For nearly three years as Americans have struggled through this Great Recession, President Obama has given speeches that relied on failed Keynesian economic theory and the politics of class warfare and envy. As his big government policies have spent this nation to the brink, the employment picture continues to worsen.

Tonight, President Obama will deliver a major economic address before a Joint Session of Congress. The MacIver Institute expects it will be more of the same rhetoric and promotion of government solutions we’ve been hearing for the last 3 years.

The timing of the speech also conflicts with the pomp and circumstance surrounding the kickoff of the 2011 NFL season. As a Packers’ fan and in the spirit of public service, I directed our staff to comb through the hundreds of speeches President Obama has already made to give you a concise two-minute preview of his latest ‘big speech.’

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I realize that pointing out a ridiculous stimulus expenditure is so 2009. Still, I can’t help but mention one overlooked, but completely outrageous, stimulus scheme.

You, as an American taxpayer, paid for a teenage kid to wrestle alligators.

No kidding.

The Miccosukee Corporation, the business arm of the Miccosukee Indian Tribe, pocketed a $20,785 stimulus handout to subsidize a summer youth employment program. The program hired five kids to perform jobs including cashier, handyman and alligator wrestler at the Tribe’s Miccosukee Indian Village.

While the Miccosukee Tribe gets most of its money from…wait for it…gambling, the Indian Village is another method the Tribe uses to extract money from dopey tourists. The Indian Village features a shabby museum, the occasional sewing display and, of course, an overpriced gift shop with some of the finest Native American souvenirs ever produced in China. But the village’s real draw, as it were, is an alligator wrestling show.

During the show, performers – like the kid whose paycheck was subsidized by taxpayers – poke an alligator with a stick to piss it off, then drag it around by the tail, smack it on the nose and stuff various body parts in the gator’s mouth.

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For many years, liberals have been gushing with enthusiasm over the prospect of a totally-green planet, one where CO2 emissions are a thing of the past (but wouldn’t that kill green plants?), wind turbines spin like glittering pinwheels in a parade (killing hundreds of thousands of birds each year), and electric cars line the roads (stopping every 40 miles for a recharge). To help ensure this dream becomes reality, President Obama pledged in his 2011 State of the Union address that he wanted to see one million electric cars on America’s roads by 2015.

Of course, the President’s pledge meant taxpayers will subsidize the progressive vision for a clean planet. The day after his State of the Union speech, liberal Democrats proposed creation of tax incentives to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.  What progressives consistently fail to understand is that government screws up each time its big shoes step into the private sector (can anyone say Amtrak?). When it comes to the markets, consumers and the private sector drive it forward or backward, not government. Winners and losers are determined by what people want, need, or desire, and not by what government wants for them.

This was played out recently with the announcement that Green Vehicles, a Salinas, CA electric car start-up company, was closing its doors. Barely two years into its Vision Quest to create an “electric valley” in the state, Green Vehicles ran into problems creating enough capital to survive (translation: nobody wanted to invest in or buy the sewing machine engine scooters). What makes the story most disturbing, however, is that the company’s start up was subsidized by California taxpayers, to the tune of $540K.

If electric vehicles were a winning, money-making idea, someone would have perfected the technology and sold millions of them by now. That’s how capitalism works.

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The White House and the Democrats may be at it again!  Senate Republican leaders are worried the White House will shovel a last-minute budget deal into the Congress shortly before the August 2, 2011 debt ceiling deadline. The GOP fears an “urgent” proposal on the eve of this date will give the Congress little time to review what’s in it, and the exigent nature of the deal will hamstring them into rushing it through to a vote.

They are right to worry. In all likelihood, the White House (and its willing accomplices among Democratic lawmakers) will pork-up a deal with “investments” (spending increases) and tax hikes. Both are anathema to the GOP right now, and the desperadoes of the left will see this as the only way to continue 60 years of progressive policies. Any deal from the White House is bound to be a Trojan Horse.

Then there’s the emergency nature of the offer the GOP fears, for good reason. Rahm Emanuel’s haunting advice comes to mind: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” If there were to be a corollary to his maxim, it would be: “If you don’t have a serious crisis, then create the perception of one.” That seems to be what’s been happening with the looming debt ceiling deadline.

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It’s been popular lately for GOP Presidential hopefuls and many conservative pundits to declare that we can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama in the White House. I agree, but I would take it a step further. I don’t think we can afford even another year and a half of this big government, economy-busting wrecking ball. It’s time for the President to cut his losses and resign.

It took a lot for me to say that, especially considering I’m essentially calling for a President Joe Biden (hey, when hair plug Joe looks better than the incumbent, things are really bad). The catalyst came in the June 29^th news conference in which Obama discussed the debt ceiling impasse. During that odd, sometimes off-teleprompter rambling address, Obama delivered one of his typical un-Presidential cheap-shot, demagogic speeches. He chastised the Congress (the GOP) for failing to reach a deal and contrasted them with his preteen daughters (who always get their homework done early).

