Listing to Rush while I’m at lunch. He played a clip of President Obama that is just astounding in it’s cluelessness. I will find the actual quote as soon as possible, but here is my take.

The president placed the blame for joblessness on business, ignoring the role government plays. His basic premise is that businesses are interested in making a profit at the expense of creating jobs. Really? The purpose of a business is to give people jobs? He. Doesn’t. Have. A. Clue.

UPDATE: Here’s the actual quotes from the White House web site.

But despite the progress we’ve made, many businesses are still skittish about hiring. Some are still digging themselves out of the losses they incurred over the past year. Many have figured out how to squeeze more productivity out of fewer workers, and that cost-cutting has become embedded in their operations and in their culture. That may result in good profits, but it’s not translating into hiring. And so that’s the question that we have to ask ourselves today: How do we get businesses to start hiring again? How do we get ourselves to the point where more people are working, and more people are spending, and you start seeing a virtuous cycle and the recovery starts to feed on itself?

I’m not an economist nor a business owner, but from what I observe, the answer to how do we businesses to start hiring again is get government out of the way.

Now.

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A great visual representation of the debt increase from Political Math

Gov. Sarah Palin has an excellent article in the Washington Post looking at the President’s “Cap And Tax” legislation.

I am deeply concerned about President Obama’s cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.

[...]

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.

In the article Gov. Palin clearly lays out the problems in the plan passed by the house, and now before the Senate.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

She doesn’t just point out the negative consequences of this bill, but also makes the case for a responsible energy policy.

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

We have a choice, which she describes very well.

Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama’s plan will result in the latter.

The article is well worth reading. I particularly enjoyed this humorous observation:

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

If this becomes law, we all will.

Living in government housing used to be limited to military personnel (I still remember visiting my uncle and his family at Ft. Dix) and, what we used to call, “the projects”. Not anymore.

I bet you thought that if you bought a house, you actually own it and can, with reasonable exceptions, do with it what you want. You probably think that if you want to live in a log cabin, with wood stoves that belch smoke into the air for heat, and an old washer and dryer that don’t have those little EnergyStar stickers on them you can because it’s your life and your property. You paid for it with money you earned with the sweat of your brow and what the heck is America anyhow if a body can’t live in the home they want furnished with the appliances they want?

Ah, silly you. You didn’t reckon on the Democratic Party’s desire to control every minuscule aspect of your life.

Jimmie Bise’s post is a sobering and disturbing look at just one section of passed-without-reading Waxman-Markey mess. It’s section 304, and it says, in part:

(A) preparation, and public disclosure of the label through filing with tax and title records at the time of–

(i) a building audit conducted with support from Federal or State funds;

(ii) a building energy-efficiency retrofit conducted in response to such an audit;

(iii) a final inspection of major renovations or additions made to a building in accordance with a building permit issued by a local government entity;

(iv) a sale that is recorded for title and tax purposes consistent with paragraph (8);

(v) a new lien recorded on the property for more than a set percentage of the assessed value of the property, if that lien reflects public financial assistance for energy-related improvements to that building; or

(vi) a change in ownership or operation of the building for purposes of utility billing; or

(B) other appropriate means.

As Bise notes, “Pay close attention to (iii), (iv), and (vi) because those hit you right where you live.” You need to read his whole post. If your head doesn’t explode (I make no guarantees) head over to this post by Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson and read about 49 other little tidbits of nanny state delight, including:

43. Waxman-Markey also enables Obama to indulge his persistent desire to use the tax code to transfer wealth from people who pay taxes to people who don’t — i.e., from likely Republican voters to likely Obama voters. The bill “amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow certain low income taxpayers a refundable energy tax credit to compensate such taxpayers for reductions in their purchasing power, as identified and calculated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), resulting from regulation of GHGs (greenhouse gases).”

44. Not only will Waxman-Markey slip more redistribution into the tax code, it will establish a new monthly welfare check. It will create an “Energy Refund Program” that will “give low-income households a monthly cash energy refund equal to the estimated loss in purchasing power resulting from this Act.”

