Despite Massive State Subsidies Electric Car Use Fails To Come Close To Obama Prediction

Obama’s Prediction Of A Million Electric Cars On Road By 2015 Off By 72%

 

 

 

 

 

” In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama predicted that the U.S. would have “a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”

  The president backed up his prediction with $2.4 billion in federal grants to companies producing lithium-ion batteries for plug-in cars.

  But reality hasn’t even come close.

  Despite massive federal spending on electric vehicles, which is expected to total $7.9 billion through 2019, there are currently just 286,390 plug-in vehicles on the nation’s roads today, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA).

  That’s 72 percent lower than the million electric vehicles the president predicted four years ago. And with gasoline prices now averaging $2.06 per gallon, the lowest they’ve been since April 2009, that percentage is not likely to change any time soon.”

 

 

   Lord knows he gave away enough of our tax dollars in his attempt to make it happen , and line his crony’s pockets , but his prognostication still came up short … by miles .

 

 

” Although Obama backed up his prediction four years ago with $2.4 billion in federal grants to companies producing lithium-ion batteries to power electric cars, there has been no major breakthroughs that make them economically competitive with gas- and diesel-fueled vehicles, which have become far more fuel-efficient in the meantime.

  In fact, with new advances being made in the internal combustion engine, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles will still make up 95 percent of all light duty vehicles sold in 2040. “

 

 

CNS News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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New IRS Scandal As Whistleblower Reveals Massive Corporate Tax Break Giveaway

Whistleblowers: IRS Officials Behind ‘Fraudulent’ Multi-Billion Dollar Corporate Tax Giveaways

 

 

 

 

” A 10-year veteran IRS attorney has demanded a Congressional audit of the IRS to investigate the agency’s alleged role in allowing American corporations to illegally avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes at the same time the agency is cracking down on individuals and small businesses.

  In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, IRS commissioner John A. Koskinen, and IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, Jane J. Kim, an attorney in the IRS Office of the Chief Counsel in New York, accused IRS executives of “deliberately” facilitating multi-billion dollar tax giveaways. The letter, dated October 19, will add further pressure on the agency, which is under fire for allegedly targeting conservative and Tea Party groups.

  Kim, who has previously blown the whistle on “gross waste of government resources” in the IRS New York field offices [Senior IRS Lawyer Charges Chief Counsel’s New York Office With Waste and Abuse], wrote in her new letter that senior IRS officials have “intentionally undermined the authority of the IRS Whistleblower Office” to avoid taking action “in cases involving billions in corporate taxes due.” The IRS also refuses to enforce laws for “large corporate taxpayers,” resulting in giveaways of further billions, despite applying the same laws with “draconian strictness to small business, the self-employed, and wage-earning individuals.”  … “

 

The TaxProf has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is The New LEGO Movie Pro-Liberty Or Anti-Business ? The Debate Rages

Is The LEGO Movie The Most Subversive Pro-Liberty Film Ever?

 

 

 

 

“ The LEGO Movie” isn’t just pro-business. It’s also about the importance of hard work, creativity, ownership, innovation and human dignity. There might not be a more classically liberal film in the history of film-making, when it’s all said and done. 

  It’s a little difficult to discuss the movie in detail without ruining it — and you all are going to want to go see it — but suffice to say that the movie’s commercial message is that LEGO encourages creativity. (Christopher Orr notes that this runs completely contrary to the unfortunate conformity LEGO has been encouraging in recent years with its pre-designed kits.) Throughout the movie, the key characters bravely move around different settings. They begin in restrictive Bricksburg and move to the wild frontier of the “Old West” and other domains. WyldStyle explains that all people were once free to travel, mingle and build as they wanted. But then President Business started controlling everything.

