Obama's message to voters: Things could be worse...

[Jolie Rouge]

Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jul 26, 6:31 am ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, who rocketed to the White House promising "change you can believe in," is now telling voters they shouldn't change a thing. His message for the fall elections, which are looking ominous for his Democrats, is that Republicans caused the nation's economic troubles, but he and the Democrats are starting to fix them. So stick with the Democrats and don't go back to the GOP. "This is a choice between the policies that led us into the mess or the policies that are leading out of the mess," Obama said recently in Las Vegas.

Trouble is, it's a tough sell to voters who've seen little progress.

Unemployment is stuck near double digits and polls show many voters have decided Obama's policies are to blame, not his predecessor's.

Obama often frames the argument by saying that Republicans had their chance to drive, then drove the car into a ditch and shouldn't get the keys back. But voters may be concluding that Democrats, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress, have had their chance at the wheel, too, and haven't gotten very far. "From the American public's point of view, the people in charge at this point are the people who own the problem," said Andrew Kohut, head of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Obama's challenge for the next four months is to turn that perception around. So he's traveled, from Buffalo, N.Y., to San Francisco, reminding voters of the mess he faced when he took office: a shrinking economy, lost jobs, weak markets, an economic crisis becoming international in scope.

Now, even though unemployment hasn't dropped to the 8 percent level the administration once projected, the economy is gradually picking up and adding jobs, the president says. Putting Republicans in power, he contends, would reverse the momentum. But the White House knows it can't just be about blaming George W. Bush, though the former president's enduring unpopularity helps Obama's case. Obama must try to take it a step further and get voters to view Republicans now running for office as little more than extensions of Bush who would advance the ex-president's same policies. "This isn't about relitigating history," said Obama senior adviser David Axelrod. "This is about history repeating itself."

Will the strategy work in an election year roiling with anti-incumbent sentiment? That's not yet clear, though it hasn't appeared to boost Democrats' standing much so far. Midterm elections typically deal a drubbing to the president's party anyway, and for Democrats it could mean losing control of the House.

Republicans say they intend to keep the focus on Obama's policies, which they cast as deficit-busting, big-government boondoggles. "Democrats can attempt to spin it any way they want, but unfortunately for them this election is going to be a referendum on the president and his party's failed economic policies," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

But Obama's pickings were slim when it came to campaign themes. The narrative that worked so well when Obama was a presidential candidate offering himself as a transformational figure who could change Washington is no longer at his disposal. He can hardly claim to have delivered on that promise because he hasn't changed Washington, at least not much, as he's acknowledged.

Obama's stacked up a remarkable, if controversial, string of legislative successes, from last year's economic stimulus bill to the health care law and now the financial overhaul bill. But his vaunted eloquence on the campaign trail has often seemed to desert him as he's tried to sell those policies to the public. To the 14.6 million people out of work nothing else much matters anyway.

At the same time, the desire for change that Obama helped ignite is still burning. But this time it may work against him. As Bush recognized shortly before leaving office, calling for change is a luxury denied to incumbents. "I was the guy in 2000 who campaigned for change. I campaigned for change when I ran for governor of Texas. The only time I really didn't campaign for change is when I was running for re-election," Bush told ABC News in December 2008.

In the end, trying to convince voters that things are moving in the right direction, although not as fast as he or they would like, might be the only message Obama can reach for. "Is it the best that they can do, I think, is really the question. And I'd have to say yes, it is," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution.

So Obama tells voters every chance he gets that things would be a lot worse if not for the stimulus bill and other steps he took. At least the recession never became a depression, the president says. Proving a negative is a hard argument to make, but Obama keeps at it. He has little choice.

Sometimes, the president sounds confident the message will get through. "Americans don't have selective memory," Obama told NBC News recently. They'll remember "the policies that got us into this mess as well."

Other times, he doesn't sound so sure. "I know that sometimes people don't remember how bad it was, and how bad it could have been," Obama said in Racine, Wis.

So this election year, instead of beckoning voters to change the future, Obama is just hoping they'll remember the past.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100726/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_the_argument;_ylt=A2KIKvuUl01MASEA2jqs0NU E;_ylu=X3oDMTNwY2s4dDBxBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNzI2L3V zX29iYW1hX3RoZV9hcmd1bWVudARjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhc gRjcG9zAzQEcG9zAzEEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWF kbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNvYmFtYXNtZXNzYWc-

[pepperpot]

So this election year, instead of beckoning voters to change the future, Obama is just hoping they'll remember the past.



