● WI Moms keeping "Made in America" alive.... ● Tax Contradictions: Obama says the economy needs a tax cut—and a tax increase.... ● Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3 million in back taxes last year... ● Another reason Obama and the Dems should have thought thing through before just passing reform bills.... ● Most Americans object to planned Islamic center near Ground Zero, poll finds... ● Political controversy over Islam tarnishes 9/11 anniversary: How quickly we forget.... ● Karzai seeks to limit role of U.S. corruption investigators like Obama and Ft. Hood... ● CBO Update... ● It's okay to burn US Flag but an Obama-nation to burn the Kornan... ● Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas...
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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'I’ll Say Anything To Get Elected'

Tax Contradictions: Obama says the economy needs a tax cut—and a tax increase.

September 9th, 2010 · Dissention, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Taxes

After 20 months and more than $1 trillion down the Keynesian drain, President Obama is discovering the virtue of tax cuts. Pass the smelling salts, we just fainted.

Yesterday the President proposed a $180 billion plan that includes a permanent research and development tax credit and a tax write-off for all business capital purchases in 2011. These are both sensible ideas that would counteract at least some of the damage from Mr. Obama’s looming tax increase. John McCain could sue for plagiarism because versions of both ideas were part of his 2008 campaign platform.

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The White House will deny it, but it’s important to understand what a conceptual switcheroo this is. Mr. Obama’s economic policies to date have been based on the belief that government can drive growth by handing out checks to consumers, who will then spend the money and increase what economists call aggregate demand. Missing was any attempt to spur incentives for business or individuals to invest and take more risks. Even if this policy reversal is motivated by election desperation, it is still a tacit admission of the failure of its growth model.

The biggest short-term boost would come from allowing business expensing of capital purchases—investment in new plant, equipment, computers, technology and so on—in a single year. Such spending is currently written off over three to 20 years depending on the industry and an estimate of how long that the asset’s value depreciates. But especially in our information age with its premium on human capital, it makes less sense to depreciate one type of investment at a faster rate than another.

Immediate expensing would provide a powerful incentive for businesses to spend some of that $2 trillion or so in retained earnings that they are now hoarding out of fear and uncertainty. Labor will also benefit because encouraging capital investment makes American workers more productive on the job, which is the catalyst for higher wages.

When President Bush allowed large and small businesses to write-off 50% of their capital expenditures as part of his 2003 tax cut, business spending on equipment and software rose to $1.06 trillion by the end of 2004 from $821 billion in mid-2002, a near 30% rise, according to tax economist Steve Entin. U.S. employment grew for 46 straight months, with almost eight million net new jobs created.

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Obama at it again: Spend more money before Dems no longer control Congress

September 8th, 2010 · Change of Power, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

Obama to unveil more stimulus, tax breaks for business

By Lori Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2010; 3:04 AM

President Obama will argue personally Wednesday against extending the Bush-era income tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest families even for a year or two, White House officials said Tuesday – a message aimed at wavering Democrats who have been swayed by arguments that the economy is too weak to raise anyone’s taxes.

In a speech scheduled for delivery Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, Obama will restate his long-held position that the nation cannot afford to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of families, White House officials said.

The officials added that Obama would not threaten to veto any compromise which extends the upper-bracket cuts, a position that has gained ground in recent weeks among moderates in both the House and Senate. But congressional sources said they were told to expect the president to try to stiffen Democratic spines in expectation of a showdown over income tax rates before the November midterm elections.

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Delusional Harry Reid Still Making Crazy Comments

September 7th, 2010 · Change of Power, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Dissention, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Unemployment

By Sharron Angle – Sep 07

In national interviews with both CNN and ABC News, Harry Reid once again appeared completely delusional in making claims that he had nothing to do with the economic downturn, despite being the most powerful Senator in Washington D.C.

With ABC News, Reid said: “You know that I had nothing to do with the massive foreclosures here. You know that I had nothing to do with these unemployment figures.”

Reid went on to say, “I think it is my job to create jobs and I’ve done my best.”

Remember, this is the same Harry Reid whose campaign slogan is, “No one can do more for Nevada.”

Harry Reid’s “best” has resulted in Nevada having the highest unemployment in the nation with a 14.3 percent jobless rate statewide and a 14.8 unemployment rate in Las Vegas.

That leads us to yet another outrageous claim from Majority Leader Reid. There are 194,943 people out of work in Nevada, and yet Harry Reid is making the claim that he’s created 3.5 million jobs. But the question is where, Sen. Reid? These jobs certainly are not in Nevada.

