. I'll come back and post the first good piece I see. I'm trying to get this out and keep it tidy - look in one of the comments and I'll provide some of the links the researchers sent me, so those inclined to do their own digging can get started.

You know what really chaps my ass here? All week we've been seeing Tea Party trolls saying "It's not fair that public employees take our tax dollars and use them in elections."

On behalf of all of us who work for a living, unlike those fools with their misspelled signs being bussed around by Koch Brothers I'd like to say ...

As an aside, we need to elect a lot more Tea Party Republicans like those in Madison.


Establishment GOP: yes, we'll fund Obamacare with our Continuing Resolution and, as an aside, do we get to call it BoehnerCare now?

I had serious concerns about the Republican establishment from the moment of victory in November. When selecting the House leadership team, it purposefully excluded one of the best-known Tea Party candidates -- Michele Bachmann -- who had done more to mobilize the 2010 landslide than John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the other "leaders" combined.

Now that it has become clear that the current Continuing Resolution will help cement Obamacare in place -- by establishing a $105 billion permanent funding mechanism -- the House leaders still refuse to excise the diabolical spending measure.

In other words, they're violating their first promise to you, the electorate that put them in office.

Congressional leaders predicted Sunday a proposal to cut federal spending by $6 billion would pass both chambers and keep the government funded through April 8... The growing bipartisan consensus behind the second stop-gap spending proposal means a showdown over a possible government shutdown will be delayed until next month...

...Leaders from both parties said the emerging agreement signals that Democrats and Republicans have begun to find common ground and expressed hope there would be a deal to approve a federal budget through the rest of the 2011 fiscal year... The current stop-gap spending measure will expire after March 18.

...House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’ll have enough votes to pass a three-week spending measure... "We will get it through," he said.

In other words, the old guard is twisting arms behind the scenes, trying to force Tea Party conservatives to abandon their promises.

Fortunately, a few individuals and organizations are standing tall against the House leadership's ridiculous behavior.

...a number of influential conservative groups have expressed their opposition to the bill, and are urging conservatives to pursue a long-term, comprehensive approach sooner rather than later. The leaders of Heritage Action, the Family Research Council and Club for Growth issued a joint press release Friday announcing their opposition to this (and any further) short-term resolution, and signaling to House conservatives that they are watching...

Led by Michele Bachmann and Steve King, conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp and others have pledged to vote 'no' on the Continuing Resolution.

And well they should, given the recent disclosures of the diabolical fiscal time-bomb exposed by former Congressman Ernest Istook this week.

The massive 2,700-page health care law is deliberately designed to make defunding and dismantlement difficult. Although original estimates reported that it created 159 new government agencies, the Congressional Research Service later concluded that the actual number of new agencies, boards, etc., “is currently unknowable,” because so many of them are empowered to spawn additional entities, just as weeds grow by sending out runners and seeds.

...The new law attempts to bypass the normal appropriations process, another feature that makes defunding more difficult. By making advance appropriations for tens of billions of dollars up to the year 2019, these provisions of Obamacare seek to remove spending decisions from the reach of the current Congress and from future Congresses and Presidents...

...One largely unknown fact is that $6-billion or more was immediately appropriated in the new law and approximately $105-billion more was appropriated for FY2011 and beyond. That violates the typical Congressional process of appropriations. The normal process typically involves enacting authorization bills that authorize spending, and then follows those with separate legislation that actually appropriates
the money. This enables those to be balanced with other spending decisions. The PPACA contained large authorizations for future appropriations as well as containing these actual appropriations. That made it quite different from most bills, even major legislation.

...To de-fund Obamacare, it is insufficient simply to deny future funding. Until the full law can be repealed, at least the existing and advance appropriations need to be rescinded, just as the House last month voted to repeal billions of dollars from previous appropriations to 123 federal programs. An effort to restrict use of the funds appropriated within Obamacare was thwarted because the House did not waive the same point of order (House Rule XXI) as it waived to allow de-funding those 123 other programs. This was most unfortunate...

...in Obamacare, passed during FY2010, we find advance appropriations are made [until] 2019. That is ten years of appropriations... nobody has [ever] proposed that any Congress should make spending decisions trying to bind a future Congresses a full decade in advance... Making many years’ worth of advance spending decisions is an attempt to handcuff the current Congress and prevent it from determining current levels of spending.

