Big Dogs House

Obama And His Team Miss The Mark – Again

Aug 26, 2009 Political

The Obama team of nincompoops has missed the mark since he took over the helm of state here in the good ole’ US of A. First we had to pass the stimulus right away or the world would end. We were told that with the stimulus unemployment would not go above 8% but that without it the rate would be above 9.5% and maybe higher. They passed the huge bill (one that contains very little to actually stimulate) and unemployment went up to the number it would ONLY reach if we did NOT pass the stimulus.

Now, before some liberal responds and tells me that unemployment is a lagging indicator let me say that I know this and I did not expect unemployment to lower with the stimulus. Obama and his team were the ones who claimed the stimulus would keep unemployment down so they are the ones with whom you have a beef.

I have said all along that we did not need the stimulus and that the recession would clear on its own as all recessions have done in the past. The major recession that turned into a depression took that path because of government interventions very much like what is taking place today. The interference of our government is the reason the rest of the world had a depression and we had a Great Depression.

Right now, countries that did not have huge stimulus packages are well on their way to recovery while we still linger in tough times. I have been told by several liberals that I communicate with that the recession is softening and that we are on our way to recovery. They tell me that this means the stimulus is working. First of all we were told the stimulus would jump start the economy. Then when that did not happen we were told it was not meant to jump start the economy and that it was actually designed to take affect next year. Now that things are “softening” the stimulus is suddenly the reason and is meant to work this soon.

Only about 10-15% of the stimulus money has been allocated so if the economy is getting better with only that relatively small infusion shouldn’t we cancel the other 85-90% that we were going to spend? If we are on our way to recovery without all the stimulus money then let’s save it so we can reduce our debt.

I think we are in for some serious trouble ahead because of the careless and unsound monetary policies of the Obama administration. While things are looking a little better (stress little) now there will be problems next year. Obama is already revising his estimates of unemployment for next year from his unrealistic 7.9% made in May to 10%.

U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion next year, both higher than previous Obama administration forecasts because of a recession that was deeper and longer than expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said.

~snip~

Administration and congressional budget officials expect the unemployment rate, which was 9.4 percent last month, to keep rising. White House officials said the rate likely will rise to 10 percent by the end of 2009, averaging 9.3 percent for the entire year. It will worsen to a 9.8 percent average in 2010 instead of the 7.9 percent estimate in May. Bloomberg

Joe Biden told us before that this is worse than anyone thought and now they are saying it again. It was made worse by the careless spending and haphazard approach to addressing it. They can blame this all on Bush (and he along with the Democratically controlled Congress certainly share in the blame) but it belongs to them. There were plenty of economists who said that the stimulus was the wrong way to go. Couple that with the huge number of items that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy (and everything to do with paying off political supporters) and you have a recipe for disaster.

The Obama team will be hit with a double dip recession. The recession we are recovering from will make a slow improvement into the beginning of next year. Then we will get hit with another recession which will drive us down again. This will be accompanied by inflation the likes of which have not been seen since the Carter administration.

Numbers are looking up a little but they are deceptive. Businesses posted “profits” last quarter but many cut workers from their workforce and pared down about as far as they could go. This time we have cash for clunkers which numbers wise was a success and will be a good thing for dealers (if they get paid). It will be a failure in the long run because of what it did. It allowed people who had functioning vehicles that were, in most instances, paid for to trade them in and get up to $4500 of TAXPAYER money to buy a new one. Now they have a new bill to contend with. If we have this double dip recession as I suspect (and as some economists are predicting) will these people fall in the same boat as those who bought houses they ended up being unable to afford?

The clunkers program probably took people who would have bought cars in a few months and enticed them to buy now. This means sales numbers will decrease in the coming months. The real issue is the program itself. Pay attention closely. This program was conceived only a short time ago and it is already over. In that period of time the paperwork required of dealers became a substantial burden, the computer network set up to accept the forms was inadequate and crashed a number of times. The deadline for submitting the paperwork has been extended a few times and dealers are not getting paid in a timely fashion.

