Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, February 17, 2010


...yadda...yadda...yadda...

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William R. Barker said...

http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=2024

[By Howard Rich, chairman of Americans for Limited Government]

According to a series of new reports, billions of dollars in “stimulus” money that was supposed to go toward creating “Green Jobs” here in America instead went to foreign-owned companies – who “created or saved” the vast majority of their jobs overseas.

According to an ABC News report, though, almost $2 billion in “stimulus” funding has been spent so far on wind power, and yet 80% of that money has gone to foreign-owned companies.

“Most of the jobs are going overseas,” researcher Russ Choma told ABC. “According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S.”

In fact, despite receiving this windfall of “stimulus” cash, the U.S. wind manufacturing sector actually lost jobs in 2009, according to a year-end report by its professional association. Also, most of the jobs “created or saved” in America have been temporary construction positions, or “management” hires.

Eurus Energy America, a subsidiary of a Japanese-owned firm, received $91 million in “stimulus” funds and created only 300 to 400 temporary construction jobs. Permanent jobs created? Less than a dozen.

EnXco, a French-owned firm, received $69.5 million in “stimulus” funds and yet produced only 200 construction jobs and “about a dozen” permanent positions.

A-Power, a Chinese-owned firm, is in line to receive nearly $450 million in “stimulus” funds – for a project that will create thousands of Chinese jobs but only a few dozen American positions.

Cannon Power Group, an American-owned firm, received $19 million in “stimulus” funds but spend most of that on German-made turbines. So far they have created fewer than 300 construction jobs and “20 to 30” permanent positions. Cannon is in line to receive another $150 million in “stimulus” funds, by the way.

In case the trend isn’t clear, America’s massive investment in “Green Jobs” has been a colossal, costly failure – unless you’re looking for work overseas. For all the promises of the Obama administration, here at home these taxpayers billions have amounted to little more than a few thousand temporary construction positions and a few hundred management jobs.

In fact, there’s a good chance that the government employees hired to promote “Green Jobs” outnumber the actual permanent “Green Jobs” created. However you do the math, these positions are obviously a mere drop in the bucket compared to U.S. job losses in the wind manufacturing segment of the energy economy alone, to say nothing of the millions of lost jobs nationwide.

Worse still, the lunacy isn’t stopping. We are continuing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into this failed framework, which uses American sweat to create permanent positions (and profit) for foreign companies.

February 17, 2010 at 10:35 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=2028

[T]he [latest] House-passed “stimulus” contained some $48.3 billion for infrastructure and transportation spending, which is really just a bailout for construction unions working on the state and local levels, and some $23 billion for an “education jobs fund,” which, again, is a bailout for teachers unions. The $787 billion “stimulus” bill also contained $53.6 billion to bail out state and local governments...

As reported by CNNMoney.com, “States are looking at a total budget gap of $180 billion for fiscal 2011, which for most of them begins July 1.”

In other words, the funds proposed...by the House will not surmount the budget deficits of the several states, and they will only put off painful cuts that are necessary to rein in spending that grew unbridled in the 2000’s.

We now know that increased revenues during the 2000’s was in large part owed to the housing bubble, inflated property prices, and the higher taxes they brought. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), state spending grew from $945.3 billion in 2000 to more than $1.5 trillion 2008, almost a 58.7%...

Despite the economic downturn in 2007, spending still grew by about $100 billion in 2008.

In fact, in the past 3 years, the states’ troubles have only increased due to declining revenue and an unwillingness to make necessary cuts. According to Sunshinereview.org, state budget shortfalls totaled $113.2 billion for FY 2009, and then rose to $142.6 billion in FY 2010. With the number now alarmingly rising to $180 billion for FY 2011, it is time for the federal government to send a message to states: it is time to cut state operations back to levels justified by revenue.

To do that really is quite simple, Congress need only do nothing. Stop bailing out the states...

The painful readjustments the economy needs to undergo for full-fledged recovery to ensue are postponed by bailouts of this nature. Perpetual bailouts for the states and other institutions are only taking capital away from what would be productive sectors of the economy that could create new jobs, and dedicating it to areas that really do need to be cut.

California alone faces a $20 billion shortfall. New York faces a more than $8 billion deficit. New Jersey...faces a $11 billion deficit for 2011.

