Internet Scofflaw

Interesting.

Interesting:

Americans are increasingly optimistic about the economy, but that brightening outlook hasn’t softened their outrage over the country’s direction and its political leadership, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Two-thirds of those surveyed this week describe themselves as “angry” about the way things are going in the USA, the highest percentage in the decade the question has been asked. By nearly 2-1, they would rather vote for a candidate who has never served in Congress over one with experience.

(Via Instapundit.)

President Obama is willing to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, without precondition, because “the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them . . . is ridiculous”. In fact, “it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them”.

But he won’t meet with the governor of Arizona. Some regimes are simply beyond the pale.

In Peggy Noonan’s latest Wall Street Journal column, “He Was Supposed to be Competent”, she channels public dismay at the Obama administration’s lack of competence, most recently in regard to the Deepwater Horizon spill. She makes a good point here:

His philosophy is that it is appropriate for the federal government to occupy a more burly, significant and powerful place in America—confronting its problems of need, injustice, inequality. But in a way, and inevitably, this is always boiled down to a promise: “Trust us here in Washington, we will prove worthy of your trust.” Then the oil spill came and government could not do the job, could not meet the need, in fact seemed faraway and incapable: “We pay so much for the government and it can’t cap an undersea oil well!”

She’s right that Barack Obama promised that, under him, government could do pretty much anything. Merely by nominating him for president, “the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”. He could not deliver on that promise.

But I’m with John Hinderaker in wondering why the public bought that Obama messianic nonsense in the first place. He was supposed to be competent? Why would we think that? This is a man who had no experience running anything before he was elected to the White House. His sole government experience was four years as a back-bencher in the US Senate, preceded by seven years of voting present in the Illinois Senate. His main qualification was delivering riveting speeches from the teleprompter.

The irony to this is that the discontent with President Obama’s performance is somewhat unfair. True, there are legitimate questions about why the administration exempted BP from environmental-impact analysis, how booms are being allocated, and about Obama’s strange disengagement and cluelessness. But ultimately there’s little that the federal government can do in a disaster like this.

In a different situation I would be defending the president, but in this case, Obama has made his bed. He over-promised what government can do, and he joined his party in shamelessly demagoguing Hurricane Katrina. In at least one speech he combined the two:

As we rebuild and recover, we must also learn the lessons of Katrina, so that our nation is more protected and resilient in the face of disaster. . . In Washington, that means a focus on competence and accountability – and I’m proud that my FEMA Administrator has 25 years of experience in disaster management in Florida, a state that has known its share of hurricanes. And across the country, that means improving coordination among different agencies, modernizing our emergency communications, and helping families plan for a crisis.

Now he is reaping the whirlwind.

(Previous post.)

The unauthorized biographer/stalker who rented the house next door to Sarah Palin is concerned about his privacy.

The New York Times seems to know more about how the administration is handling the Deepwater Horizon spill than the president does, despite it being his “top priority”.

(Previous post.)

When Tea Party protesters gather in a public place to protest government overreach, it’s dangerous latent terrorism. But apparently it’s fine when the SEIU buses 500 protesters literally to the front doorstep of a bank executive’s home.

But here’s the particularly sinister aspect of this protest: it was not intended for media consumption. It was purely for intimidation:

Sunday’s onslaught wasn’t designed for mainstream media consumption. There were no reporters from organizations like the Washington Post, no local camera crews who might have aired criticism of this private-home invasion. With the media covering the conservative Tea Party protesters, the behavior of individual activists has drawn withering scrutiny.

Instead, a friendly Huffington Post blogger showed up, narrowcasting coverage to the union’s leftist base. The rest of the message these protesters brought was personal-aimed at frightening Baer and his family, not influencing a broader public.

(Via Power Line.)

Interesting. This seems to indicate a lack of confidence that their health care nationalization bill will prove to be a political plus.

The problem with an official policy of ignoring criminals is some criminals are actually dangerous:

In an alarming example of how sanctuary cities can protect terrorists, a Pakistani man arrested for the Time Square bombing admitted on a city license application that he entered the U.S. illegally and authorities took no action.

That’s because he applied for the cabbie license in a state (Massachusetts) that openly protects illegal immigrants from deportation. Local law enforcement agencies throughout Massachusetts have don’t-ask-don’t-tell policies regarding illegal aliens and in this case the Boston Police Department has for years known that the terrorist, So Pir Khan, was in the country illegally.

