Laborforce Participation Rate at lowest point since 1978. A record 91.8 million Americans are no longer in the Workforce.
The economy continues to gain jobs, but 77% of them were part-time. The number of long-term unemployed is nearly double what it was when Obama became president. Since Jan. 2009, the number of Jobless Working-Age Americans has risen by 9.6 million people.
Wages remain stagnant, increasing a scant 0.3% after inflation during Obama’s time.
The number of low-income persons on food stamps remains just below the record level reached in 2012, with 15% of the population still getting benefits or 47.4 million Americans now rely on Food Stamps.
Health care spending has increased 15.8% under Obama, which is faster than inflation but modest by historical standards.
U.S. exports have gone up just 34%— leaving the president far short of his announced goal of doubling them by the end of this year.
The federal debt owed to the public has nearly doubled since Obama was sworn in, increasing by 95 percent. U.S. Debt Now Stands at over $17.3 Trillion.
A Record 10.98 Million Americans Now Receive Disability Checks.
Nearly One in Three Americans Fell into Poverty from 2009 to 2011.
42% of Americans Believe Themselves Worse Off Financially than a Year Ago.
The Federal Workforce has increased by 3.2%.
Gas Prices have Risen 82% under Obama.
Overall consumer process have increased 10.3% (does not include food or gas).
Home ownership rate has declined: -2.4%.
264 Have been Killed in Iraq and 1676 Have been Killed in Afghanistan under Obama.
Billionaire media hog Donald Trump has been wading into politics for years now. So far, his focus has been on the national level - until now.
Trump has been meeting with Republican leaders at his Manhattan office to discuss a possible gubernatorial run in his home state of New York. He said he'll make his decision in the next few weeks and that there is an even chance that he will run. Trump’s hesitation is due to the chaotic state of the local New York GOP.
In a radio interview New York State Republican Chairman Ed Cox blew off Trump’s calls for the GOP to unify its message and complained that Trump needed to go to the state meeting and talk with them: "That's what that’s what Donald Trump has to do," Cox said. "You leave your own office and you go out."
Trump has a point about the GOP – schizophrenic messaging seems to be the rule with state and national party groups. If Trump is serious about a run for any office, the position of Governor is a good place for him. He can prove himself to be a capable administrator before wading back into presidential politics.
According to the new McClatchy-Marist Poll, Hillary Clinton dominates the potential field of candidates for the Democratic nomination by ridiculously large margins (a 5-to-1 advantage over her nearest rival) causing Lee Miringoff the director of the group that conducted the poll to say, “She’s jogging around the track by herself.”
Hillary Clinton 65%
Vice Pres. Joe Biden, 12%
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Mass. 9%
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of NY 3%
Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland 1%
Biden pulls out ahead if Clinton does not run, but incredibly Elizabeth Warren gains support:
Biden, 45%
Warren, 25%
Cuomo, 11%
O’Malley, 4%
Warren told The Boston Globe that she was not running for president in 2016. Democrat pundits argue that Clinton will continue on with Obama’s agenda while Warren represents taking the Democrat party in a new direction.
The question that we conservatarians ask ourselves is this: "In what alternate universe would Elizabeth Warren be a serious candidate for president of the United States?" Warren’s hypocrisy is simply staggering.
1) Warren actually claimed: “I was the first nursing mother to take a bar exam in the state of New Jersey.” Of course, women have been taking the bar in that state since the 1890s.
2) Warren has exaggerated and falsified data in her “academic” work to justify her political theories, for instance claiming that medical expenses are the primary cause for personal bankruptcy in the United States.
3) Warren used metrics to justify that the “two income trap” comparing a family in the 1970s to a family in the 2000s. She altered the data to mislead the reader. The real data showed that by 2000s,the family tax bill increased by 140% since the 1970s.The percentage of family income dedicated to health insurance, mortgage and automobiles actually declined from the 1970s to the 2000s.
4) Warren pretended that she rose “from poverty” in Oklahoma. The reality was that her family had 3 cars - one was hers.
