Showing posts with label Pelosi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pelosi. Show all posts

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Pelosi to House Democrats: Don't Listen To Your Constituents, They Really Do Want ObamaCare, Even If They Tar and Feather You During Recess

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has explicitly told House Democrats to sacrifice their own reelection efforts -- in other words, defy their constituents -- in order to pass a massive new entitlement program at a time when Americans and America can least afford it. Since when did Democrats owe fealty to a House Speaker and not their own constituents?

The following list of wavering Democrats, courtesy of AmeriPAC, contains the contact info you need to make your voice heard. Be polite, but be firm: a vote for ObamaCare is a vote against representative government, against the Constitution and against our families.

PLEASE CALL!DC OFFICELOCAL OFFICEStateDistrict
Harry Mitchell(202) 225-2190(480) 946-2411AZ5th District
Gabrielle Giffords(202) 225-2542(520) 881-3588AZ8th District
Ann Kirkpatrick(202) 225-2315(928) 226-6914AZ1st District
Jerry McNerney(202) 225-1947925-833-0643CA11th District
John Salazar202-225-4761970-245-7107CO3rd District
Jim Himes(202) 225-5541(866) 453-0028CT4th District
Alan Grayson(202) 225-2176(407) 841-1757FL8th District
Bill Foster(202) 225-2976630-406-1114IL14th District
Baron Hill202 225 5315812 288 3999IN9th District
Mark Schauer(202) 225-6276(517) 780-9075MI7th District
Gary Peters(202) 225-5802(248) 273-4227MI9th District
Dina Titus(202) 225-3252702-256-DINA (3462)NV3rd District
Carol Shea-Porter(202) 225-5456(603) 743-4813NH1st District
Tim Bishop(202) 225-3869(631) 696-6500NY1st District
John Hall(202) 225-5441(845) 225-3641 x49371NY19th District
Bill Owens(202) 225-4611(315) 782-3150NY23rd District
Mike Arcuri(202)225-3665(315)793-8146NY24th District
Dan Maffei(202) 225-3701(315) 423-5657NY25th District
Earl Pomeroy(202) 225-2611(701) 224-0355NDAt-Large District
Steven Driehaus(202) 225-2216(513) 684-2723OH1st District
Mary Jo Kilroy(202) 225-2015(614) 294-2196OH15th District
Zach Space(202) 225-6265(330) 364-4300OH18th District
Kathy Dahlkemper(202) 225-5406(814) 456-2038PA3rd District
Patrick Murphy(202) 225-4276(215) 826-1963PA8th District
Christopher Carney(202) 225-3731(570) 585-9988PA10th District
Paul Kanjorski(202) 225-6511(570) 825-2200PA11th District
John Spratt(202) 225-5501(803)327-1114SC5th District
Tom Perriello(202) 225-4711(276) 656-2291VA5th District
Alan Mollohan(202) 225-4172(304) 623-4422WVA1st District
Nick Rahall(202) 225-3452(304) 252-5000WVA3rd District
Steve Kagen(202) 225-5665(920) 437-1954WI8th District

It's up to us -- the last line of defense -- to prevent this abomination of a bill from proceeding.

Update: March 16th in Washington: Stop the Constitution Butchers... Stop Pelosi’s Slaughter House.


Saturday, March 13, 2010

Friendly Reminder for the Congressional Easter Recess

Remember, folks: tarring and feathering has a long and proud history in these United States.

Not that I'm recommending it, mind you. But that history part is true.


Image Credit: Protestors Tar and Feather a Tax Collector during the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, c.1790 (Art.com).

Pelosi: I'm delighted the President will be here to burn the Constitution in Effigy... it's going to be historic.

Yesterday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated the imminent passage of a sweeping health care reform bill by burning the Constitution in effigy, a symbolic act that she said expressed her disdain for the document.

Under White House pressure to act swiftly, House and Senate Democratic leaders reached for agreement Friday on President Barack Obama's health care bill, sweetened suddenly by fresh billions for student aid and a sense that breakthroughs are at hand.

"It won't be long," before lawmakers vote, predicted Speaker Nancy Pelosi [as] officials worked to maximize Obama's influence over lawmakers who control the fate of legislation that has spawned a yearlong struggle. They said he would delay his departure on an Asian trip for three days -- until March 21 -- and he will go to Ohio next week for a campaign-style pitch for his health care proposals.

..."I'm delighted that the president will be here for the passage of the bill; it's going to be historic," said Pelosi, D-Calif. -- though there's no guarantee the House can act by then. A procedural vote in the House Budget Committee is set for Monday afternoon, but as of late Friday lawmakers still hadn't gotten the final analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that they need to go forward.

By tying a nationalization of the student loan business into a reconciliation bill, Pelosi hopes to convince skeptical House Democrats that she's serious about fixing the Senate bill.

House Democrats plan to tack a major reform of the nation's student loan system onto the health care overhaul bill, a move that could help corral votes in the House but might make the bill's passage more complicated in the Senate.

House Democrats have been skeptical of voting for the Senate version of the health care bill [because the] Senate bill contains a number of provisions they don't like -- including federal aid targeted at specific states that critics say was used to buy votes and a tax on high-cost insurance plans. House Democrats fear that, after they approve the current Senate version of the bill, the Senate won't be able to pass the reconciliation bill and fix the objectionable parts.

What's their endgame? Even a simpleton or a Democrat (but I repeat myself), would admit that it has nothing to do with health care. It's a political calculation: Democrats are willing to lose Congress in November if they can create a brand new unfunded entitlement that will cement the power of government over the citizen.