Khan was recently arrested in an FBI terror sweep for his involvement in the Time Square bombing earlier this month. The Boston cab driver is one of three men who funneled money to the fellow Pakistani terrorist (Faisal Shahzad) who tried to blow up New York’s Time Square with a series of bombs hidden in a sports utility vehicle.

The Boston Police is lucky that Shahzad’s bomb failed. If he had succeeded in his plans, heads would be rolling in Boston over this. As it is, it’s a non-story. Until the next time.

(Via Patterico.)

If the definition of a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth, Paul Volcker committed a major gaffe in a recent speech. Volcker (one of President Obama’s chief economic advisers) cited Hauser’s law and compared it to the current rate of federal spending. He noted that the federal government always collects about 18.5% of GDP in tax revenue regardless of tax rates. When spending was around 20%, this meant a modest deficit, but spending is now around 25% or more. That means enormous deficits.

Hauser’s law observes you can’t get tax collections to 25% by tinkering with tax rates or adding a few new taxes; we need a different system to fund today’s government. And that, Volcker concludes, means a VAT. He says there is no prospect of getting government spending back to 20%. (Well, he is a Democrat.)

POSTSCRIPT: I actually understood Hauser’s law to say that government collected 19.5% of GDP, but that difference doesn’t matter to Volcker’s point.

(Via Instapundit.)

The Agriculture Department used to maintain a database of recipients of federal “farm subsidies” (payments to owners of arable land for not farming). No more. The information in the database was consistently embarrassing, so the Democratic Congress eliminated it in 2008.

(Via Instapundit.)

The Boston Globe reports:

Governor Deval Patrick, even as he decried partisanship in Washington, said today that Republican opposition to President Obama’s agenda has become so obstinate that it “is almost at the level of sedition.”

I guess that we are supposed to take comfort in the “almost”. The current level of dissent is okay, barely, but any more and it will be time for a crackdown.

(Via the Corner.)

Thomas Friedman continues to fantasize about fascism. Well, at least he’s consistent.

Seriously, why do people pay attention to this guy?

UPDATE: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell agrees that we should be China for a day.

UPDATE: By the way, how on earth does Friedman think that limiting our dictator to a single day is going to protect democracy? One day is enough. The first time the Venezuelan legislature made Hugo Chavez a dictator, he issued all his decrees in one month. The second time he issued all his decrees in a single day.

Rasmussen reports that opposition to Obamacare is nearing two-thirds:

Support for repeal of the new national health care plan has jumped to its highest level ever. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of U.S. voters now favor repeal of the plan passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in March. Prior to today, weekly polling had shown support for repeal ranging from 54% to 58%.

Currently, just 32% oppose repeal.

Interestingly, strong support for repeal is holding steady at a near majority (46%). Weak opposition to repeal is also holding steady at hardly anyone (7%). The shift comes from a big drop in strong opposition to repeal, which fell from a third to a quarter, and a corresponding rise in weak support for repeal. Thus, it seems as though the key support for health care nationalization is eroding.

The shift could be explained by some major recent revelations that Obamacare is even worse than previously thought. On the other hand, it could be just a polling blip. If opposition falls back into the 54-58% range, you can count on the media reporting it as softening opposition.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission wants to ban manufacture and sale of drop-side cribs. But even that’s not enough for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who wants to get rid of the existing ones too.

Tax cuts for business tend to be pro-growth, but it’s not hard to imagine one that would be anti-growth. For example, you could offer a tax cut for refusing to hire more workers. That would be stupid, right? No one would ever do such a thing.

Well, yes, it’s stupid, but that hasn’t kept Democrats from doing exactly that:

Zach Hoffman was confident his small business would qualify for a new tax cut in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law. But when he ran the numbers, Hoffman discovered that his office furniture company wouldn’t get any assistance with the $79,200 it pays annually in premiums for its 24 employees. “It leaves you with this feeling of a bait-and-switch,” he said.

When the administration unveiled the small business tax credit earlier this week, officials touted its “broad eligibility” for companies with fewer than 25 workers and average annual wages under $50,000 that provide health coverage. Hoffman’s workers earn an average of $35,000 a year, which makes it all the more difficult to understand why his company didn’t qualify.

Lost in the fine print: The credit drops off sharply once a company gets above 10 workers and $25,000 average annual wages.

A tax credit you lose if you hire more than ten workers, to encourage people to keep their businesses small. Brilliant!

