The Road To 2016 Is Strewn With Pork

By John Galt for America's Chronicle
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Christie is another Crist - infamous "Turncoat" from Florida that lost against Marco Rubio.

Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, not satisfied with turning "Turncoat" six days before the presidential election, has now unleashed a venomous attack on the Republican House of Representatives and in particular on Speaker John Boehner. Their sin? Their "failure" - according to Christie - to pass immediately $60 Billion - yes, like in $60,000 million - an emergency Bill which was passed by the Senate to help the states of New York and New Jersey with the damages caused by the storm Sandy, as the Senate irresponsibly did without any scrutiny or thought.

But, even though all those rabid anti-Boehner Conservatives are unaware of it, this is where the House, under the leadership of Speaker Boehner, separates itself form the Senate. The only problem is that this unprecedented amount of money is not all assigned for the aim of helping the people's of New Jersey or New York but it is actually a festival of pork totally unrelated to the storm. Speaker Boehner, rightfully conscious of the People's money, has dutifully separated the bill into two parts and is going through the process of assessing what is responsibly needed. This act of statesmanship and common sense has infuriated our Rino Republican Christie. But the governor, instead of sensibly addressing the concerns of the House over this enormous amount of money, has instead lashed out at the Speaker with name calling and accusations of political irresponsibility.

Governor Christie wants no questions asked. He wants his money including those thousands of millions of dollars that are totally unrelated to help the people of New Jersey that were affected by the storm. Some of these pork slices that Christie wants include;

$12,900 million for future disaster mitigation activities and studies, without identifying a single way to pay for it.
$5,300 million for the Army Corps of Engineers — more than the Corps’ annual budget — with no statement of priorities about how to spend the money.
$125 million for the Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Watershed Protection program, which helps restore watersheds damaged by wildfires and drought.
$20 million for a nationwide Water Resources Priorities Study.
$336 million for taxpayer-supported AMTRAK without any detailed plan for how the money will be spent.
$150 million for fisheries as far away from the storm’s path as Alaska.

And a lot more where that came from.

That governor Christie is so easily willing to attack fellow Republicans, as he was easily prone to praise President Obama six days before the election, for this kind of unmitigated piece of corrupted legislation, is a dire warning for those that believe he is a possible candidate for President in 2016.

People have short memories, but we will remind our fellow Republicans when the time comes.

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Three Good News Items for 2013

By John Galt for America's Chronicle
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Good News Number #1: President George H. Bush has been transferred out of the Intensive care unit due to considerable improvement of his respiratory condition. The ex-President is 88 years old and has been hospitalized since November 23rd suffering from a persistent fever. Our best wishes remain with the President.

Good News Number #2: Lady Thatcher, who is now 87 years old, has been operated successfully from a tumor and is now resting in her private residence. The Baroness has retired from public engagements due to illness but has been able to handle this surgical intervention quite well. "The Iron Lady", as she is known for her strongly held convictions, has been the greatest British Prime Minister during peace times of the last 100 years. May you live long, Lady Thatcher; and thank you for what you have done for Great Britain!

 

Good News Number #3:  Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency during President Obama first term has resigned in order to impose her radical regulatory regime on her family only and leave Americans well alone. US industries and businesses expression of relief could be premature until we know the coming new EPA administrator which in all likelihood will serve with the same misguided orders from above as Ms. Jackson. We pray for a miracle that the Senate will find some trace of backbone when it comes to the confirmation process.

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China's Wary Eye On The US Fiscal Mess

By John Galt for America's Chronicle
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Tic, tic, tic, . . . When The Dragon Stops Devouring Treasury's

What China thinks of America through its multiple voices of quasi-information is of little concern, unless, of course, by some rare coincidence it straddles into step with similar opinions in the West.

