Our "Not Ready for a Triple-A Rating President"

Barack Obama is awash in a sea of his own misconceptions, drowning in mountainous waves of misperceptions.

He is by far the most idealogical of our presidents, and the most mistaken.

Tim Geithner Plays the Blame Game, Again

During his confirmation process as Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner famously blamed TurboTax for his errors on his personal tax returns.

Now he's blaming the rating agency for his debt mistakes.

The man will never learn.

Remember Jimmy Carter's "Stagflation?" It's ba-a-a-a-ck

Jobless claims are trending up again while economic growth is slowing and inflation growing. We're looking at a nearly perfect storm of economic woes, where one key indicator, the inflation rate, is obscured only because the costs of housing as defined by the government are falling. That a basket of commodity prices have risen 35% in the past year is not a reflection of supply or demand nearly so much as an indication of the fallen value of an American dollar under Mr. Obama's watch. And while America twists slowly on a rotisserie above the coals of economic strain, the leader of its government is playing celebrity guest on a political reality show where there is no story line except his.

Like George Hamilton III, Paris Hilton or a couple of dozen others, our President is becoming best-known for being a vacuous celebrity, or as Joe Biden once described him, "good looking, clean and well-spoken", playing his role in a show where every scene is about him, only him.

This morning Mr. Obama took to the airwaves to express his bemusement at the interest that has built up about the location of his birth, a thread he has milked assiduously for attention for nearly three years.

At the same time he asks, not apparently rhetorically, why so little attention has been paid the last two weeks to his "budget", a budget that is supposed to save the country from economic Armageddon. That Mr. Obama confuses a "speech" with a "budget" reflects his disdain for his office or for the people he governs, or both. It also demonstrates a mental tick common in the extraordinarily arrogant, an ability to mistake his words for reality.

A "budget" is a written document specifying in some detail future outlays and receipts. In our federal system it describes taxes and expenditures in a manner that can be analyzed, compared and contrasted with alternatives, and reported upon. A real budget can be "scored" by the CBO and voted on by the House and the Senate.

A speech is not a budget, Mr. Obama. A speech, even yours, is just a speech.

And, at this point, a birth certificate is really not all that interesting.

Why Do We Have Debt Limits?

Has a Debt Limit ever actually limited the debt? I don't think so. Remind me to ask Paul Krugman if he can think of a time it's happened.

Why do we have Debt Limits set by Congress if they don't serve a purpose such as limiting the debt? Is it all just posturing, political kabuki?

As I understand it, refusing to lift the current limit wouldn't cause a default so much as a quick restructuring of priorities. Isn't that what we need at the moment, exactly what the administration and Congress are unable to provide? There's talk in the political wonderland of developing a "plan" or "system" or a "discipline" to move forward and control our addiction to debt. Isn't that exactly what the current debt limit provides?

Politicians living off the hog in DC fret that our creditors will panic if we don't raise the ceiling. I think just the opposite, that the financial world would draw a huge sigh of relief if the U. S. were to swear off borrowing for a good while.

Wow. Shock and awe. Going cold turkey, now that would be a real news story.

I wonder if the Betty Ford Clinic has room for 536 patients? Could we get a group discount?

Oil Price Reduction: Obama Reverses Bush Success

Under the theory that magic is only the working of that which we don't understand, the leftists in the White House must be absolutely awestruck and skeptical to the point of active disbelief by free markets. They have a much easier time with the old command/control model, where even when things don't work out quite the way they were supposed to, easy explanations came to mind. Oil prices increase without a rest for two years? No problem, just wait for a mideast crisis to break out and blame the rise on it.

This week oil and its derivatives, including gasoline, are touching record levels. Within the next few days we'll be hearing and seeing dozens of stories in the legacy media reporting the highest prices "since 2008" and we'll all know they'r referencing the days of the Bush administration and we'll get the message, "This isn't so very bad, these prices are only matching what happened under Bush."

It's true, during the final year of the Bush presidency oil prices rose inexorably, finally peaking in July 2008 at an all-time high of $145 per barrel of crude. Mr. Bush was presented a selection of possible moves that included price controls, special taxes on the oil companies, increased mileage requirements for cars, insistent calls for more "green energy." Those who suggested additional drilling for American oil were derided: Then, as now, leftists pooh-poohed any possibility of constructive market reaction to a "largely symbolic move."

Now cometh the Obama administration. They've chased American deep-water drilling rigs to Brazil and Africa. They've offered billions of dollars of taxpayer assistance to firms drilling off the South American coasts. After Shell Oil spent $6 billion preparing to drill in the Arctic, the administration pulled the carpet out from under the effort by refusing to approve permits.

