WASHINGTON – The only way to prevent the Obama administration from blaming Republicans in the fiscal cliff debate is to demand transparency by bringing in television cameras, says noted tax activist Grover Norquist.
What advice would Norquist give House Speaker John Boehner?
“Bring in C-SPAN and televise the negotiations,” Norquist, president and founder of Americans for Tax Reform told WND in an exclusive interview. “It’s the best way to expose the White House plan to build public pressure on Republicans to force House Speaker John Boehner to cave into at the eleventh hour to raise income-tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.
Norquist advised that Congressional Republicans should use the fiscal cliff crisis as an opportunity to make a vocal demand that President Obama must live up to his often repeated promise to make government transparent by opening up administration tax debates with Congress to C-SPAN cameras.
“The fiscal cliff is not a one-time crisis,” Norquist warned. “If Republicans in Congress play their cards right, we are facing four years of unpleasantness for Obama.
Norquist explained that immediately following the fiscal cliff argument over raising federal income-tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, there will be a renewed debate in Congress over raising the federal debt-ceiling level.
Then in March and April, the White House will have to return to Congress for continuing resolutions to keep the government functioning.
Without an annual budget, there is no way the Obama administration can keep the federal government operating unless Congress passes continuing resolutions.
“The continuing resolution battle is every bit as exciting a leverage point to control federal spending as is the debate over the federal debt ceiling,” Norquist argued.
“Two years ago, the Republicans in Congress passed continuing resolutions for two or three weeks at a time and made Obama pay for every continuing resolution with a small savings. Obama couldn’t shut the federal government down over $3 or $4 billion over a cut he already agreed to make, and the Republicans were moving down the field three yards at a time, and there’s nothing wrong with winning slowly.”
The strategy of passing a series of short-term continuing resolutions would allow the Republicans to negotiate in exchange a series of spending cuts that would provide victories for the GOP in Congress.
“If the Obama administration would implement a Simpson-Bowles reform that retiring federal employees should not get replaced by hiring a new employee, that would result in a quantifiable savings in federal spending that the Republicans in Congress,” Norquist pointed out.
“Forcing upon the administration reform measures that Obama has opposed in the past, the Republicans can get credit by claiming Republicans in Congress imposed by their will spending the president otherwise never would have made.”
WND has previously reported Norquist’s concern that the White House push to utilize the fiscal cliff crisis as an opportunity to force the Republicans to raise income-tax rates on the wealthiest Americans would be followed by Democratic efforts to pass a massive energy tax, as well as a value-added tax, or VAT, on the U.S. economy.
Norquist predicted Obama would push the fiscal cliff down to the wire.
“There is every reason to believe that Obama as a deliberate strategy wants to push the crisis over the fiscal cliff,” he speculated.
“Obama would like to be able to blame Republicans for the lousy economy that is already baked into the cake because of Obama administration regulations and tax increases the Obama administration has already passed through measures like Obamacare.”
But Norquist insisted the pressure on Boehner to cave only mounts if Obama manages to convince the American public that it’s the Republicans’ fault.
“That’s why I’m an advocate of putting the tax negotiations on C-SPAN,” Norquist insisted. “Otherwise the Obama administration and their friends in the mainstream media will work together in secret to write the narrative of the fiscal cliff debate that says the Republicans deserve the blame for a bad economy.”
Related:
The Marxist Plan to Bankrupt the United States: Is History Repeating Itself?
More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation.
The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee.
Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since the collapse of the U.S. financial system four years ago. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp program, has increased 70 percent since 2007. And economists have warned that usage of food stamps won't go down until unemployment improves.
This Thanksgiving, 42.2 million Americans will be on food stamps, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This is roughly the size of the populations of California and Connecticut combined.
Not surprisingly, feeding millions of Americans isn't cheap. The cost of the SNAP program last year reached $72 billion, the highest to date, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Those costs are a source of major contention in Congress, which stalled on a bundle of legislation known as the farm bill this summer because it could not agree how much money should be spent on food stamps. The farm bill, which directs the nation's food policy, devotes about 80 percent of its budget to the food stamp program.
The disintegration of an economy and a society can take two courses. One course is like rust. It is slow and barely perceptible. The other is a sudden collapse. The first course, if left untended, eventually turns into the second.
The US economy is now rusting away. Arguably it has been for decades. For anyone interested in looking, the signs are there. They will soon become unavoidable for even the most disinterested of our citizens.
Dan Amos correctly described what is happening as a result of Washington’s overbearing involvement in the economy:
All government-directed economic activity grows at the expense of the private sector. And the election suggests that government coercion will drive even more U.S. economic activity in the future. This is a shame, because freely adjusting prices, competition, and innovation elevate living standards. Mandates, price controls, and subsidies — coercive actions — depress living standards. Quality falls. Shortages develop and persist.
Mr. Amos is correct but does not forcefully convey the reality of a dying economy. These effects are beginning to appear.
