This Robert Samuelson piece on the inherent problem with Keynesian economic theory – which, in my opinion, can be summed up neatly as “First, assume that your planned economy will be managed forever by an immortal, unelected, and incorruptible Keynesian economist” – is pretty good, but it has one passage in it that makes my teeth ache. Here it is, in all of its questionable | Read More »
I would like to offer this analogy, for anybody out there dealing with an individual or individuals who seem convinced that the problem with the 2009 ‘stimulus’ was that it was not large enough: Imagine, if you will, you have a friend, and he’s a drunk. And he’s in trouble: he needs five hundred bucks to get out from under his bills, but he doesn’t | Read More »
Even for Barack Obama, this is simultaneously: shameless; and clueless. I’ve said to Republican leaders, ‘You go talk to your constituents and ask them, “Are you willing to compromise your kids’ safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?” ‘ ” Just in case any viewer missed his class-clashing message, Obama referred to corporate-jet owners at least three more times before he took | Read More »
Via James Pethokoukis comes an updated version of the graph (originally created by Obama’s economic advisers Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein) that has been succinctly countering (for years) any and all attempts to argue that the misnamed ‘stimulus’ worked: For those without access to the picture: it’s a modified version of this graph, which was used to sell the idea that with a stimulus, unemployment | Read More »
If you’re like me and Ed Driscoll, you’re the sort who would think that if we were going to spend almost a trillion dollars that we don’t actually have on a ‘stimulus program’ then we’d at least spend it on infrastructure. Well, more accurately, you’re sort who hopes that we’d spend it on infrastructure, because if you’re like me and Ed Driscoll you’d be well | Read More »
This is not the most important passage from the article, though: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 30% of voters nationwide believe the $787-billion economic stimulus plan has helped the economy. However, 38% believe that the stimulus plan has hurt the economy. This is the first time since the legislation passed that a plurality has held a negative view of its impact. | Read More »
There are not 75. Hey, everyone else is looking up their state, so I might as well do so, too.
The Washington Post, alas, gets this editorial wrong in the very first sentence: NO ONE LIKES to be the bearer of bad news — especially when it could threaten your multibillion-dollar health-care reform bill. Come, I will conceal nothing from you: considering the amount of time that the Right’s bloggers, pundits, and legislators have spent explaining why the Democrats in Congress needed to institute a | Read More »
For the benefit of any hypothetical researcher from, say, the 2050s or so – hey, how are you folks doing, up there? Have the Cubs won a World Series yet? – let me just note the two major mistakes that the current administration made that seem to have seriously complicated the passage of their health care rationing bill. Choosing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s approach on the | Read More »
At some point this August (or later), you might hear somebody ask you – probably with at least a sniff in their voice; possibly with an outright sneer – why it is that all of a sudden conservatives/Republicans now are worried about deficits. What were we, asleep? Not particularly, of course – nonetheless, I think that this (alas, anonymous) comment about the Columbus Tea Party | Read More »
That’s House Minority Leader John Boehner’s response to CoS Rahm Emanuel’s rather… well, sad… statement that the White House has turned the economy around:
…it’s who you know. Isn’t that right, Governor Bill Ritter (D-CO)? Gov. Ritter Steered Stimulus Money To Ex-Employer DENVER (AP) ? Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has awarded some of the state’s first stimulus money to his former employer in a no-bid contract. Ritter hired his former law firm, the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson, in a no-bid contract to review stimulus spending, The Denver Post reported | Read More »
The annoying bit is that we can’t even put the Vice President in an undisclosed location, given that he’s already gone out and disclosed it. I would write that it’s days like this that make me miss Dick Cheney, except that doing so would imply that I’ve ever stopped doing so since 01/20/2009. Biden comments drive metal manufacturers lower NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of | Read More »
…but I like it anyway (Via Hot Air). “They got great burgers, but no new jobs.” Come on: that’s funny. Crossposted to Moe Lane.
It was, nonetheless, an alarming thought to wake up to: even if you accept the concept that the ‘stimulus’ bill that Congress saddled on us is creating jobs – And that’s subject to debate: …we’re shifting any jobs generated away from useful ones, like manufacturing, and towards useless ones, like government. Have a nice morning! Moe Lane Crossposted to Moe Lane.
The White House is promising solid economic growth by the end of this year: White House Sees 3.5% Growth by Year-End, Exceeding Forecasts May 11 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration projected that the U.S. economy will expand at a 3.5 percent annual rate by year-end, a rebound that would be almost twice as strong as private forecasters expect. [snip] As early as the end of | Read More »
Hey, who here thinks that the Nation, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, and the rest of the Journolist stenographers are going to reference this? (For those who can’t see it: it shows Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer bragging about cutting out the very funding that a good number of ostensibly-unrelated Left-bloggers and writers are trying to pin on the GOP, in the person of Senator Susan Collins. | Read More »
That’s the word that the Washington Post used, so don’t blame me (H/T: Glenn Reynolds): Obama’s Machine Sputters in Effort to Push Budget Grass-Roots Campaign Has Little Effect When his post-campaign organization was unveiled in January, Barack Obama vowed that the 13 million-strong grass-roots network built during his presidential campaign would play a “crucial role” in enacting his agenda from the White House. But in | Read More »
I have officially run out of alternative ways to express the concept that irony is dead, so I will simply say: “Irony is dead:” Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists. A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor | Read More »
(Via Hot Air Headlines) Why, what could possibly go wrong? Obama Taps Biden to Oversee Stimulus Package Implementation President Obama has turned to his own vice president to oversee implementation of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, part of which will be available this week for state Medicaid programs. Obama announced his decision before the National Governors Association in Washington on Monday, saying Vice President | Read More »
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