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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Obama or Romney: Recession or Real Recovery?
Phil Kerpen, Contributing Author: The economy is limping along at an official 2 percent growth rate — and even that is overstated because it includes a 9.6 percent increase in deficit-financed government spending. The private sector grew at just 1.6 percent last quarter. Employment data remains weak. Household incomes continue to fall. We're already in the recession red zone, and the largest tax hike in American history looms January 1 if Congress fails to reach an agreement to cancel it. In this contest, the presidential election boils down to a remarkably simple choice: recession or real recovery.
An Obama reelection would all but guarantee the economy tips back into recession next year. For one thing, the purported recovery he's presided over is already the weakest on record. Since the recession officially ended and we entered recovery three years ago, household incomes have actually fallen by $3,000.
Labor markets are extraordinarily weak. Even with the surprise decrease in unemployment in September, that report still found over 12 million Americans unemployed — more than when Obama took office. Add to that 8.6 million Americans working part-time for economic reasons and 2.5 million discouraged workers who want a job but temporarily given up even looking for work, and you get a total of 23.2 million Americans unable to find full-time work. (The newly engaged battleground of Pennsylvania has suffered one of the worst jobless recoveries, losing a net of over 90,000 jobs since Obama took office.)
This is a natural consequence of Obama's big government approach, which entails a dramatically expanded federal imprint on the economy from haphazard and contradictory regulations. Businesses will not hire when the rules of the game are constantly changing and they find it impossible to forecast their tax rates and regulatory compliance costs. The president's health care law has made it impossible to gauge health expenses associated with new hires —they are certain to go up, but nobody knows by how much — creating another drag on hiring.
Genuine economic suffering is far greater than meets the eye, as households are squeezed between falling incomes and rising prices. Gasoline prices have doubled from when Obama took office, and have increased in line with Obama's new restrictions on offshore drilling. The invisible bread lines of this "recovery" have been food stamp and disability rolls. Food stamp rolls have jumped a heartbreaking 45 percent to now include a record 46.7 million Americans. More than 6 million people have signed up for disability since Obama became president.
Clearly, the failed policies of the present are causing widespread suffering. Moreover, and contrary to campaign rhetoric, there is a striking resemblance between Obama's core economic agenda of Wall Street bailouts, reckless spending, and weak dollar monetary policy and Bush's failed second term agenda.
Add to this toxic mix an enormous tax hike looming at the end of this year — a tax hike Obama has already promised to use his veto pen to ensure takes effect — and it's clear that an Obama second term means unacceptable economic suffering and a near certain return to official recession.
A Romney victory promises something very different. Congress would almost certainly cancel all the tax hikes. If Obama is intransigent enough to veto a deal before he leaves office, Romney would sign it into effect retroactively early next year, guaranteeing that no one faces a tax hike with the economy reeling.
Romney promises to unlock America's energy resources, including offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. When Congress lifted the offshore ban on October 1, 2008, prices at the pump collapsed to under two dollars in just three months — and that could happen again.
Romney promises a regulatory overhaul that would focus on ending the uncertainty of ill-designed scattershot rules to micromanage businesses and replacing it with clear rules of the road that protect consumers and otherwise allow markets to function efficiently. That will bring capital off the sidelines and get companies hiring again, with the benefit of being able to project their labor costs. Romney even promises to radically reduce his own presidential power by signing legislation that would require Congress to approve new regulations before they could take effect — a welcome step toward accountability and regulatory sanity.
by Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum: Americans may be tired of an exhausting national campaign, but let’s not forget that the stakes have never been higher. As Yogi Berra said, When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
If Barack Obama is reelected, he will merely click the repeat button to give us another dose of his first term, sending us down the road to European socialism, dependency on government, and imposing incredible debt on our children and grandchildren. Taking the fork in the road will give Mitt Romney and a new Republican Senate the opportunity to take us into a new era of rejecting dependency on government.
That’s our choice of what kind of America we want for ourselves and our children because it’s becoming clearer all the time that Obama’s road means a growing percentage of Americans dependent on government for living expenses, housing, medical care, and even food. The Congressional Research Service has just issued a new report that total annual spending on means-tested welfare programs has hit an incredible $1 trillion a year, not including entitlement programs to which people contribute, such as Social Security and Medicare.
There are 83 federal welfare programs that make up this single largest budget item, more than we spend on national defense. In 2011, federal and state welfare spending averaged $61,194 per poor household per year.
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who ordered the budget figures to be released, said, “No longer should we measure compassion by how much money the government spends, but by how many people we help to rise out of poverty.” A major reason to take the right fork in the road is the fact that Obama gutted the welfare reform provision to get people out of poverty when he summarily and unlawfully abolished the successful Work requirement which was required by the law passed by the Republican Congress in 1996 and signed by Bill Clinton.
The biggest increase in welfare spending is for food stamps, which are now feeding 46,681,833, including 1,634,000 non-citizens. Sessions says that the Obama administration has allowed this program to increase mightily through misleading promotion and a disregard for self-reliance.
Foreign policy is another major reason to take the fork in the road. The scandal of the Obama Administration’s refusal to defend our U.S. Ambassador in Benghazi, despite desperate appeals to send help, proves that it was a hollow victory to kill Osama bin Laden because his acolytes are alive and still killing Americans.
The pathetic job market is a major reason to take the fork in the road. Obama’s much- touted “plan for jobs and middle-class security” is to send two million kids to community colleges. They will be looking for private enterprise jobs that don’t exist, and the only new jobs this will cause is hiring more government teachers.
In the last presidential debate, Barack Obama taunted Mitt Romney with this accusation: “Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.”
