Government dependency spikes under Obama
Or, as Pelosi would say, big time economic “bang for the buck”! Details:
The American public’s dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.
The conservative think tank’s annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were “traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families.”
The increase under Obama is the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy Carter was president, the data show.
The rise was driven mainly by increases in housing subsidies, an expansion in Medicaid and changes to the welfare system, along with a sharp rise in food stamps, the study found. …
For those of you on the left, government dependence is a bad thing!
Numbers are racist. Or something.
Even many liberals turning against Obama on his decision to force Catholic institutions to violate their religious tenets in health care coverage
From the Washington comPost:
The White House sought Tuesday to soothe concerns over a controversial birth control rule that has led to Republican attacks and tension among close allies of the administration.
The efforts followed mounting criticism from Catholics and other faith leaders that a new rule requiring certain religious institutions to cover contraception as part of their employee health plans violates their constitutional rights.
And they came as White House officials began hearing complaints from some of their own allies and advisers, who view the rule as a policy mistake that feeds what they see as an unfair charge from Republicans: that President Obama is anti-religion. (Yeah, really! It’s unfair to note that the guy is pro-abortion, thumbs his nose at the church and the Constitution to throw a bone to his moonbat base, etc. … but hey, where would you get the crazy idea that the guy is anti-religion or anything? – CL)
Even Chris Matthews? Dude, when Tingles says his boy’s wrong, that should make the front page of the comPost!
Normally, the Catholic church runs interference for the Democrats. I’m guessing that’s why Chairman Zero shoved this down their throats: he figured they’d stick with him and his party like they always do. Considering they backed ObamaCare in the first place, I’m not sure why they are surprised by this. Unless they thought they could get a waiver just like every other B.O.-friendly organization that also didn’t want to be subject to ObamaCare’s onerous requirements.
Obama spokestool: People leaving the workforce is good for the economy
Just so you can understand Liberalese: “unemployment” is bad, but “not working” is good. Got it?
Just when I thought there couldn’t be a bigger fool than Gibbsy, Carney proves me wrong. Observe:
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained that the number of people dropping out of the work force, which artificially depresses the unemployment rate, can be regarded as an “economic positive.”
“A large percentage of that is due to younger people getting more education, which in the end is an economic positive,” Carney said. “This increase in the number of people leaving the work force has been a trend and a fact since 2000, because of an aging population, which is not to say this is wholly — that’s not to say that I would wholly disregard as an issue.” Carney had been asked about the 19 million underemployed or unemployed Americans, and about people who had left the work force.
Ah, I see. People going to college and racking up massive amounts of student loan debt (which they later march, drum, and push old ladies down steps over having to repay) while earning degrees in such incredibly useful and productive subjects like Women’s Studies or Sanskrit is a net positive for the economy. Got it. Thanks for the clarification.
Anywho, continuing:
“I think some of those who, I suppose, don’t wish us well politically have tried to make a point about this,” he also said. “The facts are that in these most recent numbers, this is not an issue of people leaving the work force; the numbers are positive across the board.”
“This is not an issue of people leaving the work force”? Um, yeah…it is.
So how is the labor force participation rate looking today?
At 64 percent, it is well below the peak of 67 percent during the dotcom bubble, and significantly below the steady state of 66 percent we saw during the 2000s. Given the Baby Boom retirement and other demographic shifts, CBO projections expected it to be declining – 65.3 percent at the beginning of 2012. We are now 1.3 percentage points below that demographic estimate, the equivalent of 3.2 million “missing” workers. If the “missing” people were in the labor force, the unemployment rate today would be 10.4 percent, not the current 8.5 percent.
Look at it this way: if a hospital loses a number of sick people because they died, they could claim the drop in sick patients as a “net positive” for their hospital, right?
California about to run out of cash
But hey, these mouthbreathers want to keep putting Democrats in charge, so with all due apologies to my conservative friends trapped on the Left Coast, my sympathy fuel tank is on fumes right now. Details:
California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today.
The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June.
New state motto: Sure, we’re bankrupt, businesses are fleeing like crazy, our taxes are oppressive, we have rolling blackouts, and no one here speaks English anymore…but hey, at least Republicans aren’t running the show, right?
Obama in SOTU: We partnered with private sector for electric car batteries. “Partner”: We’re filing for bankruptcy.