45. Another new class of government dependents will be created by Waxman-Markey: Americans put out of work by Waxman-Markey. The bill establishes a program to distribute “climate change adjustment assistance to adversely affected workers.”

The bottom line is you are going to have less (much less) on your bottom line. Beyond that you are going to have less (much less) personal freedom and rights.

It’s passed in the House. We can not allow it to move forward in the Senate. The amount of damage this bill can do between now and 2010/2012 is mind-boggling. Make no mistake, this bill will do nothing to stop “climate change” (how can you fix a hoax?), but will do plenty to stop prosperity and replace capitalism with government redistribution of wealth.

If this doesn’t scare you, you’re just not paying attention.

I know it’s awfully early in the morning, but I’ve been up for two hours and I’m on my second cup of coffee, so I shouldn’t strain anything trying to do some math. If you’re going to play along at home, please stretch first. I don’t want you hurting yourself, and numbers can do that to you.

The tax on cigarettes goes up $1.00 today in Florida. That’s on top of the increase in the Federal tax that has been in place since April.

The first increase prompted me to go from my regular brand to the generic brand that, I believe, is manufactured from the sweepings around the “good” cigarette machines and grass clippings. As of today those cheap cigarettes will cost just over $4/pack, over half of that in various taxes (which tells you just how cheap those generics are).

I’ve told you in the past that I’m a bit of a numbers geek. I spend about half of my work day immersed in an excel spread sheet. And I like it. That’s the background. This morning I ran the numbers on my habit.

At the end of a week, July 7th, I will have saved $28, almost enough for a family run through McDonalds.

When we get to the end of July I will have saved $124, about the equivalent of an extra day of work without the drive, conference calls, and complaining.

Lets move out a little further. School starts around here on August 24th. I can have an extra $220 in my pocket. Who wouldn’t like that? Of course, with what it takes to equip three for school, my pocket will still be empty.

My birthday falls on Thanksgiving day this year. If I put all of the money that I save away (an if that isn’t going to happen) I could have $596. That’s a lot of turkey and cranberry sauce.

By Christmas eve, just in time to do my shopping, I could have $708 to take on my frantic dash through the empty-shelved stores that are going to close in just a few minutes. Either that, or I could buy a whole lot of presents at the nearest gas-n-shop.

Finally, in a year from now (making the probably inaccurate assumption that prices won’t go up any further) I could save, are you ready for this, $1460!

Dude, I’m getting a Dell.

I know that there is still a fight that can be won in the Senate. Let’s pray it happens, because if Crap & Tax is signed into law we are all seriously screwed. Here are my thoughts now. I may have more when I calm down some.

• The church of Global Warming has convinced 219 U.S. Representatives that they can legislate temperature. News Flash – you can’t.
• They are trying to sell this as a jobs bill. That’s true. The jobs are in India and China.
• If you believe this bill is a good idea you probably believe the Reps who voted for it read it. Evelyn Wood couldn’t have read this bill/amendment in the time they had.
• There are eight Republicans who voted for this farce. They need to go. Not a dime for their campaigns, not a vote for their reelection, not a good word for any of them. Let them know what you think of their legislative proctological exam. They are:
  • Mary Bono Mack (California’s 45th district)
  • Michael Castle (Delaware’s at-large)
  • Mark Kirk (Illinois’ 10th district)
  • Leonard Lance (New Jersey’s 7th district)
  • Frank LoBiondo (New Jersey’s 2nd district)
  • John McHugh (New York’s 23rd district)
  • Dave Reichert (Washington’s 8th district)
  • Chris Smith (New Jersey’s 4th district)
  • (h/t to Steveegg for the names and links.)
• Oh yeah, RNC? No money for you either.

I’m about to fall asleep at the keyboard. More later.

