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| Rates have gone down, but the percentage paid has gone up |
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Friday night that PRESIDENT OBAMA IS MAKING A "TERRIBLE MISTAKE" BY AGREEING WITH REPUBLICANS THAT THE TOP POLITICAL ISSUE IS REDUCING THE DEFICIT.http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/157451-democrat-rips-obama-for-not-focusing-on-jobs
In an interview with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, NADLER SAID, "I STRONGLY BELIEVE WE SHOULD NOT BE TALKING ABOUT DEFICIT REDUCTION."
Nadler added, "We should be talking about how to create more jobs EVEN IF THE COST [IS] A BIGGER DEFICIT -- the deficit is a long-term problem, but we could have more spending for a year or two to get the economy up. If we had a 5 percent unemployment rate, that would by itself eliminate two-thirds of the deficit."
This is a perfect example of diversion. After two and a quarter years, the Democrats have decided that unemployment is the country’s biggest crisis trying to divert attention from the deficit which is a crisis they created.
In Kansas City, tackling education’s status quo
JOHN COVINGTON HESITATED BEFORE BECOMING THIS CITY’S 26TH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT IN 40 YEARS. A blunt-talking African American from Alabama, he attended the Broad Superintendents Academy in Los Angeles, which prepares leaders for urban school districts, and when he asked people there if he should come here, their response, he says, was: “Not ‘no,’ but ‘Hell, no!’ ” He says they suggested that when flying across the country he should take a flight that does not pass through this city’s airspace….
…. HE CLOSED 26 OF THE DISTRICT’S 61 SCHOOLS. Kansas City had fewer students but twice as many schools as Pueblo, Colo., where Covington had been superintendent.
Thirty-five years ago, Kansas City’s district had 54,000 students. Today it has fewer than 17,000. Between then and now there was a spectacular confirmation of the axiom that education cannot be improved by simply throwing money at it.
In the 1980s, after a court held that the city was operating a segregated school system, judicial Caesarism appeared. A JUDGE VOWED TO IMPROVE THE DISTRICT’S RACIAL BALANCE by luring white students to lavish “magnet schools” offering “suburban comparability” and “desegregative attractiveness.” And HE ORDERED TAX INCREASES TO PAY THE ALMOST $2 BILLION BILL FOR, AMONG OTHER THINGS, AN OLYMPIC-SIZE SWIMMING POOL, A PLANETARIUM, VIVARIUMS, GREENHOUSES, A MODEL UNITED NATIONS WIRED FOR LANGUAGE TRANSLATION, RADIO AND TELEVISION STUDIOS, AN ANIMATION AND EDITING LAB, MOVIE EDITING AND SCREENING ROOMS, A TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED ART GALLERY, A 25-ACRE FARM, a 25-acre wildlife area, instruction in cosmetology and robotics, field trips to Mexico and Senegal, and more.
NEITHER TEST SCORES NOR THE RACIAL GAP IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IMPROVED, and racial imbalance increased. Today, African Americans are 28 percent of the city’s population and 63 percent of public school students.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-kansas-city-tackling-educations-status-quo/2011/04/21/AFh6qWRE_story.html
This is a story of the problems with public education. It’s not ideological but factual. It is well worth reading.
To the left: Medicare isn’t the problem, it’s the solution
Yes, we have a long-term budget crisis. And, yes, Medicare costs are at the heart of it. But don't be fooled into believing Medicare itself is the problem.
House Republicans want to get rid of Medicare. In its place, they'd give seniors vouchers to be cashed in with private insurers. That's nuts. IT WOULD LEAVE SENIORS WITH LESS HEALTH CARE AND INSURERS WITH FATTER PROFITS.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/23/INA31J3K54.DTL#ixzz1KS0EnntM
The democrats would have a better case if Obama didn’t create the IPAB. Of course without it, he has no solution to the imminent collapse of the system.
Labor Relations: The future under the Democrats
For businesses, it was the type of action they have feared from a National Labor Relations Board dominated by Democrats. FOR LABOR UNIONS, IT WAS THE TYPE OF ACTION THEY HAVE HOPED FOR. AND FOR BOTH, IT MAY BE A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME.
These fears and hopes were stirred this week when the labor board’s top lawyer FILED A CASE AGAINST BOEING, SEEKING TO FORCE IT TO MOVE AIRPLANE PRODUCTION FROM A NONUNION PLANT IN SOUTH CAROLINA TO A UNIONIZED ONE IN WASHINGTON STATE. Boeing executives had publicly said THEY WERE MAKING THE MOVE TO AVOID THE KIND OF STRIKES THE AIRPLANE MAKER HAD REPEATEDLY FACED IN WASHINGTON; Lafe Solomon, the labor board’s acting general counsel, said the company’s motive constituted illegal retaliation against workers for exercising their right to strike.
The agency’s unusually bold action angered business groups and some politicians, who said it was an unwarranted attempt by the government to interfere with a fundamental corporate decision.
But under President Obama’s appointees, THE AGENCY, INCLUDING MR. SOLOMON AND HIS STAFF, HAS SOUGHT TO REINTERPRET AND MORE VIGOROUSLY ENFORCE THE RULES GOVERNING EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES, FROM WHAT WORKERS CAN SAY ABOUT THEIR BOSSES ON TWITTER TO THE USE OF INTERNET AND PHONE VOTING IN UNION ELECTIONS. …
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/23/business/23labor.html?_r=1
The left has lost a lot of support from the voting public and are now depending on appointed bureaucrats to further their agenda.