...Spending decisions should be made by those who currently hold office, not by those who have resigned or been turned out by the voters.

...I am glad that the committee is looking legislation to pull back the funds previously appropriated for Obamacare, but I must caution you that timing and leverage are important parts of your effort. If it takes years to halt the funding stream, then meantime billions of taxpayer dollars will already have
flowed out of the Treasury. The underlying law will have sunk its roots deeper into the nation, making it more difficult to uproot. That is why I believe the appropriations process itself must also be used to extinguish these advance appropriations...

...defunding can be done and should be done, and internal Congressional protocols should not be used to block this.

Worse still, the GOP old guard appears either confused or woefully weak on defunding Obamacare. As Istook observed in his testimony the House struck billions in prior appropriations from 123 separate federal programs.

But Speaker John Boehner, interviewed by The Washington Times, couldn't even coherently explain why House leaders didn't remove Obamacare spending just as they did with the 123 other programs.

Mr. Speaker: there's a thing called leverage in negotiation. Either you want Obamacare, because you've become a power-hungry Beltway hack, or you don't. Right now, your Continuing Resolution tells me that you want to see ObamaCare implemented. After all, think about how much power you'll wield, what with all of those hundreds of billions in spending, and the thousands of lobbyists and corporations all trying to get their voices heard.

This message is not directed to the Republican old guard. This message is for the Tea Party conservatives: shut the government down. Hell, if you keep raising the debt ceiling, the whole system's going to collapse anyhow! Boehner's not a member of a Tea Party and could care less about Constitutional conservatism. He's too weak, too cowardly or too much of a power-hungry Beltway hack to act.

The Democrats are literally at war with America, and the Republican old guard won't even put up a fight.

Call your member of Congress now at 202.224.3121 and tell them, "Vote NO on the Continuing Resolution because it doesn't cut funding for Obamacare!" Be polite, but firm.

It's time to put our foot down and that foot is us*.

Hat tip: Mark Levin. *Hat tip: Dean Wormer. Linked by: Ace o' Spades. Thanks!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Obama: American oil production reached its highest level since 2003 if you count oil rigs that aren't producing anything

Perhaps President Obama isn't as "centrist" as John McCain likes to claim.

I say that because even Bill Clinton is blasting the President's ludicrous anti-drilling positions and, by implication, the stunning series of lies he recited in yesterday's 'press conference'.

...Clinton said there are “ridiculous delays in permitting when our economy doesn’t need it,” according to Noe and others... “That was the most surprising thing they said,” Noe said.

[Clinton and Bush 43] both generally agreed on the need to get offshore drilling workers back on the job... [they] also agreed on the need for more domestic shale gas production, with Clinton noting that it has been done safely for years in his home state of Arkansas.

Bush — who referred to oil and gas in the discussion as “hydrocarbons” — described the anti-hydrocarbon sentiment in Washington as “dangerous.” He said while there is a need to develop new energy technologies, “we have to be prosperous in order to afford those technologies and, in order to be prosperous, we need to drill,” according to Noe.

Precisely.

And, when queried about his anti-hydrocarbon policies during a so-called "press conference", Obama resorted to a series of bald-faced lies.

President Barack Obama said Friday that oil production out of the Gulf of Mexico is at a record high and that a rush to new drilling is not a long-term solution for a nation that consumes more than a quarter of the world's oil...

...With gas prices rising amid increased international demand and chaos in oil-rich Libya, Obama sought to debunk the notion that his administration was impeding domestic energy production.

"Last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003," said the president. "Oil production from federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time high. For the first time in more than a decade, imports accounted for less than half of what we consumed. So any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn't match up with reality."

"We are encouraging offshore exploration and production," said the president. "We're just doing it responsibly. I don't think anybody has forgotten that we're only a few months removed from the worst oil spill in our history."

Obama's fables were so outrageous that even the industry journal Energy Tomorrow called him on it.

Last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Congress that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico "remained at an all-time high, and we expect that it will continue as we bring new production online." He claimed: "In 2009 there were 116 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010 in February, 120, in February 2011, 126."

