This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Economy

  • Understanding the misunderstood

    Horrors of horrors, the Social Security benefit for next year is only increasing 2.3% according to the Associated Press;

    Come January, Social Security benefits for nearly 50 million Americans are going up 2.3 percent, the smallest increase in four years. It will mean an extra $24 per month in the average check, the government announced Wednesday.
     
    The cost of living adjustment means that the monthly benefit for the typical retired worker in 2008 will go from $1,055 currently to $1,079 next year.

    And the fear mongers are out in force;

    The 2.3 percent increase is the smallest since a 2.1 percent rise in 2004. It compares to an increase of 3.3 percent last year and a jump of 4.1 percent in 2006, which had been the biggest advance in 15 years.

    The COLA is based on the change in consumer prices from the July-September quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. Benefit payments have been tied to inflation since 1975.

    Advocacy groups for the elderly said that the small increase announced Wednesday underscored the need to revamp the cost-of-living adjustment to better reflect prices paid by retired people, including the money they spend on health care.

    Um, folks, the Social Security benefit goes up with inflation. If inflation- the cost of the things you buy – only goes up 2.3%, that’s all you get. And guess what? If you got a 4% increase, that’s only $16 more a month. You and your advocacy groups will whine about that, too - I know I would if that was the only money I’d be getting. But Social Security isn’t the only thing you’re getting is it? You get breaks on heating fuel, you get food stamps, some states even give you property tax breaks.

    And most important; Social Security isn’t intended to be your sole source of income. It’s a small amount that’s a guaranteed portion of your retirement income. So please don’t blame government if you don’t have enough to live on – hoping for an extra $40 instead of $23 every month. And please don’t tell people you were hoping for that $40 – as soon as you turn your back, they’re going to start laughing at you. I know I would.

    A coalition named Divided We Fail has been pressing to get the presidential candidates of both parties to address issues regarding Social Security and affordable health care during the campaign.

    “We want to get all of the candidates on the record and we want to let voters make up their own minds,” said Jim Dau, an official with AARP, an advocacy group for people 50 and older.

    I wish they would go on record – and I wish they explain why they support whichever position they’ve taken. The only reason they won’t is because whichever position they take, they’ll lose voters on both sides.

    Oh, here’s another piece of advice; stay away from AARP. There are better organizations and insurance companies that can give you better protection than AARP. AARP is nothing more than an insurance broker – they make money selling you higher cost protection. That’s why they want you dependent on Social Security.

  • PW County protest weak, Frederick caves

    Two stories in the Washington post this morning about the on-going illegal immigrants problem. In Virginia, where Prince William County legislators ordered that county services wouldn’t be provided to people who refuse to prove their immigration status, a “day without illegals” fizzled according to Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang and Karin Brulliard in “Hispanics Protest, but Impact Questioned”

    A work boycott called to protest Prince William County’s proposed crackdown on illegal immigrants appeared to have limited impact yesterday as construction sites, restaurants and retail stores hummed with business as usual.

    The one-day stoppage, organized by the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders, did cause a smattering of businesses to operate with smaller staffs or close.
     
    La Azteca Latina, a small grocery in Woodbridge, closed after two hours while its owner and employees attended a rally. Ten employees of a waterproofing company in Woodbridge walked off their jobs in the morning, even though their employer threatened that they wouldn’t be able to work for the rest of the week.

    “We’re doing it for our own good. And if the boss doesn’t like it, well, we will look for other work,” said Ruben Garcia, 28, of Woodbridge.

    That’d probably solve a lot of problems – looking for other work. I’ve noticed that no one protests by working harder to prove their worth – only by stopping work. In this case, probably neither would have been noticed. When you call yourselves “Mexicans Without Borders”, you probably don’t do your cause any good, either. There are borders, and you wouldn’t be a Mexican without a border since Mexican isn’t a race.

    Meanwhile Frederick, Maryland caves in even though Prince William County, across the Potomac didn’t. In “Frederick Votes No On Denying Immigrants” Philip Rucker reports;

    In a 3 to 2 vote, Frederick County commissioners rejected a proposal yesterday that would have denied public services, including schooling, to immigrants in the United States illegally, deciding not to follow the lead of Prince William and Loudoun counties.

    But the Frederick board unanimously approved resolutions to Congress and the Maryland legislature calling on lawmakers to reform immigration policies. The resolutions state that the rapid influx of immigrants is creating social tension in Frederick and is taxing the local government, which is facing rising costs for Spanish-language interpreters and other services. 