...the president and leaders of the majority party have become infected with a kind of mania. President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders seem determined to ram through a severely flawed piece of legislation by any means necessary, heedless of the desires of the American people or the negative impact on the system they mistakenly say needs to be saved.

...All they need to do is pass the bill, and the poor, frightened, deluded American people will see the wisdom of their decisions. Hence House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's memorable (and revealing) comment, "We have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what is in it." In her imagination, once the bill is signed, voters won't remember the struggle, just the glow of the accomplishment. Rip off the bandage; you'll feel better after the sting.

The Democrats' headlong drive is leading to bouts of political insanity, such as the aptly named Slaughter rule, which potentially could allow the House of Representatives to "deem" the health bill passed without a final vote. That the Democratic leadership would consider resorting to such a stunt betrays a high degree of contempt for the electorate...

This rogue Congress and this President have already taken over insurance companies, banks and two car companies. And they've screwed up everything they've touched, from Fannie Mae, to General Motors, to "Cash for Clunkers".

Now Democrats want to touch off another huge economic calamity by nationalizing one-sixth of the U.S. economy and taking control of the student loan business. Not only are these efforts clearly unprecedented in all of American history, they are both antithetical to our founding and completely, utterly unconstitutional.


Update: March 16th in Washington: Stop the Constitution Butchers... Stop Pelosi’s Slaughter House.


Friday, March 12, 2010

RED ALERT: We Are Now Living Under Martial Law -- House Democrats Appear Set to Pass Senate Bill Without Voting On It

The Washington Examiner reports that House Democrats appear poised to adopt a rule that would pass the Senate health care bill without actually voting on it.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) is preparing to pass the health care overhaul through the House of Representatives without a vote, as was originally reported by the National Journal's Congress Daily. Mark Tapscott observes that such a maneuver would be the penultimate refutation of the people's will.

In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House "deems" the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.

Thus, Slaughter is preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill "passed" once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes. Democrats would thereby avoid a direct vote on the health care bill while allowing it to become law!

Constitutional attorney Mark R. Levin asks, "They're going to present a rule, issued by her committee as chairman, that says that the House already adopted the Senate bill when we know it didn't?"

U.S Constitution, Article I, Section VII, Clause II.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively...

According to Levin, James Madison himself gave special care and attention to this clause in the Constitution.

Levin: And do you want to know why? Because this clause goes to the heart of this Republic.

This clause goes to the heart of how our representative body, that is Congress, makes laws. And so I want you to [observe] how particular the Framers were... They have to pass a Bill to present it to the President...

This is one of the most exacting clauses in the Constitution.

And, to the best of my knowledge, which extends over three decades, no Congress has previously tried to institute policies without actual statutes.

Here we have the President of the United States and Congressional leaders actually talking about the possibility of a brazen and open violation of one of the most fundamental aspects of our Constitution and Republic! How we actually make laws!

Let me be as clear as I know how. If this is done, this will create the greatest Constitutional crisis since the Civil War. It would be 100 times worse than Watergate.

...It would be government by fiat... meaning there would be no law... the mere discussion by officials in this government is such a grotesque violation of the actual legislative function of Congress [that it] puts us... at the brink. At the brink.

This is why we conservatives revere the Constitution. This is why we stress the Constitution's words have meaning and historical context and must be complied with. Because otherwise we have anarchy, which leads to tyranny.

This is a crucial lesson for those of you who... aren't sure what your beliefs are, or if you have any beliefs. Or aren't sure if you even care. We have an effort underway by the one of the most powerful chairmen in Congress, the woman who heads the Rules Committee, ...openly discussing gutting Congress. Gutting Congress.

And if this is done, this is about as close to martial law as you'll ever get... So Louise Slaughter, a Representative from New York, is discussing, in essence, martial law. Now I can tell you, if they pursue this process, and try to impose this kind of a law, without actually passing a statute, that I will be in a race -- with scores of others -- to the courthouse to stop this.

I can't think of a more blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution than this. And the liberal media has essentially ignored it!

...It's not only absurd on its face -- that these power-hungry ideologues, party-first-country-second types, would make the claim that the House voted on something it never voted on... that's not only absurd on its face, it's blatantly unconstitutional!

Please stay tuned for updates to this post as we will provide additional insight from Levin and other Constitutional experts.

Update 11-March-2010 21:03 ET:

Levin: I wanted to bring additional firepower on this subject, my buddy Arthur Fergenson, who is a Constitutional expert and who has argued cases in front of the Supreme Court, including Buckley vs. Valeo...

What do you make of this unbelievable -- that they're even talking about, this chairman of the Rules Committee -- acting as if members of the House voted on something when they didn't actually vote on it?

Fergenson: It's preposterous. It's ludicrous. But it's also dangerous. It's dangerous because, first, ...because [the U.S. Constitution's] Article I Section VII says every bill -- and it capitalized "bill" -- ...it is common sense that the bill is the same item, it can't be multiple bills, it can't be mashups of bills. And, in fact, in 1986, Gene Gressman, no conservative, and one of the experts -- the expert -- on Supreme Court practice... was writing an article that was dealing with a less problematic attempt to get around this section of the Constitution... [Ed: the line-item veto] and he wrote, "By long usage and plain meaning, 'Bill' means any singular and entire piece of legislation in the form it was approved by the two houses."

...the bills have to be revoted until they are identical. Both chambers have to vote on the bill.

