Home » Archives for November 2012
WASHINGTON, November 25, 2012 — The “fiscal cliff” has become the most ubiquitous phrase in Washington. But it is not the only crisis facing the United States. In fact, the fiscal cliff is not a cliff. It is more like a steep slope. The real cliff is the debt ceiling, and the existence of a debt ceiling law in the United States is fundamentally useless.
The fiscal cliff refers to the expiration of temporary tax breaks - the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax-cuts, and the payroll tax cuts enacted in 2010 - and the across-the-board spending cuts in various social programs and defense. Falling off the fiscal cliff suggests that if members of Congress do not reach a deal by the end of the year, the American economy will somehow plummet into the abyss. That is unlikely.
Warren Buffet, billionaire investor, in an interview with CNN said, “The fact they can't get along for the month of January is not going to torpedo the economy.” Regardless of when Congress reaches a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, the United States will reach its debt limit sometime in the first quarter of 2013.
The debt ceiling is the maximum legal limit the U.S government can borrow at any given time. That limit is currently $16.4 trillion. The debt ceiling was established by the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, which helped finance the U.S entry into World War I. Since then, the debt ceiling has been raised almost 100 times.
So why have a “debt ceiling” at all if it has to be raised every year? Some argue that it forces lawmakers to focus on the national debt.
But Congress already has the power of the purse and can control how much the government can spend and receive in taxes. So having a statutory “debt ceiling” is pointless. It does nothing to control the national debt. If it did, it would not need to be raised every year.
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 16, 2012 —
Governor Mitt Romney thinks President Obama won because he bribed
voters with government gifts.
So much for the belief that the president won because of his get-out-the-vote
(GOTV) operation and his overwhelming support from minority groups and
women.
“What the president’s campaign did was focus on certain members of his base
coalition, give them extraordinary gifts from the government, and then work very
aggressively to turn them out to vote,” Romney said.
Less than two weeks following another failed presidential bid for Romney,
this is his take away from the election.
In fairness, losing a presidential election hurts. For Romney, the wound of
defeat runs deep, and it stings. This is his second presidential campaign. He
thought he would win it this time. He believed he had the momentum going into
Election Day.
But he did not, he and other Republicans were lied to by what David Frum
(former speechwriter for President George W. Bush) called the “conservative
entertainment complex.” The radio and Cable TV talk show hosts, conservative
bloggers, political strategists, the Dick Morris’ of the world, and others.
Nevertheless, Gov. Romney’s comments were divisive, insensitive, and
insulting. It lacked the kind of depth you would expect from the presidential
nominee of a major party. It was void of any deep reflection or
introspection.
But beyond that, Romney has a misguided view of conservatism.
Read
full article: Romney says Obama won by giving voters “gifts” from the government | Washington Times Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 8, 2012 — So much for the expectations that the presidential election would be close. It was not. President Obama won handily. Not because he offered a broad vision for the country- he did not. In fact, the Obama campaign was divisive, manipulative, and at times directionless.
Early on, the campaign simply sliced and diced the electorate into sub-groups, with targeted messages for each group. None of which was connected to any broader message.
The campaign decided that it was important to re-energize young voters so they sent the president to college campuses to talk about student loans. They wanted to keep the gender gap in their favor so all of a sudden the conversation shifted to the Republican war on women.
They wanted to show that President Obama was on the side of the middle-class so they moved on to talking about the “Buffet rule” and then to attacking Gov. Romney as a vulture capitalist. They were not kidding when they said they would try to delegitimize Romney.
He was called a flip flopper without a core. He was blamed for a woman’s death of cancer, not paying taxes and suggesting he committed a felony, outsourcing jobs to China and India while hoarding millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account and keeping tax havens in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. They even said Romney suffers from a political disease: “Romnesia.”
Nevertheless, the smallness of the Obama campaign did not prevent him from winning. Obama won because Latinos all across the country came out to vote in record numbers.
Read full article: GOP: The grand old white party | Washington Times Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 1, 2012 —
Stephen Colbert is right. Maybe hurricanes do have a liberal bias.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was a low point for the Bush presidency. One of the
most memorable images from the disaster is of President George W. Bush looking
out of his window on Air Force One as he flew over New Orleans. An image that
made him look detached and indifferent.
Hurricane Isaac delayed the 2012 Republican National Convention. And now,
thanks to Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Mitt Romney’s momentum is slowly coming to a
halt.
This disaster once again reveals the inherent advantages an incumbent
president has over any challenger. In time of crisis, the American people look
to the president for leadership, comfort and reassurance that better days are
ahead.
States that were decimated by the disaster want the president to deploy all
the federal government resources at his disposal.
So far this week, President Obama is doing all the right things. He is
striking the right tone of unity and bipartisanship, and trying to coalesce the
country around his leadership. “There are no Democrats or Republicans during a
storm,” President Obama said at a rally in Green Bay, WI.
Read full article:
Hurricane Sandy: The October surprise that could re-elect President Obama | Washington Times Communities
Posts
