The Honesty Deficit

The President has won his tax rate hikes on the Needlessly Rich, so now in the second round of deficit-reduction he turns to...additional tax increases on the Needlessly Rich.

Why no budget-cutting? In a recent interview, President explains: "...if you look at my track record over the last two years, I cut spending by over a trillion dollars in 2011."

Really? Let's take a look at the numbers, courtesy of the President's own 2013 budget proposal. Here is the record of federal spending, from 2009 (the last Bush budget) through 2012. In parentheses are the increases over the previous year. In brackets are the changes to the Consumer Price Indices relative to the previous year:

• 2009    $3.518T
• 2010    $3.456T (-1.8%) {1.6%}
• 2011    $3.603T (4.2%)  {3.2%}
• 2012    $3.795T (5.3%)  {2.4%}

Note that Obama's proposed budgets for 2010-2012 were $3.552T, $3.834T, and $3.729T, respectively. Unless the President had in mind an even larger increase for 2011, no such cut can be found. The only year-over-year reduction in spending occurred in 2010; this was caused by the end of TARP. Also note that although his proposed 2012 budget was $105B smaller than his 2011 proposal, what was ultimately enacted in 2011 and 2012 were increasing bigger budgets. Federal spending has increased for the last two years, at a rate greater than inflation as measured by the CPI.

Apologists Defenders of the President (e.g. Jared Bernstein) claim that analyses like that depicted above are overly simplistic: "personal finances and government finances are different". How, pray tell? Isn't what really matters is how much you ultimately spend, not what you fantasized spending only to settle for not-so-much more?

The White House is implanting the "already a trillion dollars cut" lie-meme throughout the media now, and every Presidential Parrot repeats it.

This is a moment in history when one needs to dispense with pleasantries to underscore the gravity of the issue and the inadequacy of the leadership: Mr. Obama, you did not cut a trillion dollars from future budgets. Stop spreading this lie, get serious about reducing spending and reforming entitlements. Grow up, sir.

Politically-Induced Alcoholism.

Steven Ratnner has penned an excellent critique on the ethanol racket in the United States. He states clearly what many pols know but dare not speak: the US program to promote ethanol production for transporation fuels drives food prices up, is comparable in the energy to produce it than in what it displaces in petroleum, has led to a bizarre and contradictory arrangement of alcohol and petroleum imports and exports, and is a green pig-in-a-poke. But ethanolism does mean big federal subsidies to the agribusiness interests of the corn belt, including Iowa, an early presidential political milestone.

Postscript: a new AEI report on ethanolism can be found here.

The Big Rolls in the Game.

The Center for Responsive Politics has tabulated the spending by independent organizations (i.e., not the political parties). Here are the totals:

Pro-GOP: $140.0M

• US Chamber of Commerce - $75.0M
• "American Crossroads" (Rovian Cabal) - $65.0M

Pro-Dem: $171.5M

• AFSCME - $87.5M
• SEIU - $44.0M
• NEA - $40.0M

In our local Congressional race, Democrat Mark Schauer has received about $1M from PACs, while Republican Tim Walberg has received about $270K, as reported by the CRP.

Heads They Win, Tails We Lose.

For the second consecutive year, Social Security payments will not increase. Federal rules require that COLA increases occur when the Consumer Price Index is higher than the previous year. However, when the CPI is constant or falls, SSI payments are fixed at the previous year's level' and increases do not resume until the CPI exceeds that level.

Until 2009 this prudent rule for Social Security had resulted a string of unbroken payment increases: the average SSI COLA from 2000 through 2009 has been 2.8%, while the CPI has increased on average by 2.6% over the same period. And everyone, particularly the AARP, was quite happy.

Then in the first full year of the Great Comeuppance the CPI fell, and SSI payments were frozen. Uncle Sugar Daddy has broken the bad news that 2010's CPI also fell 0.6% below the 2008 level, so that next year's SSI payments will remain unchanged. Now all Hell has broken loose in The Dismal Swamp.

The White House and Democrats want to ignore the COLA rule, and toss an extra $250 toward each senior, if not to buy their love, then at least to secure their vote. That's an additional $14B on the fiscal bonfire. But that's our kids' problem, right?

Taking the High Road.

Democrats will stick to the issues for the rest of the campaign, the NYT reports. Critical issues like their opponents' divorces, drinking, bankruptcies, philandery, lawsuits, kids' bad grades, and fashion sense.

Acceptance Through Irrelevance?

Fred Schwarz pens a thoughtful essay on the changes in the American political and religous landscape fifty years after JFK's speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association.

The "Competence" Theme Snowballs.

Tom Coburn's appearance on a recent Morning Joe says it all. But if you need additional ammunition, read Peggy Noonan's recent WSJ column. But to be fair, this is problem is beyond Mr. Obama or any president. It's a loss of vision by our leadership - and the electorate - of what constitutes conscientious stewardship of our Republic.

Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009.

The "Lion of the Senate" passes from the scene, and with his passing so closes a volume on one of the most significant political families in our country's history. A man fully invested with admirable qualities, and otherwise. The New York Times features a fine, unhagiographic obituary. R.I.P.

If We Can't Get the Post Office Right...

A report on how the USPS' flood of red ink will require more cuts in services and offices.

Independence Day, 2009.

The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right.

- Thomas Jefferson to Francis Gilmer, 1816.

Tax Day.

We have a real fear - yes, fear - that our government is going past the point of no return on spending and taxes. Entitlements now constitute 38% of the federal budget; including quasi-entitlement social program spending brings the total to 57%. Service on the debt adds another 9%, defense accounts for another 20%. This does include the new bailout and stimulus spending.

