Ca$h for Clunkers

According to the Council of Economic Advisors, the Cash for Clunkers program cost the American taxpayer $8,700 for each additional automobile sale. By analyzing car sales, they concluded that only an additional 330,000 cars were sold than would have been expected without the program, hardly a bonanza for either the economy or the auto dealers who filled out reams of paperwork for the priviledge of waiting for the government to make good on its promises. For a more detailed analysis, read Donald Marron.

Government of, by, and for The Czars

Obama has named at least 21 czars that greatly increase the power of the Executive Branch of our government. None of these people face hearings or confirmations; their sole allegience is to the president. It is such a massive power grab that even Robert Byrd left his sick-bed long enough to pronounce the moves, which are outside of congressional oversight, violate the Constitution.

A president may have as many advisors as he wishes, however the Constitution does not provide for executive “czars” who directly dictate policy, such as Feinberg who will approve of executive pay for any business that receives government money.

After a two-hour search of the Internet I found the names and positions of 21, but I am not certain my list is complete. They are:

Af-Pak: Richard Holbrooke
Border: Alan Bersin
Cars: was Steve Rattner
Climate: Todd Stern
Cybersecurity: Rod A. Beckstrom
Drug: Gil Kerlikowske
Energy: Carol Browner
Executive Pay Rate: Kenneth Feinberg
Faith Based: Joshua DuBois
Guantamano Closure: Daniel Fried
Health Reform: Nancy Ann DeParle
Info Tech: Vivek Kundra
Mideast Peace: George Mitchell
Non proliferation: Gary Samore
Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia: Dennis Ross
Regulatory: Cass Sunstein
Science: John Holdren
Stimulus Accountability: Earl Devaney
Sudan: J. Scott Gration
TARP: Herb Allison
Terrorism: John Brennan
Urban: Adolfo Carrion, Jr.

Little is known about their backgrounds, about their direction from the President, or about the exact scope of their power. For example, few people know that John Holdren has co-authored a book praising forced abortions and mass sterilization, that his Cyber Security Czar claims to know nothing about IT, or that his energy czar is a member of the Socialist International who believes in one world government.

Next time, let's test the candidates for President on their understanding of basic civics and the Constitution. And maybe we need to re-read the Tenth Amendment ourselves.

"Stimulus" Prediction VS "Stimulus" Reality

Have you succumbed to a mind numbed from constantly hearing big numbers? Watch this new penny visualization from YouTube about the jobs lost WITH the "Stimulus" bill. After a short minute and a half, you'll have a much better understanding of the problems of unemployment.

Between The Idea And The Reality . . .

The "Stimulus" Bill has proven to be a perfect, concrete illustration of T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Hollow Men:"
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
Yesterday, Sweetness and Light posted a few of the promises made about the "Stimulus" Bill beside the sad reality of its failures thus far. John Boehner did the research and held the press conference, but thus far, few, if any, news sources have reported on it. It seems to be another situation of "if it goes unreported, did it really happen?"

While we still have freedom of the Internet, we need to expose the facts to as many people as possible, so please read the article and share it with your neighbors.

ACORN Alert

ACORN has recently been indicted in Nevada and Pennsylvannia as well as ten other states, yet the organization is in line to receive at least $8,000,000,000 in federal funds. To correct this egregious example of corruption, Michele Bachmann (R MN) introduced an amendment in the House Committee on Financial Services to prevent appropriated money going to any group that has been indicted or convicted of fraud. It quickly passed. Then Barney Frank got to thinking about it and saw that the amendment was eviscertated. Read Bachmann's op-ed in the Washington Times to get the full details. Rumors, indictments, and convictions follow this group everywhere it appears, yet ACORN only gains in influence. It will participate in the 2010 Census by providing workers and oversight. And some of them have begun work already in preparation for 2010.

Do You Want to Give More Power to These People?

The news leaked out yesterday that the Federal Government has probably sent out at least 10,000 "stimulus" checks to dead people. One of the recipients was a woman who has been dead since 1967. This admission came from the crack accountants at Social Security who were responsible for sending $250 checks to retirees. That's $625,000,000 down the drain, if, indeed, they were honest about how many mistakes they made.

If they are that far behind in clearing out their records, can you imagine just how long it's going to take to get the economy "stimulated?" Don't hold your breath.

Where Is the “Stimulus” Money Going?

Apparently the Democrats in Congress have no idea and furthermore, they don’t care. When Republicans Cantor and Thune tried to find out, they were denied access to official records. So they’re resorted to searching news reports to ferret out tidbits of information.

Not surprisingly, a large percentage of the money so allocated is being wasted without effective oversight:
• A Binghamton paper reports that Union, NY will receive $578,661 from the HUD’s Homeless Prevention Fund even though “Union did not request the money and does not currently have homeless programs in place in the town to administer such funds.”

• The Altoona Mirror reports that $819,000 from the same fund will come to that town even though officials “may not have enough of a homelessness problem to use it.”

• Similarly WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania said the city would receive $855,478 from the same fund, but does not know what to do with it.

And we’re asking our grandchildren to spend their lives paying for this?

If you want more information, check out Byron York’s column.

And please watch the video below to get the big picture.

Stop Spending Our Future - The Crisis

This is an excellent clip with both visuals and historical perspective to illustrate the current spending program by the Obama administration. Take the time to look at it.

Same Song, Second Verse Same As The First

Tim Geithner, the only man in the US who could solve the banking crisis despite being a tax cheat, announced his plan to solve the banking crisis today. He proposed that the toxic assets be purchased. How novel! Wasn't that the original plan back in September when Paulson convinced the Senate and House to pass the Toxic Assset Relief Program to the tune of $700,000,000,000?

Of course, Paulson and Geithner didn't actually spend that money the way they had promised to. But with more time to tinker with the details, Geithner has now come up with new flourishes and bigger expenditures. In fact, he admitted the costs would eventually come up to $1,000,000,000,000. (And remember that initial costs are always lower than reality when it comes to government programs.)

He expects a coalition of federal and private "investment" will take care of the toxic assets. But after Congress reneged on the AIG bonuses which they themselves wrote into the "Stimulus" bill, and after Geithner insisted on the bonuses, then claimed to know nothing about them, who would want to go into partnership with the government?

Rubbing Our Noses in ACORN(s) Updated

Americans have watched ACORN with growing concern in the last number of years due to continued malfeasance in registering new voters and other questionable election activities. In several states they have faced lawsuits and investigations because of illegal acts such as turning in 75 registration forms from one person. But Obama defended and trained ACORN members during his days as a community organizer, so they grow more audacious every week.

As we reported earlier, ACORN turned up as a beneficiary of $1,000,000,000 in the hastily passed “Stimulus” Bill. Obama’s administration then sweetened the pot even more in the “emergency” funding of the federal government (Omnibus Bill) for the rest of the year with an additional $3,900,000,000. Taxpayers get the privilege of footing their expenses whether or not we agree with their goals.

Because Obama so graciously allowed the Census to stay with the Commerce Department, thereby avoiding his direct supervision, he has arranged for ACORN to become a major player in the 2010 census. This would give the group access to even more money, i.e., some of the $1,000,000,000 additional funds allotted to the Census in the “Stimulus” and some of the extra $3,100,000,000 in the Omnibus bill.

The bigger, more frightening problem is that the census must remain politically neutral if we are to have a chance at honest government since it will determine districts for the House of Representatives. Yet, ACORN only seems to turn in Democrat vote registrations and apparently only drives Democrat voters to the polls. To believe that they will be neutral during the Census is almost laughable.