I do remember the past. Four years ago my expenses were a lot less. :agree Now, do I think it was because of Bush? No. :headshake But, are my expenses being much, much higher now because of Obama. :agree Yes! And has the quality of life improved? No. :headshake

[Jolie Rouge]

Passing a "Healthcare Reform" no one wants ?

Passing a "Financtional Reform" that will tax ezcha dn every person 1% on each and every transaction you make - pay a bill = 1% tax; check your balance at bank = 1% tax; buy grocaries or gas = 1% tax.

Unemployment at 21% ....

How can they get worse ... keep Obama & the Dems in power and we'll be finding out.

[Jolie Rouge]

Unemployment insurance extended now to two and a half years.


Two and a half years! The media story line is the Democrats want it, the Republicans don't.

That's not the story. The story is how the hell are we going to pay for this?

Democrats Turn Unemployment Insurance Into Welfare Payments
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_072010/content/01125108.guest.html


The Real Unemployment Rate: 21.5%

If you’re only paying attention to President Obama, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the mainstream media, you’d think that the employment situation in America was getting much better.

The BLS reports that the unemployment rate dropped from 9.7% in May to just 9.5% in June. The recovery is well under way if you’re simply looking at headlines.

The fine print, however, tells a different story.

First, for those unaware of what the 9.5% reported rate for June means, it’s referred to by the BLS as the U3, or, the “official” unemployment rate. Here’s a basic definition of the U3:


The official definition of unemployment used by the BLS includes anyone age 16 or older who is not institutionalized and is not currently employed, but able to work, available for work, and actively seeking work.

The official definition of unemployment also excludes certain groups who are sometimes thought of as being unemployed or “underemployed.” Those who would like to work, but who have stopped looking for work - so-called discouraged workers - are not counted in the official definition because they are not actively seeking work. People working part time who would prefer full-time work are also not counted as unemployed because they are working - albeit fewer hours than they would like.

source: OLMIS

You can see the problem almost immediately with the “official” numbers touted by Washington and the talking heads on television. Most mainstream news you watch or read will provide information only on the U3. They stop short of going to the next BLS number, referred to as the U6. According to John Williams, this is how the U6 is defined:


The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

This month’s U6 unemployment number? Down from 16.6% in May to 16.5% in June.

Remember, though, that even the U6 is a government manipulated number, so we need to look a little bit deeper to see what the REAL unemployment rate is in America.

John Williams of Shadow Stats runs the numbers each month, and according to his most recent report, we’re actually hovering at around 21.5%. According to Williams, this is how the Shadow Stats “SGS Alternative” is calculated:


The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.

Williams’ unemployment numbers are more than double what Washington is telling us.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/the-real-unemployment-rate-215_07022010



Government’s Tax Fraud
http://www.personalliberty.com/gover...nts-tax-fraud/

President Barack Obama campaigned on the notion that he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000. Or was it $225,000? Or maybe it was $200,000. Anyway, that’s what he said, even though the figures changed from time to time… depending on his mood, I guess.

But of course we’re seeing that that was just one of his many li… er, deceptions. Because, as a recent Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) report revealed, there’s a “…Tax Tsunami On The Horizon.”

Beginning in 2011, when the tax cuts instituted under President George W. Bush expire, all sorts of tax increases will hit the American taxpayer—for those making more than $200,000 and for those making less.
Here are some of them, according to IBD:


The Federal Estate tax goes from zero this year to 55 percent on estates of $1 million or more.

The tax brackets change. The lowest bracket increases from 10 percent to 15 percent, the next increases from 25 percent to 28 percent and the old 28 percent bracket increases to 31 percent. At the higher end, the 33 percent bracket goes up to 36 percent and the 35 percent bracket increases to 39.6 percent.

The marriage penalty returns.

Capital gains taxes increase from 15 percent to 20 percent. The tax on dividends will go from 15 percent to 39.6 percent. That’s an astonishing jump of 164 percent. And both of these will increase more in 2013 as the healthcare reform bill adds a 3.8 percent Medicare tax for those making $200,000 and joint filers making $250,000.

The tax credit for children decreases from $1,000 per child to $500.


According to IBD, letting the Bush tax cuts expire will cost taxpayers $115 billion next year alone, and $2.6 trillion through 2020, Congressional Budget Office figures show.

And this is just the first wave. The IBD article outlines billions of dollars of new taxes brought on by Obamacare that kick in over the coming years, such as the increase in the number of people affected by the alternative minimum tax (ATM) from 4 million families this year to 28.5 million next year.

The biggest con game of all is that tax increases are sold as necessary to fund the operations of government. Taxes do not to fund government. They are merely a means for government to steal more of your wealth.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reduces the money in our checking accounts when we authorize them to do so via our 1040 tax return. Do you wonder where the money goes that IRS removes from our pay checks? This money does not go to Washington as taxes to pay anything. It goes into the cyberspace of the IRS computers.

So what does the IRS do? It reduces our consumption by reducing the numbers (money) in our checking accounts. It is a system of economic regulation to conceal the fraud that modern money is numbers created without limit by government/bankers.

What else does this Orwellian system do? It transfers wealth to the "money creators." Theft through fiat occurs when the VOLUME of numbers (money) exceeds the production of goods and services. This is called inflation. So, the government makes war on its own people by increasing the volume of money.

So how is government funded? It sells Treasury bonds. How are Treasuries paid for? With Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) printed on a printing press. Debt is used to pay for more debt.

It’s like if you had no money in your checking account, but you wrote a check for $25 so you could have some spending money. The next day you go to another bank and write a check for $50—$25 to cover the previous day’s check and $25 for spending money. The next day you go to another bank and write a check for $75—$50 to cover the previous day’s checks and $25 for spending money.

You can keep this scam going for some time, but the numbers inflate so that by the end of the year you are writing checks for thousands of dollars each day to cover yourself. That’s the same scam the government is using to cover its debt now—debt paying for debt… nothing for nothing.

Many are now—finally—waking up to the scam and fraud that is government. IBD quotes a poll that says 51 percent want to see the Bush tax cuts made permanent. Just 28 percent don’t. Republicans by more than four to one and independents by two to one want to see them made permanent. Democrats, by 40 percent to 38 percent don’t.

Does that tell you who is actually paying the taxes?


Bottom line, neither Obama nor Democrats in Congress are truly interested in addressing the economic malaise that currently affects our country’s—and the world’s—economy. And Republicans are interested only so far as they can use it as a tool to get elected. None of them are really looking out for you.
All of them simply want more of what you have so they’ll have you further under their control.

[Jolie Rouge]

The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking.
Here Are the Stats to Prove it
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here's-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html


The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class

American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.

• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.

• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.

• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Giant Sucking Sound

The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.

What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States. So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.

What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.

Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs. But you can't raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald's or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.

The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild

[Jolie Rouge]

The Obamacare Gold Grab

http://www.personalliberty.com/bob-l...are-gold-grab/

What does healthcare have to do with gold sales? In the minds of the fascist crafters of the Obamacare law: apparently a lot.

Tucked away in the 2,300 page bill, in section 9006, is a provision that expands the scope of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099. Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, a Form 1099 will have to be filed to report to the IRS the purchase of all goods and services by small business and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year.

This is an onerous bookkeeping nightmare for all small businesses. But precious metals dealers will really take a hit. “Coin dealers not only buy for their inventory from other dealers, but also with great frequency from the public,” Diane Piret, industry affairs director for the Council for Tangible Assets, told ABC News. “Most other types of businesses will have a limited number of suppliers from which they buy their goods and products for resale.”

One coin dealer told ABC News he deals with about 1,000 customers each week and predicts he’ll be filling out between 10,000 and 20,000 tax forms per year because of the new law. “I’ll have to hire two full-time people just to track all this stuff, which cuts into my profitability,” he said.

That may help the unemployment situation a little, or maybe not. Many dealers will have to cut loose some on their staff who actively contribute to their bottom line in order to hire someone just to create paperwork to satisfy the IRS.

The ABC News report said the new tax provision was intended to mine what the IRS deems a vast reservoir of uncollected income tax and was included in the Obamacare bill as a way to pay for it. The new law is expected to raise $17 billion over the next 10 years.

What this provision truly is is another attack on small business and a way to better track who is buying and selling gold. Just think, if you decide to sell some gold or silver to a dealer because you need some cash, the IRS is going to know about it.