Past House GOP tactic proves useless to Democrats
WASHINGTON — A year ago, when Republicans were in the minority on Capitol Hill, they drove Democrats crazy by using an obscure parliamentary maneuver to change, delay and even kill Democratic priorities.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7535383.html
Now that Republicans are running the House, DEMOCRATS HAVE TRIED TO STYMIE THE GOP AGENDA BY RELYING ON THE TACTIC, KNOWN AS THE MOTION TO RECOMMIT. BUT THEY'VE FAILED ON EVERY ONE OF THEIR 23 ATTEMPTS THIS YEAR.
That motion is almost always the last step just before the final vote on a bill. It gives the minority party, which has little voice and few rights in the House, a last chance to amend a bill, or in a more traditional sense, return it to the committee level for further work.
Often, the maneuver is aimed at forcing members of the majority into an untenable choice between opposing their party's position or casting a vote that opponents could use against them in election campaign.
FOR A RECOMMIT MOTION TO WORK, THE MINORITY PARTY MUST PICK OFF AT LEAST SOME MEMBERS OF THE MAJORITY. THUS DEMOCRATS WOULD NEED AT LEAST A FEW DOZEN OF THE HOUSE'S 241 REPUBLICANS TO VOTE WITH THEM THIS YEAR. THEIR BEST SHOWING SO FAR ON ANY MOTION: TWO GOP VOTES….
Sarah Palin was right
The big question as Chairman Bernanke gets set for his first quarterly press conference is HOW SARAH PALIN WAS ABLE TO FIGURE OUT SOONER THAN EVERYONE ELSE THAT THE FEDERAL RESERVE’S CAMPAIGN OF QUANTITATIVE EASING WOULDN’T WORK. Disappointment in the Fed’s policies is being reported this morning at the top of page one of the New York Times. It reports that “most Americans are not feeling the difference” from the Fed’s “experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt.” It reports that “a broad range of economists say that the disappointing results show the limits of the central bank’s ability to lift the nation from its economic malaise….”http://www.nysun.com/editorials/sarah-palin-for-the-fed/87317/
…BUT HOW IN THE WORLD DID MRS. PALIN, WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE SO THICK, MANAGE TO FIGURE ALL THIS OUT SO FAR AHEAD OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND ALL THE ECONOMISTS IT TALKED TO?
She did this back in November in a speech at Phoenix, which the Wall Street Journal, in a laudatory editorial at the time, characterized as zeroing in on the connection between a weak dollar and rising prices for oil and food. “WE DON’T WANT TEMPORARY, ARTIFICIAL ECONOMIC GROWTH BROUGHT AT THE EXPENSE OF PERMANENTLY HIGHER INFLATION WHICH WILL ERODE THE VALUE OF OUR INCOMES AND OUR SAVINGS,” THE JOURNAL QUOTED MRS. PALIN AS SAYING. “We want a stable dollar combined with real economic reform. It’s the only way we can get our economy back on the right track.” Now here is the New York Times quoting a raft of economists who have reached the conclusion that Mrs. Palin’s warning was right down the line.
This one is easy. On the one side you had the Fed, the Federal government and left wing apologist hoping this would work. On the other hand you had anyone with a lick of sense who knew that flooding the market with newly printed money would not work.
Progressive Projects in China
For years, CHINA'S HIGH-SPEED RAIL AND GREEN ENERGY PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN PORTRAYED AS MIRACLES THAT AMERICA MUST FOLLOW TO REMAIN "IN THE GAME." During the last two years and counting, American taxpayers have been put on the hook for tens of billions of dollars as Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress promote agendas that would supposedly emulate China and lead us to Nirvana. What is the trouble with this picture? It has been one giant mirage.
The Washington Post runs a column by one of their finest journalists, Charles Lane, that honestly portrays the Chinese high-speed train project as being a high-speed boondoggle mired in financial and other problems:
For the past eight years, LIU ZHIJUN WAS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN CHINA. AS MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, LIU RAN CHINA'S $300 BILLION HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT. U.S., European and Japanese contractors jostled for a piece of the business while foreign journalists gushed over China's latest high-tech marvel.
Today, Liu Zhijun is ruined, and HIS HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT IS IN TROUBLE. ON FEB. 25, HE WAS FIRED FOR "SEVERE VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE" - CODE FOR EMBEZZLING TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Seems his ministry has run up $271 billion in debt - roughly five times the level that bankrupted General Motors. But ticket sales can't cover debt service that will total $27.7 billion in 2011 alone. Safety concerns also are cropping up….
….In China, as in the US, high speed rail is expensive. Huge amounts of money have to be laid out for construction, tracts, and equipment, and getting ticket revenue sufficient to cover costs is problematic. BULLET TRAIN LINES IN JAPAN, CHINA, AND TAIWAN ALL NEEDED BAILOUTS. All but one of France's bullet train lines loses money….
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/the_chinese_role_model_collaps.html
I seem to remember BHO pushing for "investment in just this idea in the last SOTU. The problem with liberals is they think if they like an idea it will be profitable. They are almost always wrong.
Box-office power of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ baffles insiders
The power of Ayn Rand devotees has impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of THE HEFTY $5,640 PER-THEATER AVERAGE SCORED BY “ATLAS SHRUGGED: PART 1” DURING ITS OPENING WEEKEND..
“Shocking,” one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing, considering its “awful” marketing plan.
Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro TO EXPAND FROM 299 THEATERS TO 425 THIS WEEKEND AND TO 1,000 BY THE END OF THE MONTH. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders
http://www.suntimes.com/4935704-417/box-office-power-of-ayn-rands-atlas-shrugged-baffles-insiders.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4db38eff081e29c0%2C0
This really isn’t hard to understand. Liberal Hollywood kept making film critical of America and the war on terror and they lost money on all of them. Here’s a low budget conservative film and it’s making money. Hollywood thinks America is like they are, but they aren’t. Twice as many people consider themselves conservatives as do people consider themselves liberal.
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