Why ObamaCare is different from Obama's other thefts

There was little or no major outrage over Cash For Clunkers. 
There was some outrage over The Porkulus Package, but not much.
Nobody gave a damn about Solyndra, or LightSquared, or the Detroit giveaways. 

But now that Obamacare has hit the mailboxes, Obama's popularity is taking a nose-dive, his congress-critters are deserting him, and he has to keep doing executive action fixes to the thing.  People are pissed!

Why?  All of these programs gave to the wealthy at the expense of the middle (and the not-so-middle).  What makes Obamacare different? 

You have to go all the way back to Fred Bastiat to understand what's different this time....

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.

That's from "Things Seen And Unseen". 

Everybody saw the new cars from the Cash For Clunkers program.  Everybody saw the factory down the street get new overhead doors with their Porkulus check.  Everybody read the Green Energy bullshit about how Solyndra and Lightsquared would one day bottle all known fairy farts and successfully power our homes. 

Nobody got a bill for the cars that were destroyed. 
Nobody got a bill for the pork. 
Nobody got a bill for the Crony Capitalist green boondoggles. 

Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have to pay for that stuff, and they can't vote yet.

Obamacare is different. 

The bill is in the mail, mofo's, IF you are lucky enough to still have insurance.  There ain't a free lunch.  Almost all insurance has gone up, and the fools who advocated for this disaster are, in many cases, the ones who are also having to pay for it.  Pass the Kleenex. 

Of Obama/Pelosi/Reid had stuck to traditional methods and put it on your baby's bar tab (or simply printed it), Obama would still be flying high. 

Hope this explains things. 

You're welcome. 
 

You can't always get what you want, but you get what you need

This ultra-wholesome missive from Jim Messina, campaign manager of Obama For America, showed up in my inbox the other day:

Whited --

June 30th at 11:59 p.m. is the first big deadline of this campaign. At that moment, we'll close the books on this financial quarter and begin preparing our fundraising report to the Federal Election Commission, the press, and the public.
Our opponents are chasing Washington lobbyists and special-interest PACs for big checks ahead of the deadline. To them, and to most of the pundits, campaigns are all about how many millions of dollars each candidate can raise.
We disagree. Of course we have a budget and financial goals. But we believe that the true strength of our campaign is the number of everyday people owning a piece of it.
So we refuse money from Washington lobbyists and special-interest PACs. And rather than setting a goal of millions of dollars, we're setting a goal of 450,000 people owning a piece of this campaign by the June 30th deadline.
This report will serve as the definitive record of who was there to build this campaign from the very start, and you should be part of it. Please donate $5 or whatever you can afford and help us hit our goal.

Ok, all you retirees getting by on $8.00 per day, stop sending your money to Jimmy Swaggart.  Obama is trying to restrict his donations to only the most grassroots, non-connected, Washington outsiders possible.  Any widows with mites (Google it), please send them to Barack. 

A lot of people out there are wondering whether this campaign can inspire the kind of grassroots support that has been the foundation of our success. A lot of people out there are already saying we can't.

So we've got something to prove.
What happens between now and Thursday will shape the story of how the 2012 race began.
Help write that story with a donation of $5 or more here. 

Who the hell are these people who keep saying that Barack can't raise money?  Do they not read the newspapers or have access to the internet? 
And you gotta love the "we're only wanting $5.00 business.  It makes him sound like he's selling Girl Scout Cookies. 

And now for something completely different.  Remember, the Democrats are the party of the people, the party of the working class, the party that is protecting you from the fat cats and the lobbyists.  This is from The New York Holy Times:

President Obama’s $35,800-a-plate fund-raising dinner was the talk of Wall Street last week.


Held at Daniel, the Michelin three-star restaurant of Daniel Boulud on the Upper East Side, the event was seen as a test of the president’s popularity among the deep-pocketed financiers he has often vilified but has long relied on to finance his campaign. The tables were filled with moneymen like Marc Lasry, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Avenue Capital; Robert Wolf, the chief executive of UBS Group Americas; and Mark T. Gallogly, a co-founder of Centerbridge Partners.

I'm sure those guys are flukes.  Hey, if flying fish are jumping into Obama's boat, it's hard to blame the guy.  But wait....

Mr. Obama’s dinner last week raised $2.3 million, outpacing an original projection of $1.5 million. And the Democratic National Committee raised $10.5 million in May, surpassing the Republican National Committee, which raised $6.2 million. The second quarter, which ends on Thursday, will give another glimpse of how the early fund-raising is shaping up.