With the federal national debt rapidly approaching $14 trillion, and the nation’s Triple-A rating already threatened, now is not the time to be sending the message that Washington exists simply to finance unsustainable operations. It is time for some tough medicine.

The best way to create jobs in the current economy is not more deficit-spending; it is permanent tax relief coupled with bringing budgets into accordance with revenue. Through frugality and reducing the burden government imposes on the private sector, the freed-up capital would be the quickest jobs-booster to be offered.

February 17, 2010 at 10:36 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/16/morning-bell-dont-celebrate-first-failed-stimulus-with-a-second-one/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

[Today] is the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or as it is more accurately described, President Barack Obama’s Failed Stimulus. When President Obama signed the now $862 billion deficit-spending bill into law, the unemployment rate stood at 7.6% and the U.S. economy employed 133.5 million people. At the time President Obama promised the American people that, thanks to his stimulus, unemployment would never go higher than 8.2% and the U.S. economy would support 138.6 million jobs by December 2010.

At the one year mark unemployment is now 9.7%, after rising above 10%, and the U.S. economy has lost 4 million jobs...

One might hope that after $862 billion in failed stimulus spending, that liberals in Washington would take a break from spending other people’s borrowed money. No such luck. The House has already passed a new $154 billion stimulus package and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is pushing a $15 billion plan in the Senate, $13 billion of which is a temporary Social Security payroll tax exemption for new hires.

This temporary tax break will further increase our Social Security system’s existing deficits, will cost $1 million per only eight temporary new jobs according to the Congressional Budget Office, and will do nothing to decrease long-term unemployment.

While this would be President Obama’s second stimulus, it would actually be this recession’s third. In February 2008, President George Bush passed an equally useless mix of temporary tax cuts and mortgage grantees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totaling $168 billion. That stimulus did nothing to stop the recession and neither will President Obama’s second stimulus.

Our nation simply can’t afford wasting hundreds of billions of dollars and deficit Keynesian stimulus spending every February. Now is a good time to stop.

February 17, 2010 at 10:36 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://bachmann.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=6HE3URGYFYISEEPSBOMAGB2I7U

[By Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann]

Well, so much for a bipartisan strategy session on health care. Despite calls from the White House about bringing Republicans to the table to get their ideas into the debate, it looks like Democrats have already decided on a plan to pass their original legislation. Legislation Americans have soundly rejected from coast to coast.

Speaking at the National Health Policy Conference hosted by Academy Health and Health Affairs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's senior health care adviser Wendell Primus said that Democratic leaders in Congress will implement a legislative "trick" to pass their very unpopular version of health care reform.

Mark Tapscott with the Washington Examiner writes that Congress Daily - which originally published the story - is a subscription-only publication, but provided a link to LifeNews.com, which provided these details:

"In comments reported by Congress Daily, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top health care aide Wendell Primus admitted top Democrats have already decided on the strategy to pass the Senate's pro-abortion, government-run health care bill.

"Primus explained that the Senate will use the controversial reconciliation strategy that will have the House approve the Senate bill and both the House and Senate okaying changes to the bill that the Senate will sign off on by preventing Republicans from filibustering.

The trick in all of this is that the president would have to sign the Senate bill first, then the reconciliation bill second, and the reconciliation bill would trump the Senate bill.

“'There's a certain skill, there's a trick, but I think we'll get it done,' Primus said."

Why propose a televised, bipartisan meeting on February 25th if the underlying plan has been to pass the Democrats' original health care proposal all along? Well, it's simple. President Obama wants to give the appearance of bipartisan cooperation without really caring at all. It's one PR stunt after another with this White House, and this latest action is a clear assault on the intelligence of the American people.

February 17, 2010 at 10:36 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_re_us/us_suburban_homeless

"There's just no work," Nij says in Spanish through an interpreter.

* JUST THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE JUST READ. THINK ABOUT IT.

(*THROBBING HEADACHE*)

February 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-02-17-stimulus-funds_N.htm

More than $3.5 billion in economic stimulus funds are going to programs that President Obama wants to eliminate or trim in his new budget.

* AGAIN... JUST THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE JUST READ.

The proposed cuts indicate the programs shouldn't have gotten money from the $862 billion stimulus package, said Tom Schatz of the non-partisan budget watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste.

"It's certainly inconsistent, and it would have been better to have this realization a year ago," Schatz said. "But if inconsistency means they're going to cut the programs, it's OK. It's the other way around that bothers us."

