Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics: Destroying the lies about trickle …

dancingczars.wordpress.com2/7/12

This entry was posted in Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics: Destroying the lies about trickle down economics and tagged conservative blog netowrk, Progressives are economic morons, Socialism doesn't, Trickle down works.

Another Record for Obamanomics | Wizbang

wizbangblog.com2/3/12

Another Record for Obamanomics. February 3, 2012 | Filed under Economics,Employment | Posted by Rodney Graves. And like all such records, it's not one that's doing the nation a damn bit of good.

President Obama has frequently justified his policies and judged their outcomes in terms of equity, justice and fairness.

All of which begs an obvious question,

How does our existing system and his own policy record stack up according to those criteria?

1) Is it fair that the richest 1% of Americans pay nearly 40% of all federal income taxes, and the richest 10% pay two-thirds of the tax?

2) Is it fair that the richest 10% of Americans shoulder a higher share of their country’s income tax burden than do the richest 10% in every other industrialized nation, including socialist Sweden?

3) Is it fair that American corporations pay the highest statutory corporate tax rate of all other industrialized nations but Japan, which cuts its rate on April 1?

4) Is it fair that President Obama sends his two daughters to elite private schools that are safer, better-run, and produce higher test scores than public schools in Washington, D.C. while millions of other families across America are denied that free choice and are forced to send their kids to second-rate schools?

5) Is it fair that Americans who build a family business, hire workers, reinvest and save their money—paying a lifetime of federal, state and local taxes often climbing into the millions of dollars must then pay an additional estate tax of 35% (and up to 55% when the law changes next year) when they die, rather than passing that money onto their loved ones?

6) Is it fair that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel and other leading Democrats who preach tax fairness underpaid their own taxes?

7) Is it fair that after the first three years of Obamanomics that the poor are poorer, that the poverty rate is rising, that the middle class is losing income, and some 5.5 million fewer Americans have jobs today than in 2007?

8) Is it fair that roughly 88% of political contributions from supposedly impartial network television reporters, producers and other employees in 2008 went to Democrats?

9) Is it fair that the three counties with America’s highest median family income just happen to be located in the Washington, D.C., metro area?

10) Is it fair that wind, solar and ethanol producers get billions of dollars of subsidies each year and pay virtually no taxes, while the oil and gas industry which provides at least 10 times as much energy pays tens of billions of dollars of taxes while the president complains that it is "subsidized"?

11) Is it fair that those who work full-time jobs, and sometimes more than one in order to make ends meet have to pay taxes to support up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits for those who don’t work?

12 Is it fair that those who took out responsible mortgages and pay them each month have to see their tax dollars used to subsidize those who acted recklessly, greedily and sometimes deceitfully in taking out mortgages they now can’t afford to repay?

13) Is it fair that thousands of workers won’t have jobs because the president sided with environmentalists and blocked the shovel-ready Keystone XL oil pipeline?

14) Is it fair that some of Mr. Obama’s largest campaign contributors received federal loan guarantees on their investments in renewable energy projects that went bust?

15) Is it fair that federal employees receive benefits that are nearly 50% higher than those of private-sector workers whose taxes pay their salaries, according to the Congressional Budget Office?

16) Is it fair that soon almost half the federal budget will take income from young working people and redistribute it to old non-working people, even though those over age 65 are already among the wealthiest Americans?

17) Is it fair that in 27 states workers can be compelled to join a union in order to keep their jobs?

18) Is it fair that nearly four out of 10 American households now pay no federal income tax at all, and is a number that has risen every year under Mr. Obama?

19) Is it fair that Boeing, which is a private company, was threatened by a federal agency when it sought to add jobs in a right-to-work state rather than in a forced-union state?

20) Is it fair that our kids and grandstands and great-grand-kids who never voted for Mr. Obama will have to pay off the $5 trillion of debt accumulated over the past four years, without any benefits to them?

What do you think? Was it fair?

Related posts:

1. Obama Owns The Economy Now
2. What’s The Tax Debate All About?
3. Would Cain’s 999 Have Beeen A Good Thing?

Wall Street pays big to influence Washington – CNN Political Ticker …

politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com1/31/12

Washington (CNNMoney) — Financial industry spending to influence Washington topped $150 million for the second year in a row, with emphasis shifting to regulators of the Dodd-Frank reform law, according to watchdog …

Charts: Wall Street Blows All Other Political Donors Away | Mother …

motherjones.com1/26/12

Wall Street's outsized political influence is no secret, but some new data shows just how much it's ballooned. According to the Sunlight Foundation, campaign spending by elite donors from the finance, insurance, and real …

He got more money from Wall Street than any candidate in the history of U.S. politics!

How can Obama side with Occupy Wall Street protesters when took more money from Wall Street than any candidate in the history of U.S. politics?

It seems like the media and many OWS protesters conveniently forget that Larry Summers was instrumental in the passage of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which removed the final Glass Steagall regulations on banks, securities firms, and insurance companies, as well as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 which deregulated financial derivatives at the very heart of the crisis.

Obama’s response?

Obama made him his Director of the National Economic Council!

As for campaign contributions, Obama’s second largest benefactor in 2008 was Goldman Sachs.

And numbers six and seven were JPMorgan and Citigroup.

In total, the various financial services industries donated a combined $30 million to his campaign.

