Flashback for Wisconsin Republicans - Remember this little rhetorical flourish when dealing with Democrats unclear on the finer points of democracy.

Sounds like an Elvis Costello song - Investor's Business Daily: "The Social Security trust fund may be worth less than zero." (H/T Instapundit.)

Winning the future by facing reality

Here's Charles Krauthammer summing up "Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin."

We have heard everyone - from Obama's own debt commission to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - call the looming debt a mortal threat to the nation. We have watched Greece self-immolate. We can see the future. The only question has been: When will the country finally rouse itself?

Amazingly, the answer is: now. Led by famously progressive Wisconsin - Scott Walker at the state level and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan at the congressional level - a new generation of Republicans has looked at the debt and is crossing the Rubicon. Recklessly principled, they are putting the question to the nation: Are we a serious people?

When Krauthammer writes about "famously progressive Wisconsin" I can't help but think back to super-liberal Massachusetts replacing Ted Kennedy with Scott Brown. There's been a tipping point somewhere where Americans realize the status quo of public policies erected 50+ years ago cannot stand anymore.

Hold onto your hats: Freddie Mac lost money, wants some taxpayer cash - Shocking, I know. Business Week: "Freddie Mac reports loss, seeks $500 million in aid." When you're running a $1.5 trillion deficit, $500 million is the spare change in the couch.

Who's going to pay for all this? - Here's Victor Davis Hanson at Real Clear Politics: "After Obama, the deluge." "After Obama leaves office, a perfect storm of rising international interest rates, an anemic dollar and panic on the part of foreign lenders may force an end to this unhinged American rush to borrow and blow what it has not earned."

"You're an Ocean" by Fastball

Here's one of those songs that should have been a huge hit, but wasn't. Oh well. With Billy Preston on the keyboard.

Social Security again - Here's former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin with "Social Security and the budget mess": "It would be nice to see somebody in Washington willing to lead." Amen to that, brother.

Extra - The government made promises, it knew it couldn't keep.

Saying it ain't part of the budget don't make it so - Veronique de Rugy has a very good outline of the pressure Social Security puts on the federal budget now that its finances have tipped into the red: "Social Security is part of the problem."

Andy Stern beclowns himself

Over at Hit & Run, Matt Welch reviews the SEIU chief's reasons for ignoring the voters in Wisconsin and is it really necessary to go beyond argument #1? "Wisconsin's budget deficit is far from the nation's largest."

This is like saying: "I'm gonna have another piece of cheesecake because I'm not as fat as Michael Moore." By Stern's own admission, the budget deficit is $1.8 billion in Wisconsin; a gap that must be closed by state law. As George Will noted today, governor Scott Walker campaigned and won election on making these changes and now a "minority of the minority" wants to silence the vox populi. Color me unsurprised.

It's been a rough winter, I know - Via Maggie's Farm, Passive-Aggressive Notes has some reminders left for people who take parking spots cleared of snow by other people.

The spoiled-brat Baby Boomers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "The worst generation's war in Wisconsin."

Slow President's Day - I guess I could say something about Libya but all the news is very sketchy so far. The Colonel is heading for Venezuela? Sure, why not. In other news, I took my teenagers to see "The King's Speech" today.

There will be no champagne in Victory Lane - That's because the winner of the Daytona 500 is only 20 years old. In only his second Sprint Cup start, Trevor Bayne became the youngest winner of America's Race. Very exciting finish.

FDR, union buster - Real Clear Politics: "FDR's ghost is smiling on Wisconsin's governor."

It's like, you know, and stuff - City Journal: "What happens in Vagueness, stays in Vagueness - The decline and fall of American English." (H/T Arts & Letters).

Legal updates - The Obama Administration asks the judge who declared Obamacare unconstitutional: "You were serious about that?"

Bipartisan failure

It's now glaringly obvious that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans in Washington have any intention of addressing the country's debt addiction. Look at the graph below:

Keith Hennessey explains:

The gap between the red and blue lines is the budget deficit. A deficit of 3% of GDP will hold debt constant relative to the economy. Under the President’s policies the deficit would dip in 2018 to 2.9%, and would otherwise forever be at or above 3%. Our government debt burden will increase forever.

