Showing posts with label Reid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reid. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Charts o' the Day: Obama has a Death Panel --- for the Economy


Democrats in Congress and in the Obama administration have tripled the national deficit in only nine months.

Their egregious budgets put America on a glide-path to bankruptcy. Nine years from now, unless we throw out these economic illiterates, the deficit will be the size of the entire American economy.

How has the economy responded to their gravity-defying spending spree?

The "Cash for Clunkers" program was an utter failure, pulling demand forward primarily for foreign automakers, even though American taxpayers own GM and Chrysler.

Surely a genius like TurboTax Tim Geithner -- the only man smart enough to rescue the economy -- could help us understand this chart. Multiple housing starts are still at a record low and there is literally no momentum for improved real estate sales when so many Americans are unemployed.

Mortgage rates are at record lows. Taxpayers are funding $8,000 down payments in the form of tax credits. And yet, despite all of the spending, home sales remain at near record lows. The few houses that are selling are existing homes. So much for stimulating construction employment.

The price of "affordable" mortgage rates -- affordability being a relative term when you're unemployed -- is the catastrophic devaluation of the U.S. dollar. At some point soon, rates must increase. And when they do, the outstanding Option ARM and Alt-A loan book will truly become a ticking time-bomb.

The true unemployment rate (U-6) is at 17 pecent while the average work week is the lowest it's been since they started keeping records in the sixties.

Despite a record number of foreclosures, debt forgiveness packages and bankruptcies, households are still carrying a phenomenal amount of debt. The "stimulus" package appeared to be a wonderful bailout for the banks and their cronies in Washington, but less effective for Joe Average.

The stock market trend over the last few months is an odd one: despite very low volumes, the DJIA and SPY have ratcheted up 50% from their lows. The underpinnings of the ramp-up are hard to rationalize given the upcoming waves of Option ARM, Alt-A and Commercial Real Estate defaults. And although they're swimming in cash, the banks aren't extending credit, presumably because they're sitting on massive hidden losses that haven't been marked to market. Given the uncertainty around small businesses (mandated health care, energy taxes, etc.), unemployment will remain high. All of these factors mean that we could have a third major bubble building in the markets.

An analysis by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PDF) demonstrates that health care bills for individuals and families will skyrocket under the Democrats' "health care reform" efforts that leave tens of millions uninsured.

Count on spending an additional $4,000 (in after tax dollars) each year for your family.


Add in the health care bill to all of the other deficit spending and the results are dismal indeed.

The health care bill adds trillions to an already dangerously swollen deficit.

Feel stimulated yet?

In the midst of this economic catastrophe, the failures in Washington are relentlessly pushing the nationalization of one-fifth of our entire economy.

I don't know whether there are "death panels" in the health care bill, but the Democrats have one running our economy.


Charts and Commentary Hat Tips: The Foundry and Doctor Housing Bubble,
.

 

Monday, October 12, 2009

A Call To Action From 1950: We Must Fight Socialized Medicine!


Realistico writes:

Attached is an ad taken out by the American Medical Association in the Ladies' Home Journal of November 1, 1950. Its subject? Compulsory, socialized medicine...


Our beloved Congress appears to have forgotten, once again, who actually runs this country.


Thursday, October 08, 2009

Welcome to Zimbabwe: World Economic Forum ranks U.S. financial stability 38th, currency stability 50th globally


The Democrats' game plan is working. They've already tripled the deficit, they're desperately trying to nationalize one-fifth of the economy with trillions more in spending and they're not done yet.

Economists are not pleased. The World Economic Forum has issued its 2009 Financial Development Report (PDF) and the news for the United States is decidedly poor.

...the impact of the systemic risk potentially created by some of these activities is captured only in the financial stability pillar; the United States achieves very low scores in overall financial stability (38th)...

Particular disadvantages are evident in currency stability (50th) and banking stability (36th) measures. The banking system in general also exhibits signs of weakness, with relatively lower scores in size (21st) and efficiency (26th).

Potential areas of improvement in the institutional environment include the strength of auditing and reporting requirements (25th), the regulation of securities exchanges (29th), and public trust of politicians (26th).

