...on bing opted-in

I listen to the radio on the way in to work. One of the ads I hear frequently pitches a solution to credit card debt. Basically, if you've got credit card debt, this company will hook you up with government stimulus money and pay off your debt. Is this for real? Who knows. What's obvious to me is that the pitch and appeal of this ad is income redistribution. Since government money is my money, this group proposes to take my money and pay off somebody else's debt.

That pisses me off, but on a small scale compared to the redistribution scam that is the health care reform bill(s) coming out of congress. Unable to gain traction for a trillion-plus dollar public option (i.e. government-run health insurance), congressional hucksters are now peddling a bill that allows states to "opt out" of the public option.

Mind you, the states can't opt out of paying for the public option. Oh no! Tax payers from all 50 states will fund the government option. Instead, "opting out" means that state governors can decline the government-run health insurance that their citizens are paying for. That's a tough sell--one that most governors will not attempt, and few-to-none will succeed in doing. Of course the snake oil salesmen in D.C know this, but they're apparently banking on us NOT knowing it.

So to anyone out there who still doesn't get it, here's the analogy: If you don't like the ShamWow, no problem. Just pay us the money for it and we won't make you take it home. Seriously, Billy Mays couldn't sell this crap! But Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi apparently think they can. And they may be right!

...on being cut in half

President Obama has often pledged to cut the budget deficit in half by the end of his first term. The fact that he's quadrupled the deficit during his first year should make this feat somewhat easier. Unfortunately, the net effect of halving a quadrupled deficit is doubling the original deficit. Here's the equation: (Dx4)/2=Dx2
As this chart from the Heritage Foundation illustrates, we have so much to look forward to.

Today's good news is that the GDP grew by 3.4% in the third quarter. So we're out of the recession! Hurray! But those curious enough to analyze the numbers will find that GDP has three financial components: CIG

"C" is for consumer consumption (spending), of which there hasn't been an appreciable increase. "I" is for business investment which, again, has not improved much since the depths of the recession. So the up-tick in GDP rests on the shoulders of "G", which stands for government spending, of which there has been P-L-E-N-T-Y.

So bottom line: Our economic recovery is riding on government spending, which in turn is based on borrowed and printed money that has quadrupled the deficit and made the Dollar nearly worthless. Bush is looking not so bader every day.