John McCain received $21 million.

Related posts:

1. Would Mitt Romney be a good Republican presidential candidate?
2. Would Paul Ryan Have Been A Good Republican Presidential Candidate?
3. Would Ron Paul be a good Republican presidential candidate?

Economic Terrorism: Was the 2008 Collapse Intentional …

conservativebyte.com1/20/12

Economic jihad perhaps. Reply. Big Ugly, Wyoming says: January 20, 2012 at 10:32 am. There is no doubt in my mind that the “Crash of 2008″ was intentional …. orchestrated by Obama's handlers ….. headed by George …

Ireland may be the first EU state to sell Islamic bonds – Jihad Watch

www.jihadwatch.org1/20/12

McCormick Foundation: Shariah, Law and 'Financial Jihad' and How Should America Respond? 1. Recommendation: Enforce and prosecute violations of current laws on disclosure, racketeering, anti-trust, material support for …

Glen Beck talks to Kevin Freeman, the author of the book "Secret Weapon", about economic terror.

I edited the interview because the sound was so low as to be almost inaudible, and the clip was very long.

It seems like economic terror is now an official part of Jihad and its intent is to cause a collapse of the US economy!

Frightening stuff!

If you can’t destroy the US militarily then destroy it economy!

Both the Arabs and George Soros (seems like he’s involved too) have lots of money at their disposal, and their motivation to destroy the US economy is sky-high.

The bottom line is that the dollar and America’s credit rating are under attack, and the attack is very very serious!

So what can be done?

Please post your thoughts and suggestions.

Related posts:

1. The U.S. And The E.U. Are On An Economic Collision Course.
2. The Economic News Is Both Good And Bad
3. Do Socialist Countries Fare Better In An Economic Crisis?

Daily Kos: What I said to Joe Biden and the Obama re-election …

www.dailykos.com11/19/11

In the past two days I have received emails from Joe Biden and Jim Messina of the Obama re-election committee asking me to contribute and become active in the re-election effort. I support President Obama (in 2008 and will …

Mitt Romney: Nuclear Iran Would Be Consequence Of Obama Re …

www.huffingtonpost.com11/13/11

Mitt Romney: Nuclear Iran Would Be Consequence Of Obama Re-Election. Romney Obama. KASIE HUNT 11/12/11 11:54 PM ET Associated Press AP. React. Important Funny Typical Scary Outrageous Amazing Innovative Finally. Follow …

More Than 80 Reasons to Elect a New President Worthy of a Great Nation: Not the Abomination of an Obama Nation

With very rare exceptions, everything on this site was written by me; but this one was too good not to promote.

Courtesy of www.rabbidov.com

(Based on an Idea and Initiative, and Built off a List, Launched by KRLA Radio Talk Show Host and Constitutional Law Professor Hugh Hewitt)

1. Obamacare – Attempting to federalize local state rights, extending federal control over massive components of the national bourse, extending federal control over individuals’ lives in violation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.  Cynically lining up supporters in white doctors’ robes, while refusing to consult with much more prominent and predominant medical groups who oppose. Lying about the program’s cost and tax burden by subterfuging it with exorbitant taxes that begin several years into its anticipated roll-out.  Robbing $500 billion from Medicare that will destroy access for seniors, while lying about the Ryan proposal that would not affect people over 55.

2. The catastrophic $850 billion stimulus.  $700,000 to develop a robot that tells jokes.  $3.4 million for an underground tunnel for turtles to cross the road in Florida. $1 million to help smokers kick the habit by giving them Blackberry "smartphones."  $2.6 million for Chinese prostitutes in China to drink responsibly. Lying to Americans by claiming the money was going to "shovel-ready jobs" — and then joking about the falsehood. Lying by hiding the amounts transferred to favored liberal projects unrelated to job growth or economic stimulation.

3. Chronically high, persistent unemployment – His own staff said that he would bring it under 8% ; yet it remains over 9% thirty months into his one term, with real unemployment actually exceeding 15% as huge numbers of unemployed Americans withdraw from searching hopelessly for jobs. Lying about a Summer of Recovery (2010).

4. Gas prices – Now exceeding $4.50 a gallon in California, while he bars exploration in ANWR, restricts licenses to explore along the Atlantic coast or in the Gulf, but exports American dollars to help Brazil explore for oil in the Gulf even as Obama promises that America then will buy that oil from Brazil.  (See also #82.)

5. Failure to pass a budget. The abject failure by the Chief Executive to get any kind of budget adopted for 2010.

6. Multi-trillion debt free-fall. Turning the disastrous Bush deficits into a multi-trillion-dollar economic free-fall, now leaving the nation with a debt exceeding $14.3 trillion . . . and pressing for authorization to increase the free-fall.  His own latest mad deficit proposal was demolished in a House vote 97-318, as his own Democrats abandoned him in droves.

7. The seizure of GM and Chrysler. The illegal transfer of bondholder wealth to unions,  imposing his views on parts of the American auto industry, artificially trying to jump-start his favored companies with "Cash for Clunkers," only to find that American tax dollars were  used instead by people buying preferred Japanese cars to acquire them cheaper while being forced to destroy throughly sound used cars.

