Showing posts with label tax increases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tax increases. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Polls have gone bad for Obama




IBD/TIPP Poll:  Really Bad News for Obama

The latest IBD/TIPP poll has Romney up by 5 points even though the poll has 39% Democrats, 31% Republicans, and 30% Independents.  Among independents, Romney has a 20 point lead.






Democrats, the tax ideologues

It seems Chuck Shumer has rejected the idea of lowering tax rates and eliminating tax loopholes.  He won’t listen to anything but a tax increase.  Now who are the unreasonable ideologues?




Camille Paglia’s pick for President

It’s not Romney or Obama, but the Green Party’sJill Stein.

If the Republican candidate were Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, I would certainly not be voting Green; I would be voting for and contributing to Obama again, as I did in 2008. … Romney is an affable, successful businessman whose skills seem well-suited to this particular moment of economic crisis. Hence I want to use my vote to make a statement about my unhappiness with the Democratic Party and the direction it has taken.




Ryan’s preparation for tonight’s debate

It appears Paul Ryan uses every spare moment in preparation for his debate with VP Joe Biden.  But this doesn’t appear to be unusual.  If there is one thing his friends and colleagues say about Paul Ryan is that he is always prepared. 




Two left wing narratives bite the dust

Last Wednesday can be seen as the moment when two of the narratives currently beloved by the American media gave way to reality.  The first narrative was that Barack Obama is a man of exceptional intelligence and political skill.  Obama is an entirely mediocre politician whose only exceptional skill has been the ability to make gullible liberals feel virtuous by finding him to be such an outstanding fellow.  The second narrative was that successful businesspeople are uniformly greedy and cruel misers with narrow interests, pedestrian minds, suspect motives and limited leadership skills -- unless, of course, they support the progressive agenda, at which time they all become wise visionaries. 

I’ve always been perplexed by the second narrative.  It seems that the rich can’t be trusted unless they are progressives when human nature suddenly disappears and the person becomes the secular equivalent of Mother Teresa. 


The Private Sector is not doing fine

The numbers have just come out for August and the private sector netted 36,000 new jobs in that month.  This was the lowest gain in three months and less than one half of the original estimate of 96,000 jobs created. 




The MSM fails Obama at the first Debate

Or is that the other way around?  

It had been the real thing, not a commonplace fling with your generic Democrat, but the love of a lifetime, the genuine article, the sum of all dreams: He was not just a Democrat, he was also a liberal. He was not just a liberal, he also biracial, also multinational; also hip, cool, and clever. He was themselves as they wanted to be. Like them, he was gifted at writing and talking (and, as it turned out, not much beyond that), like them, he stood up for Metro America; like them, he viewed the people outside it with a not-very-measured disdain.




The MSM incestuous relationship with the Democrats

This is an interesting article detailing why Fox is an anathema to so many on the left including the MSM. 
Flip on any major news network other than Fox and you’ll be greeted by reports heralding gay marriage, an issue that has failed repeatedly in more than half the states, a generally liberal social world view, Washington compromising jacking up the national debt, and unquestioning acceptance that a poorly produced video on the internet caused our American Ambassador in Libya to die. You’ll probably even get some poo-pooing about excesses of the First Amendment with regards to Coptic Christians and Citizens United, but rarely about pornography or the press itself.


Will Marijuana sink Obama? 

It appears that pro-marijuana libertarian candidate GaryJohnson may actually play a factor in the coming election.  In Nevada, Obama leads Romney 51-47.  But when you poll and have Gary Johnson as well, he pulls three percent from Obama and you have 48-47.  

If most of the marijuana vote would have gone to Obama, and a portion of those voters go for Johnson, this may have a significant effect in some battleground states.  



Did going green contribute to the deaths in Libya?

While security forces were pulled from Libya, in Europe the US was making investments in electric Volts and charging stations.  This was part of the State Department’s efforts to go green.

In fact, at a May 10 gala held at the U.S. embassy in Vienna, the ambassador showcased his new Volts and other green investments as part of the U.S. government’s commitment to “climate change solutions.”




What’s the difference between Watergate and Benghazigate?

As Bill Otis says:

The Administration said they had no actionable intelligence. They had plenty. The Administration said they provided adequate protection. They didn’t, and were told it was inadequate by their own people on the ground.

