There are those who say the economy is starting to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and they take heart even from the miserable state of the American job market.
To this way of thinking, things are getting brighter because the country is losing fewer jobs every month than were lost at the peak of the bloodbath. Which is like telling a terminal patient that things are looking up because he's dying a little slower.
The concept is meaningless garbage and will remain so until unemployment and underemployment recede from astronomical levels. At 10.2%, the jobless rate is higher than it has been in more than a quarter-century, and at 17.5%, the rate of people who are working below their capacity is at a record high.
That is the kind of statistical carnage inflicted by the loss of 7.3 million jobs, and counting, in just less than two years.
Virtually every industry - manufacturing, retail, financial - is feeling severe pain.
The scope is astonishing. As but one telling measure, the Obama administration projects, in a best-case scenario, that the government's $787 billion stimulus package saved or created 640,000 jobs, a number that is less than one-tenth of the positions that have evaporated.
True recovery is going to be dreadfully slow, with the government hard pressed to do extensive additional stimulating, given the oceans of red ink that are already swamping Washington.
As long as jobs are hard to come by, if not nonexistent, working- and middle-class America will suffer from downward pressure on wages.
And as long as there is downward pressure on wages, the engine of consumer spending will remain stalled.
And as long as consumption stays tanked, the economy will continue to decline.
As the old saying goes, hope for the best but plan for the worst.
Grasp not for straws of hope, because the real danger that Washington must confront is that down and down we go.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#6
The most frightening thing about the numbers is that almost no jobs are being created. Normally jobs are both being created and disappearing. for example during the 1982 recession, alot of (factory) jobs were lost, but alot of new jobs were being created as well.
Now if you lose your job, you're going to find it real hard to find ANY job at all.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/09/2009 15:17 Comments ||
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#9
Nor just corporations, but small business and individuals too. Next year taxes will go up by 1/3 for small businesses due to expiration of the Bush tax cuts and national health insurance mandates. That means a lot fewer employees. The Bush tax cuts also expire for individuals and new taxes are placed on the $250K (yeah right) "rich".
So I'm buying little but the essentials, minimizing tax exposure and can outlast this cabal of Marxists who have managed to hoodwink the nation into power.
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2009 19:35 Comments ||
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#10
The most frightening thing about the numbers is that almost no jobs are being created
This administration and Congress are the most hostile to small business - the engine of job creation - that I've seen in 27 years in the workforce.
I have experience in startups and rapidly growing smaller businesses. No way would I consider starting or expanding a company right now.
#11
Right now LOTP if you owned a small or medium business you could not expand even if you wanted. The banks that normally lend operating capitol have restructured their models and there is now NO money for small or mid sized business. You observation is also correct that small and mid businesses are the engine that drives growth. As of yet with all the billions of bailout dollars there was not one red cent pushed to small businesses. The money was given to folks like goldman sachs and they took the interest free money and invested ALL OF IT into treasury bills that payed 3%, They then leveraged it 15 times and howdy doody they have their best year in history netting a 45% margin for the year. All at our taxpayer expence!
Until the flow of operating cash loans get to small and mid sized businesses we will continue to slide as a nation....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/09/2009 21:37 Comments ||
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#12
I can create a job. Changineering. There are currently 5 million available positions - they just have to be defined, interviewed for, and payscale set.
Saving jobs is rather abstract isn't it? I mean, I don't save a utility payment by using a credit card to pay my electricity.
Jobs are made. They are the end result of the implimentation idea, organization, accurate bean counting, and demand for said good or service expected to be greater than the working ability of people currently engaged is idea. Overtax businesses, overtax successful people, and government meddling are a sure way to stifle innovation or even bread and butter business.
The fat man sitting in the cave didn't invent the wheel, the guy hauling the firewood did.
#13
Yup, and the small-medium banks who do run a good ship and can loan to business have to pony up for the FDIC, eliminating what free capital there was left.
Every time someone gets taxed, for anything, gum or gas, it is less money available to purchase what I do - every tax paid during payroll is less money that person can spend in the community. Want to redestribute the wealth, for real? Cut taxes, let people keep their money. Stop rewarding failure and punishing success. We will find that by rewarding success people will want to be..duh duh dunnn..successful.
President Obama says his health-care overhaul -- which squeaked through the House last night -- won't hurt a bit, but taxpayers are going to feel it in their wallet.
The $1.2 trillion plan, which passed by a razor-thin 220 to 215, imposes new tax surcharges on Americans who fail to buy insurance as well as businesses that don't provide coverage to their employees.
