From the Associated Press:

The Federal Reserve acknowledged Wednesday that the economy is growing more slowly than it expected. But it said it will complete its $600 billion Treasury bond buying program by June 30 as planned and announced no further efforts to boost the economy.

Ending a two-day meeting, the Fed repeated a pledge to keep interest rates at record lows near zero for “an extended period,” a promise it’s made for more than two years.

Fed officials said in a statement that they think the main causes of the economy’s slowdown, such as high gas prices and supply disruptions from Japan’s disasters, are temporary. Once those problems subside, Fed officials said the economy should rebound.

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America is about to be handcuffed. No, we didn’t collectively break some law leading to us being arrested and having to suffer through the traditional “perp walk.” The latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projection of our long term debt indicates it will be so burdensome that it will limit  lawmakers’ ability to adopt tax and spending priorities in good times and reduce flexibility to deal with recessions. The report says that our high debt will make financial crises more likely and long term growth less likely.

The CBO reports our debt as a percent of GDP (gross domestic product) was at 40% in 2008 (a little above the 40-year average of 37%). In the next three years that percentage has jumped gone up by two-thirds. By the end of this year, the projection is that federal debt will equal about 70% of GDP. The highest percentage since the end of World War II. The reason for the leap up is much higher spending combined with recession created lower tax revenues.

That’s the good news. In its most likely scenario the CBO projects that our public debt will be 101% of GDP in 2021 and 190% of GDP in 2035.

As the economy continues to recover and the policies adopted to counteract the recession phase out, budget deficits will probably decline markedly in the next few years. But the budget outlook, for both the coming decade and beyond, is daunting. The retirement of the baby-boom generation portends a significant and sustained increase in the share of the population receiving benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Moreover, per capita spending for health care is likely to continue rising faster than spending per person on other goods and services for many years (although the magnitude of that gap is very uncertain). Without significant changes in government policy, those factors will boost federal outlays sharply relative to GDP in coming decades under any plausible assumptions about future trends in the economy, demographics, and health care costs.

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If you don’t know who Tim Wise is, consider yourself lucky.

I discovered Wise when I was forced to read his book, White Like Me, for an introductory sociology class. (The book is required reading for college classes across the country.)

Wise is one of the most sought after speakers on American campuses, and is also a frequent guest on CNN and PBS. He is essentially a professional racialist, meaning he uses race as the basis for determining policy and interpreting nearly all events. It is his job to provide commentary, write books, and make speeches on a variety of subjects, using race as the primary factor in determining his ideas and conclusions.

So when someone criticizes President Barack Obama, for example, racism must be the motivation, according to Wise. This interpretation of events is at the heart of his presentation of America as a deeply racist country.

As far as professional racialists go, he is one of the most highly respected. The famed author of the Afrocentric Manifesto, Molefi Kete Asante, said that Wise is “One of the brilliant voices of our time” (an endorsement that Wise proudly displays at the top of his website). Michael Eric Dyson, too, has said that Wise is a “national treasure.”  And according to the Utne Reader, Wise is one of the “25 Visionaries” of 2010.

That a man like Wise is so highly respected and widely demanded on college campuses does not speak well about the left and modern universities.

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On Thursday June 23rd celebrities from Hollywood, radio, and TV will gather at the Nixon Library for a one of a kind event with a special purpose: to support our troops on the front lines in the war on terror and honor their service and sacrifice for our nation.

Troopathon 2011, as it is called, has the focused goal of sending as many care packages as it can get sponsored during an eight hour event. It its first year (2008) Troopathon brought in over $1.5 million for care packages for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. A $25 donation buys and delivers one care package.

One of the scheduled speakers is war hero and marine Nick Popaditch. Nick (a frequent guest on FOX’s “Red Eye”) was the tank commander and platoon sergeant in Baghdad during the historic fall of the statue of Saddam.

Recently Nick and his wife April joined me to talk about Troopathon and the significance it has for our troops serving in the Middle East. The YouTube video of the interview is below:

Troopathon Facts:

What: Troopathon 2011, the largest care package drive in America in support of our troops.

When: Thursday June 23rd, 4pm-midnight EDT / 1pm-9pm PDT

How You Can Watch: Right here at the Bigs!

How To Donate: Donation page.

Hosts: Andrew Breitbart and Melanie Morgan

Who Will Be Participating?: Several famous celebrities including actors Jon Voight, Gary Sinise and Robert Davi, media personalities Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, SE Cupp, and many others including yours truly. (more…)

Controversial card check drive by AFSCME and SEIU aims for governor’s executive order

Thousands of licensed Minnesota day care providers may soon become unionized at the stroke of Governor Dayton’s pen via executive order as an increasingly contentious, yet largely unknown, organizing campaign apparently nears an end, according to opponents.

