The window to my world

If you haven’t heard about this program then you shouldn’t be voting. The basis of the program is you can get up to $4500 by trading in your old vehicle towards a new vehicle which gets better gas mileage. One of those nice, happy, lets hug each other programs the government loves spending your money on.

Never forget this, it is our money helping someone purchase a new vehicle. So far about about one billion dollars and continuing to grow. The first question we should ask is does the government have the power to do such a thing? I fail to see where this falls under any of the powers granted to Congress in the Constitution, not that ever stops Congress. Next we should ask is this the best use of our money? Lets see, the government is talking about the missile defense program by over one billion dollars but has the money to help Joe Blow purchase a new vehicle?  Misplaced priorities in my opinion.

President Obama talks about wanting to provide relief to the people that need it. Increasing the debt of the government via unconstitutional programs that really aren’t needed isn’t going to help.

The Cap and Trade bill has passed through the House by using typical pork barrel politics to get enough members of the house to go along with the bill so that it will pass. Doubt me? Take a look at the parts added to the bill to get House members from the farm states to go along. Your cost of food is going to go up more as farmers will be enticed by the higher amount paid to help fight global warming.

Which brings us to the next matter. The science of global warming is flakier then then the jelly doughnut Al Gore is eating. Anyone can do the Chicken Little act and scream “Global Warming!” “Global Warming!” but the rational mind should look at the evidence and make decisions based on this. Congress lacking a rational mind means we get Chicken Little laws. Nevermind that temperatures have actually been dropping during the last decade but that the tie between CO2 and global warming doesn’t have the evidence to support. On the other hand the evidence supports a link between solor activity and global warming but as Congress hasn’t figured out how to tax solar activity, yet, they go down the route where your wallet is located.

The final part of the bill I want to address for now are the statements on how it will create more jobs. Sure it will create jobs in those sectors where the government is tossing money, but how will this effect jobs in other areas? Gabriel Calzada an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Spain has published a report telling us what to expect. Spain bought into the green jobs via renewable energy. The results? The highest rate of unemployment at 18.1% that is double the European Union average. On top of this these renewable energy projects are costing the government even more money, not saving money. The only way these projects can survive is with government subsidies, over a million dollars a year in some cases. So far the evidence tends to say that going with renewable energy comes at the cost of higher taxes to support the projects and higher unemployment rates.

If this bill becomes law hold on to your wallet and pray you don’t lose your job.

The June 22, 2009 issue of National Review had an interesting little sidebar article showing the current unemployment rates compared to how areas voted in Presidential elections. What it shows that the longer an area voted Democratic in the Presidential elections the higher their unemployment rates were. On the flip side the longer an area voted Republican the lower their unemployment rates were.

Granted this is a simple cause and effect type of argument, but it does raise some interesting questions. The main one for me is does Democratic policies cause undesireable economic effects? On the surafce it sure looks like.

Very interesting post over at Political Math on how President Obama’s stimulus plan projections are fairing to the real world results. I suggest reading the entire article but the author sums it up this way:

“Their predictions were not just kinda wrong. They were horrifically, disasterously wrong. If President Obama is going to use statistics and charts to push nearly $800 billion in spending, I think we should be able to expect his numbers to at least kinda match the reality that comes out of his policies.”

I wonder how the President and his people will spin this.

On the surface, Ford appears to be in better shape then Chrysler and General Motors. Technically they are in better shape too, no bailout money needed there. However this could cause major issues for Ford in the years to come.

Consider this: If the plan goes through as being pushed the US Government (meaning US taxpayers) will own 50% of General Motors. Just the thought of that would make the eyes of our Founding Fathers pop out of their heads. Now consider the effects of this. What do you think the odds of GM failing are after that? I would say pretty much zero. If GM needs more money the majority shareholder is going to provide it. Ig GM has bagage it needs to get rid of the majority stakeholder will absorb it for them. If the majority stakeholder needs new vehicles to lease who do you think they will look towards.

I hope Ford does succeed but when you place the coffers of the US Government behind its competitor it will make it an uphill battle.

And Medicare is in worse shape. First Social Secuirty:

“Trustees of the programs said Tuesday that Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, one year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner. “

I wrote before that we have already started sending out more money then it is taking in. With the drop in the economy the end is coming sooner rather then later for Social Security. The really bad (or scary) news is that the 2037 is a big hoax, there is no trust fund as that money has already been spent by the government. People talking about how the “trust fund” will last x number of years are blowing smoke out of their ass.

As for Medicare, it is projected to go totally broke in 2017, two years earlier then thought. No surprise there either for those that follow politics and the economy.

The solution? Decreased benefits? Increased retirement age? Pushing government controlled medical care ass a solution? You can be sure they won’t talk about a real solution to both issues: privitization.

U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job.

Again, our tax dollars at work.

The Powerline blog has a great blog on Obamanomics, and if it is working. Short answer: Doesn’t look like it.

When the Obama administration was pushing for its stimulas package, lots of pretty graphs were tossed up for people to go “Ooooo!” at and vote for the package, as the graphs showed the economic recovery would be much slower without the stimulus package. But reality reared its ugly head, as it often does, and looking at the current recovery we are actually doing worse then if we had not done anything.

I wonder how log it will take the administration to re-do the graphs and blame it on a bug in Microsoft Excel.

No surprise really. Chrysler is a much different company structure wise then General Motors. What I find interesting the remarks from President Obama:

“This is not a sign of weakness but rather one more step on a clearly chartered path to Chrysler’s revival.”

And how about this?

“I have every confidence that Chrysler will emerge from this process stronger and more competitive”

My question would be “Isn’t this also true for General Motors”? Would have been a lot cheaper for the US taxpayers.

Time Warner Cable and Embarq are looking to shutdown a local ISP, Greenlight, in Wilson, NC. The tech blogs are all over this saying that it is too bad that Time Warner and Embarq can’t compete with Greenlight and they shouldn’t be trying to use the law to force them out of business.

Greenlight is offering 80 channels, 10 MB upload and download Internet speed, and telephone service for around $100 a month. Time Warner and Embarq can’t come close to that price. Hooray the tech bloggers proclaim, too bad for Time Warner and Embarq if they can’t compete with Greenlight. What they aren’t telling you is the city of Wilson paid $26 million to fund the effort and Greenlight just runs it for the city for no profit. Now if the city of Wilson gave went to Time Warner and said “Hey, if we gave you $26 million how much would you charge our citizens for a cable, phone, and Internet package?” I’m sure Time Warner would have come up with a great price, and people would be screaming at the city officials for giving a big business that much money.

My question, what’s the difference? Sure the citizens are getting a cheaper service up front but will end up paying more in taxes and fees to cover the city funding Greenlight.