Two things strike me about that. If dealers are kept waiting for six or eight weeks for reimbursement some of them will go bankrupt and be forced out of business. Also, if the government cannot effectively manage a 3 billion dollar program for a few weeks what makes anyone think it will be able to handle a health care system involving trillions of dollars. If a clunker took a mountain of paperwork and reimbursement is slow what will a doctor have to go through to get paid and what will a patient have to go through to get treated?

Keep this in mind when they tell you they can run health care. They could not run cash for clunkers without making it an administrative nightmare full of delays. Imagine how it will be when it is health care.

The Obama team has been inept at figuring out what the economy is doing and they continually admit they did not have a clue. Their fall back position is to blame the Bush administration (without mentioning the majority Democrat Congress in place when this happened) and say that they inherited a mess.

They got a mess but they made it really bad and now it ALL belongs to them. So they need to stop whining and start getting things right.

They can start by recalling the stimulus and not spending any more money and by also ending the overhaul of health care.

Let’s face it folks, the last think we need to hear after Obamacare passes is “we underestimated how much this would cost and we were really wrong about rationing/wait times/death panels…”

By then it will be too late…

Tags: health care, ineptitude, Obama, stimulus, unemployment, waste

Here We Go Again

Aug 18, 2009 Political

While everyone is involved with the debate on healthcare, and rightly so, there are other problems that the socialists are trying to ram through, like the Cap and Tax problem that they are foisting on a public that, while most are environmentally aware, are unaware that their economic future is extremely dependent on whether this bill is passed in its current form or not by the Senate when they come back from recess (makes them sound like the children they seem to be, doesn’t it?). It should be noted that not everyone is thrilled with the content of this badly constructed bill.

Local energy workers are expected to crowd into a downtown Houston theater today to protest climate change legislation that the U.S. Senate will take up in the coming weeks.

The Energy Citizens rally, promoted by some major energy companies and business organizations as well as the Greater Houston Partnership, will be the first of several such events planned in 19 states in the coming weeks.

Organizers of the event, billed as a dialogue on energy and the environment, told the Chronicle on Monday that legislation the U.S. House passed last spring will destroy millions of U.S. jobs and raise costs without reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.

“It’s a dangerous piece of legislation,” said James Hackett, chairman and CEO of Anadarko Energy, which is busing employees to the event.

Hackett said he supports reducing greenhouse emissions and developing alternative sources of fuel.

“But I do think there’s a virtual reality that’s being portrayed to most American citizens about how quickly we get there and how we get there,” Hackett said.

chron.com

These workers, who actually do work in the energy industry, not just “play one on TV”, are concerned about the future of our energy industry if this bill is passed, as there is so much that is omitted in this bill.

The climate change bill the House passed earlier this year sets a steadily decreasing cap on emissions from factories, power plants and other industrial sources and lets companies trade any excess emissions allowances. The price of those emissions allowances would most likely be passed on to consumers.

The measure also would set up a system for creating extra allowances, called offsets, through other projects that reduce emissions, and would include incentives for renewable energy sources and home and business energy efficiency.

But opponents say the bill won’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it doesn’t secure promises from developing nations, like China and India, to put controls on their growing emissions.

It also makes no mention of encouraging nuclear power generation, which some rally organizers believe will be key to meeting the country’s electricity needs without creating more greenhouse gases, and doesn’t discuss a role for natural gas, which typically has lower carbon emissions than other fossil fuels.

Opponents also say the cost of the legislation is ill-timed in a weak economy.

chron.com

Yeah, nuclear power would and should be on the plan, but some environmental whackos won’t be satisfied until we are living off of granola, sitting in our tents, and pondering our navel. Lovely.