The Administration, as ever in a rush to apologize to Islam, said the attack was caused by the Internet video. It wasn’t. It was pre-planned as the Jihadist anniversary of 9-11. 

The Adminstration says it was a spontaneous mob. But there was neither a mob nor spontaneity.
The Administration says it has crippled al Qadea. It hasn’t; instead, al Qadea not only cripples, but kills our people, including our ambassador. And the Administration persists in each of these lies even today, while an important security officer in Yemen was assassinated on his way to our embassy there.

Perhaps the difference was the Media didn’t try to cover it up?




Congressman Spencer Bachus unmasks Dodd-Frank

A very interesting article rips the cover off the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.  It appears the law isn’t doing what it set out to do and will be costing us all a lot of money.  I found the admission that the first 224 rules of the 400 in the law will cost 20,000,000 work hours to complete each year was astounding.  The article puts it into perspective in that it took 20 million hours to build the Panama Canal. 

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Republican Debate and other worries for the left

The Republican Debate: 

This was actually a pretty good one looking at more substantive issues.  Winners tonight in my opinion would be Romney and Gingrich.  Santorum looked very tentative and weak.  Ron Paul was Ron Paul.   Best line came from Romney when the moderator told him he wasn’t answering the question.  Romney said, “You get to ask the questions you want, and I get to answer the questions I want.”  A lot more going after Obama which was a hit with the Republican audience.  Biggest waste of time was the one word you would use to describe yourself, but Gingrich did get a laugh when he said “Cheerful.” 



What’s new Today

Our #1 story looks at all the tax increases that are in the cards if Obama keeps the presidency.  He won’t.  #2 is an article by Glenn Reynolds about how you could actually have a course to study the Occupy movement.  It’s not anywhere near what the liberal establishments are looking to do.  #3 is an editorial in today’s USA Today regarding the Occupy movement.  It definitely isn’t the TEA Party.  #4 as a hint of what 2012 will be like election wise, we find that Scott Brown is 9 point ahead of his competition for his Senate Seat. Not good news for the Democrats.  #5  is a good reason never to elect a Democrat to anything where they need to be part of the economy.  It appears Valerie Jarrett also sees unemployment checks as a stimulus for the economy.  #6 is great news.  It appears Chevron is looking at one of the three biggest oil strikes in the world just off the coast of Louisiana.  Now if we can get Obama to let the drillers get that oil.  Finally in #7 we have a story that will explain why we will never have another 9/11 at least as far as the airplanes are concerned.



1.  If Obama is reelected, Democrats will get their tax increase wishes

... To help finance the health care reform law passed in 2009, Congress approved a new tax on investment income to take effect in 2013. Beginning next year, families whose overall income is above $250,000 (individuals with income over $200,000) will pay an additional tax of 3.8% on taxable investment income (e.g., interest, dividends, capital gains, rents, royalties). This additional tax will not apply to non- taxable income, such as tax-exempt municipal bond interest, or to amounts withdrawn from qualified pension plans and IRAs.

When the new tax under health care reform is added to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, in 2013:

  • The top tax rate on ordinary income will rise from 35% to 43.4%—an increase of almost 25%*
  • The top tax rate on capital gains will rise from 15% to 23.8%—an increase of almost 60%
  • The top tax rate on dividends will rise from 15% to 43.4%—an increase of almost 200%
  • The estate tax exemption will drop from $5 million to $1 million and the estate tax rate will rise from 35% to 55%—an increase of over 55%

Most important, Congress need not pass a single piece of tax legislation in 2012 for these tax rates to take effect in 2013. They will happen by default.


This is the definition of the Democrats of fairness. 



2.  How to Study Occupy Wall Street

Schools from New York's Columbia to Chicago's Roosevelt University are offering courses on the "Occupy" movement. This has inspired some derision from the right, but I think that derision is misplaced. There is much that a course on the Occupy movement might profitably cover. Here are some possible lessons:

1) The Higher Education Bubble and Debt Slavery Throughout History. Since ancient times, debt has been a tool used by rulers to enslave the ruled, which is why the Bible explains that the borrower is the slave to the lender. One complaint of many Occupy protesters involves their pursuit of expensive degrees that has left them burdened by student loans but unable to find suitable employment. This unit would compare the marketing of higher education and student debt to today's students with the techniques used to lure sharecroppers and coal miners into irredeemable indebtedness. Music to be provided by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

2) Bourgeois vs. Non-Bourgeois Revolutions: A Comparison and Contrast. The Occupy movement left its major sites—McPherson Square in D.C., Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, Dewey Square in Boston—filthy and disheveled. By contrast, the tea party protests famously left the Washington Mall and other locations cleaner than they found them, with members proudly performing cleanup duties.

This unit would note that social-protest movements are sometimes orderly and sometimes disorderly as a matter of approach, and it would compare the effectiveness and ultimate success of such relentlessly bourgeois movements as the tea party, the pre-1964 Civil Rights movement, Women's Suffrage activists, and the American Revolution, against such anti-Bourgeois movements as the post-1968 Black Power and New Left movements, and the French Revolution.

Which accomplished more lasting good? Is Max Weber's Protestant work ethic applicable to social movements?

3) Class struggles and the New Class. Professor Kenneth Anderson of American University has suggested that the Occupy movement is best understood as a struggle between the upper and lower tiers of the elite. In recent years, the upper tier, composed of bankers, financiers, etc., has become decoupled from the lower-tier sub-elite of "Virtue Industry" workers in fields like education, nonprofit activism, social work and the like—with the latter feeling betrayed and abandoned….


This article is well worth your time to read it.  Glenn Reynolds does a good job of laying out what you could study. 



3.  The Occupy Patriots????

USA TODAY’s editorial is right to say that Occupy might lack clear goals on how to move forward, but the movement has accomplished its main original goal: to protest these injustices, not by simply holding a rally and going home, but by keeping the rally going to underscore the seriousness of this problem. Your piece accuses the protesters of sitting around and doing nothing. So maybe they should take up their Second Amendment-sanctioned guns and storm Wall Street and our nation’s capitals. If our country doesn’t change, it could very well come to that one day.


Now let’s see the editorials and the condemnation from the Democrats in Congress.  I mean they are threatening armed insurrection which according to the Constitution is treason. But it’s only treason if the person is right winged.  In this case it’s a form of patriotism according to the left.   







4.  Scott Brown ahead in Massachusetts

Republican Sen. Scott Brown holds a decisive lead over Democrat Elizabeth Warren in the race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. According to a new Suffolk University/7NEWS (WHDH-Boston) survey, the freshman senator garners 49% of the vote -- nine points ahead of his main Democratic rival. It's the first time a poll put Mr. Brown in the lead since last fall. Suffolk University was also the first to show Mr. Brown ahead in 2010 when he upset state Attorney General Martha Coakley.

That upset was driven largely by the independent vote. And the new poll shows Mr. Brown again heavily drawing his support from this group of voters. Among the 52% of respondents who identified themselves as independent, 60% supported Mr. Brown while only 28% supported Ms. Warren….




In a traditional democratic state, to have the independents go to Brown like this is not a good sign for Obama.  Add to this the rise in gas prices, the rise in unemployment as forecasted by Gallup, and the serious lack of fund raising by Obama and the Democrats in January and you have all the signs of a failed presidency that will end this November.





5.  Another Senior White House Advisor claims unemployment good for the economy

This evening, speaking at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said that folks getting and spending unemployment checks is a healthy thing . . . because it stimulates the economy:

"Even though we had a terrible economic crisis three years ago, throughout our country many people were suffering before the last three years, particularly in the black community," Jarrett said. "And so we need to make sure that we continue to support that important safety net. It not only is good for the family, but it's good for the economy. People who receive that unemployment check go out and spend it and help stimulate the economy, so that's healthy as well."


I swear there is nothing but economic idiots in the Democratic Party.  While unemployment checks help the economy from falling down as much as it might, it doesn’t help stimulate the economy.  In fact, there are indicators that many people don’t bother to look for jobs before the checks look like them may stop.  It’s like putting water wings on your kids.  It keeps them afloat, but you need to take the away at some point and get the kids to swim.



6.  Another Oil Find?

… As a practical matter Chevron is practically beating the drum – by oil company standards. Chevron has begun promoting the Shallow Water Gulf of Mexico (SWGM) as one of its top three areas of geologic interests worldwide. Keep in mind Chevron is a major firm from the U.S. to Australia, across Africa, central Asia and South America. If SWGM is in the top three, the prospects must be huge.

