What Is 230?

Two days ago coming out of the Metro, there was a lady handing out free green T-shirts.

"What is it?", I asked. "It's a new environmentally friendly product coming out tomorrow. Plus, it's a free T-shirt; just take it." Here's the logo:


On the back is a URL: WhatIs230.com. On Monday, the URL resolved to a page linking to discussions on Twitter and Facebook with people guessing what it was. Viral marketing, I get it. Today it resolves to the new GM Chevy Volt 2010.

They are bragging about a possible 230 MPG from one gallon of gasoline. The trick is that the battery will give you up to 40 miles before the internal combustion engine kicks in (as long as you plug it in every day).

[GM] Under the new methodology being developed, EPA weights plug-in electric vehicles as traveling more city miles than highway miles on only electricity. The EPA methodology uses kilowatt hours per 100 miles traveled to define the electrical efficiency of plug-ins. Applying EPA's methodology, GM expects the Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving. At the U.S. average cost of electricity (approximately 11 cents per kWh), a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile.

That sounds great, right? Look at the fabulous mileage and cheap fuel; and so green, too. Except the price of the car is about $40K.

The uber-popular Prius is only about $21K. Even the Honda Accord, possibly the most popular commuter car ever, averages about $20K. That leaves a delta of about $20K to make up.

If we assume a $3 per gallon cost of gas on a 15 gallon tank for our (now clunker) Honda that only gets 30 MPG, this yields a weekly cost of $45. Multiply by 52 weeks in a year = $2,340. Therefore it would take approximately 8.5 years to recoup the cost of buying the super-efficient electric Volt. I'm thinking you might be looking at a trade-in by then, or at least significant repairs as other parts wear out.

No sale.

The government has spent billions and billions (trillions?) on bailouts for the auto industry, cash for clunkers, bank bailouts, and so-called stimulus plans -- and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

Clunker In The Trunk

Lots of people tried to rush out and get some free money this weekend: up to $4500 worth to be precise.

Congress passed an auto-subsidy bill with (only!) $1 billion behind it. The Cash For Clunkers bill was supposed to get older polluting cars off the road and stimulate flat-lined auto sales during the recession: green all the way around, so to speak.

It was too much and too little all at the same time. It was too little because the program will only replace around .1 percent of cars on the road - a statistical blip. The program ran out of money almost immediately as the gold rush was announced. Now Congress is under big pressure to throw another $2 billion at it -- and they'll get it. Nobody likes to be the killjoy that stopped the gravy train. Whee! Free Money!

Only it's not free, it came out of our pockets to begin with: specifically, whoever did NOT go out and buy a car helped subsidize those who did. They're called taxes. It's too much, because a) they already need more money, and b) there is a better way to spend (or not spend!) a billion dollars, or two, or three during a global recession.

Although the bill was "instantly popular", there are a few naysayers. One of the unrealized drawbacks of the Clunker program is that the old car must be destroyed, not just broken up for parts. Uh oh. The availability of used cars and replacement parts just went down which hurts small businesses and repair shops as well as lower income families.

Overall the program won't be a big impact on the environment, and with a limited war chest it won't be a big impact on the flagging American auto industry either. In the final analysis, I think it pretty irresponsible thing to do when we've got a trillion dollar deficit.

Bread and circuses.

IG Fired By Obama RAT Board

Remember waaaaaay back to February? That was when we were talking about hidden provisions in the Porkulus economic stimulus package?

(Newser) – Hidden away in the $787 billion stimulus bill is a lousy provision that threatens to inject politics into the jobs of supposedly independent government watchdogs, writes Byron York of the Washington Examiner. The bill creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board—the RAT board to the few who know of it. From now on, inspectors general—investigators who check into wrongdoing at federal agencies—must clear their inquiries with the board.

"The language means that the board—whose chairman will be appointed by the president—can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject," writes York. "Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target." It's not clear yet who snuck it in, but signs point to the Obama administration, not Congress.

It sure didn't take long to exercise that little provision, now did it? Inspector Generals are not supposed to be able to be fired without 30 days notice to prevent political tampering. Looks like we got ourselves a smoking gun here.

[Judicial Watch] A government inspector general who has exposed widespread waste in taxpayer-financed community service groups has been fired by Barack Obama after finding that one of the president’s political supporters, a California mayor, misused federal funds.

