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

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

GREAT NEWS: Costs of Obamacare Exchanges Spike 29%... Before the Program Even Starts!

Unexpectedly, of course.

The CBO's new baseline estimate shows that ObamaCare subsidies offered through the insurance exchanges — which are supposed to be up and running by next January — will total more than $1 trillion through 2022, up from $814 billion over those same years in its budget forecast made a year ago.

That's an increase of nearly 29%...

Last year, the CBO said the average exchange subsidy for those getting federal help when ObamaCare goes into effect next year would be $4,780. Its latest estimate raised that to $5,510 — a 15% increase. All these numbers are up even more from the CBO's original forecast made in 2010, which had the first-year subsidy average at $3,970.

The CBO also expects 7 million workers will lose their employer coverage due to ObamaCare, almost twice as many as it had previously said would be dumped. It expects tax penalties on individuals and companies who don't buy insurance to be $36 billion higher from 2014 to 2019 than it originally forecast...

[And a] report out this week by the American Action Forum concluded that ObamaCare could nearly triple the cost of a relatively bare-bones insurance policy for younger workers. Should that occur, it would raise costs to those not eligible for subsidies and further inflate the taxpayer cost of the insurance exchanges.

The lunacy of passing an enormous new entitlement when Social Security and Medicare are headed for immediate collapse should be self-evident.

That said, over the last month, we've also found the following salient facts about Obamacare:

• According to Robert Gibbs and Paul Krugman, there really are Death Panels.

• If you like your health care plans, 7 million of you won't be able to keep your health care plans.

• And up to 500,000 children will be dropped from their current health insurance plans because of a "glitch" in Obamacare itself.

And to think: the law really hasn't even kicked in yet and it's already collapsing under its own weight.

Perhaps next time, the would-be dictators and tyrants on the Left could actually allow Americans to read the damn bill before passing it. Or is that too much to ask?


Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Quantitative Easing for Dummies. And Paul Krugman.

When asked to describe "quantitative easing" (or QE) to novice investors, Chris Martenson offers a simplified definition: a few clicks on a computer keyboard, and the Federal Reserve has (*poof*!) created billions of dollars with which to purchase Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities.

His summary, however, should send chills down your spine.

...we are living through the largest and most outlandish monetary experiment ever conducted by humans upon themselves. These are extraordinary times, and no matter how many times the mainstream press tries to convince you that a rising stock market or a rebounding housing market implies that we are returning to healthy economic balance, don't fall for it.

The Fed is in uncharted territory, having created a monster it can no longer control. In the process, it is blowing new asset bubbles that are benefitting those with first access to the newly-printed money (banks and corporations) at the expense of savers, pensioners, and anyone exercising fiscal prudence. This, of course, is creating a vast and growing inequality between the top 1% and everyone else.

When this misadventure in monetary policy ends, as both math and history says it must, it will be messy, uncontrolled, and very painful for holders of just about every sort of finanical instrument out there (stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc). That's why understanding the root causes and risks of QE is so important, in order to identify the best shelters for protecting the purchasing power of your wealth through this transition...

Martenson has five key takeaways:

• Money-printing by the Fed has created new bubbles in certain asset classes, like stocks;

• Excess reserves on banks' balance sheets hold a significant risk of triggering "explosive inflation"

• The Fed may be powerless to stop the QE spigot without risk to the system

• The mathematics will trump political considerations: a correction will occur and, with it, "massive financial dislocation"

• Hard currency assets (like gold) will, in Martenson's view, help alleviate some of the risks.

The people have spoken! Hope! Change!


Hat tip: BadBlue Money.

Monday, February 04, 2013

A simple chart explains why things are going to have to get a whole lot worse before they get better

America's plethora of low-information voters say that the country is headed down the toilet. Yet, because many (or most) seem to get their news from The View, The Daily Show, Honey Boo-Boo, or NBC, they have largely disconnected the president's abysmal performance from the country's direction.


My contention, therefore, is that things will have to get much, much worse before the president's excuses, straw-men, and enemies lists finally begin to stink like the overripe corpses they are.


