Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Can Republicans Talk?

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/254086/can-republicans-talk-thomas-sowell

Mr. Sowell, along with Walter Williams and Charles Krauthammer are three of the smartest conservative/economic minds we have.  Surely a congressman or senator can channel one of them and present the case for extending our existing tax rates for the foreseeable future.

Political Economics

Courtesy of my friend Dave Brown

It is often pointed out that the states make great laboratories for political-science experiments. And an experiment has been underway for quite a while testing the liberal model — high taxes, extensive regulation, many government-provided social services, union-friendly laws — against the conservative model — low taxes, limited regulation and social services, right-to-work laws. The results are increasingly in. As Rich Lowry reports in National Review Online, the differences between California and Texas are striking. Between August 2009 and August 2010, the nation created a net of 214,000 jobs. Texas created more than half of them, 119,000. California lost 112,000 jobs in that period. Lowry writes:
Texas is a model of governmental restraint. In 2008, state and local expenditures were 25.5 percent of GDP in California, 22.8 in the U.S., and 17.3 in Texas. Back in 1987, levels of spending were roughly similar in these places. The recessions of 1991 and 2001 spiked spending everywhere, but each time Texas fought to bring it down to pre-recession levels. “Because of this policy decision,” the Texas Public Policy Foundation report notes, “Texas’ 2008 spending burden remained slightly below its 1987 levels — a major accomplishment.”
The result has been dramatic: “A new Texas Public Policy Foundation report notes that Texas experienced a decline of 2.3 percent from its peak employment [in the current recession], while the nation declined 5.7 percent and California 8.7 percent.” And people have been voting with their feet: A thousand people a day are moving to Texas. It will likely gain four House seats next year, while California for the first time since it became a state in 1850 will gain none.
So, again, the evidence would seem to be overwhelming: high tax-and-spend policies and regulation produces stagnation and unemployment, low tax-and-spend policies and regulatory restraint produce the opposite. So why are there still so many liberals?

Monday, November 29, 2010

1199SEIU to Drop Health Coverage for Workers' Children

1199SEIU to Drop Health Coverage for Workers' Children - Metropolis - WSJ
"One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements."

How can this be?  I thought the SEIU was one of President Obama's favorite organizations.  They worked so hard and contributed so much of their membership's money to his election campaign.  Someone must be mistaken...

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Mixed Messages are clear to me

4 years with a Democratic Congress, the past 2 with a Democratic President suggest to me that their plan is to raise taxes on everyone on 1/1/2011.

Democratic Tax Strategery

Someone needs to sit Obama down in front of the television and make him watch that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry tells George, “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.” Sage advice, Mr. President.

Today Show Mourns Over No More Kennedys in Congress | NewsBusters.org

Today Show Mourns Over No More Kennedys in Congress | NewsBusters.org

Had to post this for my brother in law, a real Kennedy admirer..

Taxpayers in Deep Water on GM

Thu, Nov 18 2010
(Reuters) - General Motors Co may have the world's biggest initial public offering, but U.S. taxpayers were more than $9 billion underwater on the government-funded restructuring at its current share price on Thursday.
A breakdown of the paper loss follows.
* The U.S. Treasury loaned GM about $49.86 billion from late 2008 through 2009 to restructure the company and finance its move through bankruptcy and beyond.
* Before accounting for the Treasury proceeds from the IPO, GM had repaid about $9.74 billion to the government. Those repayments included unused loans, the purchase of Treasury preferred shares, and dividends and interest. That left taxpayers owed a little more than $40.1 billion.
* Including overallotments, Treasury will recover more than $13.6 billion by selling 412.3 million common shares, leaving taxpayers owed about $26.5 billion. Treasury would need to sell its remaining 500.1 million share-stake at an average price of about $53 for taxpayers to be repaid.
* With GM shares trading at $34.50 Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange, taxpayers were facing an $18.50 per-share deficit on their remaining stake, or about $9.25 billion.
SOURCES: Treasury public reports, GM SEC filings

Monday, November 15, 2010

$.15 Gas Tax Increase Proposal

I've been reading about the President's Deficit Commission's proposals.  Most will never be enacted, but one intrigues me.  Among the proposals Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson announced last week was a 15 cent per gallon Federal tax increase.  This is one I think that the GOP can work with, if they leverage it against relaxed EPA regulations that allow increased domestic crude production, i.e. Gulf of Mexico, Coast of California and Anwr, Alaska.

Today crude is selling for $85 a barrel. OPEC is the beneficiary of huge profits at this price. Gas prices in Colorado are about $2.50 a gallon.  I have statistics based on $3.00 per gallon pricing, when crude was a bit higher higher priced, but stay with me..


