Thursday, October 21, 2010
Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 21, 2010
Do you see what I see...?
If not... I can only speculate that it's because you don't want to see it.
Each day I try to shine a beam of light upon the rot destroying our country. I know that a number of you tune in regularly.
Heck... I receive emails verifying that I'm not simply "talking to myself" here.
(*SHRUG*)
And hell... as I've noted from the inception of this blog... whether anyone reads what I post or not, I'll continue to compile this partial "diary" of news, facts, opinion and analysis pertaining to what I see as the ongoing decline of my beloved country.
Oh... not all is gloom and doom.
As predicted by... er... moi... back as early as 2005, by holding the RINOs (Republicans in name only) accountable for their failings and betrayals and allowing the Left of the Democratic Party to take control of our federal government the American People have had their eyes opened and millions of our fellow citizens have actually gotten off their duffs and involved themselves in the political process and thrown themselves in to "social struggle" to reclaim our beloved America from freedom-suffocating so-called "Progressive" thought.
Bottom line, Pelosi, Reid and the congressional Left acted as the fuse starting in 2007 and Barak Obama's election and subsequent presidential actions have served as the flame since 2009 - the flame illuminating the threat that people such as Barak Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, George Soros, Maxine Waters, Charlie Rangel, Barney Frank, and all the other Leftist politicians and their allies (masters...???) outside of elective office pose to our nation.
To anyone who believes I'm being melodramatic I simply ask this:
How can your honestly held position be that I'm "exaggerating," when each day I provide the evidence backing up my contentions in black and white...???
Anyway...
(*SIGH*)
While with or without feedback I'll continue to blog, to "do the work" and present the results free of charge in the form of "Barker's Newsbites" and other postings, I'd sure as heck like to get some public feedback once in awhile.
I know... I know... several of you actually do have legitimate fears of being linked to some of my more... er... "extreme" comments. You have jobs - careers - where any link to political "controversy" could conceivably "blow back" on you in terms of professional development and future opportunity. I get it...
(*SIGH*)
That said, unless you're extremely paranoid... a bit more feedback via email would be appreciated.
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http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=3833&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS
The Department of Homeland Security did not effectively manage or oversee the prime contractor on its over-budget, behind-schedule virtual fence program, according to federal watchdogs.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released [on Monday] says this failure to watch the company charged with top-to-bottom management of DHS' Secure Border Initiative Network, or SBInet, resulted in "SBInet’s well-chronicled history of not delivering promised capabilities and benefits on time and within budget."
* FOLKS... SAY IT WITH ME: O*B*A*M*A*C*A*R*E
* FOLKS... HOW MANY EXAMPLES OF INCOMPETENT GOVERNMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT, OF COST OVERRUNS AND QUALITY FAILURES, DO YOU NEED TO SEE...??? GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE IS A PATTERN... IS THE NORM, NOT THE EXCEPTION.
SBInet has already cost taxpayers billions more than first estimates. From the program’s inception, DHS took a largely a hands-off approach to providing effective oversight to Boeing’s activities along the border. As a result, the program’s completion date is still unknown and its technology marred by technical problems.
The program's funding was recently frozen by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano pending a DHS review of the entire program.
* AHH, YES... NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE. FROM NAPOLITANO'S PERSPECTIVE WHAT'S A FEW BILLION TAX DOLLARS PISSED AWAY IF THE "PISSING" PROVIDES AN EXCUSE TO CEASE WORK ON THE FENCE?!
(*SMIRK*)
http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=3841&action=Headlines%20About%20TCS
Alaska’s infamous Bridge to Nowhere has a less famous but similarly wasteful cousin – the Boat to Nowhere.
The Boat to Nowhere was the brainchild of residents of Seldovia, Alaska who, in 2002, proposed the $14 million project as a way to better connect several small towns with the regional hub of Homer.
The town’s mayor and local leaders were opposed to the project because the town was already served by a two passenger ferries, a state-operated ferry, several water taxis, and air taxis. Nevertheless, the Seldovia Native Association (which stood to profit from jobs created by this project) continued to push for it...
As with most Alaska earmarks, the late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) sought the funding for the ferry, and was supported by the other members of Alaska’s congressional delegation.
* FOLKS. (*SIGH*) THE ONLY WAY TO STOP WASTEFUL "PORK" SPENDING IS TO RIP THE BLANK CHECK OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE POLITICIANS. THE BIGGER THE GOVERNMENT... THE MORE MONEY IT HAS AT ITS DISPOSAL... THE MORE IT SPENDS... THE MORE IT WASTES. IT'S THAT FRIGG'N SIMPLE.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102101941.html
The federal bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could more than double in size during the next three years, according to projections from the companies' federal regulator.
* IF THOSE MORONS IN MASSACHUSETTS' 4TH DISTRICT RE-ELECT BARNEY FRANK... (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
* AND I'D STILL LIKE TO SEE "RETIRING" DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CHRIS DODD THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED! ("FRIEND OF ANGELO" THAT HE WAS!)
Fannie and Freddie, the federally-controlled mortgage finance giants, will likely need at least another $73 billion and perhaps as much $215 billion from taxpayers in the next three years to meet their financial obligations, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.
* THE OBAMA POLICY: IF YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE... F--K YOU. IF YOU'RE A DEADBEAT... YOU'RE OK WITH US!
The growing taxpayer infusions will cover losses Fannie and Freddie suffer on home loans, as well as payments the companies must make to the U.S. Treasury in exchange for a federal guarantee to provide cash to keep the companies solvent.
* JUST RE-READ THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH A FEW TIMES... TELL ME IF YOU SEE WHAT I SEE! (THE GOVERNMENT IS GIVING FANNIE/FREDDIE TAXPAYER MONEY WITH WHICH TO... er... PAY THE GOVERNMENT...???)
