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

Payroll Tax Debate: The Truth Comes Out in the U.S. Senate

conservativedailynews.com12/2/11

On Thursday, Dec.1st the battle to extend the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance benefits reached new heights in the Senate, as not only did…

Tax debate over, Obama lands in Hawaii – TheHill.com

thehill.com12/24/11

White House pool reports suggest the president is in full vacation mode. Following a week of speculation about whether President Obama would be able to join his family in Hawaii for Christmas, or would be stuck in …

What’s going on right now is a battle between those in the Senate and the House that believe that more tax money is needed so that more can be spent, and those on the other side of the aisle, that don’t believe it!

Obama’s Anger

President Obama, who right now is the swagman for the more tax-wanters, can’t understand why the Republicans won’t join his crusade to add trillions of dollars, to the burden of the taxpayers.

And that’s trillions with a “t" and not billions with a “b”,

Will Rogers may never have met a man he didn’t like, but Obama has never met a tax he didn’t want to fondle, and he can’t give up his itch to cuddle these new trillions.

Will Roger obviously never met an agent

An AP (Associated Press) analysis suggests that adding trillions of dollars in new taxes will most affect small-business owners, and low, and middle-income families trying to reach for more prosperity.

* And AP leans left!

The Leftist Solution?

In his frantic push for more taxes Obama declares:

“We need to close tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, hedge-fund managers and corporate jet owners".

“What we need to do is to have a balanced approach where everything is on the table".

"We need to take on spending in the tax code".

“You can’t reduce the deficit to the levels that it needs to be reduced without having some revenue in the mix".

In the same way that Marie Antoinette couldn’t understand why the poor wouldn’t eat cake when there was no bread, Obama can’t understand why a baron of Wall Street wouldn’t settle for a little Grumman or Falcon, even with a tax credit.

* Closing loopholes on those that use corporate jets would raise about one tenth of one percent of needed money!

What Happed To Euphemisms?

Obama, with his trillion-dollar “grand bargain", is now flailing about in frustration because the Republicans are refusing to use euphemisms, which is the preferred tongue of Capitol Hill.

To Obama’s chagrin, the Republicans obstinately continue to talk in Harry Truman English, and the Tea Partiers keep calling taxes, "taxes".

The Master Is Choking

Obama got to Washington, in part because he is a master of pulpit rhetoric, but now he’s choking on mixed metaphors:

“Pull off the Band-Aid. Eat our peas. Now’s the time to do it".

But euphemisms, however vague, cute or inexact, won’t work this time if the Republicans can resist an urge, which is deep within their DNA, to "fold in the clutch".

Taxes Are An Affliction

Some polls suggest that the majority of Americans want higher taxes, whereas others say that they don’t.

The left-wing polls suggest one opinion, and the right-wing ones another.

The majority of Americans might approve of higher taxes for other people of course, but the question that almost certainly went unasked in left-wing polls was, "Would YOU be happy to pay more tax?".

Thatcher And Palin

Many years ago, Margaret Thatcher astutely diagnosed the terminal ailment of all socialists:

“They always run out of other people’s money".

And Sarah Palin, who sets liberal teeth on edge with her gift of cutting colorfully to the chase, observed that:

"The Sugar Daddy has run out of money".

The Lines In The Sand

The Democrats are now crying that the Republicans must agree to tax increases or risk default, but that’s because the Democrats are unwilling to make the needed cuts in spending to prevent the default.

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote that:

"Republicans no longer have a sense of moral decency and can’t accept the legitimacy of intellectual authorities".

But what he really meant was that taxpayers have finally got the tax-eaters’ number, and that the “intellectual authorities”, might as well get used to it.

Related posts:

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

If you believe that there is some kind of fiscal equivalence between the Bush era and the Obama era then you need to review the latest report from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office).

The total public debt held at the end of 2009 (George W. Bush’s last budget) was $7.5 trillion, but in its most recent budget report the White House forecasts budget deficits totaling $8.6 trillion over the next decade which would in fact be the good news, because the CBO estimates that even that mind-boggling projection is too low and it estimates that the cumulative deficit from 2010-2020 will most likely be much closer to $9.8 trillion.