Many businessmen hung on, hoping for a change in the madness that passes for economic leadership and policy. These hopes were dashed with the re-election of the ideologue driving the madness. Obama won the electoral college, but not the confidence of business. They are just beginning to cast their votes and it does not bode well for the future. Here is a partial list of the business reactions to the outcome of the election:
LAYOFFS ANNOUNCED SINCE ELECTION:
Abbott Labs 700
Activision 30
Adventist Health 48
Airlines SAS 6000
AMD 400
American Cotton Growers 110
ArcelorMittal 20
American Independence Museum 4
Ameridose 790
American Airlines 4400 + 800 leaving voluntarily
American Coal 54
Atlantic Lottery Corporation 16
Assc Milk Producers 130
Aveo Oncology 45
ATI 172
Bankia 5000
Bechtel Power Corp 277
Bigpoint Games 47
Boston Scientific 1200
Brake Parts LLC 75
Brattleboro Retreat 31
Bristol Myers 500
Career Education 900 + Closing 23 Campuses
Cigna 1300
Citigroup 100
Commerzbank 6000
Consol Energy in W.V. 145
Covidien 595
Crouse Hospital Syracuse NY 70
Cummins 150
CVPH 27
DEP in Tallahassee FL 15
DuPont, Co. 64
Eagle-Tribune, Andover 21
Emanuel Medical Cente 24
Energizer Holdings 1500
Ericsson 1550
Exide Tech, Laureldale 150
City of Findlay, OH 39
First Energy 400
Gameforge Berlin 20
Gamesa Energy 92
GenOn Energy Inc 33
Glen Falls Hospital 29
Groupon 80
GT Advanced Tech 165
Harris’ Broadcast 17
Hawker Beechcraft 400 + Facilities closing
Hill Rom 200
Hills Holdings 300
HMX Group 567
Hostess 627
Iberia Airlines 4500
ICM of Colwich 25
ING 2350
Judson University 21
Juniper Networks 500
Kaiser Permanente 84
Kinetic Concepts 427
Kratos Defense Security 125
Lackawanna County PA 11
Lightyear Network Solutions 12+
Lonza 500
Majestic Star Casino/hotel 80
Major Wind Company 3000
Martha Stewart Living 70
Medtronic 1000
Mills Manufacturing NC 68
Momentive, Inc. 150
Monitor Group 235
Montco Behavioral Health/Dev 58
NBC 500
Nebraska Medical Center 38
Neovia Logistics Services 52
New Energy 40
Ormet 200
Panasonic 10000
PayPal 320
Penn Refrigeration 40
Penske Logistics 50
Pepsi 4000
Philips Electronics 218
Pierce Mfg 325
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 100
Research in Motion 200
Rheem Manufacturing 50
Sentry Foods 70
Shaw’s Supermarket 700
Shawano foundry WI 90
Smith & Nephew 770
Smithfield Packing Co. 125
Solel Solar Systems 140
Southeastern Container 15
SpaceX 100
SRA Intl Inc 222
St. Jude Medical 300
Stryker 1170
Sulake 60
Sun Media 500
TE Connectivity 620
TECO Coal Corporation 90
Texas Instruments 1700
The Providence Journal Co 23
TMX Group Ltd. 100
Turbocare 220
Turkey Point Nuclear Plant 277
Oce North America, Inc. 135
Turbocare OCE 220
UBS 10000
US Cellular 980
UtahAmerican Energy Inc 102
Volvo Trucks Pulaski County 300
Wake Forest Baptist Medical 950
Welch Allyn 275
West Ridge Mine 102
Westinghouse 50
World Media Enterprises Inc 105
WPS Health Insurance 600
Wright Patterson AFB 115
Wyodak Coal Mine 11
Xerox 2500
Yakima Reg Med Ctr Washington 10+
ANNOUNCED BUSINESS CLOSURES SINCE ELECTION:
Bakers Footwear closing 150 stores nationwide, including 21 in California
The SCA plant in Barton – Plans Staff Reductions
Handy Hardware to close its 2-year-old Meridian, Miss. warehouse
Caterpillar Inc. will close its plant in Owatonna Minn.
Waltz Pharmacy in Waldoboro Maine
Zac’s Place in Hinsdale IL
Lone Star Steakhouse at 70th and O streets and Ruby Tuesday at 56th Street in
Lincoln NE
Career Education Corp – Closing 23 Campuses – 900 Jobs Lost
Handy Hardware to close its 2-year-old Meridian, Miss. warehouse
Shamrock Bar at Payne City’s Rose Avenue. in GA
Monitor Company Group LP
ThinkEquity LLC
Homer City Funding LLC
Caterpillar Inc. will close its plant in Owatonna Minn.
Mount Pleasant’s Albrecht Sentry Foods
The Target store at Manassas Mall Va.
Millennium Academy in Wake Forest NC
Target Closing Kissimmee FL Location
Calgary’s iconic Rideau Music store ( International )
The Andover Gift Shop in Andover MA
Grand Union Family Markets Closing Storrs Location CT
Movie Scene Milford Location NH
Update: TE Connectivity Closing Greensboro Plant – 620 Layoffs Expected
Gomer’s Fried Chicken in South Kansas City
Kmart in Homer Glen
Fresh Market on Pine Street in Burlington
AGC Glass North America to permanently close its Blue Ridge Plant in Kingsport Tenn.
The Target store at Platte and Academy in Colorado Springs
Island Colors – A Carolina Beach Clothing Store
The Roses store on Reynold Road in Winston-Salem NC
Meanders Kitchen losing its West Seattle location at 6032 California Ave
Bost Harley-Davidson at 46th Avenue North and Delaware Ave. in West Nashville TN
Townsend Booksellers in Oakland
The Kmart store in Parkway Plaza off University Drive in Durham NC – 79 Jobs Lost
Guarantee Shoe Store in Beaumont Texas
Associated Milk Producers Inc. Closing manufacturing facility in Dawson Minn. – 130
Jobs Lost
FacadeTek Inc Closes Whitestown Facility – 72 Jobs Lost
Comet Market in Punxsutawney Pa.
JC Penney store in Miracle City Mall Titusville FL
TurboCare Inc Closing Manchester CT Facility – 88
The United Colors of Benetton store on Armitage Avenue IL
Update: Bicycle shop Ten 27 Cycles 1027 Davis St. in Evanston IL
Two Sears Product Rebuild Centers in The Woodlands Texas
FesslerUSA Clothing Maker Closing in PA
Ralph Lauren’s plans to close its 14 stand-alone Rugby locations
Nashville Sash & Door Co. Inc Tenn.
