How does one win an election when unemployment is over 8 percent, gasoline prices are close to four dollar a gallon, when Christianity is under attack in a Christian Nation, when there is an invasion of illegals from around the world into the USA; when blunders are made on the international scale such as aiding the Muslims extremists take over the reign of power in north Africa( Egypt) ; when our fellow Americans are denied military rescue such as in Benghazi Libya; when the administration is involved in selling arms to the Mexican mafia causing the death of our own law officers under the code name of “Fast and Furious”; when our own Law officers such as sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona is constantly under attack by the federal government; when the national debt is closely reaching the moon; when millions of our money (sic) are still sent to foreign countries whose friendship toward the USA is in doubt; when a health care law is about to take affect that would impose hardships to employers, to Christian institutions and to the elderly and could be the end of the best medical practice in the world; when for the first time since the depression of the 30s the value of our dollars is losing ground on the daily basis? How can anyone be reelected with all the problems we are facing and are bound to face?
There are two lines of thoughts. One is that the Republican Party depended too much on the status of our Nation economy and did not bother to let the voters know more about President Barrack H Obama. The other thought is that there might have been too many people that voted that they were not legally entitled to. Is this possible?
CONTINUED: http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2734278%3ABlogPost%3A444746&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post
Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts
Monday, December 3, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
10 Things That Will Happen If Barack Obama Continues To Systematically Legalize Illegal Immigration
Barack Obama seems completely obsessed with systematically legalizing illegal immigration. The United States borders a failed narco-state that is one of the most crime-ridden nations on the entire planet, but Barack Obama refuses to secure the border and the consequences for the American people have been absolutely catastrophic. Right now it is already costing us tens of billions of dollars a year to provide welfare for illegal immigrants and to educate their children in our public schools. Right now illegal immigrants are already working millions of jobs that should belong to American workers. Right now Mexican drug cartels are already active in more than 1,000 U.S. cities. But apparently that is not good enough for Barack Obama. He wants to roll out the red carpet and give the green light to tens of millions more illegal immigrants. Last year, Obama issued a list of 19 factors for government officials to use when deciding whether to use "prosecutorial discretion" in deportation cases. In essence, under that new set of rules criminals and "national security threats" were to be deported and virtually everyone else was to be allowed to stay. But now Barack Obama has taken things to a whole new level. Now, if you are under the age of 30, came to the United States under the age of 16 and have lived here for at least five years you will be able to apply for legal status and a work permit. With the election less than 6 months away it is obvious that Barack Obama is pandering for votes. But this kind of "banana republic politics" is only going to divide America even more deeply and is going to result in some very serious pain for this nation in the years ahead.
How close do you think officials are going to check to see if people applying for this new amnesty are really under the age of 30 or really have been in this country for at least five years?
As I have written about previously, illegal immigrants lie to the IRS all the time. Every year they file hordes of fraudulent tax returns that result in them receiving 4 billion dollars in tax refunds that they are not entitled to.
So if they are willing to even lie to the IRS, then why wouldn't they lie about when they came to the U.S. or about how long they have been here?
For a long time Barack Obama has supported "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants, but now he has essentially turned the entire country into a "sanctuary city". Our immigration laws are still on the books, but everyone knows that Obama is not going to enforce the vast majority of them.
And that is really sad. The United States will always need immigration, but the way that we do things today is really stupid. We make legal immigration an absolute nightmare, but we leave the back door completely wide open for anyone that wants to break the rules and come in illegally. So those that would like to come in legally and do things the right way are greatly discouraged from doing so while criminals, drug dealers, gang members, welfare parasites and those willing to survive in the underground economy are given the green light to come on over any time they would like.
Our immigration system makes no sense whatsoever and now Obama has just made things a whole lot worse.
The following are 10 things that will happen if Barack Obama continues to systematically legalize illegal immigration....
#1 There Will Be Fewer Jobs For American Workers
In the United States today, 53 percent of all college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed. Many of them are absolutely desperate for work.
Overall, there are more than 100 million working age Americans that do not have jobs right now.
Meanwhile, millions of illegal immigrants are occupying jobs that could otherwise be held by American citizens. Many employers prefer to hire illegals because they work for a lot less money.
Sadly, many prominent politicians actually support the "right" of these "undocumented workers" to steal our jobs as a recent article by Devvy Kidd pointed out....
In April 2008, the very popular, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, prostituted himself during a speech for votes at an event sponsored by the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey by assuring his audience illegal aliens were not really here illegally, but were simply “undocumented.”
The 'unofficial' number of unemployed Americans is close to 25 MILLION. Those "undocumented" criminals Gov. Christie refers to are illegally holding 11.5 MILLION jobs that belong to Americans and naturalized citizens. Shame on you, Gov. Christie for thumbing your nose at our federal immigration laws and encouraging even more criminals to break into our country. Roll out the welcome mat. Unemployment in New Jersey is holding at a steady 9.3%. Gov. Christie apparently doesn't care if jobs go to illegal aliens instead of legal citizens in his state. After all, they're simply "undocumented".
#2 Wages For American Workers Will Continue To Decline
When you have a lot more workers competing for the same number of jobs, what happens?
That is right - wages go down.
We are seeing this happen in industry after industry.
For example, several decades ago a roofer could live a nice middle class lifestyle and support an entire family on one income.
But today that is no longer the case.
So what has changed?
A flood of illegal labor has entered the marketplace.
#3 Illegal Immigrants Will Overwhelm Our Welfare System
Every year, illegal immigrants receive tens of billions of dollars in welfare payments. They get free food assistance, free housing assistance, free health care benefits and free education for their children. Life is good if you are an illegal immigrant and you know how to game the system.
In fact, many cities in United States now openly advertise that they will help illegal immigrants with these things.
Unfortunately, according to Devvy Kidd the cost to taxpayers is getting to be astronomical....
Last year alone, the cost to taxpayers of LA County was whopping $600 MILLION dollars in welfare for children of illegal aliens. I guess it doesn't bother the people there getting fleeced in taxes to pay for all that welfare because they continue to elect governors who refuse to lock down the border and sympathizers of the invasion across the southern border of California to their legislature.
Overall, it has been estimated that U.S. taxpayers spend $12,000,000,000 a year on primary and secondary school education for the children of illegal immigrants.
#4 Mexican Drug Cartels Will Establish A Presence In Nearly Every City In The United States
Mexican drug cartels continue to expand their influence inside the United States at a frightening pace. They are slowly taking over our communities. How far do things have to go before we say enough is enough?
The amount of money that Mexican drug cartels bring in from selling drugs inside the United States is absolutely staggering....
In the sober reckoning of the RAND Corporation, for instance, the gross revenue that all Mexican cartels derive from exporting drugs to the United States amounts to only $6.6 billion. By most estimates, though, Sinaloa has achieved a market share of at least 40 percent and perhaps as much as 60 percent, which means that Chapo Guzmán’s organization would appear to enjoy annual revenues of some $3 billion — comparable in terms of earnings to Netflix or, for that matter, to Facebook.
Can you imagine that?
We are talking about serious money.
And Mexican drug cartels are not just operating in huge cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The truth is that they have become deeply embedded in many rural communities as well....
News of cartel machinations are common in cities near the border, such as Phoenix, and the far-flung drug hubs of New York, Chicago or Atlanta, but smaller towns bring business, too. In unsuspecting suburbs and rural areas, police are increasingly finding drugs, guns and money they can trace back to Mexican drug organizations.
The numbers could rise in coming years. The Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center estimates Mexican cartels control distribution of most of the methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana coming into the country, and they're increasingly producing the drugs themselves.
In 2009 and 2010, the center reported, cartels operated in 1,286 U.S. cities, more than five times the number reported in 2008. The center named only 50 cities in 2006.
CONTINUED:
How close do you think officials are going to check to see if people applying for this new amnesty are really under the age of 30 or really have been in this country for at least five years?
As I have written about previously, illegal immigrants lie to the IRS all the time. Every year they file hordes of fraudulent tax returns that result in them receiving 4 billion dollars in tax refunds that they are not entitled to.
So if they are willing to even lie to the IRS, then why wouldn't they lie about when they came to the U.S. or about how long they have been here?
For a long time Barack Obama has supported "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants, but now he has essentially turned the entire country into a "sanctuary city". Our immigration laws are still on the books, but everyone knows that Obama is not going to enforce the vast majority of them.
And that is really sad. The United States will always need immigration, but the way that we do things today is really stupid. We make legal immigration an absolute nightmare, but we leave the back door completely wide open for anyone that wants to break the rules and come in illegally. So those that would like to come in legally and do things the right way are greatly discouraged from doing so while criminals, drug dealers, gang members, welfare parasites and those willing to survive in the underground economy are given the green light to come on over any time they would like.
Our immigration system makes no sense whatsoever and now Obama has just made things a whole lot worse.
The following are 10 things that will happen if Barack Obama continues to systematically legalize illegal immigration....
#1 There Will Be Fewer Jobs For American Workers
In the United States today, 53 percent of all college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed. Many of them are absolutely desperate for work.
Overall, there are more than 100 million working age Americans that do not have jobs right now.
Meanwhile, millions of illegal immigrants are occupying jobs that could otherwise be held by American citizens. Many employers prefer to hire illegals because they work for a lot less money.
Sadly, many prominent politicians actually support the "right" of these "undocumented workers" to steal our jobs as a recent article by Devvy Kidd pointed out....
In April 2008, the very popular, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, prostituted himself during a speech for votes at an event sponsored by the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey by assuring his audience illegal aliens were not really here illegally, but were simply “undocumented.”
The 'unofficial' number of unemployed Americans is close to 25 MILLION. Those "undocumented" criminals Gov. Christie refers to are illegally holding 11.5 MILLION jobs that belong to Americans and naturalized citizens. Shame on you, Gov. Christie for thumbing your nose at our federal immigration laws and encouraging even more criminals to break into our country. Roll out the welcome mat. Unemployment in New Jersey is holding at a steady 9.3%. Gov. Christie apparently doesn't care if jobs go to illegal aliens instead of legal citizens in his state. After all, they're simply "undocumented".
#2 Wages For American Workers Will Continue To Decline
When you have a lot more workers competing for the same number of jobs, what happens?
That is right - wages go down.
We are seeing this happen in industry after industry.
For example, several decades ago a roofer could live a nice middle class lifestyle and support an entire family on one income.
But today that is no longer the case.
So what has changed?
A flood of illegal labor has entered the marketplace.
#3 Illegal Immigrants Will Overwhelm Our Welfare System
Every year, illegal immigrants receive tens of billions of dollars in welfare payments. They get free food assistance, free housing assistance, free health care benefits and free education for their children. Life is good if you are an illegal immigrant and you know how to game the system.
In fact, many cities in United States now openly advertise that they will help illegal immigrants with these things.
Unfortunately, according to Devvy Kidd the cost to taxpayers is getting to be astronomical....
Last year alone, the cost to taxpayers of LA County was whopping $600 MILLION dollars in welfare for children of illegal aliens. I guess it doesn't bother the people there getting fleeced in taxes to pay for all that welfare because they continue to elect governors who refuse to lock down the border and sympathizers of the invasion across the southern border of California to their legislature.
Overall, it has been estimated that U.S. taxpayers spend $12,000,000,000 a year on primary and secondary school education for the children of illegal immigrants.
#4 Mexican Drug Cartels Will Establish A Presence In Nearly Every City In The United States
Mexican drug cartels continue to expand their influence inside the United States at a frightening pace. They are slowly taking over our communities. How far do things have to go before we say enough is enough?
The amount of money that Mexican drug cartels bring in from selling drugs inside the United States is absolutely staggering....
In the sober reckoning of the RAND Corporation, for instance, the gross revenue that all Mexican cartels derive from exporting drugs to the United States amounts to only $6.6 billion. By most estimates, though, Sinaloa has achieved a market share of at least 40 percent and perhaps as much as 60 percent, which means that Chapo Guzmán’s organization would appear to enjoy annual revenues of some $3 billion — comparable in terms of earnings to Netflix or, for that matter, to Facebook.
