Recovery? Half of American Households Living on Government Benefits
[Townhall.com]
Kate Hicks – Web Editor, Townhall.com
May 26, 2012 12:43 PM EST
Some astoundingly grim news on the “economic recovery” front: half of American households are receiving government funds to support themselves. No matter which way you slice it, this number isn’t good news for the Obama administration — they can spin the jobs numbers by ignoring the number of people who dropped out of the workforce, but this statistic is pretty straightforward.
The 49.1% of the population in a household that gets benefits is up from 30% in the early 1980s and 44.4% as recently as the third quarter of 2008.
The increase in recent years is likely due in large part to the lingering effects of the recession. As of early 2011, 15% of people lived in a household that received food stamps, 26% had someone enrolled in Medicaid and 2% had a member receiving unemployment benefits. Families doubling up to save money or pool expenses also is likely leading to more multigenerational households. But even without the effects of the recession, there would be a larger reliance on government.
Paul Ryan: I‘d ’Consider’ a Vice Presidential Run
[TheBlaze.com]
Posted on March 25, 2012 at 2:57pm by 
Madeleine Morgenstern
CBS – Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday he “would consider” running in the vice presidential slot on the 2012 Republican ticket, though is “so focused” on his current job that it’s “not even” in his mind.
Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, unveiled a budget plan this week that has been praised by GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney — and been dubbed the “Romney-Ryan budget” by top Obama administration adviser David Plouffe.
“I’m so focused on my job in Congress. If I wanted to be president or vice president so badly I would have run for president. I don’t — so I didn’t,” Ryan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Still, Ryan wouldn’t entirely close the door on the No. 2 spot when pressed by host Norah O’Donnell.
“I would consider it but it’s not even something in my mind because it’s a decision someone else makes at a later time,” he said. “It’s a bridge I haven’t gotten close to having to cross so in the meantime I think it’s important to do my job.”
Nation might reach $16.4 trillion debt limit close to Election Day
[TheHill.com]
The $16.4 trillion debt ceiling could be reached just weeks after Election Day, according to a new report.
The analysis raises the possibility that lawmakers might have to raise the nation’s borrowing limit before the election, a scenario they took pains to avoid in the debt deal passed in August.
Now, partially due to lower than expected tax receipts, the nation could reach the $16.4 trillion debt limit as early as late November, according to an analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to be released Friday.
Just a few weeks ago, the Center has estimated the debt-limit wouldn’t be reached until the spring of 2013.
But continued sluggishness in the economy, coupled with the recent payroll package that adds to the deficit, is casting doubt on that timeframe, raising the possibility of a bitter fight over deficit spending at the height of a presidential election year.
Last year’s fight over the debt ceiling brought the nation to the brink of default and resulted in the first-ever downgrade of U.S. securities. The last-minute deal to raise the borrowing limit by $2.1 trillion was supposed to tide the government over until the end of 2012, by which point electoral politics would be in the rearview mirror.
But analysts at the BPC said it’s looking increasingly likely that those best-laid plans will be dashed by “unexpected circumstances.”
The $26 billion mortgage settlement: who gets help and how
[CSMonitor.org]
The main thrust of the $26 billion mortgage settlement is to help homeowners whose homes are ‘under water.’ Refinancing a reduced loan will lower payments and help people facing foreclosure stay in their homes.
Posted by CWN: February 10, 2012
By Ron Scherer
NEW YORK -The much heralded $26 billion settlement Thursday of a lawsuit brought by states’ attorneys general against major banks for their poor servicing of mortgages will help “a lot of families,” President Obama proclaimed.
So who is being helped?
The main thrust of the settlement is to help homeowners whose mortgages are “under water.” In other words, they owe more than their home is worth.
As part of the settlement, the banks agreed to lower the principal owed on loans by about $20,000 for 2 million people in the process of foreclosure, agreed to commit $3 billion to help homeowners refinance at 5.25 percent, and will send checks of about $1,800 to about 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011.
EXCLUSIVE–Iranian Freedom Fighter: ‘Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy Toward the Islamic Republic is Wrong
[BigGovernment.com]
Posted Jan 24th 2012 at 4:24 pm
Americans aren’t the only ones shocked by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul’s assertion that international sanctions against Iran qualify as an “act of war.”
The Texas Congressman has made the assertion several times during the past few years, and reiterated it last night during the Republican debates in Florida when he argued that the U.S. had committed an act of war by “blockading” Iran (which the U.S. is not doing).
