Hole-digging Chicago style

The more things change . . .

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pitching Wall Street investors on the latest city borrowing plan, a $1.2 billion package that, like previous versions, pushes hundreds of millions of dollars of debt into the future at higher costs to taxpayers.

The mayor is continuing scoop-and-toss borrowing, which involves paying off old bonds with the proceeds from new ones — a practice akin to taking out another mortgage on a house to pay off the old mortgage, kicking payments down the road.

An Emanuel budget spokeswoman said this year marks the last scoop-and-toss bond issue.

And I believe her, don’t you?

via Six years after Daley, Emanuel still using high-cost borrowing practices – Chicago Tribune

Schocked, shocked at Chicago story . . .

Is Heather MacDonald allowed to say this about it?

Anti-police activists and the mainstream media are incensed at the suggestion that the Black Lives Matter movement could have influenced the behavior of the four individuals in Chicago who tortured a disabled white man for hours last week while yelling “Fuck white people” and “Fuck Donald Trump.”

In one sense, the activists and media are right: The influences were broader than that. They include the reign of racial victimology, inner-city gang culture, and black anti-white animus.

The people’s court does not think so.

via A Window Into a Depraved Culture | City Journal

Senate Looks to Move Fast on Trump Administration Hearings, Obamacare Repeal

Too fast, say Dems. Too bad, says top GOP solon:

Mr. McConnell brushed aside Democratic complaints Republicans were moving too fast, saying the minority party was was acting out its frustration over the election results.

“We need to grow up here and get past that,” he said. He pointed out that eight years ago when Democrats controlled both the Senate and the White House, seven cabinet officials were confirmed on the day Mr. Obama was sworn into office.

They had no idea how unscrupulous he would be.

Source: Senate Looks to Move Fast on Trump Administration Hearings, Obamacare Repeal – WSJ

Record 95,102,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Number Grew 18% Since Obama Took Office in 2009

Hope and short change:

When President Obama took office in January 2009, 80,529,000 Americans were not in the labor force, the highest number on record. That number rose steadily during his two terms, reaching a record 95,055,000 in November 2016, then setting another record (95,102,000) in December.

80 mill to 95 mill, hmm:

Last month, a record 152,111,000 Americans were counted as employed, up 63,000 from November; and the number of unemployed stood at 7,529,000, an increase of 120,000 from the prior month.

But people who stop looking for a job are no longer counted as unemployed.

They don’t count.

In an interview with a Chicago reporter yesterday, Obama said he has done “an enormous amount” to create greater economic opportunity for Americans.

“I took an economy that was about to go into a Great Depression, and we’ve now had a little over six years of straight economic job growth, an unemployment rate that’s down below 5 percent, and incomes that have gone up and poverty that has gone down.”

And the reporter asked about the people who don’t count, as above. (Just kidding, OK?)

Source: Record 95,102,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Number Grew 18% Since Obama Took Office in 2009