  President Business himself tells us that he’s so upset with people who mess up his plans that he wants to lock them down exactly as they should be. “Stop building that stuff!” he cries. Later he says, “All I’m asking for is total perfection!” bringing in “micromanagers” to help out. It was that scene’s call to immanentize the eschaton, by the way, that convinced me the FOX panelists hadn’t seen the film before critiquing it. President Business actually gives a character a choice between fealty to him or “a tea party with your mom and dad.” A tea party! And the character given that choice is both “Good Cop” and “Bad Cop,” thanks to LEGO head swiveling that has happy faces on the back side of angry faces. But mostly it reminded me of Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s quote from “The Gulag Archipelago”:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” “

 

 

   The discussion on Fox takes the view that the movie is very anti-business while Molly Hemingway at Government Slaves who wrote the article we reference here takes a decidedly more positive view …

” Even though the film is a 100-minute commercial for a business, it’s also an ad for personal responsibility, individual choice, meaningful work, natural constraints, the dignity of the individual and the fight against a government that desires control of the lives of citizens. Its message about heroism being based in creativity, hard work, and resourcefulness — not superpowers — is deeply unifying. “

 

   Not having seen the film we feel unqualified to pass judgement , but we must admit that after reading Ms Hemingway’s article , we are now inclined to go see a movie that yesterday we had no intention of seeing .

 

  Read more at Government Slaves and below are some related links for those who would enjoy reading further …

 

Christian Reviewers Praise the Lego Movie: ‘Good Conversation Starter’

Forbes Review: Everything About ‘The Lego Movie’ Is Awesome

The LEGO Movie

The Lego Movie, or How Everything Is Awesome (When It’s Not About Politics)

 

Read the articles , see the movie , decide for yourself …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mike Lee Has It Right … First , Secure The Border

Sen. Mike Lee: Secure The Border Before Discussing Legalization

 

 

 

” Sen. Lee appeared on Fox News on Thursday to stress that the GOP should not be looking to pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes border security but should, instead, be focusing on revamping the nation’s border security before addressing the legalization process.

“In order to reform our immigration code, and I agree that we need to reform it, we need to undertake this in a step-by-step fashion, and the very first thing we need to do is secure the border,” Lee stated. “And we also need to reform our antiquated, outdated visa system – our legal immigration processes.” “

 

Read on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Chamber Of Cronyism Doesn’t Represent The Small Businessman

The US Chamber Of Commerce Versus America

 

 

 

 

” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a politically entrenched synod of special interests. These fat cats do not represent the best interests of American entrepreneurs, American workers, American parents and students, or Americans of any race, class or age who believe in low taxes and limited government. The chamber’s business is the big business of the Beltway, not the business of mainstream America.

  Last year, the chamber poured more than $52 million into K Street lobbying efforts on behalf of illegal alien amnesty, Fed Ed Common Core programs and increased federal spending. This year, chamber bigwigs are paving the perilous pathway to GOP capitulation. The left hardly needs to lift a finger against tea party candidates and activists who are bravely challenging the big government status quo. The chamber has already volunteered to spend $50 million subsidizing the Republican incumbency protection racket and attacking anti-establishment conservatives.

  The chamber is one of the staunchest promoters of mass illegal immigration, and joined with the AFL-CIO and American Civil Liberties Union to oppose immigration enforcement measures.

  The chamber opposed E-verify and sued Arizona over its employer sanctions law.”

 

 

Read Michelle Malkin’s entire piece at Rightwing News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Government Waste Continued … A Taxpayer Funded Pet Shampoo Plus 9 More

10 Surprising Government Programs That Are Costing You $10.2 Billion

 

 

 

 

” Here’s one program you probably didn’t realize your tax dollars were funding: a pet-shampoo company.

  A new spending bill takes center stage this week in Congress, and according to a Heritage Foundation report, lawmakers could use it to save taxpayers $10.2 billion by axing subsidies including one bolstering a pet-shampoo company.

  Romina Boccia, a Heritage budget expert and author of the report, says finding savings for the American people would be wise for congressional appropriators, especially “after reaching an agreement to spend nearly $45 billion more in 2014 than allowed under the sequestration spending caps.”

  Her report outlines 10 federal programs full of spending the American public probably doesn’t even know existed.

  The following is a list of the 10 programs where Boccia believes Congress can save taxpayers money. Click here to read the full report.

  1. Cut Pet-Shampoo and Similar Projects, Save $3.1 billion: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program funds “wasteful parochial projects, which include funding a pet-shampoo company and issuing risky business loans.””

