Paul Ryan Forgets Stimulus Requests

Seriously, dude?! Now you're just fucking with me.

Paul Ryan spent the last three years railing against the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad stimulus in front of the cameras and microphones, while asking for stimulus money behind the scenes to help his district create jobs and stimulate the economy. That's a goddamn fact.

And still, after being caught with his hand in the cookie jar, with video and audio proof and letters requesting stimulus funds with his fucking signature on them, he still tries to push the bullshit that it "did nothing to stimulate the economy." That the stimulus was a complete failure.

Unfuckingbelievable.

Rachel Maddow wipes up the studio floor with this punk, jackass. Must. See.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

A Ted Nugent Op-Ed?!

It is to laugh.

Ted Nugent, the rock 'n roll star from the 70's turned conservative activist and gun nut, has written an op-ed for the Washington Times called "Obama Punks America" in which he spreads the debunked claim that the stimulus cost $287,000 per job. Go on and read it if you like as it takes nothing less than a 5th grade reading level to get through it. But even a 5th grader will tell you that the amount of the stimulus divided by the number of jobs created does not equal the amount each job cost.

[AP, 11/2/09, via Nexis]:

The reality is more complex.

First, the naysayers' calculations ignore the value of the work produced.

Any cost-per-job figure pays not just for the worker, but for material, supplies and that worker's output -- a portion of a road paved, patients treated in a health clinic, goods shipped from a factory floor, railroad tracks laid.

Second, critics are counting the total cost of contracts that will fuel work for months or years and dividing that by the number of jobs produced only to date.

A construction project, for one, may only require a few engineers to get going, with the work force to swell as ground is broken and building accelerates.

Hundreds of such projects have been on the books, in which the full value of the contracts is already counted in the spending totals, but few or no jobs have been reported yet because the work is only getting started.

To flip the equation politically, it's as if the 10-year cost of George W. Bush's big tax cuts were compared with the benefits to the economy that only accrued during the first year.

Third, the package approved by Congress is aimed at more than direct job creation, although employment was certainly central to its promotion and purpose.

Its features include money for research, training, plant equipment, extended unemployment benefits, credit assistance for businesses and more -- spending meant to pay off over time but impossible to judge in a short-term job formula.

Nor do the estimates made Friday include indirect employment already created by the package -- difficult if not impossible to measure.

Nowhere in the editorial does Nugent include the fact that $282 billion in stimulus spending was in the form of tax cuts for the rubes who waste money on his concert tickets, something that would usually have the GOP's nipples get hard, and something they fought to get into the package, but since it was provided by a Democratic president (and a Kenyan at that!) they voted against en masse, but still like to take credit for it.

Interesting that a newspaper would give a guy, who threatened the current President of the United States while he was still a Senator, along with two other Senators in a concert setting while waving machine guns around, an op-ed column to reprise a 21-month old bogus claim. But I don't completely blame this bit of idiocy on Nugent alone. After all, he's citing the Weekly Standard's Jeffrey Anderson, who for some reason chooses to mislead on the numbers and the report he's basing it on. I wonder why?

So, is this the strategy? Are we going to rehash stimulus spending for the next 16 months until the election? Because if so, my guess is that the voters who benefitted from those jobs saved or created will be voting Democratic - all 2.4 to 3.6 million and counting.

SOCIALISM!

The U.S. government bailout of General Motors, Chrysler and other automotive firms saved more than 1.4 million jobs, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

Most of the jobs — 1.14 million — were saved in 2009 during the worst of the industry's severe downturn. Another 314,400 jobs were saved this year...

Can you imagine the outcry from the wingnut, fringe, "where-are-the-jobs?", right wing had we been another 1.4 million jobs in the hole?  As it is, the stimulus, which some economists claim wasn't large enough to make a major dent in the recession and the unemployment rate, still saved or created up to three million jobs. So what would the nutballs say to a smaller, more limited government that would have ignored the need of American citizens? What would they have said if unemployment benefits had not been extended? If we had allowed the automotive industry to collapse? If we had let the "too big to fail" banks to actually fail and begin an avalanche of global economic disaster?