Some Obama staffer too young to remember any of those years must have given those words to Obama. They make no sense.
The 1980s were actually years of our most successful foreign policy. Those were the Ronald Reagan years when he labeled the USSR the Evil Empire and then won the Cold War (in the famous words of Margaret Thatcher) “without firing a shot” based on our military superiority and his determination to build an anti-missile defense.
The 1950s were the high-water mark for the American nuclear family. Social and economic policies favored it, and no one had to apologize for it. Since then, illegitimate births have increased to 41 percent a year, causing all the taxpayer costs and social problems that result from that unhappy figure.
The 1920s (known as the Roaring Twenties) were years of sustained economic prosperity, industrial and technological progress, and cultural dynamism. Obama, on the other hand, is taking us back to the 1930s, the years of the Great Depression, when the progressives started to falsely tell us that government can solve all our economic problems.
The only question voters need ask themselves in deciding whether to take the fork in the road is: are you and our country better off now than four years ago? For the overwhelming majority of Americans, the answer is a resounding “no.” Tags:Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum, right fork in the road, election 2012To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by 80s4VA: Michelle's Last Four Years - Lest We Forget
Image from Video: Michelle Obama
The last Aspen vacation info is interesting. To give you an Idea how hard people had to work to get all this information here is just one example:
Judicial Watch elaborates:
-The total cost for the Aspen ski vacation was at least $83,182.99.
-The bill for the U.S. Secret Service, including accommodations at the Fasching Haus deluxe condominium and the Inn at Aspen, was $48,950.38.
-The cost for the flight, per official DOD published hourly rates, was $22,583.70. Food and miscellaneous on-flight items cost $235.44. The cost for rental cars totaled $6,442.23.
Key details, including flight records for the Secret Service detail and the names of individuals who accompanied Mrs. Obama on the vacation, were redacted from the documents with the exception of two staffers. One was Meredith Koop, her personal assistant and style advisor, the other was her scheduler Kristen Jarvis.
"No wonder we had to file a lawsuit in federal court and wait six months to get basic information on Michelle Obama's luxury Aspen vacation," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "The costs of the Obama family ski weekend are staggering. These high-priced luxury vacations, and the lack of transparency about them, are beginning to seem like an abuse of office." Tags:Michelle Obama, children, extravagant vacations, taxpayers money, video, Judicial WatchTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Heritage Foundation:Voter fraud is one scary issue. And believe it or not, there are dead people on the registration rolls in many states. Heritage's Hans von Spakovsky, a leading expert on voter ID laws, uncovers the abuse in a new book, "Who's Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk." Learn more: Heritage.org
Tags:voting dead, 2012 election, election fraud, Heritage FoundationTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
More Coal Layoffs Announced As Obama EPA Continues To Hurt Jobs
Hurricane Barrack Devastates Jobs
Before the Hurricane Sandy pounded the East Coast with devastating effects, Americans were experiencing the devastating effects of the Obama administration war on various industries notably the oil, gas, and coal industries. Today, we have new reports on the damage being done to jobs by the Obama administrations "war on coal." Again, Americans employed in the coal industry are losing jobs thanks in part to federal regulations under the Obama administration.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports today, “Consol Energy has told officials and workers that it will idle a West Virginia surface mine and lay off approximately 145 employees starting at the end of the year. The Cecil-based coal and natural gas company blamed the idling on permit delays that have slowed necessary environmental permit approval at its Miller Creek operations. It said it has been working on securing permits related to the Clean Water Act since November 2007, and said it continues to work through permit delays.”
The AP adds, “Consol has sought U.S. Environmental Protection Agency permits to redirect the Mingo County operations to mine land that would then become a 5-mile stretch of the King Coal Highway. . . . [Consol President Nicholas J.] DeIuliis noted that while the EPA had relented in objecting to one of the two permits sought, ‘that permit alone is not sufficient to allow miners to begin work.’”
Just last month, the AP reported, “Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources said Tuesday it’s cutting production by 16 million tons and eliminating 1,200 jobs companywide, including 400 with the immediate closing of eight mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. . . . [Chief Executive Officer Kevin] Crutchfield called it ‘a difficult day,’ but said the shutdowns and layoffs are a necessary part of ensuring Alpha survives in what has become a difficult U.S. market, where coal companies face a dual challenge: Power plants are shifting to cheap, abundant natural gas, while companies like his face ‘a regulatory environment that’s aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal.’”
And of course, these layoffs have effects beyond the jobs for coal workers themselves. Recently, the AP noted that “Norfolk Southern Corp. says it has laid off about 200 workers in the railroad’s divisions based in Bluefield and Roanoke. Robin Chapman of Norfolk Southern tells the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that decreased coal traffic led to the furloughs.”
Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, said last month, "At this point, you’d have to be blind not to see President Obama’s war on coal, and the devastating impact it is already having on coal mining communities and will, sooner rather than later, have on everyone who pays an electric bill. Does this administration care at all about saving American jobs?"
Earlier this month, Kerpen noted, "War on coal comes to Virginia . . . Mines are being closed. The latest announcement came from Alpha Natural Resources, which is laying off 1,200 coal miners, citing 'a regulatory environment that’s aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal.' The strongest words of anger against this regulatory destruction of the coal industry came from Cecil E. Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers: 'The Navy SEALs shot Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and [Obama EPA Administrator] Lisa Jackson shot us in Washington. This rule is an all-out, in my opinion, decision by the EPA that we’re never going to have another coal-fired facility in the United States that’s constructed.'"