Courtesy of CBO - click for larger image.

So What’s A Difference Of $1.2 Trillion Between Friends?

$1.2 trillion is roughly the same as the combined deficits of Bush’s first four years in office, and we’re only talking about the ‘additional’ amount of total deficits in the decade to come.

The $1.2 Trillion Underestimate Is The Good News

And here are the numbers that should really worry you!

$9.8 trillion, which according to the CBO will be the cumulative budget deficit from 2010-2020 based on Obama’s stated plans.

* In other words, we are set to have an average $1 trillion deficit over the next ten years, after never having breached $1 trillion even once, before Bush’s final budget.

$3.8 trillion, will be the additional budget deficits from 2010-2020 if Obama’s plans are enacted, compared to just leaving the budget on auto-pilot, and that’s according to the CBO.

90% – is what the public debt will be as a share of the total economy by 2020 given Obama’s plans, and according the CBO the current figure is 53%.

80% which according to the CBO is the amount by which the White House has overestimated next year’s economic growth.

* The White House forecasts 4.3% in 2011and the CBO forecasts 2.4%

24.1% which represents the average proportion of GDP that the federal government will spend from 2010-2020 given Obama’s plans, and according to CBO.

*The 40-year historical average was 20.7% so we are talking about a federal government in 2020 that will be one-sixth larger than ever before.

And All Of The Above Assumes

That there will be no national emergencies over the next 10 years.
No terrorist attacks.
No natural disasters.
And that we will have a decade of uninterrupted economic growth.

How much would you bet on the above?

And if you wondered why tea parties are becoming so popular then please understand that if the Obama administration’s plans are brought to fruition that we will be looking at, an expansion of government, and a deficit debt that is an order of magnitude far greater than anything we’ve seen before, and that the country could be damaged, perhaps irreparably.

Obama is on record as saying that he doesn’t want the U.S. to be a hegemony, and that might be the one thing at which he succeeds during his 4 years in office!

Related posts:

1. Tarp And Its Tentacles Could End Up Costing $23.7 Trillion
2. Is America Going Bankrupt?
3. U.S. Household Wealth Falls by $1.3 Trillion

“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”.

Related posts:

1. Will China Cause America’s Next Financial Crisis?
2. More Than Eighty Reasons Why Obama Shouldn’t Be Reelected!
3. Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?

Amongst his many pledges before taking office, Obama’s claim that he would cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term, was perhaps the most ambitious.

Now in office however, he continues to introduce one new spending proposal after another, and as he does so, the country’s deficit continues to grow at an unsustainable rate, and the American people are showing increasing concern.

Just the health care reform plan alone is likely to more than double the already huge 2009 deficit which is now expected to exceed $1.8 trillion, but Obama claims that the plan will somehow remain deficit neutral;

"Like energy, this is legislation that must and will be paid for. It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings, and efficiencies within the health care system", he said last Tuesday, June 23 2009.

According to recent polls however Americans remain largely skeptical.

A New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 60% of Americans don’t believe the president has a strategy to reduce the deficit.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggested that 58% of Americans want the president to give controlling the deficit, a higher priority than a speedy economic recovery.

Obama said in a recent interview that the deficit issue is something that keeps him from sleeping at night, and added;

"There’s no doubt that we’ve got a serious problem in terms of our long-term deficit and debt. I make no apologies for having acted short-term to deal with our recession".

And so it should keep him awake, because the numbers are mind blowing;

The fiscal stimulus bill, $787 billion

The "place holder" for additional financial stabilization funds, $125 billion

The homeowner stability program, $75 billion

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program Re-authorization between 2010 and 2019, $38 billion

The Cap and Trade program for 2020, $22 billion

The money for these programs will supposedly come from;

Savings from the war in Iraq when it comes to an end, whenever that happens.

Doing away with unnecessary, inefficient, and as yet unnamed government programs.

