Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Stimulus Quick Facts

January 15th, 2009 - -
Stimulus Quick Facts

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

Total Cost of Stimulus Legislation: $825 billion
How does this compare?
- In 1993, the unemployment was virtually the same as the rate today (around 7%). Yet, President Clinton’s proposed stimulus legislation *only* contained $16 billion in spending

- The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

- This legislation nears a trillion dollars. President Reagan said the best way to understand a trillion dollars is to imagine a crisp, new stack of $1000 bills. If you had a stack four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion-dollar stack of $1000 bills would measure just over 63 miles high.

- In $20 bills, a trillion dollar stack would be 3150 miles high. That’s about the distance between DC and Trujillo, Peru.
President-elect Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or save 3 million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $42,000 a year.
This bill provides enough spending to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.
This bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.
Although this legislation has been billed and described as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, but only three percent ($30 billion) of this package is for road and highway spending.
Much of the funding within the proposed stimulus package will go to programs which already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the draft bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which already has $16 billion on hand. And, this year, Congress has plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not yet used.
Deficit spending will not expand the economy. If that were true, then the current $1.2 trillion deficit -- the largest in history -- would already be rescuing the economy. $800 billion more will not change that.
Trade groups state that every $1 billion in highway “stimulus” can be spent creating 34,779 new construction jobs. But Congress must first borrow that $1 billion out of the private sector. The private sector then loses or forgoes roughly the same number of jobs.
Japan responded to a 1990 recession by passing 10 “stimulus” bills over 8 years (building the largest national debt in the industrialized world). Their economy remained stagnant and their per capita income went from the second highest in the world to the tenth highest.

[Source: QUICK FACTS ON THE DEMOCRAT STIMULUS PROPOSAL; January 15, 2009]

Monday, January 26, 2009

Manmade Global Warming Theory 'Arrogant'

Since I couldn't have said it better myself, I decided not to. Below is a link to the article. The title says it all, except for the fact that, despite what Al Gore and the United Nations say, apparently, "The debate is not over."

http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081218205953.aspx

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Pay to Play

A few weeks back, at the gym. The television in front of me was tuned to CNN. After a commericial for Medicare and a commericial for "Green Collar Jobs" (odd that there were 2 government commercials in a row), the lead story when the "news" returned was "should the first lady be paid." I nearly let the arm of the Elliptical machine smack me in the head when I heard this. The first lady get paid!?

They went on to describe how this poor woman is going to have to give up her lucrative career as an attorney.

They didn't continue with the rest of what she is going to have to do. She is going to have to travel around the world eating delicacies and meeting foreign dignataries. She is going to have to live in a huge mansion with servants at her beckon call. She is going to have to force herself to eat, wear and use only the finest of everything. She may have to make a commericial from time to time to let us know that "reading is fundamental", or "drugs are bad." She may have to make a speech or give an interview from time to time. And, oh yes, she would have to sleep with the President of the United States (ooohhh those pecs).

To her credit, Laura Bush's response to this question was "ofcourse the first lady should not get paid".

My first thought was that this is a trial balloon floated by the Obama administration because Michelle wants to get paid, but I shook my head and took a deep breath, slowing my pace on the elliptical as I realized that my heart rate was now pushing 4 digits. That couldn't be it. This must be an isolated goofy story that CNN has decided to throw out ther for no apparent reason. We will never hear anything about this again.

Boy was I wrong. Just today, Barack Obama is talking about how we will have Trillion Dollar deficits for the forseeable future because we have to spend our way out of this complete economic collapse. And suddenly the media is talking about Michelle Obama's salary again. Didn't the Obamas discuss what being a First Lady entails before Barack ran for office? We didn't vote for Michelle.

It is great that "for the first time in her life she is proud of her country" (now that her husband is President.) Perhaps she should, for the first time in her life, exhibit that pride and SERVE her country...as so many have done before her. Is it the good of our country or the good of the Obamas that is important to her?