A simple graphic tells the devastating story:

As a matter of real fact, the Obama administration has done nearly everything possible to raise the international price of oil and the cost for gas in this country. 

I wonder why?

I wrote about this a couple of years ago in How President Bush's Few Words Saved Us $800 Billion Annually. It's worth reading even now.

First S&P, Then God

First, Standard & Poor's let fly Easter Week with a scathing warning of financial ruin.
Then God chipped in on Easter.

But, no need for us to worry.

Mr. Obama is absolutely certain that he has everything under control.

Party Like There's No Tomorrow

Mr. Obama is killing the economy slowly, practicing a spooky form of medieval medicine that slowly bleeds producers dry. Every week he applies more leeches, more regulators who latch onto the economic body and suck out it's life.

Early warnings of our coming trials can be seen in the indicators of inflation, a potentially fatal form of economic fever.

The Price of Gasoline Under President Obama

Gold Prices Since Obama Inauguration

As the effects of the devalued American dollar spread, American families and companies will become poorer, less competitive, less able to provide for their own futures.

The most important promise in the Republicans' election-winning Pledge to America was not about taxes, nor Obamacare, not spending. Though all those are critically important, they pale in comparison of the game-changer, their promise that all regulations affecting $100 million or more of the economy will require specific congressional approval.

…(W)e  will require congressional approval of any new federal regulation that has an annual cost to the economy of $100 million or more. This is the threshold at which the government deems a regulation "economically significant." If a regulation is so "significant" and costly that it may harm job creation, Congress should vote on it first."

This change has the potential to cure the ills that Obama has wrought. It can be the aspirin that reduces our high temperature and threatens our economic lives. Capital markets and business leaders, from the local bodega on the corner to the largest firms across the nation, will reassert themselves into their proper roles as captains of industry, masters of their destinies, while the government shrinks to its rightful role.

Until we have the opportunity to treat the infection in the White House in 2012, it is critically important to support conservatives' efforts to reign in the bureaucracy by holding Republicans accountable for their most important promise.

Water, Water Everywhere...

In protest of Arizona's stance enforcing existing laws against illegal aliens, the City of Los Angeles City Council voted to ban travel by city employees to the State of Arizona. The ban is expected to reduce Arizona's travel and tourism industry's $18 billion income by about $58 million.

I suggest Arizona call a meeting in Phoenix of the parties to the Colorado River Compact, the multi-state agreement that polices water rights shared by western cities, states and water districts to the Colorado's bountiful flow. Los Angeles is the compact's largest beneficiary. It pulls more water from Arizona's portion of the river than any other user.

Arizona should say, "No mas, no mas."

UPDATE: Apparently this message resonates. An elected commissioner of the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates Arizona utilities supplying 25% of LA's electricity, has volunteered to turn out the lights in LA.

All it would take is once for politicians everywhere to become a little more serious about their comments and votes.

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I was dismayed to learn that the Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based companies — a vote you strongly supported — to show opposition to SB 1070 (Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act).

You explained your support of the boycott as follows: “While we recognize that as neighbors, we share resources and ties with the State of Arizona that may be difficult to sever, our goal is not to hurt the local economy of Los Angeles, but to impact the economy of Arizona. Our intent is to use our dollars — or the withholding of our dollars — to send a message.” (emphasis added)

I received your message; please receive mine. As a state-wide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the “resources and ties” we share with the City of Los Angeles. In fact, approximately twenty-five percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.

If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation. I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands. If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.

People of goodwill can disagree over the merits of SB 1070. A state-wide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Gary Pierce

H/T to Ed Morrissey over at HOT AIR

A meeting is in order. I suggest it be held in Phoenix.

The Largest American Cell Phone Manufacturer?

Hint

Apple surpasses Motorola with the cell phone for the rest of us.

Where Are Pelosi's 400,000 Immediate New Jobs?

At the health care summit on February 25, Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues and the American people that Obamacare would create 4 million new jobs, 400,000 "almost immediately."

She said

So this bill is not only about the health security of America, it's about jobs. In it's life, it will create 4 million jobs - 400,000 jobs almost immediately. Jobs not only in the health care industry, but in the entrepreneurial world as well"

Perhaps someone in the MSM will ask her what her meaning of immediately is.




Or, what the meaning of is is.

Where's The Bill?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly promised that she would publish the health industry takeover bill at least 72 hours prior to any vote.

She's scheduled a vote for Saturday.

Where's the bill?

No question about her haste. She needs her followers voting before they go home on recess and think too much about last Tuesday and the upsets last summer.