Me and the Dingbats

 

I regularly go to the Huffington Post and comment on various articles. A conservative is guaranteed an exchange of comments there whereas, if you comment on a more conservative site, you may get one or two “True dats”.  Much more engaging to joust with the other side.  It usually results in me being called “uncaring” and other names.

Yesterday, there was a post there about AT&T taking a $1,000,000,000.00 charge to pay for Obamacare and as you would expect, HuffPo readers just think that is awful of that big, evil company to do that and to warn that some cuts in benefits or people would have to happen in order to adjust to this new reality.  (I covered this below.)  I went there and pointed out to them a point that I have made there before:  It’s fine to aspire to European-style healthcare, but they need to be prepared to live with a European-style economy; permanently higher unemployment, social stratification, etc.  My comments begin here.

So I found this nifty little website that nicely summarizes various statistics for any country that publishes stats, www.indexmundi.com .  Here is how the US unemployment rate compares to France, Italy, Canada and that paragon of Liberal pining, Sweden.  I’m using 2007 as my comparison because my argument is based on historic rates of unemployment, not current and because that was the last full year before the global meltdown began.  You know, back in the good ol’ days.

2007 Unemployment Rates, the evil US vs. Socialist Nirvana

US=4.8%.

Sweden=5.6%, 14.3% higher than the US.

Canada=6.4%, 25% higher than the US.

Italy=7%, 31.4% higher than the US.

France=8.7%, 44.8% higher than the US.

The US’s current rate is about 9.7%, my home state of North Carolina is over 11%.  Prior to the meltdown, NC hovered around 4-5%, but the losses in the finance business have really hurt us, particularly Charlotte, our biggest city.  My guess is that if this ever straightens out, the nationwide number will settle somewhere around 6-8% on a permanent basis.  We will become Canada or Italy.

Vote ‘em Out

 

Here is your list of Socialists.

Bastards.

I Blame Tom Delay

 

And, to a lesser degree, Newt Gingrich.  And W.  And Trent f’n Lott.  Damn them, it is their fault that we are about to flip socialist. 

Why these guys?  It all started with this, Delay’s “K Street Strategy”.  This is where the fiscal irresponsibilty, corruption and appearances of corruption began.  The K Street Strategy, in a nutshell, consisted of Delay twisting the arms of the K Street lobbying firms to send the vast majority of their money to Republicans and to even remove Left-leaning lobbyists from their positions and replace them with more Right-leaning types.  In return, the lobbyists and their clients got what they wanted.  It was vote-buying in it’s most bald-faced form; a scorched-earth strategy and the earth has been fucking scorched to shit right now.

This strategy led to a surfeit of money in Republican coffers and then to assholes like Ted f’n Stevens and his goddamned Bridge to Nowhere.  And it was this effect that so thoroughly discredited them as fiscal conservatives to the point that we elected a Socialist and allowed the even more Socialist Pelosi, Waxman, Markey and so on to take the reins of government.

The article linked above appeared in the Washington Post, co-written by David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf in 1995.  They were never more prophetic than when they wrote this, emphasis added:

“Yet money is also the source of increasing tension among House Republicans that could ultimately weaken them, if not tear them apart. The conflict, in essence, is between ideology and populist reform. One wing wants to collect as much corporate money as possible to sustain and expand the revolution. Another wing fears that this will disillusion voters who brought the Republicans to power to change the traditional ways of doing business in Washington. Gingrich stands in the middle aware, people around him say, that his tenure could depend in part on his ability to resolve the conflict.”

Newt, Newt, Newt.  You blew it.  If you saw the tension here and let it go unimpeded, you laid the groundwork for yours and America’s demise.  All those Lefty nutbags back then hated you because they thought that you would ruin the country, and they were right for the wrong reason.  The country is about to take a road that it cannot return from.  The nutbags wouldn’t be orgasming today over Obama had you simply put your foot down on this activity and set the tone then that Republicans should hew to the principles of fiscal conservatism that is so important to conservative voters.  And then along came W with an allergy to the veto pen and here we are.