This is significantly important – an earlier well called Blackbeard East turned out to have a formation measuring 300 feet thick and appears to be a hydrocarbon bearing fractured carbonate. A huge percentage of the world’s most prolific oil and gas deposits have been found in fractured carbonate  structures. Fractured carbonates sometimes naturally give up their deposits very easily. This could be a major discovery….

… For consumers this is great news from an additional viewpoint. The SWGM work is in an area where there are existing pipelines to carry the new reserves to market right away. Billions of dollars will not have to be spent over the coming years and interminable waits to get permitting are avoided. This discovery and development isn’t vulnerable to a crass political presidential delay.


The world appears to be doing the opposite of approaching peak oil.  It appears peak oil may be decades or even centuries off in the future. 



Passengers come to the rescue

Passengers aboard a Continental Airlines flight bound for Houston Tuesday sprang into action to help a flight attendant having trouble with an unruly passenger. Twenty minutes after the plane departed Portland, pilots returned to the city where the FBI was waiting.

Passengers said the unruly man was a problem from the beginning. After boarding Flight 1113, the man became upset because he was not seated next to his friend.

Then after the flight took off, he ignored the “No Smoking” sign and tried to light an electronic cigarette.

A flight attendant asked the passenger to turn off the cigarette, but he refused. The Middle Eastern man started screaming at the smaller woman.

“He was screaming, ‘Allah is great, Allah is great,’” said Nancy Haywood, passenger. “And it kind of worries you when that happens, but believe me, there were enough men to hold him down.”

And they did. Men on the plane jumped up and ran to assist the flight attendant.

“Every guy that was in my area was ready to go,” said Mark Foster, passenger. “It was not even a thought. You can tell buckles were off and people were already leaning toward the aisles.”

The men subdued the unruly passenger while the flight attendant ran to the back and retrieved plastic handcuffs and ankle cuffs….





There will be no repeats of 9/11.  Let’s roll. 

Monday, June 27, 2011

Lies, damn lies......

Politics
House Dems: Closing special tax breaks not same as raising taxes

HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE DEMANDED THAT A DEFICIT-REDUCTION DEAL INCLUDE MEASURES TO RAISE TAX REVENUE BUT THEY ARGUE THOSE PROPOSALS SHOULDN’T BE VIEWED AS PROPOSED TAX INCREASES.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.), the assistant House Democratic leader and a member of the debt-limit negotiating team, said Sunday that CLOSING TAX LOOPHOLES ARE NOT THE SAME AS TAX INCREASES.

The fact of the matter is, we have on the table all kinds of revenue raises that [Republicans] keep calling tax increases. How do you call closing loopholes to oil companies that are making billions of dollars in profits, closing up these loopholes that would generate $40 to $50 billion in revenue, how do you call that a tax hike?” Clyburn said on ABC News’s "This Week".

“That is no tax hike. YOU ONLY HIKE TAXES WHEN YOU RAISE RATES,” he argued.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/168501-clyburn-closing-special-tax-breaks-not-the-same-as-raising-taxes

Do you know what the single biggest tax loophole is? It’s fringe benefits being tax free.
The Democrats are putting the camel’s nose under the tent with this argument and it is one that can hurt everyone in America.

Geithner: Oil release, not a political move

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the decision by industrialized nations to release emergency oil reserves into global energy markets, saying on Friday that it was not a political move.
"It's really as simple as this: there's a war in Libya, costs between one and two million barrels a day in lost output, I think 140 million barrels off the market so far," he said in response to a question at Dartmouth College, where he spoke on a panel…..

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/usa-economy-geithner-idUSN1E75N11V20110624

More lies from the left.

Charges fly in Wisconsin, but no actual charges lodged

Yesterday morning, I first read the story written by Bill Lueders — of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism — saying that "WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DAVID PROSSER ALLEGEDLY GRABBED FELLOW JUSTICE ANN WALSH BRADLEY AROUND THE NECK IN AN ARGUMENT IN HER CHAMBERS EARLIER THIS MONTH……"

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-stupidevil-was-bill-luederss-attack.html

Interesting story. There is a similarity to the Anthony Weiner story. Ann Bradley claims Prosser put this hands around her neck, but hasn’t lodged any actual charges against him. Weiner claimed someone hacked his emails, but didn’t lodge any charges in that case either. Stand by, this will get more interesting.