* FOLKS. AGAIN. FANNIE AND FREDDIE WERE RUN - INTO THE GROUND - BY CLINTON POLITICAL ALLIES. AND THE POLITICIANS WHO SHIELDED THEIR ACTIVITIES... MAINLY DEMOCRATS SUCH AS FRANK AND DODD.
In fact, over time, the majority of funds flowing to Fannie and Freddie from taxpayers will go to pay that dividend.
(*HEADACHE*)
To date, the Treasury has already injected $148 billion into Fannie and Freddie. Under the worst-case scenario, in which the country enters a second recession, the total infusion would equal $363 billion in three years.
* DO MUCH FOR THE DODD-FRANK "FINANCIAL REFORM BILL." (*SMIRK*)
The projections of additional bailouts for Fannie and Freddie are in sharp contrast to recent discussions by the Obama administration about how the bank rescue known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program, originally valued a $700 billion, is expected to cost taxpayers less than a tenth of that.
* SURPRISE, SURPRISE... ONCE AGAIN OBAMA IS SPOTLIGHTED AS A F--KING LIAR!
Fannie and Freddie were seized by their federal regulator in September 2008 as the crisis in the housing market threatened to topple them. The Bush administration pledged $200 billion to keep them solvent.
* AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION F--KED UP! I SAID SO AT THE TIME! I WAS OPPOSED TO THE BAILOUT...!!! (BUT LET'S NOT FORGET... BILL BARKER WAS OPPOSED... THE-SENATOR BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA WASN'T! BARAK OBAMA SUPPORTED BUSH AT THE TIME!) OH... AND BTW...
Early on, the Obama administration doubled that number to $400 billion, and then late last year made an unlimited pledge of support.
* FOLKS... OUR COUNTRY IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY LOOTED.
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2010/oct/20/wssu-e-mail-called-illegal-ar-467783/
Some 6,400 staffers and students at [North Carolina's] Winston-Salem State University received e-mail exhortations Monday to take advantage of early voting and help the Democratic Party...
After a complaint by Nathan Tabor, the chairman of the Forsyth County GOP, university officials acknowledged that the e-mail - sent from the student-affairs division - was improper.
* FIRST OF ALL, WHY SHOULD IT TAKE AN OUTSIDE COMPLAINT TO MOVE THE UNIVERSITY TO ACTION? SECOND... IS ANYONE GETTING FIRED FOR THIS...??? (HECK... IS ANYONE BEING CHARGED WITH A CRIME...???)
The university cited a state law that prohibits the use of a state employee’s authority or state property to support or oppose a person or an issue in any election.
* AGAIN... HAS ANYONE BEEN CHARGED WITH A CRIME? IF NOT, WHY NOT...???
Tabor said he’s upset that he had to call the university and complain. “That is a tax-funded school,” Tabor said, calling the original e-mail “highly illegal and unethical.”
(*NOD*)
The university said it would try to discover who sent out the e-mail and whether it was sent intentionally or accidentally in a partisan form.
* I WON'T BE HOLDING MY BREATH... (*SNORT*)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39759042/ns/business/
The Obama administration is crediting its anti-recession stimulus plan with creating up to 50,000 jobs on dozens of wind farms...
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...
...even though many of those wind farms were built before the stimulus money began to flow or even before President Barack Obama was inaugurated.
(*HI-HAT CYBAL*)
Out of 70 major wind farms that received the $4.4 billion in federal energy grants through the stimulus program, public records show that 11, which received a total of $600 million, erected their wind towers during the Bush administration. And a total of 19 wind farms, which received $1.3 billion, were built before any of the stimulus money was distributed.
* OK. BEYOND NOTING THAT ONCE AGAIN PRESIDENT OBAMA PROVES HE'S FULL OF SHIT, THE NEXT QUESTION IS... WAS THE MONEY WELL SPENT... DO THE WIND FARMS PROVIDE ENERGY AT A CHEAPER PRICE THAN OTHER SOURCES?
Yet all the jobs at these wind farms are counted in the [Obama] administration's figures for jobs created by the stimulus.
* YEAH, YEAH... WE GET IT... YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYTHING THIS ADMINISTRATION SAYS. (AS IF THERE WAS EVER ANY DOUBT!)
* OH... AND BTW... JUST FOR YUCKS... ALLOW ME TO NOTE THAT ACCORDING TO A GOVERNMENT STUDY, EVEN ACCEPTING THAT "JOBS WERE CREATED," MOST OF THESE "CREATED" JOBS ARE SHORT TERM. (AGAIN... ACCORDING TO GOVERNMENT STUDY!)
* OH... ANOTHER BTW...
[Federally subsidized] wind farms aren't judged on job creation or required to abide by "Buy American" clauses. The [federal] money also comes with virtually no strings, and there is no obligation to reinvest it.
(*SMIRK*)
* FINALLY...
The Investigative Reporting Workshop previously reported that the majority of the money was going to foreign-owned developers, and that the majority of turbines being installed were built by foreign-owned manufacturers.
The Treasury Department has rejected Freedom of Information requests by the Investigative Reporting Workshop seeking grant applications, citing trade secrets.
* FOLKS... AMERICA IS BEING LOOTED BY THE OLIGARCHS. OBAMA IS "ONE OF THEM," NOT "ONE OF US."
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/president-bill-clinton-lost-nuclear-codes-office-book/story?id=11930878
* THIS IS JUST UNBELIEVABLE... STUNNING... AND YET HERE IT IS...
When you're President of the United States, you can lose a vote, you can lose popular support, and you can lose a round of golf. But you're never, ever supposed to lose the biscuit.
That's what they call the card the President is meant to keep close at hand, bearing the codes that he has to have in order to launch a nuclear attack.
[F]or several months during the Clinton administration, Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says [Clinton] lost the biscuit.
* AND WE'RE HEARING ABOUT THIS ONLY NOW... IN 2010...
* THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION WAS DEEPLY, DEEPLY, DEEPLY CORRUPT. NEVER FORGET THAT.
"At one point during the Clinton administration," Shelton writes [in his just-published memoir, "Without Hesitation], "the codes were actually missing for months. [...] That's a big deal -- a gargantuan deal."
* YA THINK...?!?!
Shelton claims the story has never been released before, but Ret. Air Force Lt. Col Robert Patterson told a very similar account in his own book, published seven years ago.
* HMM... I DON'T RECALL THIS. (PERHAPS BECAUSE THIS DANGEROUSLY IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR BY CLINTON WAS OVERWHELMINGLY IGNORED BY THE MSM.)
Patterson was one of the men who carried the football, and he says it was literally the morning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke that he made a routine request of the president to present the card so that he could swap it out for an updated version.
"He thought he just placed them upstairs," Patterson recalled. "We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn't recall when he had last seen them."
* YOU'RE READING WHAT I'M READING - RIGHT...?!?!
In Patterson's telling of the story, the President lost the biscuit in 1998, but according to Shelton, the card went missing in 2000.
If the facts seem murky, that's not unusual when national security matters are involved. Consider the old story that Jimmy Carter left his biscuit in a suit that got sent to the dry cleaners. Today, no one will confirm the story, but no one will deny it either.
(*SIGH*)
* BIG JOKE, HUH? FUNNY... (*SIGH*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/20/wall-street-mogul-picked-for-state-department-post/
President Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of state has earned more than $8 million in salary and bonuses since January 2009 as an executive at a Wall Street bank that received a federal bailout.
* ANYONE SURPRISED...?
Thomas R. Nides, a six-figure fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 2008 presidential run, disclosed his compensation from Morgan Stanley in a recent filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Mr. Nides, the company's chief operating officer, also said he remains eligible for additional bonus money at Morgan Stanley...
(*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)
As deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Mr. Nides would replace Jacob Lew, who is awaiting confirmation as Mr. Obama's federal budget chief and whose own nearly $1 million bonus at bailed-out banking giant Citigroup last year came under scrutiny.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Mr. Nides told ethics regulators that he could receive a prorated bonus from the company based on his work there this year. He will remain with the firm during the Senate confirmation process, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Morgan Stanley did not return telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment.
(*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)
Asked whether Mr. Nides' fundraising helped him get the job, Mr. Vietor said, "Mr. Nides was selected because he's extremely well qualified for the job." He referred questions about Mrs. Clinton's involvement in Mr. Nides' selection to the State Department. A State Department spokesman said officials there do not discuss pending nominations as a matter of policy.
* HA! HA!! HA!!!
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
Craig Holman, legislative director for Public Citizen, [notes,] Mr. Nides joins Robert Hormats, a former Goldman Sachs executive who is now undersecretary of state for economic, business and agricultural affairs. Mr. Hormats "also established a long and substantial funding relationship with the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton in particular," Mr. Holman said.
* OUR OLD "BUDDIES" GOLDMAN SACHS...
* FOLLOW THE MONEY, FOLKS; IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT FOLLOWING THE MONEY.
[E]ven though the appointment of major fundraisers for government jobs "reflects politics as usual," Mr. Holman said, there is a critical difference between the Obama administration and previous administrations. "These appointees are required under an ethics pledge to recuse themselves from official actions that directly and substantially impact their former employers and thus avoid the traditional capture of regulatory agencies by business interests," Mr. Holman said, adding that Mr. Nides and Mr. Hormats won't be involved in decisions affecting Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs, respectively. [However...] "Once he divests his financial interests in Morgan Stanley, he will not have any further conflicts as a result of those holdings," Mr. Vietor said. "The remaining pledge and other ethics restrictions on Morgan Stanley will not impact his ability to serve as deputy secretary of state for management and resources."
(*SMIRK*)
Tom Fitton, executive director of...Judicial Watch, which last year sued the Treasury Department to obtain records concerning the bailout, said he was less concerned with the Morgan Stanley ties....
* NOTE: (Morgan Stanley was among a group of Wall Street banks singled out by Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg in a report on executive pay earlier this year. The report derided as wasteful most bonuses that were paid out to executives by companies that took bailout assistance, but Mr. Feinberg's review did not identify any executives by name and stopped short of recommending that they return money.)
...than what he called the trajectory of Mr. Nides' career. He called Mr. Nides a "Washington creature" and said the Senate ought to give close scrutiny to his time a decade ago as a senior vice president at Fannie Mae, which collapsed in 2008 amid an accounting scandal.
* OH! GREAT! THIS GUYS - THIS "FRIEND OF HILLARY" - HAS BEEN AN EXECUTIVE NOT JUST WITH MORGAN STANLEY AND GOLDMAN SACH, BUT ALSO WITH FANNIE MAE!
* FOLKS... WHAT DO I KEEP SAYING ABOUT THE "INSIDERS," ABOUT THE OLIGARCHY... (*SHRUG*)
If both [Hormats and Nides] are confirmed, Mr. Nides would replace Mr. Lew - who is awaiting confirmation as Mr. Obama's federal budget chief - who is awaiting confirmation as director of the federal Office of Management and Budget.
The Washington Times first reported this summer that Mr. Lew took a nearly $1 million bonus from Citigroup weeks before joining the State Department in 2009 at a time when the company was receiving federal bailout funds.
* MORGAN STANLEY... GOLDMAN SACHS... FANNIE MAE... CITIGROUP... (*SNORT*) OH, YEAH... THE DEMS ARE DEFINITELY THE PARTY OF THE "LITTLE GUY." (*SNORT*)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/why-is-obama-putting-a-fannie-maegoldman-sachs-lobbyistconsultant-as-nsa-105059764.html#ixzz12uHYvfat
[President] Obama last week tapped Tom Donilon as National Security Advisor.
