More of the same

After three years of a massive expansion of government, the enactment of Obamacare, hundreds of billions of dollars in failed stimulus spending, government ownership of General Motors, a Big Labor/pro-unionization onslaught, threats of even higher taxation, the promulgation of more unnecessary regulations, and a total failure to confront the entitlement challenge, the verdict is in on President Obama’s record and the soundness of his statist, progressive philosophy.

In a speech Wednesday in Osawatomie, Kansas, President Obama made his ideological stance clear: he is a tried and true progressive. Despite the total failures of his big government policies, the president still sees the federal government as the answer to all of America’s problems. True to form, President Obama delivered a speech with strong rhetoric. But the American people see through the rhetoric. They know the President’s philosophy is flawed.

Get the Lifeboats in the Potomac

Former Democratic Pollsters: Obama Should Abandon Run for Second Term

By Michael Catalini

President Obama should abandon his run for a second term and turn over the reins of the Democratic Party to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two one-time Democratic pollsters wrote in Monday's Wall Street Journal, which appeared online Sunday.

Thrill Is Gone? Matthews Turns On Obama; ‘I Hear Stories That You Would Not Believe’ In an explosive interview on MSNBC, Chris Matthews has harsh criticism for President Obama and his team of advisers.

Paramedics called to Occupy Eugene for alleged heroin overdose

Occupy Oakland Calls For Shutdown Of ALL West Coast Ports

By Dan Gainor

Vandalism, violence, burning and shutting down the nation’s fifth busiest port weren’t enough for Occupy Oakland. On Friday, the General Assembly for the group voted unanimously for “a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California faces $2 billion in automatic spending cuts at the first of the year that will reduce funding for public schools, higher education and a range of state services, according to a nonpartisan fiscal analysis released Wednesday.

The bleak assessment by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office warns of declining tax revenue and a rocky statewide economic outlook that will lead to budget shortfalls for years to come.

It's called biting off more than you can chew and hating the taste.

Balanced Budget

The Balanced Budget Amendment failed in the House today. Two-dozen Democrats bucked their leadership and voted with Republicans, but the amendment still failed along largely partisan lines. It’s unfortunate. Some of the folks who voted no today, supported it when the amendment came up in 1995. For the life of me, I cannot understand what they have seen in the last fifteen years that gave them confidence that Congress has the will to face these problems. I truly believe that this was our best chance of saving this country. I truly believe that the stakes are that high and that, sad as it is to say, we cannot bet our children’s future on the collective courage of members of Congress.

Generations of politicians – from both parties – have avoided their responsibility to this nation. They have put short-term wants before the country’s long-term needs. The cumulative effect of this is a national debt that is now larger than our entire country’s economic output.

Both parties are responsible for it. Period. And it’s important that all Americans are honest about that. We cannot afford to postpone fixing the problem because of a desire to blame others. And that will be our choice this week when the House of Representatives votes on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

This is the first time Congress has considered such an amendment since it came up one vote short of passing in 1997. As you would expect, there are people in Congress today who were here in ’97. Some who supported it then are voting against it now.

It’s not because of any trickery or fine print. This Balanced Budget Amendment is what they call a “plain vanilla” version. It requires that Congress pass a balanced budget unless, in the case of a national emergency such as a war or natural disaster, three-fifths of Congress vote to temporarily waive the requirement to cover the cost of that emergency.

I’m not sure what those former supporters have seen in the last fifteen years that would give them confidence that Congress is capable of managing the taxpayers’

money responsibly. I certainly haven’t seen anything to give me that confidence.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the crux of the issue. Everyone would like to believe that Congress can be trusted to manage the country’s finances, but the facts scream otherwise. And it’s not just the facts of the last few years, or the last ten years, but rather it is the facts of the last hundred years.

Your government has been making promises to you at every turn with borrowed money and borrowed time. And after many years, we have started running out of credit and have certainly already run out of time.

Our choice today is whether we change the course of the country’s history or not. It’s a choice of whether we will guarantee our children a country they can afford to keep. And it is a choice about whether we want to control our own destiny or have it determined for us.