Here's the breakdown of the $3.00 per gallon price.
Based upon a $3.00 gallon of gasoline, the average break-down is as follows.
Gasoline Retailer $.01 cents per gallon
Oil Company $.08 cents per gallon
Refining $.29 cents per gallon
Marketing/Distribution $.32 cents per gallon
Taxes $.59 cents per gallon
Cost of crude $1.71 per gallon (delivered) Source
Coupla interesting things.  The State, Local and Federal taxes are $.59 while the oil companies' profit is $.08 and the retailers' is $.01. But I'm digressing.  The major component of the $3.00 price is the $1.71 cost of crude, primarily OPEC controlled.

If OPEC oil reliance was minimized by maximizing the use of American oil reserves (Gulf, California, Alaska) couldn't that $1.71 per gallon crude cost be reduced dramatically?  Enough to grant the proposed $.15/gallon Federal deficit reduction tax, possibly allow the oil companies and retailers to increase their $.08 and $.01 profit/gallon respectively and lower the price at the pump to the consumer?  I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, but I think so...  


I'm just sayin.






TSA welcomes you to the new America

The Foundation

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin

Liberty

TSA welcomes you to the new America

"When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself; the federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility.... Americans have long resented the hassles that go with air travel ever since 9/11 -- long security lines, limits on liquids, forced removal of footwear and so on. But if the Transportation Security Administration has its way, we will look back to 2009 as the good old days. The agency is rolling out new full-body scanners, which eventually will replace metal detectors at all checkpoints. These machines replicate the experience of taking off your clothes, but without the fun. They enable agents to get a view of your body that leaves nothing to the imagination. ... For the camera-shy, TSA will offer an alternative: 'enhanced' pat-downs. This is not the gentle frisking you may have experienced at the airport in the past. It requires agents to probe aggressively in intimate zones -- breasts, buttocks, crotches. If you enjoyed your last mammography or prostate exam, you'll love the enhanced pat-down. And you'll get a chance to have an interesting conversation with your children about being touched by strangers. ... The new policy is being challenged in court by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which says it violates the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. But don't expect judges to save us. Says Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg, with resignation in his voice, 'Airports are pretty much a Fourth Amendment-free zone.' ... The good news is that last year, the House of Representatives voted to bar the use of whole-body scanners for routine screening. But only a sustained public outcry will force a change. We will soon find out if there is a limit to the sacrifices of personal freedom that Americans will endure in the name of fighting terrorism. If we don't say no when they want to inspect and handle our private parts, when will we?" --columnist Steve Chapman

Obama: ‘What About Compliments?'

At his November 12 press conference in Seoul, President Obama was asked the following question by CBS’s Chip Reid: “What was the number-one complaint, concern, or piece of advice that you got from foreign leaders about the U.S. economy and your stewardship of the economy?”
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Whereupon the president began his response with a complaint: “What about compliments?” he asked. “You didn’t put that in the list.”

Seriously.....?

Here's the rest of Mr. Kristol's pice.
Obama: ‘What About Compliments?’ | The Weekly Standard

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Veterans Day

Passing the Torch - Alexander's Essays - PatriotPost.US

The Presidency-Speech by Mike Pence


This was adapted from a speech Mike Pence gave on the Hillsdale College campus on September 20, 2010. It is a worthwhile and insightful read.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Hitler finds out the GOP has retaken the House

Hysterical

Kass: Rahm's tenant mulling race against Rahm - chicagotribune.com

I know New York is the center of the universe, but there is no political town as interesting as Chicago..

Monday, November 08, 2010

Trenton's 1st Karate Victory

Socializing Energy: Good Idea?


How would you like to pay higher utility bills to finance expensive electricity from solar and wind power, which you would never use? That's the issue now before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and it deserves more public and political scrutiny before it becomes a reality. 
Transmission lines connect coal, natural gas and nuclear plants to the electric grid so that power can be delivered to homes and businesses. The costs of building this infrastructure, hooking up to the national electric grid and transporting electricity to the end users has traditionally been paid by the industries and passed on to rate payers. This long-standing user-pays policy would be replaced with a policy of everyone pays under FERC's plan. 
The big winners from socializing transmission costs would be wind and solar projects that tend to be in remote areas, like the desert or offshore. In many cases, thousands of miles of new transmission lines would have to be built to get the power to the end user. Google recently announced it will be a major investor in a $5 billion wind farm off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia that will require hundreds of miles of underwater transmission lines. No one is saying who will pay for those transmission costs, but it's a safe guess the investors are betting that FERC will decide to socialize them.

Why should those who do not benefit pay for these projects?  I'm not saying that wind and solar are bad, but that the economics should match the warm fuzzy feelings.  If the projects are not economically solvent on their own merits;
  • they become just like the ethanol scams.  
  • it should not be done..., unless totally funded by the investors and/or the users of the energy produced.  Unless a product can pay for itself, it becomes a jam down like ethanol.
Call me crazy or narrow minded, but I, living in metro Denver, do not want to pay for hundreds of miles of underwater transmission lines to connect to wind farms off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia.  Allow Google to factor the cost of the transmission lines into their feel good, nothing to lose, profit to gain investment in the wind farms.

