Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Still Life With Dichotomy

Pot now legal:


My health insurance now illegal:



Hat tip: BadBlue News

Introducing the New People’s National Democrat Party™

Guest post by Stephen Miller

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s inauguration last week was more than one man swearing an oath of office. It was the official declaration of a new Democrat Party. We have been told repeatedly that the Republicans are undergoing a massive re-branding effort but it’s been by no means as dramatic as the emergency re-branding efforts going on under the Democrat tent. De Blasio has effectively become the leader and national voice of the new direction of a party who has been flirting with this ideology for years now. They no longer fear the societal and American stigmatisim associated with socialist agendas. Because of one mayor’s election they now feel emboldened to inflict and unleash it.

Barack Obama and the DNC, with the help of their usual cohorts in the media are in the midst of attempting a magic trick. They are going to attempt to convince people that because of this President’s pro growth policies, the economy is finally stabilized enough to the point of increasing the federal minimum wage, while simultaneously making the argument that we need to extend government entitlements (Unemployment Insurance) for those unable to find a job. Breaking from usual tactics, they also aren’t being shy about this new strategy and their admitted stated goal is to paint the GOP as the party of inequality, economic disparity and the wealthy.

There is inequality. There is disparity.

No one is disputing this.

The only problem for the New People’s National Democrat Party™ is they have been the ones in charge of this inequality and disparity for going on 7 years now.

The burning questions for this President, who just two weeks ago touted the economic success of his policies is this; If the economy is growing as it should be and the corner has been turned on the 5.4% unemployment rate hell of the George W. Bush years, why can’t anyone find a job? Why is income inequality growing? Why are the rich getting richer?

Why do we as a country need to perpetually renew unemployment insurance benefits beyond the rate of 99 weeks for families struggling if there are jobs readily available as his administration is claiming?

Obama two weeks ago said the American economy is poised to break through, just as it has been for the past 5 years. We are inundated with graph after graph showing the massive turn around from the brink of economic destruction Obama brought us all back from. On Jake Tapper’s The Lead , just yesterday, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said ”People are suffering because I have met them. They have gone to emergency situations”. This administration is readily admitting that we are in the depths of emergency unemployment situations. Direct quote.

The natural response from anyone being told to “Get a job” is “I’ve been trying” or “There are no jobs” .. Either our economy is growing or it isn’t..

Which is it?

The country cannot be both in such an amazing recovery that raising the minimum wage to $10.00 becomes completely logical while at the same time in such despair that unemployment benefits need to be made all but permanent to offset growing income inequality.

If the Democrat party has decided to go full Warren & head over heals for de Blasio, it is only because it’s an admission that Barack Obama’s economic policies have failed and that it’s nothing more than a distraction from the fact that Barack Obama’s healthcare law has failed. This is the Democrat Party’s corporatization of Occupy Wall St.’s message with a media trying desperately to wring every last drop out of it. They have given up trying to promote liberty and prosperity and are settling into exploiting fear and entitlement. It’s a dangerous strategy right out of a comic book super villain’s handbook and one that must be understood and exposed. Their goal is no longer to lift people out of poverty but to willfully keep them dependent and therefore voting for them, all the way through the 2014 midterms. In three months when this new expansion fails, Harry Reid, Barack Obama and now Hillary Clinton will all argue for another 3 month expansion. Then another, and another.

The question for the GOP is are they going to put an end to this?

If the Democrat’s entire message becomes inequality, then inequality is needed for it to become successful. Financial and economic stability through gainful employment is no longer the goal. This is precisely the reason for Democrats pushing a minimum wage hike while simultaneously pushing more benefits of people not even in the workforce.Make it harder for private employers to hire people who already have a steady stream of income thanks to unemployment. Expert Presidential Debate Moderator Candy Crowley tried this exact strategy with Governor Scott Walker just last week and in doing so gave the entire game up for the progressive Democrat’s new talking point. Government dependency as a lifestyle and not as a stop gap.

This is a dangerous trap being sprung on the GOP (and the country) but one that is easily avoidable if they would only push back against it. The messaging cannot and should not be about cutting unemployment benefits. The messaging should be why Democrats are pushing permanent unemployment to begin with. They are literally trying to tell the country that an economy based on individual employment can function and thrive on people being unemployed.

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

DEMOCRAT LOGIC COMIX: Pivot to Jobs Edition

Another Biff Spackle exclusive:


For your review, please consider: "Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants and the Employment Picture for Less-Educated Americans."

