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Sequester Madness: The White House has become unhinged

by George Landrithsequester madness

With the sequester deadline looming, there has been a marked uptick in the hyperbole emanating from Washington. Little wonder, a Pew Research poll says that only about one in four is paying close attention to the sequester.

This must be disconcerting to the White House because it has been full-court pressing the issue — suddenly releasing criminals from prison, falsely claiming that teachers are being pink-slipped, holding campaign style events with President Barack Obama personally issuing overblown and false warnings that firemen and policemen and teachers will be pink-slipped, that air traffic will be at greater risk, that waiting times at airports will increase and that meat will not be inspected and may be tainted. The White House even announced that it won’t deploy an aircraft carrier to a hotspot because of sequester budget constraints.  [Read more...]

The buck still stops with the president

by Nolan Finley  The Buck Stops with Bush, Not Obama

Playing the crisis card won’t work forever for President Barack Obama. At some point, the people will expect their leader to lead.

And the president hasn’t yet demonstrated the will to do so. Instead, he answers monumental moments such as the upcoming sequestration deadline with brinksmanship and blame-gaming.

For now, the approach is working. A Pew/USA Today poll last week found decisively more voters blame [Read more...]

Fiscal Crisis: Failing the Details, Math and Leadership Tests

fiscal cliffby George Landrith

President Barack Obama repeatedly chided Mitt Romney’s budget plan during the presidential campaign on at least two grounds: (1) it lacked detail, and (2) the math didn’t add up. Perhaps, we should use these two standards to see how Barack Obama’s plan stacks up. There is more than a little irony in Barack Obama criticizing others for not providing details or for their math not adding up. Obama has always been short on details and his math has almost never passed even the straight face test, much less actually adding up.

Nonetheless, let’s apply these two standards — (1) are there sufficient details? and (2) does the math add up? — to evaluate Barack Obama’s proposals for solving the so-called fiscal cliff. [Read more...]

If Obama Loses, Part II

Part II, Job Prospects?

by Scott L. Vanatter

In part one, I discussed whether racial recriminations or even riots will follow an Obama loss. Short answers, respectively, probably yes, and probably not. American has indeed progressed. Well . . . except certain liberal commentators.

Here in part two, after reviewing a bit of his history and current predicament, I discuss what Obama will do if he loses in November. In part three, I will delve into whether he will run for president again and if so, when?

Barack Obama made history when he was elected the first black man as president of the United States. It was a perfect moment in U.S. history, a perfect storm of a unique set of events, circumstances, and personalities. All combined to set up Obama to essentially coast to an easy victory. “Don’t worry,” he famously said a few weeks prior to winning, “We got this.” Obama is nothing if not confident.

[Read more...]

Obama has no idea how the economy works

If Obama Frownthe last four years were not convincing enough, President Obama proved during Tuesday night’s debate that he has no clue how the economy works. His stated economic proposals are nothing but reheated talking points from 2008, and they are as unrealistic now as they were then.

Despite his falsely professed faith in markets, the President shows by his actions and policy proposals that he really believes the only way economies thrive is when they are directed by government policy-makers and bureaucrats who are empowered to choose the “correct” economic outcomes. [Read more...]

Fact-checking President Obama

by George Landrith

Let’s fact check President Barack Obama’s debate statements. He spent a lot of time since the first debate and during the second debate complaining that what Gov. Mitt Romney said wasn’t true. Yet, the facts do not support Obama’s claims. Here is the proof on Obama’s poor record on truthfulness during the second debate:

The attack in Libya — a terrorist attack? Or a spontaneous protest that got out of hand because of an offensive internet video?

On the issue of Libya, Obama said, that the day after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, “I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime.”

Romney challenged Obama’s characterization that he had identified the Benghazi attack as terrorism on day one. Obama doubled down. Just as Romney was about the snare Obama in his lie,  the the moderator erroneously sided with Obama and claimed that he had identified the attack as terrorism. After the debate, the moderator admitted that she was wrong and that Romney was correct. But let’s not rely on her retraction and correction, let’s go straight to the record. [Read more...]

Debate analysis from around the web

Unequal Time: 

If you want more time to get your message out in debates, it’s good to be a Democrat. According to the CNN debate clock, President Obama spoke at greater length than Mitt Romney during both debates, as did Vice President Biden during his debate with Paul Ryan. In the first debate, Obama spoke for 3 minutes, 14 seconds more than Romney — which means he got 8 percent more talking time than Romney. In last night’s debate, Obama spoke for 4 minutes and 18 seconds longer than Romney, giving him 11 percent more talking time. During the vice presidential debate, the gap wasn’t as wide: Biden spoke for 1 minute, 22 seconds more than Ryan. Still, that gave Biden 3 percent more speaking time than Ryan. [Read more...]

The most divisive President: A presidency wasted

by Victor Davis HansonDivisive President Obama

The Obama narrative is that he inherited the worst mess in memory and has been stymied ever since by a partisan Congress — while everything from new ATM technology to the Japanese tsunami conspired against him. But how true are those claims?

Barack Obama entered office with an approval rating of over 70 percent. John McCain’s campaign had been anemic and almost at times seemed as if it was designed to lose nobly to the nation’s first African-American presidential nominee. [Read more...]

Presidential election: Who can ignite economic and job growth?

By Charles R. Schwab

Every American voter is approaching a critical decision. Of the two presidential candidates before us, who is best suited to lead our nation through the next four years?

The answer to that question is a simple test: can they ignite economic growth? The economic crisis we face is our greatest threat, affecting every American. For investors – and today over half of Americans are investors in some form – this issue is particularly pressing as it impacts not just their financial situation today, but also their retirement and other long-term goals. Economic growth is the only ingredient that will help pull the country out of its present funk and allow us to solve our pressing issues. [Read more...]

Economy, Debates Reveal Obama, Biden Haven’t Got What It Takes

by Peter MoriciMorici

This election should be about the economy — the recovery is too slow and Americans are hurting. The performances of President Obama and Vice President Biden in the debates on the campaign trail tell us why. Both say endlessly that they inherited a huge mess, but Americans have seen challenges like these before — and with better leaders, they licked those more quickly.

When Mr. Obama took office, financial markets were in turmoil. Unemployment peaked at 10% in October 2009. [Read more...]

Obama’s Weak Economy: Five Reasons

by Scott L. VanatterAn Incomplete

What kind of economy did Obama inherit? Brit Hume put it this way:

“A central premise of the Obama campaign is that he inherited an economy in free fall, pulled it back from the brink and set it on the right path. But consider this. The economy fell into recession more than a year before Mr. Obama took office. By the time he was inaugurated the worst of it was over, the economy was still shrinking, but the steepest decline had occurred in the final quarter of the year 2008. It shrank less in the first quarter of 2009 and by June of ‘09 it began to grow again marking the official end of the recession. Mind you, this occurred before almost any of the massive stimulus spending Mr. Obama has signed into law had taken affect. ‘Yes,’ you might say, but in terms of job losses the worst was still to come when Mr. Obama came in.’ But that’s not so either. More than half the 8.7 million jobs lost as a result of the recession had been lost by inauguration day.” 

 How weak is Obama’s economic recovery? [Read more...]

Three Things Obama Must Overcome for the Next Debate

Lack of Desire, Knowledge and ConfidenceObama defeated

by Scott L. Vanatter

Why was Obama just not that into it (the debate)? Three possible reasons include a lack of desire, a lack of knowledge of basic economic principles, and being intimidated by Romney’s real world expertise.

Obama sounded so disjointed in the first debate that mainstream media supporters such as Chris Matthews and Andrew Sullivan nearly had an emotional breakdown on camera and online. They are only two who wondered aloud why Obama seemed so incoherent. Obama’s bizarre manner that night almost resembled the infamous beauty pageant contestant of a few years ago or the reporter who had a mini-stroke on camera, so rambling were some of his answers. Surely in the next debate, Obama will up his game. At least he will appear to want to debate. [Read more...]

Leno: Obama wasted four years to do something about the economy

Real reporters won’t tell the truth. But apparently Jay Leno will.

In his opening monologue, Leno said that every day Americans waste a lot of time and pointed out that we wasted four years waiting on President Barack Obama to do something about the economy.