Can you imagine that?
We are talking about serious money.
And Mexican drug cartels are not just operating in huge cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The truth is that they have become deeply embedded in many rural communities as well....
News of cartel machinations are common in cities near the border, such as Phoenix, and the far-flung drug hubs of New York, Chicago or Atlanta, but smaller towns bring business, too. In unsuspecting suburbs and rural areas, police are increasingly finding drugs, guns and money they can trace back to Mexican drug organizations.
The numbers could rise in coming years. The Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center estimates Mexican cartels control distribution of most of the methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana coming into the country, and they're increasingly producing the drugs themselves.
In 2009 and 2010, the center reported, cartels operated in 1,286 U.S. cities, more than five times the number reported in 2008. The center named only 50 cities in 2006.
CONTINUED:
Monday, June 18, 2012
ALERT!! OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR AMNESTY!
A Message from MOORE TEA CITIZENS!
http://www.mooreteacitizens.com/
Protest Obama's Amnesty by Executive Order issued on Friday, June 15, 2012.
According to the New York Times article of Friday, June 15, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/us/us-to-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants.html
"Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants [others say 800,000 - 1,000,000] who came to the United States as children will be allowed to remain in the country without fear of deportation and able to work, under an executive action the Obama administration announced on Friday.....The policy, while not granting any permanent legal status, clears the way for young illegal immigrants to come out of the shadows, work legally and obtain driver's licenses and many other documents they have lacked.....
Under the change, the Department of Homeland Security will no longer initiate the deportation of illegal immigrants who came to the United States before age 16, have lived here for at least five years, and are in school, are high school graduates or are military veterans in good standing. The immigrants must also be under 30 and have clean criminal records. ...."
CALL SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TO OPPOSE THIS ILLEGAL USURPATION OF POWER BY THE PRESIDENT. ASK THEM TO SPONSOR A BILL IN CONGRESS OUTLAWING IT. WE NEED TO STOP THIS EXECUTIVE ORDER IMMEDIATELY.
Senator Marco Rubio 202-224-3041 - because he planned to introduce a bill similar to the DREAM Act, and the President had to upstage him.
Senator Richard Burr 202-224-3154
Senator Kay Hagan 202-224-6342
Congressman Howard Coble 202-225-3065
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers 202-225-4531
Other legislators can be accessed via http://www.usa.gov/
WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITORS OF NEWSPAPERS TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE.
Talking Points:
1. Giving work permits to illegal youth, when we have such high unemployment, especially when the unemployment rate of black youth is skyrocketing, will only further exacerbate unemployment of citizens and increase costs for the unemployed, legal and illegal.
2. The President is giving speeches about improving the economy. This Executive Order is antithetical to improving the economy.
3. This act will encourage more illegal immigration and flood the border with parents bringing children to the U.S., further deteriorating U.S. security.
4. The President is becoming increasingly dictatorial and is overriding Congress' power. Congress voted against the DREAM Act. The President has admitted in the past that he could not act against this. Now apparently he has decided that he can.
Additional information can be obtained from the following articles.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/0615/DREAM-Act-stalled-Obama-halts-deportations-for-young-illegal-immigrants-video
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-will-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants-who-came-here-as-children/2012/06/15/gJQANBbseV_story.html
http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/immigration/deportation-of-young-illegal-immigrants-to-end-20120615
http://www.kval.com/news/national/Sources-Immunity-offered-to-certain-illegal-immigrants-159184665.html
See video of President's speech
http://steveking.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4429:king-obamas-dream-act-executive-order-violates-constitution&catid=71:press-releases&Itemid=300164&Itemid=300099
http://nancysniche.hubpages.com/hub/Obamas-Executive-Order-for-Illegal-Immigrants
Given the President's present usurpation of Congressional authority, will the President usurp power in other areas? If there is a crisis in the Mideast or with North Korea, will the President declare a state of emergency and seize complete control?
http://www.mooreteacitizens.com/
Protest Obama's Amnesty by Executive Order issued on Friday, June 15, 2012.
According to the New York Times article of Friday, June 15, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/us/us-to-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants.html
"Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants [others say 800,000 - 1,000,000] who came to the United States as children will be allowed to remain in the country without fear of deportation and able to work, under an executive action the Obama administration announced on Friday.....The policy, while not granting any permanent legal status, clears the way for young illegal immigrants to come out of the shadows, work legally and obtain driver's licenses and many other documents they have lacked.....
Under the change, the Department of Homeland Security will no longer initiate the deportation of illegal immigrants who came to the United States before age 16, have lived here for at least five years, and are in school, are high school graduates or are military veterans in good standing. The immigrants must also be under 30 and have clean criminal records. ...."
CALL SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TO OPPOSE THIS ILLEGAL USURPATION OF POWER BY THE PRESIDENT. ASK THEM TO SPONSOR A BILL IN CONGRESS OUTLAWING IT. WE NEED TO STOP THIS EXECUTIVE ORDER IMMEDIATELY.
Senator Marco Rubio 202-224-3041 - because he planned to introduce a bill similar to the DREAM Act, and the President had to upstage him.
Senator Richard Burr 202-224-3154
Senator Kay Hagan 202-224-6342
Congressman Howard Coble 202-225-3065
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers 202-225-4531
Other legislators can be accessed via http://www.usa.gov/
WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITORS OF NEWSPAPERS TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE.
Talking Points:
1. Giving work permits to illegal youth, when we have such high unemployment, especially when the unemployment rate of black youth is skyrocketing, will only further exacerbate unemployment of citizens and increase costs for the unemployed, legal and illegal.
2. The President is giving speeches about improving the economy. This Executive Order is antithetical to improving the economy.
3. This act will encourage more illegal immigration and flood the border with parents bringing children to the U.S., further deteriorating U.S. security.
4. The President is becoming increasingly dictatorial and is overriding Congress' power. Congress voted against the DREAM Act. The President has admitted in the past that he could not act against this. Now apparently he has decided that he can.
Additional information can be obtained from the following articles.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/0615/DREAM-Act-stalled-Obama-halts-deportations-for-young-illegal-immigrants-video
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-will-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants-who-came-here-as-children/2012/06/15/gJQANBbseV_story.html
http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/immigration/deportation-of-young-illegal-immigrants-to-end-20120615
http://www.kval.com/news/national/Sources-Immunity-offered-to-certain-illegal-immigrants-159184665.html
See video of President's speech
http://steveking.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4429:king-obamas-dream-act-executive-order-violates-constitution&catid=71:press-releases&Itemid=300164&Itemid=300099
http://nancysniche.hubpages.com/hub/Obamas-Executive-Order-for-Illegal-Immigrants
Given the President's present usurpation of Congressional authority, will the President usurp power in other areas? If there is a crisis in the Mideast or with North Korea, will the President declare a state of emergency and seize complete control?
Friday, April 6, 2012
The unemployment rate drops to 8.2% for one simple reason: the government lies
Truth vs. Propaganda.
The media is trumpeting another fall in unemployment today as the number of jobs created was only 60% of the expected 203,000. If the expectations had been met, unemployment should have stayed level at 8.3%. The propaganda media ignores this reality and glorifies this as good news since unemployment fell to 8.2%. Really? Removing people from the workforce denominator to adjust the numerator to a lower number will actually be believed by educated Americans? The answer is yes: if it worked in the past, it will continue to work in the future. An analysis from Zerohedge.computs this into perspective:CONTINUED: http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3355873%3ABlogPost%3A1953548&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post
Thursday, March 15, 2012
OBAMACARE NEWS
CBO: 4 million to lose employer insurance by 2016--White House Dossier A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office states that by 2016, Obamacare will result in 4 million people fewer people getting health insurance coverage from their employers. The estimate is a vast increase from the CBO prediction just a year ago that 1 million would no longer obtain coverage from their employers.
The estimate is a vast increase from the CBO prediction just a year ago that 1 million would no longer obtain coverage from their employers. And it raises substantial questions about the veracity of one of Obama’s key pledges in selling the health care law — that everyone who wants to keep their current health insurance plan and doctor could do it.
New CBO health law estimate shows much higher spending past first 10 years
Side Effects: Doctors Fear Obamacare--The American public doesn’t support Obamacare, and a new survey shows that doctors have an even worse opinion. No one has a better grasp on the state of the health care system than physicians, and according to the Doctors Company survey, 60 percent of them believe that Obamacare will have a negative impact on overall patient care. This survey is consistent with the findings of another doctor survey taken in October 2010, which also showed doctors’ lack of confidence in Obamacare.
The survey was conducted to unveil physicians’ concerns about health care reform. The Doctors Company, which is the largest insurer of physician and surgeon medical liability in the nation, received more than 5,000 surveys, including all specialties and every region in the country. The results weren’t good for the President’s signature piece of legislation.
How Health Reform Increases Unemployment--The $2,000-per-employee tax on businesses employing 50 workers or more if they fail to make available government-approved health plans will amount to 15 percent of average annual earnings in the food and beverage industry and 9 percent in retail trade
The estimate is a vast increase from the CBO prediction just a year ago that 1 million would no longer obtain coverage from their employers. And it raises substantial questions about the veracity of one of Obama’s key pledges in selling the health care law — that everyone who wants to keep their current health insurance plan and doctor could do it.
New CBO health law estimate shows much higher spending past first 10 years
Side Effects: Doctors Fear Obamacare--The American public doesn’t support Obamacare, and a new survey shows that doctors have an even worse opinion. No one has a better grasp on the state of the health care system than physicians, and according to the Doctors Company survey, 60 percent of them believe that Obamacare will have a negative impact on overall patient care. This survey is consistent with the findings of another doctor survey taken in October 2010, which also showed doctors’ lack of confidence in Obamacare.
The survey was conducted to unveil physicians’ concerns about health care reform. The Doctors Company, which is the largest insurer of physician and surgeon medical liability in the nation, received more than 5,000 surveys, including all specialties and every region in the country. The results weren’t good for the President’s signature piece of legislation.
How Health Reform Increases Unemployment--The $2,000-per-employee tax on businesses employing 50 workers or more if they fail to make available government-approved health plans will amount to 15 percent of average annual earnings in the food and beverage industry and 9 percent in retail trade
Friday, February 24, 2012
SUN JOURNAL LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember FDR, by CCTA Member Carlton Melvin
February 23, 2012
Remember FDR
How often do we hear GOP politicians, pundits and the general populace mindlessly espouse the political vulnerability of President Obama due to the sorry state of the economy.
Fact is the economy was far worse at this same time during FDR’s first term. Unemployment was more than double what we have now and he was re-elected in a landslide proving that dependency on the government pays off.
Obama is well aware of this but the GOP and the media obviously still don’t get it. Growing numbers of Americans on food stamps, existing jobs propped up by bailouts, mortgage payments in arrears subsidized by government intervention. Recipients of this mass government rescue are, of course, potential voters who will vote for their “rescuers” even if the rescuers happen to be the very reason for their plight in the first place. Wouldn’t most?
Obama’s glee is further fortified as he observes the GOP candidates and their “character assassination” circus demean their presidential images.
The election is far from being “in the Republican bag”. It must not be forgotten that dependency always pays off for politicians, even when it has in fact critically wounded an economy along with its society.
The GOP should erase all smugness and remember FDR!
Carlton Melvin, Havelock
http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/hear-104510-populace-letter.html
Remember FDR
How often do we hear GOP politicians, pundits and the general populace mindlessly espouse the political vulnerability of President Obama due to the sorry state of the economy.
Fact is the economy was far worse at this same time during FDR’s first term. Unemployment was more than double what we have now and he was re-elected in a landslide proving that dependency on the government pays off.
Obama is well aware of this but the GOP and the media obviously still don’t get it. Growing numbers of Americans on food stamps, existing jobs propped up by bailouts, mortgage payments in arrears subsidized by government intervention. Recipients of this mass government rescue are, of course, potential voters who will vote for their “rescuers” even if the rescuers happen to be the very reason for their plight in the first place. Wouldn’t most?
Obama’s glee is further fortified as he observes the GOP candidates and their “character assassination” circus demean their presidential images.
