Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wisconsin's Democrat Legislators Go on a Road Trip, Hold Awesome Toga Party, Then Check Out Otis Day and the Knights at the Dexter Lake Club

Pity that Dean Wormer found out.

The Wisconsin senate democrats fled the state today rather than vote on a budget repair bill... WREX [reported that the] senators ran to the Clocktower resort in Rockford...

...The Rockford Tea Party [then] chased the Wisconsin democrats out of the Best Western. They just boarded their bus and [left] the Best Western... Local Rockford News [interviewed] the Tea Party Patriots who chased the Wisconsin Democrats out of town.

...They are reportedly back in Wisconsin. Let’s hope the cops were there to greet them as they crossed the state line... Note to Wisconsin police- While you have these lawbreakers in custody, please check for liquor, drugs, tax records, legal residence, cash in the fridge and birth certificates. Thank you.

In an interview with WKOW by cell phone, Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach claimed that running away from the state capitol wasn't shirking his job.

He said he was doing his duty, representing the citizens by leaving town during the midst of a multi-billion dollar budget crisis.

Wonder how that argument's going to go over with the electorate.


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

Remember when George Stephanopolous and David Gregory grilled Nancy Pelosi about the Left's 9/11 Truther Movement?

Neither do I.

NBC’s David Gregory hit John Boehner with it over the weekend, and now grilling conservatives about their beliefs concerning President Obama’s birthplace and faith seems to be an all-out media fad. I wouldn’t really mind that necessarily if it didn’t come at the expense of trumping other important topics — but maybe that’s the objective of the questioner(s).

In this example featuring George Stephanopoulos and Michele Bachmann, the subject change abruptly occurs as Bachmann is talking about the tax policy. Then when Bachmann is talking about the stimulus fail, Stephanopoulos changes the subject to Lady Gaga.

Ed Morrissey calls it Non-Sequitur Central.

Since when do random GOP legislators take responsibility for a fringe group, members of whom may be plants?

For the best example I can remember, rewind to 2006, when Brian Gibson lobbed underhand softballs at the least experienced presidential candidate in history, one Barack H. Obama. Compare and contrast:

Obama interview:

How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to “win”?
How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech?


Palin interview:

Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Aren’t you conceited to be seeking this high level job?
Questions about foreign policy
-territorial integrity of Georgia
-allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO
-NATO treaty
-Iranian nuclear threat
-what to do if Israel attacks Iran
-Al Qaeda motivations
-the Bush Doctrine
-attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan
Is America fighting a holy war? [misquoted Palin]


The Anchoress summarizes the difference in a sentence: "So there, you have it - another utterly insane day in American politics, where 'big time professional journalists' ask Presidential candidates how they feel about being so great while drilling vice presidential candidates on Russia."

Come to think of it, Jon Stewart has been far, far more credible than any network news personality for several years now.

By the way: Michelle Bachmann for President 2012.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Juxtaposed Headlines o' the Day: We are the Second-Class Citizens

The national treasure known as Mark Levin points us to this pair of headlines that will really make your day.

Only 15% of Southern Border Is Sealed 'Air-Tight'

16 February 2011, US News & World Report

...the Border Patrol only has "operational control" of 44 percent of the southern border, and of that only 15 percent is air tight, according to new General Accountability Office report...

Healthcare Reform Law Requires New IRS Army Of 1,054

16 February 2011, US News & World Report

...The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama's healthcare reforms. Among the new corps will be 81 workers assigned to make sure tanning salons pay a new 10 percent excise tax. Their cost: $11.5 million...

In other words, an illegal alien can cross the border, receive free schooling, health care, welfare and social services.

On the other hand, citizens who don't want any part of socialized medicine -- who rallied, voted, tossed out Democrats in record numbers across the country -- are going to be hunted down and prosecuted by hordes of new health care enforcers. These new enforcers, by the way, would be hired in an unlawful way since Obamacare was just declared unconstitutional -- null and void -- a ruling which the Obama administration is utterly ignoring.

It is we, the American taxpayers, who are the second-class citizens in the eyes of Obama and the Democrat Party. These bums must be tossed from office at every level of government, in every election from this point forward, if we are to save this country.


Larwyn's Linx: Hang Tough, Governor Walker!

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Hang Tough, Governor Walker!: Malkin
The Government Shutdown of 2011?: Ricochet
Numbers don't lie: What side is Trump on?: LibertyJuice

You Are The "Suckers" Democrats Have Been Waiting For: LegalIns
Obama And Dems Suddenly Want Bipartisanship On Budget: RWN
A New Face for a New America: NoisyRoom

Still Very Possible: How to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare: AT
1,500 patriots counter Muslim Brotherhood in Yorba Linda: Atlas
Obama bringing Motown to White House: Caller

Economy

WI: SEIU, teachers’ unions attempt state hijacking: Malkin
Price (R-GA) Attempts to Defund Union-Controlled NLRB: RedState
Before spending $53B on high-speed rail...: LegalIns

Heh: Proposal to Cut Funding For O's Teleprompter: Ace
Another Liberal Ponzi Scheme: AT
Great: Teachers bring kids to union protest: BlogProf

Climate & Energy

Obama’s assault on our domestic energy now a 4-alarm fire: RedState
Vitter’s BOEMRE Meeting A Bummer As Bromwich Babbles And Blathers: RedState
AGW Today – High Tides, Maple Syrup, And Tomatoes, Oh My: RWN