In violation of a law established to keep the watchdogs independent and free of political pressure or interference, Obama has refused to explain why he got rid of the inspector general charged with investigating the government’s so-called national service programs.

[FoxNews] [Gerald ]Walpin concluded that his firing stems from bad blood between him and the board, as well as with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson -- an Obama supporter whom he had investigated for alleged misuse of federal funds.

Dirty, Sneaky

As if the dreaded Porkulus $787 billion economic stimulus bill wasn't bad enough at face value, more underhanded tidbits keep coming to light. South Carolina just forced the Governor to request the bailout money.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's Supreme Court ordered Gov. Mark Sanford on Thursday to request $700 million in federal stimulus money aimed primarily at struggling schools, ending months of wrangling with legislators who accused him of playing politics with people's lives.

The nation's most vocal anti-bailout governor had refused to take the money designated for the state over the next two years, facing down protesters and legislators who passed a budget requiring him to.

Clyburn, D-S.C., inserted an amendment in the federal law with Sanford's anti-bailout stance in mind, saying legislators could go around a governor's refusal. While the legality of that was questioned, U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson on Monday cited it in saying it was clear Congress intended to allow legislators to get around governors who didn't want the money.

This is what you get when nobody actually reads the omnibus bills before voting for them and when you have effective one-party rule.

Clyburn knew his Governor wouldn't take the money, so he wrote a law to circumvent him. Are you shocked to find they're both from South Carolina? Are you also shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here?

The Strings Are Showing

Take a man's money and you do his dance; take the government's money and ...

[Foxbusiness] Whether the turn-off is the intense public scrutiny, the strings attached or that they just might not have needed it to begin with, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America are all reportedly planning to get TARP funds off their hands ASAP. The banks are the latest to join the list of companies that have opted to turn down or return the government rescue money.

[Washington Examiner] Bank of American Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis says his company did not even want the original $25 billion "bailout" money last October, but was pressured into it by Bernanke along with the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the treasury secretary and the head of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency. BOA didn't need the money, he said, because "we had just raised $10 billion in common equity the week before." [Really? You didn't want it? Then why did you use $20 billion of it to by Merrill Lynch? -Ed.]

After the firing of GM's cheif executive by the White House, more and more private industry leaders don't want the strings attached to the bailout monies being shoved down their throat and are trying to give it back. It's not like the government would try to seize their business, would they?

Tax Day No Party

Today is April 15th, commonly referred to as Tax Day: the last day that individuals can submit their Federal taxes without incurring late penalties. Many are scrambling to find the last open branch of the Post Office to get their tax returns postmarked before midnight.

No fear. I filed mine weeks ago. (Unlike some, I pay my taxes.)

Unlike this workaday, many people, like my fellow blogger, Paul, took off from their jobs (without pay) to protest what they see as profligate spending and misuse of the American people's tax dollars by the Congress and White House. The Tea Parties were grass-roots nation-wide protests of the Government's tax policies and spending -- meant to recall the famous Boston Tea Party (no taxation without representation). Many people held up TEA signs (Taxed Enough Already) or similar slogans at the rallies despite inclement weather in several locations.

[Washington Post] The White House countered yesterday with President Obama saying the government has passed a sweeping reduction in taxes for 95 percent of U.S. workers. Obama said it was "the most progressive tax cut in American history" and would help create a half-million jobs.

The problem with this statement is that it is misleading (in more ways than one). The multi-trillion dollar deficits being racked up by the current Federal budget and various (so-called) stimulus plans is betting the farm for several generation to come.

Only this time, the 95% tax cut and putting "more money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans" means that the hucksters are giving away shiny new $20 bills to the plow-boy in the foreground while foreclosing on the farm in the background. "Jeepers, Mister! Thanks!"

Cease The Seizing Already

Don't most totalitarian governments begin with a power grab? Why does the prevailing philosophy believe that the current economic crisis can be solved if only they had more power?

[Washington Post]Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner today told Congress the administration will seek unprecedented power to seize non-bank financial companies whose collapse could jeopardize the economy, a move Geithner said would have allowed the government to bail out insurance giant American International Group at a far lower cost to taxpayers.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Allowing the Treasury Department to take over a broader range of companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process.

Every despot may start out with good intentions, but we know where that leads don't we? Our country succeeds as much as it does precisely because we have separation of powers. That separation extends not just to the three branches of the Federal government and the States, but also extends to the separation between the public and private sectors.

