Trey's Thoughts On Porkulus Anniversary

Trey Grayson notes that when Congress passed the stimulus bill one year ago, Kentucky's unemployment was 9.3 percent. Nearly a trillion dollars later, Kentucky's unemployment in December was 10.7:

One year after the massive trillion dollar stimulus bill, nearly 40,000 more Kentuckians have lost their jobs. Despite President Obama’s promise that this massive legislation would put Kentuckians to work immediately, the out-of-control spending agenda in Washington has failed to curtail the enormous job loss in the Bluegrass State.

Real recovery requires small businesses and entrepreneurs to be freed to create jobs. They are suffering under the Obama agenda: excessive government spending, the prospect of higher taxes, higher inflation, expensive health mandates, draconian EPA regulation, restricted international markets, and government-supported unionization. The best stimulus would be to stop doing more harm.\

Kentuckians know that Grayson is right on this issue, which is why President Obama will not come campaign for whomever his party nominates to run for our U.S. Senate seat.

Calling John Galt

Chris Derry from the Bluegrass Institute passes along a terrific piece by Steve Moore on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I first read Atlas Shrugged in the 1980's when I learned that it was one of Ronald Reagan's favorite books. As we return to conservative principles, this book is worth another look.

Though it became an instant hit after it was published in 1957, the book was never made into a movie. And now there's no need: we can watch its plot unfold on the nightly news. Moore writes,

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

Moore notes that Rand would have nothing but contempt for the bailout fever that is sweeping D.C. It is exactly what she predicted.

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."

The Age of Obama challenges us to keep in mind the appropriate relationship of the individual to the state. Rand made the case, better than anyone, that the only way to encourage initiative and hard work is to let individuals keep the fruits of their labor. Only economic growth can cure this recession; forcing one taxpayer to give to another person is not growth, it's just confiscation followed by a redistribution of wealth.

Without spoiling the ending, Atlas Shrugged gives us hope to survive the current explosion of government spending and the resulting loss of economic freedom and productivity. This won't last forever. Eventually, voters will see through the ruse and fire the "altruists."

Lunsford's Latest Lies

It took Bruce Lunsford a good ten days to decide whether he is for the bailout or against it. Then he noticed that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had voted for it and voila, Lunsford runs a new ad attacking the bailout and accusing McConnell of personally causing the credit crisis.

The problem is that even the leaders of Lunsford's parties -- Reid, Pelosi and Obama -- all supported the bailout. So did Sen. Chuck Schumer, the head of the DSCC who recruited Lunsford to run. In fact, Schumer says that the bailout was necessary to avoid another depression.

Perhaps Lunsford's most brazen lie is the portion of his new ad when he shows McConnell with President Bush and in the voice over complains about legislation that modernized the banking and commodities industries -- legislation that was signed by Bill Clinton, not Bush. Either Lunsford cannot distinguish between the likenesses and policies of Clinton and Bush, or Lunsford is just flat out lying.

Lunsford also complains that the bailout lets CEOs line their pockets. To the contrary, McConnell made sure that the bailout includes strict limits on executive compensation to prevent abuses on the taxpayers' dime. In any event, Lunsford is projecting when he gripes about CEO fat cats who enrich themselves on Wall Street. Lunsford's financial disclosure form makes clear that he's exactly the sort of "high net worth" individual whose portfolio includes hedge funds unavailable to the rest of us plebians in our 401 (k)s. Perhaps Lunsford's real problem with the bailout is that McConnell's strict limits on executive compensation hit too close to home for Lunsford.

How the Dems Caused the Housing Bubble

Here's a primer on the Community Reinvestment Act that explains, step by step, how the Democrats interfered in the market by forcing banks to give mortgages to people who were supremely unqualified.

The housing bubble, and the bust that followed, were not -- as Democrats whine -- caused by a lack of government regulation. To the contrary, we face an economic crisis caused by government social engineering. Democrats assumed that if we enable poor people to buy a house, then ipso facto, they have joined the middle class. Right, that notion of getting the job before the house and saving a down-payment is so conservative -- just another tool of oppression by old white guys.

The bailout was necessary to correct the market distortions caused by the government literally punishing banks who engaged in prudent lending, the kind of lending that enraged Democratic special interest groups. It was an act of courage to support the bailout to clean up the disaster that the Democrats wrought.

John McCain tried to warn us five years ago that Fannie and Freddie were out of control. But Barack Obama -- the Senator who received the second highest amount of campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie -- failed to exercise his famous judgment on anything but advancing his own career.

This, from the presidential candidate who looks to Franklin Raines for housing advice -- and for all we know might put Raines in his cabinet. After all the millions of dollars that Raines collected in bonues for running Fan and Fred into the ground, Raines is no doubt prepared to live on a government salary without cutting his living standard.