Neil Cavuto's Greatest "Rant"

The inestimable Neil Cavuto, whose show airs on Fox News Channel weekdays at 4:00 PM ET, often closes his show with what some call a rant but what is actually a brief statement clothed beautifully in common sense and wisdom.  This is one of his best.

Paul Ryan: Pro Growth Tax Reform

Paul Ryan, unfortunately, chose not to run for president in 2012, but he'd make a great Secretary of the Treasury (haven't had one of those for a while).

Michael Ramirez: Taxpayers as Fodder

(Click to enlarge)

Herman Cain: "We Waited 30 Months For This?"

From The Associated Press (really!): FACT CHECK: Obama's jobs plan paid for? Seems not
By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press

Herman Cain was not the only one unimpressed with the president's Jobs "plan," which, as usual, has not been committed to paper. Even the Associated Press saw through the campaign stop at the U.S. Capitol last night. Here's what the AP's Calvin Woodward had to say about it:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.

It will only be paid for if a committee he can't control does his bidding, if Congress puts that into law and if leaders in the future — the ones who will feel the fiscal pinch of his proposals — don't roll it back.

Underscoring the gravity of the nation's high employment rate, Obama chose a joint session of Congress, normally reserved for a State of the Union speech, to lay out his proposals. But if the moment was extraordinary, the plan he presented was conventional Washington rhetoric in one respect: It employs sleight-of-hand accounting.

A look at some of Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: "Everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

THE FACTS: Obama did not spell out exactly how he would pay for the measures contained in his nearly $450 billion American Jobs Act but said he would send his proposed specifics in a week to the new congressional supercommittee charged with finding budget savings. White House aides suggested that new deficit spending in the near-term to try to promote job creation would be paid for in the future — the "out years," in legislative jargon — but they did not specify what would be cut or what revenues they would use.

Essentially, the jobs plan is an IOU from a president and lawmakers who may not even be in office down the road when the bills come due. Today's Congress cannot bind a later one for future spending. A future Congress could simply reverse it.

Currently, roughly all federal taxes and other revenues are consumed in spending on various federal benefit programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, food stamps, farm subsidies and other social-assistance programs and payments on the national debt. Pretty much everything else is done on credit with borrowed money.

So there is no guarantee that programs that clearly will increase annual deficits in the near term will be paid for in the long term.
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OBAMA: "Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including many who sit here tonight."

THE FACTS: Obama's proposed cut in the Social Security payroll tax does seem likely to garner significant GOP support. But Obama proposes paying for the plan in part with tax increases that have already generated stiff Republican opposition.

For instance, Obama makes a pitch anew to end Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which he has defined as couples earning over $250,000 a year or individuals earning over $200,000 a year. Republicans have adamantly blocked what they view as new taxes. As recently as last month, House Republicans refused to go along with any deal to raise the government's borrowing authority that included new revenues, or taxes.
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OBAMA: "It will not add to the deficit."

THE FACTS: It's hard to see how the program would not raise the deficit over the next year or two because most of the envisioned spending cuts and tax increases are designed to come later rather than now, when they could jeopardize the fragile recovery. Deficits are calculated for individual years. The accumulation of years of deficit spending has produced a national debt headed toward $15 trillion. Perhaps Obama meant to say that, in the long run, his hoped-for programs would not further increase the national debt, not annual deficits.
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OBAMA: "The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away."

THE FACTS: Not all of the president's major proposals are likely to yield quick job growth if adopted. One is to set up a national infrastructure bank to raise private capital for roads, rail, bridges, airports and waterways. Even supporters of such a bank doubt it could have much impact on jobs in the next two years because it takes time to set up. The idea is likely to run into opposition from some Republicans who say such a bank would give the federal government too much power. They'd rather divide money among existing state infrastructure banks.

Associated Press writer Joan Lowy contributed to this report.

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When you're a Democrat being fact checked by the AP, you're in trouble.

Chip Bok on Redistribution of Wealth

Obama, Clinton, and the Art of Prevarication

Dan Mitchell of The Cato Institute got quite upset about the interview President Obama did with Bill O'Reilly the other night, and went so far as branding his statement on taxes a lie. The title of his piece on BigGovernment.Com is: If Obama’s Allowed to Lie, I’m Allowed to Be Snarky. Don't miss the video he made about a hypothetical meeting between Obama and Clinton. You can click here to watch it on YouTube.

Heritage Video: Obama Tax Hikes - The Spin

(Click twice in bottom right of video to watch on YouTube)

This is from The Heritage Foundation. You'll probably recognize the players from this prior post. That new guy (Smith) gets in trouble again for speaking the truth.