Reaches $82.7 Billion
More than 4x April 2009
.
More than 4x April 2009
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Deficit Comes In Just Below CBO Estimate; Economists' Predictions Were Way Low. Why?
Subject: txt pubmny - msm -
On Friday, the CBO estimated that the April's deficit would be $85 billion.
The press virtually ignored its report.
That's bad enough, but when reporters went out to economists for deficit estimates, their predictions were significantly lower.
For starters, here's what the Associated Press carried this morning:
The AP's $30 billion consensus sharply differed CBO's estimate, yet the rest of the AP's report failed to even acknowledge the existence of the variance, or for that matter of the CBO.
Other news sources also came in with lower April deficit estimates..
All I'll say is that it's mighty, mighty convenient that the early morning drive-time, get-ready-for-work reports based on the AP item above told radio and TV audiences that the year-to-date deficit would come in "about 7% lower than a year ago."
The fact is that after considering the $115 billion non-cash item noted in the last paragraph of the AP excerpt above, the true cash spending deficit is about $915 billion, or 14% higher than last year's year-to-date figure.
All of this is likely to get ignored in the rush of other afternoon and evening news, leaving many listeners and viewers believing that the government's financial situation is improving. It isn't.
Again, how convenient.
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Tax Rate On Dividends Set To Surge 164% After 2010
Subject: txt pubmny bdd -
With tax rates on track to surge next year, it may be time to cash out of dividend-paying stocks [which are investments, financing someone's activity], reminds accountant Joe Kristan over at Going Concern.
The increase in the dividend rate is a consequence of the scheduled expiration of the 2001 Bush tax cuts after this year. Prior to the Bush administration, dividends were taxed as ordinary income. As dividends are distributions of corporate income already taxed at a corporate rate as high as 35%, that meant a combined rate of 57.75%.
Keep in mind that in 2013, ObamaCare will slap a 3.8% Medicare tax on investment income on wealthy Americans. So federal dividend tax rates could soar as much as 189% in the near future...
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Democrats Reject 5% Down Payment Rule
Subject: txt pubmny primny crpt libs -
The Senate today rejected a proposal by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to impose a minimum 5% down payment for virtually all home mortgages. The amendment to the broader financial regulatory overhaul bill, which failed 42-57, would have required income verification and an assessment of borrowers’ ability to repay as well. Corker’s proposal also would have stripped out a provision that required financial firms securitizing loans to keep a 5% portfolio risk.
[I.e., no change, nothing's fixed.]
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States: Let taxpayers cover your mortgage
Subject: txt cali sclm pubmny - 
Unemployed? Owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth? Your state might one day pay your mortgage. Giving people free money to cover their home loans is just one of the radical ways that four states -- Florida, Michigan, California and Arizona -- plan to use $1.4 billion the Obama administration is sending their way to help the unemployed and underwater avoid foreclosure.
But other housing experts warn that paying off loans creates a moral hazard and could actually dissuade people from looking for work...
[Moral? What's that word mean?]
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Who Will Bail Out America?
Subject: txt pubmny sclm -
Social Security, Medicare and the retirement of the baby boom generation wasn't enough of a burden for the American taxpayer.
We will now be paying as well for the generous pensions of Greek bureaucrats retiring in the warm Mediterranean sun at age 55, thanks to the foresighted leadership of our very own international statesman, Barack Obama...
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40% Say Being a Good Citizen is, isn't Different From Being a Patriot
Subject: txt 1st poll gdd vals -
Forty-percent (40%) of voters nationwide say that being a good citizen and being a patriot are the same thing. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that another 40% disagree. and 19% are not sure. Most Republicans say they’re the one and the same. Most Democrats say they’re not, and voters not affiliated with either party are split down the middle. Voters over 50 tend to see the terms as having the same meaning, while those under 40 disagree. Forty-somethings are evenly divided.
[Never seen a poll split so evenly.]
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So Much For ObamaCare's Savings
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Health Care: The Democrats' reform is barely out of the gate and the Congressional Budget Office already says its previous cost estimate was too low. Either the bill's supporters lied or they're profoundly ignorant. Either way, they are not fit to serve the country, much less rule it, which many of them seem to believe is their divine right.
As noted on these pages and elsewhere, government programs always cost far more than their original projections. Medicare has cost more than 10 times as much as initially estimated...
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Obama administration begins legal defense of health care law
Subject: txt lbrty hcare lgl -
The Obama administration has launched its first legal defense of the new health care law, insisting the federal government has the power to force citizens to have health insurance.
Several state governments have joined a lawsuit filed in Florida that makes similar claims - that Congress lacks the authority to mandate individuals to participate in an insurance plan. Many states have also challenged the federal requirement for states to extend coverage to more low-income residents without funding the additional cost.
The case names President Barack Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder as defendants.