And ObaMao’s Reverse Midas touch continues:
An Indiana-based energy storage company that received a $118.5 million stimulus-law grant from the Energy Department filed for bankruptcy Thursday.
Ener1 is asking a federal bankruptcy court in New York to approve a plan to restructure the company’s debt and infuse $81 million in equity funding. …
The Energy Department, in 2009, approved a $118.5 million stimulus-law grant for EnerDel, a subsidiary of the company that develops lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. The grant was part of a broader program aimed at promoting the development of electric-vehicle battery technology.
President Obama touted the program in his State of the Union address this year.
“In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries,” he said.
The company is now trading for $0.02 per share. That’s our money, going down the crapper for more “green energy” boondoggles.
Please get this jack#ss out in November…we can’t afford four more years of this idiocy.
Big Sis now monitoring…Drudge?
Apparently, the threat of Chairman Zero not getting re-elected is a national security risk. Details:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.
A “privacy compliance review” issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a “Social Networking/Media Capability” which involves regular monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.”
The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.”
The document adds, using more plain language, that such monitoring is designed to help DHS and its numerous agencies, which include the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, to manage government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Oh, I see. So they’re only checking out Drudge and other blogs so as to know about earthquakes and whatnot. Because that kind of info isn’t on CNN or Fox News or anything, right?
November can’t get here quick enough to get these jackbooted thugs out of our house.
Hopenchange: 2011 closes with debt-to-GDP ratio OVER 100%
Boy, Obamanomics sure is working, huh? Details:
While not news to Zero Hedge readers who knew about the final debt settlement of US debt about 10 days ahead of schedule, it is now official: according to the US Treasury, America has closed the books on 2011 with debt at an all time record $15,222,940,045,451.09. And, as was observed here first in all of the press, US debt to GDP is now officially over 100%, or 100.3% to be specific, a fact which the US government decided to delay exposing until the very end of the calendar year. We wonder, rhetorically, just how prominent of a talking point this historic event will be in any upcoming GOP primary debates. And yes, technically this number is greater than the debt ceiling but it excludes various accounting gimmicks. When accounting for those, the US has a debt ceiling buffer of… $14 billion, or one third the size of a typical bond auction.
Everything this economic ignoramus touches turns to crap. But hey, he is sure is smoov talkin’ wit da Telebinky, so let’s allow him to “finish the job” (his words) of destroying the America he loathes.
Obama: Only a couple of presidents have done more good than I have
His douchebaggery merges with his narcissism. Money quote (video at link):
In his latest interview with CBS News’s Steve Kroft, President Obama said “I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history.” CBS edited the statement out of the televised version of the interview.
How helpful of CBS! They create proof where there is none if it advances their agenda (see Memogate 2004). They erase proof if it advances their agenda (this is but one of a bazillion instances). Nope…no liberal media bias!
What an a-hole! This country needs this egomaniac out of office ASAP so our republic can begin to heal from his and his party’s moonbattery-induced damage.
DNC Chair Debbie lies, insists unemployment has NOT gone up under Obama
Video clip must be seen to be believed:
Ed runs the numbers:
- Jobless rate in January 2009: 7.8%. Jobless rate in November 2011: 8.6%.
- Number of employed in January 2009, in thousands: 133,563. In November 2011: 131,708
- Civilian participation rate in January 2009: 65.7%. In November 2011: 64.0%
- Unemployment level in January 2009, in thousands: 11,984. In November 2011: 13,303
- Number of people not in labor force, January 2009, in thousands: 80,554. In November 2011: 86,558
Whatshername-Schmuck is trying to argue that last month’s drop in unemployment means that unemployment has not gone up under Uhhhh-bama. That’s like running your credit card up from a balance of $0 to a balance of $10,000, then you pay the balance down to $9,000. “See? The debt didn’t go UP…it went DOWN a thousand bucks!” Um, no…it went DOWN a grand after you ran it UP nine grand. And you’re proud of that measley one grand?
Additionally, she sure is proud that unemployment fell from 9.0% to 8.6%. Impressive…except that while 112,000 people found jobs, over 300,000 people gave up looking for work. The unemployment numbers no longer count people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and stop looking for work.
I do feel a tad sorry for her (yeah, I know, but it’s only a tad). She’s been assigned the impossible task of polishing a turd. She’s polishing as hard as she can, but in the end, her boss’ record is still a turd, and there ain’t no amount of polish in America to get that turd shiny.