As noted this summer, Senator Mitch McConnell said, “Perhaps the clearest example of this Administration’s regulatory assault is its War on Coal. Since being sworn in, President Obama’s EPA has set out to circumvent the will of Congress and the American people by turning the already-cumbersome mine permitting process into a back-door means of shutting down coal mines. . . . With this radical environmental/anti-coal agenda, it is no wonder the Administration has failed to answer the American people’s call for greater domestic energy production. The real-world impact of their fantasy-world energy policy is that people are losing their jobs and energy prices will rise even further.”
It is time toStop Obama's War on Coal, Gas and Oil Tags:Barack Obama, War on coal, oil, gas, coal, energy industry, American jobs, jobsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Global Security Newswire- The Obama administration earlier this year received information indicating preparatory activities being carried out by "al-Qaida-leaning" militants and other militants at encampments close to Benghazi, Libya, U.S. and European government personnel said in a Monday New York Times report.
A Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. Consulate in the city killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
The cautionary statements fell within a broader range of other intelligence and foreign service indications that Libya had grown increasingly dangerous after Washington resumed activities at its outpost in the African nation's capital following the Qadhafi government's collapse last year, according to the newspaper.
Prior to July, assailants carried out in Benghazi a series of targeted killings, strikes on Red Cross personnel and an assault on vehicles escorting a British international relations official. "A security vacuum" had developed in the area, according to an August e-mail from Stevens.
The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli warned days before the Sept. 11 strike that the Libyan government had established a "state of maximum alert" in Benghazi, which had recently faced an explosives attack on an automobile and a foiled attempt to steal money from a bank.
Despite the intensifying threat level, the State Department retained a policy established in 2011 to field relatively few U.S. protective personnel in Libya and to increasingly depend on locally recruited workers to guard Washington's envoys to the country, the Times reported.
The strike is said to have involved members of the groups Ansar al-Shariah, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Muhammad Jamal organization.
The security situation in Benghazi and the Obama administration's response to the incident are now the subject of three investigations on Capitol Hill and a State Department probe.
"Given the large number of attacks that had occurred in Benghazi that were aimed at Western targets, it is inexplicable to me that security wasn't increased," said Senator Susan Collins (Maine), ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
---------------- The National Journal Group produces Global Security Newswire, a free, independent daily source of news on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, terrorism and related issues. Tags:Terrorism, Benghazi, Libya, "al-Qaida-leaning" militants, death of Americans, Obama Administration, Congressional investigationsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The video swept America during the spring as people just like you sent it to their friends, shared it on Facebook, tweeted it, and drove around 2.5 million viewers to see it. Now, as we are just seven days from election day, it is time to send this compelling reminder of why elections matter, and the differences in philosophy between those who believe in free markets and those who believe in big government.
Please - Please, PLEASE share this video with others. You can even email this article. Or, you can copy the link to the video and share it including posting it on your social media accounts.
Tags:Free Market America, ALG, Americans for Limited Government, video, If I Wanted America To FailTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Dr. Thomas Sowell: Confidence men know that their victim -- "the mark" as he has been called -- is eventually going to realize that he has been cheated. But it makes a big difference whether he realizes it immediately, and goes to the police, or realizes it after the confidence man is long gone.
So part of the confidence racket is creating a period of uncertainty, during which the victim is not yet sure of what is happening. This delaying process has been called "cooling out the mark."
The same principle applies in politics. When the accusations that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton first surfaced, he flatly denied them all. Then, as the months passed, the truth came out -- but slowly, bit by bit. One of Clinton's own White House aides later called it "telling the truth slowly."
By the time the whole truth came out, it was called "old news," and the clever phrase now was that we should "move on."
It was a successful "cooling out" of the public, keeping them in uncertainty so long that, by the time the whole truth came out, there was no longer the same outrage as if the truth had suddenly come out all at once. Without the support of an outraged public, the impeachment of President Clinton fizzled out in the Senate.
We are currently seeing another "cooling out" process, growing out of the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi on September 11th this year.
The belated release of State Department e-mails shows that the Obama administration knew, while the attack on the American consulate was still underway, that it was a coordinated, armed terrorist attack. They were getting reports from those inside the consulate who were under attack, as well as surveillance pictures from a camera on an American drone overhead.
About an hour before the attack, the scene outside was calm enough for the American ambassador to accompany a Turkish official to the gates of the consulate to say goodbye. This could hardly have happened if there were protesting mobs there.
Why then did both President Obama and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice keep repeating the story that this was a spontaneous protest riot against an anti-Islamic video in America?
The White House knew the facts -- but they knew that the voting public did not. And it mattered hugely whether the facts became known to the public before or after the election. What the White House needed was a process of "cooling out" the voters, keeping them distracted or in uncertainty as long as possible.
Not only did the Obama administration keep repeating the false story about an anti-Islamic video being the cause of a riot that turned violent, the man who produced that video was tracked down and arrested, creating a media distraction.
All this kept the video story front and center, with the actions and inactions of the Obama administration kept in the background.
The White House had to know that it was only a matter of time before the truth would come out. But time was what mattered, with an election close at hand. The longer they could stretch out the period of distraction and uncertainty -- "cooling out" the voters -- the better. Once the confidence man in the White House was reelected, it would be politically irrelevant what facts came out.
As the Obama administration's video story began to slowly unravel, their earlier misstatements were blamed on "the fog of war" that initially obscures many events. But there was no such "fog of war" in this case. The Obama administration knew what was happening while it was happening.
They didn't know all the details -- and we may never know all the details -- but they knew enough to know that this was no protest demonstration that got out of hand.
