NH jobs lost: As Obama takeover continues

Union Leader Editorial

Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010

Don't think the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are trying to replace privately-run enterprises at every turn? Perhaps you missed last week's news of more layoffs by the New Hampshire nonprofit that arranges and administers college loans to families.

Under the laughable claim that a federal takeover of these loans will "reduce'' their costs and rescue people from greedy lenders, Obama and friends passed and signed a law last spring that ended private origination of Federal Family Education Loans.

These loans will now be overseen by federal workers in the behemoth known as the U.S. Department of Education.

Not only is this unlikely to reduce costs, it is clearly reducing jobs in the private sector. The New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation has laid off 35 positions lover the last two months. NHHEAF is hoping it will qualify for some federal work under the new government program, but the feds haven't said when the New Hampshire group might even be able to apply.

Even the non-profit NHHEAF may have become more of a bureaucracy than was necessary in a world of constantly increasing education costs. But it at least wasn't the government, "here to help you.''

America's capitalism is being slowly immersed into what is becoming an ever-thickening stew of government socialism.

When we are in up to our necks, it will be too late to get out.

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Fed leaders: Economic recovery slower than expected

By Neil Irwin

Federal Reserve leaders marked down their expectations for growth and inflation last month, concluding that the economic recovery is proceeding more slowly than they had thought in the spring but that the slowdown did not warrant new policy actions.

But Fed leaders did agree to explore options for supporting the economy further in case conditions worsen.

"The changes to the outlook were viewed as relatively modest and as not warranting policy accommodation beyond that already in place," said minutes of the Fed's June 22-23 policy meeting, released along with revised economic forecasts. "However, members noted that in addition to continuing to develop and test instruments to exit from the period of unusually accommodative monetary policy, the Committee would need to consider whether further policy might become appropriate if the outlook were to worsen appreciably."

In forecasts made in advance of the meeting and released Wednesday, the officials expected that gross domestic product will grow 3 to 3.5 percent this year, compared with a forecast of 3.2 to 3.7 percent at their April meeting. They modestly downgraded their projection for 2011 as well. That lower growth could translate into unemployment staying higher for longer -- Fed leaders expect the jobless rate to be 9.2 to 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, and to be 8.3 to 8.7 percent at the end of 2011, both slightly higher than in April forecasts.

But they see little threat from inflation, projecting that prices will rise 1 to 1.1 percent this year, compared with the 1.2 to 1.5 percent rate they forecast in April. The new outlook is well below the 1.7 to 2 percent inflation rate that the Fed targets over the longer term.

The forecasts are the most explicit confirmation to date that Fed officials have lowered their expectations for growth -- and since their meeting three weeks ago, more weak economic data have been released suggesting a deceleration in the economy, including a reports on June employment conditions, international trade in May and retail sales in June.

Still, the minutes make clear that Fed leaders still anticipate a continued economic recovery, suggesting that most of the policymakers would still resist any push to take new steps to support growth. Members of the policymaking committee "generally saw the incoming data and information received from business contacts as consistent with a continued, moderate recovery in economic activity," the minutes said.

The minutes did note that "financial markets had become somewhat less supportive of economic growth," mainly due to troubles in Europe, and that this was "likely to weigh to some degree on household and business spending over coming quarters."

But the officials appear to place greater weight on data suggesting strength in the business sector. They noted that investment in equipment and software was rising rapidly, and that household spending "continued to advance," even as the weak job market could weigh on consumers.

As The Post reported last week, Fed leaders are starting to discuss policies that they might use to further support growth if the economy continues to weaken, including pledging to keep interest rates low for even longer than now expected, cutting the interest rate on banks' reserves and buying some additional mortgage securities.

Supreme Court extends gun owner rights nationwide

By MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
1 hour, 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Constitution's "right to keep and bear arms" applies nationwide as a restraint on the ability of the federal, state and local governments to substantially limit its reach.

In doing so, the justices, by a narrow 5-4 margin, signaled that less severe restrictions could survive legal challenges.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, said the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states."

The court was split along familiar ideological lines, with five conservative-moderate justices in favor of gun rights and the four liberals, opposed.

Two years ago, the court declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess guns, at least for purposes of self-defense in the home.

That ruling applied only to federal laws. It struck down a ban on handguns and a trigger lock requirement for other guns in the District of Columbia, a federal city with a unique legal standing. At the same time, the court was careful not to cast doubt on other regulations of firearms here.