Friday, February 01, 2013

INTERESTING CHART O' THE DAY: Inflation vs. Gold, 1915-2010

In order to pay for excessive government spending, the United States and other countries around the world are busy printing money. This practice, known as "debt monetization", is the precursor for inflation. Sometimes, in fact, the act of paying sovereign debt by printing money can lead to hyperinflation and currency collapse; the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe's recent experience being two noteworthy examples.

I was thinking to myself how a typical investor might be able to profit from a sudden burst of inflation. After all, the printing can only go on so long before a currency becomes a joke. We also know that America's most recent bout of severe inflation took place during the Carter administration.

Knowing that gold and silver are bellwether commodities that tend to march inversely against a devaluing currency, I decided to compare those metals against CPI to determine whether any obvious trends could be discerned.


History tells us that timing a peak is well nigh impossible. Perhaps once gold and silver go parabolic it will be time to sell. And given this administration's march to currency collapse, parabolic it will go.


Hat tips: Wikipedia: Consumer Price Index by Country and MacroTrends.

Friday, January 25, 2013

WHY DO THEY DESPISE THE BILL OF RIGHTS? Gun dealers report Intuit has stopped processing credit-card payments

Why does Intuit hate America? And it's not just Intuit: it seems there are several companies whose management teams hate America.

Is that assertion controversial?

I don't think so. These companies benefit from America's free-market system. Its respect for private property and the rule of law.

But they hate America's founding document, the Declaration of Independence. And they despise America's highest law, the Constitution.

How else to explain their animosity for the Bill of Rights and, most of all, the Second Amendment? Are they simply currying favor with the current administration? Are they fans of authoritarianism? Or are they just dimwits?

The usual suspects in this melee are two auto insurers, Geico and Progressive.

You can now add to the list -- at least based upon this news report -- Intuit, makers of Quicken and related offerings.

A Williamson County gun dealer recently learned a credit card processing company no longer wants to do business with him... McMillan is a has a federal firearms license and is heavily regulated by both the state and federal governments.

But McMillan received an email from Intuit Payment solutions informing him the company was no longer interested in processing his credit card sales.

"They either reviewed several accounts, or it was a company wide policy, because I wasn't the only federal firearms license dealer that got pushed out the other day," McMillan said.

In the email the company wrote "Intuit does not support the services you are providing" and then the reason stated was firearms, ammunition, gun parts and accessories sales not sold in a face-to-face environment with the credit card being swiped.

McMillan does not know the exact reason behind the policy change, but speculated the nationwide gun debate may be behind the move.

...NewsChannel 5 tried contacted Intuit to get a comment about the company's email to McMillan. No one from Intuit returned messages.

Of course not. It will take each of us, expressing our disgust with their actions, to reform these kinds of companies.


Hat tip: BB.

HEY, SMOKERS: Did the President forget to tell you about the 50% surcharge on your health insurance?

Why, I'll be damned: Nancy Pelosi was right. We really did have to pass it, like a kidney stone, to find out what was in it.

Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.

The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1... For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.

...the law [also] allows insurers to charge older adults up to three times as much as their youngest customers.

Second, the law allows insurers to levy the full 50 percent penalty on older smokers while charging less to younger ones.

And finally, government tax credits that will be available to help pay premiums cannot be used to offset the cost of penalties for smokers.

But don't worry: this has to be fair. Because all smokers are rich.

And we hate the rich.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The sad truth about Social Security

Please hide this particular article from any young hopenchangers who suffer from the delusion that Social Security will be around when they're ready to retire.

Social security is not earned retirement income, an entitlement nor a benefit.

Many people believe that Social Security is an “earned right.” That is, they think that because they have paid Social Security taxes, they are entitled to receive Social Security benefits. The government encourages that belief by referring to Social Security taxes as “contributions,” as in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act...

...However, in the 1960 case of Fleming v. Nestor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers have no legally binding contractual rights to their Social Security benefits, and that those benefits can be cut or even eliminated at any time.

Nestor sued, claiming that because he had paid Social Security taxes, he had a right to Social Security benefits.

The Supreme Court disagreed, saying “To engraft upon the Social Security system a concept of ‘accrued property rights’ would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever changing conditions which it demands.” The Court went on to say, “It is apparent that the non-contractual interest of an employee covered by the [Social Security] Act cannot be soundly analogized to that of the holder of an annuity, whose right to benefits is bottomed on his contractual premium payments.”