He also read aloud from the worn-out progressive playbook:

• Class warfare
• Raising revenue via tax hikes
• Saving children and seniors from the evil clutches of the GOP
• Yadda yadda

He called for the two sides to come together, but by laying out his vision for ending the impasse, he essentially defined compromise as the GOP agreeing with him and the Democrats. Then he showed he’s been spending his time on Planet Hypocrisy by scolding the Congress for even thinking about taking a vacation during such a crisis, while virtually practicing his golf swing at the podium.

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Dear Mr. President,

The Keynesian school of thought on the economy is that of the potential instability of the private sector and the undependability of the market driven self-adjustment factor. Keynes during his day said that in times of depression (or deep recessions) the government should focus entirely on spending by  injecting the national economy with lots of cash. So the task was simple: spend more on goods and services thereby shifting aggregate demand in the other direction and presto we are out of the recession.

However, Keynes put forth these thoughts during the Great Depression. In which inflation was not a threat, prices were falling, and unemployment was reaching 25 percent. Since the goal was to get the national economy back to full employment, the only model used for analysis was the aggregate demand curve in relation to real GDP gaps. There was no need to study aggregate supply and aggregate demand, prices and real job growth because he was only interested in what market participants would buy during the depression if the economy was producing at full capacity. So a new model called the Keynesian Cross was coined which basically focuses on the differences in total spending to the value of total output. It doesn’t account for true distinctions for price levels and real output, i.e., real job growth.

An increase in aggregate demand effects real output and prices but doesn’t always translate to a dollar-for-dollar improvement in real GDP. Again, and to his defense, Keynes’ ideas were during the Great Depression — falling prices, etc., — this is not the Great Depression, so when supply and demand increases so do prices. As a result we still stay short of full employment, consumer spending stays down, wages become relatively low, the economy fails to rebound and possibly falls back into recession.

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‘How to cure the deficit? Tax, Tax, Tax the Rich!” So goes a popular chant on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin and other capital cities across the country.

Memo to liberals: Been there, done that.

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Congressman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI 01) point by point rebuttal of President Barack Obama’s criticisms of the House GOP’s Path to Prosperity budget plan.

The media are reporting that if a governmental shutdown occurs, it will affect only “nonessential services and personnel.” Now, call me superficial, but I have a question:

At a time when we face a $1.4 trillion deficit this year alone, why are we funding anything or anyone that is admittedly “nonessential”?

I have been pondering an analogy that ought to be easy for anyone to grasp. Let’s compare the current congressional battle over federal spending with a hypothetical family feud over your own household budget.

Suppose you and your spouse are arguing about your finances. You have discovered, to your horror, that you are spending $1,400 per month over and above your total household income. Terrified, you inform your spouse that this is completely insane and unsustainable, and that it must stop immediately.

Your spouse nods in nominal agreement — but then digs in his or her heels against every single specific spending cut that you propose.

Knowing of your partner’s stubborn, spendthrift ways, you eventually propose just $100 in reduced spending. That would still have you falling behind each month by $1300, but at least it’s a start. However, your spouse is outraged and rejects the figure out of hand; it’s “draconian,” and would undermine the profligate lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed.

You argue, and argue, and argue. Getting nowhere, and desperate for any point of agreement, you say: “Look, can’t we cut just $61 from our monthly spending? We both know that this won’t even make a dent in our obligations, but at least it might slow our rush toward bankruptcy, if only by a few days.”

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From Politico:

Vice President Joe Biden welcomes California Rep. Darrell Issa to the White House Tuesday, the White House’s first outreach to the chairman that has vowed to investigate every corner of government.

The meeting, which will be at 3 p.m. in the White House, will focus on tracking stimulus spending, White House and Hill sources say.

Issa is looking to dig into specifics about stimulus oversight: enforcing the law that the spending of stimulus dollars must be reported, empowering inspectors general with subpoena power and potentially some improvements to Recovery.gov.

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Each year the Christmas season seems to come earlier and earlier.  This is no doubt the product of retailers eager to encourage Americans to spend their hard earned dollars, or more likely borrowed funds they do not have, on consumer goods they have little or no need for.

The reckless spending is encouraged with holiday decorations, radio stations playing Christmas music long before Thanksgiving, advertisements meant to cajole you into spending, and the false urgency created by the now ubiquitous Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.  Despite my best efforts I often succumb to the urge to join everyone else in this nouveau holiday tradition… this year the only question is whether to buy the Nook Color or the Kindle.

I just worry that this buy now, pay later, mentality is going to catch up with us all.

This reckless spending isn’t only seen in the actions of the America public, it’s seen in the attitude of our elected leaders, both in Congress and the White House.

