From the Associated Press: House Democrats acknowledged they don’t yet have the votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system, and signaled they may push back the vote until Sunday or early next week. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters in a conference call Friday that the make-or-break vote on […]
Economy
Ouch: Unemployment Climbs to 10.2%
Ouch, unemployment climbed to a 26 year high in October as as more than 558,000 Americans lost their jobs in October: In another sign that workers are being left out of the budding economic recovery, the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 10.2% in October, topping the 10% mark for the first time in 26 years. […]
Third Quarter GDP Rises to 3.5%… But…
From Reuters: The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in more than a year as government stimulus helped lift consumer spending and home building, fueling an unexpectedly strong advance. Signaling the end of the worst recession in 70 years, the Commerce Department on Thursday said the economy expanded at an […]
Weekend Briefing – Saturday, October 10, 2009
I’m going to be tied up with family all weekend but here’s a collection of must read links: CBO: Budget deficit hit record $1.4T in 2009 – Associated Press Proposals to create jobs add up to second stimulus – Associated Press A Nobel for Obama – New York Sun Barack Obama’s peace prize starts a […]
Nancy Pelosi: Value-Added Tax is “On the Table”
I’ve mentioned before that the Democrats were laying the groundwork for a European style Value Added Tax or VAT… I wish I could tell you I was wrong but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed that a VAT tax is “on the table” during an appearance on the Charlie Rose show Monday night: A new value-added […]
Sarah Palin: Dollar’s Troubles Show Need for Energy Independence
Two days ago the British newspaper The Independent published a rather dubious report by Robert Fisk claiming that oil-producing Arab states along with China, Russia, Japan and France were conspiring on a plan to dump the dollar for oil trading, a move which would seriously weaken our currency and influence abroad. The Arab states named […]
Unemployment Climbs to 9.8%
If there’s a silver lining in the September Jobs report I can’t find it: U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the weak labor market could undermine economic recovery. The Labor Department said the unemployment rate […]
Train Wreck: CBO Predicts Social Security Cash Deficits in 2010-11
Ed Morrissey has obtained a copy the summer 2009 Congressional Budget Office report on the health of the Social Security “Trust Fund”… The news isn’t good, actually it’s pretty frightening: Four years ago, George W. Bush attempted to reform the entitlement program Social Security, warning that the system was accelerating into collapse and would soon […]
WSJ: Connecticut Follows Trenton and Albany up the Tax Charts
The Wall Street Journal takes Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell to task for her proposal to raise income taxes on individuals with incomes above $500,000 from 5% to 6.5% this morning… The editorial titled “Jodi Corzine” pulls no punches: Connecticut grabs $7,007 in state and local taxes per man, woman and child resident, according to the […]
Train Wreck: GDP Decline Twice as Bad as Obama Admnistration Forecast
Ouch, this isn’t good news for President Obama’s agenda… The White House has been using some pretty rosy economic forecasts to sell his agenda. However, those rosy forecasts have finally crashed head-on into economic reality. In short, GDP declined roughly twice as much as they predicted and their out year deficit forecasts will be roughly […]
Cash for Clunkers, a Clunker, Says a Liberal Democrat
Ouch, keep in mind that Congressman blowing the whistle on problems with the supposedly “wildly successful” cash for clunkers isn’t a Republican or even Blue Dog Democrat… He’s a liberal Democrat: The federal government has only reimbursed auto dealers for 2 percent of the claims they’ve submitted through the popular “cash for clunkers” program, a […]
Retail Sales Fall, Jobless Claims and Foreclosures Rise In July
Recovery, what recovery??? There’s no good news in the economic data released today… If President Obama and the Democrats in Congress where hoping improving economic indicators would help rescue their health care reform plans there out of luck. Retail Sales fell 0.1 percent last month, while new jobless claims increased to a seasonally adjusted 558,000, […]
Unemployment Rate Falls to 9.4%… Sort of…
From Reuters: The U.S. unemployment rate fell in July for the first time in 15 months as employers cut far fewer jobs than expected, providing the clearest sign yet that the economy was turning around. Employers shed 247,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said Friday, the least in any one month since last August, […]
WSJ: Obama Advisers Set Groundwork to Raise Taxes on Middle Class
You don’t have to be an economist to realize the Obama Administration’s budget numbers don’t add up and that he’s going to have raise taxes on more than just those earning more than $250,000.00 to pay for his agenda. With that in mind it’s not surprising that White House economist Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary […]
Tax Revenues Continue to Plunge
From the Associated Press: The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab. The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace […]