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June 27 The Foundation of Economic Ruin or the House Passes Cap and Trade Well in a narrow 219-212 vote the House of Reprasentatives has passed Cap and Trade legislation. There was a strong move by Republicans and grass roots organizations out there to stop the bill, but the coalition and handouts that were given were too much to overcome. My favorite line from the article is this:
So...everyone understands that this bill is going to make energy cost more, but in the grand tradition of Government tax increases according to the President:
Of course, someone else will be picking up the bill. After all for the Great Unwashed Da-Masses of America those tax increases and increased Government spending are all done on the back of someone else.
Here is another great article on the debate over this bill. One of my favorite parts of the debate was when Rep Minority Leader, John Boehner, read the entirity of a 300 page amendment added early Friday morning. Which is probably 300 more pages than the rest of the congress have even bother to read of this 1200 page monstrosity. Once again a bill passed that most likely has not been read in total by a single congressman who voted for it. I doubt even that the staffers have read the whole thing. And what happened to the text of the bill being around for several days before voted on? I guess all stops are out when you want to grab at the American pocket book.
Of course the major argument against this legislation is the cost it will have on EVERYTHING that a person buys, uses, or consumes. After all energy and therefore carbon emissions make up some portion of the creation, delivery, and storage costs of everything. Take a look at this sentence from the Politico article, it shows perfectly how the politicians and even some lazy reporters are able to obfuscate the cost issue: (giving LISA LERER & PATRICK O'CONNOR of the Politico the benefit of the doubt for not being biased in their reporting here) The emphasis in this quote is mine.
Now the CBO narrowly reviews one portion of the costs of this bill, increases in energy prices. According to them there will only be about $175/year increase per household. Of course this evaluation takes into account the various "tax credits" and other "buy downs" that businesses and Americans are "going" to receive. Doesn't sound like such a bad deal does it? Of course notice that the CBO numbers are only being touted to the year 2020...when the scope of the bill is until 2050. Now look at the second part of this sentence, this is the part where they compare APPLES to ORANGES. The Republicans (and other opposition groups) have been touting this $3000/year argument. This takes into account not only hikes in energy costs, but also the increased cost of EVERYTHING. Because after all when the energy costs are raised on everything from a loaf of bread to your house, it will increase your cost of living in many ways other than just the energy bill every month.
So now we have a statement that I have seen in many places saying that those opponents don't know what they are talking about, look at the CBO numbers they are much lower. When in fact that wasn't the basis of the opposition argument. Classic mis-direction and obfuscation of the issues.
This bill is bad and it will be bad for all of us. It's time to stand up for your pocket books and reject another over-arching Government take over of your life. Call your Senators, where this bill should have a more difficult time passing, and try to keep this "Cap and Trade" from happening.
Evil Out June 18 Everybody BuntsI read an editorial in the paper many years ago that was one of the best descriptions of a fundamental flaw in our education system that I have found. (I looked for the article to link it, but haven’t found it) This editorial basically said that our current system of education is like a baseball coach who has 2 of his 20 players who are unable to bunt the ball. Rather than take those 2 players aside and teach them a fundamental skill while the rest of the team continues in their practice, the coach stops the whole team and they all practice bunting until those 2 players understand the skill. Effectively crippling the advancement of the team as a whole, by saddling all the members with the progress of the least skilled players. In many ways this is what we have done in our classrooms. Holding up the progress of the most advanced and saddling their learning with the progress of the least advanced. It is a policy that may prevent the general failure of everyone, but it also holds back the most ambitious. By teaching everyone to “bunt” you create an environment that stifles creativity and risk taking for a safe environment that encourages security and mediocrity. In many ways this is the path that the administration is taking with our economy. By emphasizing security and safety of institutions “too big to fail” over the real consequences of poor market choices we are creating an economy where “everybody bunts”. We are holding back our most creative and risk-taking firms for a faux security that will stifle competition in an effort to maintain the status-quo. This excellent article by Peter Wallison in the WSJ breaks out this mentality very well. Read and Enjoy Evil Out
June 17 Push Back on the Extremist IssueI have been hard on the Right wing talking heads about the DHS memo about the “Rise of Right-Wing Extremism”. However, there are those on the other side that are using the recent attacks from fringe radicals to attack the conservative movement in total. The latest diatribe is from Jesse Jackson. Here is the heart of his article and it captures the sentiment of his rant, he starts talking about the rise of radical attacks and then continues:
I love how he ties together manufacturing workers, veterans, and low-income workers with bigotry, racism, and guns. Of course, in Jesse Jackson’s world the “extreme” language of the talking heads foments this hatred. By that standard Jackson should really take a long hard look in the mirror and maybe question his own race-baiting and bigoted statements and their effect on the black population of the country.
