People send me stuff. This comes from a Washington insider.
Not for attribution but a relative of mine of some seniority at State [Department] indicated to me an understanding within that institution that ‘climate’ was being teed up for a big comeback this year.
I take from that it’s viewed as a vehicle or hook for various initiatives.
[This] could be anything, committing to a Kyoto II, some replacement, an EU free trade agreement with some ‘carbon’ provisions bootstrapped in, filling the climate fund kitty (which almost necessitates the carbon tax), as well as the oft-rumored pivot by Obama offering various domestic, related [climate] initiatives.
This came about the time of the pre-Kerry announcement. But, having a mutli-mansioned hand-wringer as the messenger also doesn’t hurt the opposition to this.
Off topic.. but what I was enjoying when this post came in. Wes Montgomery’s version of my favourite song: Jerome Kern’s “All the things You Are”.
Groundhog day,, again!
They have to hurry in order to take credit for the cooling that is just around the corner.
Internationally the issue of climate has been used primarily as a tool for punishing the US and the attempted extortion of $ to help ‘third-world’ countries (traditionally, those countries unable to manage their own resources) deal with imagined future consequences of the US use of fossil fuels (i.s. the US is to blame). That’s what the Kyoto accords were all about back in the 90’s. Given the current administration’s posturing with respect to these governments
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/06/20/obama-bowed-eight-times-president/
we can expect a foreign/climate policy based on negotiations from a prone position – a position prone to concede.
Excuse me,
This is surprising how? Because of the financial mess the US is in, taxes for everyone are going up. Mr and Mrs Middle Class or however that’s done PC-wise will be paying more for everything, and probably see a hefty tax increase to boot. Of couse, the first to get the blame will be greedy business people. They will also get the blame when unemployment increases as well. Only later will come higher taxes they can identify.
People will answer surveys that they’re willing to pay “a few cents more” for energy to help the poor drowning Polar Bears – not realizing energy costs drive everything else.
Sorry, couldn’t help the rant. “I feel much better now, Dave.”
Mike Bentley
This administration will do all it can to increase revenues in the short term, no matter how harmful they are.
Watch for “Gore Effect” type snow in DC ….
This could have been anticipated, given the amazing push that the warmists have been making in 2012. They have been kicking out all the stops, in spite of Mother Nature not cooperating. Maybe there will be some events in the Spring that they can blame on Global Weirding. Otherwise, they might end up looking pretty stupid.
No surprise. They have done everything wrong for the past 4 years and now they are doubling down on their idiocy!
And all they got was an obamphone for their vote….
They won’t have the money to drive alot of change, and unattributed posts from “Washington insiders” also trouble me. Nothing that comes out of DC does so without a political purpose, and this could simply be a rallying cry for the paranoid.
I’ll wait and see.
And all they got for their vote was an obamaphone….
@Jimmy Haigh
nice tune 🙂
Happy (in your region) to all 🙂
MIke Bentley,
You’re making things up. There will be no tax hike for the middle-class, unless the extremists on the right blow things up, and automatic hikes kick in. BUt that would be Obama’s fault how?
Be on the alert for alarmist scaremongering.
Because over the coming week there is likely to be alot of wild weather over the USA due to the set up of the jet stream. So expect ot see lots of heavy snow/rain and strong winds in the forecasts for the coming week. And no doubt the alarmists will be trying to milk it to the full.
The greatest excesses from our State Department (indeed, the entire US Gov’t. bureaucracy) will get a pass from the media or any agency tasked with oversight.
Don’t believe it?
One word- Benghazi.
The Statist Department, like the rest of Inside the Beltway Crowd, doesn’t like your freedom. They don’t like the choices you make. They want to tell you what you can and can’t do, but you won’t allow that, mainly because your choices are none of their business.
If they can convince you that your choices DO affect them and everyone else, then they can get you to accept their imposing their choices on you. Climate change, going green, etc., are just marketing tools to get you to accept restrictions on your life. They are not really interested in nature and the environment.
As global warming is revealed to be a hoax, they start moaning about ocean acidification, an even more improbable hoax.
They get away with it all because the legacy press supports the restriction of freedom. Yours, not theirs. Maybe in a generation the press will become interested in freedom and liberty again.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the plan for Obama to give the U.N. the ability to tax nation states, and then become President of the U.N. for life?
