SmallGovTimes.com

Fourth of July marked by anti-tax Tea Parties

News Bites — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:43:47 +0000

Fourth of July “Tea Party” rallies, picnics, marches and other demonstrations were scheduled across the country Saturday to protest what organizers say is record federal spending and taxes by the Obama administration that enlarges government and threatens the nation’s prosperity.

Whether the turnout would match or exceed the hundreds of April 15 Tea Party protests remained to be seen, though a survey of dozens of publicized events from Maine to California suggested the grass-roots movement had not lost its energy and support.

The April 15 demonstrations drew an estimated 600,000 people to more than 600 events throughout the country, organizers said. Since then, the movement has remained localized, resisting efforts to turn itself into a national organization, and spawning hundreds of local, citizen-led groups that shun professional politicians at their meetings and public events.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/05/fourth-of-july-marked-by-anti-tax-tea-parties/

Britain finds original copy of US Declaration of Independence

VOA News — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:42:21 +0000

Researchers in Britain have discovered a rare original copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, just as Americans are getting ready to mark July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Officials at the National Archives in London say the poster-sized document was hidden among correspondence from U.S. colonists. They say a local researcher discovered it by chance.

Researchers say the so-called Dunlap print is believed to be one of about 200 printed on July 4, 1776. These first copies of the Declaration of Independence were delivered to U.S. political leaders the next day.

Only a handful of the copies, named after printer John Dunlap, are known to have survived. The last known Dunlap print sold at an auction in 2000 for more than $8 million.

The Declaration of Independence formally announced the decision of the American colonists to break away from Britain. Researchers are not certain how the Dunlap copy ended up in Britain’s National Archives.

Meanwhile, a London auction house is giving art lovers a chance to mark U.S. independence with a rare sculpture of George Washington. Sotheby’s is auctioning off a life-sized bust of the first U.S. president on July 9. The auction house expects it to sell for a minimum of about $500,000.

Sotheby’s says French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon created the bust after visiting America in 1785 to study Mr. Washington.

Happy birthday, United States – please forgive us

Steve Adcock — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:33:00 +0000

July 4th is the day that Americans celebrate the birth date of the United States, the day that our founding fathers drafted the official document – the Declaration of Independence – penning the grievances and citing the motivations that contributed to our breaking free from authoritarian British rule.

July 4th Fireworks

The official decision, and approval, for the succession from Britain actually happened two days earlier, on July 2nd. John Adams wrote to his beloved wife Abigail shortly after, “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

And indeed we have – only not on July 2nd, but July 4th. Every year we celebrate this day as the birth date of the United States. Patriots wave flags in the air, corrupt politicians give speeches about the greatness of America, fireworks light up the skies. Pomp and parade, as Adams wrote, has indeed been recognized from that time forward, forever more.

On this day more than any other, I can’t help but wonder what our founding fathers would say, think and do if they saw what we’ve allowed our “elected representatives” to turn this country into. We demanded independence from Britain to avoid rule from a foreign and often unjust government, but I am afraid that after 233 years, we’ve done nothing but replace one corrupt government with another.

The only difference is – this time – we’re the ones voting for them.

It seems every month a new allegation of corruption surfaces involving a politician, whether that be fraud, abuse of power, prostitution, adultery, or tax evasion. We have a government in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars and no sign of relief. We have a government that has forced its way into the business of private financial and automotive commerce against the authorities of the Constitution. In fact, we have a government that completely disregards the just limitations placed upon it by the Constitution. By definition, our government is out of control.

I celebrate the infallible honor and bravery of our founding fathers like any other, but I also mourn the trespasses upon liberty at the hands of our career politicians like so many more should. Perhaps to some this is a day to forget those concerns, but our “great experiment” is too important to forget – to cast aside – even for a single day.

Celebrate with your families. Enjoy the summertime warmth with a BBQ, games, bells and bonfires. Wave your American flags in the air and thank our soldiers for their noble sacrifice. But, don’t forget the freedoms and liberties that our founding fathers fought and died for 233 years ago to give us this day of celebration. Demand a similar respect from our day’s politicians of those same freedoms that all Americans deserve.

