Harry Reid on the Budget: Not Interested

The article linked below is from February 2012. It is still applicable. It points out that Harry Reid (and Schumer, et al) claim that there is no need to pass a budget because of the Budget Control Act in August 2011, which was part of a debt ceiling deal.

But the Act was not an actual budget, which contains, inter alia, budget priorities and taxing proposals.  It simply set limits on overall spending. Moreover, the Act did not absolve the Senate of the legal requirement to pass an actual budget.

In other words, using the Act as an excuse for failing to pass a budget is pure nonsense.  It will be very interesting to see what unfolds if Republicans follow through on a 3-month debt ceiling increase while making a longer term increase conditional on the Senate obeying the law.  Obama, Reid, Pelosi, et al. will be forced to explain why the Senate's lawlessness is holding up another debt ceiling increase.

Senator Reid on the Budget: Not Interested


P.S. Using an Act passed in August 2011 as an excuse for not passing a budget fails to explain why Reid did not allow passage of a budget in April 2010 or April 2011, as required by law.  What does explain this failure is that Reid is an evil, evil man.

The Iceman Cometh

It seems like every year the global warming crowd tells us it was the warmest year on record, at least somewhere.

Other places, not so much...

China's Coldest Winter in Decades at New Low

Forget Global Warming: Alaska is Headed for an Ice Age

Russians Freeze to Death as Strongest-in-Decades Winter Hits

Double Taxation

The article by Dan Mitchell at the Cato Institute (linked below) is rightly critical of large company CEO's who have supported higher personal income tax rates. Beyond that, if you click the link on "dividends" it will take you to another post by Mitchell. In that post you will find another link to a report by Ernst and Young on the taxation of capital gains and dividends.

It's worth looking at all of this stuff, but if all you do is read the Executive Summary of the report, you will have a better understanding of the current debate on taxes than most folks you know. Most folks have no idea that the integrated rates on capital gains and dividends in the U.S. are among the highest in the world already, and are about to go higher. The result will be a drag on capital formation. There is a lot more to the "fiscal cliff" debate than whether the "rich" should "pay just a little more".

Crony Capitalists Endorse Higher Taxes on Their Small Business Competitors

How to Stop Mass Shootings

Further evidence that liberals refuse to let facts influence their thinking...

We Know How to Stop School Shootings

The Anti-Bernanke

Until a few moments ago, I had never heard of Leszek Balcerowicz. Now I wish like hell he was Fed Chairman. 

It rekindles my dwindling hope to see that there are lonely voices of sanity out there.

Leszek Balcerowicz: The Anti-Bernanke

Refuting Buffet

Warren Buffet has become a darling of the left for his views that higher marginal tax rates are good policy. In a recent New York Times op-ed he claimed that higher rates would have no effect on investment. The article below strongly argues otherwise.


The Grumpy Economist: Buffet Math

Tax Cut Myth

While Obama has told the public repeatedly that the Bush tax cuts "got us into this mess", his own economists say otherwise. Question: is Obama unaware of this data, or is he simply a deliberate liar?

White House data debunk claim that Bush tax cuts caused deficit

Keep Your Powder Dry

Below are some headlines from the Drudge Report on shoppers' behavior on Black Friday. 

 

Now ask yourself: if people will act like this while trying to buy Christmas presents, what will they do in a crumbling economy when loaves of bread are scarce?

 

Gang fight at Black Friday sale...

 

Man punched in face pulls gun on line-cutting shopper...

Shots fired outside WalMart

Shoppers smash through door at Urban Outfitters

Customers run over in parking lot...

Fight breaks out over phones...

Shoplifter tries to mace security guards...

Mayhem at Nebraska mall where 9 murdered in 2007

Men steal boy's shopping bag outside Bed Bath & Beyond

A Recurring Theme

I recall back in 1992, when Clinton was running against Bush the elder, Slick Willie was claiming that the economy was "the worst it's been in 50 years". Must've been pretty bad. Except that it wasn't. The economy had come out of a brief recession and was growing at something like 4% when Clinton won. Of course, the media failed to report on it till after the election.