If this cockamamie proposal were to be followed by the House and there were to be a bill presented to the President for his signature, that was a bill that had not been voted on -- identically by the two Houses of Congress -- that bill would be a nullity. It is not law. That is chaos.

I cannot recall any circumstance in which that has happened.

...What we have here is a measure, that if Obama signed it, would immediately affect taxation, it would change rules of practice in the insurance industry, it would regulate 17% of the nation's economy, and it would be done without any legal basis whatsoever!

Update 11-March-2010 21:12 ET:

Fergenson: It's like, the closest I can think of is martial law! The President would have no authority -- there would be no law! It's not like it would be constitutional or not. There would be. No. Law.

Levin: What do you make of people who sit around and even think of things like this? To me, they are absolutely unfit to even be in high office!

Fergenson: You're right, Mark. And I would go back to what caused Gressman to write this... he was asked for his comments by the Senate... because the Senate was trying to do the equivalent of a line-item veto. And, in 1986, you were in the Justice Department under Attorney General Meese... there was a proposal... to take a bill and divide it into little pieces and.. then the President would sign each one or veto each one. That was unconstitutional. A Senate Rules Committee reported it unfavorably.

Update 11-March-2010 21:36 ET:

Levin: You know what's interesting about this... Attorney General Ed Meese considered it unconstitutional even though President Reagan had wanted a line-item veto. And President Reagan agreed that it was unconstitutional without an amendment to the Constitution...

...Speaking for myself, I would tell the people who listen to this program that you are under absolutely no obligation to comply with it [this health care bill] because it is not, in fact, law. Do you agree with me?

Fergenson: I agree with you. I believe it would be tested by the Supreme Court. I believe that, under these circumstances, chaos would reign. There is no obligation to obey an unconstitutional law. The courts are empowered to determine whether it's unconstitutional... it's not a law.

Under this scenario, the various arms of the federal government will be acting under a law that does not exist.

Update: March 16th in Washington: Stop the Constitution Butchers... Stop Pelosi’s Slaughter House.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Protein Wisdom, iOwnTheWorld, Theo Spark and VikingPundit. Thanks!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The only 'Green Jobs' this President will save or create are in the rice fields

Item 1: "The federal government racked up its largest monthly deficit in history in February – a record $220.9 billion in red ink, according to... the U.S. Treasury Department."

Item 2: "...in his budget address, [Illinois] Governor Pat Quinn will unveil how he plans to make up a huge shortfall [of] $13 billion... The state of Illinois meets the classic definition of insolvency. That is, it is unable to pay its bills as they come due... Budget observers also expect him to push for some kind of tax increase... And they're watching to see what, if any reforms, he comes up with to fix the state's broken public pension system. It's now more than $60 billion in the red."

Item 3: "California is facing a political and financial crisis of epic proportions... Rumors of default are gaining momentum and the continued ineffectiveness of the elected class in Sacramento has done nothing to allay the concerns of investors... There are bonds in California that will exhibit the challenge of debt service and wherein bankruptcy will be a real option."

Item 4: "New York state governor David Paterson has said the state is on the verge of a depression... The state is currently considering a raft of drastic measures to narrow its ballooning $9.2bn budget deficit... The governor admitted [that the state is considering] enforced, unpaid holidays for state workers and issuing IOU's for payments."

The modern Democrat Party is little more than a slightly evolved pack of locusts, moving from one state to another, destroying everything they touch. By 2020, the U.S. debt -- even without socialized medicine -- will exceed $20 trillion. This means the annual interest payments will hit nearly $1 trillion, or about one-third of the entire U.S. budget.

The President and his Democrat sycophants in Congress are literally eradicating the economic fabric of the United States. All we've worked for. What our parents and grandparents fought to defend. It doesn't matter what industry you work in -- coal, gas, electric, insurance, finance, pharma, telecommunications, health care -- it doesn't matter whether you're in a union or not -- the Democrats are targeting your jobs. They've said so: they relentlessly condemn the very profits that pay your salaries. Because they despise free enterprise and individual liberty. They want control; and your business stands in the way of their bureaucrats taking the reins. Orchestrating the economy, doling out favors, punishing enemies, rewarding friends and stealing more and more of your private property in the form of extra-constitutional taxes. They want Chicago-style Democracy, only across the entire United States.

It's happening right before our eyes.

80 years of Democrat Ponzi schemes are unraveling. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the "Great Society" Welfare State, Chain Migration of Illegal Aliens -- schemes so outrageous, so catastrophic in scope, that they would make Bernard Madoff blush.


Double Whammy for House Democrats: Ethics Investigation of Pelosi Approved as Kwame's Mom Subpoenaed

The Corner relays news of a double whammy to hit House Democrats today. First, the House of Representatives has approved an ethics investigation of Nancy Pelosi.

This afternoon, by a vote of 402 to one, the U.S. House approved a resolution calling for the House Ethics Committee to investigate House Democratic leaders and their handling of ethical allegations concerning former Rep. Eric Massa (D., N.Y.). House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) offered the privileged resolution.

In the resolution, Republicans urge the ethics committee, based on recent media reports, to probe into allegations of sexual harassment made by Massa’s former congressional staffers...

Inaction by House Democratic leaders “may have exposed employees and interns of Rep. Massa to continued harassment,” the resolution reads. The resolution also asks the committee to investigate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), and their staffs...

Second, Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's mom -- Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) -- has been subpoenaed.

...On Tuesday, Kilpatrick’s office manager in Detroit, Andrea Bragg, let the Speaker’s office know she had been subpoenaed as well before a grand jury... The topic of the subpoenas is not known. Kwame Kilpatrick has been fighting in state court over restitution to be paid on a perjury plea. The Free Press also has reported that a contractor who pleaded guilty in a federal corruption probe has told investigators he handed over bribes to the former mayor in 2002.

