By William L. Garvin
A most curious moment occurred when Democrats were grilling oil company executives with their petulant faux outrage. Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller was browbeating Chevron Corporation CEO John Watson during a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. Rockefeller interrupted Watson with the sarcastic comment: "Lovely statement, but do you understand how out of touch that is?" What is out of touch is Rockefeller spending his time chastising an industry that pays millions of dollars in taxes each day while ignoring administration sycophants (such as General Electric) which pay NOTHING in taxes!
Naturally Senator Rockefeller skipped over some other rather interesting items relevant to the discussion. While oil companies make around seven to nine cents per gallon of gasoline sold, government taxes are around forty-eight cents per gallon. Who is really raking in the windfall profits? Keep in mind that government assumes none of the risk, invests no capital, labor or time. It simply sits back and confiscates money off the top. By the way, Jay, how did you get your multimillions? That’s right, you did it the old fashioned way—you inherited it. Granddaddy John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest men in America. How did he make his millions? He was an oil magnate and the first president of the Standard Oil Company, that’s how, you phony.
Headlines today trumpet the President’s move to “speed up oil production” and backing “new Alaska drilling.” That is just comical. After two plus years of assaulting and demonizing the oil industry, his tiny, timid baby steps are being touted as some bold initiative. So why don’t you just admit that the Republicans were right when they said “drill, baby, drill!”? It will be months before we will even get back to the status quo that existed BEFORE you began your systematic destruction of fossil fuel production. If you had spent one-tenth the money on recapturing emissions that you spent subsidizing the solar and wind industries, we would all be ahead of the game.
Rockefeller’s hypocritical histrionics may be hilarious but there are sinister machinations in Washington. The President made two recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. One was Lafe Solomon, the NLRB acting general counsel, and the other was Craig Becker. Curiously, Becker was previously rejected by the Democrat Senate in 2010. They have currently set their sights on Boeing and are attempting to infiltrate/subjugate the airplane industry just as they did the automotive industry.
Boeing wanted to open a new plant to meet the growing demand for the 787 Dreamliner. After months of negotiations with the machinists union, Boeing was unable to get an agreement that there would be no strikes for ten years. There have been five stoppages in the Puget Sound plant and the last one cost the company $1.8 billion dollars. So Boeing decided to open its two-billion dollar, 3,800 employee plant in South Carolina, one of 34 states in which Boeing has a presence. It is scheduled to come on line this summer. It is now seventeen months since Boeing made its decision but the NLRB is just now investigating union concerns. Apparently, the machinists who live (and are still working in Washington) had their feelings hurt and lodged a complaint with the NLRB. They think that Boeing moved their new plant to South Carolina in retaliation for their strikes. It would seem apparent that it was because of their strikes! With orders for eight hundred 787’s and production way behind schedule, a stable work force would be paramount to any sound business decision. Washington’s hardly been left out in the cold. Nobody has lost a job. In fact, Boeing has added 2,000 jobs to the Washington line since 2009.
If the NLRB expects Boeing to abandon its South Carolina investment and disenfranchise the newly employed South Carolina workforce, that bodes ill for American companies. It also means that the 22 “right to work” states will never get a new company plant if that company has a union workforce in another state. Since unions appear to own this administration, that could certainly happen. If it does, the next company move will be to another country…not another state!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Demagogues and Pettifogs
By William L. Garvin
Mark Twain wrote that “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed." Somewhere around 450 BC, Aeschylus supposedly said “The first casualty of war is truth.” Today’s sorry state of affairs seems to combine both truisms.
In the fog of war, it is not uncommon for the first reports to contain some errors. However, when you have the President and all his key personnel watching a live feed of the SEAL operation to capture and/or kill Osama Bin Laden, you don’t expect errors in reporting of the magnitude we’ve just experienced. The initial reports of the “forty minute pitched battle” bear no resemblance to the actual undertaking.
