Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
Photo by shannonpatrick17
First we were told we had to pass the stimulus bill because if we didn’t unemployment would rise to 9%. The good news was that there were hundreds of shovel ready project raring to go. Later we learned that “shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected.” $800 billion dollars of squandered stimulus dollars later, unemployment is at 9%. But what about a real shovel ready project that doesn’t need taxpayer dollars?
Actual Unemployment vs. Stimulus Sales Pitch
It was a very close race, one of the last decided in the country. Out of 180,000 plus votes the final margin of victory was just under 600 votes. In that election Tim Bishop successfully managed to hide from his record and instead he took advantage of a late Republican primary that was hotly contested and pounced with a campaign of personal attacks on his opponent that was just enough to carry the eight weeks until Election Day. His opponent, Randy Altschuler, wants a rematch and it appears the race will be decidedly different.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. – Unknown (often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville)
An article in The Hill newspaper titled “Teachers union expands playing field for midterms” describes how the teachers’ union is getting out supporting certain candidates.
Who would you trust to better invest a million dollars in the economy, Bill Gates or Joe Biden? Do the richest people in America bury their money in a pit in their back yard or do they either spend it or invest it? Are taxes cuts where the American people give less of the wealth they created to the government or is it where the government gives money to the American people?
If you are like the overwhelming majority of Americans you would answer those questions as follows: Bill Gates; spend or invest it; give less to the government. But the Obama administration and their acolytes live in an alternate reality where Joe Biden, who President Obama put in charge of watching carefully how the stimulus money was spent because “nobody messes with Joe,” is in charge of spending $700+ billion; where they think nothing good happens from the most productive people in the economy when they have more resources to work with; where all money belongs to the government and the government gets to decide who and how much we can keep.
By excluding “the rich” from any tax cuts because we “can’t afford to give the rich a $700 billion tax cut”, this administration is saying that by giving Joe Biden $700 billion he will spend it in such a spectacular way that the economy will be humming before Recovery Summer has ended. We are still waiting.
What happens if Bill Gates has an extra million? I could see three things. One, he spends it. Although he is not known to be an extravagant spender like his competitor Larry Ellison, I understand that Mr. Gates lives in a very nice state of the art house. He may choose to upgrade it. That will probably involve architects, engineers, general contractors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, laborers, and on and on. In other words, jobs. Isn’t that we need now? How many stimulus projects are there that have sucked up money but created no jobs? (If you are struggling with that question go to www.recovery.gov and sample some of the projects) Two, he could invest it. He might fund a start-up which would again create jobs. If the start up was successful, he might buy it outright which would put money back in the hands of the entrepreneurs who started the company and perhaps they would start another. More jobs, more spending, a growing economy. Three, he may put the money in his charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That is a charity that does good things, but with a difference. Because it is a charity not a government program, there will be people watching how the money is spent with the discretion to modify the program if it gets off track. Government programs are built upon rules. If a crook gets a copy of the rulebook, he can rip off the program until someone gets around to re-writing the rules. In the meantime it is ka-ching for the crook.
The incumbents in government believe that tax revenues are their money and tax cuts are gifts from the government to the people. Taxes are what we the people give to the government. We need to starve the beast and put it back in its cage. Government is trying to run every aspect of our lives. This country was founded because a tone deaf government was taxing America to the eyeballs. It is that time again. We should make the Bush tax cuts permanent now and clean house in November.
There was a commercial not too long ago where a young man looked out his window to the village green where a bundle of money had just fallen. He calls his wife/girlfriend over to show her. She suggests running down and getting it, but he says, no, let’s wait. Next you see a frizzy headed guy down on the green who screams, “MONEY!!!!” In seconds, people came out of the woodwork and scoffed up all the money while the young couple looked on.
The image of that commercial popped into my head as I considered the job summit being led by President Obama. To me, the young couple represented the government pondering how to direct the economy to achieve this specific goal or that. The mob on the green was the free market. While the government dithers over what kind of legislation to write, which special interest groups to pay off to pass it, how to develop incentives to get private industry to do this or that, if they would just cut taxes and get out of the way, the free market would get to work creating jobs where they are needed, not where some bureaucrat thinks they should go.
