I find a few things notable about the deal:
- For the first time, Republicans have accepted some increased revenues as part of a deal. This really is shocking, as it seemed so impossible. The fig leaf they used is that they raised "fees" on air carriers, not "taxes". Of course, that's a distinction without a difference. Of course, I'd like to see a broad-based tax hike instead, but this is still something. I was sure that Democrats had accepted that tax hikes were never going to happen, and were going to start making concessions to Republicans without getting anything in return. But they got something, even if it wasn't much.
- Make no mistake, though. Republicans have won. Yes, there's a de facto tiny tax hike. But this locks in spending at essentially Sequester levels going forward. Federal government spending will continue its downward trajectory, just as conservatives have demanded. It's now clear that Democrats miscalculated horribly in 2011 when they figured that making defense cuts a prominent part of the Sequester would give Republicans a reason to come to the table. It turns out that there aren't as many Republicans hawks as we thought there were.
- On the bright side, though, we actually did get a reduction in Pentagon spending, at least in comparison to what it would have been. That seemed like a far-left pipe dream a few years ago, and it's a really good thing.
Given that we now have a Republican victory and an essentially austerian policy, let's keep that in mind when we see the results of the economy in the next few years. If the economy takes off soon, conservatives get a lot of credit. If it stays in the doldrums, they get a lot of the blame.
“Behaving Badly” U.S. Cities
ReplyDeleteWhat do most of these ailing cities all have in common? Well, consider that the vast majority are located in states with forced unions, non-right-to-work states.
"Right-to-work laws attract people and businesses," says labor economist Richard Vedder of Ohio University. "Non-right-to-work states repel them." His statistics show that cities in states with right-to-work laws have sturdier tax bases and higher employment levels.
Unions control state legislatures and city halls in non-right-to-work states, so it can become politically paralyzing to try to fix the problem of runaway labor costs.
Another common trait of financially troubled cities: years and years of liberal governance. A federal bailout would only reward cities for their own bad behavior. But that won't stop the unions from trying.
Losing support
ReplyDeleteThe President has had a bad year.
He is losing support from Blacks, from Women, from the Young voters who once thought he was the Messiah. His flagship program to help the uninsured (Obamacare) is rapidly losing support. Their are millions more uninsured today than the day Obamacare became law. Why is this? The simple answer is he is failing in almost every area of Government.
The Economy is slowly recovering but it has little to do with the $860 Billion Stimulus. The Debt grows by $ Billions of dollars daily.
The Unemployment number is stuck at 7% after dozens of proposed "Jobs Programs". The promised Immigration reform is still just a promise. He seems frustrated but foolishly puts all his eggs in Big Government solutions. He calls for more taxes as a solution to every problem as if taking money from consumers and giving it to Bureaucrats is a good thing. It defies the laws of economics. Consumers build strong economies, not Bureaucrats.
He was going to do so much and the reality is he has done more damage than good. We need to accept the fact that he is only part of the problem. The Senate is packed with Liberal yes men who willingly go along with every failure by blindly signing on. Several of these yes men are now scrambling to distance themselves from Obama and Obamacare. The Liberal Press deserves a D minus for not doing their job. Too late, the damage is done.
It will take every working tax payer, their children and their grandchildren to undue the damage done in the last five years.
We are part of the problem for believing this man (who we now know lied to us) and for voting for him twice.
Obama’s America II:
ReplyDeleteThe Supreme Court in its wisdom confirmed that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was constitutional because it’s just a little tax after all. Some said this was a surprising decision, but we knew it was a slam dunk because it supported the teetering USA with additional tax revenue and control of US, its ‘citizens’.
