Archive » fiscal stimulus

**Written by Doug Powers Before signing the stimulus bill (aka “Porkulus”) in February of 2009, White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said that, even though the president probably hadn’t read the entire 1,079 bill cover-to-cover, he knew it was okay to sign because he had “a team of the best legislative and economic experts [...]

Stoogian incompetence

Daley Affirmations

Last week, I spotlighted the left-wing egghead economists who glide effortlessly through the White House-academia revolving door despite failure after failure in the real world. Earlier today, the professor-in-chief himself opened his mouth and exposed his abject ignorance of how free markets work. Straining to explain away another Wreckovery Summer, President Obama blamed technological innovation [...]

The Government Job-Training Juggernaut by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 President Obama campaigned this week for “new and innovative approaches” to America’s economic crisis. So naturally, the futurist-in-chief filched his fresh, bold ideas straight from … the 1930s. The grand new solution to the jobs deficit, according to the White House, is more FDR-style [...]

**Written by Doug Powers The Reverse Midas Touch has claimed another victim: TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio restaurant mentioned last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government’s Chrysler bailout will go out of business Sunday after a more than 70-year history. Co-owner Richard Lawrence of New Chet’s Restaurant in [...]

Academic Legion of Economic Doom: Chart adapted from e21 Obama’s Egghead Economic Saboteurs by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 Official motto of the White House economic team: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, fantasize in the classroom, fail in Washington and then return to the Ivy Tower to train the next generation of [...]

**Written by Doug Powers The only thing that can be expected with a large degree of confidence these days is poor economic data being reported as “unexpected.” The same holds true for yet another month: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employment rose far less than expected in May to record its weakest reading since September, while the [...]

Happy June, everyone. Yesterday, I brought you news of the latest sky-high food-stamp usage figures. Today brings a torrent of more bad economic news that Team Obama and his spinners will find away to celebrate: Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Yesterday, Michelle wrote about the Porkulus “cash for tax cheats” program, and here’s a related item that Sheriff Joe Biden might want to investigate as soon as he’s finished plotting his path to the White House in 2016. The Stimulus is going to touch more lives than we thought — in [...]

Porkulus: Cash for Tax Cheats by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 When President Obama signed the trillion-dollar stimulus law in 2009, he proclaimed that he was “keeping the American dream alive in our time.” The stimulator-in-chief failed to mention that billions would be spent keeping American tax scammers afloat on our dime. At a [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Stimulus Update Five hundred million dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (better known to Michelle’s readers as “Porkulus”) went to the US Department of Labor earmarked for “green jobs training programs,” and $490 million of that has already been awarded. How’s that working out? According to the most recent [...]

Where did $1.3 trillion in federal spending on contracts and grants go? The most transparent administration ever won’t say, and as this House Energy and Commerce hearing revealed yesterday, the White House has stonewalled on a FOIA request to find out for more than six months: Cue sound of flushing toilet here… H/T The Right [...]

ILL-inois

**Written by Doug Powers Today, a Wilmington, Delaware train station was officially renamed for Joe Biden, the man charged with ensuring that every stimulus project comes in on time and on budget. Naturally this particular station came in $5.3 million over budget. That, however, was a small price to pay to add another piece to [...]

I first wrote about the progressive infrastructure bank boondoggle last September. Today’s column revisits the recycled government slush fund recipe now being offered by Jawn Kerry. Politico says the costly idea is “gaining steam.” The GOP needs to stop this runaway gravy train in its tracks. Guess who’s enabling the Left? GOP Sen. Kay Bailey [...]

Joe gets his own station, you get the bill

No thanks, Conductor Joe

As a companion to my column yesterday on the Democrats’ $53 billion high-speed rail boondoggle and the systemic sabotage of financial oversight in the Obama administration, I offer you two more depressing items: First, via GOP Sen. Tom Coburn: $800 million missing at HHS and nearly $2 billion in limbo: # The nonpartisan analysis of [...]

Austan Goolsbee and the “Valley of Death” Yes, there is such a thing as the “White House White Board,” where Obama bureaucrats and czars get to show off their central-planning chops and lecture America’s real movers, shakers, and job creators on how government will play an integral role in rescuing us all. Today’s White House [...]

Remember this piece of work? The throttler in the classic Democrats Gone Wild video is (former) Democrat Rep. Bob Etheridge, who lashed out at two college kids with the audacity to question him last summer about his adherence to failed Obama policies: Etheridge was ousted in November by GOP newcomer Renee Elmers. But arrogant pols [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Sorry, did I say cuts? I meant increases, but you probably already figured that out: President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people [...]

The myth that “green jobs” are a boon to the economy keeps getting pierced by failed green jobs boondoggle after failed green jobs boondoggle. As I noted in April 2009, the truth about green jobs has been told all over the world. Case in point: Spain. Every “green job” created with government money in Spain [...]

Criminey. The Detroit Public Schools are overrun by corruption, violence, and incompetence. Test scores are rock-bottom. The teachers’ union sabotaged classroom instruction and denied schoolchildren an education through an apparent illegal work stoppage. Yet, Washington went ahead and forked over $530 million in federal porkulus funds to reward yet more Detroit government school failure and [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Here’s a federal job listing by way of Moonbattery. As you can see, there’s still time to apply: Over 200k just to separate the white males from the rest in order to contribute to a more colorblind society free from sexual discrimination? That sounds like a job I could handle — [...]

**Written by Doug Powers These guys must be shocked every morning when the sun rises in the east. How many times does this have to happen before it’s not unexpected? WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employment barely grew in November and the jobless rate unexpectedly hit a seven-month high, hardening views the Federal Reserve would stick to [...]

Back in April 2009, we took note of how the green jobs boondoggle turned out in Spain. In two words: Epic fail. No matter. The Obama White House shoveled more and more enviro-slush fund money into the green jobs/union jobs black hole. Now, the Washington Post reports that retrained workers who followed the green jobs’ [...]

Brother can you spare a few million?

Assumed debt

Joe’s Transcontinental Failroad