This must be another one of those things that accompany the American economy one year into the recovery (Tim Geithner ©):
But, Melvin, he's so historic!
This must be another one of those things that accompany the American economy one year into the recovery (Tim Geithner ©):
A Fling With the Welfare State: EmerieQOTD: "When Roosevelt signed Social Security into law, it was meant to start coverage at age 65 at a time when 58 was the average life span of male Americans. (Roosevelt himself died at 63 ten years later.) When President Johnson signed Medicare, life spans were still well below today’s standards, and most major medical breakthroughs were still in the future. (Johnson also would die in his 60s.) Neither imagined a world in which people routinely lived into their 80s and 90s, with knee replacements and heart transplants and home dialysis machines. Roosevelt opposed public employee unions, whose pension demands and early retirements are now driving some of our states and cities into bankruptcy. It’s easier to think of goods as rights when the costs are low, and they therefore take little from others. It’s when the costs rise—as in medical treatments—that the political trade-offs rise, too." --Noemie Emery
January 20, 2009 - President Obama sworn into office
Debt Held By Public = $6.31 trillion
February 17, 2009 - President Signs into Law the Spending Stimulus
Debt Held by Public = $6.48 trillion
February 26, 2009 - President Issues FY2010 Budget
* Debt Held by Public = $6.58 trillion
March 11, 2009 - President Signs FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act
Debt Held by Public = $6.66 trillion
April 29, 2009 - Congressional Democrats Pass FY2010 Budget
Debt Held by Public = $6.85 trillion
February 2, 2010 - President Issues FY2011 Budget
Debt Held by Public = $7.85 trillion
March 23, 2010 - President Signs Health-Care Overhaul Into Law
Debt Held by Public = $8.18 trillion
April 15, 2010 - Congressional Democrats Decide Not to Do a Budget for FY2011
Debt Held by Public = $8.39 trillion
July 21, 2010 - President Signs Financial Regulatory Overhaul Into Law
Debt Held by Public = $8.69 trillion
February 14, 2011 - President Issues FY2012 Budget
Debt Held by Public = $9.45 trillion
April 13, 2011 - President Delivers Speech on Deficit Reduction
Debt Held by Public = $9.65 trillion
April 15, 2011 - House Passes FY2012 Budget Resolution
Debt Held by Public = $9.68 trillion
April 18, 2011 - S&P Issues Credit Warning on U.S. Debt
Debt Held by Public = $9.68 trillion
May 13, 2011 - Medicare and Social Security Trustees Issue Warning of Looming Insolvency
Debt Held by Public = $9.67 trillion
May 25, 2011 - Senate Unanimously Rejects President’s FY2012 Budget; Vote is 97-0
Debt Held by Public = $9.72 trillion
June 23, 2011 - CBO Director Further Discredits President’s Fiscal Record
Debt Held by Public = $9.74 trillion
July 8, 2011 - Unemployment Hits 9.2%; Day 800 Since Senate Democrats Last Passed A Budget
Debt Held by Public = $9.75 trillion
July 11, 2011 - Senator Conrad Gives Budget Speech on Senate Floor
Debt held by Public = $9.75 trillion
July 15, 2011 - President Holds Press Conference: “We’re Running Out of Time” to Deal with Debt
Debt Held by Public = $9.75 trillion
A measure to repeal a 2007 federal law that would push many traditional incandescent light bulbs off the market failed to win two-thirds support needed to pass in a House vote Tuesday.
A 233-193 majority of the House backed the measure proposed by Rep. Joe Barton (R. Texas), would have repealed a federal mandate that light bulbs meet certain efficiency standards by next year. But the bill was brought up under a procedure requiring that it receive two-thirds vote for passage.
Because he bypassed the House Rules Committee to bring the bill directly to a floor vote, Boehner couldn't muster the two-thirds majority. If the Speaker had simply presented the bill through the Rules Committee, a simple majority would have sufficed.The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them.
The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun smuggling networks. The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico.
The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent.
