Two good examples of how the government HELPS us . . .
Beltway Kabuki
Captain Zero’s Stimulus Score
From The Washington Times via John Lott: After receiving $885 million in Stimulus, “D.C. has no count of jobs from stimulus”
Despite receiving more than $885 million in federal economic stimulus funds since 2009, the D.C. government — whose residents face one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation — cannot say how many jobs it actually created for those who live in the District.
Most of the money has been spent, and data suggest that overall regional job growth did occur as a result of the massive infusion of capital. But a review by The Washington Times of figures provided by D.C. officials shows that the city spent hundreds of millions of dollars without being able to demonstrate any significant improvement in the city’s jobs outlook.
Zero Jobs Image Courtesy The Patriot Post
If anything, the employment picture has worsened in the District. At the end of 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the city’s unemployment rate was 10.4 percent, ahead of only three states: Nevada (12.6 percent), California (11.1 percent) and Rhode Island (10.8 percent). . . .
Fuel Prices Up 15% Since Jan. 1st
I can remember Senator Charles Schumer (D -NY) standing in front of the pumps and blaming Bush for the high cost of fuel. Well, now that the same effects of not drilling (courtesy Congress and the Whitehouse) are showing up at the pumps, I doubt that any Democrats are going to decry this administration’s policies. Meanwhile, ANWR, Gulf Oil and domestic drilling lie fallow.
A Tale of Two Mountains
Mount Rushmore’s faces took fourteen years to carve in the sandstone of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mount Obama took less than three years to build (admittedly with a head start from previous administrations). Ramirez notes this in his cartoon today:
p.s. Happy (actual) Washington’s Birthday!
Stinkin’ Budget
The O-budget is out today. It’s just what we figured the socialist leadership would do. Tax the rich more and provide entitlements. Same song, different day. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats say we don’t need no stinkin’ budget, according to Ramirez . . .
From IBD:
Democrats Failure To Pass Budget Is Illegal
Two top Democrats in Congress say the legislature doesn’t really need to pass a budget. Excuse us, but passing a budget isn’t optional; it’s required by law. Is this the future of rule under the Democrats?
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is tired of passing budgets as the law demands. He thinks Congress can just keep spending money without any sort of budget.
“The fact is, you don’t need a budget,” he said last Tuesday. “We can adopt appropriations bills. We can adopt authorization policies without a budget. We already have an agreed-upon cap on spending.”
Actually, “the fact is,” Congress is required under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to pass a spending plan and then have it scored by the Congressional Budget Office and signed by the president. That none of this happens suggests a level of disrespect for the law and the people found only among criminals.
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A Scary Obituary
Compare this scholarly analysis of the fall of the Athenian Republic to our situation in America (Hat tip to my former colleague, Frank N.):
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”The Obituary follows:
Born 1776, Died 2012
It doesn’t hurt to read this several times.
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul , Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.
Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…”
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal’s – and they vote – then we can say good-bye to the USA in fewer than five years.
If you are in favor of this, then disregard this message.
If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.
This is scary.
Of course we are not a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic.
Of course we know that Obama and many others pay little attention to The Constitution.
There couldn’t be more at stake than on November 6, 2012.
If you are as concerned as I am please pass this along.