Here’s a confidence-booster. The Senate is looking at a compromise measure to get over the public option hurdle in their debate on health care reform legislation. Their bright idea? Put the agency responsible for Recovery.gov and for tracking “jobs created or saved” by the stimulus fiasco, the Office of Personnel Management, in charge, according to the Wall Street Journal:
You’d think a Presidential jobs summit would include organizations that know a thing or two about employment, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. You’d be wrong. It’s a return performance of the folks who brought us the stimulus. Critics not invited to White House ‘jobs summit’
It’s Christmas in October for General Electric. The Senate’s “Pollution Reduction Bill” aka Cap and Trade essentially mandates that the airline industry buy GE’s aircraft engines. The Department of Energy is subsidizing American Electric Power’s purchase of GE’s smart meters to the tune of $75 million via stimulus funds. And GE will profit from the sale of water heaters that are included in the Department of Energy’s state-run Energy Star rebate programs that are part of the stimulus.
The Health and Human Services Department plans to spend $650 million tax dollars encouraging Americans to develop “healthful lifestyle habits.” (more…)
When he told Joe the Plumber “It’s not that I want to punish your success; I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you that they’ve got a chance to success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
And he’s doing it at unprecedented levels. (more…)