[snip – thank you, but lets not give people ideas – Anthony]
Agree. The Administration downplayed climate change in the first term and now will use it to camouflage or justify its ongoing program to raise taxes and tighten regulatory screws. This is not about science but about control.
If the hugobama misadministration has its cap set for a renewed push on the warmunist agenda, and I’m sure it does, the general public will hear little about it except for leaks such as this. Our glorious leader’s penchant for unilaterally decreeing policy without the participation of Congress will see to that.
“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”
-hugobama
Yeah, right.
The EPA politburo will quietly enact the royal hugobama edicts with no fanfare, oversight, or accountability.
Pokerguy – If the whole fiscal cliff blows up and the “Bush” tax cuts expire, it cannot cost the middle class/lower class anything. For the last 6 years of Bush’s presidency I never read an article that did not say that all of the Bush cuts went to the wealthy. Therefore, if they expire, only the “wealthy” will bear the consequences. I mean, the left wing media could not be wrong, could they.? And if they do expire, it will not be “obama’s” fault – it will be the democrats fault. And that tent is where the majority of the voters reside and where control of the country resides.
They are learning from the muslim states that have been successfully terrorising their citizens with bookloads of crap for centuries. Except they know we don’t fear that particular kind of crap, so we are assailed in the name of climate instead of allah or whatever else works in poor countries. “Do as I say or Climate will get you”.
If the Obama administration wants to avoid the Keynesian endpoint they will have to find more than 1 tn USD a year in revenue or spending cuts. That’s a bit more than 2,500 USD per citizen and year.
We have seen in Europe that even bankruptcy doesn’t lead to substantial spending cuts so we can rule that out. So tax hikes it will be. Of course they use warmism for that, they will also use every other excuse in the book. (The ubiquitious “teachers and firefighters”)
Even though this might sound better than Bernanke printing 7% of US GDP per year (and the year after that some more etc) it really is not; as it just serves to keep an unaffordable bureaucracy alive that today adds nothing to the economy’s productivity and will not tomorrow; increasing its share of the money will simply lead to progressively worse decision-making.
Or higher inefficiency. Higher inefficiency means higher demand for raw materials and energy with lower output at the same time.
Wind turbines…
Oh a big come back? Sort of like the US economy? How great it was doing ,according to the MSM, during the election. Now its ,we need another bail-out?
The media in north america is an abomination.
Grid operators and environmental organizations team up to promote modernization of electricity grids
http://renewables-grid.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Files_RGI/RGI_European_Grid_Report_Press_Release_051212-1.pdf
To support a successful implementation of the European Grid Declaration, signed by a coalition of Europe’s 29 largest environmental NGOs and grid operators in 2011, the Renewables-Grid-Initiative (RGI) launches the European Grid Report. The report publishes over 80 selected practical experiences by different RGI members across Europe. Today at the 2nd European Grid Conference in Brussels, jointly organised by RGI and Smart Energy for Europe Platform (SEFEP), the report and the extended European Grid Declaration on Transparency and Public Participation were presented to European Commissioner for Energy Günther H. Oettinger and to European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potočnik.
john from DB
What is an ‘obamaphone’? Where are they used for?
Pokerguy,
Even if the “fiscal Cliff” is averted, everyone’s taxes are going up Jan 1st thanks to Obamacare. There is a 0.9% increase in each tax rate for everybody as well as an additional 3.9% on Dividends and Cap Gains on anyone who has them, no limit to income or tax rate.
@DirkH:
Except that we are on the wrong side of the Laffer Curve. Raising tax rates or adding more taxing schemes can only result in lower revenues from here on out. In California, we’re already at 11% (and rising as of last vote) income tax and 9+% (and rising) sales tax. That’s 20%. Add in Federal at about 30% and it’s 1/2 or more. At that point, folks stop working to make more and spend time working to be taxed less…
Keynes won’t help either as “making stuff” has already run off to China. So print and spend an added $Trillion and IF if stimulates consumption, that consumption comes from China who get an economic stimulus, not the USA.
We are simply in the end game, financially, and there are only 2 exits. CUT tax rates and the size of government and scope of regulations until the economy is again competitive for manufactures ( I don’t think that will happen) or proceed onward to a Greek Style collapse (which will happen).