Pinch Happened

IT'S BEEN A BAD MONTH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES. The feeding frenzy it tried to stir up over Sarah Palin's e-mails left the sharks unfed. And the "investigative" story that was supposed to prove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be an unethical scoundrel fell flat because its theory was unsupported by the facts.

To top it all off, the Times is -- for the third time in as many years -- in an open feud with New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan for what the gentleman correctly labels anti-Catholic reporting.
But none of that will change the Times' behavior. THE TIMES IS PREPARING ITSELF FOR A HUGE PUSH TO RE-ELECT PRESIDENT OBAMA AND WILL LEAVE NO STORY UNPUBLISHED THAT COULD POSSIBLY HELP OBAMA OR HURT HIS OPPONENT, REGARDLESS OF WHO IT IS.

How did the New York Times -- the paper of Abe Rosenthal, R.W. "Johnny" Apple and Bill Safire -- become the paper of Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd? WHAT CHANGED IT FROM THE LIBERAL PAPER THAT HAD BEEN MOST FAIR TO RONALD REAGAN TO THE HOME OF ANGRY LIBERALISM?

WHAT HAPPENED? PINCH HAPPENED….

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/06/27/pinch-happened

And Pinch has been a disaster for the NYT. Just another example of why nepotism is a bad idea.

The Mask Slips. Yet Again.

NO ONE WHO HAS LIVED THROUGH THE LAST FORTY YEARS CAN BE SURPRISED WHEN A NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER REVEALS HIS CONTEMPT FOR THOSE WHO DON'T SHARE HIS CULTURAL BIASES; especially, against those like me who live in the "middle places." But when Times reporter David Carr blurted out that "middle places" like Kansas and Missouri ARE THE LAND OF "THE LOW-SLOPING FOREHEADS," EVEN THE JADED TOOK NOTICE. Ed Driscoll has a good roundup on Pajamas Media. Carr's moment of truth occurred on Bill Maher's repellent television show; here is the video:….

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/06/029329.php

To paraphrase Mark Twain, I guess there are lies, damn lies and the NY Times reporters.

Everything and Nothing: Obama’s Presidency

…..DAY AFTER DAY, PRESIDENT OBAMA IS AWOL, BUSY WITH DISCONNECTED EVENTS THAT HAVE ALMOST NO RELATION TO WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE NATION, MUCH LESS THE WORLD. He has so little impact on what’s going on anywhere that he’s hardly missed when he heads to the golf course (which he has done 75 times since taking office - and if you’re keeping track, that’s like playing golf 24 hours a day for nearly two weeks).

Consider his schedule last week: Meetings in the White House on Monday and Tuesday (which culminated in a bizarre and rambling speech on Afghanistan in which he declared he was cutting and running while leaving 68,000 troops in country to “lead from behind”), a greeting with Asian-American and Pacific Islander community leaders on Wednesday, fundraising events in New York City on Thursday, and a trip Friday to Pittsburgh “to highlight the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy.” Seriously.

In Pittsburgh, he said: “YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW THIS, BUT ONE OF MY RESPONSIBILITIES AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF IS TO KEEP AN EYE ON ROBOTS. AND I’M PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE ROBOTS YOU MANUFACTURE HERE SEEM PEACEFUL, AT LEAST FOR NOW…..”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/26/curl-obama-says-everything-and-nothing/

As Chris Christie said last week on the Today Show when asked what President Obama could do to overcome the problems in Washington, his comment, “First he could show up” was not only devastating, but accurate.


Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search

A WOMAN HAS FILED A COMPLAINT WITH FEDERAL AUTHORITIES OVER HOW HER ELDERLY MOTHER WAS TREATED AT NORTHWEST FLORIDA REGIONAL AIRPORT LAST WEEKEND.

Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.

Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.

“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said Friday. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”

Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration in Miami, said she could not comment on specific cases to protect the privacy of those involved.

“THE TSA WORKS WITH PASSENGERS TO RESOLVE ANY SECURITY ALARMS IN A RESPECTFUL AND SENSITIVE MANNER,” SHE SAID.

http://www.newsherald.com/news/mother-94767-search-adult.html

When someone tells you the government should be more involved because they don’t have a profit motive, read them this and tell them they don’t have a common sense motive either. Now let see, “how many suicide bombers have been 95 year old women in wheelchairs? Do you feel more secure now?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Spending cuts or tax increases

Pulling the Trigger or Pulling the Plug on School Reform?


