Anti-Jesus Gay Supremacist Looks Dangerous As New Employment Commissioner

March 31st, 2010 Posted By Pat Dollard.

Fox News:

President Obama’s recess appointment of an outspoken supporter of gay rights to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is causing alarm among social conservatives, who worry that she’ll strip religious rights from schools and businesses and “revolutionize” social norms in the workplace.

The appointment of Georgetown University Law Center Professor Chai Feldblum to be one of the EEOC’s five commissioners went largely unnoticed on Saturday, as Republicans zeroed in on Obama’s naming of pro-union labor lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

But Feldblum has garnered harsh criticism from conservative religious organizations, who are disturbed by her work to promote gay, lesbian, and transgender rights, including past comments in which she said “gay sex is morally good.”

“She is way beyond what most Americans would consider mainstream,” Shari Rendall, director of Legislation and Public Policy at Concerned Women for America, said in a statement.

A host of conservative groups say Feldblum, who was nominated in September, will use her powerful post to enforce the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit private employers with more than 15 employees from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The legislation clearly states that the act does not apply to corporations, associations or educational institutions with religious affiliations. But Feldblum’s critics worry that other employers could be forced to make decisions that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs.

While Feldblum’s work to end prejudice against gays and lesbians has been lauded by many in the legal community, conservative groups say her appointment to the EEOC will have detrimental and far-reaching consequences.

“She wants to change the moral bearing of this country,” said Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition. Lafferty said the hiring of a transgender teacher in a school, for example, would be “traumatizing” for students who are “still growing and learning about sexuality.”

“We send children to school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Having a transgender or ’she-male’ teacher in the classroom should not be part of that equation,” she said.

Feldblum’s public comments and causes have raised alarm among social conservatives. In a 2004 speech at UCLA, she said “gay sex is morally good” and boasted about a project she launched, known as Workplace Flexibility 2010, which she said aimed to “change the face of the American workplace” and “revolutionize social norms.”

The Obama administration is standing by its decision to appoint the Harvard-educated attorney to the EEOC, an independent federal agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination.

In a posting on the White House Web site, the administration listed Feldblum’s formidable credentials, including her work as legislative counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and her help in drafting the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Obama made 15 recess appointments on Saturday, including Becker and Feldblum. White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki wrote, “Many of these fifteen individuals have enjoyed broad bipartisan support, but have found their confirmation votes delayed for reasons that have nothing to do with their qualifications. It has more to do with an obstruction-at-all-costs mentality that we’ve been faced with since the President came into office.”

In an interview with FoxNews.com on Wednesday, Winnie Stachelberg, senior vice president for external affairs at the Center of American Progress, said claims that Feldblum will promote an agenda that seeks to discriminate against religious businesses and schools are unfounded.

“She understands better than most the need for religious liberty and free speech and protections of civil rights,” said Stachelberg. “The work that she has done to tackle thorny issues between business and labor and civil rights groups puts her in a uniquely qualified spot to serve on the EEOC. She has the support of Republicans and Democrats, religious conservatives and religious liberals and a lot of people in between.”

Also supporting Feldblum’s appointment to the EEOC is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which lauded her credentials in a Dec. 9, 2009, letter to Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who serve on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Randy Johnson, the chamber’s senior vice president of labor, immigration, and employee benefits, wrote that Feldblum and fellow nominee Victoria A. Lipnic are “tremendously bright and capable professionals who will bring a wealth of diverse experience to the EEOC.”

“While it is true that the chamber will not always agree with either Ms. Lipnic or Ms. Feldblum on every issue,” wrote Johnson, “we have no doubt that each will be open to hear and consider the concerns of the business community and all interested stakeholders in matters under the EEOC’s jurisdiction.”

N.Y. Times columnist: Death panels will save ‘a lot of money’

Paul Krugman tells ‘Roundtable’ economists agree it’s ‘going to be major’

---

Posted: March 30, 2010
9:02 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Left-leaning New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman says the so-called “death panels” established by President Obama’s trillion-dollar nationalized health-care plan will end up saving “a lot of money” for the government.