Add in that there’s an unknown but gigantic “entitlements gap” off budget (i.e. more pensions and such than can ever hope to be paid if you taxed everyone to zero – as we are making very few new tax payers are the rest of us, the large ‘rat in the snake’ of Baby Boomers, retire) and it’s just not possible no matter what is done to “pay the promises”.
Nobody will accept that. Nobody will admit it. So we crash into it head long foot on the gas pedal all the way…
Europe too, BTW…
So I expect we’ll see a full court press on “Global Warming” (and we ought to all continue to call it that, especially as things get colder) and even open admission that the taxes on “Carbon” will be the magic wand to fix the budget.
But it won’t, and it can’t. For any tax increase, there will be a greater reduction in economic production, and so lower levels of total revenue. (That’s what the Laffer Curve means… once past the top of the curve…)
I heard a quote once, and can’t find the reference, but it was:
“No country long survives once taxes exceed 50%.” For folks in California, the total State&Fed is now over 50% and rising. So watch California implode first. (Is imploding now, IMHO). The rest of you ‘shortly after’… See Detroit as the model / example.
As just ONE example of what folks do:
A loaf of bread runs about $3 here. It can be $4. (At cheap places for poor bread you can get it at $2). I can make a loaf at home for about 25 cents. As of this year, we no longer buy bread.
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/bread-potato-flour-millet-amaranth/
I set up a little ‘assembly line’ and make ‘jars of bread’. Each is a one pint jar ( about 500 ml) with sugar, salt, flour in the jar. To ‘make a loaf’, I mix dry yeast with warm water, then put it all in the bread maker with a Tbls of oil (about 15 ml). As of this Christmas, I’ve gotten a KitchenAid mixer, and will be using it to make the dough instead.
It takes me about 2 minutes to “make a loaf” with the machinery doing most of it. Fresh bread daily. Gotta love it. Oh, and I cut slices into cubes and make my own croûtons. C’est tres French 😉 But the turkey stuffing this year was great! (And not paying $3 for store stale cubes… it takes less time to make my own than to go to the store to buy them, and at near zero cost as we have so much bread…)
So now I’m getting much more quality in the loaf, and at a far lower price. AND without the burden of taxes, government transfer payments, nor “Bakers Union” retirement costs built in to every loaf….
We now rarely go out to dinner. (During the ‘tech boom’ we had dinner out about 2 or 3 times a week and at middle-higher end places too). When we go out, it’s more likely to be a fast food place. So no 15% tips (and no tax-take off of them) and no $40 to $60 / person bill (and no 9% sales tax on them). Instead, I cook more at home. About $1 to $4 / person and the food is just as good. AND without the burden of taxes, government transfer payments, nor Service Workers Union and government retirement costs built in to the meal…
I’m in the process of making my own ‘next computer’ (for a variety of reasons, but cost is one of them). So no $600 laptop. The ‘card’ costs $35 and the OS is free. (It also can have a “Tallbloke and the Constable” moment and I won’t care as the data lives in an encrypted store and there is no disk…) No 9% sales tax on that $600 and no ongoing payments to Micro$oft so no taxes on them, either.
Oh, and I make the “work lunch” at home too. Got a set of Corning ceramic bowls with plastic lids. I fill each with a protein, starch, and vegetable (or sometimes just a casserole) from various dinners and put them in the freezer. At work, they hit the microwave. “Homemade lunch”, and not paying $5 to $10 for each lunch either… Most are in the $1 or less range. With no sales tax, etc. etc.
In short, just not much reason to buy stuff any more… Not going to buy a new home (why? Just raises the property tax base. If I stay where I am, it doesn’t rise.) nor a new car (why? Just gets me electronically monitored by a black box I don’t want.) etc. etc. etc.
Now take folks with even less ‘means’, and they will be doing even more of that kind of thing. Just “not seeing the percentage’ in working for a wage nor buying more stuff with less money.
Which means the ‘tax take’ will drop on any increases in attempt to suck in more. Some folks may pay more, but in aggregate, the Laffer Curve wins as others pay less.
Then as unemployment continues / increases, tax revenues go even lower. The end game of that being The Great Depression (as we saw the last time the Progressives tried the full court press.) One can only hope we avoid the ‘solution’ from then. W.W.II was bad enough… the next one will be worse.
The only really sad thing is that the fools in office are too dumb and blind to see this coming.
john robertson says:
“The media in North America is an abomination.”
