Remember All Those Who Voted For ObamaCare?

Notice how many of them are no longer in Congress? And We the People still hate it, more now than before it was passed. It’s time for Republicans and those Democrats who like their cushy perks of Office to abort ObamaCare.

All Multi-Nationals Should Invert Away From US

If you are a multi-national corporation headquartered in X country, you pay that country’s corporate tax for the business you do there and you pay the corporate tax in each other country for the business you do there with the exception of one industrialized country. If you are headquartered in the industrialized world’s highest corporate tax country, not only do you pay that country’s highest in the industrialized world for the business you do there but you also pay that country’s highest in the industrialized world for business you do anywhere else. You do get a tax credit for paying taxes elsewhere, but you also still pay taxes in that country for business you do in other countries.

Now, why would any fiscally responsible corporation spend more than double its by-nation required corporate taxes if it could just as easily cut it down to the actual rate of said country? If Canada has a 15 percent corporate tax rate (it does), then why would a corporation pay the offending country’s 35 percent corporate tax on business done in Canada, just because the business is headquartered in that offending country? It makes no fiscal sense whatsoever. Especially when it is possible to work the laws to divest yourself of insane tax requirements for doing business elsewhere in the world.

That’s exactly what Burger King (owned in a very large part by a Brazilian) did. (And I have a major issue with Burger King’s rainbow whoppers, but that’s beside the point here.)

Meanwhile, Forbes reported three days ago on the prospective merger and said:

Burger King’s majority owner, the Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital, would hold the majority of shares in the combined company, their statement said.

These Brazilians need to get patriotic and pay their absurdly high American tax rates.

See, Burger King’s majority owner, a Brazilian company, did what it took to get out of the outrageously high taxes the US put on it. That’s right. The United States has the industrialized world’s highest corporate tax, and is also the only nation in the industrialized world to force its outrageous taxes on business done in other countries.

Never mind Michelle Obama will never allow Burger King to sell its product in American schools, and would rather Burger King ceased to exist, the Loony Left are all up in arms about a business deciding it’s not a good idea to overpay their taxes.

Should I Move From California To Plano, Texas?

That is a question someone used in a web search to find an article I wrote some time back: Moving From California To Texas? The person doing the search is likely a Toyota employee. The First Street Journal covered this breaking news quite well, and included multiple links to multiple articles written concerning the ongoing fiscal insanity that is everpresent and effervescent in Leftist state governments, contrasting with the growth-minded nature of Texas.

 

Other material that can be found on Truth Before Dishonor include:

Dying California Cannibalizes Itself

Maryland Follows California And Illinois Down The Toilet

Flee California Now!

California’s Green Energy Mandate

California Introduces New Internet Sales Tax Law

California And The Great Egress

 

There is more information to be had on this subject matter on this site, if one looks through all the economics-related articles. But to answer the question the internet searcher asked:

If you’re a Leftist voter, loving yourself some Leftism, stay in that shithole state you helped create. Don’t move to Texas, because you’ll only work to turn a successful state into the shithole state you fled. If you’re a Conservative voter, by all means, move to Texas and flee that shithole state the Leftist parasites created.

 

70,000 a year income will let you live a better life than 100,000 a year in the People’s Republic of Kalifornia. Texas’ Castle Doctrine will keep you safer. Jobs are more plentiful. But be ready for culture shock. Texans don’t like Big Brother/Nanny State.

Cumulonimbus + AgI = ?? (revisited)

I’m reprinting an article I wrote 13 months ago. An article I wrote 13 months ago, I’m reprinting. An article that doesn’t even get into the most recent huge schadenfreudig spreading through the sane world. But an article I find especially prescient, given the Obama administration’s desperate efforts to prevent ObamaCare’s huge pains from actually hitting just yet…
___________________________________________

A dark cloud follows him wherever he goes.
Every cloud has a silver lining.

Farmers obviously need rain for their crops, so there are some who resort to cloud seeding, adding silver iodide to the clouds to try to force rain out of them. But it’s a bad idea to seed a thunderstorm cloud. Cumulonimbus clouds can produce nasty things like hail storms, massive lightning storms, micro-bursts, tornadoes.

And of course, there are those who always bring bad luck with them, like Bad Luck Schleprock, our current President.

 
So, today I am telling you about the seeding of a 3,000 mile wide thunderstorm cloud hanging over the US — and the silver lining that comes with it. It’s painfully schadenfreudig. Painfully schadenfreudig, indeed. (Multiple stacked redundancy intentional.) Barack Obama and the Democrats, very cynically aware that their grand scheme to shove the US headlong into Socialism could cause them to fall out of power, set up a series of Laws and programs that would save most of the very bad results until after the 2012 election. After having blamed Bush for all the Democrat-and-Socialist caused travails, they would have a way of avoiding responsibility for the looming mega-disaster. It works like this:

• Set up a Socialist system with all the false positives front-loaded and all the negatives back-loaded.
• Get possibly voted out of office before the negatives hit, so the Socialist-caused negatives would hit when Conservatives were in office.
• Blame the Conservatives in office for the economic disaster the Socialists caused.
• Get the Socialists re-elected to complete the evil transformation of the Free Market US into a Socialist state, with the Conservatives forever blemished by the results of Socialist actions.

But a strange thing happened along the way. The Socialists got re-elected by a completely ignorant, envious, slothful, free hand-out seeking crowd. And all the back-loaded disasters will hit while the Socialists are in power. (By the way, did you know that tornadoes are also backloaded? They are on the back end of cumulonimbus clouds, and not up front.)

ObamaCare is one such program. As most of it is set to kick in now that the election is over, total disaster is on the horizon. Businesses, who cannot pay the cost of ObamaCare and stay afloat at the same time, will be laying off massive numbers of workers nationwide. Other businesses will be cutting their low-level employees (the working poor) to under 30 hours a week so those businesses can stay in business. Very little expansion will be happening, if any at all. It’ll be full-on contraction.

A nice little poisonberry in ObamaCare — that “make health care cheaper for all” lie — is a 2.3 percent excise tax on all medical devices, such as crutches, wheelchairs, heart stents, etc, etc. And an excise tax is far worse than a profit tax or income tax. It hits the gross revenue and not the after-expenses cost. For example, suppose it costs a business 5,000 dollars for the raw materials to make a single product. Add in the labor costs, the health insurance costs, the retirement costs, the social security tax, the medicare tax, the property tax for the building itself, the electricity cost, the property insurance cost, the transportation cost, the bookkeeping cost, and all other costs associated with getting the already developed product to market and the final cost to the business is 6,800 dollars. The business sells the product for 7,000 dollars because that’s what the market will bear. The business gets a profit of 200 dollars per sale.

