Budget

Americans for Tax Reform - Barack Obama - Budget - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Grover Norquist - House of Representatives - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Policy - President - Progressives - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Norquist: Obama’s Failed Fiscal Cliff Ideas Like a ‘Seinfeld Episode Where No Learning Takes Place’

December 5, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Grover Norquist worries that Obama is like a bad episode of Seinfeld and might prove unable to learn from his past mistakes pushing us over the fiscal cliff whether we like it or not.

This is what Norquist, chief of Americans for Tax Reform — evangelist for the no-tax pledge that so many Republicans have signed — said in an intimate conversation today during which he laid out some ideas on how to push this debate back in our direction.

In a call with only a few conservative bloggers, Norquist laid out the problems we are facing and then went into some of the specifics, the ins and outs of negotiations, and laid out one idea that could help better inform Americans on just what the heck is going on in this debate.

The first thing of interest the ATR chief said was that we should avoid a grand budget bargain that settles everything at once. Instead, Norquist argued to continue the process of having repeated continuing resolutions. Over the last several years, instead of having a full budget passed by Congress, the House has been making do with short-term budgets called continuing resolutions (CR). These CRs fund the government for months or even weeks instead of a full fiscal year.

For his part, Norquist felt that we’ve gotten far better deals and advanced the spending cut/tax cut ball much further with the CRs than we ever could with a single, year-long budget. He also noted that the GOP had a huge amount of power by having control over the debt ceiling and would be stupid to allow the president to take that from them as he’s proposed doing.
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Norquist: Obama’s Failed Fiscal Cliff Ideas Like a ‘Seinfeld Episode Where No Learning Takes Place’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - President - Progressives - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Just Realized Progressives Have Gripes About Obama

December 5, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now that Barack Obama has been successfully re-elected, The Politico has miraculously discovered that some progressives are not exactly thrilled with the most left-wing president in American history. The lefties want more, says Politico. But, is this turn about really that sudden?

In a lengthy December 2 piece, Politico lays out the left-wing voices in the “progressive media” that have lately taken to criticizing the president for not leaning far enough to the left. If not criticizing, exactly, perhaps a more fitting word is they are “encouraging” Obama to take up the left-wing policies he’s given lip service to but not pushed too hard to implement.

The absurd aspect to Politico’s piece is that the Internet newser seems to think this criticism is all new. One has to wonder why Politico has paid no attention to the far left’s criticism until now? Perhaps Politico wanted to make it seem as if the left was united and had no qualms over Obama but now that he’s safely re-elected, it is Politico, rather than the far left, that finds it is safe to criticize the president?
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Politico Just Realized Progressives Have Gripes About Obama”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP’s False Claim That ‘Some’ Democrats Open to Entitlement Cuts

December 4, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a November 28 article, the Associated Press tried to give cover to Democrats by insisting that they are somehow divided over cuts in entitlements to help solve the “fiscal cliff” problem. But the truth is, Democrats are united against these cuts, not divided.

In its piece headlined, “It’s Not Just Taxes: Benefit Cuts Divide Democrats,” the AP attempted to demonstrate a “division” that doesn’t exist by citing two Democrats that meekly offered to consider cuts to entitlements.

It’s not just about taxes. There’s another big obstacle to overcome as Congress and President Barack Obama work to skirt the fiscal cliff: deep divisions among Senate Democrats over whether to consider cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

This is flat out absurd. There are no deep divisions among Democrats over cuts to these programs. In fact, just the opposite.

This tall tale goes on to present the weak claims of “considering” cuts to these programs uttered by Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) and Kent Conrad (D, N.D.). But one, Conrad, is retiring and the other has no support from his fellows — especially Democrat leadership — for the idea.
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AP’s False Claim That ‘Some’ Democrats Open to Entitlement Cuts”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Media Ignores Obama Admin’s Effort to Define ‘Poverty’ Upward

December 3, 2012 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mickey Kaus has alerted readers to a change in the way the federal government figures the poverty line and that new way so alters the formula that we will never be able to show any improvement in rates of poverty going foward. Worse, the new formula stops measuring strict want and instead measures a more vague “inequality” of income.