Taxing Americans who earn above $250,000

However, JD Foster who is an economist at the Heritage Foundation says;

"Raising taxes is the obvious answer. I think there’s no question that we might want the rich to pay more in tax, but there isn’t enough money among the rich to tax it all and really make a significant dent in the deficits that we’re facing. That’s just not going to work. We’re going to have to try something else, either raise taxes on the middle class because that’s where the bulk of the money is. Or we’re going to have to start getting serious about cutting spending".

Various articles appeared on blogs during the election campaign that questioned Obama’s impossible sounding tax and funding proposals, but they were buried by the main stream media’s push to get him elected.

Understanding The Tax Cuts

Obama And The Magic Kingdom

More and more people are now crying out that Obama is far more liberal than they expected him to be, but if they’d done more than read headlines, and listen to campaign speeches, they would have known that he was irrefutably  linked to the Far Left ‘New Party’ (read communist party) less than 12 years ago.

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www.clucerf.org1/10/12

As early as the 1950s, Mundell proposed an economic policy program of tight monetary policy to stabilize the value of the currency and low tax rates to stimulate economic activity. During the late … The Reagan Scenario included a sharp drop in inflation, a recession in 1982 due to tight monetary policy, passage of the Kemp Roth tax cuts and an economic boom starting in 1983. … Inflation and interest rates are much lower and tax rates are lower as well. While a high …

The hidden dangers of low interest rates | David Cay Johnston

blogs.reuters.com1/10/12

Low rates also come at a cost, cutting income to older Americans and to pension funds. This forces retirees to eat into principal, may put more pressure on welfare programs for the elderly, and … If rates return to, say, 6.64 percent, the level they were in 2000, one year's interest costs would equal the individual income taxes for all of 2011 plus the first few weeks of 2012. Last week , rates took a step in that direction. The yield on the 10-year bond, a benchmark for other …

President Obama’s recent claim to homeowners, that refinancing their mortgage loans at a lower rate, equates to a tax cut, doesn’t ring true for many tax experts.

Obama said at a recent press conference that the housing plan his administration had launched, had “already contributed to a spike in the number of homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages, which is the equivalent of another tax cut. The main message we want to send today is that there are 7 to 9 million people across the country who right now could be taking advantage of lower mortgage rates and that is money in their pocket”.

What Obama failed to mention however is that unlike the housing boom that led to the current financial crisis, this time, only borrowers with strong credit ratings and stable jobs will be able to save money if they refinance.

Obama’s announcement caused many tax analysts, including Gil Charney, who is an analyst for The Tax Institute at H&R Block to shout “foul”;

“While there could be overall savings by refinancing and lower monthly payments, there also could be reduced tax benefits as less interest is paid. Also refinancing could extend the period before the mortgage is fully paid off, so this might not be desirable for someone who wants to be mortgage-free. Therefore, someone about to make a financial decision should take their complete financial picture into account, not just their tax situation”.

In fairness to Obama, some analysts like Mark Steber, who is vice president of tax resources at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service did express a more supportive viewpoint, “While generally there is no tax advantage to refinancing at a lower rate, an individual can save on the total out of pocket costs each year over the life of the loan. Though a tax bill will actually increase after refinancing, the increase in taxes may be less than half of the total difference in interest paid, so the taxpayer may save more money than their taxes increase, therefore resulting in net savings”.

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The Three Biggest Lies the Government Is Telling You by Charles …

lewrockwell.com1/27/12

So I have chosen to focus on lies about each: the Federal Reserve, the orchestrator of monetary policy; the U.S. budget, the accounting of government fiscal policy; and a few of the Empire's war lies. I am sharing just a … The World Bank gets almost all of its money by way of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD),( also not a bank), which gets its money from taxes, the largest share coming from the American people. The IBRD also sells …

In defense of capitalism | RedState

www.redstate.com1/12/12

So all you people defending Mitt Romney's corporate activity as unassailable because by God the business of America is business and what not, remember he once made clear he didn't much care for you guys. …. (Actually it sounds quite a bit like what happened to the banks. …. I have said for months that Rush, Beck, Hannity even Palin keep telling us what our candidate should look like and then we have one and they won't put their money where their mouths are. …

The just released government’s “stress-test” results suggest that ten of the nation’s nineteen biggest banks will need a total of around $75 billion in new capital in order to withstand losses if the recession worsens.

