This Week In Quotes (Double Edition): Feb 3 – Feb 16

“Massachusetts is your bitchy spinster telling you to sit up straight.” — Tucker Carlson

The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent. Compounding the problem of high unemployment, the share of unemployed people looking for work for more than six months–referred to as the long-term unemployed–topped 40 percent in December 2009 for the first time since 1948, when such data began to be collected; it has remained above that level ever since. — CBO

“If liberals like it, it’s subsidized; if they don’t, it’s prohibited.” — Ann Coulter

This contraception thing, my gosh, it’s [so] inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they’d use Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly. — Foster Friess

Even if Congress were to enact this budget we would still be left with—in the outer decades as millions of Americans retire—what are still unsustainable commitments in Medicare and Medicaid…With the president’s plan, even if Congress were to enact it, and even if Congress were to hold to it, we would still be left with a very large interest burden and unsustainable obligations over time. — Timothy Geithner

Professing to being liberal and caring, after all, in this era, is more important than being so. — Victor Davis Hanson

Only Orwell could explain why the Mexican government is suing the state of Arizona to force it to accept its own apparently unwanted Mexican nationals who have entered that state illegally: “You better let us export to you our own whom we cannot house or feed adequately (and often will not care to)–or else!” — Victor Davis Hanson

“When I told my dad I wanted an allowance, he asked me, ‘How much are you going to pay me for food & the roof I put over your head?'” — Bobby Jindal

Our paper was one of the first to explore the adverse effect of corporate taxes on worker wages. Using data on more than 100 countries, we found that higher corporate taxes lead to lower wages. In fact, workers shoulder a much larger share of the corporate tax burden (more than 100 percent) than had previously been assumed. The reason the incidence can be higher than 100 percent is neatly explained in a 2006 paper by the famous economist Arnold Harberger.2 Simply put, when taxes are imposed on a corporation, wages are lowered not only for the workers in that firm, but for all workers in the economy since otherwise competition would drive workers away from the low-wage firms. As a result, a $1 corporate income tax on a firm could lead to a $1 loss in wages for workers in that firm, but could also lead to more than a $1 loss overall when we look at the lower wages across all workers. — Aparna Malthur

“Obama has a jobs plan to win the future. WTF? I know, and I’m the idiot?” — Sarah Palin

“I have a question for President Obama: Do you hate all rich people or just the ones that aren’t campaign contributors?” — Rand Paul

Herman Cain, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and now, it seems, Donald Trump have lined up behind Newt Gingrich. It’s convenient to have a candidate like Gingrich who attracts the unserious, the unpresidential, the uninformed and the unpalatable all in one convenient locale. It saves the time and effort needed to determine who is a credible Republican and who is not (Gingrich supporters). The move is yet another boost for Rick Santorum, who definitely is in the category of responsible and credible candidates (whatever you think of his views) and has been struggling to wean the base off its attraction to Gingrich. — Jennifer Rubin

ZeroHedge says that if you add back in the 5 million people who have permanently dropped out the labor force, as reflected in the historical average workforce participations rates, the “implied” unemployment rate is 11.5 percent and rising, not falling. — John Ransom

If you tried to hold a series of potluck dinners where a majority brought nothing to the table, but felt entitled to eat their fill, it would probably work out badly. Yet that’s essentially what we’re doing. In today’s America, government benefits flow to large numbers of people who are encouraged to vote for politicians who’ll keep them coming. The benefits are paid for by other people who, being less numerous, can’t muster enough votes to put this to a stop. Over time, this causes the economy to do worse, pushing more people into the moocher class and further strengthening the politicians whose position depends on robbing Peter to pay Paul. Because, as they say, if you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can be pretty sure of getting Paul’s vote. — Glenn Reynolds

Modern “liberalism” is strikingly illiberal; the high priests of “tolerance” are increasingly intolerant of even the mildest dissent; and those who profess to “celebrate diversity” coerce ever more ruthlessly a narrow homogeneity. — Mark Steyn

Komen’s 2010 donation of $580,000 is less than Ms. Richards’s salary and benefits. Planned Parenthood commandos hacked into the Komen website and changed its slogan from “Help us get 26.2 or 13.1 miles closer to a world without breast cancer” to “Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank.” But, if you’re that eager to run over poor women on the way to the bank, I’d recommend a gig with Planned Parenthood: The average salary of the top eight executives is $270,000, which makes them officially part of what the Obama administration calls “the 1 percent.” In America today, few activities are as profitable as a “non-profit.” Planned Parenthood receives almost half a billion dollars – or about 50 percent of its revenues – in taxpayer funding. — Mark Steyn

“Tell Bob Beckel to leave me alone or I’ll take him on a 7 mile run.” — Allen West

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