So, the people in charge of the money are being arrested for defrauding the taxpayers? Well, it appears that two dozen IRS employees have claimed to be unemployed in order to collect benefits. Doug Ross(no relation) has more… But — but — but — I thought all who work in government are benevolent public servants? That they’re better than the rest of us? That they’re angels, working for the public good? Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The IRS employees were indicted on charges that they illegally [...]
unemployment
More ObamaCare Layoffs: Medical Providers Now Bracing for Impact
The ObamaCare Layoffs continue to pile up. In this edition, we see some medical providers that are taking action to stay in business-by laying off workers. Michelle Malkin has the details… The ramping up (or down, depending on how you look at it) for full implementation of Obamacare continues: In the largest staff reduction in its nearly 100-year history, Orlando Health is cutting up to 400 jobs starting immediately, hospital system officials announced Monday. The move is part of a broader effort to position the hospital system for the health-care overhaul, CEO Sherrie Sitarik said. The elimination of jobs will occur [...]
Pain is a powerful motivator
If you believe polls, most show President Obama with a slight edge over Mitt Romney going into the debates. This edge has left many pundits scratching their heads wondering how Obama can even be in this race. After all he has presided over one of the worst economic recoveries in our nation’s history. Unemployment has been over eight percent for three and a half years, we have lost our triple A credit rating, slipped from first to seventh in global competitiveness, increased our national debt by $6 trillion with nothing to show for it, lost 662,000 jobs to China since 2008, [...]
Arthur Laffer: Economic Statistics, Some Matter and Some Are Deceiving
At Real Clear Politics the other day, I came across an article by economist, Arthur Laffer in theWall Street Journal. the same Arthur Laffer whom developed the Laffer Curve during the Reagan administration. As I often do, I scanned the article and bookmarked it as a possible source for a post. Then this morning I had an e-mail in my in-box from Pat Slattery of The Free Market Projectsuggesting that I consider doing a post on an article by John Hayward about the Laffer article. And, I thank him. So, I will discuss both the Laffer and Hayward articles in today’s post on economic [...]
Baghdad Bob Named New Head of DNC!
In news that shocked everyone in Washington, the Democratic National Committee has replaced its Chairperson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz with Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, better know to an earlier generation as “Bagdad Bob.” “We were all fond of Debbie” said DNC executive director Patrick Gaspard. “But we felt she lacked the aggressiveness to combat those who oppose his eminence President Obama and his government. Bob is perfect for us.” At his introductory press conference Muhammed promised a new “air of civility and a commitment to veracity.” When asked about President Obama’s low poll numbers he said: These villains, and particularly the villains Bush and [...]
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello on “Unemployment”
Internet meme…. COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America. ABBOTT: Good subject. Terrible times. It’s about 9%. COSTELLO: That many people are out of work? ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. COSTELLO: You just said 9%. ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed. COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work. ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. COSTELLO: Okay, so it’s 16% unemployed. ABBOTT: No, that’s 9%… COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE!! Is it 9% or 16%? ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work. COSTELLO: If you are out of work you are unemployed. ABBOTT: No, you can’t count the “Out of Work” as the [...]
May Economic Numbers Discouraging: Will Team Obama Create Another Social Issue to Distract From it?
Once again, the monthly economic numbers represent a disappointment. The Blaze has more… U.S. employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate ticked up. The dismal jobs data will fan fears that the economy is sputtering. It could also damage President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects. And it could lead the Federal Reserve to take further steps to help the economy. The Labor Department also said Friday that the economy created far fewer jobs in the previous two months than first thought. It revised those figures down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created. [...]
