Conservative Donnybrook

It seems that the government is dead set on spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $825 billion to “stimulate the economy.” With a hearty hat-tip to Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), let me propose the following. In 2007, the federal government collected $1.1 trillion in individual income taxes. Why not just declare a tax holiday for nine months and let people keep their own money? The cost would be approximately $825 billion in unseized revenue and would immediately place that money in the hands of consumers. Even better, into the hands of consumers who have earned it.

There are two reasons why this plan will never be adopted, let alone considered. First, if the American people were ever allowed to keep their own money, it would reveal to them the extent of government thievery. When the holiday ended, there would undoubtedly be clamoring for reduced spending in Washington and what elected official wants that? That’s where all their power resides – in the ability to take money by force from those who have earned it to reward those who haven’t.Plus, the boon that such a plan would have to employment in this country would immediately be reversed upon the expiration of the holiday.

The second reason is (get ready to cry), some people who are unemployed would miss out on the holiday. Neal Boortz made a very similar recommendation on his radio show and, I swear, this was the leading criticism of the plan. People who are unemployed, who are not producing, would be left out of the goodies. Maybe that would provide them an incentive to get a job. Just a thought.

As a service to the hordes of readers of Conservative Donnybrook, I have read the House version of Obama’s $825 billion economic stimulus package so you don’t have to.

General Attributes of the Plan

As mentioned above the current overall price tag (before amendments and the inevitable earmark add-ons) is $825 billion. That is split into two general categories of spending.

The first category is $275 billion in “economic recovery tax cuts.” Presumably this is the “tax cuts for 95% of Americans” that Obama continuously talked about on the campaign trail. If there are 305 million Americans and they split the tax cut evenly, each would enjoy a lessened tax burden of $949.09 each. I’ll take it gladly; indeed, they owe us more of our own money back. Unfortunately, this will almost certainly be offset by the sun-setting of the Bush tax cuts, which there is little doubt Congress and the President will allow to expire.

The second category is $550 billion in “targeted priority investments.” According to the summary from the Committee on Appropriations, “[t]his package is the crucial first step in a concerted effort to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jumpstart our economy, and being the process of transforming it for the 21^st century.” The committee summary goes on to state that, “with the passage of this package, unemployment rates are expected to rise to between eight and nine percent this year. Without this package, we are warned that unemployment could explode to near twelve percent.” As such, assuming these numbers are correct and this package would prevent the unemployment rate from experiencing an additional 3% rise, the package will prevent the loss of 3.93 million jobs* through new unemployment claims. This means that by their own numbers, this package will not create any new jobs, as Obama has been touting, but rather would prevent the anticipated loss of 4 million jobs.

* In case anyone is interested, I came up with this number by looking at the increase in unemployment as reported on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (http://www.bls.gov/ces/) for the December report. That report said unemployment rose from 6.8% to 7.2% or by +0.4%. That increase corresponded with a decrease in the number of jobs of 524,000. If 0.4% is equivalent to 524,000 jobs, then 4% would equal 3.93 million jobs.

The summary acknowledges that the plan will result in “a large deficit for years to come.” But, justifies its passage by playing on the fears of not passing it: “Without it, those deficits will be devastating [as though the deficits we invite will not be] and we will face the risk of economic chaos.”

Since 2001, as worker productivity went up, 96% of the income growth in this country went to the wealthiest 10% of society [I assume they are not referring to the government]. While they were benefiting from record high worker productivity, the remaining 90% of Americans were struggling to sustain their standard [sic] of living. They sustained it by borrowing…and borrowing…and borrowing, and when they couldn’t borrow anymore, the bottom fell out. This plan will strengthen the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs and special interests in Washington [who have already received government welfare in the form of bailouts which took priority over taxpayer relief].

Finally, before getting into the specifics of the “targeted priority investments,” it should be noted that “[t]here are no earmarks in this package.” I guess I don’t really know what an earmark, because I thought it was an appropriation that was targeted to a particular project, or “priority investment,” if you prefer. Oh well. Orwell lives.

One last note before we dive into an examination of the specific spending proposals. We should probably keep in mind that, according to most of the economists I’ve heard speak about the crisis, the overriding problem is that credit is unavailable to consumers and businesses. It is probably helpful to hold this in the forefront of one’s thoughts as he approaches each of these broad spending categories. A thoughtful person would probably ask, “Does this spending help to free up credit to consumers and businesses?” Continue Reading »

At first I thought maybe I should not post this as it may upset some of you.  But then I realized that I just don’t care.  This is a funny video of Lutherans processing into an Iceland church.

