News Blog for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & the USA. Upholding the rights granted by God & guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, "republican" principles / ideals, transparent & limited "smaller" government, free markets, lower taxes, due process of law, liberty & individual freedom. Content approval rests with the ARRA News Service Editor. Opinions are those of the authors. While varied positions are reported, beliefs & principles remain fixed. No revenue is generated for or by this "Blog" - no paid ads - no payments for articles.Fair Use Doctrine is posted & used. Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year] Contact: editor@arranewsservice.com (Pub. Since July, 2006)Home PageFollow @arra
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Hypocrite
Norm Beznoska Jr., Letter to Editor: Webster's Dictionary defines Hypocrite as: "an act playing a part on stage; a person putting on a false appearance of virtue..." Sure sounds like Barack Hussein Obama to me!
After spending another $2.2 Million of our tax dollars on his three day Misery Bus campaign tour in the Midwest, Obama blamed Congress, President Bush, the Japanese Earthquake, the Tea Party, the White House Chef, the US Women's Soccer Team, Casey Anthony, the Smurfs, and the Tooth Fairy for HIS abysmal performance on the economy (Obamageddon). Then, Obama criticized Congress for taking a recess, just before taking his Sixth vacation of the year in the Lap of Luxury, Martha's Vineyard, for ten days. But, before he left on vacation, Obama did promise the American people how important his Jobs Program speech will be sometime in September. Or is it December, after his Christmas vacation?
PS. Obama also said he wants products stamped "Made in the USA" all over the world; just before boarding his $1.2 Million campaign bus, 'Greyhound One,' which was (drum roll please) made in Canada!
---------- Norm Beznoska Jr., aka Navyman Norm, lives in Strongsville, OH Tags:letter to editor, the hypocrite, Barack ObamaTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Department of Labor's Unemployment Hall of Fame
By Rebekah Rast, Contributing Editor to NetRightDaily: Hall of Fame ceremonies are reserved for those people who stand out from the masses, whether it is football, country music or rock and roll. However the latest inductions into a new kind of Hall of Fame are those who hand out unemployment insurance checks.
The 2011 awards ceremony will be held Oct. 17-20 at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence, R.I. No, really.
Yes, now no one can say President Obama hasn’t done anything about unemployment—he is allowing those bureaucrats who sign the checks to be recognized for their work.
The 2011 awards ceremony will be held Oct. 17-20 at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence, R.I. The going rate for a junior suite with two king-sized beds during the convention is $119 a night, not too bad. Of course since this is a federal government department, you can assume your tax dollars are paying for the convention as well as probably contributing to the UI Hall of Fame celebration.
The Biltmore Hotel in Providence, RI
Location of the unemployment Hall of Fame 2011
A request of the budget for this convention from the organizer of the awards ceremonies at the Department of Labor went unanswered. Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is currently working on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out the cost to taxpayers for this event.
Nominee has made important contributions to the achievement of significant Federal legislation or public policies that have improved and strengthened the Unemployment Insurance program.
2.Improved System Performance
Nominee has made significant contributions to major improvements in services to workers and/or employers or system performance in the Unemployment Insurance program.
1. Integrity – Innovations to improve program integrity by reducing improper UI benefit payments or denials, preventing the avoidance of unemployment tax liability and/or misclassification of workers, and improving the collection of overpayments and tax assessments.
2. >Improved Worker and Employer Services – Innovations to improve service delivery in the areas of benefit payments, claims processing, adjudication, and tax processing.
3. Reemployment – Innovations to improve the employment outcomes of individuals receiving UI.>
The conference is jointly sponsored by the UI division within the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA).
It isn’t just these awards ceremonies that will occur during the conference. Like the conference website states, “This year’s theme is ‘State of Hope’- Keeping the Safety Net Strong. Since Rhode Island’s state motto is ‘Hope’ we are certain that you will leave Providence feeling optimistic and hopeful that the future of Unemployment Insurance will withstand and pass the test of time.”
It is good to know that the Department of Labor “hopes” for a strong future for unemployment insurance. It would seem through award ceremonies like this that the American people would be confused by President Obama’s messaging. Is it his priority to build up a program that hinders American workers from finding a job and living free from government intervention?
If so, the messaging would be akin to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosting a Hall of Fame ceremony recognizing which regulations killed the most U.S. jobs. Unemployment Insurance Hall of FameTags:Biltmore Hotel, Department of Labor, ETA, FOIA, NASWA, Unemployment, Unemployment Hall of Fame, Unemployment InsuranceTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
By Matt Cover, CNSNews.com – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack repeated the White House claim that food stamps and other forms of government welfare are stimulus programs in disguise, stating that when government gives out money, it is creating jobs.
“But I should point out that when you talk about the SNAP program or the food stamp program, you have to recognize that it’s also an economic stimulus,” Vilsack said Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program. (SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.)