The real problem here is nomenclature. In truth, tax cuts and targeted tax credits are entirely different things. Tax cuts are modifications to general tax policy. Targeted tax credits are government spending concealed in the tax code. It doesn’t even matter if the targeted recipient pays no taxes; usually they make them refundable.

Democrats are putting their payoffs in the tax code more and more often because it sounds better to the public to call them “tax cuts” than “government spending”. We need to stop letting them get away with that.

(Via Hot Air.)

UPDATE: More here. (Via Instapundit.)

An example of the high principles with which financial regulation is being considered:

Dan noted yesterday that Sen. Chris Dodd snuck in a (literally) eleventh-hour amendment to the Senate’s financial-regulation bill which would have allowed a group of federal officials who oppose Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s derivatives amendment to quietly “study” it to death.

Dodd apparently thought he could safely do this without affecting Lincoln’s chances in her primary race, but Lincoln failed to win outright and must win a runoff. So now Dodd has pulled a double reverse and issued a “nevermind” via Twitter: He will not bring up his amendment to Lincoln’s derivatives bill after all.

This is all about election posturing.

Steward Baker writes:

Imagine that data from your unsecured wireless router has been mistakenly collected by a Google Street View car as it trundles down your street.  The company admits that it shouldn’t have done that.  In order to cure the privacy violation, you want Google to:

(a) Destroy your data

(b) Turn all your data over to German government officials

You can learn everything you need to know about the European privacy bureaucracy from the answer to this question.

David Ranson revisits Hauser’s Law in a new Wall Street Journal op-ed. Tax receipts as a percentage of GDP continues to remain essentially constant, regardless of tax rates:

Massachusetts’s health care law is destined to be a case study in Economics 101 textbooks:

1. Massachusetts passes a law that mandates coverage of pre-existing conditions (and also institutes other expensive mandates).
2. Adverse selection: People learn to game the system, by purchasing coverage when they need expensive treatment and dropping it immediately afterward.
3. Prices skyrocket.
4. Massachusetts imposes price controls.
5. As always, price controls create shortages. Insurers refuse to issue new policies at the mandated rates.
6. Massachusetts forces insurers to resume issuing new policies, at the mandated rates.
7. Insurers post huge losses.

That’s where Massachusetts is now. In part 8, insurers stop doing business in Massachusetts. In part 9, Massachusetts institutes a public option. Since there is no private insurance, the public option is de facto single payer. In part 10, Massachusetts’s deficit skyrockets. In part 11, health care rationing is instituted.

Massachusetts could turn back at any point. But if they don’t, each step in this progression is inevitable. It’s basic economics.

The United States is still at step one. Let’s turn back now.

Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic nominee to succeed the corrupt Christopher Dodd in the Senate, lied about serving in Vietnam. The surprising thing is the New York Times reported it.

(Via Hot Air.)

UPDATE: Blumenthal’s effort to play this off as a misunderstanding of ambiguous statements isn’t going to wash.

UPDATE: More. Blumenthal is violating the first rule of holes.

The Economist reports:

ON A recent trip to America, Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, could not resist the temptation to needle his hosts. Just before the visit his American counterpart, Barack Obama, had secured Congressional approval of a plan for a dramatic expansion of the country’s health-insurance market. Observing that America is the only wealthy country to lack universal health coverage, Mr Sarkozy sniffed: “Welcome to the club of states who don’t turn their back on the sick and the poor.”

Look here, Monsieur Grenouille Président. America does offer treatment to the sick and the poor through hospital emergency rooms. (And despite the new law, that’s where their treatment is likely to remain.)  If you want to see what it looks like to turn your back on the sick and the poor, I suggest looking a bit closer to home:

The death toll in France from August’s blistering heat wave has reached nearly 15,000, according to a government-commissioned report released Thursday, surpassing a prior tally by more than 3,000. . .

The bulk of the victims — many of them elderly — died during the height of the heat wave, which brought suffocating temperatures of up to 104 degrees in a country where air conditioning is rare. Others apparently were greatly weakened during the peak temperatures but did not die until days later.

The new estimate comes a day after the French Parliament released a harshly worded report blaming the deaths on a complex health system, widespread failure among agencies and health services to coordinate efforts, and chronically insufficient care for the elderly. . .

The heat wave swept across much of Europe, but the death toll was far higher in France than in any other country.

