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Posts Tagged ‘president’

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 …

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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!.

Condoleezza Rice Criticizes Cheney For "Cheap Shots," Insists She …

You guys better sit down for this: According to Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney is kind of an a******! Of course, the former secretary of state is far too classy to say it outright, but she's obviously rather pissed at Cheney for …

Publish Date: 09/02/2011 17:00

http://jezebel.com/5836840/condoleezza-rice-criticizes-cheney-for-cheap-shots-insists-she-never-cried

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portland imc – 2011.09.11 – Condoleezza Rice Speaking at PSU

Condoleezza Rice Speaking at PSU. On Wednesday, Oct 19th, Former Secretary of State (during the Bush reign) will be giving a keynote speech at PSU. You may recall that this is a lady who had an oil tanker named after her …

Publish Date: 09/11/2011 21:41

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2011/09/410188.shtml

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Following Obama’s election to the presidency so much has been written about “equality” and “America having finally come of age” etc. but few have questioned if it’s true or even thought to ask what will happen if he fails.

Would Obama have won if the Republicans had been able to put up a more viable candidate.

The answer is probably ‘no’.

Huge numbers of Republicans failed to vote and many that might have voted Republican didn’t vote because of McCain’s age and other factors.

If you question the above then just consider how popular Palin’s rallies were even though her beliefs and stances offended so many.

After her nomination she not only attracted bigger crowds than McCain but often bigger ones than Obama a well.

Just over three years ago Condoleezza Rice was seriously considered in many circles as a possible candidate for the Presidency and we heard similar comments to those that we’re hearing now about Afro-Americans.

But judged by any yardstick, Rice was a disaster.

Whereas I wish Obama well he has little likelihood of success and every chance of failure because the odds are heavily stacked against him.

Even if he does everything ‘right’, Americans will not be feeling any relief from the economic crisis even two years from now and they will have watched people losing their houses and jobs for those two long years.

The result of this prognosis should be plain.

The Democrats would be cast out and Obama would in all likelihood follow them and finish his first term in ignominy.

The question that then begs and answer is, “How long would it then take before America saw another Afro-American Secretary of State or President?”.

I imagine that this so called ‘equality” would be once again delayed for many decades because America was so slow to experiment a first time one can fairly safely assume that it would be much slower to experiment a second time.