The Taxman Leaveth.....

Anticipation

Conversation heard in the crowd:

"Are they gonna unveil the Obama statue soon? I don't know how much longer I can hold it"

Democrat pollsters: Obama's a divider, not a uniter

WSJ Online:

"Barack Obama promised a new era of post-partisanship. In office, he's played racial politics and further split the country along class and party lines."

Excerpt:

"Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship. Moreover, his cynical approach to governance has encouraged his allies to pursue a similar strategy of racially divisive politics on his behalf. "

Let's be clear about this. Caddell and Schoen are clearly liberal torchbearers, as is made clear by other portions of their opinion piece. However, they understand the destructiveness brought forth on our nation by this failure of a president and his equally divisive congressional enablers.

The American public understands these things too, whether the apologists like it or not.

Obamacare: The more you know, the more you dislike it

James Capretta:

"While it is true that the program is a massive entitlement, specifically designed to get the American middle class fully hooked on another expansive government benefit, Obamacare also — unlike the Medicare drug benefit — creates millions of losers. Democrats riddled it with budget gimmicks and sleights of hand to create the illusion of a fully financed program; but what it really does is redistribute resources within the health sector away from those who have good coverage today.

As millions of today’s happily insured citizens begin to find out that their current arrangements have been disrupted, and, in some cases, terminated, to pay for the Obama administration’s government-centric takeover, their views of Obamacare will only sour further."

Remember that "we have to pass the bill so we can find out what's in it", as prevaricated by one the essential cogs of the most transparent administration in history's agenda.

Think that's bad? Just wait until all the nonsense in the new "financial reform" law becomes known. And just think of the secret delights Dems/Lefties/"Progressives" have in store for us with their renewed Cap 'n Trade, "net neutrality", "fairness doctrine", illegal immigrant amnesty, and VAT "enhancements" if we don't castrate their destructive agenda this November.

Lessons learned from the Journolist revelations

"Liberals don’t just hate conservatism as an ideology; they hate conservatives as individuals."

Wisdom:

"This hatred will only increase if the Left feels its programs to greatly increase the size of government are in any way threatened in the forthcoming elections. The problem is that this hatred does not decrease when the Left is in power.

Hatred of conservatives is so much a part of the Left that the day the Left stops hating conservatives will mark the beginning of the end of the Left as we know it."

The Sherrod tape: Her story's moral talking points are false

Jeffrey Lord, in the American Spectator tells the real and powerful story, one which the folks who want to talk about Breitart and Fox News always manage to ignore.

Read the entire thing.

Economic Fish Stories

Michael J. Boskin:

"President Obama says 'every economist who's looked at it says that the Recovery Act has done its job'—i.e., the stimulus bill has turned the economy around. That's nonsense.

Opinions differ widely and many leading economists believe that its impact has been small. Why? The expectation of future spending and future tax hikes to pay for the stimulus and Mr. Obama's vast expansion of government are offsetting the direct short-run expansionary effect. That is standard in all macroeconomic theories.

So, as I and others warned in 2008, the permanent government expansion and higher tax rate agenda is a classic example of what not to do during bad economic times. Worse yet, all the subsidies, bailouts, regulations and mandates are forcing noncommercial decisions on the economy, which now awaits literally thousands of new diktats as a result of things like ObamaCare and the financial reform bill. The uncertainty is impeding investment and hiring."

More economic fish stories are found here and here

As well we know, that particular blog, and many of its commentators (some of whom actually profess "expertise" in the subject) are routinely at the top of the clueless list on the general subject of the economy, just like their big brother hero.

Illustrating the Obama "Recovery"

Hat tip: the Mark Levin Show

It's official: It's not really your money

......according to the Dems/Lefties/"Progressives", it's the government's income.

Jim DeMint:

“Sen. Dorgan just said a vote for tax cuts is a vote to ‘reduce this country’s income.' To Democrats, it’s the government’s money. Not yours.”