Media

CBS Reporter Learns a Harsh Lesson in Reality: GWP
Brad Friedman and Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin: Practitioners of the Stalking They Claim to Decry: Patterico
The Truth Behind the White House’s Budget Spin: Palin

Chris Christie Livestream: "It's Time To Do Big Things": Ace
Michael Medved: Hey Palin & Limbaugh, Obama Isn’t Trying to ‘Weaken America’: Powers
The Golden Rule and the ObamaCare Mandate: Kesler

Socialism Summed Up in Two Pictures: RWN
Jimmy Carter: "Muslim Brotherhood is not Anything to be Afraid Of": PunditPress
3 Reasons Why CPAC is a Must For Every Conservative Activist….[Major Picture Dump]: RWN

World

It begins: US sells out Israel on settlements at UN: Tatler
Democrats: Emboldening America's Enemies and Terrifying Her Allies Since 1976: Coulter
Mexico’s Gun Supply and the 90 Percent Myth: Fausta

Iran’s Warships in the Suez Canal: Will U.S. Defend Israel?: RWN
The Real Face of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Delusions of Its Supporters: PJM
Report--Obama quietly appoints Muslim Brotherhood to key posts: Exam

John Bolton for President?: Reaganite
Alfred E. President: AT
Stuxnet rattled Iran but atom work goes on: report: Reuters

SciTech

Is Your Job an Endangered Species?: WSJ
Verizon CTO: We Don't Need Nokia-Microsoft: Insider
Google announces One Pass, rival to Apple's subscription service: CNet

Cornucopia

- Impasse - : R&R
Help Save TOTUS, Voice of America!: MOTUS
Bad Eggs: SHN

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: West for West Wing 2012
QOTD: "When peaceful Iranian students were protesting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's stolen election in 2009, we didn't hear a peep out of Obama. The students had good reason to believe the election had been rigged. In some pro-Ahmadinejad districts, turnout was more than 100 percent.

Wait, no, I'm sorry -- that was Al Franken's election to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. But there was also plenty of vote-stealing in Ahmadinejad's election.

When it came to Iran, however, the flame of democracy didn't burn so brightly in liberal hearts. Even when the Iranian protester, Neda, was shot dead while standing peacefully on a street in Tehran, Obama responded by ... going out for an ice cream cone.

But a mob of Egyptians start decapitating mummies, and Obama was on the horn telling Mubarak he had to leave. Obama didn't acknowledge Neda's existence, but the moment Egyptians started rioting, Obama said, "We hear your voices." -- Ann Coulter

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Chart o' the Day: the Draconian Cuts That President Obama Has Threatened to Veto

The budget numbers are staggering:

• $3,730,000 million ($3.73 trillion) in total spending, representing 25% of GDP -- the highest level since World War II

• $1,600,000 million ($1.6 trillion) in deficits for 2011

• $60,000 million ($60 billion) in proposed cuts

And President Obama has threatened to veto these harsh, brutal, to-the-bone cuts.


Straight out of Compton: teachers' unions in California's worst school system battle parents and children to preserve the status quo

Democrats have many failures for which they can take credit. But none is as tragic as the party's callous treatment of inner-city kids who long to escape failed public schools. Only when the situation becomes dire enough will legacy media -- in this the Los Angeles Times -- start to pick up the story.

Consider, if you will, "Compton parents trigger reform" by reporter Jim Newton.

Parents at McKinley Elementary School petitioned to force change at the school under California's 'parent trigger' law. But the school's response has been to delay and intimidate to preserve the failed status quo.

Marlene Romero watched with growing anxiety as her 8-year-old son suffered through third grade at McKinley Elementary School in Compton. She was unhappy with his progress and felt trapped at a failing school. Then, taking advantage of a state law that allows parents to band together and demand change, she signed a petition...

...Behind its cheerful beige-and-turquoise exterior, McKinley is a failed school. Its state API scores earn it a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. It ranks 22nd out of 24 schools in Compton, and Compton is not a model of educational excellence...

To their credit, the McKinley parents refused to accept that things had to be this way. Under a year-old state law known as the "parent trigger," when half or more of the parents at a failing school sign petitions demanding change, they can force the staff to be replaced, the principal to be ousted and the school closed or replaced by a charter. A strong majority of McKinley parents, guided by the organizing efforts of a reform group known as Parent Revolution, filed their petitions on Dec. 7, 2010, asking for charter operator Celerity Educational Group to take over the school.

In theory, the Compton school district and its teachers union could have welcomed that outburst of parent involvement and appreciated the opportunity it offered for the school's suffering children. But no such luck. That would have required a bureaucracy devoted to educating children rather than one bent on preserving its authority.

...opposition [to the parents' efforts] continues and is now surfacing at the state Board of Education, which is charged with writing regulations to implement the parent trigger law. New board members appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown have signaled that they intend to water down the [trigger] law. They call it "cleanup," but that's a euphemism for gutting, and they know it...

...Compton officials who condemn children to an inferior education are stealing from them just as surely as if they broke into their homes. Any legislator who votes to defer the hopes of parents who have petitioned for change should consider his role in squandering the promise of these children.

This is the Democrat Party in action: a party beholden to the public sector unions and bent on maintaining the status quo no matter how malevolent the results.