The comments from Krugman, who also writes on the New York Times blogs, came during a discussion of “Obamacare” on the ABC News Sunday program “This Week.”

“People on the right, they’re simultaneously screaming, ‘They’re going to send all the old people to death panels,’ and ‘It’s not going to save any money,'” he said.

Another panelist interjected, “Death panels would save money,” to which Krugman responded:

The advisory panel which has the ability to make more or less binding judgments on saying this particular expensive treatment actually doesn’t do any good medically and so we are not going to pay for it. That is actually going to save quite a lot of money. We don’t know how much yet. The CBO gives it very little credit but, but most, most of the health care economists I talk to think that’s going be a really, uh a really major cost saving.

The video has been posted on the Conservatives4Palin website, and it was Palin who was among the first to denounce the “death panel” concept in the Democrats’ government-run health care plan. That’s the idea that appointed government officials who under the plan will have access to medical records will determine if a treatment will be provided to a needy patient. Theoretically, that could be a death sentence for a patient denied a treatment.

Get the prescription for reclaiming America’s heritage of liberty, justice and morality – Joseph Farah’s “Taking America Back,” autographed only at the WND SuperStore.

In the United Kingdom and other nations where such government procedures already are in place, the survival rates for such afflictions as breast cancer or prostate cancer are lower than in the U.S. Critics say it is partly because of denial or delay of treatment.

 WND columnist Jane Chastain wrote about the issue shortly before the congressional vote.

President Obama

 

“This bill sets up an Independent Medicare Advisory Board, which is to recommend cuts for the sole purpose of limiting the amount of resources going to Medicare patients. Some have called it a ‘Death Panel,'” she wrote.

“You may think this is harsh, but if this bill passes, many seniors will die prematurely because the recommendations of these unelected bureaucrats will go into effect. Congress is not required to act on them!”

“Obama … wants Granny to believe that she will be able to receive that operation or treatment that could save or extend her life. Nothing could be further from the truth! There is a reverse incentive in this bill that actually penalizes Granny’s primary-care physician if he or she is in the top 10 percent of doctors who refer patients to specialists. This puts a wedge between Granny and the doctor she trusts to act in her best interest.”

Richard Poe, a New York Times best-selling author, documented in a previous report for WND how the government’s plan to cut health-care costs will, in effect, cut health care itself for some.

“The only question is whose” health care will be cut, Poe wrote. “The numbers make clear that most of these cuts will have to come at the expense of those who need health care the most – the elderly, the disabled and the gravely ill.”

He cited Obama’s acknowledgement that “older, sicker societies pay more on health care than younger, healthier ones.”

“He is right,” Poe wrote. “According to a 2006 study by the Department of Health and Human Services, five percent of the U.S. population accounts for nearly 50 percent of health care spending in America. Who are those five percent? Most are people over 65 years of age with serious, chronic illnesses.

“By contrast, the study notes, half of the U.S. population ‘spends little or nothing on health care… with annual medical spending below $664 per person.’ These, of course, are mostly healthy young people – people without serious, chronic illnesses,” Poe wrote.

“Obviously, Obama will not meet his cost-cutting targets by reducing care to healthy young people. They are already spending next to nothing. It is the old, the dying and the chronically ill whose health care he will cut. The numbers make this clear,” Poe said.

Some of the “old, the dying and the chronically ill” appear to be catching on. According to a report from Fox News, an estimated 60,000 members of AARP, which endorsed “Obamacare,” have turned in their cards and canceled their memberships in recent weeks.

Poe elaborated on his concerns about the president’s plan.

“How will Obama cut costs? His June 13 radio speech gave some hints. Obama said his plan would provide ‘incentives’ to doctors to ‘avoid unnecessary hospital stays, treatments and tests that drive up costs,'” Poe wrote.

“And what sort of treatment does Obama consider ‘unnecessary?’ In an ABC News special June 24, he implied medical treatment might be wasted on elderly people with grave illnesses, citing his own grandmother as an example,” he said.