I am sorry to say but people who consistently elect the likes of Sheila Jackson Lee, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz can’t be expected to think for themselves and deserve everything they get.
The war on the economy and personal freedom will continue until everything and everyone is perfect.
Surrenders will not be accepted.
Own it America, you voted for it..
No Carbon tax was ever voted in through a referendum, always imposed through the back door…
Golly, gosh. I can just see the whole of China taking a second glance at what any US administration cares to say or do about “climate”. Not.
All it can achieve is a faster changing-of-the-guard in world power and politics. In the short run, I don’t see how that will work to the benefit of the English-speaking peoples.
pokerguy says:
“You’re making things up. There will be no tax hike for the middle-class, unless the extremists on the right blow things up…”
Wrong, pokerguy. Obama owns the fiscal cliff. When Boehner agreed to discuss a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans, and asked what Obama would give in return, Obama replied: “You get nothing. I get that for free.” Verbatim.
That is negotiating in bad faith. Now Obama owns the ‘fiscal cliff’, and all the pain that comes with it.
Skyrocketing energy costs are a tax on productivity. Obama lied, as he always does:
Lies spray from Obama’s mouth like water from a high pressure fire hose. And as usual, the Administration could not care less about the impact on the poorest among us. They will be hurt more than anyone by these new taxes. They are going to be heavily taxed, good and hard. They had better get used to it.
E.M.Smith says: The only really sad thing is that the fools in office are too dumb and blind to see this coming.
I think you’re wrong. I think they not only see it coming but anxiously await it’s arrival. Never let a good crisis go to waste…
You mean “taxes,” not revenue. This administration has no clue how to increase revenue. Taxes aren’t the same thing as revenue, but people often incorrectly use them interchangeably. This is why tax rates can go down and tax revenues go up shortly thereafter.
This administration is interested in redistribution, aka the fairy tale of “fairness.”
@Other Andy 1:51 says Sorry to say but …
Not long ago Canada was electing creatures of a similar nature, prior to 2006 they ran the country. They seem to be the insane spawn of high density dwellers, when mice numbers exceed a certain level in a limited space, they go nuts, cannibalism and infanticide. But our cities they be civilized, smarter than mice, so they just elect leaders who represent them?
Given that major banks are ready to profit off of carbon, I never thought for a moment that climate change was dead.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this “fiscal cliff” ‘crisis’ leads to some kind of carbon tax or cap-and-trade or whatever.
pokerguy says:
December 26, 2012 at 10:41 am
MIke Bentley,
You’re making things up. There will be no tax hike for the middle-class, unless the extremists on the right blow things up, and automatic hikes kick in. BUt that would be Obama’s fault how?
———–
cause POTUS will not compromise with congress.
he will not cut spending
and btw inflation is a tax hike.
cn
“‘climate’ being teed up for a big comeback this year by Obama administration”
Never let a faux crisis go to waste.
Kerry sponsored a cap and trade bill. Ergo, cap and trade would be the number one suspect.
However, as cap and trade necessitates discussion of who benefits from it, major wall street traders and energy industries, big contributors to Obama, discussion must be avoided as it will upset many loud right wing American business fetishists who cannot believe their idolized entities would sponsor cap and trade and make money off it. It must be the government and the greens! They cannot follow the money.
It is a dark time to be a right wing economic lunatic in America (I am not talking about social conservatives). The world wants to invest in America, and they are buying up the dollar in anticipation we fall over the “cliff,” which is actually a good thing, or that con man Obama and crank Boehner can cut a deal that will reduce deficits. The fact that the dollar is going up and prices, gasoline especially, are going down or going to, is a traumatic event for the righties because deficits are not supposed to matter. That is an article of their new faith which overthrew the old faith of fiscal responsibility, i.e., normal thinking. For you foreigners, that is why they sound especially shrill and diverting these recent weeks.
Here is one way to smoke out the hardest core wackos. Find one obsessing on “entitlement” spending rather than “discretionary” spending. Ask them something like, “Since entitlement revenues in America, for example social security taxes, have subsidized discretionary spending for decades, is not fair to say discretionary spending, not entitlement spending, is the unsustainable sector of U.S. government expenditures?”