Subsequently, political demagoguery commandeered center stage with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi leading the charge: “The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. . . . I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. . . . The death of Osama bin Laden is historic. . . .” A modicum of class or decorum would have dictated at least a faint acknowledgement of President Bush and his administration’s efforts. Undoubtedly she will continue to rail against rendition and enhanced interrogation techniques despite the intelligence they provided. She will still view George Bush as a war criminal. At least she didn’t suggest that the SEALs should have killed him instead of bin Laden as liberal talk show host Mike Malloy did. She also doesn’t recall her statement in a press conference in September, 2006, when she said: “Even if (Osama bin Laden) is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done . . . is done. And even to capture him now I don’t think makes us any safer.” Hypocrisy personified.
There are other loons that don’t believe bin Laden is dead. We can put them in the same category as the 9/11 truthers who think it was an inside job orchestrated by George Bush or the Trig truthers who insist Sarah Palin is not his mother or those who believe the moon landing was an elaborate government hoax. Logic or rational thought will never permeate those concrete craniums. For them black is white; up is down; and fiction is fact. No defense of this administration is too absurd not to be brayed; no scurrilous and unfounded slur against the opposition is to remain unsounded. For instance, in this paper last week a writer declared: “The highest level of unemployment during the recent recession came in 2007 when George W. Bush was President. The lowest level came in Feb. of 2010 when Obama was in office.” This is either pure insanity or deliberate lying.
From the records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average unemployment rate during the Clinton administration was 5.2%. Despite the media histrionics, the average unemployment rate during the eight years of the Bush administration was 5.26% with a LOW of 4.61% in 2006 and 2007! Facts are such stubborn things. The average number of unemployed Americans was 8.25 million during the Bush years. Compare that to the current number of 13.7 million unemployed and a 9.0% unemployment rate.
In an effort to cover up the President’s anti-oil vendetta, the same author says “Many permits were issued before the BP Gulf disaster, and many will likely be issued this year.” The vast majority of “permits” were merely reinstatements of drilling operations that had been arbitrarily suspended by the Obama administration. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar repeatedly appeals his continual losses in court and his cumbersome bureaucratic review process has created a “black hole of administration.”
As a result, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a loss in U.S. oil production of 240,000 barrels per day for 2010. The industry is projecting a loss as high as 360,000 barrels per day. That’s why the House passed a bill on May 5th to force this administration to issue the offshore drilling leases it has delayed or canceled. There are billions of dollars in oil revenues that could assist in balancing the budget; there are thousands of oil jobs that could assist in easing unemployment. Unfortunately, the pettifoggers will never find their way out of the forest because they are too busy planting dead trees and telling lies.
Mark Twain wrote that “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed." Somewhere around 450 BC, Aeschylus supposedly said “The first casualty of war is truth.” Today’s sorry state of affairs seems to combine both truisms.
In the fog of war, it is not uncommon for the first reports to contain some errors. However, when you have the President and all his key personnel watching a live feed of the SEAL operation to capture and/or kill Osama Bin Laden, you don’t expect errors in reporting of the magnitude we’ve just experienced. The initial reports of the “forty minute pitched battle” bear no resemblance to the actual undertaking.
Subsequently, political demagoguery commandeered center stage with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi leading the charge: “The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. . . . I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. . . . The death of Osama bin Laden is historic. . . .” A modicum of class or decorum would have dictated at least a faint acknowledgement of President Bush and his administration’s efforts. Undoubtedly she will continue to rail against rendition and enhanced interrogation techniques despite the intelligence they provided. She will still view George Bush as a war criminal. At least she didn’t suggest that the SEALs should have killed him instead of bin Laden as liberal talk show host Mike Malloy did. She also doesn’t recall her statement in a press conference in September, 2006, when she said: “Even if (Osama bin Laden) is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done . . . is done. And even to capture him now I don’t think makes us any safer.” Hypocrisy personified.
There are other loons that don’t believe bin Laden is dead. We can put them in the same category as the 9/11 truthers who think it was an inside job orchestrated by George Bush or the Trig truthers who insist Sarah Palin is not his mother or those who believe the moon landing was an elaborate government hoax. Logic or rational thought will never permeate those concrete craniums. For them black is white; up is down; and fiction is fact. No defense of this administration is too absurd not to be brayed; no scurrilous and unfounded slur against the opposition is to remain unsounded. For instance, in this paper last week a writer declared: “The highest level of unemployment during the recent recession came in 2007 when George W. Bush was President. The lowest level came in Feb. of 2010 when Obama was in office.” This is either pure insanity or deliberate lying.
