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1. Why I Will Not Support Jon Huntsman. Ever.
2. John Boehner’s Line in the Sand
3. How Much Will It Cost to Repeal the ‘Oil Subsidies’?
4. Notes From “The Food Stamp Recovery”
5. Thinking Outside the Box: How Boeing’s South Carolina Employees Can Strike Back
6. Obama Made A “Gutsy Call” And He’ll Tell You So
7. Collective Money!? When Did Anybody’s Earnings Become the People’s Dollars?
1. Why I Will Not Support Jon Huntsman. Ever.
Ambassador Jon Huntsman is gearing up now to run for President of the United States.If he is the Republican nominee, I will vote for him. But until that moment I will never, ever support him.And if you are a patriot to the United States of America, you should not support him either. It’s pretty simple why.John Huntman’s disloyalty to the President of the United States, regardless of the President or to which party the President belongs, should not be rewarded by any patriot of this country.Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. John Boehner’s Line in the Sand
Last night, Speaker John Boehner addressed the Economic Club of New York and drew a line in the sand in the debt ceiling fight. It was a monumental game changer for the GOP and puts them back on offense.Let me back up briefing and note that the Washington Post’s own left leaning editorial board came out swinging on Sunday against the Democrats’ opposition to the Republicans’ Medicare plans. Yes, *that* Washington Post.It is with that buttressing him that Speaker Boehner gave last night’s speech. It was a doozy.Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. How Much Will It Cost to Repeal the ‘Oil Subsidies’?
This week, the Senate is set to consider the repeal of certain provisions of the tax code as they relate to the oil and gas industry. By styling these tax breaks as “subsidies”, the Administration and other opponents of the industry wrongly equate them with the benefits enjoyed by ethanol, wind and solar energy. But the tax credits for alternative energy production are true subsidies, essentially cash payments to producers of energy that cannot compete in the marketplace without help.Randall Hoven at American Thinker gives a good breakdown the specifics of the tax breaks targeted by the Administration. I’ll not rehash those details, but will add three points worthy of emphasis: 1) the tax breaks are not as unique to oil and gas as has been advertized; 2) two of the tax breaks in question are “cost recovery” deductions against income, not handouts (try telling your company’s CFO that his depreciation charge is a government subsidy); and 3) the brunt of the tax increase will be felt by independent companies, not “Big Oil”, which lost most of the benefit of these categories of deductions years ago. Energy state Democrats like Rep. Dan Boren of OK, former Rep. Martin Frost of TX and LA Senator Mary Landrieu agree that Administration proposals would indiscriminately punish “small oil”, damaging American energy security in the process.Some 9.2 million jobs depend on the domestic oil and gas business. Oil and gas activity also creates plenty of revenue for the public coffers. It’s altogether possible that these effective tax increases could be a net negative for government revenue. Shouldn’t someone ask “Can we afford it?”Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Notes From “The Food Stamp Recovery”
n case you missed it, Jay Cost had a great piece on Friday on “the Food Stamp recovery”, laying out the ways in which the currently-underway “recovery” is the weakest in memory. His bracing conclusion?”[I]f the economic recovery does not begin to show substantial improvement, the likes of which we have not really seen in the last two years, and if the GOP nominates a reasonably acceptable alternative, this president is going to lose in 2012, and the final result will not be close. Nobody gets reelected with employment way down, real income way down, and 14 percent of his fellow citizens on food stamps. Nobody.”Let’s add a couple of items that help explain why the economy may be looking up for managers of corporations large enough to collect government favor but not for most Americans.Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. Thinking Outside the Box: How Boeing’s South Carolina Employees Can Strike Back
There’s been a lot of ink spilled of late over the union-controlled National Labor Relations Board’s decision to prosecute Boeing for allegedly locating its second 787 assembly plant in South Carolina in retaliation for the Machinists’ union employees engaging in past strikes.Despite the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon’s statement that there is “nothing remarkable or unprecedented” about his prosecution of Boeing, his basing his decision to prosecute Boeing on the logic that “[a] worker’s right to strike is a fundamental right guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act” is a selective use of the National Labor Relations Act’s Section Seven Rights.Solomon’s logic is also a double-edged sword that, if they so desire, Boeing’s union-free employees in South Carolina can use to try to help save their jobs.Please click here for the rest of the post.
6. Obama Made A “Gutsy Call” And He’ll Tell You So
Last week my colleague, Dan McLaughlin, noted that the website gutsycall.com referred visitors to the Obama 2012 campaign website.The website redirects to the Obama campaign and there was much squalling from the Obama camp that they had nothing to do with this. There is much to doubt in their denial and there is little doubt that Obama will run for a second term by attempting to capitalize on the “gutsy call” to kill bin Laden.Please click here for the rest of the post.
7. Collective Money!? When Did Anybody’s Earnings Become the People’s Dollars?
It seems that The Democrats have a strategy for addressing the higher gas prices that are killing American consumers. They intend to blame oil companies and saddle them with revenge taxes. In fact, the Senate Finance Committee has plans of hauling the executives of multinational oil companies to discuss tax subsidies and government incentives at a hearing on Thursday.The Democrats are doing this in order to deny oil companies $21Bil in tax breaks for activities such as R&D and deposit this money into the Federal Treasury. President Obama wanted the collective money of the taxpayers to build clean energy projects such as the bird-hacking windmills built by his close, personal friend Jeffrey Immelt’s GE Corporation in China.Please click here for the rest of the post.
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