5) Warren claimed that because of her “high cheekbones” she was of Cherokee ancestry and was even listed as a minority professor at Harvard. Since then, her family ancestry was traced back to the great-great-great grandparent level, and there was no Cherokee lineage.
Harvard University’s Institute of Politics released their Fall 2013 Survey which shows that 52% of Millennials (age 18-24) support a “recall” effort that would throw Obama out of office. The number is only a little better among 18-29 year-olds at 47%.
Roughly four-in-ten (41%) of 18- to 29- year-olds indicated that they approved of Barack Obama’s performance as president with a whopping 54% disapproval rating. This is Obama’s lowest approval rating IOP polling has reported since the beginning of his presidency and is a drop of 11 percentage points in seven months .
ObamaCare scored very low - 57% disapprove of ObamaCare, with only 38% approving.
Establishment Republicans are gearing up for the 2016 presidential race. Democrats are congealing around Hillary and the GOP is toying with dreams of the blowhard fat man, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
While Christie’s duodenum constricts as he sports his new weight loss hardware, Establishment Republicans are busying themselves behind the scenes, orchestrating a strategy to shut down Tea Party conservatives once and for all.
Establishment Republicans are enjoying their honeymoon with the younger, boisterous Christie, but they know that Christie will most likely melt down at some point during the campaign. Christie has problems - they are not sure of Christie’s amnesty bonafides because there have been times when it comes to fiscal responsibility, Christie has actually made sense. This scares the hell out of them. Christie’s ego makes him difficult to control. His Soprano style schtick gets tiresome. After all the GOP is the party of white bread power mongers like Mitch McConnell, John McCain and John Cornyn – interchangeable silver-haired bobble heads.
The most important objection to Chris Christie has very little to do with Christie’s weaknesses as a candidate. Establishment Republicans cannot divorce themselves from the “his turn” method of picking candidates – remember Ford, Dole, McCain. And whose turn is it? Jeb Bush, of course.
Make no mistake about it – the Establishment Republicans’ agenda revolves around one single issue – amnesty. They believe that if they control the implementation of amnesty – they will endear themselves to Hispanics forever thus securing a Republican Latino vote for all time. The poster child for amnesty is Jeb Bush. Bush loves Mexicans. He’s married to one. His brown-eyed, black- haired children look more like cousins to liberal political dynamos the Castro twins from San Antonio than any of the other Bush descendants.
The youngest Bush brother was former Governor of Florida and has been traveling around of late making speeches about how he is not RINO. He coyly claims he will not make a decision about running for President until the middle of 2014, but he has already published a book on the importance of immigrants’ path to citizenship and laid out his 4 points of light plan or whatever. Bush’s simple 4-point plan claims to hold the key to increase growth in the U.S. GDP 3.5% - 4% per year over the next decade.
1. Encourage North American energy production. Focusing on natural gas and approving the Keystone XL pipeline, rational fracking regulations, opening lands up for drilling, helping Mexico modernize its oil sector.
2. Approve comprehensive-immigration reform or amnesty. Because immigrants are entrepreneurial (and “are more fertile,” and those more children can help fix the imbalance in entitlement support). This would include a legal pathway that include fines and penalties, H1 visas, and a guest-worker program.
3. Reform education. Raise standards, grading schools based on student achievement, like in Florida, eliminate social promotion in third grade, focus on early literacy, expand school choice/vouchers.
4. Focus on the Family. “No amount of growth nor transformed education system will be sustainable if strong family faith isn’t the backbone of any American renewal. We have to be supportive of the single mom and the grandmother, as well as other non-traditional families,” Bush said, calling attention to the Democrats’ misguided attempts to fix these issues through government policy.
The Establishment Republicans are not interested in the fact that conservatives believe exactly what Jeb Bush’s mother (former FLOTUS Barbara Bush) said on the Today show about Jeb running for President: “There are other people out there that are very qualified and we’ve had enough Bushes.”
Mitt Romney made a rare appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press in a one-on-one with
David Gregory. Romney claimed that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, if named
the GOP nominee for President in 2016, could potentially “save” the Republican
Party. Gregory asked if Romney also saw Texas Senator Ted Cruz as a
"strong light." Romney dismissed the notion of Cruz as a serious
candidate or party leader: "Look,
I'm not going to disqualify anybody. But I think I've indicated some of the
names that I think are most effective in becoming elected, and we'll see where
it goes."