Uncertainty
The biggest cloud overhanging this economy is uncertainty. The Obama administration is slamming through enormous changes: a $787 billion Porkulus package, cap and trade, health care. Businesses look at this combined with the accumulation of massive government debt, tax increases rather than cuts (yes letting the Bush tax cuts expire is a tax increase, not just the expiration of tax cuts as Speaker Pelosi tries to spin it) and they don’t know what hiring that extra employee is going to cost, let alone what it will cost to keep the employees they already have. So they don’t hire until the dust settles and they can calculate the impact.
“Tax incentives for job creation are “worthy of further consideration,” he said, while adding that the administration is also set on making a big push in the area of green jobs.” – President Obama at Jobs Summit
“Worthy of further consideration”? Since conservatives have been calling for tax cuts for a year now, this kind of statement in Obama-ese translates thusly, “I have to make a nod to the right, to acknowledge that I heard them, but it ain’t happening.” Couple that with the “big push in the area of green jobs.” We are in the midst of the scientific scandal that the “settled science” of man-made global warming could be the greatest hoax since Bernie Madoff, and Obama wants a big push in the area of green jobs. What if that area collapses because the urgency that Al Gore has been screaming about is no longer urgent? It’s government planning on the order of Soviet five-year plans or Mao’s Great Leap Forward programs. It harkens back to Jimmy Carter’s giant Synfuels project that was going to convert coal into oil, until oil prices fell and the project imploded, but not before billions of tax dollars were poured into that rat hole.
How Simulating!
If you listen to Joe Biden, the stimulus plan is working better than expected. But let’s take a closer look. As of about three weeks ago only $120 billion of the stimulus money had been spent. (So why is Congress looking at another stimulus with over $600 billion left to spend in the first one?) Of that money, 80% went to the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor. What about all the “shovel ready” projects? Only about $4 billion has gone to the Department of Transportation. Feel better?
Jobs Summit Attendees
So who is meeting with President Obama at the jobs summit? Well first let’s look at who was not invited:
I don’t know about you, but I think they might have an idea or two about how to create conditions that let the free market create jobs. As for the attendees:
How many jobs do unions create, not occupy, create? Think of the auto industry, steel industry, public K-12 education, the Postal Service, and government in general. Do they bring images of thriving, vibrant, engines of job creation? Or is the image more of the basket cases of the U.S. economy? This is not a slight against the union workers themselves, but rather of their leadership who create so many restrictions on job rules to artificially create the need for more jobs. There motto is: why have three people do the work, when you have five do it?
As far as big business is concerned, let me dispel the thought that conservatives and big business go hand in hand. In many cases big business looks to cut deals with the government to protect their industries and markets from upstart companies. They have gotten big and lethargic, rather than nimble and vibrant. Small businesses create about 80% of the jobs in the U.S. and they didn’t have a seat at the table.
So was the jobs summit about creating jobs or just jive talk? If you want a real jobs summit see what American Solutions was hosting in Cincinnati, Ohio and Jackson, Mississippi. They actually discussed ideas that would work.
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, entitled, “What You Might Not Know About the Recovery,” that might more appropriately be entitled, “What I Don’t Know About the Recovery,” Joe Biden educates us on the stimulus. It’s typical after the fact political obfuscation to try to convince people that they are not really seeing what they see with their own two eyes.
He begins in typical fashion going back to when he and Barack Obama took office, but avoids mentioning President Bush by name:
We still have a long way to go, but clearly we are closer to recovery today than we were in January.
This is a true statement, but I would argue that this is in spite of the $787 billion of our money squandered on the stimulus plan, while Mr. Biden says it is because of it. It is instructive to see how someone begins their defense of an issue and Mr. Biden begins by saying that not all of our $787 billion is being spent on pork barrel projects.
Notwithstanding this progress, the nature of the Recovery Act remains misunderstood by many, and misconstrued by others: critics have suggested that the entire $787 billion is being spent on pet programs. As the person leading the administration’s efforts to put the Recovery Act into effect, I want to set the record straight.
