ILLINOIS POLITICS HAVE GONE NATIONAL

Another writer has decided that what President Obama learned in Chicago he has taken to the White House. PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY writes in Investors Business Daily (IBD) Illinois Failures Go Nationwide Under Obama that President Obama has taken the failure of the financial policies to a National Level.

'Unsustainable" is a scary word that recently entered political discourse, coming authoritatively from Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf. Unsustainability is the operative moniker for Barack Obama's massive deficit spending, which Elmendorf said "cannot be solved through minor tinkering."

Massive Deficit Spending, in other words spending much more than income over a period of time. How much is illustrated by this statement.

The CBO predicts an increase in our public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if Obama's fiscal 2011 budget is implemented. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the debt will rise to 90% from 53%.

By the end of 2020 our current fiscal policy will almost double the National Debt in 11 years. By 2020 we will be spending 9 cents for every 10 cents of National Gross Product. This is the path of Greece. And it is ludicrous to think that the richest country in the world will be financially unable to sustain itself by 2020.

So what will be necessary to avoid this fate?

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., sharpened the focus by asking the CBO director: "What's going to be necessary (is) either a 25% increase in taxes or a 20% reduction in spending, or some combination thereof. Is that correct?" Elmendorf replied "yes."

A 25% increase in TAXES is one choice. Think you are paying too much in Taxes now? Consider what a 25% increase would do to your family.

There is another problem with a tax increase. Once Congress gets its hands on more revenue, they find another way to spend it. Politicians don't like to give up money. On the other hand, this madness of Spend, Spend, Spend and let someone else pay for it has to stop. It must stop before we are bankrupt.

For an example of where we are headed, lets look at where Obama came from.

Illinois was the stomping ground for years for Obama, his top advisers Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, and his appointees such as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. After they promoted themselves to Washington to run the country, other Obama associates who didn't make the cut continued to run Illinois into the ground, as the Illinois unemployment rate jumped from less than 5% to nearly 11%.

Illinois is now projected to be in a worse financial condition than California. Want proof?

Under years of Democratic leadership, Illinois has refused to honor its obligations, cut spending or trim its shockingly large deficit, which at $12 billion per year approaches nearly half its budget. As a result, Illinois' credit rating has been downgraded and it pays a massive amount in interest on its loans.

Unemployment is nearly 10% at present. Actually it is much higher. The only reason the "Official Unemployment Figure" is 9.5% is the Government has stopped counting those who have given up looking for a job. Business owners are not hiring because of the cost of doing business is uncertain. Taxes are going up. Health Insurance Tax, Business Taxes, Estate Taxes and Income Taxes are going up, but nobody knows how much. In this unsettling financial climate, employers cannot afford to hire new people.

The challenge for all of us who vote is to elect the people who will create jobs. The jobs will be created by balancing the budget and reducing the size of Government.

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS BEING DISINGENUOUS

Obama to GOP: Restore Jobless Benefits contains a video link and some of the text of President Obama's address today. It is rather shameful that he is playing partisan politics and name calling.

On Monday, he sought to cast his Republican opponents as hypocritical for having voted for extensions of unemployment benefits when his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush, was in the White House, but not now. He accused Republican leaders of subscribing to what he called a misguided notion that providing unemployment aid to people lowers their incentive to look hard for a job.

However, the following quote is the most disingenuous, misleading, misrepresentation of the facts.

"That attitude, I think, reflects a lack of faith in the American people," Obama said. [Emphasis Mine]

Our President should be a positive influence, not practicing what can only be called highly partisan remarks. Obama knows and Harry Reid knows that an alternative Republican proposal is on the table which would allow passage of extended Unemployment Benefits. The only question is how do we pay for the $34 cost of the extension.

Update:
Offshore drilling moratorium affects everyone to the tune of 12,046 Jobs lost. That's directly due to President Obama's Moratorium on Offshore Drilling in The Gulf of Mexico.

TARP Audit Questions Rush to Close Auto Dealers shows that when the Obama Administration chose to cancel the contract of GM and Chrysler dealerships this move cost 10s of thousands of jobs.

WE CANNOT AFFORD IT

The Senate Liberals and President Obama want to extend Unemployment Benefits. Senate Conservatives want to extend Unemployment Benefits. $34 Billion is the cost to extend these benefits. The question is simple. Can we afford to add $34 Billion to the National Debt? Senate Liberals say sure. Senate Conservatives say no.

The current National Debt is slightly over $13 Trillion. However, we have another unseen component of our true National Debt. The $13 Trillion does not include unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicare Parts A, B and D. Financial analyst Ricardo Smith says our Unfunded Debt is slightly over $100 Trillion. (Details here What is the Total Unfunded Liability of the US Government?) Therefore the true measure of our debt is the sum of the parts. This totals a whopping $100 Trillion, plus the $13 Trillion. In short our National Credit card bill is a little over $113 Trillion.

Can we afford to continue to spend and promise more than we have? Sure, but the bottom line is the same for the Federal Government as it would be for you. Bankruptcy.

So the real questions should be, Can we afford Bankruptcy? Can we afford to spend our Children's and Grand-children's Inheritance? The answer to both questions should be a resounding NO!

Despite all the Political posturing by President Obama, Democrats in the Senate and the other Liberal talking heads, the Republican Conservatives in the Senate have offered a solution. Passage of extended unemployment benefits would be assured IF the Democrats in the Senate would agree to use unspent Stimulus Monies.

WHY CAN'T WE HAVE BOTH?

The Liberal members of Congress (mostly Democrats) and President Obama say the Conservatives members of Congress (mostly Republicans) are blocking passage of Legislation to extend Unemployment Benefits. Obama slams GOP for obstructing economic progress. In truth it is politics that is blocking this extension.

The Liberals want to extend the benefits at the expense of increasing the Federal Debt. The Conservatives want the extended benefits to be approved without increasing the Federal Debt. Conservatives say this can be done by using some of the unspent Stimulus Money. Liberals don't want to do that.

Again, each side is trying to paint the other as the bad guy. However, since the Stimulus is not working, why not put those funds to use? That way we can have both!

JEB BUSH IN 2012

Jeb Bush Biggest Threat to Obama in 2012 according to Top Democratic Strategist, Simon Rosenberg is Jeb Bush!

At a recent lunch at the headquarters of the New Democrat Network, a non-profit group founded by Rosenberg, the former Bill Clinton adviser said, "Jeb is married to a Latina, is fluent in Spanish, speaks on Univision as a commentator — his Spanish is that good.

Obama may have a hard time getting the Hispanic Vote if Jeb decides to run. At this time the Hispanic Vote appears to be what could decide the next Presidential Election.

Interesting, but 2012 is a long way off.

MEET THE NEW (LARGER) IRS

Along with admitting that the National Health Care Insurance is a TAX (see my previous post, Nat'l Health INS A TAX) , the IRS is now complaining that there are not enough IRS employees and not enough allocated monies for the required work the IRS must now do to comply with ObamaCare. Lost in Taxation is from the on-line version of the "Wall Street Journal".

[W]ith ObamaCare, the agency is now responsible for "the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history." And without "sufficient funding" it won't be able to discharge these new duties.

Nina Olson is the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate.

Ms. Olson also exposed a damaging provision that she estimates will hit some 30 million sole proprietorships and subchapter S corporations, two million farms and one million charities and other tax-exempt organizations. Prior to ObamaCare, businesses only had to tell the IRS the value of services they purchase. But starting in 2013 they will also have to report the value of goods they buy from a single vendor that total more than $600 annually—including office supplies and the like.

.Not only will the size of the IRS and its Budget increase, the burdens placed on these 33 million business, farms and charities will be a job killer.

Ms. Olson says that the tracking costs for small businesses will be "disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance."

With fewer dollars of profit due to additional expenses of compliance, fewer jobs will be created or saved.

If the unintended consequences of National Health Care are not already enough, here is another unintended consequence.

Meanwhile, the IRS will be inundated with useless information, because without a huge upgrade its information systems won't be able to manage and track the nanodetails.

Summary, National Health Care Insurance is a TAX. A TAX on everyone (not just the rich), which will cost more and kill jobs (except at the IRS).

NAT'L HEALTH INS A TAX!

Another campaign promise President Obama has broken. Details in this "New York Times" article Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax. The reason the Obama Justice Department has decided to admit National Health Care is a Tax is simple. Twenty states have challenged the right of the Government to require National Health Insurance under the "Commerce Clause" of the Constitution, and they were going to loose. But calling it a Tax (which we all knew it was all along) makes for a stronger argument.

[I]n court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

So much for keeping Campaign promises. Here is the crux of the matter.

Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said. For more than a century, it added, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can tax activities that it could not reach by using its power to regulate commerce.

Now this presents a real problem for the Democrats and especially for President Obama. Remember this statement by President Obama?

“For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” the president said last September, in a spirited exchange with George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program “This Week.”

When Mr. Stephanopoulos said the penalty appeared to fit the dictionary definition of a tax, Mr. Obama replied, “I absolutely reject that notion.”

Congress took a large step with the language of the Health Care Bill to insure we would be convinced that this was not a tax. Look at the following language in the provisions of the legislation.

Congress anticipated a constitutional challenge to the individual mandate. Accordingly, the law includes 10 detailed findings meant to show that the mandate regulates commercial activity important to the nation’s economy.

Congress discounted the possibility and knew the public would not like a tax on anyone except the rich - those making over $250,000.00 per year. Now that the Obama Administration through the Justice Department have decided to defend National Health Care as a TAX (something Obama did not want to do), we all have confirmed what we knew in our hearts. National Health Care is a Tax on everyone, just like Cap and Trade will be if passed.

The Democrats, including President Obama, have been dishonest about what National Health Insurance is.

Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School who supports the new law, said, “The tax argument is the strongest argument for upholding” the individual-coverage requirement.

Mr. Obama "has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill,” Mr. Balkin said last month at a meeting of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization. “This bill is a tax." [Emphasis Mine]

If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck...

OUT OF TOUCH WITH US

President Obama and Family (including Bo the family dog) are on vacation in Maine. Spending Tax Dollars while the Gulf Coast drowns in Oil. Everybody needs a vacation and the President is never really on vacation, but read this article from the Kennebec (Maine) Journal. First day full of sightseeing

Arriving in a small jet prior to the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.; and the president's personal aide Reggie Love, who chatted with [Karen] Baldacci (Gov. John Baldacci's wife).

Yes, that's correct First Dog Bo flew in his own plane separate from President Obama's Air Force One.

Earlier Friday, the Obama family was greeted by Gov. John Baldacci and U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-2nd District, when they arrived in Trenton at about 12:25 p.m.

The early-morning fog quickly burned off and the sky was bright blue for the arrival of Air Force One, which in this case was a G3 Gulf Stream.

Trenton Airport runways are too small for the normal 747 used as Air Force One. However, the entourage is described like this.

Air traffic at the small Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton was shut down for the presidential arrival. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter patrolled the air in anticipation of the first family's touchdown and a pair of local fire rescue trucks manned an otherwise empty tarmac at the private air hangar.

The Obamas then traveled onto Mount Desert Island in a motorcade of at least 16 vehicles. It was led by two Maine State Trooper cars and included five black Chevrolet Suburbans.

Well at least they used G(overnment) M(otors) Chevrolets.

After checking into their Hotel.

Continuing their aggressive agenda, the Obamas checked into their hotel around 4 p.m. and, about an hour later, boarded a National Park Service boat at the hotel pier for a brief tour of the harbor.

Surrounded and trailed by five smaller, faster Coast Guard boats as well as other crafts, the president cruised around Bar Island and Sheep Porcupine Island but turned around to head back into downtown Bar Harbor as a thick fog began to roll in.

I firmly believe that the President is entitled to vacation time, but this is the 3rd vacation since the Gulf Oil Leak began (he has also been Golfing 10 times). Would not Tax Payer Dollars have been better spent on a trip to the Gulf, rather than Maine?

IS THIS GOOD OR BAD?

World sizzles to record for the year courtesy of "USA Today" adds to the battle between Global Warming advocates and Global Climate Change skeptics. This like the proverbial "Is the glass half-full or half-empty".

The world is hotter than ever.

says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The co-founder of the Weather Channel and meteorologist, Joe D'Aleo, and Climate Depot website founder, Marc Morano disagree. Not about the world getting hotter, but rather that the warming is a problem which requires immediate attention and action.

Mr. Marano says

"...[government] is playing the climate fear card by hyping predictions and cherry-picking data."

while Mr. D'Aleo maintains the

"...oceans are entering a cooling cycle that will lower temperatures."

Mr. D'Aleo also claims

"...too many of the weather stations NOAA uses are in warmer urban areas."

and

"The only reliable data set right now is satellite."

So what does the satellite data show. According to Mr. D'Aleo:

NASA satellite data shows the average temperature in June was 0.43 degrees higher than normal. NOAA says it was 1.22 degrees higher.

There are few who deny that the Earth is getting warmer. But as this article indicates, there is still doubt about how this will effect the future of our planet. This matter is not settled yet. We need more data to make informed decisions. At this time there is no need to panic. It is a time to proceed cautiously. It is a time to do what is economically feasible to reduce Carbon emissions.

It is not a time to make rash political decisions. It is not time for Cap and Trade.

FINANCE BILL EXPLAINED

Read this article from "The Washington Times" Finance Bill Favors Interests of Unions, Activists

Besides all kinds of restrictive rules which will only result in higher cost to all or us, this bill expands the Government further by creating MORE THAN 20 new agencies.

Did you also notice the Finance Bill does little to reform the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac situation. Fannie and Freddie were at the heart of the Mortgage Crisis.

Now I suggest you also read this article Senate VIP Loans Mount from the Wall Street Journal. When banks are foreclosing on loans that should never have been made, it is disgusting to the sweetheart deals our elected Congressmen and their staffs were receiving.

Here is another link to information about the Dodd-Frank Bill Financial Reform, R.I.P. from Forbes.com.