First Portuguese church in North America in Bedford Mass Closing?
International Fashions in Carbondale’s University Mall IL
Harper’s Old Army Surplus Store in West Monroe La
Nova Financial Holdings
The Party Warehouse in West Springfield Mass.
TLC Wine and Liquor at 1205 W. Main St in Kent Ohio?
The HAPPY Place 1042 N Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA
Air Carrier Accessory Services – Chapter 7
SOW Inc. shelter on South Broad Street GA?
Systemax Inc., Closing Miami County Ohio Computer Plant – 120 Jobs Lost
Nash Finch Closing Cedar Rapids Iowa Food Distribution Center
Johnnie’s Foodmaster MA Closing all 10 Locations
Rainbow Foods will be closing its Forest Lake location MN – 59 Layoffs
Berry’s Camera Shop Inc. in Downtown Lafayette
Schreiber Foods to close their food packaging plant in Ravenna – 70 Jobs Lost
Kmart store at 5300 Salem Ave. Trotwood Ohio
Mr.Christie plant in Toronto ( International ) 2013 – 550 Jobs Lost
Coffee with T cafe in Stevenson Village business MD
Minas Basin Pulp and Power are closing a mill in Hantsport ( International ) – 135
ACTUAL LAYOFFS:
The Colonial Country Shoppe on Park Street in Adams MA
Vestas Wind Systems Closing R&D; Office in Louisville – 60 Jobs Lost
Dollar Castle in downtown Ferndale MI
Bistro One West in St Charles IL
Sun Dog Diner in Neptune Beach FL
Jim’s Builders Hardware in Wichita, Kansas
Madeleines Bakehouse in Fort Wayne Indiana
Barnes & Noble plans to close its doors in Union Station Dec. 31
The Semiahmoo Hotel in Blaine Washington
Highland Curves CA
The Salem Sport Shop in Salem Ohio
Navistar International Corp. to Close truck assembly plant in Garland, Texas – 900
Jobs Lost
Divine Mercy Catholic Books & Gifts Denton Texas
Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford IL
Garelick Farms Ends Production at Bangor Maine Facility
Fashion Tech Window Coverings in Portland?
Custom House Tavern Chicago IL.
Jim’s Builders Hardware in Delano
Lone Star Steakhouse at 1801 22nd St. in West Des Moines
Sears to Close Woodlands Product Rebuild Center – 117 Jobs Lost
Whitehead Inc Rockford Real Estate Company
Robert’s Mens Shop in Downtown New Philadelphia Ohio
Fort Tecumseh Olde Fashun Store in Ohio
Lakewood Beginnings Child Development Center in Lakewood Ohio
Green Fields Seed & Feed in Grand Junction Colo.
The Army and Navy Store in Melrose Mass.
Vitalistic Therapeutic charter school PA
Diamond Foods Inc Closing a plant in Fishers Indiana
Old Town Alehouse 5233 Ballard Ave in Seattle
Space Aliens restaurants in Minot and Grand Forks ND
DeWaay Financial Network LLC
Sears at Quail Springs Mall Oklahoma City OK.
Fashion Bug in O’Fallon MO is closing in January
Kmart Store in Oak Hill W. Va
Update: Jett & Hall men’s clothing store in Richmond KY
D.C. school List of Possible Schools Closing to Be released Later today
Dunkin’ Donuts in Holly Hill FL
Hostess Brands Inc Permanently Closing 3 Bakeries Following a Nationwide Strike
Philips Electronics subsidiary Lightolier will close its local fluorescent light
fixture manufacturing plant in Willington
Smithfield Packing Co. will close in 2013, laying off a total of 400 employees
SuperFresh outlets in Marlton and Westmont NJ
The Bagel Shoppe in Katonah NY
Ben Franklin and Homestead House Gifts in the Kimball Ridge Center in Waterloo IA
Several West Virginia Suzuki dealerships Being Forced to Close
Kowalski Cos Closing All 4 of its Metro Detroit Delis but to Continue Food
Production
Three Memphis charter schools and one in Nashville Tenn. Could Close Due to Poor
Test Scores
The Custer School District SD – Closing 2 Rural Schools
The Dressing Room, on North Lincoln Avenue IL
The Utica office of IBOPE NY
BANKRUPTCIES:
AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc
Aletheia Research & Management Inc
Omtron USA
Helmkampf Construction in Olivette
Clear Light Publishers
Monitor Company Group LP
ThinkEquity LLC
Homer City Funding LLC
US Suzuki Distributor – Chapter 11
Revolt Technology
This list should frighten every thinking American. It is a huge warning regarding what lies ahead. These changes are coming to an economy that is already unable to provide jobs or sustain living standards.
Decline is a slow process, until it becomes fast. It is not easy to see at first. It should be obvious to most that our economy is approaching a critical stage. When you have destroyed the trust and confidence of business, there will be no job creation.
Some parting words are in order for those responsible for the decisions reflected above. Shutting down and giving up is anathema to the spirit that built this country and is now only found among our entrepreneurial class. It goes against the very fiber that drives success. It is a last resort for entrepreneurs.
The decision to quit is lonely, involves guilt, self-doubt and remorse. It is the last act for someone that has tried everything to avoid it. Giving up and withdrawing is not an act of retribution. People do not willingly choose to go to Galt’s figurative gulch. They are forced there.
While the masses exult in the continuation of their food stamps, cell phones and other booty, the real story of this election is yet to be told. The nation is about to find out that policies and elections have consequences more important than free stuff.
The war against private enterprise can no longer be denied. President Obama’s re-election ensures that it will continue and likely accelerate. The makers are beginning to give up. The takers don’t have a clue. Soon the country is going to get a real-life lesson in economics. TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch) is about to be learned.
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.
Even taking into consideration the normal high level of quality in both the Council and Non-Council entries, this was a week with some exceptional pieces to choose from in all categories, and the close vote tallies reflect it.
There’s an old saying, attributed to Albert Einstein that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”
Having had occasion to read the substantive articles at HuffPo, I’m beginning to wonder whether this home page chaos is intentional, insofar as it’s meant to keep people away from content. I mean, if I was the one publishing Robert Kuttner’s article about the American economy, I’d be so embarrassed as the publisher that I too would want to use subterfuge and prestidigitation to keep people away.
Kuttner, bless his little ol’ heart, is someone who seems to have missed the last 80 years. More than that, he’s missed any sophisticated analysis of the last 80 years. His economic understanding is rooted in post-New Deal 8th grade American history textbooks that assured credulous youngsters that even FDR’s best efforts at centralizing America’s economy failed, making WWII an economic necessity. I kid you not:
Something similar [to today's economic problems] happened in the late 1930s. Though economic growth returned, it wasn’t strong enough to repair the damage of the Great Depression or create enough jobs. Despite the New Deal, unemployment remained stuck at around 12 percent.
World War II solved the problem — it was the greatest accidental economic stimulus in economic history. It put people back to work, retrained the unemployed, and recapitalized industry. But today, there is nothing in the wings waiting to play the role of the Second World War.
During the war, federal deficits averaged more than 25 percent of GDP, nearly triple today’s deficits. But that’s what it took to blast out of the depression. After the war, high growth rates paid down the accumulated national debt.
Anyone who had read Amity Shlaes’ very accessible The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression knows that Kuttner’s view of the 1930s is based upon Progressive propaganda, rather than economic facts. Shlaes cut through this gauzy reminiscent haze about the glories of New Deal Democratic politics, and looked at the economic numbers in the 1930s.
With actual data, Shlae’s ably demonstrates that Hoover, like Roosevelt, tried to manage the post-crash economy, and with equally deleterious results. Fortunately, because he was essentially conservative, Hoover’s efforts were tentative, and therefore not deeply destructive. Sadly, the 1932 election came along before the economy had a chance to right itself from Hoover’s tepid efforts at market management.
With FDR’s New Deal firmly in place, there was no hope. FDR sucked money out of the economy and into the government, paralyzing wealth creation. Since this economic experiment was the first of its kind in America, however, and because people bought into FDR’s ebullience and optimism (something sadly lacking in the dour, accusatory man living in the White House today), people cheered the sizzle and ignored the fact that it was, in fact, a scratchy recording, unaccompanied by actual steak.
In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson with Is The Country Unraveling? submitted by Joshuapundit. It’s a trenchant examination of the hype versus the reality of Barack Obama’s presidency… an dafter cataloging its multiple failures, actually ends on an up note. Do read it.
See you next week! See you next week! Remember to tune in next Monday for the Watcher’s Forum question, where the Council and invited guests provide pithy short takes as a roundtable on a cutting edge major issue…don’t you DARE MISS IT! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!
Picking out the most disturbing moments of Barack Obama's presidency is kind of like trying to choose the wettest parts of the ocean. Other than his "Even a blind squirrel sometimes gets a nut" moment where he said "yes" when the SEALS asked if they were allowed to kill Osama Bin Laden, his entire presidency has been one long, slow motion bamboo shoot sliding under the country's fingernails. So, everyone reading will probably be able to think of a few national nightmares that aren't included.
7) Obama bows to a Saudi King: Had Obama spent his childhood entirely in the United States, he probably would have known that real Americans don't bow. Unfortunately, since that's a lesson Obama hasn't learned, Americans have had to endure their President humiliating himself and by extension, the rest of the country, by servilely bowing to foreign leaders. Perhaps the worst of these was the tyrannical, fanatical Saudi king. As Newt Gingrich has said, "I want America to become so energy independent that no American president ever again bows to the Saudi king." No American President should have ever bowed to him in the first place.
5) Obama shoves through history's single most wasteful spending bill. The very first thing Barack Obama did after he was elected was push through the largest and most wasteful spending bill in human history. Most calculations of the cost of the bill came in somewhere between 800 billion and 1.2 trillion dollars. The whole purpose of the bill was supposed to be to create jobs and the Obama Administration claimed the bill would keep unemployment below 8%. Conservatives almost universally said the bill wouldn't work and it received no GOP votes in the House along with only 3 in the Senate (Snowe, Collins, and Specter -- before he changed parties). So, who turned out to be right about a bill that cost more than FDR’s New Deal AND the war in Vietnam combined in today's dollars? Not Obama. We've now had 38 straight months of above 8% unemployment, the longest streak since the Great Depression.
3) Paul Ryan alerts Tim Geithner that the economy ends in 2027: In one of the most amazing exchanges in the history of American government, after Tim Geithner presented the Obama Administration's stratospherically high long-term budget projections, Ryan showed off a chart created by the CBO estimating that America's economy will shut down in 2027 because of out-of-control government spending. In other words, in 15 years life as you know it in America is over because of the Obama Administration's spending and Obama has absolutely no intention of doing anything about it.
2) Obamacare passes: Never before in American history has one party been arrogant and paternalistic enough to push through a massive entitlement program that was wildly unpopular with the American people and had zero votes from the opposing party. If it isn't stopped, Obamacare will destroy America's health care system by dramatically driving up the cost of care, rationing care, instituting death panels, driving tens of millions of Americans off their health care policies, adding trillions to the debt, and dramatically reducing the number of doctors available to treat patients. Of course the future of medicine in this country could be worse....well, that is if any of those zombie movies turn out to be right. (Even retiring Progressive Barney Frank, who was very much part of the ObamaCare cram down, now admits it was a mistake… just not for the right reasons, but little by little everyone who understands what is in the Affordable Care Act bill and the consequences thereof realizes if it is not over turned it will be the death nail for America.)