This week we discovered that the people who have threatened AIG executives and demonstrated in front of their homes are from a group sharing office space with ACORN. The group is named Working Families for Connecticut, but one wonders how working people find so much time for bus trips and daylong demonstrations. And who pays for their printed placards proclaiming that “Capitalism Is Organized Crime"? Apparently, ACORN can also function as a handy “Rent A Mob” when needed for political theatre.

Sweetness and Light has even more information about this organization,

Recommended Reading

Actually, I highly recommend Randall Hoven's article, "Here's What's Happening on the Economy," at American Thinker. It provides an explanatory timeline for those of us who are suffering from the constant battering of bad news, bad decisions, and bad political moves of the last few months.

Democrats Double Dip While Economy Slips

The "Stimulus" Bill and the Omnibus Spending Bill have 122 cases of appropriations to the same entities, according to Sen. Mitch McConnell. Below are a few examples:
ACORN
Stimulus $1,000,000,000
Omnibus $3,900,000,000
ACORN TOTAL $4,900,000,000

Census
Stimulus $1,000,000,000
Omnibus $3,100,000,000
Census TOTAL $4,100,000,000

Fish & Wildlife
Stimulus $165,000,000
Omnibus $1,140,000,000
Fish and Wildlife TOTAL $1,305,000,000

Bureau of Land Management
Stimulus $125,000,000
Omnibus $890,000,000
Land Management TOTAL $1,015,000,000

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Stimulus $220,000,000
Omnibus $472,000,000
NIST TOTAL $692,000,000

Arts Endowment
Stimulus $50,000,000
Omnibus $155,000,000
Arts Endowment TOTAL $205,000,000

Do they really believe that they're buying enough votes to stay in office, forever supported in style by the taxpayers? What they are doing to the economy will seriously hinder the flow of tax money into their coffers, so they will eventually suffer too. Then there's the backlash they will face when enough taxpayers lose money and jobs.

Maybe it's time to start paying attention to the daily tracking poll called the stock market, Mr. President. It represents the real wealth of this country. When that goes down, so does tax revenue.

It's just Monoply money to them,

But it's blood, sweat, and tears to us.

Economic Stimulus Bill of 2008 (tax rebates) $170,000,000,000
TARP of 2008 (save the banking system bill) $700,000,000,000
American Recovery Act 2009 (the “stimulus" bill) $820,000,000,000
2009 Budget (under Bush) $3,100,000,000,000
Omnibus Spending Bill (House has passed) $410,000,000,000
Mortgage Affordability Plan (estimate) $ 75,000,000,000
Health Care Proposal (estimate) $650,000,000,000

That adds up to $5,925,000,000,000.

It does not take into account the present deficit or the interest on the coming deficits, if we can convince someone to buy our debt. All except the last two items have already been voted into law.

Vote of No Confidence

On November 4 when the polls closed, the following had been recorded for the day:
Dow Jones Average: $9,625
NASDAQ: $1,780
S&P 500: $1,005
After four weeks in office, the same indexes were:
Dow Jones Average: $7,552.60
NASDAQ: $1,470.66
S&P 500: $789.17

The Dow Jones Average is down $297.81 since the passage of the purposeless spending festival, officially named the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on Friday.

I am sure that the reason Michelle Malkin and I are mentioning the same phenomenon is because great minds think alike. Ahem! I thought of it last night, but waited until the markets closed to post.

Transparency? About As Clear As Mud

My mother always taught me to beware of salesmen who spent more time stressing the urgency of the purchase than they did extolling its benefits. That alone makes me very worried about the "Stimulus" Bill. We've been told much more about the need for immediate action than about what's actually in the bill.

So our noble leaders have come up with legislation that is reportedly more than 1000 printed pages. They intend to vote at 1 PM today on an agreement that was only reached last night. So much for the new era of transparency and the promise of having every piece of legislation on the Internet for at least 48 hours before the final vote.