In a crisis our economy can handle an enormous temporary budget deficit. Our deficit problem is that future deficits are large, sustained, and projected to grow forever. Our little yellow double-headed deficit arrow will grow into a monster and keep growing.

"Grow into a monster" because if interest rates rise just a little, the additional cost to the federal government on interest payments rises considerably leading to a debt spiral where it becomes extremely difficult to pare down the accumulated principal.

I know! Let's build a high-speed choo-choo!

Wisconsin statehouse stuff - Wisconsin blogger Ann Althouse has lots of pictures from the march in Madison. As usual, the protesters made a mess.

Extra - From Hit & Run.

More - Slate "United We Flee": "So can legislators stop a bill by refusing to show up? They might but they're not actually allowed to." Well, yes, but the penalties for the missing Democrats appear to be non-existent.

Quote of the day - Senate budget chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND): "History will condemn us all if we don't do substantially more [to reduce debt] than is in this budget. I feel it puts at risk the economic security of this country."

GMTA, super-genius edition - Holy cow, did you see Final Jeopardy tonight? Ken Jennings used the exact same wording as my post from yesterday: "I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords." Maybe he's a fan.

I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords

Hot Air: "Great news: Supercomputer utterly destroys all-time champs on Jeopardy."

For the record, the Final Jeopardy category tonight was "U.S. Cities" and the clue alluded to two airports (O'Hare and Midway) thus leading to the answer of Chicago. The IBM Watson computer guessed "Toronto" which is hilariously and fundamentally wrong in that it's not a city in the United States.

I suspect the last Jeopardy round tomorrow will feature a lot of tricky wordplay-type questions so the humans can beat back Skynet. We're not out of this yet.

I think I'm turning libertarian, I really think so

Recently I subscribed to Reason magazine and I stop at Hit & Run every day. It's like a kindler, gentler Tea Party that wants to put this country back on the path to fiscal sanity. Anyway, here's Reason's review why we're not going to "win the future" with this latest budget and the establishment parties:

On top of everything else - There's the open sore of Obamacare. Megan McArdle: "The ever-more-desperate health care budget gimmicks."

The veil has been lifted - Wow, you'll never guess who wrote this: "Obama to the next generation: screw you, suckers." (H/T Hot Air).

And here's a contemporary reference: "The Cee Lo Green budget." Heh.

Forget the discretionary cuts - Daniel Foster on the Corner: "A nation of cowards on entitlements." As Willie Sutton said: that's where the money is.

Blinded by obviousness and math - The Hill: "Voters troubled over future of Social Security." An astounding 15% of Americans believe the system is financially sound. I'll betting even they don't believe it, but wanted to swing the poll.

Harrumph! Somebody's going to be snubbed in the faculty dining room - Harvard professor Niall Ferguson lays the smackdown on the Obama administration's handling of Egypt and its foreign policy in general.

Enslaved by debt

NY Times columnist David Brooks has written an article that appears to be an encapsulation of all my entitlement spending hand-wringing for the past eight years. The main point here is that if Americans dislike the discretionary spending cuts that are being considered in Congress, it is because auto-pilot entitlement spending is swallowing the U.S. budget:

The coming budget cuts have nothing to do with merit. They have to do with the inexorable logic of mathematics. Over the past decades, spending in nearly every section of the federal budget has exploded to unsustainable levels. Each year, your family’s share of the national debt increases by about $12,000. By 2015, according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Moody’s will downgrade U.S. debt.

The greatest pressure comes from entitlements. Spending on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the debt has now risen to 47 percent of the budget. In nine years, entitlements are estimated to consume 64 percent of the budget, according to the invaluable folks at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. By 2030, they are projected consume 70 percent of the budget.