What’s Donilon’s resume? I summarized it when folks floated his name as potential White House chief of staff:
[Obama's pick] was a top lobbyist at Fannie Mae during the housing bubble, when Fannie fought - with Democratic help - to avoid any restrictions or curbs on its work to inflate home values and get more people under mortgage.
Before that, Donilon was a lobbyist at O’Melveny and Myers, where Fannie was a client.
In 2008, according to his financial disclosure forms, Donilon was a paid consultant for Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Apollo Investments.
* FOLKS! NO ONE IS MAKING THIS UP! NO ONE COULD MAKE THIS STUFF UP...!!! THIS IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IN ACTION...!!!
* HEY, FOLKS... REMEMBER CANDIDATE OBAMA'S SOLEMN PROMISE NOT TO APPOINT LOBBYISTS... (*SNORT*)
http://www.concordcoalition.org/tabulation/passing-burden-future-generations-dont-deserve
[A]s a nation, we are passing an enormous debt burden onto young people and future generations of Americans who had no choice in the decision to incur the debt and no ability to oppose it.
This country was founded over 200 years ago by individuals who stood up and declared that there were inalienable rights every American had, and set forth principles for how a just government functions. The Declaration of Independence states: “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Ask yourself: Have young Americans and future generations consented to roughly 20% and perhaps more of their budget, their resources, being taken every year to pay for the debts of prior generations?
What right do we have to allocate the resources of Americans 20 or 30 years from now?
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20101008-NEWS-10080421
If New Hampshire goes by "Live Free or Die," then the nation should follow the motto: "Change Course or Crash," [so sayeth] David M. Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General.
In the year 1800, Walker [explains], total federal spending was equal to about 2% of the U.S. economy.
Today...spending comprises about 24%, and if nothing is done to control it, the year 2040's economy will see 38% spending.
The amount of spending has led to an increased amount of debt, which Walker [explains] is now more than 60% of the gross domestic product.
* AND HEADING TOWARDS 100%! (I WONDER WHY THE REPORTER DIDN'T NOTE THIS...?) (*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)
The only other time that has occurred is during World War II.
The increased debt is marred by a slow and steady increase in spending on social programs.
The problem, according to Walker, is not the current deficit and debt, but what he called the "off-balance" list of obligations. "If the U.S. takes a do-nothing path, the only thing it can do in 2046 is pay interest from debt," he said. "The single largest line item in the future will be debt."
* NO, FOLKS... WHILE WALKER IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT ABOUT HOW SCREWED WE'LL BE IN THE FUTURE, HE'S JUST BLOWING SMOKE WHEN HE SAYS THAT THE CURRENT DEFICIT AND DEBT "AREN'T THE PROBLEM." INDEED, THE CURRENT DEFICITS AND DEBT ARE DESTROYING OUR NATIONAL ECONOMY. (PERHAPS WALKER SIMPLY WANTS TO AVOID "OFFENDING" OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS BY ADDRESSING THIS WHILE THEY CONTROL BOTH ELECTIVE BRANCHES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT...)
[According to] Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition, paying down the nation's net interest for debt is costing America billions of dollars a year. Net interest is more than we're spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bixby said, essentially, a big deficit means big debt, and the country is on track to pay $200 billion in interest on its debt this year alone. If nothing is done soon, Bixby said, the interest costs could reach $900 billion in the next 10 years.
* FOLKS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE DELIBERATELY TRYING TO DESTROY OUR (TRADITIONALLY) FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN ORDER TO HAVE AN EXCUSE TO "REPLACE" IT WITH OUTRIGHT SOCIALISM. THERE'S NO OTHER LOGICAL EXPLANATION I CAN THINK OF. I MEAN, THINK ABOUT IT... NO ONE COULD BE THIS STUPID... THEIR IRRATIONAL POLICIES CAN'T SIMPLY BE A "MISTAKE."
Saying about two-thirds of the nation's budget is on "auto-pilot," Bixby added that there are billions of dollars related to entitlements and revenue programs that do not go through the annual appropriations process. "We need to get a better process," he said.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of The American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, discussed the effect that health care costs are having on the nation's deficit. ... Holtz-Eakin said the issue of health care costs is "at the heart of the frightening rush toward the fiscal cliff."
http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=212196
Many Americans are noticing a fundamental disconnect in American life between the amount of resources consumed by government - including an $814 billion stimulus, a $3.5 trillion budget and a $13.5 trillion national debt - and the lack of results delivered to the taxpayers.
Since the president took office, the economy has lost more than 2.5 million jobs and unemployment today stands at 9.6% and rising.
Americans are demanding that policymakers identify those federal programs that are not working and stop wasting their money on them. But the spending addiction of politicians in both parties and the power of special interests in Washington have combined to prevent necessary reforms.
How can failing programs be identified?
The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) passed during the Clinton administration directed federal agencies to produce strategic plans, annual performance reports and outcome-based measures of performance.
President Bush implemented the Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to rate all federal programs on their effectiveness at delivering results to the public.
These efforts have been worthwhile. GPRA enabled the public to find information about federal agency performance on each agency's Web site. And this information has gotten better over time.
The use of the PART process by the Bush administration brought additional progress. GAO found that PART "aided the (Office of Management and Budget's) oversight of agencies, focused agencies' efforts to improve program management and created or enhanced an evaluation culture within agencies." Studies show that the results of the PART process were used constructively by President Bush in his budget recommendations.
So why are taxpayers not seeing better returns for their money?
Quite simply, Congress rarely uses the publicly-available information about federal program performance when allocating taxpayer funds. According to Jerry Ellig, an economist at George Mason University, "The available studies suggest that performance information has had . .. very little influence on congressional budgeting decisions."
* WE NEED TERM LIMITS. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. SENIORITY IS SIMPLY AN INVITATION TO MALFEASANCE IN OFFICE.
