We Are Out of Money - Reason Magazine

Something so simple to understand and yet it is just totally ignored by our President and Congress.

 

We Are Out of Money

American governance won’t begin to inch forward until the political class faces basic facts.

Matt Welch from the June 2010 issue

Listen to Audio Version (MP3)

American conservatives, particularly the fiscal variety, tend to hold up the European Union as a model of irresponsible, big-spending economic policy. But consider this: According to E.U. rules, member countries cannot maintain budget deficits above 3 percent of gross domestic product; nor can their total debt rise above 60 percent of GDP. As Veronique de Rugy points out in this issue, the U.S. budget deficit in 2009 was three times the E.U.’s limit, and total debt will zoom past the 60 percent threshold sometime this year. Washington makes Paris look frugal.

In March the federal government created the most expensive new entitlement in four decades, even as the bond rating company Moody’s Investors Service warned that debt levels could soon precipitate a downgrade in U.S. Treasury bonds. The main opposition party fought the bill by decrying “cuts” to Medicare, and it has kept itself at arm’s length from one of the few politicians talking seriously about long-term reform.

The Climategate Chronicle: How the Science of Global Warming Was Compromised - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The kind of work you wish a US mainstream media paper would do.

The Climategate Chronicle: How the Science of Global Warming Was Compromised - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

By Axel Bojanowski

To what extent is climate change actually occuring? Late last year, climate researchers were accused of exaggerating study results. SPIEGEL ONLINE has since analyzed the hacked "Climategate" e-mails and provided insights into one of the most unprecedented spats in recent scientific history.

Landscapers find workers choosing jobless pay | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Imagine that, a person would rather sit on their ass and get paid rather that work and get paid.  color me shocked!

 

Landscapers find workers choosing jobless pay | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Jaclyn Trop / The Detroit News

In a state with the nation's highest jobless rate, landscaping companies are finding some job applicants are rejecting work offers so they can continue collecting unemployment benefits.

It is unclear whether this trend is affecting other seasonal industries. But the fact that some seasonal landscaping workers choose to stay home and collect a check from the state, rather than work outside for a full week and spend money for gas, taxes and other expenses, raises questions about whether extended unemployment benefits give the jobless an incentive to avoid work.

Mojave Cross torn down by vandals

What the left can’t accept, they simply destroy.  Violence is an old friend to them.  As is showing disrespect to the veterans of our country.  Yet another example.

Mojave Cross torn down by vandals | Local News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

09:13 AM PDT on Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The 76-year-old Mojave Cross war memorial in San Bernardino County's High Desert has been torn down by vandals, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the religious symbol could remain -- at least temporarily -- on public land.

Sometime Sunday night, the cross was taken down from its perch atop Sunrise Rock in the Mojave National Preserve, according to Liberty Institute, a group that represented veterans groups and caretakers of the cross in the recent Supreme Court Case.

Stunning 2006 Barney Frank VIDEO Surfaces: Banks Forced to Report Too Much - HUMAN EVENTS

Barney in his own words.  Priceless

 

Stunning 2006 Barney Frank VIDEO Surfaces: Banks Forced to Report Too Much - HUMAN EVENTS

by  Connie Hair

05/07/2010

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaking at a forum on national housing policy on December 11, 2006.  Three weeks after making this speech at the Treasury Department, Frank became Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Barney Frank – a danger to our economy.

Bary Franks is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.  He is a danger to our economy.

Confirmed: Barney Frank Played Major Role in Financial Collapse & Is Still Pushing His Dangerous Agenda on America

Posted by Jim Hoft on Saturday, May 8, 2010, 11:16 AM

Morgen Richmond from Verum Serum broke this story earlier this week at Big Government.
It’s worth repeating.

Democrat Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter this week to the White House urging the President to reject the attempt by Republicans to include GSE (Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac) reform in any financial reform bill. Frank argued that had already been reformed and did not need to be included in the Senate’s financial reform bill. Frank told democratic senators, “As Fannie and Freddie operate today, going forward, there is no loss.”

4 ways Congress caused the financial crisis | Analysis & Opinion |

So what does it look like when a victim of congressional bloviating refuses to take it laying down?  Glassman shows the way.  Read this article and then read the original memo at the link.

4 ways Congress caused the financial crisis | Analysis & Opinion |

May 5, 2010 11:08 EDT

2008 financial crisis | financial regulatory reform

That bankers disdain their new Washington overlords is no surprise. To many of them, Congress is plagued by “unnerving ignorance” and a refusal to admit its own role in the financial crisis. At least that is how a controversial JPMorgan report puts it. Impolitic perhaps, but not inaccurate.

It’s one thing to discuss such grumbles in the executive suite. It’s another to explicitly lay them out in a widely disseminated research report, accompanied by data and a full-color chart for emphasis — in the midst of the delicate financial reform debate in the U.S. Senate, to boot. But that’s what JPMorgan’s James Glassman did in a May 3 economic note.

Chaves Hussein Obama

Mmmm – about those 401Ks.   Looks like Chavez Hussein Obama is smackin’ his lips just a bit.

Obama Administration Makes Plans to Gobble Up 401(k)s

Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 6:03 AM

The Obama Administration is making plans to take over the nation’s 401(k)s in order to bail out their union backers and their bankrupted pension plans.
Connie Hair at Human Events reported:

In February, the White House released its “Annual Report on the Middle Class” containing new regulations favored by Big Labor including a bailout of critically underfunded union pension plans through “retirement security” options.

The radical solution most favored by Big Labor is the seizure of private 401(k) plans for government disbursement — which lets them off the hook for their collapsing retirement scheme. And, of course, the Obama administration is eager to accommodate their buddies.

President Obama: GOP Opposition to Stimulus 'Helped to Create the Tea-Baggers' - Political Punch

Hope and Change, Hope and Change.

 

President Obama: GOP Opposition to Stimulus 'Helped to Create the Tea-Baggers' - Political Punch

May 04, 2010 9:07 AM

Three days after he decried the lack of civility in American politics, President Obama is quoted in a new book about his presidency referring to the Tea Party movement using a derogatory term with sexual connotations.

In Jonathan Alter’s “The Promise: President Obama, Year One,” President Obama is quoted in an interview saying that the unanimous vote of House Republicans vote against the stimulus bills “set the tenor for the whole year ... That helped to create the tea-baggers and empowered that whole wing of the Republican Party to where it now controls the agenda for the Republicans.”