But Salazar's numbers distort the true number of working rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Baker Hughes:

* Four days before the Deepwater Horizon accident there were 55 rotary rigs actually drilling offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
* On May 28, 2010, when the administration announced the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, there were 46 rotary rigs operating in the Gulf.
* Last week, 25 rotary rigs were operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

So the fact that there is an "all-time high" number of rigs in the Gulf ignores the fact that most of those rigs are not working. Claiming an increase in idle rigs in the Gulf as a success story is like claiming the job market is great because a lot of people are unemployed and available to work.

In the same hearing, the Secretary also claimed that "the production has remained at an all-time high" within the Gulf of Mexico and there is no way to actually make this true. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports that production in the Gulf of Mexico is in decline... EIA Petroleum Engineer Gary Long told trade publication E&E News that the rig count in the Gulf was cut in half after the Deepwater Horizon accident and that it wouldn't rebound to previous levels until the end of 2011 under the assumption that the permitting process is restored to historical rates. Further, since there is a lag time from the time an exploration permit is approved to the time of actual production, and since no only a handful of permits for new wells have been granted since April of 2010, it is likely that Gulf of Mexico production will continue to be hit hard in 2012 and beyond.

This President's policies and his statements are both disgraceful. And he may have hit another new low with his outrageous con-job of a press conference, which was designed solely to distract while he continues his intentional destruction of the American economy.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Did you know that a bill was introduced this week that would begin to save Social Security from financial collapse? Neither did I.

That's the genius of our legacy media: they don't tell us stuff that we don't need to know.

Consider, if you will, Lummis Bill Tackles Entitlement Reform.

U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) has introduced H.R. 867, Alex’s Law. Alex’s Law, named after a four-year-old child of a member of Representative Lummis’ staff, helps ensure Social Security remains viable for all generations of Americans by slowly raising the retirement age starting in 2024.

...America’s debt has surpassed an astounding $14 trillion – and [f]or the first time since its reform in 1980, the Congressional Budget Office announced in January that [Social Security] is now permanently in the red. The Social Security trust fund goes broke in 2037, which means Americans will see a 22 percent cut in benefits, and the cuts will get worse if Washington continues to look the other way.

... In 2010, payroll taxes fell $37 billion short of what was required to pay out benefits. The Congressional Budget Office projects permanent Social Security deficits until the Social Security trust fund is exhausted in 2037. At that point, the Social Security Administration trustees estimate that Social Security payroll tax revenues will only be able to support 78 percent of benefits, leading to a 22 percent cut in benefits for all retirees.

Under H.R. 867, the retirement age increase would phase-in slowly over time:

• Today’s 50-year-olds and those older: NO CHANGE FROM CURRENT LAW

• Today’s 49-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 1 month

• Today’s 35-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 1 year

• Today’s 19-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 2 years

• Today’s 4-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 3 years

Let me guess: if the media bothers to cover this, Democrats will demagogue these trivial but important changes.

Because that's what they do.


Michele Bachmann's Letter to the House Leadership: Defund ObamaCare Immediately

Rep. Michele Bachmann posted an article at RedState this afternoon that all Americans should read. I am going to crib it in its entirety for one reason: to get the message out. It's that important.

Letter to Leadership to Defund ObamaCare Immediately


Last night my colleague Rep. Steve King (IA-05) and I drafted a letter to Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Cantor and Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers urging them to include language to defund ObamaCare and rescind the $105,464,000,000 in funds already appropriated to implementing the health care law.

Next Wednesday the House will consider another Continuing Resolution. Including language to defund ObamaCare is our opportunity to stop the flow of funds to ObamaCare once and for all. Our suggested language is, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this or any previous Act with respect to any fiscal year may be used to carry out the provisions of Public Law 111-148, Public Law 111-152, or any amendment made by either such Public Law.”

All members of Congress are encouraged to contact my office to join us in the effort to prevent taxpayers’ money from going to the implementation of this unconstitutional program.

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, and Chairman Rogers,

We very much appreciate your leadership in bringing H.R. 2 to the floor, which resulted in a unanimous Republican vote to repeal ObamaCare. This was an essential step in achieving our universal Republican goal to bring about the final, 100 percent repeal of this law. No strategy to accomplish this goal could succeed without this House vote.