How did it happen? Neglect:

The immediate flush of media attention last week centered on the sexier political debate over the slow and initially dismissive reaction by the conservative government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, much of which was on holiday as the death toll mounted. Raffarin has refused to accept any blame, while President Jacques Chirac was bizarrely silent — and on vacation in Canada — for the duration of the heat wave. When he finally addressed the crisis in televised remarks last Thursday, Chirac avoided finger pointing, instead emphasizing that “family solidarity [and] respect for the aged and handicapped” are necessary to avoid future tragedies. Doctors and health experts, the people no one listened to during the heat wave, are telling a larger, darker story. The heat wave only made visible, they say, a crisis that had been under way for years: a chronically under-funded and understaffed elder care system combined with a national habit of shutting senior citizens out of sight and mind. . .

The majority of this summer’s victims were found dead in homes they occupied alone — or were brought to emergency rooms too dehydrated and weak to be saved. The August vacation period had lowered the staffing levels of rescue squads and hospitals. And well before that, many elderly people had already become cut off from regular human contact.

I hope we’re not joining Mr. Sarkozy’s club. I fear we are.

Wait, this isn’t what Democrats said would happen:

The new healthcare law will pack 32 million newly insured people into emergency rooms already crammed beyond capacity, according to experts on healthcare facilities.

A chief aim of the new healthcare law was to take the pressure off emergency rooms by mandating that people either have insurance coverage. The idea was that if people have insurance, they will go to a doctor rather than putting off care until they faced an emergency.

People who build hospitals, however, say newly insured people will still go to emergency rooms for primary care because they don’t have a doctor.

“Everybody expected that one of the initial impacts of reform would be less pressure on emergency departments; it’s going to be exactly the opposite over the next four to eight years,” said Rich Dallam, a healthcare partner at the architectural firm NBBJ, which designs healthcare facilities.

“We don’t have the primary care infrastructure in place in America to cover the need. Our clients are looking at and preparing for more emergency department volume, not less,” he said.

This is not a hypothetical; it’s exactly what happened in Massachusetts:

Massachusetts in 2006 created near-universal coverage for residents, which was supposed to ease the traffic in hospital emergency rooms.

But a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that nearly two-thirds of the state’s residents say emergency department wait times have either increased or remained the same.

A February 2010 report by The Council of State Governments found that wait times had not abated since the law took effect.

Obamacare is a catastrophe in waiting. Fortunately, it’s not too late for us to repeal the thing and avert the catastrophe.

(Via Instapundit.)

The Finger-Pointer-in-Chief says:

“I will not tolerate any more finger pointing.”

I suppose he means finger pointing by other people.

(Via Hot Air.)

Some more serious thoughts along these lines here.

Nancy Pelosi says the health care nationalization bill is “entrepreneurial”, because under it you can quit your job and still have health care.

Being a real entrepreneur is much, much harder under Obamacare because of the strangling web of regulations, mandates, and taxes. But to Nancy Pelosi, an “entrepreneur” is anyone without a real job.

In the Obama administration, knowing what you’re talking about is optional:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona’s new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn’t yet read the law and is going by what he’s read in newspapers or seen on television.

Mr. Holder is conducting a review of the law, at President Obama’s request, to see if the federal government should challenge it in court. He said he expects he will read the law by the time his staff briefs him on their conclusions.

“I’ve just expressed concerns on the basis of what I’ve heard about the law. But I’m not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is,” Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee.

This weekend Mr. Holder told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the Arizona law “has the possibility of leading to racial profiling.” He had earlier called the law’s passage “unfortunate,” and questioned whether the law was unconstitutional because it tried to assume powers that may be reserved for the federal government.

The law that he hasn’t had time to read is all of 18 pages long.

(Via Hot Air.)

AFP reports:

The US government suffered a wider-than-expected budget deficit of 82.69 billion dollars in April, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. It was nearly four times the deficit chalked up a year earlier and the largest ever recorded in April. Most analysts had expected the April deficit, the 19th consecutive month of federal red ink, to be about 52 billion dollars. . .

“The federal government normally runs a surplus during April because of personal income-tax payments but is running a deficit now because of the recovery from the recession and the policy response,” said Augustine Faucher, director of macroeconomics research for Moody’s Economy.com.

That’s 59% higher than projected, and what’s particularly appalling is April includes tax day.

New York Governor David Paterson (D) doesn’t want to hold a special election to replace Eric Massa (D), who resigned in disgrace in March. In case you couldn’t guess, NY-29 is a Republican district (R+5).