Suffice it to say that Obama's policies combined with Amnesty for illegal aliens will be catastrophic for the average working American.


DEMOCRAT LOGIC COMIX: Unemployment Squirrel Edition, Part Deux

Are these poor suckers props or human shields?


As John Hayward observes, "It’s awfully strange to see a President simultaneously claim that his economy is (finally) on the mend… while simultaneously demanding yet another 'emergency' unemployment extension."


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

A Plan for Dealing With John Boehner

Originally posted on 24 July 2013, I am republishing this as we find out more about the Amnesty bill the GOP Establishment wants to ram down our throats. Such an action would prove triply suicidal for the RNC as it would: (a) destroy what little unity exists between the conservative base (which makes up the majority of the Republican grassroots) and the old guard; (b) hand Barack Obama a stunning victory on the heels of the Obamacare debacle; and (c) prove once and for all that the Beltway Ruling Class is bought and paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the corporatists.


I think we can all agree that John Boehner is a complete and utter failure as House Speaker. Marble-mouthed, unprincipled, double-dealing and cowardly are among the more positive attributes I can think of. Consider the man's actions over the two-and-a-half years that have elapsed since the Tea Party movement and Constitutional Conservatives brought him to power:

• Despite an unprecedented series of White House scandals -- including, but not limited to gun-running to Mexican drug cartels, the Benghazi cover-up, IRS-gate, and repeated perjurious testimony to Congress -- John Boehner refuses to name a Select Investigative Committee or demand a Special Prosecutor.

• In fact, in the case of the Benghazi cover-up, even though 75 percent of House Republicans want a Select Committee formed, Boehner refuses. That's right: John Boehner refuses to name a Special Committee on Benghazi, with dedicated budget, resources and staff -- and won't even tell us why.

• And what could be the reason? Some have speculated that Boehner has secretly cut a deal with Democrats in exchange for, well, who knows? Suffice it to say that if John Boehner is negotiating for you, you're going to walk out of the room wearing only your underwear. My guess is he really has cut a secret deal with Obama and Reid, perhaps regarding the debt ceiling or some other act of surrender that sells out the American people in exchange for his consolidation of more power.

• And what is John Boehner's top priority right now? That's right: Amnesty. Legalizing tens of millions of illegal aliens, which we know for a fact will vote by a stunning 8-to-1 margin for Democrats. Brilliant.

• As for de-funding Obamacare? That, too, Boehner refuses to do, instead holding fan-dance votes to repeal Obamacare, knowing that said bills will never see the light of day in the Senate. The Constitution grants the House of Representatives the power of the purse. Boehner could de-fund Obamacare -- completely -- if he wished, letting Obama try to rally support for his despotic and failed testament to central planning. But this Boehner will not do, because it requires brains, courage, principles and cojones.

So what do we do about John Boehner?

While there are grassroots efforts emerging to primary Boehner in Ohio's 8th District -- and we wish them all possible success -- the time has come to consider an alternative plan. A nuclear option, if you will.

Assuming that Boehner wins his primary in OH-8, I suggest we rally support among Tea Party and Constitutional Conservatives in that district to vote. To vote Democrat.

That single seat has virtually no chance of swinging the majority in the House one way or the other. A newly elected Democrat in that very Red seat will be a back-bencher and virtually powerless. This will give time to the district (and it is a very conservative district by all accounts) to assemble a credible candidate should one not emerge in 2014.

I would never advocate such a tactic in the Senate even though Mitch McConnell is Boehner-lite. In the Senate the odds of taking majority control are simply too tempting to chance returning the dimwitted crackpot from Searchlight, Nevada to a seat of power.

But Boehner, on the other hand, is such an egregious failure, such a cowardly and un-principled operator, that he must be ripped out of the Speaker's chair by any means necessary.

Let's see what happens in OH-8, but I suggest we fund and vociferously support any -- and I do mean any -- Boehner opponent. Enough is enough.

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

How the Obama administration dismantled the United States government -- and how we can rebuild it

Guest post by Ken Hoagland

Obamacare is a flea bitten dog that never would have been enacted without wholesale and deliberate falsehoods said over and over again by Barack Obama and every Democrat cheerleader. It never would have been enacted without legislative sleights-of-hand and backroom bribes offered to key Democrats.