From the moment legislation to repeal ObamaCare was first introduced, it has been widely discussed that a successful repeal strategy would center on first winning a Republican majority in the House, then holding a clean, up or down vote on repeal, and then prohibiting funding for the implementation or enforcement of ObamaCare. We must ensure that this strategy remains on track and on schedule.

The success of our effort to shut off funding for ObamaCare will hinge on the leverage points of this first session of the 112th Congress - namely the CR, which expires on March 18th, and the vote on raising the debt ceiling. We recognize the work to defund ObamaCare began with the inclusion of language in H.R. 1 to restrict annual appropriations from being used to implement the law. However, we also recognize that even this language, if enacted, leaves on the table $105.5 billion in automatically appropriated funds for the law’s implementation. We cannot successfully defund ObamaCare without shutting off these automatically appropriated funds.

While some have argued that our defunding efforts in the CR should be limited only to those annual funds actually provided by the CR, we disagree. If we do not stand our ground on the CR, leverage it as the “must pass bill” that it is, and use it to stop the $105.5 billion in automatically appropriated funds, ObamaCare will be implemented on our watch. We will also have conceded a significant amount of ground on this issue and will find it difficult, if not impossible, to regain the strategic advantage in future legislative vehicles.

Consequently, we ask that the following language, or more effective language, be added to the FY11 CR to cut off both the annual and automatic appropriations for ObamaCare’s implementation: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this or any previous Act with respect to any fiscal year may be used to carry out the provisions of Public Law 111-148, Public Law 111-152, or any amendment made by either such Public Law.”

It is essential that the above language be included in the CR. We, the undersigned, will not vote in support of a continuing resolution that is void of this crucial funding prohibition.

Sincerely,

Steve King Michele Bachmann

God Bless Reps. Bachmann and King.

They are, if you'll forgive the chauvinistic euphemism, manning up to face the most dire economic challenge this country has ever experienced.

Call your member of Congress now at 202.224.3121 and tell them, "Vote NO on the Continuing Resolution because it doesn't cut funding for Obamacare!" Be polite, but firm.

It's time to put our foot down and that foot is us*.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.
*Hat tip: Dean Wormer


Thursday, March 10, 2011

What the hell is the matter with John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the rest of the House GOP leadership?

Our country is on the edge of a financial abyss.

That's not my opinion. That's the official position of the Congressional Budget Office in 2009, reiterating its warning in 2010, and repeating it last month.

Bill Gross, the world's most powerful bond investor, recently shed all U.S. debt from his $1 trillion-plus portfolio. He warns that "there is no way out" of the Democrats' debt trap and that American living standards are destined to plummet.

Gross further states that interest rates will almost certainly rise much faster and much higher than official government projections. The amount of federal spending to service that debt, then, will be unsustainably high: "...these [federal] projections, which show an explosion in the amount of money needed to service our debt, underestimate the problem, since any decrease in economic growth resulting from higher interest rates — or any other cause — is not accounted for. Bottom line: This could be really bad."

The Medicare Trustees have repeatedly warned that their health care system is headed for "collapse".

Social Security, according to the Office of the Chief Actuary, will become insolvent years ahead of schedule.

And while the existing entitlement programs are headed for certain catastrophe, Medicare's Chief Actuary issued his own official warning: "[Obamacare] won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it."

It, too, is on an unsustainable path.

Billionaire Carl Icahn just returned nearly $2 billion to investors, warning of a 'renewed market dislocation'.

In other words, the support beams of the American financial system are splintering.

To the House leadership: what the hell is the matter with you? Afraid you won't get invited to the best cocktail parties? That you'll get snubbed by that idiot at Meet the Press? Who gives a flying crap!

The future of our children is at stake! Start fighting! The Left is destroying the foundation of this country -- the Constitution -- and it is destroying our currency. The full faith and credit of the American system hangs in the balance and you're whittling around the edges? What the hell!

$61 billion? When the budget deficit is $1.65 trillion? Cut a trillion! Refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless all of Obamacare is defunded! What do you have to lose? The entire system is headed for collapse! Is that reason enough?

Start fighting or we promise -- we pledge -- to devote the next 18 months to primarying your asses and defeating you.

Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor and the rest of the you old guard Republicans: as a presidential candidate once said, "Get in their faces!"


