The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
But I repeat myself…..
I can’t do better than the sarcasm the WSJ has already dripped on the Dems sudden love affair with Tax cuts…go read the article for yourself. Be careful, make sure you have an ace bandage tightly wrapped or your head will explode if you follow this link.
I am a bit late to the RedState/DontGo Movement Send A Pair Project. The first target is Senate “Republican leader” Mitch McConnell, specifically his Louisville office (601 W. Broadway Room 630, Louisville, KY 40202). RedState recommends playground balls, but after I read the item I’m about to post on, I’m going to send some serious 2″ gumballs (once they arrive at the bunker, that is) because somebody must’ve slipped some Neuticles into the first shipment.
Jeff Emanuel points to a piece that ran on Politico yesterday that says that quotes McConnell as saying the Republicans need to become even more liberal than they have over the last 8 years. Let me put it this way; when there were GOP governors on both coasts, when Ronald Reagan won every state except Minnesota, the GOP was the party of both economic and social conservatism. Over the last 18 years, ever since George H.W. Bush busted his lips and raised taxes, the Republican Party has abandoned first economic conservatism and then social conservatism. The Democrats never really abandoned their liberalism, at least once they reached office.
Jake Tapper of ABC reports that Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle (last seen in public life as the Democratic Senate leader) waited until he was being vetted for the HHS post before he paid $101,943 plus interest in taxes owed for using a chauffeur and car between 2005 and 2007. For those keeping score at home, that’s roughly three times what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner belatedly paid in taxes.
I can already hear the excuses – Daschle, as Senate Democratic leader, was provided with a chauffeur and car paid for by you and me.
I’ve lost count of how many of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet and Cabinet-level advisers have had ethical lapses. Of course, since the Senate “Republican” leadership is in desperate need of a pair of balls (more on that in a moment), I’ll say that at least 12 Senators with “R”s behind their name will vote for Daschle’s confirmation.
Flip Pidot puts the answer in a handy graphic (which you’re going to have to go see yourself). In inflation-adjusted dollars, the “infrastructure/energy” portion of the Generational Theft Act of 2009 (arguably the “stimulative” part of the act) ranks below the Louisiana Purchase, the Moon Race, the first 4 years of the New Deal, and the Iraq War (the other governmental spending on the chart), while each of the remaining 3 components; “wealth redistribution”, “states/human capital” (i.e. government spending money on itself), and interest on the borrowing, each outstrip everything except the New Deal and the Iraq War.
Bonus item – Using the same numbers from Bianco Research (via The Big Picture) that Flip used, the total $1.2 trillion cost of the Generational Theft Act is greater than any “single-event” outlay other than World War II in inflation-adjusted terms.
Revisions/extensions (7:17 pm 1/30/2009) – Link to Flip’s post fixed, but I won’t guarantee success in getting through. All I can say is, “Try, try again.”
DakRoland, a regular Ed Morrissey Show chatizen, passed this one onto me. For an initial cost of $69.95 (plus shipping and handling), CollectiblesToday.com will send you the first 3 cars in the BOHO (Barack Obama HO-scale) railroad set, along with a short track and a power pack.
I’m waiting for the inevitable YouTube video of the train derailing.
Update by Shoebox: Here’s video of the 2 BOHO trains, Hope and Change, trying to use the economic track laid by the BOHO stimulus bill
Revisions/extensions (4:22 pm 1/30/2009) – Corrected the state in the party ID from Rhode Island to New Hampshire (thanks to JB in the comments).
David Fredosso picked up on an item that first ran in Roll Call that President Barack Obama wants to tap Sen. Judd Gregg (“R”-NH) as Commerce Secretary. New Hampshire is one of the states that states the governor gets to appoint a temporary replacement, specifically until the next general election (in 2010). At last check, the governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, is a Democrat, and there is nothing that says that Lynch has to appoint another “Republican”.
I guess the ‘Rats believe there is a difference between a potential 59-of-100 and a potential 60-of-100 after all, especially since the House Republicans showed some backbone the other day in opposing the Generational Theft Act of 2009.
Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats, sans 11, passed the stimulus bill in perhaps one of the most partisan votes of the recent past.
Today, Nancy tried to put a happy face on her inability to convince Republicans to see things her way:
Throughout the stimulus “discussion,” reports varied on whether and how many Republicans might support it. It wasn’t until the final couple of days that it became apparent that while unable to defeat the bill, they would show a united, principled stand and vote no.
