Golf, birthday parties, fund raisers, campaigning, vacation, when does this guy ever work? Maybe it’s best he does stay off camera, the stock market drops 200 point every time he opens his mouth.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Why government jobs aren’t really jobs at all.
Why government jobs aren’t really jobs at all.
Imagine two people; one has a $60,000 job while the other has no job. It’s easy to see that, ignoring other complications, that this mini economy can spend 60,000 dollars.
Now imagine that the unemployed person gets a $30,000 government job. Where does that money come from? Employee #1 in the form of taxes. So how much money can now be spent in this economy? 60,000 – 30,000 by Employee #1 and 30,000 by the government employee. In other words, only 60,000, no better than when employee #2 was unemployed.
How does government grow an economy? It can’t, only the market can. Government jobs should only be created out of necessity, like the military.
The Debt Panel's Patty Murray Problem
Everything that's wrong with the so-called debt "super-committee" can be summed up in the person, partisan hackery and policy ignorance of Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid named Murray co-chair of the dog-and-pony deficit-reduction panel tasked with identifying $1.5 trillion in spending cuts by late November. Murray, an unrepentant Nanny State cheerleader and patron saint of the Washington lobbyist, is a double-exclamation point on the debt deal's rotten joke.
Charlie Brown had Peppermint Patty. America has U.S. Mint Patty. This is a career politician who has never met a special interest that shouldn't be supported by taxpayers. Derided for her earmark addiction by both conservative and liberal civic groups, she has cemented her position as the Senate Queen of Pork over 18 gluttonous years in office.
Murray takes perverse pride in increasing debt limits on pet projects in her home state. Her solution to our fiscal crisis: Spend, borrow, spend and borrow some more! In 2009, she stuffed the Obama porkulus with a $3.25 billion provision benefiting the federal Bonneville Power Administration by massively expanding its spending authority. Murray then claimed to have spurred immediate job creation. But the left-leaning Seattle Times countered that "even without the new stimulus package, BPA was expected to begin construction of some new transmission lines this year. And, despite claims the added spending power will quickly create jobs, construction of many of the new power lines wouldn't start for several years."
The real impediment to construction progress? Onerous regulation, regulation, regulation. BPA insiders acknowledged that no one was actually pushing for the debt-limit increase. But Murray has an old habit of forking over unsolicited pork. National Review's Andrew Stiles reports that she once inserted a $4.5 million earmark for a Naval speedboat it didn't want: "The Navy ended up giving the boat to the University of Washington, which couldn't find a use for it either. Top executives at Guardian Marine International, the company that built the boat, later gave $15,000 to Murray's campaign."
Profligate Patty is a slavish adherent of federal entitlements for every American (and illegal alien) from cradle to grave -- except, of course, for the unborn targets of Murray's fanatical sisters at Planned Parenthood.
When House Republicans challenged public funding for the $1 billion abortion industry giant (which rakes in one-third of its budget from government grants and contracts at both the state and federal levels), Murray led the defense. It was "stunning to her as a woman," she raged, that fiscal conservatives would challenge Planned Parenthood's sacred subsidies. As if only men are capable of questioning the insatiable appetite of a predatory racket disguised as a "reproductive health" provider.
The fabled "outsider mom in tennis shoes" has morphed over the past two decades into just another Beltway swamp insider in sensible heels. Murray has earned the scorn not just of right-wing taxpayer groups, but also of left-wing watchdogs who flagged her 17 revolving-door staffers-turned-lobbyists and fundraising conflicts of interest. Murray, you see, is the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- and refuses to cease her money-grubbing while she serves on the debt panel.
"It really sends a bad message to the American people when you're the chief fundraiser trying to come up with this balanced approach to deficit reduction," Adam Smith, communications director of Public Campaign, told The Hill newspaper. "She's going to be focused on this committee and also on fundraising? Will she make decisions based on whether it hurts the fundraising ability of the (DSCC)?" Do pigs oink? Duh.
