Mass SNAFU

Another new low: Presidential Approval Index at -23

After two prior occasions of reaching -22, The One has broken that barrier and reached a new low at -23.

 

And that's no easy task.  From Rasmussen Reports: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-seven percent (47%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -23 (see trends).

That’s the highest level of Strong Disapproval and the lowest Approval Index daily rating yet recorded for this president.  

George Bush left office with a rating of -30, and that was after 8 years, two unpopular wars and a complete demonization by the media. Obama is at -23 in under 2 years with a media that has kissed his proverbial ass.  Should the economy continue to tank and if he maintains the course of his far-left agenda - one that has raised deficits at the expense of jobs - he will shatter Bush's lack of popularity.

Liberals take notice

THIS is what unchecked liberalism gets you:

 

That's a whole lot of unhappy, freedom-loving patriots getting together at Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally to send the following message to the arrogant, elitist left: you do not know what's best for us and it's time for a change. 

So consider yesterday's gathering of half a million concerned citizens an omen of what's to come November 2nd.  Elections do have consequences.

It wasn’t Iraq that bankrupted the country. It was runaway liberal spending.

Whenever you criticize the Left's insane spending spree that has resulted in huge deficits, the Iraq War always comes up on their end of the argument as the "real" cause of our current fiscal calamities.  They claim that Iraq was an unfunded war that costs us, according to some lefty pundits like James Carville, upwards of $3 trillion.  Well, that talking point has just been ripped to shreds by the facts as presented by the latest analysis from the CBO.  Here's a chart breaking down the spending ratios from 2003-2010:

Wow, that chart seems to show deficits decreasing during the peak of the war from 2004 through 2007.  Only in 2008 did we see a big jump and then a veritable explosion in the deficit in 2009 and 2010.  What happened in 2009 to start that trend?  Oh right, the Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress and the Presidency, and started treating our tax dollars like monopoly money.  Also notice the amount of spending allocated to Iraq each year ... not exactly "breaking the bank" as the Democrats would lead you to believe.

So what was the  total cost of the Iraq War?  According to the CBO report, it was $709 billion spread out over 8 years - not $3 trillion - and as Randall Hoven at American Thinker points out, that's only a 323%  margin of error from the Left's claims.  Considering the math they've used to come up with their employment "success," that's not too bad considering. 

Some other facts from the CBO report that Hoven points out in his piece:

* Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.

*Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.

*Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.

*Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.

*Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.

*The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).

*During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)

So it might be time to reframe that talking point Lefties, because as always, the facts have exposed your frivolous claims.  The “real” reason our huge deficits exist today is due to your out of control spending. Period.

The awakening of Barney Frank

After years of defending the Community Reinvestment Act and the GSE's of Fannie and Freddie - all of which have been universally blamed as major contributors to the catastrophic failure of the housing market - Bawny Fwank has apparently had a change of heart. In an interview with Larry Kudlow, and shared in Kudlow's piece at TownHall, the senior representative from Massachusetts had some interesting comments regarding his affinity for the bottomless pits of tax payer bailouts,:

“I hope by next year we’ll have abolished Fannie and Freddie,” he said. Remarkable. And he went on to say that “it was a great mistake to push lower-income people into housing they couldn’t afford and couldn’t really handle once they had it.” He then added, “I had been too sanguine about Fannie and Freddie.”

When I asked Frank about a long-term phase-out plan that would shrink Fannie and Freddie portfolios and mortgage-purchase limits, and merge the agencies into the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for a separate low-income program that would get government out of middle-income housing subsidies, he replied: “Larry, that, I think, is exactly what we should be doing.”

Frank also said that any federal housing guarantees should be transparently priced and put on budget. But he added that the private sector must be encouraged to re-enter housing finance just as the government gradually withdraws from it.

Now isn't that a complete about face?  It certainly is a long way from this:

Then again, it is an election year and Bawney actually has some competition this time around.  After witnessing the beatdown distributed by Republican Scott Brown in his home state and with the anti-incumbent sentiment growing by the day, Fwank might be playing some election year politics at the expense of his pet projects.

Dick Armey busts up some liberal shenanigans

From NewsBusters:

DAVID GREGORY, HOST: I want to, I want to address the tax debate . And what you hear from Republican leaders is an unwillingness to pay the bill as you move forward to extend the Bush tax cuts .

FORMER REPRESENTATIVE DICK ARMEY (R): Not at all.

MR. GREGORY: Is that wrong? You heard Alan Greenspan say that it's borrowed money ...

REP. ARMEY: No. Right.

MR. GREGORY: ...and that they do not pay for themselves.

REP. ARMEY: Where has Alan Greenspan been? John -- I, I was a young undergraduate watching all my faculty celebrate the genius of John F. Kennedy as he taught us you cut taxes, revenues increase. Reagan cut taxes, revenue doubled. What -- the first, most important, critical thing for the American economy is to cut the size of the federal government. This is a big, fat, sloppy, inefficient, obstructionist, Porky Pig that's standing in the way of economic progress for the American people. It is counterproductive. It's an extra weight. It is -- and it needs to be cut or this economy can't carry the weight. This is no thinking...

New NRSC ad: Who exactly is extreme again?

Uh, it's the party of big government, trillion dollar deficits, forced healthcare, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, you know, the one that knows what's best for all of us no matter what we may think.  The Democrats have done more damage to themselves by exposing their true colors in ignoring the court of public opinion on pretty much every single one of their agenda items and on issues like the AZ immigration law and the Ground Zero Mosque.  

They are no longer the party of the people and this new ad sheds some light on that fact:

I say good riddance and let's just hope the new Republican majority doesn't act as stupidly as the Democratic one did over the past 19 months.