Chart: Gateway Pundit.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Eradicating Collective Bargaining Isn't the Endgame

As Steven Malanga points out in City Journal, eradicating collective bargaining isn't the endgame -- it's just the beginning.

Who needs collective bargaining if you’ve got legislators in your pocket?

When the skyrocketing cost of public employees’ salaries and benefits helped push New York City to the brink of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, state and local officials put together a bailout that reduced pension and benefits packages for Gotham’s workers. But by 1987, with the city out of the crisis, New York’s unions were again demanding better pensions and benefits. When Mayor Ed Koch balked, the union simply abandoned the bargaining process and went to Albany, where it offered state legislators its political backing in exchange for enacting generous new benefits. “It’s the same old story,” said a frustrated Koch. “Giving in to the unions will help Assembly members and senators stay in office.” The mayor decided to go to Albany too and dissuade the legislators from granting the new benefits—but they told him to stay home. “They sent [labor leader] Barry Feinstein to see me,” Koch told me several years ago, recalling the incident. “He told me that there was nothing I could do to stop the bill.” The cost to the city’s taxpayers: $101 million annually.

The situation that Koch faced back then is familiar to many mayors, city council members, and even governors today. This year’s face-off in Wisconsin between Governor Scott Walker and unions has generated an unusual, and long overdue, debate over collective bargaining rights in the public sector. But few seem to realize that when public-sector unions can’t win at the bargaining table, they have other ways of getting what they want—above all, exerting their muscle on legislators.

California is getting a taste of this now with union leaders unwilling to give an inch on any aspect of their rich compensation packages.

A coalition of influential labor groups in California opposes some public-pension changes that Gov. Jerry Brown has considered as part of a compromise with Republican lawmakers, further complicating the governor's hope for a quick resolution to budget talks to close a $26.6 billion deficit, said people familiar with the matter.

In a letter to Mr. Brown and legislative leaders, the group plans to say it "simply cannot stand for any attempts to leverage the budget crisis in order to circumvent the collective bargaining process" and "must draw the line at some proposals that would unduly harm working families..."

By that, I assume they don't mean the taxpayers. There are currently over 15,000 retired state workers in California who receive over $100,000 annually in pension payments -- and that number grows 40% a year!

In Illinois, the state pension system is devoting nearly four times the average to its pension obligations -- hardly a sustainable model.

Most states, on average, have to devote only about 4 percent of their budgets to pensions for government retirees... But Illinois, in the upcoming fiscal year, will devote what amounts to roughly 15 percent of its budget toward the pensions of its retirees.

In essence, most other states are able to spend much larger chunks of their dollars on roads, public safety, education, health care, assistance for the poor or the elderly and other government services.

...Illinois government employees, state legislators, judges, university staff and public school teachers outside the Chicago area have been promised $139 billion worth of retirement benefits, but the five state pension systems have assets of only $63 billion.

In New York, the public pension systems are literally imploding as we speak.

At a time when public school students are being forced into ever more crowded classrooms, and poor families will lose state medical benefits, New York State is paying 10 times more for state employees’ pensions than it did just a decade ago.

That huge increase is largely because of Albany’s outsized generosity to the state’s powerful employees’ unions in the early years of the last decade, made worse when the recession pushed down pension fund earnings, forcing the state to make up the difference.

Although taxpayers are on the hook for the recession’s costs, most state employees pay only 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions, half the level of most state employees elsewhere. Their health insurance payments are about half those in the private sector.

In all, the salaries and benefits of state employees add up to $18.5 billion, or a fifth of New York’s operating budget. Unless those costs are reined in, New York will find itself unable to provide even essential services.

And to think that the people who run these bankrupt 'Blue States' actually go to Washington and control the federal purse-strings.

It's time to decertify all public sector unions.

Every one. They serve no useful purpose except as fundraising arms for the Democrat Party -- using taxpayer dollars against our wishes.

Public sector unions must go.


Walker Wins, Government Unions Lose, Fleebaggers Throw Temper Tantrum, President Obama Votes Present #wiunion #SolidarityWI

It turns out President Obama's efforts to foment civic unrest organize government unions against taxpayers were just as successful as his laser-like focus on jobs.