When you consider that China and India’s air becomes ours in two to three days, as the jetstream transfers and mixes air above us, any plan that doesn’t have them on board is useless, and just cripples our economy, and makes no sense. It’s the economic version of slitting our own throat.

A study released by the National Association of Manufacturers last week says the law would cost 1.8 million to 2.4 million jobs by 2030 and would cost each U.S. household up to $1,248 a year by 2030.

Other estimates of annual household costs have differed — $83 per year according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration; $88-$140 according to the Environmental Protection Agency; and $175 a year projected by the Congressional Budget Office.

chron.com

Now, I am all in favor of a plan that makes sense, and I am aware of how wasteful people can be, but if we take water out of the ocean on the West coast, and put it back in on the East coast, we have accomplished nothing. 

That is basically what this bill does.

One of the scheduled speakers at today’s event, National Black Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Harry Alford, said his organization has been on the record against such a bill since 1996 when it opposed the Kyoto Treaty that led to the emissions trading system now operating in Europe.

chron.com

You know you have lost the argument when the President and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce is not on your side in this debate. Mr. Alford knows what everyone else besides our lawmakers know- this is a bad bill, and should not be passed.

If it is, our economy will suffer- that’s guaranteed- and all for naught, as nothing will have been accomplished in a positive manner. We the people will suffer, the rest of the world, (you know, the ones who can see the future of energy) will have their nuclear reactors, or their hydroelectric dams, and they will definitely have our manufacturing jobs.

We will have a lot of over- paid, out of work, disgruntled union workers who will be sitting around wondering how things could change so badly for them. It’s simple, really-

They, and the other liberals, will have figured out too late that their leader “Changed” the playing field on them also.

All to gain control.

Tags: cap and trade, job loss, nuclear energy, waste

Obama Says It Is Not About Him

Jul 22, 2009 Political

It is always about him…

Barack Obama, responding to a statement that failure to pass health care reform could be his Waterloo, stated that this was not about him. Tonight he claimed (in his news conference) that the resistance he sees from Republicans is about politics and that he has not blamed them for things (a lie). He always discusses the obstruction of Republicans without discussing the FACT that it is his party that is causing the delay. The Democrats have enough votes in both chambers to pass anything without one Republican voting yes. If it is not going anywhere it is because of the Democrats.

Obama is playing this game as if he is the all knowing, all seeing, man with the plan who is trying so hard for our chirren while people are trying to take him down. It is not about me, he says. So one has to ask, if politics is not part of his game and he only has the best interests of the country in mind, why would he tell Democrats that if they fail on this it will destroy his presidency?

“Let’s just lay everything on the table,” Grassley said. “A Democrat congressman last week told me after a conversation with the president that the president had trouble in the House of Representatives, and it wasn’t going to pass if there weren’t some changes made … and the president says, ‘You’re going to destroy my presidency.’ ” National Journal Congress Daily

If this is not about him or politics, why would he make this claim?

The media and the Obama supporters have set high expectations for this guy and he helped with the whole mess. He set an aggressive agenda to take advantage of his popularity because he knew it would not last and that he needed to get it done before he lost his political capital.

Obama admitted he has not read and does not know what is in the bill. No matter what they come up with he will not read it and neither will any member of Congress. They will slip all kinds of things in there and screw us badly.

A few points:

Obama tonight stated that if we can make health care cheaper than it is now (even if it is just a few thousand dollars per person) that this would be money that could go back into the pockets of workers. This is wrong. In his opening he said that they were going to pay for this with the savings their plan produces. It will not produce savings but allowing it for the sake of argument, the entire saved amount will go back to the system to pay for it which means that we still spend the same amount of money and still not cover everyone.

