*Obama said what about being pro-business? At first I thought it was an April Fools joke, but this happened in February. In an interview with Business Week magazine, President Obama said that he and his top officials are all fierce advocates for a thriving, dynamic free market. In fact, the president claimed, his administration has promoted a fundamentally business-friendly agenda. Sure, if raising taxes, increasing rules and regulations, taking over of medical care and increasing dependence on subsidies are good for business, I guess you can call him pro-business.
*How much would you pay for a cookie and a Coke? USA Today reports that during a three-day conference for its procurement officials (these are the folks whose job it is to buy things at the lowest possible price); NASA paid $62,611 for the 317 attendees to snack on light refreshments. That works out to $66 a day for coffee, soft drinks, bagels and cookies. This is just one more example of how careless bureaucrats can be when it comes to spending your money instead of their own.
*At least they dont all want to come here. The Pew Hispanic Center conducted a survey of how many citizens of Mexico would prefer to live in the United States. Guess what? The report says 46 percent of the population would move north if they could. Gee, thats only another 49 million immigrants. I expected the number to be higher. Are we sure they asked the question in Spanish?
*Can we outsource the census? The U.S. Census Bureau reports that it will spend $14 billion to count all of the people in the U.S. this year. With a total population of around 309 million, that works out to $45 a head. India, meanwhile, is also conducting a census of its population. With a total population of around 1.2 billion people, they expect it to cost $1.2 billion to count them all, or about $1 a head. Next time can we outsource our count to them?
Chip Wood