The effort to organize the approximately 12,000 licensed home-based daycare providers goes back at least five years.  The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) appear to be working in different counties throughout the state to form two separate unions:  Child Care Providers Together-AFSCMEand SEIU-Kids First.  The unions have patterned the drive after similar campaigns in other states that targeted providers with clients that receive state childcare subsidies.

The process does not involve a secret ballot or a vote, but rather a controversial method called card check. Organizers go door-to-door to childcare providers on the job asking them to sign cards that give the union collective bargaining rights.  The unions set out to collect signatures of more than half of the available providers or approximately 3,000 signed cards apiece. After the cards are certified, it is believed Governor Dayton will be asked to sign an executive order designating AFSCME and SEIU as collective bargaining units to negotiate with the state. In addition to personal contributions made by influential union leaders, AFSCME and SEIU PACs contributed  $14,000 to Dayton’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

“Just about everybody we have spoken to has said they were not told by signing that card they were supporting a union,” said Jennifer Parrish, a Rochester provider who’s leading opposition to the union. “The main theme seems to be people are being told they can sign up for more information or be put on a mailing list.”

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Imagine being able to choose how we spend our healthcare dollars, without a health insurance company, or the government, telling us how to do it. We choose to buy an over-the-counter medication that performs just as well as a high-priced drug that requires a prescription. We save money. We pay only for what our family needs, and we don’t shift the costs to others.

Actually, we don’t have to imagine it. Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s), tax-exempt trust accounts that are offered by some employers as an alternative to traditional health insurance plans, have been around since 2004. With an HSA option, employees are generally offered a lower insurance premium if they agree to place money into a special account from which they pay for most of their lower-cost, basic healthcare. A “catastrophic,” high deductible insurance plan is in place for larger medical bills due to hospitalizations, surgeries, or other higher cost specialized treatments.

Last week, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) announced that more than 11.4 million Americans are now covered by HSA-eligible insurance plans, a more than 14% increase since last year. Increasingly popular among small businesses and families, HSA’s put patients in control of their basic health care dollars and- surprise- when people directly control their health care costs, they choose more wisely and costs come down.

Great idea, isn’t it? More personal control of healthcare dollars, more personal control of basic healthcare decision-making, lower healthcare costs because we are shopping around for the best value. So, of course, Obamacare intends to gradually eradicate HSA’s.

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Rarely do I subject myself to liberal editorials, but occasionally I glance at Alan Binder’s column since he is one of the few liberals to grace the venerable opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.  The Princeton professor is the quintessential, arrogant, ruling class elite, with a venomous dislike of all things private and a blind love of all things public. Binder’s never met a redistribution program he did not endorse, nor a spending cut he did not mock.

Binder’s latest hit piece attacks the GOP for wanting to reduce government spending. In particular, he argues that the evil GOP perpetuates a false notion that government overspending is bad for jobs. First of all, Binder makes the laughably unprovable assumption that the Obama “stimulus” created “1.3 million net new jobs”.  Even if we take the professor at his word (I know that’s a stretch but bear with me), these 1.3 million fantasy jobs come at a cost of $600 billion (his figure). THAT’S $460K PER JOB. And what types of jobs did the “stimulus” net us? Brain Surgeons? Captains of industry? Think municipal workers or SEIU jobs where they get paid to protest against the GOP Governors we elect. Sounds like a good ROI to me, professor.

Binder makes no distinction between public and private sector jobs, as if the Federal Government could solve our economic ills merely by employing 20 million Americans to dig holes in their backyards and refill them. Does the professor really believe that government jobs are on par with value creating private sector jobs?  In fact, the entire notion of value creation seems missing from Binder’s repertoire. Value—or wealth—is created when production and trade take place voluntarily so both parties gain.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Pejman Yousefzadeh and Elizabeth Blackney to discuss TSA’s growing search efforts outside of airports, state efforts to restrict intrusive airport searches, and Tim Geithner’s call for new taxes.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Surprise! TSA Is Searching Your Car, Subway, Ferry, Bus, AND Plane
Authorities Conduct Random Inspections at Port of Brownsville
TSA Misses Man’s Loaded Handgun (VIDEO)
A Second Chance for Texas To Pass Anti-Groping Bill Making TSA Patdowns a Crime
Geithner: We Need ‘Revenue Increases;’ Cutting Deficit by Spending Cuts Alone ‘Irresponsible’

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Follow Elizabeth on Twitter

Looking at the current GOP field, I share what seems to be the ubiquitous feeling of “blah.” Apart from Michele Bachmann, no one in the field appears to be serious about beating Obama, and the two guys getting the most love from the mainstream media, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, are destined to lose if they secure the Republican nomination.

To be honest, just the fact that the mainstream media keeps them front and center should be warning enough for every lucid Republican. After all, this is the same way the media carried John McCain through the primaries in 2008: because they knew if he were the Republican nominee the Democrats could win with any candidate. (I dare say Jimmy Carter could have beat McCain.)

So here we are, it’s 2011, and two different versions of McCain-lite, McRomney and McHuntsman, are trying to convince us they’re ready to lead. But I’ve got news for you: if either of these two gets the nomination, Obama will literally skate back into the White House for four more years.

Apart from the obvious problem of having instituted Romney-care while governor of Massachusetts, McRomney has the added disadvantages of supporting continued ethanol subsidies and refusing to sign a pledge to nominate only pro-life justices to the bench (were he to be president). The pro-ethanol subsidies make him look like a big government RINO (Republican-In-Name-Only), and the refusal to sign the pro-life pledge on justices makes us wonder what the future would hold were he to become president.

Think about it: Who wants a president that’s going to continue to take our tax dollars and give them to corn farmers whose corn is used for ethanol, only because those farmers are accustomed to getting government handouts? And who wants a president that would simply write off Roe v. Wade as something that can never be overturned?

Anyway, McRomney is a non-starter.

So what about McHuntsman?

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Over the last year, the Obama Administration, through its regulatory agencies, has been conducting a quiet war on American business—those enterprises that are the nation’s job creators. Earlier this week, the union extremists in Obama’s Department of Labor and the “independent” National Labor Relations Board (the same agency that may cause 1,000 Boeing employees in South Carolina to lose their jobs) launched an all-out offensive designed to maximize unions’ ability to unionize the 93.1% of America’s private-sector employees who are union free.

The Department of Labor writes its own DISCLOSE Act.

On Monday, using retread and biased psuedo-studies, the Department of Labor issued an expansive 160-page notice for proposed rule-making; request for comments. It is, in sum, a radical overhaul of the reporting requirements for employers who wish to remain union free and the consultants, lawyers, and firms that provide human resources, employee and labor relations services.

Since 1959, under a little known law called the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, labor relations consultants who ‘persuade’ employees in the exercise of their Section Seven Rights (the right to unionize or not) have been required to file financial disclosure statements, as do the employers who hire labor relations consultants.

Now, the Department of Labor wants any person who is contracted to directly or indirectly persuades employees to file be required to file reports. To the union zealots at the Department of Labor, any person, lawyer or firm who trains supervisors on how to lawfully communicate with employees about unions, any company that produces videos, conducts seminars, or vulnerability audits (like employee opinion surveys) would be required to file and disclose their earnings which then become made public. (more…)

How did he get out again? He should have been sitting in a padded room wearing  one of those nice trench coats with the long sleeves that tie into a knot around the back. But somehow the  slug from the Nation of Islam, one of the biggest purveyors of hateful venom in the world Louis Farrakhan, must have escaped again.

The Muslim leader who was recently quoted as saying America will be bathed in blood, and told Al-Jazeera that 9/11 was planned by the US because “America was looking for a New Pearl Harbor.”

On June 15th Farrakhan  joined such “luminaries” as Ramsey Clark and the always-crazy former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in a press conference near the UN to speak out against the US action in Libya.  No, Farrakhan is not suddenly  concerned with the constitution and/or the war powers act, his concern was that no one knows Moammar Gadhafi like he does and the Libyan tyrant is a real nice guy (he didn’t mention it but I bet Gadhafi calls him mom every day).

Farrakhan gave a speech that lasted more than an hour, praising Libya and bashing the West.

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You just have to appreciate the foresight and planning ability of government. The latest stellar example comes from Riverside, California, where the Alvord Unified School District built a state-of-the-art high school. The only problem? The district now lacks the funds to hire administrators and teachers.

Most readers would probably blame the debacle on the school board’s poor planning. But remember, this is California and the rules of common sense do not apply.

Instead, this crack squad of fiscal stewards has found the true culprit: declining funds to the district.

USA Today reports:

“’When the California budget goes down and income in the state goes down, funding to K-through-12 education goes with it,’ [superintendent Wendell] Tucker says. ‘We made a number of budget adjustments. Right now, we simply are out of adjustments, and it’s not feasible … to open this school.’

“While the soon-to-be completed school will be empty, 3,400 students attend nearby La Sierra High School, built to house fewer than half that number. Classes in the main subjects are packed with 35 to 37 students each, Tucker says. Although the new school would ease crowding, he says it would cost $3 million to open and operate it for the coming academic year.

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Today, in 1990, Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin was dismantled. In our book, that is the official end of the Cold War.

From The National Journal:

The House’s independent ethics office is looking into sexual-harassment claims leveled months ago against Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Citing sources familiar with the inquiry, the investigation, which began at least a month ago, is being conducted by the independent Office of Congressional Ethics and not the House Ethics Committee.