The establishment hates gold in the hands of the public. In 1933 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt confiscated gold from the American people. These new reporting requirements will make very it easy for an oppressive, overbearing, out-of-control fascist government to do it again.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said we’d have to wait until the Obamacare bill was passed to learn what was in it. The bill was a stinker on the surface, but the deeper we dig the more odiferous it becomes.

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama WH Gives gives its economic policies a good, solid F+
[i]posted at 12:15 pm on July 26, 2010 by Ed Morrissey


Of all Fridays to conduct a news dump, last Friday may have been the best. The conservative grassroots and the progressive organizations busied themselves in Las Vegas, and the political media turned its attention to Sin City. The WSJ minded the store, however, and noticed the late release of the White House’s semi-annual budget review. It’s easy to see why the Obama administration didn’t want to draw any attention to it : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703995104575389430430274968.html?m od=wsj_share_facebook


Democrats have been running Congress for nearly four years, and President Obama has been at the White House for 18 months, so it’s not too soon to ask: How’s that working out? One devastating scorecard came out Friday from the White House, in the form of its own semi-annual budget review.



The message: Tax revenues are smaller, spending is greater, and the deficits are thus larger than the White House has been saying. No wonder it dumped the news on the eve of a sweltering mid-July weekend.

In fact, deficits grew even as the White House claimed that the economy grew, even at the anemic pace we’ve seen thus far. Their projection for future growth is ambitious — greater than 4% starting in 2012 after slowly accelerating this year and next, which the White House claims will reduce the deficit naturally through greater revenues. The WSJ points out the fallacy of that fantasy:


The White House predicts revenues will rise sharply after that, as it also assumes the economy will grow by more than 4% in each of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The last time the economy grew that rapidly for that long, however, was from 1997-2000 and from 1983-1985. In both of those cases, taxes were falling. The Obama White House plans a huge tax increase next year, followed by the ObamaCare tax hikes that hit in 2013, and that’s before whatever else the President’s deficit commission recommends. …



The Reagan Administration also pursued fiscal stimulus, but its policy choice was permanent across-the-board cuts in marginal tax rates. Revenue didn’t fall nearly as much as Keynesian economists predicted it would, and the economy roared back. Growth and spending restraint then reduced the deficit over time.



Democrats by contrast have pursued stimulus by spending and temporary tax rebates for selective constituencies. They did so first in concert with President George W. Bush, who was intellectually and politically tapped out, in February 2008. Then they did so again, on hyperdrive, with the February 2009 stimulus. They are now doing it again on a smaller scale with another burst of jobless benefits, adding some $30 billion to the deficit.



To put it another way, Democrats have been undertaking a vast fiscal policy experiment, blowing out the federal balance sheet in an effort to show that a country can spend and tax its way to prosperity. Look no further than the numbers in the White House’s own budget review for the unhappy lab results.

This was the subject of my speech to Right Online. We have spent the past two years pursuing the policies that failed in the 1970s, such as large government interventions in labor and goods markets and the imposition of massive regulatory regimes intended to manage the economy from the top down. We’re ignoring the policies that succeeded in the 1980s that eventually provided the antidote to the Keynesianism of the Nixon-Ford-Carter years, and that touched off a massive expansion of the American economy.



The semi-annual review shows that the Obama administration still hasn’t learned its lesson. It’s akin to having a money-losing product but trying to convince the bank that you can make up the losses in volume sales. At its heart, Obamanomics holds a central flaw: the idea that government acts as a multiplier to capital rather than a diluter and destructor of capital.



The more capital it confiscates for its central-planning economics, the less we have for real growth. Some government oversight is necessary to prevent fraud and theft, but even that doesn’t act as a multiplier for the capital it consumes; it’s merely the rational cost of doing business.



Barack Obama still hasn’t learned that, but the voters have begun to figure it out.


http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/26/obama-wh-gives-its-economic-policies-a-good-solid-f/

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama Commission Will Call for Trillions in Tax Hikes

Notice as you read this the info about VAT.

Obama debt commission member, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, launched a scary trial balloon on ABC News. Gregg suggested the debt commission will likely recommend a massive $26.7 trillion tax increase. Here are Gregg's actual words:


"Everything has to be on the table - there's no question about that... Erskine Bowles, one of the co-chairmen of the commission, has suggested a 75-25 split -- 75 percent of the savings being in spending, and 25 percent in revenues... I think it's likely that there will have to be a revenue component, but it should be significantly, dramatically -- and a 3-1 ratio is pretty dramatic -- dramatically less than the initiatives in the spending side of the ledger."