“If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, then someone has to stock it, shelve it, process it, package it, ship it,” he said. “All of those are jobs. It’s the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times.”
Vilsack made his remarks in response to a question from MSNBC commentator Wes Moore about a recent Agriculture Department report that approximately 46 million people, or about 1 in 7 Americans, now receive food stamps.
Vilsack claimed that by redistributing money from taxpayers to those on food stamps, the government is indirectly creating jobs because welfare beneficiaries will spend their food stamp monies immediately, rather than save it or invest it.
This claim, however, obscures the fact that both saving and investment are also economically productive activities contributing to credit availability and business growth respectively. It also ignores the fact that taxpayers whose money is used to fund food stamp programs may have spent their money on other things, including food, thus also contributing to the economy. Tags:AF Branco. political cartoon, Aliens, Cowboys, Food Stamps, jobs, Barack Obama, Rick Perry, Agriculture Secretary, Tom VilsackTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tony Perkins' FRC Washington Update: If you're looking for a word to describe the GOP presidential field, "subdued" isn't it. From Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) to Gov. Rick Perry (Texas), the candidates have been anything but restrained in their criticism of the man whose job they seek. Yesterday, on a conference call with bloggers, pizza mogul Herman Cain suggested a short cut to the White House: impeaching the President. "...It would be a great thing to do, but because the Senate is controlled by Democrats, we would never be able to get [them] to take up that action... on a whole list of things such as... ordering the Department of Justice to not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act -- that's an impeachable offense right there. The President is supposed to uphold the laws of this nation... and to tell the Department of Justice not to uphold the laws of this nation is a breach of his oath." Although FRC has never called for his impeachment, President Obama did walk away from his constitutional duty, frustrating every American who believes in order and justice.
Meanwhile, on just his second day in the race, Gov. Perry didn't waste any time stirring the pot. Like most Americans, he's frustrated by the Federal Reserve's latest policies and wants to bring Chairman Ben Bernanke's agency under some form of accountability. For decades, the Fed has been in complete control our nation's monetary policy, and there are some suspicions that the agency has been in collusion with the White House to keep America from hitting the debt wall. For the last two years, Bernanke has been flooding the economy with new money that no one is assuming the debt for. It's called "quantitative easing," or QE. I call it defrauding America. QE may keep the government spending, but it makes our money more worthless in the process. Since 2009, the Fed has embraced this QE idea, printing almost $2 trillion in hopes of boosting the economy. "We owe the Fed $1.6 trillion in treasury bills," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said last Thursday. "Where'd they get the money to buy it? They created it out of thin air." While that logic may help federal rates in the short-term, it devalues every dollar Americans earn and save. And Rick Perry isn't the only one disgusted by it. On Monday, he told an Iowa crowd, "Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion." Despite the controversy his t-word sparked, Perry says he stands by his remark. "I am just passionate about the issue," he told CNN.
And the other candidates can't blame him. Iowa Straw Poll champ Michele Bachmann piled on the Fed too. "The Federal Reserve is not subject to transparency. The Federal Reserve has made terrible, grievous errors," she said. "...[T]he dollar has lost 12% of its value, according to experts, since President Obama came into his position." She, like Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Ron Paul (R-Texas) -- who actually authored legislation to the effect -- thinks Bernanke's office should be audited. "It's a scandal that the Federal Reserve is a secret," Gingrich said in last Thursday's debate. "And I think, frankly, that their monetary policy since the late 90s has been a major factor... in the economic pain we're now going through." Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan certainly thinks so. He told the press that there is "no evidence" that the Bernanke's strategy, these two waves of "quantitative easing" (QE1 and QE2) worked. At the very least, it deserves some congressional inquiry. If that means auditing the Fed -- so be it. Auditing means oversight -- and right now, there is none. Tags:Tony Perkins, FRC, Washington Update, Fed Up, The Fed, Federal Reserve, transparency, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Ron Paul To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Dr. Walter E. Williams, Townhall: People are beginning to compare Barack Obama's administration to the failed administration of Jimmy Carter, but a better comparison is to the Roosevelt administration of the 1930s and '40s. Let's look at it with the help of a publication from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Foundation for Economic Education titled "Great Myths of the Great Depression," by Dr. Lawrence Reed.
During the first year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, he called for increasing federal spending to $10 billion while revenues were only $3 billion. Between 1933 and 1936, government expenditures rose by more than 83 percent. Federal debt skyrocketed by 73 percent. Roosevelt signed off on legislation that raised the top income tax rate to 79 percent and then later to 90 percent. Hillsdale College economics historian and professor Burt Folsom, author of "New Deal or Raw Deal?", notes that in 1941, Roosevelt even proposed a 99.5 percent marginal tax rate on all incomes more than $100,000. When a top adviser questioned the idea, Roosevelt replied, "Why not?"
Roosevelt had other ideas for the economy, including the National Recovery Act. Dr. Reed says: "The economic impact of the NRA was immediate and powerful. In the five months leading up to the act's passage, signs of recovery were evident: factory employment and payrolls had increased by 23 and 35 percent, respectively. Then came the NRA, shortening hours of work, raising wages arbitrarily and imposing other new costs on enterprise. In the six months after the law took effect, industrial production dropped 25 percent."
Blacks were especially hard hit by the NRA. Black spokesmen and the black press often referred to the NRA as the "Negro Run Around," Negroes Rarely Allowed," "Negroes Ruined Again," "Negroes Robbed Again," "No Roosevelt Again" and the "Negro Removal Act." Fortunately, the courts ruled the NRA unconstitutional. As a result, unemployment fell to 14 percent in 1936 and lower by 1937.
Roosevelt had more plans for the economy, namely the National Labor Relations Act, better known as the "Wagner Act." This was a payoff to labor unions, and with these new powers, labor unions went on a militant organizing frenzy that included threats, boycotts, strikes, seizures of plants, widespread violence and other acts that pushed productivity down sharply and unemployment up dramatically. In 1938, Roosevelt's New Deal produced the nation's first depression within a depression. The stock market crashed again, losing nearly 50 percent of its value between August 1937 and March 1938, and unemployment climbed back to 20 percent. Columnist Walter Lippmann wrote in March 1938 that "with almost no important exception every measure (Roosevelt) has been interested in for the past five months has been to reduce or discourage the production of wealth."
Roosevelt's agenda was not without its international admirers. The chief Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, repeatedly praised "Roosevelt's adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies" and "the development toward an authoritarian state" based on the "demand that collective good be put before individual self-interest." Roosevelt himself called Benito Mussolini "admirable" and professed that he was "deeply impressed by what he (had) accomplished."
FDR's very own treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, saw the folly of the New Deal, writing: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!" The bottom line is that Roosevelt's New Deal policies turned what would have been a three- or four-year sharp downturn into a 16-year affair.
The 1930s depression was caused by and aggravated by acts of government, and so was the current financial mess that we're in. Do we want to repeat history by listening to those who created the calamity? That's like calling on an arsonist to help put out a fire.
------------ Dr. Walter E. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. Tags:Walter E. Williams, Ominous Parallels, Barack Obama administration, Government Spending, FDR, Jimmy CarterTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Florida Court: Abortionist Ordered to Pay Survivor $36 Million in Damages
by Karla Dial: A Florida judge on Monday denied a new malpractice trial to an abortionist previously ordered to pay a victim $36 million.
As a result, James Pendergraft — who owns five abortion clinics in Florida and one near Washington, D.C. — will likely see his businesses close, since he does not carry medical malpractice insurance.
The money will go to Carol Howard for the life-long care of her severely disabled 10-year-old daughter. Howard sought a chemical abortion from Pendergraft in 2001, when she was 20 years old and 22 weeks pregnant. Instead of delivering a stillborn child into a toilet, however, she delivered a live child weighing just over 1 pound at a nearby hospital. Her daughter suffers from cerebral palsy, strokes, brain and lung damage, chronic lung disease, seizure disorders, and has no function on the left side of her body.
“She’s never going to get any better,” Howard’s lawyer, Jennifer Gentry Fernandez, told the Orlando Sentinel after the ruling. “It was a tragically unbelievable situation. Hopefully, it won’t be too much longer until we can get recovery for (Howard).”
If a sonogram had been performed, Fernandez said, Howard would most likely have realized abortion was no longer an option.
In court, Pendergraft’s attorney said if Howard had stayed at the clinic instead of leaving 12 hours after the drugs were administered, the outcome would have been different. Gentry told the jury that when Howard asked clinic staff why the abortion was taking so long, she was told to “change her attitude or get the h— out of the clinic.
Since opening his first Florida clinic in the mid-1990s, Pendergraft has served time in federal prison for extortion and perjury. The Florida Department of Health has suspended his license four times, but at press time, his clinics remained open with other abortionists at the helm.
Howard won her civil case against him in July, when a judge ordered him to pay $18,255,000 in punitive damages, $18 million in compensatory damages to be placed in a trust for her daughter’s care, and more than $400,000 in court costs. Eleven jurors found him guilty, and one declared him “absolutely guilty!” Tags:abortionist, Florida, judgementTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Bankrupting America Team: The months-long debt ceiling debate ended abruptly and just in time as Congress reached an agreement to raise the limit and cut nearly $1 trillion in spending. But is it really fair to call those spending reductions cuts? A closer look at the numbers reveals that the agreement doesn’t actually cut spending from current levels, but merely slows the rate at which spending increases.
Check out our latest infographic below where we visualize this unfortunate reality.
Tags:data visualization, debt ceiling, debt ceiling agreement, debt limit, Government Spending, infographic, spending cuts, spending reform, unsustainable spending, Bankrupting AmericaTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Republican Party of Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas– Democrat Governor Mike Beebe was called out in a statewide editorial today for refusing to acknowledge his hand in allowing state officials to double dip into the pockets of Arkansas taxpayers.