And this doesn’t even begin to cover the actual rulings by The Supreme Court nor does it mention the long list of legislative or executive affronts to ‘We the People’. It is no longer in the best interest of the now bloated and corrupt Empire to maintain the facade, the pretty red velvet curtain at the back of the stage is slowly being removed and the crumbling brick wall is exposed for all to see. It’s time to tighten our belts my fellow Americans because the elite are having trouble maintaining their year over year double digit increases in wealth while those at the bottom grow in numbers. As many are beginning to realize, the dismantling of the middle class has begun in earnest and the various branches of government are now obviously and blatantly rallying to protect and serve The Empire. This is accomplished using many brilliantly applied techniques such as bait and switch social programs for the masses, fear mongering for the weak willed and impressionable, Left-Wing propaganda, left/right ideological conflicts and that old standby, good old fashioned Lying. Who doesn’t love it when the President tries desperately to slop more lipstick on the pig and slap another coat of wet paint on a big fat 2700 page tax hike that we now know is “un-affordable” to most. Yes, we (all but Wall Street) are getting duped. We deserve it.
GAME OVER
ReplyDeleteAt some point, someone has to say “WHAT?” on the entire talk of the recovery.
Since 2009, we’ve been told that things have improved. The fact of the matter is that the improvement has been largely due to accounting tricks rather than any real change in reality.
Sure you can make unemployment look better by not counting people, you can claim the economy is growing by ignoring inflation, you can argue that inflation is low because you don’t count food or energy, but the reality is that all of these arguments are outright lies. Lies to keep the Beast from storming the Palace.
We are now five years into the “recovery.” The single and I mean SINGLE accomplishment from spending over $3 trillion has been the stock market going higher. This is a complete and total failure. Based on the business cycle alone, the economy should be roaring.
What does it say that we’ve spent this much money and accomplished so little?
The word is FAILURE.
The media is lying about the economy. They have been for years.
And yet alleged “adults” continue to believe this stuff. Is it mass delusion or are people really willing to believe a lie rather than what their own eyes tell them?
If your dentist told you, “oh your teeth are fine” does that make your toothache go away? Nope. But for some reason people listen to the Fed and media make absurd proclamations and no one says anything.
At some point, likely not too far in the future, the entire market will come crashing down. The Fed bet the republic that its misguided theories would play out. This is what happens when you entrust academics with ZERO banking and business experience (those who have never made loans, managed portfolios, hired or fired people, made payroll, etc.) decide how the economy should operate.
When this happens it’s GAME OVER. There will be nothing the Fed can do.
CBO Director: Obamacare ‘Creates a Disincentive for People to Work’
ReplyDeleteTestifying before the House Budget Committee yesterday, Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf said of Obamacare,
“The act creates a disincentive for people to work.” He declared, “By providing heavily subsidized health insurance to people with very low income and then withdrawing those subsidies as income rises, the act creates a disincentive for people to work—relative to what would have been the case in the absence of that act.”
Elmendorf, a Democrat, tried to claim that these people who would “have less of an incentive to work” would be “better off.”
Better off? Inducing the person not to work who’s on the low-income scale, not to get on the ladder of life, to begin working, getting the dignity of work, getting more opportunities, raising their income, joining the middle class, this means fewer people will do that. The Democrats strategy for the 2014 mid-terms seems to be much clearer now. Add as many people to the “dependent class” as possible. It’s no secret that anyone getting a check or a subsidy of some kind from the Government will vote for Democrats. It’s a job killing deficit growing plan that ignores what is good for America.
Obama doesn't like much of Obamacare
ReplyDeleteHe pleads with Americans to like it; he lies about it to convince us that it’s great, yet,,,. Slowly but surely President Obama is unwinding, rolling back, and even cancelling his very own Obamacare. A couple of years ago he told Republicans not to mess with his plan. He said he’d veto any changes. But now, in substantial ways, he’s messing with his own plan. He’s doing what Republicans asked him to do in a way that is very likely to be un-Constitutional. He could have gone to the Congress and asked for a vote on the changes but his ego got in the way. They would have welcomed changes to the harmful sections of the law. His changes are nothing more than delaying the harm for the days AFTER THE ELECTION. It's bad for America so we'll save the bad for when it doesn't hurt Democrats who have to stand in front of voters and try to explain the reasons why their President (and themselves) lied to them.