According to an analysis by Americans for Tax Reform if Bowles wants $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes then the tax increases will be larger than anyone expects:


"Bowles and Gregg can only be talking about cutting $3 in promised Social Security and Medicare benefits in exchange for $1 in tax increases. In other words, 1/4 of the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare would be paid for with tax hikes. So how big is that? According to the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Actuaries' Report, the long-run insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare systems is $106.8 trillion (with a "t") over the infinite horizon. To close this gap with one-quarter tax hikes is, therefore, to raise taxes by $26.7 trillion. Of course, this number is undoubtedly higher since the Obama Administration is sitting on (read: hiding) the 2010 version of the report (it's nearly six months overdue)."

On the heels of a huge tax increases included in the over-2000-page ObamaCare package, together with over-2000-page so-called "Financial Reform Package," together with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, Obama's economic policies have guaranteed a double-dip recession.

Strap on your safety belts, because the anemic economic recovery of 2010 is about to become a government-induced second recession or double-dip in 2011. This outcome is baked in the cake even before any tax increases from the Obama debt commission are enacted.

If they are so greedy as to also try -- by passage of a climate control bill -- increases in energy taxes then this second recession will likely lead to deflation and a collapse into a government-sponsored depression. The economy cannot afford more money being redirected from investments toward government spending.

Clearly from this evidence alone it is plain to see that Obama isn't judging his success based on a record of economic growth, but instead he is pursuing a program of economic redistribution. The administration has no focus on expanding the economic pie; instead, they are concerned with devouring every piece of the pie.

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, has been watching the Obama debt commission closely, and he concluded after hearing reports of Sen. Gregg's comments:


"It's been clear from the beginning that the purpose of this Commission was to put GOP fingerprints on a tax hike, likely a VAT... Gregg seems to be giving them all ten fingers... The true agenda of this commission has always been to hide the ball on a tax hike until after the November elections - hence the December reporting date. Gregg's gaffe today tips their hand,"

Higher taxes are never the answer. With the economy so weak, Congress should be making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Taxes on capital formation and investment should be eliminated all together. America should be encouraging small business, individual investors and entrepreneurs to be taking risks to increase economic growth in the private sector. Instead, Obama and the socialists in Congress are embarked on a dangerous expedition to punish success.

This will end badly.

[Jolie Rouge]

Gird Your Coins: Obama Endorses ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’
By Doug Powers • July 20, 2010 03:03 PM

Uh oh — Obama and the Democrats are talking about “fairness” again, which means we’re all on the brink of being screwed, but more fairly than ever: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-07-20-payequity20_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip


WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to press Congress today to pass pay-equity legislation that would make it easier for women to sue employers who pay them less than their male counterparts, the White House said Monday.

“Women deserve equal pay,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said in an interview, citing government statistics that show women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn. “It’s a very fundamental right.”

Obama will announce his support for the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that has languished in Congress for several years. In 2007, President Bush warned he would veto the bill, and it has been stalled by opposition from some Republicans and business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The ACLU endorses the proposal, as does every visibly aroused trial lawyer from here to Neptune:


“Due to rising unemployment rates, families need to bring home every dollar they rightfully earn, making pay equity even more necessary, not only to families’ economic security but also to the nation’s economic recovery,” the ACLU’s Laura Murphy said in a July 13 letter to senators.

If women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, then why not call on government to immediately cut taxes 23% for working females until this gross injustice can be sorted out? (pause for laughter)


Here’s the so-called plan:


A White House task force plans to announce today that the Obama administration will:

• Improve the government’s data collection from businesses to get a better handle on the scope of wage discrimination.

• Close the wage gap among federal employees.

• Promote greater workplace flexibility. Vice President Biden, noting that two-thirds of households with children are run by working parents, said, “The workplace has, for the most part, not changed to reflect these realities — and it must.”

The irony is of course that maybe parents wouldn’t have to work so much if these alleged seekers of “fairness” weren’t strangling the private sector to death. But it’s not like they don’t know that.

Rest assured the Democrats won’t address any wage gap among government employees by bringing the high end down to match the low end, but rather the other way around.