According to a recent article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, over 500 state employees continue to collect two salaries for one job. An editorial today recognized the need for serious improvement in the Arkansas Public Employee Retirement System stating, “Reforms are needed. But they’re not likely to be made so long as the boss-in this case, Governor Mike Beebe-doesn’t mind these end runs around the retirement system. And even aids and abets them.”
“Arkansans recognize the failed leadership of Governor Beebe in giving state government the thumbs up to pay certain high ranking cronies two salaries for one job,” said Republican Party of Arkansas Communications Director Katherine Vasilos. “While Arkansans are fighting to overcome the highest unemployment in 24 years, Governor Mike Beebe is orchestrating a corrupt political game that could be costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”
In late July, State Representative Allen Kerr, R-Little Rock, requested an interim study concerning state agency directors and grade-99 state employees who are currently collecting a pension and a salary from the state, or who meet certain criteria to do so, as well as potential legislation that would require for the Legislature to be notified when an agency director or a deputy agency director retires.
“While state Democrats deal their cards in Governor Beebe’s good old boy game, Arkansas Republicans are working to end wasteful spending and hold state government accountable for their actions,” said Vasilos.
Governor Beebe Takes the Wheel on Double Dipping
“Three high-ranking executives have joined the state government’s retire-and-return-to-work crowd to draw both salaries and pensions. The state has more than 500 employees on its payroll who previously retired from state jobs, a state office said. The three new additions to the group are Department of Workforce Services Director Artee Williams, Office of Excise Tax Administration Administrator Tom Atchley, and acting Livestock and Poultry Commission Director Earl Kimbrell. Gov. Mike Beebe reappointed Williams after a 30-day retirement.” (Michael Wickline, “3 more retirees join back-to-work club, draw pay, pensions,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 8/10/11).
“No law can be a wholly adequate substitute for public employees’ own self-restraint. Reforms are needed. But they’re not likely to be made so long as the boss-in this case, Governor Mike Beebe-doesn’t mind these end runs around the retirement system. And even aids and abets them. The Hon. Mike Beebe says this kind of double-dipping, at least for officials he gets to pick, is perfectly justified.” (Editorial, The Unretired, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 8/18/11). Tags:Arkansas, Governor, Mike Beebe, hypocrite, double dip, double dipping, RPA, Republican Party of ArkansasTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Today in Washington,D.C. - Aug. 18, 2011
ARRA News has not been doing "Today in Washington, D.C. while Congress is in recess. After this interim report, we may not give a Today in Washington report until Congress returns. However, individual reports on issues will continue.
Again, Congress is still in recess until Tuesday, Sept. 6th. To keep President Obama from appointing un-confirmed people to government positions, Congress is still holding pro forma sessions. The remaining sessions are on Aug 19, 23rd, 26th, 30th, and September 2nd.
In an article headlined “Obama to push stimulus plan” in the print edition, The Washington Post writes today, “President Obama has decided to press Congress for a new round of stimulus spending and tax cuts as he seeks to address the great domestic policy quandary of his tenure: how to spur job growth in an age of austerity. Obama will lay out a series of ideas in a major address right after Labor Day, when he and a largely antagonistic Congress will return from vacation, the White House said Wednesday. . . . Obama also plans to announce a major push for new deficit reduction, urging the special congressional committee formed in the debt-ceiling deal this month to identify even more savings than the $1.5 trillion it has been tasked with finding. In packaging the two, he will make the case that short-term spending can lead to long-term savings. . . . He did not reveal details. But his remarks and additional comments from advisers and others familiar with the White House’s planning suggest that he will pressure Republican lawmakers this fall to back off their objections to additional spending in the short term. Many Democrats have expressed frustration that the White House allowed Republicans during the debt-ceiling negotiations to focus solely on deficit reduction while not pushing harder for steps that would energize the economy.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell noted yesterday that what’s needed is not more of the same, but for Washington to stop doing what it’s been doing: “The President called on Americans to communicate with their representatives in Congress. But what I’m hearing back home in Kentucky is the very real concern people have about jobs and the economy. Things actually have gotten worse since the President came to office and we need to move in a different direction. While I don’t agree with the President that job-killing tax increases in the middle of this serious, there are actions we can take now. The first is that Washington needs to quit doing what it’s been doing under this administration: Quit borrowing. Quit spending. Quit trying to raise taxes. Quit over-regulating. Washington should let the private sector flourish so we have a chance again to have a growing economy.”
McConnell again called on President Obama to submit the free trade agreements that he still has sitting on his desk (even while he tells Congress they need to pass them). “One very big thing the administration could do in that direction is get those trade agreements up here. They enjoy bipartisan support. They will create jobs in America, for Americans.”