8. Dodd-Frank.  

9. Unremitting hostility to Israel.  Destroying the Mideast process by imposing unilateral burdens on Israel, forcing Israel to cease construction of Jewish homes, even in Jerusalem, thus compelling Abbas to harden several positions, all while publicly snubbing Prime Minister Netanyahu in the basement of the White House (the first visit) and trying to snub him on the second visit with a horrible policy speech as Netanyahu was flying en route to America.

10. Failure to support Iran‘s Green Revolution. A complete silence and abandonment of leadership when Iranians risked their lives for freedom, while backing the Moslem Brotherhood uprising in Egypt.

11. Failure to support the Syrian people’s revolution against Assad. Utter failure to lead until it was impossible to overlook the massacres by a dictator who actively finances and supports Iran and Hezbollah, America’s sworn enemies in Iraq and South Lebanon.

12. The Libyan Fiasco.  Entering Libya while failing to consult Congress.  No sense of whether we are supporting people just as bad as Qaddafi.  Remaining in the war more than 90 days without obtaining Congressional approval.  Lying about violating the War Powers Act by claiming there are no "hostilities" in Libya. 

13. The Gulf oil disaster. Bumbling in handling the Gulf oil disaster – refusing aid from countries with oil-cleaning vessels, failing to accept offers of boom to corral the spill, bringing in underwater filmmaker James Cameron as an expert.

14. Closing down oil exploration. The unnecessary moritorium on permitting oil exploration in the aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster, contributing to a massive explosion of oil prices, even leading a federal court to overturn him.

15. EPA interference. The shutdown of Shell’s Arctic oil exploration by EPA

16. Cap-and-Trade Fiasco. The push in Congress for a disastrous "cap-and-trade" plan that would stymie the coal, electric, and natural gas industries, while enormously raising Americans’ home fuel prices, leading even his own party’s U.S. Senator from West Virginia to film a TV promise to voters that he will shoot the proposal full of holes.

17. Use of federal agencies to bypass Congressional oversight. The attempt, after Congress refused to adopt his cap-and-trade nonsense, to bypass Congressional opposition and impose cap-and-trade undemocratically via the EPA.

18. Use of FCC initially to restrict free speech. The push for unconstitutional restrictions on free speech on his political enemies on Talk Radio while assuring protections for unions to spend money on campaigns via The Disclose Act.

19. The Disclose Act and cherry-picking. The attempt to unconstitutionally impose The Disclose Act on his political opponents but not unions via Executive Order.

20. Czars to bypass Congressional oversight. The use of unaccountable "czars" who effectively run huge segments of the American Government without being accountable to Congress and who are protected from Congressional subpoena power.

21. Boorish shaming of Supreme Court justices. The embarrassing and arrogant verbal assault on the Supreme Court while Court Justices courteously attended the first State of the Unionaddress, sitting in front of him, leading most to boycott the subsequent State of Union addresses.

22.  Boorish attempt to shame Paul Ryan. The similarly embarrassing and arrogant verbal assault on Rep. Paul Ryan when addressing the federal budget, with Ryan having been invited personally by Obama to attend the speech and sit in front of him.

23.  Boorish attempt to shame John McCain. The insulting, embarrassing, and arrogant gloating at John McCain during the televised sham negotiation over Obamacare, when he responded to McCain not substantively but by saying that Obama had won and McCain had lost the election — so there!

24.  Refusal to prosecute Black Panthers for Voter Intimidation. Obama’s and Attorney-General Eric Holder’s politicization of the Department of Justice, including refusing to prosecute the Black Panther voter-intimidation case in Philadelphia.

25. Marriage Act.  Obama’s and Holder’s refusal to defend the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, an act of Congress.  

26. Lies, Lies, Lies. The regular use of straw-man demonizations to try winning support for his unpopular legislation, like accusing doctors of performing unnecessary surgery so that they can enrich themselves by imposing misery on their patients.

27.  Throwing his grandmother under the bus. Using his grandmother as a foil to win points, calling her a racist like "typical white people."

28. Bowing to the Saudi King and the Japanese emperor.  Literally.

29. Treating our British alliance contemptuously. Shamefully returning to Great Britain the bust of Winston Churchill that they had given us and that had reposed in the White House, while insulting the Queen and the Prime Minister with inane gifts like DVDs.  The subsequent fiasco while toasting the Queen, continuing to talk during the playing of the British National Anthem.

30. Violating and abrogating long-standing promises to our allies.  Removing the missile shield from Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Putin.

31. Standing with the aspiring Honduran dictator. Backing the would-be dictator of Honduras when that nation’s duly convoked Supreme Court had removed him from office in careful compliance with law.

32. FTAs with allies. Failure to push for quick ratification of free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea.

33. Amateurish handling of Afghanistan military effort. The painfully over-extended indecision, for months, whether to authorize a military surge into Afghanistan, then exacerbating the indecision by announcing to our enemies a date-certain withdrawal timeline — a time coordinated with his reelection bid.

34. Incoherence on how to handle the anti-Mubarak uprising in Egypt. Having Frank Wisner despatched as his emissary, and then rejecting Wizner’s advice.

35. Radicalizing the NLRB outside Congressional purview. Appointing [Harold] Craig Becker, a radical unionist, to the NLRB through a recess appointment that otherwise never would have passed Congress.

36. Radicalizing FCC outside Congressional purview. Appointing FCC commissioners who are pursuing "net neutrality" without Congressional authorization.

