The Left Retains Faith in Deficit Spending

From The Nation:

Obama also spoke on how it will be crucial for the federal government to continue helping state and local governments facing deficits that are forcing them to slash jobs and services, and to make “investments in infrastructure, in education, in clean energy.”

“Now’s the time actually to make sure that we’re prioritizing properly and pushing even harder on that front,” said Obama.

It’s in vogue in DC these days to treat the deficit as if it is a sign of the End of Days. It seems the President was, in fact, significantly more rational in taking on job creation than the media coverage would have you believe.

One has to ask: spend what money? Where is there actual money to spend? Who can we really borrow it from? I don’t think our liberals are really grasping the fact of national bankruptcy. Even if one wants to believe that you can borrow via government and create net wealth, the fact remains that we are so far in the hole that no conceivable level of government-created growth will exceed the level of total debt repayment. If we were sitting with a balanced budget right now and/or little or no government debt, there might be something to be said for deficit spending – but that isn’t the case.

For just a moment, lets all realize where we are: we’re broke. It could very well be that our national wealth is less than it was 30 years ago, when you think in terms of what we make, mine and grow. But even if you wish to believe that our net wealth is greater than it was, say, 30 years ago you can’t escape the fact that we’re massively more in debt than before. Some calculations of total US debt reach $70 trillion dollars – if you count the unfunded mandates of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This is not the time to spend more – it is time to create wealth and pay down debt.

Now, how do we do this? Lots of ways – but most importantly, not by increasing government debt. The best way would be to remove the obstacles to the creation of new wealth in the US – the wall of taxes, regulation and NIMBYism which essentially forbids us to use vast amounts of our land and materials for the creation of wealth. Remove these obstacles, and the seed money necessary to create the wealth will come pouring in – from both American and foreign sources. Once we start creating wealth, we can start paying off debt – and it is vitally important that we pay off our debt and never, ever allow ourselves to get in to this state again.

But our liberals don’t even want to listen to this – because they simply don’t understand what wealth is. When Obama said he wanted to spread wealth around he was thinking like a typical liberal – that the fake money we have in our wallets is wealth. Its not – its just money and its worthless as it isn’t backed by anything. You can spread trillions of it around and you won’t do any good – but allow someone to get to work making a new farm, new factory or new mine, and you’ll have created some new wealth.

We’re in for a very bad time, because Obama and his liberals really do seem to be bent on ever more spending. Each new dollar borrowed or printed just puts us further in the hole and will make it harder to get out. While the free flow of fiat dollars might pump up the economy and give some positive GDP numbers, it is and will remain nothing but smoke and mirrors. And it will come crashing down – I’m still expecting this around March, but it could go on for even a year or two from now. But the crash will come – and it will be catastrophic. Hopefully, we’ll have then learned our lesson.

Senate Rejects Abortion Ban for ObamaCare

This will certainly make things interesting:

The Senate narrowly rejected an amendment that would have restricted abortion coverage in the pending health-care bill, leaving in question whether Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) has the 60 votes needed to move the bill toward final passage.

The measure, which failed 54-45, addressed the scope of restrictions on coverage of abortion services for people who receive subsidies to buy insurance. The outcome was expected, but could cost the support of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who has threatened to filibuster the $848 billion bill unless abortion restrictions are tightened.

Pro-life or pro-choice, a majority of Americans has consistently opposed federal funds for elective abortion.

Question: Does this kill the bill? Can Reid get 60 votes for cloture without a ban on abortion funding? If he can swing it, are there 218 votes in the House to pass a health care bill without an explicit ban? That 54 voted against the ban shows that the pro-abortion fanatics are pressing hard for this – we’ll have to see how this comes out.

What Media Bias? Part 165

When 56 newspapers march in fascist lock-step, you know you’ve got a problem:

A ‘Profound Emergency’ Not Worth Writing a Sentence About

“Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial,” announces that editorial, produced by London’s Guardian. “We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet” blah blah blah, etc.

To put it another way, this is such a dire emergency that the editorial boards of 55 newspapers (including, in this country, the Miami Herald) cannot be troubled to write a word about it. It’s the equivalent of just filling space with wire copy–and in fact, that would work just as well, since the Associated Press has its own global-warmist editorial.

A sad joke to some, perhaps, but there should be a thrill of fear down your back as you read that. The mindless conformity is already there in the MSM – all it would take, now, is a government subsidy to turn Rush’s semi-joke about ‘State run media’ in to a reality. And don’t think these MSM outfits won’t take a government subsidy – first off, from a liberal government like Obama’s, they’d consider it an honor; secondly, from any government they’d consider it worthwhile because its better than losing their jobs as their dinosaur media model becomes more irrelevant.

This is just a blatant example of the liberal group-think of the MSM which results in the media bias we talk about.

EPA Chief: Facts Don't Matter

Sticking to the story:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson dismissed GOP calls to delay a critical finding on greenhouse emissions in light of hacked e-mails from climate scientists…

…“There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based,” Jackson said in announcing the finding this afternoon.

Thus the sad, sad spectacle of a person who has given over their mind and soul to an ideology. It doesn’t matter that “Climategate” calls in to question the basis of anthropogenic global warming – ideology requires that AGW be taken as a matter of faith, and off she goes.

Terrible to see fellow human beings so willingly become the slaves of others.

UPDATE: After all, it fits so well with Carbonhagen.

Liberal Fascism at Law

Entirely unsurprising:

Politics in Law Firm and Law School Hiring: Time for some Tit for Tat?

