http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/08/obama-national-debt.html New national debt data: It's growing about $3 million a minute, even during his vacation Swallow all liquids in your mouth before reading any further. Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It's now $14,639,000,000,000. When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20, 2009, CBS' amazing number cruncher Mark Knoller reports, the national debt was $10,626,000,000,000. That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That's the fastest increase under any president ever. Remember the day the Democrat promised to close the embarrassing Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year? That day the national debt increased $4,247,000,000. And each day since that the facility hasn't been closed. Same for the day in 2009 when Obama flew all the way out to Denver to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill that was going to hold national unemployment beneath 8% instead of the 9.1% we got today anyway? Another $4,247,000,000 that day. And every day since, even Obama golfing and vacation days. Same sum for the day Obama flew Air Force One nearly four hours roundtrip to Columbus, Ohio for a 10-minute speech about how well the stimulus was working in the politically crucial Buckeye state. Ohio's unemployment rate just jumped to 9% from 8.8% anyway. Or last week's three-day Midwestern tour in the president's new $1.1 million Death Star bus? National debt went up $16,988,000,000 while he rode around speaking and buying ice cream cones. Numbers with that many digits are hard to grasp, even for a Harvard head. So, let's put it another way: One billion seconds ago Bill Clinton was nearing the end of his two terms and George W. Bush's baseball collection was still on the shelves in the Austin governor's office. The nation's debt increased $4.9 trillion under President Bush too, btw. But it took him 2,648 days to do it. Obama will surpass that sum during this term. Now, how to portray a trillion, or 1,000 billions. One trillion seconds ago much of North America was still covered by ice sheets hundreds of feet thick. And the land was dotted by only a few dozen Starbuck's. Obama is saying yes, we can get control of the national debt. But ominously every time he says that he adds that trillions of dollars in infrastructure repairs are badly needed across the country. And with interest rates so low, according to the thinking on Obama's planet, now is an excellent time to borrow even more money. So, it looks like not too long before Americans learn what comes after 1,000 trillions. It's quadrillion. But for Bernanke's sake, please don't tell anyone in Washington.
Have you ever noticed when anybody tries to solve the budget situation they always say Social Security and Medicare are the big problems. Yet, in polls, 70% say they do not want any changes in SSI or medicare. So I guess we just really like big problems.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...dget_before_asking_americans_to_cut_back.html Dem Gov To Congress: Cut Own Budget Before Asking Americans To Cut Brian Schweitzer of Montana â where the unemployment level is a couple of percentage points below the national average. Schweitzer said that for all of the six years heâs served as governor, the state of Montana has seen the largest budget surpluses in its history but that instead of spending the money or allowing the legislature to appropriate the money, âwe held the throttle back.â During the recession, Schweitzer said he challenged every expense â from holding off on the purchase of computers for government workers to cutting his own salary â without turning loose criminals or cutting off disability to young children. As for whether the federal government could âpinch penniesâ to ensure cost savings, Schweitzer said they could renegotiate the purchase of prescription drugs which they overpay for, quit making aircraft carriers that the admirals say they donât need, quit making fighter jets the Air Force says they donât need, quit using private security guards to patrol our military bases all over the U.S. â among other big and small actions. Schweitzer also challenged Congressional leaders, saying before asking Americans to cut back, they ought to start by cutting their own budgets by 25 percent first.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/08/obama-jobs-package-debt-deal.html On Day 938 of his presidency, Obama says he'll have a jobs plan in a month or so OK, let's see if we can sort out this White House jobs package hocus-pocus because President Obama is counting on us not to. And no one wants to fail to not disappoint him: Last winter in his State of the Union address, oblivious to the gathering storm over the nation's national debt, the Democrat proposed massive new spending and loan programs -- he calls it investments -- to extend unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts and to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and other union-made infrastructure kinds of stuff. He had a plan he would share soon. When in trouble, give a speech. Say, early September. Before all this Rick Perry 40% of the nation's jobs come from Texas stuff