Why, when many of these same house Republicans supported TARP and have been just as guilty of irrationally exuberant spending the past few years, did they now decide to get solid on spending? I don’t have the full answer but I suspect some of it could be due to this:
According to Rasmussen, net positive support for the stimulus plan has slipped from +11% last week to only +3% this week. Worse for Democrats, unaffiliated voters shifted from a +1% last week to a -23% this week.
It appears that as more time goes by and more information comes out, as people who are not blinded by latent BDS or worship of “The One,” understand more of what really is and isn’t in the bill, they understand that the bill will stimulate nothing but the size of government.
The Dems may have won the battle in the House. However, the House Republicans have done a good job of shining light on this pile of stink. The question now will be whether the Senate Republicans can organize themselves to accomplish the same level of principled opposition, perform more public education and see what the public sentiment is in a week or two.
I do believe that if people understand this bill they will find it seriously lacking. While I’m not hopeful, if enough people burn the Senate phones the Dems could find themselves winning the battle but losing an embarrassing PR war.
Ed Driscoll dug up a 1981 report of the first move of a bunch of newspapers setting up shop on CompuServe. While that is a bit before my time (I was thoroughly contented with the Atari 2600), the list of papers reads like a who’s who of the current failures. Yes, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune is there, along with The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
I don’t know what is more quaint; the rotary phone with handset modem, the TV hookup for the computer, the all-caps display, the “We’re probably not going to lose a lot (of money)” quote, or the 2 hours to download an ASCII version of the paper.
For your viewing pleasure, I present the KRON-TV report:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCTn4FljUQ[/youtube]
I’m pretty well burned out. I’ll be back when I’m a bit less toasty.
So let’s see if I have this story right….
In November, while still merely PEBO, President Obama’s transition chair, John Podesta
promised the “strictest, most far-reaching” ethics rules “ever applied” to a presidential transition.
Less than a week later it was noted that dozens of former lobbyists were working for the transition team.
In his campaign missive titled “Taking Back Our Government,” PEBO made a promise to:
restore integrity and competence to the executive branch.
He then went on to nominate Timothy Geithner an admitted tax cheat, who finally paid his taxes only because he had a chance at the big time! Geithner failed on both accounts.
We finally get to the inauguration and President Obama. The day following he issues new ethics rules for his administration. Amongst the new rules, a reiteration of his “NO LOBBYISTS DAMMIT” policy:
lobbyists who become members of Obama administration will not be able to work on matters they lobbied on for two years, or in the agencies they lobbied during the previous two years. Anyone who leaves the Obama administration will not be able to lobby his administration. The orders also instituted a ban on gifts by lobbyists to members of the administration.
This rule, unlike the previous ones, was broken even before it was pronounced with the nomination of William Lynn. Oh, but not to worry, it was just one tiny exception in an otherwise untainted first 100, 60, 30, 10 well, who’s counting days without in infraction anyway?
Yesterday, Timothy Geithner nominated Mark Patterson, an ex lobbyist from Goldman Sachs no less, to be Geithner’s Chief of Staff.
I don’t know if President Obama is familiar with the phrase “fish rotting from the head.” If he isn’t, he ought to become so. An organization where the leader establishes rules but winks at them on a whim is an organization that will not abide by said rules. Of course, I’m pretty sure President Obama is already aware of this. After all, aren’t we seeing that exact same thing play out right now in his political birth place, Chicago?
This evening the House passed their Piggy Bank of Pet Projects. The vote will be reported by the MSM, in a derisive way, as mostly party line. As we’ve become accustomed to Republicans being the ones to cross the line I have to admit surprise to see that all House Republicans, along with 11 Democrats, voted against laying nearly $1 trillion of additional debt on our children for the actual purpose of increasing the size, scope and run rate of the Federal beuracracy and budget!
This was a principled stance and one the Rs should have been following the past few years. Who knows, if they had, the public may not have become enamored with what in only 8 short days, has proven to be anything but hopeful or change!
Hats off and thanks to all 188 who voted against this porker!
Now, off to the Senate. What’s the over/under on the number of spines that will be displayed in that chamber?
Mike Little released another update to the Journalized theme, so I rolled the changes in. Also, in preparation for a possible “headlines” section, which would involve moving both sidebars to one side, I’ve slightly changed how the Day by Day cartoon appears so it would be centered in the “main” column rather than the page as a whole.
I think things work.
Revisions/extensions (3:27 pm 1/28/2009) – At the suggestion of Shoebox, I resized the iframe that Day by Day sits in so that, except for the Sunday cartoons, the scroll bars are gone.
R&E part 2 (3:29 pm 1/28/2009) – Needs some more fine-tuning at the 1024×768 resolution. Also need to crank out a 800×600-compliant version (and install a theme-switcher).
R&E part 3 (4:07 pm 1/28/2009) – There’s no pleasing Firefox; it brings out the scrollbars with a larger iframe set than IE. I am not going to have a lot of whitespace so that Firefox can have no scrollbars 6 days a week.
When he was running for the election and again shortly after, President Obama made clear that he was going to be the person to bring fiscal responsibility back to Washington:
“That is why I will ask my new team to think anew and act anew to meet our new challenges…. We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.”
Other than adding numerous zeros to the size of the numbers being used, can someone show me anything new or cost-effective about the ever growing, special interest laden stimulus bill?
Tom McMahon came up with Moneyoply 2009.
As per usual when I borrow his stuff, the comments are off here.
The House version of the Stimulus Act is available for your leisurely reading here. Actually, it’s a great read. In 647 pages you get “boy meets girl,” “boy falls in love with girl” and “boy leaves girl with a life long debt to pay as he ditches her at the restaurant!”
It would be a lot of fun to dissect the bill and point out the inanity of the various appropriations that have been contorted to be considered “stimulus,” but like I said, this sucker is 647 pages and I’ve got other things to do. Still, needing to get a post done for the morning, I decided to start looking at the bill and see what pops up. It only took 22 pages to ferret out the brilliance that the authors of this plan hold.
Skimming off the top: I had barely gotten into the package when I saw this interesting provision:
SEC. 1106. SET-ASIDE FOR MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT.
In this section, the authors have allowed each Federal Department that has oversight over some plan dollars, to set aside .5% to be used for management and oversight of the programs. The total stimulus is currently slated to be $825 billion. Of that, $208 billion is allegedly tax reductions. Taking the most generous approach, that would mean that $617 billion will have the .5% set aside. That amounts to $1.25 billion that goes to increasing funding for government agencies.
Wouldn’t you think that these departments could handle the oversight of these projects with their existing staff? That’s how it happens in fiscally strapped commercial enterprises. I guess this is how jobs are created. No reason for them other than “because we can.”
Skimming off the top (part II): But the $1.25 billion isn’t the only government inflation that is contained in the bill. The next section allocates over $208 million for the inspector general, the next section provides $25 million for the “Government Accountability Office.” Hell, I’d offer to double that amount if they really could provide any government accountability! A few sections later $14 million is set aside for the “Accountability and Transparency Board.” Again, I’d double that if they actually could create any.
Buy America! The bill contains a provision that mandates the purchase of American made Steel for any project that the stimulus pays for. If we really wanted to get the most bang for our buck of course, we’d buy steel from the low cost provider. This being a “stimulus” bill, I suppose that’s too much to expect. What would be reasonable is to have a provision that the pricing can’t be above the national average for the product purchased. Yeah, that would be a reasonable provision.
The Steel provision says that with rare exception, US Steel must be purchased unless it:
increase(s) the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent.
So let me think through this. If the bid for all other materials comes in under plan, if labor costs come in under plan but steel comes in 300% of normal costs but doesn’t throw the “overall project” into an excess of 25%, we have to buy the American steel? I had heard that the Steel industry was pushing for this provision. With this provision I’m convinced they have pictures of authors Rangel and Waxman with goats…oh wait, Waxman already looks like a goat…never mind!
But Not Too Many Jobs! As you would expect, the bill has a prevailing wage requirement for all “stimulus” projects. Under normal circumstances prevailing wage provisions are inefficient wastes for people who don’t have to worry about fiscal responsibility. In this bill it’s worse.
When supply exceeds demand the situation is generally known as “A buyer’s market.” This term is often used in real estate settings, like today, where many more sellers want to sell than buyers are willing to buy. Typically in these environments, the buyers are able to negotiate much more aggressive prices. They are able to do this because the seller wants the sale and with excess inventory, they know that buyers have lots of options. A similar situation exists in today’s labor market.
With unemployment rates what they are, there are more workers looking for work than employers looking to employ them. Under a free market this should mean that wages will soften to some extent. The authors in their wisdom, have obviously decided that they have some mystical number of jobs that they want to create and that it coincides neatly with the “prevailing wage.” If the markets dictated labor rates for these projects we could not only stretch the dollar further, and perhaps do more projects, but also likely put more people to work….that is if you believe the whole “stimulus creates jobs” fairy tale!
We Still Hate Blagojevich! Here’s a really interesting provision:
None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is of the enactment of this Act, or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois. The preceding sentence shall not apply to any funds provided directly to a unit of local government (1) by a Federal department or agency, or (2) by an established formula from the State.
The Lying Section 1204: This section provides:
The Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall submit quarterly reports to Congress detailing the estimated impact of programs under this Act on employment, economic growth, and other key economic indicators.
I’ve already documented here and here how Christina Romer has sold her soul to Obama, making up stories for this stimulus that are not supported by her own research. I hope Patrick Fitzgerald stays busy with Blagojevich while this provision is in place. I hear perjury raps aren’t pleasant!
It only took 22 pages to come across these items, I haven’t even gotten to the actual appropriations detail. I feel a thrill running up my leg as I think about what enlightened idiocy is contained in the remaining 625 pages.
Revisions/extensions (5:01 am 1/27/2009, steveegg) – Not to be outdone by their House counterparts, the Senate also has its own version ready to go. The Senate Consevatives Fund put up a 5-part PDF file of the Senate’s working version. It is a “slightly” smaller read at “only” 434 pages plus a 161-page Appropriations Report.
While by the Constitution the Senate will receive whatever comes out of the House, they also do reserve the right to, among other things, put this in as a substitute amendment. Like Shoebox, I don’t have time to sift through all 1,100-plus pages, but I wouldn’t ignore the Senate’s initial contribution. After all, any changes in the Senate would send it to a conference committee, where the real sausage-making happens. Bills tend to grow in conference committee, and we are talking about the even-freer-spending half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government.
It’s been a while, so let’s rock on…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pp8iyOlpSM[/youtube]
John Hawkins asked on Twitter this morning how he can “better find outstanding posts from small, lightly read, conservative/libertarian bloggers to link”. I can’t say I’m a very good source, but I do what I can.
As long as I’m in the promotion business, I humbly suggest reading the blogs that are linked on John Hawkins’ Conservative Grapevine. He may not have the music, but he has an even larger list of blogs he reads than I do, and unlike this place, he has readers who visit by the megabyte.
Long before he was officially inaugurated, while he was still known simply as PEBO, President Obama was telling the country all the horrors of the current economic challenges. Phrases like “never before” and “Great Depression” seemed to be spoken by PEBO in every media opportunity he had. Of course he wasn’t just there to tell us how bad things were, and how much worse they were yet going to be, he also had the prescription for what ails us: stimulus.
Obama along with Democrats across the nation, have been planning and preparing a stimulus package since before the election. While Obama was initially focused on infrastructure that was “shovel ready,” the plan has taken a look of “anything goes”. Expansion of abortion funding and perpetual expansions of medicaid and education spending are all now included in the plan and I don’t see a shovel needed for any of those.
As the price tag grows, Obama and others continue to sound the sirens saying that only with this stimulus will we see a signs of a recovery anytime soon.
Um, no.
In a report by the non partisan Congressional Budget Office (remember, these were the same folks that he Dems used to think were geniuses when they published reports about “Bush’s deficit” or spending in Iraq), less than 2/3rdsof the stimulus package will actually impact the economy before 2011. In fact, if you back out the $208 billion of “tax cuts,” only about 1/2 of the “investment” stimulus will get to the economy in time to help. As we run downhill with sharp knives towards the embrace of socialism, don’t you believe the government has the capability and wisdom to know when to “stimulate?”
Well, there’s always the jobs that the stimulus will be creating right?
Again, um, no.
In a paper coauthored by President Obama’s chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christina Romer, it was found that government attempts at using stimulus to “correct” recessions are ineffective. The abstract of the paper “What Ends Recessions,” sums up her findings succinctly:
This paper analyzes the contributions of monetary and fiscal policy to postwar economic recoveries. We find that the Federal Reserve typically responds to downturns with prompt and large reductions in interest rates. Discretionary fiscal policy, in contrast, rarely reacts before the trough in economic activity, and even then the responses are usually small. Simulations using multipliers from both simple regressions and a large macroeconomic model show that the interest rate falls account for nearly all of the above-average growth that occurs early in recoveries. Our estimates also indicate that on several occasions expansionary policies have contributed substantially to above-normal growth outside of recoveries. Finally, the results suggest that the persistence of aggregate output movements is largely the result of the extreme persistence of the contribution of policy changes. (emphasis mine)
One can only assume that his ignoring of this issue shows that he doesn’t listen to his personally selected advisors anymore than he does a Republican Congress person.