Responding to the reports on the president’s plans, McConnell said, “The President has finally come around to the conclusion that reducing the deficit will help turn around the economy. But continuing the spending spree on failed stimulus programs won’t shrink the deficit.”
Americans’ approval of President Obama’s handling of the economy hit a new low yesterday. According to polling company Gallup, 71 percent of adults disapprove of the president’s economic performance. Just over a quarter of respondents said they were happy with his economic record. Obviously, the Stock Market is showing that investors are not happy with the actions of the Obama Administration and Obama's failed leadership. The Market has been down for several days and is expected to fall as low as 500 points today. We all be watching this "bear market" closely. Tags:Washington, D.C., Congress, recess, President Obama, another stimulus plan, Mitch McConnell, bear marketTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Alaskan Native Rebuts Alaskan Visitor Over Bristol Bay Mine
Ozark Guru: Ken Morrish is co-owner of Fly Water Travel in Ashland. He worked his first season in Alaska's Bristol Bay in 1984. Now after 27 years based on that experience, Morrish wrote a letter to the editor, published in The Oregonian, opposing the Bristol Bay mine project in Alaska. He is not concerned about Native Alaskan jobs but as an environmentalist. However, he revealed his bias claiming the Bristol Bay mine could harm Oregonians' jobs. This claim pales in importance to the number of jobs lost to native Alaskans.
Beth Shaw of "Resourceful Earth" writes, "Environmental groups have been arguing for months that Alaska Natives don’t want the new Pebble Mine. They have also latched onto fishery groups with a bogus argument about crippling the salmon runs in the Bristol Bay area. The truth is, there are no facts to the environmentalists’ claims. Finally, we have heard from an Alaska Native who wants the public to know that we do not have to choose one or the other."
My people have lived in this region of Alaska for generations. If anyone knows the value of the salmon in Bristol Bay, it's us. Neither the native peoples of Bristol Bay nor the citizens of Alaska would ever accept a project that interferes with the salmon fishery. Maintaining the watershed is essential and Pebble will only be built if it can be done safely. Morrish and others phrase opposition to Pebble as if we must make a choice between mining and fishing, but we do not have to choose. We can have both, and Alaska's mining history shows that. . . .
You hear the word "mine" and immediately say, "Not in my backyard." But here's the thing: Bristol Bay isn't your backyard. It's ours. You have a job. Most of my people do not.
Too many Alaska natives are unemployed. Too many Alaska natives live without a year-round economy. Too many Alaska natives face significant social challenges. Visit us in the middle of winter and see for yourself. The Pebble project represents too many benefits for the people of Southwest Alaska to simply say “no” before having all the information.
Quoting Shaw again, "Anelon takes a common-sense approach to the issues raised by the environmental activists who would prevent the mine and jobs attached to it before it even grows legs. His perspective needs to be heard."
The same could be said for other parts of the United States. Far too often those working in academic Ivy Towers or living in over-developed municipal areas make false judgments and attempt to limit the use of resources and property rights of other Americans. They watch "Animal Kingdom" or some other TV show and fall in love with some fuzzy animal or interesting fish and then allow their mental facilities to be co-opted by some kool-aid selling environmentalist.
There is a place for the environmentalists, but, it is not in everyone elses' backyards stopping progress and critically needed jobs. It is not in Bristol Bay. It is not in rural America stealing the property rights of other citizens via laws and regulations. Tags:Alaska, Bristol Bay, mining, environmentalist, property rightsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
ANOTHER OBAMA SPEECH - ENOUGH ALREADY! Back in July, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted, "I know the President would rather give speeches about our problems than resolve them. But he wasn’t elected to talk about the United States, he was elected to lead it.” Can we expect this time to time be different? He is already campaigning on the taxpayer's expense.
The AP reports today, “President Barack Obama will lay out new ideas for speeding up job growth and helping the struggling poor and middle class in a major speech designed to jolt the economy in early September, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. . . . The official emphasized that all of Obama's proposals would be fresh ones, not a rehash of plans he has pitched for many weeks and still supports, including his ‘infrastructure bank’ idea to finance construction jobs.”
The White House may be claiming Obama will be presenting new proposals, but the “major speech” on the economy aspect certainly sounds familiar. In fact, before the president was even sworn in in 2009, his transition website announced that “President-Elect Barack Obama will deliver a major speech on the economy” on January 8, 2009. In April 2009, the White House announced, “President Barack Obama will deliver a major speech on the economy Tuesday, April 14th, at Georgetown University.” In November of that year, AFP reported, “US President Barack Obama is to give a ‘major’ speech on the economy Monday, one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers sparked a global financial crisis, the White House said.” An AP headline in December 2009 announced, “Obama To Promote New Job Ideas During Tuesday Speech.” Reporting on his 2010 State of the Union address, an AP story, headlined “In key speech Obama pledges to create jobs,” noted “an embattled President Barack Obama vowed in his first State of the Union address Wednesday night to make job growth his topmost priority and urged a divided Congress to boost the still-ailing economy with a new burst of stimulus spending.” The Hill wrote in June 2010, “Obama offered his criticism of the lack of GOP cooperation he’s seen in office in a major speech on the economy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.” The Christian Science Monitor noted in September 2010, “It's no accident President Obama is delivering a major speech on economic recovery in Ohio, a struggling state that makes or breaks presidencies.” And in January 2011, CNN reported,” President Barack Obama plans to deliver a major speech next month to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the organization said Wednesday. . . . ‘He's going to come here and give a speech on jobs and the economy,’ Tom Collamore, senior vice president of communications at the Chamber of Commerce told CNN.”
