Easy Times (8/30/10)

Follow the bouncing common thread ball....

***The residential housing market has collapsed (again) because....there are no jobs.  The White House's big idea of a solution has not been to remove Red Barry's boot from the private sector's throat via repeal of Obamanomics and, say, permanently extend ALL the Bush tax cuts, but instead offer a temporary homebuyer tax credit last fall, and another one this past spring.  Neither did jack to revive the housing market, the housing market crashed (again) after each one expired, and the second one had less artificial goosing effect than the first.

The White House's next brainstorm?  A third temporary homebuyer tax credit:

Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said Sunday that the housing market’s July woes were “worse than expected” and that the administration may support a new homebuyer tax credit.

In an interview on CNN, Donovan said the administration is “concerned” about the path of the industry. He defended the Obama administration’s record on supporting the housing market, amid new signs that the market is struggling alongside the broader economy.

Donovan did not rule out a further homebuyer tax credit to support the market. Congress passed a homebuyer tax credit to support first-time buyers. The credit has now expired.

“I think it’s too early to say after one month of numbers whether the tax credit will be revived or not,” Donovan said.

No, it isn't.  To the contrary, it's just about too late, because the Republican tsunami will ensure that this circle-jerk of stubborn futility doesn't last past the end of the year.

***Geoff's spot-on headline: "Obama: Hey Small Businesses!! Don't Need Credit? I'll Give You More!!":

..Republicans need to stop obstructing an initiative he proposed to cut taxes that will encourage small businesses to hire and expand, as well as a $30 billion small business lending initiative.

“Drop the blockade,” he said to Senate Republicans, whom he said were “holding this bill hostage,” damaging economic growth.

This gibbering turns causality on its head.  The FACT is that "economic growth" is ALREADY damaged by his policies, which is why small businesses aren't accessing credit to expand and grow:

Overall, 91% of the owners reported all their credit needs met or they did not want to borrow, up one point. Credit may be harder to get compared to the bubble period (as it should be) and is always harder to arrange in a recession. But credit availability does not appear to be the cause of slow growth as many allege.

You know what IS the cause of no growth?  Obamanomics - higher taxes, crushing regulation, avalanches of debt.  There's no "uncertainty" about it; Barack Obama has declared war on the private sector, then gets all pissy when his statist gimmickry doesn't perform like a magic wand to bamboozle what's left of private business to put what's left of their meager capital reserves at risk for meager rewards, if any, they'll never be allowed to keep.  And that means....no jobs.

This, of course, is called "greed".  And "holding blockaded growth hostage".

***But don't worry, ladies and gentlemen; Godbama's "compassion" is as limitless (and record-setting) as the intrinsic value of his regime's debt:

More than forty million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years....

More than 4.4 million people are on welfare, an 18% increase during the recession. The program has grown slower than others, causing Brookings Institution expert Ron Haskins to question its effectiveness in the recession.

As caseloads for all the programs have soared, so have costs. The federal price tag for Medicaid has jumped 36% in two years, to $273 billion. Jobless benefits have soared from $43 billion to $160 billion. The food stamps program has risen 80%, to $70 billion. Welfare is up 24%, to $22 billion. Taken together, they cost more than Medicare.

Understand that this is after basically eliminating any eligibility barriers, and does not include the additional towering costs ObamaCare will pile on top of it:

The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about sixteen million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. “Private physicians are already indicating that they’re at their limit,” says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Well, then, those greedy tonsil pirates will just have to rethink that obviously lazy defiance...or else.  Because above all else, a god needs compassion.

But what Americans need are jobs, not soul-grinding poverty and dependency.  Jobs are the byproduct of an expanding, growing economy.  An economy cannot expand and grow when it is squashed flat beneath the cancer of a gigantic, tyrannical, bankrupting Mega-State.

And the leader of that gigantic, tyrannical, bankrupting Mega-State will not tolerate any "reality" other than that he, and it, are the sole allowable source of all virtue, prosperity, and collective salvation.

Annnnnnnd "jobs."

Follow that bouncing ball while you can - the Obamunists will be coming for it, too, before long.