Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Doom 'N' Gloom

Today's Funny is from Lisa Benson and it ain't so much funny as it's frickin' TRUE. The House passed this dumb-ass legislation (that they probably didn't read… again…) this past Friday with a 219-212 vote, as most of you Gentle Readers know. But there is hope the bill will fail in the Senate… and I'll quote from a piece written by Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics:
Despite the narrow victory, the distribution of the House vote actually suggests that the climate bill will have a tough road ahead in the Senate, as the following analysis will show. To start, let's break down the House vote by state caucuses. The following map does this. If a state's House caucus voted in favor of the bill on Friday (i.e. a majority of House members in the state voted yea), it is shaded green. If its caucus voted against (i.e. a majority voted nay), it is shaded red.

If the vote in the House on this bill had been calculated like the vote for President in the case of no majority winner in the Electoral College - where each state gets one vote - the climate bill would not have passed. Twenty-two state caucuses voted in favor of it while twenty-eight voted against. The bill passed in large part because of strong support from California and New York, which accounted for more than 26% of the total votes in favor of the bill.

Let us pray. I know MY senators (Texas) will vote against the bill, but those of you who live and vote in the green-colored states in the illustration above should be writing your senators early and often in opposition to this bill. Or call them up.

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Are you ready for another round of stagflation… last seen during the first Jimmuh Carter presidency? You better be, coz it's coming. Here's David R. Burton and Cesar Conda, writing in last Sunday's Washington Times:

Both the money supply and federal spending have increased at breathtaking rates over the past year, unprecedented in peacetime. The policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve Board and Congress virtually assure we will enter a period of 1970s-like stagflation.

The recovery, when it comes, will combine slow economic growth, unusually long un- and underemployment, stagnating real incomes, rising interest rates and inflation. There is little that policymakers, having made colossal mistakes, can do to prevent such an outcome. However, there are steps that can be taken to shorten the period of stagflation and return to an era of robust economic growth, good jobs and stable asset and consumer prices.

The money supply is measured several different ways. They all show alarming increases. The monetary base (coins, currency and bank reserves) has doubled over the past year. It is increasing at a rate 12 times the average since 1981. M1 (the monetary base plus checking deposits) increased last year by roughly 16 percent, a near record and three times faster than average since 1981. M2 (M1 plus most savings deposits and money market funds) increased 9 percent in the past 12 months (a rate more than 50 percent higher than the average since 1981).

[…]

Instead, the Obama administration seems bent on doubling down and making a bad situation even worse with massive increases in business and individual taxes, nationalizing or taking control of major industries (including automakers, banks, insurance and health care), hidden but huge energy-cost increases in pursuit of the chimera of global warming and ever greater entitlement spending. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated the Democrats' health reform plan would increase federal spending a further $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

Stagflation is baked in the cake. The question remains whether policymakers take the necessary steps to shorten the period of stagflation.

Read the whole thing, as it's said. Ain't I just FULL of sweetness and light today? But… let's inject a lil levity in this doom and gloom screed… in the form of parody:

Umm… the answer to "who's watching" would be ME. And YOU.

9 comments:

  1. Watching ... and ITCHING to vote!!!!

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  2. Um, my Senators are Dodd and Lieberman. It would be a waste of paper and time.

    What is interesting is an AOL Hot Seat poll I saw over the weekend about the Cap & Trade bill. Every state was voting NO support of the bill - across every boundary you can imagine (political, environmental, philosophical). It was overwhelming. Even the bluest states - like CT - were nearly 90% against. Same with green states like VT and WA.

    Which means that the population (21,000 and counting last time I looked at the poll results) want nothing go to with this piece of crap legislation.

    Which means that if the Senate passes it - a rout in 2010 could begin.

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  3. If Obama was the Captain of the Titanic in the moments after it hit the iceberg, he'd be pouring on steam and looking for three more to hit even harder.

    The Pelosi congress is unbelievably remiss in performing even the bare minimum of their jobs. They have become nothing but rubber stamps for the committees that are writing bills in the middle of the night with no public transparency at all, no meaningful debate, and as pointed out, rarely even reading what they're signing. This Congress could easily be call The World's Least Deliberative Body.

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  4. Ditto to all of the above, plus --

    P.S. -- I LOVE the cartoon!

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  5. I emailed my congressman Rep. Ben Ray Lujan prior to the vote to voice my opposition to the bill and ask him to vote against it. I heard later that his email and phone lines were jammed -- I can only assume those were people asking him to vote no. And he voted yes, which to me shows contempt for our representative republic.

    He is a freshman congressman, and you can bet I will do everything I can to see that he is not re-elected in 2010.

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  6. Shockingly, Peter DeFazio - far leftie of the Portland, Oregon area - voted AGAINST the bill and has been very vocal about it here. He will probably be the next governor here and this vote makes me feel more hopeful about that.

    Our two senators - Wyden and Merkley - I'm sure they don't think it punishes us enough.

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  7. I'm resigned to the fact that we're pretty much screwed until the dems are out of power. Hopefully the midterms will return some balance in congress and we can slow the destruction these ham fisted apes are wreaking on the country.

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  8. It really gets depressing here in Taxachusetts knowing that there isn't a shot in hell at someone like me, with libertarian leanings, being able to influence his congress critters.

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  9. Moogie: re: voting. Yeah... 2010 can't come fast enough! 2012, too.

    Kris: I agree with you about Dodd, but Lieberman might could be persuaded. I think it would be worth a shot.

    About that poll, and on-line polls in general... those things are notoriously subject to manipulation by anyone/everyone with a mailing list and an axe to grind. I do note that Rasmussen recently indicated 47% of Americans think this bill will do more harm than good, while only 17% say it's definitely a good thing (those numbers quoted from memory).

    Dave: Agreed on all counts. This congress is the stuff (my) nightmares are made of.

    Sharon: Good on ya!! I have no idea how our guy down this way voted, as Ipay attention to the folks I vote for in Texas. All three of my congresscritters are on the Good Guys side.

    Cynthia: Oregon is a LOT like California in one respect... your cities out vote your rural population in a disproportionate manner. I'm pretty sure Oregon would be red if you threw out the votes from Portland, Corvallis, and Albany...

    Daphne: We ARE screwed until such time as the serious Lefties are gone. I think our only hope is those infamous Blue Dogs...

    Jim: It definitely sucks to be you where your senators are concerned...

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.