In other words, because nobody wants to cut Grandma's check, we have to make cuts elsewhere – "elsewhere" being shorthand for everything that Americans call "the government." But even with these "draconian" cuts, we're barely making a dent in the deficit:



In his CPAC speech, Mitch Daniels had it right (pun intended) when he called our national debt the new "red menace," a point David Brooks uses to conclude his article:

It’s not only about debt; it’s about freedom. It’s about whether we get to make budget choices or whether we have our lives dictated by the inexorable growth of programs beyond our control.

Exactly.

Mmm bye-bye Mubarak - Fox News: "Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak steps down." Michael Rubin asks "What Next?" over on the Corner.

I was just there this past weekend - The L.A. Times declares the Montague Book Mill "the world's finest bookstore cafe." It's a neat little place that is all the more beautiful in the summer when the Sawmill River is in full flow. Plus they have the greatest slogan: "Books you don't need in a place you can't find."

Unexpected! - Hot Air: "CBO admits Obamacare will kill 800,000 jobs." Here's yet another example of how the CBO tells the truth when forced to consider reality.

Inviting the explosion - It's being reported that Hosni Mubarak is passing authority (uh-huh) to his handpicked vice-president but he's going to stick around until September, indicating he's unclear on the concept. I'm reminded of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe who was once a freedom fighter, then president, then monstrous dictator. Holding on to power is all they know.

Extra - Here we go: let's blame America, always step one.

How can we get through to these stupid Americans?

Coming on the heels of a new poll indicating that Americans still really hate Obamacare comes this story of equal parts desperation and condescension: "Maybe people will like Obamacare better in comic book form."

That's right, an MIT economist is going to use ink and color to explain the great benefits of the health care reform law. Maybe Jughead will get a subdural hematoma.

Idiot - Fox News: "NY Rep. resigns after he sent shirtless photo to woman." Who was not his wife. Nice going, chump. You hurt your family and gave up a job that works about 90 days a year so you can impress some random person.

When you've lost Ed Asner - Radio Equalizer: "Not wild about O."

At the intersection of society, everybody needs to park their car - This past weekend I caught a delightful documentary called "The Parking Lot Movie" about the quirky guys who are parking attendants at a lot near the University of Virginia. (It's on Netflix on demand.) The best part is when people riding in expensive SUVs start to gripe about paying $9 to park all day.

After gorging on lobster and filet mignon, Obama orders a diet coke

The Hill: "Budget director previews cuts in Obama's 2012 plan"

The cuts are relatively small, however, in the larger scheme of things. In total, the $775 million in detailed cuts fall far short of demands by congressional Republicans and will do little toward tackling the deficit, which is estimated to be $1.5 trillion this year by the Congressional Budget Office. The cuts are in addition to a five-year spending freeze which the administration says will save $400 billion over the next decade.

Yes, given this administration's dedication to cutting the deficit, I'm sure those spending-freeze savings will materialize. Good gravy. The American public's backlash against raising the debt ceiling is a cri de coeur to please stop spending.

Extra - Really big numbers. The Corner: "Not a pretty debt picture."

More - Hit & Run: "Oh, the poetry of meaningless budget cuts."

Good ads - My fave Super Bowl ads so far: Product Placement (Bud Light), Tiny Dancer (Budweiser), and Richard Lewis and Rosanne Barr as loggers (Snickers).

Happy 100th birthday, Ronald Reagan!

Oh no, there goes Tokyo - Charles Krauthammer: "If Godzilla appeared on the National Mall, Al Gore would say it's global warming."

If you want to be surprised when watching the Oscars - Don't check out the latest odds at British betting site Ladbrokes. Let's just say that the Best Actor Oscar is a stone cold lock.

Well that's a relief - Via Hit & Run, Harvard Law professor Charles Fried testified before Congress that - heavens no! - Congress can't use the Commerce Clause to force Americans to eat broccoli. However, you can be forced to buy broccoli.

It's not a tax, it's a tax - Hit & Run: "He loves the mandate, he loves it not - The Obama administration's individual mandate flip-flops."

Pop that cork - Finally some good news. WSJ: "A toast to your health - Warning: Alcohol may increase your life expectancy and reduce dementia." Unless you're operating a moving vehicle, whereupon it could reduce your life expectancy very suddenly.