37. Ecology gone wild in California. Wiping out much of the agricultural economy of California’s Central Valley by restricting full water deliveries to protect a small Delta Smelt fish

38. Gitmo debacles. Promising to close the Guantanamo Bay facility that interns terrorists, trying to close it, failing to close it, refusing to concede his error or assure that "Gitmo" will remain open.

39. Civil trials for terrorists debacles. Promising to move terrorist trials to civilian courts, then trying to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Downtown New York, only to be opposed even by the two ultra-liberal Democrat U.S. Senators of New York, then pressing to try another terrorist, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, in civilian court, resulting in the terrorist being acquitted on 284 of 285 counts.

40. Napolitano out of touch. The shameful failure of Obama’s Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano, to appreciate the Obama Administration’s security failures in the face of the near-catastrophe of the "underwear bomber" in the skies over Detroit, as she insisted "the system worked."

41. Student loans.  Government takeover of the student loan program

42. Border security. Cancellation of the "virtual border fence" project with no replacement, while deploying National Guard troops to do paper work at desk jobs and provide office assistance rather than stand armed along the border.

43. The "Beer Summit." In the aftermath of wrongly castigating and erroneously pre-judging fault regarding the Cambridge Police Department, tying up the country with a foolish spectacle on the White House lawn.

44. Immigration and Arizona. The Department of Justice’s attack on Arizona for that state’s exercise of its sovereign legislative authority on the issue of citizen identification rules.  Failure of his own federal government to execute the law on immigration.

45. The attack on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Attacking the Wisconsin governor and his state legislature for exercising their sovereign legislative authority on public employment issues, while Obama failed to acknowledge that the new Wisconsin rules are comparable to those that always have applied to federal employees.

46. Lying to McCain on their deal over campaign fundraising. Violating his pledge to John McCain to abide by McCain-Feingold limits for funding his Presidential campaign.

47. Downplaying American exceptionalism.  Apology tours. 

48. Implying that the Minnesota bridge collapse was the result of lack of infrastructure funding

49. Chicago Olympics fiasco. Shamefully inserting himself into a botched campaign to bring Olympic Games to Chicago, thereby exposing the Presidency of the United States to ridicule and formal rejection, and demonstrating early-on his overconfident sense of himself and his unpreparedness for the seriousness of his office.

50. Hypocritical attack on D.C. public school voucher effort. The attack on a voucher program for Washington, D.C. schools, even as his own children are protected from the educational failures that curse the Washington populace.

51. Associating with the murky.  Associations with convicted unrepentant domestic terrorists and eccentric haters of America: the Reverend Wright, William Ayres, Van Jones.

52.  Anita Dunn. Her war against Fox News and her boastfulness that the Obama White House has the "courage to speak truth to Power" — when it is the White House, not a cable TV station, that is "Power"; and her speech to schoolchildren, as a White House representative, sharing with the young and impressionable her idolization and admiration of mass-murderer Mao Tse-Tung.

53.  ACORN. 

54.  SEIU.  Having Andrew Stern, President of SEIU, as the man who has visited the White House more than any other person during the Obama term.

55. Teleprompters / White House for Dummies. A reliance on teleprompters to protect him from stumbling and bumbling speeches when, without scripting, he has spoken of his visits to America’s "57 states," has denigrated the handicapped, could not pronounce "corpsman," moronically said that Austrians speak "Austrian," referred to deceased war heroes adding that many were in the audience he was addressing, and has made more gaffes than Dan Quayle.

56.  Arrogance and Haughtiness. An extreme level of personal nose-in-the-air arrogance and lack of graciousness, from physical comportment to the way he addresses others.  The Roman columns. The arrogant temerity to tell Americans, God-like, that history will record his coronation as the moment that the rivers stopped rising and the planet healed.  

57.  Chicago Corruption. The house he corruptly acquired through Tony Rezko.

58.  The artificial shifting dialects. Affecting an artificial accent when speaking to unions, and to others with whom he allies in his "class wars," that belies his having grown up in Hawaii, reared by a Caucasian grandmother, his having spent years being schooled in Indonesia, and later attending school at Occidental College in California, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School.

59. Lack of transparency. Refusing to share his academic records or the sources through which he paid for private college and law school, despite his pre-election calls for transparency.

60.  Failure to lead on immigration. Not confronting the immigration issue when he dominantly controlled both the House and a filibuster-proof Senate, then mocking the GOP on immigration, saying they would not be happy with "alligators and moats" — when all they want is secure borders.

61. Fiscal irresponsibility on foreign relations with Egypt. Forgiving billions of dollars in Egyptian and related Mideast debt when we are past the 14.3 trillion debt line.

62.  Wasting billions on corrupt "Palestine" agencies. Pumping billions more into the discredited United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Authority that merged with the terrorist Hamas.

63. Radical judicial appointments.  Nominating a radical leftist, Professor Goodwin Liu, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit despite Liu’s contempt for constitutional imperatives towards limited government.

64.  Acceding to political bribery by cherry-picking waivers to Obamacare for favored donors. Forcing Obamacare down the throats of small businesses across America that cannot afford it . . . then approving politically correct and electoral pay-off waivers for his friends, donors, and rich boutique businesses. Granting 20% of all the country’s Obamacare waivers in Pelosi’s San Francisco district.  Buying off votes from Ben Nelson of Nebraska (the Cornhusker Deal), Mary Landrieu (the Louisiana Purchase) to pass Obamacare.