Members of Congress Bet Against Stocks in Year of Financial Crisis - WSJ.com

Something about the “Fox in the hen house” or “the pot calling the kettle black” comes to mind.

 

Members of Congress Bet Against Stocks in Year of Financial Crisis - WSJ.com

Some members of Congress made risky bets with their own money that U.S. stocks or bonds would fall during the financial crisis, a Wall Street Journal analysis of congressional disclosures shows.

Senators have criticized Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for profiting from the housing collapse. And Congress is considering legislation to curb Wall Street risk-taking, including the use of financial instruments known as derivatives and of leverage, or methods that amplify returns.

Did Bush warn of the impending financial crisis – yep – over and over and over and over and. . . . . . .

You would think the Democrats would learn about the long memory of the Internet.  Much to my amusement, the don’t. 

Pelosi Caught In Major Lie- Says Bush Didn’t Warn Congress About Financial Crisis… Records Show He Warned Congress 17 Times in 2008 Alone

Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, May 3, 2010, 2:04 PM

Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference last week and told reporters this:

During her weekly press conference on April 15, a reporter asked Pelosi a seemingly innocuous question about taxes. Pelosi prefaced her response with a fairly standard litany: explaining the dire state of the U.S. economy inherited by President Obama and setting the blame at the foot of the Bush administration. But she also added this: “When [then-Senator Obama] accepted the nomination in Colorado, the [Bush] Administration had kept from the public the idea that, in a matter of weeks, the financial community would be in crisis, and we would need to pass the TARP legislation.”

The state-run media is trying to make something of this claim today.

But, what Speaker Pelosi failed to mention was that President Bush warned the Democratic Congress 17 times in 2008 alone about the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties.

What's going on beneath the sea? A graphic explanation of the fight to shut off the oil leak | NOLA.com

A good visual of the problems in capping the leaking well in the Gulf.

 

What's going on beneath the sea? A graphic explanation of the fight to shut off the oil leak | NOLA.com

By Times-Picayune Staff

April 30, 2010, 7:42PM

Even as experts scramble to come up with a way of keeping the oil from the Deepwater Horizon well from continuing to flow freely into the Gulf of Mexico,
BP concedes that a relief well will eventually have to be drilled in order to successfully shut down the existing leaking well. The graphic below explains what's happening on the ocean floor, and how the relief well will work.

A Few Comments About Q1 GDP...

The economy in geek-speak.  Not as rosy as the Big “O” is trying to paint it.

A Few Comments About Q1 GDP...

Calculated Risk | Apr. 30, 2010, 9:05 PM

The two leading sectors, residential investment (RI) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE), moved in different directions in Q1:

PCE increased at a 3.6% annualized growth rate compared to 1.6% in Q4. PCE was driven by a decline in the savings rate to 3.1% (from 3.9%) and transfer payments (I'll have more on this).

RI declined 10.9% in Q1, compared to an increase of 3.8% in Q4.

Exactly who ‘makes enough money’ in Obama’s eyes? | Kyle Wingfield

5 Million for the Big “O"s’” book eh.  Heck, I’d be happy to sell my whole company for that.  What an incredibly ignorant ass.

 

Exactly who ‘makes enough money’ in Obama’s eyes? | Kyle Wingfield

7:00 pm April 30, 2010, by Kyle Wingfield

“I do think,” you may have heard President Barack Obama say about a group of Americans last week, “at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

WSIL TV • Family Denied Medical Treatment Because of State's Debt

The dirty little secret is that this is happening at the federal level as well.  the slowest paying “insurance” is that provided by Medicare.  Nearly 1/3 of all doctors refuse to accept Medicare patients.  Wonder how well things will work once Obamacare is in full swing.

 

WSIL TV • Family Denied Medical Treatment Because of State's Debt

 

WILLIAMSON-- A Carterville mom says she was denied medical care for her children because the state isn't paying its bills.
As the Illinois budget crisis drags on, it's impacting more and more people.
Now, some doctors in southern Illinois are limiting services for patients employed by the state or is asking those patients to pay up front.

WWII Pacific Theater - a set on Flickr

An amazing set of photos take by soldiers of Tinian – well worth the time spent watching the slide show!

 

WWII Pacific Theater - a set on Flickr

American Thinker Blog: The facts on illegal immigration

Want the facts on Illegal immigration – the real numbers and details.  Have a gander at the pdf listed below.

American Thinker Blog: The facts on illegal immigration

Clarice Feldman

As the rhetoric on illegal aliens residing in the U.S. heats up, it would be nice to have some reliable facts with which to work. The Congressional Research Service has put them together for us--the numbers, areas of residence, time of arrival, participation in the work force--all in one tightly written pdf file.

Power Line - Whistling past the death panel

What was that about death panels again??  Meet Dr. Death.

 

Whistling past the death panel

April 29, 2010 Posted by Paul at 10:29 PM

President Obama has selected Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Berwick is a Harvard professor, a pediatrician, and the CEO of a nonprofit that, according to its website, has a staff of over 100 people. These seem like dubious qualifications to head a massive organization with a budget greater than that of the Department of Defense.

As Jeffrey Anderson explains, however, Dr. Berwick is a perfect pick for Obama. For like Obama, Berwick believes that our health-care system should be run through Washington, and that the bureaucracy should exercise a strong degree of control over questions of life and death.

Costly IRS Mandate Slipped into Health Bill | Cato @ Liberty

Hope and Change, Hope and Change!   I guess Nancy was right, we really did have to pass the bill before we found out what was in it.

 

Costly IRS Mandate Slipped into Health Bill | Cato @ Liberty

Posted by Chris Edwards

Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.

A few wording changes to the tax code’s section 6041 regarding 1099 reporting were slipped into the 2000-page health legislation. The changes will force millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It appears to be a costly, anti-business nightmare.

Still Government Motors - Forbes.com

What it looks like when a government owned company talks to it’s shareholders the way it talks to voters.

Still Government Motors - Forbes.com

Shikha Dalmia, 04.23.10, 03:40 PM EDT

GM is paying back Uncle Sam to shake him down for more money.

GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced in a Wall Street Journalcolumn Wednesday that his company has paid back its government bailout loan "in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule." He is even running TV ads on all major networks to that effect--a needless expense given that a credulous media is only too happy to parrot his claims for free. Detroit Free Press' Mike Thompson, for example, advises bailout proponents to start "warming up their vocal chords" to jeer their opponents with chants of "I told you so."