White House budget office spokesman Thomas Gavin said the administration wasn't being inconsistent.

(*THROWING UP MY HANDS IN FRUSTRATION*)

Obama's proposed budget also includes $334 million in cuts to programs that got more than $3 billion in stimulus money.

Obama signed the stimulus package a year ago today, an occasion that the administration is marking with events at the White House today and across the country this week.

(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)

February 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1661844120100216

[The State of] Texas and several national industry groups on Tuesday filed separate petitions in federal court challenging the government's authority to regulate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

* BY "GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS" THEY'RE TALKING CARBON DIOXIDE - THE AIR WE EXHALE... THE STUFF PLANTS "BREATH."

In December, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide endanger human health, opening the door for the agency to issue mandatory regulations to reduce them.

Texas said it had filed a petition for review challenging the EPA's "endangerment finding" with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Texas has also asked the EPA to reconsider its ruling.

"The EPA's misguided plan paints a big target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers and the hundreds of thousands of Texans they employ," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.

The National Association of Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute, and the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association also said on Tuesday they filed a petition challenging the EPA in federal appeals court.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. iron and steel makers have also signaled they would file lawsuits.

The EPA is threatening to regulate carbon emissions if Congress does not. In June, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a cap and trade bill that would allow industry to buy and trade pollution permits, but the legislation has stalled in the Senate.

President Barack Obama would rather have Congress pass a bill that could provide more protections for industry while also controlling pollution. But he is using the threat of EPA regulation to encourage lawmakers.

* IN OTHER WORDS, OBAMA IS THREATENING TO TRASH BASIC CONSTITUTIONAL SEPARATION OF POWER PRINCIPLES.

February 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-debt-budget-deficit-scary-forecast-taxpayers/story?id=9854459

Over the past year alone, the amount the U.S. government owes its lenders has grown to more than half the country's entire economic output, or gross domestic product. Even more alarming, experts say, is that those figures will climb to an unprecedented 200 percent of GDP by 2038 without a dramatic shift in course.

"Within 12 years…the largest item in the federal budget will be interest payments on the national debt," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "[They are] payments for which we get nothing."

Economic forecasters say future generations of Americans could have a substantially lower standard of living than their predecessors' for the first time in the country's history if the debt is not brought under control.

Government debt, which fuels the risk of inflation, could make everyday Americans' savings worth less. Higher interest rates would make it harder for consumers and businesses to borrow. Wages would remain stagnant and fewer jobs would be created.

John Podesta, former Clinton White House chief of staff and president of the liberal Center for American Progress, says lawmakers need to raise more tax revenue as part of the solution to fund "investments" for the future.

* THAT'S RIGHT... INFLATE OUR SAVINGS AWAY... BANKRUPT OUR CHILDREN... AND ON TOP OF IT RAISE OUR TAXES. THAT'S THE LIBERAL PRESCRIPTION... (*SIGH*)

"Habitually spending more money than you make is irresponsible," said Walker. "Irresponsibly spending someone else's money when they're too young to vote or not born yet is immoral."

Future generations of Americans will largely foot the bill for the present financial predicament, economists say.

The United States currently owes over $12 trillion to its debtors – that's more than fifteen $787-billion economic stimulus packages worth of cash. Divided out, each American bears a $40,000 share of the country's tab.

President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget request for 2011 represents an increase in government spending by more than $100 billion over last year...

* KEEP DIGGING... KEEP DIGGING... THAT'S THE DEMOCRATS ANSWER...

February 17, 2010 at 11:23 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c918b8dc-1b37-11df-953f-00144feab49a.html

The US must fix its growing debt problems or risk a new financial crisis, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, warned on Tuesday, adding a mounting deficit could spur inflation.

* AMEN!

Mr Hoenig said that rising debt was infringing on the central bank’s ability to fulfil its goals of maintaining price stability and long-term economic growth. “Stunning” deficit projections were putting political pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates low, infringing on its independence at the risk of inflation, he said.

“Without pre-emptive action, the US risks its next crisis,” Mr Hoenig said in a speech at the Pew-Peterson Commission on Budget Reform.

* AND BY "RISK," HOENIG MEANS "IT'S AN ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY."

He was the only Fed member who dissented at last month’s meeting against language indicating that interest rates should remain near zero for an “extended period”.

* WHICH REINFORCES HOW OUT OF TOUCH BERNANKE AND THE OTHER CLOWNS AT THE FED AND FOLKS LIKE GEITHNER ARE!

On Tuesday he said that the worst option for the US was a scenario where the government “knocks on the central bank’s door” and asks it to print more money. Instead, the administration must find ways to cut spending and generate revenue. He called for a “reallocation of resources” and noted that the process would be painful and politically inconvenient.

* THANK GOD! ONE SINGLE MEMBER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD WHO IS WILLING TO SPEAK THE TRUTH.

The...Kansas Fed president also warned against “dire” consequences of the central bank prolonging its holdings of mortgage-backed securities, which it purchased in an effort to prop up the US housing market. Mr Hoenig painted a picture of a slippery slope, where a less independent Federal Reserve was asked to find ways to support other ailing sectors, such as agriculture.

[Even as the] Federal Reserve is purchasing $1,250bn in MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities) through March, Mr Hoenig said that it must shrink its balance sheet as quickly as possible while being careful and systematic.

* IN OTHER WORDS, HOENIG IS SAYING CURRENT FED POLICIES ARE MAKING THINGS WORSE!

Being pulled into the political framework has complicated the Fed’s job, which Mr Hoenig said should remain focused on the Fed funds rate and price stability.

* IN OTHER WORDS... "THE POLITICIANS ARE DRIVING THE SHIP OF STATE TOWARDS THE ROCKS AND BERNANKE AND GEITHNER ARE SIMPLY SALUTING AND SAYING 'YES SIR.'"

Holding tightly to the notion of Fed independence, he rejected a suggestion published in a paper by Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, that central banks should set higher inflation targets. He also said he hoped to avoid political pressure to restore quantitative easing policies.

“That’s when independence will be more important than ever,” he said.

* IN OTHER WORDS, THE IMF IS ROOTING FOR INFLATION AND HOENIG IS WARNING US THAT BERNANKE SEEMS TO BE FINE WITH THAT.

February 17, 2010 at 11:23 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=521246

The Senate's decisive defeat of confirmation of radical labor lawyer Craig Becker is the first tangible result of the Massachusetts Miracle that made Scott Brown the 41st Republican in the U.S. Senate. Two red-state Democrats also voted not to proceed toward a vote on President Obama's nomination of Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Becker is a top lawyer for the Service Employees International Union, which spent $60 million to elect Obama. SEIU's boss, Andy Stern, was the most frequent visitor to Obama's White House last year.

SEIU plays rough. It was a bunch of SEIU thugs, clearly identified by their purple shirts emblazoned with "SEIU," who attended a Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., Town Hall Meeting and beat up Kenneth Gladney, a black man passing out flags that read "Don't Tread On Me."

The NLRB is supposed to be a neutral arbiter of labor disputes. Becker had other plans for the NLRB. He was expected to try to implement what is called "Card Check" even though Congress has declined to pass it.

Card Check is a bill to eliminate the secret ballot by which employees have the right to vote yea or nay on authorizing a union as their bargaining agent. Card Check would replace the secret ballot...

Older Americans may fondly remember bygone days when some unions played a positive role in our free economy. In the 1950s, many unions expelled communist agitators. Today's unions, by contrast, promote big-government solutions to every problem. That's because of the dramatic change in the membership of powerful unions...last year...for the first time, the majority of union members (51.4%) were federal or state government employees. The political power of government workers unions is a major reason why government spending is now out of control.

The average pay of federal workers is over $71,000 (in Washington, D.C., it's $94,047), whereas the average pay in the private sector (if you have a job) is $50,028. Annual raises are a matter of course, and government employees enjoy close to lifetime job security and benefits including retirement. "[T]he number of federal employees making more than $150,000 have more than doubled in the last 18 months."

February 17, 2010 at 12:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=521249

A new study by Science Applications International Corp. at the request of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Gas Technology Institute and others shows the U.S. economy will suffer $2.3 trillion in lost opportunity costs over the next two decades, monies that would go a long way to reining in runaway deficits and creating economic growth.

Drilling restrictions in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore areas such as the Chukchi Sea and Outer Continental Shelf, the report says, are denying us access to at least nine years' worth of total U.S. oil and gas consumption.

The U.S. used 22.8 trillion feet of gas and 5.2 billion barrels of oil in 2009. Locked up by federal restrictions are approximately 43 billion barrels of oil and 286 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Without access to these resources, average natural gas prices will rise 17% by 2030 and electricity prices will "necessarily skyrocket," as Barack Obama once said, by 5%.

