The First Lady Pinches Pennies Too!

The First Lady Pinches Pennies Too!

The current administration risks offending the sensibilities of ordinary Americans with this coordinated stunt. I wonder how much it cost the secret service to prep this Target for these campaign shots?

Biden's Boost to Republicans

http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/29/biden-voters-should-blame-obama-not-bush-for-economy/

THE REAL REASON CHRIS CHRISTIE WON'T RUN FOR PRESIDENT!

In each Republican election, the candidates vie for the title of being Ronald Reagan's namesake. Each candidate usually tries to promote the portions of their personal narratives that parallel Reagan's rise. "I (insert candidates name here), like Reagan, took acting classes"......."I, like Reagan, married a woman"! The level of hero-worship is intriguing but it is also damaging because no one can ever live up to the mythology of the man (Reagan). But each election, brings forth a new crop of candidates claiming to wear his mantle and the legacy always seems to settle on one candidate. In the last Presidential election, George W. Bush's supporters claimed that he too was the next reincarnation of The Gipper. Eventually, GOP voters always come to realize that the "New Reagan" isn't as great as the original version. This years "reluctant" nominee-for the mantle of Reagan is Chris Christie-who has been screaming as loudly as he can, that he doesn't want the Job. Republicans have seemed dumbfounded-afterall, who wouldn't want to be President?

I think that there is a very simple reason Chris Christie doesn't want the job-right now; Why would he take the Presidency now, with everything that is going wrong? I have long stated that the incredible collapse of our economy, created by the failure of government, created a situation that could not be resolved for several years. The truth is that no matter what policies President Obama implemented, this problem was so large and catastrophic that it was always destined to consume most, if not all of the first four years of ANY President. It will likely take a few more years before this nation's economy is fully restored and any President in the interim will be literally bombarded with the attacks of his enemies. The nation will unfortunately blame anyone in the oval office and will likely label them a failure, until the country is healthy, once again. And this is why Chris Christie doesn't want the job. This is why no serious republican wants to be president, right now.

The list of candidates that have refused to run, is almost as long as the list of candidates running (and its also a more credible list). Haley Barbour-the universally respected governor of Tennessee has always been regarded as the best and brightest of the old south. But, he is out! Mitch Daniels the consummate no nonsense republican was sure to run, but he too walked away from the podium; and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas has decided to keep hosting his tv show. All of them, including Chris Christie and Sarah Palin are running as far from the seat of power as possible! I would argue that two things have deterred these candidates; and Chief among those deterrents is the current political climate. Almost all of the truly credible candidates are guilty of being moderates at some point in their respective tenures. None of them are anxious to step out on stage and be "Perried", which I define as "being lauded as a conservative in the outset of an election, only to have the same conservative base that asked you to run, turn on you like a pack of ravenous unfed pack-animals". The second deterrent is that these candidates understand what we, in the media are afraid to admit; They understand that this economy was always going to take four years to heal and President Obama has likely done all that he can to make it heal. He has done all that anyone can to turn this ship around and no amount of GOP proposed tax cuts could ever have produced a different result. The truth is that republicans don't have any answers that they seriously believe would have made this recovery occur at a faster rate. On camera, they will of-course say very different things but they don't even believe that they could have done a better job. I would argue that the recession was a major blow to republican economic orthodoxy, after all we followed their policies for 8 years and we still ended up in recession. The collapse forced republicans to stumble and loose faith in their own ideas! In reality, republicans know that economies heal, but the process takes time. We endured the worst collapse since the Great Depression. Despite their constant attacks on the President as a failure, reasonable republicans know that this was never something that could have been done inside of a year (or 9 months as Michele Bachman claims). They also know that despite the childish antics and mindless partisan snyping of both sides, this country is recovering but there is still a tremendous mess to clean up.

The crop of "could have been" candidates have just concluded that they should let Obama finish cleaning up the mess that was made before he arrived in Washington. The next President will surely have a much easier time leading this nation. In order to truly repair this country, Obama will have to make some of the toughest decisions of any President and it seems that Obama- the eternal optimist, is actually willing to make all of those hard decisions (entitlement reform). He has already offered to reform social security on multiple occasions and he even offered a grand bargain that would have included Medicare reform. These reforms are critical changes but any sane, career conscious politician will be hesitant to approach them. I am not attacking these "would be" candidates or suggesting anything negative about their character. It is entirely normal and understandable, for a politician. Why face the wrath and ridicule of angry voters in both parties, when you can simply let someone else be "the bad guy". The current political climate hasn't rewarded any politician, willing to challenge his or her own base constituency. But Obama seems almost enthusiastic to try; it seems he senses the "fierce urgency"- of our current condition. By the time 2016 comes around, all of the really hard lifting will have already been done, and Chris Christie and all of the others can run for the Presidency of a much improved nation, in a much healthier political environment.

TRIED AND FAILED: Gutting The Government, Cutting Spending and Decapitating Deficits: Does Austerity Work?

In the United States, our discussion on economics has circled around a single dominating philosophy called Austerity. The Republicans have demanded that we immediately reduce our spending, and attack our deficit. They have argued that the deficit is weighing down our economy and that the only way to dig ourselves out of the economic whole we are in, is to reduce spending immediately. Their demands for cuts have become so ravenous that Eric Cantor, the House Minority Whip, recently suggested that we withhold emergency funds for recent hurricane victims until we cut those funds from other lines of the federal budget. The philosophy actually makes sense, on an intuitive level. Our country is in debt. Its natural that we would want to get out of debt. The notion that cutting back and reducing debt is the path to success is so intuitive, that it has become the dominant economic strategy throughout Europe and in the UK, in particular. But recent observers have noted that Austerity hasn't worked very well for the UK. In fact, many are starting to question the conventional wisdom entirely.

Reuters reported that Bill Gross, the manager of PIMCO, the world's largest bond holder, recently stated that the UK is risking another recession as a result of their austerity measures.

He recommended a "mid-course correction" that he says could lift the UK economy. "The economy in the UK is WORSE OFF than it was when the plan was developed, so there should be at a minimum fine-tuning and perhaps re-routing of the plan". He then suggested that a similar readjustment needs to take place in the United States. The new International Monitary Fund Chief, Christine Lagarde has suggested that the world's economy is entering a "dangerous phase"She says that weak balance sheets and poor growth are "feeding negatively on one another". She went on stating that "This vicious cycle is gaining momentum, and frankly, it has been exacerbated by policy indecision and political dysfunction" (I wonder who she is talking about......U.S.). She capped it all off with, "Exactly three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the economic skies look troubled and turbulent as global activity slows and downside risks increase". As the U.S. plots its course ahead, it is useful to look at the results or lack thereof, that other nations are experiencing. Few nations have testified to the gospel of austerity, as sincerely as the UK. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has sworn an eternal oath to decapitating the british debt and in this battle, austerity has been his primary weapon. But the british economy has not thrived and as a result, a growing chorus of voices is insisting on a new direction, away from what have been perceived to be failing policies.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that unemployment in the UK, has risen at it's fastest pace in the last two years. The government had been banking on private sector jobs and the absorption capacity of the private market. The government, filled with blind faith, slashed 111,000 workers in the second quarter and plans on dropping 310,000 workers from the public sector. This strategy is similar to the course demanded by the Right in America. The british ideals are perfectly representative of the U.S. efforts. They believed, as we do that sincere efforts at curbing debt would result in growing confidence in the fiscal accountability of our respective nations and would also result in confidence in the private sector. But in the UK, for every two jobs cut in the public sector, LESS THEN one job was created in the private sector. These facts have led to a raucous debate about the effectiveness of UK austerity measures and perhaps should lead the U.S. to question whether or not we are on the right path.

Is the Right Wing of America, leading us down a path of tried and failed policies, based on a blind faith in a private sector ideal that does not exist-and never has existed? Even the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, is starting to turn. He has announced a round of infrastructure spending. The economic situations of the UK and the U.S. are like mirror images, or more accurately, the UK has seemed like a window into our future. Our own President has proposed a new round of infrastructure spending and the GOP is unsurprisingly, opposed! Will we head down the same road as the UK, of austerity and a decline in public sector employment, only to see the same results? Will we find ourselves frantically scrambling for new strategies, a few months from now?Or will we experience a totally different result? Will we be the one place in the world, where Austerity is actually working?

I Don't know----what do you think, Spectrum Family?