We cannot afford to forget.

Barney Frank wants TARP funds for “housing” initiatives

Neal Boortz — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:39:09 +0000

Slobbering Barney Frank has been busy lately. Last week he proposed the idea of relaxing regulations on the sale of condos. This week he wants to use TARP money to put poor people into housing. See, banks participating in TARP have to pay dividends to the Treasury. So far those banks have paid $5 billion. So now Barney Frank comes along and says, “Hey, I know how we can spend all of this money!” Certainly not to stimulate the economy, Barney, and not to pay off some of the debt you’re running up either.

So here’s Barney’s plan. He has introduced legislation that would use $1 billion of those dividends in order to give rental housing to the poor, poor pitiful poor and to urban outdoorsmen. Here’s the plan … the $1 billion would be put into something called a national housing trust fund. This fund has apparently already been created … it was done when the government decided to takeover Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So Barney has the fund .. but no funds. Now Barack Obama’s 2010 budget calls for this fund to receive $1 billion, so Barney’s plan is just a way to make that happen. That’s just the beginning, folks. That’s just “seed money.” The goal would be to put $150 billion over the next decade into this housing trust for poor people. That’s a “15″ with a pant-load of zeroes behind it.

Stay tuned! That’s not all … another $1.5 billion of these TARP dividends will be allocated to state and local governments to help them redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties.

It keeps going. Barney Frank also wants to use some of the TARP money itself, not just the dividends. He wants $2 billion in TARP dollars to go toward an emergency mortgage relief program. Then another $2 billion in TARP dollars would create a program to help people cope with foreclosures on multifamily properties. All of this would be run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

We’re never going to pay any of this money back my friends, not while the Washington Barneys see ways to use it to buy votes.

Obama’s selective meddling

News Bites — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:37:41 +0000

Help me out here. President Obama immediately “meddles” in the affairs of Honduras, denouncing a military coup, the intent of which is to preserve the country’s constitution, but when it comes to Iran’s fraudulent election and the violent repression of demonstrators who wanted their votes counted, the president initially vacillates and equivocates.

Are we expected to accept this as a consistent foreign policy? Even Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was reluctant to call the removal of President Manuel Zelaya a coup, if for no other reason than it would stop U.S. aid flowing to the impoverished Central American nation.

The fingerprints (or in this case the boot prints) of the Castro brothers, Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua are all over this. If one is known by the company one keeps, the specter of the Castros and their protege dictators joining Mr. Obama in denouncing the Honduran military coup is not reassuring.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/02/obamas_selective_meddling_97282.html

‘Nightly news’ promotes paying children for public school success

Jeff Poor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:00:10 +0000

No matter how much money any government – federal, state or local – puts into public education, it’s never enough in some people’s eyes.

A July 1 “NBC Nightly News” segment detailed a new use of tax payer dollars in one of the worst performing, financially struggling school systems in the country – the Washington, D.C. public school system. They are paying school children with taxpayer funds, part of a social experiment to improve school participation at the middle school level.

“Keeping the exuberant sixth graders of Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson in line on a sunny Friday is a challenge for principal Brian Betts,” former “Nightly News” anchor-turned-correspondent Tom Brokaw explained. “But this is not an assembly, it’s payday. It’s called Capital Gains – paying students for good grades, behavior and attendance, part of the massive restructuring of the D.C. schools by a 38-year-old Korean-American woman, who as chancellor, wants to transform what is by many measures the worst-performing public school system in the U.S.”

Brokaw credited Washington, D.C. Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee for being instrumental in making this program a reality. He explained the Capital Gains program was the invention of a Harvard think tank that came with a $1.35-million price tag for taxpayers.

“In less than two years, Rhee has replaced nearly one in three of the principals and dozens of teachers, closed 23 failing schools and proposed six-figure salaries in exchange for tenure for teachers,” Brokaw said. “And she has put selected D.C. middle schools on the Capital Gains payroll run by a Harvard think tank. The cost of that program $2.7 million, half from D.C. taxpayers, half from a private grant. Through Capital Gains, kids can earn as much as $100 every two weeks, and many of them directly deposit it in a savings account.”