Why the Obama stimulus was a massive failure
Observe:
Sums Tina Korbe:
Theoretically, for the stimulus to have worked, the government would have had to target idle resources. Instead, the government funneled money into already-existing government contracts. Similarly, for the stimulus to have worked, state leaders would have had to spend stimulus money on top of what they were already spending. All too often, they used stimulus dollars to cover general expenses rather than to increase overall spending.
Takeaway line from video: “The main lesson of the stimulus is creating jobs is a very complex process and, certainly, it can’t be directed by a top-down institution that pretty much fails at everything it does”.
Obama: You know what creates more jobs that jobs do? Jobless benefits, that’s what!
ObaMao addresses the bitter clingers in PA:
President Obama said that he will delay his vacation and keep Congress in session until the passage of his desired payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension — two proposals that Obama said would create more jobs than the Keystone XL pipeline that his administration recently delayed.
“I would not ask anyone to do something I’m not willing to do myself,” Obama said when asked if he would go on vacation while keeping Congress in Washington D.C. “We are going to stay here as long as it takes [to get unemployment extended and pass the payroll tax cut].”
As Obama called for passage of those bills, he also responded to a recent Republican push to require him to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. “However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline,” he said, “they’re going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.”
Uh…whiskey tango foxtrot?
You’ve got a project that will actually create jobs, and this economic ‘tard is claiming that giving people money NOT to work, and extending tax cuts to people who are ALREADY at work, is going to create more than the zero jobs we know that it will?
Wow…just friggin’ “Wow!”
Obama lets his communist leanings show loudly and clearly
One of the things I’ve detested about the left and the MSM (pardon the redundancy) since BHO decided to run for president was their insistence that their boy was a “centrist” or “center-left” guy. He was raised by an anti-American Muslim father (for a while) and an anti-American socialist mother, indoctrinated with anti-American propaganda at his madrassas and in college by Marxist professors, associated with the New Party (communist, Google it), bombarded with anti-American socialist vitriol in Jeremiah Wright’s church for over two decades, palling around with anti-American left-wing terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and best buds with his most frequent White House visitor Andy Stern (former SEIU chief).
Yet the left would have us believe that despite incubating in such an anti-American leftist cesspool, BHO was immune to all of the effects one would expect from someone with such a background. If you lie with dogs, you get fleas…unless you’re Obama, in which case you’re immune from fleas.
Last week, Stern wrote a column telling Americans that our capitalist model was a failure and needed to be shaped to match the Chicom model. Stern was one of many union bosses who have openly espoused communist…er, “pro-worker”…sentiments. When you listen to their rhetoric, it sounds exactly like something you would have heard from Lenin, Chavez, Castro, et al. It’s official: unions are nothing more than commie front groups. Period. The science is settled.
Oh, but I forgot: Just because ObaMao is best buds with Stern, Hoffa, et al, does NOT mean he shares their communist sensibilities. To think otherwise is crazy. I mean, aside from a rare moment of honesty with Joe the Plumber, when has BHO ever advocated anything other than a capitalist model?
Now. The answer to the prior question is now. In Kansas, no less. Here’s what he had to say about capitalism:
“It’s a simple theory — one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work,” Obama said of supply-side economics, drawing extended applause. “It’s never worked.”
Oh, sure, some would argue that he wasn’t talking about capitalism per se, but of supply-side economics. Folks, that is a distinction without a difference. As Ace rightly notes:
He says “trickle-down economics” rather than capitalism, but “trickle-down economics” is merely an argument in favor of capitalism. There is no such thing as “trickle-down economics.” There is capitalism, and the argued advantage of it, which is the trickling down of created wealth.
…
…But Europe is probably going to plunge into something in between a recession or a depression, and may erupt in violence and political disorder.And Europe is Obama’s lodestar. That’s where he wants to take us. To the extent we haven’t gotten there yet, it’s because Americans are soft, lazy bitter clingers who hate other sorts of people (and their politico-economic systems).
So Europe’s 60 or 70 year history with socialism is about to end in violent upheavals and misery… and here’s this ignoramus saying that it’s capitalism which is the proven failure.
As an intemperate interjection, might I note that if, by “never worked”, the organizer-in-chief means “increased government revenues every time”, then yeah, “never worked.” If, by “never worked”, he means the creation of 16 million new jobs, then he’s right…”never worked”.
But that’s not what he means. Those aren’t benefits…not to the people he seeks to please. No, by “never worked”, he means “it has never taken more money from the producers and funded the non-producers’ chosen lifestyles of lethargy and dependence in perpetuity.” That’s what he means. See, when 16 million new jobs were created, you had to be handicapped or lazy to not get a job, because they were everywhere. Every time supply side economics has been tried, the economy has picked back up, jobs have been created, and revenues to the government have increased as a result of more people working and paying income taxes (and not on public dependence). But to ObaMao, public dependence is a feature, NOT a bug!
The son of a motherless goat is a commie. He’s had it pounded into his head since he was a fetus (that, luckily for him, escaped medical procedures that he endorses, to the point of infanticide). No amount of results will shake his belief that it is communism, and not capitalism, that has failed every time. He just knows it will be different this time…it’s got to be! (Sidebar: I know that communism and socialism aren’t exactly the same thing. But the differences are not great, so as far as I’m concerned, for the sake of B.O.’s leftist leanings, they’re the same thing.)
For the sake of the republic, this #sshat must be removed from office in next year’s election. This country cannot survive eight years of Obamunism.
Obama indicts himself and his policies by invoking Hoover
From the Historian In Chief:
So this competition for new jobs and businesses and middle-class security, that’s the race I know we can win. But you don’t win it by saying every American is on their own. We’re not going to win it if we just hand out more tax cuts to people who don’t need them, let companies play by their own rules without any restriction, and we just hope somehow that the success of the wealthiest few translates in the prosperity for everybody else.
We have tried that, by the way. We tried it for 10 years. It’s part of what got into the mess that we’re in. It doesn’t work. It didn’t work for Herbert Hoover, when it was called trickle-down economics during the Depression. It didn’t work between 2000 and 2008, and it won’t work today.
There’s just one problem with that…it’s not even remotely true.
Obama is dead wrong. Data from the White House’s own website shows that Hoover increased, rather than cut, spending in the Great Depression, and ran up deficits that were huge by historical standards.
As Ed points out, “Hoover’s spending policies look a lot like Obama’s.” Hoovermania: Catch the fee-vuh!
Quote of the day, “sad pathetic California loser” edition
I do pray that leeches like this don’t get near a ballot box, ever again. Money quote from an article about the failure of the so-called “Super Committee”:
“I think the whole situation is nutty,” said Jan O’Connell, a 47-year-old artist from Los Angeles. “Somebody’s got to save us, and if the government can’t, who can?”
Ho. Ly. Shiite.
I’ve got a radical idea. How about you fend for yourself and stop depending on the government to “save” you?
Yet another “Solyndra” for Obama
This is what happens when government picks winners and losers from the private sector. Actually, with B.O.’s track record, has he even picked any actual winners?
Beacon Power, a Massachusetts-based company that won praise from renewable power activists and loan guarantees from the federal government, has filed for bankruptcy, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for $43 million.
The company, which promised to build storage devices for intermittent power produced by wind and solar power facilities, was never able to attract investors. Coming on the heels of the Solyndra bankruptcy and ensuing scandal, the Beacon Power bankruptcy has a growing number of people calling for an end to federal loan guarantees for risky alternative energy start-ups.
No word yet on whether or not there were any political connections involved in this one, or if this was just another in a long list of stunning and expensive failures of the administration.
Obama to tax Christmas trees in order to promote Christmas trees
Satire? Uh…no. It’s for real.
President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.
Right. Because Christmas is so underappreciated and undercommercialized!
H3ll, I’ve been hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas trees since November 1. What, is the Obamanation wanting to ensure that I start hearing Silver Bells and seeing wreaths in July so that Christmas is duly promoted?
Exit question: Did Congress cede the power of taxation to the Ag Department and I just didn’t get the memo?
Obama: Where’s the GOP jobs bill?
B.O. dishonestly, or ignorantly, claims there is no alternative jobs bill from the Republicans? Hint: Google is your friend, champ.
Pelosi: Boeing plant in SC should unionize or shut down
Can you believe those crazy Republicans are anti-jobs? The nerve of them. Anywho, from Granny Botox:
In an interview late last week, House Minority Leaeder Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told CNBC that Boeing should either unionize its production facilities in South Carolina, or shut them down entirely.
“Do you think it’s right that Boeing has to close down that plant in South Carolina because it’s non union?” asked host Maria Bartiromo. Pelosi’s reply: “Yes.”