Timothy Geithner, tax cheat, is now Secretary of the Treasury.  As such, he is charged with leading the Internal Revenue Service.  The man that believes he is too good to pay taxes now demands that you pay yours.  After all, you are no Geithner, so pay up sucka.

Just to put things in to perspective, we now have a tax cheat writing the revenue laws (Rangel- tax cheat from NY) a tax cheat collecting your hard earned dollars (Geithner- tax cheat also from NY) and a tax thief distributing your tax dollars back out (Obama- tax thief from IL)  to rich thieves on Wall Street and beyond (Bailed-out corporations-tax thieves from around the United States.) Don’t complain, you know that nice guys finish last.

Happy filing of your Form 1040!

I dropped into a local watering hole with a buddy last night and the conversation, as it regularly does, turned to the financial crisis. He made a suggestion that I thought was pretty brilliant. Why not eliminate accrual accounting? For those without an accounting class under their belt, there are two types of accounting methods that businesses use to account for income: cash basis and accrual basis. Cash basis is the most intuitive to understand. If I contract to paint another person’s house next spring, I report the income when I have completed the job and the homeowner sends me a check. Once I have the cash in hand, it gets reported on my balance sheet. Accrual basis, on the other hand, would allow me to report that income on this year’s balance sheet on the theory that once the contract is signed, it is an asset with value equal to the receivables I anticipate.

In large part, it seems this is what has been occurring with the banks. They have written a number of mortgages and reported the income from them on their balance sheets. The fat balance sheets look attractive to investors and so investment monies pour in. Nonetheless, as we have now learned, many of those loans were not worth the paper they were written on because the homeowners were never able to pay them back. The financial institution benefited by the inflow of income from investors in the short term, putting the onus of the inevitable loss on those investors. If the banks had been required to report income on a cash basis, they could not have reported income on bad loans. Loans which were in default, therefore, would have been conspicuous on the balance sheets for their absence – indeed, they would have shown a loss. Investors would have been better informed of the true nature of the company’s financial situation and may have demanded a resolution to this problem well before it got to the point where the institutions were in collapse. Indeed, there may have never been the need for a bailout had investors been aware of the state of the companies’ loans allowing them to demand stricter lending criteria from the institutions early on.

Another idea this buddy proposed when the first round of bailouts was announced was the requirement that the banks actually loan all the bailout money to consumers. It seems simple, but Congress made no such requirements in all the “oversight” they placed on the banks. As a result, we have seen, the banks used the money to purchase other banks and the credit crisis was largely unresolved. Now that Obama is pushing for the other half of the TARP money to be released, I seriously hope it will be under the proviso that the banks can only use the money for loans to consumers. If Congress were to do that, it might even alleviate some of the problems that GM and Chrysler are facing by making money available to people who want to purchase one of their vehicles.

I saw a news story last night where it was being reported that President Obama promised up to four million new jobs as a result of his proposed $825 billion stimulus package. I’m no economist, but I do have a calculator. It seems to me that the government would be paying more than $206, 000 for each of those jobs. Assuming that Obama would want those jobs to last for four years – at least through the end of his first term – the government could simply hire four million people and pay them $51,000 a year or nearly $25 an hour for that money. Being all indirect and creating a package seems a little screwball to me when the exact same money could be used directly to hire the folks that Obama wants to employ. In fact the cost of the stimulus would have the added benefit of being spread over four years and would have the virtue of doing exactly that which was promised by employing four million new employees. He just needs to figure out what these people should do for $25 an hour.

There is an interesting article that details how science has proved some of the earlier evolution models faulty. This story focuses on Darwin’s idea of the “Tree of Life.” Allow me to share one paragraph:

The neat picture of a branching tree is further blurred by a process called endosymbiosis. Early on in their evolution, eukaryotes are thought to have engulfed two free-living prokaryotes. One of these gave rise to the cellular power generators called mitochondria while the other was the precursor of the chloroplasts, in which photosynthesis takes place. These “endosymbionts” later transferred large chunks of their genomes into those of their eukaryote hosts, creating hybrid genomes. As if that weren’t complicated enough, some early eukaryotic lineages apparently swallowed one another and amalgamated their genomes, creating yet another layer of horizontal transfer (Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol, 23, p 268).

This is why I believe in God.

