The Monumental Ignorance of Donald Berwick

Donald Berwick, you will recall, is President Obama’s [unconfirmed] head of ObamaCare. Seeking to explain why ObamaCare is the best way to make medical care more efficient, Dr. Berwick wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.  In his latest blog post, Daniel Mitchell is dumbfounded at Donald Berwick’s ignorance – if that is what it is. Here’s how Mr. Mitchell expressed it:

 

I have no idea whether Berwick realizes that he has inverted reality, so I can’t decide whether he is cynically dishonest or hopelessly clueless. All I can say with certainty is that what he wrote is sort of like asserting “gravity causes things to fall, so therefore this rock will rise when I let go of it.”

 

That lefties like Dr. Berwick are clueless is not surprising and scarcely deserving of too much attention. However, I particularly liked Mitchell’s comparison.

 

What Recovery?

Historically, recoveries are marked by greater than average GDP growth. In addition, the deeper the recession the greater is the quarterly recovery rate once the economy gets going. These phenomena have not characterized the Obama recovery. According to economist, Dr. John Lott,

Seven quarters into the Obama recovery, GDP growth has averaged an annual rate of only 2.8 percent. In contrast, since 1970, the first seven quarters of previous recoveries averaged 4.6 percent. The poor growth rate is especially surprising since the preceding recession was so severe, there should have been ample room for high growth as the unemployed returned to work. For example, the Reagan recovery followed a similarly high unemployment rate and saw the economy grow at an average annual growth rate of 7 percent.

 See the graph, here

Obama's Foreign Policy: Sermonize not Strategize

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s lefty National Security Advisor and “reigning realist of the Democratic foreign-policy establishment”, heretofore an ardent admirer of Obama, has become disillusioned:

 

“I greatly admire his insights and understanding. [But] I don’t think he really has a policy that’s implementing those insights and understandings. The rhetoric is always terribly imperative and categorical: ‘You must do this,’ ‘He must do that,’ ‘This is unacceptable.’ ” Brzezinski added, “He doesn’t strategize. He sermonizes.”

So quotes Ryan Lizza in his New Yorker article “The Consequentialist”. An absolutely clear and devastating critique of Obama’s approach to foreign policy.

 

John Podhoretz summarizes Lizza’s piece here.

Obamaflation

Obamaflation Arrives

 

Milk (28 cents in 102 days -- 28.6% annualized)

January 11, 2011: $3.20
February28, 2011: $3.24
March 6, 2011:$3.34
April 23. 2011:$3.48

 

Celery (50 cents in 54 days – 147% annualized)

January 11, 2011: $1.99 a bag.
March 6, 2011: $2.49 a bag

 

Do Christianity & Capitalism Clash?

From the ever excellent “Out of UR” blog,

 

A poll conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service was released this week that finds more Americans (44 percent) believe Christian values are at odds with capitalism than believe they are compatible (36 percent).

 

It might help to keep in mind that 80% of most Americans, well maybe 90% of most Americans, can not provide a coherent definition of capitalism. It would be interesting to see the results of a poll that asked the question in a way that distinguished the words ‘capitalism’ and ‘greed’’. That most Americans view the  two words as synonymous is a testament to (1) the ineffectiveness of our educational system and (2) the intellectual laziness of the American public.

 

Sigh!

Around the Blogosphere, 22 April, 2011

Why does California continue to hemorrhage jobs?

Andy Puzder, the CEO of Hardee's Restaurants … said it takes six months to two years to secure permits to build a new Carl's Jr. restaurant in the Golden State, versus the six weeks it takes in Texas. California is also one of only three states that demands overtime pay after an eight-hour day, rather than after a 40-hour week. Such rules wreak havoc on flexible work schedules based on actual need. If there's a line out the door at a Carl's Jr. while employees are seen resting, it's because they aren't allowed to help: Break time is mandatory

 

Ya think?

 

Since we’re on the subject of California…

 

The number of criminal aliens incarcerated in California rose to 102,795 in 2009, a 17 percent increase since 2003, federal auditors reported Thursday.

 

Dave Weigel of Slate wonders,

 

“If the Ryan budget is so unpopular, where are the town-hall meltdowns?”