Beware for fire! They will point to things supposed to happen 30 years from now (like catastrophic warmists do) resort to cranky authority (Laffer, etc., like warmists do) wildly point at lines on charts (like warmists do) and otherwise pontificate why Bushes tax cuts without spending cuts could not have caused the deficits and contributed to the bad economy.
They are very much like the warmistas, which is ironic here.
E.M.Smith says: “CUT tax rates and the size of government and scope of regulations until the economy is again competitive for manufactures …”
I believe America would recover without cutting Tax rates – If we cut the size of government, cut government spending, and number of business regulations by 10% every year for five years.
To reduce government, business, and private expenditures on Health Care, we absolutely must enact Tort reform, which would put 1/4 Trillion dollars back in American’s pockets.
give us your money:
21 Dec: UK Independent: Assaad W. Razzouk: Doha was all hot air. It’s high time for a new central body to take action on climate change
We need a rival to the World Bank to address rising temperatures
Assaad W. Razzouk is the CEO of Sindicatum Sustainable Resources.
Let’s face it. The 18th annual climate change talks in Doha achieved nothing…
Meanwhile, the world continues to warm and the weather grows increasingly extreme…
In the same way that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were established at Bretton Woods in 1944 after World War II – giving rise to a new rules-based system of international finance, restoring confidence and leading to an extraordinary post-war economic boom – the time has come for the establishment of a new multilateral institution: the Climate Change Action Bank (CCAB).
If given the necessary tools, expertise and standing, the CCAB could take charge and ensure that valuable international resources are channelled towards low carbon solutions across the globe. As we have seen with both the World Bank and the IMF, the CCAB could have potentially far greater and more consequential success than the endless rounds of negotiations that we are witnessing today. There would be someone clearly in charge acting as a central channel to mobilize finance and expertise, tirelessly pushing the climate agenda in every member state, and acting rather than talking…
If this urgent global challenge is to be decisively addressed, the CCAB should be based in Washington, D.C. (just like the World Bank and the IMF) with a private sector subsidiary (just like the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank unit) based in Beijing. It would be essential that a strong leader be appointed as Chair of the new bank — a global political figure with the influence and gravitas to push through changes that are urgently needed to secure the future of the low carbon economy, someone with a track record of solving problems on a global scale…
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/doha-was-all-hot-air-its-high-time-for-a-new-central-body-to-take-action-on-climate-change-8428890.html
Wikipedia: Assaad W. Razzouk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assaad_W._Razzouk
… ‘climate’ being teed up for a big comeback this year by Obama administration
… And you have to wonder why!
Carbon dioxide emissions in the US have effectively reduced, haven’t they? Any climate action will have no impact because of the other big emitters.
So what will Obama be trying to accomplish? I would suggest an opportunity for his powerful friends to make piles more money from government green subsidies and loans and from bum green technology investment opportunities. Al Gore will be smiling all the way to the bank!
Is it possible to use a microwave set at 10% or 20% as a bread maker?
Is it possible to use a food processor as a dough mixer?
RS says:
December 26, 2012 at 1:51 pm
….. Own it America, you voted for it..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But did we???
There are a lot of rumors swirling about voting machines switching votes and 100+% voter turn-out.
Good old Chicago style politics taken nationally.
Power grab, pure and simple. ‘Impending disaster’ has long been used by governments to justify aggregation of power from the unwary.
“RS says:
December 26, 2012 at 1:51 pm
….. Own it America, you voted for it..”
Trust me, wavering voters for Obama now feel sure they made the right “choice” watching whack job right wingers panic over the fiscal cliff.
Another person wrote:
“Wrong, pokerguy. Obama owns the fiscal cliff. When Boehner agreed to discuss a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans, and asked what Obama would give in return, Obama replied: “You get nothing. I get that for free.” Verbatim.”
Oooh, Obama told a truth for once? Boehner owns it. He set it up. Remember last time his dirty little deal to raise the spending cap? This “cliff”, which the world sees as a blessing, is a Boehner invention. Remember the “Tea Party” disgust with it? Now it seems Boehner had tactily meant the “cliff” was just b.s. to calm the markets–from him.
The “cliff” here is invention by and for the right wing economic crazies. It’s like a crisis in Marxism where the adherents discover various laws of their economic religion are proven wrong.
The fiscal “cliff”, is not a cliff, it is a helpful ascent. The “cliff” is the fall for Bushonomics and crank stuff that Ayn Randists spout, but I am sure if she were alive today she would be abhored over the magical economic thinking regarding deficits her acolytes proclaim. Many of them should crop the Rand label and call themselves “Norquists.”
Rumors or no rumors, Gail… let’s face it:
Popular Democracy + Technology = Welfare State (self-perpetuating majority of parasites).
The only cure for it is a real Republic (where the right to vote must be earned, and earned hard) — or a Corporate State, where votes are weighted proportionally to taxes paid. But this won’t happen until we [trimmed].
Follow the Money says:
“Obama told a truth for once?” Yes, and probably for the first time ever.
Now, let’s follow the money: $7 – $8 BILLION wasted every year on ‘climate studies’. Your foaming at the mouth political rant ignores the fact that the Obama Administration is 100% responsible for doubling the nation’s indebtedness. And what did we get for it?? Where are the new roads and bridges? Why has NASA been re-directed to “Muslim Outreach” instead of going to the Moon, Mars, etc.? Why are we in the worst recession since the Great Depression, with no real end in sight, and true U-6 unemployment at a staggering 14%?
The only thing Obama is really good at is blaming others for his own incompetence. But the fact remains that Obama OWNS the ‘fiscal cliff’. He owns it. That whole issue could be resolved in a New York minute… if Obama wanted to put the country on the path to prosperity. But he does not want that, because it would require, among other things, a smaller, less intrusive federal government.
So we go over the fiscal cliff, because that’s what Obama wants.
Follow the Money says:
“…whack job right wingers..”
You mean those people that want the federal government to uphold the Constitution, equality under the law, and a reduction of federal spending and national debt?
Those people that don’t want to follow Obama’s great ‘green economy’ example, Spain, where the official unemployment rate has now reached 25pc?
Yeah, they sound like real wack jobs…….
Obama’s focus on climate change is a strategic move to grab more taxpayer money to create and fund a multitude of new “climate change” programs, including relentless propaganda aimed at children. The only way for conservatives to fight back is in the Red States. The rejection of Obamacare health care exchanges by Red States is a welcome example. But the institutions of society – the government, education, and media – have been taken over by the hard left. Conservatives cannot fight back without at least some control of these institutions. For conservatives to have a chance, Red States must enact laws that make it illegal to discriminate against conservatives in hiring and promotions. Individuals must be given the right to sue for actual and punitive damages. This would immediately open up educational and governmental institutions to conservatives, who are not all but extinct in these institutions.
Follow the Money says:
December 26, 2012 at 7:32 pm
“The fiscal “cliff”, is not a cliff, it is a helpful ascent. The “cliff” is the fall for Bushonomics and crank stuff that Ayn Randists spout, ”
Great, Follow The Money, after your “helpful ascent” you can then find ways of getting the remaining 950 bn a year the USA will need to continue to pay their bureaucrats without inflating the money supply and without cutting spending. Good luck with that one. Don’t forget to blame “wacko right wingers” for all your decisions.
E.M.Smith says:
December 26, 2012 at 1:41 pm
“So now I’m getting much more quality in the loaf, and at a far lower price. AND without the burden of taxes, government transfer payments, nor “Bakers Union” retirement costs built in to every loaf…. ”
Just wait for the flour tax hikes.
Other Andy writes:
“You mean those people that want the federal government to uphold the Constitution, equality under the law, and a reduction of federal spending and national debt?”
No. Those would be more popularly collectively named “tea partiers.” You know, the people who kind of talk like Obama did on deficits, but before he became president. It’s certainly not the National Republican Party. When has a Republican ever advocated reducing the national debt? Since Reagan, they have created a belief system that more debt caused by less revenues or more spending is actually beneficial. They are tax rate Keynesians! Anyhow, Boehner is advocating taking more money from programs he cannot control and have been generally fiscally solid for years, the “entitlements”, and using even more of it to prop up the profligate “discretionary” spending he can regularly manage and move around. [snip]
E.M.Smith says:
December 26, 2012 at 1:41 pm
————————————————————-
If anyone missed this excellent comment due to its length, please consider reading it. Mr Smith, not a neurotypical, is an engaging and entertaining thinker, so I happily recommend his post and checking into his blog.
@Follow the Money
Anybody who declares that he can slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet is delusional. And anybody who takes somebody likes him serious isn’t much better.