It never would have been enacted and Barack Obama would likely not have won a second term without the willing negligence of a toothless “watchdog press” who refused to independently investigate or report obvious lies.

Now we will be bitten by this dog and indeed, as many as five million people who have lost insurance (that they liked) have already felt the teeth. It will get worse. Although not widely reported, another 100 million Americans with workplace coverage (by HHS’ own estimates) may be dropped by employers and forced into more costly coverage through security-challenged exchanges.

Many of those already forced into Obamacare have seen their trusted doctors dropped from networks and even with subsidies, deductible thresholds so high that savings are just a fiction. Another fiction. And those people with severe illnesses who have been canceled and lost the best hospitals and specialist care may have already been condemned to death by their own government “helping them”.

As the American people absorb body blow after body blow from this destructive fraud, our system of government has, itself, been battered so that this President can have his “signature” issue. By unilaterally changing the so-called “Law of the Land” so many times Obama has rendered Congress all but irrelevant. While this may sound good to those frustrated with divided government, it is nothing less than the strangling of the very heart of our Constitutional system of representation.

DEMOCRAT LOGIC COMIX: Unemployment Squirrel Edition

With a tip o' the fedora to Jon Gabriel:



Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Democrats and Republicans Agree!

It would seem that Democrats and Republicans agree on at least one thing: the economy sucks:

Contrary to ongoing attempts by the administration to refocus the public's attention on such focal points as guns, an imminent external cybersecurity threat (until it was revealed that the biggest cyber terrorist is the NSA itself), and climate change, the three still remain, pardon the pan, at the cold end of the spectrum when it comes to what issues most concern the US public. On the other end, for one decade and counting, the "top priority" for the US public was and continues to be "the economy", stupid.

The term cognitive dissonance was invented for situations like this. Democrats are super-concerned with the economy, unemployment, education, Medicare, and health care, yet they've been calling the shots in Congress for seven years and controlling the White House for five.

Yet they haven't quite figured out that it's their own policies that suck: from the teacher's unions monopolistic control of education to Obamacare's chaotic dismantling of the health care industry.

In other words, the fact that Democrats list these issues as their biggest concerns are tacit admissions that their own party's policies are utter failures.

Oh: and someone alert John Boehner, Paul Ryan and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who seem painfully unaware of how unpopular some kind of "compromise" on illegal immigration will be. Secure the border, dimwits, then let's talk.


Thursday, January 02, 2014

BUT I THOUGHT WE WERE IN A RECOVERY: Chart illustrates cruel, draconian proposed cuts to food stamps

Spotted at the invaluable Heritage Foundation:

Food stamp spending is at historic highs—it has doubled twice since 2000. Now some on Capitol Hill say the House is trying to make major cuts to the program, but they’re really making some much-needed policy reforms that would achieve modest savings.


The House bill proposes a small 5 percent reduction, while the Senate proposes a mere one-half of 1 percent. Even if the House’s reforms are accepted, food stamp spending is projected to be nearly double 2008 levels. It is also projected to remain at or near historical highs into the foreseeable future.

The House’s savings come from closing loopholes and ending policies that are currently undermining the integrity of the program. These policies have allowed states to artificially boost food stamp levels and expand the program beyond its intended population. While the House takes steps in the right direction to reform food stamps, the Senate does [almost nothing].

Food stamps should be reformed to ensure that the program is serving those it is intended to serve. It should also be reformed to promote self-sufficiency through work, thus helping those who are able by encouraging self-sufficiency.

Let me put this in terms even progressives can understand: either the economy is recovering, in which case we can slash food stamps... or we're still in the Obama Depression.

Which is it, dimwits?


Hat tip: Liberal Logic 101.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power

Guest post by George Friedman

When I wrote about the crisis of unemployment in Europe, I received a great deal of feedback. Europeans agreed that this is the core problem while Americans argued that the United States has the same problem, asserting that U.S. unemployment is twice as high as the government's official unemployment rate. My counterargument is that unemployment in the United States is not a problem in the same sense that it is in Europe because it does not pose a geopolitical threat. The United States does not face political disintegration from unemployment, whatever the number is. Europe might.

At the same time, I would agree that the United States faces a potentially significant but longer-term geopolitical problem deriving from economic trends. The threat to the United States is the persistent decline in the middle class' standard of living, a problem that is reshaping the social order that has been in place since World War II and that, if it continues, poses a threat to American power.