UPDATE: Oh geez. Paterson is going to schedule the special election for November, keeping the seat open for 240 days.

Surprise! The CBO now says that the health care nationalization bill will cost much more than it projected when Congress passed the bill:

Congressional Budget Office estimates released Tuesday predict the health care overhaul will likely cost about $115 billion more in discretionary spending over ten years than the original cost projections.

The additional spending — if approved over the years by Congress — would bring the total estimated cost of the overhaul to about $1 trillion.

The Congressional Budget Office expects the federal agencies to spend $10 billion to $20 billion over 10 years on administrative costs to implement the overhaul. The CBO expects Congress to spend an additional $105 billion over 10 years to fund discretionary programs in the overhaul. . .

The CBO estimated in March that the net cost of the overhaul would be $788 billion over 10 years, but cautioned that it couldn’t make an estimate of the discretionary costs without more time and information.

That’s 15% more than its earlier projection. And note that the new estimate still doesn’t account for worst of the gimmicks: the Medicare reimbursement cuts that will never happen, the double-counting, and the back-loaded spending.

Yep, we had to pass the bill to find out what was in it.

(Via the Corner.)

Another $8.4 billion, in addition to the $76 billion it has already received. That will bring the total bailout for the two Democratic darlings to $145 billion, easily the most expensive part of the bailout. And Fannie Mae says (p. 13) that things will not turn around in the foreseeable future:

Given our expectations regarding future losses and draws from Treasury, we do not expect to earn profits in excess of our annual dividend obligation to Treasury for the indefinite future. As a result of these factors, there is significant uncertainty as to our long-term financial sustainability.

(Via Reason.)

Thank you Barney Frank! Well, at least the Democrats have learned their lesson.

Ha ha! Just kidding! President Obama last year pledged to cover any and all of Fannie and Freddie’s losses through the end of his first term. Also, the Wall Street “reform” bill does nothing at all in regard to Fannie and Freddie. With a blank check from the government and no government scrutiny, Fannie and Freddie have absolutely no reason to get their ship in order. But that’s okay, because Fannie and Freddie shower Democrats with campaign money.

A new Fox News poll shows significant support the Arizona illegal immigration law: 61% of those with an opinion supported the law, against 38% opposed. (That’s from the poll numbers; I’m not sure where the story found the number 27%.) More significantly, the public believes by a wide margin (64%-15%) that the Obama administration should wait and see what happens, rather than try to block the law. Even Democrats share that opinion (52%-26%).

Glenn Reynolds explains why this is so significant:

Forget the Arizona bill itself. What this poll says is that despite weeks of national-media coverage that was unrelentingly negative, calling the bill racist, drawing Nazi analogies, etc. — only 15 percent are really against it. Sorry guys — you’re still talking, but people aren’t listening.

POSTSCRIPT: Another interesting tidbit from the poll: The public feels that the main concern about illegal immigration is burdening public services (44%), not taking jobs from Americans (19%) or changing the culture (3%), etc. As I’ve said before, my only objection to unrestricted immigration is that it is incompatible with the modern welfare state (and I’d rather fix the welfare state). The tenor of reporting on the issue certainly gives no hint that a wide plurality agrees with me.

The Detroit News reports:

In a development described as “unprecedented,” a federal court official in Detroit filed an affidavit today with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying he wanted to correct claims made by prosecutors in the Hutaree militia case.”This affidavit is being submitted to correct the record, and any misunderstanding (Assistant U.S. Attorney) Mr. (Ronald) Waterstreet had about our conversation,” Chief Pretrial Services Officer Alan Murray said in a court filing.

“Contrary to Mr. Waterstreet’s belief, the court-ordered ‘home detention’ does not allow unmonitored release the entire day,” Murray said in the affidavit. “The Global Positioning Satellites System allows a defendant to be monitored, at all times.”

Murray also said his office has forms and procedures for assuring someone else takes possession of firearms belonging to third-party custodians assigned to the defendants, and his office “has a safe with the capacity to handle the third-party custodians’ firearms, if necessary.” . . .

“The type of electronic monitoring imposed is wholly inadequate to effectively supervise the defendants,” Waterstreet said. “Moreover, there is no requirement that third-party custodians turn over any firearms they have to a law enforcement agency, and no means of verifying that they have removed firearms from the home.”

(Via Instapundit.)

We are being told that today’s jobs report is good news, and that the uptick in unemployment (to 9.9%) is okay because it’s being caused by people re-entering the labor market. Even some on the right are saying this.

