Category Archives: Economy

Obama ignored the first court ruling and the invalid appointees remain seated. Now there is a second ruling affirming the first.

A national labor board which has long been accused of making union-friendly decisions was dealt another blow Thursday, after a second federal appeals court found President Obama exceeded his power when he bypassed the Senate to appoint its members.

The ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia once again threatened to upend the National Labor Relations Board’s decisions. And it has the potential to stall the board entirely, as well as challenge other federal agencies that have similar appointees.

For now, the Obama administration has tried to disregard the court decisions — it has already appealed a similar ruling, from a Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to the Supreme Court.

All is proceeding as we predicted.

Internal cost estimates from 17 of the nation’s largest insurance companies indicate that health insurance premiums will grow an average of 100 percent under Obamacare, and that some will soar more than 400 percent, crushing the administration’s goal of affordability.

New regulations, policies, taxes, fees and mandates are the reason for the unexpected “rate shock,” according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which released a report Monday based on internal documents provided by the insurance companies. The 17 companies include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Kaiser Foundation.

Sadly, Americans have no idea of the economic destruction Obamacare has already caused.

Small businesses will soon be unable to provide any health insurance – even the terrible high-deductible plans about which people used to complain. Would-be-entrepreneurs by the thousands will continue to stay at jobs they hate rather than start businesses that could succeed.

Obamacare is an anchor around the neck of our economy. It isn’t going to get better.

Chuck Grassley says Max Baucus is, in leaving the Senate, abandoning a sinking ship.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa — Democratic senator Max Baucus is retiring because he is “fed up” with the Affordable Care Act, according to his Republican colleague Chuck Grassley. Speaking at Friday night’s Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa, Grassley told the audience the Montana senator is leaving office ”because he’s so fed up with the possibility of the implementation of Obamacare being a train wreck.”

Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, played a key role in writing the 2010 law.

Grassley said that dissatisfaction with the health-care bill exists across party lines, describing a “bipartisan coalition in Washington” that considers the implementation of the law a disaster. “It’s a shame that a trainwreck even left the station a couple years ago,” he added, referring to Baucus’s now-infamous statement of frustration.

Baucus, as much as anyone, is responsible for the nightmare that is Obamacare. Pulling a Bart Stupak and running away will not absolve him of that responsibility. Now that the damage is done, Baucus will retire with a nice fat pension, paid by the the same taxpayers he helped to shaft. Americans shouldn’t forget that.

2014 is going to be bad for the Democratic Party because it is going to be very bad for America.

The college system in the United States largely failing students and taxpayers. College tuition continues to skyrocket even as federal subsidies rise. Over the last 25 years, college tuition and fees rose more than 400 percent or more than four times the rate of inflation. Average student loan debt exceeds $25,000 and total student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion. Fewer than 60 percent of college students finish college in six years or less. Half of college graduates today are unemployed or underemployed.

Elizabeth Warren has a solution: Make money easier. Give out more loans to more students. Give colleges the means to raise rates further and, thus, drive up tuition costs and default rates. Saddle young people with billions of dollars in new debt. In other words, the horse just needs more turpentine.

Naturally, the Eccon-Muggles at the Daily Kos love it.

Would love to see this pass! will sign petitions, make calls to support.

Excellent idea, and a great way to show, once again, Republicans don’t care about any Americans who aren’t rich.

Can you say Biden-Warren 2016?

Elizabeth hits it out of the ballpark again. She is probably the best new Senator ever.

his is such delicious framing that everyone can understand. And on an issue that is crying out for attention. Leave it to a lifelong teacher to nail it.

Of course none of the geniuses who love this remember what easy money, low interest rates and treasury backed mortgages did to the economy a few years ago. Why must we make the same damned stupid mistakes over and over again? Why?

Dirty little secret: Unemployment is falling because people are just giving up on full time work.

We have problems in this country.

Nonfarm payrolls remain 2.6 million short of the prior peak reached in January 2008. What’s more, roughly 22 million people are effectively unemployed because they’re actually not working, underemployed, or forced to work only part time.

And partly because people are dropping out of the labor force, or collecting government benefits instead of working, the employment-to-population ratio, which peaked at 64.6 percent in April 2000, has dropped to 56.8 percent in the latest month. That translates to a loss of roughly 10 million jobs from the long-term trend line. It’s a huge waste of human capital and talent, as well as economic growth.

What’s more, the anemic 2.1 percent real GDP recovery of the last 15 quarters (compare that with the 4.4 percent post-WWII average) has thus far created an output gap of roughly $3 trillion, according to RDQ economist John Ryding. This country will need to grow at more than 5 percent yearly for more than a decade if that economic gap is to be closed.

Or think of this: From 1950 through 2007, the long-term historical U.S. economic growth rate was 3.25 percent yearly after inflation. Today we are a staggering 20 percent below that trend.

There is still plenty of money to make it easier to spend money.

The Department of Agriculture announced a $4 million dollar, expanded-eligibility plan to increase food stamp access at farmers markets this week.

Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon announced that in an effort to make more produce readily available to participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp program, the agency is expanding the use of wireless point-of-sale equipment to farmers markets and direct marketing farmers who do not already have such equipment.

Food stamp recipients seemed confused, however. “Farmers market ain’t got no Mountain Dew and Skittles for sale!”