Libertarian Leanings

More Evidence of an Education Bubble

For some time now Glenn Reynolds has been blogging about the higher education bubble in which the cost of a college education has skyrocketed while its value has plummeted.  What better evidence of it than this?

College Education: Voters with at least a college degree are at least 40% of all likely voters. Here is where Obama does very well leading Romney by 8 points – 47% to 39%.  This matches his 8 point margin over McCain (53%-45%) in 2008 and other indicators suggest he will do well again. His approval rating among college graduates is slightly higher than his overall rating from all voters and slightly more than the average feel he deserves re-election.

And they think they're educated?

The Long Wait For Recovery

Mona Charen puts it very well when she says that an essential ingredient of economic growth is predictability, which is directly opposite of what the Obama administration seeks to provide. 

Obama touts his small-business tax credits, but in his stimulus bill, the proposed 2011 American Jobs Act, and other legislation, the tax incentives are temporary while the tax increases are permanent.

The Heritage Foundation estimates that the burden of regulations enacted during Obama’s first three years is five times the cost of rules enacted during the first three years under George W. Bush. The yearly cost of regulatory compliance for Bush’s policies was $8.1 billion. It’s $46 billion for Obama’s policies.

 The regulatory drag goes beyond those compliance costs. The uncertainty about what government will require in the future is inhibiting expansion and risk-taking. The two marquee laws passed under this administration — the ironically titled Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank — are vast pools of dark matter.

There's a method to the madness surrounding this huge surge in federal regulatory power.  By subjecting Americans to the whims of his federal bureaucracy, Obama positions himself to flex political muscle.  Who gets a waiver?  Who gets a government loan?  Who gets audited?  Who gets prosecuted?  Obama has not been bashful about exercising his power to decide, to reward friends, to punish political enemies.  Federal regulations represent the political nuts and bolts by which Obama had hoped to usher in those progressive majorities that would afflict us for generations.

But there is this side effect that Obama and his cronies hadn't counted on.  The people most willing to risk their capital in a startup or a business expansion aren't willing to take unreasonable risk, and that's been killing the recovery and destroying Obama's re-election chances.  Nobody wants to bet the farm on Obama's regulatory whim, especially when it has become so obvious that everything he does is aimed at saving his own job and nobody else's. 

Obama is the unreasonable risk that Americans bet on in 2008. He recently confirmed what a terribly bad bet that was when he said, "If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."  It's beginning to sink in.  Business leaders are Obama's natural enemies, subject to threats of punishment because by nature they tend to be insufficiently supportive of Obama's goals.  The only thing Obama intends to build is a culture of dependency, dependency upon the whim of his bureaucratic thugs. 

And so the unpredictability of Obama's regulatory actions has been met with a predictable response.  And so we wait for the recovery that will never come as long as Obama remains in office. 

Completely And Utterly Unqualified

That would be Barack Obama. 

President Obama said in a speech at the weekend that governments and not individuals create jobs, telling entrepreneurs: 'If you've got a business - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.'

He added: 'You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.'

It should come as no surprise that business leaders disagree, and they wasted no time punching back.

David Chavern, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that the basic idea behind Obama’s comments, and other similar sentiments expressed by allies, 'is really objectionable and offensive.'

'The problem with the Obama administration’s view, he wrote in a blog post, was that ‘it only looks at the good outcomes’ rather than what went before.

Mr Chavern wrote: ‘Success is apparently a collective effort - but where was that "collective" during the periods of risk-taking and failure? The vast majority of businesses fail. Period.

He added: 'Every day millions of people put their lives, savings, houses and families on the line and work 20 hours a day just to grab their small slice of the American dream. Where is the collective when all of this is going on?  And if the collective is really responsible for success, how come everyone isn’t successful?

Also commenting on Obama's remarks was the president of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Dan Danne.

'What a disappointment to hear President Obama's revealing comments challenging the significance of America's entrepreneurs.

Mr Danne added: 'His unfortunate remarks over the weekend show an utter lack of understanding and appreciation for the people who take a huge personal risk and work endless hours to start a business and create jobs.'

Is anybody still wondering why the economy is struggling after three and a half years of Obama?  For three and a half years Barack Obama has been trying to milk businesses for all they're worth, and we're seeing his results in every aenemic jobs report that comes out.  November can't come soon enough.

What Do The Polls Tells Us?