In comes the 2.3 percent excise tax. Another 161 dollars off the top. The new profit for the 7,000 dollar item falls from 200 dollars to a whopping 39 dollars (an effective tax rate of 80.5 percent of the profit). Not enough to make the company a going concern. Kill the Research and Development department of the company — the life-blood of all businesses that want to survive, for if a business is not growing and moving forward it is necessarily dying.

But it doesn’t stop there. No, not at all. That same company also has to pay the new, higher costs involved in providing ObamaCare to all its employees (instead of the less expensive insurance plans which were optional, which fair portions of employees did not opt into). That 39 dollars per product, which used to be 200 dollars per product goes negative. It costs more to produce than it can be sold for.

But, again, it doesn’t stop there. Obama’s declaration that electricity costs must necessarily skyrocket and he’ll bankrupt coal-fired electric plants necessarily means the energy-intensive manufacturing industry will get hit hard with skyrocketing overhead costs. Costs that cannot be reduced merely by laying people off. So instead, the companies will shutter its doors and either go off-shore or cease to exist, providing a double-whammy of forcing the products to become far more expensive than they are now and far more difficult to obtain.

Small businesses will collapse. The middle class will become working poor. The working poor will become the unemployable destitute. Products the middle class used to be able to afford will become luxury items. Items that were luxuries for the working poor will become nothing but unreachable pipe-dreams. Inflation will go into hyper-drive. Interest rates will climb, making the cost of borrowing prohibitive. And deficit spending, which has been kept artificially low (yeah, I said it), will explode.

How is 1.2 trillion dollars (or more) in deficit spending “artificially low”? That’s a good question. And I have a good answer for that. Two words: “debt” and “service”. Debt service.

Historical view of the Prime Rate from Forecast Chart.com (8 percent line added).

Above is a chart showing the historic levels for the Prime Rate, from Forecast Chart.com. I added a red line at 8 percent for reference. Below is a chart showing the historic levels for the Discount Rate, from a 2009 article on Apin Talisayon’s Weblog (data obtained from the Financial Forecast Center). I added a red line at 6 percent for reference.

US Discount Rate From 1950 as found on Apin Talisayon’s Weblog (6 percent red line added).

From Apin Talisayon:

As I said, central banks had recently been dropping interest rates, and so we cannot use the abnormally low prevailing interest rates (0.5%). I plotted the historical data of discount rates set by the US Federal Reserve since January 1950 from the Financial Forecast Center[.]

As you can see in the above two charts, the Prime Rate and the Discount Rate differ in levels, but mirror each other. And they’re not only at historic lows; they’re far below historic norms. That means the future necessarily will provide much higher rates on borrowing than today. And the Federal Government’s debt service costs absolutely must skyrocket. Couple that with the US credit rating crumbling — and will continue to crumble — and the interest on the debt will become astronomical. Even a fairly normal rate of 6 percent with our current 16,000,000,000,000 dollar deficit means 960 BILLION DOLLARS in interest payments alone. By 2015, our national debt will be 20 TRILLION DOLLARS and the interest on that debt will be 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS. That’s before paying for roads, bridges, high speed trains to nowhere, free birth control pills for Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling), free abortion pills for Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling), free ObamaPhones, free health care, free foodstamps, free college tuition, free housing for the poor and forever pregnant single mothers, free Big Bird, free NPR propaganda, bailing out California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, free cowboy poetry, and oh yeah, paying for our national defense.

1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS SPENT TO PAY FOR ALREADY SPENT MONEY WE DIDN’T HAVE BEFORE PAYING FOR ANY CURRENT PROGRAMS AND EXPENSES!!!

The Socialist who ascended the throne in DC, along with the Socialists in the US Senate who have adamantly refused to produce a Federal Budget since April, 2009, in direct violation of Federal Law and the US Constitution, have successfully Cloward-Pivened the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. The most prosperous nation this world has ever seen has been successfully brought to financial ruin by the Leftists in power who have no use for a document that is “over 100 years old”. The aim? Destroy the Free Market and implement Socialism worldwide.

The silver lining? Conservatives have not been responsible for any of it. Conservatives have not been in charge for any of it. I know, little solace for the loss of a once great and mighty and FREE nation. Will there be anything left to save by 2016? And will there be any conceivable way to save it and return to prosperity from the Abyss of Destitution Obama and the Socialist Democrats have created? Or will it already be too late? I, for one, am not looking forward to the disaster these next 10 years will provide us. (UPDATE: Nice Deb performed her Karnac impression and answered my questions before seeing them. Go to her site to read her answers.)

RELATED
This medical device tax is just not going to end well
Economics 101: Schadenfreude!
Video: What free-market medicine looks like
2013: A Century Of Progress
Gee, why do you think the Obama administration waited until after November 6th to mail these letters?

#ObamaCare Deconstructed

HT Patterico’s Pontifications

The Truth the radical Left (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Democrats, Mainstream Media) don’t want you to know.

Taxes and the Pyrite State

From

Jerry Brown: California Will Have Surpluses

That’s what he says:

After years of red ink, Gov. Jerry Brown said on Thursday that California’s $96.7-billion general fund is now poised to end next year with a surplus, thanks to years of deep budget cuts and billions in new taxes approved by voters last year.

“We achieved the position we’re in because of tough cuts … and then the people voted for taxes,” he said. “We broke the logjam by going to the people.”

Schools will be the big winner in the governor’s new spending plan, receiving $56.2 billion in state funds, an increase by $2.7 billion over the last year. That funding is set to jump to more than $66 billion by 2016.

The budget also dedicated an additional $350 million to the state’s public insurance program, Medi-Cal, to help implement President Obama’s healthcare law.

Brown’s budget predicts only the second budget surplus in the last decade, with an $851-million surplus projected at the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year — if all his proposals are approved by lawmakers.

Jerry Brown says we will have surpluses. I say we will not.

We’ll see who is right.

The boldfaced parts were by Patterico commenter Taney O’Haley, who said that it sounded like wishful thinking to her.

Donald Douglas referenced an article from Investor’s Business Daily which pointed out that the overwhelming majority the voters gave to the Democrats puts the restrictions under Proposition 13 at risk, and that there are already at least two proposals in the legislature to weaken it:

Already, state Sen. Mark Leno wants to put a measure on the ballot to lower the two-thirds vote threshold for school district parcel taxes to 55%. State Sen. Lois Wolk introduced a bill that would ask voters to drop the vote threshold to 55% for library parcel taxes and bond measures.

In the Assembly, Tom Ammiano plans to reintroduce a bill seeking to revise the definition of an ownership change that triggers a new business property assessment. Voters’ OK isn’t needed. Even if the bill stalls, as it has in the past, business owners fear that its goal — squeezing more tax money from commercial property — will surface in other proposals, some with better odds.