The story of Chrysler dealerships slated for closing may turn out to have a serious political component. Doug Ross is tracking down the political contributions of the majority owners of the dealerships on the list and is finding both anecdotal and factual indications that many of the marked businesses being Republican contributors.

To quickly review the situation, I took all dealer owners whose names appeared more than once in the list. And, of those who contributed to political campaigns, every single one had donated almost exclusively to GOP candidates. While this isn’t an exhaustive review, it does have some ominous implications if it can be verified.

Doug has a link to the lists of dealerships scheduled to close and those that will remain open. He is looking for any help that can be given to sift through the lists.

The examination is very much on going, and the possibility exists that a different conclusion can be reached. However, the early examination points to some very troubling correlations. In any case, this is a story that deserves watching.

If you can…

Here’s why.

The Politico’s Lisa Lerer opened her Winners & losers in stimulus fight article:

When you’re talking nearly $790 billion, it’s hard to find a lot of losers.

Excuse me?

She mentions Big Business, The housing market, U.S. automakers, and “Liberal family planning and women’s health advocates, whose push for money to help distribute contraceptives to the poor was ridiculed by Republicans”.

But she missed the real losers — the millions of tax payers who are going to be on the hook for this bill’s bill for years to come. So, if she is looking for losers in this fiasco she really needs to look no further than the American people, including those who have yet to be born.

The House/Senate Conference Committee is working to bring the differing porkulous bills together, and they are in an awful hurry. The deal may be ready as early as today.

Top lawmakers and White House officials are cautiously optimistic they can reach a deal on the roughly $800 billion economic stimulus bill as early as Wednesday.

I can almost envision the following conversation taking place.

Constituent: That spending bill you passed did nothing to help the economy, in fact, things are worse!

Congress Critter: Yes, but we did it in record time.

What can we expect when it shoots out of committee?

Details are starting to emerge on the blending of House and Senate versions of the stimulus package. Two senior Democratic sources said negotiators had agreed on a top line number of $800 billion, but later one of those sources said the number could be even less. Both would be less than either the Senate’s $838 billion bill or the House’s $819 billion package.

Several sources involved told CNN that the number is lower to satisfy the three moderate Republican senators.

I’ll make a prediction. The three marshmallow Republicans in the Senate will, once again, “go along to get along”. House Republicans will (mostly) stand firm, although one or two may go over to the dark side, as may a number of the eleven Democrats who participated in the bipartisan vote against their version of the bill.

God help us all.

Amanda Carpenter has the list of the Porkulous bill conference committee.

From the Senate:
Max Baucus — (D – MT) Finance Committee Chairman
Thad Cochran — (R – MS) Appropriations Committee Ranking Member
Chuck Grassley — (R – IA) Finance Committee Ranking Member
Daniel Inouye — (D – HI) Appropriations Committee Chairman
Harry Reid — (D – NV) Majority Leader

And from the House:
Dave Camp — (R – MI) Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member
Jerry Lewis — (R – CA) Appropriations Committee Ranking Member
Dave Obey — (D – WI) Appropriations Committee Chairman
Charles Rangel — (D – NY) Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Henry Waxman — (D – CA) Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman

So, what do you think is going to come out of this committee?

One of my favorite Ronald Reagan quotes is this one, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Unfortunately too many people have fallen into the trap of government dependency. President Obama would change that quote from the “most terrifying words” to the “most comforting words.”

From last nights press conference, with my emphasis.

It is absolutely true that we can’t depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life.

It is only government that can break the vicious cycle, where lost jobs lead to people spending less money, which leads to even more layoffs.

I do have to give the President high marks for chutzpah. He was actually able to say this with a straight face.

It also contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so that every American will be able to go online and see where and how we’re spending every dime. What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable.

And later, in answering a reporter’s question.

But when they start characterizing this as pork, without acknowledging that there are no earmarks in this package — something, again, that was pretty rare over the last eight years — then you get a feeling that maybe we’re playing politics instead of actually trying to solve problems for the American people.

Well, the government is here to help. We are in serious trouble.