Your Stimulus Tax Dollars at Work

Last month the Obama administration's Council of Economic Advisers released a report claiming the stimulus has created 12,000 jobs in New Hampshire. President Obama put Joe Biden in charge of implementing the stimulus, so the White House numbers should be accurate because "no one messes with Joe".

ButRecovery.gov, the website set up by President Obama allegedly to "root out waste, inefficiency and unnecessary spending in our government" estimates the stimulus has created only 1,432 jobs. On Wednesday, the New Hampshire Office of Economic recovery released its jobs report for the first quarter of 2010 estimating the stimulus created 2,223 jobs to date. So depending on which of these government agencies data you want to work with, each of these job cost us taxpayers between $347,370 and $539.248.

"Trust Me"

What did the White House promise Joe Sestak if he dropped out of the Senate race, and why won't they talk about it? The Slate's John Dickerkson takes Obama to task.

"..."trust us" isn't a satisfactory answer—no matter what the question. Building a stone wall is about the wall, not what the wall is hiding. And there's also the matter that Obama promised new levels of transparency when he ran for office. He promised new levels of bipartisanship, too, and those haven't materialized. But you can blame the Republicans for some of that. In this case, there's no one to blame but him. This isn't the first time administration officials have chosen expediency over transparency. It probably also won't be the last."

The Success of President Obama

If it is actually President Obama's goal to "redistribute" income and increase dependence on government programs as some have charged, then it appears he is starting to achieve those goals:

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michiganeconomist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. "This is really important," Grimes says.

I don't know what the President's actual intention and objectives are, but in the words of Rush Limbaugh, "I hope he fails".

Poetic Political Justice

"Nothing is going to happen to me, man."

BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A serious car crash involving a local lawmaker and a suspected illegal immigrant is threatening to reignite already heated debates about immigration on Beacon Hill, according to police reports obtained by FOX25.

State Rep. Mike Moran of Brighton was rear-ended by a suspected illegal immigrant this week. The suspect was wearing a Mexican costume at the time of the crash where he slammed into Moran at 60 mph.

The suspect, 27-year-old Isaias Naranjo, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a valid license. According to the report, when told of the serious charges he would be facing, he just laughed.

But because of action taken by Gov. Deval Patrick, state police were unable to notify immigration authorities that Naranjo might be illegal.

Three years ago, Patrick revoked an order by former governor Mitt Romney which gave state police power to investigate immigration violations.

The suspect... blood alcohol content was .25 at the time of the accident according to the police report...

The ultimate irony would be having this happen to the President.

"Disgusting...just disgusting"

Go Jack go!

Les Philip for President

I don't know anything about this guy, but love the ad.

Congressman Sestak in Wonderland...

Not since Kathy Griffin called herself a "celebrity" has someone stretched the truth so far. On Sunday's "MEET THE PRESS", congressman Sestak continues to push that he is a "Washington outsider". David Gregory has no problem in pointing out the conflicting logic of the congressman's political positioning.

MR. GREGORY: All right, we're going to come back to this with our guests in just a moment. I want to take a moment now to turn to Pennsylvania's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Congressman Joe Sestak.

Congressman, welcome to MEET THE PRESS.

REP. JOE SESTAK (D-PA): Good to be here. Thanks, David.

MR. GREGORY: Nice to have you here. You had a very important victory in Pennsylvania, taking on Senator Arlen Specter, the incumbent, and you won. And when you spoke on election night, this is what you said.

(Video)REP. SESTAK: This is what democracy looks like, a win for the people over the establishment, over the status quo, even over Washington, D.C.! (End Video)

MR. GREGORY: Congressman, you sound like the ultimate outsider. The only problem is you are a congressman. OK? You were running against the establishment.

REP. SESTAK: Ah.

MR. GREGORY: You voted for TARP, for the bailout. You voted for the president's stimulus plan. You voted for the president's healthcare plan. Exactly which establishment are you not part of, that you're running against?

REP. SESTAK: Oh, I did vote for those because they were needed. But as John F. Kennedy once said, sometimes the party asks too much. And when they did something that I didn't agree with because it didn't help Pennsylvania working families, I'll stand up to the party. That's what I did. It doesn't mean whether you're part of an establishment or not. It's whether you stand up for what's right.

MR. GREGORY: Well, which, which element of the Obama agenda that was his priority did you stand up to?

REP. SESTAK: Oh, I did--I honestly think that this president has done great, good things. But I don't think we've gone far enough in terms of helping small business. My party has to recognize business is a good word when you have small in front of it. And to give a 15 percent tax credit to small businesses for every new payroll job that's created, we could, according to Economic Institute, soak up five million of the eight and a half million unemployed in two, two and a half years. In short, we need to do even better than what we've done. And as was mentioned earlier, the market's good. There's really good private markets out there. We just need fair rules. And before the rules kind of favored Wall Street, not those in state.

Little doubt that Congressman Sestak's Republican opponent will use his own words to hang himself with. Let's hope that the voters in PA can see through the congressman's attempt to weasel some distance between his campaign rhetoric and the facts of his actual voting record.