About Last Night...

Before last night's election, all the polls showed that Republican members of Congress had a lower approval rating than Democratic members. Polls showed that more people trusted President Obama to handle the economy better than Republicans. But due to the frustratingly stagnant economy and desperate people with no jobs, when asked who they were leaning towards on Election Day, they would inevitably say the Republicans. That's called cognitive dissonance. But voting against your best interests is nothing new.

And I'm not going to try to sugarcoat the election by saying it wasn't huge for the GOP, even though some of my colleagues may disagree. Before last night the Democrats controlled 255 House seats, the GOP 178. Starting January 20th, currently the Republicans are at 239 seats to 185 for the Democrats and counting. Losing seats is a dent. Losing the majority by 5-10 seats hurts. Losing by 56 and counting is big.

Now, do I believe the current spin that the results last night are due to President Obama's policies? Absolutely not. This is about Americans being fickle bitches and expecting an economic freefall to stop on a dime. This is about not having the patience or not having the comprehension to understand what it takes to turn the tide. After eight years of mismanagement, some say even 30 years of Reaganomics, how is it even fathomable to think it can all be changed in 21 months?  So of course, the political party of the president in power is going to pay in the midterm elections. It's happened before (FDR, Truman, Reagan, Clinton) and it'll happen again.

So should've priorities shifted to economic growth and job creation? Perhaps, although a bigger stimulus was rejected by the GOP and weakened by the insistence of including tax cuts. But because we haven't completely crawled out of the biggest recession since the Great Depression, that's not to say that health care reform, credit card reform, financial reform, fair pay acts, the stimulus (a third of which were tax cuts) and a myriad of other policies enacted by the Obama administration hasn't helped American citizens.

As the President said today, you have to separate the policies that were enacted from the emergency spending that was necessary to stop economic collapse. Had they not bailed out the auto industry another million jobs could have been lost.  Had they not continued the TARP policies of the Bush administration (and tweaked them to make the banks accountable while returning a profit) the bank collapse could have led to a global financial meltdown. Had they not passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it's possible we'd be another couple of million jobs in the hole.

So while it was a tough loss yesterday, let's keep things in perspective. Democrats still run The White House and the Senate, and with everything needing 60 votes to proceed in that chamber, we're basically in the same shape we were before. Chances are that just like the Senate is sitting on 400 pieces of legislation because of the Republican filibuster gridlock these last two years, things will now slow down in the House as well.

So okay, Republicans. Show us what you've got. You can't be the Party of No anymore and hide in the shadows. You're out in front now. And here comes the hard part. You're going to have to work now instead of sitting back with arms folded and holding your breath because it wasn't advantageous to your party. Time to work. Alas, time to actually read some bills instead of tossing them around as stage props. Boy, so many pages!

Does Anyone Know How to Write, “God Bless You” in Chinese?

A friend of mine wrote a letter to the editor of New Mexico's Carlsbad Current-Argus about the hijacking of the Republican Party by the extreme right and asked if I would include it on the blog. I don't know if or when it may be published, so here it is.

Does Anyone Know How to Write, “God Bless You” in Chinese?

The President of the US Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, recently extolled the virtues of outsourcing American jobs, while accepting donations from foreign corporations, including ones from state controlled companies in Russia, India, and Abu Dhabi. The Chamber blames Democrats for job loss while promoting outsourcing those same jobs. It should be clear that these foreign corporations donate to the Chamber because they want more American jobs. The US Chamber of Commerce recently pledged $75 million to attack Democratic candidates across the country.

