Research

Today, The Denver Post’s editorial board called on Obama to “tap the brakes” on recent talk of Stimulus II, citing Americans’ concerns about the failures of the first stimulus and the deficits it created:

American taxpayers, as well as their grandchildren, already are on the hook for well over a trillion dollars in recent government spending that was meant to stimulate the economy. So forgive us for being a bit skeptical as President Obama and top Democrats in Congress think about cranking up yet another round of spending to stimulate the creation of jobs ...

[W]e have yet to see substantive proof that all of that money has created a meaningful number of new jobs. It is imperative that American taxpayers get some clear answers and strong evidence that a new government bailout/stimulus plan will work before we're asked to foot more debt …

[H]e needs to give the American people more than lip service on our mounting debt.

Back in February, The Denver Post’s editorial board gave a ... more

The answer is yes according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released this morning which shows that the Obama-Reid government-run health care bill will raise insurance premiums for many Americans. It echoes many of the points we’ve been raising about how the new mandates, taxes, and regulations will raise the costs for individuals and families. Here’s the most startling finding:

CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law.

The primary reasons for the premium increase are new government mandates for every health care plan to cover certain treatments. This translates into a one-size-fits-all approach which will drive costs higher. How much higher? Over $2,000 higher for families:

Average premiums per policy in the nongroup market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for ... more

You would think that any government takeover of an entire industry would involve seasoned experts in that industry to ensure that it would be successful and profitable in the future. So who exactly was involved in Obama’s government takeover of GM? David Shepardson of The Detroit News tells the story:

The Obama administration's Team Auto -- a group of a dozen mostly young Wall Street veterans -- worked grueling hours even by Wall Street standards …

Initially, team members were working even before they had Treasury IDs or official clearance …

In Washington, many members of the Obama auto team lived in corporate housing within walking distance of the Treasury Department …

They had dinner at an Italian restaurant near the White House after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy in April, and headed to Bobby Van's, an upscale steak house, the evening Chrysler emerged …

So, “a group of a dozen mostly young Wall Street veterans,” that had no experience whatsoever in the auto industry, wined and ... more

Is Sheriff Biden putting any of his time into searching for stimulus jobs? We ask because President Obama promised that the stimulus would help “poor and working” Americans, and instead, as Time Magazine reports, those funds aren’t going to areas that have been the hardest hit by the recession:

Miami's poorer residents have long complained that the city's meager public-transit system makes it harder for them to get to work. So when the Obama Administration announced the $787 billion stimulus plan earlier this year, many hoped some of that money would help fund plans like an expansion of Miami's undersized Metrorail system — especially a 10-mile northern extension that would reach into predominantly African-American and other minority communities largely cut off from downtown and other employment centers. But the project, in part because it's not considered as shovel-ready as jobs like existing highway maintenance, isn't getting any of the $15 billion in stimulus aid for Florida, ... more

Late Saturday night, Senate Democrats advanced the Obama-Reid government-run health care experiment with 60 votes exactly – just enough for Harry Reid to claim success. Unfortunately for Harry Reid, that was only the first in a series of Senate votes he’ll need to win in order to pass his bill.  As Politico reports, there are several “hidden land mines” ahead.

Democrats have been laying down markers left and right to advance their bargaining positions, and if any of them holds firm, the whole bill could fall apart.  You can learn more about Reid’s problems in this morning’s Research Briefing, “Math Is Hard.”

President Obama is apparently not going to wait for his Democratic majorities in Congress to crush our economy with a national energy tax. He’s moving ahead without them. After backroom deals in the House, postponement in the Senate, and threats to ignore both houses of Congress by instituting economically harmful EPA regulations, it looks like the Obama Administration may have found a new way to move closer to enacting their job-killing “cap-and-trade” scheme. The Wall Street Journal reports that White House “officials indicated that the administration is prepared to offer a provisional target for cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.”

The New York Times explains why Obama is willing to completely ignore Congress to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets before the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen next month:

The lack of consensus in Congress puts Mr. Obama in a tricky domestic and diplomatic bind. He cannot promise more than Congress may eventually deliver when it ... more

At a Cabinet meeting today, President Obama said that “we cannot sit back and be satisfied” with unemployment now at double digits. We now know that his prescribed $787 billion cure from February has not solved the root cause of our economic downturn, so Obama is turning to his usual tricks: talking about doing something instead of actually doing something.

What’s more important is what wasn’t talked about at the White House: what The New York Times called a chilling “trifecta” of problems the U.S. faces concerning our looming debt:

[A] mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

By 2019, the U.S. could be paying $700 billion a year just in interest on our debt, compared to the $202 billion in interest we’ll be paying this year. The U.S. is also facing likely increases in interest rates, which is particularly ... more

Remember back in February when the President claimed there would be “unprecedented responsibility and accountability” in the stimulus bill?  The Nashua Telegraph reports that this is not quite the case.  The report notes that when looking at the database tracking stimulus money for the state of New Hampshire, crucial information is seriously lacking.

Nearly half of the 754 items on the New Hampshire list are missing key data – most often a description of the project. We know that Dartmouth Regional Technology Center is getting $80,000, but nothing about how it plans to spend the money. Pike Industries is getting money for some kind of road work, but we don’t know how much.

It seems that the failures of President Obama’s stimulus package are never ending. So it may surprise some to hear the spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, Ed Pound, claim that there are no significant errors. In today’s research briefing, we beg to differ.

After almost compete silence on the issue of human rights during his trip to Asia, Obama will speak tonight during the second annual Robert F. Kennedy Center For Justice & Human Rights awards ceremony at the White House.  But despite his oratory, the President’s track record on human rights is deeply troubling: since taking office, the Obama administration has failed to make human rights a priority.  The magazine, Der Spiegel, notes that unlike past administrations, President Obama skirted human rights issues, ignoring the repressive actions of the Chinese regime, while in Asia.

The White House did not even stand up for itself when it came to the question of human rights in China. The president, who had said only a few days earlier that freedom of expression is a universal right, was coerced into attending a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, at which questions were forbidden. Former US President George W. Bush had always managed to avoid such press ... more

While you were out with your friends and family on Saturday night, the U.S. Senate voted to advance a massive, government-run health care experiment.  This was the first opportunity for all of the Democrat Senators who’d expressed opposition to the bill to turn their words into actions. But after Harry Reid was done, he’d cajoled or bought off every Democrat into voting for it, giving them exactly enough votes.

Watch this Video Research Briefing to see which Senators were trying to hide from the American people by voting in the dead of night.