With gas prices now almost double what they were on the first day of President Barack Obama’s presidency, we’re left to wonder: what ever happened to all those “price gouging” investigations Democrats launched four years ago to relieve pain at the pump?

In 2006, Rep. Nancy Pelosi promised that Democrats would enact plans to bring down the price of gas.  But as this GOP ad makes clear, that didn’t happen.

Then, with the presidential election heating up in May 2007, Rep. Nancy Pelosi rolled out the tried and true “blame Bush” tactic and said that high gas prices were the result of “the Bush Administration’s failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy.”  Furthermore, Rep. Pelosi said that the Democratic Congress would “take America in a new direction” and “make up for years of inaction” by Republicans.  The San Francisco Congresswoman went on to tout the actions taken by the Democratic Congress within the first 100 hours of their taking power.

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It’s simply hard to imagine this passes for a Presidency.  At what point does he become simply too much for the senses?  Sure we have had some interesting and bad Presidents before – recently in fact.  Nixon changed our view of the Presidency for the worse.  Carter was beyond ineffectual.  Bush 41 broke a huge promise. Clinton wagged his finger while lying – and a bit more than that.  But this President is truly something and it’s not just the facts that are bad – it’s his excuses and manners that make this Presidency so incredibly bad.

Let us count the ways:

A.  The Economics.

This list is well known by now – but that doesn’t mean it is highlighted by the Media as it would be of a Republican was president.

1. Unemployment at 9% for a historically long time.  According to Obama he inherited this mess and blames President Bush and ATMs.  Yes Obama believes automation, like ATMs, is to blame – as if such automations like automobiles (accounting for nearly 20% of our economy) and computers (creating employers like EBAY and Microsoft)  are the cause of our unemployment.  Beyond that, Obama joked that he was wrong about “shovel ready” projects, created the “Saved” jobs category out of thin air, and claimed that the stimulus bill would prevent unemployment from going above 8%.  What’s missing, of course, is a plan to lower unemployment – let alone actually lower unemployment.
2. Gas Prices.  They are currently 85% higher than when he took office.  He shut down our Gulf oil production for ideological not actual reasons and delayed a Canadian pipeline for political reasons.  When Bush 43 saw high gas prices, the Media told him to go his friends in the Middle East to ask them to raise production.  Since Obama wanted $5 gasoline all along, he has no plan to lower energy prices and the Media doesn’t harp on the issue.  Meanwhile the economy is hurt badly because of the higher costs of energy that reduce purchasing power and hurt employers everywhere.
3. Foreclosure/Home Mortgage Crisis.  This is the one part of the economy that actually is in a crisis that is “the worst since the Great Depression” – a phrase Obama is fond of overusing.  Obama has continued the policy of bailing out the Banks for foreclosure related losses, encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts instead of reforming them and now he has sued the very Banks he bailed out because of their foreclosure practices – and no, there is no plan in sight let alone true relief.
4. The Deficit.  It has quadrupled under Obama.  Yet he says inherited it – and rather than change it, spending has actually gone up each of this 3 years.  Obama’s solution: have other people come up with a plan – he was traveling or on vacation. When it failed, he said he knew it would fail.  So Chris Christie rightfully asks:  What are we paying Obama for?

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From the Associated Press:

Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, and unemployment benefit applications jumped last week to the highest level in three months. The latest data offered a picture of an economy facing inflationary pressures and a depressed job market.

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August, the Labor Department said Thursday. That followed a 0.5 percent increase in July. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, core prices increased 0.2 percent.

Prices for food, energy apartment rents, and clothing all increased.

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The Obama administration has been touting new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to be imposed on America’s automobile manufacturers saying that it will save all Americans money at the pumps. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of hidden costs of which the administration isn’t noting, costs that will drive up the price of driving in multiple ways for all of us.