Not much maybe, but then I suppose it depends upon the poll.  Today's Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll had Romney up by three over Obama.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Mitt Romney attracting 47% of the vote, while President Obama earns support from 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. Platinum Members can see detailed demographic and other information daily.

Voters see a clear choice between Romney and Obama on the health care issue but are not convinced that the economy will improve no matter who's elected president in November.

Yesterday Romney held just a one point lead.  Can that be right?  One point one day, a slim three points the next?  It's hard to imagine — for me anyway.  Especially when there are other indicators telling quite a different story. 

For instance if we look back to 2008, Obama enjoyed record breaking fund raisers.  He far and away out-raised McCain, so much so that the candidate for hope, change, fairness, and transparency refused federal funding for his presidential campaign.  It would have prevented him from spending all of the the money he'd raised.  In 2012 he's still raising lots of dough, but guess what.  He's not out-raising Mitt Romney.

Boom: Romney, RNC beat Obama's May fundraising

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 6/7/12 10:45 AM EDT

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $76.8 million in May, outdistancing President Obama and the Democratic National Committee by a wide margin.

That was May, but in June Romney beat him out again.

It's a repeat: Romney tops Obama in June by $35 million

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 7/9/12 10:50 AM EDT

In an email to supporters, the Obama campaign announces raising $71 million in June — trailing Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee for the second consecutive month, this time by $35 million...

Who would ever have dreamed Mitt Romney would turn out to be such a popular guy?  Truth be told, he's not, and that's bad news for Obama.  It means the general election is all about Obama, and Obama, as it turns out, is losing supporters.

Former Obama donor Ronald Perelman, the chairman of Revlon, is not supporting Barack Obama this year… And he just held a high dollar fundraiser for Mitt Romney in the Hamptons.
Mondoweiss reported:
The New York Times reports that Romney had a big fundraiser at Revlon chairman Ron Perelman’s house in the Hamptons over the weekend.

But just four years ago, Perelman maxed out for Barack Obama. according to federal records.

Why the change? Well, Perelman has also given a lot to Orthodox Jewish causes, and the Times says one of the people coming to Perelman’s house for the fundraiser had Israel on her mind:

A woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black Range Rover here on Sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to Mitt Romney, “Is there a V.I.P. entrance. We are V.I.P.”…

Laura R. Schwartz of New Jersey, the woman inside the Range Rover, complained that Mr. Obama had not visited Israel as president, a slight to the country, in her eyes. “I don’t think he is good for Israel,” she said. Mr. Romney, she said, “is a fresh face.”

Perelman was not the only former Obama supporter at the fundraiser. An estimated twenty-five percent of the attendees were former Obama supporters.

And then there is this poll telling us that a substantial majority of likely voters see Obama as a transformational president, but the transformation has not been a good thing.

Two-thirds of likely voters say President Obama has kept his 2008 campaign promise to change America — but it’s changed for the worse, according to a sizable majority. 

A new poll for The Hill found 56 percent of likely voters believe Obama’s first term has transformed the nation in a negative way, compared to 35 percent who believe the country has changed for the better under his leadership.

The results signal broad voter unease with the direction the nation has taken under Obama’s leadership and present a major challenge for the incumbent Democrat as he seeks reelection this fall.

Most of the various presidential tracking polls show Obama and Romney within a few points of each other, but somehow, I think, they're missing something.  Polls on the issues, such as the American support for Israel or ObamaCare, show more of an unrest.  The Tea Party isn't in the news so much these days, but Tea Partiers haven't lost their determination to fight ObamaCare in whatever way possible.

Perhaps the most telling indication is the 56% of likely voters who believe that Obama has transformed America in a negative way.  That 56% is effectively the Tea Party.  Over the last several years Tea Partiers have discovered that they could flex their political muscles with substantial effect.  We made 2010 into a very bad year for Democrats.  We carried that momentum into the 2012 primary season, which turned out to be not so good for "moderate" Republicans.

All of this leads me to think we're in for another Tea Party led blowout in the November election, but the presidential tracking polls don't show it.  Maybe it's just too early.

Happy Independence Day

I've been out of range for the last two and a half weeks — out of cell phone range and nowhere near an internet connection, aside from an occasional visit to the Moose Muck Coffee Shop.  I've been building my lakeside cabin in the North Country, which I will tell you about later on when my cabin-building vacation is finished.

In the meantime, the sky is clearing so I guess it's time to pack up the laptop, leave the coffee shop, and head back to the wilderness.

Have a happy 4th of July.