The Democratic leadership's top priority isn't to get America's fiscal house in order. It is, as one aide candidly told The Hill, "to continue to raise resources to grow and preserve our majority."
Above all else, Murray is a glaring symbol of the Democratic Party's intellectual bankruptcy when it comes to solving our entitlement mess. More than a decade ago, while I served as the youngest member of the Seattle Times editorial board, I asked her about the disproportionate burden that FICA taxes imposed on Generation X and low-income workers. I wanted to know if she supported creative alternatives to the Social Security system like the opt-out plan adopted by the cities of Bellevue, Wash., and Galveston, Texas.
"FICA?" she repeated with a puzzled glance at her entourage of D.C. staffers.
"You know, payroll taxes," I added helpfully.
Response: Deer in the headlights.
Only when young and future workers have K Street lobbyists will Pork Patty get a clue.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid named Murray co-chair of the dog-and-pony deficit-reduction panel tasked with identifying $1.5 trillion in spending cuts by late November. Murray, an unrepentant Nanny State cheerleader and patron saint of the Washington lobbyist, is a double-exclamation point on the debt deal's rotten joke.
Charlie Brown had Peppermint Patty. America has U.S. Mint Patty. This is a career politician who has never met a special interest that shouldn't be supported by taxpayers. Derided for her earmark addiction by both conservative and liberal civic groups, she has cemented her position as the Senate Queen of Pork over 18 gluttonous years in office.
Murray takes perverse pride in increasing debt limits on pet projects in her home state. Her solution to our fiscal crisis: Spend, borrow, spend and borrow some more! In 2009, she stuffed the Obama porkulus with a $3.25 billion provision benefiting the federal Bonneville Power Administration by massively expanding its spending authority. Murray then claimed to have spurred immediate job creation. But the left-leaning Seattle Times countered that "even without the new stimulus package, BPA was expected to begin construction of some new transmission lines this year. And, despite claims the added spending power will quickly create jobs, construction of many of the new power lines wouldn't start for several years."
The real impediment to construction progress? Onerous regulation, regulation, regulation. BPA insiders acknowledged that no one was actually pushing for the debt-limit increase. But Murray has an old habit of forking over unsolicited pork. National Review's Andrew Stiles reports that she once inserted a $4.5 million earmark for a Naval speedboat it didn't want: "The Navy ended up giving the boat to the University of Washington, which couldn't find a use for it either. Top executives at Guardian Marine International, the company that built the boat, later gave $15,000 to Murray's campaign."
Profligate Patty is a slavish adherent of federal entitlements for every American (and illegal alien) from cradle to grave -- except, of course, for the unborn targets of Murray's fanatical sisters at Planned Parenthood.
When House Republicans challenged public funding for the $1 billion abortion industry giant (which rakes in one-third of its budget from government grants and contracts at both the state and federal levels), Murray led the defense. It was "stunning to her as a woman," she raged, that fiscal conservatives would challenge Planned Parenthood's sacred subsidies. As if only men are capable of questioning the insatiable appetite of a predatory racket disguised as a "reproductive health" provider.
The fabled "outsider mom in tennis shoes" has morphed over the past two decades into just another Beltway swamp insider in sensible heels. Murray has earned the scorn not just of right-wing taxpayer groups, but also of left-wing watchdogs who flagged her 17 revolving-door staffers-turned-lobbyists and fundraising conflicts of interest. Murray, you see, is the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- and refuses to cease her money-grubbing while she serves on the debt panel.
"It really sends a bad message to the American people when you're the chief fundraiser trying to come up with this balanced approach to deficit reduction," Adam Smith, communications director of Public Campaign, told The Hill newspaper. "She's going to be focused on this committee and also on fundraising? Will she make decisions based on whether it hurts the fundraising ability of the (DSCC)?" Do pigs oink? Duh.
The Democratic leadership's top priority isn't to get America's fiscal house in order. It is, as one aide candidly told The Hill, "to continue to raise resources to grow and preserve our majority."