 

Not to worry

SEIU plans to use its giant political operation to try to build a grass-roots movement of public protest and organization similar to the massive show of pro-labor support that overran Madison, Wis., last month

 

Yeah, like that really worked

 

Washington Examiner:

 

Can federal bureaucrats tell the Boeing Company where to build a factory? The NLRB thinks so. It seeks to have Boeing close its 787 newly-built plant in South Carolina and rebuild it in Washington state.

Trouble Ahead?

 

The Left wonders if Obama can win in 2012. Has he “chosen the wrong economic message”

 

High gas prices got you down?

 

Not to worry. The President and appointed a task force to uncover the conspiracy by speculators and oil-futures traders to drive up world-wide oil prices. I’m serious when I say that the American electorate is stupid. How else does one explain why the politicians who employ this tactic don’t get laughed out-of-town? If you’re reading this and think, “Boy, it’s about time we nailed these capitalist pigs”, you’re stupid and need a brain transplant.

 

 

 

Here's Wishing You an 'Earthy' Earth Day

In hopes of encouraging you to celebrate “Earth Day” as it was meant to be celebrated (‘earthy’, I think, begs the right image), here’s the latest from Iowahawk’s “Earth Week Cruise-In”:

Brian, team driver for BlueFire Racing, submits this 'Stang that has been modified for his frequent climate action seminars at DFW-area Hooters:

"I’m apparently not good at this reducing CO2 footprint thing – I took a 2005 Mustang GT that made 28mpg on the highway and turned her into a curve-huggin’, baby-scarin’, alarm-soundin’, girl-attractin’ 4mpg race car. I guess if environmentalists want to look at the shiny side, at least there’s one less fuel-guzzling Mustang on the highway J."

From the Morning Blogs

How’s that hopey changey thing workin’ out for ya?

“Poverty is about unemployment, dropping out, and having children outside marriage – and we spend billions on almost everything except these”

-Tevi Troy

 

Democrats: They were for it before they were against it

Speaking of Paul Ryan’s deficit reduction plan

-James C. Capretta

 

Of local interest

“Cantwell says she wants to ‘help relieve the burden of gas prices on families and small businesses’. Meanwhile she’s also promoting a carbon tax, the purpose of which is to raise energy prices.

-Stefan Sharkansky

 

The Public Records Act states that the people of Washington have a right to review public records, and that all public records must be produced upon request unless a specific, statutory exemption would justify withholding a record. Yet despite this clear mandate, the Office of the Governor frequently asserts a privilege not found in statute to shield documents from disclosure. The governor's office insists that the constitutional theory of executive privilege entitles her to shield certain discussions and documents from public scrutiny. However, executive privilege is not a recognized statutory exemption found in the Public Records Act. Since 2007, the governor's office has invoked executive privilege 500 times.

-Freedom Foundation v Gregoire

 

The 2011 Earth Week Cruise-In

Ladies and gentlemen, start you engines! It's time once again for the Iowahawk eco-activism community to greet the gentle breezes of Spring, stomp the throttle and embrace the ultimate MILF: Mother Earth. Welcome to the 6th Annual Earth Week Cruise-In, where my readers proudly display how they get their carbon freak on, vehicular-wise; and not a moment too soon, judging by the snow I witnessed in Chicago yesterday. For the next 7 days I'll be frequently updating this post with entries, reverse chronological style, and I'm predicting we'll top last year's barn-burner.

Own a previously unfeatured CO2-spewer worthy of this showcase? send pics, YouTube links etc. and a pithy description to the email link on left with the subject line "2011 Earth Week" (deadline Saturday April 23). Onward into the carbon fog!

-Iowahawk

 

Moral Preening

Did you know that, should the urge strike, you can write a check to the government AND instruct them to use your ‘donation’ to reduce the deficit.  Simple click pay.gov and follow the instructions. I offer this opportunity by way of calling your attention to Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength.

