Frank strikes again?

When Republicans were warning that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in big trouble and needed reform Barney Frank said no. Actually, he accused the Republicans of racism. As usual that charge stopped all debate in its tracks. Instead of being condemned for his complicity in the housing bubble collapse Rep. Frank is the Democrats' and hence the nations' point man for the crisis. With an excess of confidence and an utter lack of shame old Barney is doing his best to inflate another housing bubble. Believe it or not Rep. Frank wants Fannie and Freddie to lower credit standards for condo buyers. The economy hasn't even recovered from the subprime meltdown and he wants to make the same mistake again. Just because there is a glut of condos doesn't mean the Federal government should step in and demand lower lending standards. If Rep. Frank is so blinded by his ideology that he insists on making the same mistakes over and over it's time he be stripped of his duties. The country simply can't afford his incompetence.

House vote

Well enough arms have been twisted and midnight deals struck that the 1,200+ page behemoth cap and trade bill will be voted on by the House. This map is of projected budget deficits that will result from this bill for 2012. Remember, the whole idea of this bill is to make energy so expensive that we use less of it. In the real world, that means slower economic growth, fewer jobs created and everything you buy is going to cost you much more.

Just click on map to see budget numbers.

More ugly cap and trade numbers

In a fleeting moment of honesty then candidate Obama admitted to the folks at the San Fran. Chronicle that " under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket". Luckily for Obama his buddies in the media kept this nugget under wraps until it was too late to make a difference in the election. The sad truth is he could have kept going and listed: food, gas, heating oil, fertilizer , in short anything that uses coal, oil or natural gas is going way up. For a family of four the costs of cap and trade from 2012-2035 is $71,493 and because it will shrink economic growth their share of the national debt will increase by $114,915 over the same time frame. The benefits: a decrease of 1/100 of a degree by 2050 and 2/10 of a degree at centuries end.

The good news is that Waxman-Markey isn't inevitable. The media are part of the green lobby and will never inform the public of the massive costs and paltry benefits of this scheme. Spread the word, it will save you a bundle and maybe even your job

Real stimulus

The Watchdog "saved or created" $4,500 for his owners today by not requiring knee surgery. President Obama, the bar has been set. Saving every American household that much money is change I can believe in.

Stimulus shenanigans

The sacking of Gerald Walpin should be front page news. Alas, since the story involves democrats it doesn't seem to interest the MSM at all. Mr. Walpin, until he was fired by the White House last Wedesday was the Inspector General of AmeriCorps. He actually had the temerity to take his job seriously and caught politicians wasting federal grant money. In paticular, Kevin Johnson, the newly elected mayor of Sacramento, California. Mr. Johnson received over $800,000 from AmeriCorps for his organization called St. Hope. It seems that Mr. Johnson used this charity and the federal dollars (i.e. your money)it received as his own personal piggy bank. Among the violations Mr. Walpin uncovered: a staffer to drive Mr. Johnson to personal appointments(sound familiar?), washing his car and to run personal errands. What Mr. Walpin failed to account for is that Mr. Johnson is a major supporter of President Obama's. So, instead of being commended for a job well done he received a phonecall telling him he had an hour to tender his resignation or he would be fired. Mr. Walpin, meet the Chicago way.

How does all this tie in with the stimulus package? Simple. If the normal rules were being followed Mr. Johnson because of the violations at St. Hope would be banned from receiving any more federal money. Which means the city of Sacramento would not be able to receive any stimulus funds. Since this couldn't be allowed to happen, Mr. Walpin was frozen out of settlement negotiations where Mr. Johnson and St. Hope agreed to pay back over $400,000 but would have the suspension on receiving federal funds lifted. So, Sacramento's spot at the trough has been secured and the administration has eliminated a gentleman who took his responsibilities to the taxpayers seriously.

Cap and trade

The President and his willing accomplices in Congress claim they are going to save the planet. Remember that line from his Berlin speech when then candidate Obama claimed that when he was elected the oceans would recede? While Moses required the assistance of God to move waters, President Obama will have Waxman-Markey by his side. For you see, the planet is warming and the only way to prevent castastrophe is to regulate the American economy. The Heritage Foundation has done a study of this bill and the numbers are grim:

By 2035 electricity rates will increase by 90%, gross domestic product (GDP) will be reduced by $7.4 trillion and 1,900,000 American jobs will be lost.

The benefits: A decrease in global temperature of less than 1 degree Fahrenheit.

What these numbers don't tell you is that while the U.S. is destroying its economy to save the planet the Chinese who are already the biggest polluters are going to continue manufacturing and hence polluting full steam ahead. Why should America sacrifice when others do not?

The President points to Spain as model for us to follow. Again, the facts are grim. Unemployment in Spain is 17.5% and they expect it to reach 20.5% by year end. As for Spain's vaunted "Green Jobs program" a study by Dr. Gabriel Cardoza has found that for every green job created 2.2 jobs have been lost. Of those green jobs 2/3 were only temporary, mainly in installation and construction.

America can't afford this much change.

Something to think about

After watching that video can anyone believe the President and Congress are playing it straight with the American people when it comes to healthcare? Both the Senate and House have an individual mandate in their plans. This is an idea we in MA are very familiar with. The premise is that many of the young and theoretically healthy don't buy health insurance even though they can afford to do so. So ,the grand idea behind the mandate is simple, force the young and healthy into the insurance pool and costs go down. The results in MA have not borne this out. When passed the MA plan was projected to cost 125 million a year. The actual cost: 133 million in 2007, 647 million in 2008, 869 million in 2009 and an estimated 1.1 billion next year. The U.S. simply can't afford to follow in our footsteps.

Single payer scam

Chrysler

Justice Ginsberg stood up for the rule of law yesterday by granting a stay in the sale of Chrysler to Fiat. While it is far too early to celebrate, you have to think if the Obama administration has lost Ginsberg, their push for crony capitalism is in big trouble. I can't wait to see how the Obama administration is going to smear a bunch of Indiana pensioners as "greedy". The fact of the matter is that the Obama administration violated the legal rights of secured creditors and gave preferential treatment to the United Auto Workers union, a major campaign donor to the President and the Democrats in general. If contracts are not honored in a court of law our capitalist system can't function. Well done Justice Ginsberg!

Update: It was too much to ask that the Supreme Court would actually stand up for the Constitution. After all, it's President Obama's country, we're just living in it and paying the bills.

Stimulus

While the MSM continues to fawn over and in the case of Evan Thomas declare President Obama a "God" the facts just don't add up. The President and the Democrats in Congress with the assistance of Senators' Collins, Snowe and newly minted Democrat Snarlin Arlen have wasted $800 Billion of your money. As the saying goes facts are stubborn things. The only sector of the economy that has benefited from the so-called stimulus is government. Have you had enough change yet?