He takes up the position that the statists typically do, that we are too stupid to understand. This is complex stuff, America, way over your head. You need us in the political class to take care of this for you. Notice he didn’t say there was no pork barrel spending. He says that not the entire $787 billion is being spent on pet projects. (Don’t forget the $30 million for Nancy Pelosi’s salt marsh harvest mouse). Feel better?
Tax Cuts?
He says the single largest part of the recovery act is tax cuts, more than one third. Huh? Does he mean the $8 per week in lower payroll taxes? That’s going to stimulate the economy? At the same time they are finding trillions, TRILLIONS, in new taxes and spending through Cap and Trade, Heath Care reform, allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, that will dwarf the paltry $8 per week that people are probably saving, rather than spending, if they even notice it at all.
Transfer Payments
The second largest chunk, Mr. Biden tells us, is for transfer payments. In other words, money from the federal government given to state and local governments. Where do all governments get their money from? Us. So taking our money in federal taxes and giving it to state and local governments helps us exactly how? Don’t forget the portion of each dollar that gets lost along the way as each bureaucracy handles it.
What are these transfer payments going to be used for? Uncle Joe tells us:
The money is allowing state governments to avoid laying off teachers (14,000 in New York City alone), firefighters and police officers and preventing states’ budget gaps from growing wider.
The dictionary defines recovery as returning to health, consciousness, etc. This part of the stimulus does nothing to stimulate the economy. It’s another one of the Obama administration’s wonderful fictions about saving jobs. As the economy continues to shed jobs even above the level that the Obama administration told us it would go without the stimulus Biden boasts that they saved the jobs of government workers; union workers; Democratic voters. Also it helps bloated state governments that have mismanaged their finances from having to make fiscally responsible decisions but keeping them fat, dumb, and happy. By the way, which states seems to be in the most financial trouble? California, New York, New Jersey, Michigan? Aren’t those all “blue” states? So is the Obama adminisitration helping America or helping themselves?
On Track?
Mr. Biden says that we are on track and that 25% of the funds have been committed. What exactly does that mean, committed? If you go to Recovery.gov, you will see that as of this week, only 8.5% of the money has actually been spent. Give Mr. Biden a calculator, please. With the three chunks that the Vice President says comprise the stimulus: tax cuts, transfer payments, and infrastructure projects, and that signs of recovery are due to the stimulus, how can the stimulus have that kind of affect when only 8.5% of the money has been spent?
The Resiliency of the American Economy
The American economy is the envy of the world. It is resilient beyond description. It is recovering on its own, despite government interference, and the government meddling that caused this recession. The American people are no longer being fooled by the smooth talking Barack and Joe Show. A Rasmussen poll shows that only 25% of the American people believe that the stimulus has helped the economy. If that’s not bad enough 31% say that the stimulus has actually hurt the economy. On top of that 45% say the rest of the stimulus should be cancelled.
The Stupid American People
With 92% of the stimulus yet to be spent 9% more Americans say cancel the rest than say to keep going. So Mr. Biden grabs the op-ed page of the New York Times to, sigh, lecture the American people once again on how they misunderstand, and misconstrue what your benevolent, socialist leaning government is trying to do for you. How ungrateful can you be? If you people don’t get it, then the president and vice president will just have to take over the rest of the economy and set you all straight. They will tell you how much you can earn, what cars to buy, what food to eat, what kind of light bulbs to put in your house, control how much energy you can use in your house through the smart grid, what medical treatment you can have, and when you have to die.
The Sleeping Giant Awakes
The American people have been charmed by Barack Obama as he is a very charming man. He is an historic president. But they are starting to notice the tea parties, the abdication of the main stream media to do their job, the warnings about what is happening to their country and they are starting to pay attention. The more they see and hear the more Obama’s approval ratings drop. So he pushes harder and faster. It will be a close race to see if President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can ram through their agenda and slam the door behind them, or if we can wrestle back control of our liberties and send these people packing.