In other words, Congress remains stuck in its ways, often more concerned with special interests and pet projects than improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government.
* I PROPOSE THREE CONSECUTIVE TERMS AND OUT IN THE HOUSE AND ONE TERM IN THE SENATE. (NOTE: SENATORS ARE ELECTED IN CYCLES SO THERE WOULD ALWAYS BE EXPERIENCED SENATORS IN OFFICE...)
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1786:more-inflation-fears&catid=31:texas-straight-talk
As the economies of the world continue to stagnate or contract, monetary policy decisions become more relevant to people who once thought this topic arcane.
The Federal Reserve continues to insist that inflation is too low, even while the monetary base remains at record levels, and food and gas prices continue to climb.
[Obama's] Fed continues to drive down the value of the dollar...
Low returns on US bonds are driving investors into higher-performing foreign bonds. Some of these countries are responding by reinstituting capital controls...
(*SIGH*)
The instability in the international monetary system, the decreasing value of the dollar, and the large amounts of new US debt could lead the IMF and countries such as China, Japan, Russia, India, and Brazil to abandon the dollar and adopt a new multinational currency.
While the big players in these currency games sort everything out, the people hurt the most are the savers, the workers, and those on fixed incomes as their money buys less and less. Make no mistake – the Fed and the Treasury Department are playing games with our money, especially in how they report statistics like unemployment and inflation. These games erode our standard of living and hide just how much damage their inflationary policies are doing.
* AS I'VE BEEN SAYING... (*SIGH*)
Official core inflation for the US is only 1.14%, but that excludes such crucial day-to-day goods such as food and energy. Real inflation certainly is higher, maybe much higher. John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics calculates true inflation at a whopping 8.48%!
* I DON'T BELIEVE IT'S THAT HIGH, BUT WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS. IF OIL CONTINUES TO RISE WE'RE SCREWED. ALSO, AS I NOTE FROM TIME TO TIME (WHICH FEW OTHER DO) THERE'S PLENTY OF "HIDDEN" INFLATION OUT THERE IN TERMS OF STEADILY SHRINKING PRODUCT SIZES WITH NO CORRESPONDING PRICE REDUCTION. (*SHRUG*)
* FOLKS... CONTEMPLATE THIS: GO TO ANY SUPERMARKET OR DELI COLD CUT PRICE LIST WHERE ITEMS ARE QUOTED - PRICED - NOT BY THE POUND, BUT BY THE HALF-POUND. NOTICE THAT WHEN THEY'RE QUOTING CHEESE OR MEAT OR WHATEVER "BY THE HALF-POUND" YOU'RE SEEING PRICES THAT NOT SO LONG AGO WERE THE NORMAL FULL POUND PRICES!
[Government] manipulated inflation statistics give the government cover [and] also serve to convince the public that further expansion of the money supply will boost the economy without causing any real pain, which has essentially been the core argument of Greenspan-Bernanke fed policy for the last 20 years.
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/21/morning-bell-renewable-electricity-standards-kill-jobs-too/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
* FOLKS... YOU SHOULD CLICK THE ABOVE LINK AND READ THIS ONE IN ITS ENTIRETY.
Here are the prices that President Barack Obama’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects for various sources of electricity per megawatt hour in 2016 (in 2008 dollars):
-- Conventional coal power: $78.10
-- Onshore wind power: $149.30
-- Offshore wind power: $191.10
-- Thermal solar power: $256.60
-- Photo-voltaic solar power: $396.10
As you can see, the prices for alternative energy are at a minimum almost double the cost of conventional coal power.
[W]hat would happen if Congress mandated that utilities obtain growing percentages of their power from renewable sources of energy?
Cap and trade legislation is dead. But that doesn’t mean the Left has abandoned plans to hike up our nation’s energy costs...
(*SIGH*)
All they did was pick a new a set of government mandates and repackage it as Renewable Electricity Standards (RES).
Don’t be fooled. The goal (reducing emissions) and mechanism (raising energy prices) are still the same. As is the [probable] result: millions of lost jobs...
A Heritage Foundation analysis of 22.5 % RES by 2025 found: 1) household electricity prices would jump 36%; 2) industry prices would rise by 60%; 3) national income (GDP) would be cut by $5.2 trillion between 2012 and 2035; and most importantly 4) RES would kill more than 1,000,000 jobs.
Renewables like hydro, wind, solar energy and biomass account for only 6% of our nation’s electricity generation. But when was the last time you saw a dam built? Take hydro-power out and renewables account for only 3% of our nation’s power
And this is after decades of existing generous renewable subsidies[!]
If electricity created by wind and other renewables was cost competitive, consumers would use more of it without a federal law to force consumption. But renewable energy is not cost competitive, hence the need for government coercion to force the American people to buy it.
There simply is no upside to a RES. (In fact, in some ways it is even worse than cap and trade.)
Electric power is one of the most critical inputs to a modern economy. Thus, it is no surprise that forcing the cost of electricity to rise dampens economic activity. The cost increase for electricity can be viewed as a particularly damaging energy tax, because a renewable mandate, unlike the case of a normal tax, provides no revenue to at least partially offset the higher cost.
By way of comparison, the highway use tax on gasoline raises the price of gasoline, but it also generates revenues for building and maintaining roads and bridges.
On the other hand, a renewable energy standard raises costs in the form of less efficient production, which provides no economic benefit.”
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/issues/mass_immigration_costs_american_kids
Between 1989 and 2009, the number of students in Nevada public schools classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP) grew from 5,173 to 78,732 and now accounts for 18% of total enrollment.
During the same period, the performance of Nevada schools plummeted, as measured by student performance on standardized tests, and now ranks 50th out of 51 public school systems in the country, surpassing only the District of Columbia.