So it sounds like the president is going to give another in a long string of speeches on the economy that haven’t amounted to much. Indeed, in its piece on Obama’s latest speech plans, Reuters writes, “The White House on Wednesday said President Barack Obama would unveil fresh ideas to jump-start the economy and cut deficits, but details offered so far appeared to be a compilation of old proposals. Obama faces serious doubts among Americans about his economic leadership and is now trying to convince skeptical voters and Wall Street that he has a workable plan to keep the United States from dipping back into recession. . . . Obama, who has been criticized in recent weeks by political opponents, allies on the left and Wall Street for repackaging old job-growth ideas, will be under pressure to say something new.”
In contrast to another speech of “old proposals” from the president, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) has an op-ed in The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer today outlining ideas that have bipartisan support, which he calls “surefire job creators Congress could take up and pass this year.” Among the ideas he proposes are more domestic energy production, reforming and simplifying the tax code, regulatory relief for job creators, approval of long-pending free trade agreements, and real health care reform like allowing consumers to purchase insurance across state lines. Tags:Barack Obama, The Economy, speech, news reportsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Is Raising Taxes A Way Forward? Washington Has A Spending Problem!
The following videos were created as part of YouTube Town Hall, answering the question "BUDGET: If 5-10% of spending was cut from the anticipated 2012 federal budget and matched with an equivalent amount in tax increases we'd cut the federal deficit in half. Why not do it?".
Tags:taxes, raising taxes, Patrick McHenry, R-NC, Robert Hurt, R-VA, budgets, cutting federal spending, videosTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Real or Fake 2: Can You Tell Which Spending Examples Are True?
Last year Bankrupting America released a video called “Real or Fake” that quizzed citizens on whether crazy-sounding government spending examples were, well, real or fake. The answers, unfortunately, weren’t good news for taxpayers.
Since that video, the federal government has continued to spend at a rapid and clearly unsustainable rate. And as it turns out, the government is still funding some pretty ridiculous projects. So we decided to make a sequel.
Watch Real or Fake, Part 2 below. Play along with the participants, the answers may surprise you.
Tags:Government Overspending, Government Spending, government waste, new video, Real or Fake, unsustainable spending, video, waste and abuse, wasteful spending, shrimp on treadmill, lifeguards, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tags:America Under the Bus Tour, Job Creation Bus Tour, Magical Misery Tour, Obama lies, Ryan Rhodes, Barack Obama, video, A.F. Branco, political cartoon,To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Kirby Anderson, Point of View: As more and more states pass voter ID laws, there is the inevitable backlash from politicians who argue that checking identification smacks of racism. The latest comments come from Bill Clinton. The former president warned: “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today.”
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial highlights the fact that many of the states that passed these voter ID laws are not in the south where Jim Crow laws were prevalent. Wisconsin, Kansas, and Rhode Island are just a few of the non-southern states that believe that a voter should be required to show some identification.
Bill Clinton also claimed that Republicans are trying to “make the 2012 electorate look more like the 2010 electorate than the 2008 electorate.” Other Democrats disagree with him. Democrats control both state legislative houses in Rhode Island, and the
Democratic speaker there co-sponsored the new voter ID law. Jon Brien says that “party leaders have tried to make this a Republican versus Democrat issue. It’s not. It’s simply a good government issue.”
Most Americans agree. They know that they need to show a photo ID before they board an airplane, rent a video, or cash a check. A Rasmussen poll in June showed that three-fourths (75%) of likely voters favor voter ID laws. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Democrats also favor these laws.
Federal court decisions also uphold the constitutionality of voter ID laws. The author of the 2008 Supreme Court decision was John Paul Stevens, one of the more liberal justices. He wrote that such laws do not constitute an undue burden on citizens attempting to vote. The last two elections have shown that minority voting in states with voter ID laws went up not down.
Despite what some politicians might say, these laws are not racist or partisan but are being implemented to prevent voter fraud. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view. Tags:Kirby Anderson, Point of View, voter, voters, voter id, elections, Gary Varvel, political cartoon, voter fraud, politics, editorial cartoons, ID, identity theftTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
93% Say They're Paying More for Groceries Than A Year Ago
Ramussen Reports: Americans nationwide continue to lose faith in the Federal Reserve Board to keep inflation under control, with the number who say they are paying more for groceries now at an all-time high.
