But Is Our Republicans Learning?

Economist John Tamny has a piece in Forbes, “The Paradox Of A ‘Giving’ Government”, detailing the new, stepped-up emphasis by business on getting cozy with Washington, and how and why it pays off. In it is a very disturbing example of why we should expect at best weak and highly dispiriting pushback from Republicans when Obama finally gets around to following through on his telegraphed Plan B for the “global warming” agenda, “green jobs”.

“Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., presently a darling among Republicans for his pro-growth policies, has long made known his dislike of the 2009 Obama stimulus plan as a ‘wasteful spending spree.’ Nice rhetoric for sure–and as it turns out not very pure. In October 2009 the congressman wrote a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in favor of a grant application in his district, which, according to Ryan, would ‘place 1,000 workers in green jobs.’”

That’s pretty stomach-turning, when you consider the source. The government can give us nothing that it has not taken from us. The government cannot give your favored constituencies anything it has not taken away from others. The politics of envy have never been as strong in the United States as in Europe – which fact has given us a chance over the decades, but it appears to be a dwindling chance.

And no one who attended any appreciable part of CPAC this past weekend has any time for the philosophy that these are just the accommodations that one must make to stay here and do good work.

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Tags: CPAC, exporting jobs, federal grant, federal spending, green jobs
Posted Feb 22nd 2010 at 11:07 am in Congress, Economics, News, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 7848271 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/02/22/but-is-our-republicans-learning/But+Is+Our+Republicans+Learning%3F2010-02-22+19%3A07%3A32Christopher+C.+Horner

Job-Sniffing GOP Bloodhound Ellie Mae is Still on the Jobs Hunt

Last summer, I released a web video targeting Washington Democrats’ trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill and asking “where are the jobs?”  Today, on the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the “stimulus” into law, job-sniffing GOP bloodhound Ellie Mae still hasn’t found any jobs “created or saved” by the “stimulus.”  And I’m re-releasing the video for an encore performance.

The video features a down-home voiceover by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and concludes with an appearance by me and Ellie Mae herself.

When Democrats rushed their massive 1,100 page, “stimulus” through Congress last year, they promised that unemployment would not rise above eight percent and that job creation would begin “almost immediately”.   But one year later, more than three million more Americans have lost their jobs, the deficit is set to hit a record shattering $1.6 trillion, and Administration reports on how many jobs were “saved or created” have been “riddled with inaccuracies and contradictions.”

By the metrics the Democrats themselves set, the “stimulus” hasn’t worked – it’s chock-full of wasteful government spending that’s funneled money to Congressional districts that don’t exist and claims of jobs “saved or created” were so exaggerated that the Administration quietly abandoned the metric at the end of last year.

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Tags: job losses, jobs created, jobs saved, stimulus math, stimulus program
Posted Feb 17th 2010 at 3:29 pm in Economics, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 76970178 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2010/02/17/job-sniffing-gop-bloodhound-ellie-mae-is-still-on-the-jobs-hunt/Job-Sniffing+GOP+Bloodhound+Ellie+Mae+is+Still+on+the+Jobs+Hunt2010-02-17+23%3A29%3A42Rep.+John+Boehner

The Recession’s Fat Cats: Public Employees

Last week, the Huffington Post (here) was all over this  new study showing that low-income workers got hit more severely during the recession than high-income workers (low-income workers suffer an over 30 percent unemployment rate, workers making about $138,000, only a 3.2 percent.)

The data in this study, which turned out to be quite misleading, certainly makes for nice populist headlines. But it is hiding the true debate that we should be having. And that’s not that low-skill workers are vulnerable to recession (duh) but that public-sector employees still have jobs and private employees don’t.

Look at the data:

In this chart, I compare seasonally adjusted unemployment rates across segments of the economy, dividing these segments using the super-categories designated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The chart compares the unemployment rates in January of 2009 (blue) with the unemployment rates in these same sectors a year later (yellow). (FYI, the difference would be even more dramatic if I had used not seasonally adjusted data)

In both years, the unemployment rate within the government has been small relative to the level of unemployment within the entire economy, and particularly so relative to the private sector.   In the course of a year, government employment has decreased by 296,000 jobs to 4.3% unemployment; during the same period, employment in the private, non-agricultural, sector has decreased by 2.3 million jobs to 11.1%. (And if you look at not seasonally adjusted unemployment data, the lose of private jobs reached 3.1 million and the lose of public jobs is roughly 70,000. That’s quite a gap.)

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Tags: ariana huffington, Bureau of Labor Statistics, government jobs, Huffington Post, job losses
Posted Feb 17th 2010 at 1:09 pm in Economics, News, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 7661087 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/vderugy/2010/02/17/the-recessions-fat-cats-public-employees/The+Recession%27s+Fat+Cats%3A+Public+Employees2010-02-17+21%3A09%3A30Veronique++de+Rugy

How Many Fights Will Obama Pick With America?