    In other words, the county commissioners spinelessly decided to pass the buck to the state and federal legislators, instead of doing the job they’re paid to do. Imitating New Orleans’ residents after Katrina, Frederick’s government yells “help us!” at the cameras instead of taking control of their situation. Politically safe. Economically disasterous. If we stopped providing all of these goodies to the criminals who cross our borders without our permission, they’d stop coming.

    Yes, I watched the news last night and I saw all of the whining do-gooders cry that this legislation would “only hurt the children” of illegal immigants and that Frederick’s residents didn’t want that stigma attached to their reputation – look, folks, it’s not your fault that these parents decided to drag their kids to this country illegally. The illegal immigrant parents who made that conscious decision are responsible for their kids – not you – not us.

    I know, I have an anonomous commenter here who tells me there’s a special place in Hell for people like me because of these remarks against lawbreakers – I only hope that special place is far from the whining enablers that keep attracting lawbreakers to this country.

  • Children Health Insurance Lies

    Perhaps Washington Post’s most partisan hack writer, Eugene Robinson, who is either the most stupid person on the face of the Earth, the most free of common sense, or the biggest liar on the planet, has written a bit of projection this Friday entitled Bush’s Veto Lies;

    Bush’s veto Wednesday of a bipartisan bill reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was infuriatingly bad policy. An estimated 9 million children in this country are not covered by health insurance — a circumstance that should shock the consciences of every American. Democrats and Republicans worked together to craft an expansion of an existing state-run program that would have provided coverage for about 4 million children who currently don’t have it.

    It was one of those art-of-the-possible compromises designed to advance the ball toward what has become a national goal.

    First of all, Eugene, there might be nine million children without health insurance, per se, but all nine million of those children have government-provided health care through medicaid. And if Democrats wanted to “advance the ball” as you put it, why does the Washington Examiner today report that Democrats aren’t in the mood for compromise with the White House?

    Bush, who vetoed the bill on Wednesday, told a Pennsylvania crowd he is willing to increase his funding proposal for the program if it will lead to a deal with Congress.

    But both House and Senate Democrats insisted there is no room for compromise.

    House Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Bush’s overture “an insult” and said he is a president out of touch with reality who used his “macho pen” to hurt children.

    “If he thinks he can waltz in here, with his secretary of Health and Human Services, and sweet-talk us, he can’t. We’re not going to compromise. If he’s hoping for that, he’d better hope for something else,” Reid said.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “We have compromised all we can compromise,” but then added, “We’re always willing to talk.”

    Seems to me that the President has been willing to compromise since the beginning of this discussion, but the Democrats froze House Republicans and the White House out of the negotiations. The only reason the Senates Republicans were asked to participate was because of the 60% needed to pass legislation in the Senate these days.

    In fact, the President said he’d have signed the bill if Democrats had made CHIP available to children who live in households with an annual income of 200% of the poverty line – but the Democrats intentionally made the goal for families with an annual income of 300% (about $60,000) of the poverty line. I’m pretty sure a family with $40-60,000 of annual income can afford their own health insurance without the government. So Democrats let it fail because they’re trying to hand out entitlements to the wealthiest Americans – how’s that feel Eugene?

    Well, Eugene Robinson – disingenuous person that he is, says the people between $40-60,000 “fall into a perilous gap”;

    The program Congress voted to expand provides health insurance for children who fall into a perilous gap: Their families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but don’t make enough to afford health insurance. 

    How can they not afford health insurance when the family is making more money than I have most of my life – and I always had insurance for my kids. I considered it part of my responsibility as a parent. In fact, I made sure they had health insurance until they were 21. Maybe the problem isn’t President Bush – maybe it’s the Democrats (and Eugene Robinson’s) fault for making it seem as if it’s Government’s responsibility to provide healthcare instead of parents.

    Robinson repeats this idea throughout the piece;

    Health care is arguably the biggest domestic issue in the presidential contest and, while the candidates and the country may be all over the map in terms of comprehensive solutions, there’s a pretty broad consensus that some way has to be found to ensure that children, at least, are covered.

    The only candidates talking about it, at any length are the Democrats – but I understand Robinson’s failure to admit that, as I’m sure this supposed journalist is only listening to the Democrats and those are the only candidates this journalist will accept as “his president”.

    And more ignorance from partisan hack Robinson;

    The president said Congress was trying to “federalize health care,” even though the program in question is run by the states.