Alfie Kohn, author of “Punished By Rewards,” criticized the program on a philosophical level because it distorted the meaning of learning in schools for success on standardized tests.

“This program is a bad method consisting of dangling goodies in front of kids rather than treating them respectfully as partners in the learning, married to a bad objective, higher scores on bad standardized tests,” Kohn said.

And Brokaw’s segment ignored the financial woes that have been facing the D.C. schools. Recently, Rhee went to head-to-head with the D.C. Council on enrollment figures, which would determine budget funding system for the system. According to the June 3 Washington Examiner, the council and Rhee bickered over several million dollars in funding based on enrollment figures. Rhee threatened the council with mass layoffs before a compromised was eventually reached that left $3.3 million on the table pending the outcome of an enrollment audit.

467K jobs cut in June; jobless rate at 9.5 percent

News Bites — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:21:54 +0000

WASHINGTON – Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy’s road to recovery will be bumpy.

The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground.

June’s payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_economy

Congress’s travel expenses skyrocket as economy continues struggle

Steve Adcock — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:13:19 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reported recently a disturbing trend among members of Congress – tenfold increases in travel expenses, all funded by the taxpayer, to destinations like Italy, the Galapagos Islands, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and locations in-between.

The Journal reports that travel itself is up significantly over levels 12 years ago. In 2008, members of Congress spent nearly $13 million in travel costs and expenses, which amounts to a 50% increase just since the Democrats regained control of Congress two years ago.

“Lawmakers say that the trips are a good use of government funds because they allow members of Congress and their staff members to learn more about the world, inspect U.S. assets abroad and forge better working relationships with each other,” the paper said.

The paper reports the tendency for lawmakers to combine trips to war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan with stops at more luxurious locations, like Italy or the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of Democrats to Afghanistan for a day – a single day – and then continued on to Italy for eight days where more than $57k was spent on hotel accommodations and meals.

The paper continued by reporting trips from Congressional members to more exotic locations. “Last summer, Rep. Brian Baird (D., Wash.) took a four-day trip to the Galápagos Islands with his wife, four other lawmakers and their family members. The lawmakers spent $22,000 on meals and hotels, records show. Mr. Baird, a member of the House Science Committee, said the trip was to learn about global warming.”

“The congressional trips are possible thanks in part to an unlimited fund created by a three-decade old law. Nearly two dozen government officials work full-time organizing the trips.”

Media give massive cap-and-trade tax second billing

Jeff Poor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:29:49 +0000

The news cycle has been dominated by celebrity deaths – Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and even TV pitchman Billy Mays – and President Barack Obama’s health care initiative. Obama has used the compliant media to keep the focus to health care, and they are neglecting a critical largest news event that could impact the lives of every man, woman and child for the foreseeable future.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a 1,200-page climate change bill known as the “American Clean Energy and Security Act” sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. and Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., by a narrow 219-212 vote on June 26.

Prospects for that piece of environmental legislation might have been hurt had reporters pointed out the scientific censorship taking place in the Obama administration. A veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency strongly questioned the theory of manmade global warming in a report that was then silenced by the administration. That’s exactly the opposite of how many journalists handled a similar controversy during the Bush administration.

The news blackout helped the new bill, which has been referred to as the “cap-and-tax bill” by opponents, who point out the massive tax increase that the American public will be burdened with as a result. So contentious is the bill that it inspired the likes of liberal bomb-thrower and columnist Paul Krugman to accuse those same opponents of treason in the op-ed pages of The New York Times.

But Krugman at least acknowledged the bill’s existence. Few others in the mainstream media have. Climate change has been a pet issue the past several years for the media, so their silence is strange.

A Double Standard: EPA Skeptic Suppressed – Ignored by All, but Fox News

Throughout the latter half of George W. Bush’s presidency, some in the media were quick to cry foul when accusations surfaced science was being silenced in the name of politics, especially in the case of NASA climate expert James Hansen.