One Republican joined 219 Democrats in voting for the measure in the super-tight vote -- just barely more than the 218 members required to pass it.
The legislation, which features a government-run insurance option for people who don't get insurance through work, expands coverage to almost all people under the age of 65 and bans insurance companies from dropping customers because of a pre-existing condition.
Democrats cleared a major hurdle to passing the legislation Friday night when they conceded to the demands of pro-choice members to add a provision to the bill banning federal funding for abortions.
Obama, who has made the bill one of the centerpieces of his presidency, lauded the landmark achievement, which has eluded Democratic administrations since Harry Truman.
"In an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people," he said in a statement.
But before the bill can become law, the Senate has to pass its version and the full Congress has to vote on a compromise.
The House chamber looked more like a college basketball arena than government building around 11 p.m., with Democrats exploding into a raucous cheer when they reached the 218 yea votes needed for passage. They then counted down the final 10 seconds of voting in unison like it was New Year's Eve.
But the Republicans had their fun as well -- waving a mocking goodbye to their counterparts and chanting "Na na na, hey hey, goodbye" -- suggesting the legislation would lead to electoral defeat.
Earlier, the House defeated the GOP's health-reform proposal along mostly party lines.
While 39 Democrats broke party ranks to oppose their party's bill, they managed to snag the last-minute support of Rep. Joseph Cao from Louisiana -- the sole Republican to back the legislation.
Three New York Dems opposed the bill -- Michael McMahon of Staten Island, Eric Massa, whose district includes Rochester, and Scott Murphy, who represents Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's former seat in the Hudson Valley region.
A jubilant Speaker Nancy Pelosi compared the legislation to other historic Democratic programs from the past like Social Security and Medicare. "What a night," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
How they can't see this will strangle job recovery baffles me.
Oh...right, they can see and don't care because this is about control over the great unwashed.
#5
500 billion in new taxes aimed at individuals and small businesses.
Say goodbye to jobs, this bill kills small businesses and entrepreneurs. The jobs will go to India and overseas or else off the books to illegals.
You like your insurance now? Say goodbye to it. Preexisting conditions are no longer exclude, so insurance companies will go belly up or else jack rates way up. And if you cannot afford it you will be forced onto the government plan. As for what's left of private insurance, it must meet Pelosi's arbitrary and broad standards or else its not allowed to be bought or sold. Want to opt out? You cannot. You pay a tariff collected by the IRS, and might even become a felon pay a 250000 fine go to jail for up to 5 years.
Like your doctor? Say goodbye to him or her, especially if he is pro-life. The government will force them to provide services against their conscience and many will simply quit practicing medicine.
More than 600 Catholic Hospitals that serve the poorest citizens will be forced to close due to their refusal to provide abortion, sterilization and birth control services.
Like being able to choose your treatment? Say bye to that as the Medical Effectiveness Boards, AKA Death Panels, will rule on who gets which treatments. And unlike an insurance company, you will not be able to sue them nor will you be able to avoid them, their word will be law.
Like the high tech medical devices that make life possible even with illness or disability? Say goodbye to them as 40 billion in new taxes and tons of new regulations strangle research in its cradle, and price the devices out of affordability.
Glad you can take a pill and treat so many different conditions? Say goodbye to that too, because pharmaceutical R&D is going to be crippled by higher taxes and increased regulations as well as confiscatory laws that steal from the inventors and give to the government.
There are over 111 new government bureaucracies added to the already bloated HHS will control health insurance, health care and the IRS becomes the enforcement arm. THey will eat away at the money in the system, instead of it going to patient care.
Does your state have limits on pain and suffering awards in medical malpractice? Say goodbye to those too. Pelosi wrote the abolishing of limits on awards into the laws for her masters in the Injury Lawyers lobby.
This is a disaster. America has gone stupid.
Posted by: Large Ebbaiting1188 ||
11/09/2009 11:22 Comments ||
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#6
If I understand correctly, the Federal government cannot be sued without its consent. If so, then the Democrat trial lawyer allies would probably prefer the Pelosi plan which forces insurance companies to be the fall guys for the results of de facto rationing over a true single payer system.
#8
This obscenity of governmental over-reach beyond the bounds of our Constitition MUST be stopped. This will truly destroy our nation, and I fear for our Union if something like this passes.
Once a year, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao gives the Washington establishment a little jolt.