I'd write to Ed, Mike or Mark, if I thought there was a snowball chance in hell they'd see my point, but those of you in Kentucky, Texas, and other states with sane representation could.  On 2nd thought, I lived in Ky and Texas.  I'll write to those Representatives and Senators.

Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey

I love this guy, Chris Christie...

NBC Yields to Conservative Pressure | The Weekly Standard

NBC Yields to Conservative Pressure | The Weekly Standard

We WANT guys like Olbermann on the air, just as we WANT Ms. Pelosi as House Minority Leader, don't we? Don't both of these fine folks, doing what they do, create benefit for conservatives?

ObamaCare Rationing

How confortable are you with this?
 

Friday, November 05, 2010

AARP raises it's premiums 13%

Even more curious, AARP partially blames ObamaCare for this increase.  It's like being caught in front of a fire with a gas can and matches and denying you started the fire...

Does it take a democrat to understand this stuff/logic?  Certainly this Republican does not.


And now from the same AARP folks who helped bring you Obamacare - a 13 percent health insurance premium increase | Washington Examiner

AARP Supports ObamaCare

Curious at best, since ObamaCare calls for a $500B cut in Medicare...

Democratic Cats getting the Election News

Change of Heart

After some time to reflect, I find that my comments immediately after the election, particularly regarding Colorado were short sighted.  I am now taking a bigger picture view and am grateful for a number of things...
  • Colorado picked up 2 US House seats and now the GOP holds 5 of the 7.
  • Ed is going back to Congress, but as a member of the minority. He is now invenereal.
  • The GOP now has a majority of in the Colorado House, which will be able to block most of Hick's silly stuff.
  • The GOP picked up 8-10 state Governor's seats. I mentioned this in another post on redistricting.
  • The GOP gained control of the US House of Representatives and 6 seats in the US Senate. President Obama will be forced to make a choice, move to the middle or face gridlock for the next 2 years.

All said, it was a great night for the GOP and conservatives.

Redistricting


This is why the Governor's races were so important, Ohio and Texas especially..

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

My last word on Colorado CD7

Looking at the right side of this page, scroll down till you see the odds and reasoning on CD 7.  Mr. Frazier did not spend enough time developing a base in Jeffco.  Maybe he'll apply that lesson in 2012..

I hear Ed is a nice guy.  Almost everyone who know him says that, but his votes, even with overwhelming opposition input hurt CD7.  He is a puppet, but as I understand a sincere one.  I don't understand this fully, but I think it is like Ed is sitting on the river bank in Ohio, looking at the Ohio river flow left to right.  I'm sitting in Kentucky, watching the same river flow right to left.  It is a matter of perspective....

Disgusted with Colorado

http://www.denverpost.com/election2010/ci_16506590

I am so disgusted (Perlmutter (CD7), Hick (Gov), and Bennet (US Senate)) I am thinking about moving back to Texas.  How is it the the CD7 and the state of Colorado are so out of touch with the rest of the country?

The negative ads the DNRC ran the past 2 weeks against Buck saved Bennet, Hick had a silver platter election and I have no more idea than a chicken how Ed defeated Ryan Frazier.

We might as well be living in California!

Monday, November 01, 2010

Interesting Slant on Tomorrow

and the Stewart/Cobert gathering..

Barone, 11/1/2010

Obama's Economists Missed What Voters Plainly Saw - Michael Barone - Townhall Conservative

Heading into what appears to be a disastrous midterm election, the Obama Democrats profess to be puzzled. The president's record, they insist, is moderate, accommodating -- if anything, overcautious. So why do most American voters seem to be angrily rejecting it?
That's one way of looking at it. Another way is to say that the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have increased government's share of gross domestic product from 21 percent, where it's hovered for the last several decades, to about 25 percent and have put the national debt on a trajectory to increase from 40 to 90 percent of GDP.
Voters have noticed -- and don't like it.  MB
 I don't think American voters will ever be fooled like they were in 2008.  They are too smart and savvy enough to recognize that if something or someone looks too good to be true, it or they are playing a game...

The line from the Obama camp is that voters are confused, ignorant, misled or even racist; they can't be rejecting the president's party on the merits. MB

How dare they?

I don't believe this theory for a second, but I believe the arrogant atitude. Approximately 70% of the folks who wrote to their Congressperson, Senators and the White House said no to ObamaCare. We are a representative republic.  They should have listened, but said "we know better what you need".  Truly an example of arrogance.

Rasmussen, A very Knowledgable Guy

Scott Rasmussen: A Vote Against Dems, Not for the GOP - WSJ.com

Elected politicians also should leave their ideological baggage behind because voters don't want to be governed from the left, the right, or even the center. They want someone in Washington who understands that the American people want to govern themselves. SR
I'm going to look for Michael Barone's thoughts this morning.  He, Rove and Rasmussen are, in my opinion, the smartest political guys around....