Parents with children in California's failing schools (and out of 9000 public schools in the Golden State, 1300 now qualify as "failing") got an unexpected lifeline last January. As part of the Democrat-led legislature's unsuccessful attempt to get a piece of the Obama Administration's Department of Education "Race to the Top" funds, THEY PASSED A LAW WHICH INCLUDES A PROVISION GIVING PARENTS THE LEGAL RIGHT TO DEMAND INTERVENTION AT FAILING SCHOOLS IN THE FORM OF A CHARTER SCHOOL, a school closure and transfer of their children, or a staff/curriculum overhaul. Eager PARENTS IN COMPTON--a city "known best for its political corruption, racial division, and gang violence"--WERE ON THE CASE WITHOUT HASTE. They got the requisite number of signatures and were well on their way to demanding a charter school when (prepare yourself for the shock!) UNION-BACKED BUREAUCRATS STEPPED IN AND TRIED TO SHUT THEM DOWN ON A TECHNICALITY.
http://nlt.ashbrook.org/2011/03/pulling-the-trigger-or-pulling-the-plug-on-school-reform.php

Public Unions are frequently in collusion with bureaucrats to the detriment of the taxpayer.


EJ Dionne: Tax increases are the responsible way to go


….QUINN WON ELECTION IN NOVEMBER 2010 AFTER PROMISING THAT HE WOULD VETO ANY BILL RAISING THE INCOME TAX ABOVE 4%. His subsequent claim that the state's fiscal situation deteriorated so dramatically after Election Day, making an even bigger tax increase necessary, would elicit raucous laughter at a funeral. ILLINOIS'S FISCAL PROBLEMS WERE WELL KNOWN BEFORE ELECTION DAY. For Quinn to claim that, by a remarkable coincidence, they grew much more severe in the weeks between when he won election on the basis of a campaign promise, and the signing ceremony when he broke it, can be explained in one of two ways: EITHER QUINN MADE THE 4% PROMISE CYNICALLY, KNOWING HE WOULD HAVE TO - OR AT LEAST WANT TO - BREAK IT, OR HE MADE IT STUPIDLY, NOT REALIZING THE SEVERITY OF HIS STATE'S DEBT PROBLEMS, even though he was serving his second year as governor during the 2010 campaign. If Dionne applauds that kind of leadership, it will be difficult for any Democrat not under indictment to earn his reproach.


As for Brown, I've argued that California's governments, state and local, WERE SPENDING ABOUT A QUARTER MORE FOR ALL THEIR ACTIVITIES IN 2008, AFTER ADJUSTING FOR INFLATION AND POPULATION GROWTH, THAN THEY WERE IN 1992. We're told out here that a savage 20% cut in overall government spending would leave us unable to afford to hire anyone to look after the school children, other than the child molesters we could no longer afford to keep in prisons. And yet, less than 20 years ago, California managed to educate its children, imprison its criminals, maintain its roads and assist the indigent -- and did all this with inflation and population-adjusted government outlays about one-fifth smaller than what they were recently. Is it so heartless or unreasonable for the taxpayers to expect that we try to recapture the levels of government efficiency seen so recently, before we declare the task impossible and say the only way out is for more money to prop up a less efficient government?


"THERE IS NOTHING COURAGEOUS ABOUT AN IDEOLOGICAL GOVERNOR HACKING AWAY AT PROGRAMS THAT PARTISANS OF HIS PHILOSOPHY, INCLUDING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS, WANT ELIMINATED," DIONNE DECLARES. But there is something courageous, or at least interesting, about Democratic politicians risking the contempt of liberal columnists by declaring that further tax increases are simply impossible. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been categorical in his opposition to addressing New York's fiscal problems with tax increases, even if it means laying off more than 10,000 public workers…..

http://nlt.ashbrook.org/2011/03/for-dionne-responsibility-equals-tax-increases.php


The difference between the democrats and republicans is that the republicans tell you what they will do and then when elected back away when criticized for it. The Democrats tell you what they won’t do if elected, and then do it anyway.



New Orleans City Hall dysfunction leaves specialist 'shocked'

CALLING NEW ORLEANS CITY GOVERNMENT THE MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL HE'S EVER SEEN, a leading turnaround specialist delivered a report to Mayor Mitch Landrieu this week identifying a long list of problems at City Hall, as well as A 10-POINT PLAN ON HOW TO RIGHT THE SHIP.

