Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The ledger did not appear to be adding up Tuesday night when President Barack Obama urged more spending on one hand and a spending freeze on the other. Obama spoke ambitiously of putting money into roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives in his State of the Union speech. He pointed to the transportation and construction projects of the last two years and proposed "we redouble these efforts." He coupled this with a call to "freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years." But Obama offered far more examples of where he would spend...

From the Washington Post's baby blogger Ezra Klein... The conversation has changed. We've stopped just talking about deficits and begun talking about investments. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was on "Meet the Press" on Sunday fretting that the word "invest" is mere code for "more spending." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed him on "Fox News Sunday." “With all due respect to our Democratic friends, any time they want to spend, they call it investment," he said....More here I don't want to carp on his age, but the naiveté this guy oozes makes me wonder if he is part...

President Obama this evening likely will seem to nudge toward the center, in light of the fact Democrats have been trimmed from the ranks of Congress and his first two years haven’t exactly drawn a standing ovation by the rest of the nation. Since he hasn’t advanced any further far-left schemes lately, the president’s favorable ratings have improved. That’s another result of public perception that he’s not quite as frighteningly radical now as he was earlier. The fact is, this all is window dressing. Has this leopard changed its spots? Listen closely tonight. When he calls for. . .

The US would be spending a whopping $200 million (Rs 900 crore approx) per day on President Barack Obama's visit to Mumbai."The huge amount of around $ 200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said. About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments....

Obama calling for more infrastructure spending WASHINGTON (AP) - Vowing to find new ways to stimulate the sputtering economy, President Barack Obama will call for long-term investments in the nation's roads, railways and runways that would cost at least $50 billion. The infrastructure investments are one part of a package of targeted proposals the White House is expected to announce in hopes of jump-starting the economy ahead of the November election. Obama will outline the infrastructure proposal Monday at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee. While the proposal calls for investments over six years, the White House said spending would...

CNBC’s Rick Santelli, who first burst out onto the scene with his famous “class rant” which also called for the formation of the tea party movement, came out once again with another classic rant.

"You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income."Let me be clear about this: The United States is teetering on the edge of financial oblivion and it would be both factually incorrect and misleading to suggest the blame for this lies at the feet of the Obama administration. Neither the mainstream media nor Congress, nor most of the Presidential administrations over the past 40-50 years have been totally honest with the American public about this. But the numbers don’t lie, even if the politicians do...

Both the national Democratic and Republican party committees spend about two-thirds of the money they take in on the care and comfort of committee staffs and on efforts to raise more funds, with lavish spending on limousines, expensive hotels, meals and tips, an analysis of the latest financial disclosure data shows.

“WATCH what we do, not what we say,” President Richard Nixon’s attorney-general told the press. Unfortunately for both men, the press eventually did that, and we got the first of the “gates” — Watergate. The consequences for President Barack Obama of watching what he does rather than what he says will be less dire, but nevertheless revealing. Americans overwhelmingly say their main concern is jobs, and that they are satisfied with their present healthcare arrangements. In response, an allegedly chastened Obama “pivoted”, and said his primary concern from now on will be job creation, which will take priority over his...

Even as a bloodbath looms in the November distance, the Obama administration continues to push healthcare because they know that Americans love their entitlements like winos love wine. They are betting the farm that once that fiery warmth begins running through the National body we will not only love national health care, but will fight to defend it. We will also be too glassy eyed to notice that we have suddenly signed away our liberty, becoming slaves to those that serve us. But I digress. Like wine, entitlements cost money. Sadly the more addicted we become the less money we...

The ports of West Sacramento, Stockton and Oakland have jointly been awarded $30 million in federal stimulus funds to launch a container barge service between the three ports that will help ease congestion on highways in Northern California. The Port of West Sacramento announced the award Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding the funding as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $1.5 billion Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. The “inland marine highway” service would be used to transport consumer goods and agricultural products in containers on barges. While the deep-water channel leading to the Port of West...

Do my eyes deceive me? Did I really see President Barack Obama this week calling for a vast increase in government spending? He now is promising to "spend our way out of this recession." He plans to build highways and bridges. There will be tax cuts for small businesses. There will be tax incentives for making our homes more energy-efficient. Economic stimulus will be extended for unemployment insurance. Checks for $250 will be sent to senior citizens and veterans. More money will be sent to state and local governments so they will not have to lay off teachers, firefighters, and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama outlined new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to "spend our way out of this recession" until more Americans are back at work. Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday China can play a major role in restoring global growth by continuing to encourage more consumption at home and exporting less. At the start of a two-day U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Geithner avoided any mention of sensitive currency issues and instead focussed on encouraging Beijing to recognise that strapped U.S. consumers can't keep powering the global economy.

WASHINGTON - Amid rising public impatience with an economy now under his watch, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said his administration needs to push money out faster to initiate a recovery and conceded that unemployment would rise above 10 percent. “People are going through a very tough time right now,” Obama said at a White House news conference. “And I don’t expect them to be satisfied.”

The mental "denseness" of politicians never ceases to amaze. Last month about one million Americans, most of whom had never protested anything before, rallied to show their anger about government spending. You would think that parties in power, especially on the local level would be doing their best to co-opt these protesters into the system. Unfortunately too many politicians have done their best to alienate the "tea party movement," by calling them racist, ignorant, republican's who refuse to recognize that they lost, ect. Take this example from Quincy, Illinois:

This is a cartoon from the 1934 Chicago Tribune.

A hat tip to Tom Cunningham who found this depression era cartoon. As they say, a cartoon is worth a thousand words.......

The eye-popping national debt surpassed $11 trillion Monday, the largest in U.S. history. The new Treasury Department figures on the national debt were released as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to project that the annual budget deficit will be higher than previously estimated by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. The debt, which refers to the cumulative amount of money the government owes, hit $10.9 trillion on Friday. The whopping number has major ramifications for President Barack Obama, who is trying to push through a raft of big-ticket bills on health care, energy, education and climate...

Obama may have trouble keeping Democrats on his trackSome Democrats have qualms about his plans for spending and taxes -- and about his push to change so much so quickly. By Peter Nicholas March 8, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- President Obama is facing misgivings about his policy agenda from inside his own party, with prominent Democrats objecting to parts of his taxation and spending plans and questioning the White House push to do so much so fast. Obama's strategy is to advance on all fronts. Buoyed by favorable poll numbers, he is moving to jolt the economy with a...