Leno said, “I love how the politicians capitalize on this kind of thing. Like the minute the replacement refs were fired, President Obama said, ‘See, sometimes losing jobs can be a good thing. It’s a good thing.’”  (See the video below.)  [Read more...]

New Data: Recovery or Recession?

by George Landrith110623_economic_rhetoric_wuerker_328

A new study by the liberal Pew Research Center finds that the median income today is lower than it was during the “Great Recession.” When President Barack Obama said the recession was over in 2009, the median income for American households was $52,195 in inflation adjusted dollars. Two years later, the median income had fallen to $50,054 — a drop of more than 4 percent in just two years.

And since Obama took office, median household income has dropped by $4,000. So the first two years didn’t go very well and then once Obama proclaimed the recovery had begun, the same bad results continued and median income continued to fall at about the same rate. Where is the good news in this?

[Read more...]

Forward? No, we’re going backward

by George Landrith

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden never miss a chance to tell us that the economy is moving in the right direction. They claim they need more time to pull the nation out of the recession that began in 2008.

There are several problems with this line of argument. First, Obama said he would solve this problem in his first term and cut the deficit in half. He told us if he didn’t solve the problem, he would be a one-term president. Second, Obama ran for office knowing the economy was bad and he won because he convinced more voters that he would fix it. Obama got everything he wanted in his first two years because he had a compliant Democrat Congress. He spent hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus and bailouts.  The only verifiable result is massive debt that saddles the economy and slows future growth. Third, the biggest problem with claiming that Obama is moving us forward is that it is not true. In fact, things are getting worse. [Read more...]

Saved GM? Really? GM is losing $49,000 on each Volt it builds

by Bernie Woodall and Paul Lienert and Ben Klayman (Reuters)

Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.

Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce. [Read more...]

Saved General Motors? It Is Headed For Bankruptcy — Again

by Louis Woodhill

President Obama is proud of his bailout of General Motors.  That’s good, because, if he wins a second term, he is probably going to have to bail GM out again.  The company is once again losing market share, and it seems unable to develop products that are truly competitive in the U.S. market.

Right now, the federal government owns 500,000,000 shares of GM, or about 26% of the company.  It would need to get about $53.00/share for these to break even on the bailout, but the stock closed at only $20.21/share on Tuesday.  This left the government holding $10.1 billion worth of stock, and sitting on an unrealized loss of $16.4 billion. [Read more...]

Unemployment 8.1% as More Give Up Looking for Work

The nation’s most recent jobs report disappointed again with an anemic 96,000 new jobs added in August. Just to keep up with population growth, the economy would need to add more than 130,000 jobs per month. The report estimates an 8.1 unemployment rate for August. “This is definitely a setback for the labor market and the economy,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JP Morgan Chase and a former economist for the Federal Reserve.

For 43 consecutive months, the jobless rate has been greater than 8 percent. And 14.7 percent of Americans are either unemployed or underemployed. Underemployed means, for example, that the worker may have part-time work, but cannot find a full-time job. “We haven’t really gotten out of this recession,” said Pierre Ellis, an economist with Decision Economics. [Read more...]

Are We Better Off? Business Publication Says No

Economic Conditions: All weekend, Democratic party leaders kept fumbling their answer to a simple question: Are we better off than we were four years ago? There’s a good reason for that: We’re not.

It wasn’t until Monday that the campaign was able to figure out how to answer the question, with Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, saying, “Absolutely.” [Read more...]

Economics that don’t work

financial_crisis_graph

by George Landrith

President Barack Obama continues to argue against keeping taxes low to spur economic growth and job creation. At the same time, he argues against significantly cutting government spending to solve our huge deficits. Obama said “ [the philosophy of low taxes and cutting wasteful spending] fits well on a bumper sticker…. But it doesn’t work. It’s never worked.” Obama is wrong. It clearly has worked. And it is comical to listen to the guy who ran on the slogan of “hope” and “change” talk dismissively about bumper stickers.

During the past decade, if government had kept taxes low, kept government spending at historically reasonable levels, and not abused government power to push unwise and unsustainable mortgage and banking practices, we would not have the problems we have today. [Read more...]