Twas the Night Before Cliff-mas

’Twas the night before Cliff-mas, and all through the House
Not a member was working, no ideal to espouse;
Their offices closed, the members all gone,
No solution for a budget plan had yet to be drawn.

Our Congress had spent a year feuding again,
While uncertainty and poor growth plagued businessmen;
The economy had slowed, unemployment was high,
Things weren’t looking up for a taxpayer, like I.

On December 31st tax rates were scheduled to rise,
Which many agreed was not in itself wise.
With this, another date caught the country’s fiscal fixation—
The second of January was set for across-the-board sequestration.

I’d heard all the talk, all the senators saying,
“If we’re spending this much, someone has to be paying!”
The rhetoric from the news droned on in my head,
As I turned off my light, and crawled into bed.

When out on the Mall there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
It was the President! His sudden arrival was thrilling,
He went after the Congress, he called them by building:

“Now, Senate! Now, Hart! Now, Russell and Dirksen!
On House! on Rayburn! on, Longworth and Cannon!
The fiscal cliff is approaching! We need to make cuts!
Bad policy and spending got us into this rut!”

Out came the lawmakers, their cheeks from sleep rosy,
I saw Boehner, Reid, McConnell and Pelosi;
They gathered together, their eyes straight ahead,
Some seemed optimistic, as the president said:

“We need to end this uncertainty, if we are to stay strong,
I know we can do it, if we all get along.
We won’t hurt the middle class, we’ll raise taxes on the wealthy!
It’s right for everyone to pay a fair share to keep our economy healthy!”

Reid stepped up as well, his voice rather hoarse,
“We know that we need to include a few cuts, of course.
This deficit spending hurts our economy in the long-run,
But for now, raising some taxes will help everyone!”

“Now hold on one minute,” Boehner said with a sigh,
“You know the tax increase you propose is too high!
The wealthy you speak of—they aren’t you and me;
They’re middle-class, and small business owners you see!”

“You won’t close the tax loopholes, you won’t lower our debt!
You’ll create a situation where new investors will sweat!
We need tax reform, to resolve all this clutter!”
He stepped back with a nod—the crowd started to mutter.

Was he right? Was it true? Could reform solve it all?
Or would a tax hike spur investment and keep us from a fall?
It was the same talk I’d heard, the same from before—
So I ran down the stairs, and I opened the door:

“You say you’ll manage the tax code, and cut wasteful spending,
But it’s these political struggles that keep our economy pending!
We need real reform, not this spending obsession;
‘Else this cliff should put us in another recession!”

The lawmakers started, they had not known I was there;
And they sputtered and scattered and ran without care;
I watched them go and yelled after them, as they took flight:
“Avoid the fiscal cliff for all, and to YOU a good-night!”

Only thing missing is Obama, who flew off to vacation in Hawaii.

H/T to Bankrupting America

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Dollar Falls…Time for Fed to Fire Up Printing Presses to Devalue the Dollar Even More with Their Debt-Buying Scheme

Our government is the reason for the weak dollar. The Federal Reserve is printing money, time-and-time again, to buy Obama’s debt.

From Bloomberg:

The dollar weakened against most its major counterparts amid better-than-forecast factory data from China and bets the U.S. central bank will add to monetary stimulus.

The U.S. currency fell versus the euro and the yen before the Federal Reserve starts a policy meeting tomorrow amid forecasts it will expand bond-buying plans. Japan’s currency touched the highest in almost two weeks versus the euro after Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti said he intends to resign. Mexico’s peso advanced after a report showed exports increased 13 percent from a year earlier.

“You’re starting to see a slight divergence appear in thecurrency markets, as the Chinese data remained quite favorable,” said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy atWells Fargo & Co. in New York. “Despite what is happening in Italy, markets are still relatively calm. People are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve this week, which should be an event that is positive for risk and negative for the dollar.”

The dollar fell 0.1 percent to $1.2941 per euro at 5 p.m. in New York. It dropped 0.2 percent to 82.36 yen. The Japanese currency was 0.1 percent higher against the euro at 106.58, after reaching 105.98, the strongest since Nov. 28.