The President opposes this amendment and I submit to you that any member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, who joins him is continuing a decades-long record of failing to lead. They are continuing the status quo. Washington, D.C. cannot be trusted to fix itself. You must fix it and that starts with demanding that your leaders balance the budget once and for all.

Sincerely,

Rich Nugent

Member of Congress

What's going on one year before the election?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

When he campaigned for governor last year, Andrew Cuomo said, “We cannot tax our way out of the current crisis,” which was then a massive $10 billion deficit.

“New York has no future as the tax capital of the nation,” Cuomo said in January, after he was elected in a landslide on a no-new-taxes pledge.

“We simply cannot afford to keep spending at our current rate,” he said in presenting his tax-hike-free budget a few weeks later.

“You are kidding yourself if you think you can be one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, have a reputation for being anti-business and have a rosy economic future,” the governor said just last month.

Democrats on Capital Hill apparently do not agree with Cuomo.

President Obama “We’ve been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — ‘Well, people would want to come here’ — and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America."

Dems refuse to back ObamaSen. Joe Lieberman was treated like an outcast back in 2008 when he broke from the Senate Democratic Caucus and openly opposed Barack Obama’s bid for the White House. Asked last week if he’d back Obama in 2012, the Connecticut independent said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

This time around, there may be more Liebermans.

A number of moderate Democrats like Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders are declining to give their unqualified support for the president, saying they’re either too focused on their own races or are calling on the White House to cater to their agendas before they will offer an endorsement. Some up for reelection in red states or in swing districts fear that even showing up on stage with Obama will give their opponents an image to seize upon — much as Democrats did in 2008 when they repeatedly flashed shots of Sen. John McCain hugging President George W. Bush.

So as the president faces the dual challenges of energizing his base while wooing moderates, some Democrats in Congress are keeping their distance, with the president’s approval rating hovering in the mid-40s — and even lower in states like West Virginia, where moderate Sen. Joe Manchin is up for reelection.

Occupy Protester Defecates In Public Street Hundreds of New York City police officers began clearing Zuccotti Park. Is this the new Democrat strategy? Send college kids and Union thugs out to blame Wall Street and shit on the streets of our cities so it takes the heat off them?

Michelle Fields of the Daily Caller was on scene to report about the Occupy DC protests. After a night of violence and harassment she has announced that she has asked the Daily Caller not to assign her to any more Occupy DC events because she fears for her safety.

Biden Praised Disgraced Corzine: ‘Smartest Guy I Know In Terms Of Economy’

Insider trading in the halls of Congress: Politicians Get Rich for What You and I Would Go to Jail For

European Debt Crisis: You Haven't Seen Anything Yet Though the daily market gyrations might indicate otherwise, realization is beginning to creep in that the European debt crisis and its effect on the U.S. will not take days, weeks or months to unwind—but years. That prolonged time frame — which entails the period it will take to reduce government spending, come up with workable debt repayment plans, and, most likely, witness the contagion that will follow — means that the market tumult that the crisis has brought also won't be going away anytime soon, either. Unless the rest of the euro-zone provides Italy with significant amount of assistance over a prolonged period, we think Italy will eventually default with catastrophic consequences for the wider region. Democrats in the U.S. are desperately trying to deflect blame away from excessive spending, an extremely difficult task as the Debt Commission pushes for Tax Increases, not spending cuts. Europe is expected to experience a mild recession in 2012, and the U.S. policy looms large, as we expect another credit downgrade if the Political will to cut is not there.

Californians Cut Spending. Californians have been cutting spending, according to a new report, in stark contrast to the state government, which continues to spend more than it takes in. The latest figures show state revenues last month were $811 million below projections. Nearly a billion dollars in just one month. Fiscal year to date, state income is running $1.5 billion below projections while state expenditures are $1.7 billion above--a $3.2 billion gap. On the other hand, individual Californians appear to be doing a better job reining in spending.

Your Un-Wise Investments

Are you aware that Millions of dollars of your tax money is being invested by President Obama in Companies that are owned by his supporters? Read on in disgust.

Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.

Questions Arise Over $433M Smallpox Drug Contract to Company Tied to Dem Donor

Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn't need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor. 

The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company. 

Obama fundraiser took active interest in $535 Million Solyndra loan, emails show

Steven Spinner, an Energy Department advisor whose wife worked for a law firm representing Solyndra, may have done more than simply monitor the progress of the $535-million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt company, White House emails indicate.

White House Email: 'Coming Storm' Over Solyndra 'And Other Inside DOE Deals'

New internal White House emails reveal that a scathing critique of Energy Secretary Steven Chu by a former Obama political advisor was widely circulated at the highest levels of the administration.

The Feb. 25, 2011 email that sparked the deliberations landed on West Wing desks just as the solar energy firm Solyndra was starting to show outward signs of financial trouble.

A House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee voted Thursday to subpoena White House documents related to Solyndra, the politically connected solar company and flagship of the Obama administration's green energy program that received a half-billion dollar federal loan before going bankrupt.

What are they doing?

What are they doing to America?

The decision was made before Obama took office. The private sector would be sidelined for a public support system similar to the Socialist Systems found in many European countries. That, as we know from the experiences of countries like Greece and Italy does little to encourage independence, ingenuity and entrepreneurism. Instead, while the Democrats had the power they would give us Obamacare, Bail-outs and Stimulus spending on things like Solar panels. Thus, $535,000,000.00 Million Dollars of your money was “invested” in Solyndra by the Obama administration. Newly obtained emails released by House investigators suggest that George Kaiser, a billionaire Obama donor and chief investor in bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, discussed the company with White House officials, directly contradicting earlier accounts. Yet both Kaiser and the White House previously denied Solyndra was ever discussed in any of his 17 visits to the White House. In spite of this, the Obama administration continues to “invest” your money in Green Energy companies that are destined to fail. Italy has replaced Greece at the center of the euro zone debt crisis and is on the cusp of requiring a bailout that Europe cannot afford to give. The problem is, we’ve reached the domino phase, so it’s not about Greece anymore—it’s Italy and if Italy has a problem, then France has a problem too. Italian, Greek, French and soon America’s borrowing costs will reach a breaking point. The cost of spending Billions more than you have on Social Programs is very short sighted.

Social Programs and Defense are about to be dismantled. There is no appetite for the kinds of Draconian Tax Increases necessary to sustain these programs. Spending and borrowing must end soon. Rioting and Financial Chaos in Greece and Italy will spread to America if our Congress and President do not make the painful choices that are necessary.

Obamacare Wins another Round in Court

How nice! Does that mean we're going to have another "Entitlement Program" like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Welfare and Food Stamps?

How nice! You must be so proud.

To be really nice we must have a massive tax increase to PAY for all this nice stuff.

How nice!
Or,,we could do what we're doing now. No tax increase to PAY for all of this nice stuff.

We'll just keep going deeper in DEBT,,borrow from China and send the bill to our kids.

How nice! You must be SO proud.

OWS and National Debt

"Obama Owns Occupy Wall Street"

By Nick Kalman

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says responsibility for the

Occupy Wall Street

movement rests squarely on the shoulders of President Obama.

"This is a very dangerous movement, and it's ironic it's happening under a president who promised to unify us," Giuliani said. "Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement, it would not have happened but for his class warfare."

The Occupy Wall Street protests broke out in cities all over the country shortly after president Obama called for tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans. Some of the protests have turned violent. In Oakland, California, more than 100 people were arrested and eight were seriously injured Thursday, with protesters leaving stores in flames, and streets littered with broken glass and debris. A week earlier a former Marine suffered a fractured skull in a confrontation with Oakland police. Obama predicted the movement will eventually lead to the end of Obama's presidency. "Barack Obama praised it, sympathizes with it," he said. "As it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama's neck that will take his presidency down." }

In the days leading up to the Nov. 5 reoccupation effort, online reports have surfaced claiming that “Occupy Atlanta” has enlisted the help of the religiously charged and oft-controversial Nation of Islam.