Folks, it’s gonna be a long, slow descent into European-style malaise.  We get to watch China, Asia and Brazil take center stage on the world now. 

Watch now, once this crap passes on Sunday, as hiring by private companies goes nowhere.  Companies have been waiting to see what would happen with this and other bills and the only conclusion they can come to now is that their costs are going to permanently and unalterably increase.  No CEO in his right mind would take on added costs in this environment.  Get ready for permanent 10 to 12% unemployment.  We won’t have jobs, but we’ll have health care.

I wonder if I can get my congressman to put provisions for nutrient ingestion in the bill?

Maoist Fashion [UPDATED]

 

This is too easy, sometimes.  Here is a photo of White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett that landed in my inbox this morning from Politico. (article here)  Is that a Mao jacket she is wearing?

 

Pretty close.  Here is the original:

 

Does anybody really know what Jarrett does?  Her title is Senior Advisor.  So, what is her area of expertise?  I know she’s President Obama’s best buddy, blah, blah, blah.  But what, exactly, is she good at?  Military affairs?  Economic matters?  Education?  Union relations?  O originally wanted her to be in his cabinet (Can’t remember what for.  Health and Human Services?), but that didn’t fly so now she is in the kitchen cabinet.

Read the opening two paragraphs from the Politico piece:

“White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett vowed that President Barack Obama will keep up his aggressive outreach to the business community, even as the president steps up his attacks against irresponsible players on Wall Street and in the insurance industry.

“Business is really not a partisan issue,” Jarrett said in an interview for POLITICO’s new video series, “Inside Obama’s Washington.” “What I hear from the business community all the time is that they want a strong economy. That’s a goal that the president shares. They want to create the kind of environment in this country where they feel secure about investing and building for the future, and that’s completely consistent with the president’s objective to create jobs.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31805.html#ixzz0djCXQhqf “

President Obama is making an “aggressive outreach” to the business community?  He disparages business at every opportunity.  A recent poll showed that 77% of investors view him as anti-business.  He wants “to create the kind of environment in this country where they feel secure about investing and building for the future, and that’s completely consistent with the president’s objective to create jobs.”?  Really?  Really, Valerie?  OK, let me help you.  This afternoon, have the President make the following announcement.  He will probably need the teleprompter so he doesn’t choke on the words:

“In view of the continued economic strains the country is under, I have decided to suspend pursuit of health care reform.  Also, I will be putting on hold any further discussion on the cap and trade bill.  I recognize that businesses view these initiatives as additional costs and until we determine that businesses can absorb these additional costs, we will halt our efforts.”

His all-important popularity will soar, markets will rise and businesses will pick up the pace.  Try it, Valerie, you’ll like it.

UPDATE:  So I went back to trash the article out of my inbox and got another look at the headline that came in with the picture and it struck me as funny to see that picture of Jarrett with this headline:

 

Mao nationalized private business in China. She wants us to believe that she, and Obama, understand how to support business.  My ass.

Unprecedentedness

Hey, if you’re going to do something that hasn’t been done before, you might as well raise the bar really high; like, doubling the previous record.  This would be the equivalent of Usain Bolt running the 100 meter race in 4.79 seconds.  President Obama has doubled the budget that even George W dumped on us.  He’s done this in just eight and a half months in office.  He’s already spent one-fifth of the total that Bill Clinton spent in his entire eight years in office.

To be fair, spending comes from Congress, though they are often acting on a President’s demands.  One of the most dangerous times for our freedom and financial safety comes when we have stupidly managed to give one party control of Congress and the White House.  We did this with W and have done it again with O and the result is ruinous.  An economy in collapse, trust in government shattered, a country ideologically split.  I told everybody I could back during the election, when it became clear that Obama would win to go ahead and vote for him but to vote Republican for Congressional and Senate seats in order to emplace a forceful opposition to Obama.  (This was pre-blog, so not on the record anywhere; you’ll just have to take my word for it.)