 

Matthew Continetti, ever the cynic, observes:

 

Now, these ultra-rich progressives may be reluctant to hand their fortunes to the federal government because the donation is tax deductible. If that’s the case, I’m sure the Obama administration would be happy to modify this tax expenditure so that conditional gifts to the Treasury by liberal millionaires and billionaires are taxed just like regular income, capital gains, dividends and estates. That way everyone will be happy. Unless of course groups such as Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength are more interested in striking a self-righteous pose than in serious public policy

Apples-to-Apples Comparison of the Two Deficit Reduction Plans

James Pethokoukis performs an apples-to-apples comparison of the competing deficit reduction plans from the Democrats (President Obama’s) and the Republicans (Paul Ryan’s). His results are edifying:

 

the Obama Framework would only save $3 trillion vs. $6.9 trillion for the Ryan Path over ten years. And nearly 2/3 of Obama’s savings comes from higher taxes (net interest).

 

Get it? Obama proposes to achieve less than half of what the Ryan plan by increasing taxes.

 

The problem with the Democrat plan, as we all know, is that giving politicians more money in the hope that they will apply it to the deficit is tantamount to INCREASING spending. The only way to reduce the deficit is to reduce spending.

Obama's Historical Howlers

“As a creature of the modern university”, writes Scott Johnson,  Barack Obama is “an amazingly shallow man.” Mr. Johnson has been writing of Obama’s historical ignorance (Anti-terror oops, The Kennedy-Khrushchev conference for dummies, and Obama veers into the Daily Ditch) for some time, but apparently yesterday’s interview with a Texas local broadcast reporter has induced Mr. Johnson to remind us of this President’s lack of appreciation for history. Mr. Johnson writes,

Obama's historical ignorance could be a full time beat for somebody who does this work for a living, and it tells us something truly important about Barack Obama. His ignorance is as broad as it is deep. Not that you couldn't deduce that on your own from his performance on the job.

The President argued that “Texas has always been a pretty Republican state, for, you know, historic reasons.” Huh? For most of its history Texas has been a solid Democrat state.  On second thought, maybe Mr. Johnson is being to hard on the President. He may have simply mistaken Texas for the 57th state.

Read the rest of the article here.

16-Tons

What more can I say...

You Have 2 Cows

If the government agent takes one and gives it to your neighbor, that is Socialism.
If the government agent takes both, and promises to give you milk, that is Communism.
If the government agent takes both, gives them to a favored Corporation which may sell you milk, that is Fascism.
If the government agent shoots you and takes the cows, that is Nazism.
If you shoot the government agent and steal another cow, that is Anarchism.
If you sell one cow, and buy a bull, that is Capitalism.

Some other thoughts from Right and Left

Jennifer Rubin: Obama today gave a speech about nothing much at all… It was rather embarrassing in what it did offer: negotiations with Joe Biden, more defense cuts and taxes on the rich. How utterly trite.

Daniel Mitchell: Punishing taxpayers with automatic tax hikes when politicians overspend

Roger Simon: Obama to soak the rich, please Dems …  A terrific election speech

Peter Wehner: A perfect combination of demagoguery and shallowness.

The Huffington Post: Obama Blasts GOP Plan – I refuse To Renew Bush Tax Cuts Again.. We can’t afford It.

William Galston: Obama’s Forceful Fiscal Speech

Jake Tapper (ABC): Throw Grandma from the Train

Moe Lane: ...This entire sorry exercise in induced narcolepsy that was the debt speech this afternoon was yet another dreary attempt  by the President to use what is an entirely overinflated reputation for  rhetoric to get past an unpleasant situation.  Unfortunately for  President Obama, this is not 2008, and the media is not full of people  eagerly trying to excise their inner racist demons by collaborating in  the election of a clueless Harvard liberal

Obama Throws His Budget Under the Bus

Well, listened to the President’s speech and, sure enough, he threw his budget (proposed just two months ago), under the bus. In listening to the various pundits on both left and right leading up to his speech, I began to see, as a hard truth, something that was heretofore [informed] speculation, vis, this President is so far out of his depth as to be beyond metaphor. Ask yourself this question: What in the world are members of the President’s cabinet supposed to defend when called before congress? The President’s original budget (two months ago) or the amorphous  budget floated today?