The “Paycheck Fairness Act” will be about little except lawyers, ratcheting up pay for Federal employees (and more importantly, the dues those employees pay the unions who back Democrats), allowing the government to dig their snouts even deeper into the pie of American business (how many more IRS agents will this Act require in order to enforce it?), and, perhaps most importantly, artificially ratcheting up private sector taxable income via yet another government mandate.

Hopefully the three women and two men in the country who still have an actual job by the time Team Obama is finished will appreciate the gesture.

If we’re serious about settling pay inequities, maybe we should start with Obama’s Pay Czar — he’s made more money than any women I’ve ever met, and what’s fair about that?

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/20/gird-your-coins/

[Jolie Rouge]

Thousands stood up today in Louisiana. How about you?:


The crowd, many wearing T-shirts with slogans like “Drill Baby Drill,” and “No Moratorium,” began streaming into the Lafayette Cajundome as soon as the doors opened, eager to show their support for ending the federal offshore drilling moratorium.



Tuesday’s gathering, billed as the “Rally for Economic Survival,” was set in the heart of Louisiana’s oil patch.



Thousands stood in silence as the names of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon explosion appeared on the stadium’s big screens. But they were rarely silent after that – cheering every statement against the moratorium.



http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/98937374.html



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It was standing room only in Lafayette Louisiana’s Cajundome as the 15,000-20,000 people assembled for the Rally for Economic Survival. Attendees called for common sense action by the federal government to lift the moratorium and send them back to work.



Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal fired the crowd up and said that Louisianans “don’t want a check from BP, and don’t want an unemployment check from the federal government”. Instead he noted that Louisianans just want to “go back to work”.



Lt. Governor Scott Angelle highlighted the important role that oil and natural gas play in the U.S. economy. He said, from 2005 to2007, the oil and gas industry paid $222 billion in taxes and $23 million in mineral royalties. Angelle told the workers that they’re not only “helping find energy to fuel America”, but helping to “produce the revenue to pay the taxes so America can educate, medicate, rehabilitate and if all else fails, incarcerate.”



Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board, quoted an excerpt from President Obama’s remarks this past Monday on unemployment insurance. The audience stood and cheered as Smith read Obama’s words… “It’s time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics. It’s time to do what’s right – not for the next election but for the middle class.” Smith called on President Obama to heed his own words and end the ban on jobs and growth in the Gulf.



Cherri Foytlin spoke about the personal hardships her family faced as a result of the moratorium. Weeks before the moratorium was issued, she and her husband bought their first home after years of saving and now with her husband’s income in limbo as a result of the moratorium, they now face foreclosure. She called on the Administration to take action today to lift the moratorium.



The U.S Chamber today posted an action alert for Americans to join these voices from the Gulf and urge the President and Vice President to end the standstill on energy exploration activities in the Gulf. Join us by sending a letter today!



http://www.chamberpost.com/2010/07/rally-for-economic-survival-a-call-for-common-sense-.html




If our wells were to shut down for just one month in the winter, the whole nation would know how much they depend upon our energy coming the oil coming from the Gulf of Mexico. If we don't put our workers back to work, so many people will end up on welfare, foodstamps, etc. that our nation won't be able to afford it. It is time for our President to lift this moratorium and let our oil companies continue to drill. All they really need to do is do more inspections so that another oil spill and explosion like BP's "Deepwater Horizon" does not happen again. Our whole economy in this state is based on the oil and seafood industries. I understand the clean-up is going very well, and if the media would help, things might get back to normal, provided Pres. Obama lifts the moratorium. My brother and family vacationed on the coast this last week and said the beach and water were beautiful on the coast. Yet, the condominium, which had over 200 units, had only 19 units filled. The media is killing them. We want our state, our tourism industry, and our way of living, culture, our JOBS, AND our state back, Mr. President!



Posted by: Mary Jane Pichoff | July 23, 2010 at 08:19 PM


Stories of economic survival on the Gulf Coast: http://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/21/pushing-back-thousands-of-obamas-drilling-moratorium-victims-rally-in-la/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky7n5Fs8O90&feature=player_embedded



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScW8Aho2aTQ&feature=player_embedded



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tudnNP2xtM&feature=player_embedded


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMa3Z9lMCk&feature=player_embedded



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwBtIVnTk2M&feature=player_embedded