Using such flimsy justifications as "could jeopardize the economy" has frightening overtones; it is a scary pretext that can be extended to mean anything. Important as the economy is, doing "anything" to protect it is distinctly un-American.

We have collectively made made some poor choices financially, and we are reaping those consequences now -- some pretty harsh. But I'd rather take my lumps today and wake up to try again tomorrow, than have the government swoop in to "fix" things and wake up to a Brave New World of their making.

A Sticky Dickey-Wicker

CNS reports:

On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicitly bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.

How ironic. This is definitely a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. In this case, it's hard to feel bad about it -- although I'm sure the President is a little embarrassed if anybody other than CNS and Fox News has reported on it. Now unless they rush to reverse themselves, it will be in effect until the end of the fiscal year, September 30.

It's little flubs like this that just make my point for me: omnibus bills are bad. It's bad governance. An Omnibus bill can be defined as a legislative bill which provides for a number of miscellaneous enactments or appropriations. In plain terms, this means "a kitchen sink bill". This is how legislative pork gets passed -- buried in attachments, riders, and amendments to a larger spending bill that "must" get passed.

Ominbus bills are collections of economic flotsam -- stuff that almost nobody wants and can't get passed on its own merits. My Senator, Jim Webb (D-VA), had the nerve to write this to me:

I was pleased to work with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to put this plan into place within a set of targeted parameters for economic renewal.

His cohort, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), fed me the same shovel-ready load of rubbish.

Moving forward, I will continue to work for Virginians to ensure that the funds in the stimulus package are directly targeted to job creation and "shovel ready" initiatives.

Really? This porkulus is "targeted"? Maybe it's targeted in the same way that a Gatling gun is targeted: if we just spray bullets (or money) in a wide enough swath, we just might hit something.

Phooey. Omnibus anathema sit.

Nod Your Head -- Then Shake

Some days I can't figure out whether to nod my head in agreement or shake it in disbelief. When we get to talking about Camille Paglia, a dissident-liberal-gay-feminist, I get to do both at the same time.

It is possible to admire someone for their intellectual honesty and analysis and still disagree with their conclusions and basic principles. I have not made a regular habit of reading Paglia, but on those occasions that I have visited her prose, I had to admit to certain things with which I agreed with her. That's me being intellectually honest -- and I admit she has an entertaining flair.

So I ask you: how can the most liberal of liberals write this about her party and President?

First it was that chaotic pig rut of a stimulus package, which let House Democrats throw a thousand crazy kitchen sinks into what should have been a focused blueprint for economic recovery.

Then it was the stunt of unnerving Wall Street by sending out a shrill duo of slick geeks (Timothy Geithner and Peter Orszag) as the administration's weirdly adolescent spokesmen on economics. Who could ever have confidence in that sorry pair?

And then there was the fiasco of the ham-handed White House reception for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which was evidently lacking the most basic elements of ceremony and protocol.

... But I continue to believe in citizen presidents, who must learn by doing, even in a perilous age of terrorism. Though every novice administration makes blunders and bloopers, its modus operandi should not be a conspiratorial reflex cynicism.

Case in point: The orchestrated attack on radio host Rush Limbaugh, which has made the White House look like an oafish bunch of drunken frat boys ... Has the administration gone mad? This entire fracas was set off by the president himself, who lowered his office by targeting a private citizen by name. Limbaugh had every right to counterattack, which he did with gusto. Why have so many Democrats abandoned the hallowed principle of free speech?

You read that screed and you automatically think: right-wing nut job, right? Not so. The bedrock of our public education system is supposed to be critical thinking and analysis skills. Paglia is using those skills. (Again, not that I'll agree with her eventual conclusions.) Why do so many fall into the trap of groupthink and blithe rationalizations? A friend of mine is fond of saying

"Rationalization is the process of lying to yourself."

Now, I'm no intellectual giant but I do try to be honest about what I believe. I believe what the Catholic Church teaches because I have read, thought, and prayed about it, and chosen that worldview as the one that makes the most rational sense out of body, mind, spirit and the world. Paglia clearly has a markedly different worldview, but it is amazing to see that some things are clear from any vantage point.

As the saying goes, it is what it is.

Porkulus Rumbles On

In once sense, the Obama administration and the current liberal Democrat power pyramid should be commended at least for being consistent.