HOW MUCH OF THE MONEY I EARN, DO I DESERVE TO KEEP: A Democratic Response

HOW MUCH OF THE MONEY I EARN, DO YOU THINK I DESERVE TO KEEP? This was the question posed by a 17 year old young man, at the CNN/ TEA PARTY EXPRESS Debate; and ever since it was asked, Republican pundits have been anxious to ambush the first democrat they can come across, with it. We must admit, that the GOP has a way with words. They have mastered the art of oversimplification; They have an economic philosophy that can fit on a napkin-"Tax Cuts For The Wealthy, Produce Jobs and Growth". And When asked why we have to give tax cuts to the wealthy? They respond with "You Have Never Gotten A Job From A Poor Person"; Their is even enough room left on that napkin, for their foreign policy-"Peace Through Strength". Before The Iraq war, the bedeviled democrats, opposed to the war with, "Doesn't Everyone Deserve Freedom. Why Don't You Believe That People In The Middle East Are Capable of Handling Democracy?" And When Democrats point out that the current deficit Republicans rage about, was built by the Republicans themselves, they respond with the tried and poll tested phrase, "Blame Bushing", which manages to be childish and disarming all at once. Yep, Republicans have a way with words, and this question is no different; Talk radio has already produced another generation of Republicans adept at developing questions that manage to paint any respondent as an evil socialist, Son of Lenin! "How Much of The Money I Earn, Do I Deserve To Keep? It's a question perfectly designed to solicit the kind of absurd responses that some have come to demand of elected officials. And far too many politicians have lowered themselves to simply telling their audiences whatever they would like to hear. "How Much of The Money I Earn, Do I Deserve To Keep?" "ALL OF IT! IT'S YOUR MONEY! YOU EARNED IT!" This is the only response that won't get you booed offstage and the perfectly phrased question allows the pandering pols to tell voters precisely what they think we want to hear, which is that we shouldn't have to pay taxes at all. And the media allows the absurd implication to fly by unchallenged.

So What Is The Best Answer to This? How Can We Stop the cycle of ridiculous promises and insipidly shallow debate? We tell the truth: How Much of Your Money Do You Deserve To Keep?

"You Deserve to keep all of your money. You Also Deserve to not be taxed at a higher rate then the average billionaire. The Most Unfair aspect of our current tax system, is that we expect Secretaries, Carpenters, Teachers, and Cops to pay more of their paychecks in taxes then we demand of any billionaire hedge fund manager. And we need to ask the GOP WHY THEY BELIEVE THAT YOU DESERVE TO BE TAXED AT A HIGHER RATE THEN MILLIONAIRES!"

This is the best answer, in a quick pinch. Now if we have more time to talk we should expand on this. What is interesting about this question is that it came from a 17 year old. Now hopefully, this young man hasn't been listening to Glenn Beck, who has been telling his listeners that college aint for everybody. And that some people need to simply not take out the debt, to go to college. Hopefully this young fellow, wants to go to college, but if he does, it probably means he has filled out a FAFSA. He is probably seeking federally secured loans. He may be going to a publicly funded university or he will most certainly be attending a private college that receives grants for everything from research to faculty. Just like Michele Bachman, Joe Miller, Rand Paul and virtually every Republican, our nation and all of its citizens need services that only a centralized government can provide. No company is eager to build a highway for little to no money out of your pocket, and you can't pay for streets as individuals. The public school this young man likely attended can't be funded individually. In fact if he or his parents tried to pay for the services they received at that public school, they would likely go into bankruptcy. We live in the best America that has ever been and most of the things we enjoy: THE INTERNET, DIGITAL CABLE: FROZEN DINNERS; ROADS, SCHOOLS, THE BUSES PEOPLE TAKE UNTIL THEY CAN AFFORD CARS, POLICE DEPARTMENTS, FIRE DEPARTMENTS: All of those require that we pay taxes. So the Extended Answer to this young man's question is:

You Deserve to keep all of your money. You Also Deserve to not be taxed at a higher rate then the average billionaire. The Most Unfair aspect of our current tax system, is that we expect Secretaries, Carpenters, Teachers, and Cops to pay more of their paychecks in taxes then we demand of any billionaire hedge fund manager. And we need to ask the GOP WHY THEY BELIEVE THAT YOU DESERVE TO BE TAXED AT A HIGHER RATE THEN MILLIONAIRES----but anyone saying you shouldn't have to pay any taxes is lying to you. ---You deserve to keep all of your money, but you also have to pay taxes for the services you want and need-that way the things you need in life, like your education, the roads you drive on, the police that protect you and the healthcare that your grandparents need today and that you will need tomorrow-you pay taxes so that those things are actually affordable. We know what life was like without Social Security, the suffering of the elderly without Medicare; We know what life was like before those programs and YOU WOULDN'T EVER WANT TO LIVE IN THAT AMERICA! Don't let the Republicans con you into believing that we don't need to pay taxes, thats an empty promise-and don't let them get away with taxing you more then they tax the rich. YOU DON'T DESERVE THAT!

You know, 95% of Americans utilize some kind of Government Backed Agencies to purchase their homes. Ever since 1938, the American Dream became affordable for millions of americans. In fact, what we call the American Dream became a reality through the programs the GOP now opposes. Now, I'm sure that 95% of americans includes that young man's parents; it certainly includes Michele Bachman!

