As unemployment hit 10.2% last week the House in a special Saturday session of Congress passed health care bill that is costly and unpopular. In a great example of politicians being out of touch, Congress has decided that health care reform takes precedence over the economy and jobs even when poll after poll (including the exit polls taken during last weeks special elections) show that jobs and the economy is at the top of almost everybody’s list of important issues.

The House health care bill is extremely costly and attempts to pay for itself through massive MediCare cuts. There are tax hikes on small business that can’t help but have a negative effect on job creation. This bill will likely add greatly to our already staggering federal deficit, again not helpful for long-term economic recovery. Finally, it is a 2000 page bill that does little to reduce the cost of health care, one of the primary reasons that health care reform was needed in the first place. Congress has put the country on notice that they’re priorities are not those of the American people.

Nov. 4, 2009

November 4, 2009 new protests in Iran.

Yesterday was a big day for Republicans with huge wins in Virginia and New Jersey.  Those two races also showed that the Obama election machine is not invincible.  While the White House had already conceded Virginia prior to election day, New Jersey they fully backed right up to election day.  They brought all their big guns out to stump for Governor Corzine.  Former President Clinton, Vice President Biden, and President Obama himself all came to New Jersey to push Corzine over the finish line, but it didn’t work.  This leaves current Democrat Congressmen and Senators wondering if the highly touted Obama coalition will actually get out to vote for anyone other than Obama.  It shows Democrats, from Republican (or Independent) districts, that they better look out for their own tail, because the president can’t protect them.  This election showed that Obama’s election/star power is not transferable to his allies, and that leaves a lot of Democrats nervous about their jobs.

The other case where the big guns fired blanks was in upstate New York’s 23rd district.  This election became something of a saga as the Republican nominee dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. However, conservatives from outside the state swooped in to endorse the conservative candidate Hoffman to no avail.  Palin, Limbaugh, Pawlenty, Beck, and Thompson all came out strongly for the conservative candidate in this solid Republican corner of New York.  Clearly the locals were unimpressed as Democrat Owens won the seat.  While this is something of a convoluted case, it does raise questions for the Republican party about whether they want to be an inclusive big tent party, or if they want their conservative membership unsuccessfully trying to strong arm races they don’t necessarily belong in.

The big winner of the night was Governor-elect McDonnell of Virginia who won by nearly 20 points in Virginia, a state that last election went to the Democrats.  Pundits are saying that they expect contenders for the 2010 election to follow his lead and run a race focussing on the big issues, the economy, jobs, government spending, and taxes.  This common sense approach could be a winner for Republicans as these are the top priorities of many people in both parties.

The AP has an interesting article on Farmers growing electricity along with their crops. There are a myriad of reasons, whether economic, social, or environmental, that using alternative sources of energy is increasing in popularity. This article shows how farmers are becoming not just producers of food but some are are producing energy as well…

Vern and Gianaclis Caldwell do a lot of the typical things that make a small farm self-sufficient.Besides the 40-some dwarf Nigerian goats they milk to make artisanal cheeses, they also raise chickens for meat and eggs, a steer for beef, horses to ride and vegetables for the table.

Unlike most small farms, their heat and electricity is entirely home grown. They produce electricity from solar panels when the sun shines, and a micro-hydro turbine when winter rains put water in the creek. Oak and fir cut from the farm fire a boiler that heats the cement floors of the dairy and cheese making room, as well as the hot water to wash the goats and themselves.

“We thought we should be responsible for our own energy,” said Vern Caldwell, a retired U.S. Marine Corps aircraft maintenance officer. “So that drove a lot of everything else that we did — where the buildings were placed, how they were placed, taking advantage of passive solar, how we were going to heat, how we were going to cool. All those issues then got driven by this one decision to be off the grid.”

Pholia Farm is unusual in the degree to which it is energy self-sufficient.

But more farms are installing renewable energy, said Stephanie Page, renewable energy specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The motivation was sparked by the 2008 spike in fuel prices, and is being fanned by a range of grants and tax credits handed out by state, federal and private agencies.

The Obama administration is still having difficulty in justifying the massive expenditure that came with the stimulus package. The root of the problem comes with claiming stimulus success is the state of unemployment. The administration prior to passing the stimulus said that it would prevent unemployment for rising above 8.5%, but now that number is close to 10%. While there has been some good economic news, it has been a mixed bag with lack of job creation clearly being a major problem.

Yet the administration continues to claim success with the stimulus. Vice President Biden’s likely making the most amusing sales pitch when he said, “In my wildest dreams, I never thought it would work this well,” and to paraphrase a TV pundit, ‘Who knew Joe Biden’s wildest dreams included a stimulus plan.’  Now the problem of such a hard sell isn’t just that unemployment numbers remain high, but there are accounting problems with the ‘jobs created or saved’ numbers. The AP writes in their article STIMULUS WATCH: Stimulus jobs overstated reports that, as the title suggests, the job numbers reported are higher than the actual number of jobs saved or created. Considering the administration’s claims about keeping unemployment down prior to the passage of the stimulus, and where unemployment numbers are currently at, the administration is finding itself in the middle of a logic gap where claiming success for saving and creating jobs just doesn’t add up.

The AP reviewed a sample of federal contracts, not all 9,000 reported to date, and discovered errors in one in six jobs credited to the $787 billion stimulus program — or 5,000 of the 30,000 jobs claimed so far.