The Court’s decision was not surprising. In an earlier case, Helvering v. Davis (1937), the Court had ruled that Social Security was not a contributory insurance program, saying, “The proceeds of both the employee and employer taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like any other internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way.”

In other words, Social Security is not an insurance program at all. It is simply a payroll tax on one side and a welfare program on the other. Your Social Security benefits are always subject to the whim of 535 politicians in Washington. Congress has cut Social Security benefits in the past and is likely to do so in the future...

Unfortunately for the drones (i.e., the Obama Cultists), the math always defeats the political rhetoric. Always. And the fuse on the fiscal time-bomb is fizzling away, without any of our leaders making the slightest effort to douse it.


Hat tip: R.F.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

RUH ROH: please keep this chart hidden from any Chinese government officials you may know

I mean, would you loan money to someone with this kind of balance sheet?

This is the balance sheet from hell. And not a great fiscal legacy for Timothy Geithner. From the U.S. Treasury Department’s just-released Financial Report of the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2012 [PDF]...


...As of September 30, 2012, the Government’s total debt outstanding subject to the debt limit was $16.027 trillion, $367 billion below the current limit. As budget deficits continue to occur, the Government will have to borrow more from the public. Instances where the debt held by the public increases faster than the economy for extended periods can pose additional challenges.

I love that last bit: “Instances where the debt held by the public increases faster than the economy for extended periods can pose additional challenges.” Yup.

But don't worry, folks: Paul Krugman -- who won a Nobel Prize for his work advising Enron, if memory serves -- says America's fiscal house is in perfect order--and, in fact, needs more debt.


Egan-Jones discovers that all comments concerning the emperor's lack of clothing must be discreetly subdued

The name Egan-Jones may be familiar because it is a rating agency that has downgraded the debt of the United States at a far more realistic aggressive pace than its more compliant well-known peers like Standard & Poor's. Like this:


The New York Times' headline earlier today: "Egan-Jones Barred for 18 Months on Some Ratings."

The real headline: "SEC Bars Egan-Jones From Rating The US And Other Governments For 18 Months."

The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday that Egan-Jones, the upstart credit ratings firm run by Sean Egan, had agreed to an 18-month ban from rating asset-backed and government securities issuers as a nationally recognized statistical rating organization.

The agreement settles accusations that the firm made misstatements about its record when applying for a government designation, the S.E.C. said.

“Accuracy and transparency in the registration process are essential to the commission’s oversight of credit rating agencies,” Robert Khuzami, director of the S.E.C.’s division of enforcement, said in a statement.

But don't think of this step by the SEC as payback for dissing the Obama administration's reckless economic policies; consider it a mere coincidence.


Hat tip for title: JLA.

Monday, January 21, 2013

MARK LEVIN ON INAUGURATION DAY: Time to Fight

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart's Ben Shapiro, constitutional attorney and radio host Mark Levin had a message for regular Americans on Inauguration Day: Fight!

...“I don’t think Obama knows exactly what he’s going to go for in his second term,” Levin said, "as he will look for opportunities to exploit as events unfold. I am sure they've drawn up a partial a list, and we already know that it includes, but is not limited to, gun control; attacks on the First Amendment such as religious liberty; amnesty for illegal aliens; union expansion; institutionalizing Obamacare; institutionalizing voter corruption; de-industrialization via the EPA; destroying the capitalist-based economy via tax increases, smothering regulations, massive deficit spending, and endless borrowing; and hollowing out our military; etc.

...It will do extreme damage to the nation in many respects. I think Obama sees himself as correcting historic wrongs in this country, as delivering the fruits of the labor of other people to people who he believes have historically been put upon. I think there’s a lot of perverse thinking that goes on in his mind, radical left-wing thinking. He was indoctrinated with Marx and Alinksy propaganda. You not only see it in his agenda but in his words -- class warfare; degrading successful people unless, of course, they help finance his elections, causes, and organizations; pretending to speak for the so-called middle class when, in fact, he is destroying their jobs, savings, and future. Obama's war on our society is intended to be an onslaught in which the system is overwhelmed.”