So let’s recap:
So why do the stimulus? The answer is fairly simple and came from Rahm Emanuel:
"Never let a serious crisis go to waste"
President Obama and his BFFs Nancy and Harry are taking advantage of the economically gullible to increase their control and influence. I don’t like what they’re doing but that’s a part of winning elections. That said let’s be honest enough to quit calling this a stimulus and call it what it is: a piggy bank of pet projects
Michelle Malkin found a couple of schlocky Obama-related items being hawked by an outfit called History Company.
The first is merely schlocky. It’s a reproduction of a sculpture Barack Obama picked up when he went to Kenya in 2006 called “Egg of Power”. I don’t suppose either the creator of that sculpture or Obama ever heard of hard-boiled eggs (or at least I hope Obama hasn’t heard of that).
The second, however, is truly disturbing – the Pocket Obama. About the only difference between that and Mao’s Little Red Book is the color of the cover – Obama’s “essential” quotes is blue. You’ll forgive me if I don’t obey the “unofficial requirement”.
Even with the Democrats controlling both houses and the Presidency, there have been reports of rifts within the party:
It’s nice to see that unity within the Democrats isn’t split when it comes to core principle issues….say like abortion on demand:
But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008
Well, the family planning services reduce cost. Nancy Pelosi, January 25, 2009
While even known terrorists get hope and change from President Obama’s administration apparently, the unborn will be hoping for change until after he leaves office.
This could explain the euphoric attitude, not based in substance, held by so many Obama worshippers….oh wait, maybe it is based in substance!
Al Franken was in Washington today attempting to convince Harry Reid to seat him in the Senate. Harry appears to be leaning towards attempting to grant Al’s wish.
What’s ironic is that just a couple of weeks ago Harry Reid refused to seat Roland Burris in part, because he did not have a signed certification from the Secretary of State. I’m not sure what set of rules Harry has now, but Al doesn’t have a certificate and won’t until Coleman’s suit is either dismissed (Al’s hoping, hoping, hoping) or gets resolved. The former could happen in the next day or two. The latter sounds like it could go on for several months.
No matter, in Harry’s mind, the “election is over!”
(from Politico.com)
If Harry’s word is his bond, Al, pack your bags. Although, you might not want to be renting any space in Washington yet. You see, Harry has a history of declaring ends to things:
…that turn out just the opposite of how Harry sees them.
Hang in there Al. If you tire of the process, it’s not too late to move back to NY. I hear they’re still looking for a Senator!
(Update 7:34 AM – Guess you’re going to have to wait for that certificate Al)
(Update 7:58 AM – Oops, too late for that NY seat! Guess you’ll just have to enjoy the Midwest a bit longer!)
Caroline Kennedy has reportedly removed her name from consideration for the vacant NY Senate seat. While reports of whether she was actually a contender or not vary, she had at least become a legend in her own mind.
It’s unclear why Kennedy withdrew her name. Some reports are using vague “family issue” reasons. Other reports suggest that she wasn’t going to be appointed and so withdrew her name to avoid embarrassment to the family name. Still other reports suggest that Kennedy had some skeletons (ya think? Just look at her!) regarding unpaid taxes and unpaid social security taxes for a maid she had hired.
My guess on why Kennedy withdrew? After the tax and nanny issues came to light she concluded that she no longer had the qualifications to be a Senator. With tax and nanny issues, she’s clearly qualified to be Secretary of the Treasury!
My friends at Texans for Fiscal Responsibility recently sat down with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to discuss the potential federal bailout of state and local governments. Of note, Texas is one of the few states that do not face a massive deficit, mainly because Perry and company told the various state agencies to cut discretionary spending when the first inklings of the economic downturn became apparent.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5EnV4beuo4[/youtube]
I doubt the majority in Madison and the localities here in Wisconsin are paying attention, but they should.
A good friend from my days of playing (and beta-testing) Harpoon suggested that I start reading Neptunus Lex. Lex is an ex-Navy pilot, a bit younger than the other ex-Navy pilot on my roll as he got to fly the F/A-18 (among other aircraft).
I wholeheartedly recommend adding Lex to your readers.
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