FEDS JUICE NUMBERS, GDP STILL WEAK 1.7%

ECONOMY IS STALLED 

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy grew by 1.7% in the 2nd Quarter. This first estimate will likely be revised in the coming months. The final estimate for the 1st Quarter was revised downward from 1.8% to 1.1% in Wednesday's report. The economy remains essentially stalled. 

In mid-July, economists at major banks slashed their estimates of growth in the 2nd Quarter. The numbers reported by Commerce on Wednesday beat those reduced expectations. The markets, and many in the media, reacted positively to the news, which is evidence of the poor perception of the economy. In any other economic climate, 1.7% growth would be seen as a very weak number. The 2nd Quarter marks the fourth year of the economic "recovery" and ought to generate more growth. 

The numbers, however, may be even weaker than Wednesday's report. The Commerce Department, this month, changed how it reports GDP numbers. It now includes spending on intellectual property from artistic, literary and non-profit activity as fixed investments. Commerce noted that this change would increase GDP, as these items had not previously been counted in the nation's investments. 

The change, which increases the size of the economy, puts the 1.7% growth number in sharp relief. The addition of an entire new category of investment ought to have fueled a much higher growth number. In other words, the feds reconfigured how they calculate GDP in a manner that is positive to growth, yet actual growth was still a weak 1.7%. 

It is unclear what the GDP growth number would have been under the traditional measurement. Growth in personal consumption, the main driver of the economy, was considerably less than the 1st Quarter. As the 1st Quarter number as been repeatedly revised downward, it is likely that Wednesday's number will be lowered in the future.

For 4 years, pundits and the media have grasped for any sign that the economy is growing. We've repeatedly been told that the economy is on the cusp of robust growth. Hopes have been so diminished that Wednesday's juiced number of 1.7% growth looks like a recovery. Zero to flat growth is, it seems, the new normal.  

Via: Breitbart

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Georgia Insurance Rates Spike Under Obamacare

Georgia insurance commissioner asks Sec. Sebelius to explain rate increases of up to 198%

Health insurance rates in Georgia are rising by up to 198 percent under Obamacare, the Georgia Insurance Commissioner said in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday.

States are required by the Affordable Care Act to report new insurance premium rates for state exchanges run by the federal government by the end of July.

Commissioner Ralph Hudgens in his letter asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend Georgia’s deadline for reporting the insurance rates by one month to give his office more time to investigate and approve the new, higher rates.

“Georgia consumers cannot afford these massive rate increases,” Hudgens wrote to Sebelius.

The Georgia insurance department compared the cost of insurance within the exchanges to what people pay now for similar coverage, and the rates were going up for every age group, said Jay Florence, an insurance department official under Hudgens.

For an average 25 year-old male, premiums are set to rise 85 to 198 percent within the exchanges, while for a 45 year-old male, premiums will rise 40 to 100 percent, Florence said. A 64 year-old male will pay 18 to 48 percent more under Obamacare’s regime.

“The delay is simply trying to give the administration an opportunity to explain that and maybe explain what our actuaries weren’t able to determine, which is that these rates are excessive,” he said.

Hudgens requested that Sebelius respond by end of business today. As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, HHS had not responded, according to another official in the commissioner’s office. HHS did not return a request from the Washington Free Beacon for comment.

VIA: WFB

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E-mails Suggest Collusion Between FEC, IRS to Target Conservative Groups

AND OBAMA CALLED THIS A "PHONY" SCANDEL

Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.

“Several months ago . . . I spoke with you about the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that had submitted an exemption application the IRS [sic],” the FEC attorney wrote Lerner in February 2009. The FEC, which polices violations of campaign-finance laws, is not exempted under Rule 6103, which prohibits the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information, but the e-mail indicates Lerner provided that information nonetheless: “When we spoke last July, you had told us that the American Future Fund had not received an exemption letter from the IRS,” the FEC attorney wrote.

Via: National Review Online
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Detroit Today, Illinois Tomorrow

GOOD JOB LIBERALS

Detroit’s bankruptcy petition last week was far from a surprise, but what should be noted is that it is the first of what will likely be a major wave of municipalities and states that will follow behind. Specifically, President Obama’s home state of Illinois.

Many wonder why Detroit waited so long to declare bankruptcy. It has been years in the making. Detroit’s $18 billion of debt is just the latest in a downward spiral of bad news coming from a deeply troubled city. Fully half of its debt stems from unaffordable pensions, health care and retirement benefits. By now everyone has read about the awful condition of the city: unemployment double the nation and the highest violent crime rate of any large U.S. city, not to mention 4 out of every 10 street lights out of commission. Detroit literally can’t afford to keep the lights on or pay its bills.

Plagued by a history of bad decisions, Detroit’s city leaders perpetuated some of the mistakes the automakers made instead of learning from them. Government growth was fueled not by new tax revenues, but by future promises to its copious amount of municipal workers. At the same time, the city pursued an anti-growth agenda through tax increases, expanded regulation and abysmal services. No wonder families and businesses fled, taking their tax dollars and payrolls with them.

This is tragic for the Motor City, but this kind of financial trouble won’t end here. Detroit is just one of many local and state governments that are broke. Next in line: Illinois.

Unlike Detroit, changes in the manufacturing industry will not contribute to the demise of the Land of Lincoln.  Rather, the profligacy and complacency of its leaders may.

It is no secret that Illinois is in debt; the state’s Comptroller estimates it to be approximately $160 billion.  Nearly $100 billion of this stems, like Detroit, from unfunded pension costs.

Via: The Foundry

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Homeland Security Lost Track of More Than a Million Visa Holders

GREAT JOB JANET NAPOLITANO - HIT AND RUN - LEAVE A MESS IN YOUR QUAKE

The Department of Homeland Security has apparently lost track of more than 1 million people who entered the U.S. on student, work or other visas and has no way of determining whether they are still here, according to an audit released Tuesday. 

According to The Washington Times, the audit by the Government Accountability Office also found that Homeland has not yet fully developed or implemented a new entry-exit system, required by an immigration law passed in 1996. A new system was supposed to be online by 2004, the newspaper noted, adding that it's continued delay could complicate efforts in Congress to pass a new comprehensive immigration measure. 

The new system is supposed to include biometric measurements, such as fingerprints, and is supposed to be applicable to air, land, and sea ports of entry and exit. 
"DHS has not yet fulfilled the 2004 statutory requirement to implement a biometric exit capability, but has planning efforts under way to report to Congress in time for the fiscal year 2016 budget cycle on the costs and benefits of such a capability at airports and seaports," GAO auditors wrote in their report.

The audit could have an effect on the current debate on immigration since one of the requirements of lawmakers considering a reform bill is a program that accurately tracks entries and exits. A Congressional Budget Office study of the Senate reform bill passed in June predicted that the measure would increase the likelihood that people would overstay their visas without a strong entry-exit system to track them.

Under current law, the executive branch is required to report annually to Congress on the number of people who have overstayed their visas. But that requirement has fallen by the wayside over the past two decades, The Washington Times noted, because the government has lacked enough reliable information on which to base its report. 

For example, an audit released in 2011 found that Homeland Security had no idea about the whereabouts of 1.6 million visa holders who had been allowed into the country. But the department did identify 1,901 of those as potential security threats. As of March, however, 266 of them were still unaccounted for. 

Via: Newsmax

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