Now that he’s got his $300k+ in salary, screw the kids, right?

This isn’t about whether you think vouchers are a good idea or not.  This is about a highly paid leftist union tool telling poor families that he’d rather they suffer the indignities of a substandard education than have alternatives to the government schools to which they are zoned.  And of course, the predictable “throw more money at it” reply got regurgitated.

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.

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.

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?

Well, what a difference a SuperPAC makes, eh?

“A threat to democracy” in ObaMao’s mind means “the possibility I may not be re-elected”!

Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s perfectly legal for him to use SuperPAC’s, especially after the SCOTUS gave the greenlight to them.  But it is the epitome of disingenuousness, hypocrisy, and immorality for the man-child to use a form of campaigning that his petulant authoritarian behind was lambasting very recently.  Scruples, schmuples, he gots a campaign to run!

It couldn’t be the quality of their newspaper, or lack thereof, now could it?  Nah.

Of course, since B.O. is good about doling out money to his constituents, and since Democrats have floated the idea of bailing out friendly fishwraps before, it seems like the Old Gray Hag should go kneel before Chairman Zero and ask for their own bailout.  No sense parroting his talking points and polishing his knob for free, right?  There’s bills to be paid.

Following are excerpts from an interview with US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on January 30, 2012.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: It is a very inspiring time – that you have overthrown a dictator, and that you are striving to achieve a genuine democracy. So I think people in the United States are hoping that this transition will work, and that there will genuinely be a government of, by, and for the people.

…

I can’t speak about what the Egyptian experience should be, because I’m operating under a rather old constitution. The United States, in comparison to Egypt, is a very new nation, and yet we have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world.  (Just so you know, you statist hag, that is NOT a bad thing…it’s a GREAT thing! – CL)

…

You should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone one since the end of World War II. I would not look to the US constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary… It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the US constitution – Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It dates from 1982. You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights. Yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?

In other words, the very Constitution she has sworn to uphold is, in her own words, outdated.  No d@mned wonder this wench looks to foreign law to mold her leftist decisions: she doesn’t think very highly of our own laws, statutory or constitutional.  As the Spectator notes, while she was praising the freedoms found in our First Amendment, she was oblivious to the fact that those rights are far less protected in South Africa, Canada, and Europe than they are here.  Maybe she’s racist for not wanting those rights extended to Egyptians?

If Uhhhhhhbama gets re-elected, he will look to find another one of these anti-American jackwagons to sit on the SCOTUS in the event of another vacancy.  It is shameful that such a moron serves on the bench of the Supreme Court.

Job growth surges, jobless rate near 3-year low

The economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to a near three-year low, giving a boost to President Barack Obama as campaigning heats up ahead of November elections.

Hey, that’s awesome news!  Except for the fact that it isn’t:

A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%. Looks like the good folks at the BLS heard us: it appears that the people not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million. No, that’s not a typo: 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in one month! So as the labor force increased from 153.9 million to 154.4 million, the non institutional population increased by 242.3 million meaning, those not in the labor force surged from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. Which means that the civilian labor force tumbled to a fresh 30 year low of 63.7% as the BLS is seriously planning on eliminating nearly half of the available labor pool from the unemployment calculation. …

Again, when people stop looking for work because the economy sucks way too bad to be producing jobs at the levels needed to perpetuate a recovery, those people simply aren’t counted against the unemployed.  A hospital has a certain number of sick people, but when some of those sick people die, you don’t exactly see the hospital celebrating the drop in the number of sick people there, now do you?

Expect more stories like this: Chairman fiddles while the USA smolders, and the MSM is dutifully doing its part in this election year to get ObaMao re-elected.

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?

Admittedly, this is a lukewarm endorsement.  I wish there was a candidate that had the “Wow!” factor that W gave me in 2000 and that ObaMao gave the left four years ago.  But there isn’t.  There are candidates I would have liked to have seen jump in or, in the case of Tim Pawlenty, stick around.

But here’s the thing: This country may not survive another Barack The Terrible reign of economic and freedom terror.  And I’m afraid that Romney is the only guy in the race capable of ending it.  I do believe he has enough appeal to the independents, and that the conservatives won’t sit at home like they did when Juan McAmnesty ran in 2008 on account of recognition of how high the stakes are, that Romney can pull it off.

Do I have concerns about Romney?  Sure.  The same flip-flopping we skewered Kerry over in 2004 is, I think, fair game this time around.  The ignorant masses probably won’t recognize that Bain Capital has a good, not bad, role.  That said, though, I think that people who may not have strong leanings one way or the other will be less put off by Romney than by Newt, Santorum, or Paul.

I recognize the need for a solid conservative.  But I think that Romney is more conservative than he’s given credit for.  However, it’s beyond dispute that he’d govern far more conservatively than Chairman Zero.  You factor in a Republican House and a soon-to-be-Republican Senate, and I think he’ll probably rubber stamp any conservative legislation that lands on his desk.

