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Archive for August, 2009

It’s Worse Than You Think: The Truth About The Budget Deficit

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Filed under Economics, Politics

James Pethokoukis explains why even the White House’s recent revision to it’s deficit forecasts still doesn’t tell the whole story:
The White House says the federal government will run a $9 trillion budget deficit over the next decade. As a percentage of the total economy, the United States looks to have an astounding debt-to-GDP ratio of [...]

Treasury Secretary Joins The Chorus Against Auditing The Fed

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Filed under Economics, Politics

What are they so afraid of ?

H/T: Daily Paul

Obama’s OMB Director: We’ll Reduce Deficits By Spending More Money

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Filed under Economics, Health Care Reform, Politics

Some truly bizarre logic from the man President Obama picked to manage the Federal Budget:
During an economic downturn, one wants to allow the deficit to increase, so deficit reduction should be focused on the out-years – after the economy has recovered. That said, the out-year deficits hover in the range of 4 percent of GDP, [...]

Oppose ObamaCare ? You’re Undermining America

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Democrats, Health Care Reform, Politics

Back during the Bush Administration, the left complained, rightly I felt at the time, when their opposition to the President’s policies in Iraq was ascribed to a lack of patriotism, or to a desire to see the terrorists win.
Now, they’re doing it themselves:

HOWARD DEAN: When I was growing up in this country, Republicans and [...]

Ted Kennedy Dies At 77

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Filed under In The News

One of the longest serving members of the United States Senate died last night after a year-long battle with brain cancer:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one [...]

Thomas Paine On Torture

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, August 25th, 2009. Filed under History, Individual Liberty, War On Terror

Perhaps those on the right who talk about the Founders so much should consider this quote from the great pamphleteer for independence and liberty, Thomas Paine:
An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own [...]

Majority Of Arkansas Citizens Don’t Believe Obama Was Born In The United States

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, August 25th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Obama Derangement Syndrome, Politics

Another Public Policy Polling poll that shows the extent that birtherism has infiltrated certain segments of the country:
-Only 45% of voters in the state say they believe Obama was born in this country, while 31% say they think he was not and 24% are unsure. Arkansas is the first of four states where we’ve polled [...]

GOP Fear-Mongering: From “Death Panels” To The “Death Book”

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, August 25th, 2009. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics, Republicans

RNC Chairman Michael Steele picks up on the new Republican health care meme; the Veterans Administration “Death Book”:

The “death book” meme started last week with an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal by Jim Towey, a former Bush Administration official:
Last year, bureaucrats at the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page [...]

Signs Of A Turnaround In The Housing Market ?

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, August 25th, 2009. Filed under Credit Crisis, Economics, Real Estate, Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis

For the first time in two years, home values have actually increased:
NEW YORK – A closely watched index shows home prices posted their first quarterly increase in three years, signaling the housing market has turned a corner.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller’s U.S. National Home Price Index released Tuesday rose nearly 3 percent from the first quarter, [...]

“Cash For Clunkers” And The Broken Window Fallacy

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, August 25th, 2009. Filed under Auto Industry, Business, Economics

This is what happens to cars traded in under the “Cash For Clunkers” program:
Thanks to the glories of YouTube, we can watch as the government mandates the destruction of perfectly good automobiles to “help the economy.” Here is a very nice 1990s Dodge Dakota 4X4 being destroyed. It is a much better vehicle than [...]

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