Effective Romney Video: People That Obama Left Behind
The Romney campaign seems to be hitting the right spots-namely, the Obama economic record. The Lonely Conservative has the video… Keep it coming! Related posts: Powerful Anti-Romney Video Some Thoughts on GOP Candidates: Is it now Romney vs. Gingrich? Santorum is out: Romney now the Inevitable Candidate Unemployment not an Issue in 2012? What did David Plouffe mean? Alinsky to G. Romney to M. Romney to Soros? Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
A Simple Graph on Jobs
This is what the election is about this year. Yes, it is important that our foreign policy goals have been accomplished- killing bin Laden, finishing up in Iraq, continuing to pressure terrorists around the world, encouraging revolutions aimed at toppling autocratic dictators, etc. Yes, it is important that many of our foreign policy goals have not been accomplished- those revolutions have resulted in less friendly and liberty loving people taking control, many revolutions were not supported, free trade agreements were not passed, rogue nations have continued to advance in weaponry, our allies are collapsing economically, our enemies are growing in [...]
So Why a “War on Women,” and Now Gay Marriage?
Why have the Democrats and their media lapdogs made contraception, Sandra Fluke, gay marriage, and other inconsequential issues front page news? So you wont look at or discuss this… Uh-oh. Once they run the wheels off of the gay marriage story, what will they have to come up with next? Considering that the employment numbers look pretty weak, and have therefore not been reported, I think it’s safe to assume that we’ll see more and more social issues to distract from the economic fail. H/T: Sister Toldja Related posts: Obama Supports Gay Marriage: Yet Another Topic to Distract From You-Know-What [...]
Welcome to Obamaville, Population: Growing!
It must really suck to be homeless. Not only do you have misfortune of not having a home, you only officially exist when a Republican is in office. When a Democrat is in office, no one talks about your plight. The media ignores you. There are no impassioned pleas to help you, because pointing out your situation might make socialism look bad, and we can’t have that, can we? Maybe, during an election year, the Democrats will give you a pack of smokes in exchange for an absentee ballot, but that’s about all your really get from them. Now, it has to [...]
MSM in Coordinated Attack Against Santorum?
Newsbusters ran this last night, featuring Rick Santorum on Hannity. This is predictable. The administration and MSM are on a quest to avoid the economy at all costs. To do that with Santorum, they have to hammer him on social issues, even if they have to do some cherry picking or making some stretches to do so. Forget that gas prices are through the roof, and expected to rise even higher. Forget that a couple million jobs are gone, and the people aren’t even bothering to look anymore. Instead, let’s talk about how Rick Santorum is going to ban condoms, [...]
Mining the Numbers: BLS Data Shows Obama Has Destroyed 500,000 Jobs, Bush Created 9,000,000??
During his State of the Union address on January 24, 2012, President Barack Obamaoffered up reasons why voters should give him a second term of office, arguing that …In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs… Many on the left (like Balloon Juice) are trotting out this statistic as evidence thatPresident Obama’s policies are successful at creating jobs and putting Americans back to work. Although the jobs are being created by businesses, and it could be argued that these jobs would have been created regardless of who was in office, liberals and Democrats and progressives argue that President Obama deserves credit [...]
If Debbie Wasserman Schultz Were Pinocchio, her Nose Would Burst Through Your Monitor and Poke Your eye out
Is she reality impaired, or a sociopath? Seriously? Does she expect anyone to believe this dreck? She isn’t even good at it! In the future, I think that there should be a warning on each Wasserman Schultz video Warning: Viewing this video may cause eye damage due to Pinocchio-related-lie-induced-nasal-expansion. I know that I’ll be wearing protective eye-wear in the future. After all, it’s all fun and games until someone loses and eye. H/T: Redstate Related posts: Ed Schultz Jumps the Shark: This is why no one Watches MSNBC Great Moments in Civil Discourse: Ed Schultz Calls Laura Ingraham a "Slut" A Tale of [...]
Graph: Unemployment Rates Projected with and without the Passage of Stimulus Bill II
Stimulus I not only didn’t work, it probably made the unemployment rate go higher by transferring available funds from private investment and savings to spending by government, making the marketplace more uncertain, preventing the free markets from self-correcting on bad investments, and discouraging savings and efficiency gains. Democrats promised that if this one-time only trillion dollars in spending was enacted, it would prevent unemployment from going above 9% and would shorten the length of time of recovery. But the spending was permanent and unemployment went above 10%, sharply increasing shortly after the passage of Stimulus Bill 1, and has now [...]
Government Does Not Create Jobs; In July Alone It Added $9.5 Billion to the Cost of Doing Business
Pivoting away from other issues like the environment (“Bombshell” Experiment: Global Climate Change Caused by Cloud Cover) or education (More Than 200 D.C. Teachers Fired! Progress?), let’s return back to jobs and the role that the government plays in job creation. In my post Coming To Grips With a Political Economy I wrote about a class that I took in college called ‘Political Economy.’ The class was an attempt to indoctrinate students with the idea that government could create jobs through its actions and could create wealth through proper regulation and control over free markets. I struggled through this class, mostly because [...]
ObamCare Damage: Medical Device Manufacturer to cut 1400 Jobs
It’s been a while since I wrote anything on ObamaCare Damage, but the reports keep trickling in. If you recall, there is a tax on medical devises in ObamaCare, basically making granny’s pacemaker more expensive. We’re now seeing more concrete evidence of the predictable results of such a tax. Kindly take a look at this, from The Boston Globe, via Hot Air. Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 1/2 years to free money for new investments, the Natick medical device maker’s second major round of cuts since [...]
"Unexpected" Morphed into "Above Expectations," Elites Still Surprised by Reality
Back when I was was trying, and mostly failing, to be funny, I had a gimmick based on the Democrats tendency to bring out old, failed policies with shiny new names. I referred to it is as, “calling it something else.” Apparently, Reuters is engaging in some gimmick infringement, as it’s latest economic news isn’t “unexpected.” Instead, it is “above expectations.” You see, that changes everything, as they have called it something else. Yeah, whatever. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 418,000, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 410,000. [...]
Yes Virginia, Atlas is Shrugging
Back in June, I wrote a post, Is Atlas Shrugging? Businesses not Hiring. In that post, I asked if businesses were not hiring specifically because of the Obama administration’s policies. The general conclusion was yes, businesses have no real idea on exactly how the administration is going to penalize them. They only know that from rhetoric and previous actions, that the administration WILL be penalizing them. More evidence of that assertion came today. Maggie, the proprietor of Maggie’s Notebook, wrote a post covering a terrific rant on the part of Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts. Here is some of that rant… And I’m saying it bluntly, [...]
Teens: Victims of the Minimum Wage?
I have seven grand children by blood and seven more by marriage, They range in age from seventeen to twenty-two. Sadly, not one of them shown any desire to further their education and learn some real job skills. On the plus side, every one of them has a job and except for the youngest, they are all living on their own and struggling to make their way in life. For that, I am grateful because many young people today are unemployed with little prospect that will change any time soon. From a recent Wall Street Journal article: Only 24% of teens, one in [...]
Redefining Success
That was the President attempting to defend his bailout plan that is humorously named the “Recover Act”. Our legislative branch somehow passed this debacle because economists were advising that we must. President Bush claimed that he had to abandon his free market principles and pass a large stimulus package because the economists were saying he had to. In less than two minutes of speaking, President Obama showed his true colors (clear isn’t a color). This was a flat out admission that he has no long term economic plan. It’s embarrassing that he continues to call this the “Recovery Act” while [...]
When the "Unexpected" Gets Worse: Government Fudged Job Numbers Just to get them to "Pathetic"
In all actuality, they are “horrific.” Apparently, the Labor Department had to do some interesting mathematics to get the job numbers to project any gains at all. For more, here is more from the NY Post: The Labor Department officially announced that only 18,000 jobs were created during the month of June compared to May’s levels. That’s considerably below the 157,000 jobs that payroll-processing firm ADP said on Thursday were added by companies in the private sector. Our economy is said to need at least 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with people entering the workforce. So even job [...]
Unemployment not an Issue in 2012? What did David Plouffe mean?
Obama troll-master, David Plouffe, made a statement on Wednesday that mystified quite a few people. I heard Limbaugh talk about it during my Friday lunch break, and Lonely Conservative posted about it later. Here is the comment, via The Hill… “The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers,” Plouffe said, according to Bloomberg. “People won’t vote based on the unemployment rate, they’re going to vote based on: ‘How do I feel about my own situation? Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family?’ [...]