Cheeks Kilpatrick – Michigan’s only member of the powerful Appropriations Committee – has not been publicly implicated in any of those probes but has been a loyal defender of her son.

Don Rickles could not be reached for comment.


Update: Question: Could the Eric Massa scandal bring Nancy Pelosi down?

Hat tip: Larwyn.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A simple point: why health care is not, and can never be, a "right"

Health care is a set of goods and services that are procured through payments.

Is the right to life, or liberty, or the pursuit of happiness facilitated by the transfer of funds? Of course not. Our country's founders would never have countenanced the mandated delivery of services compelled by an authoritarian, centralized government. That was precisely the type of system they were trying to escape in the British Crown.

Thought Experiment: If Health Care Is a Right

If you live in the village of Curmudgeon, Montana, where there are no doctors, will the government compel a doctor to move to the area?

If you've received multiple heart bypass operations, chemotherapy and dialysis, yet you still won't stop smoking three packs and eating a dozen Twinkies a day, will the government guarantee care for your "preexisting" conditions?

If you're a health insurance company's CEO and the government mandates premiums, who you must cover, what kind of coverage you must offer, and the margins you are permitted to make, do you really think you can stay in business? Hint: in all of recorded history, find a place or time where price controls worked. Don't worry, I'll wait here while you check.

If you're a doctor in a specialty area and you decide that the government's reimbursements no longer pay enough for you to stay in business (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, etc.), what happens when there are no longer enough specialists in your field to handle the demand? Will the government forcibly require you to practice?

If you're a drug company's CEO and the government sets limits on the prices you can charge and dictate where your research money goes through its reimbursement schedules, how will new, unproven and cutting-edge drugs -- which require massive risk-taking -- get developed? (This may explain why roughly 75% of all pharmaceuticals are invented in the United States, not the faux Utopias of England or Canada).

What is health care?

Health care is an infinitely complex series of transactions facilitated by doctors, nurses, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, hospital systems, brokers, third-party networks, caregivers, volunteers and others.

The Democrats want to nationalize this entire system, and set up small committees of central planners who will formulate all of the rules, set prices, dictate treatments, and proscribe the activities of every kind of market participant, including patients.

Can a tiny group of Harvard-educated elites, serving as central planners similar to the Politburo, replace millions of decisions based upon free will?

Health care consists of goods and services, which must be paid for like any other. And goods and services simply cannot be a "right", unless you are willing to relive the horrors of the Soviet Union's gulags, Pol Pot's killing fields or Hitler's brand of medicine.

Because when you replace voluntary transactions with central planning, you are replacing liberty with tyranny.


Related: Canada's health care system is a poor model for the U.S..

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Pass the popcorn, Nahanni: California organizes circular firing squad to determine who will make up its 50% shortfall in revenues

It's another Blue State miracle! The Gaia-friendly Democrat Utopia has hit a budgetary wall, unable to raise taxes and unwilling to cut spending to come anywhere close to meeting its obligations.

Federal judges have ordered California to thin its immense prison population by 40,000 inmates or 24% out of a total of 168,830. There are currently 22,173 illegal immigrants housed in state prisons at an annual cost of at least $32,500 each; the yearly tab for housing illegals comes to nearly three quarters of a billion dollars.

But California's powerful prison guard union wants a large prison population because it drives higher employment for guards, a profession in which annual wages for union members can easily exceed $100K. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has gone so far as to publicly pillory California's "Three Strikes" sentencing policy, stating, "The three-strikes law sponsor is the correctional officers’ union and that is sick!”

In 2004, California voters approved Proposition 1A, which blocked the practice of the state assembly diverting taxes raised locally and, essentially, confiscating them. But, the wily California assembly began "borrowing" the local funds instead. Even the wealthy city of Newport Beach has a $20 million shortfall due in large part to this practice. Now voters may have to raise another proposition in order to ban the state from its predatory "borrowing" practices.

Across the state last week, students and faculty held protests because of large budget cuts to public schools and colleges. But Democrats in power still haven't quite comprehended the needs for significant cuts. After the state-wide demonstrations on Thursday, Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Solano, termed the protests a "flashpoint for anger over the state's disinvestment in education... Sacramento must listen -- without prioritizing education, the future of California is at risk... To all those whose favorite word is 'no' whenever we discuss the need for more revenue, the students have spoken..."

It's not just a handful of moonbat state legislators like Yamada: the entire governmental apparatus is completely dysfunctional. Today's editorial from The San Francisco Chronicle was subtly titled "Fix the shortfall yourself, Sacramento."

...voters are dismissive and furious over the state's political and budgetary gridlock, and they're in no mood to help Sacramento solve the crisis. The results are also a failing report card for government reformers, who are going nowhere in their bid to rewrite the state's decision-making rules...

...[Yet when] cuts are announced - such as teacher layoffs or state park closures - they become even more angry... Solutions to ease this crisis atmosphere go up in smoke.

So how will California make up its massive deficit gap? No one knows, including the Democrats in power. California is currently holding "tens of billions of dollars in unsold bonds, and Treasurer Bill Lockyer has warned that with the state's lowest-in-the-nation credit rating he may market new debt only sporadically."

Lockyer warned against a big water bond issue last year, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ignored him. They approved an $11.2 billion bond issue, loaded with pork, that will tap the deficit-ridden budget for more than $20 billion in principal and interest.

