I think the purpose of life is
to be useful,
to be responsible,
to be honorable,
to be compassionate.
It is, after all, to matter:
to count,
to stand for something,
to have made some difference that you lived at all.
Leo C. Rosten
Another Inconvenient Video Fact
Don't you just love how politicians' words come back to haunt them? Like Obama's 2006 speech against raising the debt ceiling during his Senate term? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is reportedly going to attempt to block a floor vote on S 202 to audit the Federal Reserve. The below video gave a reasonably compelling argument for auditing the Fed--before he became Majority Leader.
HR 459 Audit the Fed Passes 327-98! On to S 202!
Thumbs UP!
Why are HR 459 / S 202 important? I've edited and reorganized relevant discussion from auditthefed.com:
Since 1913, the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy.
During the current economic crisis, Congress, the Treasury, and the Fed have put us on the hook for over $14 trillion in bailouts and loans (in addition to our over $16 trillion national debt). When testifying before Congress in 2009, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke refused to disclose which institutions received trillions of dollars or what deals are being made with foreign banks.
Current audits of the Fed by outside agencies are not thorough and do not include monetary policy decisions or agreements with foreign central banks and governments. The GAO is only allowed to audit check-processing, currency storage and shipments, credit facilities (limited) and some regulatory and bank examination functions, etc.
Currently, the GAO is prohibited from auditing:
1. transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
2. deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations
3. transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
4. a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)-(3) of this subsection of US Code.
The GAO cannot conduct on-site examinations of banks or bank holding companies without written approval.The split among Democrats is interesting. You would think, given populist bank-bashing and the Fed as a cartel of private banks with sweeping powers to print currency, set interest rates, make loans, etc., that they would agree. Why would they disagree? I can only speculate: some may profess high sounding regard for Fed "independence" of political influence. I suspect that the real story is that some progressives are worried about the "real" motives of the Congressmen behind the legislation. It's no secret that Ron Paul, the chief sponsor of the Audit the Fed Bill in the House, would prefer no Fed at all; but more to the point, there's the "dual mandate" of the Fed (price stability, maximum employment). Many conservatives (including myself) see the goals as ultimately inconsistent and the employment mandate as intrinsically political and want to see a single mandate (e.g., here and here). Many progressives see easy monetary policy as complementary to stimulus spending and will fight to retain the maximum employment mandate.
| YEAS | NAYS | PRES | NV | |
| REPUBLICAN | 238 | 1 | 1 | |
| DEMOCRATIC | 89 | 97 | 5 | |
| INDEPENDENT | ||||
| TOTALS | 327 | 98 | 6 |
Dueling Bush Tax Legislation in the Senate
Today's vote exchange was predictable with mostly party line votes. The GOP proposal on a one-year extension to extend Bush tax cuts across the board failed 45-54, as expected, as Obama has had buyer's remorse from the get-go for his reluctant 2010 lame-duck concession to extend Bush era tax cuts (including higher-income people). The Democrats' class warfare proposal to raise dividend and capital gains and extend only the Bush tax cuts for up to $250K household income did carry 51-48, but was largely symbolic, because tax legislation must start in the House, and there is zero chance that GOP-controlled House will pass a class warfare bill. Three senators (Collins, R-ME, Brown R-MA, Pryor D-AR) voted against both.
Obama is pleased: he thinks that GOP votes against his "middle class tax cuts" make them politically vulnerable this fall. I don't think so. I think Americans would support a "grand compromise" that includes both across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases as Sen. Lieberman suggested. But the class warfare stuff has gone on now for at least 6 years running and really hasn't helped the Dems politically. A number of Americans reject class warfare as contrary to traditional American values, a punishment of success to which they aspire.
What's more interesting is the fact that all the vulnerable Senate Democrats up for election this fall stuck with this legislation. My hypothesis is that this may have more to do about motivating their partisan base for the upcoming election and the fact that they will get very little credit by their GOP opponents for supporting the GOP alternative.
To the House GOP: I'm OK With the Typo...
According to The Hill:
Republicans and Democrats got snippy on the House floor Wednesday over a typo in a GOP deregulation bill, which Democrats have so far refused to let Republicans fix quickly on the floor by unanimous consent.