1) America loses its AAA rating: Despite the fact that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner assured Americans that there was "no risk" America would lose its AAA credit rating, America did indeed lose its rating for the first time since 1917 because of Barack Obama's adamant refusal to cut spending. It's worth noting that another credit rating company, Egan-Jones, downgraded the United States AGAIN just a couple of weeks ago from AA+ to AA. Unless something changes, historians will point to the Obama downgrade as the very moment when America started to come down like the Hindenburg.
WASHINGTON, March 18--Appearing on FOX News' "America's News HQ" today, Sen. Sessions discussed the nearing legal deadline for Senate Democrats to produce a budget (the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires the Senate Budget Committee to complete action on a resolution by April 1, and requires passage by the full Senate by April 15). Despite this unambiguous statutory requirement, the Budget Committee has taken no action to even begin work on a budget. In fact, it has now been 1,054 days--nearly three years--since Senate Democrats have produced a budget at all.
This stands in sharp contrast to the record of House Republicans, which passed a budget last year and which is set to introduce this year's budget next week.
Rather than confront the nation's debt threat, Senate Democrats have resorted to political tactics on unrelated matters, as well as attacks on the House Republican budget even in the absence of a plan of their own.
Sessions also addressed new cost projections for the president's health law, which the Congressional Budget Office last week found will cost nearly twice what the president originally promised, or nearly three times the promised amount once the law is fully implemented.
The President and his media are telling us that the economy is improving and their propaganda machine is in overdrive. Here is an AP survey that’s hot off the presses, “More Optimism about US Jobs and Economy”.
AP surveyed twenty-four economists, not the general public. Although the headline will influence the slumbering masses and provide a talking point to benefit the Obama administration, all we need to do is ask tax-paying Americans a few important questions.
What is your wallet telling you? Have energy prices skyrocketed or decreased? Have food prices risen or declined? Are other necessities more expensive or less expensive than they were a few years ago? Did healthcare premiums go up or down?
Truth is brought to light in an excellent article which notes the good news, but also provides economic facts that the propaganda media will not reveal:
“At the moment things are relatively stable. Some economic statistics are improving slightly and some continue to get even worse. However, it is very important to keep in mind that one of the biggest reasons why things have stabilized is because the federal government is pumping more than a trillion dollars a year into the economy that it does not have. The Obama administration is engaging in a debt binge unlike anything America has ever seen before, and yet many economic indicators are still in decline…
… you are bound to run into family and friends that will repeat to you the nonsense that they are hearing on the television about how the economy is recovering.
When they try to convince you that the economy is getting better, ask them these questions....
If the economy is getting better, then why did new home sales in the United States hit a brand new all-time record low during 2011?
If the economy is getting better, then why are there 6 million less jobs in America today than there were before the recession started?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the average duration of unemployment in this country close to an all-time record high?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of homeless female veterans more than doubled?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by 3 million since this time last year and by more than 14 million since Barack Obama entered the White House?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of children living in poverty in America risen for four years in a row?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the percentage of Americans living in "extreme poverty" at an all-time high?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the Federal Housing Administration on the verge of a financial collapse?
If the economy is getting better, then why do only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of self-employed Americans fallen by more than 2 million since 2006?
If the economy is getting better, then why did an all-time record low percentage of U.S. teens have a job last summer?
If the economy is getting better, then why does median household income keep declining? Overall, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% since December 2007 once you account for inflation.
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by 10 million since 2006?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the average age of a vehicle in America now sitting at an all-time high?
If the economy is getting better, then why are 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida currently sitting vacant?
If the economy is getting better, then why are 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 living with their parents?
If the economy is getting better, then why does the number of "long-term unemployed workers" stay so high?
When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.
But there is some good news.
When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today, the price of an ounce of gold is over $1700.
The era of great prosperity that America has enjoyed for so long is coming to an end.
In fact, our long-term economic decline is about to accelerate.
So enjoy this "bubble of hope" while you can, because it won't last long.
As I have written about previously, many are warning that Europe is on the verge of a nightmarish financial crisis that could potentially plunge us into a global recession even worse than 2008.
To largely less outcry than the ‘debt crisis’ that broke out within the beltway this past summer, the Senate on Thursday voted to allow President Barack Obama to increase the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion to ensure that the federal government can pay its bills through the November elections. With the political discussion of late largely focusing on the GOP primary and income inequality chastised by “the ninety-nine percent,” many media commentators have seemed to forget the mounting US debt that will weigh heavy on the backs of each and every American.
Rick Santelli hasn’t forgotten, and he’s quantified just how much each person will be on the hook for with the latest rise in the debt ceiling.
Santelli hashed out the population and debt numbers on CNBC Friday, where he determined that the additional increase from Thursday alone places “$3, 834 for every man, woman and child,” and if you take into account the August increase $10, 545 each. To look at the total picture, the new debt ceiling is now at $16.4 trillion for the 312 million people in the US, which equals $52, 409 per American.
“I can’t even think of a clever way to close this other than a gulp,” said Santelli said on CNBC Friday. “I don’t know that my mike is that good. How much have we heard about this last debt ceiling increase? zero.”
Watch the fiery Chicagoan go off HERE at the Blaze.