 

 

Read about more government waste here , but remember those sage words from M Pelosi … ” the cupboard is bare ” …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Roger L Simon On The “Party Of The Rich” … No , Not Republicans

The Party Of The Rich Flogs Income Inequality

 

 

 

” Back when I was a kid, I used to think Republicans were the party of the rich — white guys who belonged to country clubs and drove Fleetwoods.  Of course, that was long before I heard of the likes of George Soros, Bill  Gates, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison — white guys who fly Gulf Streams and have mansions in Gstaad.  (Well, Buffett lives a little more circumspectly.)  Or went to work in Hollywood, land of Jeff Katzenberg, David Geffen, Oprah Winfrey, etc. There’s rich and then there’s REALLY RICH, if you know what I mean.  And a fair number, maybe the majority, of the latter are Democrats and profess to be liberals or progressives or something.  (And there’s Fidel Castro, who is evidently a billionaire, and professes to be a communist.)

These days, when everybody’s insurance agent or accountant drives around in a Mercedes because interest rates are so low and why not, when it comes to true conspicuous consumption, when it comes to really being the true modern plutocrats, the Democrats are now the party of the rich — Sheldon Adelson excepted, of course.

So  when I watched the broadcast of the inauguration of New York City’s new mayor Bill de Blasio with all the talk of income equality and two New Yorks blablabla, all I could do is snort — that is after checking out the cut of the expensive topcoats on De Blasio and Bill Clinton. Good schmeck, I believe they used to call it  in the Garment District.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Obama Lays Out His Divisive Post-Shutdown Agenda

Since The RINO’s Caved On Spending Can We Expect Any Less On Amnesty And Pork ?

 

 

 

” Fresh off his no-compromise victory against Republicans during the one-sixth government shutdown, the president has some more divisive issues in store for the American people. Wow, what a shock.

Among these: amnesty for illegal immigrants, passing a $3.8 trillion budget, raising taxes, and more kickbacks for Democrat allies. Anybody really surprised about this coming from the “professional activist” president?

Here’s a novel idea: Why don’t we let the American people determine their own agenda for a change, instead of giving more power to corrupt and inept Washington politicians to do it for us?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Warren Buffett – Mr Crony-Capitalist Himself Posts Huge Profit

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Enjoys 51% Rise In Profits

 

 

 

” Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm led by Warren Buffett, has posted a 51pc rise in profits thanks to the performance of its insurance companies and the rising value of the businesses it owns stakes in.

Berkshire said net income rose to $4.89bn (£3.14bn) in the first quarter of its financial year on the back of revenues growing 15pc to $43.9bn.

The conglomerate controls almost 100 companies across insurance, utilities, clothing and consumer goods, but also holds stakes in some of the world’s biggest businesses, including Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and Tesco, which is Berkshire’s biggest holding outside the US.”

Related articles

• Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings jump 51 percent (seattlepi.com)
• Warren Buffett Signs Up To Twitter (4umf.com)
• 3 Burning Questions Warren Buffett Must Answer (fool.com)
• Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings jump 51 percent (stocktipsinvestment.blogspot.com)
• Berkshire Profit Climbs 51% on Insurance, Derivatives (bloomberg.com)
• Warren Buffett says economy still improving slowly (miamiherald.com)

 

 

 

 

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GE Capital Does Obama’s Bidding

The Obama Mafia Gets The Private Sector To Do Its Anti-Gun Dirty Work

 

 

 

” The world’s largest industrial company, General Electric, received a very-generous deal in 2009 when the company received $139 billion in taxpayer money under provisions created to keep banks afloat.  Though GE Capital is not classified as a bank, the company was able to secure the money because it owned two small Utah banking institutions.

In short, thanks to the loophole, GE was able to secure $139 billion while not, technically, being a bank. Further, GE was able to avoid the restrictions and stipulations given to banks.

Now, with money in hand, GE Capital is cutting off funding to gun shops as the Obama Administration continues its dying efforts to curtail Second Amendment protections.

Daniel Greenfield of Frontpagemag.com accurately summarized the danger of this unholy alliance:

“What we are seeing is the political consolidation of big business into an arm of government with misappropriated taxpayer money being used to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, with the ‘winners’ then doing the dirty work of the government and acting as its regulatory arm, destroying entire areas of business that the government has yet to be able to destroy on its own.” “

 

 

 

 

 

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The Carlyle Group, the Bush family and 9/11

Tax And Spend … That’s My Final Offer

Obama’s Ridiculous Fiscal Cliff ‘Offer’ Is An Epic Non-Starter

 

 

 ” Barack Obama desperately wants to take the country over the fiscal cliff.  That’s the only conclusion one could possibly draw from the absolute dementia masquerading as his administration’s opening offer.  Here’s the basic rundown of what the president would like to see happen.