The net effect of our energy inaction will be a reduction in gross domestic product by $2.36 trillion cumulatively through 2029...We'd also be forgoing hundreds of thousands of high-paying energy and construction sector jobs here in the U.S. as well as missing a golden opportunity to sharply cut our trade deficit.

February 17, 2010 at 12:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=521295

A gun-toting Obama extremist shoots six at the University of Alabama, killing three. But the media are curiously silent about the politics. Think it would be the same if the shooter were right-wing?

Buried in a report in the Boston Herald, a "family source" connected to Amy Bishop, the disgruntled Harvard neurobiologist accused of methodically gunning down several biology professors at Huntsville last Friday, said the woman "was a far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting." (James von Brunn, the shooter at Washington's Holocaust Museum last year, was called a violent right-winger but turned out to be a socialist, at which point the media lost interest.) No media outlet other than the Herald noted that detail in its coverage. But you can bet that if Bishop were a right-wing gun nut and native of Alabama, the press would be all over it.

Bishop's politics are relevant because of growing evidence that left-wing Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., then a prosecutor, may have let her get away with a fatal 1986 shooting of her brother by declaring it "accidental" and halting charges.

Bishop's mother reportedly had the right political connections, raising the prospect that if Delahunt was loud about loving "social justice," he was selective about real justice.

February 17, 2010 at 12:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6716860.html

[Hat tip to Glenn Beck; I first learned about this via his TV show.]

Four university libraries have reached an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) not to use the Kindle DX ebook reader or other ereaders until they are rendered accessible for blind students.

* YES. YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY.

The agreement stemmed from a lawsuit brought against Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, last July. Library Journal reported that ASU was being sued by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind over its use of the Kindle as a means of distributing electronic textbooks to its students, because the ereader's menu wasn’t accessible to the blind.

The NFB and ACB claimed that such usage by violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 because the device cannot be used by blind students. The NFB and ACB also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

* YES. AGAIN. YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY.

Even though the Kindle features text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud...

* YEP. YOU'RE NOT DREAMING. YOU'RE ACTUALLY READING WHAT YOU'RE READING. THIS IS AMERICA 2010.

** BOY... I HOPE DOJ DOESN'T COME AFTER ME FOR WEARING CONTACT LENSES. AFTER ALL, BLIND PEOPLE CAN'T BENEFIT BY WEARING CONTACTS (OR GLASSES FOR THAT MATTER) SO WHY SHOULD I BE ALLOWED TO BENEFIT?

*** JUST IN CASE MY POINT IS UNCLEAR...

***THIS...

***IS...

***INSANE..!!!

February 17, 2010 at 7:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/02/17/spreading-the-incompetence

Nicole Lamb-Hale...was recently confirmed as Obama's Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing. Ms. Lamb-Hale's job is to represent U.S. manufacturers to the world -- although as a bankruptcy attorney she has no real experience in the manufacturing industry. In fact, her primary qualification appears to be that she went to law school with the President.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers, this vital segment of our economy lost nearly 2 million jobs over the 19-month period between December 2007 and July 2009, with additional job losses forecast for 2010.

Given the immense challenges U.S. manufacturers are facing, what kind of message does a President send when he puts a bankruptcy lawyer in charge of the manufacturing sector? It's comparable to appointing a tax cheat to run the Treasury... oh... wait... never mind.

Speaking of taxes, Obama's appointment of Mary L. Smith as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice's tax division is another troubling choice. Smith has been nominated for one of the most important tax policy positions in Washington -- despite the fact that she has no prior experience in tax law.

Not only does Smith lack a degree in her field and relevant experience with IRS tax cases, she admitted during her Congressional testimony that she personally hasn't tried a tax case in her life -- ever. Smith also acknowledged under questioning that she hasn't taken any continuing legal education classes on tax-law issues, either. This is the person who is supposed to head up the Justice Department's tax division?

February 17, 2010 at 7:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7252288/Greece-loses-EU-voting-power-in-blow-to-sovereignty.html

The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty.

While the symbolic move to suspend Greece of its voting rights at one meeting makes no practical difference, it marks a constitutional watershed and represents a crushing loss of sovereignty.

February 17, 2010 at 7:32 PM

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