I can’t take it any more. Did someone order an apocalypse? I know there is always one bearing down on us somewhere, but come on! Have you read the headlines lately? By Friday of last week, I was ready for a major meltdown. Looks like I wasn’t the only one:
Oh, how I can relate. (Massive screaming and hair pulling.) What the hell is wrong with us? Everything is upside down and backwards. Just the highlights:
1. Europe is melting down and about to fall into a black hole of debt which will draw us into the whirlpool right along with them. No one seems to really want to control their spending. It’s like the elite are paying all their crony friends, providing for themselves and knowingly bringing on the destruction of finances planet-wide. Screw the common man – they are taking the system for all it’s worth and then getting out before the implosion hits.
2. Our government — in secret — gave out 7.7 Trillion dollars worth of bailout money to banks – worldwide. Where the hell did they get it? I suspect, they just ‘digitized’ it and spread it around. It made NO difference, just forestalled the inevitable implosion. See #1 above. Say it with me: Weimar Republic.
Digitize me, Fred…
And it exploded…
3. Any time now, the Middle East is going to blow up and hello $200 a barrel for oil. It could be Iran and Israel (or Iran and us). It could be Syria. Hell, it could be Pakistan. WWIII is about to announce itself on the global stage and I’m not convinced we’ll be on the right side of the fight.
4. The minority inmates of the asylum are in control of our country, all the while claiming they are the 99%. (Really, does anyone in government look like a 99 percenter?)
5.Communism never went away… It has surged back thanks to the Progressives putting their comrades in positions of power throughout our nation. The red menace is back baby and it is within our own walls and halls, not to mention spreading across the globe again.
6. Hyperinflation is on it’s way as the world prints money trying to stave off a global depression. Never worked before, won’t work this time. Don’t these idiots ever learn?
7. Our government has gone rogue. They no longer fear having to pay for any transgressions from insider trading to falsifying testimony on things like, oh, I don’t know, running guns to Mexico. There are soooo many corrupt issues in our government these days, I just don’t even know where to start. Get rid of all of ‘em and start over.
8. Taxes, taxes, taxes…
9. Regulations out the wazoo. It’s Atlas Shrugged come to life. We literally can’t breath without violating one law or another.
10. God is being removed systematically from every part of our society. In it’s place, some of the most violent and horrific examples of barbarism are taking place right here in America and elsewhere that I have ever seen.
12. The Constitution is being utterly ignored and circumvented by our politicians and elite Progressives on both sides of the aisle. I’ve just about had all I can take from these politicians. We must restore the original intent of the Constitution and the ideals our founders based this country on or we are toast.
And speaking of our current economic and political situation, this episode was badly written:
What’s happened to personal responsibility? What’s happened to independence and innovation? Where are morals and ethics any more? Maybe they are all still there, it’s just that the minority is in control and they have the morals of an alley cat and the ethics of, well, a politician. In fact, many of them are politicians. Isn’t it time America put people of character back in control of our homeland? Isn’t it time for the majority to say that’s enough, we aren’t going to take this crap any more? I really, really think so.
Can you blame people for panicking? Can you blame them for storing food, paying off debt and moving to a state that has some sanity left? Gun sales are the highest they have ever been and I personally believe that it has everything to do with what is happening in our country and worldwide today. No longer are survivalists being called crazy, everyone is at least attempting to prep. I’d say if you just read the headlines, you can’t help but think things are trending darkly – Apocalypse Nowish.
What you are about to read should absolutely astound you. During the last financial crisis, the Federal Reserve secretly conducted the biggest bailout in the history of the world, and the Fed fought in court for several years to keep it a secret.
Do you remember the TARP bailout? The American people were absolutely outraged that the federal government spent 700 billion dollars bailing out the "too big to fail" banks. Well, that bailout was pocket change compared to what the Federal Reserve did. As you will see documented below, the Federal Reserve actually handed more than 16 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free money to the "too big to fail" banks between 2007 and 2010. So have you heard about this on the nightly news? Probably not. Lately Bloomberg has been reporting on some of this, but even they are not giving people the whole picture. The American people need to be told about this 16 trillion dollar bailout, because it is a perfect example of why the Federal Reserve needs to be shut down. The Federal Reserve has been actively picking "winners" and "losers" in the financial system, and it turns out that the "friends" of the Fed always get bailed out and always end up among the "winners". This is not how a free market system is supposed to work.
According to the limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the grand total of all the secret bailouts conducted by the Federal Reserve during the last financial crisis comes to a whopping $16.1 trillion.
That is an astonishing amount of money.
Keep in mind that the GDP of the United States for the entire year of 2010 was only 14.58 trillion dollars.
The total U.S. national debt is only a bit above 15 trillion dollars right now.
So 16 trillion dollars is an almost inconceivable amount of money.
But some other dollar figures have been thrown around lately regarding these secret Federal Reserve bailouts. Let's take a look at them and see what they mean.
The $1.2 trillion peak on Dec. 5, 2008 -- the combined outstanding balance under the seven programs tallied by Bloomberg -- was almost three times the size of the U.S. federal budget deficit that year and more than the total earnings of all federally insured banks in the U.S. for the decade through 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The $1.2 trillion figure represents the peak outstanding balance on these loans, not the total amount of all the loans. On December 5, 2008 the "too big to fail" banks owed this much money to the Federal Reserve. Many of them could not pay these short-term loans back right away and had to keep rolling them over time after time. Each time a short-term loan got rolled over that represented a new loan.
$7.7 Trillion
Bloomberg is reporting that the Federal Reserve had made a total of $7.77 trillion in financial commitments to the big banks by the end of March 2009....
Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.
But as mentioned above, a one-time limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act covered an even broader time period and revealed even more bailout loans.
According to the GAO audit, $16.1 trillion in secret loans were made by the Federal Reserve between December 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010. The following list of firms and the amount of money that they received was taken directly from page 131 of the GAO audit report....
