Dana Milbank, Bob Schieffer, and Treasurer of the Regime all promise us that Republicans must give Obama a credit-limit increase or the consequence will be DEFAULT.

Remember, these are the same folks who promised us that the last trillion would “create or save” how many millions of jobs?

The U.S. is not going to default. I won’t bore you with the details. Even Milbank admits we will have $2.2 trillion in cash coming in next year. We can’t run a government on $2.2 trillion? Hmmm. We would have to go all the way back to 1990? 1965? No, 2003. That’s right. We ran an entire country and two wars on $2.2 trillion just eight years ago. And even that was not a particularly lean year by modern standards.

Let’s also keep some perspective: Thailand and Brazil each defaulted, while Mexico opted for a Goldman Sachs–financed bailout. Perhaps default is a necessary prerequisite to offshore drilling.

My son, by virtue of being born, probably owes the government $100,000 for spending that has already taken place. (More on that to come.) Forgive me for preferring to create or save a few grand for him first.

So Obama’s mouthpieces all read the same memo. GM turns a phony profit. Dog bites man. I suppose I never realized how the once-in-a-generation opportunity to raise taxes under the guise of fiscal discipline would seduce even the old-line journalists who are gasping to remain relevant.

I don’t ordinarily post random links, but this was too funny to pass up.

Even on the streets of La Jolla, some jokers managed to add a few punchlines to the Yes on D campaign-slash-swindle.

• Give more to the bums who got us here
• Government employee unions say, Vote Early, Vote Often
• And my personal favorite: How to Bankrupt a City

Which struck me as particularly funny on the day the tough-minded reporters at NPR “broke” the campaign-finance scandal of the decade.

With any luck I will post a picture of this D-faced sign later this week.

Somehow the Land of Reagan became the Son of Brown in less than a generation.

If a moderate Republican cannot pull ahead against a legacy admit even in a year where all signs point to a Republican landslide—well, I won’t pronounce it dead until November 3.

Nevertheless, the boldfaced writing is on the wall. You’re-no-Pat Brown sent us down the inevitable road of decline by allowing public employees to unionize, though of course you wouldn’t know it if you get all your political news from Wikipedia. Jerry the Merciful!

This at a time when the scale of the Pyrite State’s pension underfunding boggles the imagination.

Too soon to return California to its ghost-town roots? Perhaps thoughtful California voters should take a lesson from other union-heavy, Democrat-dominated municipalities.

If it doesn’t change this election cycle, when could it?

Oh, wait, environmentalist outrage extends only to the far side of the primate divide. Perhaps the one-term left-wing hero will find the dodo a post-election habitat somewhere in Chicago?

McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage. That widespread misconception may have originated in part from distorted rhetoric about the legislation bubbling up from the hyper-partisan debate about it in Washington and some media outlets, such as when opponents denounced it as socialism.

Where does one begin? Whose distorted rhetoric? Which media outlets? And how could certain aspects—guaranteed issue, community rating, and the slap-on-the-wrist tax penalty (essentially a wealth transfer)—not fairly be described as creeping socialism?

Two points for a lithe pigeonhole act. To blame “widespread misconceptions” about Dr. Robin Hood’s brainchild on a Republican conspiracy rather than a presidential administration’s unwillingness to acknowledge costs requires a knack for “factuality” I never learned in law school.

A man who believes in the American League but not in America. Stunning?

• Government creates an obstacle (wage controls);
• Private industry works around it (by offering first-party health “insurance”);
• Government responds by deeming the circumvention unfair (while subsidizing it) and sets up programs to give everyone “access” to what its own regulations inspired (Medicare, Social Security, and coverage mandates);
• Prices go up, quality goes down, and government blames private industry (for having the audacity to make a profit selling what government can barely give away);
• And finally, government uses the rising prices as a pretext for taking over the industry.

You didn’t exactly hear it here first. But then how do we explain that the inevitable may unfold notwithstanding our objections?

Our objective is to pass both before the Easter break. Is that going to be difficult? Yes. Is it a deadline? No. Everybody understands that it’s an objective, not a deadline. If we can, we can. If we can’t, we can’t. We will continue to pursue both items.

Huh, I guess not. Reconciliation be damned—the American health care industry be saved!

Newsweek cover: The Case for Killing Granny National Review cover: The Creeping Culture of Euthanasia

Query which is the newsweekly and which is the journal of opinion?

The demise of the former news oligopolist has been largely overlooked, though not by those in the know. News flash: You can’t be a “thought leader” with such drivel on your front page.

And trading off the decades of “goodwill” from consumers whose only option was to switch to Time probably isn’t a winning business strategy.

Whatever the case, I see no indication that Newsweek has acknowledged its unenviable position in the pecking order of left-wing bias, save for the prominent MSNBC link on its website.

Yes, Charlie, the day will come when respectable journalists will sneer about leaving it to “the newsweeklies.” Except they’ll be right.

Obama blows name of favorite team’s home stadium.

Of course, I am sure someone can explain to me why his relentless campaign for quote-unquote universal health care caused him to draw a blank. Because I am sure he spent his childhood memorizing stats and players and fields.

Seriously, just say a few kind words about our national pastime and be done with it.

And please, please do not throw another first pitch.

[P]rofit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long-term perspective on it.

What a hedge—starting to get to the point where they’re a potentially good deal as long as you have a long-term perspective?

Quick, somebody put this guy in charge of the untold trillions going into the already-bankrupt special-purpose entity known as Social Security.

If Bush had said that…

[CBS Host] By the way, do you know the website? [NMW Joe] No, I’m embarrassed. [Looking stage right] Do you know the website number? I should have it in front of me, and I don’t.

If Bush had said that…

UPDATE: And we will find $2 trillion in farm subsidies, defense spending, and corporate tax breaks?

SECOND UPDATE: And we will put the nonexistent war on terror on the balance sheet, but leave the already-bankrupt special-purpose entity known as Social Security off the balance sheet?

Evidently the rightful place for social science is the imagination.