http://www.rightchange.com/blog/ en lukerussellbaker@gmail.com Copyright 2013 2013-06-14T20:36:15+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obamas_changing_mantra http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obamas_changing_mantra#When:20:36:15Z How can we ever forget the cult-like chanting at the DNC last year during the Presidential elections? “Bin Laden is Dead, General Motors is alive!” Biden started it and the rest of the Democratic talking heads continued this ironic campaign slogan into November. In fact, it could be argued that this idea that Obama saved Detroit as well as lessening the threat of Al Qaeda around the world is what made him sneak a small lead over Romney at the end. It’s ironic because at the time this was happening, Detroit couldn’t pay for it’s streetlights and Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 killing 4 Americans. This trend has unfortunately continued well into his second term. Let’s start with terrorism. Putting aside the fact that the administration covered up the terrorist attack in Benghazi during the campaign while refusing to call it a terrorist attack, the threat of terrorism is alive and well. In fact, it’s as bad as ever. How? Well this is the excuse the Obama administration is using in explanation to its widespread phone probing into reporters’ records as well as everyday American citizens. Obama recently said it was a consequence of keeping Americans safe. Trust me, he said. From McClatchy: “Someone is watching you. What you spend. Where you eat. Who you call. Where you travel. What you Google. What you give to charity. Recent reports of government access to records from phone companies, Internet providers and credit card companies raise anew questions of just how much other people can know about you, especially in the age of the Internet and high technology. They watch from the air, from cameras, from computers. And you help them, volunteering vast amounts of information about yourself in the magnetic stripe on the back of your credit card, the SIM card in your phone, the sites you visit on the Internet. The government has access to some of it. And might have access to more from the vast corporations that compile it.” If Al Qaeda is decimated, we find it odd that there’s a need to spy on how many times Joe Smith from Indiana googles PGA Antler spray. Or how many times Betty Lou has donated to the Salvation Army. Let’s talk about Detroit. Thanks to the massive auto bailout and Stimulus package pushed through Congress by Mr. Obama, we’ve seen another auto bubble emerge and taxpayer loan programs default. You wouldn’t have known that if you were only paying attention to the Democrats. They made it seem like Detroit was a city with a modern day gold rush. Not so much: “A team led by a state-appointed emergency manager said Friday that Detroit is defaulting on about $2.5 billion in unsecured debt and is asking creditors to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owes them.   Kevyn Orr spent two hours with about 180 bond insurers, pension trustees, union representatives and other creditors in a move to avoid what bankruptcy experts have said would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.   Underfunded pension claims likely would get less than the 10 cents on the dollar. An assessment of the plan's progress will come in the next 30 days or so. Orr also announced that Detroit stopped paying on its unsecured debt Friday to "conserve cash" for police, fire and other services in the city of 700,000 people. The debt not being paid includes $39 million owed to a certificate of participation. "We will not pay that today," Orr told reporters after the meeting with creditors at a hotel at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus.” Well there you have it. Anytime a Democrat tells you their plan is working, you can rest assured that a default is on the horizon. Al Qaeda is alive, GM is dead. 2012 Presidential Elections, Bailouts, Budget, Economy, Elections, Foreign Policy, Job Creation, Obama, 2013-06-14T20:36:15+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/u.s._intelligence_mining_data_from_9_internet_companies http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/u.s._intelligence_mining_data_from_9_internet_companies#When:23:03:02Z We could use this blog to tell you about the unemployment rate that ticked back up for May, but you already know that the labor force is at an all-time low and doesn’t stand a chance of recovering until about 5 years at this rate of growth. Instead, let’s discuss the Obama administration’s seizure of customer data from 9 Internet companies. Let the Orwellian tactics continue. From the Washington Post: “The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley. Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” Drudge calls it the Internet from Hell. Liberal Bob Beckel calls it Fascism. Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said it was out of sync with the law. Several senior tech executives and an Apple spokesman insisted that they had no knowledge of Prism or of any similar scheme. The New York Times editorial board has said, “the Obama administration has now lost all credibility.” We say he never had it from the beginning. President Obama’s response to this mess is that nobody is listening in on your phone calls: “If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress, and don’t trust federal judges, to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here.” Obama added that the National Security agents behind the surveillance programs “cherish our Constitution.” “The last thing they’d be doing is taking programs like this to listen to someone’s phone calls,” he said. Do you trust him? Judging by the slew of scandals in the recent months, this is just what Chicago-Style Politics is. Isn’t all of thischange wonderful? Economy, Ethics, Obama, 