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

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Michele Bachmann: GOP Old Guard Suffering From Embarrassing Case of Testicular Shrinkage

Just received a personal email* from Michele Bachmann expressing disappointment and consternation regarding the pathetic budget deal agreed to by the doddering GOP old guard.

Early this morning, I joined with 27 other Republicans in opposition to the continuing resolution brokered by President Obama and Congressional leaders. While millions of Americans expect Congress to make significant efforts to address our nation's fiscal problems, the deal that was made leaves us with a paltry $36 billion in cuts and fails to defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood...

...This continuing resolution is a disappointment and ignores the mandate given to us by voters in November. Keeping in line with my promises, I will continue to oppose any continuing resolution or budget plan that does not defund Obamacare or make significant cuts in government spending, and I will not yield in this effort.

Good for you, Michele. We have your back.

Mark Levin asked the question last night (MP3): how in the hell are the Republicans going to stand up to the lunatic left on the issue of raising the debt ceiling -- or the 2012 Ryan budget -- if they can't even follow through on their promises to cut $100 billion from the current budget by shutting down part of the enormous federal government for a few days?

I have an adjective to describe these pathetic old bulls in the Republican Party: sackless.

And I have a message for them: we are going to overwhelm the legacy Republican Party with Constitutional conservatives (note: not "Tea Party extremists" like the Democrat caucus has instructed you to say) in 2012 and kick your asses out of the House leadership positions.

You act like back-benchers; therefore, you will be transformed into back-benchers.

And another thing: Michele Bachmann** has more guts in her left pinky than all of you have combined.


Update: Allen West for Speaker of the House, Michele Bachmann for President.


* As did a few hundred thousand other folks.
**: You can support MichelePAC here.

Friday, April 08, 2011

Good News: Dallas Fed Chief Says U.S. in 'Budgetary Death Spiral'

Earlier today, Dallas Federal Reserve Chief Richard W. Fisher had some blunt words for the Democrats in Washington. Put in terms even a liberal can understand: without dramatic budget cuts, this country is headed for a complete economic collapse.

Think Road Warrior without the amenities.

There cannot be robust direct investment in the United States without confidence in the nation’s ability to reverse its budgetary death spiral, especially the inexorable accumulation of national debt and unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security. [Ed: Oh, you mean the programs Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and the execrable Kris Van Hollen are trying to destroy?]

...The need to break the back of that spiral is as dire now as was the need for Paul Volcker to break the back of inflation in the 1980s. Those who are leading the charge to restore fiscal sanity, be they Republican or Democrat [Ed: Democrat? Sir, where is a Democrat arguing for 'fiscal sanity? Show me just one!] , will no doubt recall the personal vitriol hurled at the then-Fed chairman; they should steel themselves against it. They should remember that, as a result of his steadfast determination to press on with exorcising inflation, Mr. Volcker is today among the most respected living Americans and widely considered an exemplar for public servants worldwide.

The lying, scheming, demagoguing Democrats could care less about America's future. Their craven lust for power dominates any concern for America's economic future, for our troops, or for anything that can help strengthen America.

Too harsh, you say? I beg to differ. Consider the counsel from Obama's former top economic adviser: Christina Romer: A Weaker Dollar Is Good For America.

With unemployment still near 9% and the "real" unemployment rate at 15.7%, "we can't afford not to do more," Romer [says]. It's a "mistake" for the Fed to end QE2 in June as planned, Romer continues. "The evidence is it's been very effective. I don't understand why we'd be dialing back that tool."

Despite the recent rise in Treasury rates, QE has been effective at lowering long-term rates, she says, citing academic research such as a new report from the NY Fed entitled: Large-Scale Asset Purchases Were Effective at Lowering Borrowing Rates.

Lower rates encourage corporations to make investments and individuals to borrow, "which tends to encourage spending which puts people back to work," Romer says.

More controversially, Romer lauds QE for helping to weaken the dollar. A weaker dollar makes U.S. goods more competitive overseas, boosting exports and GDP growth, and ultimately hiring. While that's true, she seems to overlook the impact a weak dollar has on ordinary Americans in terms of falling buying power and punishment for savers and those living on fixed-incomes.

Gee, ya think?

Romer's counsel is the kind of sage advice that helps guide the destructive policies of the Left.