The Obama administration has reinvented the poverty formula and is now calling it the “supplemental” poverty line.

“‘New’ is not necessarily ‘improved,'” Kaus dourly notes.

As Kaus explains, the old formula was based on, “the level that bought a minimal market basket of food in 1963-4, adjusted for subsequent inflation and multiplied by three.” The goal was to measure what level of income could afford basic survivability in the current economy, giving a base line of income that could meet basic human needs.

But the new formula is more complicated and “deceptive” to boot.
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Media Ignores Obama Admin’s Effort to Define ‘Poverty’ Upward”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Insulting Fiscal Cliff Proposal Lauded as ‘Strategic Move’

December 3, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

“Insulting.” That is what conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer termed Obama’s “plan” to prevent the federal government from falling over the fiscal cliff. But to the Old Media establishment, Obama’s insulting plan lacking in specifics was a brilliant “strategic move” that will force Republicans to “offer a counter proposal,” despite the fact that, going back to Paul Ryan’s Road Map, the GOP is the only side offering many specifics in this debate thus far.

Before Election Day, President Obama made vague comments about implementing 2.5 dollars in cuts for every dollar of spending increases, but he never really clarified what that meant in real terms, never saying exactly what he would cut. But at least before the election he gave lip service to cuts. This week, though, now that he is safely re-elected, he sent Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the GOP leadership to offer a plan that had no specifics, no cuts, and huge spending hikes.

Even more idiotic, Obama wants another stimulus of $50 billion!
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Obama’s Insulting Fiscal Cliff Proposal Lauded as ‘Strategic Move’”

Budget - CNN - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Policy - Progressives - Regulation - Taxes - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

CNN: Now Pushing for a Gas Tax Hike

December 2, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Talks between the White House and GOP leaders in the House of Representatives are on everyone’s mind and solutions and ideas are coming fast and thick from many corners of Washington. But CNN thinks it has the way to fix it all: raise the gas tax.

Dishonestly portraying “some experts” as offering a new fix to the fiscal cliff, CNN explored the idea of hiking the federal gas tax because, CNN says, the current 18.4 cents per gallon is “not enough.”

“As lawmakers race to negotiate a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff,” CNN urgently reports, “some experts say one tax increase should be on the table: a gas tax hike.”
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CNN: Now Pushing for a Gas Tax Hike”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - Jobs - Keynesian - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Republicans - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Utah - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’

December 1, 2012 by

Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) delivered the GOP weekly address and it was a damn good one.

He pulled no punches and laid it out straight that Obama lied when he ran for re-election and perpetrated a “classic bait and switch” maneuver.

Transcript:

“Hi. I’m Senator Orrin Hatch from the great state of Utah.

“The holiday season is upon us: a time when families come together to celebrate and reflect on another year gone by—and another one set to begin.

“But this holiday season is different: as the clock ticks down towards the New Year, nearly every single American is facing the real prospect of what’s called the Fiscal Cliff.

“If we don’t act by the end of the year, 28 million more families and individuals will be forced to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax, 21 times as many farmers and ranchers will be hit with the death tax, and the average middle-class family would see their taxes go up by at least $2,000.

“Economic leaders have told us that if we don’t act, our nation will fall into another painful recession—pushing unemployment back up over 9 percent, threatening our children’s ability to get a good paying job, and putting seniors’ retirements at risk.

“The President has said he wants a so-called balanced approach to solve this crisis. But what he proposed this week was a classic bait and switch on the American people—a tax increase double the size of what he campaigned on, billions of dollars in new stimulus spending and an unlimited, unchecked authority to borrow from the Chinese. Maybe I missed it but I don’t recall him asking for any of that during the presidential campaign. These ideas are so radical that they have already been rejected on a bipartisan basis by Congress.