2013-06-07T23:03:02+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obama_is_seizing_millions_of_phone_records http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obama_is_seizing_millions_of_phone_records#When:21:54:36Z If you’ve taken high-school English, you are quite familiar with the George Orwellian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in which the Oceanic Province of Airstrip One is a fictional society where the government uses a perpetual state of war to control every facet of its people. This government is controlled by a privileged Inner Party elite that uses secret surveillance to spy on its people and persecutes them for individualistic thought or action against the government. Headed by “Big Brother,” this elite political party justifies their reign by saying it is for the greater good of society or as Obama says, “collectivism.” If you’re like us, you can remember secretly mulling over the outrageousness of this fictional society - lamp posts with secret cameras that spy on you and record your conversations? How ridiculous! The point is that this literary classic used to be something we as Americans viewed as a fictional interpretation of a totalitarian society that seemed like a pretty far stretch to actually becoming reality. Now that we’re over four years under Obama’s reign, things are starting get real Orwellian. In the book, the privileged elite party ruled and they would persecute people who showed any signs of speaking out against the government. When the Tea Party began to organize in 2010 against their government for repeatedly violating the Constitution and years of deficit spending, the independent IRS who answers to nobody began harassing and discriminating against them. They demanded the Tea Party groups hand over the content of their prayers and copies of Facebook posts while refusing to grant them status as a group for over 3 years. During this probing, the IRS held 225 lavish events held over a two-year period at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $50 million – a move that even angered one of the most Liberal Democrats. This was also during the economic collapse when everyday Americans were struggling to put food on the table. So how does Big Brother remain omnipresent in 1984? Complete surveillance and spy tactics. Which brings us to Obama’s Justice Department who spied on reporters from the Associated Press as well as Fox News journalist James Rosen. They searched their emails, tapped into their telephone lines, and claimed they did it all in the name of national security. As enraging at this was, there was a valid notion that the reporters could have leaked a story that would have jeopardized national security. But then this story broke: “The Obama administration on Thursday defended its collection of the telephone records of millions of Americans as part of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, re-igniting a fierce debate over privacy even as it called the program critical to warding off an attack. The admission came after Britain's Guardian newspaper published on Wednesday a secret court order authorizing the collection of phone records generated by millions of Verizon Communications customers. Privacy advocates blasted the order as unconstitutional government surveillance and called for a review of the program amid renewed concerns about intelligence-gathering efforts launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.” It’s beginning to look like a regular old George Orwell novel. What was once a fictional book that depicted a government who exercised total control over its citizens' lives is now becoming real life here in America – including those government spy lamps. Ethics, Obama, Taxes, 2013-06-06T21:54:36+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/audit_the_irs http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/audit_the_irs#When:22:04:47Z During the time the IRS was demanding Conservative groups report their prayers as part of a “routine” process for an audit, they were also taking a lavish $4 million conference where employees could learn about Leadership through art. The Washington Examiner: “The Internal Revenue Service spent $4.1 million on a single employee conference held in Anaheim, Calif., in 2010, one of 225 such events held over a two-year period at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $50 million. According to a 63-page report authored by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and obtained by The Washington Examiner, the conference costs were approved by the both of the IRS’ deputy commissioners and were paid for by taking money from an IRS account intended for hiring “enforcement employees.” The report also found shoddy documentation of conference spending, leading IRS auditors to question whether the final tally for the conferences is even accurate. Other conferences included an August 2010 Technical Training Symposium for the agency’s taxpayer advocate service, which included 2,113 participants at a cost of nearly $3 million, the report found.” There are a couple takeaways minus the obvious hypocrisy of epic proportions. The IRS claimed that it delayed the approval process for these Tea Party groups because they were understaffed. Well gee golly, maybe they could have used the $4 million taken out of the “Enforcement Employees” fund to hire more people. Another take away is the fact that they didn’t go through a bidding process to get a lower rate for the conference, so they conference planners at the IRS got a 5% commission for not going through the bidding process. That’ right, the conference planners got a total of $66,500 each of taxpayer dollars for deliberately not trying to save taxpayer money. Lastly, at the same time these corrupt individuals were demanding Joe Schmo at your local coffee shop to cough up his receipts for a bag of espresso beans bought in 1998, they kept no receipt for