It’s time to brush off the Constitution, read the 10th amendment, and start stripping the federal government back down to the size the founders envisioned. That will give more power to the states and the people and make government more accountable. Face it, when your Congressman represents several hundred thousand constituents and their voice is only one of 435 in the House of Representatives, is it any wonder that the founders gave them only the powers spelled out in the Constitution. They believed that effective government has to be responsive to the people. That is impossible in Washington. It is too big. It is run by too many unelected career bureaucrats. It has too much power to tax us, regulate us, spend our tax dollars on things to which we are morally opposed, and interfere with our liberties.
This is a critical time in our history and time to roll back the unrelenting growth of government and shrink it down to size.
Baby's Not Happy About the Stimulus Bill She's Stuck With
The colorful brochure arrived in the mail today titled, “Fighting For Long Island.” In it Congressman Tim Bishop extols the virtues of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and how much bacon he brought home for the district. Inside the folder is a map of the 1st Congressional District with callout balloons showing all the locations where stimulus money will land. On first blush one is tempted to think, good job Congressman! But then I reached for the calculator.
By the Numbers
If you take the $787 billion and divide it by the 535 members of Congress (425 Congressman and 100 Senators) the stimulus bill works out to $1.47 billion per member. That’s a lot of dough. I then took out my calculator and tallied up all the monies on the map that “CONGRESSMAN TIM BISHOP Delivers Economic Recovery Funds To Long Island.” Just to be sure, I checked my numbers three times and the projects added up to $274 million. That’s not good. That means that our Congressman brought home less than 19% of his share, which means that a lot more backslapping members of Congress got more than their share. Throw into the mix that every Republican voted against the bill and probably were not considered too kindly on the receiving end, then we really got short changed.
Money In vs. Money Out
Although there are many people who like to believe that Uncle Sam is really some independently wealthy tycoon who showers his nieces and nephews with his largess, the sad reality is that the money all comes from us. So I wondered how much do we send to the Treasury?
The federal government does a pretty good job of concealing how taxes are broken down by congressional district, which is understandable as accountability at election time can be problematic. In 2004 the First Congressional District in New York ranked 60th in the nation in average income tax liability per tax return, at $8,310 per return. What percentile is that? Let’s see 60 out of 435 comes out to be about the 14th percentile, well above the midpoint. How much stimulus did our esteemed representative bring home? Somewhere around the 81st percentile well below the midpoint. So the bottom line is that our Congressman voted to have his constituents pay a very large share of stimulus money that will go to every other part of the country, while we spend years working off the debt. Brilliant!
Historically, New York gets about $0.79 from the federal government for every $1 that New Yorkers pay in taxes. So why do New Yorkers keep overwhelmingly electing Democrats to Congress who love to increase taxes that ultimately end up being sent to other states? Who are they working for (perhaps themselves)?
The Stimulus Was Really About Jobs
So let’s not get bogged down in costs when it’s jobs we’re really talking about. After all, passing the stimulus would keep the unemployment rate at 8% instead of 9% without it. Oops, it’s already at 9.5% and climbing.
Of all the projects identified on the map of the district, one had an actual figure, in bold, stating that it would create 1,000 jobs. That’s a nice figure, but let’s put it in perspective. There are about 233,000 people employed in the district. At a 9.5% unemployment rate that would mean about 22,135 jobs have been lost in this recession. So creating 1,000 jobs equates to about 0.4% employment. The particular project that was identifed with creating these 1,000 jobs was getting $184.3 million in stimulus money or two-thirds of all the stimulus in the district. That works out to us spending $187,300 per job created. Call me a conservative, but somehow I think that if we cut taxes by $184.3 million we would create a lot more than 1,000 jobs. But what we will have to do is raise taxes to cover the $184.3 million that we are spending to create these jobs which will probably turn right around and kill them or an equivalent number.
What Federalism Means to Me
Here is a “top ten” list of stimulus projects compiled by Senator Tom Coburn [R-OK]:
Now if someone in Florida (No. 5) want to spend $3.4 million for a wildlife “eco-passage” (i.e., roadway tunnel for turtles) project, fine. The good people of Florida can pay for it. If the people of John Murtha’s district want to spend $800,000 (No. 4) to repave a backup runway in Johnstown, fine. Let those folks pay for it.