At the federal level, President Obama's budget calls for $77.4 billion to be allocated to the Department of Education, which represents a 22 percent increase from 2010, and a 35 percent increase from 2008.

Let me explain how this game works.

Increasing funding for the Department of Education has nothing at all to do with education. It has to do with getting more Democrats elected -- using the taxpayers' money.

• The Department of Education awards billions in grants to public schools for things like "dropout prevention", which can't work and have never worked

• The public schools use the increased funding to hire more teachers, who are forced to join a teachers' union like the NEA or the AFT

• The teachers dues help fund the massive war-chests of the unions, which then...

• Magically end up in Democrats' campaign coffers.

In other words, your tax dollars are helping fund both failed school systems like Compton McKinley and failed presidents like Obama.

Here's a simple missive to Republican leaders in the House:

Defund the Department of Education. Defund the Department of Labor.

Defund all public sector unions that are backdoor channels to the Obama reelection campaign.

Shut down the entire federal government if need be. Shut it down.

Oh. And do it for the children.


'Obama's Revenue Estimates are Either Fantasy or Comedy'

Chris Martenson has an excellent summary of the blatant scam that is the Obama 2012 budget. Think I'm too harsh? Consider the lowlights of "Obama's Revenue Estimates Are Either Fantasy Or Comedy".

Fantasy or comedy? I couldn't decide which way to label the Obama budget, so I went with both.

The bottom line is that the Obama administration has brought forth the most unbelievable revenue increase that I have ever seen proposed in a budget, a whopping 65% increase in revenues in just four years, which will - miracle of miracles - drop the deficit as a percent of GDP from nearly 11% to just 3.2% over those same four years.

The only problem with this scenario is that it stands virtually no chance of actually happening. Revenue will be far lower than projected and the deficit correspondingly higher.

One of my abilities is spotting bogus numbers quickly, and another is to make reasonably accurate projections without a staff of hundreds. For example, in 2009 I called for the Social Security fund to soon begin dipping into negative territory when the CBO was clinging to the illusion that 2017 was the 'below zero' date. Turns out I was right, and it wasn't a terribly difficult call to make. A little trend projection here, some assumptions about early retirement there, a higher and more realistic assessment of peak unemployment, and - voila! - a reasonably accurate projection was made.

Let's look at the recently released Obama budget, which is so far off the mark that no special abilities are required beyond the ability to suppress the urge to chuckle:

The green circles show the rosy deficit-reduction estimates, while the red arrows indicate the incredible 65% increase in federal revenues over a single four year period. 65%! How likely is that? Is it realistic?

[Answer: no. But how about] if we compare the projected increases historically on an inflation-adjusted basis - would that put them in a better and more believable light?

In this next chart, we simply chart each year's federal revenues after correcting for CPI (we used the Obama budget CPI assumptions for the years 2011 - 2015 to discount the future so everything is in 2010 dollars).

Are these numbers any less fuzzy? Nope. Even on this basis the proposed revenue increases are the largest on record, bar none.

Using these assumptions, and generously assuming that things more or less carry on as normal and even more generously that the economy magically grows to $19 trillion as the Obama team has assumed, the actual budget deficit will be no less than 8% of GDP each year between here and 2015.

My estimates translate into a roughly $1.5 trillion cash deficit each and every year -- give or take a little -- digging our national debt hole deeper by another $7.5 trillion by 2015.

This, however, is merely my starting bid. I can easily envision deficits that are far higher in both aggregate and percent-of-GDP terms, due to some combination of rising energy prices and debt overhang dragging the GDP figure downwards, and rising interest rates driving federal costs higher...

As they say on the real blogs, read the whole thing.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll scream in disgust.

Show it to a Democrat you love. And then batten down the hatches. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.


Hat tip: Brad.

First House Subpoena Targets Beneficiaries of Countrywide Mortgage Sweetheart Deals -- Including Democrats Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad

President Obama likes to call the current financial crisis the "worst since the Great Depression". And I think we all would admit that the meltdown was fueled, in large part, by bad loans backstopped by the American taxpayer through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

So where are the investigations? Where are the criminal charges? Why isn't anyone serving time, especially the Democrats who raped and pillaged Fannie and Freddie -- for hundreds of millions of dollars -- before it collapsed? Well, for obvious reasons, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid stonewalled investigations because it would cost them political capital.

Thankfully, now that the American people have booted Pelosi out of the speaker's seat, we may soon learn the rest of the story.

Taxpayers wanting the whole story of how Countrywide Financial used its VIP loan program to grease politicians and reward its partners at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may soon have it. Thanks for this belated act of political hygiene go to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who Wednesday issued a subpoena to Bank of America, which bought Countrywide during the financial crisis.

By March 7, the bank will need to produce all documents related to the company's VIP program, also known as the "Friends of Angelo" program in honor of former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. Mr. Mozilo ran the subprime factory at the center of the housing bubble. Sweetheart loans for his "friends" at Fannie, Freddie and on Capitol Hill were part of a strategy to keep the mortgage party going, with minimal oversight of the loans originated by Countrywide and then guaranteed by Fan and Fred (and taxpayers).

