America needs a Balanced Budget Amendment

The Drudge Report Tuesday morning cheekily linked to an official White House transcript of President Obama's remarks from a fundraiser the night before, which noted the audience laughing at his jobs claims.

"Over the last 15 months we’ve created over 2.1 million private sector jobs. (Laughter.)" said Obama per the transcript, emailed to reporters Monday night at around 11:30 p.m.

It did seem a little strange -- because why would Obama supporters laugh at job creation? But the matter prompted some informal wagering within the press corps on the over-under for how long it would take the White House to put an end to the laughter -- especially after the link appeared at the top of the heavily trafficked Drudge site.

At 4:04 p.m. on Tuesday, the corrected transcript appeared: Laughter changed to applause, and noted with an asterisk. The White House declined comment on the record.

40,000 people unemployed in Allentown are not laughing.

The Impact of Growing Deficits and Debt
CBO’s projections in most of the 2011 Long-Term Budget Outlook understate the
severity of the long-term budget problem because they do not incorporate the negative
effects that additional federal debt would have on the economy, nor do they
include the impact of higher tax rates on people’s incentives to work and save. In particular,large budget deficits and growing debt would reduce national saving, leading to higher interest rates, more borrowing from abroad, and less domestic investment—which in turn would lower income growth in the United States.

Taking those effects into account, CBO estimates that under the extended-baseline scenario, real (inflation-adjusted) gross national product (GNP) would be reduced slightly by 2025 and by as much as 2 percent by 2035, compared with what it would be under the stable economic environment that underlies most of the projections in the report released yesterday.4 Under the alternative fiscal scenario, real GNP would be 2 percent to 6 percent lower in 2025, and 7 percent to 18 percent lower in 2035, than under a stable economic environment.

Rising levels of debt also would have other negative consequences that are not incorporated in those estimated effects on output: B Higher levels of debt imply higher interest payments on that debt, which would eventually require either higher taxes or a reduction in government benefits and services. Rising debt would increasingly restrict policymakers’ ability to use tax and spending policies to respond to unexpected challenges, such as economic downturns or financial crises. As a result, the effects of such developments on the economy and people’s well-being could be worse.

GNP differs from GDP primarily by including the capital income that residents earn from investments abroad and excluding the capital income that nonresidents earn from domestic investment.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/122xx/doc12253/06-23-LTBOTestimony.pdf

Mitt Romney uses closed Allentown Business to hit Obama

(Rich Schultz/AP)June 30, 2011By Scott Kraus The Morning CallStanding in front of a chain link fence ringing a now boarded-up metal factory Barack Obama visited in 2009 to tout the economic stimulus, Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney said the president means well, but simply lacks the knowledge to fix the economy.

“This president came here and called this a symbol of hope,” Romney said, standing before the overgrown lot dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt. “It is a symbol of failure, failure of his economic policy. He’s out of his depth. When it comes to getting the economy going, it’s just not something he understands.”

How is that Hope and Change Working For You....