That’s an awful lot to swallow. Their theory seems like a Deus ex Deus ex Deus ex Deus ex machina to me. The coincidences seem to engulf one another and built upon one another until the whole concept taxes one’s credulity. I suppose you have to be a true believer when first you approach a theory like this if there is any hope of wholesale adoption.

The kicker, of course, is the final sentence of the article in which Eric Bapteste, a scientist at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, says, “The tree of life was useful. It helped us to understand that evolution was real. But now we know more about evolution, it’s time to move on.”

It was helpful to be led down a dead-end path for nearly two centuries? In an academic sense, I suppose it could have been a useful exercise for scientists to hone their argumentation skills, building the strongest case they could from the evidence they could uncover. But, in the end, the evidence they produced has apparently been rent asunder, rendered completely useless.

Meanwhile, after four millenia of intense scrutiny, Yahweh still is. The further revelations that God is Trinity has withstood the battering of two thousand years’ worth of inquiry. Leaving Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as constant and immutable as the day Man discovered the nature of their God. All the while science has “progressed,” reversed its conclusions, and reinvented itself when, time after time, the latest theory is decimated by a johnny-come-lately claimant to the throne of scientific consensus.

Of course, it seems to be the vogue thing to worship Change. After all, it is something one can believe in. No matter how far-fetched.

In his second day of office, President Barack Obama signed three executive orders.  Not only did Obama stumble through the press conference reminicient of George Bush, but he had no clue as to what he was signing!  Several times during the nearly eight minute video Obama has to ask the White House Counsel what the Executive Orders do and say.  At one point Obama actually quotes Greg Craig verbatim as Mr. Craig tells the President what he is signing!  It is clear that the Executive is unaware of what the Executive orders do or even say!  If Bush had done this in front of a room full of reporters we would have been tarred and feathered.

So I ask: “Who is the President, Greg?”

Timothy Geithner, the notorious tax cheat, is way too close to being confirmed as the Secretary of the Treasury.  I implore everyone to write to the senators on the Senate Committee on Finance to oppose Geithner’s confirmation.  Click here to see a list of the Senators on the committee.

Geithner failed to pay self-employment tax on income earned in previous years and did so only when told to by Obama’s people during his vetting process.  He claimed it was a simple “mistake.”  Likely story.  How can a person that runs a Federal Reserve bank make such a huge and glaring mistake on his taxes?  Geithner is not trustworthy and should not have access to taxpayer funds.  Please, oppose his confirmation.

On President Bush’s last full day in office, he finally addressed the injustice that had been done to Border Patrol agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos by commuting their sentences. While short of a full pardon, the president commuted the sentences of the agents so that they will be freed on March 20, 2008. The two were convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler who had entered the country illegally to sell marijuana and had been previously convicted of drug smuggling in the past.

It is unfortunate that, since 2005 when they were originally convicted, these men have had to serve prison sentences for defending this country from the scourge of illegals trafficking in drugs. The president should have acted sooner to redress the wrongs done to these two men. Indeed, he should have granted them full pardons. Nonetheless, I give him credit for finally doing the right thing and freeing Compean and Ramos.

It’s been a long time, for George and me both.  I’m of a sort of sunny disposition by nature, and, since even the devil deserves his due, I think that today, our President’s last full day in office, we should take a moment to accentuate the positive. Herewith are some (not too terribly critical) thoughts on the Bush era.

• Some gratitude for a man who, for good or ill, will go down in history as one of the most principled men to hold the office of President of the United State, if for no other reason than that he pursued a course without seeking recourse-he did not allow public opinion, no matter how loud, compelling, or even, at times, correct, to sway his decisions.

After eight years of Bill Clinton’s waffle factory, I’m glad we got eight years of Tenacious B.

• The Clinton Administration was a joke-The Bush Administration, by contrast, will be an argument.  I’d rather the latter than the former.

• Laura Bush is the nicest first lady we’ve had in years.  I hope Mrs. Obama will take up where she left off.

• How many domestic terrorist attacks since 9-11-01?

• Okay, we’ve seen a huge expansion in the Federal sector, but I haven’t seen a popular uprising against the TSA yet, either.  I disagree with it in principle, but I doubt many of my fellow citizens will agree with me when I say that Leviathan, under Bush, has been well fed and continues to devour all that it may.  But think about what we have to look forward to!  Conservatives who complain about government expansion are going to forget about it in short order as Obama moves in to pick up the momentum.  In years to come, historians might look back at the Bush years as, in comparison, an era of incredible restraint.

• How many White House scandals since 1-20-01? (Okay, a few, but not even CLOSE to the daily groaning endured by my fellow Americans during the Clinton years.  And as a bonus (!), Bush never got impeached.)

• My brother-in-law is a Marine, currently serving near the Jordan-Syria boarder.  His service and sacrifices, along with those of his compatriots, living and dead, have been honored by this administration’s refusal to make them into victims by abandoning the mess we’ve made to the forces of Islamist chaos.  Those of us with relatives who served in Vietnam know what it’s like to have veterans forced to wallow in failure.  Bush didn’t do this, and I’m thankful for it.

• And, as a bonus (!) we actually won the war in Iraq.  Maybe we shouldn’t have fought it (I’m still on the fence about this, myself), but we did win it.  Unlike so many foreign military commitments made under the previous administration, we have successfully pacified what was seven years ago a heinous chirocracy.

On this day when the temperature last I checked in Indianapolis was minus three degrees Fahrenheit, that would be -3° F for those of you who are digitally inclined, and -19.4 C for our European friends, I have officially made the switch to aerosol cans for all of my underarm needs. If, that is, I can still find spray-on deodorant. It occurs to me that the only people who could possibly be put off in any way about the scare mongering which is global warming are those who live in temperate (for now) climates. In Florida and San Diego, if the hinterlands warm, there is little need for us to travel to your states/cities on vacation. On the other hand, it might play havoc with the ice fishing industry in Minnesota, by reducing it by a couple weeks. But, after all, who is interested in ice fishing? (Other than my father who seems to have a sort of obsession with sitting in a canvas shack freezing his ass off and telling his grandkids that the suffering they are experiencing is “fun.”)

As for me, I welcome global warming and its salutory effect it will have on my home. Indeed, it might forestall my wife’s insistent calls for me to take another bar exam in a warmer climate. For that reason alone, I am trading in my Mazda for a Hummer and switching to aerosol cans wherever possible.

UPDATE: Eek! Now that I look (a couple hours later it is 10° F! Global warming is true. Look what has happened in the last few hours! (Indeed, it is scary, but it feels downright balmy out there now after the last two days).

Andruw Jones and the Los Angeles Dodgers have parted ways!  After a dismal season in which Jones’ batting average was only slightly higher than my grandmother’s age and much lower than his weight, Jones rode a rail out of SoCal.  But it was an expensive rail.  The Dodgers will still have to pony up Jones’ salary though most of it deferred for a number of years.  After unsuccessfully shopping around for a trade, the Dodgers agreed to simply release the fat boy.  Rumors are spreading that Jones could make a return to Atlanta where over eating and low job performance are more than acceptable to the average resident.

Does anyone remember an event like this?  A complete collapse of skill and drive?  Does anyone recall a player simply being released after one year in spite of earning a franchise record salary?  Does anyone else think it suspicious that soon after baseball banned “performance enhancing drugs” that Jones could not hit, run or stay in shape?

I say good riddance, Mr. Jones, and stay out of California.

Fox News is reporting as I write this that a US Airways plane has crashed into the Hudson River as it left La Guardia. The early reports are that the plane struck several birds during takeoff and lost both its engines. The pilot guided the plane into the Hudson without power, managed to keep its wings level and set it into the water. Miraculously, everyone on board appears to have survived with injuries no worse than what one would see in a car accident. The first responders in New York City, once again, should be lauded for their extremely rapid response in rescuing the passengers and crew. As I look at the footage that Fox is airing, it appears that the plane is now partly submerged. A set of divers have apparently entered the plane and confirmed that no persons are left on board. In the meantime, pray that the early reports of no casualties is accurate.

Someone needs to find that pilot, give him a raise, a medal, and buy him a drink. Not necessarily in that order.

A new Jersey couple who named their children after Nazis have had their children seized by the state. There is no comment from officials as to why the children were seized though there have been no reports of abuse.

There is little doubt that the parents are less than perfect, even undesirable but that does not give the State any authority to take their children.  Officials in New Jersey had better provide information as to what lead to the seizure and it better be legitimate.  I don’t like the names of the children either, but that alone is not enough to rip children from their parents and destroy inalienable rights.

Stand by for updates.

