Quote of the Day
We have an election coming up. We also have $5/gallon gasoline and $5/loaf bread coming up. I do not expect the real unemployment rate to fall, although there will be frantic attempts to make it look lower, largely through statistical manipulations based on the definition of unemployment: if you’re not looking for work, you aren’t unemployed even if you have no job and never again expect to find one. As more give up looking, the unemployment rate goes down. And since the unions do not intend to lower their wages and perks, and the states are out of money, there will be “furloughs” among public employees including teachers. You can manipulate those numbers so the “furloughed” are not unemployed. It promises to be an interesting summer, but it will end with $5/gallon gasoline and $5/loaf bread. Look for the price of a can of beans to get higher. Look for the price of Top Ramen to rise…
This will continue so long as the current economic and foreign policies continue.
Government Spending Quiz
Can you identify what is a real federal government spending project and what isn’t?
Here is a hint, most of the real government spending programs are part of the democrat’s Porkulus program.
Some Change I’ve been Hoping for!
This small portion of Obamacare would have created an unfunded mandate that would have destroyed many small businesses.
All we need now is our Dear Leader’s signature, or every business in America will have to file a 1099 form for every business and person they do more than $600 worth of business during the year. If you have a fleet of trucks or cars, your business will have to file a 1099 on every gas station they do business with. Every mom & pop shop will have to file a 1099 for every high school kid they employ. The sheer volume of this paperwork would require businesses to hire dedicated people just to fill out and file the 1099 forms. People they would have to pay out of their profits, and would add zero benefit to their business. The cost of doing business would go up and companies operating on tight margins would be forced out of business by our Dear Leader’s ravenous thirst for new tax revenues.
If our Dear Leader doesn’t sign this bill, it is a clear sign that he values his extremist political agenda more then the American economy and the well being of the American people.
The silence on the democrats’ failure
There is a very important fact that you need to remember that isn’t brought up in the MSM/DNC.
The primary job of Congress is to pass a budget. The democrats controlled both houses of Congress, and the White House, in 2010 and they failed to pass a budget.
The sole reason we are looking at a potential government shut down is that the Congressional democrats failed at their primary job, and our Dear Leader, President Barack Hussein Obama failed to provide any sort of leadership in this matter.
If a government shutdown occurs, it is because the democrats have failed the American people.
Morning Round Up
Let’s start with a cartoon by John Cox
The US Tax code is a Byzantine maze that Rube Goldberg would claim is too complex. As I said before…
One of good ideas of the President’s deficit reduction panel was to drastically simplify the tax code and reduce the highest tax rate to 25%. That will reduce the 30% plus overhead of the IRS and get uber-rich democrats, like my senior Senator, to actually pay their fair share of the taxes paid by almost every other working American.
Don’t expect democrats to embrace this idea though. It goes against their core values, like waging class warfare.
Speaking of taxes and the economy, let’s review this bit of news…
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said a surge in U.S. government “activism,” including fiscal stimulus, housing subsidies and new regulations, is holding back the economic recovery.
Wait! It gets better as Mr. Greenspan puts yet another nail in the coffin of Keynesianism.
“Any withdrawal of action to allow the economy to heal could restore some, or much, of the dynamic of the pre-crisis decade, without its imbalances.”
Not that this will slow down the big government fanatics in our Dear Leader‘s administration.
Speaking of which, it’s time to play “Fear the Boom and Bust” again!
Moving on, I’m am not surprised that democrat Sheila Jackson Lee is a really, really bad boss and would be brought up on harassment charges in the private sector.
Good advice from Dr. Pournelle
Dr Pournelle writes the following words of wisdom.
we must expand domestic energy production, and we ought not a priori rule out any of the methods: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, and yes, wind, solar, and biofuels. However, we need to have some priorities here. The urgent need is massive amounts of energy now, both for static installations — factories, homes, street lights, and so forth — and transportation. For static installations the primary fuel now is coal, followed by oil (for heating homes). For transportation we burn oil, much of which must be imported. We don’t import coal.
The first order of business, then, is to increase domestic oil production and refining, but that’s a temporary measure, and has environmental consequences. We can tolerate some smog better than we can tolerate bankruptcy, but we’d prefer to avoid both. Over time we can phase in natural gas, which is also a good source for electric generation. Note that it takes energy to develop and produce sustainable energy sources: with cheap enough energy, the price of solar cells will fall. Solar cells produce low voltage energy, good for supplementing central power grids. Solar electric is very useful for home lighting and air conditioning and other on-site uses, and leaving out the conversion systems for putting that trickle into the grid makes the initial installation cheaper as well. If the overall cost of solar cells is low enough, there will be more such uses.
And of course when we mention electric power, the gorilla in the parlor is nuclear: we have the technology, and we ran the most expensive destructive test in history at Three Mile Island, where we learned that even when everything goes wrong the costs are economic, not a public health disaster. France and Japan have demonstrated nuclear’s long term cost effectiveness.
Our first order of business ought to be to reverse Jimmy Carter’s disastrous stoppage of spent fuel recycling, and start building nuclear power plants. Cheap electricity won’t free us from the billion a day we export to buy oil, but it will go a long way toward letting us develop the means to use natural gas and domestic oil to make us North America energy independent. Once we’re on that path we can have a good look at how biofuels fit into the pattern of sustainable energy; but that, I would say, is nowhere near the top of the priority list. In A Step Farther Out I showed that biofuels can be useful. I fear I didn’t make it clear enough that it wasn’t the top priority. Of course when I wrote that I didn’t know just how much energy trouble we would be in, although I should have: After all, those were the times when I wrote my major series “Our Looming Energy Crisis.”
Cheap energy is good for the economy. The 90’s economy was floated on cheap oil (around $20-$25 a barrel), and a new economic boom could be floated on cheap electricity. The trick is that you need much more than solar & wind can produce. For that you have to go nuclear.
If anyone is concerned about the environmental impact of increasing the number of Nuclear Power plants, get thee to a library and read Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy by Gwyneth Cravens. This book is by an environmentalist opposed to Nuclear Energy, but did actual, honest research on the subject and came to the conclusion that only Nuclear Power can provide the base load of clean electricity needed. Actual science trumps rhetoric. This was my Monday Book Pick for May 11, 2009 BTW…
Math is clearly not our Dear Leader’s strong point
Charles Krauthammer points out that the “accounting” in our Dear Leader’s so-called “budget” is the type that would get an ordinary citizen thrown in jail.
Classic Obama debt reduction: Add $2 trillion in new taxes, then add $1 trillion in new spending and, presto, you’ve got $1 trillion of debt reduction. It’s the same kind of mad deficit accounting in Obamacare: It reduces debt by adding $540 billion in new spending, then adding $770 billion in new taxes. Presto: $230 billion of “debt reduction.” Bialystock & Bloom accounting.
Bonus points for the Mel Brooks reference.
Be sure to read the whole thing. Trust me, it gets better.
Overcoming Liberalism: Step 6
Step 6 of 12: Corporations are not evil
If you’re reading this article on-line or in an email, it’s thanks to corporations. If you get some kind of paycheck, you can thank corporations. If you work for a nonprofit or the government, you still have to thank corporations. The nonprofit sector and the government wouldn’t have any money to pay you without corporations. It is also important that you understand that making a profit doesn’t equate to “greed” or exploitation. Capitalism has created the greatest society in our world’s history. Even communist countries need corporations to survive, so enjoy a nice, hot cup of reality.