So now we have a leftist President handing off the heavy lifting to the even more leftist Nancy Pelosi and the dweebish Harry Reid.  Obama sets the course and Pelosi and Reid push the spending through to advance their agenda and they seem to have little to no understanding of how the real world works out here.  They are finally making noises about juicing job creation but amazingly, they think that they can do that by raising taxes and heaping the health care entitlement onto the backs of business.  If the health care bill passes, we will get to see another spike in the unemployment rate and it will be permanent this time as businesses either leave the US or retrench in such a way as to function on lower revenues and with less staff.

Callous Children.

The Pelosi/Reid Deception

 

The deception is that their proposed health care plan will begin collecting taxes in 2010 but not provide any benefits until 2014, despite the urgent pleas that we have to do something right now because Americans are hurting!  This will go unnoticed by the vast majority of American people; all they will understand is that the bill passed and now they don’t have to hear any more about it.  The depth of the deception is made clear by this chart that I stumbled across here (click to embiggen):

 

 

The timing of the increases is no accident.  There is no increase at all in 2010, during the Congressional midterm elections.  There is no significant increase in 2012, when Obama stands for reelection.  There is a huge acceleration in 2014, half way into Obama’s 2nd term (if there is one) but things really get cranked up in 2016 as Obama enters the home stretch of his final term in office.  Presumably, he will be leaving a mess for his successor to clean up, since this whole plan and its ridiculous cost virtually assures a stagnant economy and job market for the foreseeable future.

I really don’t know what they are thinking.  I wish just one of the three, Pelosi, Reid or Obama, had ever met a payroll so that they could understand what they are doing to us.  For a good example of what these government imposed higher costs do to a small business (hell, to any business), read this article that the AP ran yesterday.  This is how Atlas shrugs:

 

• Chuck Ferrar, who owns a liquor store in Annapolis, Md., expects to pay $9,000 in unemployment taxes next year, up from $3,000 this year. Health care costs for his employees will rise by $8,000, or 17.5 percent. "When you start adding this up, it turns into real money," he said. "If I lose an employee through attrition, I will not replace him. You can't afford to do it."

• Sam Schlosser, owner of Plymouth Foundry Inc. in Plymouth, Ind., said his unemployment tax bill could double next year. Revenue at the family-owned company, which makes iron castings for machine parts, has fallen about 50 percent, he said. In case of higher taxes, his company may have to consider layoffs, he said.

• Marjorie Feldman-Wood, president of Al's Beverages in East Windsor, Conn., which makes soda fountain syrup, said higher taxes would make pay raises less likely. Connecticut is borrowing from the federal government, and employers fear the state will have to raise taxes soon to repay the loan. "There's only so much money at the end of the day," she said.

Callous children.

At the Point of a Gun

 

This is an example of how oppressive government can be.  Rather than correct whatever conditions are present here in the U.S. that caused people to move money offshore, the government chose instead to take a foreign-based bank to court and essentially strong-armed them into surrendering their centuries old business model that relied on discretion and privacy.

The U.S. has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world and one of the highest personal tax rates and headed markedly higher soon.  In fact, U.S. tax rates are confiscatory, designed to take money from the politically disfavored and redistribute it to the politically favored.  It is no wonder that companies and individuals are hiding assets; we have created this ravenous monster in Washington that takes any spare change that is laying around and devours it.  Run afoul of it and face prison so that Nancy Pelosi can have enough money on hand to fund whatever nonsense strikes her fancy.

Obama in China

Our President goes to China and suddenly he gets that cost cuttin’ fevah!  After a little time with those true capitalists in China, he has just figured out that too much debt is bad for the economy.  Evidently, the President considers this to be an acceptable amount of debt:

 

 

I read a great quote somewhere, should have saved a link, that Obama’s trip to China was like a homeowner with a very large mortgage taking a plate of cookies by the bank that holds the mortgage.

We Are Sucking Hind Teat to the Boomers Once Again

Health care reform, in keeping with politicians propensity to pick favored constituencies at the expense of others, is purely a pander to the Baby Boomers.  We have a giant glob, 77 million of them, of Boomers that are currently retiring and just in time comes His Wonderfulness to offer to them health care for the rest of their days.