65. Using the White House to crush political opposition. Trying to force donors to his political opponents to reveal their contributions.  Using the White House official website asking supporters to report to the Government instances of people criticizing  Government policies.

66. Attempting to crush media opposition. Punishing a Boston newspaper whose editorial attacked him, having his White House conduct a war against Fox News, claiming they are an entertainment, not a news organization, and then boycotting Fox until that strategy backfired.

67. Encouraging cultural decline. Inviting "Common," a "poet" with disgusting lyrics of hate, to entertain at the White House

68. The Louis XVI Factor. Vacations and high-profile golf during the Gulf oil crisis, prompting even Democrat strategist and Presidential advisor James Carville to erupt in fury. More high-profile golf at Cape Cod while the country was losing its AAA credit rating for the first time.

69. The Marie Antoinette Factor. Michelle high-profile huge trips abroad, a la Eva Peron, with family friends and their children partying on the public payroll, at 5-star hotels in places like Spain.

70.  Al Sharpton. Launching his national presidential reelection campaign with a speech to Al Sharpton’s base.

71. Secrecy in Legislation. Failing to honor his pledge to conduct transparent governance, crafting Obamacare with Democrats behind closed doors barred to Republicans, leaving Obamacare as a massive document so convoluted that Nancy Pelosi had to tell the media: "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." 

72.  A philosophy of redistributing other people’s money. Trying to persuade "Joe the Plumber" that it is a beneficial national economic goal to "redistribute the wealth."

73.  Cynically blaming Republicans and Talk Radio for the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Blaming their rhetoric, while failing to address Democrat use of vile and violent language to describe Republicans and the Tea Party.

74.  Lying about a family connection to the Holocaust. Lying and falsely telling Americans that his grandfather was among those who liberated Auschwitz when, in fact, no American troops liberated Auschwitz.

75.  Failing to grasp the Israel narrative. Describing Israel’s right to exist as premised on the Holocaust, thus missing the entire point of a Jewish country built on the land where Jews have lived since Biblical times.

76.  Lying about a family connection to the Civil Rights movement. Telling Americans that his birth happened because his parents became amorous as a result of the 1965 Selma Civil Rights March — even though he was born in 1961.

77.  Collapse of the housing market. American housing prices lowest since 2002.

78.  Manipulating legislation by forcing votes on massive documents. Racing massive thousand-page legislation packages through Congress without allowing Congress or the American People time to read, comprehend, and absorb the bill — and thus breaking a major campaign promise.

79.   The Credit Rating downgrade. Presiding over the first credit-rating downgrade in American history.

80.  Timing military campaigns to coincide with election campaigns. Manipulating and sacrificing the lives of American soldiers, basing a withdrawal from Afghanistan not on strategic national security considerations but timed instead to coincide with the start of the 2012 Democrat Presidential Convention.

81.  NLRB.  Stacking the National Labor Relations Board with left-focused political hacks who are attempting to prevent America’s leading exporter, Boeing, from building a $1 billion manufacturing plant in South Carolina because that state permits employment of non-union labor.

82.  Cynically manipulating the national Strategic Oil Reserve. Releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to obtain the temporary political goal of lowering gasoline prices that have skyrocketed in the face of his severe restrictions on permitting exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast, and in Alaska in his obsessive pursuit of "green jobs."

83.  "Operation Fast and Furious" debacle. Allowing Mexican drug lords to access illegal firearms, then losing track of the firearms while the drug cartels used the illegal firearms for crime including murdering Americans.

84.  Lying, lying, and more lying to voters.  Trying to create class warfare by telling people that Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes will cause youngsters to be unable to finance their college educations, while causing seniors to lose health care and social security payments.  Failing to admit honestly that Congress extended the Bush tax cuts and refused to increase taxes even  when Democrats had a filibuster-proof Senate and veto-proof control of both Congressional chambers.

85.  Investigating CIA patriots. The Holder investigation into CIA operatives’ interrogations of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists and their use of methods that had been approved in advance by the Justice Department.

If there’s anything that you believe should be added to the list, then please post a response.

And please post why you think any sane person would vote to have Obama reelected.

Related posts:

1. Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?
2. New Poll Says Obama’s Base Is Crumbling
3. Obama’s Reelection Chances Don’t Look Good

Community Organizer Obama on Republican Economic Theory: “It …

www.thegatewaypundit.com12/7/11

President Obama, in one of his most expansive speeches to date, declared on Tuesday that supply-side economics is a failure and called “gaping inequality” across the country a moral shortcoming that is distorting American …

Obama says economic 'inequality' hurts everyone – CNN Political …

politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com12/6/11

(CNN) — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that economic inequality in America is at "a level we haven't seen since the Great Depression" and "hurts us all.

Here are four recent headlines.

“U.S. Manufacturing Growth Slows Substantially!”.

“Housing Imperils Recovery!”.

“Private Sector Added Few Jobs in May!”.

“Moody’s!”.

And they are all very bad news for Obama’s reelection chances in 2012 !