The U.S. currency declined versus 10 of its 16 most-traded counterparts. It sank 0.3 percent versus the New Zealand dollarand retreated 0.2 percent against the pound.

[...]The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meets for the last time this year on Dec. 11-12. It will consider whether to expand purchases of assets after its so-called Operation Twist program of swapping $45 billion a month in short-term Treasuries for long-term debt expires this month.

“There’s a good chance that the Fed will announce a new round of money printing and bond buying,” which would be negative for the dollar, said Imre Speizer, a strategist in Auckland atWestpac Banking Corp. (WBC)

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Rand Paul’s Strategy: Republicans Should Let Dems Raise Taxes and Let Them Own It (Video)

It won’t work. Dems have been blaming their economy on Bush and Bush has been out of office for 4 years.

 

 

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The Stupidity Continues: Pelsoi Still Claiming Unemployment Benefits ‘One of the Most Important Stimuli for the Economy’

The face of liberal stupidity

Since when has taking money out of the economy, then putting it back stimulated the economy? Liberal Keynesian economics explained.

(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said unemployment insurance benefits act as a “safety net for our whole economy,” adding that they simultaneously  constitute “probably the most important” stimulus for the economy.

Except she can’t explain why increasing unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 99 weeks haven’t done a thing to stimulate the economy or lower the unemployment rates.

During a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, a reporter asked Pelosi why she has not brought unemployment benefits into the debate over the so-called fiscal cliff.

Pelosi said, “As far as the unemployment insurance is concerned, that is something that is really a safety net for our whole economy. It’s not just a safety net for individuals.  It’s a safety net for our economy.”

“Our economy, our capitalist, free market economy is one that swings back and forth in terms of ups and downs,” Pelosi said.  “And when it is down, people have paid into an unemployment insurance program and then they have those benefits, which probably are one of the most important stimuli for the economy.”

Employers pay into the unemployment insurance program, not the workers.

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Scare Tactics: Obama Warns Business GOP Debt Ceiling “Game” Will Hurt Economy

Who said this about the debt ceiling increase in 2006?

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said. “It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

If you guessed they hypocritical Sen. Barry Obama you are correct.

From The Hill:

President Obama warned Republicans against using a hike in the debt ceiling as leverage to win entitlement cuts, arguing it would play havoc with the economy.

Obama wants a blank check to continue his record spending spree and demanded the power to raise the debt ceiling anytime and how ever many times he wants.

In an address to corporate CEOs at the Business Roundtable, Obama said business leaders “should not accept going thorough” another debt ceiling crisis like the one in 2011 that caused stocks to fall and led Standard and Poor’s to devalue the U.S. credit rating.

Obama’s spending and record debt is what caused the downgrade. Talking about debt doesn’t lower a credit rating.

He warned a repeat of that showdown would be a “catastrophe” for the nation that would cause a “self-inflicted series of wounds that will potentially push us back into recession.”

Obama wasn’t too worried and even downplayed the downgrade by calling it a “political judgement that shouldn’t be taken seriously.”

Obama’s use of the business venue for the comments was meant to invoke a contrast between his stewardship of the economy and Republicans. It came in front of business leaders that have differed with the White House over financial reform and the new healthcare law.

The president told the CEOs that a fight over the debt ceiling would cause more uncertainty for business. “We can’t go there again,” Obama said.

Uncertainty has been there since Obama was elected 4 years ago.

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Unemployment Up to 7.9%….Still Higher Than the Day Obama Took Office & Higher Than Stimulus Prediction of 5.2%

Got to love liberal media spin. When Bush had an unemployment rate of 5.4%, the New York Times reported “Employment growth in the United States slowed last month, falling far short of expectations, the U.S. government reported. The new jobs report cast doubts on the strength of the U.S. economic expansion and appeared to bolster Senator John Kerry’s case against President George W. Bush’s handling of the economy…”

Now their guy is in the White House and unemployment has been above 8% every month of his presidency except the last 2 month and conveniently close to election time thanks to the numbers being cooked by the Labor Department and California not reporting their jobless claims. The official who didn’t turn in the numbers just happens to be an Obama campaign donor.

Let’s look at how the NYSlimes spins the terrible unemployment rate for their guy, Obama.

From NYTimes:

In the last assessment of the job market before the presidential election, the Labor Department announced Friday that the nation’s employers added 171,000 positions in October, and more jobs than initially estimated in both August and September.

The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9 percent in October, from 7.8 percent in September, as more workers joined the labor force and so officially became counted as unemployed.

The report showed persistent but modest improvement in the American economy, and broad-based gains in just about every industry except the government. It was based on surveys conducted too early in the month to capture work disruptions across the East Coast caused by Hurricane Sandy.

But 5.4% under Bush showed “doubts” about a strong economy while 7.9% shows “modest improvement in the economy.” Gotcha!

“Generally, the report shows that things are better than we’d expected and certainly better than we’d thought a few months ago,” said Paul Dales, senior United States economist for Capital Economics. “But we’re still not making enough progress to bring that unemployment rate down significantly and rapidly.”

The latest figures are probably good news for President Obama. They officially recorded a net gain in jobs under his presidency, and they allayed widespread suspicion that September’s large drop in the unemployment rate — below 8 percent for the first time since the month he took office — might have been a one-month statistical fluke.

As I pointed out above, the numbers were cooked conveniently right before the election. Funny that the NYTimes believes a higher unemployment rate is “good news” for Obama.

In a statement, Alan B. Krueger, the chairman of Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said Friday’s report provided “further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression.”

Sure Alan and we just happen to be suffering from the worst economic recovery in US history and are nowhere close to the 5% unemployment Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers predicted for this month of 2012. Oops, this is the same group who predicted that with the $800 billion plus stimulus, unemployment WOULD NOT go above 8%. When Obama took office unemployment was 7.8%. Four years later unemployment is at 7.9% under Obama and his team says things have “improved.”

7.8% < 7.9% in my book but the liberal media will spin and lie to make things look rosy for the Dear Leader.

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Poor Helpless Obama

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Redistribution Stymieing Recovery, Holding People in Poverty, Research Shows

This is the goal of progressives. Keep people poor so they will continue to vote Democrats into office. Over half of those receiving welfare are above the poverty line. This is the majority coalition Obama has created.

From WFB:

Welfare spending is higher than ever but the money is going to people living above the poverty line—and this redistribution is actually hurting America’s economic recovery, according to a new book.

Casey Mulligan, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and the author of  The Redistribution Recession: How Labor Market Distortions Contracted the Economy, argues “at least half, and probably more, of the drop in aggregate hours since 2007 would not have occurred, or at worse would have been short-lived, if the safety net had been constant.”

President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill largely contributed to the growth in welfare spending over the past years. A recent National Affairs article, “Restoring a True Safety Net,” argues that “the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or the stimulus program, specifically targeted poverty programs for greatly expanded funding.”

Total welfare spending topped $1 trillion in fiscal year 2011 according to theCongressional Research Service (CRS), making welfare spending the largest part of our federal budget—a fact illustrated in a chart released by Senate Budget Committee member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.).

Benefits increased in response to the recession that began in December and ended in mid-2009.

“We’re not just having poor people getting benefits,” David Armor, a professor at George Mason University and co-author of the National Affairsarticle, told the Washington Free Beacon. “The programs are more generous now.”

Armor’s study shows that “more than half of the benefits allocated through programs we think of as ‘anti-poverty’ efforts actually go to people above the poverty line as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.”

Mulligan’s book documents and analyzes “the surprisingly large changes in means-tested resource allocation since 2007.” His analysis shows that “the safety net expanded, and then stabilized at a more generous level, at about the same times that employment rates dropped, and then stabilized at a lower level.”

Armor’s study in National Affairs seems to support Mulligan’s analysis. Armor and co-author Sonia Sousa write that between 2008 and 2010 welfare spending increased by almost $200 billion, “a 40 percent increase after accounting for inflation.”

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Obama: “Absolutely Not” When Asked If He Regrets Ignoring the Economy For First Two Years of His Presidency

This is why Obama was reluctant to release the transcript of his “off the record” interview with the Des Moines Register. Funny how the media ran with Romney’s 47% remark but mentioned nothing about Obama willingly neglecting the economy to concentrate on ObamaCare.

From Breitbart:

The Obama campaign has finally released the transcript of his endorsement interview with the Des Moines Register–and it is clear why they were reluctant to do so: the President says he has “absolutely” no regrets about ignoring the economy during the first two years of his term, when Democrats controlled Congress.

Here is the key part of the exchange:

Q: Yes, that begs a question from us, Mr. President. Some say you had a super majority in your first two years and had this incredible opportunity, but because of what you were talking about, as you were running, you had to go to get Obamacare done. Do you have any regrets taking on some of the economic issues, some of the issues that we’re talking about for your second term, that when you had the chance, so to speak, during your first — do you have any regrets that you didn’t do that at that time?

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely not, Laura. Remember the context. First of all, Mitch McConnell has imposed an ironclad filibuster from the first day I was in office. And that’s not speculation. I mean, this is — it’s amply recorded. He gave a speech saying, my task is to defeat the President.

So we were able to pass emergency action with the stimulus, but we had to get two votes from Republicans…

Obama’s response is misleading. Republicans made no such filibuster threat at the outset of his first term. He refers to remarks made by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in late 2010, not in late 2008 or early 2009. Republicans in fact attempted to work together with the then-popular Obama before being rebuffed (“I won“).

In addition, as journalist Bob Woodward points out in The Price of Politics, McConnell’s remark about his “top priority” being to deny Obama a second term was taken out of context (McConnell had stressed a desire to work with Obama if he changed his approach). Even MSNBC’s Morning Joe (!) felt compelled to apologize on the air for misreporting McConnell’s remark. Obama has no such scruples, and simply repeats the lie as an excuse.

Even if they had wanted to, Republicans could not have imposed a filibuster anyway. Obama is correct that Democrats only had a filibuster-proof majority for a period of several months in 2009-2010, but that was no great obstacle to his agenda. The additional vote or two needed to break Republican opposition to the stimulus, for example, had been remarkably easy to obtain. And when Republicans did recover their ability to filibuster, with the surprise election of Scott Brown from Massachusetts in 2010, Democrats simply used reconciliation to pass Obamacare, avoiding the filibuster altogether. The fact is that Obama wielded power not seen in decades.

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John Kerry Gives Advice to Reporters: Write about the awesome economy

idiot, spinning for Obama

When I read this advice, I literally laughed-out-loud.

From Politico:

Sen. John Kerry would like reporters to write some more about how well the economy is doing.

Doing some pre-foreign policy debate spinning outside the debate hall at Lynn University here, President Obama’s Mitt Romney stand-in said the economy is improving and the press has an obligation to report about it.

“The president has proven that he knew what the priorities were,” Kerry said. “He had to make America strong economically again. We are on, we are well on that road to recovery and it’s time for people to write about it and cheer about even as we know we have more distance to travel.”

Kerry went on to tick off the roster of Obama economic accomplishments 15 days before Election Day.

“Just take a look at it,” he said. “We had a record, now the lowest rate of foreclosures in five years. Lowest level of job claims in four years. Stock market is almost at a record high. People’s 401(k)s are up. Home sales are up. Consumer enthusiasm is up. All of the indicators are moving in the right direction.”

The record foreclosures happened under Obama and are still higher than anytime under Bush. The lowest level of jobless claims was due to the Labor Dept. cooking the books and California not reporting their jobless claims. Kerry, of course, won’t mention the 30-year low in the labor force participation rate or that the unemployment number is the same as the day Obama entered office. The Stock Market is up thanks to the 3 rounds of quantitative easing The Federal Reserve conducted to buy Obama’s record debt.

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