How to fight that agenda? Levin said the answer certainly doesn’t lie in the current Republican Party leadership. “I think the Republican Party, its apparatus, its so-called leadership, the parasitic consultants, represent an institution that is tired, old, almost decrepit, full of cowardice and vision-less. It has abandoned the Declaration of Independence and any serious defense of constitutional republicanism.

The Democrat Party is now a radical 1960s party; it’s the anti-Constitution, anti-capitalism, anti-individual party. It largely controls the federal government, including the massive bureaucracy and much of the judiciary -- what I call the permanent branches of the federal government. The Democrat Party represents the federal government, and the federal government expands the power of the Democrat Party. They're appendages of each other.

On the other hand, the GOP today stands for capitulation, timidity, delusion -- so mostly nothing. Republicans may speak of the Constitution, limited government, low taxes, etc., but what have they done about them? Next to nothing if not nothing.

Even when Bush 43 was president and the Republicans controlled Congress. What did they do? They went on a spending binge. They expanded Medicare, the federal role in local education, drove up the debt, etc.

Meanwhile, we are lectured by putative Republicans like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge, and a conga line of others trashing often viciously NOT Obama and what the Democrats are doing to our nation, but conservatives, constitutionalists, and tea party activists who are the only people left standing for liberty against tyranny in this country."

...[T]he answer [however,] isn’t to start a third party – “The problem is a practical one. If we go third party, I can see the Democrats winning elections for a generation. Given the radicalized character of that party, that would seal our fate, and the fate of our children and grandchildren to, as Reagan put it, 1000 years of darkness.

The day may come, perhaps soon, when abandoning the GOP for a new party is the best way to deal with events and stop the rise of tyranny. I think the answer at this moment is for conservatives to retake the Republican Party. Reagan did it, and Reagan was opposed by the Republican establishment every step of the way, including the Bush family...

...After the Reagan presidency, Bush 41 and Bush 43, who'd opposed the Reagan Revolution, immediately dragged the nation back into the Republican mush. In fact, they sought to distance themselves from Reagan and his achievements, using such silly phrases as "a kinder and gentler" conservatism or "compassionate conservatism," as if all the opportunities, wealth, jobs, and enterprises Reagan's policies launched were neither kind nor compassionate.

There is an intransigence in the Republican Party that sabotages and obstructs those who have answers for this nation based on our founding principles. And so we had a brief eight-year period where Reagan showed us the way and created a foundation on which future Republican presidents could build, and they haven’t.

...the Tea Party grew out of the last months of Bush 43 and the early months of the Obama presidency. Yet Bush administration staffers are everywhere today: the media, advising candidates, leading fundraisers, etc. And they arrogantly and condescendingly lecture conservatives about responsible, moderate governance.

...They also cheerlead for more establishment candidates, like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and the like, who are not only sure losers, but have no grasp of the urgency of our times and the principled agenda necessary to address it. Meanwhile, the Reagan and traditional conservatives, the constitutionalists and the tea party leaders, are all but unheard and unseen on TV, even some of our favorite outlets.”

...Sadly, when you look at some of the great outlets for conservative thought and activism of the past, it’s a crying shame, because many of them have abandoned their past role as serious and substantive breeding grounds for conservative strategies, policies, and new intellectuals. Instead, they spend an inordinate amount of time analyzing polling data and otherwise naval gazing -- when they're not taking shots at other conservatives or promoting their TV appearances. With respect to policy, you could see this when the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Bill Kristol attacked the tea party back in 2011, when the tea party opposed the disastrous debt-ceiling deal.

...Our society is deteriorating as the federal government devours more and more of it, we are on an unsustainable course that threatens our liberty and all we have built and earned, and these people act as if it's just another day of wheeling and dealing. At a bare minimum, at least make the case to the American people, and if the people decide they want to live in chains, then there's not much we can do about it. But make the damn case and fight like hell!"

...But Levin said that the country rests on the blade of a knife right now, and that every effort is necessary to preserve its liberty. “Right now we have a government with so much power, a government so ubiquitous, a government so cancerous in its growth and so exponential in its expanse, that I cannot conceal my great fear for the future of this country...