But that story doesn’t seem to wash. If it were true, you would expect to see some improvement in the broader “U-6” measure of unemployment. U-6 includes “marginally attached” workers (those who would like to be working but aren’t looking right now, which includes but is not limited to discouraged workers) and those who are working part-time because they couldn’t find full-time work. In fact, U-6 worsened for the third straight month. U-4 and U-5 (measures in between the official rate and U-6) also worsened.

(Via Instapundit.)

While Congress debates a financial overhaul bill that is supposedly going to put an end to the bailout culture, let’s remember the one-year anniversary of the $108 billion IMF bailout:

Congressional leaders agreed Tuesday to calculate the cost of a new U.S. contribution to the International Monetary Fund in a relatively inexpensive way, paving the way for possible Congressional approval within weeks.

The Obama administration has pledged a $108 billion contribution to the IMF, as part of a $500 billion global boost to IMF resources. The White House has argued that this is a necessary contribution to global financial stability and would send a signal that there is enough money to help prevent struggling countries from becoming further enmeshed in economic crises. Congressional approval would put pressure on European nations, China, Brazil and others to increase their lending to the IMF.

The bailout didn’t pass until later in the year, but one year ago Congress made the key decision to keep the bailout off-budget:

But the U.S. contribution became entangled in arcane — though politically important — budget math. The White House had argued that the action shouldn’t be characterized as a $108 billion expenditure, which would make it difficult to sell at a time when Congress has recently passed a series of multibillion-dollar spending bills.

The U.S. wouldn’t provide a lump sum, but would essentially make a line of credit available to the IMF, which the fund could draw on when it needed to make loans to other countries. In theory, the U.S. would hope to get the money back. So the White House argued that the budgetary impact should be calculated at zero.

That’s right, the Democrats decided that the IMF bailout didn’t cost anything because we were supposed to get all the money back. (And these people want to regulate risk on Wall Street?!)

Good grief. The IMF is sending $40 billion to Greece. (Our share is about $6.8 billion.) Whatever you think of the chances of Greece righting their ship, you have to imagine there’s at least a decent chance that the IMF is never going to see that money again. Our risk is not zero. Not even close.

POSTSCRIPT: One might have thought that a $108 billion off-budget bailout of foreign countries would have been a tough bill to pass, but the Democrats thought of that. They voted to attach the bailout to the troop funding bill.

Another hidden provision in the health care nationalization bill adds a massive new tax compliance burden:

An all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork.

Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document — mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.

The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year. . . Under the new rules, if a freelance designer buys a new iMac from the Apple Store, they’ll have to send Apple a 1099. A laundromat that buys soap each week from a local distributor will have to send the supplier a 1099 at the end of the year tallying up their purchases.

This is so costly, and so unnecessary, it’s doesn’t seem possible for it to be in good faith. Mark Tapscott’s theory that this is a first step toward a VAT seems plausible.

(Via the Corner.)

A Rasmussen poll finds that the public is wise to the debt commission:

Only 18% of Americans are willing to pay higher taxes to lower the federal budget deficit, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Sixty-nine percent (69%) are not willing to have their taxes raised to deal with deficits that are projected to rise to historic levels over the next decade. . .

But most voters think President Obama’s new bipartisan deficit reduction commission is more likely to recommend tax increases than spending cuts to meet the growing deficit, and 78% expect Congress to raise taxes if the commission recommends it.

Even if the president and Congress raise taxes to reduce the federal deficit, 58% of voters think they are more likely to spend the money on new government programs.

(Emphasis mine.)

I find that last finding interesting and a little surprising. A majority understands what is going on here: the purpose of the commission is not to cut the deficit; it’s purpose is to get a VAT in place to fund a further expansion of government.

(Via Instapundit.)

CNN reports:

The recovery is picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, but economists think the government’s stimulus package and jobs bill had little to do with the rebound, according to a survey released Monday.

In latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics, the index that measures employment showed job growth for the first time in two years — but a majority of respondents felt the fiscal stimulus had no impact.

Actually, calling it “a majority” is lowballing the finding. In fact, 73% said the stimulus bill has had no impact to date. Further, 68% say that the second stimulus bill (the one called the “jobs bill”) will have no effect either.

The Dodd-Shelby amendment to the financial overhaul bill actually sounds reasonable, so I suspect I’m misunderstanding it. Is that overly cynical?

(Via the Corner.)