It's clear that there is no political gain for any leader to restrain entitlements: it will require an act of political sacrifice by the country's leadership to bring this under control. If the President could bring this financial hemorrhaging to an end, would he sacrifice a second term to bring it about?

Inciting the Mob.

The of chorus of outrage at AIG has a disturbing tone: bulldozing the rule of law in order to satisfy the mob's bloodlust. Holman Jenkins summarized it quite well this morning, He concluded with:

But the biggest lesson here is the old one that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance -- beginning with insistence on the rule of law. Americans clearly cannot trust their elected officials to defend their rights and interests, or care whether justice is served, when the slightest political risk might attach to doing so.

Which brings us back to Mr. Cuomo, whose office has been implicitly threatening to publish names of AIG employees who don't relinquish pay they were contractually entitled to.

Mr. Cuomo is a thug, but at least he reminds us: It can happen here.

And for those of you holding a torch or pitchfork, consider this point of view.

Holy Week.

NPR, Gary Keillor, The Nation editor Mistress Katrina Von Hoofenderfloogle, Kief Ubermann and the We Are the World Usual Suspects are getting the vapors in anticipation of the most holy event of our lifetime: the Installation of Pope Barack I. Keillor on a recent Prairie Home Angst, retold the Gospel story of the sojourn of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem as that of Michelle and Barack to Washington. We agree with the National Review, such an analogy is just creeeepy. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Alexander, chair of African-American Studies at Yale, has been tapped to deliver the Inaugural Poem. According to a background piece at the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, her credentials are steeped in art and politics , the politics of art, and the art of politics. Ahh, shall we close our eyes and swoon in rapture to verses of neo-Socialist Realism? The baking of bread as a political statement? A Man and His Tractor? Will the cornicopia of ethnogendercreeds be given each a moment in the sun during the soliloquy? We'll have a big box of Kleenex on hand to soak up our tears of joy. We will also have box on hand to soak up the tears of grief as the Super-Colossal Extravagonzo Stimulus Cheese Wheel is rolled down Capitol Hill.

Were So Sorry, Guvna' Granholm...

Jennifer Granholm did not make the cut as Secretary of Energy for the Obama Administration, and alas, she must trudge back the Great Lakes State and complete her second term as our governor. It's too bad she was so busy auditioning for Team O; the Detroit Three really could have used her up on The Hill to provide political cover for them as they were pilloried by the many Moronic Congresscritters. In fact, she seems to have been nearly invisible during most of the recent Big Three Crisis.

But Just to Make it Perfectly Clear...

Mr. Obama will become our President, and we him success. He will need all of the support, good wishes, and prayers that Americans can muster; to quote Lincoln, "the occasion is piled high, and we must rise with the occasion." Where we find ourselves in opposition to the President, we will voice our opposition in a civil and intellectually honest manner. No brainless wailing of "Obama Taxed, Jobs Axed!" or the like will be found here. As of now it appears that ambition, namely, Mr. Obama's desire to be successful, is overriding ideology. But we shall see as the events transpire.

Change Some Can Buy Into.

The background of some of Mr. Obama's economic advisers, and their substantial financial contributions to his campaign (found on Instapundit).

Sound Recall.

The Conservative Corps has been shattered on the field of November 2008. The corps' generals and their camp followers have skee-daddled. It's time to sound recall - not retreat, but regroup, carry our dead from the field, find brave and brilliant new officers, and refit to fight another day.

The enigmatic General Obama has carried the day. We salute his brilliant victory, and to the extent that his interests in governance are harmonious with our visions for the welfare of our land, we can cooperate. We'll now see whether his mind is governed more by ambition than ideology. Ambition may to temper his socialism to "socialism-lite". But how he will proceed in the details of Iraq is a total mystery.

Required reading around the campfires: "Ten Conservative Principles", by the late Russell Kirk.

The Bell Lap.

It's almost here, our national political orgasm is imminent. And whatever the result of Election Night, on Wednesday morning the Sun will rise, the geese will honk as they fly south, babies will gurgle "good morning" in their cribs, the toast will pop, coffee will be poured, and America will go on*.

Of course, for the pathological types, Wednesday morning will kickoff the campaign cycle for 2012: the planning for acquring power, retaining power, hoarding power, expanding power, or to ingratiate themselves with the newly powerful. Many will forget the reasons why they sought power in the first place. Some will be awake from the religous ecstasy, and ask "now what?"

In David Lean's magnificient film version of Doctor Zhivago (arguably the greatest film ever made), Red Army General "Strelinkov" proclaims to Yuri Zhivago that "the personal life is dead" - that human existance is reduced to service to the Communist Party - and derisively asks Yuri what he intends to do by traveling to the rural backwater of Varikino. "Just live", Zhivago replies.

Whether under the rapturous beneficience of Obamism or not, we can't wait to "just live".

*Inspired by Lou Rukeyser's post 1987 Crash Pep Talk.

Too Little and Too Late?

Jake Tapper has a "wait a minute!" moment with Mr. Obama's ENORMOUS list of promises to the people. Looks like you'll be off "O-Force One", Jake; you can pick up your luggage at the Greyhound terminal.

Barney Frank's Brave New World.

In an expansive and victorious mood, Congerscritter Frank describes his goals for an undivided government: a 25% spending cut for the DoD (forcing our hand in Iraq), expanded federal support of state spending programs, and higher taxes for The Rich^® (from Commentary Magazine).