Obama Now Owns The Economy

Jimmy Carter owned the 1980 election-year economy and George H.W. Bush owned the 1992 election-year economy and both were one-term presidents.

Barack Obama however, has seemingly taken ownership of the 2011 economy, a full year and half before he has to face the voters which is great news for the GOP!

Obama’s self-confidence is famously limitless, but is almost certainly founded on vanity and not on facts.

During his hyper-partisan deficit speech at George Washington University in April, Obama raised major expectations of economic seriousness and then somewhat unexpectedly, dropped them over a cliff.

The day before that speech, most of Washington expected Obama to make a major policy statement about the big deficit-reduction debate that was then unfolding, but the president sadly contributed nothing.

Instead he ridiculed and derided the Republican leadership seated before him and with that speech, Mr. Obama effectively kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign, and in so doing politicized the economy.

Whether you agree or disagree with it, Paul Ryan’s budget which was released just one week earlier, was all about policy, and the Republicans were actually offering to take part-ownership of the economy by spending the year in dense discussions about the deficit and spending.

Bad Timing For Obama

Obama’s timing was not good to say the least because Americans are starting to panic about the economy, the persistently high unemployment and persistently weak growth.

Private forecasters have reduced their estimates for economic growth the rest of the year well below the 3%-plus the Federal Reserve predicted in April and the Fed’s 2012 growth forecast runs as high as 4.2% meaning that they must be using high-powered binoculars or telescopes.

The Failed Stimulus Package

The policy most explicitly intended to reboot the economy was 2009′s $814 billion stimulus, plus successive budgets that raised federal spending to 25% of a $14 trillion economy.

But in this year’s first quarter, the economy grew at only1.8% !

And What’s Worse

The housing sector, which is a monumental and intractable mess is choking the economy; and how did the White House respond?

The president allowed (or told) his “adviser” Elizabeth Warren of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to involve banks and mortgage servicers in negotiations over a complex regulatory scheme whose goal is literally, “to fix their business model”.

And Worse

The White House now says the free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea will be delayed absent payouts of more money for “trade adjustment assistance”, which means that unless the Republicans can force a change, that the last two years of uncertainty for trade commitments, will be extended

Is It Fair To Blame Obama?

Yes it is!

Because the US president made conscious policy choices during a deep recession to vastly reorder vast swaths of American industry and economic growth, like a long gray day, sits still below 3% !!!

Related posts:

1. Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?
2. Would Cain’s 999 Have Beeen A Good Thing?
3. Twenty Questions Obama Needs To Answer

World banks brace for euro collapse | GoldSilver.com

goldsilver.com12/26/11

Banks around the world are preparing for the possible collapse of the euro as fears of the European debt crisis increase.

What Will Happen if the Euro Collapses? A Few Scenarios | Global …

globalspin.blogs.time.com12/13/11

Despite the distracting political drama over the UK's outlier rejection at last week's European Union agreement on fiscal and budgetary coordination, it's now become clear that main objective of the collective effort–to ensure …

If you think that the European financial crisis resembles the American banking crisis of a couple of years ago then you’re underestimating the gravity of Europe’s problem.

The European sub-prime crisis of 2007 and 2008 was ‘solved’, although most likely only temporarily, by nationalizing bank debt, and whilst that calmed the markets, the bottom line is that bank debt was merely being transferred onto the public-sector balance sheets.

The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King perhaps summed it up best when he said:

“Dealing with a banking crisis was difficult enough, but at least there were public-sector balance sheets onto which the problems could be moved. Once you move into sovereign debt, there is no answer; there’s no backstop”.

The investors who leapt back into the US markets in 2009 and fueled the biggest stock-market leap since the recovery from the Wall Street Crash in the early 1930s, are now quickly disappearing and the confusion on European bourses is even worse, and we are now in a similar position to that of 2008.

The crunch that is now happening in Europe was foreseen by a great many economists for many years however, because of the difference in approach by Germany and Holland who practice high saving and low spending, and the Mediterranean countries and southern Ireland who have exactly the opposite approach.

The Mediterranean countries and the U.K. too, borrowed cheap in order to raise their standards of living, ignoring the question of whether they could afford to take on so much debt, and that was one of the main causes of the sub-prime disaster.

The Big Danger

Whereas it was possible to bail out sub-prime households, and the banks that lent to them, the International Monetary Fund doesn’t have enough cash to bail out major economies like Spain, Italy or Britain.

The sub-prime property market in the US, together with its slightly less toxic relatives represented a $2 trillion mound of debt, but the combined public and private debt of the most troubled European countries which include Greece, Portugal and Spain is closer to $9 trillion.

If Greek and other government bonds collapse, then that country’s banking system would de facto become insolvent overnight and banks throughout the euro area would be at risk because they hold so much of their neighbors’ government debt.

The Prognosis

It took Britain just a few days in September 2008 for the Government to push through the semi-nationalization of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS, but as politicians are now discovering, organizing a European sovereign bail-out is far, far more difficult than rescuing a bank, or banks.

The euro continues to fall and European politicians who are torn between Brussels and their electorates are emitting confusing signals which only tend to destabilize the markets even further.

The single currency might possibly survive, but only if its members were to agree to an even closer political union, and the likelihood of that happening seems as likely as the survival of the Euro.

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“The Bank Bailouts Have Created More Risk in The System”.