Paul Ryan hands Chris Matthews his lunch

Chris Matthews had Representative Paul Ryan on his show and predictably attempted to cross up the GOP' rising fiscal star throughout the interview. Ryan, to his credit, stuck to his roadmap providing - gasp! - facts and a concrete plan toward deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility. Matthews, as a result, came off looking like the far left hack that he is, and could obviously care less about Ryan's plan.  Matthews was simply trying to set him up.

From NewsBusters:

As NewsBusters points out, Matthews behavior toward Ryan is the new norm from those on the the left who have driven this economy into the ditch.  They continue to blather on about how the GOP hasn't any answers for our economic woes even though the GOP - as Rep. Ryan eloquently displayed above - has been trying to tell these morons what to do for close to two years now.  

And as Matthews so ignorantly demonstrated in the video, they just don't want to listen.

John Kerry: “Peasants please, do as I say and not as I do”

The yacht pictured above belongs to Senator John Kerry but for some reason, the senior senator from Massachusetts has decided to berth his new toy in Rhode Island, and not in his home state.  Considering his summer home is in Nantucket, Massachusetts - an island with more than ample dock space - why wouldn’t he just keep it there?  Could this be tax related?

Yes sir. From the Boston Herald:

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

The Herald reports that the yacht’s approximate $7 million price tag and Massachusetts 6.25% sales tax would have cost Kerry $437,500.  He would also be responsible for $70,000 a year in excise taxes.  Rhode Island? Kerry pays nothing but the slip fee.

So, the man who has been one of the ardent backers of excessive tax policy is skirting the taxes that he has supported, proving two points he has long denied: 1) a high sales tax forces business out of state, and 2) higher taxes do not increase revenue for the government.

Thank you Senator Kerry.  Your actions, as always, speak louder than your words.

Unemployment in perspective. A really, really negative perspective.

So how bad is the unemployment picture right now?  Well, let’s look at it in terms of median duration of unemployment (UEMPMED) from this chart via Derek Thompson at the Atlantic:

  

Now that’s a hockey stick and not exactly “heading in the right direction” as President Obama likes to claim, now is it?  As a matter of fact,  the UEMPMED is so bad, it is nearly twice as high today than at anytime since the 60’s when the chart starts tracking the stat.  Also notice the gaps between the peaks and the end of their respective recessions - with history as our benchmark, we're on a runaway train with no sign of a slow down.  Not good news, no matter what's being spewed out of the White House.

And the problem is, it’s only going to get much worse.  Nothing this administration is doing is going to create jobs in the private sector.  With the uncertainty of ObamaCare on the horizon, a plethora of new regulations in play, and the largest tax increase in US history 5 months away, businesses will be keeping their capital on the sidelines and their risk taking in check, thank you very much.

And with that comes a lack of growth and zero job creation which means a new norm of 10% unemployment as long as this president is allowed to produce this very unfriendly business climate. For those of you who are part of that chart, keep that in mind while in the voting booth in 4 months, and especially in 2012.

Fool me once, shame on you ... Fannie and Freddie are back!

According to a new watchdog report, government funded support of the financial system increased by $700 billion this year alone, bringing the total amount spent to bailout the system to $3.7 trillion.  Can you take one wild guess as to whom received the majority of that $700 billion increase?  From Reuters:

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the increase was due largely to the government's pledges to supply capital to Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) and to guarantee more mortgages to the support the housing market.

Increased guarantees for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the Government National Mortgage Association and the Veterans administration increased the government's commitments by $512.4 billion alone in the year to June 30, according to the report.

"Indeed, the current outstanding balance of overall Federal support for the nation's financial system...has actually increased more than 23% over the past year, from approximately $3.0 trillion to $3.7 trillion -- the equivalent of a fully deployed TARP program -- largely without congressional action, even as the banking crisis has, by most measures, abated from its most acute phases," the TARP inspector general, Neil Barofsky, wrote in the report.

So Fannie and Freddie - all but ignored in the recent financial reform package - rear their ugly heads again to the tune of half a trillion of our tax dollars.  The two GSE's are starting to become like the post office - as in always in need of a bailout - yet with the power to force all of us to pay our idiot neighbor's mortgage, and destroy the financial system in the process.  They're one of the main reasons we're in this mess in the first place and are now being encouraged to repeat the same mistakes.  Big government is so ridiculously stupid awesome!

And just for kicks, criticism was also lobbed at the administration’s failed housing programs: 

Barofsky also in the report ramped up his criticism of the Treasury's housing relief efforts, saying that its program to reduce monthly mortgage payments for struggling homeowners was showing "anemic" participation numbers and had failed to "put an appreciable dent in foreclosure filings."

You know why?  Because no one has a freaking job!  No matter how much your mortgage may be reduced, if your making zero, you can’t pay it.  It makes more sense to just walk away from it.  The result being record foreclosures.  Barofsky also noted the program's complete lack of "transparency and accountability," something that is rapidly becoming a staple of this administration in everything it does. 

The reality is that government intervention – through social engineering programs like the Community Reinvestment Act -  caused this mess we’re in today, and government intervention is now preventing the free market from getting us out of the mess these myopic bureaucrats created.  Mortgage bailouts, home buyer tax credits, cash for clunkers – all of it, is just making matters worse, increasing our debt and prolonging the recovery. 

Throw in Obama’s unfriendly, pro-tax business policies that have eliminated risk taking and stunted growth and you have one hell of a vicious cycle occurring right now.

Can you imagine how great government run health care is going to be with these idiots behind the wheel?