Above all else, Murray is a glaring symbol of the Democratic Party's intellectual bankruptcy when it comes to solving our entitlement mess. More than a decade ago, while I served as the youngest member of the Seattle Times editorial board, I asked her about the disproportionate burden that FICA taxes imposed on Generation X and low-income workers. I wanted to know if she supported creative alternatives to the Social Security system like the opt-out plan adopted by the cities of Bellevue, Wash., and Galveston, Texas.
"FICA?" she repeated with a puzzled glance at her entourage of D.C. staffers.
"You know, payroll taxes," I added helpfully.
Response: Deer in the headlights.
Only when young and future workers have K Street lobbyists will Pork Patty get a clue.
Remember the big stink over Jo Wilson yelling "you lie" to Obama? Wilson was right.
Joe Wilson Triumphant
Obama lied. Wilson was right. Deal with it.
08/11/2011
One of the most widely discussed events from Obama’s first year in office was his confrontation with Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) during an ObamaCare sales pitch. Nobody remembers anything Obama said – nobody can remember anything he said yesterday – but everyone remembers Joe Wilson’s interruption, shouted before a national media audience and a joint session of Congress:
“You lie!”
Wilson apologized, but the Democrat-controlled House ultimately voted 240-179 to censure him. He became a devil figure for the Left, but was re-elected in 2010.
What did Obama say to set Wilson off, anyway? Just this: “There are those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”
Today we learn, from CNS News, that the Department of Health and Human Services is shoveling $28.8 million worth of ObamaCare loot out to community health centers, including $8.5 million to “target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers.”
And guess what? Grant recipients “will not check the immigration status of people seeking services.”
“Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask about or collect data on citizenship or other matters not related to the treatment needs of the patients seeking health services at the center,” [Heath Resources and Services Administration Spokeswoman Judy] Andrews said.
Further, the grant recipients are required to serve "all residents" who walk through their doors.
“The Program’s authorizing statute does not affirmatively address immigration status,” said Andrews. “Rather, it simply states that health centers are required to provide primary health care to all residents of the health center's service area without regard for ability to pay.”
This is not surprising in the least. Everyone knew it would happen. That’s why Joe Wilson was indelicate, but entirely correct, when he called Barack Obama a liar. Game, set, and match to Wilson. Sadly, we're stuck with ObamaCare, so we all lose.
Bonus: Here's what I said back when Wilson first confronted Obama: "The Spending Virus." I think it holds up pretty well.Liberal journalist Jay Carney flip-flops.
Carney Derided Bush’s Vacation, Defends Obama’s Vacation Plans
Thursday, August 11, 2011 
President Barack Obama greets people gathered outside a restaurant in Oak Bluffs, Mass. during his summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard last year. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The 2001 column took issue with the way Bush was spending his month-long vacation in Texas.
“Back in July, when they were planning what the President should do during his month-long vacation (as part of their effort to persuade the public that he wasn’t actually on vacation in the generally accepted sense of what vacation means — i.e., having fun and not working), the image-makers hit upon a clever idea,” Carney wrote.
“Every week, they decided, they would send the President somewhere outside Texas for a day or a day and a half to hold an event of some kind in which he would mix with ‘real Americans.’
“The events would have little in common, except for the fact that they would be held far from Washington in the middle of August,” the Time article continued. “But to tie them together, to make it seem as though the President were engaged in some concentrated activity of presidential purpose, they would name the entire series of trips — together with his down time at his ranch in Crawford, Texas — the ‘Home to the Heartland’ tour.”
On Wednesday, Carney took a question about President Obama’s planned 10-day vacation to Martha’s Vineyard.
“I don’t think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the President would spend some time with his family,” he replied.