...But it’s not just about winning the next election. That’s the minimum we need to do. We need to roll back the size of the federal Leviathan or it will surely be our undoing. Republicans have been allergic to this. We need to roll back the debt, even though the last Republican administration contributed mightily to it. The way to start is by cleaning out the old guard in the GOP and installing fresh, bold, articulate, knowledgeable, confident, courageous conservatives. We must find a way to depose the old, decrepit, tired so-called leaders who've used the system to climb to the top, but once at the top demonstrate they don't belong there. We also must find ways to devolve political and economic power back to the states and the individual. It is a fool's errand to believe that the same people who've brought us to the brink are the people who can solve the dire problems they've contributed to. This is a puzzle that must be solved."

Will the country be able to come back from Obamaism? Levin said that the road would be an uphill one: “To be perfectly honest, many countries haven’t come back from this. It’s happening from within. When an individual like Obama uses the instrumentalities of government against us, when he uses the power that the Constitution grants to a president to evade the Constitution and abuse power, when he uses liberty to exploit opportunities to promote the tyranny of centralized government, it’s extremely difficult for people who are not paying attention or who are not engaged in the political process to help us stop what's taking place...

...Only when things get so bad do many of them realize what's happening, and that's usually too late. Reestablishing the civil society will be extremely difficult. I have hope, but I’m not going to delude myself or others that this is just another election cycle or just another president or just another agenda we can easily overcome if we win the White House back in 2016. The President is making institutional, structural changes to our country.

...Do I think the country can survive? I think America will certainly exist. But what kind of America? The question is whether we will be a free and prosperous people or just another miserable place where rights are denied and needs are scarce and distributed by the government. I believe knowing the perilous state of the nation, and not pretending otherwise, and knowing that only we conservatives have any hope of stemming this tide and gradually reversing course, we will fight this in every legitimate way we can. And hopefully our already significant ranks will grow. We have no choice but to stand and fight. Everything is at stake," said Levin.

...But there is a bright spot: the American public still cares about the Constitution. In fact, they care more than they did even a decade or two ago. “The one positive aspect I see today,” Levin continued. “There are more people in America now who have at least a general concept of how the Constitution is supposed to work, including the Bill of Rights, and a general concept of what the Declaration of Independence means, including the emphasis on the value of every individual. This was not so 10 or 20 years ago. That’s not to say that such an understanding can easily transfer into modern politics. But I think, in part, that’s why you see so many millions of people frustrated, because they know our government shouldn’t be operating this way... The choice is in our hands right now.”

Pass the original article on to your friends. We need to continue to fight this political madness, now harder than ever.


Images: "Don't Cry for Me, America."

Saturday, January 19, 2013

SOUNDS SUSTAINABLE: Using GAAP accounting principles, annual federal deficit increased 30 percent in 2012

The term Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (or GAAP) refers to the standard framework for financial reporting that most U.S. corporations employ. The act of intentionally producing false GAAP statements is a crime.

John Williams, writing at ShadowStats.com (subscription required), used the Treasury Department's latest financial statements and calculates the true 2012 federal deficit, which includes the net present value of unfunded liabilities like Social Security and Medicare) at:

$6.9 trillion

In 2011, using GAAP accounting, the federal deficit was:

$5.0 trillion

Which means the annual deficit grew at a rate of nearly:

30 percent in one year

Anyone who thinks this level of fiscal irresponsibility can last much longer, raise your hand.

As for you Democrats: history will not treat kindly your support of the people who are quite literally stealing our children's futures.

And why the feckless, cowardly, and pathetic Republican "leaders" aren't shouting these numbers from the rooftops at every opportunity remains a mystery for the ages.



Friday, January 18, 2013

The 10 Stats You Should Never Show a Baby Boomer

ECB has 35 stats you may want to hide from any baby boomers you know. You may ask: Doug, of those 35, which are... the... 10... most... terrifying entertaining?

10. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.

9. 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.

8. 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

7. Elderly Americans tend to carry much higher balances on their credit cards than younger Americans do.

6. Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States.

5. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.

4. Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.

3. Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

2. State and local government bodies in the state of California have 325 billion dollars in combined unfunded pension liabilities.

1. The total amount of unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees that state and local governments across the United States have accumulated is 4.4 trillion dollars.

Bottoms up!