The charts above help us compare the costs of silver, gold, oil, gas and food, respectively, over the last two years or more.

Since Barack Obama took office, the policy of quantitative easing (or, as I like to call it, Xeroxing Currency) has helped the price of key commodities skyrocket. While our delightful bureaucrats in Washington insist that inflation "is under control", a quick drive to the gas station helps us refute that propaganda.

Americans' costs for energy and everything it helps produce and move -- most importantly, food -- is dramatically increasing. This hidden tax on seniors, "the poor" and "the middle class" is the direct result of Barack Obama's policies of record-setting deficit spending and restricting our access to energy.

And the pain has only just begun. Remember in 2012.


Thursday, April 07, 2011

'What I did for summer, fall, winter, and spring vacation'

Via Sad Hill News, remember when President Obama observed that "it would be so much easier to be the president of China".

Really?

President Obama also found time to hit the links as the massive disaster unfolded in Japan, so it's not fair to say he's unfocused.

His daily calendar proves it.


In between soirees, President Obama vows to cut off funding for the troops even as top General says they could be sent to Libya

Is this the schedule of a man worried about anything?

I have a busier damn schedule on the weekends -- and I'm a nobody!

Oh, but the President did have time for another fancy dinner party last night with master race-baiter Al Sharpton.

Amid desperate budget negotiations and a looming government shutdown, President Barack Obama came to New York City last night to speak at the twentieth-anniversary party for Al Sharpton's National Action Network. At the gala, Obama focused on the issue of education inequality, but only after palling around with Sharpton, teasing him for getting skinny ("But he hasn't lost his style.") and giving him "a rousing slap on the back," according to the New York Post. Then Obama got serious, speaking about his student loan reform. "Only a few years ago I was still paying off my student loans," said Obama. "It's true, I don't pump gas now, but I remember what it was like pumping gas. I remember!"

Later, Obama said he remembers "the end of the month. I remember that." He added, "We appreciate you all buying the book, Michelle and I. That's the college fund right there. That was not a given." His humility tends to be convincing, but he did make over $5 million in 2009...

Is this a man worried about a government shutdown, or coming up with a budget, or even working on plans to reduce unemployment? Eh, that was a rhetorical question.

As for the troops?

The White House blasted the GOP's Continuing Resolution (CR) designed to fund the troops until the end of the fiscal year.

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 1363, making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes. As the President stated on April 5, 2011, if negotiations are making significant progress, the Administration would support a short-term, clean Continuing Resolution to allow for enactment of a final bill.

In other words, for this president, the troops come last. They are just another political chit to be used to advance the radical Left's agenda.

Oh, and one more bit of good news: "General: U.S. may consider troops in Libya."

This was not the change you were promised, drones.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

How to Smash the Liberal 'Tax Cuts for Millionaires' Marxist Class Warfare Talking Point Into Tiny Little Shards of Fail

Steve McCann, writing at The American Thinker, describes the reason we can't tax ourselves out of the deficit problem.

In 2011 the annual budget deficit will be nearly $1,665.0 Billion and in 2012: $1,100.0 Billion. If the Liberal Democrats in league with the Socialists, the Unions and the Communists, succeed in raising the highest marginal rate, how much more would Washington D.C. receive, assuming no change in behavior and a general eagerness to pay more?

If the highest rate of 35% were raised by a factor of 20% to 42%, then the additional tax revenue would be $43.5 Billion, not much of a dent in $1,665.0 Billion. So, let's raise the rate by a factor of 50% to 52.5%; the additional revenue would be $108.9 Billion. Still nowhere near enough, so let's just tax it at a rate of 100%, bringing in an additional $404.8 Billion. Unfortunately the country is still $1,260.0 Billion in the hole for the year.

Obviously by confiscating at 100% of all the income of the so-called rich above a predetermined level, there would never again be an incentive to earn above the highest tax rate threshold. So where will the Left have to turn next: where the money is, the middle class.

The Left knows the gullible among us easily fall for centuries-old class warfare rhetoric that demonizes the wealthy, yet they persist in doing the unconscionable, as it keeps them in power... What the Democrats are doing is entirely based on a lie. The United States cannot tax its way out of the present financial crisis, and from a cursory examination of Paul Ryan's proposal, his is the best plan yet presented and needs to be defended and promoted.