Which is to say: the result was an epic fail.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate have voted to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" -- a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later.

The move set up a vote in the Senate, which voted mere moments later.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald blasted the fleebagging Democrats:

After nearly a month of debate on the budget repair bill, nearly three weeks of childish stunts and delay tactics from the Democrats, the longest public hearing in state history and the longest Assembly debate in state history, the Senate met tonight to pass the non-fiscal items in the Budget Repair Bill...

Before the election, the Democrats promised “adult leadership” in Madison. Then a month and a half into session, the Senate Democrats fled the state instead of doing their job... In doing so, they have tarnished the very institution of the Wisconsin state Senate. This is unacceptable.

This afternoon, following a week and a half of line-by-line negotiation, Sen. Miller sent me a letter that offered three options: 1) keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 2) take our counter-offer, which would keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 3) or stop talking altogether.

With that letter, I realized that we’re dealing with someone who is stalling indefinitely, and doesn’t have a plan or an intention to return. His idea of compromise is “give me everything I want,” and the only negotiating he’s doing is through the media.

Enough is enough. ...The people of Wisconsin elected us to do a job. They elected us to stand up to the broken status quo, stop the constant expansion of government, balance the budget, create jobs and improve the economy. The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can’t act on our agenda.

Tonight, the Senate will be passing the items in the budget repair bill that we can, with the 19 members who actually DO show up and do their jobs. Those items include the long-overdue reform of collective bargaining needed to help local governments absorb these budget cuts, and the 12 percent health care premium and 5 percent pension contribution.

We have confirmed with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau that every item in tonight’s bill follows the letter of the law.

The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job. Just because the Senate Democrats won’t do theirs, doesn’t mean we won’t do ours.

Well done, Leader Fitzgerald. Well done.

Well done, Governor Walker. Well done.

One wishes that the Republican leaders in Congress were this brave.


Hat tip: D&S.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Community Organizers Try to Shout Down Ohio Governor As He Proposes Plan to Deal With $8.5 Billion Deficit

AFSCME, the SEIU, and Barack Obama's personal political arm -- Organizing for America -- are doing the one thing they do best. Fomenting class warfare, spewing hateful rhetoric and shouting down political debate.

Most of the leftist bullies were forced to stand outside the Chamber Door today during Ohio Governor John Kasich’s State of the State Address...

However, at least one shrieking protester interrupted the Republican Governor during his speech today...

In his first state of the state address, Ohio governor John Kasich (R) was jeered as he called for collective bargaining reforms in the Buckeye state, even though the subject was barely mentioned in the 65 minute speech... Kasich says the reforms in the bill are needed so local governments can control their budgets.

“Frankly, folks, the provisions of collective bargaining reform are examples of what we wanted to do to allow people to control their costs,” Kasich said as boos rained down from protesters watching in the chamber... He then addressed the passion of protesters gathered in and outside the state house whose chants could be heard at other points during the speech...

“I appreciate passionate people who don’t agree with us… People who feel strongly, I respect them, but they also need to respect those who don’t always agree with them, Ok?” he said to extended applause from Republicans.


Did this stop the thugs from screaming? ... No.

Of course not.

Free speech and sensible fiscal policies are off limits to the community agitators who control this era's Democrat Party.


Change: More than a third of all U.S. wages and salaries come from government confiscating wealth and redistributing it

There's no better evidence of the Democrats' half-century of policy failures than this story from CNBC: "Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of US Wages".

Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.

...social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. “Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.”

The economist gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, “either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,” she said.

Let's start by ending the Democrats' disastrous "War on Poverty", which has created more poverty and misery than any set of government programs in world history.

If there's anything the last half-century of failed Leftist policies have taught us, it's this: when you reward sloth, you get more sloth. When you reward hard work, you get more hard work.

Killing off welfare except to those in desperate need would be a nice trillion-dollar stimulus to the real economy. And it would actually increase marriage rates, reduce violent crime, and improve educational outcomes.


Hat tip: Tatler.

Excellent News: NPR Willing to Partner With Muslim Brotherhood to Combat Zionist Agenda Using Your Tax Dollars!

