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In today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech talk about Rahm Emanuel’s departure from the White House, the latest consumer spending numbers, and the upcoming college football weekend. We’ll also chat with Claire Berlinski about Margaret Thatcher and American economic policy.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment.com and Stephen Clouse and Associates. We’d also like to let you know that we’ve set up a standalone site at CoffeeandMarkets.com for easier browsing of our past broadcasts.

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Daily Caller: Rahm’s Departure, Plouffe’s Arrival
TNL: Tom Friedman Doesn’t Understand the Tea Parties
There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters
Read Claire Berlinski at Ricochet
Coffee and Markets Podcast Archive

A recent report from the Senate Environment and Public Works committee detailed how the EPAs new backdoor regulations will cause a shocking job loss – nearly a million jobs. In their quest “green” the nation, the EPA is steamrolling over American industries – cement, steel and coal, among others – with unrealistic standards and impossibly complex regulations, threatening thousands upon thousands of jobs, not just in the industries themselves, but in the surrounding communities that depend heavily on the industries’ welfare.

But the effects of the EPA’s new regulations – especially the new “Tailoring Rule” which puts caps on greenhouse gas emissions by American companies – aren’t simply taking their toll on the EPA’s traditional targets. In Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and elsewhere, the EPA is set to strangle the biomass industry – and cost America thousands of green jobs.

That’s right – green jobs.

In Maine, where unemployment is at a tough 8 percent:

Just a few short months before a contentious election that has many Democrats fighting for survival, the EPA made final a job-killing mandate that will stall development of biomass energy plants from coast to coast. Under the EPA’s scheme, carbon-neutral power generated by sawdust, wood chips and other forestry byproducts will be subjected to the same costly permits and red tape as the country’s oldest coal-burning factories…Maine’s forestry industry, which depends on biomass power production, employs 51,600 people and pumps $1.5 billion into local economies. Plus, more than 21,000 homes in the state get their power from 30 renewable biomass energy producers.

The effects are similar across the northeast and Pacific northwest, where biomass is a primary source of energy, and a primary source of employment. States like New Hampshire and Massachusetts are understandably worried, especially since biomass plants are set to open up all over the country, adding about 100 jobs per plant.

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In the “Pledge to America” they unveiled last week, House Republicans promise they will “launch a sustained effort to stem the relentless growth in government that has occurred over the past decade.” Who better for the job than the folks who ran the government for most of that time? …Republicans, you may recall, had a spending spree of their own during George W. Bush’s recently concluded administration, when both discretionary and total spending doubled — nearly 10 times the growth seen during Bill Clinton’s two terms. In fact, says Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, “President Bush increased government spending more than any of the six presidents preceding him, including LBJ.” Republicans controlled the House of Representatives for six of Bush’s eight years.

Look, I have to admit there’s nothing wrong with either the conservative or Republican base. Frankly, you guys terrify us, you and your damn fascist Tea Parties. Is there anything more frightening than seas of grandmothers waving American flags and singing “patriotic” songs? I don’t think so. But the bozos driving your clown car need a complete upgrading in order to meet the new challenges of the twenty- first century, and one that the current crop of “leaders” is simply not up to. You morons need smart, ruthless, and savvy leadership, younger than your basic World War II veteran—hell, we’ve run a self- confessed draft dodger and a guy who quit on his comrades after a few months in Vietnam—not that there’s anything wrong with that! If you’re going to bring fruit salad and scrambled eggs to a knife fight, you might as well make sure your fighters are under fifty and are actually, you know, armed and ready to party.

You can’t afford colorless Speakers of the House, or go- along, get-along collaborationists like most of your senators. You need officers who are going to inspire the troops, not dispirit them, commanders who’ve earned the love of their followers precisely by not crossing the aisle, instead preferring to stand on principle. These brave men and women are going to have to step out of the ranks and step up, and when they are attacked by our side—as they surely will be—you must defend them. Nobody wants to lead troops into battle and, halfway across the killing fields, find out he or she is all alone.

Elections are not about programs, but principles.

Hey, Dumbo—“programs” are our thing. Our candidates churn out books on “programs” all the time. They answer endless rounds of questions about “programs,” helpfully posed by our plants in the media. In fact, we’ve made it seem that running for President or any other higher office is all about having the most ten- point plans, or five- year plans, or whatever. But what would you expect from a party that reveres FDR, but really hankers after the cultural revolutions and thousand- year plans that big- time statists of the past century so proudly hailed? We’ve got a “program” or a “plan” for everything, and you chumps have accepted the idiotic notion that one can plan further out than, say, five minutes (no wonder you’ve bought into the farce of “global warming”). Whereas those real military men you ought to be recruiting understand, like football coaches, the first rule of plans: that they go out the window the minute the first shot is fired. After which you rely upon the wisdom and guts of your commanders and the courage, training, and discipline of your troops to see you through to victory.

Principles are what counts. So stop trying to outdo us by rushing to the microphones with a silly plan to solve every social ill this side of halitosis whenever our pet frogs in the media croak about a new “crisis” in the daily news feed. In fact, forget about programs completely. Just say no! And if we call you out and demand to know—which we will, you can bet on that, it’s part of the playbook—the details of your “plan,” laugh and tell them to shove it and start talking about principles. (more…)

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) has never really faced a competitive race. Now that he is, some of his supporters don’t quite know how to respond. We’re pretty certain that hitting 68 year old supporters of the GOP candidate is far down the list of smart things to do.