Greenhouse sounds like the Poorhouse

This is an email from Tim Phillips at Americans for Prosperity-

Last night, I watched with disappointment and dismay as President Obama -- with Speaker Pelosi applauding loudly behind him -- rolled out literally hundreds-of-billions more in spending and tax increases.

It was like watching one of those horror movies where the bad guy keeps coming back...with even more scary big government programs that have failed the American people time after time. If you're keeping score at home here are the biggest boondoggles with the price tags attached:

• "Continuing Resolution" legislation to fund existing federal programs at $410 billion -- an 8.7% increase in spending over the last year which is the biggest increase on domestic spending since the Carter Administration. Currently being debated this week and next.

• Obama/Pelosi Housing Bailout at $275 billion. Proposed now and will be debated within days.

• Bank Bailout at estimated $1 trillion. Details of this new Bank Bailout are still fuzzy but the numbers are huge. Debate to begin within weeks.

• Nationalized Health Care proposal is to be announced this Thursday. The President is saying his "health care reform…will not wait another year." We know what that means. Hundreds of billions more of your money and less individual health care choice for you.

So far, the Obama/Pelosi agenda has been all spending while taking our nation to historic debt levels. Last night, we saw the first big Obama/Pelosi tax increase. And it is genuinely massive -- try $1.2 trillion over the next decade on ENERGY, the one sector of the economy where prices are lower at the moment.

President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are now championing a "Cap and Trade" scheme that will ration energy while increasing taxes. A version of this proposal was introduced last year as the Warner/Lieberman Cap and Trade bill. Here are the key details from last year's legislation that are the basis for the Obama/Pelosi plan:

• $1.2 TRILLION Tax Increase over 7 years on gasoline, home energy and really all energy in next decade. Source: Congressional Budget Office, April 10, 2008

• this tax would cost the economy 3 to 4 million jobs according to an analysis by the American Council on Capital Formation

• the average family would lose over $4,000 per year in purchasing power (and remember the Pelosi/Obama tax cut was only $800 per couple)

• Gasoline prices would increase anywhere from 77 to 145 percent--that means prices of about $2 a gallon now would go up to $3.50 or even $5 a gallon.

In addition, the Washington Post has reported that President Obama's budget will also include income tax increases. More on that once we have the details tomorrow.

The numbers are staggering. But there is more. Under the Obama/Pelosi "Cap and Trade" scheme, for the first time the federal government will literally ration energy -- deciding how much energy should be available and at what cost to families and businesses. The impact on our families and economy will be disastrous.

At Americans for Prosperity we're going to fight this new spending and especially these new taxes with everything we've got.

Together, we are building the grassroots movement that will protect our economic freedoms and the American Dream from those who truly believe government has all the answers...we know better!

Stay tuned for more details and action items.

Tim

P.S.: As Americans for Prosperity is holding grassroots events in your state we will be letting you know about them. For example, last week in North Carolina I met a number of NoStimulus.com petition signers who attended our rallies in Greensboro and Raleigh. On March 7 in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area I hope to see a number of you for our event there. On March 9 we're holding a breakfast in Tulsa, Oklahoma and in mid March rallies across Virginia. Please look for invites to rallies and events in your area as we expand our effort to protect our families and the American Dream.

"Change- I'm 'fraid there ain't none"

The blog title, "Change-I'm 'fraid there ain't none," is a quote I believe you will hear in about 36 months after buying a gallon of milk with the soon to be reintroduced $1000 bill shown above.

Maybe the US Mint can do a little better job with the photoshoping but you get my point.

China and Japan, the countries who usually clamor to buy our debt don't have a couple spare trillion to lend. China's unemployment has increased by 20 million people in the last 6 months and most of the world is in worse shape than we are.

So what do we do? Crank up the presses!

If I print money in the basement, I go to jail. If the treasury does it, its called stimulus.

For anyone that doesn't know, when the treasury increases the money supply, at some point the dollar becomes worth less, (hopefully the space stays between the "worth" and the "less" in that sentence) because there are more of them. Simple supply and demand. Never in the history of the world has any nation printed as much money as we are going to have to in the next 24 months to pay for the stimulus.

What happens when the world's economy comes back and all those trillions of dollars are still floating around out there? Let's just say you might not have to buy kindling that year.

I understand we have to face one problem at a time and there are plenty of economists out there that say we can use monetary policy to control inflation when we get there. The only problem is we never see these problems until they are on top of us then we overreact and overcompensate- like passing a series of stimulus bills and bailouts that increase the National Debt by $7 trillion or so. I would imagine our reaction to inflation will be just as dramatic and overwhelming.

Stop the ride, I think I'm going to be sick.

Our microwave society has to have results immediately and I am not sure that is the way the laws of economics works.

I'm pretty sure it isn't but we don't seem to have the patience to see it through anymore.

Hopefully, I am wrong but this whole process doesn't have me very "stimulated."

The Public Coffer

I find it amazing that the polls show that the majority of the American people support the "stimulus " package that was just passed by our congress.

Not that I believe we didn't need something done, although I believe the free market would have resolved the crisis in due time. What I believe is that so many people support a bill that even the majority of those that voted on it never even got the chance to read it. They trusted, not economist, not industrial leaders or veterans of similar situations, but politicians, to write a bill that could solve the woes we now face.

That's like trusting a virgin to write the Karma Sutra.

The blind masses support a bill that was passed in a hurry so it could sit on the president's desk for 3 days. Wouldn't that time have been better spent learning what is actually in it?

I am sure there are things in the package that will mean more money being spread around in the form of government contracts (we know how well that works out, more $200 shovels and $1000 toilets.) But what I don't think most people realize is that it is not free money!

When the dust settles, we have to pay for it.

Until we have a country that is competitive once again in the world for what we produce and not just what we consume we will stay beholden to the handouts from the government and that will only increase the amount of people that vote for bigger government. But in the end taxes will have to be raised to pay for our "stimulus" which will only hamper our ability to produce and lead to a smaller role on the world stage as exporters of goods.

The shamwow and snuggie are both produced in foreign countries. What the hell?

Our lawmakers have voted to strengthen unions, print money and place the government in greater control of our lives.

Quite an experiment.