From the time it took office, the Obama administration has sought to suppress the very concept of a "war on terror" or the terrorists' war on us. The painful farce of calling the Fort Hood murders "workplace violence," instead of a terrorist attack in our midst, shows how far the Obama administration would go to downplay the dangers of Islamic extremist terrorism.
The killing of Osama bin Laden fed the pretense that the terrorism threat had been beaten. But the terrorists' attack in Libya exposed that fraud -- and required another fraud to try to "cool out" the voters until after election day.
------------- Dr. Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University. He is a retired professor of Economic and presently is a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University.He is the author of The Housing Boom and Bust and his website is tsowell.com. He article was also published on Town Hall and GOPUSA. Tags:Tomas Sowell, 2012 Election, Libya, Foreign Policy, Obama Administration, Barack Obama, Campaign 2012, Benghazi, Susan Rice, votersTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Jenny is a 13-year-old 8th grader who's been interested in politics for a couple of years. She was confused about the claims of the Democrats and the claims of the Republicans. So, she decided to look at the facts and do a report card for President Barack Obama and one for Governor Mitt Romney. She compared them and now presents her findings in this video. If a 13 year old can do this, we all should be able to do it. The choice is clear in election 2012. Remember, your vote matters!
Tags:Jenny Cantrell, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, report cards, election 2012To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Ann and Phelim Media : In this five minute documentary, we show how Ohio and Pennsylvania — two significant swing states in the election — are currently experiencing localized economic booms due to fracking. Fracking is a method of extracting oil and natural gas from previously inaccessible shale rock. Incumbent Presidents always do well when voters feel optimistic about the economy, so this feel-good factor sweeping OH and PA could swing the elections in an unexpected way.
Thus, the 2012 election may come down to two swing states: Ohio and Pennsylvania. Both states are in the midst of an economic boom brought by increased natural gas production. Does President Obama deserve praise for this boom? Will he get credit anyway?
But the prospect of President Obama getting re-elected because of fracking drips with irony, because Obama may use the flexibility of his second term to over-regulate fracking to please the environmental wing of the Democratic Party.
Comments by Viewers of the documentary:
"A person in either of these two states would have to be extremely inattentive to not know that Obama is about as anti-fracking as you can get, for any number of reasons. Are there really enough of these inattentive people in these two states to hand the election to Obama?"
"This is the most important election in years. You can choose more intense liberal destruction of America; or you can help preserve America and work to increase her greatness."
"Most electric power is generated by coal (i.e., fossil-fuel) plants. Lacking new or expanded nuclear power facilities; given that you can't build a hydroelectric dam in the U.S. without being accused of driving a fungus to the brink of extinction; and given the inefficiencies and prohibitive costs of solar, wind, and bio-fuels, how do you propose that we attain your hydrogen-and-electric-powered utopia without increasing our access to our own fossil fuel reserves?"
"Europe is backing away from nuclear power: Germany wants to be nuke-power-free within five years; France will shut down about 20 nuke plants in the next year or two (about half of their total); and Japan is also planning on reducing their dependence on nuke power (understandable, in their case). They're not going to be able to replace that lost electrical-generating capacity with wind, solar, or bio-fuels: they're gonna have to increase their consumption of fossil fuels." Tags:2012 Election, Ohio, Pennsylvanian, Dinosaur Election, natural gas, fracking, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Majority Blame National Debt On High Spending, Not Low Taxes
Arlington, Va. – Public Notice released the results of a national survey of likely voters on the issues of debt and spending, as well as which presidential candidate will make America more competitive. The survey was conducted by the Tarrance Group via telephone from October 22-25, 2012 among N=1,000 registered “likely” 2012 voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.
Results show that an overwhelming majority of voters believe that the cause of the federal debt comes from government spending being too high (79%) rather than taxes being too low (15%). This is near universal agreement that government spending is the bigger cause of the debt, with key groups like Independents (83%), Hispanics (73%), women (78%), and middle class voters (80%) in agreement. In looking at which candidate for president would make the United States more competitive in the global economy over the next four years, a majority (51%) say Mitt Romney, while just 44% it is Barack Obama.
Gretchen Hamel, executive director of Public Notice, issued the following statement regarding the poll:“With election day just over a week away and the fiscal cliff looming just beyond, this poll is a clear message to candidates and policymakers that Americans think we spend too much, not that we’re taxed too little. This concern over high spending is not a partisan issue. Independents as well as key demographics such as women, Hispanics and middle class voters overwhelmingly believe spending the main culprit behind our massive debt. Americans want debt reduction, but they don’t want to foot the bill for Washington’s irresponsible spending.”Key Findings:
By an overwhelming margin, voters throughout the country believe that the cause of the federal debt comes from government spending being too high (79%) rather than taxes being too low (15%). This is near universal agreement that government spending is the bigger cause of the debt, with key groups like Independents (83%), Hispanics (73%), women (78%), and middle class voters (80%) in agreement.
Additionally, young voters (those 18-29) are the most likely of any age group to say too much spending is to blame for the debt (82%).
In looking at which candidate for president would make the United States more competitive in the global economy over the next four years, a majority (51%) say Mitt Romney, while just 44% it is Barack Obama.
Click here to read the polling memo [pdf format]. Tags:Public Notice, poll, National Debt, high spending, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
2% Growth and the Presidential Election: Ideas 'Dangerous for Good or Evil'
Romney’s trusted running mate, Paul Ryan, is one of a few people who hold the key to American and world economic vitality.
by Ralph Benko, Contributing Author: The Wall Street Journal, upon the release of the most recent annual GDP growth figure of 2% (up from 1.3% in the previous quarter), observes:The economy plowed ahead at a 2% growth rate in the third quarter, which thrilled more than a few of our liberal friends who think it’s enough to re-elect President Obama. We’ll soon find out if they’re right, but there’s no doubt their prosperity standards are slipping. In the third quarter of 1992, growth came in at 4.2% (3.4% for the year) and Democrats called it a catastrophe.Even the liberal New York Times took a sober view of the anemic uptick:Still, the pace of economic activity is short of what’s needed to substantially reduce the unemployment rate, now at 7.8 percent and also well below the level of growth typical in this stage of a recovery after a sharp downturn.
What’s more, fears are growing that the economy could slow again in the fourth quarter. Companies are preparing for the possibility of steep tax increases and sharp spending cuts if Congress cannot agree on a deal to reduce the deficit after the election, a combination of factors frequently referred to as the fiscal cliff.
In fact, a series of disappointing earnings reports from the nation’s biggest companies this week, along with a handful of layoff announcements from corporate bellwethers, suggest businesses have already begun to retrench.Next week America will decide whether to gamble on the economic prosperity prescription being offered by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, or on the social equity model presented by the incumbent president Barack Obama. The contest presents as something portended in one of the wisest observations ever made by the in-certain-ways-defunct John Maynard Keynes.
Keynes, in the General Theory of Unemployment, Interest, and Money (chapter 24, part V) famously wrote:But apart from this contemporary mood, the ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. Not, indeed, immediately, but after a certain interval; for in the field of economic and political philosophy there are not many who are influenced by new theories after they are twenty-five or thirty years of age, so that the ideas which civil servants and politicians and even agitators apply to current events are not likely to be the newest. But, soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.The presidential race has focused most prominently on fiscal policy: taxing and spending. Leading economists and politicians of the Left continue to distill their frenzy from Keynes. Those of the Right seem to be in the thrall of the most visible (but, importantly, not all of the) ideas of arguably the most influential political economist of the late 20th century, Jude Wanniski.
Wanniski’s prime influence reflected his key concern, that of marginal tax rates. The battle over tax policy — dropping the top marginal rate from 70% to 28% and, later, dropping the capital gains rate –occupied the front pages of America’s leading newspapers. It dominated the macroeconomic discourse for well over a decade.
Notwithstanding dramatic tax rate reduction, by the tail end of the Clinton administration, and under George W. Bush, the world economy was plunged by a degenerating monetary policy into over a decade of economic stagnation. This columnist firmly believes that averting “taxmageddon” — as Romney promises more credibly than does Obama — is essential to maintaining economic growth. Still, the empirical evidence — 12 years of economic stagnation — demonstrates that low tax rates are necessary but not sufficient to achieve prosperity. The need for good money, as noticed by the discerning, is the pivot upon which the possibility of prosperity turns.
The agitators of the Left, having apparently having dozed off while reading Chapter 24 of the General Theory, have developed an obsession — an idée fixe — that the primary danger to the Republic is that of the vested interests. They are fixated by the absurd notion that injuring the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech and the press — by muzzling corporate political spending — will somehow bring about a more equitable prosperity. They, unlike their hero Keynes, are failing to grasp that it is “ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.”
The Right, meanwhile, has constituted itself as something of a cargo cult around Wanniski’s marquee prescription of low marginal tax rates. This is deeply problematic. As the Left fails to grasp its hero Keynes’s insights, the Right fails to grasp Wanniksi’s secondary prescription of the gold standard as essential to prosperity. Wanniski on gold:This brings us at last to the monetary standard. For thousands of years, the reference point provided by gold has been the equivalent of Polaris in the world of everyday commerce. Think of each star in the sky as a different commodity or item to be “priced” in the market. This star over here is a loaf of bread of a certain weight and quality. This star is a quart of milk. … Unless civilization can agree upon one star in that galaxy, against which all other stars can be referenced, civilization could not progress much beyond the bartering of a jungle or desert commune. … Happily, many thousands of years ago, soon after the dawn of civilization, mankind fixed on precious metals as the standards for pricing. Thus, the merchant will sell one loaf of bread for 1/100th of an ounce of gold or 100 loaves for an ounce, or a Cadillac for 100 ounces. Gold money will change for smaller money in order to make smaller transactions, one ounce for twenty of silver, or 6000 of copper. But it all starts with Polaris. … As long as this one task was achieved by government, the monetary standard would remain constant.During the epic Wanniski epoch — including the good growth years of Reagan and of Clinton — tax policy was fought out, vividly, in the public and political sphere. Meanwhile, the monetary policy fight was relegated to the private sanctuaries of the Federal Reserve Board. Chairman Volcker and the early years of Chairman Greenspan implemented a proxy for the gold standard called the Great Moderation. And, with that, the economy grew well (and, in spurts, handsomely).
Today’s candidates for the presidency have cast next week’s vote, in large measure, as a referendum on American fiscal policy, very much including an important rear guard action over marginal tax rates. It is clear to this columnist that the election of Romney, with his dedication to relatively lower marginal tax rates, and to more sensible energy, environmental, and regulatory policy, is necessary for resumed growth. While necessary it is not sufficient.
The prospect of the restoration of 3%, or even 4%, growth depends upon an issue that appears only at the margins of the presidential race: monetary policy. Thus the possibility of yanking America out of 2% stagnation and back into prosperity currently resides in the hands of three young statesmen who, perhaps uniquely, understand that good monetary policy is the key issue at stake for growth.
Three men hold the key to American and world economic vitality. Who are they? Romney’s trusted running mate, Wanniskian Paul Ryan (guided by his excellent economist John Taylor); Rep. Kevin Brady, vice chairman of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and author of the Sound Dollar Act; and Rep. Jim Jordan, outgoing chairman of the Republican Study Committee and staunch advocate of good monetary policy. At least two of these, and, perhaps, all three, will be installed on November 6th by the voters at battle stations in the continuing fight for an equitable prosperity.
