Archive » fiscal stimulus

Brother can you spare a few million?

Assumed debt

Joe’s Transcontinental Failroad

**Written by Doug Powers Why the Ritz? Because the Waldorf Astoria was booked solid. From Byron York: Members of a key panel created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, have scheduled a meeting on November 22 to consider ways to prevent “fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Andrew Malcolm at the LA Times reported that Vice President Biden was holding a meeting on Transparency today… behind closed doors, of course. I checked Sheriff Joe’s schedule on the White House website, and sure enough, the administration transparently confirmed the closed-door transparency meeting that nobody else could see: Could people [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Good news for the Democrats, especially candidates in Indiana, a day before the big election. Even more jobs have been created as a result of the economy the Democrats have been working on tirelessly: INDIANAPOLIS — Armed security guards will be on hand at 36 unemployment offices around Indiana in what [...]

**Written by Doug Powers Okay, before you read on about how Michelle Obama is saying we’ve come too far to turn back now and that she knows how difficult it is for people but if you only give it enough time you’ll fall in love with Hope & Change, it might be a good idea [...]

**Written by Doug Powers President Obama, assisted by his willing accomplices in Congress who have helped swipe the national credit card like giddy teenage girls at the mall with daddy’s Visa, have made history. From CNS News: It’s official: The Obama administration has now borrowed $3 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. It took [...]

**Written by Doug Powers From the New York Times, January 2009: On “Meet the Press,” fill-in host Tom Brokaw wants to know how quickly Barack Obama can create jobs, and the president-elect promises to move fast. After all, he says, he’s met with a bunch of governors “and all of them have projects that are [...]

**Written by Doug Powers There’s a discussion thread about the “One Nation” rally over at Reason.com, and one of the comments there is destined to end up on Treacher’s fridge. The language in this particular “jobs manifesto” is NSFW — it reads a little like Milton Friedman meets Andrew Dice Clay — so be forewarned. [...]

“According to my report, damn I’m good!”

Recovery summer!

Bottoms up!

**Written by Doug Powers This one somehow slipped through the cracks earlier in the week. Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, is tired of clueless dilettantes who couldn’t operate a lemonade stand without ending up a hundred grand in debt portraying the business community as “the problem.” Marcus was on CNBC and profusely apologized [...]

**Written by Doug Powers That Austan Goolsbee never stops with the comedy. From Fox News: Vice President Biden wasn’t talking about jobs when called this the “summer of recovery.” He was talking about construction projects. That’s the explanation top White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee gave when asked about the more than 280,000 jobs lost [...]

**Written by Doug Powers If you’re selling US economy stock short, now is the time to get aggressive: WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–President Barack Obama on Monday said his economic team is working to identify new measures to stimulate U.S. growth as part of a “full-scale attack” to strengthen the lackluster economy. Obama, speaking in the White [...]

**Written by Doug Powers The media must be getting a whopper of a tax credit whenever they apply the term “unexpectedly” to reports of rises in jobless claims. Reuters double-dipped this week, first in the title of their story, and again in the opening sentence: Weekly Jobless Claims Post Surprise Jump, Hit 500,000 New U.S. [...]

Eleventy-hundred-hour work weeks

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers Just about the only thing we can fully expect concerning the economy is the term “unexpectedly” being applied to reports about a rise in jobless claims: Weekly jobless claims rise unexpectedly More Americans than expected filed initial jobless claims last week, as job creation remains stubbornly sluggish. Claims increased 13,000, [...]

You’ll recall the far Left attacks on me last summer when I had the audacity on ABC’s This Week to discuss government unemployment benefits and the effect that endless extensions have on reducing the incentive to seek a job. We revisited the subject in March during the Senate debate over the jobless benefits extension package [...]

That’s the jobless rate reported today. Morning Bell calls it “a recovery only Washington could love.” Ed Morrissey: The news was mostly good in most sectors. Manufacturing was up 44K, mining added 7,000 jobs, construction continued its rebound with a +14K, and leisure and hospitality added 45,000 jobs. That’s a good showing and an indication [...]

I’ve covered the Green Jobs boondoggle many times here over the past year (see, for example, 4/13/09 “Spain’s green jobs boondoggle;” 12/15/09, “Here comes Cash for Caulkers (again!); Update: Obama: “Insulation is sexy”; 1/7/10 “Green Jobs” = SEIU/Union Jobs;” 1/8/10, “Here comes another multi-billion-dollar Green Jobs boondoggle,” 3/2/10, “A wind power cautionary tale”). Here’s yet [...]

The tax breaks and projected jobs in the Senate jobs bill are illusory. The $17 billion package circumvents pay-go rules. But no matter. The Senate passed the Porkulus II today by 68-29 — with support from 11 Republicans. Here’s the roll call vote: The Republicans who sided with the endless spending-spree Democrats: Alexander Bond Scott [...]

The AJC’s Cynthia Tucker blogged today about a testy exchange we had last summer on ABC’s “This Week” regarding government unemployment benefits and the effect that endless extensions have on reducing the incentive to seek a job. Once again, she mistakes standard economic arguments for moral judgments: “Does the right really believe the unemployed are [...]

Well, hey, President Obama said “make yourself heard” — so here’s a video spotlighting a protester who tried to make herself heard at one of Obama’s endless campaign events yesterday in Savannah, Georgia, via WTOC: Very reminiscent of the anti-entitlement rally in Arizona last year against the savior-based economy. Remember:

Scroll for updates…2:37pm Eastern reported deal reached on two amendments…bomb threats reported…vote set for tonight…78-19, unemployment benefits/COBRA extension, other government benefits extensions pass…$10 billion bill not paid for…roll call vote added I’ve praised GOP Sen. Jim Bunning many times over the last two years for taking unpopular stands against massive, government entitlement expansions. He was [...]

Hey, that White House pay-for-play/culture of corruption file just keeps getting fatter and fatter. This morning, it was the Romanoff and Sestak deals. This afternoon, Reid Wilson at Hotline On Call reports that Team Obama offered retired GOP Sen. Mel Martinez a little Florida favor in exchange for a Porkulus vote. They were willing to [...]

Scroll for updates…Sen. Brown’s Facebook comment thread in full revolt… Here is the roll call vote on the Senate’s Porkulus II cloture motion this evening: The Republicans who joined the Dems to end debate on the phony jobs boondoggle that even the Associated Press points out will create a puny number of jobs: Scott Brown, [...]

Aw. The trillion-dollar Porkulus turned one today. Let’s all raise a bacon-wrapped toast to generational theft. Here’s a handy timeline of the wreckovery: http://republicanwhip.house.gov/floor/A%20Stimulus%20Timeline.pdf The White House is in full defense mode spinning the stimulus salvation. Leave your favorite examples of porkulus failure/waste in comments or e-mail.

A year ago today, Seattle taxpayers organized an unprecedented protest of the pork-stuffed, generational theft stimulus bill that President Obama rammed down America’s throat. Many of the latecomers and opportunists and Beltway politicians who later glommed on to the Tea Party phenomenon don’t remember these early demonstrations. But the activists who turned out in Seattle [...]