Why should taxpayers spend $250 million to finance removal of dams on the Klamath River by PacifiCorp, a utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.? Or $20 million for "economic development" in Siskiyou County? The Klamath flows through Siskiyou en route to the sea, but contributes nothing to our water supply.

Nearly $10 billion in unsold bonds would finance a fraction of the proposed bullet train linking Northern and Southern California. But the project's "business plan" is ludicrously inadequate, with cost, ridership and fare projections that defy reality, and full financing is so far an illusion... [in fact, the] High-Speed Rail Authority is paying a public relations firm $8 million to peddle the deeply flawed project

The unrealistic expectations of the various constituencies -- led by public sector unions and their powerful fundraising machines -- make the California situation especially dire. Unless these unions are dismantled, there doesn't appear to be any way to get a realistic consensus.

As an aside, one of the overseers of this debacle, Speaker Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants (D-CA) was unavailable for comment, seeing as how she is trying to break or bribe Bart Stupak in order to help the President take over the entire health care industry.


'Greg, who is the worst Senator in this Congress?' 'Well that would be hard to say, sir. They're each outstanding in their own way.'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid certainly has a way with words. Reid's authored such classics as "This war is lost"... "Obama is a light-skinned black with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one"... and who could forget "You could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol"?

Friday, Reid tried to top all of his past gaffes in one swell foop stating, "Today is a big day in America -- only, only 36,000 people lost their jobs in America, which is... really... good."

Yes, the excellent economic news continues apace, dampened only by the delay in nationalizing one-sixth of the economy. And, dammit, I can prove it.

At first blush, unemployment appears to be stabilizing. The February 2010 Unemployment number remained at 9.7% with an under-employment (or U6) rate of 16.8% and 36,000 more jobs lost, "which is really... good".

Total non-farm payrolls appear to be in a trough as well. Is this good? Well, no, as The Economic Populist points out. Good would be 200,000 jobs added to the non-farm payroll. Good would be anything [over] 100,000 jobs added to the non-farm payroll. It's pretty clear many out there are trying to make less bad the new good. Uh, no, good is not on a relative scale, it's an absolute folks. We need anywhere from 85,000 to 145,000 jobs created each month just to keep up with the population rate. That's reality.

But have things really stabilized?

A record high number of people -- 40% of the officially unemployed -- have been seeking work for 27 weeks or more. And part-time employment (in situations where full-time work is desired) increased to 8.8 million from 8.3 million.

The ratio of the employed to the civilian population continues to plummet, and is now at a record low of 58.5%.

As for workers in high-tech, contrary to the press releases of the offshore outsourcing industry, there's no shortage of available talent here in the states.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I'll tell you what, Barack. We'll tell John Q. Public you were doing a great job taking care of the economy, but you parked it out back last night... and this morning it was gone!


Hat tip: Economic Populist.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Two articles to forward to Democrat acquaintances (probably not your friends) who favor government-run health care

I'll be polite, like Mish, and ask you to please consider:

From the UK: 1,200 Needless Deaths: Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust [Hospital] put government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care... But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction... Indeed, some have either retired on lucrative pensions or have swiftly found new jobs...

• Patients were left unwashed in their own filth for up to a month as nurses ignored their requests to use the toilet or change their sheets;

• Four members of one family. including a new-born baby girl. died within 18 months after of blunders at the hospital;

•  Medics discharged patients hastily out of fear they risked being sacked for delaying;

•  Wards were left filthy with blood, discarded needles and used dressings while bullying managers made whistleblowers too frightened to come forward.

From Canada: Canadian Legislator Goes to Miami for Heart Surgery: An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision...

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla... "I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

The 60-year-old Williams said doctors detected a heart murmur last spring and told him that one of his heart valves wasn't closing properly, creating a leakage... Williams said [U.S. doctors could make] an incision under his arm that didn't require any bone breakage [unlike the procedures required in Canada].

..."I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. ... I accept that. That's public life," he said... "(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that."

Not to worry, citizens. Democrats promise that government-run health care will work as flawlessly as their $840 billion Stimulus program.


Hat tip: Zero Hedge.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Senate to House: 'You can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f***ed up... you trusted us!'

William Jacobson was among the first to point out that reconciliation doesn't matter when it comes to Democrats ramming Obamacare through Congress.

Probably the single biggest obstacle to Obamacare is House Democrats who do not like the Senate health care bill, but whose votes are needed to move the budget reconciliation process along... The strategy appears to be for the House to pass the Senate bill as is, based on the promise of the budget reconciliation process being successful in the Senate to implement changes.

But what if the Senate does not or cannot pass the changes through the reconciliation process?

Obama then has to power to sign the bill as passed by the House and Senate, meaning the Senate bill... Has Obama promised not to do so? ...Here's a list of Obama promises to the left-wing of the Democratic Party which have been broken, courtesy of Firedoglake: Senate Health Care Bill Is Built On Obama’s Broken Promises.

Here are some others, all from the left:

The Senate's reaction to the House echoes Otter's missive to Flounder:

"You can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f***ed up... you trusted us!"

Anyone who trusts Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and President Andy Stern needs their head examined (after it is oh-so-carefully extracted from their posterior).


Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Commercial Real Estate Continues Tanking, But Economic Effects Are Offset By Residential Real Estate, Which Is Crashing Even Faster

Realpoint's latest report on commercial real estate is a doozy (PDF). You couldn't get a more sobering readout with a shower and a quart of hot coffee.