Erick Ericson:

"Really Senator Dorgan? Voting to give Americans back their own money was a vote to “reduce this country’s income with the biggest benefits going to the wealthiest Americans?”

Certainly cutting taxes reduces the governments’ income in a static calculation, but we also know that revenue into the treasury went up after those tax cuts.

The Democrats really do think it is their money."

Notice how Dipsquat Dorgan lies about the unemployment benefit extension?

As noted elsewhere, Republicans were more than willing to vote for the extension-- as long as funding from the failed stimulus paid for it, or funding from another program covered the cost.

Regarding St. Shirley

Andy McCarthy:

"Ms. Sherrod's Speech Was Most Certainly Not About Transcending Racism."

Noteworthy:

"Pardon me, but I think I'll stay off the Canonize Shirley bandwagon. To me, it seems like she's still got plenty of racial baggage. What we're seeing is not transcendence but transference. That's why the NAACP crowd reacted so enthusiastically throughout her speech.

With an ever-expanding federal bureaucracy assuming overlord status in what used to be private industry and private matters, are we supposed to feel better that this particular bureaucrat's disdain, though once directed at all white people, is now channeled only toward successful white people ... most of whom — like successful black people — worked very hard to become successful?

Are we supposed to forget that when the Left says, 'It's always about the money,' you don't have to have a whole lot of money to find yourself on the wrong side of their have/have-not equation? Are we supposed to take comfort in having our affairs managed by bureaucrats who see the country as a Manichean divide beset by institutionalized racism?"

More, from Power Line:




Paul Mirengoff:

"Sherrod claims to have transcended racism. Maybe so. Her attack on Breitbart is not necessarily motivated by his race. But by making the unfounded and absurd charge that Brietbart favors slavery for blacks, Sherrod show she has not transcended racial irresponsibility."

Thomas Sowell on race baiting fraud

Obama assumes yet another biblical role

Hat tip: Patriot Post US

Failed leadership

Oil Spill Timeline from RightChange on Vimeo.

Elections sure have consequences, don't they?

The question is what are you and I going to do about it?

Embarrassed about the evidence of your '08 election mistake?

Common sense prevails

Cap 'n Tax Trade fails, and Dingy Harry is forced to settle for a weak alternative that likely will not needlessly cost the American family thousands of dollars a year in support of a cherished Dem/Lefty/"Progressive" worldview agenda that promotes scientific fraud and bogus energy policies..

Noteworthy:

"Republicans rejected Mr. Reid's effort to blame them for the political failure of the cap and trade proposal. 'His own party doesn't support the idea,' said Robert Dillon, a spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska)."

Let's see if we can re-focus attention on making progress in using our coal and natural gas resources to provide for our energy needs.

Talking Points

The reality of health care "reform" keeps getting uglier each day

Robert Samuelson, on what we've learned from Massachusetts' fiasco:

"All this anticipates Obamacare. Even if its modest measures to restrain costs succeed -- which seems unlikely -- the effect on overall spending would be slight. The system's fundamental incentives won't change. The lesson from Massachusetts is that genuine cost control is avoided because it's so politically difficult. It means curbing the incomes of doctors, hospitals and other providers. They object. To encourage 'accountable care organizations' would limit consumer choice of doctors and hospitals. That's unpopular. Spending restrictions, whether imposed by regulation or 'global payments,' raise the specter of essential care denied. Also unpopular.

Obama dodged the tough issues in favor of grandstanding. Imitating Patrick, he's already denouncing insurers' rates, as if that would solve the spending problem. What's occurring in Massachusetts is the plausible future: Unchecked health spending determines government priorities and inflates budget deficits and taxes, with small health gains. And they call this 'reform'?

Actually, the Dems/Lefties/"Progressives" are now calling it what they refused to call it before the abomination became law....a tax:

"When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s 'power to lay and collect taxes.'