The following question was posed to the NY Times‘ resident ethics expert:

While interviewing law students for jobs as paid summer interns and full-time associates for my firm, I noticed several had résumés listing their activities in the Federalist Society. Some of my partners have conservative views similar to those of the society, but I do not. These students’ politics would not affect their professional function, but my review is meant to consider their judgment and personality (though I don’t need to give reasons for the assessments given). May I recommend not hiring someone solely because of his or her politics?

To his credit, Randy Cohen of the Times answered that you cannot discriminate – but the larger issue is: how could anyone even ask such a question? Only in a politicized society in which people are to be judged on ideological purity as opposed to competence. Remember, we’re not asking here if we should hire the crazed, Islamist zealot as security guard for our nuclear weapons – we’re talking about a law firm. As far as Federalist views go, plus or minus, they have no effect on a lawyer representing his client – the law is what the law is. The lawyer with a Federalist background might be offended at any one of a hundred laws currently on the books – so might a lawyer with an ACLU background – but as long as a lawyer can do his job, that doesn’t matter. Not hiring based on ideology is a reflection of hatred, pure and simple.

The person who asked the question just doesn’t want people of the “wrong” view to have, well, anything – its the sort of attitude which informs the socialist elites in totalitarian societies. There they divvy up the people between “socially friendly” and “socially hostile” elements, and woe to those who are rated “hostile”. This is what we’re in for if we don’t win this battle against the left – eventually, we’ll be forced out, everywhere, simply because we don’t toe the leftist line.

Gallup: Obama Approval Hits New Low

Awsome.

Barack Obama’s presidential job approval rating is 47% in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update, a new low for his administration to date. His approval rating has been below 50% for much of the time since mid-November, but briefly rose to 52% last week after he announced his new Afghanistan policy.

Any slight bump in support Obama received coincident with his new Afghanistan policy proved to be very short-lived, as his approval rating returned to below the majority level by the weekend, and slipped further to 47% in Dec. 4-6 polling.

Feel free to discuss.

2010 Deficit Running Far Ahead of 2009

This actually came out on Friday – you know, in a data dump designed to get it out there, but not have anyone notice it:

In October and November, the government spent $292 billion more than it took in, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.

That was even worse than the same period last year, when the government was on its way to posting a record $1.4 trillion deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

According to the linked report, outlays were down, so the extra deficit comes from lower revenues – naturally, they look for a tax cutting culprit (in this case, an easement on corporate write-offs), but that is just idiotic – a 9% decline in revenues doesn’t come from such things. Not even close. The real deal is that economic activity is vastly less than it was in the Oct-Nov 2008 time frame – and its not like the economy was going gang-busters in late 2008.

Its all a smoke a mirrors recovery, good people – and things like idle ships, idle trucks, lowering tax revenues are what to pay attention to…not banker/bureaucrat reports on bogus profits at bailed out corporations.

UPDATE, by Matt Margolis: Obama’s two-month deficit Is more than the Bush deficit For the entire 2006 calendar year

ACORN's Cover Up Effort Covers Up ACORN Corruption

Yeah, no kidding:

The high-profile lawyer hired to investigate ACORN has found no pattern of intentional illegal conduct in the community organizing group — a finding that was dismissed as “damage control” by one of the two filmmakers who, posing as a pimp and prostitute, videotaped staffers offering advice on how to operate a brothel.

One wonders why they even bothered….but, then again, liberals will believe it and sure as night follows day, we’ll eventually get liberal comments saying that ACORN has been investigated and cleared…

As Climate Legislation Stalls in Senate, EPA Decides to go Fascist

Hey, if you can’t get it done via democratic means, it doesn’t mean you don’t get it done, right?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will formally declare that greenhouse gases endanger human health on Monday, allowing President Barack Obama to show action as a major climate change summit opened in Copenhagen.

The EPA finding will allow it to regulate planet-warming gases even without legislation in the U.S. Congress, and will inject some optimism into the two-week global meeting on controlling climate change in the Danish capital.

Keep in mind that “greenhouse gasses” include the stuff you exhale a zillion times a day – you, my friend, are a threat to the earth! The EPA has decided that controlling your breathing is so important that they’ll act outside the law. Cool, huh? All it takes is a collection of pinheads in government who haven’t the faintest notion of what a law is. Oh, and you have to continue to believe that human beings are causing global warming…or, at least, pretend you believe it because its such a handy tool to gain control of peoples’ lives.

UPDATE: 1,200 limos and 140 private planes transport global warming fascists and dupes to conference

ObamaCare by the Numbers

Noted over at Big Government:

Insuring 30 million people at a 10 year cost of $849 billion would mean a per person cost of $28,300. Over 10 years that would be $2,830 a year, but this isn’t a 10 year plan. The bill before the Senate doesn’t take effect until 2013, well after the next Presidential election. And while the Congressional Budget Office score covers the years 2010 through 2019, only in the years 2013-2019 is anyone actually insured. So we’re looking at a window of 7 years, which give us an average cost of $4042.85 per person, per year people are actually being insured. The average person could find a cheaper health insurance plan.

But, of course, its not about health care – its about control. Liberals want fascist control over our lives, and they figure the best means of doing this is getting control of our health care. That done, we’ll be easily pressured in to conceding the rest of our liberties – with liberals grandly allowing us the freedom to be freakish in our sex lives, should we so choose; they’ll take care of everything else.

Its all a big scam – not, at this point, as big a scam as global warming, but right up there.

UPDATE: And now Reid, believe it or not, plays the race card on the health care debate.