this $4 million freak show. Unbelievable. Watch CNN’s package on this whole thing below. It’s high time we demand the IRS go through an audit and provide documentation of how they’ve spent our money…oh wait. 2013-06-05T22:04:47+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/furlough_friday http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/furlough_friday#When:18:13:55Z Headline from Reuters: Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Internal Revenue Service and the Office of Management and Budget stayed home Friday. Response from RightChange: good. The individuals of these agencies fell victim to across the board budget cuts that created an unpaid day off for 115,000 workers. Even though most people in the private sector have suffered much worse, it’s no fun to lose a day’s wages. So hopefully this free time will give these individuals an opportunity for reflection. A reflection on the kind of people they are working for and who pays them every month. In the wake of recent scandals happening in the Obama administration, the EPA is no stranger. Since Obama came in office, they are responsible for job-killing regulations that have literally put small business out of business and billions of dollars of taxpayer money lost. Now they are being accused of targeting Conservative groups requesting FOIA requests and charging them extra money for it. The Department of Housing and Urban Development isn’t in the recent spotlight, but has had its share of mismanagement and scandals in the recent years. Like their $300,000 grant to ACORN and their subsidy scandals throughout the past three Presidential administrations. And of course, the Internal Revenue Service, who targeted Conservative Tea Party groups for years performing invasive audits and bullying tactics to slow down the momentum of the Tea Party. They demanded lists, names, Facebook posts, and interrogated those who applied. Not to mention the fact that all of the higher-ups denied complete knowledge and involvement and threw a bunch of low-level “rogue” employees under the bus. That sounds like a great company to work for! The employees of these various agencies need to think about whether or not they want to be a reflection of these shady organizations. Who wants to be associated with a company who goes into debt, discriminates against its customers, and only acts on behalf of the few? They also need to keep in mind who is cutting their paycheck because it’s definitely not the boss who’s throwing them under the bus. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Economy, Energy, Ethics, Housing, Obama, Taxes, 2013-05-24T18:13:55+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/the_know_nothing_administration http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/the_know_nothing_administration#When:20:42:47Z We’ve never seen an administration full of so many know-nothings. After a series of scandals rocked the Obama administration, Republicans pounced on the opportunity to demand answers on the IRS targeting, media snooping, and a terrorist attack cover-up. Whether it was an official testimony or a press conference, the leaders of all these agencies plead ignorance or cast blame – which led us to ask what the need for their job was in the first place. Now it’s becoming clear that these scandals are merely distractions from the ultimate scandal. Joseph Curl at the Washington Times wrote a brilliant opinion piece detailing the uncanny timing of the release of the IRS and DOJ scandals, proving that they are the ultimate distraction from Benghazi: “Spoiler alert: The IRS scandal, the AP phone records scandal — they go nowhere. In September, we’ll all be looking back thinking, “Huh, that was a big waste of time.” It will be — in fact, it already is. Just when Benghazi has reached critical mass, the Obama administration, which has had only one scandal (Fast and Furious early in term 1, and that fizzled fast and furiously), suddenly has two more scandals? Coincidence, yes? No. Not at all. They were dropped, on purpose, at a most convenient time, and they’re already played out. Exactly according to plan.” Let’s start with the AP phone scandal in which the DOJ secretly tapped the call logs of the Associated Press reporters.  Attorney General, Eric Holder, immediately recused himself from the case and answered, “I don’t know” to virtually every question asked by the House Oversight committee. Currently, nobody at the DOJ has lost his or her job over it. This scandal will fizzle faster than the Recovery Summer. Next up is the IRS scandal where they targeted Tea Party groups, affecting the outcome of the 2012 election. They probed these groups, demanding emails, Facebook posts, and book lists while denying them status for their tax exempt group and approving the Liberal groups instead. President Obama got really mad (really mad!) and called for the resignation of the IRS Commissioner – his term ended anyway on June 8th, 2013. The administration proceeded to blame a couple “rogue” employees at the Cincinnati branch of the IRS. Curl points out the most interesting tidbit of all. Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division in charge of evaluating nonprofit organizations, released the scandal herself to a bunch of lawyers. This story wasn’t the result of a hard-working press digging to keep the administration accountable– Lerner released the story herself. What perfect timing. By the way, Lerner plead the fifth in front of Congress during her testimony after saying, “I did nothing wrong.” Surreeee. The timing and the choice targets are pretty interesting too. You can always count on the Tea Party and the Media to make some noise and how convenient to enrage them right when the nation is focused on Benghazi. It’s clear these “scandals” were part of a greater plan: “Neither scandal matters, certainly not now. The IRS mess stretches back years — reports say as long ago as 2009 — but Team Obama has already gotten what it wanted: The IRS, most likely at the direction of the White House, slowed down the growth of the tea party, changing the 2012 election immeasurably. The phone fiasco, over a published AP story no one even remembers, does not appear to lead anywhere, least of all back to the White House. So the DOJ guys know somebody at one phone number dialed somebody at another phone number? So what? Who cares? While both “scandals” are all over but the shouting, the shouting will consume the summer. Into the dog days with both scandals we go. Meanwhile, the president is steadfastly moving on his agenda on guns, amnesty, Obamacare — and far away from Benghazi, dismissed as a political witch hunt. Need proof? Last week, Mr. Obama took two questions from the press corps — one on the IRS mess, the other on the phone scandal. Success — Benghazi is gone, forgotten. Meanwhile, no one even knows where the president was the night a U.S. ambassador was murdered, or why the U.S. military sent no help. No one knows who inserted into official talking points a false story that an anti-Islam video led to the massacre. And no one seems to care — least of all the White House. “I don’t remember what room the president was in on that night, and that’s a largely irrelevant fact,” top Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton angrily spat: “What difference, at this point, does it make?” And the president last week said simply: “There’s no there there.” The fact that an administration is telling us there’s nothing to see here is proof enough that something shady is going on. Which brings us to the ultimate point here. Each leader of every organization including the President himself has either plead the fifth or said they have no clue about these scandals. As Curl said: “You think anyone will find the president’s fingerprints on orders demanding that the agency crack down on political opponents? Please. This is the Chicago mafia: They cover their tracks and they long ago filed off their fingerprints.” Either they know nothing, or this is just Chicago style politics at it’s finest. We aren’t fooled, Mr. President. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Economy, Liberal Media, Obama, Obama Libya Leadership, Taxes, 2013-05-22T20:42:47+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/who_is_in_control_of_the_united_states_government http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/who_is_in_control_of_the_united_states_government#When:20:48:46Z Why...at this point, does America even need a President? It is a legitimate question worth asking in light of recent events. We have now learned from President Obama that he is not responsible for the IRS, The Department of Justice, the Treasury, the CIA, the FBI, or the State Department –all of which have run amok under his administration. Multi-year Cover-ups, scandals, and intrusions of freedom have surfaced over the past couple weeks and Mr. Obama has claimed responsibility for none of it. Who is in control of the United States government? After four Americans died in Benghazi at the hands of a terrorist group, Obama blamed it on a YouTube video and headed off to a slew of fundraisers. It was later learned through a series of Congressional testimonies that the administration edited talking points twelve times to make it look like it wasn’t an act of terror as Obama campaigned under his “Al Qaeda is decimated” slogan. We also learned Special Forces were told to stand down during the attack, leaving those four Americans without the help of their country. Obama blamed the CIA. Hillary blamed the State Department for not showing her the wires. So we basically learned from this terrorist attack that President Obama and Hillary Clinton are not in charge of our national security. When news broke that the IRS had been targeting Conservative groups that included probing them, asking them for personal information, denying status to Republican groups while granting it to Liberal groups, and even requesting that they not include some opinions in their platform, the public was told the President heard about it on the evening news. Even though the IRS leaked information to his campaign apparatus that was used against the Romney campaign, there is no involvement from the President. He had no clue.  In fact, his top campaign advisor even said the government is just too big for the President to keep up with it all. The officials at the IRS blamed low-level “rogue” employees. President Obama and the IRS officials are not in charge of collecting your taxes. To add insult to injury, the Associated Press came out with a story that the Department of Justice was spying on them by listening to reporters phone records without lawfully making them aware of it. Obama blamed the DOJ and the head of the DOJ, Eric Holder, passed the blame for that too! The nation’s top law enforcement officer said he didn’t know anything about the situation and accepted not an ounce of responsibility. President Obama and Eric Holder are not in charge of ensuring public safety and freedom. If Obama isn’t responsible and the heads of those agencies aren’t responsible, who is?! If the leaders of these agencies are not going to take responsibility for their agency, then they shouldn’t be the leader of it. They may as well give the responsibility of our nation’s greatest tasks to the low level administrative employee instead. The framers of our Constitution were pretty serious about protecting the people from tyrannical government – hence where the Tea Party got its name. That protection obviously failed to happen in the past 3 years under President Obama and if he refuses take responsibility for it all, then he should resign from the position that requires you to bear all responsibility. 2012 Presidential Elections, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Obama, Taxes, 2013-05-16T20:48:46+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/white_house_deletes_cia_talking_points http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/white_house_deletes_cia_talking_points#When:19:53:20Z Hillary Clinton asked Congress, “What difference does it make?” in regards to their attempts to uncover what went wrong during the Benghazi attacks? A question we are learning has a series of answers. Here’s the latest. When four Americans were murdered in Libya on 9/11, Ambassador Susan Rice went on several Sunday morning talk shows telling us these murders were the result of a protest in response to a Youtube video making fun of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Obama denounced it, Hillary denounced, and Carney denounced it. Once we learned it had nothing to do with the video and was a complete Al-Qaeda terrorist attack, the Obama administration blamed the CIA for Susan Rice’s talking points, denying all responsibility to getting the story 100% wrong. Now we have learned that is simply just not true: “ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack. White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department.  The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.” So not only was the State Department heavily involved in editing the talking points, they outright tried to avoid any blame on the administration. Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, raised specific objections to this paragraph in the talking points: “The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya.  These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s convoy. We cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.” Here’s what Nuland said: “could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either?  Concerned …” That paragraph was deleted. Nuland also asked to delete the CIA’s references to Al-Qaeda ties in the attack for fear of “prejudice in the investigation.” There you have it.  The White House threw the CIA under the bus, rewrote the story in hopes it would help Obama’s election chances, and has denied all involvement since then. All of this at the expense of Americans and most importantly, the victims of Islamic terrorism. 2013-05-10T19:53:20+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/reid_says_more_funding_is_needed_for_obamacare http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/reid_says_more_funding_is_needed_for_obamacare#When:19:23:18Z We know what Republicans think of Obamacare and we could take a solid guess at what Democrats thought of it after they ran against it during the 2010 elections. Fast-forward to 2013 and we really know how Democrats feel about their landmark healthcare legislation. Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, one of the health reform law's chief authors, referred to Obamacare as a “train wreck.” This week, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed with him. From the Hill: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he shares colleagues’ concerns that the Affordable Care Act could become a “train wreck” if it’s not implemented properly. Reid warned that people will not be able to choose health insurance plans on government health exchanges if federal authorities lack the resources to set them up and educate the public. “Max said unless we implement this properly it’s going to be a train wreck, and I agree with him,” Reid said, echoing a warning delivered last month by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).” Although the way Reid has proposed fixing the problem is as scary as an actual train wreck: “Reid warned the federal government is not spending enough money to implement the law because of Republican opposition to ObamaCare. “Here’s what we have now, we have the menu but we don’t have any way to get to the menu,” Reid said. Reid made his comments during an hour-long interview on "The Rusty Humphries Show" broadcast Wednesday afternoon from Las Vegas. The shortage of funding to implement the law has forced President Obama to shift funds from other parts of the law. “The president is taking money — I wish we had the money just to do this on its own, but he’s agreed, he’s determined he’s going to take money from some of the other things that he feels are less important in the healthcare bill and put it on letting you and others know what’s in the bill,” Reid told a caller to the show.” How can a trillion dollar healthcare law not be enough money? Let’s not forget the slew of tax increases already enacted just to pay for the existing costs of the law. How does Reid expect to find more money? Uncle Sam. This is what happens when you let the government control a business. It ends up just like the DMV or the Post Office. It’s been about three years since Obamacare passed and the promises of lower premiums and costs are long gone. 2013-05-03T19:23:18+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/spring_job_slowdown http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/spring_job_slowdown#When:20:58:50Z Let’s face it, the economy sucked before the Presidential elections. Political strategists everywhere thought at the end of the day, people would cast their ballot for the candidate who had the capacity to get them a job. In fact, Romney was poised to win on the economy alone. For a long time there was a question mark over how the Obama campaign machine could run on a record of a measly 300,000 private jobs added and a 1 million job loss in the public sector since he took office. Somehow, Obama’s team convinced the public (with the help of Bill Clinton) that nobody could have created jobs with the massive recession Obama was handed. America bought it. Now we still haven’t added enough jobs to cover what was lost in the recession and every jobs report that comes out is barely enough to keep up with population growth. This past month was no different. From Business