The Crisis of the American Middle Class

The median household income of Americans in 2011 was $49,103. Adjusted for inflation, the median income is just below what it was in 1989 and is $4,000 less than it was in 2000. Take-home income is a bit less than $40,000 when Social Security and state and federal taxes are included. That means a monthly income, per household, of about $3,300. It is urgent to bear in mind that half of all American households earn less than this. It is also vital to consider not the difference between 1990 and 2011, but the difference between the 1950s and 1960s and the 21st century. This is where the difference in the meaning of middle class becomes most apparent.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

So you've signed up for health care on the ObamaCare exchanges. Think you're covered? Not quite.

Bummer.

So you've signed up for health care on the ObamaCare exchanges. Think you're covered? Not quite.

As with any insurance plan, new enrollees still have to pay their first month's premium to lock in coverage. But the deadlines for that task are different all over the country, adding to the confusion over an already-perplexing sign-up process...


The deadlines in the ObamaCare enrollment process have been a moving target. For those seeking coverage for the start of the new year, the deadline to sign up was originally Dec. 15. Then it was moved to Dec. 23, and then again to Dec. 24. Even after that deadline passed Tuesday night, the administration announced that those who ran into technical problems on HealthCare.gov could still seek an exemption and get covered by Jan. 1.

Then comes the next set of deadlines. After appeals from the Obama administration, major health insurers announced earlier this month that they would give people until Jan. 10 -- as opposed to Dec. 31 -- to pay their first month's premium and have coverage effective Jan. 1.

But many states running their own exchanges have their own deadlines for first payments. Some have more than one... In Idaho, for instance, Blue Cross, Bridgespan and Select Health extended their deadline to Jan. 10. But PacificSource extended its deadline to Jan. 15. The deadlines in Washington, D.C., also depend on the insurer.

Other deadlines are earlier. California's and Rhode Island's is Jan. 6. Vermont's is Jan. 7... The following states all have Jan. 10 deadlines: Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York... The following states have Jan. 15 deadlines: Maryland, Oregon and Washington state...

...After the first set of deadlines, would-be enrollees still have until the end of March to get insurance, after which the federal government will begin to fine those without coverage.

Still, the administration has carved out exemptions for certain people and businesses, including those whose plans were recently canceled. The insurance industry has raised concern about these changes, warning that they could disrupt the market...

...President Obama said at his end-of-year press conference that 1 million people have signed up through the federal and state exchanges, marking a significant uptick since the Oct. 1 launch. Officials, though, were originally projecting a goal of 7 million people by the end of March.

Confused yet?

Not to worry: it's gonna get much, much worse before it gets better.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

DEATH PANEL COMIX: The Shocking Obamacare Surprise Awaiting Seniors on New Year's Day

Based upon Andrew Mangione's reporting.


This story needs to go viral. Any help you can provide is appreciated.

Side-question: Biff is wondering whether the comic book format is worthwhile. Any comments or feedback are appreciated.


CNN: Christians to Blame for People Not Having Health Insurance

Guest post by Mac Slavo

As tens of millions stand to lose their health insurance benefits over the coming months, mainstream establishment mouthpiece CNN has been investigating why there are so many poor and under-insured Americans.

In an investigative report titled The Obamacare ‘scandal’ you haven’t heard about CNN journalist John Blake thinks he’s figured it out.

It’s not that the government has created an air of learned helplessness, or shipped jobs to foreign countries through restrictive legislation and taxes, or that Americans have seen their purchasing power decrease exponentially making it impossible for them to meet their basic needs.

And the Patient Affordable Care Act certainly can’t be to blame, even though the health exchanges don’t work, and people are being rapidly removed from their current insurance policies because of regulations set forth by the new law, or that those who do manage to sign up will see a tripling of their rates which will further impoverish them.

No, the problem, according to CNN, is the Christians; specifically, the Christian pastors and their churches in southern states who have apparently done nothing to address poverty or failed to push their governments to expand social health care services through forced wealth redistribution.

Friday, December 20, 2013

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare

Guest post by The People's Cube

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare
(A non-sectarian holiday carol.)

On the first day of ObamaCare, Dear Leader gave to me
A website that crashed constantly!

On the second day of ObamaCare, Dear Leader gave to me
Two weeks of typing and
A website that crashed constantly!

On the third day of ObamaCare, Dear Leader gave to me
Three times the premium,
Two weeks of typing and
A website that crashed constantly!