Neil Barofsky, who is the special inspector general for  TARP (The Troubled Asset Relief Program)  states quite clearly in a quarterly report that was released to Congress last Sunday, January 31, 2010 that the problems that led to the last financial crisis have not yet been addressed, and in some cases have actually grown worse.
“Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car”.

And referring to the “Too big to fail approach” he added, “The government’s bailout of financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” has created a risk that the United States could face a worse fiscal meltdown in the future, and the $700 billion financial bailout has encouraged more risk-taking because bank executives, who are still receiving massive bonuses, figure the government will come to the rescue the next time they steer their ships nearly aground”.

The report warns that these supports mean the government has done more than simply support the mortgage market, and in many ways has become the mortgage market, with the taxpayer shouldering the risk that had once been borne by the private investor.

“The government has stepped in where the private players have gone away and if we take government resources and replace that market without addressing the serious underlying concerns, there really is a risk of artificially pushing up home prices in the coming years”.

The report also revealed that, while the Obama administration pledged to spend $75 billion to prevent foreclosures, that only a tiny fraction of it amounting to just over $15 million has been spent so far and figures indicate that under the Making Home Affordable program, only about 66,500 borrowers, or only 7% of those who signed up had completed the process as of December.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said, “The market mentality now seems fixed that the U.S. government will continue to step in and bail out giant financial institutions. The IG’s findings confirm my decision to oppose releasing $350 billion in TARP funds last year and my recent vote to terminate the program altogether”.

And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee added, “The SIGTARP’s report is just another reminder of how Congress and the administration have ignored the role that politics and government played in causing the housing crisis and the economic collapse while pursuing other regulatory reforms will not fix the underlying problem”.

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China has been moving in the direction of free-market capitalism for many years, and the benefits of the move have been spectacular.

China now has a two trillion dollar trade surplus, and it’s now America’s principal banker.

With every day that passes. the U.S. is more fiscally reliant on China, and it continually begs the Chinese to go on supporting it.

In the short run, the Chinese will, but the interest rate will have to be much higher and in the long run, they probably won’t.

According to Fortune magazine’s latest list;

a) The number of U.S. companies in the world’s top 500 fell to the lowest level ever.

b) More Chinese firms than ever made the list.

c) Thirty-seven Chinese companies now rank in the top 500, including nine new entries.

d) The number of U.S. firms fell to 140, which is the lowest total since Fortune began the list in 1995.

e) China surpassed the United States as the world’s biggest automaker in the first half of 2009. American sales were 4.8million vs. China’s 6.1 million which is a huge difference.

How Did China Do It?

a) China has no capital-gains tax and only a 15 to 20% corporate tax.

b) The United State intends to raise its cap-gains tax rate to 20% percent, and also increase its top personal tax rates.

Investment flows to its most profitable destination, provided it has a stable currency, but it can be moved with a couple of mouse clicks and Bush’s last year and Obama’s first several months have made the U.S. a turnoff when it comes to investment.

The highest taxes in the U.S. look likely to be around 50%, but in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) they’re 42%!

If health care is nationalized which seem more and more unlikely at the time of writing it will consume around 15% of the U.S.’s economy and the energy proposals, another 15%.

As I write this;

a) Dow Jones stocks are down 8%

b) China’s stocks are up 71%

c) The world index is up 4%

d) Emerging markets are up 25%

Investment risk and work effort, are sadly no longer seen as rewarding, or as things worthy of pursuing in the U.S. and the increasing bureaucratic red tape and the current government’s policies on taxes, spending and regulation are causing the United States to lose more and more of its competitiveness in the global race for capital, prosperity and growth.

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Those looking at a V shape believe that if the recession nosedived, which is one side of the V, then it should bottom out and quickly recover to its former glory, the other side of the V.

The U shapers believe that if a recession begins quickly, but then slows down, remains at the bottom for a while and then skyrockets back to its previous glory, that it is U shaped.

Which Are Right?

If you look at any of the previous recessions that were caused by the bursting of a huge speculative bubble, you will find that the recoveries took a long long time to come about, which suggests that the V shape believers are wrong in expecting a quick recovery from the present recession, because the economy cratered very quickly indeed.

Those that believe that we’re in a U shape right now are perhaps closer to the truth, because they believe that exiting from the present crisis will take a great deal of time.

U-shapers believe however, that what will drive the recovery is investors that slowly come back into the market to take advantage of the low prices.

This recession is so deep however, that it’s not investors that will have to bring about some kind of recovery, but consumers, and right now they’re not playing ball.

Consumers account for around 70% of the U.S. economy and they’re the ones that took a real beating this time, and until they start spending you can forget about any serious kind of recovery.

What, No V Or U Shaped Return To Former Glory?

The two chances of regaining what once was, are probably slim and nothing.

The question might be better phrased, “how will consumers start fueling the economy?”.

The growing line of unemployed won’t fuel it, and householders will have a major problem getting home equity loans and perhaps worst of all, those that do have a little cash are intent on keeping it, and we just saw consumer confidence take another dive.

The probable truth is that America has seen the end of its economic, and perhaps its military hegemony, and Obama for right or wrong, certainly doesn’t want a return to either them.

America is surviving on loans right now, and will be for the foreseeable future.