OWS and Democrats reportedly joining forces with The Nation of Islam, The American Nazi Party, The American Socialist Party and the American Communist Party will not be a welcoming sign to the majority of Americans. If this sticks in the minds of voters next November the Democrats will once again be the minority party in Washington and elsewhere.

U.S. Approaches $15 Trillion Debt Limit

It will be the latest sobering economic milestone that few were hoping to see: The U.S. national debt – any day now – will soar above the $15 trillion mark.

In Washington, a polarized Congress has ground to a halt in the dispute on how to jumpstart the economy and reduce the country’s deficits. Only a few months ago, the acrimonious debate on Capitol Hill about raising the debt ceiling – a debate that almost caused the Treasury Department to default on its debts – illustrated the enormous partisan divide that still shows no signs of improving.

The approaching $15 trillion debt milestone is not even the only piece of bad economic news for the country. The jobs report for October – released this morning – showed that U.S. employers added an estimated 80,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, worse than economists expected. The unemployment rate decreased to 9.0 percent, down from 9.1 percent a month earlier, small consolation for a nation still struggling to recover from a severe recession.

Gingrich and Taxes

The Gingrich Jobs and Prosperity Plan

America only works when Americans are working. Newt has a pro-growth strategy similar to the proven policies used when he was Speaker to balance the budget, pay down the debt, and create jobs. The plan includes:

1. Stop the 2013 tax increases to promote stability in the economy. Job creation improved after Congress extended tax relief for two years in December. We should make the rates permanent.

2. Make the United States the most desirable location for new business investment through a bold series of tax cuts, including: Eliminating the capital gains tax to make American entrepreneurs more competitive against those in other countries; Dramatically reducing the corporate income tax (among highest in the world) to 12.5%; Allowing for 100% expensing of new equipment to spur innovation and American manufacturing; Ending the death tax permanently.

3. Move toward an optional flat tax of 15% that would allow Americans the freedom to choose to file their taxes on a postcard, saving hundreds of billions in unnecessary costs each year. This optional flat tax system will preserve deductions on charitable giving and home ownership, and create a new personal deduction of $12,000 for every American. This deduction is well above the current poverty level, ensuring that this new system does not unfairly target the poor.

4. Strengthen the dollar by returning to the Reagan-era monetary policies that stopped runaway inflation and reforming the Federal Reserve to promote transparency.

5. Remove obstacles to job creation imposed by destructive and ineffective regulations, programs and bureaucracies. Steps include: Repealing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which did nothing to prevent the financial crisis and is holding companies back from making new investments in the U.S; Repealing the Community Reinvestment Act, the abuse of which helped cause the financial crisis; Repealing the Dodd-Frank Law which is killing small independent banks, crippling loans to small businesses and crippling home sales; Breaking up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, moving their smaller successors off government guarantees and into the free market; Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency with an Environmental Solutions Agency that works collaboratively with local government and industry to achieve better results; and Modernizing the Food and Drug Administration  to get lifesaving medicines and technologies to patients faster.

6. Implement an American energy policy that removes obstacles to responsible energy development and creates jobs in the United States.

7. Balance the budget by growing the economy, controlling spending, implementing money saving reforms, and replacing destructive policies and regulatory agencies with new approaches.

8. Repeal and replace Obamacare with a pro-jobs, pro-responsibility health plan that puts doctors and patients in charge of health decisions instead of bureaucrats.

9. Fundamental reform of entitlement programs with the advice and help of the American people.

Occupy Wall Street and Unions

Union Chief Leo Gerard: 'Resistance Movement' Needed to Seize Bridges, Banks in Case OWS Fails

United Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard has a message to the flea party whiny-whiners still camping out instead of sleeping in their parents' basements -- playtime is over. Just in case the Occupy movement fails -- in other words, when it fails -- Gerard is urging union members to fill that gaping void with "more militancy."
I think we've got to start a resistance movement. If Wall Street occupation doesn't get the message, I think we've got to start blocking bridges and doing that kind of stuff. This doesn't have to be this way. The economy doesn't have to be this way. It's being put this way because the Wall Streeters are getting their way.