“Fresh off his reelection, the President has an obligation to first steer us away from the fiscal cliff, and second, to tackle our $16-plus trillion debt, that is driven by our runaway entitlement programs, so our country doesn’t reach this dangerous crossroads ever again.

“But we’ve seen an utter lack of leadership from President Obama, and his allies on the left have shown little—very little—to no willingness to tackle real, structural entitlement reform. There is no manner of tax hike that can save Medicare or Medicaid—these programs can only be fixed with real reforms that go to the heart of how they work.

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Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’”

Associated Press - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Government - Journalism - Media - Nanny State - Progressives - Regulation - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Stupidity: Govt. Says Unemployment Compensation CREATES Jobs!

December 1, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is why no one in government lives in the real world. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said this week that extending unemployment creates jobs Good lord, if these idiots truly believe this garbage, we need to nuke Washington D.C.!

The AP is reporting that the CBO is saying that extending unemployment for another year will “add 300,000 jobs to the economy.”

Naturally, the left-wing idiots we call Democrats think this is all great.
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Stupidity: Govt. Says Unemployment Compensation CREATES Jobs!”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Nanny State - Newspapers - Policy - President - Progressives - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Hill: It’s The Spending, Stupid

December 1, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a very business-like manner The Hill published a report that ought to warm the hearts of all fiscally responsible Republicans and, perhaps, give hope that GOP Speaker John Boehner will hold to his pledges on taxes during theses fiscal cliff talks with the White House.

On November 28 The Hill reported that Speaker Boehner (R, OH) quickly shot down the tax balloon floated by Representative Tom Cole (R, OK) who recently proposed that the House go with Obama’s idea of passing an immediate extension of the current tax rates for the middle class.

As The Hill further notes, Boehner and the rest of the GOP House leadership are sticking with their own pledge to make sure any fiscal cliff solutions are tied to spending cuts.
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The Hill: It’s The Spending, Stupid”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - Policy - President - Progressives - Rights - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Economy Makes Criminals Out of Pennsylvania Family, Lose Their Children

November 30, 2012 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s unemployment rate is the worst continuously down trend seen since The Great Depression. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and, subsequently, lost their homes to foreclosure. One Pennsylvania family, faced with Obama’s destruction, tried to move to another state where they hoped to see a better life but instead of finding opportunity they had their children stolen from them by the state and were turned into criminals.

After losing their home to foreclosure, the Detjen family rented a moving truck, loaded their meager possessions on board, and decided to try and head west to greener pastures. Of course, the problem was that the tiny cab of the truck could not hold the couple and their seven children.

So, the Detjen’s bundled up five of their children in winter clothing and sat them in the cargo hold of the moving truck and then set out for California.

Some nosey citizen, however, called the jackboots on the Detjens because, as the law stands, having riders in the cargo hold of a moving truck is illegal.

Naturally, the cops swooped down on the Detjens as they plied one of Indiana’s highways on their way west. The couple’s belongings were impounded, the truck jacked to the police impound lot, and, naturally, their children were taken away from them by those oh-so-concerned drones from the department of Children and Family Services.

In that ages old American way, this beset upon family was trying desperately to start life anew by bundling up the family and moving to where they think might be greener pastures. But in this age of Obama, this family was instead turned them into criminals.
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Obama’s Economy Makes Criminals Out of Pennsylvania Family, Lose Their Children”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Medicaid - Medicare - Nanny State - Obamacare - President - Progressives - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP Touts ‘Non-Partisan’ Study Saying Obamacare Great for States

November 29, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press has done it again, pushing on readers a “study” by purported “nonpartisan” organizations that aren’t nonpartisan at all. This one claiming that Obamacare is a “good deal for states.”

The AP notes that this “report” by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute says that Obamacare is good for the states because it picks up the largest amount of healthcare costs through its Medicaid expansion.

Expanding Medicaid to cover about 20 million more low-income people will cost over $1 trillion nationally from 2013 to 2022, said the joint report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute. But the analysis found that states will pay just $76 billion of that, a combined share of roughly 7 percent. The feds will pay the other $952 billion.