The tax increases approved by the voters in November were temporary increases, adding a 0.25% increase to the state sales tax, and creating three new brackets for the most productive Californians, lasting for seven years. For a single Californian earning $500,000 or more, the new 12.3% marginal rate, combined with the new federal top rate of 39.6%, means that 51.9% of his earnings over the thresholds will be seized just in income taxes alone. If his earning power is portable — and for many of California’s top producers, it won’t be — moving to a state like Texas or Florida, which have no state income taxes, is a completely rational economic decision.

How many will? We can’t know yet, but we’ll see in two more years, when Governor Brown’s projection of a balanced state budget is either realized, or it is not.
_________________________________
Cross posted on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.

What Our Future Holds

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• from spiritual faith to great courage;
• from courage to liberty;
• from liberty to abundance;
• from abundance to selfishness;
• from selfishness to apathy;
• from apathy to dependence;
• from dependency back again into bondage.

–Dr Alexander Tytler, Scotsman, history professor at the University of Edinborough on The Fall of The Athenian Republic around the time of the birth of the US

Having reelected a Socialist who has vowed vengeance on us and to bypass Congress and maintained a Leftist Senate which has refused to obey the US Constitution and Federal Law by refusing to write a Budget since April 2009, here are a few things I see in our future:

1. Energy inflation and food inflation (two items left off the “official” inflation rate) will continue to far outstrip the inflation rate, as the Obama administration bankrupts electricity producers and rolling black-outs become commonplace in this land of plentiful natural resources we will not be permitted to use. The inflation rate itself will necessarily heat up heavily.

2. Businesses will continue to downsize due to the undue burdens of catastrophic regulations and taxes, reducing the number of employees and turning many full-time positions into part-time positions, causing the official unemployment numbers to climb and the real unemployment numbers to skyrocket.

3. The poverty rate and dependency rate will climb higher, as fewer people work and more people hold their hands out for “ObamaMoney”, causing even greater harm to those who are the producers. The US will further cannibalize itself.

4. The National Debt will continue to skyrocket and deficit spending will once again increase year-over-year instead of decreasing, causing two more reductions in US credit ratings. The Fed, which has caused the absolutely inevitable skyrocketing inflation rate, will no longer be able to keep interest rates artificially low. The interest rates will jump 7 to 15 points in the next 4 years, causing the US debt service portion of the (unwritten) Budget to explode.

5. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare expenses will reach half the (unwritten) Federal Budget, and beyond, as each work to bankrupt themselves and the US.

6. Religious Liberty will be curtailed as Government forces Christians to either fund that which is immoral or dissolve their outreach programs. Churches will learn they cannot preach on certain subjects without fear of criminal sanctions.

7. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom to peaceably protest the Government will be restricted. Our Second Amendment rights will be severely cut. Our rights against illegal searches and seizures will be infringed upon. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, largely ignored now, will be blatantly curtailed.

In short, the “shining beacon on the hill” that was the Freedom and Liberty the US provided the world will have its 50,000 watt light removed and replaced with a half-watt red decorative light. The US has spent the last 30 years slipping from apathy into dependence. We are now sinking from dependence back into bondage. And it will take great men and women of steely resolve and moral strength to wrest this once great nation out of the entropic hands of the Socialists and the Dependent Class. And that means fighting both the Democrat leadership and the Ruling Class Republican leadership. Tooth and nail.

Are there enough of them left?

Dying California Cannibalizes Itself

I have written multiple articles chronicling California’s Leftism–caused death throes. Yesterday, Californians, in their great wisdom, have decided to cannibalize themselves, (HT Patterico) devouring whatever healthy parts they had left. As businesses and working families have been fleeing the state for healthier locales, Californians have just finished voting to raise income taxes on the most productive of what’s left, raise corporate tax rates for the businesses which haven’t yet fled, raise sales taxes. Californians have also voted not to curtail Public Employee Union power, that power that has already caused multiple California cities to declare bankruptcy. What does this mean for the once-great state of California? It means more business closures. It means more flight of the producers out of the state. It means less tax revenue for the state. It means higher unemployment, higher poverty rates, more personal and corporate bankruptcies. It means more cities going bankrupt.

And this time, it also means fewer places to run to. Because the next four years will be Sheol for all of the US, as Obama exacts revenge on everyone who stood in his Socialist way (meaning Conservative states and Conservative people) as he unleashes his bureaucrats to write all manner of growth-destroying laws, free of the need to even consult the US Congress.

The next four years are going to be a very bumpy ride for all of us, but never so bumpy as the ride Californians, Illinoisians, Marylanders, New Yorkers are going to take.

Welcome to the Socialist caused Sheol, folks.

The Official Truth Before Dishonor Balanced Budget Amendment Proposal

Within five years of ratification of this Amendment to the US Constitution, the Federal Budget shall be balanced, and shall remain in Balance thereafter, using the same Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) mandated by the Federal Government for all Corporations. The Federal Budget Deficit must maintain an incremental and substantial annual reduction during the four years leading to Balance in the fifth year or prior.

Any and all new taxes must be approved by three fifths of each Branch of Congress and signed by the President in order for passage. Any and all tax increases must be approved by three fifths of each Branch of Congress and signed by the President in order for passage. If the President vetoes any Bill containing new or increased taxes, it shall be returned to Congress whereupon each Branch of Congress must pass such Bill by two thirds vote to override the President’s veto. If the President does not sign or veto a Bill containing new or increased taxes within ten days, it shall be deemed vetoed and each House of Congress must pass such Bill by two thirds vote to override the President’s veto.

In the event the Federal Budget is not in Balance, all salaries and expenses of all Federally elected officials and their staffs shall be zero until such a time as the Federal Budget is in Balance. All Federal non-military Government officials shall have their salaries reduced to zero until such a time as the Federal Budget is in Balance.

In the event Congress does not pass a Federal Budget by April 15 of each year, no other Legislation shall be discussed or passed until the Federal Budget is passed. Any and all Legislation passed during the time following April 15 and preceding the passage of the Federal Budget shall be deemed null and void.

MSNBC Spreads Its Socialist Lies

Who among you remembers when MSNBC was frothing at the mouth about the TEA Partier in Arizona who had the unmitigated gall to wear an “assault rifle” on his back out in the open, in a crowd? Do you remember how MSNBC was telling all ten of its viewers that was undeniable proof of the murderous desires of the purely white TEA Party? Do you also remember that MSNBC cropped the shot of that man so closely that you could only see part of the man and the rifle? Do you also remember that, while MSNBC was warning everyone about how the WHITE TEA Partiers so the black men could likewise be afraid, that the closely cropped image of a TEA Partier with a rifle was cropped closely to hide the fact that that particular TEA Partier with a rifle strapped to his back was black? Proving MSNBC would lie and provide wholly dishonorable and deceitful video to advance its Socialist agenda?

WELL…

Mess NBC is at it again! While they claim to be covering the Republican National Convention for all ten of its viewers, it is studiously avoiding anything that would harm the Socialist Baraka Obama’s (and the rest of the Socialist leadership of the Democrat Party) propagandistic agenda. So, what did MessNBC do? In their coverage of the Republican National Convention, MessNBC studiously avoided airing any speeches by minorities!!!! Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware should be proud!!!