Politics is a game of addition – successful politics anyway.  Great leaders, when faced with a divided electorate, not to mention difficult economic times, use a limited agenda to forge consensus out of broken paradigms.  Once they achieve an initial success, they seek a broader consensus.  In the 1980’s Reagan faced a divided Republican Party and a fractured and dispirited nation.  Concentrating on the prosperity issue and our national prestige, Reagan first brought Republicans together and then independents and even many Democrats.  Indeed, so successful was Reagan at bringing people together, that in time he could rely on a group of Reagan Democrats.  Few other Presidents have had such success at building consensus let alone are able to claim a voting block from the other party in their name.

There is little doubt that Obama faced a divided electorate when he first took office and a difficult economic climate.  Rather than start with a limited agenda designed to build consensus, Obama did the opposite.  Obama chased too many rabbits at once and preferred ideological fights over practical solutions.  As a result, the Country is more divided than ever – not less.

The most recent manifestation of that divisive M.O. is the White House’s amazing decision to insist on a terror trial in New York.   Of course, it remains a jarring ideological decision to treat KSM as a “criminal” versus the warring “terrorist” that he is.  As I wrote, in my article Internment, CSI and Eric Holder’s Disarming of America, that decision will have profound negative consequences for decades to come.  To the point of this article, Obama is compounding his initial divisive decision (treating him as a criminal) by fighting with New York over the place of the trial.  It is a political fight which he cannot win regardless of the outcome of the trial.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, cap-and-trade, economic recession, government health care
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 5:44 am in Congress, Environment, Featured Story, Healthcare, Obama, Politics | 67970173 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/02/03/how-many-fights-will-obama-pick-with-america/How+Many+Fights+Will+Obama+Pick+With+America%3F2010-02-03+13%3A44%3A49Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Mr. President … That ‘Buzzsaw’ Was The American People Saying, ‘Stop.’

This morning after our weekly conference meeting I joined other House Republican leaders at a press event to discuss President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight.  What I told the press gathered in the U.S. Capitol this morning is that tonight, President Obama needs to prove he’s listening to the American people.  It’s not the message, it’s his job-killing policies.  The President must do more than rhetorically ‘pivot.’  He must scrap his job-killing agenda and work in the bipartisan way he promised during the campaign.

The American people don’t want this government takeover of health care, and it’s time to put it out of its misery. No more tricks.  Instead of just a half-baked spending freeze, how about real budget caps that can be enforced?  And instead of more government ‘stimulus’ bills, we need real solutions to help small businesses create jobs.

Last Friday, on a visit to my home state of Ohio, the President complained about this “buzzsaw” of opposition his health care bill faced.  But what you call a buzzsaw, Mr. President, I call the American people.  They’re saying ‘enough is enough’ to this big-government, job-killing agenda.  And they’re asking “where are the jobs?”  So we’re going to listen to the President, but we’re also going to continue to hold him accountable and offer our better solutions.

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Tags: Barack Obama, economic downturn, government health care, health care reform, job creation
Posted Jan 27th 2010 at 9:47 am in Congress, Obama, Politics | 65802120 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2010/01/27/mr-president-that-buzzsaw-was-the-american-people-saying-stop/Mr.+President+%E2%80%A6+That+%E2%80%98Buzzsaw%E2%80%99+Was+The+American+People+Saying%2C+%E2%80%98Stop.%E2%80%992010-01-27+17%3A47%3A59Rep.+John+Boehner

The Marxist Roots of Obama’s Economic ‘Pivot’

President Obama’s advisers assure us that he will use his State of the Union address tonight to deal with our nation’s ailing economy. Americans have already begun to hear talk of a “hard pivot” at the White House, away from health care and towards jobs.

Yet in economic terms, the president’s shift thus far has been more of the same: more government control and less individual freedom.

His attacks on banks—including a new tax that will invariably be passed on to consumers—caused stocks to plummet last week. He has targeted some banks for being “too big,” but without ending the costly policy of “too big to fail,” which removes the discipline of risk and reward. He crowed, “We want our money back,” but wants to use “our” money for his own spending programs, not for tax relief.

The central idea of the President’s new plan appears to be shaping up as a jobs program, in imitation of FDR’s public employment programs during the Great Depression, and funded by new taxes on Wall Street.

The plan is not about job creation—more jobs could be created by the private sector—nor is it about recouping the bailout. It is primarily about redistribution—and is based on old, bad ideas.
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Tags: Abe Foxman, Anti-Defamation League, bank tax, Barack Obama, economic recession
Posted Jan 27th 2010 at 7:17 am in Congress, News, Obama, Politics | 65738106 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2010/01/27/the-marxist-roots-of-obamas-economic-pivot/The+Marxist+Roots+of+Obama%27s+Economic+%27Pivot%272010-01-27+15%3A17%3A16Joel+B.+Pollak

Obama Dithered as Economic War Raged

Now President Obama tells us he’s going to take the economy seriously.  God help us.