They believe in big government and big spending in matters social and economic -- and are giving it to us in spades. (President G.W. Bush gets the non-coveted Blynken Raspberry award for going against his party's small government principles by giving us TARP in the first place.)

Only the gargantuan proportions of the trillions of dollars spent by the recently passed TARP and ARRA so-called stimulus bills could make the Senate giving final approval to a $410 billion spending bill to fund most of the federal government for the remainder of the year look small.

Visualize trillions of dollars here for some perspective.

• President Obama said that "At this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life."
  
• Secretary of State Clinton stated: "Never waste a good crisis ... Don't waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security."
• Barack Obama’s health care plan follows the Democratic template—an emphasis on dramatically and quickly increasing the number of people who have health insurance by spending significant money upfront.
• Obama rescinds conscience rule, funds ESCR and overseas abortions.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she is open to introducing a second stimulus bill, but it's too early to determine the size of such a package and the timing on another major economic measure.
• A Virginia Senator Jim Webb email states "This economic recovery package is designed to swiftly drive money into our struggling economy. While this legislation is an important step, other measures must be adopted to restore the health of our economy. These include appropriate reforms of our banking and financial systems, tax fairness, and measures to place the nation on a long-term path to fiscal responsibility. "
• Virginia Senator Mark Warner's email states "The Recovery and Reinvestment Act is but one component of a three-part plan to restore our economy. We still have important work to do to address the foreclosure crisis and shore-up the real estate market and we also must take steps to repair our banking system."

The hits just keep on coming -- and it's only been 50 days.

Visualizing A Trillion Dollars

I can't even be cute about this. For those of us who are more visual learners here's what a trillion dollars looks like.

The little red blip in the left hand corner is an adult person. The "boxes" are actually pallets of money.

Stimulus package, my eye! It's a freakin' corn field of money!

h/t Paragraph Farmer

Wall Street Reacts

So far the stock market hasn't responded too favorably to the latest stimulus plan ...

I Smell A RAT

Unfortunately, this kind of thing is going to keep happening for a while. More revelations regarding "hidden" provisions in the ARRA stimulus bill, aka Porculus.

(Newser) – Hidden away in the $787 billion stimulus bill is a lousy provision that threatens to inject politics into the jobs of supposedly independent government watchdogs, writes Byron York of the Washington Examiner. The bill creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board—the RAT board to the few who know of it. From now on, inspectors general—investigators who check into wrongdoing at federal agencies—must clear their inquiries with the board.

"The language means that the board—whose chairman will be appointed by the president—can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject," writes York. "Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target." It's not clear yet who snuck it in, but signs point to the Obama administration, not Congress.

Hidden? How is it hidden you ask? The pig is a bloated 1,000 plus page document that nobody read. Did I mention I hate omnibus bills?

It's actually hard to move me to public action, since I normally seethe in private indignation, but I got so annoyed with my elected officials that I wrote my Congressmen about it. One Senator and one Representative did not bother to acknowledge me -- fie! The other U.S. Senator from Virginia, Mark Warner, sent me this lovely form letter; a few days later when I urged the Senator to READ the bill before voting on it, he sent me almost the exact same form letter again.

Thank you for contacting me with your views on the economic stimulus package. In order to best represent you as your United States Senator, it is vital that I hear your view on this and other important matters.

I recognize that many Virginians still have concerns about the need for a stimulus package. There has also been a good deal of misinformation surrounding this legislation, both about what is included and how it will be implemented. On February 10, 2009, I joined a majority of the Senate in approving a bipartisan compromise to restart the economy through a responsible mix of tax cuts and investments that will create jobs. The compromise includes more than $360 billion in tax relief and roughly $460 billion in short-term spending over the next two years on roads, rail, water and sewer projects, as well as additional health care and jobless assistance for the unemployed. The agreement was widely supported by our nation's leading business groups, and I was pleased to work with a centrist group of colleagues to craft the proposal that passed the Senate, which was signed by the President on February 17, 2009.

President Obama and the relevant Congressional committees have been in close consultation with state and local officials and a wide range of economic experts to develop an approach that represents a prudent and effective path to economic recovery. Their consensus found that if nothing is done in the face of this economic crisis, catastrophic consequences could face small businesses and working families across the country.