BOOM TIMES: Obama Perma-Campaign Releases Motivational Poster to Strike Fear Into Running-Dog Capitalistic Lackeys

Did I say the Messina campaign? Because I meant The People's Cube.


Which reminds me: it's been an entire year since the president's "Jobs Council" last met. But he did find time for dozens of rounds of golf, numerous pickup basketball games, scores of appearances on comedy and women's shows, and demonizing the Bill of Rights.

So much for his "laser focus" on America's lingering, worst-since-World War II unemployment problem.


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Counsel for the Surrender Monkeys in the GOP

As Erick Erickson wrote earlier today, the feckless RINO leadership appears prepared to throw in the towel before the debt ceiling fight has even begun.

...I can only assume that because House Republican leaders and those close to them have been whispering about [wanting] to move on.

They want the next fight. So desperate are they to move on, in January of 2013, House Republicans want their base to know they think they’ll lose the House in November of 2014 unless they cave now so please let them cave.

Idiocy. Sheer, unvarnished idiocy. Speaker Boehner and Skippy Cantor, here are the facts:

a) You'll get blamed by the media no matter what

b) Your last series of surrenders, in the kindest words possible, eh... failed to inspire the electorate

c) The country faces an existential finacial crisis

d) There are great ideas for dealing with Obama (see below)

e) So how about doing what's right, for a change?

Stanford's Keith Hennessey offers the weak-willed RINO leadership a simple strategy for dealing with Barack Obama on the debt ceiling. President Subprime McDowngrade wants a five-year increase on the debt ceiling or, by my calculations, enough to get us to a Grecian-style financial implosion.

To neatly handle the problem, offer the Foodstamp President two choices:

Choice 1: A long-term debt-limit increase along with significant present and future spending cuts

Choice 2: A short-term debt-limit increase if he refuses to cut spending, continued ad infinitum to highlight his fiscal irresponsibility

In other words, act as a responsible creditor. Act in the country's best interest, for a change.

Or should I send this via fax to John Boehner's favorite lobbyist, so I can be sure he gets the message?


Postcards from the Obamaconomy



Hat tip: @Ken24xavier.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

QOTD: Obama Declares Nothing Is Ever His Fault, Especially the Debt Since 2009

Jim Geraghty, writing at the peerless Morning Jolt:

Breaking: Obama Declares Nothing Is Ever His Fault, Especially the Debt Since 2009

Obama's press conferences, rare as they are, are going to be even more unbearable in the second term.

It's not like his rhetorical sleight-of-hand is all that complicated, and at this point, it feels like watching a magician perform very predictable and boring tricks. He insists that whatever he wants at that moment is "sensible" and insists that any cuts, of any program, be they discretionary spending or entitlement programs, fail to represent a "balanced approach" and "balancing the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable." The spending he wants is always characterized as "investments we need to make."



He says he's open to "making modest adjustments to programs like Medicare to protect them for future generations" without going into much detail about what they are; usually they amount to declaring the federal government will pay doctors less and hoping those doctors don't stop seeing Medicare patients, the way the Mayo Clinic did. Less than a month after getting the income-tax increases he started demanding the moment the GOP took over the House of Representatives, he's at it again, declaring, "We need more revenue, through tax reform, by closing loopholes in our tax code for the wealthiest Americans." He still complains that "a multimillionaire investor can pay less in tax rates than a secretary" and "tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans" as if nothing had changed on January 1.

Four years into his presidency, the problem is not of his making; he spoke about "spending that Congress has already committed to" and "debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up" as if he had nothing to do with the rate of federal spending since January 20, 2009.

Asking for statesmanship from a charismatic demagogue is somewhat akin to asking for diet tips from Rosie O'Donnell.


Image hat tip: Moonbattery.

RATING AGENCY WARNS OBAMA: U.S. downgrade likely "even if another debt ceiling crisis is averted"

For the rating agency Fitch, the debt ceiling debate doesn't represent the major financial hurdle facing the United States. As anyone with a third grade education in arithmetic knows, America's real issue is its unsustainable debt. The federal government's deficits have surpassed one trillion dollars a year, every year since Barack Obama took office.