...The official said at least half a dozen cartel figures were being paid by one U.S. law enforcement agency while they were being targeted by another.
...two AK-47s purchased during the operation were found at the scene last December where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was shot to death near Tucson, allegedly by a Sinaloa cartel member.
A second U.S. immigration agent, Jaime Zapata, was slain in a cartel ambush in February in Mexico, and investigators now are trying to determine whether Fast and Furious weapons were used to kill him as well.
The Great Charade: SteynQOTD: "The White House’s mid-session budget review recently forecast that President Barack Obama’s budget would create $9 trillion in budget deficits over the next decade–more debt than America accumulated from 1789 through 2008 combined. Yet even that figure likely understates the 10-year budget deficit by nearly $4 trillion. It completely excludes the proposed new health care entitlement, underestimates other costs, and fails to include the full price of major legislation that the President has endorsed." --Brian Riedl
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded Ohio's debt rating just one day after it put the United States on "creditwatch negative" on what it calls a rising risk of policy stalemate in the debt limit negotiations.
For Ohio, the rating was revised from "negative" to "stable" after Gov. John Kasich signed a new budget the ratings agency says will essentially balance the state's finances for the next two years. S&P also said Ohio is experiencing a modest economic recovery which has stabilized revenue.
In making the upgrade, the agency also assigned a "AA+" long-term rating to Ohio's $416.75 million general obligation bonds... "After a significant decline through the recession, Ohio's economy is steadily recovering," according to S&P's statement issued Friday.
The agency listed factors such as Ohio's unemployment rate has stabilized and fallen to 8.6 percent through May 2011 from a peak of 11 percent in March 2010. The also state experienced positive employment growth in 2010 and through the first quarter of 2011...
In S&P's statement Thursday about the U.S., it said it placed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on "CreditWatch with negative implications."
The action means there is a "substantial likelihood of it taking a rating action within the next 90 days." ...
This is one of the most important messages for us to repeat until people get it.
Liberals treat raising the debt limit as if, with the stroke of a pen, we can simply authorize ourselves to spend and spend and spend more money than we have.
That's not true... Our current debt-to-revenue ratio is, in economic terms, totally f***ed.
The President and his allies in the media wish to pretend these credit rating warnings are only about the risk of default due to a failure to raise the debt limit... They're not, as S&P makes clear:A 50 percent likelihood that the U.S. will lose its top credit rating from Standard & Poor’s even if Congress reaches agreement on raising the debt ceiling left markets little changed.
...The U.S. will lose the AAA credit rating it has held since 1941 if New York-based S&P finds that a “credible solution” to the nation’s rising debt burden isn’t likely for the foreseeable future, the firm said yesterday. Borrowing will continue to rise unless a $4 trillion fiscal consolidation plan is agreed on, S&P said.
Let me propose the new narrative the GOP must press at every opportunity:
The President says he's trying to preserve our credit rating. He is not. Absent showing the markets some serious reforms that will put us on a sustainable path, our credit rating will be downgraded, not due to a debt-ceiling imposed default, but simply due to the fact we cannot pay the bills we are accumulating.
...We're the ones trying to save our credit rating, and that can only happen when Washington brings its spending priorities in line with what the public is actually willing to pay for government.
They're not willing to pay 25% of GDP for government. They have been willing, historically, to pay 18-21%. We must bring spending to that level.
Anytime we try to spend more than that, we always do simply by borrowing from our children. And we have now maxed out the possible debt we can lay on our children, and we have followed that up with going to 90% of the max of what our grandchildren can pay.
Despite all the rhetoric and posturing we see in the media and in Washington D.C., it is safe to say categorically that the U.S. Treasury will not default on its debt after August 2nd, even if the debt ceiling is not raised. Not only will the Treasury be able to pay interest on U.S. debt obligations, but there is money for other essential programs as well. However, there will be some serious cutting that has to happen because spending clearly exceeds revenues...Q: How much revenue does the Treasury take in on average in a month?