“It is also, I think – as anyone who has covered it in the past, either in this administration or others, there’s no such thing as a presidential vacation. The presidency travels with you. He will be in constant communication and get regular briefings from his national security team, as well as his economic team, and he will, of course, be fully capable, if necessary, of traveling back if that were required. It’s not very far.”
Must read link.
This link is from the previous link, and rates all reps from all states in the House and Senate for their voting on spending. A must read.
http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/ntu-rates-congress/p11-04-04-nturc-final-hires.pdf
http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/ntu-rates-congress/p11-04-04-nturc-final-hires.pdf
Why the "debt panel" won't work.
All 6 Democrats on Deficit-Reduction Panel Earned 'F's From Taxpayers’ Union
Thursday, August 11, 2011 
U.S. Senator Patty Murray. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) announced today that she has assigned Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (S.C.), Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra (Calif.) and Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (Md.) to serve on the panel. Previously, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had named Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.) to serve on the committee.
None of these Democrats had voting records that scored even as high as 10 percent in the NTU’s annual rating of Congress for last year. Among the six, Rep. Clyburn earned the lowest score of 2 percent and Sen. Baucus earned the highest score of 9 percent. Rep. Van Hollen earned a score of 4 percent and Rep. Becerra and Senators Murray and Kerry earned scores of 6 percent.
In NTU's rating system, all members of Congress who score below 20 percent for their voting record are given a grade of “F” and named a “Big Spender.”
Members who score 90 percent or higher are given a grade of “A” and named a Taxpayers’ Friend.
Of the 3 Republicans named to the special joint committee by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), two—Senators Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Rob Portman (Ohio)—were not in Congress last year so they did not get an NTU rating for 2010. The third McConnell appointee, Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), earned an “A” with a score of 97 percent and was named a “Taxpayers’ Friend.”
Of the 3 Republicans named to the committee by House Speaker John Boehner, one was a taxpayer friend: House Republican Conference Chair Jeb Hensarling (Texas) earned an “A” with a score of 94 percent. The other two Boehner appointees--Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (Mich.) and Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (Mich.)-- were not named “Taxpayers’s Friends.” Camp earned a score of 88 percent and a grade of “B+.” Upton earned a score of 86 percent and a grade of “B.”
The NTU, a nonpartisan organization, grades all members of Congress each year on the stands they take on “every vote that significantly affects taxes, spending, debt, and regulatory burdens on consumers and taxpayers.” In 2010, the group scored 165 votes in the House and 145 in the Senate.
“Unlike most organizations that publish ratings, we refuse to play the ‘rating game’ of focusing on only a handful of congressional votes on selected issues,” NTU says of its congressional scoring. “The NTU voting study is the fairest and most accurate guide available on congressional fiscal policies. It is a completely unbiased accounting of votes.”
The median NTU score among Republicans in the Senate was 96 percent and in the House 88 percent. The median NTU score among Democrats was 7 percent in both the Senate and House.
Not all congressional Democrats get “F"s from the NTU. For example, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska earned a score of 52 percent for his 2010 voting record and a grade of “C.” Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana earned a score of 43 percent and a grade of “C-.” House Agriculture Ranking Member Colin Peterson (D.-Minn.) earned a score of 41 percent and a grade of “C-” and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) earned a score of 44 percent and a grade of “C-.”
The law to lift the debt limit by as much as $2.4 trillion that President Barack Obama negotiated with congressional leaders and signed earlier this month provides that a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction be created with 6 members from each house of Congress equally split between the two parties. The committee is charged with recommending $1.5 trillion in spending cuts from what the government is already planning to spend over the next decade. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi all got to name 3 members from their respective caucuses to the committee.
Here are the National Taxpayers Union’s grade and percentage score for the voting records of the 12 members of the special joint committee who have been named so far.