Ron Schiller, NPR's senior vice president for fundraising, just got punk'd by conservative activist James O'Keefe. A hidden camera caught Schiller baring his soul regarding Republicans, conservatives and Jews in a meeting with two men claiming to represent the fictional Muslim Action Education Center (MEAC). MEAC claimed that it was willing to donate $5 million to NPR to help its efforts to fight the mainstream media's "Zionist coverage".

Schiller's diatribes included the following gems:

— “The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — and I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move ... it's been hijacked by this group that ... "

— "It's not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic. Basically, they believe in white, middle America, gun-toting — it's pretty scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.”

The operatives in the sting then proceed to disparage what they call Jewish control of the media, prompting Schiller to assure them that Zionist influence doesn't exist at NPR, but "it's there in those who own newspapers obviously."

Schiller laughs when one of the men jokes that NPR's reporting on the Middle East had garnered the nickname "National Palestinian Radio” while his colleague Liley chuckles: “Oh really? That's good. I like that.”

...While discussing media coverage of the political uprising in Egypt, Schiller said what he is “most disappointed by," in the United States, "is that the educated, so-called elite in this country is too small a percentage of the population, so that you have this very large uneducated part of the population that carries these [unworldly] ideas."

Oh, and there's this:

— "I think what we all believe is if we don't have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air ... it's the same thing we faced as a nation when we didn't have female voices." In the heavily edited tape, that comment followed Schiller being told by one of the men that their organization "was originally founded by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." There's no sign in the edited tape that Schiller reacted in any way after being told of the group's alleged connection to an Islamic group that appeared to be connected with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

— That NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding," a position in direct conflict with the organization's official position.

Remember, though, NPR claims to be unbiased. In fact, they're so confident that they're unbiased, they've challenged Republicans to find proof of their political affiliation.

Oops.

Alternate headline: Ignorant, Gun-Toting Racists Decide Not to Fund NPR.


Image: Real Aspen. Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Monday, March 07, 2011

Legacy Media Continues to Hide the Real Economic News: Unemployment at 10.3% and Rising; February Budget Deficit Worst Ever for One Month

It shouldn't come as any surprise that during the last half of 2010, newspaper circulation hemorrhaged five entire percentage points.

After all, the real economic news is quite dire, though to read the daily fish-wrap you'd never know it.

Consider if you will "Gallup: Real Unemployment Rate is 10.3% -- and Rising."

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.3% in February -- up from 9.8% at the end of January. The U.S. unemployment rate is now essentially the same as the 10.4% at the end of February 2010...

...The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work worsened considerably in February, increasing to 9.6% of the workforce from 9.1% at the end of January. A larger percentage of the U.S. workforce is working part time and wanting full-time work now than was the case a year ago (9.3%).

...Underemployment, a measure that combines part-time workers wanting full-time work with those who are unemployed, surged in February to 19.9%. This resulted from the combination of a sharp 0.5-point increase since the end of January in the percentage unemployed and a 0.5-point increase in the percentage working part time but wanting full-time work. Underemployment is now higher than it was at this point a year ago (19.7%).


That's not all.

Please review, if you'd be so kind, "February $223 Billion Budget Deficit Largest Ever":

Well, it's one way to start a deficit cutting scramble. Washington Times reports that the preliminary number for the February deficit, which will formally be released by the FMS shortly, is $223 billion: this is the largest single month deficit in history! So much for prudent budgets and all that. At least the number can only get better from here. Unless, of course, it gets much, much worse, and rates continue creeping higher, resulting in 30% of total revenues being dedicated to paying gross interest, as was previously discussed on Zero Hedge. Then 40%. Then 50%... One gets the picture.

Yes, it's another Obama record as the country heads straight into the financial abyss, aided and abetted by the progressive Left and their useful idiots in legacy media.


Could Someone Ask The New York Times to Tone Down Its Violent Rhetoric?

One would think that the self-proclaimed "newspaper of record" could do better than resorting to the hysterical, shrill and uncivil hyperbole laced throughout its op-ed "Holding Firm on the Budget."

After all, weren't these the very same kooks that lectured the Right about "civility" and "tone" after the horrific Tucson attacks?

After letting a highly destructive budget fight fester far too long, the White House finally stepped in late last week to negotiate with the House, which wants to eviscerate nondefense spending. Senate leaders still seem shell-shocked by that breathtaking ruthlessness, and have pleaded with the administration for help in pushing back. The White House needs to do so, and firmly.

