The New York Times reports on another Department of Energy green energy loan going bad. This one involves Nevada Geothermal Power, which generates electrical power using near-surface geothermal heat. After $79 million in loans and $66 million in outright grants, the company’s auditor has concluded that there is significant doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern. In this case, Nevada Geothermal was | Read More »
There is only one issue this week in Washington - a Continuing Resolution (CR). Both the House and Senate were scheduled to be out of session this week, so there are no major hearings or markups scheduled in committees. Friday is the deadline to pass a CR, therefore expect the House and Senate to convene off and on this week to cut a deal to keep | Read More »
No wonder Democrats casually disregard our budget crisis. They have a penchant to drop zeros from government expenditures! Last month, Democrat congressional candidate Dave Weprin thought that the national debt stood at $4.0 trillion. Now Harry Reid has filed cloture on his version of the FY 2012 CR that has a missing zero from some of the disaster aid expenditures. According to CQ Politics, Reid’s | Read More »
President Obama will address a Joint Session of Congress tonight to present his new jobs reelection stimulus plan, which is all too similar to the Obmacrats 2009 failed stimulus plan. A number of members of Congress let it be known that they did not intend to show up for Obama’s presentation. Concerned that empty seats would ruin the optics for the Obama reelection campaign videos, | Read More »
On last night’s PBS NewsHour, I discussed the politics of confirming President Obama’s judicial nominees with Caroline Fredrickson, executive director of the liberal American Constitution Society. A transcript of the interview and streaming video are available on the NewsHour web site. Here are some excerpts: CURT LEVEY: Caroline accurately pointed out that there are 20 pending [nominees] who have gotten out of committee. But that’s | Read More »
Yesterday the press announced a bipartisan compromise over the FAA. Of course, that wasn’t what happened. One reporter told me that the deal was bipartisan because “that was how Reid framed it in his statement.” What really happened was that Harry Reid and Senate Democrats proved themselves to be venal, the press fell down on the job, the White House had a panic attack, and | Read More »
Back in the good old days, referring to a liberal as “tax and spend” was considered an insulting accusation – one that Democrats avoided, deflected and denied. All except poor Walter Mondale. Back in 1984, for some reason, Mondale thought that telling Americans that he was going to raise taxes would somehow be considered a good thing to do. Of course we know the | Read More »
Update: Despite admitting that his demands are extreme, Harry Reid refused to approve the stopgap funding measure for the FAA, thereby ensuring a partial shutdown until September. Throughout the debt ceiling fight, Harry Reid purported to be the only true compromiser, while painting the Tea Party as extreme hostage takers. However, unlike most hostage takers, tea partiers made no demands of government for their own | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the McConnell – Obama debt deal, how we got screwed, and the weak GDP report. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope | Read More »
Guess who wrote it? The late-night jousting in the Senate followed a vote on House Speaker John A. Boehner’s debt-limit measure, which would extend the Treasury’s borrowing power until early next year and force another economy-rattling fistfight within a few months. Drafted largely by aides to Reid and McConnell last weekend, the measure was originally designed to appeal to the more centrist Senate. Everything we’ve | Read More »
Harry “the only compromise is mine” Reid’s so-called budget cuts are based on the false assumption that we would keep spending the same amount on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for ten more years even though President Obama has already started to withdraw our troops. That’s right, the Reid plan is based on cutting spending that was not requested and will not be spent. Congressman | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the crumbling “Boehner Plan” in the House, how Obama may circumvent it, and who’s to blame for this mess. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you | Read More »
Consider that John Boehner and Harry Reid named their different legislation to raise the debt ceiling by the identical name. Consider also that John Boehner and Harry Reid’s legislation are virtually mirror images to each other — a fact that the rhetoric has obscured, but is in reality accurate. Consider, in fact, that Boehner and Reid use the same language in various portions of their | Read More »
Tonight, the President will address the nation and call for merging John Boehner and Harry Reid’s debt ceiling plans. In effect, the President says if he can get a one time increase, instead of having to have two takes to get what he wants, he’s pretty much ready to go along with John Boehner’s plan. So here is what I predict will happen: (1) Harry | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the latest debt ceiling negotiation developments from this weekend, and how the markets will react if no deal is reached in time. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to | Read More »
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