Increasing taxes on "the rich" by 20%, 50% or even 100% wouldn't do a damn thing to address the deficit. It would harm the economy, however, as there would be less capital for investment, new capital equipment, startups and hiring.

The next time you hear this class warfare claptrap -- this recycled rhetoric from the Soviet Union -- tell the lib this:

"Your disastrous Democrat leaders have dug us into a hole so deep, you could confiscate 100% of the income of the 'rich' and it wouldn't make a dent in the hole."

Don't use the suffix "dumbass", either, because some of them find it insulting.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Style Note to A.P.: It's Not 'Tea Party Purists' -- It's 'Constitutional Conservatives'

See if you can detect the spin.

Talks are intensifying on Capitol Hill on reaching a deal on long-overdue legislation to finance the government through the end of September -- and avoid a government shutdown...

..."There's no reason why we should not get an agreement," Obama said. "We have now matched the number that the speaker originally sought. The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way of preventing a government shutdown."...

This time, it's Obama who is exuding confidence as Boehner seems hemmed in by his hard-charging class of 87 freshmen, many of whom won office with backing from tea party purists.

"Tea party purists"?

Really? So you're a purist if you demand the government stays solvent for our children and grandchildren? That it pares back the trillions in debt rung up over the last three years, which every expert -- including Obama's own deficit commission -- calls 'unsustainable' and 'catastrophic'?

Folks, this is why the AP's "news reporting" is useful only as comic relief.


Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Democrats: GOP's spending cuts so extreme that they could very well pay back one whole year of Obama's deficit spending

Writing at Ace of Spades, Geoff illustrates the true scale of the Ryan budget proposals that Democrats demagogue as 'extreme'. It turns out said cuts pale in comparison to those proposed by Obama's own deficit commission.

In FY 2011, we are running a $1.425 trillion deficit. This single year of spending will take our public debt from 62.1% of GDP up to 69.1% of GDP. Now, in our daily life, whenever we run up a debt the first thing we ask is: How long will it take me to pay this off?

So, how long will it take to pay off the debt we're adding just this year? Or, a slightly easier task: how long will it take to get the debt/GDP ratio back to what it was only 6 months ago?

Please understand that we're talking about money we're burning right now. We're halfway through the fiscal year, so we're right in the middle of running up this tab that we're going to have to pay off. And the Dems won't let us slow our spending to any significant degree.

So, how long? Let's point out right away that the White House budget never pays a penny of the 2011 debt back. In fact, the public debt keeps climbing and climbing, reaching 87% of GDP by 2021. So only the two budget reform plans are even trying to pay that money back. And just how fast are they hoping to do that?

...The gray line is where we were at the end of September 2010 ==> that's our target. The blue line is the Obama administration's baseline budget. As you can see, it sails off into the stratosphere. This is the budget plan the Democrats are defending.

The teal line and red line are the Deficit Commission and Ryan's plan, respectively. The teal line makes it back to the gray line by the end of 2022. Ryan's plan? Well, you'll have to wait another 10 years...

...This is what the President and his crackerjack economic team have wrought. A one-year deficit that is so large that it can only be paid back if everything goes exactly right. And if everything goes exactly right, we're still looking at decades before we can get back to the debt level we had only 6 months ago.

As Jim DeMint warned in yesterday's Examiner, we had better start cutting now and cutting deep. Because the country is flat broke.

It should ... be the policy of the entire Republican conference that we will not vote to increase the debt ceiling without first passing this balanced budget amendment.

If we are to save this precious Republic -- this fragile vessel of our ancestors' blood, sweat and tears -- it is time to sacrifice. Starting with the federal bureaucracy.


Monday, April 04, 2011

In the spirit of bipartisanship, Mr. Speaker, let the Senate Democrats shut the government down

Andrew Stiles reports that Senate Democrats are trying to force a government shutdown, a cold, political calculation that could very well backfire on them.

House Republicans are preparing a third short-term spending resolution in the event that a long-term compromise cannot be reached with Senate Democrats and the White House before April 8, GOP aides confirm. That scenario suddenly looks a lot more likely after a tense back-and-forth Monday between leaders on both sides of the debate. The measure would last for one week, cut $12 billion in domestic discretionary spending, but would include funding for the Defense Department until the end of the current fiscal year (September 30).