When popular Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz, the GOP nominee for Senate, took the stage, MSNBC cut away from the Republican National Convention and the Hispanic Republican from Texas’ speech.

MSNBC stayed on commercial through former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis’ speech, as well. Davis, who recently became a Republican, is black.

Then, when Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno’s wife Luce’ Vela Fortuño took the stage minutes later, MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews opted to talk over the First Lady’s speech.

And Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval? Noticeably missing from MSNBC, too.

Mia Love, a black candidate for Congress in Utah, was also ignored by MSNBC.

Say, wouldn’t the practice of ignoring people of color be considered raaaaaaaaaaaacist? And what did MSNBC use as a replacement for all of these speakers last night?

In lieu of airing speeches from former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, a black American; Mia Love, a black candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah; and Texas senatorial hopeful Ted Cruz, a Latino American, MSNBC opted to show commentary anchored by Rachel Maddow from Rev. Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes and Steve Schmidt.

No doubt, they were trying to keep their 20 19 17 viewers up to date with all of the antics of raaaaaaaaaaaacist Republicans, and so had no choice but to block out Republicans like Mia Love, Ted Cruz, and Artur Davis. I’ve seen news reports from Communist countries that had less Orwellian message control than this.

MessNBC didn’t bother to provide the speeches of minorities. Period. Full-stop. Why? Because the Socialist Baraka Obama (who was a registered Socialist in Chicago) has decided to wage a campaign on the over-played raaaaacist card and the over-played “war on women” lie. And MessNBC is absolutely in bed with the Socialist Baraka Obama and the Socialist leadership of the Democrat Party.

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because she was a black woman and MessNBC did not want you watching a black woman rock the Republican Cazbah!

 
(YouTube video provided by Barracuda Brigade. Please, do go visit that worthy site.)

Governor Nikki Haley ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because she was a Sikh woman and MessNBC did not want you watching a Sikh woman rock the Republican Cazbah!

Mayor Mia Love ABSOLUTELY ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because she is a black woman born of LEGAL immigrants who have made their own way without freebies from the Government (read “everyone else”).

That BLACK WOMAN, Mia Love hates black people like herself so much that she married a white man! That white man, a Conservative Republican hates black people so much that he married one! MessNBC was right to hide Mia Love’s speech from its ten viewers because nobody should be faced with an intelligent black person who decries the Liberal hatred of all who stand in their way of ruling the ever-declining and ever-impoverished world. Mia’s YouTube video provided by mialoveinterviews. Mia Love is involved in a very tight race for Representative of the 4th District of Utah. All freedom-loving people who haven’t been devastated by the Obama economy should strongly consider donating money to her campaign.

Artur Davis ROCKED THE HOUSE, then CRUSHED THE HOUSE in his speech. Remember 2009 to 2011: lesson learned. 2012, mistake corrected. Absolutely crushingly powerful! Barack Obama is only a man I once knew! Wowzers! Coming from the former up-and-coming black Democrat and former member of the Congressional Black Caucus (is there a Congressional White Caucus, and would the Democrats inside the Congressional Black Caucus remain civil?), the man who seconded Obama’s nomination in 2008 and introduced him to the Democrat Party at their 2008 convention!

 

To those Democrats and independents whose minds are open to argument: listen closely to the Democratic Party that will gather in Charlotte and ask yourself if you ever hear your voice in the clamor.

Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you.

When they say we have a duty to grow government even when we can’t afford it, does it sound like compassion to you — or recklessness?

When you hear the party that glorified Occupy Wall Street blast success; when you hear them minimize the genius of the men and women who make jobs out of nothing, is that what you teach your children about work?

When they tell you America is this unequal place where the powerful trample on the powerless, does that sound like the country your children or your spouse risked their lives for in Iraq or Afghanistan?

Do you even recognize the America they are talking about? And what can we say about a house that doesn’t honor the pictures on its walls?

John F. Kennedy asked us what we could do for America. This Democratic Party asks what can government give you. Don’t worry about paying the bill, it’s on your kids and grandkids.

Bill Clinton took on his base and made welfare a thing you had to work for; this current crowd guts the welfare work requirement in the dead of night.

Bill Clinton, Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson reached out across the aisle and said meet me in the middle; but their party rammed through a healthcare bill that took over one-sixth of our economy, without accepting a single Republican idea, without winning a single vote in either house from a party whose constituents make up about 50 percent of the country.

You know, the Democrats used to have a night when they presented a film of their presidential legends: if they do it in Charlotte, the theme song should be this year’s hit, “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

Governor Susana Martinez ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because Susana Martinez is a wise Latina. The NBC News website, which listed Republican speakers, didn’t even mention her. At all.

 

I fear some of our leaders today have lost the courage to stand up. What we have now are politicians. They won’t offer real plans, and only stand up when they want to blame someone else.

And I don’t say that just because a Democrat is in the White House, I was a Democrat for many years, so were my parents.

Before I ran for district attorney, two Republicans invited my husband and me to lunch, and I knew a party switch was exactly what they wanted. So, I told Chuck, “We’ll be polite, enjoy a free lunch, and then say good-bye.” But we talked about issues — they never used the words Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. We talked about many issues, like welfare, is it the way of life or hand up? Talked about size of government, how much should it tax families and small businesses? And when we left that lunch, we got in the car and I looked over at Chuck and said, “I’ll be damned. We’re Republicans.”

Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! Did the ten people watching MessNBC see it? Highly improbable.

 

My Dad used to tell us: “En este pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos” “In this country, you will be able to accomplish all the things we never could.”

A few years ago during a speech, I noticed a bartender behind a portable bar at the back of the ballroom. I remembered my father who had worked for many years as a banquet bartender.

He was grateful for the work he had, but that’s not the life he wanted for us.

He stood behind a bar in the back of the room all those years, so one day I could stand behind a podium in the front of a room.

That journey, from behind that bar to behind this podium, goes to the essence of the American miracle — that we’re exceptional not because we have more rich people here.

We’re special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, come true here.

That’s not just my story. That’s your story. That’s our story.

It’s the story of your mother who struggled to give you what she never had.

It’s the story of your father who worked two jobs so doors closed for him would open for you.
The story of that teacher or that coach who taught you the lessons that shaped who you are today.

And it’s the story of a man who was born into an uncertain future in a foreign country. His family came to America to escape revolution.

They struggled through poverty and the great depression. And yet he rose to be an admired businessman, and public servant.

And in November, his son, Mitt Romney, will be elected President of the United States.

Former Solicitor General of Texas and next US Senator Ted Cruz brought the house down!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because Ted Cruz is a Cuban-American.