But before belting out their victory aria, GM-boosters ought to hear the whole story--not just the fairytale version about Government Motors' grand comeback that Mr. Whitacre is feeding them.

The American Spectator : What Lies Beneath

No, tell me it’s not true!!!  The Big O withheld information that was detrimental to his case for healthcare reform.  Now it’s actually going to RAISE the debt, not lower it???  Color me shocked!!!

 

What Lies Beneath

By The Prowler on 4.26.10 @ 6:09AM

OFFICE POLITICS
The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama's health care "reform" law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources, who added that Sebelius's staff refused to review the document before the vote was taken.

Iowa Public Radio :: Home

A IPR item on our Benton County Advocates debate tonight.

 

Iowa Public Radio :: Home

Crowded Debate

04/27/10 filed

by Joyce Russell

An unusually crowded field of candidates is vying for the Republican nomination in Iowa�s third congressional district. Seven men are competing to take on incumbent Leonard Boswell in the general election. That�s causing headaches when it comes to holding candidate forums. (3:25)

Listen | Download | ShareThis

Obama’s National Security Advisor and his Jewish merchant joke.

Isn’t it interesting that members of the Obama administration feel so secure telling their racist and anti-Semitic jokes?  And the amount of laughter in the background.  Hope and Change, hope and change.

Jones Cracks Greedy Jew Joke During Speech (Video)

Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, April 26, 2010, 4:52 AM

Obama’s National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones Ret. cracked a greedy Jew joke during a key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy last week. The administration reportedly deleted all references to the joke afterwards, but fortunately CSPAN cameras were there and apparently caught it.
So did Yid With Lid:

The joke was scrubbed from the official transcript. Yid with Lid reported:

Was the Joke Anti-Semitic? Well, the White House must have thought so. The White House transcript sent to reporters after the event conveniently began a couple of minutes into the speech. The video of the event posted on the Washington Institute Web site started right after the Joke, you can even hear the end of the laughter.  Its interesting that the same President that see racism in the legitimate actions of the Cambridge Police and the State of Arizona, hides the anti-Semitic prose of its National Security Adviser.

Government Releases New Numbers on Obamacare Showing Costs Will Skyrocket

Hummmmm – seems like I heard the Republicans saying exactly what this new study says.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/04/government-releases-new-numbers-on-obamacare-showing-costs-will-skyrocket/

Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, April 23, 2010, 10:33 PM

The federal government released a new report on the cost of Obamacare and the results are troubling. The report comes from actuaries from Medicare and Medicaid. Medical costs will skyrocket rising $389 billion 10 years. 14 million will lose employer-based coverage. Millions will be left without insurance. And millions more will be may be dumped into the already overwhelmed Medicaid system. 4 million American families will be hit with tax penalties under this new law.

FOXNews.com - Report: Health Overhaul Will Increase Nation's Tab

Shocked!  Shocked I tell you!! 

 

FOXNews.com - Report: Health Overhaul Will Increase Nation's Tab

Associated Press

A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the new health care law will expand insurance but won't reduce runaway costs

AP

Mar. 30: President Barack Obama shakes hands after signing the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act in Alexandria, Va.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law will increase the nation's health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.

A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance -- adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls.

But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, however, since the report also warned that Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, forcing lawmakers to roll them back.

GM repays loan to US…actually, not really | Radio Vice Online

Details, it’s always about the details.

 

GM repays loan to US…actually, not really | Radio Vice Online

April 22, 2010 at 3:41 pm by SoundOffSister
 

It was with great fanfare yesterday that General Motors announced that it was repaying some $4.7 billion of $6.7 billion in loans it received from the federal government.  And, with even bigger fanfare, it was announced that this partial repayment was being made some five years earlier than expected.

Too good to be true?  Well, it is.

Wynn considers moving company headquarters to Macau - News - ReviewJournal.com

Hope and change.

 

Wynn considers moving company headquarters to Macau - News - ReviewJournal.com

By HOWARD STUTZ
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Wynn Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn told cable business network CNBC he was considering moving the company's corporate headquarters from Las Vegas to Macau.

Wynn is in Macau for today's opening of the $600 million Encore at Wynn Macau, a 414-room, all-suite expansion to Wynn Macau, the company's Chinese casino.

Wynn granted a series of media interviews in Macau as a run-up to Encore's opening. He didn't provide any details on the possible headquarters shift, saying only that he is considering the idea.

In a subsequent interview with Bloomberg News, Wynn was critical of the economic policies of President Barack Obama.

"The governmental policies in the United States of America are a damper, a wet blanket," Wynn said in a separate interview aired today on Bloomberg Television. "They retard investment, they retard job formation, they retard the creation of a better life for the citizens in spite of the rhetoric of the president."

Wynn said he was concentrating his efforts on Macau and would skip potential opportunities in Las Vegas.

"I don't think the Las Vegas market at the moment beckons a large investment," Wynn said. "The economic outlook in the United States, the policies of this administration, which do not favor job formation, do not encourage investment at all."

Senate Bill Sets a Plan to Regulate Premiums - NYTimes.com

Well, of course they will.  How about regulating federal spending??

 

Senate Bill Sets a Plan to Regulate Premiums - NYTimes.com

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: April 20, 2010

WASHINGTON — Fearing that health insurance premiums may shoot up in the next few years, Senate Democrats laid a foundation on Tuesday for federal regulation of rates, four weeks after President Obama signed a law intended to rein in soaring health costs.

After a hearing on the issue, the chairman of the Senate health committee, Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, said he intended to move this year on legislation that would “provide an important check on unjustified premiums.”

American Thinker: The President Who Won't Grow Up

An amazingly perceptive article.

 

American Thinker: The President Who Won't Grow Up

By Carol Peracchio

Everything I need to know about Barack Obama I learned as a Cub Scout den leader.

Last week I watched an American president and a Russian leader sign a START treaty. I almost checked the calendar, wondering if I'd been transported back to 1980. In news stories of the summit I found a link to an article Barack Obama had written in 1983 while at Columbia University titled "Breaking the War Mentality." Back then, Obama was firmly in the nuclear freeze camp. It's true that many of us held views as college students that seem quaint and naïve after two or three decades. But compare the (nearly incomprehensible) writing of the 22-year-old Obama to the news reports last week. Incredibly, Obama's worldview has not changed. The Soviet Union is kaput, he is the leader of the free world, and he's still thinking the same way. He's the president who won't grow up.

Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive - NYTimes.com

I am always surprised when libs meet the “wall” that is reality.   Obama has never had a policy about a nuclear Iran.   What he did have was infinite confidence in his ability to talk Iran off the ledge.  Of course, it never occurred to him that they were dedicated to national suicide.  The world will pay the price for this man’s hubris and ignorance.

Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive - NYTimes.com

By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER

Published: April 17, 2010

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.

Carl Horowitz : “The Federal Takeover of Higher Education Financing: Why Obama’s Boost Could Bust Taxpayers” - Townhall.com

I think the danger revolves more around deciding who to fund and who not to fund.  All doctors will now be dependent on the government for loans, as are engineers, scientists, MBA candidates – everyone.  What better way to control who advances in society and who does not.

Carl Horowitz : “The Federal Takeover of Higher Education Financing: Why Obama’s Boost Could Bust Taxpayers” - Townhall.com

by Carl Horowitz

America’s colleges and universities might not qualify as bailout material, but the nation should get ready for what amounts to a federal takeover of higher education financing. Legislation signed March 30 by President Barack Obama practically seals the deal. And despite the administration’s claims to the contrary, taxpayers may find the transition exceedingly expensive.

Civic Report 61 | UNDERFUNDED TEACHER PENSION PLANS: It’s Worse Than You Think

One more report warning of the problem with state sponsored pensions.  This seems to be another debt bomb that everyone is consiously ignoring.  Tick – Tock, Tick – Tock!

Please, read the whole thing.

 

Civic Report 61 | UNDERFUNDED TEACHER PENSION PLANS: It’s Worse Than You Think

Josh Barro, Walter B. Wriston Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Stuart Buck, Distinguished Doctoral Fellow, Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas

This report was co-sponsored by the Foundation for Educational Choice

SUMMARY
Teacher pension funding gaps are three times greater than what states report, states a new Manhattan Institute/Foundation for Educational Choice study. Authors Josh Barro and Stuart Buck reveal the major disparity between what states report and the true value of unfunded liabilities for teacher pensions. These liabilities for all 50 states now total almost $1 trillion—an unfunded burden that states must pay over time at taxpayer expense.

To all the other fiscal travails facing this country’s states and largest cities, now add their pension obligations, which are far greater than they may realize or are willing to admit. This paper focuses on the crisis in funding teachers’ pensions, because education is often the largest program area in state budgets, making it an obvious target for cuts.

Although it is generally acknowledged that education is the foundation of every modern society’s future prosperity, schools unfortunately will have to compete with retirees for scarce dollars. This competition is uneven, because retirees have a legal claim on promised pension benefits that supersedes schools’ budgetary needs. Consequently, Americans can look forward to higher taxes and cuts in services, resulting in fewer teachers, bigger classes, and facilities that are allowed to deteriorate. In several states, these developments have already arrived.

The crux of the problem is the gap between assets and liabilities affecting the fifty-nine pension funds that cover most public school teachers in America. Some of these are general state-employee pension funds, while others cover only teachers.

Obama 'amused' by Tea Party rallies - TheHill.com

Perhaps he’d like to point out what those tax cuts were???  The phrase “don’t get cocky kid” comes to mind.

 

Obama 'amused' by Tea Party rallies - TheHill.com

By Sam Youngman - 04/15/10 08:18 PM ET

President Barack Obama struck a hyperpartisan note Thursday, telling Democrats that he was "amused" by the Tax Day Tea Party rallies.
Obama, addressing a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser in Miami, did little to endear himself to the Tea Party groups protesting around the country, saying "they should be saying thank you" because of the tax cuts he has signed into law.

GM's Pension: A Ticking Time Bomb for Taxpayers? - Yahoo! News

Hope and Change, Hope and Change.  This is exactly why you let a company go through bankruptcy – to allow obligations like this to be mitigated.

 

GM's Pension: A Ticking Time Bomb for Taxpayers? - Yahoo! News

By JOSEPH R. SZCZESNY Joseph R. Szczesny – 1 hr 49 mins ago

General Motors Corp. may no longer be the world's biggest automaker, but it still operates the country's largest pension fund. The threat to its pension plans has always been an issue, butit took on a new urgency when GM disclosed April 7 that its plans were underfunded by more than $27 billion, with more than half of that being owed to U.S. workers and retirees. Across town, a post- bankrupt Chrysler faces its own pension shortfall. Moreover, a report last week from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) says the pension crisis in the auto industry could create an unprecedented crisis for the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., a government-sponsored organization to backstop company pensions.

Arizona doctor says Obamacare will force him to close shop | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

The future of healthcare under Obamacare.  Hope and Change, Hope and Change.

 

Arizona doctor says Obamacare will force him to close shop | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

By Gautham Nagesh - The Daily Caller | Published: 04/14/10 at 3:13 AM | Updated: 04/14/10 at 9:48 AM

A notice outside the Scottsdale Skin & Cancer Center in Arizona.

While it may be years before most Americans feel the impact of President Obama’s health-care bill, a few patients in Scottsdale, Ariz., got a small taste of life under Obamacare last week when they arrived at their Dermatologist’s office only to see a sign with the following taped to the front door:

“If you voted for Obamacare, be aware these doors will close before it goes into effect.” The note is signed Joseph M. Scherzer M.D. and includes the following addendum: “****Unless Congress or the Courts repeal the BILL.”

Scherzer, who attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has been a practicing Dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 1976. Reached yesterday at his office, Dr. Scherzer, 63, said he plans to stop practicing before 2014 when the bill’s full impact will be felt because he refuses to deal with the headache of increased government involvement in health care.

Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections (Update)

Just curious how the government could deploy US troops, on US soil, without the express request of the governor of a state?  Isn’t that what the state troopers or the national guard supposed to do?

Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections (Update)

April 13, 5:16 PMConservative ExaminerAnthony G. Martin

In October of this year, one month prior to the November midterm elections, a special army unit known as 'Consequence Management Response Force' will be ready for deployment on American soil if so ordered by the President.

(AP Photo/David Longstreath).

The special force, which is the new name being given to the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry, has been training at Fort Stewart, Georgia and is composed of 80,000 troops.

According to the Army Times,

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

The key phrase is 'may be called upon to help with civil unrest.'