- just 31% are at least somewhat confident that the Fed will be able to keep inflation under control and interest rates down
- 65% are not confident the Fed can keep inflation and interest rates under control with 25% who are Not At All Confident.
- 93% of adults report paying more for groceries now than they did a year ago.
- 4% say they’re not paying more for groceries now compared to a year ago.
. . . [Read More] Tags:Rasmussen reports, The Fed, grocery pricesTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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Broken Promises—The Unhappy 40th Anniversary of the Nixon Shock
Gianni Ferrari | Cover | Getty Images
by Ralph Benko, Contributing Author: Today is the 40th anniversary of the announcement by President Nixon of a New Economic Policy, the so-called “Nixon Shock.”
President Nixon, faced with rising inflation and the threat of a recession, imposed wage-price controls, built a tariff barrier around the USA, and “temporarily” suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold.
It was, by results, the greatest debacle in the history of American economic policy.
What followed was not pretty. All of the Nixon Shock policies, save one, were quickly unwound by his more economically astute senior policy makers. The tax credits expired. Wage-price controls were allowed to implode. The tariff wall came down faster than you can say, “Mr. Nixon, tear down this wall!” All were unwound, that is, except one.
The only vestige of the Nixon Shock remaining was, arguably, the most damaging and it is still doing great damage.
The gold window is still closed.
The gold standard has a long and colorful history.
Ralph Benko Senior Advisor, American Principles Project’s Gold Standard
For all of its imperfections what cannot be disputed seriously is that, notwithstanding its bungled handling from time to time, the record demonstrates that the gold standard is, as financier and philanthropist Lewis E. Lehrman (with whom this writer is professionally associated) has observed, the least imperfect of all monetary systems that have ever been tried in the laboratory of history.
Why is it the best? Yes, it has a distinguished pedigree going back to Sir Isaac Newton and even Copernicus, and was firmly embraced by America’s founders. But that’s not why. The reason is simple. The gold standard is one of the greatest engines of job creation and real prosperity known.
"The third indispensable element in building the new prosperity is closely related to creating new jobs and halting inflation. We must protect the position of the American dollar as a pillar of monetary stability around the world.
In the past 7 years, there has been an average of one international monetary crisis every year...
I have directed Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets, except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States.
Now, what is this action—which is very technical—what does it mean for you?
Let me lay to rest the bugaboo of what is called devaluation.
If you want to buy a foreign car or take a trip abroad, market conditions may cause your dollar to buy slightly less. But if you are among the overwhelming majority of Americans who buy American-made products in America, your dollar will be worth just as much tomorrow as it is today.
The effect of this action, in other words, will be to stabilize the dollar."
Well, to quote a favorite catchphrase of President Nixon: “Let me make one thing perfectly clear.”
Tom Grill | Iconica | Getty Images
The number and intensity of international monetary crises has risen dramatically.
The temporary suspension now is entering its 41st year. It is even less “temporary” than Moses’s interminable shepherding of the Children of Israel through the Sinai desert was “temporary.”
The dollar today is worth about 19 cents in 1971 dollars. So much for the promise of the dollar being “worth just as much tomorrow as today.”
The dollar far from being a “pillar of monetary stability around the world,” notoriously is a source of instability, resentment, and even embarrassment for America.
Far from creating jobs, America’s unemployment rate, currently stuck above 9% (or by some, even liberal, accounts, 16% — Great Depression levels), has averaged dramatically higher since Nixon repudiated the gold standard than in the era where even the last, diluted, remnants of the gold standard, the “Bretton Woods” system, remained in effect.
As former financier, now social critic, Charles W. Kadlec, an advisor to the American Principles Project and to The Lehrman Institute’s last October in The Wall Street Journal:
“From 1947 through 1967, the year before the U.S. began to weasel out of its commitment to dollar-gold convertibility, unemployment averaged only 4.7% and never rose above 7%. Real growth averaged 4% a year. Low unemployment and high growth coincided with low inflation. During the 21 years ending in 1967, consumer-price inflation averaged just 1.9% a year. Interest rates, too, were low and stable—the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaged less than 4% and never rose above 6%.
What's happened since 1971, when President Nixon formally broke the link between the dollar and gold? Higher average unemployment, slower growth, greater instability and a decline in the economy's resilience. For the period 1971 through 2009, unemployment averaged 6.2%, a full 1.5 percentage points above the 1947-67 average, and real growth rates averaged less than 3%. We have since experienced the three worst recessions since the end of World War II, with the unemployment rate averaging 8.5% in 1975, 9.7% in 1982, and above 9.5% for the past 14 months.”
Thirty years ago, this writer was called by the Treasury Department of the United States to testify before the Gold Commission on the constitutional history of American monetary policy. The record is unambiguous that those who wrote, adopted, and governed the young United States under the Constitution abhorred paper money inconvertible into precious metals. There is no question that statesmen including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and, in a later epoch, men such as Daniel Webster condemned in the strongest possible terms the monetary course upon which President Nixon set America, and the world.