Trust in politicians? I didn't know an instrument existed that could measure trustworthiness in the likes of Pelosi, Reid and Obama.

Welcome to the third world, courtesy of the outstanding leadership of the National Socialist Democrat Party.


Linked by: InstaPundit, Gateway Pundit and Mark Levin. Thanks!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

And these are the guys who want to nationalize 17% of the economy?


Gee, they got the whole stimulus thing wrong.


And screwed up the auto companies. And the banks. And the budget. And "Cash-for-Clunkers". And the dollar.

But I'm sure Biden, Pelosi, Reid and President Training Wheels will be able to successfully revamp the entire health care system using a central-planning approach reminiscent of East Germany in 1963.


Update: More good news: "Halloween came early to the White House."

"The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever"


One more from Henry Blodget:

It's now official: The country has lost more jobs as a percentage of peak employment than any time since the Great Depression.

This includes the recessions of the early 1980s, even when they are combined.

(Click to zoom)

...regardless of what the jobs recovery eventually looks like, it hasn't started yet... here's [Calculated Risk]'s explanation:

The dashed line is an estimate of the impact of the large benchmark revision (824 thousand more jobs lost).

The graph compares the job losses from the start of the employment recession in percentage terms (as opposed to the number of jobs lost).

Instead of 7.2 million net jobs lost since December 2007, the preliminary benchmark estimate suggests the U.S. has lost over 8.0 million net jobs during that period.

Thankfully, the President of Chicago has a vast amount of experience in revitalizing businesses, so it shouldn't be much of a problem for him to repair the badly wounded economy.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Fail Blog: Central Planning Edition


Consider the track record of the Central-Planner-In-Chief:

• The results of the ill-fated $787 "Stimulus" package?


Cash-for-Clunkers?


• The First-time Home Buyers' Tax Credit?


• Nationalizing GM and Chrysler, while abrogating bankruptcy laws to reward major campaign contributors like the union bosses?


• Allowing the Treasury Department (a wholly owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs) and the Federal Reserve to artificially and illegally prop up the country's "too-big-to-fail" banks?


• Attempting a takeover of 17% of the economy through creation of a government-run health care system?


You'd have thought the fall of the Soviet Union would have taught the would-be central planners the futility of Politburo-style orchestration of the economy.


But, then, you'd be thinking rationally, unlike the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats who are -- intentionally or not -- destroying the American economy.

Remember their outrageous failures. And vote accordingly in 2010.


Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Be Civil?


Frances Rice, a retired lawyer and US Army Lieutenant Colonel, is chairman of the National Black Republican Association.

It’s a sure sign that Republicans are winning a debate on issues when Democrats, aided by well-meaning civility police pundits and activists, demand that Republicans stop showing their passion and “be civil”.

I am still waiting for those with such a keen sense of civility to demand that Democrats cease their unrelenting and uncivil, even racist, attacks on black Republicans. I won’t hold my breath.

High on the Democrats’ list of those to be denigrated are accomplished black Republicans who do not toe the Democrats’ liberal agenda line. Shamefully, Democrats do not want poor black children to have as role models any black person who does not engage in victim mongering and works hard to become prosperous rather than become dependent on government handouts.

The message that Democrats gives to poor blacks is despicable. If you remain poor, uneducated and vote for Democrats, we will celebrate your victimhood. If you get a good education, get a good job and vote for Republicans, we will denigrate you as "acting white”, a "sellout”, an "Uncle Tom”, a "House Negro”, a "House N-word", a "Lawn Jockey”, and worse..

Brazenly, on the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of then Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele (now chairman of the RNC) when he was running for a Senate seat, depicting Steele as a "Simple Sambo" with a blackened minstrel-style face, nappy hair and big, think red lips. The cartoon caption read: “Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house”. This contemptible racist stereotype is the same one Democrats used to demean black men during the era of slavery and segregation.

In addition to other outrageous racist images of Dr. Condoleezza Rice produced by several Democrats, cartoonist Jeff Danziger depicted Dr. Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy", reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie “Gone with the Wind” about the slave era black woman who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies". This is the type of racist stereotype Democrats used to demean black women during the era of slavery and segregation.