A new report claims that Obama’s golden boy for the Treasury is a tax cheat. Geithner’s failure to pay taxes ($34,000) may be a federal crime and it definitely renders him unfit to run Treasury.  Its not surprising that he only paid up when Obama’s hounds uncovered his scam while vetting him for the position.

But, hey, if nominated and approved he and Charles Rangel can cheat on their taxes together and continue to fleece the honest taxpayers.  Ahhh, partners in crime.  Is this the change the nation signed up for?

UPDATE:

Republicans and Democrats agree that Geithner is a stand-up guy.  So what if he made a “mistake” on his income tax returns?  That doesn’t make him a cheat, does it?  Be prepared, Americans, an exposed cheat is going to be confirmed.  Does any senator out there care about ethics and the rule of law?  I guess not

The North American International Auto Show got off to a subdued beginning this weekend. GM unveiled a new Cadillac that will utilize the power train for the Chevy Volt.

But Bob Lutz, GM’s Vice Chairman of Global Product Development, said that changing the buying habits of the American public is going to be difficult in the face of low gas prices, and it’s going to be up to the Obama administration to create an energy policy that gets people interested in buying fuel efficient vehicles.

Did he really just say that he thinks Obama should raise taxes on every American to force them to purchase electric vehicles? What makes him think the Japanese won’t kick the Big Three’s asses in that segment too? It never ceases to amaze me that so many people think the way out economic malaise is through taxation. With idiots like Mr. Lutz in the management of General Motors, it is my fervent hope that Congress rethinks its foolish desire to bail these people out.

When I was but a wee lad, growing up in the greater Chicagoland area, my younger brother and I fought. A lot. My mother was at her wits end trying to find some way to keep us from fighting. She begged, pleaded, cajoled, punished, yelled, ranted, raved, and bribed us to stop fighting. She even attempted to talk reason to us. Nothing worked. One day, my step-father conceived what he thought was a brilliant idea. Let them fight it out. He went out and purchased a couple pairs of boxing gloves and agreed to referree our bouts. I immediately warmed to the idea. I’m pretty sure my brother was less enthused. Our bouts always ended with my brother running upstairs crying to our mother, while I (abetted by my step-father) taunted him for being such a baby.

After only a few such attempts by my step-father to broker a peace between my brother and me, my mother stepped in to put a halt to the experiment. Her next idea was to make us talk to a child psychologist. I’m sad to report that none of these attempts ever worked. However, in the back of my head, I always thought the boxing idea was the only one that ever stood a chance of success if it had been given more time to work. When aggression breaks out between two parties who both feel they are in the right, the only outcome that will end the hostilities is for one or the other to be utterly humiliated and made to realize his powerlessness over the other. My mom never understood this. And the kiddie shrink sure as hell never got that.

It is with this background in mind that I saw this latest story of yet another doomed attempt to broker a peace in the Middle East. It seems Egypt and France are stepping between the belligerents in Gaza to attempt to bring “peace.” To be sure, this may succeed in staving off armed conflict for a period. But, there is a distinct difference between the lack of hostilities and peace. As long as residents near the Gaza Strip fear that Hamas is going to open up a barrage of their homes and schools (or vice versa), there is no true peace. The populations will live in mutual fear and antipathy to one another, always waiting for the next round to begin.

While it may seem callous, the rest of the world should probably back off and let the two sides fight it out until one side or the other sues for peace. It is only after one side or the other is humiliated and finds they have no choice but to capitulate that any gestures of magnanimity have any hope of working. Quite simply stated, neither side is ready to quit. Neither side has thrown in the towel. Both sides harbor animosity toward the other. They need to slug it out and see if, once exhausted, they can find a way to live together with one team knowing that the other can spank them.

President-elect Obama has announced his choice to head the CIA.  The nation’s top spy could very well be Leon Panetta!  In his career Panetta created the Monterrey Bay Marine Sanctuary, expanded entitlements, participated in the destruction of the U.S. economy and ensured U.S. dependence on foreign oil by preventing offshore drilling in California, so his subversive tactics make him a natural to lead a spy agency…of a nation hostile to the United States.

Panetta will face real opposition from California senator Diane Feinstein, incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.  She has indicated that she may not support Mr. Obama’s pick.  The real concern here is Obama’s judgment.  Panetta utterly lacks the credentials to lead the agency charged with preventing terrorist work.  He is a budget man, a bad one at that, and an educator.  What is Obama thinking?  Well, surely not about the safety of the American citizen or the health of the nation’s intelligence community.