 

I like the way Yuval Levin described the speech:

 

As recently as February, in his budget, Obama essentially denied that we had a fiscal crisis. Today, he admitted it and described it, or at least parts of it. It is certainly unorthodox for a president to renounce his own budget two months after proposing it, but that is just what the president did—implicitly dismissing even the goals set out by his budget in its own terms (let alone its potential to achieve them, as measured by the Congressional Budget Office) as totally inadequate. In that sense, the only immediate practical implication of the speech is that it throws the 2012 budget process into disarray. Are the cabinet agencies supposed to be defending the president’s now-repudiated formal budget request before congressional committees in the coming months, or does the administration now expect Congress to ignore its budget? If so, will the administration be offering some particular alternative requests, with details that (unlike this speech) can be scored by CBO?

 

So, when can we expect the details? Paul Ryan – whether you agree with him, or not – spent the better part of a decade putting together a strategy and an accompanying budget complete with details preparing his proposal. Does anyone believe that behind the rhetoric of the President’s speech there lay a detailed map of how to achieve the wonderful ends Obama promised?

 

Again, here’s Levin:

 

…the president mostly laid out ends without means. He accepted much of Paul Ryan’s definition of the problem we face, but insisted that it could be solved by trimming our welfare state at the edges, rather than reforming and restructuring it.

 

But, he also uses trickery – of the kind used to justify the claim that Obamacare would “bend the cost curve downward”. How? As Levin puts it,

 

the president defines his near-term goals using a 12-year budget window, to give the illusion that he would achieve savings on the level of the fiscal commission and the Ryan budget (both of which use the usual 10-year window required by the budget process). He guarantees long-term budget reductions (and therefore on paper guarantees the achievement of his goals without specifying particular means) through a “trigger” that would go into effect at the end of Obama’s second term, forcing arbitrary budget cuts upon his wretched successor when the Obama “framework” has failed to reduce spending.

 

Read the whole article.

On Burning the Koran

Rod Dreher allows that “We Knew Koran-Burning Would Spark Violence”. Among  Dreher’s interesting points is this:

 

But it will not do for Jones to wash his hands of at least some moral responsibility for the massacre. This horrifying Koran debacle provides an Information Age twist on the German poet Heinrich Heine's well-known aphorism: "Where they have burned books, they will end by burning people." Unlike hotheads in the Islamic world, we do not burn people in the West (not since 1945, anyway), so it is more difficult for us to feel the connection between destroying books -- especially holy books -- and murder.

 

I’m not sure that Rev. Jones bears any moral responsibility whatsoever and would like for someone to offer a sustained and concrete argument in support of that thesis. Surely, Heinrich Heine’s aphorism cannot serve such a purpose given that the people who burn the books are the same people who burn other people. Rev. Moran, no matter what you may think of his actions, is not going about advocating torching Muslims.

 

So how about it? What moral value does Rev. Moran’s book burning denigrate and what ethical precept did he violate?

 

In a similar vein, John M. Reynolds asks, “When faith is mocked, who responds?”

 

In this article, Mr. Reynolds notes that when artists display a statuette of Christ in a bottle of urine, the artist is applauded, but when Rev. Jones burns the Koran he is vilified.  In the end, problem with Mr. Reynold’s thesis is his arrogance. His concluding paragraph says it all:

 

Meanwhile, we do not have to go to vile plays that cause friends pain or go to pastor Jones’ church. This weekend I will go to a good play, attend a loving church, and try to better understand my Mormon neighbor and my Islamic friends.

 

Do you see the moral opacity in Mr. Reynold’s article? If not, reflect on this question: Are the Muslims who decapitated and killed 12 innocent U.N. workers properly categorized as his friends needing “better understanding”.  I wonder why the majority of Muslims who are decent, kind, thoughtful, and generous people do not protest people like Reynolds who, because some Muslims are evil, must make an extra effort to understand those who are not.

 

A Pathetic Attempt To Get Laid...

Then there's the inestimable C.S. Lewis who called guys such as these "men without chests."

Led Zeppelin -- The Song Remains the Same

Rep. McCotter (R, Michigan) highlights the Democrat's lack of a coherent policy to control government spending.

They said it couldn't be done...

It’s not quite the second coming, but it’s as close as one can get.

 

Yes, Dorothy,  bacon has been improved!