 

This love story is the story of the brave Texans in the City of Gonzales. When General Santa Anna demanded that they give up their guns and the cannon that guarded the city, they responded with the immortal cry “Come and take it.”

It’s the story of the greatest generation of Americans, who rose up to confront the grotesque evil that was the Nazis, and ushered in the greatest era of peace and prosperity the world has ever seen.

It’s the story of civil-rights heroes, like Dr. Martin Luther King, who stood strong against the scourge of discrimination, and bravely championed that every man and woman should be judged, not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.

It’s the story of President Ronald Reagan, who turned back the creeping growth of government and restored Morning in America. Who spoke out against the oppressive evil of communism and demanded “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

It’s the story of my Mom. Irish and Italian, working class, the first in her family to go to college – a pioneering mathematician and computer programmer in the 1950s.

It’s the story of my Dad, who was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba, beaten nearly to death. He fled to Texas in 1957, not speaking English, with $100 sewn into his underwear. He washed dishes making 50 cents an hour to pay his way through the University of Texas, and to start a small business in the oil and gas industry.

My father is here tonight. When he came to America, él no tenía nada, pero tenía corazón. He had nothing, but he had heart. A heart for freedom. Thank you, Dad.
…
This election presents a stark choice. Two visions: we can continue down the road of the Obama Democrats, towards more and more spending, debt and government control of the economy and our lives. Or we can return to the founding principles of our nation-free markets, fiscal responsibility, and individual liberty.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s campaign is going to try to divide America. They’re going to try to separate us into little groups, and try to scare everybody. They’re going to tell seniors that Medicare will be taken away, tell Hispanics that we’re not welcome here and send the Vice President to preach a message of division.
…
How do we turn things around? How do we get America back to work? President Obama thinks the answer is more and more government.

Government is not the answer. You are not doing anyone a favor by creating dependency, destroying individual responsibility.

Fifty-five years ago, when my dad was a penniless teenage immigrant, thank God some well-meaning bureaucrat didn’t put his arm around him and say let me take care of you. Let me give you a government check and make you dependent on government. And by the way, don’t bother learning English. That would have been the most destructive thing anyone could have done.

Instead, my parents worked together to start a small business, to provide for their family and to chart their own future. That’s the American dream, and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand that.
…
I’d like to close with asking you a few questions, with apologies to Barack Obama.

Can we restore the Constitution?

Yes we can.

Can we retake the U.S. Senate?

Can we repeal ObamaCare?

And can we defeat President Barack Obama?

That, my friends, is change we can believe in.

Thank you, and God bless America.

Ann Romney absolutely killed it!!! Did you ten viewers of MessNBC see it? Well, did you Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware? Not if you watched MessNBC!!!

Senator Rand Paul killed it!!! Did those ten viewers of MessNBC see it? Maybe.

 

When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, the first words out of my mouth were: I still think it is unconstitutional!

The leftwing blogs were merciless. Even my wife said — can’t you pleeeease count to ten before you speak?

So, I’ve had time now to count to ten and, you know what? I still think it’s unconstitutional!

Do you think Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas have changed their minds?

I think if James Madison himself — the father of the Constitution — were here today he would agree with me: The whole damn thing is still unconstitutional!

This debate is not new and it’s not over. Hamilton and Madison fought from the beginning about how government would be limited by the enumerated powers.

Madison was unequivocal. The powers of the federal government are few and defined. The power to tax and spend is restricted by the enumerated powers.

So, how do we fix this travesty of justice? There’s only one option left.

We have to have a new president!

When I heard the current president say, “You didn’t build that,” I was first insulted, then I was angered, then I was saddened that anyone in our country, much less the president of the United States, believes that roads create business success and not the other way around.

Anyone who so fundamentally misunderstands American greatness is uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation.

The great and abiding lesson of American history, particularly the Cold War, is that the engine of capitalism — the individual — is mightier than any collective.

American inventiveness and desire to build developed because we were guaranteed the right to own our success. For most of our history, no one dared tell Americans: “You didn’t build that.”

In Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Taing family owns the Great American Donut shop. Their family fled war-torn Cambodia to come to this country. My kids and I love to eat doughnuts, so we go there frequently.

The Taings work long hours. Mrs. Taing told us that the family works through the night to make doughnuts. The Taing children have become valedictorians and National Merit Scholars.

The Taings from Cambodia are an American success story so, Mr. President, don’t you go telling the Taings: “You didn’t build that.”

When you say they didn’t build it, you insult each and every American who ever got up at the crack of dawn. You insult any American who ever put on overalls or a suit.

You insult any American who ever studied late into the night to become a doctor or a lawyer. You insult the dishwasher, the cook, the waitress.

You insult anyone who has ever dragged themselves out of bed to strive for something better for themselves or their children.

My great grandfather, like many, came to this country in search of the American Dream. No sooner had he stepped off the boat than his father died.

He arrived in Pittsburgh as a teenager with nothing, not a penny. He found the American Dream: not great wealth, but a bit of property in a new land that gave him hope for his children.

In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit. Probably America’s greatest asset was that for the first time success was not based on who you were, but on what you did.

My grandfather would live to see his children become doctors, ministers, accountants and professors. He would even live to see one of his sons, a certain congressman from Texas, run for president of the United States of America.

Immigrants have flocked to our shores seeking freedom. Our forbearers came full of hopes and dreams. So consistent and prevalent were these aspirations that they crystallized into a national yearning we call the American Dream.

No other country has a Dream so inextricably associated with the spirit of its people.

In 1982, an American sailor, John Mooney, wrote a letter to his parents that captures the essence of the American Dream:

“Dear Mom and Dad, today we spotted a boat in the water, and we rendered assistance. We picked up 65 Vietnamese refugees. As they approached the ship, they were all waving and trying as best they could to say, ‘Hello America sailor! Hello Freedom man!’ It’s hard to see a boat full of people like that and not get a lump somewhere between chin and bellybutton. And it really makes one proud and glad to be an American. It reminds us all of what America has always been — a place a man or woman can come to for freedom.”

Hung and Thuan Tringh are brothers and friends of mine. They came to America on one of those leaky, overcrowded boats. They were attacked at sea by pirates. Their family’s wealth was stolen. Thuan spent a year on a South Pacific island existing on one cup of rice and water each day until he was allowed to come to America. Now both of these men and their families are proud Americans. Hung owns his own business and Thuan manages a large company. They are the American Dream.

So, Mr. President, don’t go telling the Tringh family: “You didn’t build that.”

When the president says, “You didn’t build that,” he is flat out wrong. Businessmen and women did build that. Businessmen and women did earn their success. Without the success of American business, we wouldn’t have any roads, or bridges, or schools.

Mr. President, you say the rich must pay their fair share. When you seek to punish the rich, the jobs that are lost are those of the poor and middle class.

When you seek to punish Mr. Exxon Mobil, you punish the secretary who owns Exxon Mobil stock.