    The why is the federal government paying for it? The Federal government doesn’t just hand over money to the States without strings attached, or haven’t you read even a page of Title 21 (Public Health) of the Code of Federal Regulations which contains 9 volumes of text in regard to state-run programs.

    And so what if 72% of Americans were “for” the program according to the Washington Post survey – how many understood what was in the bill and what was in dispute? Do you think I trust the Washington Post to honestly survey Americans? Has that ever happened?

    More Robinson drivel;

    Bush seems to be upset that Congress didn’t adopt his pet idea to tackle the health insurance issue through — guess what? — tax breaks. None of the major players on Capitol Hill thought this would work.

    Um, Eugene, no one “on Capitol Hill” thought any of his other tax cuts would increase revenues and stabilize a failing (Clinton) economy – but they did. To ask anyone in Congress to approve of a tax cut or a tax break is like asking a crack addict to go cold turkey. Or haven’t you lived in Washington DC long enough to know that? You have, but you’re not honest enough to tell the truth, are you?

    The actual truth is; the Democrats need an emotional issue to take the focus off of their dreary record of national defense – and this is the one they’ve chosen.

  • Democrats and tax cuts

    Everytime I hear a Democrat presidential candidate mention how they want to give the middleclass a taxcut, I remember Bill Clinton’s 1992 promise to give the middleclass a break – which he completely abandoned in 1993. I remember his excuse that he’d worked harder than he’s ever worked in his life and still couldn’t find a way to toss the middleclass a coupla bones. Then he proceeded to hike our taxes – all of us, even people who were dead.

    Well, now I’m listening to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards promising tax cuts to the middleclass. Even their proposals are weak – Obama is promising a $500 tax credit. A $500 tax credit shakes out to a whopping $41/month savings – $82 if you’re in a family. $0 if you don’t pay taxes – most of the people who don’t pay taxes can thank President Bush who raised the minimum income level for filing taxes. He eliminated 16 million workers from the tax rolls in 2001 by that simple swipe of the pen. And now Obama is buying their vote with $0 tax cut (how much is $0 from $0?).

    To his credit, Obama is proposing elimination of seniors with an income under $50,000 from the tax rolls. I’d go along with that – I like simple tax cuts.

    But the Wall Street Journal reports the bad news;

    The changes will be financed in part by raising the tax rate on capital gains and dividend income to as much as 28%, a level last seen in 1997. That is a higher amount than the campaign had endorsed. Earlier this year, the Obama campaign said it would raise those rates to 20%.

    Earlier this year, Mr. Edwards said he, too, would raise the capital-gains tax rate to 28% from 15% and boost income taxes on those making more than $200,000 to finance tax cuts and other benefits for middle- and lower-income families.

    The underlying message of the Democratic candidates’ plans — that wealthier people should pay higher taxes and lower- and middle-income people should pay less — echoes the theme many Democrats in Congress have adopted.

    Double the capital gains tax – which reduces investments and hinders the economy. Oh, and they don’t mention that doubling the capital gains tax also affects what you pay when you sell your house.

    What Democrats don’t know, don’t understand or don’t care is that half of Americans are invested in the economy – raising taxes on capital gains eventually effects us all. I suspect that Obama wants to lower taxes on seniors because he knows he’ll make it up by doubling the taxes on their dividends and capital gains. One way or the other, people will have less money invested in the economy to save taxes – that only hurts the economy.

    But the Big Brother aspect of this reported by Bloomberg;

    The plan would also simplify tax filing for many Americans by having the Internal Revenue Service provide pre-filled tax forms using financial data it receives from employers and banks. The service would be available to filers without complex taxes, or those with only wage and bank-interest income.

    Yeah, I’d like that. I got a bill from the IRS a few weeks ago telling me that I owed them about $4000 from 2005 because of information they received from one of my financial institutions. After I spent a few harrowing weeks proving my innocence (because with the IRS, you’re guilty until you can prove otherwise), they sent me a letter apologizing for the inconvenience. Yeah, so I’m going to let them pre-fill my tax forms. Nice try, Obama.

    The Washington Post quotes Obama;

    “In our new economy, there is no shortage of new wealth,” he told the Tax Policy Center. “But wages are not keeping pace. . . . This isn’t the invisible hand of a market at work. It’s the successful work of special interests.”

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics would disagree; wages are up. They’ve been going up, and unemployment is down to the lowest and longest sustained rate in history. But it seems that Democrats are determined to end that – then blame the economy on Republican policy that has saved this economy.