• $1.6 trillion in tax increases – not just on the wealthy, but on businesses the administration views unfavorably, such as oil.
• $50 Billion in new stimulus spending
• A deferment – of a single year – on the military sequester
• An extension of unemployment benefits for those out of work
• Federal money to shore up underwater mortgages

To top off the lunacy, President Obama would like nearly unlimited power to raise the debt ceiling whenever he likes, as high as he likes. This is something Timothy Geithner hinted at a few weeks ago.  If Obama has his way, the only constraint on this power would come when a difficult-to- achieve Congressional supermajority chooses to override his decision. ”

 

 

 

Illustration By Lisa Benson

Related articles

• Geithner: End debt ceiling for good? (politico.com)
• Republicans reject White House fiscal cliff proposals as incomplete (guardian.co.uk)
• Boehner sees no progress in “fiscal cliff” talks (reuters.com)
• Report: Obama’s “fiscal cliff” offer to Republicans calls for $1.6 trillion in new taxes and end of debt ceiling in exchange for … nothing, basically (hotair.com)
• Geithner to meet with congressional leaders for `fiscal cliff’ talks (foxnews.com)
• Boehner Spurns $4 Trillion ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Proposal (hispanicbusiness.com)
• Tim Geithner’s Solution To The Debt Ceiling Is So Reasonable, Nobody Could Possibly Object (businessinsider.com)

‘DISTRICT OF CORRUPTION’ …

… EXPOSES THE PLAYERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

 

 

  ” Judicial Watch has teamed with Victory Film Group and Stephen K. Bannon, the stalwart award-winning writer/director of “Occupy Unmasked” and “The Undefeated,” to produce a compelling documentary exposing the corruption that has snaked through the last three presidential administrations.

“District of Corruption,” which opened Friday in Phoenix at the AMC Desert Ridge 18, and is also playing at the AMC Lennox Town Center 24 in Columbus, Ohio, is produced in association with Constant Motion Entertainment. The film focuses on the enduring and epic battle Judicial Watch, the nation’s most powerful watchdog organization, has waged against government scandal, secrecy and corruption, with special emphasis on the constant scandals of the Obama Administration, including Operation Fast and Furious, illegal alien amnesty, election integrity, crony capitalism, and bailouts and Solyndra. “

 

 

Illustration By Michael Ramirez

Related articles

• New Victory Films Trailer: District of Corruption (culturalhegemony.wordpress.com)
• Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Detailing the Cost to Taxpayers for Michelle Obama’s Family Trip to Africa (oyiabrown.com)
• Judicial Watch: Judicial Watch Press Room (sohereandnow.wordpress.com)
• The District of Corruption Trailer (Video) (redalexandriava.com)
• ‘District of Corruption’ Rocks Box Office in Limited Release (rubinoworld.com)
• Breitbart, Judicial Watch Voter Survey: 65% of Election Day Voters “Strongly Support” Voter ID (sys-con.com)
• Obama admin lawyers fight to obstruct public access to White House logs (humanevents.com)

Actually , It Never Left

“Crony Socialism Is Still With Us”

” This much is clear: Democrats who controlled Congress and the White House used the $700
billion TARP program and the $860 billion stimulus as a giant ATM to pay back favored constituencies, at the expense of the rest of us.”

More Cronyism From the Crony Champions

Biden’s ‘good friend,’ donor receives $20M federal loan to open foreign luxury car dealership in Ukraine

  ” In late July, John Hynansky — a longtime friend of Vice President Joe Biden , and a major donor
to Biden’s campaigns as well as President Barack Obama’s — was awarded a $20 million taxpayer loan to build a foreign-car dealership in Ukraine. “

We Are Being Systematically Fleeced

“BIOFUELS BOONDOGGLE: AIR FORCE PAYS $59 A GALLON

Pentagon used to pay $2 a gallon for jet fuel – Obama donors benefit”

” The Pentagon pays less than two dollars a gallon for jet fuel.

   Under President Obama’s half a billion dollar ‘green energy’ initiative for the military the Navy spent $26 a gallon for biofuel made from algae.