In January 2010, the delinquent unpaid balance for CMBS [Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities] increased by another $4.3 billion, up to $45.94 billion from $41.64 billion a month prior. The overall delinquent unpaid balance is up 326% from one-year ago (when only $10.79 billion of delinquent unpaid balance was reported for January 2009), and is now over 20 times the low point of $2.21 billion in March 2007.

Overall, the total unpaid balance... for the January 2010 remittance was $797.3 billion... Both the delinquent unpaid balance and delinquency percentage over the trailing twelve months are... clearly trending upward.

The total balance of loans in Foreclosure and REO increased for the 27th straight month to $9.64 billion in January 2010 from $9.34 billion in December 2009 and $8.78 billion in November, despite ongoing liquidation activity. The chart [above] also shows the rapid growth of loans reflecting 90-day delinquency in the past 12 months, transitioning swiftly from 30-day defaults into more distressed levels on a monthly basis in 2009, thus supporting our use of such as an early indicator of workouts to come for 2010.

Put simply: brace for more pain in the commercial real estate space.

Well, residential real estate must be improving, right? Not exactly. The following Blytic graphs depict the real estate price index (RPX) in various metro areas since the year 2000.

Here's the graph of home prices in Phoenix, Arizona. Gee, that home-buyer tax credit didn't really work, but at least he was historic, right, Melvin?

Say, Las Vegas is hopping.

Gun-free Chicago -- my kind of town. Except for the hundreds of murders each year, thanks to the insane policies of Mayor Daley and the rest of the Democrat machine.

Miami - whyamee?

Mayor Kilpatrick (D-umb) and Governor Granholm (D-umber) certainly worked wonders in Detroit.

At least the masterful leadership in its city and surrounding counties -- as well as ultra-careful land use policies -- saved Atlanta from... oops.

Thankfully, the Obama administration has created or saved over ninety million green collar jobs. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner's behavior has been beyond reproach. And the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has brought much-needed tax relief for small businesses and 95 percent of all working families.

Thank heavens for President Obama and his crack staff of economic advisers who have brought so much real world experience to their current roles. If it weren't for them, I'm not sure what kind of shape this country would be in.


Hat tip: Mish.

Non-partisan MarketWatch reports: Economy is Dying, Thanks to Leno Cancellation and Marxist-Democrat Policies, But Mostly Marxist-Democrat Policies

Irwin Kellner at MarketWatch reports that the economy isn't getting better. In fact, it's getting worse. Much worse.

Commentary: Recent data paint a picture of an economy slowing -- sharply

The fledgling economic recovery appears to be running out of gas... The recent run of economic data is most compelling. Just about all of them paint a picture of an economy slowing -- and sharply, at that...

-- both consumer confidence and sentiment have fallen unexpectedly;

-- after-tax personal incomes adjusted for inflation have flattened;

-- sales of both new and existing homes took a surprising stumble;

-- orders for most durable goods are down;

-- manufacturing has slowed;

-- jobless claims are up;

-- fourth-quarter GDP growth came largely from a slower pace of inventory liquidation, not from an increase in consumer spending;

-- and as a matter of fact, consumer spending weakened last quarter.

Understand that the changes in the data above were not insignificant:

-- consumer confidence fell to a 27-year low;

-- new-home sales fell to record lows and they are likely to fall even further, since mortgage applications are down to 13-year lows;

-- existing-home sales are down two months in a row to a seven-month low;

-- first-time claims for unemployment benefits have risen in six of this year's first eight weeks;

-- and new orders excluding transportation fell 0.6%; orders for capital goods fell 2.5%, while capital spending itself was down a thumping 3.5%.

...the magnitude of the declines noted above suggests a message that should not be ignored... Are there any solutions to this mess?

...In my view, the best solution is a cost-free one: remove the uncertainties facing business such as regulations, costs for health care, energy and the environment, not to mention what their own tax rates will be.

You'd be surprised what this will do for hiring and thus for the economy...

Hey, Irwin: news flash -- everyone knows this. Everyone. Including the President and his sycophants in Congress. They don't care. They're committed, hard left ideologues trying to reshape our country and destroy the few remaining firewalls in the Constitution.

They're forcing Democrats to walk the plank on yet another unfunded entitlement.

In fact, the more they crush the life out of the economy with taxes, regulations and uncertainty, the greater the crisis they can precipitate. And that's what they will exploit to confiscate more and more of your private property while exercising increasing control over every aspect of your life.


Tuesday, March 02, 2010

The Obama Economic Death-Mobile Accelerates: February 2010 Federal Tax Withholdings Plunge To Multiyear Low

It's another Obama miracle!

February was not an auspicious start to Obama's record budget deficit-busting plans. The Daily Treasury Statement for the full month of February was just released, and it disclosed that while corporate tax withholdings, net of refunds, actually climbed marginally to $3.4 billion from $(3.4) billion in February 2009, individual tax withholdings plunged to a multi-year low of $30.7 billion.

Combined, the two items also posted a multi low of $34 billion, less than the previous recent low from February 2009 when the first leg of the Greater Depression was allegedly at its zenith. We can't wait to hear how the "recession is over" brigade will paint this particular data point.

Leave it up to the White House publicists at the Bureau of Made-up Labor Statistics to take care of that problem. Count on Census hiring, for instance, to drive the unemployment rate down to -3%.

Tax revenues are plunging. States are going bankrupt. The federal deficit is exploding. And the withholding numbers are even worse than they appear: for 2010, your withholding increased, though taxes haven't changed (yet). This gives the Treasury an interest-free loan, which you'll get back in 2011 in the form of a refund.