really gets going. The president has mentioned the plan often, despite widespread skepticism due to the lack of stimulus that came from spending $787 billion in stimulus money that was for sure going to hold national unemployment at 8%, but it's now 9.1%. So, perhaps another such plan might work. As this administration sees reality, those Republican tea party terrorists kind of hijacked the marathon talks about raising the national debt ceiling, stubbornly and unreasonably making the debt negotiations over reducing the debt and spending rather than over spending spending. As a result, it's all their fault that Standard & Poor's lowered the federal government's credit rating for the first time because the rating agency didn't see sufficient cuts. The next day after the spending cuts agreement, with his obedient cabinet in attendance as witnesses, Obama said, yes, spending cuts were important as long as they didn't affect vast investments for the future to extend unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts and to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and other union-made infrastructure kinds of stuff. Other Democrats are designing job plans costing $200 billion per year. Because the country hasn't heard enough of Obama calling on Congress to do things and his job approval touched a new low of 39%, he laid on a three-day campaign swing through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois this week at taxpayer-expense because the White House declared it an official trip. Because Obama wanted to hear from regular Americans, he's encased in an armored Darth Vader bus with heavily-tinted windows so no one can see him looking out at regular Americans. And as the commander-in-chief meanders through the Heartland in this black vehicle, the entire road in both directions is cleared of regular Americans for the president's entourage and motorcade to pass by safely. The bus is reported to cost about $1 million, which works out to about $333,000 per day for this foray among regular Americans. On its second day out Tuesday Obama's bus made a couple of stops to chat with high school athletes and to acquire healthy presidential provisions -- one for ice cream cones (POTUS got vanilla) and another to load several bags of popcorn. At his speaking engagements, Obama stressed the need to extend payroll tax cuts and to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and other union-made infrastructure kinds of stuff. Also some free-trade agreements. This was a repetition of what he had said on the first day of his Grand Ground Tour. On his 938th day in office President Obama also said he would soon have a completed jobs plan. Maybe early fall, something like that. And he complained, "We could do even more if Congress is willing to get in the game." Tomorrow with all this heavy work in his rear-view mirror, the president is scheduled to join his family on Martha's Vineyard for a nine-day vacation.
That's because the people they ask,(defenders of corporate America), and the people they poll,(everyone else), come from completely different walks of life. All we need to do is stop congress from embezzling the SSN fund and, VIOLA, problem solved. But then how do we finance all the broke ass corporations/banks/financial institutions in general/etc., etc., when they blow up? Guess they're just gonna' keep stealing the money from the working class to bankroll the corporate thugs. Might have been sustainable if all those trickle down jobs ever came through the corporate thugs keep promising, but their greed just got the better of them. Always does!
Why Obama faces an uphill run for reelection http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...r-reelection/2011/08/17/gIQAk0IWOJ_story.html As the presidential election of 2012 grinds into gear, President Obama is already behind. To be safe, a president needs a Gallup job approval of 50 percent or better on Election Day. George W. Bush narrowly won reelection in 2004 with a 48 percent Gallup approval, mainly because his voters were more motivated than John Kerryâs. After a long, slow slide, Obamaâs approval hovers in the low 40s. He starts with ground to make up. Lacking the momentum of an economic recovery, the Obama campaign is signaling three elements of a political recovery strategy. First â 32 months after his inauguration, 28 months after the unemployment rate first surged past 9 percent â Obama will propose a âvery specificâ jobs package. In September. Following a well-deserved vacation. Specificity would be welcome. This is different, however, from timeliness or seriousness. And the proposals gaining trial-balloon status are late and weak. During his Midwest bus tour, Obama talked of extending the payroll tax holiday, creating an infrastructure bank to fund new projects, patent reform and finalizing trade agreements. The extension of payroll tax relief would do nothing new â continuing an existing policy. The infrastructure bank would require significant new spending by Congress as it simultaneously makes difficult, dramatic cuts in discretionary spending. Even in this unlikely event, it is hard to imagine how tens of billions of dollars devoted to roads and bridges â funneled to less-than-shovel-ready projects and focused on a single distressed industry â would dramatically succeed in boosting job creation where an $800 billion stimulus package did not. Both patent reform and trade agreements are good ideas with little short-term effect on job creation. Obama may be preparing unexpected policy wonders at Marthaâs Vineyard, but he cannot change the fact that he made a bad bet. In 2009, he assumed that a staggering economy would recover in a normal cyclical fashion, just in time for his reelection. So he spent his political capital on the largely irrelevant issue of health care. Now he wants to become the jobs candidate, mainly through the repetition of the word âjobs.â The second element of Obamaâs recovery strategy is to distance himself from a divided, dysfunctional, unpopular Congress. This, of course, is not fully consistent with element one â getting legislative achievements out of an institution you are savaging. These attacks are not new or, so far, successful. The debt-limit debacle was punctuated by the presidentâs irritable complaints about Congress â particularly about its refusal to raise taxes. Congress responded with complaints about the presidentâs late and erratic interventions â then pretty much ignored him in crafting a final deal. Americans justifiably held the entire political class responsible. A president cannot distance himself from a process he is supposed to lead and failed to lead effectively. Third, the Obama camp has previewed a campaign of personal attacks against its Republican opponent, whoever it happens to be. Obama advisers and Democratic strategists have been quoted by Politico calling Mitt Romney âweird,â possessing an âinnate phoniness,â which will allow Democrats to âkillâ his campaign. David Axelrod, Obamaâs chief strategist, has distanced himself from these comments. But such hardball is consistent with the way Obama has treated Speaker John Boehner (going to his home state of Ohio in 2010 to attack him directly) and Rep. Paul Ryan (inviting Ryan to a budget speech in which Obama trashed him as an enemy of children with Down syndrome). As president, Obama has been comfortable practicing the Chicago way of politics. And Texas Gov. Rick Perry now offers a target so tempting that even Democrats outside Chicago will find it hard to resist. Obamaâs cause is far from hopeless. His support has declined but not collapsed. A weak Republican opponent would help. And this emerging strategy â proposing symbolic measures on jobs, bashing an unpopular Congress and discrediting rivals â may be Obamaâs only option. A campaign taking credit for positive economic accomplishments would be nearly silent. For voters, however, this prospect is daunting. Obamaâs least attractive public attributes are his peevishness and blame-shifting. Do we really have to endure a presidential campaign based on those traits? And this strategy must be a comedown for at least some of the idealists who elected Obama in the first place. Following expectations few presidents have raised as high, Obama has transformed into the most typical of politicians. There is little distinctive, elevated or inspirational about his message or his tactics. And this adds an unwanted accomplishment: the further political disillusionment of a nation.
I think the government should get out of the jobs business and the healthcare business. If they want to have a little fun they can keep trying in the pension business. I've read some investment news letters and it doesn't look that hard.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60640.html President Obama's big drags The consensus has been that for all his problems, Obama is so skilled a politician â and the eventual GOP nominee so flawed or hapless â that heâd most likely be reelected. Donât buy into it. This breezy certitude fails to reckon with how weak his fundamentals are a year out from the general election. Gallup pegs his approval rating at a discouraging 42 percent**, with his standing among independents falling 9 points in four weeks. His economic stats are even worse. The nation has 2.5 million fewer jobs today than the day Obama took office, a fact youâre sure to hear the Republicans repeat. Consumer confidence is scraping levels not seen since March 2009. Whereâs the bright spot? Hard to see. Obama has few, if any, domestic achievements that enjoy broad public support. No one assumes employment, growth or housing prices to pick up much, if at all â something Obama is essentially powerless to change. And the political environment and electoral map are significantly tougher than in 2008, especially in true up-for-grabs states. âThe historical precedents of what happens to incumbent presidents in these economic circumstances are not positive or encouraging,â said Geoff Garin, a top Democratic pollster. âThere has been a false sense of confidence among a lot of Democratic activists.â **Postscript: Gallup has Obama at 39 % today.
Have you seen the latest polls? It's not going to matter, unless things change radically. Romney is leading Obama Perry is tied and has only been in the race a week Ron Paul is withing 2 points and Bachmann within 4. If Ron Paul and Bachmann are within the margin of error, you're in trouble.