Please please please - Please stop snowing.

Extra - Not another two feet of snow.

Blogging + lassitude = blassitude?

As I mentioned earlier, I've just started a new job and, at least for now, I've been pouring a lot of energy into reviewing the technology, getting my computer to work, and finding a place to stash my lunch. At the same time, I don't know what to think or write about Egypt. Is it all good (democracy!) or all bad (yet another dictatorship)? And while I welcome Judge Vinson's ruling, we all know this is going to the Supremes to be decided by Justice Kennedy's 20-sided D&D die.

I need to recharge my blog-atteries. Here are those "Glee" kids singing Jason Mraz:

Federal judge strikes down Obamacare's individual mandate

Then he went one better and invalidated the whole law due to the severability issue. In his 78-page ruling, Judge Vinson declared that the government can't do whatever the heck it wants and call it "general welfare":

The Necessary and Proper Clause cannot be utilized to “pass laws for the accomplishment of objects” that are not within Congress’ enumerated powers. As the previous analysis of the defendants’ Commerce Clause argument reveals, the individual mandate is neither within the letter nor the spirit of the Constitution. To uphold that provision via application of the Necessary and Proper Clause would authorize Congress to reach and regulate far beyond the currently established “outer limits” of the Commerce Clause and effectively remove all limits on federal power.

The full ruling is here and it's everything I've been ranting about for months. The government, no matter how virtuous the intention, can't call inactivity "activity" and punish you for doing nothing. Otherwise it's compulsory broccoli and exercise for everyone, and the end of limited and enumerated powers.

Update - Choice cuts here, with a Tea Party shout-out.

Extra - "Simply the best!" says the Volokh Conspiracy: "...by far the best court opinion on this issue so far."

More - Opinion Journal: "The Constitutional Moment."

Movie night - Saw "The King's Speech" tonight. The chemistry between Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth was very good. Best part: Logue's wife comes back early from her bridge game to find the Queen of England sitting in her dining room.

Was Firth's portrayal of George VI Oscar-worthy? Ehhhh....I'm not sure.

Also: it's a shame the movie was rated "R" because - aside from some choice words - it could have easily made a PG rating. It's the kind of movie that kids should see with themes of friendship, responsibility, and overcoming adversity.

Borrowing 40 cents for every dollar spent - Robert Robb on Real Clear Politics: "State of the Union: broke."

Is the curtain coming down on Mubarak? - NY Times: "Egypt protests continue as military stands by." "Egypt was engulfed in a fifth day of protests on Saturday but an attempt by President Hosni Mubarak to salvage his 30-year rule by firing his cabinet and calling out the army appeared to backfire as troops and demonstrators fraternized and called for the president himself to resign."

You can't stop the Intertubes! - Fox News: "Egyptians use low-tech gadgets to get around communication block." Is that a dial-up modem?

I'm unemployed

Today was my last day at a job I've held since I graduated from college twenty years ago. I won't get into all the details of my departure but I got to a point where I couldn't see a pathway forward in my career. So I sought out a new job and got one; I'm starting Monday.

What does this mean? Well, maybe the job market is not as bad as people think. Or maybe it's not so bad for engineers. Or maybe I got lucky. One thing for sure is that I'm excited to start a new chapter in my life and see where it goes.

Another big fan of Obama's SOTU - Ruth Marcus of the WashPost: "The state of the union is leaderless." More from Pundit & Pundette.

Cruise-control spending


Here's Robert Samuelson on the real threats to the economy:

We cannot have a useful debate on the role of government - what it should do, for whom and at whose expense - if Americans are highly misinformed. Obama should have dispelled some common budgetary myths. Consider three:

Myth: The problem is the deficit. The real issue isn't the deficit. It's the exploding spending on the elderly - for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - which automatically expands the size of government. If we ended deficits with tax increases, we would simply exchange one problem (high deficits) for another (high taxes). Either would weaken the economy, and sharply higher taxes would represent an undesirable transfer to retirees from younger taxpayers.