The reality for the GOP is that it must stop taking advice
from losing candidates and pundits who have exceeded their expiration dates - McCain,
Romney, Jeb Bush and Rove. In order to win 2014 and subsequently 2016, the GOP
needs to coordinate around a principled platform that provides contrast with
the Democrat platform that most Americans, if polled issue by issue do NOT
support.
In order to win and save the United States from the dangerous
path of financial ruin and European style socialist policies, the GOP should
focus on domestic fiscal issues that are killing the American economy and
hurting the average working family.
As a nation, we are broke.
In May 2012, the national debt started growing faster than GDP,
which means that we are borrowing at a faster rate than we can possibly produce.
Contrast that with the 1950s when America accounted for one half of the world's
Gross Domestic Product, owning nearly 3/4 of the world's gold, with a trade surplus
and we were the world’s leading creditor. Today, we're $17 trillion in debt, no
gold, and the trade surpluses are gone. America's share of GDP has dropped to 25%,
while the United States borrows 46 cents for every dollar it spends. The U.S.
Treasury is the largest purchaser of our own bonds. "Debt service is crowding out normal
economic functioning," according to Paul Brodsky, co-founder and manager
of QB Asset Management. "The
economy is shrinking."
Obama was responsible for the United States loss of our Triple A Credit
Rating for the first time in the nation’s history.
And after the most recent debt ceiling debate and shutdown, Chinese
Company downgraded our credit rating.
Keynesian Stimulus Failed.
The more than a trillion dollars of panic spending in 2008
did not work. It left the economy in a seemingly permanent slump. The labor
force participation rate dropped to 63.2%, the lowest level since 1978, as job
creation remains lackluster unemployment has stubbornly stayed over 7%. These
increases in spending guaranteed future increased tax rates. Current statistics
prove that redistributed income from the productive middle class to those on the
dole did not magically cause consumer purchasing to increase as promised. Instead it fostered the reduced productivity
that inevitably follows a shift of resources away from productive investment to the stagnant welfare pot of government
redistribution.
Obamacare Does Not Work. At All.
Higher Costs.
A comprehensive 50-state study by the Heritage Foundation has found that
insurance premiums will increase under the first year of Obamacare in 45 of 50
states.
You can’t keep
your coverage. Most will not
qualify for the touted “affordability credits.” Instead, they will not only face higher premiums and deductibles,
but will also receive increased out-of-pocket costs, and restrictions on choice
of doctors and procedures. Coverage is being cancelled every day while companies are scrambling to
afford the standards and pages of new regulations. Workers hours are being cut
to less than 30 per week for employers to avoid healthcare fines.
The quality of
care will be adversely impacted. Obamacare has already added fuel to
the shortage of practicing physicians with physicians retiring and future MDs
opting for other careers. Obamacare will force government decision boards who
will get between doctors and patients, restricting
physicians’ autonomy. Rationing will be the inevitable consequence.
Expose Democrats at every turn.
Democrats will try kill sequester budget number which is currently
holding the baseline budgeting to 2008 levels. As long as Democrats are in
control, they will not spell out their intended policies in a budget – if they did
make their intentions transparent, they would lose 2014 elections across the
board.
This week John McCain enlightened us with his opinion adding more wisdom to the John McCain Book of Deep Thoughts from Democrats.
Biden would be a viable presidential candidate and a good
choice:
"Dick [Durbin] and I very close friends with Joe Biden,
who's a wonderful guy, and so I certainly wouldn't count Joe Biden out of this
mix.”
The Establishment GOP strategy on immigration is identical
to the Liberal Democrat strategy on immigration:
“I think conventional wisdom is that time is not on our
side. But there are a number of members of Congress who have primaries and when
those primaries are done, they may be more inclined to address the issue of
comprehensive immigration reform.”
Hollywood
moonbats are right to be disturbed by recent revelations of the abuse of
privacy by the NSA and the spying on American citizens. I support this video
and the ideas communicated, but it does not go far enough. It is, however worth
a peek.