The GOP Would have people believe that if we do anything together; if we work together in any way; if we are, at all concerned about each other, THEY CALL THAT SOCIALISM. Its not socialism and if your in that 95% of Americans, if you have ever attended a public school, or called a police officer, or driven on a highway-the republicans are calling YOU a communist. They are trying to make you feel ashamed-but the reality is that none of them got through life without the services they now oppose! We need to work together as a country and when we do, healthcare becomes affordable-safe neighborhoods become possible-and education becomes accessible to all!

Now, all of that won't quite fit on a napkin, but it will fit in a 30second -1 minute response time.

EMPLOYERS RAISE DOUBTS ABOUT OBAMA JOBS PLAN

The New York Times Has An Interesting Analysis of The Potential Doubts Raised By Employers Themselves About The Obama Jobs Bill. Many Say, It Simply Won't Work. Is The Obama Plan The Right Plan, or Is It More Of The Same and Destined To Fail? Read The New York Times Article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/economy/in-the-real-world-will-the-jobs-plan-make-a-difference.html?_r=1&hp

Obama’s ‘Groundhog Day’ Speech

It’s a scene that has been created for his throng of adoring fans in times past. Not so long ago the great oracle of reverberating platitudes was expertly placed betwixt Corinthian columns admonishing America to look past his lack of experience and loathing of country and focus on how fabulously he delivers a speech with love from a teleprompter. It was classic Barack Obama. He was in fine form. A speech laced with the honeyed banalities that famously hypnotized the willing like the head of Medusa on Athena’s shield. Entertaining and replete with goose bumps like the tingle up Chris Matthews’ leg, Obama’s speech was vintage in its charm and magnetism. He even made me, one who knows not to look into Medusa’s eyes, feel and not just hear his words. We want to believe him. We hope we can believe him. That is until one realizes that this is political Groundhog Day.

What Obama offered was nothing imaginative or new and certainly not outside of his comfort zone. He proposes that we spend more money to create jobs (wink, wink) and that every penny spent will be paid for entirely (wink). Thankfully, I have not lost my mind, nor have the majority of the American people. He has tried most of this in some measure and has made sure to offset it all with astronomical spending. In short the American Jobs Act, promises long, but only shortly delivers. A lynch pin of the act, is the cuts in payroll taxes. This will gut funding for Social Security and Medicaid. For all the talk of Republicans wanting to throw grannies off of the cliff earlier in the summer, this is the ultimate send off. The $4,000 tax credit for new hires who have spent more than six months looking for a job, a tax cut for new hires and a tax cut for those business who increase wages does not an economy grow. What difference does this all make if no one is hiring? If this all sounds vaguely familiar do not adjust your computer screen or hit the refresh button, it is because it has all been foisted on businesses before. Last year the President embarrassed himself by blaming businesses for not hiring after he had so wisely told them that they were free to do so because of his tax credits and tax cuts for expansion.

Let me jog your memory. It was called the HIRE Act signed into law by Obama in March of 2010. CBS described it as such:

The bill mandates that payroll taxes will be forgiven for businesses that hire someone who has been unemployed for at least two months;

It will permit small businesses to write off investments they make in equipment this year;

It will reform municipal bonds to expand investment in schools and clean energy;

And it will continue roadway infrastructure investment into the spring and summer, when, the president said, construction jobs pick up.

These cuts in payroll taxes and tax credits do not solve the problem of high unemployment in this country because it does not address the reason for the nationwide hiring freeze. In short, high unemployment is a side effect of a slow down in a nation’s economy. Businesses look for the stability of maintaining their workforce and forego the risk of adding to their rosters thereby increasing expenses. These recessions are cyclical and when left to heal itself, exemplified in the crash of ’21, the market will correct itself and quickly. However, when the government takes this as an opportunity to never “let a crisis go to waste”, you will see the crash of ‘29, but you will get the deep recession and subsequent depression that followed engineered by the good, sometimes even nefarious, intentions of bureaucrats and their interests.

In addition to creating more jobs, according to President Obama, this bill will fix our roads and bridges along with various other forms of infrastructure, fix our schools, put all of our teachers back to work, veterans will be hired, unemployment insurance extended, construction increased, cuts in government spending, reduction of the deficit, and the discovery of unicorns while confirming Darwin’s theory of evolution with fossil evidence. (I might have added the last two, but if he could promise the world I figured a few more addendums for my own amusement can’t hurt.) All this on the heels of Obama giving Solyndra Inc, a solar panels manufacturer in California, over $535 million in federal stimulus loan guarantees in 2010. This same company has since declared bankruptcy and as of September 8, 2011 is being investigated by the FBI. This president gave away $535 million dollars of taxpayer money to a clean energy initiative, per the HIRE Act, and ended up losing jobs and an enormous amount of public money! Obama said several times during this speech that it was all just “simple math.” Well, I say that someone should give this president a calculator and gift him with a tax credit if he uses it.

R.L. Ward