According to the tests, some of the largest banks are stable, whilst others will need billions more in capital.

Meanwhile, government officials are stressing that the banking industry is still viable in spite of its vulnerability, but concur that it will need massive injections of capital if there’s to be an economic rebound.

The official line is, that none of the banks will be allowed to fail, and that it’s hoped that the tests will restore investors’ confidence, that not all the nation’s banks are seriously weak, and that those that are can be strengthened.

Kevin Logan, who is chief U.S. economist at Dresdner Kleinwort said, “Looking at the big picture, you can say that things aren’t so bad for the financial industry as a whole. The banking industry is not going to make a lot of money going forward, and that’s a dilemma for keeping banks solvent and getting them lending”.

The ten banks that need more capital, have until June 8th to develop a plan and to have it approved by their regulators, and analysts say that the test results sketched an encouraging but cautious picture of the banks.

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Obama's vision splits small businesses | Entrepreneurial

blogs.reuters.com1/25/12

What do small businesses make of Obama's State of the Union address and promises for job growth and tax reform?

polecat news and views: Obama's Vision for a Spartan America

donpolson.blogspot.com2/4/12

Obama's Vision for a Spartan America. BY JONAH GOLDBERG. President Obama's State of the Union address was disgusting. The president began with a moving tribute to the armed forces and their accomplishments. But as …

Can America Afford Obama's Vision?

President Obama’s vision of what America ought to look like in the future, would hugely raise government spending on health care, energy and education, and taxpayers would have to foot the bill for a larger, more intrusive government.

His $3.6 trillion debt proposal isn’t simply a bunch of numbers and tables however, but it’s the basis of his underlying philosophy. He believes that throwing staggering amounts of money at schools, hospitals and environmentally friendly industries, will also lay the foundation for the next economic boom.

Do his figures add up?

The Budget Office forecast is for a 10-year cumulative deficit of $9.3 trillion which is $2.3 trillion higher than the administration’s estimate, and it predicts that the government would spend an average of 23.7% of its GDP yearly, while only receiving 18.4% of GDP in revenue during the same period.

What would that mean?

It would mean yearly federal deficits averaging 5.3% of GDP and a budget gap of about $1.2 trillion by the year 2019.

What does Obama have to say on the subject?

"We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end."

It is not surprising then, that many Conservatives who envision a totally different society are in growing opposition to Obama’s plans. They mostly envisage prosperous and thrifty two-parent families who pay for their own health and auto insurance, and an economy in which a middle-class family’s tax burden is so low that there is money left over to save for education and retirement.

The Republicans are not the only ones that are showing mounting concern however, and Senator Kent Conrad, who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, recently expressed his skepticism about making the president’s "Making Work Pay" tax break, a permanent one.

Obama’s proposed tax plan would phase out at family incomes of $190,000 or more and carry a 10-year cost of $537 billion, and he has also requested an additional minimum of $234 billion in individual, and $100 billion in business-breaks on top of the initial one.

Obama’s highly ambitious agenda, which includes healthcare expansion, new spending on clean energy and education, and a cap-and-trade system (a cap and trade system is a market-based approach to controlling pollution that allows corporations or national governments to trade emissions allowances under an overall cap, or limit, on those emissions. to combat global warming) has also caused many others to express their concerns too.

U.S. Representative Richard Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, who is a longtime member of the House Ways and Means Committee said, "I think the reality is going to settle in that we are going to have to pull back on something".

James Horney, who is the director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said, "Over the longer term, the federal government is going to need more revenue than Obama is proposing and anybody who has looked at the problem and doesn’t have ideological blinders on reaches that conclusion".

Will taxes have to go up if Obama’s plans are passed?