And what are Democrats fixated on? Nationalizing the health care industry. The entire economy is melting down, and they're trying to implement death panels and giant health care databases.

No wonder Americans are livid.


Hat tip: ZH commenters.

Restaurant Execs Explain the Disastrous Economic Environment: "Government [is] the greatest single threat we have"

Restaurant News Magazine explains why the industry is shrinking despite a growing population. Restaurant owners are afraid to hire, unwilling to invest, and incapable of expanding because they are terrified of what Democrats -- at every level of government -- will do next.

The increase of government legislation targeting the foodservice industry, on the federal, state and local levels, is one of the largest challenges restaurateurs face, industry executives and operators said Monday during the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York.

Jon Luther, chairman of Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin Brands Inc., the parent to Dunkin Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, said the intrusion of government through such proposed legislative measures as menu labeling, card check and health care reform, would have the most profound effect on the industry’s future cost of doing business.

Government, that’s the greatest single threat we have,” Luther said Monday during a panel discussion at the New York State Restaurant Association’s trade show. "Every time something happens, it affects the bottom line... The venerable CEO of Coca-Cola... was once asked why [the company had] a huge government relations office overlooking the White House. He said, ‘government could put me out of business.’"

Rick Sampson, chief executive of the New York State Restaurant Association, also weighed in on the subject of increased legislation during a presentation on environmentally friendly restaurant initiatives within the New York restaurant community... “It’s coming,” he said. “We’re already starting to see [mandated] deposits and sales tax on bottled water. You will be paying higher taxes, fees and on and on. The last thing we want is mandates on how to run our business.”

He suggested that restaurants that work to initiate green programs now will get ahead of the legislation curve, as well as manage to do something good for the environment... [and] initiating green practices before many become law is the smartest way to circumvent future problems.

California is legislating left and right,” he said. “The question is, do you want to [make changes] now when you can or wait until 2013 when you have to do it? I don’t know of any restaurant [company] that wants to be mandated to by government.”

Here's another idea: keep government out of the restaurant business and let the free market decide. But, in the case of California, I recommend that the state continue creating new regulations, agencies, boards, commissions, fees and taxes. It's been working out so well for them thus far.


Little-used 'Staple-and-bind' parliamentary procedure will allow Democrats to pass health bill with just nine votes in House, three in Senate

(Washington DC - RNN) Democrat insiders say that an obscure parliamentary procedure known as "Staple-and-Bind" will be used as an alternative to pass a health care overhaul should reconciliation efforts fail. "Staple-and-bind" refers to the final act of preparing legislation, using an industrial-grade stapler and a three-ring binder, for shipment.

"We take a trivial piece of legislation -- a resolution to honor Vin Diesel for his lifetime acting achievements, for instance," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"At the very last second, the instant before we staple and bind the legislation, we can insert as many pages of new law as will fit in the binder," she said, "This will allow us to pass a meaningful, bipartisan health care reform bill that will benefit all Americans with just nine votes in the House and three votes in the Senate."

Politico's Mike Allen reported late this afternoon that Senate staffers were scouring the District for the largest American-made three-ring binder, the Avery Royale Deluxe. It is widely believed that the Royale is the only binder large enough to contain the entire 2,770-page health care reform bill.

Congressional Democrats have also purchased a Staple Jihad 5000 Nail Gun, the only street-legal stapler capable of binding the massive legislation. The propane-powered stapler can penetrate up to 3,000 8.5" x 11" pages, which leaves room for Democrats to nationalize other aspects of medical delivery including dentistry, veterinary medicine and crystal healing stones.


Sunday, February 28, 2010

Now is ze time on ze Obama Recovery vhen ve dance!

It's another Obama record! The Evening Tribune of New York headline says it all.

Sales tax collections worst in recent history


...the Office of the State Comptroller recently issued a report on the sales tax collection for all counties in New York state in 2009 [and] compares 2009 to 2008 collections, and found a 5.9 decrease in collections statewide.

Sales tax-declines were experienced by 53 of the 57 counties in the report. Only four — Chatauqua, Oneida, Schuyler, and Seneca — counties experienced a growth in sales tax revenue, but the report attributes it to other factors other than economic growth, like late payments and other technical adjustments.

“Unlike other recent downturns, 2009 was the first time in recent history that there was actually a decline in county sales tax revenue — a sign of the severity of the recent recession,” the report reads. “The sales tax decline in 2009 was one of the worst on record.”

“This is yet another sign that the Great Recession is having a continuing impact on our communities across New York,” DiNapoli said in a release. “These numbers are sobering. Fortunately, many local governments have taken sometimes painful budgetary steps to stave off disaster. It’s a struggle, but all levels of government have to make every taxpayer dime count.”

The report didn’t offer much room for optimism, stating that tax collections are largely driven by two factors — personal income and employment... “Both of these factors are expected to remain weak in 2010,” the report reads.

Indiana monthly sales tax collections tell a similar story.

As do Texas' receipts.

The entire economy is flat on its back, as businesses wait in terror to see what Democrats will do next. While the likes of Obama, Pelosi and Reid casually discuss nationalizing one-sixth of the economy, levying fees on all areas of production with the addition of VAT taxes, assimilating 401(k) plans, and levying massive new energy taxes in the form of "carbon cap-and-trade", individuals and businesses of every size are frozen, waiting to see how they'll be punished and tormented next.

This is the problem with having hard-core, leftist ideologues running the branches of government. Facts, logic and reason don't matter to them. Only the pursuit of more power over the electorate matters. And they will use any means necessary, including illegal legislative maneuvers, to accomplish their aims.