In 2009 Mr. Issa persuaded then-Oversight Committee Chairman Ed Towns to issue a similar subpoena. But to protect the less-than-innocent, Mr. Towns asked that names be redacted. The identities of political "friends" in the House were sent only to the ethics committee, where they seem to have fallen down a well. Senate names were not shared with anyone.

Mr. Issa's new subpoena seeks the whole story, unredacted. The scuttlebutt is that most of the 30 Capitol Hill loans went to staff, not elected officials. But revealing internal discussions of why the firm helped "friends" like former Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Kent Conrad may suggest important reforms. However that turns out, it probably won't take a subpoena to understand why such reforms were absent from the law Mr. Dodd co-authored last year.

Dodd has never come clean on the full extent of his shady dealings with Countrywide. Which is why he no longer serves the fine people of Connecticut in the Senate.

Now, given all of this information, does it strike you as odd that Dodd and co-conspirator Barney Frank authored the latest "financial reform" bill?

Yes, it does, doesn't it? Criminally odd, in fact.


Update: Jane Jamison is underwhelmed with the choice of opening salvo.

Green Fail of the Day: $200 Million Wind Farm Freezes Solid

Jimmy Carter spent billions on it 30 years ago. Barack Obama is wasting billions more today. That's the ephemeral idea that government -- and not the free-market -- can create "renewable energy".

And it's turning out to be the same epic fail now that it was in Carter's day.

A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a supply of renewable energy for NB Power.

The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, has been shut down for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades. GDF Suez Energy, the company that owns and operates the site, is working to return the windmills to working order, a spokeswoman says [...] conditions in northern New Brunswick have caused havoc for the wind farm this winter.

...The accumulated ice alters the aerodynamics of the blades, rendering them ineffective as airfoils. The added weight further immobilizes the structures.

Let me guess: someone will have to burn fossil fuels to thaw the damned wind farm out.


Hat tip: Masked Avenger

Larwyn's Linx: The Left’s attempt to Delegitimize the Supreme Court

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

The Left’s attempt to Delegitimize the Supreme Court: Matt's Meds
Racial attacks on Cain show left's desperation: Toldjah
The Breathtaking Racial Slurs Against GOP's Herman Cain: RSM

Super Nanny: First Lady of Junk Science: Malkin
Hundreds of Deportable Criminal Aliens Released: RWN
Liberals launch anti-Darrell Issa crusade: AT

Individual mandate is a dangerous new federal power: Barnett
Allen West on the failure of multiculturalism: Cubachi
Obama won't abandon his trial lawyers: WashExam

Economy

Obama’s Unsustainable and Gutless Budget Proposals: Blumer
WI: Collective Bargaining Agreements to be Canceled in March: Mish
Workforce Fairness Institute: Cut NLRB and NMB: Marathon

Millions to pay down deficit; not one cent for Obamacare: RWN
Screwtape and the 'It's Always Ten Years' Deficit Solution: AmDigest
Follow the Unspent Money: IBD

Guess why IL Postponed $3.7B Bond Sale?: ZH
DHS Budget: Napolitano Doesn’t Intend To Secure A Single Additional Mile Of US-Mexico Border: SHN
Chanos Sounding Muni Alarm for Like Two Years: NYMag

Climate & Energy

A lawsuit based on fraud, not fact: WashExam
LEDs Potentially Cause Cancer, Ruin Environment: RWN
The Futility of Wind Power: WUWT

Media

The Media's Budget Fantasy Land: Bozell
The Ultimate Rube Self-Identifies: Driscoll
Cue Democrats and Liberal Media Screaming In 3… 2…: RightSphere

Can Sarah Upstage Barack?: Solway
NPR thanks Obama for budget 'vote of confidence': York
Thomas More Society will defend Illinois bloggers sued for defamation by hotelier: Marathon

Progressives See Racism Where It Isn’t, Ignore It Where It Exists: Loesch
Liberal Scumbag’s Reaction to Lara Logan Being Raped: 'No Sympathy For Her, She Was a Major War Monger': WZ
Coulter on Keith Olbermann: "Pompous, Prissy, Ridiculous Fruitcake": HE

Backlash!: Tatler
Joe Arpaio for Senate?: Malkin
Shirley Sherrod Sues Breitbart Over Pigford Coverage: RWN

World

WMD "Source" Curveball: Yeah, I Made It All Up: Ace
Obama Tweet During 2009 Revolts in Iran: Hey, Let's all Watch Stephen Colbert Get his head Shaved: PunditPress
Suez Canal Traffic Disrupted After Ship Runs Aground, Weather Blamed: ZH

San Diego: 'Devoutly Muslim' cab driver plows into crowd outside nightclub, injuring 23: JihadWatch
Liberal Egyptian Leader Ayman Nour: “In Practice, the Camp David Accords Have Come to an End”: WZ
Egyptian Constitutional Panel Excludes Women and Copts: GWP

Egypian Army rescues Lara Logan after sexual assault, beating by Democracy-loving protesters: Atlas
Berkeley, California defeats the measure to welcome Gitmo detainees: WWBDN : PolFin
Argentina Holds Confiscated U.S. Air Force Cargo: WSJ

SciTech

Google Seeks Social Networking Face Recognition Patent : Information Week
Protoype iPhone 5 Has Slide-Out Keyboard: Tom's Guide
Auto-corrected text leads to killing: CNet

‘Punisher’ gets its first battlefield tests: Army Times
How E-Commerce Got its Groove Back: Greylock
A day at the 787 Dreamliner assembly line: CNet

Cornucopia

The Real Thing: iOTW
Calling All Tree Huggers! 2,223 Innocent Trees Lost Their Lives To Print Obama’s Budget Proposal: SHN
Spy games: Inside the convoluted plot to bring down WikiLeaks: Ars Technica

Image: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Citizens United

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Most Transparent Administration Ever Described as 'Communist Russian state media' By... ABC

Methinks legacy media has grown a bit tired with the tactics of the Chavez administration.

