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This week, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) offered its solution for jumpstarting the lagging economy -- more government spending. EPI's President, Lawrence Mishel advocated a new tax-and-spend plan to the tune of "$500 billion or more in government spending, employment tax credits...
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This week, Chicago is buzzing with news of the forthcoming IOC decision on its Olympic bid. The national media is focused on the President's trip to Copenhagen and his desire to shine the spotlight on his hometown. What the media is missing is the adverse reaction with which this endeavor has been...
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Obama and the majority of congress have stomped out all resistance to the health reform bill. Now nothing stands between Obama and reform, or is there? Obama has claimed to exhibit bipartisanship in his actions, but when was the last time this politician, who has scrambled and clawed to the top position...
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Yesterday, in his weekly address, President Obama called on Americans to "summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago". This is one time when I can get behind President Obama's sentiments - although he may not like my reasons for it. What...
Posted to
AIP Blog
by
Despina Karras
on
07-05-2009
Filed under:
Filed under: wasteful spending, cap and trade, capitalism, stimulus package, government spending, universal health care, socialized health care, public healthcare, economic crisis, government, cap and tax, government option, federal government, founding fathers
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"I think if you get into the way it was written, it's a huge tax and there's no sense calling it anything else. I mean, it is a tax ." So says Warren Buffett , Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and perhaps even more importantly, one of the President's biggest supporters in the economic...
Posted to
AIP Blog
by
Despina Karras
on
06-28-2009
Filed under:
Filed under: energy, cap and trade, capitalism, free market, stimulus package, government spending, taxes, stimulus, job losses, tax issues, economic crisis, regulation, unemployment, green jobs, cap and tax, consumers, economics, environmentalists
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Last week it was revealed tha t $120,000 in federal stimulus money, originally intended to help clean up Ononadaga Lake in Central New York and rebuild local infrastructure, would actually be used to pay for the printing of a pamphlet about the lake cleanup -- and the pamphlet wasn't going to be...
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The intrigue continues with the PMA Group and its questionable ties to high-ranking House Appropriations Committee members and their earmarks. Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), chairman of the Energy and Water Subcommittee, announced this week that he would temporarily hand the responsibility of overseeing...
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Despite the President's assurances that he does not want to be in the car business and that "we cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of taxpayer dollars" , in just a few hours, you, the taxpayers of America, will own General Motors. Tomorrow, GM will...
Posted to
AIP Blog
by
Despina Karras
on
05-31-2009
Filed under:
Filed under: economy, capitalism, government spending, automobile, Chrysler, car company, detroit, UAW, auto industry, economic crisis, taxpayers, corruption, bailout, business
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Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has become the poster child for everything that is wrong with the earmarking process. (Read a prior blog post on the Murtha Airport .) He uses his seniority and position on the Appropriations Committee to secure earmarks which he then passes on to companies he has personal relationships...
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Remember when the Obama Administration said while pushing for the stimulus bill to be passed that it would be timely and targeted? The Heritage Foundation has been tracking the claims and has found that the bill is neither. As this chart provided by Heritage shows, the spending of the billions in the...
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It's easy to knock the earmark process when citing examples like $1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach water taxi service in Connecticut or $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Ames, Iowa. But when it comes to defense earmarks meant to protect our men and women in battle, it...
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Earmarks are often defended as "congressionally directed spending" but sometimes the member of Congress does not know to what exactly they are directing the spending. Such was the case with Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) and an earmark in the recent omnibus spending bill. The Kansas City Star...
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It’s A Stimulus Stupid! Part Two! Last week when I left all you wonderful viewers we were talking about the alternative minimum tax increase found in the American Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Now it is our duty to move on and uncover more of the nonsense that was passed off as “stimulating...
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AIP Blog
by
AIP Admin
on
05-12-2009
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Filed under: senate, congress, wasteful spending, economy, budget, treasury, pork, stimulus package, government spending, taxes, stimulus, economic recovery, economic crisis, spending, education, taxpayers
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"An unrivaled set of abstractions and posturing," is how a Boston University Professor of Health Policy described the announcement that health companies (insurers, providers and drug companies) have promised to enact $2 trillion in cost-cutting measures over the next 10 years. This ceremonial...
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We are starting to see just how Obama's White House original budget estimate were done with rose-colored glasses, as fellow AIP blogger Eric Fehrnstrom wrote last month . The White House has now revised their budget projections for this year... and they don't look good. The deficit for the current...