Shaheen has a good idea, but wrong solution

Foster's weighs in on Senator Jeanne Shaheen's effort to extend unemployment benefits for workers in state with lower unemployment rates than their neighbors.

Shaheen's proposal calls for an extension of the federal unemployment surtax through June 30, 2011, otherwise scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

Continuing to cull more taxes out of anyone, especially businesses, is a bad idea. This is especially true given recent predictions the unemployment rate will hit 10.2 percent by February.

If anything, Congress should let the surtax expire, giving businesses a tax break that hopefully will ease unemployment.

Those who support extending unemployment benefits should look elsewhere, perhaps to TARP funds which have not yet been put to use.

Political signs: Your stimulus dollars at work

The Union Leader salutes Sen. Gregg (and Shaheen) and scolds the Senate on the effort to stop wasting tax dollars on highway signs.

Adding the cost of those signs for the more than 20,000 stimulus projects nationwide, "we are talking about a cost of somewhere between $6 million and $15 million being spent on signs," Gregg told the Senate. "That is an inexcusable waste of money. That money could be used for something valuable, for example, rather than a sign."

He got only five Democrats (including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen) to vote for his amendment. It failed, 52-45.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., accused Gregg of being "anti-jobs." Actually, he is pro-taxpayer. "The practical effect of this is," he said, "the signs should say 'Wasting taxpayers' dollars; project funded by the future generations of Americans.'"

Roll Call on ACORN Vote

The Roll Call from yesterday's vote to stop sending federal funds to ACORN has been posted. The amendment passed 83-7. Senator Shaheen supported it. Senator Gregg was not present for the vote.

Congress rushes to triple failed program

The House is rushing to pour an additional $2 billion into the Cash for Clunkers boondoogle. That means more of your money, or more likely your grandchildrens' money, will help your neighbor buy a car.

The dead weight loss to the American economy is staggering. Thousands of perfectly good cars will be scrapped because Congress wants to curry favor with car dealers and car companies. Reader William Albenzi reminds me of the Broken Window Parable, in which destruction is mistaken for economic activity. Regardless of the cost to the Treasury, the cost of scrapping functional automobiles for a marginal increase in fuel economy is huge. Even weighed on purely environmental grounds, the benefits of increases as small as one mile per gallon must be offset by the sheer tonnage of rusting hulks added to American scrapyards.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Congressman Paul Hodes tell WMUR-TV that this massive diversion of economic activity is a success. Perhaps next week, they will go around breaking our windows for us.

Jeanne Shaheen: A federal budget to get our economic house in order

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen pens a column in this morning's Union Leader claiming that the Obama Administation's proposed budget increases spending in the short term, but controls deficits long term:

Fiscal discipline is the New Hampshire way, but for far too long it hasn't been the Washington way.

Over the past eight years, politicians in Washington turned a record budget surplus into a record deficit. Federal spending doubled, and our national debt soared to more than $10 trillion. This fiscal recklessness helped fuel the current economic crisis. And now, at the very moment when there is finally the political will in Washington to tackle the debt, we have to spend money to stimulate the economy.

It's the right thing to do in the short term. But in the longer term, we need to get back on the path to a balanced budget. The budget resolution recently passed by Congress addresses both our short-term and long-term economic needs.

There is no credible way to claim that this proposed budget cuts the deficit, short-term, long-term, or ever: