CONSERVATIVE RIGHT- "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."

Gullible Nation - Mona Charen - National Review Online

Responding to the Obama administration’s operatic warnings of catastrophe for meals on wheels for the elderly, Head Start, meat inspections, air-traffic controllers, police, fire fighters, and 911 operators if the government reduces the rate of increase of federal spending by 2 percentage points, radio host Chris Plante offered the following suggestion: “Since this 2 percent obviously covers all essential government spending, let’s cut the other 98 percent!”

Even if these “draconian cuts” are implemented, the federal government will spend more this year than it did last year.

Another way to think about it is this: In 2007, the government was 40 percent smaller than it is today. Were poor people sleeping under bridges? Were the elderly starving? Were planes grounded? Was food unsafe to eat?

Here’s another question: Are Americans really this gullible? The president’s doom-saying is so absurd that a mature country would hoot him off the stage. As it is, the housebroken media credulously report his obviously partisan scare-mongering as fact.

Obama's Sequester Math: $300 Billion In New Revenues Called 'Spending Cuts' - Investors.com

Budget: When President Obama put out his "balanced" plan to avoid the automatic sequester cuts, no one noticed. Which is probably just as well for Obama, given how embarrassingly unbalanced it is.

Last week, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about how Obama "hasn't actually come up with a proposal to avert sequestration, let alone one that is politically plausible."

Turns out, Obama did have one, although Brooks can be excused for not knowing it, since the administration hasn't exactly been promoting this so-called plan.

That, too, is understandable, since it isn't a plan at all, just a list of numbers with little to back them up.

There are no details, for example, about the $200 billion in cuts to defense and domestic discretionary programs, other than that Obama wants them split evenly.

And while he offers $400 billion in "health savings," 30% are lumped in a bucket labeled "other."

Worse, Obama's "balanced" plan actually counts hundreds of billions of new revenues from taxes, fees and rebates as "spending reductions." Examples:

• His plan to "strengthen" unemployment insurance is labeled as a cut, but it's really a $50 billion tax hike.

• The $35 billion from the federal worker retirement programs involves boosting worker contributions.

• Most of the $35 billion in Medicare savings comes from charging wealthy seniors more.

• The $140 billion in "reduced payments to drug companies" are in fact rebates Obama wants drugmakers to pay Uncle Sam for selling drugs to poor seniors.

• Then there's the $45 billion in spectrum fees and asset sales that Obama lists as spending reductions.

Viewed correctly, it turns out that more than $300 billion — about a third — of Obama's proposed "spending cuts" are actually revenue increases.

As a result, instead of $1.2 trillion in spending cuts called for by the sequester over the next decade, Obama would add more than $1 trillion in revenues, while cutting outlays only about $600 billion. And much of those aren't real cuts, but tiny reductions in projected spending growth over the next decade.

And in the end, his plan, such as it is, will do nothing to forestall the nation's oncoming debt crisis.

After four years, Obama's unseriousness as a president continues to surprise us.

More Of The Blame Game!

President Barack Obama on Friday blamed congressional Republicans for the failure to strike a deal on the sequestration and predicted a deep economic impact as a result.

Obama spoke at the White House following his first face-to-face meeting with congressional leaders about the cuts, which did not produce a deal.

"It is absolutely true that this is not going to precipitate the crisis" that would have been caused by not raising the debt ceiling or going over the fiscal cliff, Obama said, "but people are going to be hurt. The economy will not grow as quickly as it would have. Unemployment will not go down as quickly as it would have. And there are lives behind that. And it's real."

Obama repeatedly referred to the support he claims for his position in public polls and knocked House Speaker John Boehner's inability to overcome the "politics within the Republican Party" or connect with what he referred to as a silent "caucus of common sense" on Capitol Hill.

"What I can't do is force Congress to do the right thing," Obama said. "The American people may have the capacity to do that. And in the absence of a decision on the part of the speaker of the House and others to put middle class families ahead of whatever political imperative he might have right now, we're going to have these cuts in place."

Hail Armageddon

Hail Armageddon
By Charles Krauthammeron Fri, 1 Mar 2013

‘The worst-case scenario for us,” a leading anti-budget-cuts lobbyist told the Washington Post, “is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens.”

Think about that. Worst case? That a government drowning in debt should cut back by 2.2 percent — and the country survives. That a government now borrowing 35 cents of every dollar it spends reduces that borrowing by 2 cents “and nothing bad really happens.” Oh, the humanity!

Keep reading this post . . .

Personal Income Collapses in January

Personal Income Collapses in January
on Fri, 1 Mar 2013

The Commerce Department reported Friday that personal income contracted a sharp 3.6% in January. In three of the last four months, personal income had showed modest gains. Economists had expected a more modest drop in income of 2.5%. This, and other numbers released Friday suggest worrying trends for the economy.

Wages and salaries declined in January, while personal disposable income dropped by 4%. Government wages and salaries, however, increased in January. Personal consumption was essentially unchanged, rising by 0.2%. The savings rate dipped from 6.4% in December to 2.4% in January.

The data released Friday is consistent with revised GDP figures from Thursday. GDP revisions found consumer spending weaker than expected or initially estimated. That trend seems to have carried over into January, with consumers saving less to maintain their level of spending. The drop in wages will likely drag consumer spending weaker in the 1st Quarter.

Founding Father Quote

It is the nature and intention of a constitution to prevent governing by party, by establishing a common principle that shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to all parties, ‘thus far shalt thou go and go no further.’ But in the absence of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle governing party, party governs principle.

Thomas Paine, 1795

Sequester Is a Pittance, Just the First Step

Sequester Is a Pittance, Just the First Step:
Last Tuesday, President Obama proclaimed that the sequester's "brutal" and "severe" cuts will "eviscerate" America's domestic spending.
But "eviscerate" is not the adjective I would use; in f...