The minority leader quickly added that she would rather it simply unionize and stay open. But barring unionization, by Pelosi’s reasoning, it should simply shut down.
Apparently, the only jobs worth creating are union jobs. Never mind that S.C. workers chose differently when given a chance:
Pelosi may or may not know that workers at the South Carolina plant in question voted resoundingly (199-68) to decertify their union two years ago. Government policies that would close the plant for being a non-union shop would simply be punishing those workers for exercising their right to determine union representation for themselves.
Yeah, well what do they know about their own factory, right? San Fran Nan is much more in tune with SC working conditions than the workers actually there, huh?
#sshat.
Obama to San Fran crowd: If I lose in 2012, you’re going to have to be self-reliant
Gasp! Perish the thought! Here’s Chairman Zero from San Fransicko:
At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.
“The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, ‘you are on your own,’” Obama told a crowd of 200 donors over lunch at the W Hotel.
Self-reliance is a bad thing? As opposed to reliance? How’s reliance been working for you, liberals?
And to think that Normal America perceives B.O. to be a socialist!
Obama: Screw Congress, I’ll “heal the economy” by executive fiat
Yeah, his policies thus far have been so wildly successful that…they made the economy worse and got his party run out of power by the electorate. So what do you do when the peasants revolt against you? Why, you take matters into your own hands, the Constitution and the will of the people be damned! Details:
President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.
“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.
“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress, steps that can save consumers money, make government more efficient and responsive, and help heal the economy. And we’re going to be announcing these executive actions on a regular basis,” the president said.
Right, because growing the leviathan of Big Government is a great way to…um…save money and make government efficient. Alrighty then.
Well, when the economy doesn’t improve (and there are no signs that it will), he won’t be able to argue that it wasn’t his fault. OK, he’ll try to argue that (and, naturally, blame it on Bush), but that dog won’t hunt anymore. Normal America sees right through it.
Remember when the left hated a perceived overstepping executive branch? Good times, good times.
Senate FINALLY working on important legislation: tackling fake maple syrup
The Senate hasn’t proposed a budget in 900+ days. How can they, when they’ve got far more pressing issues to address?
Six senators introduced legislation that would make selling fake maple syrup a felony offense leading to fines and up to five years in prison.
The Maple Agriculture Protection and Law Enforcement (MAPLE) Act is a response to what chief sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and others say is the increasing practice of cheating Vermont, Upstate New York and other maple syrup regions by selling inferior, fake syrup.
“I have been alarmed by the growing number of individuals and businesses claiming to sell genuine Vermont maple syrup when they are in fact selling an inferior product that is not maple syrup at all,” Leahy said Thursday. “This is fraud, plain and simple, and it undermines a key part of Vermont’s economy and reputation for quality that has been hard-earned through Vermonters’ hard work.”
He added that others in the syrup-producing regions of Maine, New York and other states also have been hurt. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) are all co-sponsors.
Under current law, selling fake maple syrup is a misdemeanor offense.
Under the bill, S. 1742, selling fake maple syrup would be listed as an act of fraud that is seen as a felony offense, along with falsifying bank entries, mortgage transactions, loan applications and citizenship records, along with dozens of other activities.
“We need to make sure that those who intentionally deceive consumers get a trip to jail, not a slap on the wrist,” Leahy said. “Schemers should not easily be able to sully the seal of quality that is associated with genuine Vermont maple syrup.”
The bill specifically lists what qualifies as real maple syrup: a liquid food derived from heating tree sap or mixing water and maple sugar. In either case, not less than 66 percent of the weight of the product must be “soluble solids derived solely from the sap of a species of tree in the genus Acer.”
Of course, leave it to the Maine sisters to join this lunacy.
Democrats are pro-rape
How else would Joe Biden explain this?
President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda hit another roadblock in the Senate on Thursday night, as the two parties remained locked in a bitter stalemate with the economy sputtering and tens of millions looking for work.
In their first attempt to advance individual pieces of the president’s sprawling American Jobs Act, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward a $35 billion package for states and localities to hire and prevent the layoffs of teachers and first responders.
A united GOP Conference, along with three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus — Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) — voted 50-50 to block a debate on the package, which would have been funded by a 0.5 percent surtax on those earning more than $1 million.
Bipartisan. Right? I mean, whenever any RINOs get peeled away into voting for Democrat legislation, we’re told the legislation was “bipartisan”. So this is bipartisan opposition to B.O.’s rape prevention jobs bill, right?