Obama concluded, “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.”

Poe also documented how such health care limits already are being used overseas, including the U.K., where “British elders are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses.”

Further, “death” boards already are operating in Oregon, where officials with the state Health Plan agreed to refuse a patient life-extending cancer drugs but volunteered to pay for her to commit suicide.

He reported Barbara Wagner of Springfield, Ore., was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005. Chemotherapy and radiation put her cancer into remission. But the cancer returned in May 2008.

Wagner’s doctor prescribed Tarceva, a pill which slows cancer growth. There was a good chance it might extend her life by a few weeks or even months.

At age 64, Wagner had two sons, three daughters, 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Every moment she could spend with her loved ones was precious, he noted.

But Oregon’s health officials nixed the plan. Her Tarceva treatment would cost $4,000 per month. Wagner was going to die anyway, so why waste the money?

Wagner received a letter stating that the Oregon Health Plan would not approve any treatment for her “that is meant to prolong life, or change the course of the disease. …” However, if Wagner opted for physician-assisted suicide, Oregon would be happy to pick up the tab, said the letter.

Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon and costs only about $50.

Billboatd on I-75 At Lake City,Ga…

Billboatd on I-75 At Lake City,Ga…

 Where do we get one? The attached photo is of a billboard recently
established on I-75 just south of Lake City . A group gathered there today
to celebrate its unveiling. The cost of 10 months rental of the billboard
and doing the artwork was $6500. We feel that is a reasonable cost to reach
out to 1,000,000 vehicles per month and perhaps motivate their participation
in the electoral process to get our country on a sound footing.

Thomas Jefferson 1802

Thomas Jefferson 1802
 
  When we get piled
  upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
  we shall become as corrupt as Europe .
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  The democracy will cease to exist
  when you take away from those
  who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  It is incumbent on every
  generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
  A principle which if acted on would save
  one-half the wars of the world.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  I predict future happiness for
  Americans if they can prevent the government
  from wasting the labors of the people under the
  pretense of taking care of them.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  My reading of history convinces me
  that most bad government results from too much
  government.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  No free man shall ever be debarred
  the use of arms.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  The strongest reason for the
  people to retain the right to keep and bear arms
  is, as a last resort, to protect themselves
  against tyranny in government.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  The tree of liberty must be
  refreshed from time to time with the blood of
  patriots and tyrants.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  To compel a man to subsidize with
  his taxes the propagation of ideas which he
  disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
  Thomas Jefferson
 
 
  Thomas Jefferson said in 1802 :
  ‘I believe that
  banking institutions are more dangerous to
  our liberties than standing armies .
  If the American people ever allow
  private banks to control the issue of their
  currency, first by inflation, then by
  deflation, the banks and corporations that will
  grow up around the banks will deprive the people
  of all property – until their children
  wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers
  conquered.’

New Car Test Drive

We were out shopping yesterday for a new ride. Just for fun, Pat and I took a Cadillac Escalade out for a test drive. I wanted to sense that Escalade “feel” before they become extinct…
The salesman sat in the back seat describing the car and all its wonderful options.

The seats were of particular interest.  He explained that the seats directed warm air to your butt in the winter and directed cool air to your butt in the summer heat.

I stated the car must be a Republican car.

Looking a bit angry, he asked why I thought it was a Republican car.  I explained that if it were a Democrat car, the seats would blow smoke up your ass year-round.

We had to walk back to the dealership…

Attention, GOP: John McCain is the problem

By Michelle Malkin  •  February 22, 2010 02:18 PM

In critiquing Glenn Beck’s CPAC speech taking the Republican Party to task for failing to own up to its Big Government lapses, Bill Bennett cites various Republicans who have admitted the party’s culpability. But see if you can spot the glaring problem with his defense of the GOP:

From Jim DeMint to Tom Coburn to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, any number of Republicans have admitted the excesses of the party and done constructive and serious work to correct them and find and promote solutions. Even John McCain has said again and again that “the Republican party lost its way.”