From the records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average unemployment rate during the Clinton administration was 5.2%. Despite the media histrionics, the average unemployment rate during the eight years of the Bush administration was 5.26% with a LOW of 4.61% in 2006 and 2007! Facts are such stubborn things. The average number of unemployed Americans was 8.25 million during the Bush years. Compare that to the current number of 13.7 million unemployed and a 9.0% unemployment rate.
In an effort to cover up the President’s anti-oil vendetta, the same author says “Many permits were issued before the BP Gulf disaster, and many will likely be issued this year.” The vast majority of “permits” were merely reinstatements of drilling operations that had been arbitrarily suspended by the Obama administration. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar repeatedly appeals his continual losses in court and his cumbersome bureaucratic review process has created a “black hole of administration.”
As a result, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a loss in U.S. oil production of 240,000 barrels per day for 2010. The industry is projecting a loss as high as 360,000 barrels per day. That’s why the House passed a bill on May 5th to force this administration to issue the offshore drilling leases it has delayed or canceled. There are billions of dollars in oil revenues that could assist in balancing the budget; there are thousands of oil jobs that could assist in easing unemployment. Unfortunately, the pettifoggers will never find their way out of the forest because they are too busy planting dead trees and telling lies.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Electing Economic Imbeciles
By William L. Garvin
It appears that when you graduate from an Ivy League university, you actually believe you can spend your way into prosperity. George Bush alienated many of his conservative supporters by not vetoing the extravagant Democrat budgets during his term. President Obama, however, makes him look like a comparative skinflint with his outrageous deficit spending. Conservatives bristled when TARP was passed and the Bush administration made choices as to which companies would win or lose. Currently, President Obama and Tim Geithner are in the process of deciding whether or not entire industries will win or lose. Unfortunately, neither of the latter seems to have the slightest grasp on economic reality.
For instance, you hear the President wailing about Big Oil’s “obscene profits” and the need to eliminate the $4 billion in subsidies. Of course, he doesn’t mention the $95 million PER DAY that oil companies pay in taxes. Actually, he doesn’t even understand the subsidy. As Sarah Palin noted: “He does not know…that the four billion dollars that he thinks he’s gonna stick it to Exxon, BP, Conoco Phillips, but no, it’s going to be the independent producers, the explorers that we want out there creating jobs that are going to be hit with an end of subsidies.” Martin Frost, a former Democrat congressman from oil rich Texas confirms that the “percentage depletion” for major oil companies was repealed by Congress in 1975. “The only ones that get percentage depletion anymore are domestic independents who drill most of the wells in the United States and employ four million people,” said Frost. This could also be the first year since 1965 that the government has failed to sell an oil lease in the Gulf of Mexico. No wonder estimates are that our domestic oil production will be down 240,000 barrels per day this year. According to imbecile economics, this has no effect on gasoline prices…what foolishness!
Another example of economic naiveté is the President and California’s love affair with alternative energy. Jumping on the gravy train, Jerry Brown signed into law a mandate that state utilities get 33% of their electricity from alternative sources by 2020. In May, 2010, the president visited Solyndra in Fremont, California, which builds solar panels. He brought along $535 million in Energy Department loans and promised hundreds of new jobs. Solyndra ended up closing a plant, laying off workers, and canceling their IPO because they keep losing money and no smart person wants to invest in this type of venture.
So, did they learn their lesson? No they didn't. Now they are providing $3.7 billion in loan guarantees to Oakland-based solar startups BrightSource and Solar Trust. That’s ten percent of the so called “budget cuts” hammered out by our hammerheads in Washington. The problem is BrightSource has lost $177 million since it started in 2004 and its losses climbed from $43.8 million in 2009 to $71.6 million in 2010. Only the federal government and imbecile economics would spend your tax dollars on a company with such a dismal record. If there was a possibility of success with these ventures, private sector capitalists would be pursuing them with vigor. They are not.