Democratic Strategy for 2012 Revealed? MSM Concentrating on Social Issues, Avoiding Economy
I picked up on this in the CNN debate, and the saw a story from Catholibertarian that shows a possible campaign strategy for 2012. In both examples, it seemed as if an inordinate amount of time was spent on the social issues; abortion and gay marriage, when compared with the most pressing issue of the day-the economy. It would be my estimation that more people are concerned with the following: 1. They don’t have a job. 2. They fear losing the job they have. 4. They can’t afford gas for their cars. 5. Inflation is causing prices to rise across [...]
Democrats Energy Policies Continue their Assault on Wealth and Jobs
From Powerlineblog: The Obama administration’s energy policies have been a disaster, assuming that American decline is not your objective. We have written many times about the administration’s efforts to suppress development of our oil resources, but coal is equally important. The United States is blessed with extraordinary deposits of coal, but Obama is determined to prevent us from using it to generate cheap and plentiful electricity. Obama wasn’t kidding when he said, as a candidate, that his policies would cause electricity prices to “skyrocket.” U.S. News reports that Obama’s EPA is promulgating regulations that will cause hundreds of thousands of [...]
Is Atlas Shrugging? Businesses not Hiring
We’ve all heard the statist meme that the “evil” corporations and banks are holding on to tons of cash, and are refusing to hire or extend credit. For those on the left, the solution is to tax them out of existence-all in the name of “justice.” Of course, that quest for “justice” will cause more jobs to be lost, more poverty, and all the problems that go with it. However, all of those negative consequences will be someone else’s fault. On the right, we have a different explanation… Atlas is Shrugging. While this shrugging is likely reluctant, it is having an impact. To describe [...]
It's "Unexpected" Time Again: Unemployment Up, Job Creation far Below Expectations
Well, I guess it time for the regularly scheduled “unexpected” economic reports, or as they should be called, “duh!” It still amazes me that those of us on the right have repeatedly predicted that Obama’s policies will have a detrimental effect on the economy, yet the talking heads in the media and the useful idiots are still surprised. At any rate, here are the completely unexpected numbers… Employers spooked by a sputtering economy hit the brakes on hiring last month, postponing the upswing needed to put 14 million unemployed Americans back to work. The government’s snapshot of the labor market [...]
Taxes: A Historical Perspective REDUX
Both the Daley Gator and Capitol Commentary have discussed the fact that due to new tax increases, courtesy of a Democratic state government, Caterpillar may be forced to seek greener pastures in another state. That reminded me of a post I did almost a year ago… With taxes on tanning salons and medical devises in the ObamaCare law, and the states proposing taxes on all sorts of services and products, I think it might be a good time to take a look at just how successful other taxes have been. In 1990, a luxury tax was passed to go after the “rich people” by taxing [...]
Blog Focus: Top 10 Failures Of ObamaCare After One Year
Darcprynce over at The Daley Gator, has a great summary of ObamaCare Damage. What a great way to celebrate ObamaCare’s first birthday. Top 10 Failures Of ObamaCare After One Year – Human Events President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010. In just the year since, the law known as ObamaCare has already severely crippled the nation’s economy and health care system. Despite Obama’s continued pride in his signature health care legislation, a new CNN poll shows that 58% of Americans disapprove of the way Obama is handling health care. The Republican [...]
Unemployment Numbers Released: Reuters Slips and Uses the "Un" Word
Every month, the economic numbers, and particularly unemployment, don’t perform to the governments expectations, and the media feigns confusion and surprise in reporting it. As 2010 wore on, the term unexpected became a massive joke, to the point that the MSM stopped using it. Mind you, the numbers were still “unexpected,” but it’s kinda hard to carry water for a rapidly failing regime when their policies have so many “unexpected” results. So, the term, “unexpected” went away for a while. Until recently, that is. I caught this Reuters story on Yahoo, via Hot Air. The following are some excerpts. WASHINGTON [...]