Democrats now love Gen. Colin Powell, but spewed out racist attacks on Powell before he endorsed Obama and embraced the liberal agenda of higher taxes and a bigger government to provide poverty producing handouts to blacks.

A video was shot by WKRN Video Journalist Beau Fleenor at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee that shows Al Sharpton demeaning Gen. Powell and Dr. Rice, when Sharpton was asked to give his opinions about whether Powell and Rice were “House Negroes". That video can be found on the Internet.

An article that appeared in a Portland, Oregon paper was one of many exposing how hardly a ripple of protest was made by black Democrats when Harry Belafonte publicly denounced Gen. Powell as a "House Negro".

With impunity, the late Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy called black judicial nominees, including Judge Janice Rogers Brown, “Neanderthals”. Democrat Senator Harry Reid slurred Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an incompetent Negro who could not write good English. “Slap at Thomas stinks of racism,” was the headline of the New York Daily News’ December 7, 2004 editorial.

Even black Democrats will be maligned if they dare step off of the Democratic Party’s political plantation. When black Democrat Juan Williams wrote his book entitled "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-end Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America" that exposed the deplorable conditions in black communities caused by the Democrats running those communities, Williams was denounced on national TV by another black Democrat as a "Happy Negro".

For details about how Democrats during the 1960’s even smeared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a Republican, see the article posted on the NBRA website.

“Civility, Ours and Theirs” is an article that provides more details about how Democrats vilify black Republicans while wagging their finger at Republicans about being civil.

Our political discourse can be elevated to the high standards demanded by the civility police only when Democrats are also required to play by the rules of civility.



Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Harry Reid gives GOP direct warning on healthcare; I give Harry Reid a direct warning: start looking for outplacement services


The Hill reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry ("Loser") Reid is now issuing direct threats to Republicans ("Reid gives GOP direct warning on healthcare").

Reid told Republicans that he would prefer to pass healthcare reform under regular order but warned that he would not hesitate to use budget reconciliation if the legislation stalled in committee. The Senate Finance Committee began marking up a sprawling healthcare reform bill on Tuesday morning.

...Reid then spelled out how healthcare would pass under budget reconciliation proceedings, giving his colleagues a clear picture of what they face if they fail to reach bipartisan agreement.

“On reconciliation, under the order, there’s only 20 hours of debate,” Reid explained...

Here's a warning for you, Reid. Consider it career counseling. Or, rather, end-of-career counseling.

Go ahead, make my day. We will spend whatever it takes, call as many Nevada voters as we can, write and email as much material as it takes (your pathetic record on the economy since taking over in 2006, for starters) to defeat you in 2010.

Does the year 1994 ring a bell? Well, the outrage now dwarfs that of '94. Americans aren't ready for Dear Leader's brand of socialism. Not by a long shot.

You want to overhaul one-sixth of the economy, against the wishes of the American people, with 20 hours of debate?

Hey, Reid: call an outplacement service. Now. Before the rush.


Sunday, September 13, 2009

In whom do you place your trust?


As it pertains to the role of government, individual liberty, the free market, Democracy and natural law, in whom do you place your trust?

Benjamin Franklin
"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."
Barney Frank
"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

 

Alexander Hamilton
"It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government."
"The sacred rights of mankind... are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased."
Christopher Dodd
"I don't care what the public wants, I'm going to give it what it needs!"

 

Thomas Jefferson
"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. ...A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. "
Nancy Pelosi
"Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs."
"The impact of climate change is a tremendous risk to the security and well-being of our countries."

 

John Adams
"Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power."
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Harry Reid
"It's time that America's government lived by the same values as America's families. It's time we invested in America's future and made sure our people have the skills to compete and thrive in a 21st century economy. That's what Democrats believe."

 

James Madison
"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government." "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
Barack Obama
"I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody."
"In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world."
"We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. "

 

Principles grounded in thousands of years of human experience versus soaring, yet utterly empty, rhetoric.

Timeless genius versus power-hungry political hacks.

Our choice is clear. We choose liberty.


Linked by: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical. Thanks!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Why the Left is horrified at Joe Wilson's treatment of the President


After all, the National Socialist Democrats treated President Bush with such kid gloves.