Follow the Money says:
December 26, 2012 at 7:32 pm
=========================================
Republicans did not create the fiscal cliff. They were however dumb, and agreed to this democratic idea. Obama will fund any program he chooses, regardless of the cliff. And I agree, some things about the cliff are actually necessary, but useless without reducing government and red tape, and promoting an effective cheap energy policy.
Moderator: what you “trimmed” from my post was, actually, a paraphrase based on the famous quote from Pushkin, the most famous Russian classic poet. Congratulations! You have shown an unbelievable vigilance! What a prudence! What a sagacity! The depths of history, culture, and tradition should be thoroughly cleansed of all suspicious sedition!
[Live with it. Perhaps it shows the remarkablly poor taste of “classic” Russian poets, or the better taste of this web site. Mod]
Oh, my!
The empty suit in the White House is at it again!
Seriously, Obama NEVER lets an opportunity go unused to do the wrong thing in the worst-possible moment.
So far, this man always succeeded in disappointing me – to an extend that I won’t give a Nickel for the survival of the USA as we knew her, anymore.
I WANT MY AMERICAN DREAM BACK, MR. PRESIDENT! I WANT AMERICA STRONG AND JUST AND PROSPERING! I WANT AMERICA TO BECOME THE LIGHTHOUSE OF CIVILIZATION IT ONCE WAS AGAIN – I.E. BEFORE YOU AND YOUR POLITICAL ILK SOLD HER SOUL TO THE BEST BIDDER FOR 30 SILVER-SHEKELS!
Miffed to the brim,
Michael / Mogamboguru from Germany
Perhaps it shows the remarkablly poor taste of “classic” Russian poets, or the better taste of this web site.
A truly remarkable statement. I didn’t think such a hubris was possible.
And what about putting “classic” in quotes? You have any doubts about the classic status of Alexander Pushkin, perhaps? Do you know, at all, what you are talking about?
Next time, don’t let your irritation cloud your judgement.
DIRK H, Dec 26 1204. You used the expresion “Teachers and firefighters. ” In the UK, it’s “schools and hospitals.” SAme thing. It’s used to justify spending by governments, or, by unions, to fight (so-called) cuts. I have not endeared myself to colleagues in the civil service by pointing out that we all, in the civil service, should pay more for our index-linked pensions.
As other contributers have said – it’s all about control. George Orwell was a very prophetic write – albeit a socialist
Alexander Feht says:
December 26, 2012 at 11:58 pm
“Next time, don’t let your irritation cloud your judgement.”
Alexander, be nice to the mods. These days blogs get thousands of spam mails, all made up to look similar to human writing. The mods have the thankless task of separating that rubbish from the real comments, and then they have to make sure it doesn’t get too rude here.
You might show a little understanding for the fact that they can’t scan the internet for every culturally important insult, next time, just add, “or in the words of Pushkin” or whatever to give them a clue, wouldn’t that be making it simpler for everyone around?
Good to see the fear of climate change finding a home in a purely political department since it is designed by polticial activism for politicians.
Really having a hard time following your train of thought, but I think it may have jumped the tracks awhile back anyway.
I don’t think that’s a Republican idea, although the national party apparatus does appear to be Keynesian in it’s approach. You’ve missed the fact that Republican initiated tax ratecuts have brought more money into the Treasury.
The entitlement programs are broke. They’ve been living on borrowed time for decades and have not been fiscally solid since inception. Past Congresses and Administrations have kicked the can down the road and only the Republicans have offered any plans to deal with the issue.
The silk underwear Republican establishment needs to find someone good who doesn’t appear to belong to that. They’ve put people up there who’s statements were that they “didn’t really want to run, but…!
So I ask you, how in the world do you turn out the vote doing that?
Once again, spent LOTS of their hard-earned money and endless time backing another Republican nominee who had no prayer of connecting with the average voter.
It probably won’t get better for conservatives until the establishment is replaced or broken away from, as history has shown, as when the Republican party was formed. Could try infiltration…
Good comments. I didn’t see anything about the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was going to be amended (requires yearly amendment to correct for inflation) when the whole budget problem (which seems to only involve raising the national debt and giving Obama money to pay off his cronies) was resolved before the end of the year. But I would suggest that anyone that pays American taxes look up the Alternative Minimum Tax, because it is going to bite the middle-class in a big way. All the withholding during 2012 was premised on the notion that the AMT would be amended before the end of the year, so nobody has had enough money withheld to cover the taxes they will owe. Welcome to 1984, everyone.