Gun rights proponents almost immediately filed a federal lawsuit challenging gun control laws in Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park, Ill, where handguns have been banned for nearly 30 years. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence says those laws appear to be the last two remaining outright bans.

Lower federal courts upheld the two laws, noting that judges on those benches were bound by Supreme Court precedent and that it would be up to the high court justices to ultimately rule on the true reach of the Second Amendment.

The Supreme Court already has said that most of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights serve as a check on state and local, as well as federal, laws.

Budget illusion: Mass. does better than us

Union Leader Editorial:

Quick quiz: Which state's legislators budget more responsibly: New Hampshire's or Massachusetts'? No, it's not a trick question.

Wednesday night, legislators in Massachusetts approved a state budget that included reductions in lots of state programs and services. Many of those cuts were made necessary when legislators removed $687 million in federal stimulus money from the revenue side of the budget.

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That huge sum had been included in some budget plans all year. But lawmakers decided to take it out because they realized it might never show up. Congress has not appropriated the funds and might never do so.

The money is from something called the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages, which are matching federal funds distributed to states for social and medical service programs. Congress has not decided whether to approve proposed increases for this year. Wisely, Massachusetts Democrats removed the funding from the budget.

"We are, I would suggest, under no illusion that this . . . money is coming," Rep. Charles A. Murphy, D-Burlington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Boston Globe.

New Hampshire Democrats, by contrast, were only too happy to accept the illusion that the money is coming. When they passed state budget fixes a few weeks ago, they included $48 million in FMAP funding even though they knew Congress had not, and might never, approve it. It was irresponsible, but, they decided, easier than cutting $48 million in spending.

Did you ever think you'd see the day when Democratic legislators in Massachusetts could legitimately claim to have budgeted more responsibly than New Hampshire? What is becoming of our once frugal state?

At G-20, Obama to push for public stimulus spending in Europe

By Scott Wilson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 25, 2010; 1:11 PM

TORONTO -- President Obama arrived for a meeting of world economic powers Friday with a number of achievements already in hand. But he will have a far more difficult time persuading European leaders to follow his wish on an issue he believes is essential to the economic recovery: the need for public stimulus spending.

In the days leading up to the meeting, Obama secured a change in China's currency policy that could benefit U.S. exports, a European commitment to improve bank transparency rules and anagreement on financial regulatory reform legislation that gives him leverage in encouraging others here to take similar steps.

But as he meets with the Group of 8 in a rural resort town north of here, Obama is appealing to European leaders not to trim back public spending in the midst of a growing debt crisis on the continent. His message has been complicated by Congress, which is blocking his own requests for new deficit spending to stimulate the economy.

Obama holds a far less optimistic view than his European counterparts over the state of the global economy, less sure that it has improved sufficiently since the group's London meeting last year to justify a broad government pullback except from those countries suffering a crush of debt.

Whether he succeeds in persuading European leaders to continue drawing on their strained public treasuries at the G-8, which will be followed over the weekend by the broader Group of 20 summit here, could help determine if the staggering recovery gains momentum in the coming months or dips back into the doldrums.

"There is a fundamental issue going into the meeting over the size and shape of the global recovery," said Edwin M. Truman, a senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former assistant Treasury secretary for international affairs. "And it's fair to say that the administration's position is not the same as those of many other countries."

Obama's message places him at odds with such allies as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both of whom have announced austerity measures in recent weeks.

At home, though, Obama is having a hard time putting his money where his message is.

Facing a difficult midterm election season, Congress has approved only about a quarter of the $266 billion in "temporary recovery measures" that the president asked for in his February budget request.

"We need to act in concert for a simple reason: This crisis proved, and events continue to affirm, that our national economies are inextricably linked," Obama said Friday before departing for Canada. "I'll work with other nations not only to coordinate our financial reform efforts, but to promote global economic growth while ensuring that each nation can pursue a path that is sustainable for its own public finances."On Thursday, the Senate blocked a jobs billthat would have extended unemployment benefits and provide aid to cash-starved states, with Republicans saying the $33 billion it would have added to the deficit was too much. The White House condemned "Republican obstruction at a time of great economic challenge for our nation's families."

In his letter last week to G-20 leaders, Obama outlined his more pessimistic view of the economic recovery. He wrote that "significant weaknesses exist across G-20 economies" and warned that after working "exceptionally hard to restore growth we cannot let it falter or lose strength now."

The International Monetary Fund predicts that the U.S. economy will grow more quickly than European economies over the next few years.