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State AGs lawsuit could end up ‘eviscerating’ Obamacare
Subject: txt hcare lgl -
Over at Cato’s excellent blog, Michael Cannon flags this New York Times article noting that notable liberal legal scholars think the lawsuit being brought against the individual mandate in health care reform by 20 state attorney general is persuasive: Some legal scholars, including some who normally lean to the left, believe the states have identified the law’s weak spot and devised a credible theory for eviscerating it…
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Why Repeal Can Really Happen
Subject: txt hcare -
In the first five weeks after ObamaCare's passage, Americans favored repeal by a whopping 16 points (56 to 40 percent), according to Rasmussen's poll of likely voters. Now, in the wake of developments such as the news that ObamaCare has actually prompted major corporations to discuss the possibility of dropping their employer-sponsored health plans, that number has risen to 19 points (56 to 37) -- and to 28 points among independents (60 to 32 percent). Independents actually favor repeal by more than Democrats oppose it (34 percent of Democrats support repeal, while 58 percent oppose it).
Nineteen points is bigger than the margin by which anybody has won a U.S. presidential election since Nixon routed McGovern (by 23 points) in 1972. Twenty-eight points is bigger than the popular margin by which anybody has won a presidential election in our entire history.
To say that the full repeal of ObamaCare is realistic is merely to state the obvious. To say the opposite is to deny that the voters are the ultimate source of power in America.
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We're Speechless
Subject: txt lbryt lgl bdd -
Supreme Court: Elena Kagan's thin paper trail was supposed to be an asset. But the confirmation of Obama's nominee may focus on one position it's clear she holds: that banning political speech can be constitutional.
'The government's answer has changed."
That was how Solicitor General Kagan began her frantic damage control during a second round of oral arguments last September in the Citizens United case, which Kagan and the U.S. government ultimately lost and the First Amendment won...[Excuse me, but if the Constitution hasn't been legally amended, how can the 'government's answer', legally bound by its tenants, change? A: Another activist judicial nominee.]
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Reagan-Hating Kagan
Subject: txt lgl -
It’s more than a little tiresome to contemplate that every current liberal Supreme Court justice was touted by the national media as a moderate or even a conservative when they were originally announced, from John Paul Stevens to Sonia Sotomayor. Dan Rather even claimed the last retiree, David Souter, was dangerously “anti-women’s rights” when he was nominated in 1990.
So it was less than shocking that the latest liberal nominee, Elena Kagan, drew the same phony “moderate” baloney.
ABC anchor Diane Sawyer greeted the nomination with goo:
“She is expected to play a role as somewhat of a conciliator, the bridge across the conservative and liberal wings of the Court. In fact, she loves opera, which Justice Scalia loves.”
What more evidence of her judicial philosophy do we need?
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NPR: No Label for Kagan, But Roberts 'Very, Very, Very Conservative'
Subject: txt lgl msm -
NPR reporter Nina Totenberg found Judge John Roberts carried conservatism to wretched excess. On NPR's All Things Considered back in 2005, she prefaced “conservative” with three verys, describing him as “a very, very, very conservative man.”
But Totenberg matched other media liberals in finding no measurable ideology in Elena Kagan when her nomination was announced. 
Within minutes (for the West Coast stations still in Morning Edition time), Totenberg could only exclaim Kagan was "was a star student at Princeton, at Oxford, at Harvard Law School -- then clerked for the man she calls her mentor, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who used to refer to her as Shorty."
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Obama: Withdrawal from Afghanistan on track
Subject: txt gwot -
President Barack Obama says the U.S. is still on track to begin bringing troops home from Afghanistan in July of next year. Obama says there have been steady signs of progress since he increased the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan late last year. But he said progress takes time and cautioned that the U.S. must commit to a long-term partnership with Afghanistan. Speaking during a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama said he is in constant discussions with his commanders in Afghanistan about how to execute the troop withdrawal....
[14 months is virtually overnight to those that have been victimized for 30 years. Every time this idiot speaks of our intended withdrawal date we lose more Afghan locals who realize they can't help us because when we leave the Taliban will still be there - and remember...
Evidently the man just doesn't care.]
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Muhammad cartoonist defiant after attack - but school folds
Subject: txt islm edu - lbrty -
A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims said Wednesday he hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free speech that was interrupted by violent protests.
But officials at Uppsala University said they doubted they would invite Lars Vilks again after police used pepper spray and batons to help him escape a furious crowd Tuesday... [snip]
''What you get is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university,''
Vilks told The Associated Press, adding he was ready to repeat the lecture if re-invited...
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Middle classes pay price of Cameron's deal with Clegg in triple tax bombshell: NI hike to go ahead, NO inheritance tax cut and hike in Capital Gains
Subject: txt sclm libs pubmny - intl -
Millions of workers will pay the full National Insurance increase in one of the many concessions made by David Cameron to secure a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, it was revealed today...
[Shocker: across the board tax increased from the liberal democrats. Who'd of thunk it.]
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Suppress Disagreement by Force
Subject: txt lbrty sclm - bbro -
Addressing the graduates of Hampton University in Virginia, the President of the United States denounced the curse of free flowing information: The ‘24/7 media environment,’ he told the students, ‘bombards us with all kinds of comments and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter.’
Circumventing the courts, the FCC’s latest ploy is to reclassify broadband internet service as a utility, allowing the net to be regulated...