The presidential election is, of course, of great importance. Will the voters pick the growth candidate or, discouraged, tip toward the social equity candidate? As important as is the presidency, however, the most essential battle — the fight for good money as the keystone of 4% growth with full social equity — is of even greater importance. It will be fought for where the battle belongs, in “the People’s House,” the Congress of the United States. Good money is good politics and good policy and is certain to become visible soon after the November 6th election.
------------ Ralph Benko is senior advisor, economics, to American Principles in Action’s Gold Standard 2012 Initiative, and a contributor to the ARRA News Service. The article which first appeared with a different title in Forbes was submitted for reprint by the author. Tags:Ralph Benko, the economy, 2012, 2012 election, presidential election, Mitt Romney, Paul RyanTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison, Contributing Authors: You must ask yourself this: Why would Bill Clinton want Barack Obama to be re-elected? In 2008, candidate Obama consigned the Clinton Presidency to oblivion when he said it was not like the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Reagan, said Obama then, was a transformational president. Even more insulting to the Clinton legacy, Obama compared his two-terms in the White House to the truncated two terms of Richard Nixon. Can there be any graver offense against a McGovern Democrat than that?
President Obama won a convincing 53% victory in 2008. He is now running for his political life, but it cannot be said that he ducked the tough issues. He fought for and pushed through Congress his takeover of the nation’s health care. That’s why it’s called Obamacare and not Hillarycare.
Obama paid for this victory with what he called a “shellacking” in the 2010 mid-term elections, but he got his bill through. More than that, he got it approved by the Supreme Court—a Supreme Court had had personally tongue-lashed during a State of the Union address. That’s something that a transformational president does.
Recall that Bill Clinton reacted to his own mid-term shellacking by pronouncing “the era of Big Government is over.” Those words must have been hot coals on his tongue. And they were grating on the ears of every liberal in the country. Big Government is their faith. In government, they move and breathe and have their being.
Clinton won a comfortable second term victory over the hapless Bob Dole. He was never behind one day in the 1996 campaign once Americans realized his opponent would be the aged Kansan.
Still, in order to achieve that less-than-impressive 49% win—even with peace and prosperity on his side—Clinton had had to sign the Welfare Reform Bill and the Defense of Marriage Act. He was viewed by almost all of his party’s idealists as an unprincipled trimmer. Christopher Hitchens spoke for the left when he penned a scathing book on Bubba titled No One Left to Lie To.
President Obama has steered sharply to the left. He has gutted welfare reform. This was the greatest bi-partisan achievement since the great Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of the sixties. Millions of Americans have found a ladder of opportunity as a result of welfare reform. Millions of children have seen their lives improve. But all of this is at risk now.
To the delight of left-wing activists, President Obama has refused to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act. Bill Clinton hated signing that bill, but thought he had to. Typically, he boasted in election ads on Christian radio that he had signed this measure. Christian voters weren’t the first ones to find Bill Clinton’s marriage promises empty.
Now, the pundits are wondering if Bill Clinton will sink or save Barack Obama. They seem genuinely perplexed. New York Times' Matt Bai thinksClinton’s campaign advice to the Obama re-elect team may have proved harmful. Clinton urged them to portray his opponent not as an unprincipled flip-flopper, but as a right-wing zealot. People don’t like zealots, he argued.
But when the opponent who appeared next to the president on stage looked nothing like a zealot, Clinton’s campaign strategy may have blown up in his friends’ faces. He wants two terms of high octane liberalism in the White House, doesn't he? That would surely help Hillary should she try one last time for the presidency in 2016. Wouldn't it?
Bill Clinton is our friend, right, they may be asking themselves. He wants the president re-elected to eclipse his own presidency.
Barack Obama does not quite bestride the narrow world like a colossus these days. But he may realize the wisdom of keeping his friends close and his enemies even closer. And he may have occasion to ask how valuable Bill Clinton’s help really was: Et tu, Bubba?
---------------------- Ken Blackwell is a conservative family values advocate. Blackwell is a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and a visiting professor at Liberty University School of Law. Bob Morrison is a Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council. He has served at the U.S. Department of Education with Gary Bauer under then-Secretary William Bennett. Both are contributing authors to the ARRA News Service. Tags:Ken Blackwell, Bob Morrison, President Obama, Et tu, Bubba, Bubba Bill, Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton, agendasTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Morally Bankrupt Theology of Forced Redistribution
On Wednesday of this week, a Georgia family who had just lost their home of more than 20 years to foreclosure also lost almost everything else they owned. Not to a fire or a storm, but to Barack Obama’s theology of redistribution.
People arrived well before 10:00 a.m., and by the time the owners arrived there from work to supervise the giveaway, their home was ransacked and ravaged. Almost everything inside was gone. Michael Vercher, the homeowner, said, “They came in and just tore the place up.”
And he couldn’t stop them. They took family keepsakes, all their clothes and shoes – everything but a few books left scattered across the carpet.
Scenes like this are the inevitable result of a culture that subscribes to the theology of the forced redistribution of wealth. Charity is a virtue. Stealing is not. The liberal’s theology of the forced redistribution of wealth stands in stark contrast to the “loving one’s neighbor as one loves himself” theology that Jesus taught. And this Georgia scene dramatically illustrates that difference. There was no loving one’s neighbor in this landscape. But there certainly was the redistribution of wealth.