The clearest example of Congress acting like a teenager set free with their parent’s credit card is our national debt.  As President Obama took office in January of 2009 our national debt stood at $10.6 trillion.  Today, less than two years later, the debt has expanded to $13.7 trillion.  The national debt has exploded — over $3 trillion in less than two years!

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As Epstein told Reason in a 1995 interview, “I took some pride in the fact that [Sen.] Joe Biden (D-Del.) held a copy of Takings up to a hapless Clarence Thomas back in 1991 and said that anyone who believes what’s in this book is certifiably unqualified to sit in on the Supreme Court. That’s a compliment of sorts…. But I took even more pride in the fact that, during the Breyer hearings [in 199X], there were no such theatrics, even as the nominee was constantly questioned on whether he agreed with the Epstein position on deregulation as if that position could not be held by responsible people.”

Born in New York in 1943, Epstein splits faculty appointments at the University of Chicago and New York University; he’s also a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and a contributor to Reason. In books such as Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws (1992) to Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995), and Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism (2003), Epstein pushes his ideas and preconceptions to their limits and takes his readers along for the ride. A die-hard libertarian who believes the state should be limited and individual freedom expanded, he is nonetheless the consummate intellectual who first and foremost demands he offer up ironclad proofs for his characteristically counterintuitive insights into law and social theory.

Indeed, Epstein’s enduring value may not be any particular legal or policy prescription he’s offered over the years but rather his methodology. He believes in robust and unfettered argument and debate as a way of gaining knowledge. If you don’t put your ideas out in the arena, you can’t be doing your best work, he argues. “The problem when you keep to yourself is you don’t get to hear strong ideas articulated by people who disagree with you,” he says.

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A talk Before a Tea Party rally sponsored by the Cecil County (Md.) Patriots in Elkton, Md., 10/23/10

Twenty months ago, on February 19, 2009, business reporter Rick Santelli of CNBC took to the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to deliver his famous rant against government bail-outs, and call for “a Chicago tea party.”

Santelli may have sparked the Tea Party movement. But he only tapped into outrage that had been growing in many of us for decades.

For too long, you and I have watched helplessly as a clique of politicians, intellectuals, activists, and bureaucrats from both parties have tried to obliterate our Constitution, our capitalist system, and our personal liberty. This “bipartisan Ruling Class”—as scholar Angelo Codevilla describes it—sees itself as a moral, cultural, and intellectual elite. Codevilla says that “Today’s ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits.”

Oozing sanctimonious arrogance, viewing the rest of us as coarse, unsophisticated rubes who cling bitterly to guns and bibles, this class seeks to impose its own supposedly superior values and visions upon the rest of us, by force of law.

As we know too well, the ultimate goal of our Ruling Class is power. They exist—not to produce, not to invent, not to create—but to manipulate and master others. Ronald Reagan memorably summed up the Ruling Class’s governing outlook this way: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

By contrast, the rest of us Americans seek power over circumstances, but not over each other. We acquire our personal sense of identity and self-esteem through productive work—not through imposing our will, values, and visions on our neighbors. We accept a “live and let live” philosophy.

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With the midterm elections right around the corner, Rasmussen reports that most voters oppose the reelection of anyone who voted for the health care law, auto bailouts, and stimulus plan. For this reason, polls show the GOP with a lead of seven percentage points on the generic ballot, 50%-43%, up four points from a month ago.

Due to the impact of Obamacare on voters, we at Eyeblast.tv went out to get the thoughts and opinions of ordinary people in Alexandria, Virginia on Obamacare and the individual mandate. Here are their responses:

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Yesterday, Eyeblast.tv hit the streets in Alexandria, VA to talk to some people about their thoughts on whether some little-known programs that were jam-packed into the $787 billion stimulus package passed by the Obama Administration actually were intended to better the economy.

The absurdities include: $3.4 million for a turtle tunnel in Tallahassee, FL. A total of 22 bathrooms in Mark Twain National forest that carried a price tag of $21,000 each ($462,000 total). A genital-washing program in Africa that ran the taxpayers $800,000. Fifty-five thousand ($55,000) in Wichita, Kansas to spay and neuter pets. A total of $356,000 to research how children understand and perceive foreign accents. A whopping $550,000 for a skate park in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. And finally, a bridge connecting two Microsoft campuses costing $11 million (like Microsoft can’t afford that themselves).

As the unemployment rate sits at 9.6%, here is what people thought about the ‘economy-stimulating’ and ‘job creating’ projects:

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Friday’s unemployment report for September, the last before the election, brought more bad news for the Obama Democrats.

Noteworthy is the fact that stocks rallied a bit on the lackluster and tepid jobs numbers, pushing through the 11,000 mark. But more and more, it seems bad economic news illustrating the failure of Obamanomics becomes good news for stocks on the expectation of a GOP tsunami in November.