Alas, the Republican Party is no longer the GOP. Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley must be rolling over in their graves. The party has been hijacked by their ignorant conservative wing and moderate Republicans have been largely silent. Even the Arizona Maverick seems to now be one of them. The Tea Baggers seem to be calling the shots. This wing constantly carries on a smear campaign against the Democrats in general and the President in particular that is ill mannered, full of lies and downright unpatriotic. This wing slanders our elected President, promotes armed rebellion and invents nonissues to energize their base. It is now so crazy in the Republican Party that Karl Rove, a frequent Republican spokesperson on FOX News and often called “Bush’s Brain,” has endorsed a candidate that believes scientists have developed human brains in mice.

It is amazing that anyone would trust this hijacked party with resolving this recession. Republicans/Tea Baggers don’t know anymore about the economy than they do about manners or patriotism. Republicans tell us that we must eliminate the deficit. They then tell us that we must pass all of the Bush Tax Cuts, which they know and admit, would add trillions to the deficit. Republicans tell us that regulations are killing recovery when lack of regulation and oversight caused this recession. They rail against stimulus spending then beg for that money to be spent in their district. I am reminded of a Will Rogers quote:” If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?”

So Americans, continue to buy those Toyotas and vote Republican and all of our jobs will soon be gone. We can all stand on the corner and beg. Does anyone know how to write, “God Bless You” in Chinese?

Forrest in NM

Washington Examiner Needs Editors' Heads Examined

Today's Washington Examiner's editorial, "Time to admit Obamanomics has failed" is a doozy. Whipping their readers up in a frenzy, they claim that President Obama is going to "raise everybody's taxes by allowing the Bush [tax] cuts ... to expire" and that the stimulus bill "has failed to create jobs." It also criticizes the Wall Street reform bill because of its regulation. Really? We all know that deregulating the markets is what got us into this mess in the first place.  The whole piece reads like a nutball teabagger screed.

I'm reposting my response here, as I doubt it'll get past the moderators at their site.

Do the editors of the Washington Examiner bother to fact check what they write or are they purposely misleading their readers?

President Obama's FY 2011 budget calls for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts only for those making UNDER $250,000. Not "raising everybody's taxes" as the editors claim. Making the Bush tax cuts permanent would add $3.1 TRILLION to the deficit. So much for fiscal conservative hawks.

And claiming that the stimulus has not created jobs is laughable on its face. The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) stated: "The CEA estimates that as of the second quarter of 2010, the ARRA has raised employment relative to what it otherwise would have been by between 2.5 and 3.6 million. These estimates are broadly consistent with the direct recipient reporting data available for 2010:Q1."

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal has reported that 70% of economists surveyed said the stimulus helped.

If I can look this stuff up in ten minutes, I would hope that your readers could as well, instead of blindly taking these "editors'" words as fact.

Schwarzenegger Terminates Tea Party & Van Susteren

I have to give California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger credit for sticking to his guns on this one. Asked about the Tea Party movement, The Governator responded by giving it a shelf life.

...they're not going anywhere with it because nobody is coming up and saying, Here's our candidate, here's our solution, here's what we're going to do, and have a whole policy debate over the various different issues.

...when the economy comes back, I think that the tea party will disappear...

There's something to be said for term limits when someone can be this honest about his/her thoughts.

Van Susteren also tried to get him to trash the stimulus even though he's touted it previously, but Schwarzenegger was having none of it.

Good News

NY Times: U.S. Economy Lost Only 11,000 Jobs in November

The Labor Department reported that the United States economy lost 11,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October.

The government also significantly revised its September and October job loss estimates. September’s data was adjusted to show a loss of 139,000 jobs instead of 219,000, and in October 111,000 jobs were lost, instead of 190,000. Even allowing for the November loss, the revisions added 148,000 people to the list of those employed in the United States in November.

How soon before Fixed News declares that the stimulus had nothing to do with it and that this is just the natural upturn in any recession? You know, just like climate change is in a natural cycle and 150 years of industrial revolution CO2 has nothing to do with it.