The new standards are supposed to raise the miles per gallon requirements from the 2016 mandate of 35.5 mpg to 56 mpg by the year 2025. The administration claims that this would be a big savings and would serve to help get Americans off a reliance on foreign oil.

Curiously, as Obama touts his new CAFE standards as a way to get us off foreign oil, there is no talk at all of increasing domestic oil production which would help do the same thing. But I digress.

Still, even if raising the mpg standards is a good idea, at this time automotive technology can’t reach that goal. Because of that, the car companies will have to spend billions in research and development to reach the new requirements. This will cause an added cost that isn’t being considered.

This new wave of R&D and the subsequent finished products based on that research is estimated to add up to $6,000 to the cost of every new car by 2025. Sadly, this would price low-end car buyers right out of the new car market.

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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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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the claim by DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz that Obama has turned around the U.S. Economy, Michele Bachmann, and whether or not the Fed’s dual mandate should be reconsidered.

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:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Obama Was Able “To Turn The Economy Around”
Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Democrats Turned the Economy Around, Or Something!
‘On the Beach, I Bring von Mises’

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Political advantage can be fleeting. A couple of months ago, during the winter quarter, job gains looked to be picking up, unemployment was easing lower, and President Obama’s reelection hopes looked more secure. But things sure have changed.

In recent weeks, a whole bunch of new economic stats have been pointing to a sputtering economy — maybe even an inflation-prone, less-than-2-percent-growth recession. Stocks have dropped five straight weeks, as they look toward slower growth, jobs, and profits out to year end. And Friday’s jobs report didn’t buck these trends.

“Anemic” is the adjective being tossed around the media. According to the Labor Department, nonfarm payrolls increased a meager 54,000 in May, while private payrolls gained only 83,000. A week or two ago, Wall Street expected 200,000-plus new jobs. Didn’t happen.

Perhaps the most telling weakness in the jobs report comes from the household survey, which is made up of self-employed workers. Think of mom-and-pop owned stores and small businesses. Think of the Main Street entrepreneurial families who make up the backbone of the economy, and for the matter the country. And they vote, too.

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With a flamboyant downgrade of the outlook for economic growth, jobs, and profits, Wednesday’s 280 point Dow plunge to launch the so-called June stock swoon is a warning shot across the bow.

The Dow tanked alongside a batch of dismal economic data. The ISM manufacturing index, ADP employment, Case-Shiller home prices, and consumer confidence are all pointing to 2 percent growth or less, rather than the kind of 5 percent growth we ought to be getting coming out of a deep recession.

The economy now looks like a Government Motors engine that’s stalling out. Or perhaps, with energy and food inflation, and housing deflation at the same time, the economy is acting like a pinball machine on permanent tilt.

There’s a key message here: Big-government stimulus never works.

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As we head into this Memorial Day weekend, Americans will be paying more at the pump than they were even a year ago. According to a recent survey by AAA, gas prices have increased by $1.06 in the past year. But while Americans are busy feeling the pinch and demanding solutions to higher prices, the Obama Administration has little to offer but excuses.

The Heritage Foundation’s newest video takes on several of President Obama’s favorite myths and puts them to rest.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss jobless claims, the Fed’s realization that American’s buy groceries and gas, and whether or not we’re ready to pay higher taxes to erase the debt.

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:

Weekly Claims See Fall, But Jobs Picture Remains Weak
Existing Home Sales Unexpectedly Dip in April
Bullard says core inflation is a rotten concept
Boehner Lays Down the Debt-Ceiling Gauntlet
Sen. Toomey On Debt Limit: ‘No Danger Of A Shortage Of Cash’
GOP “No New Taxes” Position Is Rapidly Crumbling

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Pejman Yousefzadeh and Elizabeth Blackney to discuss how the Fed’s monetary policy has created a two tier economy and the impact that has had on the jobs market and the average American family.