The election is far from being “in the Republican bag”. It must not be forgotten that dependency always pays off for politicians, even when it has in fact critically wounded an economy along with its society.
The GOP should erase all smugness and remember FDR!
Carlton Melvin, Havelock
http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/hear-104510-populace-letter.html
Friday, February 10, 2012
Message from NC Senator Richard Burr
February 10, 2012
This Week in Washington: Unemployment Benefits Reform Act
This week, I introduced a bill called the Unemployment Benefits Reform Act of 2012 which would individuals who have been unemployed for six months or more to complete 20 hours of public service and 20 hours of active job search or other work related activities per week as conditions for receipt of federal extended unemployment benefits. The United States economy is suffering, and we are experiencing record levels of sustained unemployment. Being unemployed for an extended length of time can be demoralizing for people looking for work, but engagement in volunteer service will encourage unemployed workers to maintain job skills, marketability, and a sense of self-worth while providing for the betterment of their communities. Even more, the active job search requirement will enhance the integrity of the unemployment system and its ability to identify and serve those most in need.
Public service may be fulfilled by working for a 501( c ) (3) organization or a federal, state or local agency, and the bill protects government workers from displacement by only permitting volunteering with a governmental agency when permitted by current law. However, with nearly 13 million unemployed Americans and potentially limited opportunities for voluntary service, states would have the discretionary power to waive the requirement for individuals who had made a concerted effort to volunteer. In addition, unemployed individuals may be exempt from the public service requirement due to illness, family emergency, or if they are unable to perform public service due to child care responsibilities or lack of transportation.
Work related activities include subsidized private sector employment; subsidized public sector employment; work experience (including work associated with the refurbishing of publicly assisted housing); on-the-job training; job readiness assistance; vocational educational training, education directly related to employment, receiving a high school diploma or a certificate of high school equivalency; and providing child care services to an individual who is participating in a community service program.
Not only will this bill improve the stability of our unemployment system, it will also keep the morale, and more importantly, the employability, as high as possible for those looking for work.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
On Thursday, I signed on as a cosponsor of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012, a bill introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) that would repeal the recent mandate under the President’s health care law that violates religious liberties and conscience rights of faith-based institutions by forcing them to offer employees insurance coverage for contraception free of charge. This mandate is an example of the White House’s complete disrespect for religious beliefs, which has deeply offended many Americans and institutions who do not want to have to choose between providing health insurance for their employees and abandoning the religious beliefs and morals they hold dear.
Religious liberty is one of the most valued freedoms upon which this nation was founded, and I hope that President Obama will reverse this unprecedented federal mandate that conflicts with long-standing religious freedoms and conscience protections.
http://burr.senate.gov/public/
This Week in Washington: Unemployment Benefits Reform Act
This week, I introduced a bill called the Unemployment Benefits Reform Act of 2012 which would individuals who have been unemployed for six months or more to complete 20 hours of public service and 20 hours of active job search or other work related activities per week as conditions for receipt of federal extended unemployment benefits. The United States economy is suffering, and we are experiencing record levels of sustained unemployment. Being unemployed for an extended length of time can be demoralizing for people looking for work, but engagement in volunteer service will encourage unemployed workers to maintain job skills, marketability, and a sense of self-worth while providing for the betterment of their communities. Even more, the active job search requirement will enhance the integrity of the unemployment system and its ability to identify and serve those most in need.
Public service may be fulfilled by working for a 501( c ) (3) organization or a federal, state or local agency, and the bill protects government workers from displacement by only permitting volunteering with a governmental agency when permitted by current law. However, with nearly 13 million unemployed Americans and potentially limited opportunities for voluntary service, states would have the discretionary power to waive the requirement for individuals who had made a concerted effort to volunteer. In addition, unemployed individuals may be exempt from the public service requirement due to illness, family emergency, or if they are unable to perform public service due to child care responsibilities or lack of transportation.
Work related activities include subsidized private sector employment; subsidized public sector employment; work experience (including work associated with the refurbishing of publicly assisted housing); on-the-job training; job readiness assistance; vocational educational training, education directly related to employment, receiving a high school diploma or a certificate of high school equivalency; and providing child care services to an individual who is participating in a community service program.
Not only will this bill improve the stability of our unemployment system, it will also keep the morale, and more importantly, the employability, as high as possible for those looking for work.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
On Thursday, I signed on as a cosponsor of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012, a bill introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) that would repeal the recent mandate under the President’s health care law that violates religious liberties and conscience rights of faith-based institutions by forcing them to offer employees insurance coverage for contraception free of charge. This mandate is an example of the White House’s complete disrespect for religious beliefs, which has deeply offended many Americans and institutions who do not want to have to choose between providing health insurance for their employees and abandoning the religious beliefs and morals they hold dear.
Religious liberty is one of the most valued freedoms upon which this nation was founded, and I hope that President Obama will reverse this unprecedented federal mandate that conflicts with long-standing religious freedoms and conscience protections.
http://burr.senate.gov/public/
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The politics of who pays taxes
Why does Barack Obama play the politics of division on the income tax question? At the State of the Union Address Obama was at it again, quick to point out that “Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.”
It’s not that hard to understand once one looks at the numbers. It’s less about who pays taxes, or how much they pay, than it is about who doesn’t. Most voting-age Americans do not pay income taxes — approximately 50.6 percent. That includes 53.91 million Americans who pay nothing in income taxes, and 64.7 million who get refunds in excess of what was owed. That’s 118.61 million out of 234.6 million Americans 18 years and older, based on data compiled by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the U.S. Census Bureau.
As a subset, the non-income taxpayers include 35.1 million who do pay payroll taxes but do not make enough or have enough deductions and credits that they do not have an income tax liability, based on data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing 148.8 million Americans who have jobs full-time and part-time.
That leaves 116 million Americans who do pay income taxes, 49.4 percent of the voting-age population.
Further weighing the argument in his favor, when Obama talks about raising taxes on the upper-income brackets, he’s talking about just 3.9 million Americans who make $200,000 or more in Gross Adjusted Income according to the Internal Revenue Service. When he invokes the Buffett Rule, proposing raising capital gains taxes for those who earn more than $1 million, he’s only talking about 450,000 Americans.
That’s less than 2 percent of the voting-age population. And Obama’s betting that even if every single one of them voted against him, appealing to the 98 percent of voters whose tax rates would remain the same will help him get re-elected.
That is, if the tax rates of the wealthy become a front and center issue in the 2012 election. If they do, the political advantage will shift to Obama.
To disarm the Obama class warfare strategy, Republicans in 2012 will need to focus not on fairness in the tax code or over who pays taxes — which is to fight the battle on Obama’s terms — but to shine the spotlight on Obama’s lousy economic and fiscal record.
The fact is, the Obama economy has failed to create enough jobs to even keep pace with the growth of the population. Since Obama took office, the civilian labor force participation rate has dropped from 65.7 percent to just 64 percent, resulting in a loss of about 4 million people from being counted as unemployed even though they are of working age — because they’ve given up.
If those 4 million were included in the labor force, the effective unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent, and the underemployed rate 17 percent, instead of 8.5 and 15.2 percent, respectively. Overall, there’s about 27 million working age adults who cannot find full-time work but would like to.
CONTINUED:
http://netrightdaily.com/2012/02/the-politics-of-who-pays-taxes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NetrightDaily+%28NetRight+Daily%29
It’s not that hard to understand once one looks at the numbers. It’s less about who pays taxes, or how much they pay, than it is about who doesn’t. Most voting-age Americans do not pay income taxes — approximately 50.6 percent. That includes 53.91 million Americans who pay nothing in income taxes, and 64.7 million who get refunds in excess of what was owed. That’s 118.61 million out of 234.6 million Americans 18 years and older, based on data compiled by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the U.S. Census Bureau.
As a subset, the non-income taxpayers include 35.1 million who do pay payroll taxes but do not make enough or have enough deductions and credits that they do not have an income tax liability, based on data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing 148.8 million Americans who have jobs full-time and part-time.
That leaves 116 million Americans who do pay income taxes, 49.4 percent of the voting-age population.
Further weighing the argument in his favor, when Obama talks about raising taxes on the upper-income brackets, he’s talking about just 3.9 million Americans who make $200,000 or more in Gross Adjusted Income according to the Internal Revenue Service. When he invokes the Buffett Rule, proposing raising capital gains taxes for those who earn more than $1 million, he’s only talking about 450,000 Americans.
That’s less than 2 percent of the voting-age population. And Obama’s betting that even if every single one of them voted against him, appealing to the 98 percent of voters whose tax rates would remain the same will help him get re-elected.
That is, if the tax rates of the wealthy become a front and center issue in the 2012 election. If they do, the political advantage will shift to Obama.
To disarm the Obama class warfare strategy, Republicans in 2012 will need to focus not on fairness in the tax code or over who pays taxes — which is to fight the battle on Obama’s terms — but to shine the spotlight on Obama’s lousy economic and fiscal record.
The fact is, the Obama economy has failed to create enough jobs to even keep pace with the growth of the population. Since Obama took office, the civilian labor force participation rate has dropped from 65.7 percent to just 64 percent, resulting in a loss of about 4 million people from being counted as unemployed even though they are of working age — because they’ve given up.
If those 4 million were included in the labor force, the effective unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent, and the underemployed rate 17 percent, instead of 8.5 and 15.2 percent, respectively. Overall, there’s about 27 million working age adults who cannot find full-time work but would like to.
CONTINUED:
http://netrightdaily.com/2012/02/the-politics-of-who-pays-taxes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NetrightDaily+%28NetRight+Daily%29
Monday, January 30, 2012
America Then and Now – Obama Policies Have Put America at Risk
In 1980, President Ronald Reagan asked the American people if they were better off after nearly four years of President Jimmy Carter. The answer was an obvious NO! If you listen to President Obama you might think all is well in America. We all know better. The chart below shows just how bad things are. I encourage you to review and share with others.
Thanks,
Walter Jones
America Then and Now – Obama Policies Have Put America at Risk
America Before President Obama Took Office and Now
Before Now Change
Number of Unemployed1 12.0 Million 13.1 Million +9%
Long-Term Unemployed2 2.7 Million 5.6 Million +107%
Unemployment Rate3 7.8% 8.5% +9%
“High Unemployment” States4 22 43 +95%
Misery Index5 7.83 11.46 +46%
Price of Gas6 $1.85 $3.39 +83%
“Typical” Monthly Family
Food Cost7 $974 $1,013 +4%
Median Value of Single-Family
Home8 $196,600 $169,100 -14%
Rate of Mortgage
Delinquencies9 6.62% 10.23% +55%
U.S. National Debt10 $10.6 Trillion $15.2 Trillion +43%
1 Number of unemployed in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
2 “Long-term unemployed” means for over 26 weeks; data for January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
3 Unemployment rates in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
4 “High unemployment” means having a 3-month average unemployment rate of 6% or higher. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Extended Benefits Trigger Notice” for January 18, 2009 and January 22, 2012. http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/trigger/2009/trig_011809.html and http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/euc_trigger/2012/euc_012212.html.
5 The “Misery Index” equals unemployment plus inflation. For January 2009 and December 2012. http://www.miseryindex.us/indexbymonth.asp.
6 Average retail price per gallon, January 2009 week 3 and January 2012 week 4. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W.
7 U.S. Department of Agriculture, values represent monthly “moderate” cost per family of four for January 2009 and November 2011. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm.
8 U.S. median sales price of existing single-family homes for metropolitan areas for 2008 and 2011 Q3. http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice.
9 Residential mortgage delinquencies (real estate loans) for 2008 Q4 and 2011 Q3. http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/default.htm.