A: Roughly about $200 billion.
Q: Are you saying the Treasury could pay interest on its debt 10 times over (or more) from monthly income?
A: Yes. Therefore the likelihood of not paying interest on its debt is zero.
Q: Why then do Treasury Secretary Geithner and others in government make such apocalyptic statement about the horrors of default?
A: I’m afraid Secretary Geithner and others in government are doing the moral equivalent of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater and they are doing so for political reasons rather than financial reasons. They simply do not want any interruptions in the bloated spending underway in Washington and they want to scare Americans into thinking the end of the world is nigh unless the gravy train keeps chugging along.
The Obama-Carter Malaise Remix: WZQOTD: "How do I know Obama is no longer serious? Well, first of all, he’s never released any kind of plan. Everything is nebulous, nothing is being scored. Normally in these types of negotiations there is paper floating around all over the place and CBO or the Joint Tax Committee or some other outfit is buying up all the No-Doze in town to crunch the numbers. Staffers from both parties are hunkered down in the Speaker’s office, and committee chairmen are striding the halls of Congress, a gaggle of reporters in tow." --Keith Koffler
Dear Mr. Obama,
You’re not my president... and this decision was yours, not mine. You are the thirteenth president of the United States in my lifetime and I have never been ostracized or isolated by any previous president, regardless of party. Why did you decide that you would not represent my constituency?1. I am not Black; and in spite of your overwhelming support by African-Americans, you have done nothing to help solve their problems. Their unemployment is higher and the issues of single parent homes, welfare dependency, and education deprivation have been ignored by you and Mrs. Obama.
2. I am not Hispanic and in spite of significant support of the Hispanic community, you have created no proactive program to help solve the illegal immigration problem nor have you done anything to create a solution for the illegal immigrants in the U.S.
3. I am not a union member and in spite of the symbiotic relationship between you and the unions -- and the massive monies given to you and returned by you in the form of "stimulus funds" to unions, you have made union membership an unfavorable term. Instead of including unions in the generic labor market you have selectively isolated them, given them favoritism and alienated the great majority of workers who have no favored status in your eyes.
4. I am not a far left liberal seeking wealth redistribution, shutdown of coal mines, oil wells, and any endeavor that creates jobs. I have difficulty envisioning windmill-powered vehicles and exclusively solar-powered homes and factories. I also have difficulty understanding how preserving minor endangered species should triumph over allowing people to sustain themselves in their lives and work.
5. I am not a "fat-cat" who contributes to you and takes from the government in forms of subsidies, tax benefits, grants and the many other ways you repay your minions.6. I am not a socialist/Marxist who despises this country and wants us to fail in the hope that you will "fundamentally transform" the U.S. into some form of government-controlled society the likes of which has never, ever succeeded in civilized history.
7. I am not an idealist who was charmed by your charismatic speech and rhetoric of hope and change... and who have now seen that this was nothing but a veneer with little substance.
I am an old man who with my wonderful wife has raised terrific children who are raising their terrific children. I started with $50 and have worked all my life learning that all success, however you define it, is based on building relationships with family and friends and all who you are fortunate enough to be able to meet and know. I learned that it all comes from hard work, compromise and having beliefs based on fundamentals of the rule of law and one's religious values. I am saddened by your choosing to exclude me from your constituency... other than using me as leverage in Medicare to threaten your opposition.
Of your twelve predecessors in my lifetime, I have never felt so excluded and the thought that you will continue to exclude me, my peers and all those other constituencies that are not important to you, saddens me greatly. I hope you overcome your lack of experience, knowledge and judgment and do nothing more than expand your peripheral vision to realize that you are the president of the entire country and all of its people.
In my speeches, especially when talking about the fiscal crisis in Europe (or the future fiscal crisis in America), I often warn that the welfare state reaches a point-of-no-return when the number of people riding in the wagon begins to outnumber the number of people pulling the wagon.