Insider: The number is out and it's weak. Analysts were looking for 150K new private sector jobs. Instead the number just came in at just 119K. Remember, ADP just captures the private sector side of Non-Farm payrolls, so it's not a perfect analogue for the official jobs report, which will come out on Friday. That being said, over time the number is consistent with official numbers, and this number in particular is consistent with a lot of the weak data. This chart from the report is particularly interesting. According to ADP, manufacturing actually lost jobs! This is well below what economists predicted, suggesting a slowdown headed into the Spring and Summer months. Not only is the manufacturing sector suffering, but the housing market is at its lowest rate since 1995: “The U.S. homeownership rate fell to the lowest in almost 18 years, reflecting rising demand for rentals and investor purchases in the housing market. The share of Americans who own their homes was 65 percent in the first quarter, down from 65.4 percent a year earlier and the lowest level since the third quarter of 1995, the Census Bureau reported today. The vacancy rate for rented homes dropped to 8.6 percent from 8.8 percent.” Let’s also not forget that unemployment is above 10% in most states and the reason the unemployment rate continues to shrink is because so many people are giving up looking for work all together. Of course, we will report the actual numbers for April when they come out Friday, but in the meantime, one has to wonder when America will realize that Obama didn’t need another four years to get the job done.  These recent jobs numbers prove he isn’t getting it done. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Economy, Housing, Job Creation, Obama, 2013-05-02T20:58:50+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/boston_bombers_received_welfare http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/boston_bombers_received_welfare#When:20:36:41Z April is always a grueling month where half of Americans in this country write a check to Uncle Sam and ponder what it’s being used for in Washington. For millennials, it’s for retirement programs they will never benefit from. For small business owners, it’s for an administration that regulates them out of business. But for all taxpayers, it is for the welfare that Boston bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and their families, received while they plotted to bomb the Boston Marathon. From the Boston Herald: “Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned. State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home. In addition, both of Tsarnaev’s parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state. The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money.” Don’t expect any details on what types of taxpayer-funded benefits they receieved either. The governor of Massachusetts is refusing to release that information: “But when the Herald asked for records on how much Tsarnaev received on his EBT card and his spending habits, state officials shut it down. That was the same story when questions were raised about Tsarnaev’s state unemployment compensation. Amazingly, state labor department spokesman Kevin Franck sided with Tsarnaev and said the dead hatemonger’s rights trump public interest. Those records are “confidential and not a matter of public record,” Franck said in sticking up for the killer. The state’s incredible defense of Tamerlan Tsarnaev incensed US Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Boston).“It’s certainly relevant information that should be made public,” Lynch said. “There’s a national security interest No. 1. Secondly, there’s also a public interest in finding out whether these individuals were able to exploit the system and get benefits they weren’t entitled to.” So there are two major problems we have going on here. The first of course is our welfare policy. There is so much waste in the system and it’s truly painful to see that American taxpayers funded a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The bigger problem is our immigration system. These two bombers were immigrants from Chechnya, Russia that came here on a student visa. The eldest bomber made a trip back to Russia and Russia warned the FBI multiple times that he was becoming radicalized. The biggest problem is that the bombers were taken off the terror watch list. How is it with all of these warnings, the older brother continued to receive public assistance? So while you cut that fat check to Uncle Sam this month, remember where your money is going. Budget, Deficit, Economy, Foreign Policy, 2013-04-25T20:36:41+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obamas_fy2014_budget_lol http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obamas_fy2014_budget_lol#When:16:53:07Z To start off this write up of President Obama’s FY2014 budget, let’s open with a quote from a Democratic aide from yesterday’s Roll Call: “I’m well past the point of trying to understand what, if any, strategy is behind anything this administration does.” One would think that after two years of failed budgets, President Obama would learn to stop recycling the same failed policies over and over again. Arriving two months behind schedule, Obama unveiled his budget with tax increases at more than $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Here's a summary: Revenue Increases There will be a cigarette and tobacco product tax to pay for “early childhood education” investments. The Buffett Rule would place a 30% tax on anyone making over $1 million. There would be a capping of the amount families could have in their retirement accounts at $3 million, which forces families to pay taxes on income that they couldn’t store in tax-deferred retirement accounts. Obama’s budget would also seek to raise the death tax to 45% and lower the exemption to $3.5 million. Lastly, it