Hat tip: Mish.

Reconciliation: "If the American people find out that this bill is about giving health care to non-citizens, they will rise up against it."

Those thuds you hear in the distance are Democrats firing every bit of political artillery they can muster. They're trying to soften up the American people to the notion of using reconciliation to pass their amazingly unpopular health care bill. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says the White House will announce their demand for reconciliation on Wednesday.

The White House and Democrats had one mission today: prepare the political class for the President's announcement, probably Wednesday, that he thinks the Senate ought to proceed with reconciliation to ****pass or modify**** a comprehensive health care bill (passed by the House or Senate first? Not sure.). But Democrats still don't agree: Kent Conrad, the budget committee chairman, says that the House must pass the extant Senate bill (with all the bad stuff in there) first; the House wants to see if the Senate has the votes for the Obama bill (with all the bad stuff taken out), and Conrad said today that reconciliation can't be used to pass #HCR.

On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Robert Menendez claimed that Senate Democrats would be able to muster 51 votes to pass the bill through reconciliation.

This is the same menacing supporter of the radical Hispanic separatist group La Raza ("The Race") who believes that a health care bill should offer "stealth amnesty" to illegal immigrants. A caller to the Mark Levin Show on June 25, 2009 described how Menendez and La Raza view "health care reform".

I want to tell you that last week I attended a conference on health care reform sponsored by La Raza. And I will tell you that what they had to say, Mark, is scarier than anything that's been said so far on the health care plan.

...someone from Menendez' office [Ed.: Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ] promised that he would make sure that "the useless barriers of citizenship would not be in this bill" and that he would make sure that they would use keywords like "streamline"...

...Yes [they said they would get free health care for illegal aliens], these are my notes, Mark. They actually got up and said "Latino children need health care more than whites". And then they would say things like "you must go out into your communities, use words like 'streamline', use phrases like 'all workers' and 'all families'," because they said -- and I quote -- "If the American people find out that this bill is about giving health care to non-citizens, they will rise up against it."

"If the American people find out?"

Gee, what a surprise. A Senator and a group that preaches racial superiority and divisiveness want to enact a stealth illegal immigration bill -- not dissimilar from their approach to chain migration. The bill will reward illegal immigration to the direct detriment of all American taxpayers and especially the elderly.

And Democrats are willing to pass this crap sandwich in complete violation of Senate rules -- that's according to Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), not me -- which demonstrates just how little interest the oligarchs in Washington have in representative government.

Every poll shows Americans overwhelmingly want to keep the hands of government -- which bankrupts everything it touches -- off of the finest health care system in the world.

I urge you to contact members of Congress this week (Senate contact page and House Contact Page) and urge them, politely and firmly, to reject this unconstitutional maneuver that defies the will of the American people. And, if they vote for this disastrous bill, tell them they had better have a good outplacement service.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Rasmussen Rates the Bounce in Popular Support for Obamacare Since Health Summit 'a Good, Solid B+'

Rasmussen has late-breaking details of the astounding 'bounce' in popular support for Democrat health care reform spurred, apparently, by the Obama Health Summit™.

The first evidence on whether Barack Obama got a bounce from the health care summit comes from the overnight Rasmussen polling. The short answer: No. Or perhaps: au contraire. Rasmussen shows Obama’s strong approval at 22% and strong disapproval at 43%, for a net approval index—this is Rasmussen’s term—of minus 21. That matches the low recorded in Rasmusssen polling on December 21 (reported on December 22), as the Senate was preparing to pass its health care bill and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was in the process of delivering the Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback.

One night’s results are not overwhelming proof of anything, and the one-day downtick in Obama’s numbers is not statistically significant. But it’s interesting that his numbers fall when health care legislation leads the news. Not what White House strategists want to see.

Especially since Nancy Pelosi now claims that Democrats really never had a health care bill they were interested in passing:

...despite all the debate of the past year, despite the fact that the House and Senate have actually passed national health care bills, and despite the fact that the Senate bill is the single bill that will have to be passed for national health care to become law, there is not, in fact, a national health care bill. It might seem somewhat counterfactual, but in a new interview with CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flat-out says there is no health care bill currently under consideration.

"You think people don't understand the bill?" asked CNN's Candy Crowley.

"No, I don't think -- there isn't a bill," said Pelosi. "When we have a bill, which we will in a matter of days, then that is the bill that we can sell. Our bill, the House and the Senate bill, had major differences which we are hoping now to reconcile. And then when we have a bill -- you -- as I say, you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie, but you have to have a pie to sell. And when we do we will take it out there."

From the pundits, on NPR's Diane Rehm Show yesterday, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift said that Democratic health proposals "never really turned into an actual bill. There have always been competing versions."

Gee, thanks for clearing that up. And it's always good to see state-run media working hand-in-hand with our beloved Democrat leaders.

Kinda reminds me of Venezuela in the springtime.


Radical Housing Proposal o' the Day

Reader Grrr over at Mish's site ("Obama's Micro-Mismanagement of HAMP Equates to "Can-Kicking Stupidity"") has a radical suggestion.

I've come up with a radical scheme that could possibly work to end the housing crisis:
1) People that can't or won't pay their mortgage lose the house.
2) The banks take the house and sell it to people who can afford it.

There are a few flaws:
1) It doesn't require massive amounts of government money.
2) It doesn't protect people from their mistakes.
3) It doesn't punish responsible people who are patiently waiting for houses to become affordable.
4) It could result in the banks that helped create this mess failing.

In spite of these issues, I believe we should give it a try.

That's just crazy talk.