Homeland security thought The Tea Party would become terrorist so they had to be watched. While they have been busy watching them the left wing appears ready to terrorize the nation. Some of these unions and their Communist/Socialist leaders should be added to the terrorist watch list and disbanded, made totally illegal. They have lost their minds and its people like Barack Obama's fault. He is a bought and paid for by unions president. We are going to end all this for unions in 1 year, hopefully before they destroy the nation. The President might want to tell them that kind of talk does not help him or them, it pushes more people away. Gerard is just another example of a Marxist agenda being propagated by the unions and the Obama Administration.

It is sad that there are so many union trash like this one. Shame on local prosecutors for not using laws on the books to prosecute either state or federal law for inciting violence and property damage. They clearly want incidents so marshal law can be imposed-orders from on high. Disgusting. What American, grateful to God to have been born in this country to our heroic ancestors, could look up to these evil agitators? I feel sorry for those stuck paying their salary against their will to seditious unions determined to destroy the United States. There are still a few of us old enough to remember THE BROWN SHIRTS in Germany during the 30’s. We must not allow this to happen in America.

The State of the Union

The State of the Union from the Right Side

snippets of articles in the news today

LA Times, Colorado voters reject raising taxes to support education

In what could be a harbinger of the 2012 election, Colorado voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have raised nearly $3 billion for education by temporarily increasing state income, sales and use taxes. With 59% of the projected vote counted, Proposition 103 was trailing 65% to 35%, the Associated Press reported.

The debate over the measure closely mirrored recent rancor in Washington over the question of whether more spending will revive a moribund economy or slow down a nascent recovery. A likely swing state in 2012, Colorado is a particularly interesting place to see which argument voters’ cotton to. Its population is well-educated, with more than one-third of residents older than 25 holding at least a bachelor’s degree. But the state’s unemployment rate has been stuck around 8%, and a solid share of the electorate finds taxes distasteful, passing a major tax-limitation measure in 1992. Opponents said the state’s economy was too fragile to withstand higher taxes, which would have expired after 2016, and that throwing money at education wouldn’t necessarily improve its quality. There is no correlation between education funding and education outcomes. In fact, if there is any correlation at all it is negative. The highest per-capita spending on K-12 education is Washington DC. Washington DC schools are also the lowest performing schools in the nation. Consequently, the idea that more money will translate into higher academic performance cannot be supported. The public education system in the US is broken beyond repair. There is a way to increase academic performance but raising taxes to give more money to incompetent public school administrators is going to do nothing to raise academic performance. There is no causal relationship between the two. The Colorado voters were very wise not to throw their money away. It would have made them poorer and it won't help the students one bit. The former School Board head, Michelle Rhee, was tossed out of her job because she tried to dump poor performing teachers so she could give performance bonuses to excellent ones. She was fought tooth-and-nail by the Teachers Union and they endorsed a new mayor so he would dump Ms Rhee when he was elected. So DC still pays a high per-student tax and gets the same lousy results - but the Teachers Union protected the status quo and all of the many lousy teachers. NYT: Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in August, as the number of recipients hit 45.8 million. Food stamp rolls have risen 8.1% in the past year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession. The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), may continue to rise in coming months as families continue to struggle with high unemployment Federal Reserve officials are poised to downgrade their outlook for the U.S. economy.

NYT: Bloomberg strikes tougher tone on Occupy Wall Street  City may take "action" against protesters disrupting quality of life. Bloomberg, whose tone has become seemingly less sympathetic to the protestors as the occupation continues, said the demonstrators should be blaming Congress — not Wall Street — for the nation's economic woes. Powerful assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has had enough of Occupy Wall Streeters peeing and pooping on the streets - and drumming, local lawmakers who represent lower Manhattan demanded Tuesday that Mayor Bloomberg crack down on quality-of-life infractions by those encamped at Zuccotti Park. Is it possible that the same folks who called OWS the Democrats Tea Party are wishing they could eat those words? One only has to look at the pictures and listen to the nonsense.
Tuesday