...Following a Republican conference meeting Monday night, House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) of negotiating in bad faith and placed the blame for the recent breakdown in negotiations squarely at Reid’s feet, alleging that the Senate leader had abruptly instructed Democratic negotiators to cease negotiating over the weekend.

Several members expressed concern that Senate Democrats were angling for a government shutdown. “That’s the only possible interpretations of [Reid's] actions,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. “We’re doing everything we can to avoid a government shutdown. If the government shuts down it will be because Harry Reid refuses to sit and negotiate in good faith…it’ll be because that’s what they want.”

The problem is two-fold for Democrats.

Most Americans, who realize the government has a disastrous spending problem, support a shutdown of non-essential services.

Second, the longer taxpayers realize a shutdown actually benefits them -- and has no visible impact on their lives -- the worse a public relations problem it becomes for the Pelosi Party.

It ain't 1995, Mr. Speaker. In the spirit of bipartisanship, let the Democrats shut the government down.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Vanity Fair's Joseph Stiglitz: Schmuck With a Pen

Joseph Stiglitz, writing at the execrable Vanity Fair (I read it so you don't have to!), regurgitates the old, tired Marxist script in his latest piece of agitprop entitled "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%."

The corporate executives who helped bring on the recession of the past three years—whose contribution to our society, and to their own companies, has been massively negative—went on to receive large bonuses...

And what of the corrupt politicians and judges, Stiglitz, who violated their oaths of office to create and then rob HUD, Social Security, Fannie Mae, Medicare, Freddie Mac and Medicaid?

Who took sweetheart loans from Countrywide?

Who paid themselves immense bonuses while concealing their own accounting skulduggery?

And, all the while, facilitated the financial crisis through unlawful, unconstitutional governmental policies that had the force of law?

...Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong.

Oh, bullcrap, you fraudulent old Trotsky-ite. Sure, we need less folks like Larry Page and Bill Gates. Hell, Page and Sergey Brin were sitting in a damn dorm room 12 years ago trying to figure out a better way to search the Internet. Now they're worth tens of billions apiece! But in your formulation, that sucks!

Directly and indirectly, they've created hundreds of thousands of jobs, a whole new ecosphere for Silicon Valley, funded dozens of new startups, created massive amounts of wealth around the globe, but in the Stiglitz formula -- they're too rich!

...growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity.

Yes - more billionaires like Gates, more massive job creators like Page and Brin, more investments, more startups, more innovation... means less opportunity.

What I want to know, Stiglitz, is this: how do you have a freaking job?

...perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology.

Oh, you mean like a "Stimulus" program? How's that working out for ya', Sparky? Or the Department of Education? Working out swimmingly for low-income students? And that solar technology in which Jimmy Carter sunk billions of taxpayer dollars... that revolutionized our energy infrastructure, right?

What a kook.

We've bankrupted the Treasury with this collectivist excrement -- and it's failed like it's failed every other time in history. Central planning works -- if you're a delusional Marxist with a penchant for magic mushrooms. If you're not, the Politburo-style, command-and-control strategy has a perfect track record. Zero-for-Eternity.

Stop with the failed Marxist class warfare rhetoric already. You sound like a freaking idiot.

To paraphrase Milton Friedman: who are these angels on Earth that can redistribute everyone's wealth? Barack Obama? Nancy Pelosi? Barney Freaking Frank?

There isn't a corporation on Earth that can force you to pay it whether you want to or not.

There isn't a corporation on the planet that can throw you in jail for failure to adhere to its hundreds of thousands of pages of laws, regulations and dictates.

There isn't a corporation anywhere that can make you buy a one-size-fits-all health care plan, or a certain kind of light bulb, or low-flow toilet, or a certain size of car, and on and on.

There isn't a corporation anywhere that can command you -- the citizen -- to participate in multi-trillion dollar Ponzi schemes.

Only a giant, enormous, leviathan of a bankrupt federal government can do all of these things. And, then, only because a certain group of power-hungry, easily corrupted politicians, lawyers and judges have ignored our highest law: the Constitution.

Because they wantonly disregard thousands of years of human experience, facts, logic, and reason.

Our Framers created the Constitution to prevent the rise of an all-powerful, autocratic, authoritarian central government. Instead, the modern Statist -- like Stiglitz -- justifies his actions by claiming it will be different this time. If only he can have more of your money. If only he can have more power. If only.