Citigroup - $2.513 trillion Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion Bank of America - $1.344 trillion Barclays PLC - $868 billion Bear Sterns - $853 billion Goldman Sachs - $814 billion Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion Deutsche Bank - $354 billion UBS - $287 billion Credit Suisse - $262 billion Lehman Brothers - $183 billion Bank of Scotland - $181 billion BNP Paribas - $175 billion Wells Fargo - $159 billion Dexia - $159 billion Wachovia - $142 billion Dresdner Bank - $135 billion Societe Generale - $124 billion "All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion
This report was made available to all the members of Congress, but most of them have been totally silent about it. One of the only members of Congress that has said something has been U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
"As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world"
So where is everyone else?
Why aren't leading Republicans and leading Democrats crying bloody murder over this report?
This scandal should have been front page news for months when it was revealed.
But it wasn't.
And Guess what?
Not only did the Federal Reserve give 16.1 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free loans to the "too big to fail" banks, the Fed also paid them over 600 million dollars to help run the emergency lending program. According to the GAO, the Federal Reserve shelled out an astounding $659.4 million in "fees" to the very financial institutions which caused the financial crisis in the first place.
In addition, it turns out that trillions of dollars of this bailout money actually went overseas. According to the GAO audit, approximately $3.08 trillion went to foreign banks in Europe and in Asia.
So why were our dollars being used to bail out foreign banks while tens of millions of American families were deeply suffering?
That is a very good question.
Also, it is important to remember that many of these bailout loans were made at below market interest rates, and this enabled many of these financial institutions to rake in huge profits.
According to a recent Bloomberg article, the big banks brought in an estimated $13 billion by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates....
While the Fed’s last-resort lending programs generally charge above-market interest rates to deter routine borrowing, that practice sometimes flipped during the crisis. On Oct. 20, 2008, for example, the central bank agreed to make $113.3 billion of 28-day loans through its Term Auction Facility at a rate of 1.1 percent, according to a press release at the time.
The rate was less than a third of the 3.8 percent that banks were charging each other to make one-month loans on that day. Bank of America and Wachovia Corp. each got $15 billion of the 1.1 percent TAF loans, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland’s RBS Citizens NA unit with $10 billion, Fed data show.
So once the financial crisis was over, were adjustments made to the financial system to make sure that this type of thing would never happen again?
Of course not.
Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
So now they are more "too big to fail" than ever.
But this is what happens when we allow unelected central bank bureaucrats to run our financial system.
Most Americans do not realize this, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve is not part of the government. In fact, it is about as "federal" as Federal Express is. The Federal Reserve has admitted that they are a privately owned institution in court many times, and you can see video of a Federal Reserve employee admitting that the Federal Reserve is privately owned right here.
The Federal Reserve is an out of control monster that is throwing around trillions of dollars whenever it wants to. Nobody should be allowed to do this. Nobody should be allowed to give bailouts to banks and corporations without the express permission of the U.S. Congress and the president of the United States.
This is a point that I made in my article yesterday. The Federal Reserve decided this week that it is going to provide "liquidity support" to Europe. If the American people do not like this move, that is just too bad. We do not get a say in the matter.
Tracy Lawrence, Notary Public Who Blew The Whistle On Massive Foreclosure Fraud, Found Dead
A sign hangs outside a foreclosed home in North Las Vegas, Nevada. (File photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The Huffington Post First Posted: 11/30/11 08:10 AM ET Updated: 11/30/11 08:10 AM ET
Tracy Lawrence, the notary public who blew the whistle on a massive foreclosure fraud scheme, was found dead in her Las Vegas home on Nov. 28, MSNBC reported.
Cause of death has not yet been determined, but Officer Jacinto Rivera, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman, said the case was not being investigated as homicide. She was 43.
Earlier this month, Lawrence came forward and admitted to the Nevada Attorney General's Office that she notarized 25,000 fraudulent documents for Lender Processing Services, a Florida company used by most major banks to process home repossessions. The documents were filed with the Clark County Recorder's Office between 2005 and 2008, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Lawrence also accused two loan officers of allegedly running the massive robo-signing scheme, saying they forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices. Nevada now alleges that Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Gerri Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif., directed their employees to forge foreclosure documents, notarize the signatures on the documents they had forged and file the fraudulent paperwork in order to begin foreclosures on homes throughout the county.
Trafford and Sheppard have been indicted on more than 600 counts of offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public. Authorities are currently negotiating the terms of their surrender, KSNV MyNews 3 reported.
Earlier this month, Lawrence pleaded guilty to one count of notarizing the signature of a person not in her presence, The Associated Press reported. Had Lawrence shown up at her sentencing hearing on Monday, she could have faced a potential sentence of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
On Nov. 17, Lender Processing Services issued a statement acknowledging that the signing procedures on some of documents were flawed. The company also agreed to fully cooperate with the attorney general's investigation.
"I am deeply committed to ensuring that LPS meets rigorous standards of professional conduct and operating excellence," newly appointed LPS President and CEO Hugh Harris stated. "I have full confidence in the ability of our leadership team and over 8,000 dedicated employees to deliver on that commitment."
We’re getting there! It was the sixth debate of the fall season Wednesday night series. CNBC’s debate was tag-lined “Your money. Your vote.” And yet by the time most of us had sat down and found a comfortable position for our legs, they were talking about Cain’s sexual harassment allegations. But while Cain isn’t off the hook for the accusations, he did very well for himself and it was the beginning of what could be a strong comeback. And in last night’s debate whenever the liberal media started to ask Cain about the on-going sexual harassment allegations the people in the audience booed. When the media went back to questions on the economy, they cheered. Hurray for everyone in that audience!
Cain said that the American people “deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations.”