Wow.  A whole lot of people have given the Dems five dollars (or more in some cases).

Here's Mick and Keef and The Stones.

Navistar and Cummins: Working with government to force you to purchase new trucks

From The American Machinist website, via Quick Manufacturing News. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are set to mandate cuts in fuel emissions ranging from 10 to 20 percent starting in 2014, for a full range of gas and diesel trucks, both on- and off-highway models. The full impact of the proposal would not be felt until 2018, at which time the vehicle manufacturers would be expected to have raised their average fuel-efficiency rating from 6 to 8 mpg.

The government has issued a decreee.  You WILL invent a semi-tractor that gets an average of 8 miles per gallon. 
These are the people who can't consistently deliver Sports Freakin' Illustrated to East Fort Worth. 
These are the people who can't go in, kick the snot out of some nomads on camels, declare themselves the winners and get the hell out of Afghanistan. 
After hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart's fleet of relief supplies beat them into New Orleans.
What could cause them to throw down an edict like this one? 
Back to The American Machinist....

...In their announcement, EPA and DOT projected that their comprehensive program will “reduce GHG emissions by about 250 million metric tons and save 500 million barrels of oil over the lives of the vehicles produced within the program’s first five years.”

And how much energy will be consumed in the production of these new miracle trucks?  The article doesn't say. 

But overall, it's bullshit.  If the trucking industry can find a tractor whose fuel economy justifies the purchase of a new truck, the trucking industry will buy that truck.  It's that simple. 
What could possibly be behind this insanity? 
Let's continue....

Responding to the announcement, diesel engine and truck manufacturer Navistar International asserted its ongoing fuel-efficiency improvement and GHG reduction initiatives, and affirmed willingness to working with the federal government.

Ahhhh...now we're getting somewhere.  Can you believe that a truck manufacturer, someone in the business of selling new trucks, has actually affirmed its willingness to work with the federal government in forcing truckers to buy their new wonder trucks? 
Go here to see a list of the government's employees that Navstar is "working with" by giving them lots of money. 

Go here to learn about an economic concept called Regulatory Capture. 

“While it’s too soon to evaluate all elements of the proposed regulations, we are committed to engaging with the EPA and DOT on this issue,” stated Daniel C. Ustian, Navistar chairman, president and CEO. “We look forward to working together with government and industry leaders in the months ahead to implement changes that will benefit the customers and communities we serve with cleaner, more fuel efficient commercial vehicles.”

This farce is going to make Cash For Clunkers look like The Louisiana Purchase. 

Another major engine builder, Cummins Inc., expressed support for the regulatory proposal, too.

A shocker, I know.  But yes, Cummins Diesel is supporting a proposal that forces people to buy their newer products. 

“For some time now, Cummins has advocated for consistent and responsible regulations that recognize the needs of business, offer clear direction and provide incentives...

....provide incentives..... That's another phrase for "Giving Cummins Diesel Your Money"....Go here for a summary of the campaign donations they've made in exchange for (ahem) incentives. 

 ....to companies that create innovative technologies as well as jobs in this country,” stated Cummins Engine Business President Rich Freeland. “We look forward to working with the EPA, DOT and other stakeholders in developing the final rule.”

Didn't you just know that they would all have a seat at the table, and that they would all look forward to sitting down around it?  The manufacturers, the regulators, and their whores.  Can you believe that Rich Freeland referred to that unholy crew as "the stakeholders" ???? 

Everybody will be there, working together in a bipartisan fashion to screw the people who actually purchase and operate the damn trucks.  
Brilliant. 

On Russ Carnahan's wind farm, 10,000 teachers, and everything else

Some people in Missouri are working up some outrage over Rep. Russ Carnahan giving $105 million dollars worth of Porkulus funds to his brother's company, the Wind Capital Group. 

Here's The Wall Street Holy Journal:

A wind farm in Missouri that got a $107 million stimulus grant is generating some turbulence for two prominent Democratic candidates, Robin Carnahan, the state’s Democratic Senate candidate and her brother, Rep. Russ Carnahan.


The wind farm is a project of Wind Capital Group of St. Louis, whose president, CEO and founder is the Carnahans’ brother, Tom Carnahan.

....An Energy Department spokeswoman said the grants in lieu of tax credits had been awarded to all eligible applicants, and that the department had reviewed Wind Capital Group’s application in the same way it had reviewed all the others.