But it wasn't the corporations that ruined the economy: it's the politicians who violate their oaths of office every day of the week. That's what the Tea Party is all about, dunce. And that's why every one concerned with the future of America should support Constitutional conservatism.

It's the only hope we have left.

Schmuck.


Sunday, April 03, 2011

Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) Unveils Democrat Roadmap for America's Fiscal Future: Deceit, Demagoguery, and Lies

Is there a more mendacious liar in Congress than the malevolent Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland? I mean besides Chuck Schumer, of course.

Consider the situation America faces. Every expert -- from governmental entities like the OMB, the CBO, and the Medicare Actuaries to private experts like Jim Rogers and the rating agency Moody's -- is warning us that we're headed for a financial cliff.

And, in response, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) appeared on Fox News Sunday today to offer a preview of his committee's 2012 budget plan which projects $4 trillion in savings over the next ten years.

"Where the president has failed to lead, we’re going to lead and we’re going to put out ideas to fix this problem... Democrats could use the plan as a 'political weapon,'" Ryan said.

...We are giving them a political weapon to go out against us, but they will have to lie and demagogue to make that a political weapon. They are going to demagogue us, and it’s that demagoguery that has always prevented political leaders in the past from actually trying to fix the problem. We can’t keep kicking this can down the road.”

He added, “Shame on them if they do that.”

Shame? No, something far worse than shame.

Because even before Ryan's plan has been released, the anti-American loons on the Left -- led by the despicable Van Hollen -- are already demagoguing the proposal.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Ryan's proposal is not "courageous" or "bold."

"To govern is to choose, and it is not courageous to protect tax breaks for millionaires, oil companies and other big money special interests while slashing our investment in education, ending the current health care guarantees for seniors on Medicare, and denying health care coverage to tens of millions of Americans. That's not courageous, it's wrong," Van Hollen said in a statement.

So how does this loathsome kook address the budget deficit?

Where's his proposal for increasing taxes on "millionaires"? Where's his plan to further increase gas prices by punishing energy companies with even more taxes and regulations? Where's his forecast for increased government revenue by stealing more and more money from the private sector?

Hell, the Democrats couldn't even pass a budget in the last Congress -- the first time in modern American history that's ever happened. Furthermore, they rang up more debt in three years than the world has ever seen. And this sack of excrement is complaining about budget cuts?

I would call Van Hollen pond scum but that would unfairly lump him in with algae, which is provably more productive than the deceitful Maryland Congressboy.


Two nausea-inducing charts

Since Barack Obama took office, roughly 12 million additional people have become dependent on food-stamps. And since Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, almost 20 million people have joined the rolls of food-stamp recipients.

15 out of every 100 people living in the U.S. are receiving food-stamps.

This disastrous explosion in the welfare state has come in spite of -- or, more likely, because of -- the Democrats' tidal wave of deficit spending.

In his pursuit of "wealth redistribution" strategies, Barack Obama has rung up more debt in three years than any other President in history. More debt than the world has ever seen.

Enough debt to enslave future generations to 70, 80 and 90 percent tax rates.

Maybe that's what meant when he talked about 'change'.

One thing is for certain: these graphs can't keep these trajectories going. The whole system is headed for collapse and -- when it does -- the Democrat welfare state collapses along with it.


Hat tips: Memeorandum and Gateway Pundit. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Golf Cart-like "Smart Car" Claims Another Victim

In the U.K. another driver of a "Smart Car" is dead:

A woman has died and five people were rushed to hospital after a serious head-on crash in the Westcountry... Two vehicles were involved in the collision at the B3274 between Roche Cross and Castle-an-Dinas.

The female driver of a Smart Car, aged in her 60s, died from her injuries sustained in the collision... A Peugeot 308, registered to a Plymouth driver, was also involved in the smash...

Police say the five occupants of the Peugeot all have minor injuries.

The federal government -- through its oppressive and bizarre CAFE standards -- wants you to drive Smart Cars and similarly-sized vehicles. The government, in essence, tells you what kind of cars you are required to drive.

What kind of light bulbs you're allowed to purchase. How much water your toilets can flush. What types of shower heads you can install.

This out-of-control, massive, budget-busting federal government now intrudes into every aspect of our lives. And everything it touches turns to crap: from the housing market, to the banking system, to health care and beyond.