Barack Obama, addressing his supporters: "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face."

Nancy Pelosi, addressing anti-GOP protesters: "I'm a fan of disrupters! ...So I thank all of you who have spoken out for your courage, your point of view. All of it. Your advocacy is very American and very important."

Harry Reid, commenting on his labeling of President Bush as "a liar", "a loser", and the "worst President ever":

GREGORY: Before you go, do you have any regrets about the way you have publicly battled with President Bush?

Over the years you’ve called him a liar, a loser, and you’ve described him as, quote, our worst president ever.

REID: I wrote a book and I said that in the book several times. David, I am who I am. I’m going to continue being who I am. I think you just have to call things the way you see them.

I really do believe that President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had. I think his efforts to destroy Social Security were very bad. That brought about one of those statements.

I think, as we’ve looked, now, at what’s happened to the stock market, wouldn’t that have been an awful thing to do, to privatize Social Security?

Medicare — he’s done his very best to destroy Medicare, Medicare, a wonderful program. Perfect? Of course not, but one of the best programs ever developed to take care of sick people, so...

Is there a word that means 'hypocrisy' -- only it's enough to make you puke?

Joe Wilson only said what 75% of the American people were thinking. And since the Democrats won't even meet with Republicans to discuss health care reform; since they reject tort reform; since they really do allow illegal immigrants to get free health care; since they lie repeatedly about improving care; since simple mathematics refutes the concept of adding tens of millions to the health care system while 'improving care', 'covering preexisting conditions' and 'not adding to the deficit'... well, there are about 200 million Americans who think that Obama is lying.

And the Democrats will be committing political suicide in 2010 if they try to ram this tyrannical, socialist fraud down the American people's throats.



Update: A must-listen in MP3 format.


Monday, September 07, 2009

Pressing some buttons to help kill ObamaCare


Jasmine writes:

CALL THE 10 SENATORS LISTED BELOW: Your PHONE CALLS to Kill Obamacare socialized medicine have been very effective and the tide is definitely turning our way! Talking points are:

1) NO more socialism
2) NO government health co-ops
3) NO rationing
4) NO mandates
5) NO government bureaucrats making life and death health decisions
6) YES to keep private insurance.

Tell them to KILL Obamacare before it kills you or family members with health care rationing. We just need to KEEP making PHONE CALLS!. Most of these are conservative Democrats in red states:

Sen. Jon Tester (MT) 202-224-2644
Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) 202-224-5344
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR) 202-224-4843
Sen. Mark Pryor (AR) 202-224-2353
Sen. Kent Conrad (ND) 202-224-2043
Sen. Byron Dorgan (ND)202-224-2551
Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) 202-224-6551
Sen. Bill Nelson (FL) 202-224-5274
Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA) 202-224-5834
Sen. Max Baucus (MT) 202-224-2651

Have a great day and get those phone calls rocking!

Press some buttons and make your voice heard; as always, remain civil but firm. ObamaCare must go.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Rove by the numbers


Discussing public sentiment on Thursday night with Sean Hannity, Karl Rove offered the following numbers relating to Obama and the Democrats in power:

242 days since the inauguration

111 speeches given by President Obama on health care

40 days was the original amount of time given by Obama for Congress to completely overhaul health care

67% of Americans oppose or strongly oppose a government takeover of health care

53% job approval for President Obama as an average of all major polls

50% job approval for President Obama as measured by Gallup; this means Obama dropped to 50% approval faster (by 8/26) than all prior Presidents including Ford (after pardoning Nixon) and Clinton (gays in the military debacle)

40%-47% approve-disapprove ratio relating to Obama

37% job approval for Congress, the lowest in 24 years

45%-44% generic identification Democrat vs. GOP, which signals a major shift

New Jersey's incumbent Democrat Governor trails by 10 points in the latest polling

Virginia's Democrat trails by 9 points for the Governorship

It's way too early to get very excited, but the groundswell of public distaste for the Democrats' poor leadership abilities is becoming clear.

Writing just a couple of weeks after the election, Rove's Wall Street Journal op-ed now appears eerily prescient.



Correction: regarding Virginia's race, hat tip: Bohemond.