UAW Members Vote Themselves Out of Jobs
I always had the idea that many Democrats/socialists/”progressives” would see reason once they were personally hurt by the policies that they support. It’s a simple idea, someone can advocate something, but once it cost them a job, or a home, or the future for their own kids, that they’d wake up. Sounds reasonable, right? I was wrong. Perhaps I was engaging in projection myself, as reason would kick in the second that something I supported backfired on me. If I supported a position that caused my employer to go out of business, I might re-evaluate why I helped kill the [...]
When Does Unexpected Become Expected? The Left is Surprised by Reality
It seems that every month, economic indicators are released that take the elites and the MSM (redundant?) by surprise. Hence, the MSM leads with headlines like, “unexpected,” “surprising,” and the like. Here is the latest “unexpected” story, from CNBC. New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed to a nine-month high last week, yet another setback to the frail economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 500,000 in the week ended August 14, the highest since mid-November, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 476,000 [...]
The Coming Tax Assault: 2011 Destroyed by Tax Increases on Everyone
2011, regardless of what happens in the 2010 elections, will be a bad year for America due to the avalanche of tax increases that will hit everyone, specifically dead people, married people, rich people, investors, poor people, those with kids, those who save, those who buy medications, and small businesses. New tax increases of varying amounts will be levied on these groups starting in 2011, and the result of these tax increases will be lower spending, lower saving, lower investment, lower business activity, and increasing hiding of taxable income by those that can, with the end result being falling revenues [...]
The Jobs Situation is Grim
I never thought that I’d quote Ezra Klein. However, it’s been a screwy day, so I am. Here is a graph from the WaPo, via Brookings. That’s job growth per month on the X axis, and how many months that level of job growth would take to get us back to pre-recession levels on the Y axis. Notice that adding new jobs at a rate of 200,000 a month would take us 150 months — or 12.5 years — to get back to normalcy. So far, only April has seen more than 200,000 in non-census jobs growth — and even [...]
Biden Earns Title of Captain Obvious
In a shocking turn of events…well, not all that shocking, Vice President Joe Biden gaffed, yet again. For a politician, and especially a Democrat, stating an obvious truth is a gaffe. Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.” Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs [...]
ObamaCare Damage: The Numbers Never Added up, IRS to Collect Fines, and Job Losses
I saw that Hot Air was covering the news that, according to the CMS, ObamaCare will cause costs to go up, and will NOT meet the claimed projected savings. Hot Air quoted that news source that “shall not be quoted,” so I looked up other sources. Like this, from Kaiser Health News. So who are these guys who are sounding the latest alarm? They’re the professional actuaries at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who typically operate with far greater independence than others who make official government projections. The Congressional Budget Office, [...]
Taxes: A Historical Perspective
With taxes on tanning salons and medical devises in the ObamaCare law, and the states proposing taxes on all sorts of services and products, I think it might be a good time to take a look at just how successful other taxes have been. In 1990, a luxury tax was passed to go after the “rich people” by taxing things that they buy, luxury yachts, private aircraft, specialty cars, and the like. They were dead set on making these evil rich people pay more. The results? Predictably, the results were completely forgotten by the left. Note that all of these [...]
We Have Work To Do: Document the Damage Caused By ObamaCare
As ObamaCare slithered it’s way through Congress, it was predicted that increased costs would cause layoffs, business failures, and doctors to leave medicine entirely. While those things are likely to happen, we also have to acknowledge that the MSM will not be doing it’s job (as usual) in terms of reporting these negative consequences of “progressive” policies. If they cover them at all, business, not the administration will be blamed. So, as usual, it will be up to the alternative media to let the world know what is really happening. This post is my first effort towards this end. The [...]
Democrats & Independents Hardest Hit By Soaring Unemployment
The unprecedented increase in unemployment has no doubt effected every U.S. citizen in one way shape or form. If you have not been laid off, then chances are you are close to someone who has been. You probably even have one or more within your family that has been let go in the past year. It touches the heart to hear of loved ones losing so much and then struggling month after month to find a way to replace the lost income. But who has been hurt the most throughout this financial recession? Believe it or not, it is the [...]
