More and more the Atlas V appears to be “the vehicle of choice for manned missions.” Key quote:
NASA could have gone down this path last decade and possibly shaved years — and billions of dollars — off the development time of a capability to carry astronauts to the space station.
Six charts from the Congressional Budget Office that will scare the bejeebers out of you.
More House action: By a significant majority the House has voted to repeal part of Obamacare.
Once again, that a significant number of Democrats joined the Republicans in this vote illustrates where the political power lies. The Democratic leadership and President Obama are fighting a losing battle trying to support this turkey, especially since this section of Obamacare has already been abandoned as unworkable by the White House.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius effectively suspended the program last fall, conceding she couldn’t find a way to make it pay for itself. And the Congressional Budget Office took the program off the books, releasing lawmakers from budget rules that would have otherwise required them to replace the lost savings.
Since the rest of Obamacare is unworkable as well, expect more action to repeal it after the November election. And I expect that effort to succeed.
The House has voted to freeze all congressional and federal pay for another year, through 2013.
On a vote of 309 to 117, GOP supporters scored the two-thirds majority needed to approve the measure under a suspension of normal procedural roles. The bill, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), would extend the current two-year freeze on federal cost-of-living raises for an additional year starting next January. Lawmakers haven’t raised congressional pay in four of the last six years.
The bill would need to be approved by the Senate before becoming law.
The yay votes above included a significant number of Democrats, once again indicating where the political winds are blowing. Even as their leadership poo-poos this vote, their membership knows what the voters want.
The last sentence in the quote above illustrates again which party in Congress is really doing nothing, as it is the Senate where this bill might die, and it is the Senate that the Democrats control.
The NY Times reported today that the investigation into MF Global’s bankrucpty has located most of the missing $1.2 billion of customer money.
Investigators have determined what happened to nearly all of the customer money that disappeared from MF Global around the time of its bankruptcy last Oct. 31, but have not publicly disclosed their progress, fearing that doing so might cripple efforts to recover the cash and pursue potential wrongdoing, people briefed on the investigation said.
While authorities have traced hundreds of millions of dollars to banks, MF Global’s trading partners and even the firm’s securities customers, investigators remain uncertain about whether they can retrieve the money.
As I was reading this article I had the strange feeling that I lived in an alternative universe. At no point did the New York Times bother to mention the name of former Democratic New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, the economic go-to guy for the Obama administration and the man who was in charge of MF Global when all of this illegal and incompetent activity occurred. For those that want to know a bit more about the story, you might want to go to this New York Post editorial today, which lays out the issues that the New York Times so conveniently wants everyone to forget, and also notes that even now Corzine is out there campaigning and raising funds for Obama’s re-election.
Well, as they say, birds of a feather will flock together.
Democratic Party budgeting: California’s controller announced today that the state will run out of cash in March, three months before the end of its fiscal year.
The day of reckoning looms: The CBO now predicts another trillion-plus deficit for 2012, the fourth year in a row the U.S. government has produced such a deficit.
For those who like to blame Bush for everything, it must be noted that these deficits, all during the Obama administration, are three to four times larger than any previous single year deficit of any previous administration. As bad as the deficits were in the Bush years — and they were bad — they don’t hold a candle to what Obama has done.
Investigators now think that MF Global, the company run by former Democratic governor Jon Corzine, Obama adviser and fundraiser, lost $1.2 billion of its customers’ money in “a labyrinth of shady trading and raids.”
In the end, Jon Corzine faces the serious possibility of prison time for his part in this scandal. And he was the go-to guy of the Obama administration for economic advice.
Another green company, backed with federal grants from both the Bush and Obama administrations, has gone bankrupt.
A dollar here, a dollar there, who cares? It’s the thought that counts!
It is now one thousand days, or three years, since the Democratically-controlled Senate has passed a a budget.
So, who are the do-nothings in Congress then? I must note that the Republican House has passed budgets each year since the 2010 election.
Fifteen questions the mainstream press would ask Barack Obama if he were a Republican.
While many of these questions are simply intended as a way to attack Obama (which of course is what the press does to Republican candidates), the last three are perfectly reasonable and do address directly the actual failures of his administration.
13) Why should the American people reelect you when your 10 year budget saddles America with more debt than all previous Presidents combined?
14) Your stimulus bill cost more in real dollars than the moon landing and the interstate highway system combined. What do we have to show for all of that money spent?
15) Members of your administration promised that the trillion dollar stimulus would keep unemployment under 8 percent. Instead, we’ve had 35+ months of 8% and above unemployment. Doesn’t that mean we wasted a trillion dollars on nothing?
Bankrupt and owing the taxpayers half a billion dollars, Solyndra has been caught destroying brand new parts.
