The GOP has announced their six members of the so-called Super Committee to address budget cuts.

House Speaker John Boehner chose House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell chose Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.

I’m off to do some research. What are your thoughts on these picks?

Tweet

In my feed reader this morning was an article in the UK Telegraph by Janet Daley. Here is a bit:

The truly fundamental question that is at the heart of the disaster toward which we are racing is being debated only in America: is it possible for a free market economy to support a democratic socialist society? On this side of the Atlantic, the model of a national welfare system with comprehensive entitlements, which is paid for by the wealth created through capitalist endeavour, has been accepted (even by parties of the centre-Right) as the essence of post-war political enlightenment.

[...]

The Tea Party faction within the Republican party was demanding that, before any further steps were taken, there must be a debate about where all this was going. They had seen the future toward which they were being pushed, and it didn’t work. They were convinced that the entitlement culture and benefits programmes which the Democrats were determined to preserve and extend with tax rises could only lead to the diminution of that robust economic freedom that had created the American historical miracle.

And, again contrary to prevailing wisdom, their view is not naive and parochial: it is corroborated by the European experience. By rights, it should be Europe that is immersed in this debate, but its leaders are so steeped in the sacred texts of social democracy that they cannot admit the force of the contradictions which they are now hopelessly trying to evade.

Her article goes on to address the issues the EU is facing, and they are not pretty. They are also very much a precursor to economic challenges we are already seeing; issues we must address now. She concludes:

The hardest obstacle to overcome will be the idea that anyone who challenges the prevailing consensus of the past 50 years is irrational and irresponsible. That is what is being said about the Tea Partiers. In fact, what is irrational and irresponsible is the assumption that we can go on as we are.

She is correct. It will be worth your time to read the entire article.

Tweet

Looking at our economy, both now and in the foreseeable future, can be a depressing exercise. The current administration and the President’s party offer nothing to alleviate that depression. We see people all around who are happy to live on what government provides, and naive enough to believe that government can provide everything they’ve promised. You would be forgiven for occasionally thinking, “is there anyone else out there who understands?”

If you’re feeling that way, I have good news. There are other people who get it. Here is one of them — Amilya Antonetti — talking with FNC’s Neil Cavuto.

(h/t Breitbart TV)

Tweet

President Obama’s field trip to Wall Street yesterday can be explained this way: It’s like telling your wife, “You’ve really let yourself go, now get over here and give daddy a little sumpin sumpin.”

Both bills, he said, represent “significant improvement on the flawed rules” that are in place today, “despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists to shape them to their special interests.”

“I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you,” Obama said. ” But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort.”

Drew M. summed it up pretty well:

This speech is the worst of Obama…bad policy married to cloying rhetoric. All his ‘false choices’, get beyond selfish politics, I’m not an ideologue, it’s just common sense, BS designed to hide his extreme policies.

Yup.

Tweet

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.

Tweet

Blogging, for the great majority of us, is not a money making endeavor. In fact it can be a financial negative. If you have your own hosting and domain it is going to cost a bit of money. Not break-the-kids-college-fund money, but some.

Yes, this post is an advertisement. Actually, two. The first is this; If you are a blogger and are tired of the limitations you have with a free blogging account, I can hook you up with your own domain and hosting. Drop me a note at lakelandjim at gmail dot com and I’ll give you the details.

But the real purpose of this post is to tell those of you who have your own blog already about a way to make a little money on your site with .

I have been really happy with them, and while they haven't made me rich, they sure have filled in some of the gaps at times. At the very least they have made sure that I didn't have to pull the money to keep bRight & Early running out of some other pocket.

They are also a good source for businesses looking for new customers and great SEO.

with Text Link Ads.

Full disclosure: They also pay a bonus for finding new advertisers and publishers. I will receive a commission if you sign up through these links.

Tweet

A great visual representation of the debt increase from Political Math

Tweet

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.

Tweet

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.

Tweet

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.

Tweet