It is claimed that 45 million people have no insurance. This is misleading. When those who can afford it and choose not to have it are subtracted along with those who are illegal aliens (who will be covered by Obama’s plan) then the actual number of uninsured who cannot get (or afford) insurance is about 12 million. Why are we restructuring the entire health care system for a very small portion of the population? Surely we can come up with something to take care of those who truly cannot afford health care (if for some unknown reason they are not eligible for programs already on board) without mandating that everyone get a government run program and without forcing business to provide health insurance. Surely we can do this better without spending another couple trillion dollars.

Part of Obama’s problem is that he has lost some credibility. When he said that we had to rush to pass the stimulus now or the world would end he told us that the plan would have immediate results. He specifically said that unemployment would not go above 8% with the stimulus but would go above 10% if we did not pass it. He actually said if we did nothing but this is a strawman argument. The Republicans were offering ideas that would produce jobs and help the economy but Obama and the Dems would not listen. Obama is now backtracking and saying that the stimulus is on track because it was supposed to be long term. This is different than when he said it would have an immediate impact. The unemployment numbers show that he was wrong. Joe Biden said they guessed wrong. No one understood the gravity of the situation.

We need to oppose this and we need to keep on the so called Blue Dogs. Members who vote for this need to have a target on their backs during the next election. We already have the traitors on the right who voted for the stimulus and they need to be gone. Next we target all the ones who vote for this power grab that is designed to give government more control and give Obama a legacy.

And remember this folks. When given the opportunity to make it legally binding for members of Congress, their families and their staff to enroll in this boondoggle only 3 Democrats voted for the idea. None of them want it and none of them will have it. They want to be able to go to hospitals where they have private suites reserved for them with private chefs who prepare their meals. This is what they have reserved at Walter Reed at a cost of nearly a million dollars a year. About 9 beds are there and they are hardly ever used but if a member of Congress gets sick that is where he will receive care. While we wait in line for our substandard, rationed government care, they will be getting treated like royalty.

It is time to take this country back. Screw the Canadian system, screw socialized medicine and screw any liberal who does not like it and that includes the jug eared Socialist at the top.

One day this country is going to have another revolution. That is a legacy that Obama will not be happy with.

Tags: elitism, health care, mandates, Obama, waste

You Can’t, Unless You Are The Government

Jul 16, 2009 Political

In February of this year, during a speech. Barack Obama admonished companies by exclaiming:

“You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.”

This was a direct stab at the companies that had taken, or in many cases forced to take, bailout money. He wanted to make it clear that as long as the taxpayer was footing the bill there would be no trips to these kinds of places no matter what the reason.

Of course this idea did not stop Obama from attending a fundraiser for Harry Reid in, you guessed it, Las Vegas. And he did it on the taxpayer dime.

It would appear as if it is OK to take these kinds of trips if you are the government because now we have word that the Social Security Administration sent at least 675 employees to Phoenix Arizona for a conference at the Valley resort. The cost of the trip was $700,000. This is 700 thousand dollars spent by an organization that has been raped of all its money by the federal government and will be in the red by 2016. They spent close to three quarters of a million dollars on a conference with classes such as “Techniques to Empower You,” “Mentoring the Generations,” and “Emotional Intelligence.”

The article also states that the SSA did not mention the after hours activities though I am not sure any of them cost the taxpayer because I would assume they were not paid for with taxpayer money (though it would not surprise me if taxpayer money was used).

Considering how terrible Social Security is and how it only allows people to live at poverty level while it plummets toward insolvency, one has to wonder who thought this would be a good idea.

Social Security is a boondoggle to begin with and should be gradually moved over to the private sector where the money people pay in belongs to them and they can decide how to invest it. This would generate more wealth and allow people to retire in comfort (something Democrats oppose because self sufficient voters are harder to scare into voting Democrat). This incident just demonstrates the atmosphere in the SSA. Waste money, make poor decisions, and don’t worry about it. The taxpayer will foot the bill.

If accounts were private we would not need 675 managers to run things (not to mention the tens of thousands of employees) and they could not go to training conferences that cost a fortune. There would be no need for all these people who run a poor system that has a return of less than 1% on investment.