Robert Reischauer, former director of the Congressional Budget Office says, "The unvarnished truth is that as we move forward over the next five to 10 years, we are going to have to raise taxes across the board or significantly cut back programs which affect the middle class and the lower class", and Bob Bixby, who is executive director of the Concord Coalition said, "One of the mistakes Obama is making is saying nobody under $250,000 is going to be affected. The deficit is just too big, and you can’t get it all from families earning more than $250,000. Taxes are going to have to go up at some point!.

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The report maintains that the Treasury received bank assets worth about $176 billion in exchange for capital purchases of $254 billion under the ‘Troubled Asset Relief Program’ – commonly known as TARP and the oversight committee blamed what it calls TARP’s “one-size-fits-all investment policy” for the shortfall.

“The use of standardized documents probably contributed to Treasury’s ability to obtain speed of execution and wide participation, but it meant Treasury could not address differences in credit quality among various capital infusion recipients”.

Neel Kashkari, who is now in charge of TARP told a ‘Mortgage Bankers Association’ conference in Washington on December 5th, that the government isn’t “looking for a return tomorrow. We are looking to try to stabilize the financial system, get credit flowing again, and over time, we believe that the taxpayers will be protected and have a return on their investment”.

The original designer of TARP, Henry Paulson also went on record as saying, “This is an investment, not an expenditure and there is no reason to expect this program will cost taxpayers anything”.

But certainly not everybody sees it the way that Kashkari and Paulson do.

Representative Alan Grayson, who is a Florida Democrat on the ‘House Financial Services Committee’ had this to say, “The loss estimate is conservative and it could turn out that those assets in the end are worthless. These are massive handouts to favored institutions to try to make up with taxpayer money the mistakes they made with investor money”.

Representative Scott Garrett who is a New Jersey Republican on the same commission said, “From day one, it’s been apparent that Treasury’s interest leaned more favorably toward that of the bank’s, with taxpayers as simply an afterthought and unfortunately, the actions of the Treasury ultimately resulted in negative, albeit foreseeable by some, consequences for the banks, and questionable benefit for the taxpayer”.

Gregory Miller, who is the chief economist at ‘SunTrust Banks Inc.’ in Atlanta said, “TARP hasn’t succeeded in clearing bad assets from banks’ balance sheets, which would allow the companies to lend money and get the economy going again. It hasn’t cleaned up the asset side of bank balance sheets and it hasn’t helped bank uncertainty about bank balance sheets at all and uncertainty has now overwhelmed economic decision making”.

Well if the above didn’t send a shiver down your spine or cause blood to rush to your head then it might be time to take this on board. TARP, which will be a recipient of a part of the more than $9 trillion that the government just pledged has guaranteed a further $350 billion to banks up to now with another $350 billion to be added over the coming months.

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Stiglitz, who is a professor at Columbia University in New York and a former adviser to President Bill Clinton had said that any decision by President Barack Obama to establish a so-called ‘bad bank’ to help rid financial companies of toxic assets risked increasing the national debt and added that the intended plan would leave taxpayers paying for years of excess lending by banks and would also deprive the government of money that could be better spent by propping up Social Security.

“That amounts to swapping taxpayers’ cash for trash and you shouldn’t chase good money after bad. We’re talking about a national debt that’s very hard to manage”, he said.

Angel Gurria who was Mexico’s former finance minister replied that a ‘bad bank’ is necessary if lending is to resume, “I agree about the moral, ethical fallout, but you’ve got to face the music and someone has to take the loss. It’s the only way to jumpstart the economy”.

George Soros said in an interview that “it’s not the measure that would turn the situation around and enable banks to lend”.

John Monks, who is the general secretary of the ‘European Trade Union Confederation’ said, “governments are getting close to straining the patience of the public and voters by repeatedly extending lifelines to banks”.

Gloria Arroyo who is the President of the Philippines urged Obama to act quickly, “We want Americans to do something. We can discuss what to do but the worst thing is to do nothing”.

A report just out from the International Monetary Fund states, “Bank losses worldwide from toxic U.S. originated assets may double to $2.2 trillion”.

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