“We’re blockading them,” Paul said to a Tampa audience. “Can you imagine what we would do if someone blockaded the Gulf of Mexico? That would be an act of war–so the act of war has already been committed and this is retaliation.”
But Amir Fakhravar, a pro-democracy freedom fighter who was imprisoned and tortured by the Islamic Republic, disagrees.
“Too Crazy To Believe”
[AtlasShrugs.com]
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Of course, under the Obama administration of destruction, nothing is too crazy to believe. This is the poisonous fruit of leftist economic policy. It’s not just Obama who has to got to be kicked out; it’s all of the moochers, looters, and destroyers.
“There is only one standard of justice in the field of economics: the verdict of a free market.” Ayn Rand
We need to get our ideas out into the national dialogue, which is being strangled by the uber-left chokehold on media, academia and culture. We have our work cut out for us. Expose the bastards!
The END GAME is Socialism/Marxism, then Communism [Don't Be Fooled!]
[CWNews]
by Justin Waldman
(Original Post: October 29, 2011) Repost: November 7, 2011)
From Liberation Square to Wall Street to Washington Square. From Atlanta to Libya to Chicago to Tehran to Baltimore to Los Angeles: The radical progressives, the Islamic Muslim (jihadist) radicals, who want a Caliphate, and the union organizers (SEIU, AFL-CIO, ACORN) are colluding to destroy Capitalism and the American way of life. This is NOT a grass roots movement. It is an orchestrated, deliberate, plan by major unions and other radical groups, in part, directed by George Soros through his many organizations (i. e. Tides Foundation, Media Matters, Center for American Progress, Open Society Institute, etc.).
Don’t be deceived; there is an end game. Unions and radical groups are “hiring” some of these protesters and demonstrators. Most of the #Occupy??? don’t even know what they are protesting. As Sal Alinsky says “…the ends justifies the means..” is the plan these people are following. For the most part, the people who are protesting are what Joseph Stalin called “useful idiots.”
Race for Weiner’s Old Seat Could Turn on Jewish Votes for Catholic Republican
FoxNews.com
Published September 09, 2011
The race to replace disgraced politician Anthony Weiner in a heavily Democratic and heavily Jewish district is surprisingly close, as the GOP candidate makes inroads with voters by turning the race into a referendum on President Obama’s policies on Israel and the economy.With days to go before the Sept. 13 special election, Republican businessman Bob Turner is six points up over Democratic Assemblyman David Weprin in a new poll, though the two have been within a few points of one another for weeks.
Did a Pro-Eugenics Org Advertise on MSNBC During the GOP Debate?
TheBlaze.com
- Posted on September 8, 2011 at 3:04pm by Madeleine Morgenstern
During Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate, a group called Californians for Population Stabilization ran an advertisement advocating for caps on legal — not illegal — immigration.
In the ad, a man shuffles the letters in the word “illegal” to separate the “I-L“ from ”L-E-G-A-L” and says:
Now that so many Californians are out of work, attention is turning to the millions of illegal workers in the state. It’s about time. But what about these workers? Legal foreign workers — one million legal immigrants and temporary workers our government admits every year that take good jobs in places like California, no matter how many Californians are out of work or how ill the economy gets. We need to slow legal immigration ’till California is working again. Paid for by Californians for Population Stabilization.
Obama’s joint-session effort yet another attempt at The Big Speech effect
Nate Beeler at the Washington Examiner frames the viewer choice perfectly for tonight:
HotAir.com
To say that expectations are low heading into Barack Obama’s speech tonight to a joint session of Congress is to engage in the art of pointed understatement. Never in the history of extraordinary joint-session speeches has so little been expected of a President. Even before his joint-session speech two years ago on the topic of health-care reform, the White House stoked speculation that Obama had a new plan that would change the debate. Instead, he delivered an ambiguous, rambling series of platitudes and generalities that created more problems for Democrats than it solved.
Airlifts Take Food, Water to Vermont Towns Cut-Off by Irene Floods
FoxNews.com
Associated Press
Published August 30, 2011
AP – Aug. 29: Lindsey Jones makes her way down floodwater-damaged Rte. 4 in Woodstock, Vt.
MONTPELIER, Vt. – National Guard helicopters began taking food and water Tuesday to Vermont towns cut off by flooding after the rainy remnants of Hurricane Irene took inland areas of New England and upstate New York by surprise.