Grade Percentage
Senate:
Sen. Patty Murray (D.-Wash.) F 6 percent
Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) F 6 percent
Sen. Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) F 9 percent
Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.) A 97 percent
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) Not rated in 2010
Sen. Rob Portman (R.-Ohio) Not rated in 2010
House:
Rep. Chis Van Hollen (D.-Md.) F 4 percent
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D.-S.C.) F 2 percent
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D.-Calif.) F 4 percent
Rep. Dave Camp (R.-Mich.) B+ 88 percent
Rep. Fred Upton (R.-Mich.) B 86 percent
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R.-Texas) A 94 percent
Quotes
“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.”
Ronald Reagan
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Ronald Reagan
V. “No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government” – Thomas Jefferson (Any other questions about the intent of the second amendment?)
VI. “It is the DUTY of a Patriot to protect his country from its government” – Thomas Paine
Ronald Reagan
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Ronald Reagan
V. “No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government” – Thomas Jefferson (Any other questions about the intent of the second amendment?)
VI. “It is the DUTY of a Patriot to protect his country from its government” – Thomas Paine
President Obama Sticks to Stimulus Script
Morning Bell: President Obama Sticks to Stimulus Script
Over the coming weeks, I’m going to be putting out more proposals, week by week, that will help businesses hire and put people back to work. And I’m going to keep at it until every single American who wants a job can find one.It’s anyone’s guess if President Obama was taking a page from Dave’s playbook, hoping that the magic of Hollywood or the power of a populist message would resonate with Americans, helping to turn around his plummeting poll numbers. But a few things were clear in the President’s speech: Despite all evidence to the contrary, he is still clinging to the notion that the federal government can create jobs, he remains utterly disconnected from the reality that the American people are fundamentally dissatisfied with the direction he is taking the country, and he is doggedly sticking to his favorite script—the story of more federal spending coming to America’s rescue.
Since the beginning of his presidency, Barack Obama has promised that he would spend America out of the recession using the power of the purse, infusing the U.S. economy with stimulus spending in order to save or create millions of jobs. He failed. Despite a $787 billion stimulus package, the unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, job creation is anemic, and as Heritage’s James Sherk and Rea Hederman, Jr., explain in a new paper, the average duration of unemployment hit a new record last month, surpassing 40 weeks for the first time ever.
Yet the President is falling back on more stimulus spending as a solution. In his speech yesterday, Obama told his audience to contact their representatives (again) and demand more spending on infrastructure. And he called for Congress to set aside their divisions so more money can be spent in the Department of Energy to further his green agenda. If you think this is all a re-run, that’s because it is. And we know how the story ends. That’s because an undeniable truth emerges from the President’s stimulus fiction: Government spending does not stimulate economic growth. Heritage’s Nicolas Loris explains why:
Sure, the government can create jobs. They can use our taxpayer dollars to hire workers to dig holes and fill them back up. But if there’s no net gain in productivity and wealth, the job is a waste.The failure of government stimulus spending has played itself out time and time again. In the New Deal, Japan in the 1990s, President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2008, and the Obama stimulus last year all failed to generate the hoped-for stimulus.
For instance, we could replace all of the world’s mechanized agriculture equipment with hoe wielding farmers, and that would create jobs. But it would also significantly reduce productivity and efficiency. The economic reasoning for switching from more efficient machinery to less efficient human capital is such a baseless plan any politician suggesting it would be laughed out of office.
Yet the President keeps telling his story, and he keeps taking credit for the supposed success of his economic stimulus. But the American people aren’t buying it. As the stock market surges and plummets, Americans’ confidence in the economy keeps sinking—hitting lows not seen since March 2009 during the recession, according to a new Gallup poll. They’re looking for a new direction—one of fiscal restraint and smaller government that they voted for last November.
It’s time to stop re-running the same big-government storyline and put America on a new road of fiscal discipline headed toward economic growth. Congress and the President can start by balancing the budget, lowering spending, and reforming entitlements as laid out in Heritage’s “Saving the American Dream” plan. Yesterday, President Obama said, “We can’t afford to play games—not right now, not when the stakes are so high for our economy.” He’s right. But unfortunately, he isn’t proposing the ideas needed to put American back to work.
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