But what of these two groups? Are they really “nonpartisan”?
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AP Touts ‘Non-Partisan’ Study Saying Obamacare Great for States”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Beware The Zombie Congress

November 28, 2012 by

Congress has reconvened for a “lame-duck” session, in which the walking dead (members who won’t return next year) have a post-mortem chance to leave their mark on the nation’s policy — a budget that never got passed, and an agreement on how to avoid the fiscal cliff and Taxmageddon, and several treaties awaiting ratification by the Senate.

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chuck Busch - Constitution - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Mitt Romney - President - Republicans - Taxes

Thanks Mitt

November 23, 2012 by

-By Chuck Busch

I want you to know that I greatly appreciate the effort and sacrifice you made in seeking the presidency. I have been a supporter of you since the 2008 election and always believed you had a lot to offer the people of this country. History took a strange turn in 2008 and it would seem that the country got started down a wrong path that will now take extraordinary efforts to reverse. In the final analysis we have to accept that God is still on the throne and he will use whatever circumstance for His redemptive purposes. If I didn’t believe that, we would all have reason for despair.

You were an excellent candidate and ran a superb campaign. It was encouraging to hear someone articulate sound economic and national policies as well as you did. I believe you and Paul Ryan won the debate season hands down with factual and sensible proposals delivered in a confident and professional manner. As you reflect on the last year’s whirlwind events, please do not second-guess your message of limited government or think that you could have done anything different to affect the outcome. The Republican Party should make no change to its 2012 platform or compromise on social, cultural and economic issues. The contrast between the “paths” of the two parties could have not been made clearer.
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Thanks Mitt”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Cap and Trade - Capitalism - Climate Change - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Electric - Energy - Environment - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - Natural Gas - Oil - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Medium Protest Over XL Pipeline

November 20, 2012 by

-By CJ Ciaramella

[Ed. Note: These are the self-destructive lunatics we are facing with these enviro-Nazis, folks. They are highly organized and well funded and they win because the rest of us just sit on the sidelines and do nothing.]

Between 1,000 and 1,500 protesters streamed past the White House Sunday to demand President Barack Obama reject the Keystone XL Pipeline, the latest in a series of vocal demonstrations against the project.

“Hey Obama, we don’t want no climate drama,” the protesters chanted as they hoisted an inflatable mock pipeline above their heads in front of the executive mansion.

The pipeline project would stretch across eight states, running from the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.

“This is the first fight in a long time that got the environmentalists out in the street and we’re gonna stay there,” author Bill McKibben told the crowd at a post-march rally.

Environmentalists say the pipeline would be a “game over” moment in their fight against climate change should it be approved…

Read the rest at The Washington Free Beacon.

Banks - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New Jersey - Newspapers - Progressives - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Washington Post Softens Criminal Actions of Dem. Corzine in MF Global Fraud

November 19, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In its November 15 print version, The Washington Post published a story about the criminal financial malfeasance of former Democrat Governor and MF Global Chief John Corzine. But, the Post seemed to have trouble properly identifying Corzine as a Democrat not to mention that it buried the story deep in the paper.

Corzine was the subject of a report this week issued by the House Financial Services’s oversight subcommittee that, while it stopped short of calling Corzine’s actions outright felonies (the committee is leaving that determination to prosecutors), the report raised deep concerns about the magical disappearance of $1.6 billion in investor’s money.

If Corzine were a Republican, who doesn’t believe that The Washington Post would have made sure that the story of the release of this report would have been front-page news? But, no, this story was buried back on page A18.
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Washington Post Softens Criminal Actions of Dem. Corzine in MF Global Fraud”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Obama’s Failed Recovery: This Graph Should Scare You

November 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is something one wishes the Washington Post bothered to tell us before the election, but, yes, the chart below proves that Obama has utterly failed to aid in our economic recovery.