“Harry Reid is making crazy statements while claiming absolutely no responsibility for the economy and the jobless rate in his own state. Yet, by the same token, he wants credit for creating 3.5 million jobs somewhere else,” said Jarrod Agen, Communications Director for Sharron Angle. “Harry Reid needs to stop running from his failed record and start taking responsibility for what he’s done to destroy the Nevada economy. If the Senate Majority Leader has absolutely nothing to do with unemployment or the economy, why is Harry Reid always asking for credit for doing ‘more for Nevada?’”

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The Obama Economy: How trillions in fiscal and monetary stimulus produced a 1.6% recovery.

September 7th, 2010 · Accountability, Change of Power, Deception, Democrats, Dissention, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama Nominees, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Unemployment

So two months before an election, and 19 months after the mother of all spending programs, President Obama said yesterday he’s rolling out one more plan to stimulate the economy. We’ll discuss the details when they’re released, but the effort itself is a tacit admission that his earlier proposals have flopped. As the autumn economic debate gets underway, it’s important to understand how and why we got here.

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The recession preceded Mr. Obama’s Inaugural by 13 months, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, and so did the President’s fiscal policy ideas. George W. Bush got there first. In February 2008, he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed on a $168 billion combination of federal spending and temporary tax rebates that were supposed to maintain growth through the housing market decline that election year.

Larry Summers, who would later become Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, made the case for such a stimulus to boost domestic “demand” in late 2007. Any stimulus, he told the Brookings Institution, should be “timely, targeted and temporary.” Peter Orszag, then at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) before joining the Obama White House, made the same case.

The official GDP statistics did show a growth blip in the second quarter of 2008 to 0.6%, but third quarter GDP fell by 4%, and we all know what happened after the financial meltdown. Stimulus I failed.

Enter Stimulus II, the $814 billion plan that was also supposed to make up for lost private demand. It too was a combination of one-time tax rebates and spending, mostly on social programs like Medicaid rather than on “shovel-ready projects.” Mr. Summers promised this would have a 1.5 “multiplier” effect on GDP growth, and White House economists Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein famously predicted the spending would keep the jobless rate below 8%.

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Unemployment rate rises to 9.6 pct

September 7th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Treason, Unemployment

The Associated Press
Friday, September 3, 2010; 5:41 PM

– UNEMPLOYMENT RISES: The unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent in August from 9.5 percent, as the nation lost 54,000 jobs. Private employers added a net total of 67,000 workers, but 114,000 temporary census jobs ended.

9 PERCENT PLUS: Job creation by private companies is too weak to reduce the unemployment rate anytime soon. Unemployment has been 9 percent or higher for 16 months, nearing the record of 19 months, set during the 1982 recession and recovery.

ANEMIC ECONOMY: Without more job growth, personal incomes won’t grow by much. That will limit consumer spending, which fuels 70 percent of the economy.

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Obama’s economic team considering new stimulus package

September 2nd, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

White House considering major tax breaks for businesses, sources say

By Lori Montgomery – Thursday, September 2, 2010; 5:33 PM

With the recovery faltering less than two months before the November congressional elections, President Obama’s economic team is considering another big dose of stimulus in the form of tax breaks for businesses – potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Among the options are a temporary payroll tax holiday and a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit, say people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to describe private deliberations.

Permanently extending the research credit would cost roughly $100 billion over the next decade, tax experts said. And depending on its form and duration, a payroll tax holiday could let businesses keep more than $300 billion they would otherwise owe the Treasury.

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U.S. troop deaths in Afghan war up sharply

September 1st, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Foreign Policy, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Selling Out the US, Treason, War on Terrorism

By David Nakamura Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

KABUL – Twenty-two American troops have been killed in Afghanistan over the past five days, a spike that follows record-high death tolls for U.S. forces in June and July.

Five of the troops were slain Tuesday, including four who were killed by two improvised bombs in the east and one who died in an insurgent attack in the south, according to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The deaths brought the number of U.S. troops killed in August to 55, according a count by the Associated Press – significantly fewer than the 66 who died last month and 60 in June. Roadside bombs along military routes have been responsible for most of the deaths, as international forces penetrate deeper into areas controlled by Taliban insurgents.

Also Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on a bus in Kabul carrying employees of the Afghan Supreme Court, killing three and wounding several others, ISAF officials said.

Asked by The Washington Post about the jump in U.S. deaths in recent days, James Judge, an ISAF spokesman, responded via e-mail: “Historically, August usually yields somewhat higher numbers as it tends to be the insurgents’ last push before the winter months. With elections coming up, the numbers may remain somewhat elevated through September. Additionally, the troop surge has increased troop totals to approximately 147,000. With these additional forces, we are actively pursuing the enemy in areas traditionally held by insurgents.”