...Over the past few months, as White House cameras have been granted free reign behind the scenes, officials have blocked broadcast news outlets from events traditionally open to coverage and limited opportunities to publicly question the president himself...

"The administration has narrowed access by the mainstream media to an unprecedented extent," said ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton, who has covered seven administrations. "Access here has shriveled."

...Members of the press have always had quibbles with White House media strategies, calling cut-backs in access an affront to transparency, even as administration officials insist they're simply taking advantage of new technologies.

But some say the current dynamic is different, and dangerous.

"They're opening the door to kicking the press out of historic events, and opening the door to having a very filtered format for which they give the American public information that doesn't have any criticism allowed," said University of Minnesota journalism professor and political communication analyst Heather LaMarre.

..."If Nixon had announced he was going to start the 'Nixon channel' and said they were only going to put up stuff he approved of, people would have said, 'Oh my God, this is like Communist Russian state media,'" said David Perlmutter, director of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication...

Oh, I'm sure TNC (The Nixon Channel) would have gotten rave reviews from the big three networks during Watergate, don't you?


Pure Comedy Gold: Obama Defends His Budget With an Unparalleled Series of Punch Lines

This has got to be the finest satire since OnionTV began broadcasting in 1853.

With the worst recession in generations behind us (Can't you just feel the powerful thrusts of the recovery?), President Obama has put forward a plan to rebuild our economy and win the future by out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building the rest of the world (With bullet-trains to bankruptcy!). But we cannot win the future if we pass a mountain of debt on to our children and our grandchildren (So let's pass on a whole mountain range!).

That's why the President's 2012 federal budget takes responsibility for our deficits (Rimshot!) and puts the nation on a path to live within its means (After the collapse). It's a responsible approach that cuts wasteful spending and, as so many American families must do every day, it makes tough choices on things we can't afford (Like increasing funding for teachers and the NEA, which will get funneled right back to my campaign fund in 2012! Isn't being Prez cool?). This plan institutes a five-year spending freeze that will reduce domestic spending to its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration (And we calculated those numbers using computers from that administration).

Over the next decade, it reduces the deficit by more than $1 trillion -- two-thirds of it from spending cuts (Which represents 14% of the $8 trillion in my new deficit spending!). Through this budget, the President meets his pledge to cut the deficit he inherited in half by the end of his first term (Eh, what?).

In addition to responsible spending cuts (Rimshot!), the President¹s budget makes targeted investments in America's incubators of growth: education, innovation, clean energy, and infrastructure (Read: teachers' unions, AFSCME, the environmental-flat-Earth-no-growth Marxists and the AFL-CIO). It reforms how Washington does business, putting more federal funding up for competition and reforming government to make it smarter, more effective and better prepared to meet the needs of the 21st century (Public sector unions).

The President's 2012 federal budget restores responsibility to government and spending, while still working to help spur private-sector job creation and grow the economy for the long run.

This stuff is awesome. Someone has a serious shot at a permanent writing gig at SNL.


Photo: 2012 Budget vs. the Constitution

This kinda says it all.


Via: @Citizens_United

Paul Ryan: the Mayans were wrong--the world doesn't end in 2012. According to the CBO, it ends in 2037.

Interviewed on the Mark Levin Show last night, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) levied blunt, caustic and, at times, shocking criticism at President Obama's budget.

[On the President's budget]


It has a $1.6 trillion tax increase. Doubles the debt in five years. Triples it in ten years. Adds $13 trillion in new debt over the course of his budget. Borrow, spend, tax -- and does nothing... let me repeat that... nothing to decrease the drivers of our debt. It adds to the problem.

I was incredulous. I really was expecting something different... given that he formed a fiscal commission, I was on the fiscal commission... he told us we have a serious problem, we've got to deal with it, let's go forward... he didn't even put any of the fiscal commission recommendations in here.

His discretionary spending levels are way above what was recommended by the fiscal commission. And [it] was stacked with Democrats, so he's to the left of his fiscal commission, he's not addressing the debt and deficit crisis, and what this does for economic growth -- it costs us jobs... he's doubling down on what he's done the last two years. And, candidly, I thought we'd see... triangulation. A little moderation after the last election. And, unfortunately, he decided not to do that...

[On economic uncertainty]


Milton Friedman said that today's deficits are tomorrow's tax increases... they're just deferred taxes. So this is what businesses see, this is what entrepreneurs see, this is what banks that are financing businesses see.

They see massive deficits, massive borrowing, no end in sight -- there's going to be another tax increase tomorrow on top of the other increases coming into law -- with much higher interest rates, because if we don't get this debt under control, interest goes up. We have to pay people more to lend us money.

...So to suggest that we're going to have these low interest rates forever with economic growth, I think... ignores the obvious.