The Administration and Congress have provided for unprecedented oversight, accountability and transparency in the measure so that taxpayers' money is handled carefully and used in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Moving forward, I will continue to work for Virginians to ensure that the funds in the stimulus package are directly targeted to job creation and "shovel ready" initiatives. You should know that a Recovery Act and Transparency Board will also oversee the disbursement of the funds and a website provided by the White House, www.recovery.gov, will post detailed information about recovery spending.

The Recovery and Reinvestment Act is but one component of a three-part plan to restore our economy. We still have important work to do to address the foreclosure crisis and shore-up the real estate market and we also must take steps to repair our banking system so that credit will begin flowing again to consumers and small businesses.

Again, thank you for your input. As we move forward in the 111th Congress, please continue to be in touch with your opinions and concerns.

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator

Man, what is that stink? First pork, then rats, now weasels. Who's running this zoo?

FISMA & Your Medical Records On Stim

The new so-called Economic Stimulus Bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) slipped the American taxpayer a Mickey when it comes to health care.

The law directs an existing bureaucracy created by President Bush (the “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology”) to put together a plan for building this system so that it achieves the “utilization of an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014.”

In plain English: Over the next five years, the Obama administration intends to create a federally run electronic exchange that includes every American’s “medical history and problems lists.”

Now, before you run out to the nearest federal office and sign up to put the “medical history and problems” lists for yourself, your spouse and your children into the government’s “nationwide health information technology infrastructure,” you should know the law does not require you—as an individual—to do this.

The “explanatory statement” for Division A explains this. “To the extent that this section calls the national coordinator to ensure that every person in the United States have an EHR by 2014, this goal is not intended to require individuals to receive services from providers that have electronic health records and is aimed at having the national coordinator takes steps to help providers adopt electronic health records,” says the explanation. “This provision does not constitute a legal requirement on any patient to have an electronic health record.”

But if the national coordinator cannot make you—an individual—submit your records to the system, how is the poor guy going get “an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014”?

This mystery created by 139 pages in Division A is solved by the 77 pages in Division B: The secretary of health and human services is given a carrot and stick to make doctors and hospitals create EHRs for their patients. Doctors and hospitals that make “meaningful use” of EHRs by the deadline get bonus payments from Medicare. Those that do not get diminishing Medicare payments.

What is “meaningful use”? That is at the discretion of the secretary of HHS, but the law says it will include “electronic prescribing,” “the electronic exchange of health information to improve the quality of health care” and submitting information “on such clinical quality measures and such other measures as selected by the secretary.”

Lastly, the law directs the secretary to ratchet up the “meaningful use” test as time goes on. Or as the “explanation” politely puts it: “The secretary would seek to improve the use of electronic health records and health care quality by requiring more stringent measures of meaningful use over time.”

In other words, once the secretary has your medical file in the system, he is supposed to make your doctor do ever more with it at his command.

Now with that in mind, take a look at the overall state of computer security (FISMA) in the Federal Government as of FY2007 (the last data available). The "overall" grade for the Government was a "C" (up from a "C-" last year).

Given how they manage computer security, do we really want to let these guys manage our most personal details? I'm sure they would be much better when they start rationing our health care.

Alternative Stimulus Better Way to START?

The DC Examiner has an op-ed piece on a fiscally more conservative alternative to the current bloated economic stimulus package, offered by Blue Dog Democrat, Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), called the Strategic Targeted American Recovery and Transition Act (START).

I have been carping recently on the stimulus bill and on other stupid ideas thought up by our elected representatives; my mantra has been: I hate omnibus bills. They are just too full of pork and it is too easy to slip in riders that would never otherwise see the light of day. I cannot speak to any of the particulars, but my idea of a responsible stimulus package is more in line with what is being reported here about Rep. Minnick's proposal; specifically that it be "targeted, timely and temporary".

While President Barack Obama goes on the road to shore up slipping popular support for the $1 trillion stimulus porkfest that he ordered up from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Walt Minnick, a freshman Democrat from Idaho, is pushing a better idea: The Strategic Targeted American Recovery and Transition Act (START).

Minnick is a member of the Blue Dog caucus of occasionally conservative Democrats. His START plan is a $170 billion “bare bones” pure stimulus approach that would put $100 billion immediately into the pockets of low- and middle-income Americans, then use the other $70 billion for basic infrastructure projects that create jobs. START requires that all funds not spent by 2010 be returned to the Treasury. START also stops stimulus spending when the nation’s Gross Domestic Product increases in two of three previous quarters, and all START payments are required to be posted on a public website.