But fast-forward to June 2009 and the early stages of the Barack Obama presidency. The cap-and-trade bill just passed the House and was on its way to the Senate when a 38-year EPA veteran, Senior Operations Research Analyst Alan Carlin, came forward and said his 98-page study that questioned the theory of anthropogenic global warming had been quashed by the administration.

Carlin appeared on the Fox News Channel’s June 30 “Fox & Friends” and told of how his report was dismissed by the EPA because his “comments do not help the legal policy or case.” Those revelations caused Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to call for a congressional inquiry.

“He came out with the truth,” Inhofe said to Fox News on June 29. “They don’t want the truth at the EPA. We’re going to expose it.”

Nonetheless, Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network have been virtually alone in covering the story – in sharp contrast to similar revelations from the opposite side of the issue during the Bush Administration. A scientist was allegedly censored because his findings went against the politics of the administration in power. That got top billing by some media outlets.

“The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming,” Andrew Revkin wrote for the front page of the January 29, 2006 issue of The New York Times. “The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.”

That article sparked coverage from other mainstream media outlets, eager to show there was an effort by the Bush administration to silence Hansen. CBS “60 Minutes” contributor and regular global warming alarmist Scott Pelley reported that Hansen faced trouble by appearing on his program.

“As a government scientist, James Hansen is taking a risk,” Pelley said on the March 19, 2006 “60 Minutes.” “He says there are things the White House doesn’t want you to hear, but he’s going to say them anyway. Hansen is arguably the world’s leading researcher on global warming. He’s the head of NASA’s top institute studying the climate. But, as we first reported last spring, this eminent scientist says the Bush administration is restricting who he can talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting the science. Well, there’ll be none of that tonight because James Hansen is telling what he knows on ‘60 Minutes.’”

Hansen parlayed the fame he gained from dozens of news interviews into a book called “Censoring Science: Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming.”

Political Realities Ignored: Narrow House Passage Means Likely End of the Road

When the Waxman-Markey bill passed in the House on June 26 by a mere seven-vote margin, even with harsh criticism from House Minority Leader John Boehner, it was celebrated as a win by some in the global warming alarmist movement. Steve Bouchard, campaign manager of former Vice President Al Gore chalked the vote up as a victory.

“Today, we have something to celebrate,” Bouchard wrote in an e-mail sent out immediately after the House vote on June 26. “For the first time in decades, we have taken bold action to help solve the climate crisis. I look forward to working with you in the days ahead.”

The coverage on the networks wasn’t as “celebratory,” although he bill was commonly hailed as “sweeping.”

“In Washington, the House last night narrowly passed a sweeping climate change bill,” “NBC Nightly News” weekend anchor Lester Holt said on his June 27 broadcast. “President Obama says it’s a bold and necessary step to fight global warming and encourage a new era of green energy. Critics, however, say the new cap and trade system to limit greenhouse gases will lead to higher energy costs.”

On the June 27 broadcast of ABC’s “World News,” David Muir said “Back in Washington tonight, President Obama is now urging the Senate to pass the most sweeping bill ever to address global warming. It was a squeaker in the House last night. And it might be an even tougher sale in the Senate.”

This was a significant understatement. Immediately following the House vote on June 26, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., issued his own statement.

“Today’s razor thin vote in the House spells doom in the Senate,” Inhofe said. “Despite a large Democratic majority in the House, and the fact that this is one of the President’s top priorities, the Democratic leadership was forced to do everything possible to get a bill passed. Their slim victory could come at a high price – this is the BTU tax all over again.”

And so far, Inhofe’s analogy about the BTU tax has proven valid. Keith Hennessey, a senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush, recently recounted the events that an unfolded around the 1993 BTU tax vote on his Web site. Hennessey explained the BTU tax bill narrowly passed in the House, but was dead on arrival in the Senate – and both houses of Congress were Democrat-controlled at the time.