The unemployment rate itself held at 9.6 percent. It’s been over 9.5 percent for 14 straight months. Meanwhile, the marginally unemployed — or the so-called impairment rate (U-6) — jumped to 17.1 percent from 16.7 percent.

These headlines are political poison for Democrats. Voters are going to keep asking, What exactly did we get for a $1 trillion stimulus-spending package that puts us deeper in hock?

Overall, nonfarm payrolls fell 95,000 for September, largely from a drop in census workers and state and local government employees. Private payrolls increased 64,000, only a third of what’s necessary to sustainably reduce unemployment.

Average hourly wages were flat, as was the workweek.

Looking back, the jobs story was much stronger in the first four months of the year through April. But job creation has slowed markedly since then, along with the overall economy.

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41.8 million Americans are now on food stamps. The details don’t look good for our country.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a year earlier and increased 1.4 percent from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.

An average of 43.3 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.

You might think this is bad news. But, according to House Majority Leader (until 11/2) Nancy Pelosi, this is good news – no, it’s GREAT news! We have found the way to get out of our economic malaise.

At a press conference in her home town of San Francisco, Pelosi explained that the program’s multiplier effect –the amount of money generated in the local economy as the result of the subsidy– far exceeds the nearly $60 billion spent this year by the federal government and is a sure-fire way to stimulate the economy. For every dollar a person receives in food stamps, Pelosi said that $1.79 is put back into the economy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cites an even higher figure of $1.84.

“It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance. The biggest bang for the buck,” she said.

New Obama/Pelosi plan for our economy: Put EVERYONE on food stamps and unemployment and watch the multiplier effect turn this thing around.

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Since the dawn of the financial crisis, author and investor Nassim Taleb has been a favorite of the Huff Post crowd. When Arianna Huffington guest-hosted CNBC’s Squawk Box last year, he was one of the few guests she brought on the show. Well, Taleb went up to Canada last week and gave a speech slamming Obama’s economic policies. Of course, he gave the speech in French. From Bloomberg:

U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration weakened the country’s economy by seeking to foster growth instead of paying down the federal debt, said Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan.”

“Obama did exactly the opposite of what should have been done,” Taleb said yesterday in Montreal in a speech as part of Canada’s Salon Speakers series. “He surrounded himself with people who exacerbated the problem. You have a person who has cancer and instead of removing the cancer, you give him tranquilizers. When you give tranquilizers to a cancer patient, they feel better but the cancer gets worse.”

Today, Taleb said, “total debt is higher than it was in 2008 and unemployment is worse.”

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President Obama unveiled his latest economic proposal in Cleveland recently in a desperate attempt to boost the Democrats’ fleeting hopes of maintaining control of Congress this November.  But after two years of massive government spending and job-killing policies, the damage has already been done and it’s clear this fall’s election will be boiled down to a simple choice: job killers versus job creators.

With unemployment at 9.6%, the American people are clamoring for candidates with a solutions-oriented agenda for job creation as an alternative to the job-killing policies of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini described it this way: “I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs.  And I think they’re flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working.”

Simply put, candidates who propose job-creating policies and show how their opponent’s policies are killing jobs will win decisively in 2010.

American Solutions has already put forth its Jobs Here, Jobs Now, Jobs First plan, so let’s examine the top 10 job-killing policies of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine.

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Things aren’t looking good for Nancy Pelosi.  For almost the last four years, she has been pounding the gavel, shoving her grand, big-government schemes through Congress.  Even in the midst of a worsening economy, she was able to cut enough backroom deals to garner the votes she and her political allies needed to capture their Holy Grail: American’s health care system.

Pundits and polls, however, are now predicting that Pelosi will lose hold of the speakership in November.  They may be correct.  Her years of political kneecapping and recriminations may have finally taken their toll.  Big government takeovers don’t do well in a deteriorating, capitalistic-based economy.  Still,  do not count her out yet.  Madam Speaker is not going anywhere without a fight.   Her hold on the gavel is firm.  Earlier this year, a Democratic insider was quoted in Politico saying, “[Pelosi] will put a bullet in the head of anyone she needs to.”  That insider went on to say that she would do whatever it took to hold on to her majority.  Now, there won’t be any firing of actual bullets, but she is no doubt digging deep into her arsenal.

What sets Pelosi apart from other national leaders, and specifically other Speakers in modern history, is her ability to strategize and execute like a political boss in the classical sense   Consider this: She has legislated a government takeover of at least one-sixth of the economy, challenged the Catholic Church on abortion, circumvented the White House to meet with a Mideast dictator, and claimed that her liberal agenda is part of a holy calling.  Those are some pretty heady accomplishments for the first female Speaker of the House.

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