Another case of economic imbecility is found in the “debate” over Medicare. You may recall that Obamacare became “revenue neutral” (sic) by cutting $500 billion from Medicare that supposedly existed in waste and fraud. Democrats unanimously supported this provision against the wishes of the general populace. Recognizing that this did nothing to solve the pending bankruptcy of Medicare, Republican Paul Ryan proposed a plan that would provide for a funding increase for medical care for seniors plus a choice of coverage and Dems went ballistic with their usual “people dying in the streets” hyperbole. Naturally they have yet to present a plan of their own to deal with the pending Medicare insolvency. So are they incompetent, ignorant, or deliberately malevolent?
Margaret Thatcher noted: “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Even if you take one hundred percent of the wealth of all the “rich people ,” you still can’t keep up with the Democrats’ exorbitant spending! Stop electing economic imbeciles!
It appears that when you graduate from an Ivy League university, you actually believe you can spend your way into prosperity. George Bush alienated many of his conservative supporters by not vetoing the extravagant Democrat budgets during his term. President Obama, however, makes him look like a comparative skinflint with his outrageous deficit spending. Conservatives bristled when TARP was passed and the Bush administration made choices as to which companies would win or lose. Currently, President Obama and Tim Geithner are in the process of deciding whether or not entire industries will win or lose. Unfortunately, neither of the latter seems to have the slightest grasp on economic reality.
For instance, you hear the President wailing about Big Oil’s “obscene profits” and the need to eliminate the $4 billion in subsidies. Of course, he doesn’t mention the $95 million PER DAY that oil companies pay in taxes. Actually, he doesn’t even understand the subsidy. As Sarah Palin noted: “He does not know…that the four billion dollars that he thinks he’s gonna stick it to Exxon, BP, Conoco Phillips, but no, it’s going to be the independent producers, the explorers that we want out there creating jobs that are going to be hit with an end of subsidies.” Martin Frost, a former Democrat congressman from oil rich Texas confirms that the “percentage depletion” for major oil companies was repealed by Congress in 1975. “The only ones that get percentage depletion anymore are domestic independents who drill most of the wells in the United States and employ four million people,” said Frost. This could also be the first year since 1965 that the government has failed to sell an oil lease in the Gulf of Mexico. No wonder estimates are that our domestic oil production will be down 240,000 barrels per day this year. According to imbecile economics, this has no effect on gasoline prices…what foolishness!
Another example of economic naiveté is the President and California’s love affair with alternative energy. Jumping on the gravy train, Jerry Brown signed into law a mandate that state utilities get 33% of their electricity from alternative sources by 2020. In May, 2010, the president visited Solyndra in Fremont, California, which builds solar panels. He brought along $535 million in Energy Department loans and promised hundreds of new jobs. Solyndra ended up closing a plant, laying off workers, and canceling their IPO because they keep losing money and no smart person wants to invest in this type of venture.
So, did they learn their lesson? No they didn't. Now they are providing $3.7 billion in loan guarantees to Oakland-based solar startups BrightSource and Solar Trust. That’s ten percent of the so called “budget cuts” hammered out by our hammerheads in Washington. The problem is BrightSource has lost $177 million since it started in 2004 and its losses climbed from $43.8 million in 2009 to $71.6 million in 2010. Only the federal government and imbecile economics would spend your tax dollars on a company with such a dismal record. If there was a possibility of success with these ventures, private sector capitalists would be pursuing them with vigor. They are not.
Another case of economic imbecility is found in the “debate” over Medicare. You may recall that Obamacare became “revenue neutral” (sic) by cutting $500 billion from Medicare that supposedly existed in waste and fraud. Democrats unanimously supported this provision against the wishes of the general populace. Recognizing that this did nothing to solve the pending bankruptcy of Medicare, Republican Paul Ryan proposed a plan that would provide for a funding increase for medical care for seniors plus a choice of coverage and Dems went ballistic with their usual “people dying in the streets” hyperbole. Naturally they have yet to present a plan of their own to deal with the pending Medicare insolvency. So are they incompetent, ignorant, or deliberately malevolent?
Margaret Thatcher noted: “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Even if you take one hundred percent of the wealth of all the “rich people ,” you still can’t keep up with the Democrats’ exorbitant spending! Stop electing economic imbeciles!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)