Last year the administration acted as referee in a similar situation and got mixed results. It allowed Republicans their cherished goal of keeping taxes low on the richest 2 percent of Americans, and even gave multimillionaires and billionaires new estate tax benefits. President Obama won an extension of jobless benefits and a cut in payroll taxes that could boost the economy.

...But this is not a moment for another difference-splitting deal. The House wants to carve $61 billion out of the government for just the next seven months, which would throw hundreds of thousands of people out of work and kill off scores of vital functions.

The Times' intellectual dishonesty is legendary due, in no small part, to secretions like this one.

And its spendaholic hubris is highlighted by Mary Meeker's recent report that, without a hint of political enmity, paints a picture of impending fiscal calamity for the United States. That, of course, the Times chooses to ignore -- just as it ignored the most important book in a generation, a monumental bestseller focused on American history, law, philosophy, jurisprudence and economics.

This era's editions of The New York Times are useful only as curiosities: museum pieces that serve to warn future generations against journalists joining with the government to promote lawlessness, theft and oppression.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Sunday, March 06, 2011

The new civility: Democrat rep screeches that Tennessee governor must end GOP 'terrorism' against teachers

Yes, it doesn't get any more civil than this.

On a day when 3,000 or more unionized Tennessee teachers and their supporters marched on Legislative Plaza in the rain, Gov. Bill Haslam refused Saturday night to get into the fray over a bill to end collective bargaining between teachers’ unions and local school districts...

...Tennessee’s issues, for the moment at least, are limited mostly to teachers, but Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said the GOP will likely target other quarry if they’re successful now.

“If they get the teachers, they’re coming after the firefighters. If they get the firefighters, they’re coming after the police officers. If they get the police officers, they’re coming after the construction workers, service workers and everybody,” Turner said.

“I’ve been preaching for years that if you let the Republicans get in charge this is what you’re going to get, and this is what we’ve got.”

Turner publicly urged Haslam to “please stop this terrorism against our teachers.”

Countdown to legacy media calling out Turner for his violent rhetoric in 3... 2... never.


Hat tip: George Scoville.

Saturday, March 05, 2011

In pictures: Obama's devastating cuts to the federal budget

According to the Washington Post, President Obama has offered $6.5 billion in cuts on a total budget of $3.73 trillion, $1.6 trillion of which must be borrowed from foreign investors and the Federal Reserve.

Let's illustrate the magnitude of these devastating cuts.

Hmm, hard to see the cuts. Let's zoom in...

There they are!

Magnified about 100 times, the cuts aren't exactly stunning in their scale and scope.

The GAO (Government Accountability Office) just stated that between $100 and $200 billion in federal spending is wasted on redundant, duplicative functions. Yet all the Otrumka administration can find to cut is $6 and a half billion, which is probably what it spends on three-ring binders.

'Moving to the center' my you-know-what.


Governor Walker sends out layoff notices to union bosses; tells Fleabagger Democrats they have 15 days to show up for work

It would appear that the Wisconsin stalemate is nearing an end -- as the laws of economics dictate it must.

Gov. Scott Walker notified unions Friday of impending layoffs if a budget-repair bill isn't passed in the next 15 days...

According to GOP sources... the discussions with Democratic senators holed up in Illinois include ... removing or changing a provision that would require workers to vote every year on whether their union would remain active or be decertified ... The last provision especially is anathema to Democrats and unions, who say it could kill many labor groups.

...The budget-repair bill would require most public workers to pay more for their health care and pensions, eliminate most collective bargaining by their unions, and give the governor broad powers to reshape the state's health care programs for the poor and elderly... Unions have agreed to the concessions on their benefits, but the provisions taking away most collective bargaining have prompted sustained protests for over two weeks.

Personally, I wouldn't have given them 15 days. More like 15 hours.

Perhaps something like laying off 100 workers for every hour Democrats refuse to show up and work.

After all, as the Democrats told us repeatedly from 2006 to 2010, "elections have consequences." Apparently that applies to only one party.

Stand strong, Governor Walker: the vast majority of Americans are behind you 120%.


Hat tip: Drudge.