Not directly related to the article, this video is still good and contrasts the policies of today with those of yon.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wusgcG4rfo)

via RWN:

Congressman Paul Ryan (R, Wis) and former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin came together early this week to lambaste Obama's failed economic policies.

In a conference call to supporters and the press, CBO Director Holtz-Eakin said that there is "no evidence" that "the stimulus has really worked" and that Obama's Keynesian fixes simply won't work.

There is nothing about Keynesian stimulus that is going to fix those problems. The spending by the government has gotten worse, has not solved the housing problem, and has also not been successful. Instead, the key to more rapid economic growth is going to have to be the business sector and international trade.

Representative Ryan echoed that assessment, saying:

Take a look at what our government has done in the last two years trying to get this economy out of the recession. The 1.1 trillion dollar stimulus, which is what it is when you add the interest spending, has not worked. It has exacerbated our debt problems. The Keynesian experiment, which was more spending, has failed to produce … jobs, it didn’t bring our unemployment down below 8% as it is promised. We’re still hovering close to ten percent. We’re not producing the private sector jobs that we need to be if we want to get back to our pre-recession unemployment rate. We’d have to create 250,000 jobs a month for five years running and we’re not anywhere close to that. So why is that happening?

Ryan proclaimed the Obama Administration and Congress have failed miserably to shore up confidence in the U.S. economy. ryan said that the current direction that government is headed is in "the exact opposite direction it ought to be going."

It's coming this year...

It's huge...

No one will be spared...

President Obama is set to let tax rates increase at the end of this year, which will have devastating effects on an economy already on the ropes.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41Mg0S4Qod4)

"You would think they would be saying 'Thank you!'"  ~President Barack Obama

Coming this fall to a theater near you...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wty7974IKg)

Two articles I read today saying essentially the same thing: the economy is in serious trouble.  At CNBC, Jochen Wermuth, the CIO of Wermuth Asset Management is quoted as saying

America today looks like Russia in 1998. Consumers, companies and the government are all highly indebted. America as a result is a bankrupt Mickey Mouse economy.

The big evil for the IMF in Russia in 1998 was the prospect of the central bank funding government debt. The Fed is now even buying mortgage-backed securities.

Even before the [Troubled Asset Relief Program] and the expansion of the Fed's balance sheet, the ratio of total US public and private debt was 290 percent, that figure is now far higher.

US credit risk is huge and America has two options, either default or let the currency depreciate substantially against currencies such as the yuan and the rouble.

Laurence Kotlikoff, in this content from Bloomberg, says

Let’s get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills.

What it can and must do is radically simplify its tax, health-care, retirement and financial systems, each of which is a complete mess. But this is the good news. It means they can each be redesigned to achieve their legitimate purposes at much lower cost and, in the process, revitalize the economy.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund released its annual review of U.S. economic policy. Its summary contained these bland words about U.S. fiscal policy: “Directors welcomed the authorities’ commitment to fiscal stabilization, but noted that a larger than budgeted adjustment would be required to stabilize debt-to-GDP.”

But delve deeper, and you will find that the IMF has effectively pronounced the U.S. bankrupt. Section 6 of the July 2010 Selected Issues Paper says: “The U.S. fiscal gap associated with today’s federal fiscal policy is huge for plausible discount rates.” It adds that “closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of U.S. GDP.”

And have you heard that Social Security is operating in the red?  Grim.

The mismanagement of funds continues.  From Federal News Radio:

The Defense Department is unable to account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in Development Fund for Iraq monies in received for reconstruction in Iraq. This according to a study published today by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

"This situation occurred because most DoD organizations receiving DFI (Development Fund for Iraq) funds did not establish the required Department of the Treasury accounts and no DoD organization was designated as the executive agent for managing the use of DFI funds," the report states.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) finds that only one Defense organization actually set up the accounts required by the Treasury.

"The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," SIGIR says.

The study recommends that the Secretary of Defense create new accounting and reporting procedures to avoid such mistakes in the future. It also recommends designating an executive agent to oversee progress, establishing measurable milestones, and determining whether any DoD organizations are still holding DFI funds.

For more reports and publications from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, see http://www.sigir.mil/publications/index.html

Idaho topped the list where it comes to reducing state jobs.  I am very thankful for the one I have, but also applaud the effort at trimming down and reducing spending.  It is a somewhat complicated symbiosis in my mind.  via idahostatesman.com:

This bit from PJTV via Western Rifle Shooters Association.

Think cap and trade is dead? Think again: Politico’s Mike Allen reports that Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership have a plan, a continuation and deepening of the disregard for the American public they so amply demonstrated through the process by which they passed the despised HCR bill:

Phil Schiliro, the White House congressional liaison, has told the Senate to aim to take up an energy bill the week of July 12, after the July 4 break (and after the scheduled final passage of Wall Street reform). Kagan confirmation will follow, ahead of the summer break, scheduled to begin Aug. 9. The plan is to conference the new Senate bill with the already-passed House bill IN A LAME-DUCK SESSION AFTER THE ELECTION, so House members don’t have to take another tough vote ahead of midterms.

The rest of the piece goes on to make it clear that this plan has the full support of President Obama, who himself does not face re-election until 2012 and wants cap and trade passed before the year is out.

This “fierce urgency of now” comes from the obvious political consideration that a lame duck Congress has nothing to lose. Once it’s been thrown under the bus and lies there bleeding (actually, you might say it threw itself in front of the bus, but let’s not quibble about the finer points), it might just as well enact a piece of legislation that will further bankrupt the country and please the left fringe and nobody else. Beware a group that’s still in power but has stopped fearing any consequences from the public.

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