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:

Pej: My Kingdom For a Coherent Monetary Policy (Paul Ryan Edition)
Pej: Let Me See If I Have This Straight
Coffee & Markets: Investors and Economists Slap Bernanke Over QE2
Coffee & Markets: David Malpass on the Government as a “Silent Partner”

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From The Hill:

The Senate will hold a test vote Tuesday evening on a Democratic plan to repeal several tax breaks for the big five oil companies.

The plan would repeal an estimated $21 billion worth of incentives over a decade from Exxon, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Chevron.

The vote on a motion to formally proceed to the bill will require support from 60 senators, and it faces big hurdles amid widespread opposition from Republicans and Democrats from oil producing states.

Because, as is noted, Republicans and several Democrats oppose the legislation, the measure could well fail.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech and Francis Cianfrocca are joined by ExxonMobil VP Ken Cohen to discuss the ExxonMobil’s earnings, the need for more drilling and why gas prices are so high.

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:

Where do your gasoline dollars go?
CNBC: Light sweet crude price history
ExxonMobil’s earnings: The real story you won’t hear in Washington
CNN Poll: Support for increased offshore oil drilling on rise
Ken Cohen at ExxonMobil Perspectives

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So. With yesterday’s farcical Senate theater, the brain-trust begs a very basic question:

“Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who presided over the hearing [said] ‘Businesses should make a profit. That’s what drives our economy. But do these profitable companies need taxpayer subsidies?’”

Huh. Sen. Baucus, you come out in the black, and every year, too. And it’s fair to say, you are somewhat subsidized by the taxpayer, non? The salary, of course. The car. The driver. Retirement lucre. The trips to and from the office and your home. Often, that’s ‘homes’.

Biiiiig taxpayer-subsidized (actually, provided) budget to underwrite  your work, which of course does nothing so harmful as produce a product driving our economy. More like slowing it down, if fiddling here and there in hope of engineering outcomes desired by your political class along the way.

Then there are the junkets, and for those you may bring with you. The per diems. The mail costs to promote yourself. Then there’s that health insurance. Yep. Really something when someone, who could pay for these things without the taxpayer propping it up, has hard-working people foot the bill for doing his business.

And as a result you’re now worth …ok, well, there’s a little confusion here, with you having reported a negative net worth, while buying a $900,000 home.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, we’ll discuss what’s driving gas prices and other environmental issues with James Taylor of the Heartland Institute.

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:

James Taylor at Forbes
Bloomberg: Consumer Comfort Declines as Gas Prices Rise
WSJ: In Washington, Oil CEOs on the Hot Seat
Environment and Climate News
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On Friday, we all woke up to the happy news that gas prices might go down a teensy little bit after Memorial Day. Even though that “teensy bit” might just mean “down to $3.50, that news was welcome in a slow economic climate that an administration pre-occupied with it’s own image seems unwilling to acknowledge. But Americans should make no mistake: the tiny decline in gas prices has little to do with the administration’s energy policies, and this week, they’re going to demonstrate that to the nation as they put “Big Oil” on the chopping block in a new round of finance committee hearings chaired by that perennial failure at basic economics, Chairman Max Baucus.

From Politico:

Senate Democrats are looking to bring to the floor next week a plan to strike billions of dollars in annual tax incentives for the five biggest oil companies.

“That’s what we’re thinking,” a Senate Democratic leadership aide told POLITICO Thursday evening, adding there won’t likely be a vote on the measure next week.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will also hold a hearing next Thursday on gas prices and oil tax incentives for the biggest oil companies — including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips.

One major question for the Senate leaders: how any money saved from reducing the tax incentives would ultimately be used. Many Democrats are pushing for the money to go toward deficit reduction, the leadership aide said.

Now this all might sound well and good, using money that we pour into domestic industry to pay down the deficit…but that’s merely a sound bite being used by Democrats to sway a public they think will respond to lip service and key words, and won’t dig deeper into their nefarious plans. The truth is, oil companies, like other companies, rely on tax breaks to be competitive in the world market and to spur on a thriving American industry in times of economic recession, like now.