  Think that’s expensive? That’s nothing. The Air Force recently spent $59 a gallon for biofuel made from sugar. “

A Dozen Solyndras … And Counting

The Green Graveyard of Taxpayer-Funded Failures

 

 ” Solar-cell manufacturer Solyndra became a household name when it collapsed, taking $627 million in American taxpayer dollars with it. It’s the poster company for the government picking winners and losers—or really, just losers—in the energy market. But there are 12 more “green energy” losers that have declared bankruptcy despite attempts to prop them up with taxpayer money—and the list is growing.

There’s a reason why these companies could not rely solely on private financing and needed help from the government. They couldn’t make it on their own; they couldn’t even make it with extra taxpayer help “

 

He’s as adept at investing as he is at job creation .

More ” Green Graft ”

It’s getting to be a regular news item , even if the MSM doesn’t see fit to inform their few remaining viewers . Just another day of taxpayer funded “green” subsidies flushed down the rat hole . 

 ” It won’t be the first, if so … and probably not the last, either.  Battery maker A123 got more than $250 million in taxpayer subsidies from Barack Obama’s green-tech stimulus, specifically to produce a robust amount of product for Obama’s promised explosion of electric vehicles.  Unfortunately, the only thing exploding are A123′s losses.  CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reports that the company’s latest SEC filings admit “substantial doubt” about A123′s future — even while it spends the remaining $100 million in taxpayer-guaranteed funds (via The Right Scoop):”

Corpses , Convicts , Crony Capitalists …Democratic Workers

   We have no problem with convicts being made to work … for the public . That is not what this is about though . Read on and see how Obama and his ” Green Energy ” pipe dream has led to wholesale corruption and crony capitalism on a scale never seen before .

 

  “The Obama administration is using prison labor to advance its green energy agenda, enriching foreign companies and some of the president’s largest campaign donors in the process.”

 

   If it was just a matter of saving the taxpayers money we would be behind it 100% but as is always the case with this administration it is all about their own survival and profit .

 

   ” UNICOR typically partners with private companies to install the panels and help the agencies put in place other energy-saving measures. Major beneficiaries of this system include Constellation Energy, which was recently acquired by the Exelon Corporation, a Chicago-based utility provider with deep ties to the Obama administration.”

 

  Guess who has profited handsomely from Exelon Corporation. You guessed it .

 

    ” Exelon employees, including a number of current and former top executives, have donated at least $246,000 to Obama since 2007, including at least $83,000 this cycle.”

 

 

Green … as in Cash

   The only thing “green” about Obama’s alternative energy policy is the cash that lines the pockets of his crony-capitalist bundlers . 

Walter Russell Mead

 ” “Blue-collar voters were never that sold on environmental issues, and if some Democrats come across as not keen on economic development, it could lose them support here in Ohio,” he said.

Republicans, from Mitt Romney, the party’s presidential candidate, to the congressional leadership, have madeBarack Obama’s alleged stifling of the energy industry a centrepiece of their campaigns this year. . . .

Mr Romney has said he will approve the Keystone XL pipeline as soon as he wins office and curb the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Only time will tell whether this is a winning strategy, but there is reason to think it could work. As we’ve mentioned before, energy politics is an area where Obama is particularly vulnerable. His decision to nix the popular Keystone pipeline earlier this year signaled antipathy toward one of America’s strongest industries while doing nothing to help the environment; it was lambasted as a pointless blunder by observers on both sides of the aisle.” “

Solyndra , Solyndra , Solyndra

  It can’t be said often enough . Via Doug Ross , a reminder of the crony capitalism that this administration has elevated to high art . Check out Jay Carney trying to explain why Solyndra doesn’t matter . That’s $500 million and 1100 jobs that don’t matter . 

“Up is down, left is right, good is bad, and day is night. If you wander inside the Washington, D.C., beltway, you’ll enter a bizarro world where, at times, commonsense is replaced by a localized logic that is completely divorced from the reality.

The latest example of political gobbledygook comes courtesy of White House press secretary Jay Carney, who yesterday lapsed into rambling rhetoric when asked to explain how President Obama can defend the failed Solyndra solar boondoggle, yet attack private sector investments that sometimes fail but oftentimes succeed. Here’s his response:”