Quote of the day, “Reid admits which is more important, public or private sector jobs?” edition
Dude. Seriously?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.
“It’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about,” Reid said on the Senate floor.
Right. Government hasn’t gotten nearly big enough over the last 3.5 years, has it?
Biden: Pass Obama’s jobs bill or there will be more rapes, or something
Why are Republicans (plus the two Senate Dems who voted against Porkulus II) in favor of rape? From The Weekly Standard:
“In 2008, when Flint had 265 sworn officers on their police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city,” Biden said. “In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes–just to pick two categories–climbed to 229. In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this year for Flint if we don’t rectify it.”
The vice president also seemed to suggest that the Obama administration’s first stimulus is the reason rapes and murders were not even higher in 2010 and 2011.” And God only knows what that number would have been had we not been able to get a little bit of help,” Biden said.
Ho. Ly. Shiite.
So building more roads, bridges, and pork projects, plus raising taxes on millionaires, will…um…prevent rapes in Flint, Michigan? Seriously? That’s the greyhound you’re betting on, champ?
Quote of the day, “The left’s flipping out as Obama sinks” edition
Excellent column from James Taranto, an excerpt of which follows:
The left got what it wanted in 2008: a liberal president with a sweeping agenda and big Democratic majorities capable of enacting it. The result has been a great and failed experiment in progressive politics and governance. In due course, one hopes, the left will absorb some lessons–but for now, they seem to be suffering a nervous breakdown.
That is one way to understand why so much of the liberal establishment is rallying behind Krugman’s Army, as the “Occupy Wall Street” protests are known. Everything they believe in has failed, so they are turning nihilistic.
Awesome takedown of liberalism’s failed experiment in America, and how the left is coping (hint: not very well).
Congress’ only Muslim: You know, regulations are GREAT for job creation!
Nice to see that economic ignorance doesn’t discriminate based on religion. From MSDNC, and interview with Keith Ellison (D-MN):
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) tells MSNBC regulations create jobs because a business will have to hire people to help them comply with the new requirement.
“I think the answer is no,” Ellison said when asked if he believes regulations kill jobs. “And here is why: When we talked about increasing fuel efficiency standards, the industry responded, and they need engineers and designers and manufacturers, and they need actually more people to help respond to the new requirement.”
“I believe if the government says, look, we have got to reduce our carbon footprint, you will kick into gear a whole number of people that know how to do that or have ideas about that, and that will be a job engine. I understand what you mean, because if anything adds a cost to a business, you could assume that that will diminish that business’s ability to hire. But I don’t think that’s actually right. I think what businesses want is customers and what — if they are selling product, if they have a product to sell they will do well even if they have some new regulations to meet,” the Congressman said.
Wow. Just…wow.
Right, businesses just sit back and take it up the chute when big government comes in and imposes newer and bigger regulatory burdens on them. They don’t lay off workers or raise prices of their goods/services in order to fund the new help (temporary, usually) to comply with the regs. They don’t relocate to friendlier business climes. They don’t close their doors for good. No, they don’t do any of those things, do they?
Look, Muhammed, if increased government regulations spurned job creation, then the economy would have caught fire in the last 2.5 years. But it hasn’t. It’s gotten worse. Why, it’s almost as if the anti-business regulations have strangled the economy and job creation! Almost, of course. From Investors:
If regulations were job-creation engines, the economy should be in danger of overheating right about now. Obama has overseen the fastest growth in new federal rules ever, imposing 75 new major regulations in his first 26 months in office at a cost of more than $40 billion, according to the Heritage Foundation.
And the left wonders why their efforts to revive the economy have fallen flat?
Republicans blocking Obama’s jobs bill
Wait, did I say Republicans? My bad:
Democratic leaders in the Senate are scrambling to avoid defections on President Obama’s jobs package, which appears headed for defeat on Tuesday.
A lack of Democratic unity on the president’s bill would be embarrassing for the White House, which has been scolding House Republicans for refusing to vote on the measure.
…
Democrats who will vote no or are leaning no include Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.), who all hail from red states and are up for reelection next year.
Of course, this inconvenient fact won’t keep B.O. or his minions from blaming Republicans rather than their own party. But the left is impervious to facts and truth, so this is no surprise.