It has moved so far beyond the limits placed upon it by the Constitution that our current federal government would be unrecognizable to this nation's founders.


Barack Obama: Losing $84 billion a big success

Though Democrats tout the auto bailout as a success, recent reports illustrate the taxpayer cost of the GM auto bailout was substantially larger than the Obama administration and a Congressional Oversight report has owned up to. ... In Obama's world, success mean tax payers only lost as much as $84 billion. --Kerry Pickett



Yesterday was another April Fool's Day for the American taxpayer:

Barack Obama has some 'splaining to do about tax payers' profitable "investment" in General Motors. It turns out the president is imagining things.

Though Democrats tout the auto bailout as a success, recent reports illustrate the taxpayer cost of the GM auto bailout was substantially larger than the Obama administration and a Congressional Oversight report has owned up to.

...a March 16 Congressional Oversight report ... estimates taxpayers will be out of $25 billion. Additionally, the report points out that “full repayment will not be possible unless the government is able to sell its remaining shares at a far higher price.”

That's only the beginning. Both the White House and the Congressional Oversight report omit the fact that during its bankruptcy, GM got a $45 billion tax break, courtesy of the American people.... GM will also get a $14 billion dollar domestic tax break...

...[Yet] the Obama administration and its allies presently continue to celebrate the success of the auto bailout, regardless of the facts. "I don’t think there’s any doubt that this was a success," said ... acting assistant secretary at the Treasury Department Tim Massad, who oversees the TARP program at Treasury, to a House panel on Wednesday.

Repeat: In Obama's fantasy world, "success" means you, the taxpayers, only lost around $84 billion.

And the liberals complain about corporatists and banksters when the federal government is the world's biggest and most wasteful corporation -- with more power than any crime gang ever dreamed of having.


Hat tip: Deep Volt. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Friday, April 01, 2011

Chevy Volt Sales Slump, Prompting GM to (a) Ask for More Taxpayer Handouts; and (b) Introduce New, Unsellable _Convertible_ Volt

"It’s electric unless you’re driving in it."

Need a $41,000 gas-electric-nuclear-and-coal-powered hybrid? Well, neither did everyone else in America.

Recent reports find that General Motors (GM) is lobbying for the passage of legislation by Michigan [Democrat] Senator Debbie Stabenow that would turn a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit into a rebate that will be available to all consumers at the point of sale. It's been dubbed "Cash for Clunkers II".


...Apparently, Chevy is not pleased with its sales -- 321 units sold in January and 281 in February -- out of 30,000 cars made for 2011, and a planned 45,000 to be made in 2012... At that rate, just 3,600 of the cars will be sold this year, [only] 12 percent of the supply.

...Since GM's initial public offering in November, the government sponsored automaker has been desperate to boost overall sales on a monthly basis. As such, GM boosted buyer incentives for the past four months. GM's incentive spending averaged about $3,663 per vehicle in January, and $3,732 in February, more than $1,100 over the industry average.

...According to the CarConnection.com, "That's increased GM's market share - albeit at the expense of image, resale value, and even company profits - oddly, at a time when most other automakers have admitted that such a strategy doesn't make long-term business sense."

Since they can't sell units to actual customers, GM has convinced Barack Obama to buy costly, inefficient, ghastly vehicles on your dime.

Which also prompted the geniuses at GM to introduce a... yes, you asked for it... a Volt convertible.

Chevrolet has pulled off a surprise announcement with news that a 2-door convertible version of the brand’s Volt electric hybrid will come to market as early as this summer. Set to make its debut next month during the New York Auto Show, the Volt convertible will be powered by the same hybrid gas/electric powertrain found in the sedan. Power comes from a lithium-ion battery pack or, when extra range is needed, a generator connected to a 1.4-liter 4-cylinder engine. Range is approximately 40 miles in electric-only mode, with about 200 additional miles provided by the small-displacement engine...

...Unlike most modern power-top convertibles, the Volt’s is lowered and raised manually to conserve the vehicle’s pure electric range. The entire process is faster than a power system and a rigid tonneau easily pops into place over the folded top for a nice, clean and fuss-free design. The one hand operation also means the top can be lowered while the vehicle is in motion.

So its got that going for it.


Hat tip: Instapundit.