    Instead of taxhikes and faux-taxcuts, lets see spending cuts. Democrats are real good at telling us how WE can do more for government – for a change let’s see if they can make government do more for us with less money like we have to do everytime they slap a tax hike on us.

  • Chavez plans a “Simon Bolivar Satellite”

    Over the past few weeks, I written about Hugo Chavez squandering his petro dollars on 5000 sniper rifles from Russia, subsidizing bus fares for Londoners and paying for elections in Argentina. Today he announced that China is building a “Simon Bolivar satellite” (Washington Times’ Martin Arostegui);

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his nation plans to launch “the Simon Bolivar satellite” now being built in China as part of plans to develop an integrated ground- and space-based air defense — presumably against the United States.

    “We have 100 satellite technicians training in China who be back in the next few months. The radars, tracking stations and air defenses are being installed right now,” Mr. Chavez said this week on his television talk show, “Hello President.”

    With the Chinese ambassador present for the performance, Mr. Chavez made extensive comments on Venezuela’s growing ties with China in areas such as oil exports and national defense.

    But that’s not all;

    Mr. Chavez, who claims the U.S. has attempted to assassinate him and often warns of an Iraq-style U.S. invasion of Venezuela, already has the most powerful air force in South America with his recent acquisition of 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighters from Russia.

    He also is negotiating the purchase of nine Russian submarines.

    So with children starving, staples absent from supermarket shelves, and Venezuela’s trading paper struggling, Chavez is investing his new ill-gotten wealth in strengthening his military position in a relatively calm region – and attempting to strengthen ties with China in South America – all so he can stick his finger in the eye of the United States (which by the way is no threat to him) and wave the Uncle Sam boogeyman in the faces of his chavistas.

    China has invested heavily in Venezuela’s oil industry as part of efforts to gain ever greater access to energy sources.

    They are jointly planning a pipeline through Panama to pump 800,000 barrels of oil a day to Pacific ports. This would allow a vast increase in Venezuelan exports to China at the possible expense of the U.S.

    China is also assisting Cuba in oil exploration off the coast of Florida – another reason for them to build a pipeline through Panama. In Panama, they already control about 40% of the ports through their COSCO company (according my source there) and they’re assisting Panama in their endeavor to widen the Canal over the next 5 years.

  • Economy crashes as 4,000 workers leave force

    Who could have thought that the unemployment rate is at a steady 4.6% for the last three months – up from three months of 4.5% – and suddenly we find this out when 4,000 workers leave the workforce – and the news organizations panic. Like the Washington Post that bumps news aside to announce 4,000 job losses.

    The unemployment rate remained unchanged, at 4.6 percent, as the loss of jobs was offset by people leaving the workforce.

    Still, the fact that the economy actually lost employment was surprising news, even though other indicators have pointed to lower U.S. economic growth.

    “We did not expect a report as awful as this,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist with the High Frequency Economics consulting firm.

    Awful? When job growth has been as good as it’s been the last four years, ya’all hafta figure that the growth HAS to end – and you call yourself an economist?

    By the way, when did the economy gain jobs? I don’t remember any Washington Post headlines in the middle of the day announcing that 4,000 jobs had ever been added. The last I heard about the economy was that it was the worst since Hoover.

    And I guess losing 4000 jobs in an economy that employs 137.5 million people is a real blow, huh? Let me go sell off all of my stock and live in a shack in Montana until the Depression ends, f’Pete’s sake. Where were all of the show-stopping headlines when the Clinton economy was shedding 4,000 jobs every day?

    Alan Greenspan probably explained what’s happening in the economy best, as reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip;

    Mr. Greenspan, Fed chairman from 1987 to 2005 and now a private consultant, said business expansions are driven by euphoria and contractions by fear. While economists tend to think the same factors drive expansions and contractions, “the expansion phase of the economy is quite different, and fear as a driver, which is going on today, is far more potent than euphoria.”

    The euphoria in human nature takes over when the economy is expanding for several years, and leads to bubbles, “and these bubbles cannot be defused until the fever breaks,” he said.

    It’s what I’ve been saying here in these pages – if you look around and everyone is investing in the same thing you’re investing in, get out now! Two years ago, everyone was buying houses, everyone was spending their money improving on their own houses. There was one month in 2005, more people applied for real estate licenses than drivers’ licenses in California – that should’ve set off bells. It was only a matter of time that the exhuberance became irrational.