Washington Memo - Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers - NYTimes.com

So did Congress just throw their own employees off their health insurance plans??  It may well be that they did.  ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!

 

Washington Memo - Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers - NYTimes.com

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: April 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way. And, perhaps fittingly if unintentionally, no one may be more affected than members of Congress themselves.

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.

For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.

The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?

YouTube - National Security: President Reagans Address on Defense and National Security 3/23/83

Lots of chatter today that Obama is doing the same thing Reagan did regarding his approach to nuclear deterrence.  Hardly.  Let’s listen to Reagan in his own words.

 

STAND THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!

Why would the leader of the FREE world bow to the leader of the world’s largest communist nation???  It’s because he feels “less that”, because he feels weak, because he feels embarrassed to represent America, it’s because he is ignorant of history, it’s because he believes  Mao was right – power comes from the barrel of a gun (remember his advisor Anita Dunn??  Here’s a reminder.)

Perhaps there’s in Hu’s cabinet? 

President Barack Obama - Yahoo! News Photos

Mon Apr 12, 6:49 PM ET

Previous 85 of 666 Next

President Barack Obama greets Chinese President Hu Jintao during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Monday April 12, 2010.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

U.S. Faces Shortage of Doctors - WSJ.com

Hope and Change.  Sadly, everyone knew this before the healthcare vote.  Everyone knew passing the healthcare bill wouldn’t do anything to add more doctors – in fact it would have just the opposite effect.  Yet, here we are. 

 

U.S. Faces Shortage of Doctors - WSJ.com

By SUZANNE SATALINE And SHIRLEY S. WANG

 Getty Images

First-year resident Dr. Rachel Seay, third from left, circumcises a newborn in George Washington University Hospital's delivery wing on March 12.

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.

Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges

French Leader Sarkozy Slams Obama, Warns He Might Be Insane | EUTimes.net

Might be insane??  Really???  MIGHT be??? 

 

French Leader Sarkozy Slams Obama, Warns He Might Be Insane | EUTimes.net

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today authored by France’s Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) and recently “obtained” by the FSB shockingly quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy [photo top right with Obama] as stating that President Barack Obama is “a  dangerous[ly] aliéné”, which translates into his, Obama, being a “mad lunatic”, or in the American vernacular, “insane”.

Russia eyes U.S. air base in Kyrgyz turmoil | Reuters

Now that the Big O has “reset” relations with the Russians via the new START treaty, surely a call to Putin or Medeved will put things right and our ability to fly troops and supplies into Afghanistan won’t be interrupted, right?

 

Russia eyes U.S. air base in Kyrgyz turmoil | Reuters

Guy Faulconbridge and Robin Paxton - Analysis

MOSCOW

Fri Apr 9, 2010 1:29pm EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian-backed coup or not, the uprising in Kyrgyzstan means the United States may have to bargain hard to keep its last military base in Central Asia.

Turmoil in Kyrgyzstan has thrust the fate of the Manas air base -- which is crucial for fighting the Afghan war -- to the forefront of rivalry between the United States and Russia.

Russia has long dreamed of evicting the United States from Central Asia and a Russian official said on Thursday that Moscow would urge the interim Kyrgyz government to shut the U.S. base.

Suspicions of the Kremlin's hand in the unrest were raised when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the first world leader to recognize the authority of the self-proclaimed government, just hours after it took power.

As a reminder, the air base at Manas International Airport plays a major role in our efforts in Afghanistan as detailed in this Business Week article from April 9th:

Last month about 50,000 troops passed through Manas on their way in and out of Afghanistan. It’s the only U.S. base in Central Asia, outside of those in Afghanistan.

Debt denial | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

A glimpse into our future??  I wrote something similar back in September.

 

Debt denial | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

By James Rickards | Published: 04/07/10 at 12:00 AM | Updated: 04/09/10 at 8:42 AM

The sovereign debt crisis has crossed a threshold. It’s no longer about economics. It’s about math and a complex system whose dynamics tell us there is little time to avoid catastrophe and almost no exit. Going forward, elections and policies will matter less as the debt plague takes hold and dictates hard outcomes.

American Thinker Blog: Graph of the Day for April 10, 2010

Details, details, details.

 

American Thinker Blog: Graph of the Day for April 10, 2010

Randall Hoven

"It's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they presided over a doubling of the national debt."  President Obama.

Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play - Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com

Need a photo of a gutless son-of-a-bitch??  Here ya go!

 

Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play - Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com

By MIKE ALLEN & JOSH KRAUSHAAR | 4/9/10 9:22 AM EDT

According to a Democratic official, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who had a central role in the health reform fight as the lead of anti-abortion Democrats, plans to announce Friday that he will not run for reelection. AP

 

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who had a central role in the health reform fight as the leader of anti-abortion Democrats, plans to announce Friday that he will not run for reelection, a Democratic official said. Without Stupak on the ballot, the seat becomes an immediate pickup opportunity for Republicans.

"Now with health care done, he’s retiring," a friend said. "He has thought about retiring for the last three cycles, but was always talked into staying: to elect John Kerry to help end the war, to elect a Democratic majority to get health care done."

President Barack Obama called Stupak on Wednesday and asked him not to retire. Stupak, 58, also resisted entreaties from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the Wolverine State delegation.

Stimulus Facts: An Update - Veronique de Rugy - The Corner on National Review Online

What, political favoritism in the stimulus spending???  I am shocked I tell you!  Shocked!!!!

 

Stimulus Facts: An Update - Veronique de Rugy - The Corner on National Review Online

Stimulus Facts: An Update   [Veronique de Rugy]

It’s been almost a week since I was presented with some interesting feedback about my Mercatus working paper on the stimulus. As you may recall, the original findings in my study showed that there wasn’t any correlation between stimulus spending and where unemployment was the highest or where unemployment had deteriorated the fastest since the beginning of the recession. Also, the study showed that the party affiliation of the congressional district’s representative (whether the district was represented by a Republican or Democrat) did seem to matter in how the stimulus money was spent. The regression analysis doesn’t tell me how much it mattered, but only that it did.

Pelosi Celebrates Healthcare In SF - KCBS

How to explain the new Obamacare to the masses.  Remember, this person is 3rd in line for the Presidency.

 

Pelosi Celebrates Healthcare In SF - KCBS

“It’s like the back of the refrigerator. You see all these wires and the rest,” said Pelosi. “All you need to know is, you open the door. The light goes on. You open this door, you go through a whole different path, in terms of access to quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans.”