The inscrutable genius of Senator Scott Brown (R-MA)

Exhibit A: Scott Brown calls $61 billion in federal spending cuts "irresponsible."

Reducing and eliminating needless spending and programs are appropriate, but a wholesale reduction in spending, without considering economic, cultural, and social impacts is simply irresponsible.

And then there's Exhibit B: Scott Brown joins all 46 other Republican Senators in calling for passage of The Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA).

Today, with the backing of the whole Senate GOP Caucus, Senator [Mike] Lee introduced an amendment to the Constitution to balance the federal budget... The Hatch-Lee Balanced Budget Amendment is aimed at putting the country on a path to fiscal sanity. The central theme of this bill is that total spending for the fiscal year not exceed total receipts and must not exceed more than eighteen percent of the economy, as measured by gross domestic product.

Let's do the math. The U.S. GDP is $14.12 trillion. 18% of that amount is $2.54 trillion -- in other words, the maximum amount the federal government could spend in toto under the BBA.

2010 approved federal spending was $3.56 trillion.

Which means Scott Brown also supports cutting... $3.5 trillion minus $2.5 trillion... hmmm, carry the one... cutting one trillion freaking dollars from the budget.

* * * * * * * * *

To paraphrase Scott Brown: "$61 billion in cuts is too much, but I support the Balanced Budget Amendment that would slash a trillion in annual spending."

What a dips***.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Tea Partier Arrested in Wisconsin and Charged With Death Threats

Did I say Tea Partier? I meant far left progressive moonbat. Hash-tag #NewTone:

A 26-year-old woman was charged Thursday with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill.

Katherine R. Windels of Cross Plains was named in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court.

According to the criminal complaint, Windels allegedly sent an email threat to State Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) March 9. Later that evening, she allegedly sent another email to 15 Republican legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).

The subject line of the second email was: "Atten: Death Threat!!!! Bomb!!!" In that email, she purportedly wrote, "Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks."

"I hope you have a good time in hell," she allegedly wrote in the lengthy email in which she purportedly listed scenarios in which the legislators and their families would die, including bombings and by "putting a nice little bullet in your head."

...Windels was charged with two felony counts "bomb scare" and two misdemeanor counts of "computer message-threatening injury/bodily harm." If convicted, each felony count carries a maximum penalty of three years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and each misdemeanor count carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Want to take a guess as to which Democrat front group and/or public sector union she reports into?

Choose from: AFSCME, Organizing for Libya, the SEIU and WEAC.

I'm going with WEAC.

Update: Yep. Looks like WEAC.


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Well Done -- GOP Frosh to Harry Reid: You're a "Failure"

If it looks like a turd and smells like a turd, odds are it is a turd.

Freshman House GOP members will send a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday ratcheting up the pressure to pass a continuing resolution for the remainder of the fiscal year that “makes reasonable, responsible spending cuts”— and promise to protest daily until he does.

"Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure," says the letter, written by Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford, a former radio broadcaster. "You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing. We do not accept your failure as our own. The American people did not send us here to fail."

...In trying to flip the conventional narrative of government shutdown politics, the freshmen are engaging in their first publicly organized effort to use the strength of their numbers as a class.

Besides Crawford, among the freshmen lawmakers to sign the letter are Diane Black (TN-06), Francisco “Quico” Canseco (TX-23), Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Vicky Hartzler (MO-4), Mike Pompeo (KS-04), Jim Renacci (OH-16), Michael Grimm (NY-13), Frank Guinta (NH-1), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-3), Billy Long (MO-7), Tim Scott (SC-01) and Stephen Fincher (TN-08).

Mr. Reid,

We the undersigned call on you and the Senate to pass a long-term Continuing Resolution; a resolution that hears the calls of the American people and makes reasonable, responsible spending cuts.

Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure. You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing.

We do not accept your failure as our own.

The American people did not send us here to fail. Make no mistake: any government shutdown is the result of your lack of leadership. America has a $14 trillion debt and you offered a mere $6 billion in cuts. The House heard the calls of the American people and offered $61 billion in cuts, but the Senate has not sent us a Continuing Resolution in return.

We have received nothing from the Senate except denials of the dire straits of our nation’s fiscal health.

The House of Representatives is accomplishing what we were elected to do. We’ve cut spending. We’ve terminated wasteful programs. We’ve funded the government.

