Jul 29 2011
Another of the Powerline Prize entries, this one a music video called “Shovel Ready, Not Shovel Ready Enough”. Very funny, and very effective… and very sad. A TRILLION dollars for essentially nothing very helpful….
Somebody was shoveling something, alright.
Jul 27 2011
Another entry in the Powerline Prize contest for a media product illustrating the severity of the debt crisis.
Out of the mouths of babes.
Jul 26 2011
14 trillion and a few hundred billion change is what the federal government owes, right now. It’ll be more like 15 billion by the end of 2011.
Guess who gets to pay it back? Not me. Maybe not you, if you’re middle aged or so. Here’s who will be paying it back, in cash, in kind, in trade, or in economic disaster and unemployment.
Another entry in the Powerline Prize contest.
Jul 26 2011
Another high placing (but not quite winning) entry in the Powerline Prize competition for a media product to illustrate the danger of our national debt.
Jul 25 2011
Obama calls for compromise on debt
President Barack Obama said on Monday a temporary six-month extension of debt ceiling does not solve the problem and might not be enough to avoid credit downgrade.
Obama said he has told leaders of both parties they must come with a fair compromise in the news few days that can pass Congress.
The President wants to be able to pin the blame on big spending and higher borrowing, increasing the national debt, on Republicans. He doesn’t want it to still be on the table for the 2012 election cycle, which is the real reason he doesn’t want only a six month extension…. he knows that in six months, he’ll look even worse.
The truth, of course is that a six month extension that matches debt ceiling raises to REAL, RIGHT NOW CUTS, not future pie-in-the-sky maybe cuts, is ITSELF a compromise between the Republicans and the Democrats.
But compromising with Democrats is usually a one way street. You compromise. They don’t. Then they insist you compromise some more, taking your compromised position as the new bargaining starting point.
As Erick Ericson points out, we’ve had 17 debt commissions, and innumerable promises to study future cuts in the last decades. It’s ALWAYS a smokescreen to pretend something is being done while protecting the status quo, or taxing/spending/borrowing even more.
In Washington speak, a CUT is simply a reduction in spending INCREASES planned for the future. Get it? If you planned to increase your spending by 20% next year, and only increase it by 10%, you get to call THAT a CUT in the beltway…. when in fact it is an INCREASE, still.
Liar, liar, pants on fire, Mr. President.
Jul 24 2011
The Powerline contest for media illustrating the debt crisis facing the USA is done, and here is one of the top entries (not a winner, but highly rated):
I’m thinking most of us are the fish.
I’d feel better about it if the video had a disclaimer: NO GOLDFISH WERE HARMED DURING THE PRODUCTION OF THIS VIDEO.
Just kidding.
May 26 2011
This is the most incredible set of photos I’ve seen about the destruction in Joplin, MO, with before and after photos of neighborhoods, stores, schools, etc.
Apr 04 2011
I drive a Toyota Prius. It needs a new catalytic converter. If I lived in any state but California, I could buy one for around $350, and pay maybe $100-200 to have it installed. For example, here is a website selling the item, for any state but California (notice, it says “no sales to CA”).
Since I live in California, it will cost me $2200 to have a new catalytic converter installed, because it is a dealer only item, and since Toyota has no competition for the part, they have a legal monopoly on it… which means they can charge whatever they want, and I really have no choice.
But wait, you say, aren’t monopolies illegal in the USA? The answer, of course, is that monopolies have mostly only flourished where the government enforces them in some way (it’s called crony capitalism, and one of the earliest examples was the building of railroads in the 19th century, based on monopolistic leases from the federal government), and California, as we’ve mentioned before, is a state dedicated to the proposition that most businesses should be driven from the state, and all paying customers should be punished for being customers, or at least for having sufficient funds to be customers.
Call it another example of why California is going the way of the dodo. And, as a state government, it has about the same IQ.
It would be cheaper for me to drive the car to Arizona and have it repaired there, then drive it home.
I asked the service manager at Toyota why the catalytic converter costs so much. He said it “has precious metal in it.” Maybe, if I get a new one, I’ll sell it and retire.
This is emblematic of California’s ridiculous posture on so many issues, where it is willing to be pay 10 times as much as some other states, for a tiny increment of “improvement” in the quality of the thing purchased. Is it possible this catalytic converter is 8-10 times as good as other catalytic converters on other cars? Really?
It is a government imposed monopoly, and the sky is the limit on how much Toyota can charge, because they are literally the only legal game in town, so says CARB.
Feb 09 2011
Obama to call for $53B for high-speed rail
President Barack Obama is calling for a six-year, $53 billion spending plan for high-speed rail, as he seeks to use infrastructure spending to jumpstart job creation.
An initial $8 billion in spending will be part of the budget plan Obama is set to release Monday. If Congress approves the plan, the money would go toward developing or improving trains that travel up to 250 miles per hour, and connecting existing rail lines to new projects. The White House wouldn’t say where the money for the rest of the program would come from, though it’s likely Obama would seek funding in future budgets or transportation bills.
Obama’s push for high-speed rail spending is part of his broad goal of creating jobs in the short-term and increasing American competitiveness for the future through new spending on infrastructure, education and innovation. During last month’s State of the Union address, Obama said he wanted to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years.
At the same time he’s calling for new spending on sectors like high-speed rail in the upcoming budget, Obama also has pledged to cut overall spending as he seeks to bring down the nation’s mounting deficit.
Well, to be clear, Obama only called for a “freeze in spending”… a freeze at the ridiculously high levels he set in his first two years. Only his sycophants in the press would call not raising spending even further “a cut.”
In any case, America is not Europe, nor is it Japan. There is not now a demand for high speed rail, nor will there be anytime soon. If there was a demand for it, private interests would be busy investing in it, expecting to make money from it. Obama seems to have learned nothing from the subsidy infested mess that is Amtrak.
I propose a better way to spend the money. He should invest in research in alchemy. Turning lead into gold is probably impossible…. but maybe not. And along the way, spending 50 billion dollars is likely to accidentally result in some real science getting done, something with at least “spin off” benefits, technologically and economically.
So lets hear it for alchemy in the federal budget. That makes a LOT more sense, and is probably a better way to spend large amounts of money, than high-speed rail, which will continue to be a sinkhole for money even after it’s built, which will probably cost a lot more than anyone now projects.
Of course, we all know Obama has no actual hope of doing this. He just brought it up to play to his lefty audience, who love anything that makes people get in lines and wait somewhere. But Obama knows he has no chance of getting this through a Republican House of Representatives. He’s just talking for effect, and public relations with his base.
Still… maybe in trying to turn lead into gold, the scientists would finally discover cold fusion.