In December 2008, the nationally unknown Vietnamese community activist captured a seat for Republicans in majority-black New Orleans, becoming an instant -- albeit short-lived -- celebrity for the GOP.
On Saturday night, he handed Democrats their only Republican vote on the centerpiece of their domestic agenda, a massive overhaul of the nation's health care system that promises to enhance coverage for tens of millions of Americans and thousands of Cao's constituents. Now he's a bit of a cult hero on the left -- a profile in courage, Democrats say -- and television bookers were scrambling to find cell phone numbers for his aides Sunday.
Republicans and Democrats who have worked closely with Cao in Louisiana and Washington say they weren't a bit surprised -- even if much of the political world did a double take -- when Cao registered a green light on the scoreboard in the House chamber.
"I think he works hard. I think he studies things, and I think he tries to do the right thing," said an administration official who has worked with Cao. "People in the administration reach out to him a lot because he's willing to talk about things nondogmatically."
He also represents a Democratic-majority district ...
Of course, Cao and the Obama administration have a major shared interest in the rebuilding of New Orleans, which puts him in regular contact with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Education.
On health care, Cao met with the White House point person, Nancy-Ann DeParle, in his office and spoke to her repeatedly by phone during the past couple of months, according to an aide. President Barack Obama called him Saturday, giving Cao an opportunity to press the president to help with hospital development and forgiveness for disaster loans in New Orleans.
All along, Cao was looking for reasons to support the bill, according to spokeswoman Princella Smith. But there was one seemingly insurmountable obstacle among a series of reservations: The former Jesuit seminarian was dead-set against voting for it if it expanded abortion rights in a new health care exchange.
He met with members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and called Democrats to help secure their votes for the Stupak-Pitts amendment sharply limiting the use of federal dollars for subsidizing abortions, according to Smith.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The guy's district is 75% Democrat. He only got the seat because his opponent, "Dollar" Bill Jefferson was waiting trial on corruption charges. He won't be reelected next year.
But he deserves respect. Just as Blue Dogs went against their party and voted the wishes of their constituents, so did Cao vote the wishes of his. He was elected to represent his district, not the Republican party.
I don't! Respect his vote that is. I don't respect his constituents either. They are the entitlement parasites. Cao's responsibility is to the Constitution first, says so in his oath of office.
#3
Abortion was a moral line he would not cross, but beyond that Cao would vote the overwhelming wishes of his constituency. They are entitlement parasites, but that has not been found un-Constitutional. Nor has this bill. Nor, most likely, will it (SCOTUS finds almost all expansion of government power just fine these days.) He won't be re-elected no matter what he does and he knows it. I don't much like him, but think he made a reasonable choice here, all things considered.
#4
Don Vito is wrong. His constitutional duty is to represent his constituents. That's why it is called the 'House of Represenatives'. And if you remember your history, there was a little war over taxation without representation. Towards the end of the last election, before Obama won the nomination, I was thinking (hoping) the Democrats would fracture. Now I think it is the Republicans who will fracture. I'm waiting for the party that will exercise fiscal conservativism, look for limited government and not be beholden to the idiots of the religious "right". The religious right are more concerned with creationism and gay marriage than they are reigning the out of control spending.
#7
Now I think it is the Republicans who will fracture. I'm waiting for the party that will exercise fiscal conservativism, look for limited government and not be beholden to the idiots of the religious "right". The religious right are more concerned with creationism and gay marriage than they are reigning the out of control spending.
Have fun losing the election after you've chased everyone who doesn't buy the modern secularist bullcrap out of the republican party.
#8
The anti abortion amendment to the bill was pogey bait to help get the bill passed. For the dems it was like fishing for bullheads.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/09/2009 12:44 Comments ||
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#9
@Cheang Peacock3599: Actually, it is you that is wrong. Yes, I know, it is called the House of Representatives and their duty is to represent their constituents within the bounds of The Constitution. One of their responsibilities is to educate their constituents that there are some things they cannot have, and should not expect. Being a Rep. does not mean playing Santa Clause and handing out goodies, it means making sure the government doesn't enslave them.
Well, we see how that has gone. Don't we? If Rep's. & Senators adhere to their Oath of Office, faithfully, we would not be where we are now. I have included the Oath for your education. The Constitution takes primacy over all else, it IS the document that legitimizes the existence of our nation. Oh, by the way, hope is not a plan.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
They are entitlement parasites, but that has not been found un-Constitutional. Nor has this bill. Nor, most likely, will it (SCOTUS finds almost all expansion of government power just fine these days.) He won't be re-elected no matter what he does and he knows it. I don't much like him, but think he made a reasonable choice here, all things considered.