As the war on the economic recession grew bleak and the unemployed body count grew, Obama and the Democratic Congress were bogged down in the quagmires of health care reform and cap-and-trade – wars of choice but not of necessity.

Obama and Congressional leaders dithered on the economy to satisfy their liberal base and deliver on campaign promises of a government takeover of health care, a cap-and-trade system and a scheme to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections.

Fortunately for America, Obama and his Congressional allies have been unsuccessful so far.

In a recent interview with ABC News, the president said he lost touch with the American people because he was so focused on crafting policy.  And the result was the special election in Massachusetts that ended in disaster for Democrats.

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Tags: Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, congressional democrats, congressional leaders, economic recession
Posted Jan 26th 2010 at 5:15 pm in Congress, Obama, Politics | 6555484 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/01/26/obama-dithered-as-economic-war-raged/Obama+Dithered+as+Economic+War+Raged2010-01-27+01%3A15%3A32Kyle+Olson

Missing The Mass Point

As Democrats are grieving their lost super-majority in Congress, some special interests are trying to spin the loss in ridiculous ways. The latest: Union boss Leo Gerard writes that “The message of Massachusetts should be clear: If Democrats want to save their own jobs in the midterm elections this fall, they must create jobs now.”

Create jobs? Create jobs?! It’s truly a fundamentally different worldview — and the kind that led Democrats off the cliff in the first place — to believe the government, rather than American entrepreneurs create jobs. (Here’s just one retort to that kind of logic.)

In one sense, there is a way Democrats could create jobs: They could quit trying to kill job-creating employers. Shred cap and trade. Hit the reset button on health care legislation. And, particularly important given the disastrous push by labor bosses, toss card check. Quit trying to force “green jobs” by killing other jobs. Stop the devastating machine of regulation from steamrolling any hope of economic recovery.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Labor, cap-and-trade, Card Check, government health care
Posted Jan 25th 2010 at 3:17 pm in Big Labor, Economics | 6495893 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bjacobson/2010/01/25/missing-the-mass-point/Missing+The+Mass+Point2010-01-25+23%3A17%3A35Bret+Jacobson

Pants On Fire Alert: Axelrod Edition

David Axelrod, top political advisor to President Obama, was one of three White House advisors who took to the Sunday shows yesterday to plead the Administration’s case. Numerous outlets have noted that the three advisors gave three different accounts of the Administration’s record on jobs created–or ’saved’.

But, the reality was actually worse than that. Axelrod alone could keep his own spin straight:

A year ago I told the president that a year from now your numbers will be much different than they are right nowbecause of the economic forecast we were hearing,” Axelrod said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “We knew that even as the economy started growing it would take time for the jobs to follow. That’s the nature of the economy.”

FACT: The unemployment rate known “a year ago” (i.e. on January 24, 2009) was 7.2% for December 2008 (Note: The December 2008 rate has subsequently been adjusted up to 7.4% by DOL).

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Tags: Barack Obama, David Axelrod, job losses, stimulus program, stimulus spending
Posted Jan 25th 2010 at 12:57 pm in Economics, Obama, Politics | 64986134 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/01/25/pants-on-fire-alert-axelrod-edition/Pants+On+Fire+Alert%3A+Axelrod+Edition2010-01-25+20%3A57%3A37Capitol++Confidential

Lessons of ‘66 and ‘94 Loom Over Democrats: Part I

Midterm elections can present a considerable risk for a new President.  Often viewed as a referendum on a President’s policies, the last 45 years featured such huge party losses as 54 House seats under Clinton, 48 seats under Ford, and 47 seats under Johnson.  While Ford’s fate was not entirely his own, the fates of Johnson and Clinton present foreboding scenarios for Democrats in 2010.

Johnson and Clinton: Unpopular Policies Lead to Midterm Losses.

In 1964, the Democrats were sitting atop the political world.  They held 68 Senate seats and gained 36 House seats for an overwhelming margin of 295 to 140 – not to mention winning the White House.  Just two years later, however, they lost 48 seats.  Why? A series of policies that were unpopular including a “credibility gap” on the Vietnam War and what one Democrat Governor said was “Frustration over Vietnam; too much federal spending and… taxation; no great public support for your Great Society programs; and … public disenchantment with the civil rights programs.”  Despite the economy growing 6% because of the Kennedy/Johnson tax cuts, the divide between Johnson’s policies and public opinion produced a 49% approval rating for Johnson and resulted in historic losses for the President and his party in 1966.