Technically, I am a boomer.  The Baby Boom ran from about 1949 to 1964 and I was born towards the end of that time frame, but the biggest chunk of them were born and came of age in the early to mid-60’s when I was just a kid.  Realistically, I have spent my whole life picking up the leavings of the goddamn Boomers.  They hold the best jobs, they will get the full measure of their Social Security benefits, they sucked up all the market capital then destroyed several trillion dollars’ worth of it and now they are poised to help themselves to 20 years’ more time of perpetuating their scorched earth lifestyles.  They will roar through the system, taking everything with them and leaving a mess in their wake.  And if you don’t believe that, take a look at the current value of your home.  If you are under the age of 50, think about whether or not you will see your Social Security benefits sliced before you retire, in favor of maintaining benefits for those who are about to retire or have already retired.  Think about the current value of your 401(k)’s and how long it will take to recover, if ever.  Think about working until the day you die.

So, we must fight the health care proposal and cap and trade and bailouts and demand the shrinking of the federal government.  If I’m tilting at windmills here, so be it.  But if you are under the age of 50, you better think about storming the gates of Congress.

A Modest Proposal

Here is a proposal, to send a message to the bastards.  Here is a link to IRS form W4.  For January of 2010, under-withhold your taxes.  In fact, fill out the form so that you have exactly zero taxes withheld for the month of January.  You can do this by claiming 10 or 12 dependents and little, if anything will be withheld.  Then, in February, change your withholding again to your normal rate, plus the amount you would have normally withheld in January, spread over the remaining 11 months of the year.  Let’s send a message to the dirtbags up there that we have had enough.  The only thing they want out of the producers of this world is money; take it away.  It’s the only way we will ever get their attention.  Don’t get your asses arrested; pay your taxes, but let’s put a little hitch in the cash flow up there.  Atlas needs to shrug a little.

Spread the word; if you don’t, who will?

GM Offers Discounts to Members of the National Community Action Foundation—You Know, Community Organizers

Government at work, picking and choosing its favored constituencies.  The left sees nothing wrong with this, the choosing of what they see as preferred parties to receive benefits.  Such actions are evident in everything that government does, particularly at the federal level and inevitably leads to market failures.

You know, like what happened with Fannie Mae and the whole loaning-money-to-unworthy-borrowers-thereby-causing-the-near-total-collapse-of-the-world-economy thing.

One of two things has happened here; either this incentive came down to GM from their New Boss, pictured here in his customary looking-down-his-nose pose:

Or, GM took it upon themselves to attempt to curry favor with The One.  Supplication to the gods, as it were.  Either way, it is politics-driven, not market driven and that is a problem.

More such shenanigans reported here by NRO.  Any chance that GM had to survive was doomed the minute it took government money.  They were probably going to go bankrupt soon anyway, now they will die the death of a thousand cuts, inflicted by politicians as they slice it up for their own ends.

In Which, While in my Underwear, I Critique a Nobel Prize Winner

Paul Krugman, in today's New York Times laments the absence of Richard Nixon in the White House today rather than the current office holder.

"But the Nixon era was a time in which leading figures in both parties were capable of speaking rationally about policy, and in which policy decisions weren’t as warped by corporate cash as they are now. America is a better country in many ways than it was 35 years ago, but our political system’s ability to deal with real problems has been degraded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder whether the country is still governable."

So, what was that era of American politics really like? It was a time when the Democrats had been in power for so long that the Republican party had acclimated so thoroughly to being the minority party that they mounted no real challenge to the Democrats in the House and the Senate. Instead, they sought to pick up a few crumbs here and there that the Democrats tossed their way after funding things like, oh, I don't know-the ultra successful War on Poverty. Republicans in that era weren't so much an opposition party as they were inside players, skilled at greasing the skids in order to maintain their own access to the public coffers. They didn't challenge the Democrats in either philosophy or the execution of that philosophy. So Krugsie laments the loss of a time when Republicans were compliant and easily manipulated with a few bread crumbs.