President Obama's call to freeze discretionary spending for five-years is a laughable feint that freezes record spending levels on a tiny sliver of the overall budget. And while Obama has been promoting his "scalpel" approach to budget cutting versus the Republicans "chainsaw," even the whole toolshed will be inadequate:

The latest Obama plan would cut projected outlays by an estimated $400 billion in the next decade, and the Republican alternative would cut spending by $2.5 trillion. It's a measure of our predicament that these enormous sums wouldn't make a lot of difference, even if they were achieved. They're the equivalent of trying to empty a swimming pool with a tablespoon.

Clearly the problem is that the Federal government – over multiple Administrations – has over-promised what it can deliver. We are now running an annual deficit equal to the entire federal budget in the first year of the Clinton Administration and this was before – whoops! – we found out that Social Security is broke.

Oh, never mind. "The Office" is coming on. We're going to monetize the debt.

The hits just keep on comin' - Politico: "Deficits on pace to hit $2.58 trillion."

Equal under the law - Or not. Hot Air: "Obamacare waivers jump from 222 to 729 covering 2.2 million employees." Here's more from Q&O.

You say you want an (education) revolution - Eh, I'm sure I could have thought up a better title for this post. Masslive: "First Beatles scholar graduates from Liverpool university." That's right, she got a degree in Beatle-ology.

Waiting for leadership

These headlines today lay bare everything that was wrong with President Obama's SOTU address last night: "Federal deficit to hit $1.5 trillion in 2011" and "Medicare official doubts health care law savings."

There's a sizable chunk of the American populace (including me and my buddy Paul Ryan) who genuinely believe this country is heading towards a Greece-style debt meltdown. It was the animating force behind the Tea Party and the last election. Yet Obama gets in front of the country and starts talking about choo-choo trains and solar panels.

Here's some more commentary along the same lines:

Washington Post editorial: "A disappointing State of the Union address."

Peter Wehner on Contentions: "An irresponsible performance." "Obama spoke as if he were living in an alternate universe - one where a $14 trillion debt and a trillion dollar a year deficit don't exist."

Here's Matt Welch with "We don't do big things."...the only real policy issue in America right now is that we are on the verge of a fiscal catastrophe because we cannot afford the government we are paying for today, let alone the one we're promising for tomorrow."

Then there's Megan McArdle: "Our President spent over 5,000 words last night kind of noting, offhand, that we might have a problem, and then studiously avoiding proposing any serious solutions to the problem."

Where have I heard that before?

Me, yesterday: "This is all boilerplate stuff that could have been spoken by any modern-age President."

U.S. News & World Report: "Obama's State of the Union was tantamount to plagiarism."

Daniel Henninger: "The speech's prelude could have been delivered by Ronald Reagan..."

The tipping point - Exchequer: "CBO: Social Security now officially broke." No more surpluses, it's all red ink from here on out.

"We do big things" - Yeah, no kidding.

The worst line of the night - What was the speechwriter thinking? "Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing an engine. It may feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you feel the impact."

I'm sure they meant the resulting drop in velocity or performance but if somebody threw "impact" into a plane metaphor, they'd be taken aside by the TSA.

Always a crowd pleaser - I love when politicians want to "ask" millionaires to pay more taxes. Every U.S. citizen (even you) now owes $45K on the national debt. There is no level of confiscation from Bill Gates or Warren Buffett that will pay for our profligate overspending.

Zzzzzzzzz - A half-hour into Obama's SOTU speech and this is all boilerplate stuff that could have been spoken by any modern-age President. Yeah, let's teach our children and get some windmills.

Color me unsurprised - Hot Air: "Of course. Obama abandons plan to bring up Social Security reform in SOTU."

Remember how for months and months, whenever Obama administration officials were asked about deficit reduction or the national debt, the standard line was "The President has appointed a commission and he's going to let them do their job." What exactly was the point of the Deficit Commission if the critical recommendations are to be ignored?

Keep in mind that the decision to reform Social Security is the easy one. The program has an awful rate of return for younger workers and that's before the automatic benefit cuts starting around 2037. If we can't make a moral and fiscal argument for dragging Social Security into the new millennium, we'll never be able to reform Medicare which is a much, much bigger problem.