If it doesn’t cross a state line, or have a benefit for ALL Americans, it’s not the federal government’s business. That is my litmus test for federalism. There is nothing more idiotic than having me pay for your project while you pay for mine. Because it comes down to a perpetual power grab where those who stay in the government the longest get everyone to pay for their projects (so their constituents will re-elect them) and everyone else gets the bill. Just ask yourself how many federal functions have been moved to West Virginia (Robert Byrd 50+ years in the Senate). How much pork goes in to John Murtha’s district (38 years in Congress).
Spinning it for All it’s Worth
So look for the brightly colored brochure from your Congressman crowing about how many stimulus dollars they brought home, but just remember, if your Congressman hasn’t been serving for 20 years, he or she probably got fleeced and you got screwed. Enjoy holding the bag.
Obama's Sales Pitch for the Stimulus Bill
The latest unemployment numbers are in and you can forgive the fervent Obama supporters for having buyer’s remorse. The main stream media, that he holds in the palm of his hand, is playing down the darkening employment picture, focusing instead on the silver lining that it’s getting worse at a slower rate. The jobless rate hit the highest level it has been since February 1983, hitting 9.4%. The good news is that we only lost 345,000 jobs last month. Here is how the spin-master puts lipstick on this pig, or should I say, pork?
“In these last few months, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved or created nearly 150,000 jobs,” Obama said, touting spending on alternative energy, keeping teachers and police officers in work and small businesses. — Las Vegas, May 27, 2009
There is one small problem with this statement as pointed out by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal
As my former White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto points out on his blog, the Labor Department does not and cannot collect data on “jobs saved.” So the Obama administration is asking that we accept its “clairvoyant ability to estimate,” and the White House press corps has let Mr. Obama’s ludicrous claim go virtually unchallenged.
So if the Labor Department, the keeper of the unemployment statistics, cannot collect data on jobs saved, where does President Obama get his figure that he saved 150,000 jobs? We can only assume it is an outright fabrication, unless he can tell us otherwise. Will we start hearing a chant “Obama lied, our future died”? Not likely from the obsequious press.
Buyer’s Remorse
In pressing for his pork filled stimulus package, Obama insisted that it was necessary, it was needed immediately, if not sooner, and if we didn’t do it, it would turn crisis into catastrophe. I direct your attention to the graph above. This graph was included in the stimulus package to point out that in the absence of the stimulus package the unemployment rate would rise to 9% by the middle of 2010. However, get behind the stimulus plan and voila, the unemployment will top out at a mere 8% in the third quarter of 2009 and you get all of this for a mere $787 billion.
As conservatives pointed out at the time this made no sense, since the bulk of the stimulus spending, chock full of pork, would not be spent until 2011 and beyond. As of today, less than 10% of the money has been spent, and the unemployment rate has past both the peak Obama sold to the American people, as well as what he predicted would happen without the stimulus.
Of course the statists will roll out their tired old argument that it wasn’t enough. With every government program that fails they always tell us we didn’t spend enough…if we only spent enough…
Look back to February 1983, the last time the unemployment rate was this high, and what we see is Ronald Reagan in charge. His solution was to cut taxes, cut spending, and reduce the size of government. Today, President Obama’s plan is just the opposite. It is to raise taxes on the most productive among us, spend our money like it has never been spent before, grow government without bound, and lay the burden of paying for it on generations to come. We do know this, Reagan’s plan worked, ushering in the longest peacetime expansion in history. Are we to believe that doing the exact opposite will also work, or work even better?
The slowing of the job losses and the advance of the stock market foretell that our economy is starting to turn of its own accord, as little of the stimulus has taken effect. Conservatives said to get out of the way, reduce the tax burden and the economy will recover on its own. The statists said no, now is the time to advance our agenda and our power grab. Take advantage of the crisis.