[On the "continuing resolution" funding the implementation of Obamacare]


We're going to have an amendment on the floor to de-fund Obamacare... but more important... than that, the President wants to lock in these really inflated levels of spending. He increased spending 24% across the board... with the Stimulus an 84% increase... of domestic government agencies, so he wants to lock in those spending increases. And we're trying to take them back. That's what this whole fight's about.

We want to rip out all of the spending increases that took place over the last two years. We're actually going deeper than that this week, because we're doing it just for the next seven months. We're taking back a year's worth of spending cuts for the next seven months. And if you annualize that, we're going about $170 billion in cuts.

For the rest of the fiscal year, we're going down to 2006, 2005 levels in some areas. And we want to put funding limits on bills, on agencies, that are in charge of implementing Obamacare. Now we're obviously going to have an impasse. Something tells me he's not going to sign our bill. So that's part of the impasse we're going to have, starting in March.

Then we go to our budget, which we write, where we show our vision for the government... the debt, the deficit, the economy, taxes... then, after that, sometime in May, this estimate moves around, we have a debt ceiling and we are not interested in rubber-stamping big government. We want to use that as leverage to get serious spending controls around big government as this debt ceiling is dealt with.

[On future tax rates reaching 60-80% in 20 years]


I asked the CBO for these numbers, I know them off the top of my head. My kids are 6, 7 and 9 years old... by the time my kids are my age -- I'm 41 -- I asked the CBO, "What will the future tax rates have to be if we don't get this debt under control?" And this was before the current budget, which makes it worse.

They said the lowest tax bracket, now at 10%, goes to 25%. Middle income tax brackets go to 66%. And the top bracket goes to 88%. We've had those numbers run.

Look, the CBO -- their own economic model breaks down in 2037. Because the computer at the Congressional Budget Office basically says [it] can't conceive of the economy continuing past 2037 because of the strangulation of debt. Because of the debt burden.

So they think the economy crashes well before my kids are even raising their own kids.

You're welcome, kids.

Actually, don't thank me. Thank all of the Democrats who fell for the marketing hype and voted for this catastrophe.


Transcript hat tip: Cub Reporter Biff Spackle.

Most knowledgeable bond investor in the world dumped $120B in U.S. debt last month, coincidentally right before Obama voted 'present' on budget

Bill Gross heads up the world's most successful and powerful bond fund manager, PIMCO. He is so influential with the Obama administration that The New York Times once quipped that he's on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's speed dial.

Which makes the timing of this Reuters story so, eh, curious.

PIMCO's Total Return Fund, the biggest bond fund, cut U.S. government-related debt holdings in January to its lowest in at least two years and added to cash and debt from other developed nations... Holdings in the U.S. government-related debt category, which includes U.S. Treasuries, declined to just 12 percent of the portfolio in January, from 22 percent in December...

Bill Gross, the fund's manager who helps oversee more than $1.1 trillion as PIMCO's co-chief investment officer, has often railed against U.S. deficit spending and its inflationary impact. He has advocated buying bonds with "safe," higher yields -- such as corporate bonds -- that can withstand possible erosion of returns by inflation.

Pimco's apparent lack of confidence in U.S. government-related debt in January preceded Monday's budget presentation by President Barack Obama, who laid out plans to cut the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years. Under the budget, the deficit would rose tp $1.645 trillion in fiscal 2011, and fall sharply to $1.101 trillion in 2012.

In other words, Gross sold roughly $120 billion in U.S. debt just before President Obama made public one of the most reckless and disturbing budgets in history. And that's according to the liberals.

If I were a more suspicious person, I'd suspect that Gross got the high sign from his buddies in the administration.

Oh, right, but Democrats are for the little people.


Image hat tip: Zero Hedge.

Larwyn's Linx: 'Live within our means' by spending into oblivion

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Nation

'Live within our means' by spending into oblivion: Malkin
Different Names, Same ACORN Moonbattery and Corruption: RWN
The Next Black President?: AT

San Diego Port Director Claims WMD Found in U.S. : JWF
Dirty Bomb: Here and Now?: IBD
Military Voting Accountability Starts Today: Adams

Where Are All the Jassers?: Geller
Taqiyya about taqiyya from Muslim group at CPAC: JihadWatch
The King Hearing, Jasser & Geller: Wolf Howling

Economy

Obama Budget Doubles National Debt to $26.3T: CNS
Obama Reigns In The Budget By….Adding $100 Billion(?): RWN
Rubio: President's budget sets a path to disaster: Cubachi

GM Gives $4,000 Bonuses to 48,000 Hourly Workers: GWP
Obama unveils surreal, catastrophic new budget: Hot Air
Why Hospital Price Quotes Are So Often Useless: Cato

DeMint: Obama is ‘repeating mistakes of past’: Cubachi
Will Islamic school planned in Winston-Salem be taxpayer funded?: Creeping
Obama's Pathetic Budget: Barnes

Climate & Energy

Obama’s Illegal Moratorium Forces Major Drilling Company to Go Bankrupt: GWP
Say, How’s That Carbon Scheme Going In Australia?: RWN
Debunking the Green Energy Myth: Hayride

Media

Palin is right: Obama’s budget is “more about raising taxes and growing government”: Cubachi
A Response to Nicholas Kristof: EIB
The Diminished Relevance Of Media Matters: Mediaite