Extra - Weekly Standard: "Debt be not proud."

Flashback - Fox News: "Debt commissioners: Baby Boomers will crush Social Security, Medicare." Entitlement reform is the most expensive kicked-can ever.

Approaching irrelevancy - I had a class once that included a complimentary case study of the U.S. Postal Service and how they sort, organize, and ship millions of packages a day. But the further we move into the 21st century, the USPS just can't keep up with the digital revolution and it is losing a pile of money. WSJ: "Postal service eyes closing thousands of post offices."

The first step, I think, is to cancel Saturday deliveries. Also, I think an organization losing $8.5 billion a year should cut back on television commercials.

"I see the Bears are playing Green Bay on Sunday"

NY Times: "Bears and Packers: To call them Rivals is an Understatement." In other news, Zudock's going to freeze his keister off out there.

We're broke, let's spend more - Word on the street is that President Obama is going to ignore the overwhelming message of the last election that the deficit is a serious problem and call for more spending in the State of the Union address. Well, he's true to form. WSJ: "Obama to push new spending."

Extra - It's all about creating jobs.

Sign me up - Dana Milbank in the WashPost: "I'm declaring February a Palin-free month." I honestly don't understand the hubbub and/or furor over this woman. She had her shot at the vice-presidency and that's the closest she'll ever get to the White House. It's like America is obsessed with Geraldine Ferraro.

No such thing as a free lunch - Over at Reason, Steve Chapman discusses the fantasy that Obamacare can offer limitless healthcare without passing some (read: significant) cost on to taxpayers in "Inoculating against real health care reform."

Pizza and Facebook - Hot Air links to a USA Today article with "Study confirms that college is pretty much a total waste of time." This dovetails nicely with this story from six months ago in the NY Times: "Share of college spending for recreation is rising."

Colleges keep stepping up marketing efforts that portray college life as leisure time with a dining commons. It's no surprise that students show up expecting to do keg stands.

Schadenfreude alert, Harper's edition

Disclaimer: I used to subscribe to Harper's magazine. Eons ago, it used to carry non-political articles that were interesting and engaging such as James McManus's account of his run in the 2000 World Series of Poker. But somewhere into the last administration, the magazine succumbed to Bush Derangement Syndrome and nearly every column, sidenote, and footnote seemed aimed at pushing a political viewpoint at a volume set to 11.

Which is fine, I guess, if you want to be a political magazine. But, very quickly, the magazine was a crushing bore, and Harper's liberal benefactor John McArthur was losing patience and money. According to NY Magazine's "Venerable lefties at Harper's divided by union," a staff shakeup triggered a union at Harper's, much to McArthur's displeasure:

MacArthur contested the staff's right to unionize. Staffers couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony: The staunch defender of unions, who in a 2009 Harper's piece called the UAW “the country’s best and traditionally most honest mass labor organization,” was now on the other side of the table as the "worst kind of factory owner," as one staffer put it to me.

Whoops. Looks like somebody was mugged by reality.

Ice, ice baby - Man, the roads were terrible today.

Page not found - Mashable: "35 entertaining 404 error pages." I like the one that says: "Congratulations, you broke the Internet."

The age of the baby boomer - Christian Science Monitor "How retirement is being reinvented worldwide": "People are working longer - out of necessity and choice - as the world undergoes one of the biggest demographic shifts in history."

That dog won't hunt - I just found out that one of my favorite shows, the FX original Terriers has been canceled. Bad move, FX. The crime-drama-comedy had such a gritty and authentic feel to it - a shame to see it go.

And, yeah, it had low ratings. I understand FX, but so did "Cheers" after it's first season before it found an audience. Boo.

Noted slacker mooches off Dad's legacy one more time - Hey, Dad was a doddering old fool, sez Ron Reagan Jr. in his new book: "Pay attention to me!" Stay classy, chump.

Update (1/16) - Politico: "Michael Reagan calls brother 'an embarrassment'."