Nevada now spends $730 million a year on LEP education - an average of $9,273 for each non-English proficient student, some 30% more than is spent on educating kids who are fluent in English.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
Those additional resources, plus the time spent by teachers providing special attention to English learners, comes at the expense of the education received by other Nevada school children.
A 2009 FAIR study found a similar impact on children in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
* HELL... I'M SURE IT'S THE SAME ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!
The report provides a case study for why FAIR believes that immigration to the United States must be reduced significantly and our immigration policies dramatically overhauled. Sensible immigration reform must recognize the impact of immigration on American citizens. When, as in the case of school kids in Nevada, immigration is impeding their ability to receive a quality education, policymakers must place citizen interests first.
* HEAR! HEAR! (*APPLAUSE*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/20/morning-bell-what-the-left-doesnt-understand-about-america/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Monday night in Rockville, Maryland, President Barack Obama told Democratic Senate candidate donors: “As wonderful as the land is here in the United States, as much as we have been blessed by the bounty of this magnificent continent that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, what makes this place special is not something physical. It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire.
[Our President than... er... "quoted": ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’
At first blush, that seems like a fine statement about what makes America exceptional.
But look at President Obama’s “quote” from the Declaration of Independence again.
* RE-READ IT. RE-READ OBAMA'S "QUOTE." DO IT NOW PRIOR TO CONTINUING...
* OK. NOW CONTINUE.
Here is what the Declaration actually says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
If you think that President Obama’s abandonment of the Creator was an accident, think again.
Monday was the third time in a little over a month that President Obama wrote the Creator out of one of our nation’s founding documents.
[Obama] omitted the exact same phrase at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 33rd Annual Awards Gala on September 15 and again at a September 23 fundraiser in New York City.
(*SHRUG*)
[Barak Obama] is not alone. MSNBC’s new “Lean Forward” Progressive Movement branding campaign also leaves out “by their Creator” from their reading of the Declaration.
Again, this is no accident. Writing faith in God out of the public sphere allows and encourages Big Government to replace it.
(*SHRUG*) (HEY... IF ANYONE HAS A BETTER EXPLANATION LET'S HEAR IT!)
The Heritage Foundation’s Ryan Messmore explains: "Government power is inherently limited by the role of other social institutions, such as families, religious congregations, schools, and businesses. The rightful authority of these institutions helps to check the authority of the state. … As government claims responsibility for more tasks, it absorbs the allegiance that citizens once placed in other relationships and forms of association. When the federal government assumes more responsibility for fulfilling the moral obligations among citizens, it tends to undermine the perceived significance and authority of local institutions and communities. This encourages citizens, instead of looking to their families, churches, or local communities for guidance and assistance, to depend on the government for education, welfare, and various other services. As individuals begin to look more consistently to the government for support, the institutions that are able to generate virtues like trust and responsibility begin to lose their sway in the community. Excessive bureaucratic centralization thus sets in motion a dangerous cycle of dependence and social decay."
* WELL...??? DOES ANYONE DISAGREE...? IF SO, I INVITE YOU TO MAKE YOUR CASE HERE.
For far too long the American people have allowed the Progressive Movement to read out of existence the checks that America’s Founders placed on government in our founding documents. That is why The Heritage Foundation is now distributing a series of pamphlets titled “Understanding America”...
* SEE: http://site.heritage.org/understandingamerica/default.aspx#ua-success
...that explores how the United States’ commitment to the universal truths of human equality and the right to self-government - as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence - requires a vigilant defense of the cause of liberty...
The United States did not grow from a small thirteen colonies to a vast 50 states that produce almost a quarter of the world’s wealth due to an all powerful federal government. It was American civil society, led by families, churches, businesses, communities and associations that built this country.
* AGREED...!!!
According to the latest Gallup poll, 58% of Americans believe that “the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses.”
Contrast that with President Obama who recently told a Democratic campaign rally in Philadelphia, the very place where the Declaration of Independence was signed, that the United States Chamber of Commerce was “a threat to our democracy.”
With all due respect to the President, the American people have a much different view of where the threat to our democracy is coming from.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575565730408313738.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopBucket
As [UK] Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has detailed, welfare spending for working-age Britons rose some 40% over the course of Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown's tenures.
It is now the largest single budget item after the National Health Service.
Some five million people in the U.K. are on the dole, and 30% of those have been so for at least nine of the past 10 years.
* AND IF THIS LOOK AT AMERICA'S POTENTIAL FUTURE DOESN'T SCARE THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF YOU I DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL...
(*SIGH*)
At the same time, those in need of temporary support face a bewildering array of programs, from housing subsidies to tax credits to three different flavors of direct welfare payments. These, combined with effective marginal tax rates as high as 95% for those who do move from welfare to work, pose serious obstacles to moving off the dole in Britain. The myriad of sometimes-overlapping programs to aid those in need also increases the potential for fraud and double-dipping.
In response, Mr. Duncan-Smith's proposal would replace the current system with a single "Universal Credit" payment that would be capped at the prevailing median income of those who do work, currently some £25,000 ($39,500) a year. This credit would fall off at a uniform rate as earnings increased.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
As currently conceived, this withdrawal of benefits would impose an effective marginal tax rate in the neighborhood of about 70% on the earnings of those on dole. That's still high by any standard, but the Government hopes that the simplicity and transparency of the system will mark an improvement over the status quo while still providing an incentive to move from welfare to work.
Ending lifetime welfare and the permanent underclass it creates is the right policy aim. Simplification, changing the incentives and ending lifelong entitlement are all essential to achieving that goal. The biggest risk to the project is the government's proposed decade-long phase in of the new rules. Spreading the reforms across two parliamentary terms creates a danger that the changes may never see the light of day. Abolishing a system in which many who don't work are better off than some who do would be an achievement worth taking to [UK0 voters in 2015.