Nutcases are nutcases, right or left. They need to be denounced and dealt with. Trying to score political points by painting the opposition with the mantle of this fringe is despicable. Let’s have some more honest debate about this fringe element and stop either painting ourselves as martyrs or painting the opposition as mouthpieces for these nuts.
Evil Out June 12 The Midwest FairTax RallyTomorrow is the Midewest FairTax Rally. This promises to be one of the largest rallies yet for the FairTax. My family and I are heading up there and volunteering, we'll be registering attendees during the morning and then enjoying the speeches and speakers in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to this event, the last major rally we attended was during the Iowa Republican Straw Poll back in 2007. There were about 3000 FairTax supporters there as part of the rally and they had a dramatic effect on the voting, vaulting Gov. Mike Huckabee into second place in the voting. Past the superior money and resources of Sen. Brownback and almost dethroning Gov. Romney, who spent over $2m to win.
Unfortunately with the loss of Huckabee during the Republican primary the FairTax passed out of the limelight as the two Presidential candidates went through the election. Of course, when the two major party candidates both believe in using the American Tax Code to manipulate the behavior and attitudes of the people is it any wonder they would ignore a tax reform policy that would remove that power from the Government?
Now the election is over, and as the Tea Party movement has proved, many average Americans are concerned about the direction the Government is taking the country. Now these same grassroots movements are starting to look for issues that they can rally behind and the FairTax is a perfect issue. The FairTax is not just tax reform, the real change that the FairTax promises is that it will be the biggest transfer of power and influence from Washington back the American people.
Would love to see you there.
Evil Out June 11 Yet Another Phantom Right-Wing ExtremistOnce again a violent action has been taken by one of those "Average-Joe" Right-Wing Extremists. Or not. Here is another one of those "disaffected" groups that Homeland Security warned about. In this case a real white-supremist nutcase. Still waiting for some of the big names on the Right to admit they over-reacted to that memo...figure I will be waiting a long time.
When they are right, you need to say they are right.
Evil Out. June 10 More Style Over Substance “Paying for what you spend is basic common sense,” said the president in the East Room standing alongside congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.. “Perhaps that's why, here in Washington, it has been so elusive. The ‘pay as you go rule’ is very simple. Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.”
…“Entitlement increases and tax cuts need to be paid for,” said the president. “They are not free, and borrowing to finance them is not a sustainable long-term policy.”
Of course the idea of only spending money that you have is a sound business and financial policy. Even carrying a small amount of debt makes sense when you are investing in future efforts. If that was what PAYGO and its’ exceptions were all about then it would be a great idea. However, when you start looking at the exceptions in the President’s proposal you see how much of this is just more “style over substance”.
…The PAYGO rules will apply to new tax cuts and mandatory spending,…
OK, so far it sounds like a plan. Reduce spending to match reductions in revenue, such as tax cuts.
with four major exemptions – any renewal of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, the continued efforts to “patch” the Alternative Minimum Tax, any effort to address physician's payments in Medicare, and modifying the estate tax.
Ah, here are the first exemptions. If they renew the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts that “reduction” in revenue will not have to be matched. If they continue patching the AMT, that reduction in revenue will not have to be matched. If they change the estate taxes, that reduction in revenue will not have to be matched. Finally, if they spend more on Medicare payments, that increase in spending does not have to be matched. So right off the bat the idea of “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere” goes right out the window, but here is the real kicker:
In addition, discretionary spending – roughly 40% of the federal budget – is not covered by PAYGO.
So…almost half the budget isn’t part of this PAYGO plan AND we have provided exemptions for at least 3 tax cuts and one major spending increase. This quote from Maya MacGuineas sums this farce up well:
"This is like quitting drinking, but making an exception for beer and hard liquor," said Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). "Exempting these measures from PAYGO would increase the ten-year deficit by over $2.5 trillion dollars. That's not fiscal responsibility."
Of course the President used the usual rhetoric to further obfuscate the flimsiness of this proposal. Invoking the “surplus” of the 90s when the PAYGO rules were in effect (and congress regularly ignored them) as his example of fiscal responsibility. Not surprisingly, also in standard form, the President must take a shot at the Bush administration…claiming it was the removal of PAYGO that caused the rabid overspending of the past decade…Of course, it had nothing to do with congressional irresponsibility for actually creating horrid, bloated budgets.
If the President was serious about budget reduction he would heed the words of Maya MacGuineas:
…the CRFB’s MacGuineas said, “It's pretty simple: if you want to pass a law to increase government spending or cut taxes, you should have to pay for it. No matter whether it is a new law or the continuation of an existing policy. And even doing that won't be enough to close our fiscal gap. We should be discussing hard discretionary caps, long-term entitlement reform, and tax reform as well. The U.S. government is in a fiscally precarious position; other than borrowing for fiscal stimulus, the government should be focused on reducing the deficit. This policy would merely limit by how much it is permitted to increase."