10 Values for January 21, 2009 and January 23, 2012. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np.
Thanks,
Walter Jones
America Then and Now – Obama Policies Have Put America at Risk
America Before President Obama Took Office and Now
Before Now Change
Number of Unemployed1 12.0 Million 13.1 Million +9%
Long-Term Unemployed2 2.7 Million 5.6 Million +107%
Unemployment Rate3 7.8% 8.5% +9%
“High Unemployment” States4 22 43 +95%
Misery Index5 7.83 11.46 +46%
Price of Gas6 $1.85 $3.39 +83%
“Typical” Monthly Family
Food Cost7 $974 $1,013 +4%
Median Value of Single-Family
Home8 $196,600 $169,100 -14%
Rate of Mortgage
Delinquencies9 6.62% 10.23% +55%
U.S. National Debt10 $10.6 Trillion $15.2 Trillion +43%
1 Number of unemployed in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
2 “Long-term unemployed” means for over 26 weeks; data for January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
3 Unemployment rates in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
4 “High unemployment” means having a 3-month average unemployment rate of 6% or higher. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Extended Benefits Trigger Notice” for January 18, 2009 and January 22, 2012. http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/trigger/2009/trig_011809.html and http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/euc_trigger/2012/euc_012212.html.
5 The “Misery Index” equals unemployment plus inflation. For January 2009 and December 2012. http://www.miseryindex.us/indexbymonth.asp.
6 Average retail price per gallon, January 2009 week 3 and January 2012 week 4. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W.
7 U.S. Department of Agriculture, values represent monthly “moderate” cost per family of four for January 2009 and November 2011. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm.
8 U.S. median sales price of existing single-family homes for metropolitan areas for 2008 and 2011 Q3. http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice.
9 Residential mortgage delinquencies (real estate loans) for 2008 Q4 and 2011 Q3. http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/default.htm.
10 Values for January 21, 2009 and January 23, 2012. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np.
Monday, January 16, 2012
TPN—David Gerolamo: Executive Orders Catching up to Congressional Legislation?
Congress passed "only" 80 bills in 2011 making this their least productive year since records began in 1947. I suppose Congress could not go back and count legislation passed in previous years.
Is this a bad thing? Looking back on last year, we still have no budget, Boehner ceded debt ceiling raises to the president in August, twelve (out of 535) Congressional voted to continued unemployment and tax cuts, and their grand finale was the NDAA stripping large portions of the Bill of Rights from the people.
What about the president? Well he has been pretty busy in 2011. He signed 34 new executive orders. My personal favorite is Executive Order 13589:http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3355873%3ABlogPost%3A1784444&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post
Executive Order 13589 of November 9, 2011--Promoting Efficient Spending
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to further promote efficient spending in the Federal Government, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. My Administration is committed to cutting waste in Federal Government spending and identifying opportunities to promote efficient and effective spending. The Federal Government performs critical functions that support the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.
As they serve taxpayers, executive departments and agencies (agencies) also must act in a fiscally responsible manner, including by minimizing their costs, in order to perform these mission-critical functions in the most efficient, cost-effective way. As such, I have pursued an aggressive agenda for reducing administrative costs since taking office and, most recently, within my Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. Building on this effort, I direct agency heads to take even more aggressive.
More...
Is this a bad thing? Looking back on last year, we still have no budget, Boehner ceded debt ceiling raises to the president in August, twelve (out of 535) Congressional voted to continued unemployment and tax cuts, and their grand finale was the NDAA stripping large portions of the Bill of Rights from the people.
What about the president? Well he has been pretty busy in 2011. He signed 34 new executive orders. My personal favorite is Executive Order 13589:http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3355873%3ABlogPost%3A1784444&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post
Executive Order 13589 of November 9, 2011--Promoting Efficient Spending
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to further promote efficient spending in the Federal Government, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. My Administration is committed to cutting waste in Federal Government spending and identifying opportunities to promote efficient and effective spending. The Federal Government performs critical functions that support the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.
As they serve taxpayers, executive departments and agencies (agencies) also must act in a fiscally responsible manner, including by minimizing their costs, in order to perform these mission-critical functions in the most efficient, cost-effective way. As such, I have pursued an aggressive agenda for reducing administrative costs since taking office and, most recently, within my Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. Building on this effort, I direct agency heads to take even more aggressive.
More...
Friday, January 6, 2012
Morning Bell: Beneath Growth, a Sea of Poison
January 6, 2012
Today’s jobs report from the Department of Labor was encouraging news for the U.S. economy. It shows that 200,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.7 percent to 8.5 percent. Jobs were created in every sector of the economy save one — government! This report is consistent with other economic indicators and shows that the economy is finally coming out of its malaise. But like any reports, they must be put into context. The creation of 200,000 new jobs is solid growth and above the 130,000 to 150,000 new jobs that must be created to keep up with population growth. However, this doesn’t mean happy times are here again.
There are not enough Americans working or looking for work. In fact participation in the labor force is at its lowest point in 30 years as many potential workers are not yet even attempting to find jobs. Moreover, at this stage in a recovery, new jobs should be surging instead of averaging less than 140,000 for the last three months. So all is not well and President Obama should not check the “mission accomplished” box. In fact, Obama’s painful economic policies will only serve to further hamstring America’s economic engine, thereby preventing a truly strong, vibrant economy that the country is capable of having.
The President single-handedly unleashed another poison pill on Wednesday with the White House’s announcement that he will exact another illegal, unconstitutional end-run around Congress with the appointment of three new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) without Senate approval, all of whom are union officials. Here’s why that matters.
The NLRB is a five-member board that is responsible for investigating unfair labor practices, creating labor-related rules, and conducting elections for labor union representation. Last year the NLRB enacted measures shortening union elections to as little as 14 days, limiting employees’ ability to hear from both sides before they vote, allowing unions to cherry-pick which workers in a company can vote on unionizing, and preventing workers from insisting on a secret ballot in union drives, as Heritage’s James Sherk explains. These measures will make it much easier for unions to organize workers — but at the expense of workers’ rights. If workers want to join a union they have that right — management gets the union it deserves — but the government should not limit their rights in order to press workers into unionizing.
Prior to the President’s appointments, the NLRB had only three sitting members, with the one member’s term ending at the end of 2012. Were the NLRB to go down to two members, it wouldn’t have a quorum to conduct its business, meaning that the President’s Big Labor agenda couldn’t be enacted. Now, though, the President has appointed three new members who will undoubtedly carry out his agenda without any checks or balances.
And that agenda is to bolster America’s unions — a key constituency and political force standing behind the President. Unfortunately, their goal is not primarily to protect workers. The trouble is that the Big Labor agenda is fundamentally at odds with the pro-growth agenda that America is so thirsty for. Sherk explains:
CONTINUED:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/06/morning-bell-beneath-growth-a-sea-of-poison/
Today’s jobs report from the Department of Labor was encouraging news for the U.S. economy. It shows that 200,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.7 percent to 8.5 percent. Jobs were created in every sector of the economy save one — government! This report is consistent with other economic indicators and shows that the economy is finally coming out of its malaise. But like any reports, they must be put into context. The creation of 200,000 new jobs is solid growth and above the 130,000 to 150,000 new jobs that must be created to keep up with population growth. However, this doesn’t mean happy times are here again.
There are not enough Americans working or looking for work. In fact participation in the labor force is at its lowest point in 30 years as many potential workers are not yet even attempting to find jobs. Moreover, at this stage in a recovery, new jobs should be surging instead of averaging less than 140,000 for the last three months. So all is not well and President Obama should not check the “mission accomplished” box. In fact, Obama’s painful economic policies will only serve to further hamstring America’s economic engine, thereby preventing a truly strong, vibrant economy that the country is capable of having.
The President single-handedly unleashed another poison pill on Wednesday with the White House’s announcement that he will exact another illegal, unconstitutional end-run around Congress with the appointment of three new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) without Senate approval, all of whom are union officials. Here’s why that matters.
The NLRB is a five-member board that is responsible for investigating unfair labor practices, creating labor-related rules, and conducting elections for labor union representation. Last year the NLRB enacted measures shortening union elections to as little as 14 days, limiting employees’ ability to hear from both sides before they vote, allowing unions to cherry-pick which workers in a company can vote on unionizing, and preventing workers from insisting on a secret ballot in union drives, as Heritage’s James Sherk explains. These measures will make it much easier for unions to organize workers — but at the expense of workers’ rights. If workers want to join a union they have that right — management gets the union it deserves — but the government should not limit their rights in order to press workers into unionizing.
Prior to the President’s appointments, the NLRB had only three sitting members, with the one member’s term ending at the end of 2012. Were the NLRB to go down to two members, it wouldn’t have a quorum to conduct its business, meaning that the President’s Big Labor agenda couldn’t be enacted. Now, though, the President has appointed three new members who will undoubtedly carry out his agenda without any checks or balances.
And that agenda is to bolster America’s unions — a key constituency and political force standing behind the President. Unfortunately, their goal is not primarily to protect workers. The trouble is that the Big Labor agenda is fundamentally at odds with the pro-growth agenda that America is so thirsty for. Sherk explains:
CONTINUED:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/06/morning-bell-beneath-growth-a-sea-of-poison/
Sunday, January 1, 2012
WND: WHAT WERE THE MOST IGNORED STORIES OF 2011?
Here's what mainstream media did their best to cover up in 2011.
While the establishment news media brought plenty of bad economic news in 2011, the real story hasn't been adequately told. The true rate of unemployment and inflation and the real state of the U.S. economy, which is far worse than reported, tops WND's annual list of the 10 most "spiked" or underreported stories of the last year. At the end of each year, many news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories of the previous 12 months.
WND’s editors, however, long have considered it more newsworthy to publicize the most underreported or unreported news events of the year – to shine a spotlight on those issues that the establishment media successfully “spiked.”
WND Editor and CEO Joseph Farah has sponsored “Operation Spike” every year since 1988, and since founding WND in May 1997, has continued the annual tradition.
Produced with the help of WND readers, here are the WND editors’ picks for the 10 most underreported or unreported stories of 2011:
1. The true rate of unemployment and inflation and the real state of the U.S. economy, which is far worse than reported.
When the Obama administration prepared to finance a 2011 budget deficit expected to top $1.6 trillion, the American public was largely unaware that the true negative net worth of the federal government reached $76.3 trillion last year.
The figure was five times the 2010 gross domestic product of the United States and exceeded the estimated gross domestic product for the world by approximately $14.4 trillion, according to economist John Williams.
Statistics compiled by Williams, based on the 2010 Financial Report of the United States Government, demonstrate the real 2010 federal budget deficit was $5.3 trillion, not the $1.3 trillion reported by the Congressional Budget Office.
The difference between the $1.3 trillion “official” 2010 federal budget deficit numbers and the $5.3 trillion budget deficit is that the official budget deficit is calculated on a cash basis, where all tax receipts, including Social Security tax receipts, are used to pay government liabilities as they occur.
“The government cannot raise taxes high enough to bring the budget into balance,” Williams said. “You could tax 100 percent of everyone’s income and 100 percent of corporate profits and the U.S. government would still be showing a federal budget deficit on a GAAP accounting basis.”
Meanwhile, the government’s own statistics showed in December that if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.
While the Obama administration touted a November unemployment rate of 8 percent, much of it was a result of people leaving the labor force, not because they’ve become sick or too old, but because they have been unable to find a job and have stopped trying.
What’s more, the seasonally-adjusted rate adjusted for long-term discouraged workers – who were defined out of official existence in 1994 – was more than 22 percent in November.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics broadest measure of unemployment, which includes the short-term discouraged and other marginally attached works, along with part-time workers who can’t find full-time employment is more than 15 percent.
Methodological shifts in government reporting also have depressed reported inflation. If inflation were calculated the way it was in 1990, the annual rate would be nearly 7 percent.
2. The Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” operation, which facilitated the delivery of American firearms into Mexico to violent drug cartels, later used in the murder of hundreds, including a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
The aim was to trace guns to the “big fish” in the cartel, but the practice of “gunwalking” put thousands of weapons on the street that have been used in hundreds of murders.
Two guns found at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder by cartel killers were traced to guns the ATF deliberately allowed to be sold to known cartel straw buyers in American gun shops in violation of federal gun laws. Justice Department records turned over to congressional investigators also showed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was gunned down by cartel killers using a pistol purchased by a straw buyer in Texas with cartel ties. ATF agents knew of the buyer’s cartel ties but did nothing to prevent the sale or the shipment of the gun to Mexico.