A vision of things to come with Obamacare.

Massachuetts has the equivalent of Obamacare as state law.  All citizens are required to purchase health insurance.  It was supposed to lower rates.  It didn’t.  The state is in the process of going to the next level in controlling rate increases – they are simply forbidding increases.  What could possibly go wrong??

Insurers, state up the ante in health rates dispute - Daily Business Update - The Boston Globe

April 6, 2010 07:08 PM E-mail| |Comments (5)| Text size – +

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff

The stand-off between Massachusetts regulators and health insurance companies intensified today as most insurers stopped offering new coverage to small businesses and individuals while state officials demanded that the insurers post updated rates online and resume selling such policies by the end of the week.

People seeking to buy health insurance for the first time, or existing customers looking to change policies, found themselves out of luck, at least temporarily, in the aftermath of last week's decision by the state Division of Insurance to reject 235 of 274 premium increases proposed by insurers for what is known as the small group market. The segment covers about 800,000 residents.

I WANT MY FREE CARE – AND I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Golly, I sure didn’t see this coming.  So, where is all the free care Obama promised??    Kinda reminds me of this interview with women from Michigan in line for Obama money from his stash.

Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public | McClatchy

By Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them.

Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups.

"They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.

Economic Scene - To Cut Health Costs, U.S. Needs to Learn to Say No - NYTimes.com

Wow – in the NY Times – a plea to just say “no” to a doctor’s healthcare recommendation.  But I thought that there would be no panels that would limit healthcare?  No panels that would review doctor’s suggestions for treatment or tests and then say “no”?  What if the person is old?  What if the treatment is needed to extend their life for a month – or six and the panel says “no”??  Would this be the infamous “death panel”? 

Just how will the Big “O” explain that saying “no” fulfills his promise of better, more comprehensive healthcare? 

 

Economic Scene - To Cut Health Costs, U.S. Needs to Learn to Say No - NYTimes.com

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: April 6, 2010

How can we learn to say no?

The federal government is now starting to build the institutions that will try to reduce the soaring growth of health care costs. There will be a group to compare the effectiveness of different treatments, a so-called Medicare innovation center and a Medicare oversight board that can set payment rates.

But all these groups will face the same basic problem. Deep down, Americans tend to believe that more care is better care. We recoil from efforts to restrict care.

Teachers balk, leave state union | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

A hopeful sign for the state of Iowa.

 

Teachers balk, leave state union | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

By STACI HUPP • shupp@dmreg.com • April 5, 2010

Teachers in a Marion County school district have become the first in Iowa to split from the state's largest teachers union.
Political differences fueled the move by teachers at the Twin Cedars school district in Bussey.
Some teachers say they opposed the Iowa State Education Association's push for the failed "fair share" bill, which would have let public employee unions charge service fees to nonunion workers.
Others didn't like that part of their annual dues is sent to the National Education Association, a powerful supporter of the Democratic Party.

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE HAS NEW NUMBERS

Every family that balances a checkbook at the end of a week knew this was coming.  We are in the very best of hands.

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE HAS NEW NUMBERS

Kevin Price

Published 04/05/2010 - 8:28 a.m. CST

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Price

Email:
kprice61@aol.com

About two weeks ago the Obama Administration was blushing as it boasted about the "favorable" numbers its administration received from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The fact that the CBO is appointed by members of the President's own party (the majority in Congress are Democrats) made some skeptical. However, the experts outside of the CBO and the White House looked at the numbers and said, "wait a minute!" The numbers are scary and the budget is pointing at a direction that will make the US appear to be little more than a typical debtor nation. This is not something "down the road," but just a few years away.

YID With LID: Et Tu Gallup? Second Polling Org. Shows Tea Party as Bi-Partisan, Bi-Racial Movement

Isn’t it that America finally has  a Bi-Partisan and Bi-Racial party?!?!?!  You would think the MSM would be singing it’s praises!  :)

 

YID With LID: Et Tu Gallup? Second Polling Org. Shows Tea Party as Bi-Partisan, Bi-Racial Movement

For the second time in two days a national poll has destroyed the image of the Tea Party movement created by the Democratic party and the mainstream media. Yesterday's poll conducted  by the Winston Group, reported that the 43% of the people in the Tea Party movement are not Republicans and their major concern is jobs and the economy. This is a far cry from the nonsense progressives and the mainstream media (is that redundant?) are telling the U.S., that the Tea Parties are comprised of the extreme right racist wing of the Republican Party, organizing to find a way to destroy the presidency of the first African-American to hold the office.

44 - Obama's 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman's claim of being 'over-taxed'

I find it amazing that the entire country is shouting at him we are overtaxes.  This gentle woman, is the most direct way possible simply tells her president she is taxed enough already – and the takes 17 minutes to tell her why she isn’t.  His deafness is stunning.

 

44 - Obama's 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman's claim of being 'over-taxed'

by Anne E. Kornblut

CHARLOTTE - Even by President Obama's loquacious standards, an answer he gave here on health care Friday was a doozy.

Toward the end of a question-and-answer session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the president whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package.

"We are over-taxed as it is," Doris said bluntly.

Obama started out feisty. "Well, let's talk about that, because this is an area where there's been just a whole lot of misinformation, and I'm going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have," the president said.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Progressives can't get past the Knowledge Problem | Washington Examiner

True knowledge, when making federal policy, is actually important.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Progressives can't get past the Knowledge Problem | Washington Examiner

By: Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Contributor
April 4, 2010

"If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" -- President Reagan, Jan. 20, 1981.

Economist Friedrich Hayek explained in 1945 why centrally controlled "command economies" were doomed to waste, inefficiency, and collapse: Insufficient knowledge. He won a Nobel Prize. But it turns out he was righter than he knew.

In his "The Use of Knowledge In Society," Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is simply too large and complicated for such information to be gathered together.

Lazy and Unqualified to be an Adjunct Law Prof.

“Lazy, unqualified” – yep, that sounds like Barry.