“We don’t have much and now we have even less. You’d like to think there’s good people. I mean, I hope they would have a good enough heart to bring our stuff back,” Michael Vercher said. Me too Michael. Me too.
-------------- Curtis Coleman is the President, Curtis Coleman's Institute for Constitutional Policy and contributing author to the ARRA News Service. Tags:Tags: charity, foreclosure, Michael Vercher, redistribution, redistribution of wealth, Curtis Coleman, American Culture, Coleman Commentary Podcasts, SocialismTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Special Ops Speaks: Former Special Ops officers from four separate branches of the military have joined ranks for one specific purpose -- to remove Barack Obama from office for failing as Commander-in Chief. In this video, the following Special Operations officers speak out:
US Army Retired: BG Joe Stringham, COL Stan Shaneyfelt, MAJ Jim Grimshaw
US Navy Retired: CAPT Larry Bailey, LCDR Bill Langley
US Air Force: COL Dick Brauer, COL Roland Guidry, COL Tom Bradley
Tags:Special Ops Speaks, military officers, Obama Administration, Leaks, Lies, Libya, lack of leadershipTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tags:At Stake, America, America's future, Clint Eastwood, American Crossroads, election 2012To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Princella Smith, Contributing Author: Roy Ashton might be considered a "typical southern male" in the United States. He is a Mississippi resident, a father, and a husband who attends church regularly and considers himself to be patriotic. Although active in his church, he was not particularly interested in traveling to the Middle East. In fact, the only countries that his church mentioned when speaking of missions work were Asian countries in the Far East. But, like many church-going American southerners, Roy eventually became informed of the importance of Israel's security to the pro-democratic free world and to America's national security, as well as the biblical significance of protecting Israel, and he had a change of heart. He decided to travel to Israel and to learn about how he could help Israelis to handle emergency situations.
I met Roy this past week in Jerusalem when I was invited to attend a training session of the Emergency Volunteers Project. EVP was founded in 2007 with the purpose of training individuals and groups to assist and support Israeli emergency service organizations in times of emergency, as there invariably are here.
EVP's main headquarters is in Jerusalem, and perhaps what's most special about the EVP is the number of non-Israelis who are recruited to participate. A majority of those non-Israeli participants are Americans.
During a counterterrorism conference a couple of weeks ago, I witnessed the incredulousness of a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt as he expressed disdain and skepticism about America's position toward enforcing red lines on Iran and preventing them from attaining a nuclear weapon.
Despite America's history of pro-Israel policies, a surprisingly growing number of Israelis feel the same as the ambassador, and it is unfortunate that the Obama administration's lackluster performance on the issue has exacerbated this feeling.
Israel's security and America's defense of it has long been a non-partisan issue in America. Both Democrats and Republicans have long maintained that America should remain an unyielding ally to Israel. Yet, the Obama administration has attempted to make that issue just as partisan as tax policy and entitlement reform. The Democratic National Convention actually erupted over whether to include a policy plank claiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and it was only changed to include it once President Barack Obama and his operatives feared the media exposure and pro-Israel backlash within their own party.
However, the EVP's recent training event can be seen as more representative of how Americans feel about the protection of the State of Israel as a whole and more deeply, about the heart that Americans have toward individual Israelis. The attendees traveled to Israel on their own American dime to learn how to assist Israeli emergency personnel in case of a crisis, but why? Why would citizens of one country spend their own money to help another country solve its problems?
I had to ask — although I already knew the answer. It is commonly said that "America stands with Israel," but this is deeper.
Americans love Israelis.
This extends beyond public and international policy. Many Americans — especially Christians — feel a moral obligation, a sense of honorable duty to band together and pray for the safety and well-being of Israelis as a people.
It's more than facts and figures. It's more than the concept of Israel being our "haven of democracy in the Middle East." For many Americans, it's biblical. Not only is there the element of Israel as a Holy Land, but there is the unwavering conviction that this Holy Land is inhabited by God's chosen people. This means that Israeli life should be cherished and the population viewed as individual precious people and not figures on a map.
This sentiment can't be measured on a Republican and Democrat scale. It's heart-deep. So, no matter how much Obama snubs Israel and disrespects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Americans at their core will always stand with the people of Israel.
I observed hours of the first day of training with the EVP and caught up with a few of the Americans there. Gail Giaramita of Lake Cormorant, Mississippi is a nurse and a Christian who joined the EVP because she "… love[s] Israel and stand[s] with Israel." She passionately explained that she is a member of a group that prays for the protection of Israeli citizens weekly.
That is the same group that Charlotte Bridgewater of Southaven, Mississippi is a part of. She came to Israel "… not for a vacation but to help." Both ladies met Mark Cox, also of Southaven, Mississippi, during the trip. When asked why he spent money to travel to Israel for EVP training, he said, "I always had a heart toward Israel. I couldn't afford it, but God opened the [financial] door, so I felt I was assigned to it. I am deeply concerned about the situation that I see Israel in. The imminent events will likely be catastrophic."
Catastrophic indeed as echoed by Eitan Charnoff, the 22-year-old EVP spokesperson and representative for the EVP to the United States.
Eitan is a Jewish American who was raised in Potomac, Maryland, but sojourned to Israel for a deeper connection with his Jewish heritage. He recently completed his undergraduate studies at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and will be drafted into the Israeli army in a few months.
