Barack Obama recently dropped in on Elkhart, Indiana to pitch the virtues of the Democrat’s now-$789B spending plan. Unemployment there is over 15%, having more than tripled since Obama burst on the scene as an upstart challenger to Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid last fall. Dick Moore, the town’s mayor, says, ""People are hanging in there,…
Category: Finance
A Must-Read – Jeffery Miron on Stimulating the Economy
Harvard’s Jeffery Miron’s CNN article about stimulating the economy in fact, rather than in hyperbole, is a must-read. While not lengthy, Miron’s points are direct and to the point. Two excerpts of particular note: Limit Union Power: Later this year, Congress is likely to vote on the card check bill, a new law that facilitates…
More Americans Oppose Stimulus Than Support It, For Good Reason
A new Rasmussen poll shows that support for the now $900B+ stimulus package being engineered by Democrats is down to 37% – it was 45% 2 week ago. Some 20% of those polled are now undecided. Some of the blame for the proposal’s failure to win over voters belongs to the Democratic Congress that larded…
Obama Planning to Slash Defense Budget
Fox News is reporting that Barack Obama has asked the military’s Joint Chiefs for Staff to cut the defense budget by 10% for FY 2010. This is an unfortunate “request” given the massive expenditures being planned in virtually every other area of the budget. These proposed cuts are not a good idea for national security…
New Jobs Under-Stimulated by Dem’s Plan
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) had some unpleasant words to say about the Democrat’s economic stimulus plan: Not since the passage in 1909 of the 16th Amendment – which cleared the way for a federal income tax – has the United States seriously entertained a policy so comprehensively hostile to economic freedom, nor so arrogantly indifferent…
Stimulus
Jim Manzi at NRO’s Corner blog feels the same way I do about the contents of the so-called Stimulus Package but draws a different conclusion about whether the spending is a good idea: consider the gigantic—as in close to $100 billion—amount of extra federal money these guys are proposing to spend on education. Study after…
What’s a Republican to do but Bask in Barack Obama’s Glow of Greatness?
Sister Toldjah has an idea: Why not stand up for some traditional conservative values, you know, like they mean something. Republicans have known for several months that they’d be facing Barack Obama as president and a Democratic majority in Congress. But knowing their opponent hasn’t translated into a strategy for dealing with Mr. Obama’s enormous…
Why "Yes We Can" Could Flop Hoover-style
Barack Obama was elected in part because his signature slogan of “Yes we can!” resonated with many Americans, including all-important independent voters. For his presidency to succeed Mr. Obama now has to create the circumstances that allow his supporters to do. Do what? That thing they want to do. Problem is that modern America is…
Geithner In as U.S. Treasury Secretary, Tax Enforcement to Decline?
Barack Obama doesn’t think so, but The Question has to be asked about his new Secretary of the Treasury, doesn’t it? Will Tim Geithner turn into an archetypal “do as I say, not as I do” bureaucrat and strictly enforce the tax laws he was personally unable to comply with or will he turn a…
Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged": Novel or Prophecy?
Stephen Moore writes that the central themes of Ayn Rand’s massive book are playing out even now in Washington D.C. as an incompetent government hurries to create massive new legislative programs to dole out ever greater amounts of money to mis-run businesses, all under the guise of keeping the American economy healthy. The current economic…