When you block the Keystone Pipeline, you punish the welder who works on the pipeline.

Our nation faces a crisis. America wavers. Unfortunately, we are one of a select group of countries whose debt equals their gross domestic product.

The republic of Washington and Jefferson is now in danger of becoming the democracy of debt and despair. Our great nation is coming apart at the seams and the president seems to point fingers and blame others.

President Obama’s administration will add nearly $6 trillion to our national debt in just one term.

This explosion of debt is unconscionable and unsustainable. Mr. President, we will not let you bankrupt this great nation!

Republicans and Democrats alike must slay their sacred cows. Republicans must acknowledge that not every dollar spent on the military is necessary or well-spent, and Democrats must admit that domestic welfare and entitlements must be reformed.

Republicans and Democrats must replace fear with confidence, confidence that no terrorist, and no country, will ever conquer us if we remain steadfast to the principles of our Founding documents.

We have nothing to fear except our own unwillingness to defend what is naturally ours, our God-given rights. We have nothing to fear that should cause us to forget or relinquish our rights as free men and women.

To thrive we must believe in ourselves again, and we must never — never — trade our liberty for any fleeting promise of security.

Author Paul Kengor writes of a brisk evening in small-town Illinois. Returning home from a basketball game at the YMCA, an 11 year old boy is stunned by the sight of his father sprawled out in the snow on the front porch. “He was drunk,” his son later remembered. “Dead to the world, crucified.” The dad’s hair was soaked with melted snow, matted unevenly against the side of his reddened face.

The boy stood over his father for a minute or two. He simply wanted to let himself in the door and pretend his dad wasn’t there. Instead, he grabbed a fistful of overcoat and heaved his dad to the bedroom, away from the weather’s harm and neighbors’ attention.

This young boy became the man – Ronald Reagan – whose sunny optimism and charisma shined so brightly that it cured the malaise of the late seventies, a confidence that beamed so broadly that it pulled us through a serious recession, and a faith that tugged so happily at all hearts that a generation of Democrats became Republicans.

The American Dream is that any among us could become the next Thomas Edison, the next Henry Ford, the next Ronald Reagan.

To lead us forward, away from the looming debt crisis, it will take someone who believes in America’s greatness, who believes in and can articulate the American dream, someone who has created jobs, someone who understands and appreciates what makes America great, someone who will lead our party and our nation forward.

I believe that someone is our nominee: Governor Mitt Romney.

As Reagan said, our freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. If our freedom is taken, the American Dream will wither and die.

To lead, we must transform the coldness of austerity into the warm, vibrant embrace of prosperity.

To overcome the current crisis, we must appreciate and applaud American success. We must step forward, unabashedly and proclaim: You did build that. You earned that. You worked hard. You studied. You labored. You did build that. And you deserve America’s undying gratitude. For you, the individual, are the engine of America’s greatness.

Thank you.

Because MSNBC is working very hard to lie to all ten of its viewers and pretend that only angry white men are involved in the Republican Party. MSNBC cannot at all tell the truth because the Truth absolutely destroys MSNBC’s lie-filled, hate-filled, anti-American, Socialist agenda, as provided by the Socialist in Chief, one Baraka Hussein Obama.
_________________________________________________
Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware, has just this week hatefully attacked DNW because DNW remains anonymous. Previously, Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware cried like a baby when I refused to release the last name of an US Army officer who told a highly inappropriate joke to my daughter (who rather enjoyed the joke) but could have a career shortened to “today’s your last day” should his or he name be published.

Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware, who is in his late 70s, has decided that he wants anonymity after repeatedly giving his name out in public, but Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware demands everyone else give up his or her anonymity.

That makes Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware the worst possible person in the world, and an absolute flaming hypocritical Socialist.

Paul Ryan, Our Next Vice President

Just an hour ago, Mitt Romney announced Representative Paul Ryan as his running-mate. It was one of the wisest decisions Mitt Romney could make, as Paul Ryan is a bona fide TEA Party Commonsense Constitutional Conservative and already has a Budget blueprint that can turn this Titanic around and away from the iceberg known as Obama’s Democrat-enabled Cloward-Piven strategy. A great many Conservatives were understandably disgusted by the Romney-squish pick, and many — myself included — declared a resoluteness not to vote for Romney due to the garbage Romney brings to the table. Ryan does not bring any of that garbage to the table, at all. In fact, Ryan has a long history of fighting to throw that garbage in the garbage heap, where it belongs.

The Ryan selection will energize many of the demoralized TEA Party Commonsense Constitutional Conservatives, who will now be willing to “crawl a mile through broken glass” to vote for Ryan and will man the phones and pound the pavement to GOTV (get out the vote) for the Real Conservative and Real Patriot, Paul Ryan for Vice President. Yes, today, Romney’s chances of winning the Presidency and throwing the Socialist Constitution and Federal Law violator out of the White House has improved greatly.

Also, Romney again vowed to repeal ObamaCare, which is a good thing, considering his campaign’s foul-up earlier in the week. And Romney declared “we will once again return Work to Welfare” (my recollection of what I heard on my drive home from work), a very direct attack against Obama’s Constitution-violating and Federal Law-violating waivers of work requirements for people (very clearly and up-front including illegal aliens) to suck on the government teet.

Romney mentioned Obama’s lowest of low-brow campaign tactics (the tactics which Washington Post, CNN, and other Leftist media outlets have been shredding, giving Obama and his Super PAC multiple “four pinnochios” and “pants on fire” awards for flat-out lying) and declared his campaign would, instead, be aspirational and his administration would return America to its former greatness after 3.5 years of decline.

All in all, with his speech and his selection of Ryan, Romney’s appearance at the USS Wisconsin in Virginia was a major success for America and a major heartache for the Socialist Obama, the Democrat National leadership, Democrats in Congress, and Democrats down-ticket. We won’t see the 700-seat flip from Democrat to Republican we saw in 2010, but we will see a much larger than normal coat-tail flip. Perhaps 300 seats in toto going from Democrat to Republican on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of this year. More seats following shortly thereafter, as Democrats flip to Republican after yet another TEAnami.

I said I would not vote for Romney and gave my very specific reasons. Now, I gave evidence for some of my reasons on Patterico’s Pontifications previously (I completely forget which thread) and Daleyrocks provided information that counters my information, causing doubt in my position on that issue. Let me give a couple general reasons for my position (which Daleyrocks helped to waver):

1) If you cannot get the baby-murdering issue right, what morally imperative issue can you get right?
2) If you cannot even counterfeit a Bell Curve Tenther position well enough to hoodwink Tenthers — greater amperage of fail with his very recent arm-twisting of Republicans to vote to give the President authority to appoint without Senate approval nearly 200 more Government positions which were previously “nominate and Senate advise and consent” positions — why should any Constitutionalist vote for you?