Of course the Administration claims that health care reform is entitlement reform. That all of the increased spending on healthcare reform will shrink the deficit…and I have some prime real estate in the everglades for you…
Although it sounds like I should try to sell that land to some of the Blue Dogs…or perhaps they are just putting party above principle and this band-aid is giving them the cover they need:
After the president’s announcement members of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, which profess fiscal conservatism, talked to reporters to hail the announcement.
“Were obviously very pleased with the President’s support of our signature issues,” said Rep. Barron Hill, D-Ind. “Today is a good day. We have as Blue Dogs suspended a lot of our philosophy to give the president what he has needed to jump start this economy. We are flexible on that with the insurance from him that he would support pay as you go rules. Today he is keeping his promise and we are delighted that he is doing that.”
I’ll finish with this quote from Sen. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee:
…[he]…argued that during the 1990s, most programs were exempt from PAYGO, “and Congress consistently voted to waive the required spending cuts. This proposal is simply a fig leaf to appease those who say they support fiscal discipline but continue to vote for more spending.”
I’ll bet the Administration spin doctors will try to weave that “fig leaf” into a body suit.
Style Over Substance…
Evil Out
June 05 Weekly Round-Up the GM editionNeedless to say, I am not happy with the Government take-over of GM otherwise known as the GM Bankruptcy. To me this action and the actions taken in the Chrysler case are two of the most egregious examples of Government overstepping its’ constitutional boundaries. From the intervention in the company in the matters of salary, CEO staffing, and business actions to tinkering with product lines, development choices, and manufacturing locations, this intervention is wide-scale and unprecedented. Despite the President’s promise that he “doesn’t want to manage the day to day affairs of the company” that is precisely what his administration has decided to do. Although I don’t agree with all of his conclusions I find myself on the side of Ralph Nader, a fact I find a bit uncomfortable, but hey when a man is right you say he is right. Instead of my standard weekly round-up this week I am going to give you a GM-filled round-up. So here goes:
There is some good reading in there, I hope you discover all there is to know about this situation and you can make up your own mind from there. Government Motors is a reality, let’s hope it doesn’t end up being a nightmare as well.
Evil Out June 01 What about those Right-Wing Extremists Now?In a post back in April, I talked about the misplaced furor of the right over the Homeland Security Agency's Rise of the Right-Wing Extremist memo. The Right yelled and screamed and threw a tantrum about the “targeting” of “regular” American’s by the Obama Administration. They forgot that there are real bad guys out there and that they can be members of radical right-wing organizations. Here is one of those passages of the HSA document that was just passed by:
Paralleling the current national climate, rightwing extremists during the 1990s exploited a variety of social issues and political themes to increase group visibility and recruit new members. Prominent among these themes were the militia movement’s opposition to gun control efforts, criticism of free trade agreements (particularly those with Mexico), and highlighting perceived government infringement on civil liberties as well as white supremacists’ longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion, inter-racial crimes, and same-sex marriage. During the 1990s, these issues contributed to the growth in the number of domestic rightwing terrorist and extremist groups and an increase in violent acts targeting government facilities, law enforcement officers, banks, and infrastructure sectors.
The warnings in that document were aimed at fringe radicals that were willing to use violence to enact their ends. Did they forget the abortion clinic bombings, doctor shootings, and attacks during the 90s? Apparently they did. A dramatic illustration of the problems that these extremists cause happened on Sunday May 31st, 2009, when late-term abortion doctor and abortion advocate Dr. George Tiller was gunned down at his church. Details are starting to come out about his shooter and it is becoming clear that this man is a fringe anti-abortion AND anti-government radical. He is just the type of person that the HSA document was warning about. The sad thing is that according to news reports Dr. Tiller was asking for increased protection and investigation as incidents around his clinic had begun escalating in the past few months.
So what do you have to say for yourselves now Right Wingers? Were those warnings about radicals really misplaced? It is good to see that the prominent Anti-Abortion groups in the country are denouncing the shooting…too little, too late in some ways. If the right wing would pay more attention to the nuts within their ranks and actually work with authorities to stop madmen like this shooter rather than denouncing the documents and Government agencies that are warning about obviously real threats, then maybe Dr. Tiller would still be alive.
Whether you agree with what he has done or not, taking the man’s life into your own hands in this manner that is outside the reach or scope of the law, was an act that is a despicable stain on the anti-abortion movement that is going to set it back in many ways. Nut cases like this shooter do more damage to a political movement than any good he may have felt he was doing.
So wake up Right Wingers and police yourselves.
Evil Out |
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