The Chinese have a two billion dollar surplus, and will soon demand higher returns on their investment in the U.S. because they see it as overburdened with debt and that will only increase the U.S.’s debt mountain.

Americans will replace worn out cars and appliances of course, but who will invest in factories and businesses that build those things?

The original question was;

Will the U.S. Return To Its Former Glory?

The answer is almost certainly ‘no’, and a Scottish historian by the name of Professor Alexander Fraser Tyler, who wrote in 1787 about the decline and fall of the Athenian Republic over two thousand years before, perhaps explains it best.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back again into bondage”.

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China and US Try to Make Trade Progress to Save Global Economy …

dgriffith401.wordpress.com12/16/11

“The one thing that we can be certain of, among all the uncertainties, is that the global economic recession caused by the international financial crisis will be chronic,” he was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news …

How The U.S. Is Quickly Becoming A Third World Country (Part 1 …

seekingalpha.com11/22/11

… 3rd world status. Economic data indicate a harsh reality that obviates mainstream political debate. The evidence suggests that, without fundamental reforms, the U.S. will become a post industrial neo-3rd-world country by 2032. … According to the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. trade deficit with China alone caused a loss of 2.8 million U.S. jobs since 2001. Falling Real Wages and Household Incomes. Workers earning more dollars are actually poorer in terms of …

Major financial crises have occurred many times in the United States, and the one in 1929 wasn’t the first, and the present one won’t be the last.

The earliest one on record was in 1792, and there were several crises in the 19th century and also in the 1980′s

In short, recession cycles should be understood to be a normal part of living in a world of inexact balances, one in which there is an attempt to balance supply and demand.

The present world-wide economic crisis, which was caused by the United States wasn’t simply a result of unexpectedly large losses in subprime mortgages or because many of those loans were securitized in complex bonds.

In retrospect, it would seem that the major contributor to the collapse, was what are known as repurchase agreements, which are commonly known as repos.

A repo is a form of short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities. The dealer sells government securities to investors, usually on an overnight basis, and buys them back the following day.

For the party selling the security, and agreeing to repurchase it in the future it is a repo, and for the party on the other end of the transaction, the one who is buying the security and agreeing to sell in the future, it is a reverse repurchase agreement.

Repos are classified as a money-market instrument and they are usually used to raise short-term capital and the Fed uses repos to manage the aggregate reserves of the banking system.

The size of the repo market continually varies so it’s impossible to state its actual size, but it’s generally thought to hover around the $10 trillion mark at any given time.

Banks rely heavily on repro loans, and what caused the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, was that the repo market panicked because of rising doubts about subprime securities, and loans suddenly became more expensive, or totally unavailable.

So What Can Be Done?

The Obama administration has a plan to protect the country and the world from the next financial crisis, and it can basically be divided into three parts.

1) Stiffer Capital Requirements

Some banks and other financial institutions would be considered too important to fail, because their collapse would pose a threat to the country’s financial stability.

Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and similar institutions would I imagine, be on the government’s most protected species list.

The companies on the list would face stiffer capital requirements in the form of shareholders’ investment, with the idea being that greater capital would provide a larger buffer against losses and a crises.

It might be of interest to note however, that at the time of writing that none of America’s biggest banks are any longer in the top three world-wide.

The top three banks in the world by market capitalization are;

1) Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
2) China Construction Bank
3) Bank of China

Citibank and Bank of America are not even on the list of the top twenty.

Two Canadian banks, Royal Bank of Canada (RY) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) have recently made it to the list.

Australia also has two banks listed, and in addition to the Chinese banks, the importance of emerging markets is confirmed by the presence of Itau Unibanco Banco Multiplo (ITU) and Banco Bradesco (BBD).

The problem with the administration’s protected species plan, is that the very largest financial institutions in America, would effectively become protected and pampered wards of the state and they would most likely squeeze out the smallest ones and lenders would compensate by raising their interest rates or by only lending to the safest borrowers.

2) The Policing Of Unethical Lending Practices

The administration foresees the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would police what appear to be unethical lending practices, and ensure that loan documents for mortgages, auto loans and other types of consumer credit are comprehensible.

* The Securities and Exchange Commission would still retain power over the stock markets.

3) Changing The Rules

Financial firms that issue securitized bonds such as bundles of mortgages, auto loans and other credits, would be required to hold 5% of the bonds themselves, the thinking being that this would cause sellers to examine loans more carefully.

In early 2007, when the problems of subprime mortgages and repos first emerged, few if any regulators foresaw the coming meltdown, so the question needs to be asked, “should we trust government regulators instead of bankers, traders and money managers?”.

Due to their past failings, it would seem that we shouldn’t.

The dangers of overregulation should generally not be ignored or minimalized, but especially so in the U.S. whose economy is anchored on risk-taking and expansion.

We don’t yet know exactly what will cause the next financial crisis in the U.S. but its roots are already clearly foreseeable.

By 2019, the U.S. federal debt is expected to be $11 trillion and right now, the Chinese, who are presently supporting the U.S. economy are already preparing a retreat from the dollar.

China has now called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world’s standard, and is proposing, if not demanding, a sweeping overhaul of global finance that truly reflects the developing nations’ growing unhappiness with America’s role in the world economy.

If China decides to pull the plug, which is increasingly likely, we will soon understand what caused America’s upcoming financial collapse, but many will say that they didn’t see it coming.

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