Even in its limited review, the AP found job counts that were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of paid positions; jobs credited to the stimulus program that were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs that were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:

_ Some recipients of stimulus money used the cash to give existing employees pay raises, but each reported saving dozens of jobs with the money, including one Florida day care that claimed 129 jobs saved.

_ A Texas contractor whose business kept 22 employees to handle stimulus contracts saw its job count inflated to 88 because the same workers were counted four times.

_ The water department in Palm Beach County, Fla., hired 57 meter readers, customer service representatives and other positions to handle two water projects. But their total job count was incorrectly doubled to 114.

STIMULUS WATCH: Stimulus jobs overstated

Politico, in a well written article, notes the double standard that exists with the Obama administration and the media. Worth a read, the point should be less about sympathy for the Bush administration, and more about the media’s complete lack of objectivity…

What if Bush had done that?

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser.

Snubbing the Dalai Lama.

Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers.

Freezing out a TV network.

Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too.

President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.

What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda.

It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news judgment, and an illustration that, in politics, context is everything.

Conservatives look on with a mix of indignation and amazement and ask: Imagine the fuss if George W. Bush had done these things?

And quickly add, with a hint of jealousy: How does Obama get away with it?

Well crack out the violins the White House doesn’t like Fox News. The first two to pull out their bows are sure to be Senator McCain and Secretary Clinton, who will likely also be playing in the percussion section as they simultaneously bang their heads against the wall. Both have repeatedly noted the media’s incredible Obama love-fest during the election. Secretary Clinton even stated that Fox News treated her most fairly of any network at that time.

President Obama has received the most favorable media coverage of any politician in my lifetime, and likely of all time. Yet that does not appear to be good enough for the Obama White House. Apparently all news network must feature personalities who fawn over the President’s good looks and eloquence. If your station is not packed with people whose legs tingle when the President talks then clearly you are not a legitimate news organization. Robert Gibbs today cited Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity as proof that Fox is not truly a news network. Now I’d rather poke myself in the eye then watch the Glenn Beck show, but isn’t he really just Kieth Olbermann in conservative clothing? Yet no admonishment from the White House for MSNBC being fully in the Obama tank? Isn’t good journalism what happens when those in power are questioned and challenged? Clearly at this point in history Fox News, while obviously filled with conservative programming, is far more likely to ask a probing question of the White House than an organization like the New York Times whose reporter literally asked the president at a press conference what he was most enchanted by as president (seriously they asked him about being enchanted).

Now as for Sean Hannity, he has been full of tough but legitimate questions for candidate and President Obama. ACORN who was given a pass by other media sources was researched by the Hannity show. President Obama’s personal and public associations are frequently questioned by Sean Hannity.  He is a self-ascribed conservative, and that apparently not acceptable, particularly if thy have a lot of questions.  Most candidates go through a series of tough questions when they are vetted, but candidate Obama was able to avoid this scrutiny because the media’s school-girl crush on him. The White House’s criticism of Fox News really isn’t about Fox News, it’s about the administration’s incredibly thin skin. This adminstration wasn’t tested by the media during the election and therefore is completely unprepared to handle even the mildest of criticism from prominent conservative comentators. As Senator McCain has repeatedly stated ‘this aint beanbag,’ and maybe this president and administration just don’t have the stomach or the backbone for politics.

From Politico Fox ‘not really news,’ says Axelrod

“It’s really not news — it’s pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way. We’re going to appear on their shows. We’re going to participate but understanding that they represent a point of view.” 

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Fox “is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective.”

“It’s not so much a conflict with Fox News,” Emanuel told John King. “I suppose the way to look at it and the way … the president looks at it, we look at it is: It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective. And that’s a different take. And more importantly, is not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization …

Senator Orrin Hatch held a blogger call last Friday where he explained the numerous problems with the Democrats health care reform plans. It should be noted that Senator Hatch has a history of working across the aisle on health care issues. He definitely wants health care reform, but believes the current attempts at reform are fatally flawed.

The most glaring problem with health reform plans is the cost. Only the Baucus plan attempts to be budget neutral and it does so by raiding Medicare, Hatch described the plan to cut Medicare by 4.4 trillion as, “a joke”. It also appears that Congress may try to address the problem of doctors’ Medicare compensation outside the scope current health care reform plans. This issue, commonly referred to as the ‘doctor fix,’ will cost a significant amount of money, therefore labeling it as something other than ‘health care reform’ is a way of adding the cost to the deficit while masking the true cost of health care reform.

Senator Hatch also noted that the head of the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) Doug Elmendorf has proven himself as a honest and reputable person. He explained that one of his major concerns about reform plans is that the CBO has stated that they have no idea what effect reforms will have on the cost of health care and the cost of health insurance premiums. Senator Hatch, like Senator McConnell, also stated that the Democrats should make good on their campaign promise of transparency and at minimum should have the CBO grade any congressional plan and post their online 72 hours prior to a vote as promised last election by President Obama.

It should be noted that their are currently several different health reform plans that have come out of committee. The Baucus plan from the finance committee is the only one that can make any claim that it is budget neutral. It reaches budget neutrality through huge cuts to Medicare, and increased taxes on things like medical devices. However the other plans, one out of the Senate HELP committee lead by Senator Dodd, and those from House committees are nowhere near budget neutral as promised by the President. Now these plans are being merged together behind closed doors in a decidedly un-transparent manner. What the final bill will look like is still a bit of a guess, but considering how poor the committee bills are that the final bill will be based upon, Senator Hatch’s assessment that the best hope for real health care reform is to defeat the current plans and make the Democrats start over and truly attempt a bipartisan bill appears to be right on point.