* AND IT WOULD SERVE AS A VALUABLE LESSON TO AMERICAN POLITICIANS...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564313178698450.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
Britain emerged as a world power in the years after its defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
By 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon, it had become the most powerful nation in the world.
Then came World War I and World War II - both conflicts for which Britain was not well-prepared. It's been downhill ever since.
Yet Britannia remained one of the world's leading military powers, still able to project power around the globe.
* ACTUALLY... NOT SO MUCH. YES, BRITAIN WAS ABLE TO PROJECT POWER IN 1982 re: THE FALKLANDS WAR HALF A WORLD AWAY. STILL... THEY DID IT WITH OUR HELP (INTELLIGENCE WISE) AND ULTIMATELY PREVAILED MAINLY BECAUSE MARGARET THATCHER LET IT BE KNOWN THAT NUKING BUENOS AIRES WAS TO HER WAY OF THINK A PREFERABLE ALTERNATIVE TO "LOSING" THE WAR.
* BOTTOM LINE... THE 1982 FALKLANDS WAR WAS GREAT BRITAIN'S LAST HURRAH...
Britain was also America's most important ally in the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 Iraq War and the 2001 Afghan War. The British sent 45,000 troops to the Gulf in 1991, including an entire armored division, and sent roughly the same number in 2003, including an armored brigade. Today they still have 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making them the second-largest foreign contingent after the Americans.
* YES, YES... BUT THEY COULDN'T HAVE DONE SO INDEPENDENTLY - ABSENT U.S. SUPPORT AND THE U.S. SECURITY UMBRELLA AND U.S. LOGISTICAL CAPACITY.
[T]he days of British military power [even in a major "sidekick" role] appear to be ending, with the obituary written, ironically, by a Tory-dominated government supposedly dedicated to a strong defense.
* AS LONG AS BRITAIN HAS BOOMERS... NUCLEAR MISSILE SUBS... AND AIRBORNE NUCLEAR WEAPONS DELIVERY CAPACITY... SHE'LL STILL BOAST A "STRONG DEFENSE." (IT'S HER "OFFENSIVE PROJECTION CAPACITY" THAT'S BEING CURTAILED.)
The navy will lose its Harrier jump jets and its flagship, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Britain will be left with one aircraft carrier but, ludicrously, without any carrier-strike aircraft until 2020. The Royal Navy will be allowed to finish building two new aircraft carriers, but only one will be operational; the other may be sold or mothballed. The navy's fleet of destroyers and frigates - its workhorses - will shrink to 19 from 23, the lowest number of warships since the days of the Spanish Armada.
[G]one will be 40% of the British army's tanks and 35% of its artillery [and] in the future Britain will be able to keep only one brigade of about 7,500 soldiers in the field long-term [and] only 40 new F-35 fighter aircraft will be bought, down from initial projections of 138.
(A decision about replacing Britain's aging Trident submarines, which carry its nuclear deterrent, has been postponed.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560630778483558.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
As the world saw in the Climategate emails last year, global warming advocates have a habit of demonizing anyone who disagrees with them.
Now comes the Wikipedia version of this story.
The influential online encyclopedia is written and edited by anyone with an Internet connection, and contributors are supposed to stick to a fair recitation of the facts. So it's news that last week Wikipedia acknowledged it had been hijacked by global warming alarmists who squelched dissenting science.
William Connolley is a former Green Party candidate for local political office and until 2007 was a climate modeler for the British Antarctic Survey.
He is also a missionary for the view that humans cause global warming, and over the years he used his power as an "administrator" on Wikipedia to rewrite the site's global warming articles.
He celebrated such controversial scientists as Penn State's Michael Mann, of Climategate fame, and he presented even disputed global warming science as fact. He routinely deleted entries that presented competing views and barred contributors with whom he disagreed.
He also smeared scientific skeptics by rewriting their online biographies.
All of this was an embarrassment for Wikipedia as it became more widely known, and last year it stripped Mr. Connolley of his administrator rights. A group of Wikipedia arbitrators [finally] banned Connolley from participating in any article, discussion or forum dealing with global warming.
[Connolley] nonetheless continued his campaign, and last week Wikipedia's group of seven dispute arbitrators banned him from the topic entirely. They also banned other posters who had turned Wikipedia into their global warming propaganda outlet.
Wikipedia deserves credit for finally, if belatedly, [addressing the situation.]
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562311735698220.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
When we look back on the "Friends of Angelo" loan program at Countrywide Financial, we wonder how so many political careers have survived.
Former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo recently settled civil fraud charges brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the politicians and media seem well pleased. But the rest of us should not consider Mr. Mozilo's settlement to be a final reckoning.
[Angelo Mozilo's] enablers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, remain unreformed and continue to distort the American mortgage market even as they consume a taxpayer bailout. Meanwhile, Mr. Mozilo's "friends" in government who received cut-rate loans have largely escaped punishment.
The government charged Mr. Mozilo with misleading Countrywide investors by withholding information about the deteriorating quality of the company's mortgage loans, and also with insider trading. ... Mr. Mozilo agreed to pay a $22.5 million fine, the largest ever for a senior executive of a public company, though relatively small potatoes considering the hundreds of millions he earned at Countrywide over the years.
Mr. Mozilo also accepted a lifetime ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company and agreed to disgorge $45 million - though insurers for Bank of America, which bought Countrywide during the crisis of 2008, will cover that tab.
* SO "ANGELO" RETIRES AS A VERY, VERY, VERY WEALTHY MAN... (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
BofA's shareholders are paying much more as a result of the bad loans underwritten by Mr. Mozilo's Countrywide. BofA has already agreed to fork over more than $9 billion to settle various lawsuits over Countrywide's lending practices and will spend billions more as it has to take back from investors some of the toxic mortgages it originated during the credit boom.