Click on chart to see more

In other words, you’re not imagining it: This economic recovery has been a big disappointment relative to what the United States has usually experienced after a recession. Growth has been 9 percent below what was seen in past recoveries on average in its first three years. The CBO report tries to disentangle where that underperformance is coming from and its answer is deeply unsettling: The U.S. economy just isn’t as good at growing as it used to be…

Read the rest at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.
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Obama’s Failed Recovery: This Graph Should Scare You”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - NBC - President - Progressives - Taxes - TV - Warner Todd Huston

NBC: Obama is ‘Genial’ Republicans Still Meanies

November 18, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Old Media has found its narrative for Obama’s first press conference since March and the first since his re-election and that narrative can be boiled down simply to this: Obama helpfully Reaching Out, Republicans still mean as snakes.

After the presser was through, several Old Media outlets — one being Reuters — set the tone with a positive spin for Obama and a negative one for Republicans. NBC also followed this Old Media template.

In the hours after the presser ended, NBC News filed a series of reports that portrayed Obama in a positive light. One report saw NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd gushing over the President’s appearance.

“It was a loose, confident, and at times aggressive President Obama….He even extended an olive branch and encouraged growing common ground between the two parties….he was genial and even reflective,” Todd said on Wednesday’s Nightly News.

Naturally, Todd found that the only thing that sullied Obama’s wonderful presser was the “negative comments” by a coterie of Republican Senators that held their own press conference that same day announcing their desire to investigate the disastrous Benghazi incident and confirming their resistance to any thought that UN Ambassador Susan Rice might become our next Secretary of State.
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NBC: Obama is ‘Genial’ Republicans Still Meanies”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Progressives - Regulation - Rights - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Today’s Stealth Tax Story

November 18, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the many drags about owning a home in the suburbs rears its ugly head around this time a year. Raking leaves is awful drudgery, everyone knows, and here in the middle of November, I’ve already put it off for several weeks longer than I should have. But as I was raking I realized that I was living a stealth tax imposed on me by my local government.

You know how it goes, I’m sure. Fall arrives and those millions, no billions, of those darn leaves fall from their proper places on your trees’ outstretched branches and in their magnanimity lay there for you to rake up and dispose of.

In many towns across America these nuisance leaves are raked into piles and a match is put to them. Homeowners simply burn them to get rid of them. But in many towns, there is a law against disposing of your yard waste by burning. My town is one of the latter.

So, what are you required to do if you can’t burn them? You must spend hours raking your leaves into piles and then you must stuff them into large paper bags that can be bought at local stores.

And there is the hidden tax. It is an “unfunded mandate,” if you will. You see, my city has forced me to waste my money buying these big paper bags and, worse, waste my time stuffing leaves into them.
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Today’s Stealth Tax Story”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - Policy - President - Progressives - Regulation - Taxes - Unemployment - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Foodstamps Surge to All Time High, Biggest One Month Growth Ever Recorded

November 13, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama administration has finally released its report on the number of Americans on foodstamps. This report was released nine days past its traditional release date and just coincidentally days after the election. Shockingly, those numbers show that Americans on foodstamps is at an all time high. Worse the report shows the highest one month jump ever.

You may recall that just before the election, the Obama administration announced that Hurricane Sandy was going to delay the release of October’s jobless numbers. Many watchers of politics were suspicious about the possible delay in the release of October’s unemployment figures since the proper release date was to come just before the presidential election. While the unemployment report was ultimately released on schedule and before the election, now we find out about another report, the foostamp report, delayed for nine days after its traditional release date. This report was also supposed to have been released before the election.

This report is devastating, so maybe we now know why it was delayed?
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Foodstamps Surge to All Time High, Biggest One Month Growth Ever Recorded”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Obamacare - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Papa John’s Pizza to Cut Worker’s Hours Due to Obamacare

November 12, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

John Schnatter, CEO of the Papa John’s pizza chain, has announced that now that President Obama has been re-elected and it is obvious that Obamacare is here to stay, he will likely be forced to cut back worker’s hours because of the cost of the federal government’s take over of our national healthcare.