UPDATE: Stephen Spruiell agrees that it really is pretty good. Way to go Shelby. It’s a pity he couldn’t fix the rest of the bill.

The CBO says that the Medicare “doc fix” will cost $276 billion through 2020, 33% more than previously projected.

Freddie is asking for $10.6 billion, on top of the $50.7 billion it’s been given already. Thank you Barney Frank!

(Via Hot Air.)

ABC News reports:

Three days after he decried the lack of civility in American politics, President Obama is quoted in a new book about his presidency referring to the Tea Party movement using a derogatory term with sexual connotations.

Once again, the Tea Party people are much more civil than their critics.

(Via Instapundit.)

UPDATE: Robert Gibbs refuses to comment.

Am I the only one that thinks jokes about your own misconduct aren’t really funny? For example, President Obama:

Of course, that’s not the only thing that we’ve been accused of socializing this year. You might have heard we passed a health care bill and — (applause.) Is that Roger Ailes applauding out there? (Laughter.) Some Republicans have suggested that the bill contains a few secret provisions. That’s ridiculous. There aren’t a few secret provisions in the health care plan — there are, like, hundreds. (Laughter.)

(Via the Corner.)

UPDATE: On the other hand, the Washington Post gives Obama grief about how he broke the etiquette of the function by using his routine to mock his opponents, rather than poke fun at himself:

Barack Obama, the Insult Comic President, was up to his old shtick Saturday night. Breaking with presidential punch line tradition for the second consecutive year, Obama dropped zinger after zinger on his opponents and allies alike at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. . . Except for a mild joke pegged to his falling approval ratings, Obama mostly spared Obama during his 14-minute stand-up routine. . .

Obama’s derisive tone surprises and dismays some of the people who’ve written jokes for presidents past.

“With these dinners you want the audience to like you more when you sit down than when you stood up,” says Landon Parvin. . . “Something in [Obama’s] humor didn’t do that,” he said Sunday.

Parvin advises his political clients to practice a little partisan self-deprecation when they make lighthearted remarks: “If you’re a Democrat, you make fun of Democrats and go easy on the Republicans; if you’re a Republican, you do the opposite,” he says.

Barack Obama takes himself too seriously to poke fun at himself. Even his one self-deprecating joke (about his falling approval ratings) was outward looking, not really about himself.

Anyway, just to be clear, the hundreds-of-secret-provisions joke isn’t at his own expense, it’s at our expense. He’s saying “Look what I did to you! Ha ha.” It’s like Homer Simpson laughing about his latest cruel prank against Flanders, or Ted Kennedy telling Chappaquiddick jokes.

(Via Hot Air.)

The Telegraph reports:

Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.

The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.

Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act.

Mr McAlpine . . . was taken to the police station in the back of a marked van and locked in a cell for seven hours.

Sadly, this happens all the time in today’s UK: 1, 2, 3, 4. It’s sad to see the society that invented individual liberty abandoning it.

(Via Hot Air.)

Another power grab:

The Federal Trade Commission could become a more powerful watchdog for Internet users under a little-known provision in financial overhaul legislation that would expand the agency’s ability to create rules.

An emboldened FTC would stand in stark contrast to a besieged Federal Communications Commission, whose ability to oversee broadband providers has been cast into doubt after a federal court ruled last month that the agency lacked the ability to punish Comcast for violating open-Internet guidelines.

The version of regulatory overhaul legislation passed by the House would allow the FTC to issue rules on a fast track and permit the agency to impose civil penalties on companies that hurt consumers. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has argued in favor of bolstering his agency’s enforcement ability.

(Via Hot Air.)

A Treasury Department press release on GM’s supposed repayment of its bailout debt gives no indication that it paid off only a fraction of its debt, and did so using untapped bailout funds:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that General Motors (GM) has fully repaid its debt under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). GM paid the remaining $4.7 billion of the total $6.7 billion in debt owed to Treasury. The repayment comes five years ahead of the loan maturity date and ahead of the accelerated repayment schedule the company announced last year. . .

“We are encouraged that GM has repaid its debt well ahead of schedule and confident that the company is on a strong path to viability,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

In fact, GM “repaid” the $6.7 billion loan using other bailout funds in an $17.4 billion escrow account. Remarkably, the New York Times is on the story:

AS we inch closer to a clearer understanding of the products and practices that unleashed the credit crisis of 2008, it’s becoming apparent that those seeking the whole truth are still outnumbered by those aiming to obscure it. This is the case not only on Wall Street but also in Washington.