* BTW, AS WITH ALL PUBLICLY HELD COMPANIES, "SHAREHOLDERS" INCLUDE THE SECRETARY AND THE PLUMBER AND THE COP WHOSE RETIREMENT SAVINGS ARE INVESTED IN MUTUAL FUNDS WHICH IN TURN INVEST IN BUSINESSES SUCH AS BANK OF AMERICA. (MY POINT, WHEN YOU THINK "SHAREHOLDER" DON'T THINK MR. POTTER FROM "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE." THINK THE SMALL STAKEHOLDERS OF BAILEY'S SAVINGS AND LOAN.) (*SMIRK*)
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
Back in the good old days of the housing bubble, the government-created mortgage monsters Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac couldn't get enough of Countrywide's loans. Fan and Fred pooled these loans into mortgage-backed securities and then sold them with an implicit taxpayer guarantee that later became an explicit one.
In its annual report for 2004, Fannie noted: "Our top customer, Countrywide Financial Corporation (through its subsidiaries), accounted for approximately 26% of our single-family business volumes." Freddie Mac was also an important partner to the Mozilo mortgage machine, and we've since learned that numerous executives at Fan and Fred personally received discounted mortgages from Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program.
Taxpayers are now funding a bailout of Fannie and Freddie of $148 billion and counting.
Fannie, Freddie and Countrywide could not have thrived without also cultivating "friends" on Capitol Hill. Countrywide's most famous client, Senator Chris Dodd, won't be on the ballot next month. Voters made clear they weren't going to overlook his acceptance of sweetheart mortgages from the country's biggest subprime lender. But...
* BUT... DODD WILL RETIRE AS A RICH MAN AFTER HIS MANY YEARS OF... er... GOVERNMENT SERVICE. AND... NO DOUBT DODD WILL BEGIN RACKING IN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS - PERHAPS MILLIONS - OF DOLLARS A YEAR AS A CORPORATE AND/OR UNION "CONSULTANT," LOBBYIST, BOARD MEMBER; NO DOUBT IN "RETIREMENT" HE'LL WEAR MANY HATS AND COLLECT MANY PAYCHECKS.
(*SMIRK*)
A year ago the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform agreed to subpoena documents on the "Friends of Angelo" program from current Countrywide owner Bank of America. For any files that related to Members of the House or their spouses, the subpoena instructed the bank to send the documents directly to the House ethics committee. The ethicists have since said nothing about the issue.
* WASHINGTON D.C. IS A CANCER UPON THE NATION. (SAME WITH PRETTY MUCH EVERY STATE CAPITAL AND EVEN COUNTY SEAT.)
Way back in March 2009, a report by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., CA) identified several Congressional staff members as recipients of Countrywide VIP loans, along with officials in the executive branch. This past summer, Mr. Issa sent a letter to the Senate ethics committee that for some reason did not name names but reported, based on a review of Countrywide documents, that 30 Senators or Senate employees had received VIP loans. Several months later, still no names.
* CONGRESSMAN ISSA'S OFFICE PHONE NUMBERS ARE 202-225-3906 AND 760-599-5000. I'M GOING TO CALL TOMORROW!
[W]e wonder why [Obama's] SEC didn't insist that Mr. Mozilo cooperate in naming the politicians and others in government or at Fannie and Freddie who benefited from Countrywide's mortgage largesse.
* ME TOO!
Mr. Mozilo will still live well, and the political class emerges unscathed, while the rest of us live with the ashes of their government-supported lending.
* EVERY LAW ABIDING ADULT AMERICAN SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562643804015252.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#articleTabs%3Darticle
Our federal deficit is already at unsustainable levels, and most Americans understand that we can ill afford another entitlement program that adds substantially to it.
* YET...
[H]ealth "reform" has created a situation where there are strong economic incentives for employers to drop health coverage altogether. The consequence will be to drive many more people than projected - and with them, much greater cost - into the reform's federally subsidized system. This will happen because the subsidies that become available to people purchasing insurance through exchanges are extraordinarily attractive.
In 2014, when these exchanges come into operation, a typical family of four with an annual income of $90,000 and a 45-year-old policy holder qualifies for a federal subsidy of 40% of their health-insurance cost. For that same family with an income of $50,000 (close to the median family income in America), the subsidy is 76% of the cost.
One implication of the magnitude of these subsidies seems clear: For a person starting a business in 2014, it will be logical and responsible simply to plan from the outset never to offer health benefits. .... As it grows, the business can avoid a great deal of cost because the federal government will now pay much of what the business would have incurred for its share of health insurance. ... [T]he eventual penalty for not providing coverage, of $2,000 per employee, is still far less than the cost of insurance it replaces.
For an entrepreneur wanting a lean, employee-oriented company, it's a natural position to take: "We don't provide company housing, we don't provide company cars, we don't provide company insurance. Our approach is to put your compensation in your paycheck and let you decide how to spend it."
* WHICH IS ACTUALLY EXACTLY THE ATTITUDE I APPLAUD. THE PROBLEM HERE IS THAT OBAMACARE DISTORTS THE LOGIC BY SUBSIDIZING HEALTH INSURANCE AND THE ONLY WAY FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO GET THE MONEY TO DO THIS FOR SOME TAXPAYERS IS TO TAKE IT FROM OTHER TAXPAYERS...
(*SIGH*)
* SEE THE DISCONNECT HERE FOLKS...?!?! (IT'S CALLED "REDISTRIBUTION.") (OH... AND BTW... HISTORY SHOWS THAT IT LEADS TO ECONOMIC AND THEN SOCIAL DISASTER; JUST LOOK AT WHAT'S CURRENTLY GOING ON IN EUROPE AS THE SOCIAL WELFARE STATES ONE BY ONE START TO TOTTER...)
* FOLKS... READ THE ENTIRE OP-ED. IT WAS WRITTEN NOT BY SOME "RIGHT WINGER," BUT BY THE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE!
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