Maybe that was their share of the bailout money.

You can’t waste taxpayer money unless you are the government.

Gotcha.

ABC 15.com

Tags: boondoggle, insolvency, social security, taxpayer, trip, waste

Just An Old Fashioned SNAFU

Jul 1, 2009 Political

Here, for your perusal, is another in a long list of “What were they thinking?” As a part of the climate bill- you know, the one that costs money and does nothing? Oh wait- that is EVERY BILL we see nowadays- I see I must be more specific. 

This is the bill where there is 3.4 million dollars for the “turtle tunnel” on a less than one mile stretch of hiway 27 in Florida. Well, it turns out that this is not the only brain- dead piece of pork that was inserted into this Obamanation of a bill. 

The latest is an attempt to revive the marshland that was lost during Hurricane Ike, on Galveston Island. Look- I know their heart is in the right place, but one has to ask- where are their brains? Allow me to explain my logic- In 1883, there was the town of Indianola, on the Texas coast, near Matagorda Bay. There was a rail line that ran through the town, and because of its position on the Bay, was poised to become a freight depot for stores and goods that had been transshipped from overseas. Then came the Hurricane, and it wiped everything out except the rail tracks. People clung in trees for 20 hours to avoid the flood surge.

When the storm diminished, the survivors climbed down, surveyed the damage, and decided to rebuild, based on the idea that this was a once in a lifetime storm- which was a possible scenario. Unfortunately, it was not the correct one.

They rebuilt, and got life back to normal, but the very next year, another, even deadlier Hurricane came along and completely wiped out the town, even the rail tracks were washed away this time.

My point is that this Wetlands restoration will not succeed- oh, it might be around for a couple of years, but sooner or later, there will come along another hurricane, and there goes all the work and money that went into this project.

More than $5 million in federal stimulus money will help in the restoration of West Galveston Bay’s rapidly dying marshes, officials said Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration selected the project as part of a $167 million effort to create jobs by rebuilding damaged wetlands, shellfish beds and coral reefs along the nation’s coasts and the Great Lakes.

The money for West Galveston Bay will be used to rebuild 328 acres of marshes with dredged sand. It will be the largest in a series of restoration projects for an area that has lost more than 5,200 acres of marsh since the 1950s because of erosion, sea-level rise and subsidence — the sinking of soft soils.

The intertidal wetlands are critical because they act as nature’s speed bumps against wind and waves. They also serve as a productive nursery for a variety of sea life, including white and brown shrimp, blue crab and red drum.

chron.com

Once again, I am reminded how illogical liberals can be- and inconsistent in their philosophies also. On the one hand, they rant that Darwin MUST be taught as “settled science” in our classrooms, but then they ignore his theories regarding survival of the fittest in their futile quests to “save” the snaildarter, or spotted owl, or animal du jour, rather than allowing nature to determine the species’ viability. 

The hurricane destroyed these wetlands- and the next hurricane will destroy some other wetlands- look at Louisiana. There were plenty of wetlands destroyed there. This is what hurricanes do- they carve new shoreline out of old. To try and deny that is insanity at its worst, because this is insanity with our money, and it will, by the very definition of what hurricanes do, be wasted money.

Hurricanes carve out their own “wetlands”. and they do this naturally- it is the height of arrogance to think that we should even attempt to do this, especially in this time of no money. If we were flush with money, I would still feel this was a foolish project, but if we had the money to waste, (in other words, not tax money, but private money), then my objections would be less vocal.

Private money can do whatever it wants, however illogical it may appear to be.

Our money, however, should be targeted to what will immediately help us, not on “feel good” projects that will just get blown away with the next storm.

Idiocy of that scope is a province reserved for the liberals who feel they know best- an ingrained delusion they will probably never lose.

They should be playing in a rubber room, but certainly NOT with our money.

Tags: arrogance, eco- nutjobs, futility, nature, waste