To be more specific, if more than 50 percent of the population is dependent on government (employed in the bureaucracy, living off welfare, receiving pensions, etc), it becomes rather difficult to form a coalition to fix the mess. This may explain why Greek politicians have resisted significant reforms, even though the nation faces a fiscal death spiral.
But you don’t need me to explain this relationship. One of our Cato interns, Silvia Morandotti, used her artistic skills to create two images... that show what a welfare state looks like when it first begins and what it eventually becomes....The welfare state starts with small programs targeted at a handful of genuinely needy people. But as politicians figure out the electoral benefits of expanding programs and people figure out the that they can let others work on their behalf, the ratio of producers to consumers begins to worsen.
Eventually, even though the moochers and looters should realize that it is not in their interest to over-burden the people pulling the wagon, the entire system breaks down.
Then things get really interesting. Small nations such as Greece can rely on permanent bailouts from bigger countries and the IMF, but sooner or later, as larger nations begin to go bankrupt, that approach won’t be feasible...
Harry Reid has decided to ratchet up the scare tactics a notch. We’ve already been told that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised and taxes increased, government checks might not go out, but now the schools will close:...Call the bluff, Republicans!
As August 2nd approaches, Democrats will be sweating like John Kerry during a luxury tax audit. Not because they fear default, but because they know a Y2K moment for the general population is approaching — that morning when everyone wakes up, looks around, realizes the world didn’t end and exclaims, “that’s what we were freaked out about?”
As others have confirmed, there's no chance that Grandma ain't gettin' her Social Security check. Because the only way that happens is if Barack Obama is more interested in funding ACORN and his other cadres of Leftist hacks. Let's see how that works for him politically.Once again, courtesy of the Examiner’s Mark Tapscott, here are the hard numbers, in monthly amounts, for anyone foolish enough to buy into Democrat scare tactics:
• Federal revenue: $200 billion per month
• Interest on the national debt: $29 billion
• Social Security: $49.2 billion
• Medicare and Medicaid: $50 billion
• Active duty military pay: $2.9 billion
• Veterans affairs programs: $2.9 billion
• Education funding: $11 billion
All of that core spending adds up to $145 billion, which means that in the event of a debt limit, the government can pay it all and still have $55 billion a month left over.
Note also that this Tweet absolutely confirms Harry Reid is a liar, rather than simply an idiot, since he has previously insisted that Social Security “is in great shape for many decades… Today it is not a problem.”
Dear Mr. Speaker: RSQOTD: "“President Barack Obama walked out of debt limit negotiations Wednesday. One Republican aide said the president quickly ended what was described as a ‘tense’ meeting with congressional leaders about a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Wednesday’s meeting came to a quick halt when Speaker of the House John Boehner responded negatively to spending cuts offered by the White House and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor offered to support two separate debt ceiling votes… ‘The Speaker challenged the President to offer real spending cuts,’ said the aide. ‘He said the gimmicks and accounting tricks that Washington has used for decades are not applicable here. When White House officials attempted to justify budgetary gimmicks, the speaker said pointedly, ‘We’re not doing that anymore.’” So Obama stormed out. He’s gone from “first-class temperament” to first-class temper tantrums. According to The Hill, Obama told Cantor, “Don’t call my bluff.” Which tells us two things: One, Obama’s bluffing. Two, he stinks at it. Note to President Genius: If you’re bluffing, try not to let on that you’re bluffing. That’s why it’s called bluffing. Hope that helps, champ!" --Jim Treacher
• Hey, Nancy: how's that "government creates jobs" theory working out? "[Unemployment] applications have now topped 400,000 for 14 weeks, evidence that the job market has weakened since earlier this year."A political regime, usually totalitarian, ideologically based on centralized government, government control of business, repression of criticism or opposition, a leader cult, and exalting the state and/or religion above individual rights.
[These documents show] the Obama administration, contrary to its repeated denials, attempted to exclude the Fox News Channel (FNC) from a round of interviews with Treasury’s “Executive Pay Czar” Kenneth Feinberg. The documents, which include email exchanges within the Department of the Treasury and between Treasury and White House staff, also provide colorful evidence of an anti-Fox News bias within the Obama White House.