 

Chicago Law Prof on Obama: “The Professors Hated Him because he was Lazy, Unqualified & Never Attended any of the Faculty Meetings”

Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 10:13 PM

Jim Hoft

The highest tenured faculty member at Chicago Law spoke out on Barack Obama saying, “Professors hated him because he was lazy, unqualified, never attended any of the faculty meetings.”
Doug Ross reported this and more:

I spent some time with the highest tenured faculty member at Chicago Law a few months back, and he did not have many nice things to say about “Barry.” Obama applied for a position as an adjunct and wasn’t even considered. A few weeks later the law school got a phone call from the Board of Trustees telling them to find him an office, put him on the payroll, and give him a class to teach. The Board told him he didn’t have to be a member of the faculty, but they needed to give him a temporary position. He was never a professor and was hardly an adjunct.

Obama health care supporters: Florida doctor tells Obama health care supporters to go elsewhere - OrlandoSentinel.com

But I thought doctors loved Obamacare???

 

Obama health care supporters: Florida doctor tells Obama health care supporters to go elsewhere - OrlandoSentinel.com

A Mount Dora doctor posted a sign telling Obama health care supporters to go elsewhere.

MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."
"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

The ObamaCare Writedowns—II - WSJ.com

The devil is always in the details.

The ObamaCare Writedowns—II - WSJ.com

So the wave of corporate writedowns—led by AT&T's $1 billion—isn't caused by ObamaCare after all. The White House claims CEOs are reducing the value of their companies and returns for shareholders merely out of political pique.

A White House staffer told the American Spectator that "These are Republican CEOs who are trying to embarrass the President and Democrats in general. Where do you hear about this stuff? The Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative Web sites. No one else picked up on this but you guys. It's BS." (We called the White House for elaboration but got no response.)

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Please don't call it 'state socialism' - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com

Something about “those that do not know history are condemned to repeat” it comes to mind.

 

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Please don't call it 'state socialism' - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
MORE COLUMNS

The modern Prussian police state was built by Bismarck and others in the 19th century on a Spartan model, giving the central government vastly greater control over the individual than had ever been considered possible before.

Bismarck's program centered squarely on insurance programs designed to increase support for the ever larger and more powerful government. The program included health insurance, workman's compensation, disability insurance and old-age retirement pensions, all innovations at the time.

Candidly Speaking: Confronting Obama’s Messiah complex

When the people of our best ally in the Mideast views our president as having a “Messiah Complex” – well – that just can’t be good news.

 

Candidly Speaking: Confronting Obama’s Messiah complex

By ISI LEIBLER
30/03/2010 23:09

Intoxicated by his health care victory, it seems the president has decided to take on Netanyahu with his outrageous demands.

Seemingly intoxicated by Congress’s endorsement of his health care legislation, President Barack Obama appears to have been overcome by a Messiah complex. His actions relating to the Middle East during recent weeks oblige us to face realities about our “unshakable” alliance with the United States.

ecoEnquirer: Global Warming Activist, Journalist, Perish in Antarctica

I suppose it is unkind to point out the irony about a Global Warmist freezing to death – but what the hell. 

ecoEnquirer: Global Warming Activist, Journalist, Perish in Antarctica

 

Global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist were found frozen to death only 90 miles from their destination, South Pole Station, seen here during the warm season.

(Punta Arenas, Chile) Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing", recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. "There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, 'HELP-COLD'".

New York Hospitals to Cut 2,600 More Jobs - WSJ.com

Hope and Change, Hope and Change.  Who needs death panels when you can simply reduce the number doctors and nurses.  It all works out so well.

New York Hospitals to Cut 2,600 More Jobs - WSJ.com

New York City System Aims to Cut 2,600 More Jobs as State Funding Drops

By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL and SUZANNE SATALINE

NEW YORK—The nation's largest public hospital system plans to slash its work force—including doctors and nurses—by about 10% over two years as government aid drops and the number of uninsured patients jumps.

With its budget deficit set to top $1 billion, New York City's Health and Hospitals Corp. plans to eliminate 2,600 jobs in the fiscal year that begins July 1. That comes on top of 1,300 positions to be eliminated this year.

Pajamas Media » Do Bicycles Actually Have a Lower CO2 ‘Footprint’ Than Cars?

So, should we now place a limit on the number of miles a person bikes??  Things that make you say Hummmmm!

 

Pajamas Media » Do Bicycles Actually Have a Lower CO2 ‘Footprint’ Than Cars?

The transportation secretary wants you to ride a bike to work to stop the "warming." Does he realize that humans, while exercising, are CO2 factories?

March 28, 2010 - by Ronnie Schreiber

Page 1 of 2  Next -> View as Single Page

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants us to ride bikes to work instead of our cars.

One of the reasons he gives is environmental — what could be greener than riding a bike? Walking perhaps, and actually LaHood wants us to wear out the shoe leather too, but for most people walking to work isn’t an option. Riding a bicycle, which can easily hit 20 mph or more, is a viable alternative to driving for many folks.

American Thinker Blog: Obamacare: Running the numbers

Hope and Change!

The most telling sentence: 

Spread across the American population of 310,000,000 souls, Caterpillar's model indicates that America's wealth declined by $1,229.00 per citizen this week.

American Thinker Blog: Obamacare: Running the numbers

John Peeples

The real cost of health care reform, as recognized by the nation's business community, is just beginning to take shape. Bloomberg Business Week (picked up by Drudge) reports that SEC filings by such companies as AT&T, Caterpillar, AK Steel Holding, and 3M Co., reflect their anticipated costs of compliance with ObamaCare.

Caterpillar: Health care bill would cost it $100M - Chicago Breaking Business

Yet another blow by Obamacare to a Midwestern Company.

 

Caterpillar: Health care bill would cost it $100M - Chicago Breaking Business

Published on March 19, 2010 7:10 AM | Submit a comment

A worker at Caterpillar's plant in Mossville, Ill. (José Moré/Chicago Tribune)
Dow Jones Newswires | Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.
In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan "because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees."

Deere says health care bill will cost it $150 million | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

Hope and Change, Hope and Change

 

Deere says health care bill will cost it $150 million | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

Deere & Company, Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, said in a statement this morning that the recently passed health care legislation will cost the company $150 million after tax this year.
The company said the impact would be felt primarily in the second quarter, between April 1 and July 1.

Social Security in the Red | Cato @ Liberty

I was sure the Democrats assured me this was impossible – that Social Security was secure for the next couple of decades!! 

 

Social Security in the Red | Cato @ Liberty

Posted by Doug Bandow

Social Security is officially in the red.  The New York Times reports that the system will pay out more than it takes in this year.  Explains the Times:

What really happened with the coffin near the home of Russ Carnahan??

Again, the devil is always in the details.  I can see why Russ would feel threatened – all those Christians outside his home, must be scary!