To compound the problem, the lobbyists on K Street received their copies before Congressional staffers, according to U.S. News and World Report. No matter who got the bill first, no representative can possibly have read it, much less reflected on its implications, before the vote. And, as usual, those of us who have to pay for this, are left out in the dark -- until the tax bill comes.

Health Care for Me, But Not for Thee

Since the emergence of the health care reforms hidden in the “Stimulus” Bill, I have been reflecting on the similarities between Sen. Specter and me. Actually, we both have a lot in common. We’re from the same generation of babies born during the Depression. Both of us were fairly healthy until the nineties. Since then, we’ve have hit a few bumps on the road. Each of us has fought cancer 4 times and had a major operation in the last 17 years.

We both received excellent, up-to-date medical care that enabled us to win over amazing odds.

Fortunately of me, my illnesses occurred in the past. Were they to happen after the “health care reforms” hidden in the stimulus bill, I am certain that given my expected life span and the cost of cancer treatment, the authorities would order “Palliative Treatment Only."

But, because Arlen Specter is in the Senate, he will continue to receive medical care at the taxpayer expense without regard to those ugly mortality tables versus the cost of treatment.


Footnote:In the nineties Arlen fought off brain cancer twice, then had to endure cardiac bypass surgery in 1998. Then in 2005 and 2008 Sen. Specter had to be treated for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

I had breast cancer in 1992, ocular melanoma and a tumor on my colon in 2005, lung cancer in 2006, and a kidney operation in 2007.

Now We Know . . .

In the last couple of days, as more information has come to light about the “Stimulus” Bill, we finally see how it will create some new jobs -- the new federal infrastructure to monitor and control health services in America.

Using Tom Daschle’s book as a blueprint, the new department will access all medical records for every person in the U.S. The same party that railed against monitoring phone calls from Al Quaeda suspects to people in the US as an invasion of privacy now wants federal office workers checking out your weight, blood pressure, and medications. It doesn’t take much to imagine “accidental” leaks of embarrassing information, given the proper situation.

Other functionaries will keep tabs on the physicians to be sure they quit acting like solo practitioners, concerned only with the health of their patients, and train them to accept the federal guidelines for practicing medicine. Direct intervention by the government in the management of every patient will be easy with the records available online.

Statisticians will be employed to figure out the cost effectiveness of each treatment on each patient. If the cost compared to what they decide is your expected longevity is too high, then the proposed treatment will be denied.

In other words, the emergency "Stimulus" Bill brings us socialized medicine by stealth.

ACORN Stimulates The Economy?

Have you heard any arguments that support the notion that supporting ACORN will stimulate the economy? I haven’t either. So why does it receive a bailout in the “Stimulus” Bill? If it belongs there, then “Stimulus” supporters should tell us how it would magically cure the economy.

It was also protected in the September TARP bill through Bank of America donations. By June, the amount is supposed to be $2,000,000. This is the same ACORN that faces charge of voter fraud and improper accounting practices in fourteen states.

Support for the "Stimulus," as currently written, now rests at 34% versus 62% who oppose it, according to Rasmussen. Five percent are undecided. Whatever happened to government of, for, and by the people?

Harry Reid's Figures

Are you ready to add $3,333.33 for yourself and every member of your family to your present tax bill? Harry Reid has stated that the cost of the Stimulus package would end up being around $1,000,000,000,000. That is $3,333.33 per man, woman, and child, whether employed or not. Then, it increases as we have to pay interest and/or inflation decreases the value of our dollar.

Once some of these spending programs are in place, unfortunately, many of them will become regular budget items. Have you ever known of a government program that withered away of its own free will? Government functionaries always find many reasons why the funding should continue, often with increased budgets.

Slave or Free?

Sometimes I get the feeling that we're paying our government to turn us and our children into indentured servants.Since the "crisis" in the banking industry, our elected officials have steadily insisted on appropriating more money to solve the problems they created. Tax Freedom Day used to come sometime in May, but who knows when it will be after all the bailouts and stimulus bills get passed.