Pretzel Logic

Has anybody noticed that any time any Democrat talks about anything involving a number its either been made up out of thin air or is so twisted and convoluted that it is worthless? The 'raw' numbers on unemployment bear no relation to the 'adjusted' ones released by the Labor Dept. The 'raw' weather data bears no relationship to the twisted numbers that are used to try to make the case for Global Warming. Most especially the president's budget baloney is so reprehensibly dishonest that even the foolish clowns on Wall Street, frolicking in a wave of Quantitative Easy Money printed up fresh by the Fed, are asking questions about the ludicrous assumptions and ridiculous 'cuts' contained in a document so mendacious that BJ Clinton's autobiography is a masterpiece of honesty by comparison.

Unemployment and almost anything related to the economy is one of the most distorted parts of the Obama narrative. The feeble 'recovery' of profits isnt related to any increase in economic activity. Housing starts are down, foreclosures are up, fewer goods are being sold, many more people are out of work or under-employed than at any time since the Depression that the government caused in the 1930's by adopting similar policies to those that are driving the current one. Two years out the Stimulus and the entire Keynesian paradigm has obviously failed but it is still the Party Line as the Obamunists wax eloquent about 'the recovery' that doesnt exist.

The worst lie coming from the economic geniuses of The Regime is their chronic understating of the inflation rate. They accomplished this by not counting food, health care, energy and taxes in the calculations. So while Chase Bank rakes in billions and borrows money at zero percent from the Fed, while Archer Daniels Midland collects billions in agricultural and ethanol subsidies, while all public employees get hefty pay increases, Grandma and Grandpa on Social Security have effectively had their benefits frozen while the prices of things they buy shoot up. So the Obamunists dont want to talk about the agencies whose funding they have doubled in the last two years; whenever anybody mentions cuts they point to Grandma and Grandpa and say, "This is a problem with entitlements." Its not. Social Security is funded by a tax and is running a tiny deficit, amply covered by the IOU's written by Congress as they looted the trust fund. Medicare has risen somewhat but Medicaid...free health care to illegal aliens and welfare recipients...has risen by 40% in two years.

Another rising cost mentioned by NO ONE in government or business but mentioned very much by regular people is what is happening to interest rates. Not mortgage rates, which are low for the solvent cash-rich few who can qualify, but credit card and consumer loan rates. My wife and I had never been late on any of our payments on a card that charged 6% interest on balances. Imagine our surprise we received a letter telling us that the rate was hiked to 13%. When we complained to our friends they laughed at us. People are paying 25%, 30%, I even heard a story from a bankruptcy lawyer of a 37% rate. These rates would have gotten a usurer crucified in the Roman Empire, an entity not noted for its debtor-friendly policies. People who ran huge balances and retired that debt occasionally by refinancing their mortgage and rolling their credit card debt into the new mortgage have now been caught holding the bag. They are barely paying the interest on huge balances. They are effectively slaves of a bank that can borrow money interest-free from the Fed. The Financial Reform Bill passed last year not only didnt do anything about this it made it worse by shutting down competition between banks.

So as we look at a budget, described by The President this morning as 'bare bones' and 'filled with cuts', but which in effect continues the current mad dash to insolvency you have to ask, "Do these guys believe their own numbers? Are they that stupid or do they just think we're that stupid?" What did they think all that ruckus last year was about? Do the Dems think that all that has just gone away, that we cant read our doom in the pages of this budget? There are still people in this country who can read history and a balance sheet. They rioted last year at the polls. The Obamunists think that they can dance to the polls on a wave of ignorant voters and phony ballots like they did in 2008...the phony polls in the NYT and Time magazine prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt but like any other number put out by liberals Obama's solid shot at reelection is a chimera generated out of thin air. Our strength is that the libs actually believe their own lies.