How the producers
of this slick important piece had the nerve to use video of Richard Nixon (as
opposed to Obama) is simply jaw-dropping.
Obama has
declared in public that the U. S. Constitution is no longer valid.
Obama up a
system of government “Czars” in order to bypass congressional authority.
Forced churches
to accept objectionable practices at their medical institutions.
Has increased US
government debt at unsustainable rates and wasted stimulus funds.
Smuggled
thousands illegal firearms to Mexican drug cartels, resulting in murder of
200 Mexican citizens and at least 2 American citizens.
Keeps an
unpublished enemies list and has used drone strikes to kill three American
citizens (one of them 16- years- old) without due process.
Waged war in
Libya without Congressional input or approval. Aided Al-Qaeda and Muslim
Brotherhood with weapons and money in order to overthrow governments of
multiple sovereign Middle East nations.
Dictates
new law via abuse of executive orders (examples with immigration dream act
and gun control laws) bypassing congress, and uses executive departments
to enforce laws selectively.
Deserted the
American Ambassador to Libya and other Americans while they were under
attack and conducted cover-up of said action, failing to pursue perpetrators.
Enlisted IRS to
punish political enemies punitively with audits and other abuses.
Implemented
Obamacare which affixes a financial penalty on Americans who fail to
purchase health insurance in order to regulate behavior – regulatory
powers not granted in the Constitution.
"I'm seriously thinking about maybe giving another opportunity for you to vote for or against me in a few years from now. I'm seriously giving that a lot of thought."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told KFYI-AM in Phoenix on Tuesday that he's could run for another Senate term in 2016 - at 80 years old. McCain has never fallen below 56% of the vote and has been in office since 1983.
No doubt the Tea Party will be on the warpath against McCain who has outlived his usefulness with his harsh words for Senate conservatives who don't agree with him.
The budget standoff ended last week and the mainstream media
has labeled it a “defeat” for the GOP. Liberal media points to the Republicans’
“misguided strategy” to tie defunding Obamacare to the debt ceiling debate, ultimately
playing chicken with the Senate Democrats and daring them to shut down the government.
The game resulted in just that – a 16 -day shutdown courtesy of President Barack
Hussein Obama and Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Republican establishment folk and liberals alike
blamed their “less seasoned” colleagues for “holding the government hostage”
and forcing the House leadership to bow to their wishes.
The GOP establishment trotted out squishy
former Governor Jeb Bush for his elder statesman-like moderate viewpoint. Practically pleading for us all to get along during an interview for “This Week,” Bush encouraged
the GOP to come up with an alternative health insurance solution and “show some restraint” in their
negotiations. ABC’S John Karl asked Jeb Bush
about advice for Senator Ted Cruz and his efforts to repeal Obamacare. Bush said,
“So have a little bit of self-restraint. It might actually be a politically — a
better approach to see the massive dysfunction…And when we have these spikes of
political conversations that are not grounded in reality, the rest of the world
looks at us as untrustworthy.”
Meanwhile Senator Ted Cruz had this to say
to his critics like Bush during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash: “Some Republican gray beards in Washington who
make the point, ‘Let’s just let this collapse,' and then Republicans will
benefit. I profoundly disagree with their message…I want to step on their
message. Number one, I consider that
very…the ‘Bad Samaritan Theory.’ Basically inflict a bunch of harm on the
American people and hope we benefit politically from it. What a terrible, cynical
approach.”
The
New York Times gleefully quoted the irrelevant Richard
Viguerie: “It’s civil war in the G.O.P.,” said Viguerie, an 80-year-old conservative
who last supported Ron Paul in 2008.
The reality is that not ONE SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTED TO
PASS OBAMACARE. They all campaigned to repeal or defund the highly unpopular
law especially after Justice John Roberts became the swing vote to uphold the constitutionally
shaky legislation. Today, they are all apparently now for it despite the fact
that they used to be against it.