It happens to be such a case when it comes to the subject of America's fiscal policies and present structural problems of its ever mounting debt, where Beijing's analysis leaves the sole realm of propaganda and acquires a new validated urgency. China is raising questions over American fiscal issues through its best known rating agency, Dagong, who has served notice of a possible "downgrade" of US sovereign debt if Washington is unable to resolve most of its fiscal issues entering 2013.

Dagong cited five possible negative factors  that sound relative common place to other rating agencies in the West:

1 - The US is at an impasse in budget negotiations

2 - With no plan for maintaining solvency, the US is monetizing its debt

3 - US government debt is growing much faster than fiscal revenue

4 - The fiscal cliff could lead to a US recession in 2013

5 - Frequent emergencies such as the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling deadlines add to the risks

It would be of little concern what a Chinese rating agency thinks of America's fiscal policy, that is . . . . . . . unless, that leads to a decision by Beijing to stop buying US Treasury's. When that happens, and if other countries follow Beijing's lead, the bust of the Treasury bubble may be on its way.

This will be the "mother of all bubbles".

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The Two Faces Of Paul Krugman

By John Galt for America's Chronicle
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Which face is this?

No other economist has been able to smirch and degrade the value of a Nobel Prize more than Paul Krugman. The Most recent rant against those that predict dire consequences for the build-up of our nation debt in recent years has him cherry-picking old pronouncements from those with whom he disagrees that contradict their warnings. His selected samples of debt warnings by Greenspan and Senator Simpson end up with a general condemnation, saying,

". . . the prophets of fiscal disaster, no matter how respectable they may seem, are at this point effectively members of a doomsday cult. . . . So we cannot and will not persuade these people to reconsider their views in the light of the evidence. All we can do is stop paying attention."

But along comes Greg Mankiw of Harvard University, who is paying attention , and who provides us with a reminder of how cherry-picking in economics works remarkably well for both sides. It turns out that back in 2003 when our debt was but a fraction of what is now, our Nobel Cherry-Picker wrote,

"I'm terrified about what will happen to interest rates once financial markets wake up to the implications of skyrocketing budget deficits . . . . How will the train wreck play itself out? . . . . my prediction is that politicians will eventually be tempted to resolve the crisis the way irresponsible governments usually do: by printing money, both to pay current bills and to inflate away debt."

 
Perhaps Mr. Krugman is campaigning for a new Nobel Prize in economics with a novel technique of attempting to confuse the sages in Oslo to distraction. By predicting doom under a Republican Administration - not that we suggest that has anything to do with it, heaven forbid - who was raking deficits 1/5 the size of today's and who was nursing a national debt of a about a quarter of today's debt, while approving, under a Democratic Administration - again, no connection, please - the highest debt ratios in the world, except Greece, and even asking for more.

Paul Krugman has me confused, so that ought to do it. The Prize is in the bag.

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Republican Children Fall Into The Trap

By John Galt for America's Chronicle
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White House technician takes
the measure of a Republicn brain.

The first and most obvious clue that Boehner's Plan 'B' was a good tactical move is the desperate attempts by Harry Reid and President Obama to defeat it. The Senate Majority leader immediately said that it "was dead on arrival", and the President promised to veto it. Does it occur to those naive Republicans in the House that that was exactly what Boehner was counting on?

The freshmen children in the House failed to see that it was that refusal by the Democratic leadership of Boehner's plan the first indication that it was a good plan. It accomplished Boehner's goal of transferring the blame to President Obama for a tax increase on the middle-class coming January 1st.

They failed to see that the question of lack of spending cuts in the mixture was a moot point. The legislation's purpose was not to solve the fiscal problem in one stroke but to carve for Republicans a position of strength for the coming 2013 negotiations without being stuck with the blame for higher tax rates on the middle class. The purpose was to save the political health of the Republican Party which the President is trying to destroy.

It should be obvious that the very uncompromising stance of the President has the purpose of damaging the Republican Party and to stick them with the blame for raising taxes on the Middle class. The President is trying to accomplish a Democratic dream - increase taxes on everybody and have a bonanza of revenues to expend in redistribution, while blaming the Republicans for the tax increase. Republican freshmen are playing into his hands like sheep to the slaughter.