Patriots hope to de-feet the Jets this weekend - If you're a fan of double entendres, New England Patriot Wes Welker made some weird references in a recent press conference: "Something afoot with Welker's answers?"

National anthem sing-a-long

NPR has the story:

It just may make your day a little better. As you'll see and hear, 8-year-old Elizabeth Hughes was doing a great job singing The Star-Spangled Banner last week at a Norfolk (Va.) Admirals minor league hockey game when the microphone cut out with about 30 seconds to go.

And then ... the crowd comes to life and joins in. It's a nice moment.

Here you go:

Quote of the day - From Kevin Williamson on the Corner from his post "U.S. on the way toward losing AAA credit rating": "Note to Washington: if you thought the Tea Party looked like an angry mob, wait until you see what happens when Social Security checks start bouncing."

Related: "S&P, Moody's warn on U.S. credit rating."

A very good memorial speech - President Obama was empathetic, evocative, and effective in his address at the University of Arizona in remembrance of the victims of the Tucson tragedy. He talked about the people lost and pointed out the heroes of the day, then made a "better angels of our nature" call to the nation. The only thing that was a little bit grating was the pep rally feel with whooping and whistling from the crowd; even in this Obama was composed and solemn with a gravity to match the occasion.

Solar energy goes dark and Massachusetts pays

From the Boston Globe: "Plant will shut after $58m in state aid."

Evergreen Solar Inc. will eliminate 800 jobs in Massachusetts and shut its new factory at the former military base in Devens, just two years after it opened the massive facility to great fanfare and with about $58 million in taxpayer subsidies.

The company announced yesterday that it will close the plant by the end of March, calling itself a victim of weak demand and competition from cheaper suppliers in China, where the government provides solar companies with generous subsidies.

Further down, we find that:

In exchange for the state’s help, Evergreen initially agreed to employ 350 people at the Devens plant for seven years.

If this were any other industry than clean energy, Bay Staters would be in their rights to wonder if they've been taken in by corporate scamsters. What I think is more likely is that the founders at Evergreen assisted by Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick put hope and environmental morality ahead of market research and business planning. And that's just fine when it's private investors or bondholders putting their money up for funding. Instead, Massachusetts taxpayers underwrote the clean energy dream to the tune of $58 million and 350 now-unemployed workers.

Half the states against Obamacare - Reuters: "Ohio becomes 25th state to contest healthcare plan."

Putting the "weak" in Newsweek - Minuteman: "Newsweek acquired by the Onion?!"

Wha? Who saw this coming? - Oh yeah, me. Fox News: "Baby boomers could force economic catastrophe."

Snow day - For the first time, I think ever, my company closed for the day due to the winter storm. Which was the right move because somebody would have crashed trying to drive in. So I'm home, waiting for the snow to stop so I can shovel.

It's double-plus-good - Via Hot Air here's "Only one way to rescue Social Security." I think the idea of private accounts has drawbacks but it has two great advantages: younger workers will gain a much greater return on investment and it keeps the federal government from hiding the true size of the deficit.

Dick Winters of Easy Company

The hero of "Band of Brothers" died last week at the age of 92; he had asked that announcement of his death wait until after his funeral. Some time ago, I read a book on management that defined two kinds of leadership: assigned and emergent. As the name implies, assigned leadership comes from a position or title. Emergent leadership, however, flows from how one gains respect and support from followers. Dick Winters was a leader among men and an example for us all.

And now, one of my favorite scenes from "Band of Brothers"

Prayers up - For Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and all the other victims of the senseless shooting in Tuscon, Arizona. Information is trickling in about the shooter but he appears to be a garden variety nutcase.

Update (1/9) - Legal Insurrection: "Two sicknesses on display in Arizona."

More - Glenn Reynolds: "But those who purport to care about the health of our political community demonstrate precious little actual concern for America's political well-being when they seize on any pretext, however flimsy, to call their political opponents accomplices to murder."

The willful suspension of disbelief will bankrupt us

If the stakes weren't so high, the argument over the CBO's latest scoring of Obamacare would be funny. The reality is that the estimations that Obamacare will reduce the deficit over time runs headlong against mathematics, common sense, history and the program's developing reality.