...According to press reports, the Fox News Channel was specifically excluded from joining the pool of reporters which precipitated a backlash among the networks and a reversal by the Obama Treasury Department.
According to The New York Times: “Fox’s television news competitors refused to go along with a Treasury Department effort on Thursday [October 22, 2009] to exclude Fox from a round of interviews with the executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg that was to be conducted with a ‘pool’ camera crew…”. Fox News Channel’s James Rosen reported this backlash forced the Obama administration to reconsider its position on the matter: “The Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV news network consulted and decided that none of them would interview Feinberg unless Fox was included, and the administration relented…,” reported Rosen. Ultimately, after other media representatives objected, Fox News Channel was allowed to participate in the interviews.
The Treasury Department’s official response, as detailed in back-and-forth emails uncovered by Judicial Watch, included a clear denial of any such plot to exclude Fox News from the interviews: “There was no plot to exclude Fox News, and they had the same interview that their competitors did. Much ado about absolutely nothing.” Moreover, in an October 23, 2009 email to New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg, Jake Siewart, Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, repeated the denial that there was an effort to exclude Fox News Channel: “Call me today on your Fox-Treasury report,” Siewart wrote. “Not true that there was an ‘effort to exclude’ Fox.”However ..., internal Obama administration emails [show] that FNC was specifically singled out for exclusion. According to one October 22, 2009, email exchange between Dag Vega, Director of Broadcast Media on the White House staff, to Jenni LeCompte, then-Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Treasury Department, Vega informs LeCompte that “…we’d prefer if you skip Fox please.”
...In an email on the night of October 22, 2009, commenting on a report by Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier noting the exclusion of the network from the pool, Psaki writes to Compte and fellow White House colleagues, “…brett baier just did a stupid piece on it -- but he is a lunatic”.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest bluntly described the White House’s position on Fox News Channel in an October 23, 2009, email to LeCompte: “We’ve demonstrated our willingness and ability to exclude Fox News from significant interviews…”
The Treasury Department blacked out a key email regarding its refusal to make available Treasury Secretary Geithner for an interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.
Finally: Cantor and Obama come to blows: MalkinCBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley asked President Obama today about the attacks on the U.S. embassy.
"Yesterday the U.S. embassy in Damascus was attacked by a mob," Pelley said. "I wonder what you say to the dictator in Syria?""Well, you know, we've been very clear that what we've seen on the part of the Syrian regime has been an unacceptable degree of brutality, directed at its people," Mr. Obama said. "We've certainly sent a clear message that nobody can be messing with our embassy. And that we will take whatever actions necessary in order to protect our embassy. And I think they've gotten that message."
There’s always a lot of squawking about “climate disruption” ... anytime there is a heat wave anywhere these days. But, it doesn’t hold up. One only has to look at all the faux noise made last year over the Russian heat wave, which NOAA later analysed and said was not connected in any way to “climate change”.The heat wave of 2003 in Europe has often been cited as proof that AGW is making heat waves worse. But, at a time when we had far less people, and far less CO2 in the atmosphere, a very deadly heat wave occurred.
History: 100 years ago today, In the US 652 deaths in a week reported during heatwave 9th July 1911 despite a lower composition of CO2 in the atmosphere. The only possible explanation? “Climate Disruption” has the power of time travel /sarc
On this day in 1911 record temperatures are set in the northeastern United States as a deadly heat wave hits the area that would go on to kill 380 people. In Nashua, New Hampshire, the mercury peaked at 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Other high-temperature records were set all over New England during an 11-day period.
...By July 13, New York had reported 211 people dead from the excessive heat. One man, apparently disoriented from heat exhaustion, overdosed on strychnine. In Philadelphia, 159 people died from the heat. The types of deaths ascribed to the heat could vary quite a bit in 1911, with some authorities including those who drowned while attempting to cool off by swimming in the count.