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Tags: 66 elections, 94 elections, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, economic recession
Posted Jan 12th 2010 at 5:42 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, Obama, Politics | 58658122 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/01/12/lessons-of-66-and-94-loom-over-democrats-part-i/Lessons+of+%2766+and+%2794+Loom+Over+Democrats%3A+Part+I2010-01-12+13%3A42%3A56Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Obama Completes the Liberal Hat Trick

In hockey, rough sport that it is, it is rare that one player scores three goals in one game.  They call that a Hat Trick.  In the game of politics, Obama now has managed the Liberal Hat Trick in the minds of the American Public.  In November, he may just find out how rough politics can be.

Of course, many people have known for a long time just how liberal Obama is and was.  There were many warning signs in the last election cycle.  The public however, in this slightly Right of Center nation, either was so tired of ineffective Republicans or, with the help of the Media, refused to acknowledge the warning signs.  In doing so they elected Obama with 52.9% of the vote – a victory but not an overwhelming victory.

Large margin or not, since being inaugurated, Obama has run quickly to the Left. In doing so, he fulfilled Reagan’s warning that Democrat Presidential candidates run as moderates but are determined to govern more to the Left, i.e. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  The Obama Administration’s response to the terrorist bomb attempt in Detroit completed that process in the minds of the American public.

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Tags: auto bailouts, bailouts, Barack Obama, bush tax cuts, Christmas terror attack
Posted Jan 4th 2010 at 6:58 am in Big Labor, Congress, News, Obama, Politics | 54938103 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/01/04/obamas-completes-the-liberal-hat-trick/Obama+Completes+the+Liberal+Hat+Trick2010-01-04+14%3A58%3A19Thomas+Del+Beccaro

US Deal In Copenhagen Wrong For Our Country

All across this nation, families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and many more worry that they will be next. But Americans are meeting these times with courage and by putting first things first, at least everywhere but the White House.

It is astonishing that in the midst of the worst recession in 26 years, this administration and Democrat leaders continue to advance job-killing proposals like the national energy tax and will carry that message to the global warming convention in Copenhagen.

Rather than making a priority of creating jobs, the president plans to attend negotiations at the United Nation’s convention on climate change in Denmark. This decision is wrong on several levels. The administration’s participation in the Copenhagen negotiations raises a number of concerns that the president should address before catching his flight.

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Tags: cap-and-trade, carbon emissions, climate change, Copenhagen, economic recessions
Posted Dec 16th 2009 at 2:13 pm in Congress, Environment, Featured Story, Obama | 4767452 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mpence/2009/12/16/us-deal-in-copenhagen-wrong-for-our-country/US+Deal+In+Copenhagen+Wrong+For+Our+Country2009-12-16+22%3A13%3A13Rep.+Mike+Pence+%28R-IN%29

California’s Revenue Problem – Educators Should Demand Economic Growth Not Tax Increases

In what is becoming a perennial affair, the California budget deficit is projected to be over $21 billion in the coming year – including a $6 billion hangover from this year.  With the same degree of regularity, in pursuit of stable education funding (a good idea), educators in California are calling for tax rate increases (a bad idea) and blaming Republican legislators for blocking those increases (an unproductive idea).   Rather than call for more tax rate increases – one of the causes of our current problems –educators should call for policies that will increase private sector jobs so we have more people paying taxes – not less.

At first blush, it may be hard to believe that we have another deficit.  After all, in 2008, expenditures were far in excess of $100 billion.   Expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year were just over $90 billion.  With all that cutting, shouldn’t we have a balanced budget?  The answer is no – because budgets are a two-part equation: deficit/surplus = spending – revenues.  In California’s case, revenues have plummeted faster than expenditures – and continue to do so at a perilous rate.  Worse yet, California’s Legislative Analysts Office projects huge deficits for years to come.

Nevertheless, Democrats and many educators are calling for ever more tax rate increases in a dangerous game of economic roulette with California jobs.  Keep in mind that California already has the 6^th highest tax rate in the Country.  Why not shoot for number #1?  Three reasons:

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Tags: business costs, California, california budget deficit, california budget stalemate, cost of doing business
Posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 12:26 pm in Economics, Politics, State Politics | 4034236 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/12/03/californias-revenue-problem-educators-should-demand-private-sector-job-increases-not-tax-increases/California%E2%80%99s+Revenue+Problem+-+Educators+Should+Demand+Economic+Growth+Not+Tax+Increases2009-12-03+19%3A26%3A35Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Tuesday Open Thread

The Scariest Jobs Chart…Ever

H/T: The Business Insider

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Tags: job losses, recession, unemployment
Posted Oct 20th 2009 at 4:49 am in Uncategorized | 1811453 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/10/20/tuesday-open-thread-2/Tuesday+Open+Thread2009-10-20+11%3A49%3A19Publius