Since taking office in May, Landrieu has identified many of the problems outlined by consultant David Osborne, including DECADES-OLD COMPUTER SYSTEMS, CIVIL SERVICE RULES THAT BEGET MEDIOCRITY, SENSELESS RED TAPE AND STAFFING SHORTAGES DATING TO HURRICANE KATRINA.

Osborne, who has advised dozens of cities on streamlining efforts, said Thursday that New Orleans faces myriad, deep-seated problems, the likes of which he has never encountered.

"I was kind of shocked," said Osborne, who served as a senior adviser to then-Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review initiative. "I THINK THEY INHERITED THE LEAST COMPETENT CITY GOVERNMENT I'D EVER SEEN IN THIS COUNTRY AND THE MOST CORRUPT -- a really tough experience. I just haven't run into this level of dysfunction before, and I've been doing this work for almost 25 years."


http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/new_orleans_city_hall_dysfunct.html#incart_mce


Perhaps the incompetence in Hurricane Katrina really was a function of the state and local government rather than all the fault of FEMA. At the time the MSM and the Democrats tried to put all the blame on the Bush Whitehouse rather than the least competent and most corrupt city government in the country.



Progressivism: A quick history and look at the future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLilhZ_73Zc&feature=player_embedded


An interesting look at what only can be called, “Back to the Future.”





Something is happening in Washington

….It may not be obvious, but there’s something important going on here. No, it’s not that Congress has begun to rein in spending significantly. IT’S THAT ACTUAL CUTS, SMALL AS THEY ARE, ARE BEING MADE. “FOUR BILLION IN THE CONTEXT OF AN OVER $3 TRILLION BUDGET IS NOT A LOT OF MONEY, [but] it is at least the first time since I’ve been here I can recall cutting anything of any consequence,” McConnell said. And Democrats are bragging about how hard they’ve worked to meet Republicans “halfway” in trimming spending.

The boasting is ludicrous. DEMOCRATS HAVE INDEED WORKED HARD—TO STAVE OFF EVEN THE MOST MODEST REDUCTIONS. Though Republicans control only the House, they’ve forced the White House and Senate to swallow cuts unimaginable to Democrats before the November 2 election. So far, that means one sixth ($10 billion), not one half, of the cuts sought by Republicans.

SO A CULTURE OF CUTTING RATHER THAN SPENDING HAS TAKEN HOLD IN WASHINGTON. Its grip may be weak. The public may conclude Republicans are overreaching, which is what Democrats are counting on. But I don’t think so. THE PUBLIC, I SUSPECT, IS WAY AHEAD OF WASHINGTON IN RECOGNIZING THE NEED TO CONTROL SPENDING, avert a debt crisis, and reverse the decline of the country they perceive all around them…..


http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/what-difference-year-makes_552970.html


Fred Barnes has an interesting take on what’s going on in Washington today and it is monumental. And I agree with him that the public is way ahead of Washington. In fact, Obama and the Democrats have brought this upon themselves. They spent so prolifically that I think they felt the public would demand higher taxes and they were counting on Carbon taxes as well. Instead we see a public calling for reduced spending which includes spending for public employee and their unions a major money source for the Democrats. What we saw was the Democratic version of the circular firing squad.


And speaking of flawed plans


The Los Angeles Community College District would become a paragon of clean energy. By generating solar, wind and geothermal power, THE DISTRICT WOULD SUPPLY ALL ITS ELECTRICITY NEEDS. Not only would the nine colleges sever ties to the grid, saving millions of dollars a year, THEY WOULD MAKE MONEY BY SELLING SURPLUS POWER. Thanks to state and federal subsidies, construction of the green energy projects would cost nothing upfront.


As head of a $5.7-billion, taxpayer-funded program to rebuild the college campuses, Eisenberg commanded attention. But his plan for energy independence was seriously flawed.


He OVERESTIMATED HOW MUCH POWER THE COLLEGES COULD GENERATE. HE UNDERESTIMATED THE COST. AND HE POURED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO DESIGNS FOR PROJECTS THAT PROVED SO IMPRACTICAL OR UNPOPULAR THEY WERE NEVER BUILT.….

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-build6-20110306,0,4909175.story


The green revolution with its good paying green jobs appear to be a mirage at best and fraud at worst. It’s time for congress to start looking into these “too good to be true” schemes.