Provisions of Obamacare state that workers that work 30 hours a week or more will be automatically considered full time and must then be included in their company’s healthcare insurance program. Common practice currently maintains that the eligibility threshold for health insurance is a 40-hour work week, so this will cost businesses exponentially more for workers that work over 30 hours a week. The higher cost associated with this change is forcing many businesses, especially those in the food service industry, to consider limiting workers to less than 30 hours a week.

In essence, implementation of Obamacare will cut the weekly take home pay of millions of low wage workers by forcing companies to cut worker’s hours.
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Papa John’s Pizza to Cut Worker’s Hours Due to Obamacare”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - NBC - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

CNBC: We’re Probably Headed to Another Recession… NOW They Tell Us?

November 9, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two days after the election, CNBC published a dour report on the economy. Shockingly, CNBC is predicting that the U.S. economy is likely headed for another recession.

CNBC so helpfully tells us that, now that the election is behind us, the light in our economic tunnel could be a “freight train.” Gee, it sure would have been nice to know that before the election, wouldn’t it?

Slowing corporate profits, the remnants of Superstorm Sandy and the ramifications of the “fiscal cliff” in Washington are expected to result in at least two quarters of slow or no growth that could make investing even trickier than it was during the ups and downs of 2012.

But that isn’t all. The bigger problem we are now told, is that the economy never achieved “escape velocity” in order to get past the low growth rate we have been experiencing.

The economy, CNBC says, never got to the point where we’ve had enough growth to withstand the sort of shocks that a Hurricane Sandy or a continued or renewed bad business climate would wreck upon it.

Obama didn’t fix a thing, it turns out.
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CNBC: We’re Probably Headed to Another Recession… NOW They Tell Us?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

(VIDEO) Fiscal Cliff: Unless we Act, We Are About to See an American Collapse

November 8, 2012 by

What is the fiscal cliff? And how does the fiscal cliff affect you?

Warning: Illinois is America’s future unless there’s a dramatic turnaround. We now have Democratic super majorities in both houses and the Governor’s mansion. We are the worst state in the nation in unpaid pension debt with a recent 67 percent income tax hike.

Video courtesy of Turning Point USA.

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Washington Post Jubilant at ‘Oct. Job Growth’ Then Says ‘Unemployment Rate Flat’

November 5, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just before Election Day, the Washington Post is super excited about all that “job growth” for October. Yet the paper goes on to note that the “unemployment rate is flat.” So, which is it, Washington Post? Are we to be jubilant that there was job growth in October, or is the unemployment rate flat?

Regardless, the Post tries to have it both ways as it gives Obama cover even as it ultimately notes that there really wasn’t much improvement in jobless figures for October. In fact, the Post almost admits that its report is intended to help Obama right in its first paragraph.

The U.S. jobs market in October sustained its slow trudge toward better times, the government reported on Friday, in the last major report card on the economy before the presidential election.

Ah, that “slow trudge toward better times.” But is it? Despite all the happy talk sprinkled through the article, the Post is forced to note that much of this “good news” is closer to treading water as opposed to any “slow trudge toward better times.”

For instance, the Post notes that the unemployment figures remained “essentially unchanged” and didn’t really get much better because more people are now putting themselves back in the job market. So, new jobs didn’t really keep pace with the number of job seekers.
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Washington Post Jubilant at ‘Oct. Job Growth’ Then Says ‘Unemployment Rate Flat’”

Anti-Americanism - Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New York City - President - Progressives - Republicans - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Jonathan Chait, NY Magazine: Obama The Best Prez Evah!

November 3, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jonathan Chait has made his choice for 2012. Unsurprisingly, it’s Obama. But wait, there’s more. Chait decided to tell us exactly why he chose Obama in a recent column for New York Magazine and his reasons makes his endorsement one of the great howlers of the year. Chait tells us that Obama is one of the greatest presidents of all time. “Yes, Great,” he reiterates.