But the recent debt crisis in Greece and the vulnerability of other euro-zone countries has made even fiscally secure European countries reluctant to encourage growth with additional public funds or even maintain current spending levels.

"If we don't do something to confront debt, we will be facing increased pressure in the financial markets," said a senior European diplomat in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. "But we also understand what President Obama is saying -- that we can't kill the slow recovery underway."

Congress's reluctance to approve Obama's spending requests, the diplomat said, shows that the United States and Europe are "facing the same problems."

"We're in a somewhat contradictory situation that we have to find our way through," the diplomat said. "In the end, it will be very much a matter of taking this country by country."

In recent weeks, Greece has slashed spending and raised taxes to qualify for an international bailout. Merkel recently proposed cutting defense and public works spending and implementing new taxes, even though Germany's deficit is a relatively safe 5 percent of its gross domestic product.

Sarkozy recently announced tens of billions of dollars in budget cuts and plans to raise the French retirement age to save money on public pensions. British Prime Minister David Cameron also moved to raise the pension age in a budget proposal this week that would also increase taxes and sharply cut government spending.

In his letter, Obama acknowledged Europe's dilemma, saying there is a "need to commit to fiscal adjustments that stabilize debt-to-GDP ratios at appropriate levels." He also warned that such "consolidation" should be done over "the medium term," citing the "consequential mistakes of the past when stimulus was too quickly withdrawn."

But senior administration officials say the United States is doing just that: stepping down quickly from its public spending over the next year. That is happening largely because the $862 billion stimulus measure passed in February 2009 is due to expire next year.

Administration officials say their efforts to encourage private-sector growth, through small-business tax breaks and other legislation, are designed to make up for the decline in stimulus spending.

The somewhat mixed U.S. message to Europeans leaders means the stimulus debate in Toronto will probably revolve around the pace of the spending retreat, European diplomats and administration officials say.

Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Obama and European leaders will seek to "differentiate those exit strategies" in the G-20's concluding statement.

"They'll come up with artful terms to suggest we're continuing to work on these issues," she said. "We haven't reached agreement."

In that way, she said, the meeting here is a prelude to the next gathering scheduled for later this year.

"This is not the summit to say, okay, we've weathered the storm," Conley said. "It's to say we're coming out of this in different places, we need to keep up the progress. And I think you're going to see the agenda developing really for the summit in South Korea in November to see if we really have weathered this European debt crisis."

Guest Post by U.S. Senate Candidate Bill Binnie

As a successful businessman, I watched as the "old-guard" Washington politicians tried to fix our economy with a spending binge. I knew it wouldn’t work. And it hasn’t. The big spending “stimulus” package didn’t turn our economy around; it didn’t spur growth, it didn’t give hope to the jobless. Americans deserve policies that do work.

As someone with plenty of experience in the real-world economy, I know what does work. Our prosperity flows from certain key economic principles: fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government. We need policies that will lower taxes, make government more efficient and eliminate wasteful spending. In short, we need common sense business policies. More importantly, we need to create jobs – good jobs, at good wages.

Fixing our economy won’t be easy. It will require a lot of hard work and a lot of tough decisions. It will also require having leaders in Washington who understand the real-world economy. And that’s why I am running for the US Senate.

As a businessman, I know how to make tough decisions; I know how to balance a budget; I know how to create jobs. And I will use my skills in the US Senate to make a difference. If you support my vision for America, please join my campaign. For more information, please visit: www.binnie2010.com.

Portsmouth, NH Refuses Stimulus Dollars

Here in New Hampshire, we have a new example of a city turning down stimulus money because of the unreasonable and expensive hurdles included in the legislation as a result of special interest giveaways:

As stimulating as it might have sounded at the time, the city recently declined $2.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for its new water treatment plant because federal wage regulations would have forced the city to pay more for the project.

Ranked as the fifth most pressing drinking water project in the state, the state Department of Environmental Services awarded the city $5 million in March 2009 for the project — half of which would be a grant, and the other half borrowed from the state's low-interest revolving loan fund. The award required the city issue an addendum to the request for bids, which was issued a month earlier, asking bidders to include the stimulus money in their proposed budgets.

When the bids came in, the low bidder — Penta Corporation — presented final cost of $21 million with the stimulus funds and $17.3 million without.

So the city said thanks, but no thanks, to the stimulus funds.

"It just didn't make sense," said Deputy Public Works Director David Allen. "It was going to cost us more money to take the money."