Inhofe has consistently conveyed that message over the past few months as the Waxman-Markey bill has been debated – it won’t pass regardless of the Democrat’s best efforts.

It could be that the mainstream media understands this and has determined not to waste time on a story with a dead end. It’s otherwise difficult to believe that a major piece of legislation of this nature wouldn’t garner significant media coverage. According to The Heritage Foundation, gas and energy prices would spike, costing American families an additional $3,000 per year. Jobs would be lost and the prices of goods would jump – all in exchange for little impact on the environment.

However, as a June 29 Business & Media Institute analysis of USA Today pointed out, the death of pop singer Michael Jackson received massive coverage for three straight days. Waxman-Markey was nowhere to be found.

Federal receipts continues nose-dive, media silence

Tom Blumer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:46:02 +0000

As we near the end of June, which is supposed to be one of the four biggest months for federal tax collections (January, April, and September are the others), it is clear that the serious receipts shortfalls are not only continuing, but have caused the March 20 projections of the administration and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to be outdated.

Media coverage of the ongoing receipts dive has been minimal at best. A Google News search on “federal receipts” (typed in quotes) returns on seven items, two of them originating from yours truly.

Here is where things stand as of the last Friday of June in both 2009 and 2008, per Uncle Sam’s related Daily Treasury Statements:

Comparing June 26, 2009 to June 27, 2008 is more valid than comparing the same days of both years, because each period contains the same number of Mondays, a big day for receipts, and Fridays, a big day for sending out refund checks.

As you can see, as we approach the end of the month, June 2009 receipts from economic activity are down 25% from last year. It’s clear from last year’s results that it would be unreasonable to expect a high level of receipts from other than withholdings in the final two days of this year.

Estimating on what I believe is the high side, it looks like total June 2009 receipts will come in at about $230 billion, consisting of about $198 billion in the line items identified above (i.e., another $13.2 billion will come in during the final two days) plus $32 billion in other receipts. That would be a 12% drop from last year’s official total, but a 20% drop from last year’s $287.8 billion in total receipts from economic activity.

Looking forward to the rest of the year, I estimate the following results based on how the government defines receipts:

I believe these estimates, if anything, are on the high side. July 2009 will probably come in at 90% or worse compared to July 2008, because July 2008 had over $13 billion in stimulus payments, which Uncle Sam (erroneously, in my opinion) treated as negative receipts instead of outlays. August 2009, vs. August 2008 will be worse than July, because August 2008 stimulus payments were barely $1 billion. September 2009 vs. will probably be even worse than the previous two months, because that month is heavily influenced by corporate income and non-withheld tax receipts, which as you can see above have fallen far more than the overall average. Also note that August and September of 2009 will show year-over-year declines for the second straight year. Monthly year-over-year receipts from economic activity increased for an almost unbroken string of four years up until August of last year, when the recession as normal people define it began.

You can also see that my full-year receipts estimate is almost $60 billion, or 2.8%, below the CBO’s March 20 estimate (PDF) based on budget information supplied to it by the White House, and 4% below the White House’s own estimate based on the same underlying information CBO used.

As I mentioned in a June 20 post (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), the repayments of roughly $68 billion of TARP money during June by many of the larger banks are not being treated as receipts by Uncle Sam, because the original TARP disbursements/”investments” were not treated as outlays. More on how “Net Present Value” accounting is rendering almost indecipherable federal financial information that used to be mostly understandable is here.

When federal spending is hemorrhaging in the hundreds of billions and trillions, it may seem relatively unimportant to focus on differences of less than $100 billion in receipts. But that is far from the case. First, the declines are far more than what one would expect from an economy that has contracted by about 3.2% (non-annualized) in the past three reported quarters, indicating that something beyond normal business reactions is at work here. Second, the steeper the receipts decline, the smaller the foundation on which to build an economic recovery will be, and the more likely it is that the administration will give us a fake hand-wring and push tax increases as the only answer to the shortfall — even though tax increases, based on history, would more than likely extend the economic spiral instead of stopping it.

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