Forty years of sluggish growth, “great” recessions, and lousy job creation is too long. Now is the time for our president, our senior financial officials such as Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke, and for the Congress to restore gold convertibility, and with it, jobs, prosperity, and a balanced budget.
------------ Ralph Benko is senior advisor, economics, to American Principles in Action’s Gold Standard 2012 Initiative, a lead participant in the Iowa Tea Party’s upcoming Bus Tour. He co-led the gold standard breakout session at the Tea Party Patriots’ American Summit and is the editor of the Lehrman Institute’s The Gold Standard Now This article which first appeared in CNBC was submitted to the ARRA News Service by contributing author Ralph Benko. Tags:U.S. Dollar, Political Leaders, Wall Street, Politics,, Government, Metal Commodities, Currencies, Commodities, Richard Nixon, Central Banks, Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama, Banking, Gold, Economy (Global), Economy,United States, Ralph Benko, broken promises, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Reince Priebus, RNC Chairman: Barack Obama has already raised over $86 million for his 2012 re-election effort from his liberal elitist friends coast-to-coast. But all the campaign cash in the world and the desperate effort by his adoring mainstream media allies to paint a rosy picture over the Obama Recession can't hide the truth from Americans who are hurting.
And so Barack Obama is hitting the road this week in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois on a taxpayer-funded stunt to try and recapture the glory days of 2008's "Hope and Change" and once again use the liberal media to pull the wool over the American people's eyes.
Obama may be looking to cruise Main Street, USA, but his policies have America headed for a "debt" end.
America simply cannot allow Obama and his Chicago political machine handlers to spin more fiction about his so-called "moderation" and "bipartisanship" around what is clearly the most radical left-wing White House that America has ever seen. You can help frustrate their schemes today.
Visit our Obama Debt-End Tour website, watch our new video, and pass along the truth about Barack Obama's failed presidency to your friends.; Come back again and again for future updates as Obama continues his campaign of distractions over the next year. Help get the truth out to the American people about Obama's disastrous record of epic policy and leadership failure. It's time to stand up for Main Street U.S.A. and bring a halt to the "Debt-End" Express.
Tags: Obama, bus tour, debt-end tour, debt, no jobs, Barack Obama,Reince Priebus, RNC Chairman To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The AP writes today, “President Barack Obama launches a political counteroffensive this week, weighed down by a stunted economy, wilting support among some of his most ardent backers, and a daily bashing from the slew of Republicans campaigning for his job. ‘We’ve still got a long way to go to get to where we need to be. We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and it’s going to take time to get out of it,’ the president told the country over the weekend, all but pleading for people to stick with him. . . . With his approval numbers sliding, the Democratic president will try to ease their worries and sustain his resurrected fighting spirit when he sets off Monday on a bus tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.”
It’s little wonder that the president feels the need to try and change the conversation, given that so much of it has been about the unfortunately struggling economy and his sagging poll numbers.
For instance, USA Today reports, “The chances of the economy slipping into another recession have risen significantly, and forecasts for economic growth and job gains over the next year have been substantially downsized, according to USA TODAY’s quarterly survey of top economists. The 39 economists polled Aug. 3-11 put the chance of another downturn at 30% — twice as high as three months ago, according to their median estimates. That means another shock to the fragile economy — such as more stock market declines or a worsening of the European debt crisis — could push the nation over the edge. Yet even if the USA avoids a recession, as economists still expect, they see economic growth muddling along at about 2.5% the next year, down from 3.1% in April’s survey. The economy must grow well above 3% to significantly cut unemployment.”
And the Los Angeles Times wrote yesterday, “President Obama’s summer woes have dragged his approval rating to an all-time low, sinking below 40% for the first time in Gallup’s daily tracking poll. New data posted Sunday shows that 39% of Americans approve of Obama’s job performance, while 54% disapprove. Both are the worst numbers of his presidency.”
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) summarized the situation in the Weekly Republican Address on Saturday, saying, “President Obama inherited a weak economy, but by nearly every measure, he has made the economy worse. Over two years ago, his administration told us that passing his $787 billion stimulus bill would keep unemployment below 8 percent. Instead, since the stimulus was enacted, our economy has lost more than 1.3 million jobs and the unemployment rate has averaged over 9 percent.
“Today, fewer people are working; gas prices are higher; home values are lower; wages are weaker; healthcare is more expensive; taxes are heading higher and our federal deficits are much larger than when President Obama took office. Clearly, the policies of this administration are not working.” Tags:Barack Obama, bus tour, bad economy, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Maxine: I just thought of the perfect get-rich-quick scheme... Now all I need is a campaign slogan. Tags:Maxine, scheme, campaign, campaign sloganTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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