    Countrywide has let 13,000 of their people go in the last few weeks – it was only a matter of time before that started having an impact on the economy outside of the housing market.

    Just remember that the stock market reacts to things that investors think will impact them in the future, if you make investment decisions based on today’s market, you’re working with the wrong information.

    By the way, the economy isn’t crashing – I just said that because the Washington Post and the Associated Press are making such a big deal out of a market burp.

  • The Party of “Choice”

    In 1993, the Hillary Clinton secret committee-created healthcare plan hit the street and was unveiled to Congress. It severely restricted everything related to healthcare – it mandated employer participation, it restricted which doctor a patient could see, how much doctors could charge for treatment, it even regulated who could be what type of doctor. Even longtime liberal, the late Pat Moynihan said “anyone who thinks [the Clinton health care plan] can work in the real world as presently written isn’t living in it.” No one had choices anymore.

    Well, the Democrats apparently haven’t learned anything. According to Associated Press, John Edwards even wants to take away your choice to schedule appointments;

    Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.
     
    “It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

    Sounds nice doesn’t it? Unfortunately, Edwards doesn’t explain what would happen if you don’t make your scheduled check ups. Having some experience with the government, when they mention “require”, there’s usually negative reinforcement involved. I wonder what Edwards “incentive” would be – probably forfeiture of your healthcare. Then we’d be right back where we started, huh?

    But the best part is the cost and how Edwards plans to pay for it;

    Edwards said his plan would cost up to $120 billion a year, a cost he proposes covering by ending President Bush’s tax cuts to people who make more than $200,000 per year.

    According to the 2005 tax revenues, he’d have to raise revenue 25% from people making over $200k to get an extra $120 bil. Guess that won’t affect the rest of us will it?  And I guess it plays well to small-minded people who think that people who make over $200k should pay for all of our stuff we don’t want to pay for.

    And I don’t know where he gets the $120 billion number – that’s $400 per person. Unless, of course, universal health care isn’t going to be very universal.

  • Census data shockah; DC has lots of poor people!

    Life in this intellectually vacant city, Washington, DC, isn’t made easier by idiot social scientists. In today’s Washington Examiner, the District’s government announced that *shockah!* there’s a disparity in incomes in the District;

    Nearly 80 percent of the 108,100 District residents who live below the poverty line are black, according to the figures for 2006 released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

    The data show the District has the second-highest poverty rate in the country at 20 percent, far above the national poverty rate of 12.3 percent. It trails only Mississippi, where 21 percent of residents are below the poverty level.

    In a city where Blacks are nearly 70% of the population, why is anyone surprised that 80% of any particular data grouping is Black? And why are 20% of the District’s population below the poverty line? Because the District can’t provide basic services like snow removal, downed-tree removal and street repair.

    The drainage systems explode, the water is only barely potable, the streets are strewn with trash and panhandling hobos, the police can’t seem to find the door handles of their cars until shift changes, the council passes laws they don’t expect to be enforced and pass out money hand-over-fist to any “research” organization that asks. The schools are beyond repair as well as the education system itself. City officials are corrupt and inept.

    Why would anyone with any money stay in the District? The people with the means to leave (except the HillaryClintonJohnEdwardsJohnKerry-types who all have mansions in the Georgetown and Southwest area) leave. The people without the means to leave stay for the handouts. The most amazing part of the Examiner article;

    If recent trends continue, this disparity will continue to grow. Median income for whites has grown by 10 percent since 2004, while black income growth has been stagnant.

    Wait for the money shot;

    “It certainly suggests that the city needs to be going the extra mile to reach out to [poor black] residents,” Lazere said.

    350,000 people in this city of a half-million residents are Black. The city government is run largely by Blacks - nearly half of the City Council is Black. All are supposedly residents of DC. How are they just now noticing this?

    Outside Washington, median incomes were among the highest in the country, while poverty rates were well below the national average.

    Wonder why? Federal employees don’t want to expose themselves and their families to dangerous and poor living conditions. About 500,000 people come to work in the District everyday and then leave before nightfall. Most of the crimes in DC happen after nightfall. I don’t need census data to tell me why.

    How is this a shocking revelation worthy of a headline? Who’s really to blame about the poverty here? The voters – they keep sending the same incompetent boobs year-after-year (a fine example), for superficial reasons, to run the government into the ground and drive away more income-producing residents, which lowers the tax base and makes the government even more incompetent, which drives the tax basis down…. 

    Stevie Wonder could see it from space f’pete’s sake.