.....'For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,' the president said last September, in a spirited exchange with George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program 'This Week.'

When Mr. Stephanopoulos said the penalty appeared to fit the dictionary definition of a tax, Mr. Obama replied, 'I absolutely reject that notion.'"

Meanwhile, back in Taxachusetts, what the "progressives" and Obama insisted would NOT happen under Obamacare is now happening in the Bay State. Companies are canceling their group health coverage. "But it's not a trend!" is the first thing out of the cheerleaders' mouths.

Excerpt:

"The state’s landmark 2006 health insurance overhaul included regulations designed to discourage low-wage employees from opting for state health insurance over their companies’ often more pricey coverage. It denied eligibility to any one whose employer had offered him or her coverage in the past six months and paid at least 33 percent toward the individual’s plan.

Most health care advocates and brokers had widely interpreted that to include even workers whose companies had dropped coverage. But recently, some companies that have terminated their group plans have tested those waters and found that their employees were accepted for state-subsidized coverage."

Here's more on the incentives for employers to drop their employees' health plan coverage:

"The National Federation of Independent Business has noted several serious problems the law will cause for small businesses and for employment.

For example, because the law requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide health coverage or pay a fine, small businesses will be discouraged from hiring more workers if it would push their staff above the threshold.

They also might be inclined to lay off employees to get under the threshold. The small-business tax credits that would offset the cost of providing employees health care last only six years. After that, small businesses will carry the entire load.

Employees of large companies also have reason for concern, according to Forbes magazine. This is because it would cost a large employer far more to provide employee health care than simply to pay the federal fine for failing to do so."

Hat tip: Laura Ingraham, who adds:

"After claiming that the overhaul would 'bend the cost curve down,' President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority barely managed to force the legislation through Congress, using political bribery and procedural sleight of hand in the face of hostile public opinion.

In fact, the legislation contains little that will moderate the increases in the cost of health care and much that will drive increases. "

The lies they told to get this thing through are legendary, but we can't say we weren't warned about this catastrophe.

We know that we can't expect the "regressive" "progressive" statists to change their zombie-mindedness on agenda issues like this. We will have to salvage what we can by re-taking Congress this November, getting rid of this outrage of a president in the '12 election, and praying to God we can limit the damage already caused.

Financial "reform" passes Senate, but Fannie and Freddie once again escape scrutiny

Imagine that!

Noteworthy:

"Today, after imploding and being seized by Washington, the GSEs ostensibly have unlimited access to taxpayer assistance. At the very least, their operations and liabilities should be incorporated into official U.S. budget calculations. This is not a matter of left-right politics; it’s a matter of fiscal candor. As
economist Doug Elmendorf, President Obama’s CBO director, told the Wall Street Journal back in September 2008 when he was a Brookings fellow,

'Trying to keep these entities off the government’s books, given the government’s financial commitment, would perpetuate the illusion that they aren’t the government’s problem, even when they are.'"

Vincent Reinhart sums up the financial "reform" nonsense in a nutshell:

"The Senate’s passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill is an event too discouraging to comment upon at length. What does it suggest we have learned as a nation from the past few years of financial turmoil?

• The failure of regulation requires more regulation.

• Multiple layers of official oversight would be made more effective if made more numerous.

• The financial system—in all the Byzantine complexity that thwarted official examination, market discipline, and effective internal controls—should be made more complex."

Such is the legacy of The Obamanation, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and the other conspirator members of the Vast Democrat Culture of Corruption.

The continuing misery of the Keynesians

.....as aided and abetted by buffoons like Obama, Krugman, and fellow lefty lunatics nationally and locally,as illustrated and discussed here, to jog the collective memories of those who brought this about, and to remind the rest of us about the utter failure in leadership shown by this most disastrous of presidential administrations.




Noteworthy:

* Dan DiMicco, CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp, told the Wall Street Journal: “Companies large and small are saying, ‘I am not going to do anything until these things — health care, climate legislation — go away or are resolved.’”