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Tom Davidson says:
December 26, 2012 at 9:46 am
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/06/20/obama-bowed-eight-times-president/
we can expect a foreign/climate policy based on negotiations from a prone position – a position prone to concede.
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Yup. Obumbo’s belt-holes are getting worn out….
Obama threw $90 billion down the toilet on “green” energy initiatives.
The US GOVT is spending $10 Billion/day, of which $4 billion/day is borrowed. The FED announced last week that they’ll be printing $85 BILLION PER MONTH!,(QEternity) primarily to buy mortgage backed securities to inflate a burst housing bubble, even with 1 in 7 homes vacant and about 30% of mortgages underwater…
The dollar is getting creamed against almost all major currencies, the annual trade deficit is about $500 BILLION/yr, exports are tanking, U6 unemployment rate is around 14%, interest rates are near ZERO so savings are in the gutter, our annual budget deficit is around $1.7 TRILLION/yr, but not to worry…OBAMA wants to increase taxes on job creators making over $1 million/yr, which is estimated to bring in an additional $70 billion/yr, in tax revenues, which is enough to run the government for a whole week…Ummm…what about the remaining $1.63 TRILLION/yr annual budget deficit??
Just to make things mo’ bedda, BHO also wants to double down on green energy and waste even more money the US doesn’t have and can’t afford…
Buy gold mining stocks with high dividends, folks…
This fiscal, economic, “green”, and monetary insanity cannot last much longer. As with past crashes, the DOW Jones index will come close to parity with the gold price in the not too distant future….
There is no practical reason this tax hasn’t been revised to automatically index it for inflation, only political reasons. (Keep in mind, the official inflation index isn’t all what it should be, either.)
Why don’t we eliminate the ATM as part of a reform deal? Better yet, implement a flat tax or the “Fair Tax.” A flat tax could be “semi-flat” — that is tiered (progressive), but with only a few or no deductions. Alas, either a flat tax or the “Fair Tax” will require a Constitutional Amendment to make them work.
Apropos:
It’s as if the past four years (since Climategate) never happened. Will anyone in Washington, besides Senator Inhofe, set him straight? Or, for that matter, The Puppet President and his forthcoming Secretary of State?
These are people who never saw a tax they didn’t like. “Hoo boy! Carbon tax! That’ll show ’em!”
Guess I’ll post the news in Tips and Notes, too.
/Mr Lynn
See the snow outside your window Obama?…I recall the odious Gore predicting no more of the white stuff…he and his mate Hansen screwed Mr President. The IPCC “scientists” can’t even word the next report and there is more ice in Antartica than ever recorded. Ever heard of the word “reality”?
E.M.Smith is bioengineering with yeast?
This is a completely unacceptable risk to public health. Something needs to be done, for the children, don’t you know.
We’ll soon see legislation making it a felony to use, transport, or possess any hazardous material such as yeast without proper training, certification, registration and a federal license.
How to be a dictator (Guess which country…)
1. Make guns illegal and the innocent unable to defend themselves against armed criminals or government thugs.
2. Subjugate government to your will by stuffing the place with thieving, lying, criminal non-entities who will vote for anything the whip tells ‘em to.
3. Remove the right to silence on arrest.
4. Make citizens prove they own stuff legally and thereby reverse the relationship between citizen and state where it is supposed to be accountable to you.
5. Restrict the right to trial by jury because some laws are just to complex for the proles to get but ignore the irony that if people can’t understand a law to judge it, how could they realistically obey it.
6. Make citizens seek your consent, before they protest against you. Have the implicit idea implanted in their heads that you have the right to say no.
7. Increase the amount of time you can detain anyone without trial or charge.
8. Make some courts entirely secret, make reporting of proceedings a crime.
9. Ensure a supranational body like the EU, that you can neither elect nor dismiss has power to pass laws on a wide range of issues in your country
10. Remove the rules on double jeopardy, so the state can keep prosecuting citizens, for the same alleged crime, until they get the result, they want
11. Pass laws making certain views illegal, like hate-crimes and arrest people for holding views you don’t like from the political to the trivial…
[See the rest here.]