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My home state continues to garner a lot of national attention, at least from the Left. Those gathered in Minnesota for Netroots Nation had Wisconsin on their collective minds. Pun intended.

MacIver News Service | June 22, 2011

[Hudson, Wisconsin] As we head into the heart of the summer months, national liberal organizations are focusing their political efforts on the Wisconsin state senate recalls.

At the recent Netroots Nation annual conference, held in neighboring Minnesota, leaders from several national organizations discussed their coordinated efforts to elect a Democratic state senate in Wisconsin.

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Mike Flynn recently wrote a cri de coeur on Big Government asking why conservatives have failed to move back the needle on government spending despite the profusion of conservative think tanks, foundations, policy shops, grass-roots organizations, and sundry other pointy-headed groups, mostly based in Washington, DC (although every state now has their equivalents, usually in the state capital.)

Why? It’s the culture, smarty-pants.

By “culture,” I don’t mean Washington, DC culture. I mean pop culture.

While the brightest and most talented conservatives pour into DC and pump out one study after another, endlessly debating arcane policy with a handful of other pinheaded intellectuals, the left has been busy consolidating their iron grip on the real reins of power — movies, TV, music, art.

If half the conservatives who pine to work at Heritage or Cato would only turn their ambitions to moviemaking and showrunning, conservatism might have a fighting chance.

As it is, you can move the musical chairs in DC around all you want, but if you don’t recapture the culture — or even a healthy slice of it — you may win a political battle or two now and then, but you’re destined to always play catch-up in the war long-term.

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“ATMs don’t destroy jobs,” tweeted Davd Burge of the Iowahawk blog in response to Obama’s now-infamous “Today Show” explanation of unemployment. “Politicians who treat the country like an ATM destroy jobs.”

But actually it wouldn’t be so bad if politicians merely treated the American economy like an ATM, even if they made fairly large withdraws. What’s really killing jobs is the red tape that causes a massive slowdown by jamming the gears of the advanced, multi-functional machine that is the free market.

The “Ten Thousand Commandments” of federal regulations, as my Competitive Enterprise Institute colleague Wayne Crews calls them in his annual study, costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars a year.  And some regulations even put outright bans of the very activities politicians say they want businesses to engage in.

Since the financial implosion and banks bailouts, the Obama administration and other politicos have been hectoring lenders to make loans to small business. Yet some financial institutions that haven’t even asked for a bailout and are desperately seeking to make more small business loans are statutorily barred from doing so.

These are the credit unions.

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(Warning on Content)
In March 2000 the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization of Massachusetts held its 10 Year Anniversary GLSEN/Boston conference at Tufts University. This conference was fully supported by the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Safe Schools Program, the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and some of the presenters even received federal money.

During the 2000 conference, workshop leaders led a “youth only, ages 14-21″ session that offered lessons
in “fisting” a dangerous sexual practice. During the same workshop an activist asked 14 year-old students, “Spit or swallow?… Is it rude?” The unbelievable audio clip is posted here.

Barack Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings is the founder of GLSEN. He was paid $273,573.96 as its executive director in 2007. Jennings was the keynote speaker at the 2000 GLSEN conference.

Barack Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” was the keynote speaker at the GLSEN/Boston Conference at Tufts University in 2000. High school students at the conference learned about fisting and watersports from the GLSEN activists. Jennings is seen here holding the conference program. (Via Mass Resistance)

Unfortunately for GLSEN, undercover journalists with Mass Resistance recorded these outrageous sessions at Tufts University. The audio was later leaked to a local radio station. This created such an uproar that GLSEN
leaders were forced to apologize for their disgusting behavior.

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A lawyer for radical leftist Anthony K. “Van” Jones has sent a cease and desist letter to Fox News demanding in part that the network retract Glenn Beck’s characterization of Jones’ participation in an anti-American rally held on September 12, 2001, in the wake of the terror attacks on America the day before, September 11, the Huffington Post reported Monday

Beck made the comments after an article was published at Big Government on March 25, 2011, reporting about a videotape of Jones’ statement at the rally where he said America deserved the attacks.

Jones’ lawyer, Joseph E. Sandler, also claims that Jones had nothing to do with the rally, except that he spoke there. Sandler says that Jones “does not agree with the hateful, misguided statements” by some speakers featured in the video of the rally. If true, it would appear to be the first time Jones has chosen to disassociate himself from the speeches that cheered the attacks. At the time, Jones was reported to have praised the “wise…inner-city youth” at the rally. The lawyer does not say if Jones includes his own hateful statements in his present-day denunciation.

Jones comments at the rally were first reported at Indybay.org in the early of hours of September 13, 2001, shortly after the rally at Snow Park in Oakland, California ended:

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