* Porta-King CEO Steve Schulte told USA Today his company is not investing because “proposals in Congress to tackle climate change and overhaul health care would raise costs.”

* Stock analyst Peter Sidoti told The New York Post: “‘There hasn’t been one bankruptcy,’ he tells me. How did they survive the recession? By cutting costs and hoarding cash, not expanding their business and hiring more people, even as the economy now is starting to recover. During other recoveries, Sidoti says, firms like these would be hiring workers in droves as demand picks up for goods and services. This time around, they’re not — because ‘they don’t know what their costs are going to be.’”

More:

"In 1980, I had the privilege of advising Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to ignore the demands of 360 British economists who made the outrageous claim that Britain would never (yes, never) recover from her decision to reduce government spending during a severe recession. They wanted more spending. She responded with a speech promising to stay with her tight budget. She kept a sustained focus on long-term problems. Expectations about the economy's future improved, and the recovery soon began.

That's what the U.S. needs now. Not major cuts in current spending, but a credible plan showing that authorities will not wait for a fiscal crisis but begin to act prudently and continue until deficits disappear, and the debt is below 60% of GDP. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.) offered a plan, but the administration and Congress ignored it.

The country does not need more of the same. Successful leaders give the public reason to believe that they have a long-term program to bring a better tomorrow. Let's plan our way out of our explosive deficits and our hesitant and jobless recovery by reducing uncertainty and encouraging growth."

The ongoing attack on free will

Dr. Helen thinks there's been an increase in the liberal academic push to sell the idea that free will is only an illusion, and it's coming about because of a liberal desire to regulate behavior.

She quotes a recent Time article:

"There may be few things more fundamental to human identity than the belief that people are rational individuals whose behavior is determined by conscious choices. But recently psychologists have compiled an impressive body of research that shows how deeply our decisions and behavior are influenced by unconscious thought, and how greatly those thoughts are swayed by stimuli beyond our immediate comprehension."

Dr Helen:

"Beware of studies that show free will to be more and more of an illusion, for as Glenn (husband Instapundit) says, 'This kind of thing is often pitched as a reason for regulation, since your free will is portrayed as illusory.'

Perhaps the free will of academics who do so many of these studies is really the illusion. Maybe it is they who unconsciously want to give more ammunition to the current administration to proceed with policies that usurp free will and take more and more of our freedoms away. Free will and personal responsibility are the epitome of freedom. Let us not allow them to become extinct."

We have already seen many examples of stifling of free will, an increase in government intimidation, and a deafness to the public desire from the execrable excuse of what currently masquerades as a President and administration. All of this is cheered on by the comfortably numb minions and enablers iof the Tank Team Media and blahgosphere.

It seems that each day that passes brings fresh news of a further encroachment of individual free will, and a further forced bondage to government fiat in defiance of the public's common good sense and concern.

China's Foreign Exchange Bureau sends a message to Obama

"Listen To That Idiot Krugman at Your Own Peril":

"'Responsible measures' == 'no more stimulus packages' == 'stop deficit spending' == 'look elsewhere for loans' == 'Got that, Mr. Paul "D*****-Nozzle' Krugman?'

Conclusion: The People's Republic of China is now officially to the right of Barack Obama."

The hidden costs of Obama's failed economic policies

.....are likely to be much more destructive than what people like Krugman and his loyal band of "More_Useless_Stimulus_Now", and "Higher_Taxes_Solves_The_Problem" crowd of dimwits could ever conceive in their agenda -enabling minds.

Excerpt:

"Put all of this together, and you begin to get a sense of the importance of the employment reports. They are more than indicators of what has happened; they also shed light on what will likely happen going forward. The greater the persistence of high unemployment now, the higher the likelihood that it will drive future behavior of governments, companies and individuals....."

"I'm rich!"

.....says John Goodman.

Watch for the Obamanation's Lame Duck legislation