Truth seekers the nation over, therefore, are indebted to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who in recent days uncovered what he called a government-enabled “TARP money shuffle.” It relates to General Motors, which on April 21 paid the balance of its $6.7 billion loan under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. . .

G.M. also crowed about its loan repayment in a national television ad and the United States Treasury also marked the moment with a press release: “We are encouraged that G.M. has repaid its debt well ahead of schedule and confident that the company is on a strong path to viability,” said Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary.

Taxpayers are naturally eager for news about bailout repayments. But what neither G.M. nor the Treasury disclosed was that the company simply used other funds held by the Treasury to pay off its original loan.

Those are strong words from the NYT in favor of a Republican and against a Democrat.

But there’s more. Reading Grassley’s letter (at the bottom of the first page), it looks to me as though the scam is even deeper than reported. If Grassley has the facts straight, by “repaying” the $6.7 billion loan from escrow, GM unlocked another $5.1 billion in escrow funds which will now be turned over to GM.  So after the whole money shuffle, not only has GM not repaid a cent, but it actually ends up with more money in the bank.

So this is actually the exact opposite of what GM and the Treasury claimed. GM wasn’t repaying $6.7 billion; it was actually drawing a new $5.1 billion bailout.

(Via Hot Air.)

Obamacare is going to cost people their health insurance:

Documents unearthed by [Waxman’s] investigation highlight companies that are considering dumping employees from their current health-care plans in the face of new costs from the health-care law. President Obama repeatedly promised his health-care law would let Americans keep their current insurance if they’re happy with it.

A March 3 internal Verizon memo on the impact health-care law said new taxes on insurance companies and health-care equipment manufacturers will be passed onto employers through higher prices.

Facing such increased costs, employers like Verizon “may consider exiting the health-care market and send employees to the exchanges,” the memo says.

Under the law, companies would pay fines for not providing insurance companies coverage. But, the Verizon memo said, the fines would be “modest” compared to providing coverage for employees.

In a March 25 e-mail, John Deere’s director of labor relations, Kenneth Hugh, said, “We ought to look at … denying coverage and just paying the penalty … we would need to figure out which one was more expensive.”

This is what opponents of the bill said would happen all along. By the time the bill was passed, its supporters weren’t even denying it. At first they said “You won’t lose your insurance”, but by the end their promise was delicately and legalistically phrased: “Nothing in the proposal forces anyone to change the insurance they have.” Perhaps nothing in the bill requires it, but it does make it happen.

ASIDE: Actually, it’s not even true that nothing in the bill requires that you give up your insurance. If you’re insurance does not satisfy the government’s requirements, it’s not allowed.

Anyway, Henry Waxman started his investigation and scheduled hearing when he thought that Verizon, Deere and other were trying to score political points against Obamacare. In fact, the opposite was true. Their announcements were inarguable and legally required, and we now know they were actually holding back the really bad news. No wonder Waxman cancelled his hearings; I’m sure he wishes he could undo his investigation as well.

(Via the Corner.)

AP reports:

President Obama took aim Saturday at the angry rhetoric of those who denigrate government as “inherently bad” and said their off-base line of attack ignores the fact that in a democracy, “government is us.”

Oh please. The government and its allies have long since learned to thwart the will of the people. The public (that’s “us”) didn’t want the bailouts, the stimulus, or health care nationalization. The government did it all anyway.

But that’s not even the point. Even if we stipulate the absurd proposition that our government always — or even usually — carries out the will of the people, that still doesn’t mean the government is good. On the contrary, the majority is often more than happy to trample the rights of the individual. That’s why the government’s power must be limited, whether it’s carrying out the people’s will or not.

Alas, the mechanisms our system used to provide to limit the power of government (delegated powers, checks and balances, separation of powers) have failed. Today, everything is called interstate commerce and the government does whatever it chooses.

Oh, but that’s not even the worst of President Obama’s remarks:

Obama used his commencement speech at the University of Michigan to respond to foes who portray government as oppressive and tyrannical — and to warn that overheated language can signal extremists that “perhaps violence is … justifiable.”

Back to this canard again. If you’re angry at government, you’re promoting violence. Even if you’re not promoting violence, you’re still promoting violence. (But that’s just for now. When Republicans are in power, “overheated language” is merely dissent.) This sort of cynical attempt to marginalize a mainstream movement opposed to government overreach is a good example of why people are so angry.