Judge noted that despite the bloodshed of the past few days, “overall for August, deaths due to IEDs are well under last year’s figures.”

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Obama speech on Iraq carries some pitfalls

September 1st, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Democrats, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Greed, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

President Obama is promoting the decision to end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday as a fulfillment of his campaign promise to draw the war to a close. But some of the president’s detractors are using the same moment to question the wisdom of doing so – noting that Iraq is still afflicted with violence and has yet to form a government.

Obama will mark the occasion by flying to Fort Bliss, Tex., to meet with veterans. He will also deliver a prime-time Oval Office speech – only his second since taking office. On Monday, the president visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center and awarded 11 Purple Hearts to combat veterans. Vice President Biden traveled to Iraq to amplify the message.

“Maybe he’s entitled to the partial victory lap, but this is not the right moment for it,” said analyst Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, who has been critical of both Democratic and Republican approaches to the war. “If I were him, I’d wait until we have an Iraqi government, and do it with the Iraqis together.”

O’Hanlon said he was “confused about the planned Oval Office speech.” It could raise unrealistic expectations among the public about the chances for calm in Iraq, he said. And the timing of the pullout of combat troops may be seen as having more to do with the president’s political needs than with real signs of progress on the ground.

White House officials said the speech, scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and last 15 to 20 minutes, would acknowledge this week’s deadline as a “milestone” and pay tribute to the 1.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq since 2003. Obama will address shifting U.S. options now that the country is no longer technically at war in Iraq, including a greater emphasis on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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Obama and the Democrat’s Social Security Bait and Switch

August 31st, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Social Security, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Unemployment

Associated Press

‘Harry, am I making this up?’ Yes, Mr. President, you are.

Democrats are trying to keep control of Congress by scaring the wig off grandma with a phantom GOP plot against Social Security. That is not news. Social Security scare tactics have been regular campaign themes since FDR. President Obama’s unique contribution is to do this even as he’s begging Republicans to help him reduce the deficit and reform entitlement spending.

On the one hand, Mr. Obama has charged his deficit commission with crafting a bipartisan plan to restrain entitlements. “Everything’s on the table. That’s how this thing’s going to work,” he said when he created the commission in February. “We now have to, in a gradual way, reduce spending, particularly on those big ticket items” like Social Security, he later added in Racine, Wisconsin. “That’s going to be our project for the next couple years.”

Yet even as Mr. Obama beseeches Republicans, he and his political allies are playing the Social Security card for all it’s worth in this campaign season. This has all the earmarks of a political bait and switch designed to ambush Republicans if they’re gullible enough to believe his bipartisan pleas.

Mr. Obama personally teed up the campaign theme earlier this month when he celebrated Social Security’s 75th anniversary by claiming that “privatizing Social Security” is “a key part” of the Republican “legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress this fall.” He went on to say that this plan, which does not in fact exist, is “wrong for America” and “I’ll fight with everything I’ve got to stop those who would gamble your Social Security on Wall Street. Because you shouldn’t be worried that a sudden downturn in the stock market will put all you’ve worked so hard for—all you’ve earned—at risk.”

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The Folly of Subsidizing Unemployment

August 30th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Democrats, Federal Spending, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treason, Unemployment

My calculations suggest the jobless rate could be as low as 6.8%, instead of 9.5%, if jobless benefits hadn’t been extended to 99 weeks.

By Robert Barro

Congressman John Boehner recently suggested that President Obama replace his top economic advisers. I think he may have a point. The economic “recovery” has been disappointing, to put it mildly, and it has become increasingly clear that the blame lies with the policies of the Obama administration, not with those of its predecessor.

In general, the current administration has been too focused on expanding government, redistributing more from rich to poor, and stimulating aggregate demand. I have previously criticized the stimulus package as cost-ineffective. In particular, whatever tax reductions were in the package did not involve the cuts in marginal income tax rates that encourage investment, work effort and productivity growth.

Now the administration wants to kill the 2003 income-tax cuts, at least the parts that reduced marginal income tax rates for high-income earners and for all recipients of dividend income. This proposal is particularly disturbing because the 2003 law was George W. Bush’s main economic achievement; unlike most of Mr. Bush’s policies, this one was well-conceived and effective.

I want to focus here on another dimension of the Obama administration’s policies: the expansion of unemployment-insurance eligibility to as much as 99 weeks from the standard 26 weeks.

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