Newt’s a brilliant speaker and a phenomenal debater.  But people just don’t like him.  And as sad as it is to say, our elections are largely a popularity contest, whether we like it or not.  It is for these reasons that I’m voting for Romney tomorrow in the Florida primary.  Your mileage may vary.

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.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS’ 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees’ tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

Why, it’s as if the left has a “good enough for thee, but not for me” mentality or something!

Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss.

Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign piqued my curiosity, and I imagine the curiosity of others. How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman? So far, no one has volunteered this information.

…

Insofar as Buffet (like Mitt Romney) earns income primarily from capital gains, which are taxed at 15 percent (and according to Obama need to be raised for reasons of fairness), we need to determine how much income a taxpayer like Bosanek must earn in order to pay an average tax rate above fifteen percent. This is easy to do.

The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level. The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 pay an average rate of twelve percent. This is below Buffet’s rate; so she must earn more than that. Taxpayers earning adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000, pay an average tax rate of nineteen percent. Therefore Buffet must pay Debbie Bosanke a salary above two hundred thousand.

We must wait for further details to learn how much more than $200,000 she earns. The tax tables tell us about average ranges. For all we know she earns closer to a half million each year, but that is pure speculation.

Look, that meme has been tackled a billion times.  Buffett paid taxes on income, then used that after-tax income to invest…then had to pay taxes again, this time on money generated from his after-tax investments.  When your primary source of revenue is from profits resulting from investments made with after-tax income, your tax rate isn’t going to be the same. 

Capital gains tax rates are lower, and when they were cut during the 1990′s (reluctantly by Bubba), the stock market ROARED to life as investors flocked to it.  As a result of the new influx of investors and investor activity, revenues to the government increased after the capital gains tax rate cut.  Wait…you mean cutting taxes increased revenue to the federal government?  Yeah, go figure.  Turns out that decreasing certain tax rates promotes economic activity and increasing certain tax rates discourages economic activity.  Who knew, right?

So, Warren Buffett pays his secretary between $200-$500k a year in salary.  Good work if you can get it, I suppose.  So I’m thinking that maybe this “my billionaire boss pays a lower tax rate than I do” schtick is just a tad old…and disingenuous.  Besides, Warren Buffett is more than welcome to send more money to D.C., but he hires accountants and tax planners to avoid doing just that…all while complaining that he doesn’t pay enough.  My turbocharged Hypocrisy Tolerance fuel tank is on fumes, I’m afraid.

ANDREA MITCHELL: And looking ahead to the next primary in Florida, 30 percent of the Hispanic community is Cuban-American. That’s a smaller proportion, and so the Hispanic community there is different. And they are less prone to be susceptible to Mitt Romney’s really hard line on immigration, more prone to the Newt Gingrich approach to immigration. The other interesting little fact is about the Mexican Romneys, those looking back at all of those records say that Mitt Romney should look back at the records because the Romneys that came back from Mexico to the United States, they crossed the border illegally.

That would be fascinating…except it’s not true.  Not a word of it.  Mutiple layers of fact-checking at the MSM, I see.  On the up side, it was on MSDNC…ergo nobody saw it. 

Hey, Mr. President! You’ve just destroyed the Keystone XL pipeline project and thousands of new union jobs. What are you gonna do now?

“I’m going to Disney World.”

No, it’s not another Obama vacation. He’s flying Air Force One down to Orlando this morning on business.

His people say the Democrat has some new ideas on how to increase tourism to Florida and probably the entire 57 states (Heh! – CL) . Naturally, this requires another Obama speech.

And what better place for a campaigning president to go lecture needlessly on improving tourism than the iconic institution that figured it all out decades ago, Walt Disney Resorts? 

But here’s the problem with Obama going to Disney’s Main Street: They have to halt all tourism there for him to be seen encouraging more tourism, close the whole place down to tourists for much of the day while he’s there and before. Even Disney employees are being barred.

Seems appropriate that he’s giving us his recipe for economic success in Fantasyland, no? 

Democrats have accepted more political donations than Republicans from executives at Bain Capital, complicating the left’s plan to attack Mitt Romney for his record at the private equity firm.
…
The sums collected by Democrats from managing partners and other senior executives at Bain could hamper the Democratic message that Romney is a corporate raider who does not care about workers, charges based on his record as CEO of Bain.

Democrats could be forced to justify attacking Bain — which specializes in buying companies and boosting profitability, often by laying off workers — while accepting campaign funds from the same executives who made the cost-cutting decisions.

“They’re going to have a difficult time explaining why they’re padding their war chest with contributions from the same executives that they’re accusing of hurting jobs,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Right.  Because Democrats are loathe to be shameless hypocrites, right?

I’m not a big Newt fan, but dude, this one almost gave me a Matthews-like leg tingle.  As Rush points out, you would think that Williams, having been fired from NPR over saying something interpreted by NPR brass as politically incorrect and bigoted, would be loathe to whip out the race card himself.  Then again, you would think…and Williams clearly does not.