If you want America to be as screwed as California, vote for Obama in 2012
That is the subject of this column by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), and it is absolutely brilliant. Please take the time to read it, because it is also a warning to Americans: If you want to avoid the disintegration of the once-Golden State from being exported to the other 56 states, you must vote out the Commie-in-Chief next year.
Excerpts:
I want to welcome this groundbreaking scientific expedition to the savage lands of the Left Coast. You are here in California to answer an important theoretical question and now you have your answer.
Study it. Fear it. And then go home and make sure that it never happens to the rest of the country.
…
Mark that well, because if we lose this struggle for the future of our country, you too someday will live in a California – only without the nice climate.
Bad policies. Bad process. Bad politics. Those are the three acts in a Greek tragedy that tell the tale of how, in the span of a single generation, the most prosperous and golden state in the nation became an economic basket case.
One of the results?
One thing – and one thing only – changed in those years: public policy. The political Left gradually gained dominance over California’s government and has imposed a disastrous agenda of radical and retrograde policies that have destroyed the quality of life that Californians once took for granted.
The Census bureau has reported for the better part of the decade that California is undergoing the biggest population exodus in its history, with many fleeing to such garden spots as Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Think about that. California is blessed with the most equitable climate in the entire Western Hemisphere; it has the most bountiful resources anywhere in the continental United States; it is poised on the Pacific Rim in a position to dominate world trade for the next century, and yet people are finding a better place to live and work and raise their families in the middle of the Nevada Nuclear Test Range.
Ouch. So in light of this collapse, why has Californiastan insisted on sending liberals to Suckramento and D.C.? McClintock has a theory:
Last November, while the rest of the country was celebrating historic Republican gains (including a shift of 63 U.S. House Seats, six U.S. Senate Seats, 680 state legislative seats, 19 state legislatures and six governors), the statewide Republican ticket in California – despite massively outspending the Democrats in the best Republican year since 1938 – lost every statewide race and even lost ground in the state legislature.
Republicans nationally now hold more state legislative seats than in any year since 1928. In California, they hold fewer than at any time since 1978!
That is not because the voting population of California has lost its collective mind and it is not because the state is divinely ordained to be run by morons.
It happened because Dick Armey is right: “When we act like us we win, and when we act like them we lose.”
Republicans lost the 2006 and 2008 elections not because voters abandoned Republican principles, but because they looked at the Republicans and concluded that the Republicans had abandoned Republican principles.
Possibly. Or, perhaps he gives way too much credit to Californiastan’s residents.
I suspect that because of L.A., the San Fransicko Bay area, and Suckramento, the rest of the state is hopelessly lost to blue policies. When you have people who basically think “Sure, our economic policies are crap, but gay marriage and abortion rights are far more important to me than fiscal solvency”, there is virtually no way you can expect a collective wake-up call. The state losing its AAA bond rating did nothing to change that.
Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. I wonder, though, if Californians really do expect different results…or if they just don’t care if the results are different. Because hey, being broke and losing the producers to other stable and friendly states sure beats the other side “winning”, right?
Obama: My jobs bill will grow our GDP by 2%, and it will only cost us…3%
At a White House press conference on Thursday, President Barack Obama said the legislation he has proposed to create jobs could “grow the economy as much as 2 percent.” However, the White House estimates that the plan itself will cost $447 billion — or 2.97 percent of the 2011 GDP of $15.012 trillion that is currently projected by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
This mental midget has been a functional economic illiterate his whole life. Which was fine, when he was living within the ivory towers of academia and the cocoon of community organizing. But now that he’s exported his ignorance into America, we suffer greatly.
UPDATED: Administration learns from Solyndra scandal
UPDATES BELOW.
Learns nothing, that is. Here we go again:
The Energy Department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.
The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving the money and laid off 1,100 workers. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.
Corruption. Incompetence. Crony capitalism. 2012 can’t get here soon enough.
UPDATE (09/29/2011 – 11:00 AM EST): As Kanaka Girl points out in the comments, the aforementioned Tonopah Solar Energy company getting $737 million in our money to fund 45 jobs (a bargain at $16.3+ million per job) has connections with Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law. Details here. Yep, Ron Pelosi is executive director of Pacific Corporate Group, an “investment partner” with Tonopah’s parent company SolarReserve. But hey, I’m sure this is just another big ol’ coinkidink and not a case of the crony capitalism we’ve come to expect from the Chicagoland Thug-in-Chief.
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