First, former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin reviews the math and concludes:

In short, there was never any reason to believe that the law reduced the deficit by roughly $140 billion over ten years. Starting two new open-ended entitlements without fixing the existing budgetary cancers just doesn’t work that way.

But then do you really need arithmetic when the "mother of all entitlements" is staring you in the face?

Of all the claims deployed in favor of ObamaCare, and there are many, the most preposterous is that a new open-ended entitlement will somehow reduce the budget deficit. Insure 32 million more people, and save money too! The even more remarkable spectacle is that Washington seems to be taking this claim seriously in advance of the House's repeal vote next week. Some things in politics you just can't make up.

One need only look at the consistent over-expansion of entitlement programs to see why Paul Ryan's tie is safe from digestion.

And then there's Obamacare's high-risk pools which are already costing way too much, despite low participation:

Montana is one of a few states in which the medical bills from those who have joined are huge. New Hampshire's plan has only about 80 members, but they already have spent nearly double the $650,000 the state was allotted in federal money to help run the program, said J. Michael Degnan, its director.
Remember what The Boston Globe remarked about Massachusetts’s continually cash-short Medicaid program? “The money, it seems, is never enough." If nothing else I think it's impressive that, despite the ultra-low enrollment, New Hampshire has managed to burn through a multiple of its allotted funds already. Dramatically under-used and way over-budget? That takes effort.

The Obama administration made estimations of low costs and high tax revenues that were little more than wishful thinking or willful deception to keep the program's ten-year cost under a trillion dollars. There is no way - no way - Obamacare will keep the budget from blowing apart.

Extra - Nice roundup from Jennifer Rubin.

Roger Federer makes a trick shot

Today's been a crazy day, so here's a bit of fun:

Fifty debt bombs - State governments are required to balance their yearly budgets and some of them are in real trouble as Megan McArdle notes in "Dire States."

Sweet fancy Moses - Nancy Pelosi speaks: "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go."

And guess who said this, long before America racked up a $14 trillion credit card bill: "America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership."

Giant, radioactive ants are the cause of all our problems - Victor Davis Hanson: "Raging against 'Them'."

Republicans move to repeal Obamacare with subtly-titled bill

Introduced to the House: "Repealing the Jobs-Killing Health Care Law Act."

Over at Real Clear Politics, Robert Samuelson writes that President Obama's social agenda stood foursquare against the economic policies that were needed to spur the economy and create jobs. This includes the health-care law:

The health care law raises hiring costs by requiring in 2014 that all firms with more than 50 employees provide health insurance or be fined. The law brims with complexities and uncertainties that make it hard to estimate the ultimate costs. Will firms with, say, 47 workers eagerly expand beyond 50 if that imposes all the extra costs? It seems doubtful.

Hey, man, Obama doesn't do consequences; he's all about intentions. And they're goooood.

Feed the engineers - George Will argues that, despite budget pressures, federal funding for science and engineering should not be attenuated. Here's an eye-opener: "Annual federal spending on mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering now equals only the increase in health care costs every nine weeks."

Don't let the door hit you on the way out - Boston Globe columnist has a "farewell to cronyism" article today, wishing longtime Bay State auditor Joe Denucci "Good riddance to old school." Hey, man, that guy worked hard during his 20-hour work weeks.

Working with a new Congress - Writing in the NY Times, Greg Mankiw offers President Obama advice on "How to break bread with the Republicans." A beer summit is recommended.

The day after yesterday - Predicting the weather is hard because it's been around for more than 100 years or something: "Eight botched environmental forecasts."

What passes for Very Serious commentary on the Left - I've been looking for the "next page" button or "more" on this Crooks & Liars post in response to this ABC News story "Baby boomers expected to drain Medicare." But instead it just cries out "pay attention to the lies" without isolating, much less refuting, a single one. The comments are about what you expect from the "reality based community" including sneering at Diane Sawyer and the requisite hatred for the GOP.

In response, I'll offer this: "Entitlements will consume all tax revenues by 2052." Wow, that looks serious. Very serious.