 

On Sunday night several members of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition held a prayer vigil at Russ Carnahan’s office for the millions of babies that will be slaughtered under the democrat’s pro-abortion health care bill. We also prayed for the handicapped and the elderly who will be turned away as they face the death panels created by this bill. And, as we stood outside his office in the rain, we prayed for our country and for the democrats in Washington DC who were stealing away our freedom at that very moment.

Hope and Change

So I was working with one of my customers today, a small care facility in the Midwest with around 150 employees.  She had undergone an upgrade to a fair amount of their facility’s computers including their primary server and they were suffering through the usual bumps with such an upgrade.

While I was loading software I asked Mary – the HR Director – what she thought about the new healthcare bill.  Honestly, I expected her to go right to Medicare reimbursement and loss of income.  My mistake – she went right to her employees health insurance needs.

Remember, health insurance can’t be sold across state lines.  This particular state has just a handful of insurance companies that service the state.  When they were searching for a provider they found a single company that was willing to provide insurance to their employees.  They have already been notified by their provider that they may not be willing to cover their facility's employees, they are studying the bill further.

Obviously, this raises a problem so Mary has been checking into alternatives.  They currently spend between $1,000 - $1,500 per employee per month, an annual fee of approximately $15,000 per employee or $2,250,000 annually.  However, if they simply discontinue their health insurance plan, their annual cost per employee drops to a fine of approximately $3,000 per employee or a total annual cost of $450,000.  This represents a savings of $1,800,000 each and every year.  Care to guess what way they are leaning?

Hope and change you can believe in!

House votes to exempt TRICARE from health reform bill (3/21/10) -- GovExec.com

So if this is such a great bill, why exempt the military?  Or themselves, for that matter.

 

House votes to exempt TRICARE from health reform bill (3/21/10) -- GovExec.com

By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com March 21, 2010

House lawmakers over the weekend voted to protect TRICARE and Defense non-appropriated fund health care beneficiaries from unintended consequences of national health reform.

The exemption (H.R. 4887) applies to the health care coverage provided by the Defense Department to military service members, retirees and their families. It clarifies the tax code to stipulate that coverage provided by Defense is treated as minimal essential coverage, ensuring that service members and their families will not need to purchase additional coverage to meet new health insurance requirements.

Federal Health Spending | Cato @ Liberty

A glimpse at the future.  Remember the promise of Medicare – affordable healthcare for our aging population.  This is what affordable looks like??

 

Federal Health Spending | Cato @ Liberty

Health Insurance Companies to pay companies $120,000 per insured employee!

Yep, no kidding, according to President Obama, companies will save 3,000% on the cost of insurance for each employee.  That would pencil out to each insurance company PAYING a company around $120,000 per insured employee.

Liar Obama: Your Insurance Premiums Will Decrease by 3,000% Under Obamacare (Video)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 6:14 AM

Jim Hoft

Amazing. And, they actually take this liar seriously…
Obama told a group of guppies yesterday that with Obamacare their premiums will decrease by 3,000%.
And, they actually clapped and screamed when he fed them this manure:
Via Free Republic
I’m convinced, if he told them to walk off a cliff they’d do it.
They have no ability to think.

Global Temperature Trends Since 2500 B.C.

A bit of perspective on global warming over the past 4000 years.

Global Temperature Trends Since 2500 B.C.

Until recently, global temperatures were more than a degree Fahrenheit warmer when compared to the overall 20th Century mean. From August of 2007 through February of 2008, the Earth’s mean reading dropped to near the 200-year average temperature of 57 degrees. Since that time, the mean reading has been fluctuating.

Insurers’ Profits Aren’t the Problem - Jeffrey H. Anderson - Critical Condition on National Review Online

The devil is always in the details.

Insurers’ Profits Aren’t the Problem - Jeffrey H. Anderson - Critical Condition on National Review Online

 

Insurers’ Profits Aren’t the Problem   [Jeffrey H. Anderson]

For an administration that says it’s committed to using empirical evidence to determine “what works,” and a president who says he’s “not an ideologue,” Obamacare’s marketing sure does rely on a healthy dose of fiction. The central inference behind the supposed need to pass Obamacare is that insurance companies are shamelessly gouging us and disproportionately driving up the costs of our entire health-care system. This is demonstrably false. But the Obama administration’s failure to recognize — or to admit — this inconvenient truth, largely explains why its proposed remedies would not only fail to drive health costs down, but would instead raise them up even further.

Investors.com - Class Warfare's Next Target: 401(k) Savings

MMmmmm – about your 401K plan . . . . .

 

Investors.com - Class Warfare's Next Target: 401(k) Savings

By NEWT GINGRICH AND PETER FERRARAPosted 02/17/2010 06:52 PM ET

You did the responsible thing. You saved in your IRA or 401(k) to support your retirement, when you could have spent that money on another vacation, or an upscale car, or fancier clothes and jewelry. But now Washington is developing plans for your retirement savings.

U.S. state pension funds have $1 trillion shortfall: Pew | Reuters

About all those well paid state and federal workers – now we have to pay for their retirement too???

 

 

U.S. state pension funds have $1 trillion shortfall: Pew | Reuters

WASHINGTON

Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:15am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. states face a total shortfall of at least $1 trillion in their funds for employees' pensions and retirement benefits, and their financial problems are quickly mounting, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States on Thursday.

Hazelwood man dies after 10 calls to 911 over two days

The next time someone brings up the argument that they have full confidence in the local government to provide immediate assistance through a simple call to 911 – keep this story in mind.

 

Hazelwood man dies after 10 calls to 911 over two days

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

By Sadie Gurman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In his first call to 911, Curtis Mitchell sounded calm, explaining to dispatchers that his "entire stomach [was] in pain."

By the time his longtime girlfriend made a 10th call nearly 30 hours later, she was frantic. He wasn't breathing. He was cold to the touch.

The AGW Smoking Gun

The devil is always in the details and the science.

The AGW Smoking Gun

By Gary Thompson

A key component of the scientific argument for anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has been disproven. The results are hiding in plain sight in peer-reviewed journals.

Berkeley High May Cut Out Science Labs | News | East Bay Express

I find I am actually speechless at this story.

  

Berkeley High May Cut Out Science Labs | News | East Bay Express

The proposal would trade labs seen as benefiting white students for resources to help struggling students.

By Eric Klein