In the absence of an agreed and credible medium-term deficit reduction plan that would be consistent with sustaining the economic recovery and restoring confidence in the long-run sustainability of U.S. public finances, the current Negative Outlook on the 'AAA' rating is likely to be resolved with a downgrade later this year even if another debt ceiling crisis is averted.

Fitch's warning highlights the urgency of the moment: Republicans must refuse to raise the debt ceiling without immense spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

From all appearances, President Obama wants the country to default. He has layered on so much debt, so fast, that the U.S. simply can't honor its obligations. In fact, it's questionable whether the current debt can be repaid, never mind adding in the next four years of budget-free operations.

Worse still, the administration's cascade of new regulations (like "Boiler MACT") are explicitly designed to prevent the economy from growing fast enough to help make up the difference.

The real question we should be asking is whether tough cuts now are preferential to a true default later.

It is clear that the House of Representatives should deal with an intransigent president by refusing to raise the debt ceiling without large, immediate cuts to discretionary spending combined with sensible entitlement reforms (e.g., raising the eligibility age for Social Security benefits).

It is provably better to cut now than to suffer a complete economic collapse later.

And we know that President Obama has set the country on a course for a total collapse.




That much is clear based upon the accompanying chart, which comes to us directly from the White House.

President Obama needs a collapse to occur in order to -- in his words -- "fundamentally transform" America.

So let's stop this madness now, before things get immeasurably worse.


Monday, January 14, 2013

Sotomayor's Gold Star

So I'm driving home this evening and happened to flip on National Pubic Radio (consider it gathering OSINT on enemy activities). And they're doing a feature on activist Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, the self-described "wise Latina woman".

Sotomayor is hawking an autobiographical book and she briefly describes the incident that led to her becoming an academic overachiever. Until the fifth grade, Sotomayor says she was a C-student. But the nun in her fifth grade class began awarding gold stars for excellent work. And Sotomayor wanted those gold stars. She wanted them desperately.

So she went to the top student in her class and asked for help. How to study, how to do homework, how to excel. Sure enough, with dedication, focus and practice, she became a top-notch student, winning countless gold stars and eventually becoming a valedictorian at Cardinal Spellman High School.

Now I found this story apocryphal. Consider that Sotomayor is a hard-core Leftist who has, throughout her career, supported the redistribution of wealth and the tenets of socialism. In other words, she endorses -- in every way -- taking gold stars from society's achievers and giving them to the undeserving.

In fact, Sotomayor's entire philosophy revolves around master planners -- wise Latina women and other masterminds -- divvying up society's spoils and slathering them around in an ostensible effort to do good.

Decades of these progressive programs -- the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Square Deal, Great Society, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, you name the program -- have failed over and over and over again.

In fact, they have created a massive, corrupt, leviathan of a welfare state that is headed straight for bankruptcy like a 747 that's run out of fuel. The federal government itself estimates fraud for these programs at $125 billion a year; other reliable analysts put the figure closer to a third of a trillion.

Instead of improving society, Sotomayor's intellectual ilk have crushed the will to work, built a permanent underclass unaccustomed to individual responsibility, encouraged corruption in government, and nearly eradicated the two-parent family in the inner city.

If Sotomayor had an ounce of intellectual integrity, she would have penned a more fitting autobiography in which she demanded gold stars from others in order to redistribute them "fairly".

Or red stars, if you know what I mean. But I'm sure the irony escapes her and the other leftists bent on destroying this society.


Sunday, January 13, 2013

THE OBAMA ECONOMIC RECOVERY: In One Chart

Did I say "recovery"? Because I meant to say "The Obama Depression".

Long Term Unemployment at Highest Level Since WWII

When America reelected Barack Obama they voted for higher unemployment, lower incomes, record government spending, and a stagnant under-performing economy. Barack Obama promises to bring even more pain his second term.

In the US today:

• 12 million Americans remain unemployed.
• In December 22.6 million Americans were unemployed or underemployed.
• The average unemployed American is out of work for nearly 40 weeks.

To understand just how bad things are, and just what a failure Obama’s first term has been, you have to see it graphically.

Americans voted to reelect Barack Obama because of the malfeasance of the progressive media machine. Had the media reported the truth, this failed president would have lost in a landslide.

Therefore, Americans would do well to anticipate more pain. Much more pain.