When you hear Krugman and others on the Left decry the lack of civility and bipartisanship in politics today, what they are really moaning about is that the Dems can't roll the Reps any more. Hell, they can't even roll the Blue Dog Dems any more. Somewhere along the line over the last 30 years, conservatives and libertarians found their voice and formed a clear understanding of those beliefs. And because these beliefs are principle-based, not desire based, they don't yield. In short, the Krugmans of the world can't stand the fact that the conservative side of the country dug in its heels and started to push back. For me personally, this crystallization of thought began about 3 years after I got out of college, in the time of Reagan.

Read this passage from Krugman:

"Right now, Republicans are balking at the idea of requiring that large employers offer health insurance to their workers;"

I don't know of anyone who is balking at that idea. In fact, many people in this health care debate would like to see employer-based health care come to an end. Further, the market for employees already dictates that large employers provide health insurance. It's a ludicrous statement for Krugman to make.

And then Krugman gets it completely wrong:

"So what happened to the days when a Republican president could sound so nonideological, and offer such a reasonable proposal?

Part of the answer is that the right-wing fringe, which has always been around — as an article by the historian Rick Perlstein puts it, “crazy is a pre-existing condition” — has now, in effect, taken over one of our two major parties."

How condescending. What an ass. The disagreement over health care reform, or health insurance reform, isn't based on a reasonable proposal from the Democrats. What the Democrats are proposing isn't reasonable to people who have a firm belief that health care, and the responsibility for it, is better left to the people who need it and the people who provide it. The socialist Left is dumbfounded that people wouldn't want a government provided program for everything (see "What's Wrong With Kansas"). The conservative/libertarian right is dumbfounded that some people believe the government should be their Sugar Daddy and parcel out everything we need to live.

Obamacare is a dangerous expansion of government, period. Neither I nor any clear-thinking person can see the benefit of that, never mind the anti-competitive nature of it. We simply can't see the wisdom or benefit in turning over so large a component of the private sector to the government. The socialist Left is seriously misjudging the anger being shown at town hall meetings these days. Obama and the crew are trying to ram something through with little if any debate or discussion. Elected representatives stand in front of these town hall meetings and read talking points designed to sell the plan rather than talking substantively about the bill at hand. People see this and quite rightly they go ballistic.

The hell of it is, there is quite a lot of agreement between the two sides about health care and, I believe, a real willingness to fix it. But when the party in power tries to shove something down our throats, we fight back. Areas of agreement include:

• Health care costs too much
• We should eliminate employer-provided health care. We need true portability.
• We don't like having either insurance companies or the government between us and our doctors
• Medical providers need relief from the administrative nightmare they face every day
• The ultimate responsibility for one's health resides with the individual. People need to eat properly and get enough exercise. We should do more to encourage the acceptance of this responsibility.
• Pre-existing conditions should be more limited in scope. The other side of this double-edged sword is that insurers will price for recent conditions, as they should. My ex-wife was recently denied coverage because the insurer thought that she had had a sprained knee within the last 30 days. A sprained knee. (She appealed and got the coverage.)

I am a big believer in the use of Health Savings Accounts coupled with major medical coverage. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods recently wrote about how his company uses these to control costs and places more responsibility in the hands of his employees and he was excoriated by his Volvo-driving, tofu-chewing customers. He was accused of being anti-healthcare reform, which was ludicrous. He just didn't care for Obamacare and has a workable, proven alternative. Since the Whole Foods plan works, there is no chance that Obama, Krugman or any of the fringe Left will adopt any of its methods.

Krugman goes on to whine about corporate lobbying in Congress. Blah, blah, blah.

So, I propose a compromise for health care. The socialist Left is bent on a giveaway, so let's do this. The government just handed as much as $4500 to everybody who purchased one of the government's preferred automobiles. Let's declare the Whole Foods plan to be the government's preferred plan, eliminate employer-provided health care and then give everyone $5000 (the annual limit) in a Health Savings Account. And then let the market do what it does best, wring the fat out of the market. This compromise would satisfy the right's desire to make the health care market function more like a free market and would satisfy the left's burning desire to give other people's money away.

Nah, better not. It might work.