Meanwhile, tongues are wagging about the supposed rift
within the GOP – a war between establishment leaders versus the upstart
populist tea party extremists, but that is not the real issue. The real issue
is that majority of the American people who identify as Republicans are fed up
with the establishment. Resentment has percolated for quite some time starting
with George W. Bush’s legacy including a large Medicare drug coverage expansion,
proposed immigration reform and the emergency bailout in 2008. Conservatives
were already disillusioned in presidential elections in 2008 with the McCain
nomination and again in 2012 with the Romney nomination. The elections were lost
primarily because GOP folks stayed home or switched sides. The establishment
claims there is an absence of strategy on the Tea Party side while the Tea Party
focuses on the winning message of controlling government spending.
The anomaly was the Tea Party domination of the midterms
in 2010 resulted in historic Democrat losses across the board. The fact is that because of 2010, there is an established
precedent today of Tea Party candidates winning primaries against Republican
rivals with long-term corporate and lobbyist backing. Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks told The New York Times: “We’ve always been outspent by orders of
magnitude.”
So fast forward to October, 2013. The Republican Establishment
and liberal media have joined forces. The Republicans have FINALLY discovered
Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals (Obama’s blueprint for campaigning) and are
using Alinsky tactics to eat their young.
These Establishment Republicans who have fed from the
trough for decades patently reject the notion that if all forty-six Republican Senators had stood with Senator Ted
Cruz and Senator Mike Lee instead of trashing them, the political ramifications
would be very different– more like 2010. Obama and the Senate majority would
have been exposed for their hypocrisy, the Obamacare enrollment website would
have failed and Republicans would be considered prescient. What would be the
political fallout if they had actually done what the American people wanted and
stood their ground against Obamacare and the debt ceiling? - Victory.
Instead, Republicans opted to snatch defeat from the jaws
of victory. The final bill funded the government with a completely suspended
debt ceiling and created a bicameral budget super committee (which failed
before). Gallup, NBC and Wall Street Journal polls conducted after
the end of the shutdown noted that the GOP achieved its lowest favorability
rating since polling of this kind began.
The Republicans achieved very little with the public
infighting. Future battles will cause the Republican establishment to back down
quicker for fear they will be saddled with blame for shutdown threats during
debates – they have, in effect, lost their strong position they had after the
2010 election results. It also gave the Democrats the ability to lie to the low
information public that the GOP shutdown caused the problems with the Obamacare
sign -up. The only bright side to the Republican schism is that they held the
line on the sequestration number – spending limits are still at 2008 levels,
keeping the baseline low from which to negotiate a budget.
Republicans are actually suffering from a generational
battle - the Gen Xers versus the Baby Boomers. Boehner is 63; McConnell is 71; McCain
is 77; and Pete King is 69. Ted Cruz referring to the “gray beards” in the GOP during
his interview with CNN reflected this generational conflict. Senator Rand Paul
was born in the mid 1960s while Senators Cruz and Lee were born in 1970 and
1971 respectively.
Paul, Cruz and Lee are products of Generation X who see
the liberalism and excess of the Baby Boom generation as a negative. Feminism
did not have the net positive effects for women, the sexual revolution ushered
in the breakdown of the family, and liberalism promoted the growth and abusive power
of government over the individual.
Gen Xers lost 45% of their wealth during the Great
Recession of 2008 as their median net worth dropped to about $42,000 in 2010,
from $75,000 in 2007. Unlike Baby Boomers who profited during the dot com and
housing bubble booms, Gen Xers are facing insecure retirements and downward
mobility as they age. They are pissed off. Angered over government overreach and
spending, the mismanagement of our fiscal house, the ponzi scheme of our government
entitlements like Social Security, GenXers have had enough.
Paul, Cruz and Lee have capitalized on this undercurrent
of dissatisfaction, tapping into the psyche of Americans who are doomsday
prepping in record numbers. Establishment Republicans have underestimated the
power of this group. The results of the debt ceiling battle and government
shutdown combined with news of NSA spying and IRS targeting have angered this
sleeping giant – the Tea Party 35-50- year -olds who are out for blood. American
is a center right country and Obama’s 15 minutes is up. It will be up to the
new Generation, the Xers, to fight this battle. But the American people are on
their side despite what The New York
Times prints.
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