Interest rates are starting to climb as massive government borrowing crowds out private borrowing. The flooding of dollars into the economy is starting trigger inflation as can be seen in the increase in oil prices. With Reagan, the best was yet to come, since Obama has chosen the exact opposite path, we can only fear for the future, when his programs take full effect. As can be seen by the chart above, their plan is already way off course and with the massive inexperience of Obama and his team, how much confidence do you have that they can find their way back?
Frank Schaeffer writes in the Huffington Post, under the headline Republicans: “Go To Hell America”, 100% Partisan Vote”, about the vote on the so-called stimulus package. As Shakespeare said, “Me thinks he doth protest too much.” In actuality it was a bi-partisan vote, bi-partisan against the stimulus package.
Stimulus?
As more details about this pork-a-palooza come out the American people grow more concerned and less supportive as evidenced by a recent Rasmussen poll with support slipping from 45% to 42% and opposition growing from 34% to 39% with 19% undecided. Which means that 3% moved from the support column and 2% from the undecided column into the opposition column. In other words, more people supported John McCain than support this package, and McCain lost.
So why is Frank Schaeffer on the verge of having a stroke over this? When you look more closely it’s pretty clear. By all Republicans voting against the measure, they did not give the Democrats the fig leaf they were looking for. If this is truly a stimulus package and if the Democrats need no Republican votes to pass it, then pass it and take all the credit when the economy rockets to life. The dirty little secret is that the Democrats really don’t believe this is a stimulus package at all.
The Big Payoff
The purpose of this package is to help the Democrats to consolidate power. It begins by paying back those who supported them. Why else is there money in the package for Hollywood, family planning, teacher’s unions, massive transfers of money from the federal to the state governments? The “tax stimulus” of about $10 per week, is aimed at those who pay little to no income taxes. “If I give you a check for nothing today, will you give me your vote in 2010?” They are pushing to reach that tipping point where the majority of voters pay no income tax and maybe even get checks from the government. Once that magical 50% line is crossed look out. By having majority rule, they can then jack up the tax rates on “the rich” to astronomical levels, and there is little that can be done about it short of another revolution. Remember those famous words, “Taxation without Representation”? And why should it matter to rich Democrats, since they don’t pay the taxes they owe anyway (Rangel, Daschle, Geithner).
The Republicans could have done a great thing for their party and the country: sent a message to the world — we stand together! Imagine the impact on tomorrow’s stock market, and our enemy’s view of America and our standing in the world if instead of a partisan Republican “NO” vote the backing of the recovery plan had been unanimous approval! — Schaeffer
Sorry, comrade, it’s time for Mr. Schaeffer to get a reality check. First of all that was a bipartisan NO! Second, the stock market has fallen 1,600 points since Obama was elected. That’s not exactly a vote of confidence from the financial markets. Look, the measure passed. If it is a truly good stimulus package the stock market should rise on that alone. Does he think Wall Street cares whose vote is in which column? Please!
The Republicans might have then shared the credit, even won a few elections in the future. Now their fate is sealed. Obama will succeed. America won’t forget who to thank. — Schaeffer
You would think that Mr. Schaeffer was born yesterday. This package was put together by President, I mean, Speaker Pelosi. She gave the back of her hand to the Republicans. They had no role to play in putting this package together, so let’s put the bipartisan rhetoric back in the museum case where it belongs. President Obama’s dinner with conservative writers, his cocktail parties, his Capital Hill meetings with Republicans were all just PR and window dressing if they have no input on the legislation. When asked if the package was bipartisan, Speaker Pelosi said that depends on how the Republicans vote. In other words, if they vote for what we are trying to cram down their throats, its bipartisan, if not, well just call on Frank Schaeffer to scream FOUL!
If he wants a true stimulus package, cut the pork, cut the unnecessary spending, eliminate the capital gains tax and cut tax rates, not give out $10 per week that will barely buy a pizza. If you want to build a serious stimulus package, I am sure the Republicans would stand ready to work with President Obama, but it’s time for President Obama to realize that he’s the one with the 70% approval rating not Nancy Pelosi, whose Congress has approval ratings in the single digits. He should take the lead not follow hers. But for now someone has to watch the American people’s backs and their wallets, and that, my friends, are the conservative Republicans.