would limit the value one can claim for the charitable tax deduction at 28%. Entitlement Reform You may keep hearing the acronym “Chained CPI,” and Obama’s budget is seeking to change the way the IRS adjusts tax brackets for inflation each year when it comes to Social Security. This puts pushes taxpayers into higher tax brackets sooner, resulting in more revenue. The budget would also limit Medicare payments to beneficiaries and providers and asking wealthy Senior to pay more into the system. Spending Gimmicks Cuts Keeping in line with the way Democrats do budgets, President Obama’s budget finds spending cuts by using the good old Washington budget gimmicks. Mr. Obama said the budget would reduce deficits by $1.8 trillion over 10 years. The numbers says otherwise. His budget calls for a $1 trillion spending increase funded by $1.1 trillion tax increase, which means the total deficit reduction in this 10-year budget is $119 billion, beginning in 2020. It uses war savings, projected savings from Obamacare, and replaces the sequester and counts it as savings.  Under his budget, deficits would never drop below $400 billion in that time. Not a single Democrat in the Senate voted for Obama's last 2 budgets. We imagine this one will be no different. Budget, Commercials, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Entitlement Reform, Health Care, Obama, Obamacare, Taxes, 2013-04-11T16:53:07+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/march_sadness_90_million_give_up_looking_for_work http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/march_sadness_90_million_give_up_looking_for_work#When:17:52:43Z If you have checked any of the headlines today, you already know the jobs numbers for March were just plain sad. It is hard to believe that after a long Presidential cycle, so many people fell for the Obama narrative that the economy was coming back. Why is it that after four years of misery does the country still fall for the empty promises of Barack Obama and his messaging team? Stimulus spending was supposed to save the U.S. economy; then came the “Recovery Summer.” Obamacare was supposed to reduce healthcare cost; then came the crazy debt/cost projections. All of the tax hikes and government expanding was supposed to create millions of jobs; then came the series of tepid jobs reports. This past month of March was different though, it was worse. According to the Department of Labor, the unemployment for March 2013 was little changed at 7.6%. The US economy added 88,000 jobs for March – not enough to keep up with population growth. Approximately over half a million people gave up looking for work bringing the total to 90 million, and there are only 63.3% of Americans in the labor force – the lowest since 1979. The Associated Press has the explanation for the lower unemployment rate:“The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dipped to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent. While that is the lowest in four years, the rate fell only because more people stopped looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for a job.” That being said, we need to also look at the amount of people on government assistance. There are 46.48 million Americans on welfare, 8.8 million are on disability, and about 49.1% of the U.S. population lives in a house where at least one person is receiving government benefits. That shouldn’t shock you since 49% of people in the country don’t pay taxes. Paying your fair share? More like receiving it. Clearly we do not need any more government interference; we need jobs. How could anyone look at the fact that $16.7 trillion in debt got us into a situation where half the country is not working and is receiving taxpayer funded government assistance and go, “Yeah, let’s vote for another Democrat!” We need to elect leaders who will change these shoddy economic policies from Obama and the Democrats before tthere's nobody left to pay for it all. 2012 Presidential Elections, Bailouts, Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Entitlement Reform, Job Creation, Obama, 2013-04-05T17:52:43+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/whos_ready_for_another_housing_collapse http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/whos_ready_for_another_housing_collapse#When:16:39:05Z Not to sound like those daytime tv cowboys in the commercials scaring you into buying gold, but we warned you this was happening. If Obama were serious about preventing another economic crisis, he would have fixed the problems that led us into it in the first place. Instead, he has is pushing banks to make more risky mortgage loans available that caused the housing crash in 2008. Good catch from the Washington Post: “President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession. In response, administration officials say they are working to get banks to lend to a wider range of borrowers by taking advantage of taxpayer-backed programs — including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration — that insure home loans against default. Housing officials are urging the Justice Department to provide assurances to banks, which have become increasingly cautious, that they will not face legal or financial recriminations if they make loans to riskier borrowers who meet government standards but later default. Officials are also encouraging lenders to use more subjective judgment in determining whether to offer a loan and are seeking to make it easier for people who owe more than their properties are worth to refinance at today’s low interest rates, among other steps.” Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane. We need to face the reality of what led us to the first housing crisis. The Clinton administration steered this entire crisis by pressuring Fannie and Freddie to insure loans to people that could not pay them.  