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So, Prince Charles is coming to Washington, D.C. to lecture us about ’sustainability.’

Sacrifice, you might have heard it used in other words or terms. Invest, tighten your belt, Put the car in D for Dead on the side of the road because the price of gas will necessarily skyrocket. You see, we are told to sacrifice our patriotism for a much more global society. We are told to sacrifice more of our money in an effort to bring about stability and fairness. We are told to sacrifice our children and youth because there are those that know how to raise them better than we do, as we are told to sacrifice our rights because we are too feeble minded to wield it properly.

Then as our patriotism is besmirched, we are left with elitists who degrade us while lauding and cowering to failed and failing nations. As our money is severed from our pocket books, all we see is a government full of crony capitalists, only willing to spend to their hearts delight. We watch as billions and trillions of dollars wrung from the toil of our everyday rigors, evaporate, just like that. An enlarging government such as ours thinks that its only solution is to spend more money, even when we don’t have it. So, it’s no surprise when they just throw some more taxpayer dollars at a failing public educational system. A public school system that seems more concerned about enhancing ideologies, such as globalism, than it is about teaching our youth what they need to survive in the real world.

Our children are indebted from birth, then more of our money is funneled to actually keep them just around or below mediocre. Then they are tethered to ideologies of men who have been proven suspect regarding the facts. Ideologies that often detach them from responsibilities that would otherwise fortify their character. Upon the many challenges that they face as kids these days, to have them bear the torch of the global agenda is simply cruel.

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At the Detroit Economic Club today, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tried to claim the auto bailout is a success.

It certainly doesn’t seem like a success for the taxpayers. GM stock is about $30 today, and unless it gets up to $54, the taxpayers lose money on the deal. Why would it go up? You want to fight high gas prices by buying a Volt? How does $41 grand a pop sound? And still GM loses money on every one it sells even at that price. Not only that but we are seeing that government subsides for electric cars is good tax money wasted in any case.

It doesn’t get any better. Worldwide, U.S. cars aren’t selling worth beans and domestically, GM is lagging because people who hate the bailouts won’t support it with their car-buying dollars any more than they did with their votes last year when they kicked out every incumbent they could find who’d been for it. And GM still has all its old problems, too, like those big fat union pension obligations. Sadly, nothing that caused GM’s financial trouble has been fixed.

But the spin continues.

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On Tuesday, President Obama urged Congress to raise taxes on energy firms by ditching the ability of oil companies to take advantage of certain tax provisions– a move he no doubt expected to be greeted with enthusiasm by members of his party and the liberal base, but which earned him a slap from Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.).

Via the Tulsa World:

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Boren said Obama just needs to be quiet.

“Americans are tired of empty rhetoric on both sides and want a real plan,” Boren said. “If the president doesn’t want to stand up and be a leader, then his silence would be appreciated from people who are trying to find solutions.”

Boren described Obama as completely uninformed about the oil and gas industry.

“The industry is not made up of just major companies,” he said. “It is made up of small independent firms like those in Oklahoma that produce a vast majority of our domestic production.”

For every CEO of a major company, Boren said, there are thousands of blue-collar jobs that are affected by the Obama administration’s energy policy.

“It is a policy that is very inadequate and has left so many on the Gulf Coast unemployed.” Boren said.

From Associated Press:

The economy slowed sharply in the first three months of the year as high gas prices cut into consumer spending, bad weather delayed construction projects and the federal government slashed defense spending by the most in six years.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter. That was weaker than the 3.1 percent growth rate for the October-December quarter. And it was the worst showing since last spring when the European debt crisis slowed growth to a 1.7 percent pace.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other economists say the slowdown last quarter is a temporary setback. They generally agree that gas prices will stabilize and the economy will grow at a 3 percent pace in each of the next three quarters.

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