There are some interesting reads today in the papers (can we call them that anymore since most are accessed online?). Obama continues to push Stimulus II, despite a cool reception from most. The Wall Street Journal covers his big gamble with your ante.
President Barack Obama pressed forward with an expansion of his $787 billion stimulus plan Tuesday, unveiling job-creation proposals that largely build on the initial package, including a hiring tax credit that his own party jettisoned as unworkable and some business owners deemed ineffective.
Meanwhile, the USA Today notes that supporters of the health care bill are jamming it full of all sorts of goodies.
Buried among proposed programs for the uninsured are dozens of lesser-known provisions — from work breaks for breastfeeding moms to a requirement that chain restaurants disclose how many calories are in the fries.
“I wouldn’t eat any of it,” Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., who supports the measure, said of vending machine fare — though he admits to being tempted on occasion. “But others will. I just want to ensure they have a better idea of what they’re getting.”
Honestly, is their anyone out there who buys ships from a vending machine under the mistaken impression that they’re health food? It’s not like you’re buying carrots.
Of course, hyperbole is the name of the game with many initiatives favored by the Democrats. As an example, look at the costs and justifications for the global climate change efforts being proposed in Copenhagen.
In energy infrastructure alone, the transformational ambitions that delegates to the United Nations climate change conference are expected to set in the coming days will cost more than $10 trillion in additional investment from 2010 to 2030, according to a new estimate from the International Energy Agency.
“People often ask about the costs,” said Kevin Parker, the global head of Deutsche Bank Asset Management, who tracks climate policy for the bank. “But the figures people tend to cite don’t take into account conservation and efficiency measures that are easily available. And they don’t look at the cost of inaction, which is the extinction of the human race. Period.”
As we pointed out yesterday, these same people were frightening us with “the coming global ice age” just a couple of decades ago.
Finally, General McChrystal spoke to Congress yesterday and assured them the troop surge in Afghanistan will make a difference.
The U.S. general in charge of the Afghanistan war assured lawmakers Tuesday that an additional 30,000 troops, combined with changes in the overall war strategy, would trigger a demonstrable change on the ground before U.S. forces start to come home in 18 months.
“By the summer of 2011, it will be clear to the Afghan people that the insurgency will not win, giving them the chance to side with their government,” Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said.