Mr. Reid, we are letting you know that we will rally on the Senate steps every day until you pass a long-term Continuing Resolution. We call on all Americans to join our fight in restoring our country’s fiscal health.

The House of Representatives is doing our job, Mr. Reid. The Senate needs to start doing theirs.

Mr. Reid, it’s time to pass a bill.

Bound together and determined,

[Signatures]

I like that:

"Bound together and determined."

It sounds like we may have some statesmen in the House after all.

How hard is it to explain, Speaker Boehner?

The last Congress, for the first time in modern history, failed to pass a budget. Any government shutdown is on their heads.

Now let's slash a trillion dollars from the budget.


Hat tip: D&S. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

American Spring? [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

There is certainly a lot going on abroad, but let’s not get so distracted we forget there’s a desperate need for regime change here at home. Here’s a promising bit of news that should buoy America’s democracy-loving "rebels."

March 30, 2011

Obama Gets Lowest Approval, Reelect Score Ever, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; More Voters Oppose U.S. Involvement In Libya


But let’s not take anything for granted. Keep punching until the bell rings on November 6, 2012. Obama is going to spend $1,000,000,000 (one billion!) to put us into another trance-like state. And that figure doesn’t include the free pass he gets from the White House-run legacy media.

Gee. Those numbers certainly come as a surprise. We now interrupt this presidential vacation for another crisis.








Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Remember the 'Misery Index'? Good News: We Just Hit an All-Time High

Anyone have a mathematical formula handy? I would like to calculate the number of Obama voters who have defected -- and will defect -- as each enormous Democrat boondoggle fails. You know: "Stimulus" programs, HAMP, HEMP, Cash-for-Clunkers, Obamacare, "Financial Reform", 10% unemployment, 20% underemployment, the government takeovers of GM and Chrysler, "Quantitative Easing", a new war, and $5.2 trillion in new Obama debt.

Or maybe we can just use Jimmy Carter's old 'Misery Index'?

While everyone knows that the CPI in the US is manipulated beyond repair (a topic far too broad to be discussed here suffice to say that as disclosed previously true inflation in the US is currently runrating at over 8%), inflation as actually represented by US consumers... is near all time highs... So if one takes this data series and adds to it the narrow unemployment definition (U3) one would get an adjusted Misery Index for US citizens (using inflation expectations instead of manipulated CPI).

...As the chart below shows, the Misery Index, which is merely inflation plus unemployment, constructed as such, would now be at an all time high.

...[This is hardly] in keeping with Bernanke's wealth effect prerogative, but surely in line with record food stamp usage reported month after month... And the other good news is that we have the Brits beat again: whereas the US is at a record, the UK is merely at a 20 year high, proving once again that only the US never does anything half-assed.

That's right, Tyler. Our beloved administration is, without a doubt, full-assed.


Schmuck-tastic! Reporters Hear Chuck Schumer Scheming With Fellow Democrats To Mislead Reporters

It's "Open Line Tuesday"!

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. [joined] a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning without realizing the reporters were already listening in. Schumer thought he was on a private line with four Democratic senators who were to talk with reporters about the current budget stalemate.

Schumer instructed the group, made up of Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Tom Carper of Delaware, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, to tell reporters that the GOP is refusing to negotiate... He told the group to make sure they label the GOP spending cuts as "extreme."

"I always use extreme, Schumer said. "That is what the caucus instructed me to use."

..."The main thrust is basically that we want to negotiate and we want to come up with a compromise but the Tea Party is pulling Boehner too far over to the right and so far over that there is no more fruitful negotiations," Schumer said on the call. "The only way we can avoid a shutdown is for Boehner to come up with a reasonable compromise and not just listen to what the Tea Party wants. "

...Someone must have finally told Schumer that the media were listening and he stopped talking midsentence.

As Ace observes, a government shutdown may be a fait accompli:

The key point is less about the message coordination and more about Schumer scheming to shut the government down, and preparing a rehearsed justification for it, claiming it's the other guys who won't negotiate.

Seems to me he's already well beyond negotiating and already digging bunkers.

Let 'em dig. Shut the damn government down already. If we can't marshal the will to enact massive cuts, the whole damn thing is going to collapse soon anyhow.


Hat tips: Ace o' Spades and D&S. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!