Paul Ryan could be a reason. There isn’t much better than Paul Ryan. Of my 5 endorsements, 2 are clearly better (Palin and West), 1 is possibly better (Cruz) and the other two are likely equal (Love and Radtke). But a Paul Ryan is a rare find. The 50-karat blue diamond.

If I vote Republican and not Third Party this cycle, it will be just like last time. I will vote for Paul Ryan just like I voted for Sarah Palin. I will not vote for Mitt Romney, just like I did not vote for John McShame.

#TXSEN The Big Guns Come Out

DON’T DO THE DEW

VOTE TED CRUZ

Too sexually charged? Alright, try this one.

SLAY THE DC GORMAGON

WITH A CRUZ MISSILE

Too revolutionary? How about this, then?

CRUZIFY DEWHURST

Too violent? Okay, I give up.

Truth Before Dishonor endorsed Ted Cruz over all other candidates for US Senate (Texas) very early on, earlier than did Sarah Palin or most other notables. But Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mark Levin all came out with early endorsements for Ted Cruz, while David Dewhurst, scuzzball that he is, tried to paint Ted Cruz as a commie-pinko-loving DC corruptocrat. Dewhurst used all manner of lies and misinformation to try to destroy Ted Cruz (the Chicago way) in a disgusting outburst of raw sewage.

David Dewhurst has tried to convince Texans that Ted Cruz is in bed with Communist China, a tool of the Chi-Coms. Ted Cruz. The son of a man who fled Cuba to get away from the Communist enslavement. Ted Cruz, who learned from his father that if the US fell, there would be no place on Earth to flee to. A ComSimp.

 

(You can read the entire transcript of Robert Stacy McCain’s exclusive interview from October 2011 I provided at the above link to The Other McCain.)

David Dewhurst has accused Ted Cruz of wrongfully siding with a Chinese Government owned company over an American company, destroying American jobs, and taking Chi-Com money to do it. It is disgustingly dishonest and intentionally deceptive, in order to try to convince the uninformed of a lie. That “American” company? The American who owns it pulled all of the manufacturing out of the US 20 years ago, moving it to Communist China! If any jobs were lost, those jobs would have been held by Chinese subjects of Communist tyranny, and not US citizens.

David Dewhurst claimed that Ted Cruz is bought and paid for — thus beholden to — DC insiders. Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mark Levin. Washington insiders? Can David Dewhurst tell the truth at all about Ted Cruz? Who in their right minds would think Sarahcuda or The Great One would give their full support and their Star Power to a DC corruptocrat insider? Anyone? Anyone?

Why can’t David Dewhurst run on his record? Perhaps because his record stinks so bad that David Dewhurst is busily changing and scrubbing it. Dewhurst loudly and proudly advocated for full amnesty to all illegal aliens in Texas. And then, in a move many have proclaimed could be in violation of Texas Law, tried to have it stricken from the Official Record. Dewhurst pushed for a wage tax (that would be an income tax) for the income tax-free state of Texas, and has since tried to memory-hole that action. When a Sanctuary City bill (a bill that would eliminate all sanctuary cities in Texas — where illegals can run to and not fear deportation) was in the Texas Legislature, it was Dewhurst in his job as Lieutenant Governor who killed it, despite the overwhelming support for it. David Dewhurst’s record is abysmal for someone claiming to be the Conservative choice. That’s why the scuzzball cannot run on his record.

And David Dewhurst has gotten even more Dishonorable as the run-off election nears, and Dewhurst’s desperation begins to show full force. Many “in the know” have said that the race that was once supposed to be a coronation of the Republican Lieutenant Governor (who nearly got 50 percent of the vote in the Primary, which would have prevented a run-off) is now Ted Cruz’s to lose. So what does David Dewhurst do? He runs out and creates a totally dishonest sock puppet. From Twitchy.com on July 7:

While Cruz maintains an active Twitter presence, Dewhurst’s personal Twitter account has been silent for more than a week and his official campaign account has tweeted just four times in the last eight days. Maybe that’s because Team Dewhurst is more focused on duping voters through misleading social media practices.

Blogger Kemberlee Kaye discovered that “TXSen Fact Checker,” a supposedly objective Twitter account “dedicated to fact-checking the claims in the race for U.S. Senate in Texas,” is actually a Dewhurst for Texas project.

All links go to a tumblr account with a matching name, txsenfactcheck.com which has a similar description as the twitter, “a microsite dedicated to fact-checking the claims in the race for U.S. Senate in Texas, launched to separate fact from fiction in the constant information flow concerning the July 31st run-off.” Once again, no mention of candidate affiliation, that is until you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page where, “Paid for by Dewhurst for Texas” appears in tiny print.

The Twitter bio for @TXSenFactCheck does not disclose the account’s affiliation with the Dewhurst campaign.

So are we clear on this yet? David Dewhurst is Dishonoring himself with his wholly dishonest attacks and his sockpuppetry in order to try to destroy Ted Cruz’s good name.

And the BIG GUNS have come out. In a very big way. Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint are going to a Ted Cruz rally in Houston on Friday. Glenn Beck will be at a Ted Cruz rally in Dallas on Thursday. Rick Santorum will be pounding the Texas pavement with Ted Cruz this weekend. Rand Paul is coming down to Texas to stump for Ted Cruz. Tea Party Express is all-in for Ted Cruz.

When you have powerhouse names in the Constitutional Conservative movement going all-in in support of Ted Cruz, how is a dishonest schemer such as David Dewhurst supposed to paint Cruz as a RINO ComSimp DC insider and it actually, you know, stick? Only with the uneducated will Dewhurst’s dishonest attacks work.

Maryland Follows Illinois And California Down The Toilet

Truth Before Dishonor has provided multiple articles following the tax-and-regulate schemes of Illinois and California, and the resultant business and people flight away from those Leftist-run states to far more tax-friendly states. We have also shown how the tax-friendly states have been far more economically successful than the Leftist tax-heavy states, in an article Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion named “Post of the Day”. We noted that Illinois’ Democrats — in a move showing even they know that tax increases are economically harmful — provided a major corporation with a 100 million dollar tax credit in order to keep the corporation in the state.

Now, from Hot Air comes the news about Maryland’s own tax-payer flight from high taxes. Yes, Maryland created a confiscatory “millionaire surtax” and, surprise of surprises, Maryland’s wealthy fled the state to places like income tax-free Florida. So, the “soak the rich” tax increase caused Maryland to lose tax revenue in huge chunks. Their decision to raise tax rates on the productive caused them to lose tax dollars in the coffers! Just like we TEA Party commonsense Constitutional Conservatives declared would be the case! Imagine that.

In other economic news, the 17 states that elected Republican Governors in 2010 all saw their unemployment rates drop, and at a faster aggregate rate than the nation as a whole, while the Democrat side cannot say the same thing. “Unexpected” by the “expert” economists, I’m sure.

It’s very clear which side is the more economically and budgetarily successful, so if you’re interested in improving our nation’s economic condition or budget condition, there is only one Party for which to vote. And they ain’t the donkeys.

Editor/Journalist/Pundit Paul Burka ( @paulburka ): Research 0, Integrity 0, Propaganda 100

(This article made “Post of the Day” for Monday, July 9 at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion.  Professor Jacobson called it “What’s under that Burka?”)

 

Paul Burka is the Senior Executive Editor of Texas Monthly, a dead tree magazine with an online footprint. And Paul Burka likes to think of himself as better than us plebes. I’ll show you that very clearly throughout this article. But first, let’s quantify Paul Burka just a wee bit, shall we? In writing about the Ted Cruz/David Dewhurst debate in which Burka declared Dewhurst the winner, Burka had this little gem which gives everyone a glimpse into his heart and soul:

[I just want to point out here that the bailouts worked extremely well, that they kept the American automobile industry alive through the worst of the recession, that most, if not all, of the money has been paid back, not only in the auto industry but also in the financial industry, and that the opposition to them is an example of how ideology can be blinding, even when we know all of the facts. Isn’t it clear to everyone by now that the bailouts saved the international financial system?–pb]

That is indeed the position of the radical Leftist establishment, Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, Mainstream Media, and propagandists (brought to you in triplicate by the Redundant Department of Redundancy). That is not at all the position of Conservatives, mainstream Republicans, or even Ruling Class Republicans. It is also not at all true. Ford did not take any Government bailout and it’s doing just fine, thank you very much. The fact Obama threw the entirety of the bankruptcy Laws in the trash heap in order to feed the United Auto Workers Union meant that grandma and grandpa lost a lot of their retirement investments, permanently. And it is a stone-cold fact that GM paid it’s Government loans with Government money and not its own. And the Government still has tens of billions of dollars stuck in GM today. And, no, these bailouts did not at all “save the international financial system”. It is still a mess, and will be an even bigger mess since Government is still getting in the way of Free Market corrections and eliminations of wasteful and failed agendas. The bailouts only made matters worse.

Now that we’re a bit more clear on just who this clown Paul Burka is (he’s clearly a Liberal), let’s get down to Fisking his article in the July, 2012 print edition of Texas Monthly, which I have in my currently nicotine-stained fingers. *crinkle*crinkle*crinkle* It is available online if you’re registered. I’m not registered, so I’ll use the print version. (I trust it more, anyway, because lamestream media outlets are notorious in stealth changes to their articles, or memory-holing them in their entireties.)

EPA Mandates You Buy Unicorn Farts

The federal EPA has mandated that oil companies buy a certain amount of cellulosic ethanol made from wood chips, switchgrass, corn cobs and the like, a product that doesn’t even exist (unicorn farts for short), or pay hefty fines. And oil companies have already been forced to pay those fines for their 2011 non-compliance in their refusal to buy those unicorn farts. As a result, Americans get to pay more at the pump for their fart-free gasoline; an artificial, government-forced fuel cost inflation. Howard Portnoy writes:

Question: Do you fill your car’s tank with gasoline that is part cellulosic ethanol, an environment-friendly distillate of wood chips, corn cobs, and switch grass? Let me answer for you: No, you don’t. You couldn’t if you wanted to. Petroleum products blended with cellulosic ethanol aren’t commercially available, because the technology for mass-producing cellulosic ethanol hasn’t been perfected. None of which has stopped the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing hefty yearly fines on oil refiners. According to the The New York Times, in 2011 automotive fuel producers were assessed $6.8 million in penalties. That amount is expected to climb dramatically this year. Guess who ends up footing the bill for the difference?

As Mr Portnoy notes, George W Bush called for this sort of thing in his 2006 State of the Union address, and signed it into Law in 2007. This terrible government mandate to be fined for not putting unicorn farts into the nation’s gasoline was written by the 2007 Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into Law by the squish Republican George W Bush, when not a single commercial cellulosic ethanol plant was up and running. There still isn’t a commercial unicorn fart plant running, even after the government pumped over a billion tax-payer dollars into businesses promising to make those unicorn fart plants.

A December, 2011 article from Bloomberg notes the bankruptcy of one such failed company.

Range Fuels Inc., a cellulosic ethanol company backed by as much as $156 million in U.S. loans and grants from President George W. Bush’s administration, is being forced by the government to liquidate its only factory after failing to produce the fuel.

The closely held company, which counts Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder, as an initial investor, shuttered the factory in Soperton, Georgia, in January after not delivering on its promise to convert woodchips into ethanol, which was intended to help the U.S. become less dependent on foreign oil.

So, Range Fuels Inc shuttered its doors in January, 2011, after proving incapable of producing the unicorn farts, and after soaking up millions of dollars in tax-payer money. The government picking winners and losers, and still, those winners lose. And we all lose in the process. But that’s not all. A January, 2012 article from The New American has even more.

EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn told the Times that the 2012 cellulosic ethanol quota is “reasonably attainable.” The paper continues: “By setting a quota, she added, ‘we avoid a situation where real cellulosic biofuel production exceeds the mandated volume,’ which would weaken demand.”

Milbourn need not worry that production will exceed the EPA’s quota for many years to come. There are simply too many barriers to overcome.

First is that cellulosic ethanol production is so difficult and expensive that no one in the private sector is willing to invest in it without hefty government subsidies. Thus far the feds have poured at least $1.5 billion into ethanol startups, with more subsidies on the way. Not surprisingly, “the half-dozen or so companies that received the first round of subsidies never got off the ground,” the Wall Street Journal noted in a December editorial. Georgia’s Range Fuels, for example, received $162 million in federal and state subsidies to produce ethanol from pine chips; last week The New American reported that Range had folded a year ago, an utter failure. The Journal cited Alabama-based Cello Energy, whose ethanol production was supposed to account for some 70 percent of the 2010 cellulosic ethanol mandate. The company went bankrupt in October of that year, having achieved nothing except bilking taxpayers.

“Incredibly,” the Journal remarked, “those projections [of Cello’s production] were made before Cello had built its plant to produce the fuel and before the technology was proven to work.” Similarly grandiose claims for upcoming ethanol plants are thus to be taken with several grains of salt.

Did everyone get that? There is no commercial production of unicorn farts, but the EPA has stated the 2012 requirement to purchase millions of gallons of unicorn farts is reasonably attainable, knowing there are no unicorn farts to buy. And the businesses that are getting millions of dollars each in tax-payer money are going bankrupt without adding the first gallon of this “product” into the marketplace.

Last year, I wrote about corn ethanol being a net energy consumer instead of a net energy producer. I also showed that corn ethanol produces even more pollution than gasoline, is more expensive than gasoline, is harder on engines than gasoline, and causes “corn for food” prices to artificially inflate. And now, on top of that, we get to foot the bill for a nothing-burger.

Ain’t Big Government Leftists grand?