The NY Times Magazine’s False Cover Story exposed by Sol Stern: PJM
Rush Limbaugh: “Repeal Obamacare… Or We Go Egypt on Obama”: GWP
Reagan, CPAC, GoProud And Perhaps Conservatism's "Greatest Triumph": Riehl

‘Bankrupt’ GE To Spend $30 Billion As Obama Administration Continues To Fund, You Guessed It, ‘GE’: SHN
The 2011 CPAC Experience: 68 Pictures (Part 1 Of 2): RWN
The 25 Best Quotes of CPAC 2011 - Quotable Conservative Insanity: Esquire

Lawrence O'Donnell Worries 'We Are So Free Ann Coulter Can Joke About Jailing Journalists': NewsBusters
Sarah and the San Francisco Poster Wars: AT
David Gregory Wonders Why John Boehner Doesn’t Hit Birthers With His Gavel and Lock Them in a Closet: Malkin

World

Thank God Obama Gave That Cairo Speech, Eh?: Ace
Iranian Protesters Take to the Streets: Atlas
Niall Ferguson destroys Obama over Egypt: Hot Air

Decline and Revival of Western Civilization: PJM
Obama suffers an empathy failure when it comes to Israel: RWN
Objecting to a Kangaroo Court Proceeding: GoV

Is the White House Choosing Now to Launch a Public Relations Broadside Against Israel?: Commentary
Video of the Attack against the Great Synagogue of Tunis: Atlas
3 Things You Probably Don't Know About Islam (But Should Know): Jawa

SciTech

Out: Pluto as Ninth Planet. In: Tyche As Ninth Planet?: Ace
$1 Million of Forged Credit Card Money Bought iPads and Macs for Prisoners: Gizmodo
Adobe spells out Flash-y plans for Android: CNet

Cornucopia

The Ulsterman Report: Sex and Murder in The Land of Obama?: NewsFlavor
Trapped Chilean Miners Were Refused Blow-Up Dolls: JWF
Foreign Policy That Doesn’t Measure Up: Primordial Slack

Image: Capitalism Lesson (iOwnTheWorld)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Freedom Connector

QOTD: "Question: How many libs does it take to out argue 1 man with a brain?

Answer: Unknown, but definitely more than 5." --Jim P.

Monday, February 14, 2011

One Chart to Rule Them All: the Obama Budget Apocalypse

I modified an excellent Wall Street Journal graphic to illustrate just how tragic and ineffectual President Obama's proposed budget cuts are.

Consider the anticipated spending trajectory over the next decade as entitlement spending and interest payments balloon.

I've marked the Obama cuts in yellow. Repeat: I've marked the Obama cuts in yellow.

Mr. Obama's budget, to be released Monday, calls for spending cuts and tax hikes that would slice about 14% of the approximately $8 trillion in cumulative federal deficits that would occur over the next 10 years without action being taken. It estimates the deficit will fall to $1.1 trillion next year as the economy picks up and the president's proposed spending freeze begins to have effect...

The current projected budget deficit is $1.6 trillion, a figure twice revised upwards from a starting point of $1.3 trillion.

...in other words, in less than six months, the FY 2011 budget—which has still yet to pass, scheduled for a vote this coming March 4—has had a deficit which has risen 23%.

And in response the president proposes to cut less than $100 billion a year from his bloated federal budget.

As for the President's vaunted "deficit commission"? Predictably, Obama blew them off.

Ask congressional Republicans about President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget proposal and they will seethe about an abdication of presidential leadership on the deficit... [but ask] former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson about it, and he shrugs. Reached at his Cody, Wyo., home, the former co-chairman of President Obama’s debt commission does not believe the commission’s work to bring down the federal debt has been abandoned, just because most of its recommendations are nowhere to be found in the budget plan.

...White House officials say there’s a reason why the president did not lay down his cards on what to do to curb the growth of Social Security and Medicare, to overhaul the tax code to bring in more revenue or to radically pare back spending. That moment will come soon, behind closed doors when Republicans and Democrats sit down together to work through the nation’s debt troubles...

I adapted the chart immediately above to reflect the timing of these disastrous budgets.

You see, dear reader, we have a president who has no interest in stabilizing the country's fiscal situation. Nor does he have any inclination to tackle the tough issues of entitlement reform.

This President is a walking, talking disaster and that's what the liberals are saying:

"...this president is too weak, too cautious, too beholden to politics over policy to lead. In this budget, in his refusal to do anything concrete to tackle the looming entitlement debt, in his failure to address the generational injustice, in his blithe indifference to the increasing danger of default, he has betrayed those of us who took him to be a serious president prepared to put the good of the country before his short term political interests... To all those under 30 who worked so hard to get this man elected, know this: he just screwed you over. He thinks you’re fools. Either the US will go into default because of Obama’s cowardice, or you will be paying far far more for far far less because this president has no courage when it counts."

That’s Andrew Sullivan, formerly Obama fan numero uno in the blogosphere, now coping for the second time in eight years with crushing disappointment from a president he ardently supported. Ed’s already written a bunch about the budget today so I won’t belabor it, but have a look at Andrew Stiles’s bullet-point list of the lowlights if you missed it. $26.3 trillion in new debt — repeat, new debt — alone over the next decade. Says Jake Tapper, summing things up in a single harrowing line, “At no point in the president’s 10-year projection would the U.S. government spend less than it’s taking in.”