He also said that since the allegations surfaced more than a week ago, “voters have voted with their dollars,” and supported his campaign.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was asked about the allegations against Cain. Romney said Cain has responded to the questions and “people can make their own assessment.”
The questions about the Cain allegations generated boos from the audience at Oakland University.
The Media has been focused on “all “Herman Cain scandal, all the time. No Solyndra Solar scandal, no Fast and Furious Guns scandal... just Cain without end. How convenient… another created diversion?
ROCHESTER, Mich. (The Blaze/AP) — United in agreement for once, Republican presidential rivals warned forcefully Wednesday night the United States could be doomed to the same sort of financial crisis that is afflicting Europe unless federal deficits are drastically cut and the economy somehow revived.
Though sexual harassment allegations facing Herman Cain have dominated the GOP campaign for more than a week, the debate in economically ailing Michigan focused almost entirely on financial worries and proposed solutions in the U.S.
The candidates generally stuck to practiced speech lines – with a late exception…
Let’s not count Perry out quite yet, even though it looked like he clocked out two weeks ago. He had another one of those awkward moments… In the middle of one answer, Texas Gov. Rick Perry found himself unable to recall the names of the 3rd Cabinet-level government agency he plans to get rid of if elected, even leaning over to Rep. Ron Paul for help at one point. That couldn’t have been more uncomfortable had Herman Cain passed Perry a reminder of the third agency’s name engraved on a rock.
“The third agency of government I would do away with – the Education, the Commerce. And let’s see. I can’t. The third one I can’t. Oops,” he said, forgetting for a moment that he wants to abolish the Department of Energy.
On one specific issue that Congress must address soon, the candidates generally backed an extension of the Social Security payroll tax cut scheduled to expire at the end of the year. That was a rare moment of accord with President Barack Obama and many congressional Democrats, who have been warning that consumers could be hurt if the reduction is not renewed.
“I‘m not prepared to raise taxes on working Americans in the middle of a recession that’s this bad,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a sentiment quickly seconded by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Perry disagreed, and Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota said she opposed the one-year reduction when it was approved late last year. She said it had so far “blown a hole of $100 billion in the Social Security trust fund.”
Asked about Europe’s financial troubles, the candidates seemed to speak with one voice in saying Italy and other European countries should rise or fall on their own without any American bailout. And several of the White House hopefuls warned that unless U.S. deficits are cut and the economy invigorated, America is headed for the same type of downward spiral.
“Europe is able to take care of their own problems. We don’t want to step in and bail out their banks and their economies,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said as he and GOP rivals met for the first time in three weeks in campaign debate.
Even so, he said the United States should continue contributing to organizations like the International Monetary Fund that are working to prevent a meltdown in troubled economies overseas.
Paul was more emphatic about the debt. “You have to let it liquidate. We took 40 years to build up this worldwide debt,” he added.
Cain said there wasn’t much the United States could do to directly to help Italy at present because the economy there is in such difficult shape. “We need to focus on the economy or we will fail,” he said, referring to the U.S. and calling for spending cuts, a strong dollar and measures to stimulate growth.
The Cain accusations did come up, though briefly.
“The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion due to unfounded accusations,” he said when the question came up early in the debate. “I value my character and my integrity more than anything else. And for every one person that comes forward with an unfair accusation there are probably, there are thousands who come forward and say none of that ever happened with Herman Cain.”
Romney, a former venture capitalist, was asked if he would keep Cain on the job as a CEO given the accusations. He responded, “Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions. He just did.”
On another point, Cain felt it necessary to make a post-debate apology to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, whom he had called “Princess Nancy” for sidetracking Republican legislation when she was speaker.
The announced topic for the evening was the economy, a subject that produced few if any early sparks among rivals who often spar energetically.
Perry, Gingrich, Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum joined Romney, Cain, Paul and Huntsman on stage at Oakland University in Michigan, a state where unemployment is 11.1 percent and well above the national 9 percent jobless rate.
The debate took place less than two months before Iowa’s kickoff caucuses, as the pace of campaign activity accelerates and public opinion polls suggest the race remains quite fluid. Romney and Cain currently share co-front-runner status in most surveys, with Perry and Gingrich roughly tied for third, within striking distance.
Not surprisingly, none of the contenders found much to like in Obama’s economic stewardship.
Perry said the next president should systematically judge all of the government regulations enacted since Obama took office on a standard of whether they created jobs. Any that failed should be repealed, he said.
Bachmann sharply criticized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She said the latter had recently given multimillion-dollar bonuses to executives even though it was seeking a new federal bailout.
Gingrich, who last held public office more than a decade ago, bristled when asked what advice his company had given Freddie Mac for a $300,000 fee. “Advice on precisely what they didn’t do,” he shot back – stop backing mortgages to applicants who aren’t credit-worthy.
The government rescued mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator has controlled their financial decisions.
The cost to taxpayers so far has been about $169 billion, the most expensive bailout of the financial crisis.
There was only scant mention of the Michigan auto industry, which benefited in 2008 and 2009 from a federal bailout that both President George W. Bush and Obama backed.
All eight Republicans on the debate stage say they wouldn’t have offered government assistance.
Not so Obama, who stood outside a factory not far from the debate site recently and said government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler were a success that saved thousands of American jobs.
Side notes:
And then there was Mitt Romney‘s hair. It was actually a little messy. Granted, “messy” by Romney’s standard is like being “feminine” by Janet Napolitano‘s standards stated one of the event bloggers. But those five hairs haven’t seen this much freedom since birth and actually made him look ‘more real’ commented more than one viewer.
The things they can do with technology. It‘s a miracle there wasn’t a mic blowout for Jim Cramer, one of the moderator’s, who yelled every question like he was day trading on NASDAQ. Not even a little audio feedback when he said his “P”s or “B”s.
