Boehner On Jobs, Debt Limit, And The Economy

Earlier today, Speaker John Boehner spoke to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s 2012 Fiscal Summit. Here’s a few of the highlights of his plan from the Speaker’s website, along with commentary, of course (emphasis in original):

In remarks this afternoon to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s Annual Fiscal Summit, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will renew his commitment to the principle he set forth at the Economic Club of New York one year ago – noting that the debt limit exists to force Washington to deal with its fiscal problems, and that any increase in the nation’s debt limit must be accompanied by spending cuts and reforms larger than the amount of the debt limit hike.

ObamaCare Helping Deficit Balloon

Remember when the lefties tried claiming that ObamaCare would reduce the deficit? That fiction is now being debunked.

The 2010 law does generate both savings and revenue. But much of that money will flow into the Medicare hospitalization trust fund — and, under law, the money must be used to pay years of additional benefits to those who are already insured. That means those savings would not be available to pay for expanding coverage for the uninsured.

Obama: Ryan’s Budget Would Hurt Weather Forecasting

Obama is demagoging the Ryan budget again:

Obama on the Paul Ryan budget: “We wouldn’t have the capacity to enforce the laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, or the food that we eat. Cuts to the FAA would likely result in more flight cancellations, delays and the complete elimination of air traffic control services in parts of the country. Over time, our weather forecasts would become less accurate because we wouldn’t be able to afford to launch new satellites and that means governors and mayors would have to wait longer to order evacuations in the event of a hurricane. That’s just a partial sampling of the consequences of this budget.”

Ryan Strikes Out At Obama

Angling for the Vice-Presidency?

“History will not be kind to a president who, when it came time to confront our generation’s defining challenge, chose to duck and run,” Ryan said. “The president refuses to take responsibility for the economy and refuses to offer a credible plan to address the most predictable economic crisis in our history.

Ryan’s Budget Cuts Spending By $5.3 Trillion

Yesterday I pointed out Ryan’s budget would slash taxes, now it’s time to look at the other side, and once again Paul Ryan doesn’t disappoint.

House Republicans released an election-year budget on Tuesday that they said would cut $5.3 trillion in spending over the next decade compared to President Obama’s budget while slashing tax rates for households and businesses.

Your Tax Dollars At Work: Nearly $1 Million Spent By The Government On Ads

Just another way the government spends your tax dollars:

Federal agencies spent at least $945 million on contracts for advertising services in fiscal year 2010, and that sum doesn’t include all public communications expenditures in the agencies reviewed or even all of the executive branch, a congressional report out last week shows.

Will Democrats Attempt To Recall This Governor?

We all know how Democrats feel about politicians that try to restrict public employee unions, right? So, do you think they’ll try to recall this governor who’s trying it?

Gov. Jerry Brown will propose sweeping rollbacks to public employee pension benefits in California, including raising the retirement age to 67 for new employees who are not public safety workers and requiring state and local employees to pay more toward their retirement and health care, according to a draft of the plan obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Perry’s Economic Plan: Cut, Balance, and Grow, AKA 20-20

Rick Perry has unveiled his economic plan, and it’s likely to pick up the nickname 20-20, from the 20% personal and 20% corporate flat tax rates. However, it has a lot more to it, as the campaign website shows:

The current economic problems faced by so many Americans were created by years of wasteful mismanagement and incompetent central-planning and cannot be fixed overnight. To be sure, there are a number of things that can be done by the president on day 1 to begin the process of restoring the American economy. But the reforms necessary to fix the broken tax and regulatory code, balance the budget, and grow the economy for the long-term will take some time and patience. Their implementation requires a clear plan, consistent leadership, and sustained resolve.

Senate Democrats Reject Continuing Resolution That Funds Disaster Relief

Who’s “The Party Of No” now?

The Senate on Friday rejected the GOP-led House’s bill to avert a government shutdown, intensifying a partisan standoff that many in Congress hoped to avoid. The vote was 59-36.

$600 Million In Government Benefits Sent To Dead People

Is it any wonder no one can balance the federal budget?

The federal government has doled out more than $600 million in benefit payments to dead people over the past five years, a watchdog report says.

Obama’s Debt Reduction Plan: Tax The Rich

Is anyone really surprised?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drawing clear battle lines for next year’s elections, a combative President Barack Obama on Monday demanded that the richest Americans pay higher taxes to help cut soaring U.S. deficits by more than $3 trillion. He promised to veto any effort by congressional Republican to cut Medicare benefits for the elderly without raising taxes as well.