Vermont Emergency Management spokesman Mark Bosma said the helicopters would bring relief to people in about a dozen towns where roads and bridges were washed out, including Cavendish, Hancock, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, Strafford and Stratton.
The Pink Slip President
BigGovernment.com
Posted Aug 26th 2011 at 7:17 am
In the abysmal economic climate America presently finds itself in, almost no one is immune from unemployment, because joblessness threatens everyone. While Barack Obama duffs around on the golf course, one can’t help but wonder if he fully grasps the fact that, thanks to his own incompetency, the potential to be dismissed from his highly sought-after job is more than a distinct possibility. 
Except for “saving and creating” jobs for the slew of workers needed to staff the Department of Labor’s unemployment division, Obama continues to singlehandedly undermine both the economy and job creation. Wherever he goes, crowds are waving layoff notices in lieu of the typical “Yes we can” banners Barack Obama is more used to seeing.
If America is the employer, and if polls are the equivalent of a job evaluation, Obama is definitely on probation. In fact, Obama’s discharge papers are already filled out and tacked to the White House door. Rather than respond to the threat by working toward winning the title of “Employee of the Month,” the President is doing everything one should never do when unemployment is a looming likelihood.
It’s Wrong to Steal…Even When the Government Does It Using Asset Forfeiture
BigGovernment.com
by Dan Mitchell
Posted Aug 23rd 2011 at 1:01 pm
As a grumpy libertarian, I routinely get agitated about taxes, spending, and regulation. As far as I’m concerned, much of government is a racket that uses coercion to reward interest groups with unearned wealth.
But there are degrees of evil. So if you asked me to pick the most reprehensible thing that government does, “asset forfeiture” might be in second place (hurting poor people to benefit rich people is at the top of my list).
Asset forfeiture occurs when government seizes property that is associated with a crime. That sounds reasonable – and it is reasonable if someone is convicted of, say, bank robbery and the government confiscates the stolen cash and any loot purchased with that money.
But it is not reasonable (or moral, or just, or appropriate) when government seizes assets without a conviction. And it is downright disgusting when the government steals (and I use that word deliberately) the assets of innocent parties.
I’ve already written about this issue (including an example from my county) and highlighted how asset forfeiture gives government bureaucracies a perverse incentive to steal.
Now we have a story from the Wall Street Journal that confirms our worst fears.
Gallup: Obama’s job approval down to 38/54
HotAir.com
A new low to match today’s new low in Rasmussen. He dipped below 40 percent briefly 10 days ago but then inched up a bit. Today a little more air exits the balloon. I think he’s one golf photo away from the magical Bushian 35 percent mark.
It’s no secret what’s driving this, of course. As bad as his overall rating is, his rating on the economy is simply gruesome. And unfortunately for all of us, there may be no way out. Here’s Richard Posner, one of America’s most eminent judges (a Reagan appointee to the Seventh Circuit) and a pioneer in the field of law and economics, basically throwing in the towel:
If the notion that we are merely living through the aftereffects of a mere “recession” that ended in 2009 sounds somewhat ridiculous, that’s because it is. If we were being honest with ourselves, we would call this a depression. That would certainly better convey both the severity of our problems, and the fact that those problems have no evident solutions…
What Obama will do on his summer “vacation” — write a jobs plan
HotAir.com
The Washington Post reports that Barack Obama will go back to the drawing board during his vacation* this month and draw up a plan to stimulate job creation. At least that’s what Obama has promised, along with a deficit reduction plan that he has promised since April:
President Obama has decided to press Congress for a new round of stimulus spending and tax cuts as he seeks to address the great domestic policy quandary of his tenure: how to spur job growth in an age of austerity.
Obama will lay out a series of ideas in a major address right after Labor Day, when he and a largely antagonistic Congress will return from vacation, the White House said Wednesday.
The president is thinking about proposing tax cuts for companies that hire workers, new spending for roads and construction, and other measures that would target the long-term unemployed, according to administration officials and other people familiar with the matter. Some ideas, such as providing mortgage relief for struggling homeowners, could come through executive action.
Obama also plans to announce a major push for new deficit reduction, urging the special congressional committee formed in the debt-ceiling deal this month to identify even more savings than the $1.5 trillion it has been tasked with finding.