 

Mission accomplished, Mr. President, with the help of the naive and very "principled" Republican children in the House. Those 'principled children' are the same type as those voters on the right that gave the President his election victory. It seems that The President has taken the intellectual measurement of the Conservatives.

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Boehner: Reversing the Obama Trap Over The Fiscal Cliff.

By John Galt for America's Chronile
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The criticism that Boehner is receiving for his handling of the negotiations over the fiscal cliff is not only just unfair, it also shows the unsophisticated phase of the conservatives when it comes to look beyond their noses. The conclusion of these conservative critics is that Boehner has given away tax increases without getting significant cuts in spending is just that - unsophisticated dumb narrow mindedness.

What Boehner is doing is clever and the best it can be done with a lousy hand he has been dealt. He is inverting the Obama trap of getting tax rate increases and thus sticking a "read my lips" level on Republicans, or go over the cliff and blame Republicans for the tax increases on the Middle-Class. This is the trap that Boehner is beating and reversing on the President by accepting a very high tax rate threshold - one that only increases taxes on 0.8% of all tax payers - and get the President or the Democrats in the Senate to kill it, and thus get blamed for the fiscal cliff raising taxes, or accept it and lose the argument over raising taxes on small businesses.

The likelihood that Obama won't take it is much higher, and Boehner knows that, entering into his calculations to positioning the Republican Party for evading the blame of a fiscal cliff tax rise. Increasing taxes on only 0.8% of taxpayers will not brand today's Republicans with the "read-my-lips" H. Bush shame. It positions Boehner and the House to come back in 2013 with a President under pressure to do something about a tanking economy and implement phase 2 of our plan as explained in the piece, "The fiscal Cliff Sting", which will allow to respond to the likely Democratic ploy of suggesting a tax cut for the middle class to the level just rescinded by the Fiscal Cliff with a Republican proposition for larger tax cuts for the Middle-Class than those of the Democrats including meaningful spending cuts. This provides all the cover necessary for getting blame for a middle-tax tax rise and will reposition the Republican Party as the authentic party of tax cuts.

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The Honor of Colonel Saito And Hillary Clinton.

By John Galt for America's Chronicle
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The Japanese Colonel in charge of the British prisoners of war in WWII and Madam Clinton share uncanny similitudes and failures; what they don't share is the same sense of honor.

The State Department Review Board has reported in their final analysis of the Benghazi raid on the American Consulate that ended with the Life of the American Ambassador and four other brave Americans in Libya that there were serious security failures (Uh-Daah!) and execution of security procedures, not least a lack of foresight, in Hillary Clinton's State Department. It concluded that these needed to be addressed with urgency.

- To which Clinton responded: "I have already given the order" (i.e., exact quote: "The Accountability Review Board report provides a clear-eyed look at serious, systemic challenges that we have already begun to fix").

But we have seen this movie before - "The Bridge On The River Kwai" where the conversation between Colonel Nicholson, the British prisoner of war commander, and Colonel Saito, the Japanese commander in charge of building the bridge is rather reminiscent of an incompetent commander modus operandi:

(From a scene of the movie)
- Col. Nicholson: "Now, there's another important decision that can't be postponed. As most of the British soldiers will be working on the bridge, only a small number will be available for railway work. So, I must ask you, Colonel Saito, to lend us some of your own men to reinforce the railway gang, so that the final stretch of track can be completed as quickly as possible."
- Col. Saito: "I have already given the order. "
- Col. Nicholson: "We must fix the daily work quota for your men. At first I thought of setting it at a yard and a half, so as not to overtire them, but don't you think it would be best if we make it the same as the British soldiers? That would also create a healthy competitive spirit."
- Col. Saito: "I have already given the order."

Colonel Saito ended committing suicide; Hillary Clinton has instead verbally "taken responsibility" from an 'undisclosed location'.

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