Glenmore, I respectfully disagree. There is nothing in the Constitution that says the State is required to support a welfare class in perpetuity. That SCOTUS has strayed from their duties, and overreached tragically, many times does not make this bill or other bills resulting from overreach unconstitutional. JMHO.
#10
That SCOTUS has strayed from their duties, and overreached tragically, many times does not make this bill or other bills resulting from overreach unconstitutional. JMHO.
Should have said:
That SCOTUS has strayed from their duties, and overreached tragically, many times, does not make this bill or other bills resulting from overreach constitutional. JMHO.
Sen. Joe Lieberman distinguishes himself from the maddening mush emanating from elected leaders and the chattering class on the Foot Hood massacre. He states what should be, and I think is to ordinary Americans, obvious: this from all appearances is "the worst terrorist attack since 9/11." Based on what we know, Lieberman says that Hasan seems to be a "self-radicalized, homegrown terrorist." Shocking, I know, to tie the murderer's own words, actions, and behavior to the heinous slaughter of our troops, but there's precious little of that going on so far. Lieberman therefore proposes a full-blown investigation, citing plenty of evidence that Hasan "turned to Islamist extremism":
"If that is true, then this was a terrorist act," Lieberman said.
"This is not the first attempt by Islamist extremists to go after U.S. military bases," the senator added, noting foiled plots to attack Fort Dix and Quantico and the shooting death of an Army recruiter in Little Rock, Ark., by a Muslim convert this summer.
There are indications that Hasan supported that act, Lieberman said.
The Homeland Security chairman also urged the Department of Defense to launch an independent investigation "to see if warning signs were missed."
The military, said Lieberman, needs to have "zero tolerance" for those expressing extremist views. "He should have been gone," the senator said.
The administration and elite opinion makers squirm when they hear such talk. Perhaps it was "stress." Maybe he's just a nonideological nut. The obtuseness in a post-9/11 world is mind-boggling.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2009 00:00 ||
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You are not allowed any mistakes in Combat. You make that one single mistake...going through the opening in the hedge...using the footbridge instead of crossing at another point...only sending one man to guard the footpath on the right.
Little things....and you die or someone gets killed.
Little things like hearing a threat and letting it pass. Tolerating that individual because its PC. Letting them into your house. Letting them stay in your society.
The men at Fort Hood died because we are a tolerant people...we were warned...our leadership is betraying us to death. Our enemies are plain to see. Their intentions are clear.
Stay alive. And maybe the Officers are not your friends and maybe they dont give a sh8t what happens to you. Obama isnt an accident, he was planned at your expense. Ft. Hood should teach you who your friends really are. And who your friends are not.
Pick your friends, and maybe it would be wise to stay away from Democrats ( YEAH?) if for no other reason but that Obama chews gum and wants to shake your hand. Stay alive.
And give something back the Islam so they get the message about all their peace and love.
An amendment proposed by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), approved 240 to 194, prohibits coverage of abortions in a new government-run health insurance plan. Reporting from Washington - In a last-minute compromise seeking to secure a majority vote for a healthcare overhaul, House Democratic leaders agreed Saturday to essentially exclude abortion coverage from their bill except for insurance policies paid exclusively with private money.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
House Democratic leaders agreed Saturday to essentially exclude abortion coverage from their bill except for insurance policies paid exclusively with private money.
I'm not sure what private money has to do with this. I don't think it is wise for insurance companies to be covering abortions unless medically necessary.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Sen. Joe Lieberman distinguishes himself from the maddening mush emanating from elected leaders and the chattering class on the Foot Hood massacre. He states what should be, and I think is to ordinary Americans, obvious: this from all appearances is "the worst terrorist attack since 9/11." Based on what we know, Lieberman says that Hasan seems to be a "self-radicalized, homegrown terrorist." Shocking, I know, to tie the murderer's own words, actions, and behavior to the heinous slaughter of our troops, but there's precious little of that going on so far. Lieberman therefore proposes a full-blown investigation, citing plenty of evidence that Hasan "turned to Islamist extremism":
An amendment proposed by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), approved 240 to 194, prohibits coverage of abortions in a new government-run health insurance plan. Reporting from Washington - In a last-minute compromise seeking to secure a majority vote for a healthcare overhaul, House Democratic leaders agreed Saturday to essentially exclude abortion coverage from their bill except for insurance policies paid exclusively with private money.