If you didn’t gag when you read this sentence, you are not paying attention:

“Even John McCain has said again and again that ‘the Republican party lost its way.’”

“Even John McCain?” The Republican party “lost its way” on core limited government principles because of McCain’s radical progressive agenda. Question for Mr. Bennett: Can you please provide the exact citation and context of the so-called admission you attribute to McCain?

Because to this day, McCain refuses to admit his own individual responsibility for supporting the pre-socialization of the economy started under George W. Bush and continued under Obama. And fellow Republicans continue to whitewash McCain’s fiscal irresponsibility record.

McCain has never admitted he was wrong about his support of:

*The $700 billion all-purpose, earmark-stuffed TARP bailout;

*The $25 billion auto bailout;

*The $300 billion mortgage entitlement bailout; and

*The first $85 billion AIG bailout.

His latest McLame-est excuse for supporting TARP? He was “misled.” Via the Arizona Republic:

Under growing pressure from conservatives and “tea party” activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government’s massive bailout of the financial system.

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

“Obviously, that didn’t happen,” McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic’s Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. “They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street – I guess it was trickle-down economics – that therefore Main Street would be fine.”

Nearly 15 months later, commercial lenders still are in shaky condition and the commercial real-estate industry is in trouble, he said. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding for new measures to help Arizona and four other states hit hard by the tanked housing market and by joblessness.

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.

“Something had to be done because the world’s financial system was on the verge of collapse,” he said. “Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don’t agree with.”

All the warning signs and red flags about Henry Paulson’s incompetence and untrustworthiness were there before McCain joined the Chicken Little crowd. (See September 22, 2008, “Why Henry Paulson must be contained.”) Stalwart fiscal conservatives like GOP Rep. Mike Pence saw through the smokescreen and kept their heads. McCain’s trying to have it both ways — refusing to admit he was wrong, blaming crapweasel Paulson for duping him, and creating the illusion that he’ll be competent enough to resist the next inevitable bailout temptation when White House, Treasury, and Fed officials hit the panic button.

He blew it on TARP.

Blew it on the auto bailout.

Blew it on the mortgage entitlement bailout.

Blew it on the AIG bailout.

Blew it on amnesty.

Blew it on campaign finance.

Blew it on global warming.

In short: McCain blows.

I’ve already warned about McCain Regression Syndrome. The GOP hasn’t even begun to cure itself

Morning Bell: One Nation Under Arrest

Morning Bell: One Nation Under Arrest

Posted By Conn Carroll On March 31, 2010 @ 9:27 am In Rule of Law |

^[1]

Before President Barack Obama took over the White House, no United States citizen had ever been forced by the federal government to buy a product against their will. But now, thanks to the passage of Obamacare, Americans, by dint of their mere existence, are now required to purchase Obama administration approved health insurance or face a penalty assessed through the Internal Revenue Code. This is simply unprecedented ^[2]. The income tax doesn’t kick in until an American earns income. Auto liability insurance doesn’t become mandated until an American chooses to drive (and even then it’s only by the state). And farmers must first grow food before they are subject to the regulations of the Department of Agriculture ^[3]. But facing federal government sanction for simply breathing? That is a troubling assault on American liberty.

Unfortunately, Obamacare is just the latest example of the growing reach of the federal government into all aspects of our lives. While the final bill passed by Congress specifically made the noncompliance with an IRS individual mandate penalty not a crime ^[4], far too often when the spotlight of American attention is not focused on an issue, Congress has gone ahead and criminalized what was once before perfectly normal behavior. Consider, for example, small-time inventor and entrepreneur Krister Evertson, whose story is recounted ^[5] by Heritage fellows Brian Walsh and Hans von Spakovsky:

In May 2004, FBI agents driving a black Suburban and wearing SWAT gear ran Evertson off the road near his mother’s home in Wasilla, Alaska. When Evertson was face down on the pavement with automatic weapons trained on him, an FBI agent told him he was being arrested because he hadn’t put a federally mandated sticker on a UPS package.