The name Eitan means "strong" and it is fitting for the young man. One five-minute conversation with the athletic Eitan is enough to make me believe I am speaking with a future prime minister. "Israel is facing a very complex situation," said Eitan. "The largest is from Iran with the most obvious threat coming from their [potential] development of nuclear weapons but also the geopolitical situation that has occurred from the Arab Spring. So, one of the potential threats is a result from the deterioration in Syria and the potential that their chemical and biological weapons can fall into the hands of terrorists. Another threat is that [Lebanon's] Hezbollah will attack Israel to distract the world from what's happening in Syria. There are over 50,000 rockets pointed at Israel — many of which are pointed directly at the center of the country. It is this increasing threat and uneasiness that re-emphasizes the importance of Israel's security not militarily but in terms of protecting the civilian population."
And how will EVP aid this effort? They recruit, train and prepare anyone around the world with the heart to help, so that if Israel is ever in another dire situation, people all over the world are immediately equipped to work with Israeli services to save lives.
The problem, according to Eitan is that "Israel has some of the best emergency services in the world, but because it is such a small country, there aren't enough of them." Thus, the need for volunteers from other countries, and the ripe opportunity to pick people from the American field of "true believers" who are eager to protect Israel.
EVP CEO Adi Zahavi co-founded the organization on this concept. Zahavi, who comes from a family of ambulance drivers, began driving ambulances when he was only 15 years old. During the Second Intifada and particularly the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, Zahavi noted the lack of manpower among Israeli relief forces.
"I saw the [situation] through the eyes of emergency personnel and noted the need for help from outside of Israel in case of war. We needed volunteers ASAP who were actually trained ... I looked to the U.S. first because I knew that we needed people who were pro-Israel for this kind of [undertaking]."
People like Patricia Del'Marmol of Sacramento, California, who saw the kiosk to sign up for the EVP when she attended this year's Christians United for Israel summit in Washington, D.C. "I've previously volunteered for the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and picked grapes in Har Bracha and Shiloh as a volunteer. I saw this as an opportunity to help the people of Israel."
American firefighters and ambulance personnel travel to Israel to learn how to work in those fields under the Israeli system so that they are ready at a moment's notice.
At the same time, the Patricia Del'Marmols, Charlotte Bridgewaters, Mark Coxes, Gail Giaramitas, Roy Ashtons, and other "every day" American citizens are trained by qualified officials such as Ty Flewelling, the medical attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Israel. "The U.S. Embassy supports EVP and disaster preparedness plans," said Flewelling. We're involved from a grass-roots level up to the highest levels of government in Israel in disaster preparedness."
This grass-roots effort includes training to be a first responder; in first aid; spotting suspicious activity; and in search, rescue, and recovery, including digging bodies — both alive and dead — from rubble; as well as working in shelters to provide food and clothing to disaster victims whose homes and possessions have been destroyed.
As much talk as there is in America about the Obama and Romney campaigns' grass-roots operations to get out the vote in the upcoming November election, I wonder how much thought either of them has given to the type of grass-roots operation Charnoff, Zahavi and Flewelling are preparing for?
One thing is certain: Whether the presidential candidates have noted the efforts of the EVP, they should start now because the heart of Americans is and always will be toward a safe and secure Israel.
------------ Princella Smith is a conservative advocate. She was a former communications staffer to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and has also served as a communications director on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. She is currently a graduate student at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel. She is a contributing authors to the ARRA News Service and an American freelance contributor for Israel Hayom where this article first appeared. Tags:Princella Smith, Americas, Heart Israel, Israel, Israel HayomTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Arkansas Lt. Governor Mark A. Darr: The other day I saw a commercial on television that struck me. A man named Thomas Peterffy was telling his story about growing up in Hungary when it was a socialist country. He came to the United States and lived the American Dream, becoming a citizen and an incredibly successful entrepreneur. But, he hasn’t forgotten where he came from – the place that he left. In socialist Hungary, he said that there was “no hope, no freedom, no pride in achievement.” He said that he believes we are on a slippery slope and he sees it happening here. “America’s wealth comes from people striving for success,” he continued. The incentives for success in this country are receding. It seems that because the government has sought to do so much for so many, we are now incentivizing people not to work.
This election, we find our country is at a crossroads. I never thought it would come to this in America.
When Ronald Reagan was president, our country stood against socialism. All over the world, American effort and treasure was spent trying to defeat it. Now we are seeing this encroaching ideology infect our own political and economic system. We must continue to defeat it or it will consume our nation.
Too many people now think that it is the job of the government to provide whatever they need. Where has American optimism and individualism gone? Where is that sense of being independent and self-sufficient? Many of our neighbors do need help and I understand that. Many other Americans are simply losing hope. Thousands of people have left the workforce. Dependence on government social programs is skyrocketing.
The path we are on is unsustainable. Look at what is happening in Europe. Decades of government growth and socialist policies are bankrupting their countries. Greece and Spain are key examples. Cuts in programs that people became dependent on have led to violence in the streets. Why would we go down a road that we know leads to failure?
These past few years, we have seen demonstrations all across our own country, representing a level of American unrest that I’ve never seen before. America’s “silent majority” is no longer silent. Millions have turned out in non-violent protests to say that the government is doing too much, rather than not enough.
President Nixon, during the Vietnam War, called for the country to be “united against defeat.” He said, “North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.” We cannot allow our country to be defeated and humiliated from within. The path to socialism will lead to that end.
Free enterprise, hard work, and American entrepreneurialism – that is what works. That is what has made our economy the envy of the world. Government should encourage that, not squelch it.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground." We see it before our own eyes.
We must preserve our nation as that “shining city on a hill”. We can’t allow it to grow dim.
----------- View Thomas Peterffy video, Freedom To Succeed, about growing up in socialist Hungary. Tags:Arkansas, Lt. Governor, Mark Darr, America, socialism, not the answer, free enterprise, hard work, entrepreneurs, Thomas PeterffyTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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