“This is not class warfare. It’s math,” Obama declared, anticipating Republican criticism, which was quick in coming.

News flash for the AP and the Obama White House… it ain’t just Republicans who think it’s class warfare.

Conservative Republican Takes Advantage Of Obama Delay, Names His Own Bill “American Jobs Act”

Gotta love it. Since President Obama hasn’t yet–nearly a week after his address to both houses of Congress–delivered the text of his “American Jobs Act,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) decides to name his own bill the American Jobs Act.

The American Jobs Act introduced in the House of Representatives looks quite different from the version President Obama outlined in his speech to Congress. Instead of hiking taxes on working Americans to pay for another stimulus, Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) legislation offers a tax cut.

Even Lefty Kevin Drum Agrees: High-Speed Rail Is A Boondoggle

When even a Mother Jones author writes this:

Look, I’m sorry, HSR [High Speed Rail] lovers. I love me some HSR, too, but this project is just a fantastic boondoggle. It didn’t even make sense with the original cost estimates, and it’s now plain that it’s going to cost three or four times more than that. What’s more, the ridership estimates are still fantasies, and it won’t be able to compete with air travel without large, permanent subsidies. This is just too much money to spend on something this dumb. It’s the kind of thing that could set back HSR for decades. Sacramento needs to pull the plug on this, and they need to pull it now. We have way better uses for this dough.

Obama’s Jobs Plan: Tax, Tax, Tax, But No Spending Cuts In Sight

Is this really a surprise to anyone that’s been paying attention the last 3 years?

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew outlined President Barack Obama’s plan to pay for his $447 billion jobs plan — mostly through tax increases.

Romney’s Jobs Plan

Taking a short break from… well… taking a break!

Mitt Romney has unveiled his jobs plan:

Five Bills for Day One

The American Competitiveness Act: Reduces the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent

The Open Markets Act: Implements the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements

The Domestic Energy Act: Directs the Department of the Interior to undertake a comprehensive survey of American energy reserves in partnership with exploration companies and initiates leasing in all areas currently approved for exploration

The Retraining Reform Act: Consolidates the sprawl of federal retraining programs and returns funding and responsibility for these programs to the states

The Down Payment on Fiscal Sanity Act: Immediately cuts non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent, reducing the annual federal budget by $20 billion

Boehner Responds To Biden Walkback On China’s One Child Policy

Following Biden’s crack about understanding China’s forced-abortion policy, and the White House mouthpiece’s walkback of same, John Boehner shot back:

There are two things the Obama administration can do immediately on this front.  One is for the Vice President himself – the individual who holds the office, and who uttered the damaging comments Sunday – to publicly state the new words his staff has used.  The other is for President Obama to announce the United States will stop contributing money to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which supports China and has been linked to implementation of the one-child policy.  Until the administration takes these actions, the clarification issued by the Vice President’s spokesman Tuesday will ring hollow.

E-Defrauding The Federal Government

The LA Times runs a surprisingly insightful article today on a good way to start cutting government waste:

What makes these healthcare programs so vulnerable to fake billings and at such a scale? It’s not so much the healthcare policy itself, nor the program design; the vulnerability stems from the payment mechanism the government has chosen to use. Most Medicare and Medicaid funds are paid out electronically and automatically, in response to electronic claims received from a vast spectrum of providers. Most claims are adjudicated by computers using rule-based systems, with no human intervention at all.

Obama Supporter Sachs Says President Has No Plan

Ouch… the hits keep coming.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs slammed President Obama on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday.

Cantor’s Very Bad Advice

If true (and I have no access to the original documents in question), this has made me lose a lot of respect for Eric Cantor (emphasis added):

Because Congress (or rather, the Democratic Senate) has not approved a 2012 budget, they will have to pass another continuing resolution before Sept. 30 to keep the government running. Cantor’s memo is a fairly straightforward indication that GOP leadership does not wish to go through a repeat of the “government shutdown” debate that played out in the spring. He simply suggests that House Republicans stick to the spending levels called for in the recent debt-ceiling deal, as opposed to trying to push for deeper cuts.

Moody’s Economic Growth Outlook Is Gloomy

WSJ (emphasis in original):

Moody’s Analytics, a sister company to credit-ratings company Moody’s InvestorsService, now expects real gross domestic product to increase at an annualized rate of about 2% in the second half of this year and just over 3% next year, compared with its estimate a month ago for growth of 3.5% for the second half of this year and through 2012.