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Spain to slash wages to cut deficit, unions angry
Subject: txt intl pubmny crpt sclm - 
Spain will cut wages of state employees to try and rein in runaway spending, sparking union anger fear could ignite a bigger version of the Greek crisis...
[Europe's failed 'democratic socialism' is imploding before our eyes - while America continues to pursue it?]
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Republicans slam union rule change
Subject: txt crpt pubmny sclm -
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said Monday he wants to stop a federal rule change by the Obama administration that could make it easier for railway and airline employees to form unions. The National Mediation Board issued its final rule Monday that changed how workers could unionize at companies covered by the Railway Labor Act.
Originally, a majority of workers at a company covered by the law had to vote for a union while those not voting were counted as ''no'' votes to mitigate the established intimidation factor of union representatives on such votes.
Under the new rule made final on Monday, all such balancing provisions are removed, and if a majority of union-organized voters vote for union creation it will be considered passed by a majority of employees, regardless of participation levels...
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Another teacher has a problem with a kid and an American flag
Subject: txt bdd vals edu child -
Once again, an innocent American kid has been reprimanded for exhibiting an American flag.
Todd Starnes at Fox News Radio reports: Tracy Hathaway, of Salinas, CA, told FOX News Radio her 13-year-old daughter was ordered to stop drawing the American flag by an art teacher at Gavilan View Middle School.
''She had drawn the flag and was sketching the letters, ‘God bless America,' when the teacher confronted her,'' Hathaway told Fox. "She said, ‘You can't draw that - that's offensive.'
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AFL-CIO goes after charter school supporters
Subject: txt bdd edu crpt lbrty -
The New York State AFL-CIO is targeting two of the Legislature’s staunchest charter school supporters claiming they’re anti-union.
The 2.5 million member union umbrella group blitzed the two senator’s districts today with flyers accusing them of ``siding with big corporations and against teachers and students’’ by voting for a bill last week to expand charter schools ``with no real reform.’’
Both Klein and Johnson have repeatedly said they support charters – publicly funded and privately managed schools that typically have a longer school day and year than traditional public schools -- because they’re pro-kid, and pro-parent.
The Senate passed a measure last week to lift the charter school cap to 460 statewide from 200 over objections of the teachers’ unions and the AFL-CIO. The state Assembly, where the unions have considerable influence, has yet to take up the measure.
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Harry Reid’s “Smaller” Energy Bill Would Come with Big Costs
Subject: txt grn engry action -
Senator’s John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are set to release the Senate version of a cap and trade bill that will call for a 17 percent cut in emissions below 2005 levels by 2020.
But if cap and trade cannot garner enough support, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is prepared with a backup plan. Over the weekend Senator Reid told Spanish television network Univision,
“I can do one this big because I have a couple of Republicans who would help me on that. But the big bill that we need to do, they are not helping us on that, but I can do a smaller energy bill.”
[I.e., subvert the democratic process, again.]
The Hill reports that this could include a number of provisions, above all, a renewable electricity standard.
This may be small in Senator Reid’s eyes, but the cost to American families and American businesses will be enormous according to a new study from The Heritage Foundation.READ MORE
POLL: 55% of Colorado Voters Favor Immigration Law Like Arizona's
Subject: txt immig -
Fifty-five percent (55%) of Colorado voters favor a law like the one just adopted in Arizona that authorizes local police to stop individuals they suspect of being illegal immigrants, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state. Thirty-five percent (35%) oppose such a law.
In Colorado, 79% of Republican voters and 56% of voters not affiliated with either major party favor a law that cracks down on illegal immigration like the one just adopted in Arizona. Fifty-six percent (56%) of Democrats oppose such a law.
Nationally, 59% of voters favor a law like Arizona's, unchanged from a week earlier despite last weekend's protest rallies. Fifty percent (50%) have an unfavorable opinion of the protestors.
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Big Three Nets' Evening News Dives Deepen
The May 3, 2010 combined total audience is less than 2% higher than the 19.06 million of June 15, 2009. The 25-54 demo audience is less than 200,000 above that same week.
Those who properly point out that the audience figures cited here are much larger than seen on cable news networks can take some comfort and solace in the following:
- Just 10 years ago, the nets' evening news audience was about 12 million larger in a country with a population that was about 9% smaller.
- At this point, it's likely that many people who continue to watch these shows, other than the brave souls at the Media Research Center who do it so the rest of us don't have to, are lost causes to conservatism. Otherwise, they couldn't bear sitting through what Brian, Diane, and Katie constantly feed them. The fact that their numbers are shrinking may mean that more people are open to sensible conservative arguments.
- Though it's difficult to gauge, it seems that right and center-right new media outlets are gathering a bit of a head of steam compared to the leftist counterparts.
Anyway, the regularly scheduled summer viewing slump is only a month away. Two words: Faster please.
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Subject: txt msm bias fnn -
Behind That Bogus CNN Ratings Story
I guess it’s all relative. Huffington Post has declared that CNN is back. According to the article: A funny thing happened on cable news last week: CNN — yes, the beleaguered, ratings-starved, down the middle cable news network that just can’t find an audience — scored major ratings victories over... Fox News...
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