CBS News, the only establishment news agency to investigate the scandal, uncovered emails showing that Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department has used the proliferation of cartel weapons to call for expanded gun control regulations.
In October, Holder lashed out at Congress members holding him accountable for the scandal, calling them “irresponsible” and guilty of “inflammatory rhetoric.”
In the letter, he claimed he first heard of “Fast and Furious” when Border Patrol agent Terry was assassinated in December 2010. But he had told Congress in May that he “became aware” of “Fast and Furious” only “a few weeks ago.”
Furthermore, the Justice Department released five censored memos from July and August 2010 addressed to Holder that referred to the program by name.
3. The organizations and money behind the supposedly “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Occupy movement was caught red-handed operating a nerve center staffed by professional agitators deeply tied to groups funded by billionaire activist George Soros.
The radical connections have been largely missed by the general public. CNN, the only news media outlet to receive exclusive access to Occupy’s alleged headquarters, did not fully identify the activists found running it.
Activist Han Shan, for example, is the former program director for the Tides Center-funded Ruckus Society and an activist with the Tides-funded Adbusters.
Shan was listed as the contact person for protests outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention that were sponsored by both Adbusters and Ruckus.
The Tides-funded Adbusters magazine is reported to have come up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The Adbusters website serves as a central hub for Occupy’s planning.
The Tides-funded Ruckus Society has been providing direct-action training to Occupy protesters as well as official training resources, including manuals, to Occupy training groups. Ruckus, which helped spark the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, was also listed as a “friend and partner” of the Occupy Days of Action in October.
Another grantee of Tides is MoveOn.org, which has joined Occupy.
A public relations firm closely partnered with the Tides Foundation represented the anti-Wall Street march past millionaires’ homes in New York.
Fenton Communications has been behind the public relations strategy of a who’s who of far-left causes, organizations and activists, from Soros himself to Health Care for America Now to crafting strategies for MoveOn.org and a litany of anti-war groups.
The company was founded in 1982 by David Fenton, an activist who served as a photographer for Bill Ayers’ domestic Weather Underground terror group.
Fenton serves on the board of numerous Tides-funded groups, while his firm represents more than 30 Tides Center grantees.
4. The role of leftwing groups and the Obama administration in the fall of Arab regimes and the rise of Islamic radicals.
Billionaire activist George Soros has funded opposition organizations in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, where anti-regime chaos toppled the pro-Western leader of Tunisia and the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, among others.
Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the main opposition leaders in Egypt, sat on the board of an international “crisis management” group alongside Soros and other personalities who champion dialogue with Hamas, a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood, which seeks to spread Islam around the world by first creating an Islamic caliphate in Egypt, backed ElBaradei.
Soros leads an international “crisis management” group that long has petitioned for the Egyptian government to normalize ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. It released a report urging the Egyptian regime to allow the Brotherhood to establish an Islamist political party.
Soros’ Open Society also funded the main opposition voice in Tunisia, Radio Kalima, which championed the riots there that led to the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
In September, Soros’ group was looking to expand its operations in Egypt by hiring a new project manager for its Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which is run in partnership with the Open Society Justice Initiative. The group is seeking to develop a national network of legal empowerment actors for referral of public-interest law cases. Such organizations in the past have helped represent Muslim Brotherhood leaders seeking election or more authority in the country.
Soros himself made public statements in support of the protests in Egypt, which the Mubarak government warned would result in the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country.
In a Washington Post editorial, ElBaradei recognized that if free elections were held in Egypt, “the Brotherhood is bound to emerge as a major political force, though it is far from assured of a majority.”
Soros singled out Israel as “the main stumbling block” in paving the way toward transition in the Middle East.
Egypt accused the Obama administration of championing the protests and of pressuring Mubarak to resign.
Months before protests erupted throughout Egypt, President Obama’s own associates provoked anti-regime chaos on the streets. WND reported at the time the protests were led by former Weather Underground terrorists Ayers and Dohrn.
Another protest leader was Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, a far-left activist organization formed in 2002 to protest America’s war in Iraq. The group previously met with Hamas and with leaders of the Taliban. Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama’s presidential campaign.
Also protesting in Egypt was Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website. WND previously reported Obama spoke at pro-Palestinian events in the 1990s alongside Abunimah. At one such event, a 1999 fundraiser for Palestinian “refugees,” Abunimah recalls introducing Obama on stage.
Ayers and Dohrn were two of the main founders of the Weather Underground, which bombed the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. The group was responsible for some 30 bombings aimed at destroying the defense and security infrastructures of the U.S.
CONTINUED:http://www.wnd.com/2011/12/382753/
While the establishment news media brought plenty of bad economic news in 2011, the real story hasn't been adequately told. The true rate of unemployment and inflation and the real state of the U.S. economy, which is far worse than reported, tops WND's annual list of the 10 most "spiked" or underreported stories of the last year. At the end of each year, many news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories of the previous 12 months.
WND’s editors, however, long have considered it more newsworthy to publicize the most underreported or unreported news events of the year – to shine a spotlight on those issues that the establishment media successfully “spiked.”
WND Editor and CEO Joseph Farah has sponsored “Operation Spike” every year since 1988, and since founding WND in May 1997, has continued the annual tradition.
Produced with the help of WND readers, here are the WND editors’ picks for the 10 most underreported or unreported stories of 2011:
1. The true rate of unemployment and inflation and the real state of the U.S. economy, which is far worse than reported.
When the Obama administration prepared to finance a 2011 budget deficit expected to top $1.6 trillion, the American public was largely unaware that the true negative net worth of the federal government reached $76.3 trillion last year.
The figure was five times the 2010 gross domestic product of the United States and exceeded the estimated gross domestic product for the world by approximately $14.4 trillion, according to economist John Williams.
Statistics compiled by Williams, based on the 2010 Financial Report of the United States Government, demonstrate the real 2010 federal budget deficit was $5.3 trillion, not the $1.3 trillion reported by the Congressional Budget Office.
The difference between the $1.3 trillion “official” 2010 federal budget deficit numbers and the $5.3 trillion budget deficit is that the official budget deficit is calculated on a cash basis, where all tax receipts, including Social Security tax receipts, are used to pay government liabilities as they occur.
“The government cannot raise taxes high enough to bring the budget into balance,” Williams said. “You could tax 100 percent of everyone’s income and 100 percent of corporate profits and the U.S. government would still be showing a federal budget deficit on a GAAP accounting basis.”
Meanwhile, the government’s own statistics showed in December that if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.
While the Obama administration touted a November unemployment rate of 8 percent, much of it was a result of people leaving the labor force, not because they’ve become sick or too old, but because they have been unable to find a job and have stopped trying.
What’s more, the seasonally-adjusted rate adjusted for long-term discouraged workers – who were defined out of official existence in 1994 – was more than 22 percent in November.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics broadest measure of unemployment, which includes the short-term discouraged and other marginally attached works, along with part-time workers who can’t find full-time employment is more than 15 percent.
Methodological shifts in government reporting also have depressed reported inflation. If inflation were calculated the way it was in 1990, the annual rate would be nearly 7 percent.
2. The Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” operation, which facilitated the delivery of American firearms into Mexico to violent drug cartels, later used in the murder of hundreds, including a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
The aim was to trace guns to the “big fish” in the cartel, but the practice of “gunwalking” put thousands of weapons on the street that have been used in hundreds of murders.
Two guns found at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder by cartel killers were traced to guns the ATF deliberately allowed to be sold to known cartel straw buyers in American gun shops in violation of federal gun laws. Justice Department records turned over to congressional investigators also showed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was gunned down by cartel killers using a pistol purchased by a straw buyer in Texas with cartel ties. ATF agents knew of the buyer’s cartel ties but did nothing to prevent the sale or the shipment of the gun to Mexico.
CBS News, the only establishment news agency to investigate the scandal, uncovered emails showing that Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department has used the proliferation of cartel weapons to call for expanded gun control regulations.
In October, Holder lashed out at Congress members holding him accountable for the scandal, calling them “irresponsible” and guilty of “inflammatory rhetoric.”
In the letter, he claimed he first heard of “Fast and Furious” when Border Patrol agent Terry was assassinated in December 2010. But he had told Congress in May that he “became aware” of “Fast and Furious” only “a few weeks ago.”
Furthermore, the Justice Department released five censored memos from July and August 2010 addressed to Holder that referred to the program by name.
3. The organizations and money behind the supposedly “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Occupy movement was caught red-handed operating a nerve center staffed by professional agitators deeply tied to groups funded by billionaire activist George Soros.
The radical connections have been largely missed by the general public. CNN, the only news media outlet to receive exclusive access to Occupy’s alleged headquarters, did not fully identify the activists found running it.
Activist Han Shan, for example, is the former program director for the Tides Center-funded Ruckus Society and an activist with the Tides-funded Adbusters.
Shan was listed as the contact person for protests outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention that were sponsored by both Adbusters and Ruckus.
The Tides-funded Adbusters magazine is reported to have come up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The Adbusters website serves as a central hub for Occupy’s planning.
The Tides-funded Ruckus Society has been providing direct-action training to Occupy protesters as well as official training resources, including manuals, to Occupy training groups. Ruckus, which helped spark the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, was also listed as a “friend and partner” of the Occupy Days of Action in October.
Another grantee of Tides is MoveOn.org, which has joined Occupy.
A public relations firm closely partnered with the Tides Foundation represented the anti-Wall Street march past millionaires’ homes in New York.
Fenton Communications has been behind the public relations strategy of a who’s who of far-left causes, organizations and activists, from Soros himself to Health Care for America Now to crafting strategies for MoveOn.org and a litany of anti-war groups.
The company was founded in 1982 by David Fenton, an activist who served as a photographer for Bill Ayers’ domestic Weather Underground terror group.
Fenton serves on the board of numerous Tides-funded groups, while his firm represents more than 30 Tides Center grantees.
4. The role of leftwing groups and the Obama administration in the fall of Arab regimes and the rise of Islamic radicals.
Billionaire activist George Soros has funded opposition organizations in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, where anti-regime chaos toppled the pro-Western leader of Tunisia and the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, among others.
Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the main opposition leaders in Egypt, sat on the board of an international “crisis management” group alongside Soros and other personalities who champion dialogue with Hamas, a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood, which seeks to spread Islam around the world by first creating an Islamic caliphate in Egypt, backed ElBaradei.
Soros leads an international “crisis management” group that long has petitioned for the Egyptian government to normalize ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. It released a report urging the Egyptian regime to allow the Brotherhood to establish an Islamist political party.
Soros’ Open Society also funded the main opposition voice in Tunisia, Radio Kalima, which championed the riots there that led to the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
In September, Soros’ group was looking to expand its operations in Egypt by hiring a new project manager for its Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which is run in partnership with the Open Society Justice Initiative. The group is seeking to develop a national network of legal empowerment actors for referral of public-interest law cases. Such organizations in the past have helped represent Muslim Brotherhood leaders seeking election or more authority in the country.
Soros himself made public statements in support of the protests in Egypt, which the Mubarak government warned would result in the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country.
In a Washington Post editorial, ElBaradei recognized that if free elections were held in Egypt, “the Brotherhood is bound to emerge as a major political force, though it is far from assured of a majority.”
Soros singled out Israel as “the main stumbling block” in paving the way toward transition in the Middle East.
Egypt accused the Obama administration of championing the protests and of pressuring Mubarak to resign.
Months before protests erupted throughout Egypt, President Obama’s own associates provoked anti-regime chaos on the streets. WND reported at the time the protests were led by former Weather Underground terrorists Ayers and Dohrn.
Another protest leader was Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, a far-left activist organization formed in 2002 to protest America’s war in Iraq. The group previously met with Hamas and with leaders of the Taliban. Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama’s presidential campaign.
Also protesting in Egypt was Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website. WND previously reported Obama spoke at pro-Palestinian events in the 1990s alongside Abunimah. At one such event, a 1999 fundraiser for Palestinian “refugees,” Abunimah recalls introducing Obama on stage.
Ayers and Dohrn were two of the main founders of the Weather Underground, which bombed the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. The group was responsible for some 30 bombings aimed at destroying the defense and security infrastructures of the U.S.
CONTINUED:http://www.wnd.com/2011/12/382753/
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Winston Salem Journal: Roll Call Votes in Congress for December 18, 2011
By Journal Now Staff
Here's how members of North Carolina's congressional delegation voted on major issues in the week ending Friday.
House
2012 military budget: Voting 283-136, the House on Wednesday approved the conference report (HR 1540) on a $662 billion military budget for fiscal 2012, including $117.2 billion for war in Afghanistan and Iraq, $52.5 billion for the military's health care system and $14.9 billion for naval shipbuilding. The bill requires that captured members of organizations such as al-Qaida be held in U.S. military custody and subjected to military justice. But terrorist suspects apprehended on U.S. soil who are U.S. citizens or resident aliens must be assigned to America's civilian criminal-justice system and thus accorded constitutional rights of due process. The bill toughens economic sanctions against Iran by denying access to the U.S. financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the Central Bank of Iran.
A yes vote backed the conference report. Voting yes: Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-1st; Renee Ellmers, R-2nd; Virginia Foxx, R-5th; Mike McIntyre, D-7th; Larry Kissell, D-8th; Patrick T. McHenry, R-10th; Heath Shuler, D-11th.
Voting no: Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-3rd; David E. Price, D-4th; Melvin L. Watt, D-12th; Brad Miller, D-13th. Not voting: Howard Coble, R-6th; Sue Wilkins Myrick, R-9th.
Republican payroll-tax plan: Voting 234-193, the House on Tuesday passed a Republican bill (HR 3630) to renew through 2012 the temporary law under which employees this year are contributing 4.2 percent of their pay rather than the standard 6.2 percent to the Social Security Trust Fund. The bill also would speed construction of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to southern Texas; repeal Environmental Protection Agency air pollution curbs on industrial boilers; extend soon-to-expire unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless; reduce the maximum number of weeks for jobless checks from 99 to 59 while allowing states to impose requirements such as testing recipients for drugs; extend for two years existing Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors; and allow businesses to write off 100 percent of capital investments in a single year. The bill awaited Senate action.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Ellmers, Jones, Foxx, Myrick, McHenry
Voting no: Butterfield, Price, McIntyre, Kissell, Shuler, Watt, Miller. Not voting: Coble.
Sanctions on Iran: Voting 410-11, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 1905) to toughen existing U.S. economic sanctions on Iran.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Butterfield, Ellmers, Jones, Price, Foxx, McIntyre, Kissell, McHenry, Shuler, Watt, Miller Not voting: Coble, Myrick
2012 intelligence budget: Voting 396-23, the House on Friday sent to President Barack Obama the conference report on a fiscal 2012 budget (HR 1892) of about $55 billion for U.S. intelligence agencies, up 4 percent from 2011. When certain military outlays are counted, the total U.S. spy budget for 2012 is expected to top $85 billion. A yes vote backed the conference report.
Voting yes: Butterfield, Ellmers, Price, Foxx, McIntyre, Kissell, McHenry, Shuler, Watt, Miller
Voting no: Jones Not voting: Coble, Myrick
Fiscal 2012 appropriations: Voting 296-121, the House on Friday sent to the Senate a bill (HR 2055) to appropriate $915 billion in fiscal 2012 for the 10 Cabinet departments and related agencies that have not yet received regular appropriations three months into the budget year. Among the bill's many policy changes are ones to delay new energy-efficiency standard for light bulbs and bar the District of Columbia from using its own funds to finance abortions. The bill grants major spending increases to the Pentagon and Securities and Exchange Commission while imposing flat, reduced or only slightly increased budgets on most other departments and agencies. When combined with regular appropriations enacted last month, the bill raises total 2012 discretionary spending to the $1.043 trillion mark set by last summer's bipartisan deal on raising the debt ceiling.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Butterfield, Ellmers, Price, Foxx, McIntyre, Kissell, Myrick, Shuler, Watt, Miller
Voting no: Jones, McHenry. Not voting: Coble
CONTINUED:
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/dec/18/wsmet14-roll-call-votes-in-congress-for-dec-18-ar-1726099/
Here's how members of North Carolina's congressional delegation voted on major issues in the week ending Friday.
House
2012 military budget: Voting 283-136, the House on Wednesday approved the conference report (HR 1540) on a $662 billion military budget for fiscal 2012, including $117.2 billion for war in Afghanistan and Iraq, $52.5 billion for the military's health care system and $14.9 billion for naval shipbuilding. The bill requires that captured members of organizations such as al-Qaida be held in U.S. military custody and subjected to military justice. But terrorist suspects apprehended on U.S. soil who are U.S. citizens or resident aliens must be assigned to America's civilian criminal-justice system and thus accorded constitutional rights of due process. The bill toughens economic sanctions against Iran by denying access to the U.S. financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the Central Bank of Iran.
A yes vote backed the conference report. Voting yes: Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-1st; Renee Ellmers, R-2nd; Virginia Foxx, R-5th; Mike McIntyre, D-7th; Larry Kissell, D-8th; Patrick T. McHenry, R-10th; Heath Shuler, D-11th.
Voting no: Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-3rd; David E. Price, D-4th; Melvin L. Watt, D-12th; Brad Miller, D-13th. Not voting: Howard Coble, R-6th; Sue Wilkins Myrick, R-9th.
Republican payroll-tax plan: Voting 234-193, the House on Tuesday passed a Republican bill (HR 3630) to renew through 2012 the temporary law under which employees this year are contributing 4.2 percent of their pay rather than the standard 6.2 percent to the Social Security Trust Fund. The bill also would speed construction of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to southern Texas; repeal Environmental Protection Agency air pollution curbs on industrial boilers; extend soon-to-expire unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless; reduce the maximum number of weeks for jobless checks from 99 to 59 while allowing states to impose requirements such as testing recipients for drugs; extend for two years existing Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors; and allow businesses to write off 100 percent of capital investments in a single year. The bill awaited Senate action.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Ellmers, Jones, Foxx, Myrick, McHenry
Voting no: Butterfield, Price, McIntyre, Kissell, Shuler, Watt, Miller. Not voting: Coble.
Sanctions on Iran: Voting 410-11, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 1905) to toughen existing U.S. economic sanctions on Iran.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Butterfield, Ellmers, Jones, Price, Foxx, McIntyre, Kissell, McHenry, Shuler, Watt, Miller Not voting: Coble, Myrick
2012 intelligence budget: Voting 396-23, the House on Friday sent to President Barack Obama the conference report on a fiscal 2012 budget (HR 1892) of about $55 billion for U.S. intelligence agencies, up 4 percent from 2011. When certain military outlays are counted, the total U.S. spy budget for 2012 is expected to top $85 billion. A yes vote backed the conference report.
Voting yes: Butterfield, Ellmers, Price, Foxx, McIntyre, Kissell, McHenry, Shuler, Watt, Miller
Voting no: Jones Not voting: Coble, Myrick
Fiscal 2012 appropriations: Voting 296-121, the House on Friday sent to the Senate a bill (HR 2055) to appropriate $915 billion in fiscal 2012 for the 10 Cabinet departments and related agencies that have not yet received regular appropriations three months into the budget year. Among the bill's many policy changes are ones to delay new energy-efficiency standard for light bulbs and bar the District of Columbia from using its own funds to finance abortions. The bill grants major spending increases to the Pentagon and Securities and Exchange Commission while imposing flat, reduced or only slightly increased budgets on most other departments and agencies. When combined with regular appropriations enacted last month, the bill raises total 2012 discretionary spending to the $1.043 trillion mark set by last summer's bipartisan deal on raising the debt ceiling.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Butterfield, Ellmers, Price, Foxx, McIntyre, Kissell, Myrick, Shuler, Watt, Miller
Voting no: Jones, McHenry. Not voting: Coble
CONTINUED:
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/dec/18/wsmet14-roll-call-votes-in-congress-for-dec-18-ar-1726099/
The Blaze: 50 Facts About The U.S. Economy That Will Shock You
December 18, 2011
“Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don’t make dramatic changes immediately,” writes The Economic Collapse (TEC).
For those unfamiliar with this site, TEC is an economic blog that regularly compiles a comprehensive list of the most startling and unsettling facts about the U.S. economy.
Why? Because Americans need to understand that America’s economy is precariously balanced on the edge of full-blown collapse.
“If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just ‘tweaking’ things here and there is not going to fix this economy,” the site explains.
Indeed, America’s economic situation has become increasingly unstable. However, what’s arguably more disconcerting than the state of the U.S. economy is the fact many Americans are largely–if not completely–unaware of just how serious things have become.
“America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding,” TEC explains. “If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.”
It might behoove Blaze readers to share the facts listed below with family and friends.
“If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that ‘business as usual’ will result in a national economic apocalypse,” writes TEC.
Here are the 50 economic numbers from 2011 that will shock you (via The Economic Collapse):
1. A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.
2. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be “low income” or impoverished.
3. If the number of Americans that “wanted jobs” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
4. The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
5. One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
6. There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
7. Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8 percent once you account for inflation.
8. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.
CONTINUED:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/50-facts-about-the-u-s-economy-that-will-shock-you/
“Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don’t make dramatic changes immediately,” writes The Economic Collapse (TEC).
For those unfamiliar with this site, TEC is an economic blog that regularly compiles a comprehensive list of the most startling and unsettling facts about the U.S. economy.
Why? Because Americans need to understand that America’s economy is precariously balanced on the edge of full-blown collapse.
“If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just ‘tweaking’ things here and there is not going to fix this economy,” the site explains.
Indeed, America’s economic situation has become increasingly unstable. However, what’s arguably more disconcerting than the state of the U.S. economy is the fact many Americans are largely–if not completely–unaware of just how serious things have become.
“America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding,” TEC explains. “If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.”
It might behoove Blaze readers to share the facts listed below with family and friends.
“If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that ‘business as usual’ will result in a national economic apocalypse,” writes TEC.
Here are the 50 economic numbers from 2011 that will shock you (via The Economic Collapse):
1. A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.
2. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be “low income” or impoverished.
3. If the number of Americans that “wanted jobs” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
4. The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
5. One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
6. There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
7. Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8 percent once you account for inflation.
8. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.
CONTINUED:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/50-facts-about-the-u-s-economy-that-will-shock-you/
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing: On the Brink of Brinkmanship
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Today In Washington
THE SENATE: Convened at 9:30 and is now rejecting two versions of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution — a foregone conclusion ever since the votes were promised as part of the summer debt limit deal. Reid and McConnell are now working behind the scenes (while overtly furious at each other) on the next step in the year-ending tax extenders debate.
A party-line vote was expected to rebuff the Republican proposal, which was to cap spending at 18 percent of gross domestic product, require a two-thirds majority to increase taxes and dictate that spending not exceed revenue in each fiscal year unless supermajorities in Congress voted for deficits during war or other emergencies. The vote a few minutes ago was 21-79 against the Democratic alternative, which had no spending caps or special rules for tax bills (except that cuts for millionaires could only be allowed during times of surplus) and would shield the Social Security trust fund from being tapped to balance the books.
THE HOUSE: Convened at 10 and is expected to be dismissed before 5, after adopting the $662 billion defense authorization conference agreement and voting on as many as 10 bills under the suspension of the rules process.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama is arriving for a 90-minute visit to Fort Bragg, his first as president. At noon he and the first lady will deliver speeches thanking the troops and their families for their sacrifices during the Iraq War and promising that the administration remains committed to providing veterans robust benefits and help securing jobs. (The North Carolina fort — home to the Special Operations command, the 18th Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne, among others — says more than 200 soldiers who died in Iraq left from there.)
Obama is due back in the Oval Office by 2, and at 5 he’s headed a few blocks away to the St. Regis Hotel for another re-election fundraiser.
ANOTHER STANDOFF: Shutdown brinkmanship is back. There’s even a decent shot that the two sides will dig in long enough that the current stopgap spending law will be permitted to expire 60 hours from now, which would mean a mad weekend scramble to get something to replace it before the bulk of the federal government reopens for business next Monday — either a very, very short CR or the comprehensive $1 trillion appropriations package that’s essentially written up and ready to go.
The standoff intensified in the Senate this morning, when Reid proposed holding the next symbolic test vote tonight — the one in which the Democratic majority will formally spurn the payroll tax, jobless benefit, “doc fix” and AMT “patch” package pushed through the Republican House yesterday, because it also would speed along construction of the Keystone oil pipeline. McConnell objected, insisting that he’d use all his parliamentary powers to make sure the appropriations “megabus” is done first.
Republicans clearly see a way to seize back the year-end momentum on this front from Obama and the Senate Democrats, who have been holding the better hand for weeks on the question of continuing a tax cut for 160 million people. But now, the Democrats think their opponents have badly overplayed that hand by holding up final action on the spending bill until the GOP relents (or at least comes to the final bargaining table) on the tax package. And that, the Republicans say, makes Democrats vulnerable to the same criticism they have been using against the GOP all year: They’re willing to hold the government hostage, and cause genuine problems for millions of people, until they get what they want.
The longer the megabus package is allowed to sit on the shelf, the more it risks being picked apart around the edges — and it could well fall apart altogether if the votes aren’t called soon. Officially, the text is not out because no Senate Democrats have been allowed to sign on the dotted line at the bottom, but everyone knows it’s a done deal (despite what Reid insists) and more and more people are aware of the thousands of line-item details every hour. If the old legislative adage is that a compromise, like an unrefrigerated fish, starts to rot after three days, then this is Day Two.
AGAINST THE GRAIN: The 10 House Democrats who voted for the extenders bill last night bill were Barrow, Boren, Boswell, Braley, Cardoza, Donnelly, Loebsack, Matheson, Ross and Walz. The 14 Republicans who voted “no” were Amash, Barton, Brooks, Campbell, Flake, Fortenberry, Garrett, Tim Johnson, Lummis, McClintock, McKinley, Neugebauer, Wolf and Woodall.
SAVE THE DATE: Obama will deliver his next State of the Union address the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 24 — one day after the Senate returns from the coming break, and one week after the House reconvenes to start the second session of the 112th Congress.
DOWN IN THE POLL: Only 22 percent say the nation is headed in the right direction, according to the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll out today, while 42 percent say the performance of the current Congress is “one of the worst” ever —the highest number ever recorded on a question that’s been asked since 1990. Obama’s job-approval rating is at 46 percent, 2 points better than a month ago.
The poll’s numbers in the GOP presidential race, meanwhile, show Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney by 17 points among Republican voters nationwide — and by 23 points if all the other candidates are excluded. The reason seems clear: Only 29 percent view Romney as “conservative,” while 59 percent give Gingrich that label. But when the surveyors asked about general election matchups, they found Obama defeating the former Speaker by 11 points among all registered voters but in a statistical tie with the former Massachusetts governor. That apparent electability gap is what has so many Republican congressional strategists worried: They fret that Gingrich at the top of the could do the party serious damage in close races for the House and Senate, particularly in the Northeast.
RUNNER-UP: House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan was named “the most influential American politician” of 2011 and the third runner-up for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” recognition today. (Kate Middleton was fourth runner-up.) “Through a combination of hard work, good timing and possibly suicidal guts, the Wisconsin Republican managed to harness his party to a dramatic plan for dealing with America’s rapidly rising public debt,” the magazine said. “He brought an ugly issue out of the foggy realm of think tanks and blue-ribbon panels and dropped it into the middle of the national debate in time to define the next presidential election.”
Finishing higher up in the editor’s balloting were Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei; William McRaven, the admiral who ran the SEAL operation that killed Osama bin Laden; and the face on the cover: “The Protester,” honoring the people from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park “for capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path.”
TRAIL TIPS:
(1) Steny Hoyer may not ever be Speaker, his unambiguous ambition of the past 30 years, but the minority whip insists he wants to stick around for at least one more term (which would be his 16th) representing southern Maryland. He turns 73 next June, and speculation that he would retire surged yesterday for two reasons: His longtime top aide, Terry Lierman, announced he was leaving the Hill to start a health care venture capital firm. (The new chief of staff will be Alexis Covey-Brandt, who now runs Hoyer’s floor operation and has been with Hoyer for eight years.) And state House GOP leader Anthony O’Donnell revealed he was ready to give up his legislative seat after 18 years to run for Hoyer’s seat, even though the state’s redistricting may make the 5th District no more inclined to go Republican. Hoyer told reporters he is firmly committed to seeking re-election.
(2) The 18 new congressional districts for Pennsylvania were unveiled last night by the Republicans who run Harrisburg, and it’s no surprise that the mapmakers went to great lengths to shore up the prospects for GOP congressmen in politically competitive territory. (Also no surprise, the legislators took care of the one House seat the state lost in reapportionment mainly by combining the exurban Pittsburgh districts currently held by Democrats Jason Altmire and Mark Critz, but in a way that gives each a fair shot at beating the other in a primary — and then gives GOP state Rep. Jim Christiana a solid shot in the fall.) On the other side of the state, the map was significantly reconfigured to make political life more comfortable for Patrick Meehan, Jim Gerlach, Charlie Dent, Tom Marino and — most of all — freshman Lou Barletta, who saw his territory changed from mostly Democratic to GOP-leaning. The biggest Democratic beneficiary is Tim Holden, whose seat was made safer by dispersing much of his GOP precinct to nearby Republican incumbents. Under the new map, Democrats will probably view the seats held by Republicans Mike Fitzpatrick and Mike Kelly as their most plausible pickup opportunities.
— David Hawkings, editor
Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com/DavidHawkingsDC. Or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/davidhawkings.
Today In Washington
THE SENATE: Convened at 9:30 and is now rejecting two versions of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution — a foregone conclusion ever since the votes were promised as part of the summer debt limit deal. Reid and McConnell are now working behind the scenes (while overtly furious at each other) on the next step in the year-ending tax extenders debate.
A party-line vote was expected to rebuff the Republican proposal, which was to cap spending at 18 percent of gross domestic product, require a two-thirds majority to increase taxes and dictate that spending not exceed revenue in each fiscal year unless supermajorities in Congress voted for deficits during war or other emergencies. The vote a few minutes ago was 21-79 against the Democratic alternative, which had no spending caps or special rules for tax bills (except that cuts for millionaires could only be allowed during times of surplus) and would shield the Social Security trust fund from being tapped to balance the books.
THE HOUSE: Convened at 10 and is expected to be dismissed before 5, after adopting the $662 billion defense authorization conference agreement and voting on as many as 10 bills under the suspension of the rules process.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama is arriving for a 90-minute visit to Fort Bragg, his first as president. At noon he and the first lady will deliver speeches thanking the troops and their families for their sacrifices during the Iraq War and promising that the administration remains committed to providing veterans robust benefits and help securing jobs. (The North Carolina fort — home to the Special Operations command, the 18th Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne, among others — says more than 200 soldiers who died in Iraq left from there.)
Obama is due back in the Oval Office by 2, and at 5 he’s headed a few blocks away to the St. Regis Hotel for another re-election fundraiser.
ANOTHER STANDOFF: Shutdown brinkmanship is back. There’s even a decent shot that the two sides will dig in long enough that the current stopgap spending law will be permitted to expire 60 hours from now, which would mean a mad weekend scramble to get something to replace it before the bulk of the federal government reopens for business next Monday — either a very, very short CR or the comprehensive $1 trillion appropriations package that’s essentially written up and ready to go.
The standoff intensified in the Senate this morning, when Reid proposed holding the next symbolic test vote tonight — the one in which the Democratic majority will formally spurn the payroll tax, jobless benefit, “doc fix” and AMT “patch” package pushed through the Republican House yesterday, because it also would speed along construction of the Keystone oil pipeline. McConnell objected, insisting that he’d use all his parliamentary powers to make sure the appropriations “megabus” is done first.
Republicans clearly see a way to seize back the year-end momentum on this front from Obama and the Senate Democrats, who have been holding the better hand for weeks on the question of continuing a tax cut for 160 million people. But now, the Democrats think their opponents have badly overplayed that hand by holding up final action on the spending bill until the GOP relents (or at least comes to the final bargaining table) on the tax package. And that, the Republicans say, makes Democrats vulnerable to the same criticism they have been using against the GOP all year: They’re willing to hold the government hostage, and cause genuine problems for millions of people, until they get what they want.
The longer the megabus package is allowed to sit on the shelf, the more it risks being picked apart around the edges — and it could well fall apart altogether if the votes aren’t called soon. Officially, the text is not out because no Senate Democrats have been allowed to sign on the dotted line at the bottom, but everyone knows it’s a done deal (despite what Reid insists) and more and more people are aware of the thousands of line-item details every hour. If the old legislative adage is that a compromise, like an unrefrigerated fish, starts to rot after three days, then this is Day Two.
AGAINST THE GRAIN: The 10 House Democrats who voted for the extenders bill last night bill were Barrow, Boren, Boswell, Braley, Cardoza, Donnelly, Loebsack, Matheson, Ross and Walz. The 14 Republicans who voted “no” were Amash, Barton, Brooks, Campbell, Flake, Fortenberry, Garrett, Tim Johnson, Lummis, McClintock, McKinley, Neugebauer, Wolf and Woodall.
SAVE THE DATE: Obama will deliver his next State of the Union address the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 24 — one day after the Senate returns from the coming break, and one week after the House reconvenes to start the second session of the 112th Congress.
DOWN IN THE POLL: Only 22 percent say the nation is headed in the right direction, according to the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll out today, while 42 percent say the performance of the current Congress is “one of the worst” ever —the highest number ever recorded on a question that’s been asked since 1990. Obama’s job-approval rating is at 46 percent, 2 points better than a month ago.
The poll’s numbers in the GOP presidential race, meanwhile, show Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney by 17 points among Republican voters nationwide — and by 23 points if all the other candidates are excluded. The reason seems clear: Only 29 percent view Romney as “conservative,” while 59 percent give Gingrich that label. But when the surveyors asked about general election matchups, they found Obama defeating the former Speaker by 11 points among all registered voters but in a statistical tie with the former Massachusetts governor. That apparent electability gap is what has so many Republican congressional strategists worried: They fret that Gingrich at the top of the could do the party serious damage in close races for the House and Senate, particularly in the Northeast.
RUNNER-UP: House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan was named “the most influential American politician” of 2011 and the third runner-up for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” recognition today. (Kate Middleton was fourth runner-up.) “Through a combination of hard work, good timing and possibly suicidal guts, the Wisconsin Republican managed to harness his party to a dramatic plan for dealing with America’s rapidly rising public debt,” the magazine said. “He brought an ugly issue out of the foggy realm of think tanks and blue-ribbon panels and dropped it into the middle of the national debate in time to define the next presidential election.”
Finishing higher up in the editor’s balloting were Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei; William McRaven, the admiral who ran the SEAL operation that killed Osama bin Laden; and the face on the cover: “The Protester,” honoring the people from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park “for capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path.”
TRAIL TIPS:
(1) Steny Hoyer may not ever be Speaker, his unambiguous ambition of the past 30 years, but the minority whip insists he wants to stick around for at least one more term (which would be his 16th) representing southern Maryland. He turns 73 next June, and speculation that he would retire surged yesterday for two reasons: His longtime top aide, Terry Lierman, announced he was leaving the Hill to start a health care venture capital firm. (The new chief of staff will be Alexis Covey-Brandt, who now runs Hoyer’s floor operation and has been with Hoyer for eight years.) And state House GOP leader Anthony O’Donnell revealed he was ready to give up his legislative seat after 18 years to run for Hoyer’s seat, even though the state’s redistricting may make the 5th District no more inclined to go Republican. Hoyer told reporters he is firmly committed to seeking re-election.
(2) The 18 new congressional districts for Pennsylvania were unveiled last night by the Republicans who run Harrisburg, and it’s no surprise that the mapmakers went to great lengths to shore up the prospects for GOP congressmen in politically competitive territory. (Also no surprise, the legislators took care of the one House seat the state lost in reapportionment mainly by combining the exurban Pittsburgh districts currently held by Democrats Jason Altmire and Mark Critz, but in a way that gives each a fair shot at beating the other in a primary — and then gives GOP state Rep. Jim Christiana a solid shot in the fall.) On the other side of the state, the map was significantly reconfigured to make political life more comfortable for Patrick Meehan, Jim Gerlach, Charlie Dent, Tom Marino and — most of all — freshman Lou Barletta, who saw his territory changed from mostly Democratic to GOP-leaning. The biggest Democratic beneficiary is Tim Holden, whose seat was made safer by dispersing much of his GOP precinct to nearby Republican incumbents. Under the new map, Democrats will probably view the seats held by Republicans Mike Fitzpatrick and Mike Kelly as their most plausible pickup opportunities.
— David Hawkings, editor
Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com/DavidHawkingsDC. Or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/davidhawkings.
House Passes Payroll Tax Cut Extension With Keystone Pipeline Provision
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — Defiant Republicans pushed legislation through the House Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama’s request – but also would require construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.
Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its certain demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate, triggering the final partisan showdown of a remarkably quarrelsome year of divided government.
The legislation “extends the payroll tax relief, extends and reforms unemployment insurance and protects Social Security – without job-killing tax hikes,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared after the measure had cleared.
Referring to the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, “Our bill includes sensible, bipartisan measures to help the private sector create jobs.”
On a long day of finger pointing, however, House Democrats accused Republicans of protecting “millionaires and billionaires, `’ and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., derided the GOP-backed pipeline provision as “ideological candy” for the tea party-set.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/house-passes-payroll-tax-cut-extension-with-oil-pipeline-provision/
Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its certain demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate, triggering the final partisan showdown of a remarkably quarrelsome year of divided government.
The legislation “extends the payroll tax relief, extends and reforms unemployment insurance and protects Social Security – without job-killing tax hikes,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared after the measure had cleared.
Referring to the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, “Our bill includes sensible, bipartisan measures to help the private sector create jobs.”
On a long day of finger pointing, however, House Democrats accused Republicans of protecting “millionaires and billionaires, `’ and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., derided the GOP-backed pipeline provision as “ideological candy” for the tea party-set.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/house-passes-payroll-tax-cut-extension-with-oil-pipeline-provision/
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Barack Obama's 32 Month Report Card
by Rich Carroll, October 23, 2011
Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail to your liberal friends and/or relatives.
Mr. Hope and Change seems to want to create a nation humbled; humiliated, casting-aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where “we the people” are government controlled. This would be a system that genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and punishes those who strive to succeed.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase.
The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump.
Long term unemployment soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to 6,400,000. Staggering “hope and change” isn't it?
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000.
The number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from 11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011.
MORE
http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/profiles/blogs/obama-s-32-month-report-card?xg_source=activity
Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail to your liberal friends and/or relatives.
Mr. Hope and Change seems to want to create a nation humbled; humiliated, casting-aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where “we the people” are government controlled. This would be a system that genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and punishes those who strive to succeed.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase.
The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump.
Long term unemployment soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to 6,400,000. Staggering “hope and change” isn't it?
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000.
The number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from 11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011.
MORE
http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/profiles/blogs/obama-s-32-month-report-card?xg_source=activity
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Barack Obama's 32 Month Report Card
by Rich Carroll
Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail your liberal friends and/or relatives.
Mr. Hope and Change wants to create a nation humbled; humiliated, casting-aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where “we the people” are government controlled. This would be a system that genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and punishes those who strive to succeed.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase. The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump. Long term unemployment soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to 6,400,000. Staggering “hope and change” isn't it?
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000, and the number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from 11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011. The number of unemployed blacks has risen from 12.6% at the end of George Bush's term to 15.8% today, a 25.4% increase, and finally, our national debt is up 34.4% from 10.627 trillion to 14,278 trillion *
Keep these figures in mind as we recount the number of “firsts” for this presidency:
First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States .
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs and later admit there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to encourage racial discrimination and intimidation at polling places.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly speak-out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state they are allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (Az, WI, OH, IN)
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to coddle American enemies while alienating Americas allies.
First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to salute the U.S. Flag.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by the taxpayer.
First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat “the Holy Qur'an tells us,” and openly admit “the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.”
Remember that 32 months of Obama White House we the people have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our nation's entire history, as the Obama's plan their next extravagant vacation to the Indonesian Island nation of Bali .
Hope and change anyone?
* sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wall Street Journal, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept of Labor, Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller, Federal Reserve, US Treasury, Heritage Foundation.
Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail your liberal friends and/or relatives.
Mr. Hope and Change wants to create a nation humbled; humiliated, casting-aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where “we the people” are government controlled. This would be a system that genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and punishes those who strive to succeed.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase. The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump. Long term unemployment soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to 6,400,000. Staggering “hope and change” isn't it?
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000, and the number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from 11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011. The number of unemployed blacks has risen from 12.6% at the end of George Bush's term to 15.8% today, a 25.4% increase, and finally, our national debt is up 34.4% from 10.627 trillion to 14,278 trillion *
Keep these figures in mind as we recount the number of “firsts” for this presidency:
First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States .
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs and later admit there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to encourage racial discrimination and intimidation at polling places.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly speak-out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state they are allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (Az, WI, OH, IN)
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to coddle American enemies while alienating Americas allies.
First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to salute the U.S. Flag.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by the taxpayer.
First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat “the Holy Qur'an tells us,” and openly admit “the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.”
Remember that 32 months of Obama White House we the people have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our nation's entire history, as the Obama's plan their next extravagant vacation to the Indonesian Island nation of Bali .
Hope and change anyone?
* sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wall Street Journal, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept of Labor, Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller, Federal Reserve, US Treasury, Heritage Foundation.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Obama’s Fuzzy Stimulus Math -- Obama proposes 36% cut to Social Security revenue
Let’s forget the fact that Obama’s entire Stimulus 10.0 is a counterintuitive proposal that doubles down on the very failures that precipitated this speech. Let’s also disregard the fact that enshrining unemployment insurance as a permanent handout will perpetuate unemployment. And more union-induced, short-term money drops on infrastructure will do nothing but stimulate traffic jams. Let’s focus purely on the very numbers that the administration has offered –numbers that would undoubtedly be revised upward, if the plan is passed.
Total package – $447 billion
- 50% payroll tax cut for every employee, dropping the rate from 6.2% to 3.1%= $175 billion
-Obama also proposed cutting the employer payroll tax in half on the first $5 million of a firm’s payroll in 2012. About 98% of firms have payrolls of $5 million or less.= $70 billion
-National infrastructure bank = $10 billion
- Pork project handouts to unions for roads, rails and bridges= $50 billion
-An unprecedented extension of unemployment insurance benefits to be extended for another year, beyond the 99 weeks= $62 billion.
-Handouts to public school teacher unions, even though we already spend more per capita on education than any other country=$35 billion
-Refurbishing schools, a responsibility of local government=$25 billion
-Handouts to community colleges=$5 billion
-Rehabilitate vacant property=$15 billion
Despite the steep cost, Obama claims that it will all be paid for. How will he pay for it?
Please click here for the rest of the post.
Total package – $447 billion
- 50% payroll tax cut for every employee, dropping the rate from 6.2% to 3.1%= $175 billion
-Obama also proposed cutting the employer payroll tax in half on the first $5 million of a firm’s payroll in 2012. About 98% of firms have payrolls of $5 million or less.= $70 billion
-National infrastructure bank = $10 billion
- Pork project handouts to unions for roads, rails and bridges= $50 billion
-An unprecedented extension of unemployment insurance benefits to be extended for another year, beyond the 99 weeks= $62 billion.
-Handouts to public school teacher unions, even though we already spend more per capita on education than any other country=$35 billion
-Refurbishing schools, a responsibility of local government=$25 billion
-Handouts to community colleges=$5 billion
-Rehabilitate vacant property=$15 billion
Despite the steep cost, Obama claims that it will all be paid for. How will he pay for it?
Please click here for the rest of the post.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Congress returns; GOP unlikely to embrace Obama spending proposals
By Jim Abrams September 6, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of Congress spent August listening to constituents describe their economic struggles. This week, the lawmakers return to Washington to see whether there's enough bipartisanship left to make things better.
Republicans and Democrats agree that job creation is the first priority, but there's little indication so far that the two sides will come together.
President Barack Obama, who will address a joint session of Congress on Thursday, challenged Republicans in a Labor Day speech to put country ahead of party and work with Democrats on a jobs package. He said more than 1 million unemployed construction workers are ready to rebuild deteriorating roads and bridges.
Majority Republicans in the House, however, have been unwilling to spend money on new construction projects — a strong signal that they'll give Obama's address a cool reception.
Besides spending on public works, Obama said he wants pending trade deals passed to open new markets for U.S. goods. He also said he wants Republicans to prove they'll fight as hard to cut taxes for the middle class as they do for profitable oil companies and the wealthiest Americans.
The president is expected to call for continuing a payroll tax cut for workers and jobless benefits for the unemployed. Some Republicans oppose extending the payroll tax cut, calling it an unproven job creator that will only add to the nation's massive debt. The tax cut extension is set to expire Jan. 1.
Republicans may go along with tax break proposals but won't be friendly to ideas to extend jobless benefits. They also cite huge federal budget deficits in expressing opposition to vast new spending on jobs programs.
House Republicans have prepared an autumn jobs agenda that centers on repealing what they say are job-destroying environmental and labor regulations. The first bill, slated for the week of Sept. 12, would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from restricting where an employer can locate in the United States. It grows out of a complaint issued by the NLRB that Boeing Co. was punishing union workers with plans to transfer an assembly line from Washington state to South Carolina.
The anti-regulation bills are likely to hit a dead end in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But the threat of them prompted Obama last week to scrap tougher Environmental Protection Agency regulations on ozone, a key ingredient of smog that causes asthma and other lung illnesses.
CONTINUED:
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2011/09/06/congress-returns-gop-unlikely-to-embrace-obama-spending-proposals/?subscriber=1
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of Congress spent August listening to constituents describe their economic struggles. This week, the lawmakers return to Washington to see whether there's enough bipartisanship left to make things better.
Republicans and Democrats agree that job creation is the first priority, but there's little indication so far that the two sides will come together.
President Barack Obama, who will address a joint session of Congress on Thursday, challenged Republicans in a Labor Day speech to put country ahead of party and work with Democrats on a jobs package. He said more than 1 million unemployed construction workers are ready to rebuild deteriorating roads and bridges.
Majority Republicans in the House, however, have been unwilling to spend money on new construction projects — a strong signal that they'll give Obama's address a cool reception.
Besides spending on public works, Obama said he wants pending trade deals passed to open new markets for U.S. goods. He also said he wants Republicans to prove they'll fight as hard to cut taxes for the middle class as they do for profitable oil companies and the wealthiest Americans.
The president is expected to call for continuing a payroll tax cut for workers and jobless benefits for the unemployed. Some Republicans oppose extending the payroll tax cut, calling it an unproven job creator that will only add to the nation's massive debt. The tax cut extension is set to expire Jan. 1.
Republicans may go along with tax break proposals but won't be friendly to ideas to extend jobless benefits. They also cite huge federal budget deficits in expressing opposition to vast new spending on jobs programs.
House Republicans have prepared an autumn jobs agenda that centers on repealing what they say are job-destroying environmental and labor regulations. The first bill, slated for the week of Sept. 12, would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from restricting where an employer can locate in the United States. It grows out of a complaint issued by the NLRB that Boeing Co. was punishing union workers with plans to transfer an assembly line from Washington state to South Carolina.
The anti-regulation bills are likely to hit a dead end in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But the threat of them prompted Obama last week to scrap tougher Environmental Protection Agency regulations on ozone, a key ingredient of smog that causes asthma and other lung illnesses.
CONTINUED:
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2011/09/06/congress-returns-gop-unlikely-to-embrace-obama-spending-proposals/?subscriber=1
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