The bill, H.R. 4078, is meant to prohibit major federal regulations until the unemployment rate falls to 6 percent, but instead says no new regulations can be issued until the employment rate falls to 6 percent.Just imagine: the Obama Administration unable to write a single new regulation until official unemployment hits 94%. Be still, my beating heart... Not even Obama can mess up the economy that badly (or can he?)
The Food Police and Mayor Bloomberg?
Try the Restaurant Political Correctness Police
and Mayors Thomas Menino and Rahm Emanuel:
Thumbs DOWN!
Is there no end to progressive Democratic arrogance and economic illiteracy? Not only will they insist on increasing marginal tax rates, adversely affecting economic growth (and related tax revenues), but turning down WalMart or proven restaurant chains which employ local citizens, pay sales, property and other taxes, etc.
Dan Cathy is the CEO of privately-held Chick-fil-A and recently unabashedly spoke out in favor of the traditional definition of marriage, an unpopular stand in today's culture which has been saturating the progressive-dominated media with support for "gay marriage". Today's self-appointed elitist cultural police brandish words like "homophobia" as if a cross before an approaching vampire!
Don't get me started on whom I call the "New York Times Catholics" like Caroline Kennedy, Joe Biden, Mario Cuomo, and Nancy Pelosi, whom subordinate rulings by the Church on matters of faith and morals to the High Liberal Priests and Priestesses of the New York Times op-ed columnists! They start out each new day, wondering: "what would Oprah say?"
Thomas Menino is the Dem Boston mayor whose open mind is like an "Alcatraz around his neck". He doesn't want a business in HIS town that "discriminates against a population" (unlike,say, a city that "discriminates against a business": not that there's anything wrong with that....). Apparently Menino seems to think Chick-fil-A has marriage licenses on the menu but will sell them only to traditional couples...
Rahm Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago, knows better than to let a good crisis go to waste: he won't be distracted by 9.8% unemployment in the city and the latest shootings: he wants to ban Chick-fil-A.
Menino and Emanuel, for being city boss censors who won't let a business owner open a store if he exercises, as per his constitutional right, an opinion different from their own, have earned nominations to my Jackass of the Year competition.
What's next? Banning bedside Bibles at local hotels for containing "homophobic" passages?
My response to this nonsense: do you need to ask? Remember during the BP Oil Spill incident I didn't care for the BP consumer boycotts, and went out of my way to find BP stations. The next time I go out for fast food, it will be for a delicious Chick-fil-A sandwich. I'm sorry about the consumers in Boston and Chicago are being deprived by their meddling politicians of the freedom to purchase tasty chicken sandwiches.
[My opinion on the general topic of "gay marriage"? Libertarians have differences of opinion. I believe that gay couples should be left alone (i.e., MYOB), but I believe that traditional institutions like marriage and family should be respected and there are unintended consequences to changing things that have stood for thousands of years.]
Stossel and Charter Schools
I'm a huge John Stossel fan; I own copies of two of his books and have embedded several of his videos, like this one below. I have made similar points in past posts. What I like about this video is it shows different approaches, but in particular the administrators who are hungry for the challenge--"give me your worst students". Union propagandists, of course, are dismissive of charters (unless they are involved) The lines and the lotteries speak for themselves as well as the guy whom says, without batting an eye, paying a teacher over $100K is "worth every penny".
I've been meaning to comment about recent controversies involving one of my favorite education reformers Michelle Rhee, whom ran the DC school system under the former mayor. I have promoted her reform organization in the blog. Anyone who challenges the status quo can expect opposition. For example, one of the Rhee success stories has come into question over an alleged cheating scandal at one of Rhee's spotlight schools. There is an allegation of parties (presumably teachers or administrators) changing students' answers to correct ones in a statistically unlikely manner, and a terminated employee claims his firing was a reprisal for exposing the scandal. (Here is an example of an anti-Rhee website.)
The point here is not about the validity of the allegations (and to date I haven't seen a statement from Rhee, probably because there's ongoing litigation). Rather, the teacher union propagandists have seized on the scandal to discredit the reform movement (including charter schools) as a whole. I'll have more to say in an upcoming post.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Blondie, "Heart of Glass"
