Liberals like President Obama criticized President Bush for only seeing things as black and white. The problem with always being is some shade of gray is that anything can be reasonable. This is what got Tres. Sec. Geithner in trouble recently. When you are "open" to anything, you send a message that anything is possible, no matter how dangerous it may be. (Politico):
Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is "open" to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and "evolutionary."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Tax Revolt, by You
Tax protests are rising. The media is disinterested. Soon, they will have to cover it. And when they do, people will say, "How come I didn't know about this?". Massachusetts tax protest at the state house on April 15th. Find out where you local tax day protest will be. Don't miss it. Don't let them ignore us any longer.
Dean's World (via Instapundit)
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...a few hundred Iraq protestors garnered far more attention this week than any of the much larger tax protests.
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P.S. For some strange reason, taxdatteaparty.com doesn't show up on a Google search for "tea party". Nah. Probably a logical explanation...
Dean's World (via Instapundit)
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...a few hundred Iraq protestors garnered far more attention this week than any of the much larger tax protests.
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P.S. For some strange reason, taxdatteaparty.com doesn't show up on a Google search for "tea party". Nah. Probably a logical explanation...
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Financial Malice
Mark Steyn finds some good points is the NYT. This weeks hypocrisy about bonuses only helps to destory the market. We own AIG and we spent a week talking investors out of investing in our investment. Smart.
Steyn:
As President Reagan said, we are a nation that has a government, not the other way round. The nation pays for the government, not the other way round. I pay for Congressman Frank and Senator Dodd, not the other way round.
Steyn:
As President Reagan said, we are a nation that has a government, not the other way round. The nation pays for the government, not the other way round. I pay for Congressman Frank and Senator Dodd, not the other way round.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Hypocrisy. Rhetoric. Perspective.
Charles Krauthammer on what the AIG Bonus means:
...Now, in the scheme of things, $165 million is a rounding error. It amounts to less than 1/18,500 of the $3.1 trillion federal budget. It's less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the bailout money given to AIG alone....
It is time for the president to state the obvious: This recession is not caused by excessive executive compensation in government-controlled companies. The economy has been sinking because of a lack of credit, stemming from a general lack of confidence, stemming from the lack of a plan to detoxify the major lending institutions, mainly the banks, which, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, is where the money used to be.
....
[The stimulus] bill, we now discover, contains, among other depth charges, a Teamster-supported provision inserted by Sen. Byron Dorgan that terminates a Bush-era demonstration project to allow some Mexican trucks onto American highways, as required under NAFTA.
If you thought the AIG hysteria was a display of populist cynicism directed at a relative triviality, consider this: There are more than 6.5 million trucks in the United States. The program Congress terminated allowed 97 Mexican trucks to roam among them. Ninety-seven! Shutting them out not only undermines NAFTA. It caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade coming out of 40 states.
...Now, in the scheme of things, $165 million is a rounding error. It amounts to less than 1/18,500 of the $3.1 trillion federal budget. It's less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the bailout money given to AIG alone....
It is time for the president to state the obvious: This recession is not caused by excessive executive compensation in government-controlled companies. The economy has been sinking because of a lack of credit, stemming from a general lack of confidence, stemming from the lack of a plan to detoxify the major lending institutions, mainly the banks, which, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, is where the money used to be.
....
[The stimulus] bill, we now discover, contains, among other depth charges, a Teamster-supported provision inserted by Sen. Byron Dorgan that terminates a Bush-era demonstration project to allow some Mexican trucks onto American highways, as required under NAFTA.
If you thought the AIG hysteria was a display of populist cynicism directed at a relative triviality, consider this: There are more than 6.5 million trucks in the United States. The program Congress terminated allowed 97 Mexican trucks to roam among them. Ninety-seven! Shutting them out not only undermines NAFTA. It caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade coming out of 40 states.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Stench
Via. Malkin:
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group... bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. ...
While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.
Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group... bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. ...
While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.
Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Hell Freezing Over
Don't look now, but the NYT just publish a report critical of a Democrat and actually identified the party affiliation in the first mention of said congress woman!
Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 of its stock.
Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 of its stock.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
"Oh, the irony."
From the NYPost via Instapundit:
There was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, boldly testifying Tuesday before Rep. Charlie Rangel’s Ways & Means Committee - promising that the Obama administration intends to propose “a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce . . . tax evasion and avoidance.”
Did he look Chairman Rangel in the eye when he said this?
Can he look himself in the eye at the shaving mirror each morning?
A crackdown on “tax evasion and avoidance”? Oh, the irony.
There was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, boldly testifying Tuesday before Rep. Charlie Rangel’s Ways & Means Committee - promising that the Obama administration intends to propose “a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce . . . tax evasion and avoidance.”
Did he look Chairman Rangel in the eye when he said this?
Can he look himself in the eye at the shaving mirror each morning?
A crackdown on “tax evasion and avoidance”? Oh, the irony.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Buffet Missed the Memo
Buffet didn't get the Obama memo telling the media that the word "inflation" is off limits. You'll have to read the UK Reuters to get this info.
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But Buffett said that with the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department going "all in" to jump-start an economy shrinking at the fastest pace since 1982, "once-unthinkable dosages" of stimulus will likely spur an "onslaught" of inflation, an enemy of fixed-income investors.
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But Buffett said that with the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department going "all in" to jump-start an economy shrinking at the fastest pace since 1982, "once-unthinkable dosages" of stimulus will likely spur an "onslaught" of inflation, an enemy of fixed-income investors.
Broken Promises
Obama ending the Iraq war? I don't think so. He may be saying so, and the media may be giving him this credit, but as this article at Real Clear Politics defines, we're not running out of the country as the left would have liked. Obama is much closer to Bush's strategy than he is to his own campaign rhetoric.
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During the campaign, Obama pushed a plan to withdraw one or two combat brigades per month until they were all out. Only two things have changed in Obama's 16-month departure plan: It will take longer than 16 months, and we won't depart.
Instead of May 2010, the target date has been pushed back to August of that year. Nor will he bring back one or two combat brigades each month. Instead, The New York Times reports, Obama plans to withdraw only two between now and December, or one combat brigade every five months.
The administration claims it will speed up the pace of withdrawal next year. But if someone says he's going to sober up tomorrow, it doesn't mean he will definitely do it tomorrow. It just means he definitely won't do it today.
What we can deduce from the new timetable is that for now, we are staying put. As for what happens next year -- well, why cross that bridge before we come to it?
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During the campaign, Obama pushed a plan to withdraw one or two combat brigades per month until they were all out. Only two things have changed in Obama's 16-month departure plan: It will take longer than 16 months, and we won't depart.
Instead of May 2010, the target date has been pushed back to August of that year. Nor will he bring back one or two combat brigades each month. Instead, The New York Times reports, Obama plans to withdraw only two between now and December, or one combat brigade every five months.
The administration claims it will speed up the pace of withdrawal next year. But if someone says he's going to sober up tomorrow, it doesn't mean he will definitely do it tomorrow. It just means he definitely won't do it today.
What we can deduce from the new timetable is that for now, we are staying put. As for what happens next year -- well, why cross that bridge before we come to it?
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