A jury in federal court in Alaska acquitted Evertson, but the feds weren’t finished. They reached into their bag of over 4,500 federal crimes and found another ridiculous crime they could use to prosecute him: supposedly “abandoning” hazardous waste (actually storing, in appropriate containers, valuable materials he was using for the clean-fuel technology he was developing). A second jury convicted him, and he spent 21 months in an Oregon federal prison.

Putting the wrong stamp on a package. Storing your own property own your own land. When did these actions become federal crimes? Why? How can we stop them? A new book launched yesterday and published by The Heritage Foundation answers these questions. One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty ^[6] documents how over the past 50 years the politicization of American criminal law and practice has created traps for millions of innocent and unwary Americans and threatens to make criminals out of those who are just doing their best to be respectable, law abiding citizens.

In 1998, an American Bar Association task force estimated that there were over 3,000 federal criminal offenses scattered throughout the 50 titles of the United States Code. Just six years later, that number is estimated to be over 4,000 and Columbia law professor John Coffee estimates that the federal government could use the criminal process to enforce as many as 300,000 federal regulations.

Lavrentiy Beria, the chief of the Soviet security and secret police under Stalin reputedly said, “Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime.” Our country is by no means a Soviet police state yet, but a federal government empowered with a sprawling code that makes all of us potential criminals is more than just an existential threat to American Liberty. This overcriminalization ^[7] trend must end. Become informed. Learn the issues. Buy the book ^[6]. And fight back ^[8].

Quick Hits:

• According to a newly released CIA report ^[9], “Iran continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so.”
• Since President Barack Obama took office, support for the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has risen dramatically ^[10] with 61% of Americans believing the United States should continue to operate the base.
• Thanks to Obamacare, starting in January, Americans will no longer be able to tap their Flexible Spending Accounts to cover aspirin, vitamins and other over-the-counter medications ^[11], unless they are prescribed by a doctor.
• According to Rasmussen Reports ^[12], (60%) of voters nationwide think tax increases hurt the economy and 60% oppose the creation of a national sales tax.
• Despite claiming in his State of the Union that “we have excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs,” President Obama has appointed 50 lobbyists ^[13] to posts in the federal government.

Obama’s Grand Scheme Of 2010 Legislative World Domination Gets Tepid Response From Congressional Dems

March 31st, 2010 Posted By Pat Dollard.

You know, the dudes actually facing re-election, unlike JoJo The Lying Retard Boy…

Politico:

The president’s push to turn health care reform into a catalyst for the rest of his agenda is getting mixed early reactions on Capitol Hill, where Democratic leaders’ desire to take advantage of healthy majorities before the November elections must contend with lawmakers’ survival instincts.

White House aides told POLITICO earlier this week that an emboldened Barack Obama plans to parlay his win on health care into a crack down on Wall Street excesses, a rewrite of education and campaign finance laws and possibly a climate change bill — all before the fall’s midterms.

But aides and members, Republicans and Democrats alike, say that a Wall Street crackdown was coming — and progress on climate change, immigration and other contentious measures probably wasn’t — no matter what had happened with the health care bill.

“I don’t see it creating momentum,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has negotiated across party lines on several significant issues in his first term.

The difference Corker detects on regulating Wall Street is not that the bill’s moving – that, he says, was inevitable – but that Obama is working to ensure it appeals to liberals.

“There may be more pressure from the administration than there was to keep it on the left,” Corker said. But other than that, he said, “I don’t think [health care] is going to affect other agenda items.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill differ as to whether – but mostly to what degree – putting health care reform on the scoreboard has given Obama more juice in Congress.

They uniformly say that swatting Wall Street is a political no-brainer that unifies their party and splits Republicans, and many of them are eager to pass anything that can be labeled a “jobs” bill to show voters that they are focused on reversing economic misfortune. Both offer the opportunity to cater to populist sentiment before the election — and to force the GOP to go along or risk public backlash.