On March 4, 2009, I wrote an article that included the statement "Obama's destruction of the economy is intentional."

Two years later, my point is proved. Case closed.

His budget proposal is so reckless, so wild, so egregious that there can be no doubt of his goal. I can only conclude that he seeks the destruction of America's capitalist system, free enterprise, and our way of life.

When even moonbats like Andrew Sullivan are heading for the hills, it's safe to say that we are careening towards an unmitigated disaster.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Betsy Newmark, Ed Driscoll, Beltway Confidential, Marathon Pundit, and Memeorandum. Thanks!

10 Craziest Photos from the Blizzard of 2011

The Big Picture has the complete album with 40 of the wildest photos from the massive storm. My ten favorites?










You can see all 40 photos here.

Say, I wonder how all of those "mortgage rescue" programs rolled out by the Obama administration are working out?

Gee, I was out of town last week. Anyone know how all of those "mortgage rescue" programs rolled out by the Democrats are working out?

The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune — economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained.

In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las Vegas. Minneapolis dropped more than Miami, and Atlanta fared worse than Phoenix...

[Overall,] housing remains stubbornly weak. That presents a vexing problem for the Obama administration, which has introduced several initiatives intended to help homeowners, with mixed success.

CoreLogic, a data firm, said last week that American home prices fell 5.5 percent in 2010, back to the recession low of March 2009. New home sales are scraping along the bottom. Mortgage applications are near a 15-year low, boding ill for the rest of the winter.

Turns out all of the Democrats' grandiose schemes are working just as well as their prior experiments with housing: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and the rest of the unconstitutional, federally administered disasters.

The government now owns or guarantees: (a) 95% of all new residential mortgages issued; and (b) more than 50% of all existing residential mortgages.

The founders of this country were pretty damn smart: they specifically enumerated the areas of control the federal government could exercise, leveraging thousands of years of human experience.

But the masterminds in the Democrat Party defied them: the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Square Deal, Great Society, Affordable Housing, Cash for Clunkers, you name the program.

Every single one has failed. And still the Democrats persist. And we, the American taxpayer, are left holding the bag.


Larwyn's Linx: Allen West and the New Dawn at CPAC

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Allen West and the New Dawn at CPAC: HE
Ron Paul and the Y.A.F. Kerfuffle: No Sheeples
Illegal alien, ordered deported in 2000, goes on killing spree: WZ

CPAC: Former CIA Director Tells Of Sharia Threat: JW
Truthout Releases 'The Progressive Strategery Handbook': WZ
Ron Paul’s Last Straw: RWN

Economy

Californians need to suffer more: OCR
The special interest driving federal spending? Big Labor: Exam
Why The Shills Are Wrong (Bank Failures): Denninger

A Tipping Point is Nearing: AT
Hate Obamacare Mandate and Love Tort Reform?: LegalIns
'Get Ready For Margin Collapse' Goes Mainstream: ZH

The Latest Excuse to Oppose Construction of a Wal-Mart: Malkin
The needed presidential speech on fiscal discipline: GayPatriot
Richard Maybury: Collapse of Anglo-American Empire: DailyBell

Climate & Energy

EPA responds to congressional attempts to reel in greenhouse gas regulation: WUWT
Get Ready--Junk Scientist Al Gore Predicted North Pole Would Be Completely Ice Free Next Year: GWP

Media

CPAC Wrap-up What The Media Didn't Tell You: Lid
'Great Job, MSM!': JWF
NPR And NY Times Say Bush Was Correct About Pushing Democracy: RWN

Suhail Khan Exposed… Again: GoV
CPAC and the Muslim Brotherhood: RWN
Leonard Pitts Jr: Enforcing immigration law 'political masturbation': BlogProf

Wanted: A Grand Strategy for America: Niall Ferguson
Behind the NFL Lockout, Part II: Mises
'Keith Olbermann' Found Shilling Maybelline Products At CPAC: Mediaite

World

The Superpower as Spectator: Steyn
Terrorism: How Much Trouble Are We In?...Quite a Bit: NMJ
The ‘Secular’ Muslim Brotherhood: McCarthy

US Accuses Lebanese Bank of Money-Laundering Drug Money for Hezbollah: Ace
Mubarak Slammed Obama During Call With Israel Before Resignation, '...the Result Will be Radical Islam': WZ
Praying for the Destruction of America: GoV

Yesterday Tunis, Today Tahrir Square, Tomorrow Tehran?: Ledeen
Arab Dictators and Radical Islam: Hudson
Kovas Boguta's Useful Chart for Getting Egypt's Freedom Boosters Assassinated: AmDigest

Egypt: Scoop/New Government Has No Illusions About the Muslim Brotherhood: RubRep
Egyptian Army Losing Control of Sinai?: TAB
Mubarak Transferred Billions to Safe Haven, Rumored to Be in Coma: Uncov

SciTech

Nokia CEO: Co. to get billions from Microsoft to use Windows phone software: Yahoo
Search Still Sucks: TechCrunch
NASA continues its important work: MagNote

Cornucopia

Obamanomics: Lady M Style Edition: MOTUS
Joe Biden Performs at 2011 Grammy Awards: Diogenes
This Week in Automotivators: RWN

Image: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: B.S. Footprint.