In other words, we’re going to get more of the same policies we got in Porkulus in 2009. Obama will offer short-term gimmicks to get short-term boosts in spending, go back to the “shovel-ready” projects that even Obama finally admitted were a mirage, and offer more public safety-net spending while calling it a “stimulus.” The fact that we’re headed into another recession clearly showed these Keynesian gimmicks as failures seems to have escaped Obama’s attention.
Investors Business Daily’s John Merline gives a better diagnosis of the real problem holding back investment and growth:
If the federal government’s regulatory operation were a business, it would be one of the 50 biggest in the country in terms of revenues, and the third largest in terms of employees, with more people working for it than McDonald’s, Ford, Disney and Boeing combined.
Under President Obama, while the economy is struggling to grow and create jobs, the federal regulatory business is booming.
Regulatory agencies have seen their combined budgets grow a healthy 16% since 2008, topping $54 billion, according to the annual “Regulator’s Budget,” compiled by George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis.
That’s at a time when the overall economy grew a paltry 5%.
Meanwhile, employment at these agencies has climbed 13% since Obama took office to more than 281,000, while private-sector jobs shrank by 5.6%.
John also gives us the Chart of the Day, showing the growth in regulatory agencies over the last 18 months:
Half Of Americans Believe Austerity Will Lead To Violent Unrest
PrisonPlanet.com
Steve Watson
August 15, 2011
Almost half of all Americans believe that government spending cuts will lead to civil unrest on a scale recently seen in London, according to a new survey.
48% of respondents in a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey indicated that they believe it is at least somewhat likely that if austerity measures are enacted there will be violence on the streets.
According to the survey, those under 50 years of age think unrest is more likely, with a majority of 58% believing cuts will make it likely.
Less Americans are convinced that tax hikes and stock market woes will trigger unrest, however, in both cases over a third still fear those factors will contribute to uprisings.
The survey found that 69% of Americans say they have been following news stories about the rioting in London at least somewhat closely, with 25% following very closely.
Gore, Reid and More of Stimulus’ Biggest Bust: Obama’s Perfect September Storm
BigGovernment.com
Posted Aug 12th 2011 at 1:45 pm
This WaPo article — “Obama tries to change subject back to green jobs” — is an instant classic of a new, Obama-era genre: cheerleading for expensive schemes which exist solely due to political whimsy and consideration, and are therefore little more than make-work.
The item begins, “After spending weeks talking about topics he probably would have preferred to avoid — debt limits, deficits, a plunging stock market — President Obama will hit the road Thursday to talk about jobs. Specifically, about how his administration is trying to create more of them.”
The green ones. Which schemes failed where the president used to tell us to look but no longer does because the failures were exposed. As his spokesman admits “the White House doesn’t create jobs”.
And his critics say he’s out of ideas! But, hmm. Yes. I suppose that ‘green jobs’ thing went over well last time he led with it. Still, if ending up as a punch-line is victory, what does defeat look like?
More to the point, how much would whatever constitutes defeat cost us? Because WaPo says about this, the Obama administration’s chosen, sterling example of the economy they seek to design (what happened to telling us to look to Spain?), in return for $305 million in cited wealth transfers, “All told, the company has said its advanced battery operations could create 500 new positions.”
That is, this rosy, nice round-numbered scenario of ‘could’ (read: unlikely), produce temporary jobs — that is, they all disappear when the wealth transfer and/or mandates or preferences are burned through — at $610,000 per.
Reid Calls GOP Debt Bill ‘Dead on Arrival’ as White House Threatens Veto
FoxNews.com
WHITE HOUSE AND SENATE USING SCARE TACTICS; There will be no debt default.
Published July 26, 2011
House Speaker John Boehner, center, joined by other GOP leaders, discusses the debt ceiling July 25 on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned Tuesday that Republicans’ deficit-reduction bill is “dead on arrival” in his chamber, as the Obama administration issued a formal veto threat and pushed lawmakers to reach a “compromise.”
White House officials appeared to hold back earlier Tuesday when asked whether President Obama would veto the GOP bill, which could be voted on in the House as early as Wednesday.
But the administration issued what’s known as a “statement of administration policy” Tuesday afternoon saying the president’s advisers “would recommend that he veto this bill” should it clear Congress.
Boehner Walks Out of Budget Talks with Obama
BigGovernment.com
Posted Jul 22nd 2011 at 4:44 pm
by Publius
From the Associated Press:
House Speaker John Boehner abruptly broke off talks with President Barack Obama Friday night on a deal to cut federal spending and avert a threatened government default, sending compromise efforts into an instant crisis.
Within minutes, an obviously peeved Obama virtually ordered congressional leaders to the White House for a Saturday meeting on raising the nation’s debt limit. “We’ve got to get it done. It is not an option not to do it,” he declared.
For the first time since negotiations began, he declined to offer assurances, when asked, that default would be avoided. Moments later, however, he said he was confident of that outcome.
At a news conference of his own a short while later, Boehner said, “I want to be entirely clear. No one wants default.”
Keystone: Pipeline Battle Pits Economy vs. Environment, Again
FoxNews.com
By James Rosen
Published July 04, 2011
AP – In this Sept. 21, 2010, photo, an unidentified protester who is opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline carries signs in Omaha, Neb.
Keystone-XL will rank alongside the pyramids in Giza as one of the most ambitious construction projects ever undertaken – if the $7 billion pipeline ever gets built.
The proposed route runs south over 330 miles of southern Canadian soil, clipping the corner of Saskatchewan to reach the border with America, then snakes gently southeast across seven U.S. states, extending another 1,370 miles until it branches off to hit two destinations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama Wants American Taxpayers to Bail Out Greek Politicians and Dig the Debt Hole even Deeper
BigGovernment.com
Posted Jun 8th 2011 at 4:07 pm
by Dan Mitchell
[CWN Editor: Dan has a story here that adds INSULT TO INJURY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Please read this story and call your Congress people.]
Here’s some completely depressing news. CNBC is reporting that President Obama is putting American taxpayers on the chopping block to bail out Greece’s corrupt politicians.
But, to show he doesn’t discriminate, he also encouraged the German Chancellor to rape her nation’s taxpayers for the same purpose.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday…pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country’s debt crisis. …After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he stressed the importance of German “leadership” on the issue – a hint that he expects Berlin to help – while expressing sympathy for the political difficulties European Union countries face in helping a struggling member state.
The story doesn’t have much detail, but it appears that Obama is willing to brutalize American taxpayers directly (which is what he means by “on a bilateral basis”) and indirectly (i.e., the reference to “international and financial institutions like the IMF”).
…”we have pledged to cooperate fully in working through these issues, both on a bilateral basis but also through international and financial institutions like the IMF.”
Porkulus: Cash for Tax Cheats
Townhall.com
When President Obama signed the trillion-dollar stimulus law in 2009, he proclaimed that he was “keeping the American dream alive in our time.” The stimulator-in-chief failed to mention that billions would be spent keeping American tax scammers afloat on our dime.
At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, federal auditors reported on the latest porkulus spending gone wild. According to a new General Accounting Office audit conducted over the past year, nearly 4,000 stimulus recipients received $24 billion in Recovery Act funds — while owing more than $750 million in unpaid corporate, payroll and other taxes. Among the tax-cheating federal contractors and grant winners who raked in stimulus bucks, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found:
– Two social services groups with nearly $3 million in unpaid taxes each received more than $1 million in stimulus awards.
GOP: Obama’s Rise in Polls Won’t Last
Newsmax.com
Tuesday, 03 May 2011 10:18 AM
Read more on Newsmax.com: GOP: Obama’s Rise in Polls Won’t Last
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama’s Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
The WH’s Man Made Energy Crisis
VisionToAmerica.com
Victor Davis Hanson
March 24, 2011
Gas is well over $4 a gallon in most places in California — and soaring elsewhere as well. But are such high energy prices good or bad?
That should be a stupid question. Yet it is not, when the Obama administration has stopped new domestic offshore oil exploration in many American waters, curbed oil leases in the West, and keeps oil-rich areas of Alaska exempt from drilling. Last week, President Obama went to Brazil and declared of that country’s new offshore finds: “With the new oil finds off Brazil, President [Dilma] Rousseff has said that Brazil wants to be a major supplier of new stable sources of energy, and I’ve told her that the United States wants to be a major customer, which would be a win-win for both our countries.”
Consider the logic of the president’s Orwellian declaration: The United States in the last two years has restricted oil exploration of the sort Brazil is now rushing to embrace. We have run up more than $4 trillion in consecutive budget deficits during the Obama administration and are near federal insolvency. Therefore, the United States should be happy to borrow more money to purchase the sort of “new stable sources of energy” from Brazil’s offshore wells that we most certainly will not develop off our own coasts.
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