“As we go forward, we will see if the Republicans are willing to reform Wall Street,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last week. “Bipartisanship is nice but it cannot be a substitute for action. Not having it cannot prevent us from going forward. So, if they don’t want to regulate Wall Street, we do. And we will.”

But that’s the relatively easy part.

As Democrats approach what is expected to be a tough mid-term election, two cross-cutting dynamics are taking hold: Lawmakers who must battle to win re-election are even less inclined to cast tough votes, while some Democratic strategists believe the best bet for party leaders is to use big congressional majorities to enact their agenda before anticipated November losses set them back.

“The only thing we know for certain is we have the majority until the beginning of November 2010,” said one House Democratic aide. “Especially this year with how the political climate is – I don’t think we’ll lose the House, but there seems to be a sense of trying to get as much done when we can.”

Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said that approach makes sense.

“If you’re going to use unified political party advantage … now is the time,” she said.

But as party leaders plot the course for the rest of the year, some fatigued Democrats in tough re-election races may yell “uncle” at the first sight of another controversial bill.

“If [Obama’s] saying he’s got the stride going and he’s on a winning streak and that was just the first of many things he thinks he can get through, I would actually say the opposite,” said the top aide to a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition. “That ship has sailed. That capital was expended on cap and trade first and health care second.”

The political ether is full of potentially poisonous issues for Democrats, including an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws and legislation aimed at addressing climate change.

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have been working on an immigration bill, but Graham has been critical of Obama for not providing the muscle to back up declarations of support for an overhaul.

“At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit,” Graham told POLITICO earlier this month. “One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it.”

Obama said he would tackle immigration in 2010, but his win on the health care bill doesn’t appear to have done much to break the impasse.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested on Tuesday that the GOP has to put more skin in the game before Obama will commit to moving forward.

“I think the president has been a strong advocate and proponent of immigration reform, understanding, again, this is — I get asked all the time about bipartisanship, about, well, you can’t just — you guys can’t just go this alone, right? Well, this is not an issue that’s going to be decided by just getting all the Democratic members to support immigration reform,” Gibbs said at a White House press briefing. “There has to be — there have to be Republicans that come aboard, too.”

A senior Senate Democratic aide told POLITICO this week that, when it comes to the legislative agenda between now and November, immigration and “a large energy push” are “the only two things that remain questions.”

The aide said financial regulatory reform, a ban on corporate campaign spending and a series of jobs bills would be the meat of the party’s agenda for the rest of the year.

But as polls on the health care law bounce around – the latest from USA/Today Gallup had 50 percent responding that it was a bad development – some Democrats say clearing the decks has given them an opportunity to deliver on other items.

Senior Democratic aides in the House say there may be movement toward energy legislation, whether it’s a comprehensive stab at addressing climate change or something significantly smaller.

“There’s still an opportunity to get a bunch of really big things done,” said one senior House Democratic aide.

Jake Sherman contributed to this report.

March Of Infamy: Nobody Got Any Health Care Benefits And Everybody Lost Jobs

March 31st, 2010 Posted By Pat Dollard.

March 31 (Bloomberg) — Companies in the U.S. unexpectedly cut payrolls in March, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.

The 23,000 decline was the smallest in two years and followed a revised 24,000 drop the prior month, data from ADP Employer Services showed today. Over the previous six months, ADP’s initial figures have overstated the Labor Department’s first estimate of private payroll losses by as little as 2,000 in February to as much as 151,000 in November.

Companies are still hesitant to add workers until they see sustained sales gains and are convinced the economic recovery has taken hold. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News anticipate the government’s report April 2 will show payrolls increased by 184,000, in part due to temporary hiring by the federal government to conduct the 2010 census and because of better weather compared with February.

“The labor market trend is still up,” said David Milleker, chief economist at Union Investment GmbH in Frankfurt, who was the only economist in a Bloomberg News survey to forecast the ADP figures would show a loss of jobs. “Today’s numbers might have disappointed relative to expectations but indicate not in the least a change in trend. It takes some more time for private sector job creation to return to normal.”