Then, in 2001, when Bush the younger took office, the media downplayed the fact of a recession that occurred under Clinton's watch had only just ended. Faced with a weak economy, Bush was able to push through the much-maligned tax cuts which, predictably, led to a stronger economy. Now those tax cuts are blamed by the current administration as "the old policies that got us into this mess". And most of the media dutifully and complicitly ignores the fact the federal housing policy is what got us into this mess, not tax cuts.

If exit data from the election is accurate, 53% of voters blame our current economy on Bush. They bought the false narrative peddled by Obama. But this con could not have worked without his media lap dogs.

My point here is that the ignorance of the American voter is willfully encouraged by a left wing media that takes orders from its liberal masters. The article linked below continues this theme. In just 10 days since the election, with Obama safely back in office, we are learning that, surprise!, the economy is actually worse than we were told.

Obama's Economy: What We've Learned Since Re-Election

Cartoon of the Day

Dodd-Frank: Worse than most people know

The following article on Dodd-Frank makes clear that the intent of the Act is the effective nationalization of the financial sector, just as the goal of Obamacare is the nationalization of health care. Unfortunately, I suspect that most voters think Dodd-Frank is merely designed to rein in those greedy bastards on Wall Street.

The Election & Dodd-Frank: This Act puts the entire U.S. financial system at the mercy of unelected regulators

Game Changer?

Turns out that diplomats in Libya made repeated requests for more security, and the administration turned them down. No wonder the administration has repeatedly lied about the attack on the consulate.

Maybe this will convince independents that Obama is in over his head...

Obama Administration Denied "Repeated Requests" for Increased Security in Benghazi

Health Care Costs

The data on the cost of Obamacare is coming in. It doesn't look good, although it was entirely predictable.

And it's going to get worse.

Another Broken Obama Promise: The Healthcare Cost Monster Emerges

Climate Realism

Following is a nice summation from a warming skeptic...

Climate Realism

 

Zero Tax Rate

Given the demagoguery from the left on the low effective tax rates paid by Romney, the following article is worth reading. Dan Mitchell argues that the tax rate on capital gains should be zero. I agree, but explaining the concept to those for whom class warfare is more important than good tax policy and economic growth will be a tough sell.

The Wall Street Journal's Primer on Capital Gains Taxation

We're No. 18!

 Those of us who believe that economic freedom is the key to prosperity will be dismayed, though probably not surprised, by the following:

U.S. Plummets to 18th in New Economic Freedom of the World Rankings

Trade

Regarding trade, Obama (and most other politicians) has it exactly backward.

Classic 1978 Milton Friedman Lecture on Trade

QE3

The Federal Reserve Bank announced a few days ago that it would begin implementing another round of pumping money into the economy, i.e. buying $40 billion of mortgage bonds per month till further notice. This is called Quantitative Easing, or QE. This particular round is called QE3, because the Fed has already tried QE1 and QE2. It's sort of like a doctor putting the paddles on a patient's chest and yelling "Clear!"

The implementation of QE3 suggests that QE1 and QE2 did not have the desired effect of pulling the economy out of the shitter. Isn't this an example of Einstein's dictum regarding insanity, i.e. repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result? Or is it simply an attempt by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to keep the economy on life support long enough to get Obama reelected?

Memo to Politicians: Stop Trying to Fix It

One of the reasons the economy is down the shitter is that government doesn't know when to leave things alone, and therefore repeats the same old mistakes. The usual cycle is as follows: 

 

1) Free (or relatively free) markets make a mistake, which happens from time to time.

 

2) Rather than let relatively free markets correct those mistakes and punish those who make them, which markets are uniquely qualified to do, politicians decide they must do something, presumably to justify their existence.

 

3) Politicians enact regulations which they claim will fix the problem that markets would have fixed anyway.

 

4) Politicians pat themselves on the back and tell voters they're looking out for the little guy.

 

5) Since regulatory bureaucrats are not smart enough to anticipate all the issues that may arise in a complex economy, and since regulations distort market signals, and since the regulated entities are usually pretty good at figuring out ways around the regulations, more problems arise.

 

6) Politicians then have to fix the problems that they essentially caused by not letting markets work in the first place.

 

7) Go back to step 1 and repeat.

 

 

The following is worth a read. Here's one nugget I especially like: "...capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without hell."

 

Dodd-Frank: Pimps for Fannie and Freddie 

Doing Nothing

What if we had a recession and no one did anything?

Thomas Sowell: An Economic 'Plan'?