To start with, Chait distances himself from the hopey-changie set saying that even though he was one of Obama’s earliest supporters he was never one of those mind-numbed Obamabots that thought Obama was a messiah that would “change everything.” Chait is no fool, see?

But, despite that he claimed not to be an Obama zombie, Chait goes on to make it appear that he did, indeed, fall for all the rhetoric because in reviewing the last four years, Mr. Chait sees nothing but great success from President Obama.

“Obama’s résumé of accomplishments is broad and deep, running the gamut from economic to social to foreign policy,” Chait assures us before launching into a dubious assessment of all those “accomplishments.”

Chait’s column is quite long, so I wont go into every claim he makes, but there are a few that are just blatant for the rose colored glasses Chait seems to be wearing while writing his column.

For one, Chait feels that Obama’s banking “reforms” were somehow middle of the road efforts, neither left nor right. He praised Obama for taking ideas off “think-tank shelves” and in a “frenetic burst of activity” he “made many of them happen all at once.”
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Jonathan Chait, NY Magazine: Obama The Best Prez Evah!”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - George H. W. Bush - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New York City - President - Progressives - Taxes - The New York Times - Warner Todd Huston

NYTimes: Bush GDP a ‘Let Down,’ Obama’s Worse GDP a ‘Steady Improvement’

November 2, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal did yeoman’s work showing us a perfect example of the abject bias of The New York Times by highlighting the way the “paper of record” ripped Bush’s Gross National Product report while putting a happy face on Obama’s even worse report.

In his October 30 Best of the Web column, Taranto dug up a 1992 Times report that called George H. W. Bush’s GDP of 2.7 percent a “Gross National Letdown.”

In 1992, The Times carped that the 2.7 percent GDP was not encouraging and scolded President Bush for having a smile about his report, even though it was twice the previous report’s growth rate. Naturally, The Times then wanted a stimulus package big enough to “matter” for further growth.

In all, The Times felt George H. W. Bush was more or less a failure and its down-in-the-mouth editorial was suitably hectoring of the elder Bush.

Ah, but Obama is the light bringer. Taranto noted that this year’s Times editorial was far more upbeat for a far worse GDP report.
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NYTimes: Bush GDP a ‘Let Down,’ Obama’s Worse GDP a ‘Steady Improvement’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - GOP - Government - Jobs - Joe Biden - Liberals - Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan - President - Progressives - Republicans - Taxes - Unemployment - Warner Todd Huston

Yale University Economic Model Gives Election to Romney

October 31, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Based on his economic election model, Yale University economist Ray Fair predicts that GOP nominee Mitt Romney will pull out a sparse victory in November.

Fair’s model successfully predicts the winners of every election but two since 1916. The two, the 1960 election of John Kennedy and the 1992 election of Bill Clinton, are the only ones his economics-based electoral prediction model gets wrong.

Fair uses several economic indicators in his model to determine winners. Those factors include the per capita growth rate of the gross domestic product, inflation, and the number of quarters that the GDP grew more than 3.2% during the incumbent’s term.

But even Fair’s model predicts a race that is within his margin of error. Obama could still pull this out despite an economy that argues against his re-election.
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Yale University Economic Model Gives Election to Romney”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Liberals - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Pays Off Chicago and County $100 Million a Year Federal Waiver

October 30, 2012 by 6 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It must be nice to have friends in high places! Ask Cook County, Illinois Board President Toni Preckwinkle who just reaped a huge back room payoff from Da Prez in Washington.

In the best Chicago-style politics, the White House quietly awarded Cook County a $100,000,000 per year pay off via new Medicaid “waivers.”

For those unaware, Cook County is the home of Chicago, the most corrupt city, in the most corrupt county, in the most corrupt state in the union. It is also the home of President Barack “Scarface” Obama.

Over the past weekend the Obama administration approved a request by Cook County to give the county $100 million a year to care for indigents that come to its hospitals for care.

That’s $100 million in federal tax dollars going right into the county’s pockets.
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Obama Pays Off Chicago and County $100 Million a Year Federal Waiver”