Weather Effects

A March payroll gain in line with the median estimate is “a reasonable kind of number” because ADP’s figures aren’t influenced by weather and don’t include government payrolls which will reflect hiring on temporary workers to conduct the census, Prakken said. ADP includes only private employment and doesn’t take into account hiring by government agencies.

Stock-index futures dropped after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.4 percent to 1,164.3 at 9:30 a.m. in New York.

“The economic recovery has not been long enough or strong enough along the way yet to produce the kind of rapid employment that people are hoping for,” Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis, which produces the figures with ADP, said in a conference call with reporters after the report.

The ADP figures were forecast to show a gain of 40,000 jobs, according to the median estimate of 35 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Projections ranged from a loss of 20,000 to a 100,000 gain.

March Rebound

Economists including Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, say severe winter storms in parts of the country last month likely depressed Labor Department payroll figures, while better weather in March will probably boost to this month’s numbers. Weather has less influence on the ADP report, economists say.

“Today’s figure does not incorporate a weather-related rebound that could be present in this month’s” report from the Labor Department, Prakken said in a statement. “It is reasonable to expect” that the government’s report will be “stronger” than the ADP estimate, he said.

The Labor Department’s report in two days is forecast to show the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in March for a third consecutive month, according to the Bloomberg survey median. The jobless rate has dropped since reaching a 26-year high of 10.1 percent in October.

The economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, the most of any downturn in the post- World War II era. In February, U.S. payrolls shrank by 36,000.

Goods Producers

Today’s ADP report showed a decrease of 51,000 workers in goods-producing industries including manufacturers and construction companies. Service providers added 28,000 workers.

Employment in construction fell by 43,000, while factories lost 9,000 jobs, ADP said.

Companies employing more than 499 workers shrank their workforces by 7,000 jobs. Medium-sized businesses, with 50 to 499 employees, cut 4,000 jobs and small companies decreased payrolls by 12,000, ADP said.

Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, said last week that it plans to hire 500 workers this year to expand a generator plant in Newberry, South Carolina. “The expansion is likely to take three to four years and could vary based on demand and other factors,” Jim Dugan, a Caterpillar spokesman, said March 17 in an e-mail.

Other companies are still trimming payrolls. J.M. Smucker Co., the maker of jams, Folgers coffee and Jif peanut butter, said last week it is reducing the number of North American manufacturing facilities to 18 from 22. The cuts are estimated to result in a reduction of 700 full-time positions, or 15 percent of the Orrville, Ohio-based company’s workforce.

The ADP report is based on data from about 360,000 businesses with more than 22 million workers on payrolls. ADP began keeping records in January 2001 and started publishing its numbers in 2006.

Boehner: A Little Less Bullshit, A Little More Oil

March 31st, 2010 Posted By Pat Dollard.

Politico:

The top House Republican said the White House’s decision to begin offshore drilling across huge expanses of ocean is a “positive step,” but he still blasted the Obama administration for keeping areas on the West Coast closed to such exploration.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said that the administration “continues to defy the will of the American people” who, in 2008, supported a congressional decision to allow oil exploration off the Pacific Coast and Alaska.

“Opening up areas off the Virginia coast to offshore production is a positive step, but keeping the Pacific Coast and Alaska, as well as the most promising resources of the Gulf of Mexico, under lock and key makes no sense at a time when gasoline prices are rising and Americans are asking ‘Where are the jobs?’” Boehner said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday morning.

The decision to drill off the coasts of the United States has long been championed by Republicans, while many environmental activists have opposed such exploration.

Obama’s decision to open up certain Atlantic and Gulf Coast drilling will be announced Wednesday morning at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Boehner’s mixed reaction is a preview of the likely Republican response.

“It’s long past time for this administration to stop delaying American energy production off all our shores and start listening to the American people who want an ‘all of the above’ strategy to produce more American energy and create more jobs,” Boehner said in his statement.