Yeah.  She looked at who was pushing for the grant, and said "yea" or "nay" based on the Congressman's clout.  Carnahan has clout.
 
Look, these things have absolutely nothing to do with usefulness, the public good, the general welfare, or common sense.  They are about recruiting and rewarding donors.  If the Carnahans could loot the public till  by claiming that wind farms prevent alien invasions from the planet Nekthar, that's the justification they would use. 

Please be patient with me.  I'm going somewhere with this.....

This next excerpt is from The Cato Institute, where they are working up some outrage over The Teleprompter Jesus wanting to hire 10,000 more teachers. 

This week, President Obama called for the hiring of 10,000 new teachers to beef up math and science achievement. Meanwhile....public school employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment for 40 years (see chart), while achievement at the end of high school has stagnated in math and declined in science (hit the link to see the other chart).

Either the president is badly misinformed about our education system or he thinks that promising to hire another 10,000 teachers union members is politically advantageous–in which case he would seem to be badly misinformed about the present political climate. Or he lives in an alternate universe in which Kirk and Spock have facial hair and government monopolies are efficient. It’s hard to say.

So what?  Russ Carnahan gave his brother's Superstition-Based Energy Company a total of  $102 million dollars, despite prayer, wind, and wishful thinking all being less efficient than oil. 

Barack Obama wants to add 10,000 more public school teachers to the public tit, despite the dismal results shown above.

So when are we going to stop believing that their stated goals have anything to do with these wealth transfers?  It is all about rewarding supporters, folks. 

Wake the hell up ! 

On every survey or poll taken, you claim that you don't trust Congress, you don't approve of Congress, and you think Congress does a rotten job.  You would let Ted Bundy babysit before you would allow Congress to trim your hedges.

But when Congress wants to spend a few jillion bucks on an anti-poverty program, or an education program, or a new machine to blow up A-rabs, the same surveys claim that you support these programs (based on party affiliation, of course).    

It's easy to get worked up over the Carnahan family, simply because the quid isn't far enough removed from the  pro quo.   
Very few people can look at that chart above and think we need 10,000 more teachers in our Gladiator Traning Institutes, but when Obama wants to hire more teachers we think it's a good idea.  It would be rude to point out that these 10,000 teachers aren't going to start biting the hand that feeds them. 

But take a look at who gets the rest of your the government's money.  If The Pentagon needs to buy bullets, do they just purchase them from some random-assed bullet manufacturer?  Absolutely not.  They purchase them from a supporter, or someone who is about to be a supporter. 

What about a jail?  Are those built and constructed by generic contractors? 

Absolutely not.  They are built by supporters.  Supporters who lobby for laws that guarantee plenty of occupants for their jails, BTW.     

99 cents of every taxpayer dollar spent goes to the supporters of at least one of our two governing factions.  (I think the other penny is stolen.) 

It's getting harder and harder for entrepreneurs to get loans to start a new business unless they've have a strategy for some sort of rent-seeking partnership with government. 

Yeah, The Carnahans should've covered their tracks better.  But somebody was going to get your money, and unless you were politically connected, it wasn't going to be you. 

Vote Libertarian.  We're know that some government is necessary, but when we're finished, it'll be small enough to drown in the bathtub.

Prediction: Congressman Bart Stupak will soon be attracting even higher bids

It irks the crap out of me to go to all the trouble of creating a motivational poster like this one....

....only to have the guy retire to "spend more time with his family". 

Since it's difficult to reward a guy properly for betraying an entire nation while he's still holding elective office, I'm betting that we'll soon see Congressman Stupak working in a highly paid job as a bag man lobbyist between donors and The Current Ruling Regime.  Time will tell. 

No Corruption Here. Move Along, Please......

Move along people, nothing to see here.  Keep moving folks, keep moving, this isn't corruption.  None of this is as it seems.  You're holding up traffic.  Stop looking at this.  These are not the Droids you are looking for.  The Quid is far enough away from the Pro Quo.  No corruption here.  Totally unrelated.  Stop gawking, please, you're holding up traffic. 

Found it on Instapundit.  Picture of Officer Barbrady came from here. 

The Pork Party House - Reason Magazine on earmarks, Mary Landrieu, Jeff Flake, and the down home tasty goodness of PORK ! !

The best part of this video is where Jeff Flake, one of the few small government Republicans, claims that he gets "beaten like a rented mule" for opposing earmarks.
Enjoy.