Consumers with weak credit obviously took advantage of this and made poor financial decisions by buying homes they couldn’t cash a check for.  Wall Street and the banks basically got away with murder by insuring and profiting off of these terrible circumstances. It’s not that complicated. The only difference between then and now is that the Federal Housing Administration has just taken on the role that Fannie and Freddie had in 2008.  So the federal government will now be acting as the mortgage insurers, let’s all just reflect on how it will look when the government needs a government bailout. So why, in all that is sane, would Barack Obama now publically pressure the banks to steer us into another economic calamity? Was the first crisis not destructive enough? Sorry folks, we’ve got nothing. Bailouts, Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Housing, Obama, 2013-04-05T16:39:05+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obama_declares_april_the_month_to_teach_how_to_budget_responsibility http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obama_declares_april_the_month_to_teach_how_to_budget_responsibility#When:17:57:58Z President Obama officially declared the month of April as “National Financial Capability Month” during which his administration will teach young people, “how to budget responsibly.” There are some April Fools’ jokes that are just too good not to share. Unfortunately, that one was not one of them. President Obama said the following in an official proclamation released Friday: “I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices. My Administration is dedicated to helping people make sound decisions in the marketplace.” "Together, we can prepare young people to tackle financial challenges--from learning how to budget responsibly to saving for college, starting a business, or opening a retirement account. My Administration continues to encourage responsibility at all levels of our financial system by cracking down on deceptive practices and ensuring that consumers are informed of their rights.” This statement release directed viewers to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and MyMoney.gov for more information. There are links on these sites that lead viewers to topics like “Getting the most from your credit card” as well as how to “Stay Below your Credit Limit.” You can’t make this stuff up! Only in Washington can a President whose administration has overspent taxpayer money by over $6 trillion lecture young people on staying below their credit limit. Only in Washington can a Democratic Senate that failed to pass a budget in over four years encourage young people to budget responsibly. Let’s also keep in mind that if Obama were so good at budgeting, there would have been at least ONE Democratic Senator who would have voted for his budgets. We swear, this is like asking the Post Office for tips on how to make your business more efficient. If private businesses decide to start following the government’s example, we are all in big trouble: Stimulus, Obamacare, the Environmental Protection Agency, Solyndra, tax hikes, and overreaching regulations are hardly examples of “sound decisions in the marketplace.” This is the ultimate April Fools’ joke. The only problem is it’s really funny until you realize it’s true. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Elections, Obama, Obamacare, Stimulus, 2013-04-01T17:57:58+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/why_we_must_get_to_the_bottom_of_benghazi http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/why_we_must_get_to_the_bottom_of_benghazi#When:22:35:41Z September 11th, 2001 seems like a lifetime ago – and for some, it actual was. After the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terror, as well at the successful Democratic campaign against Bush’s policies, Americans became weary of war. Take a look at the main victim of sequestration? It’s defense spending. Americans are putting their war frustrations on the chopping block and ignoring the possibility that the United States is on the cusp of a terrorist emergency. As we continue to focus on our domestic budget battles, we ought to consider the importance of the department of defense during this time. What happened in Libya last summer was one of the first major terrorist attacks committed against the United States since September 11, 2001. What occurred for months after that attack was a major denial from the administration of why the attacks were committed, a meltdown at the State Department, and one of the biggest cover-ups since the Nixon administration. Most importantly, nothing was done to rectify Al Qaeda terrorists killing our U.S. ambassador, and three other Americans. Nothing. Hillary Clinton was called to testify before the Senate and had an emotional tantrum against Senate Republicans who dared to ask the question, “What went wrong?” After Clinton had her phony display, Senate Democrats rolled over and accepted the administration’s pathetic excuse for foreign policy in Libya. Perhaps it was that paired with America’s exhaustion over war and focus on domestic problems that led to the scandal in Benghazi fizzling out like an old flame. We shouldn’t as a nation, let Benghazi go. Benghazi was a little glimpse into how President Obama and his administration would handle a terrorist attack.  Let’s point to the current threats being made against the United States: Cyber warfare from the Chinese. This has the potential to shut down air traffic, electricity, public transportation, and our electric grid. The spectrum is limitless. Nuclear attack from Iran. Iran has already been caught plotting a terrorist attack in Washington D.C. It’s close to developing a nuke which it promises to use against the United States and continues to capture U.S. drones with confidential information. Nuclear Threats from North Korea. North Korea (who already has a nuke) has recently declared it plans to take out the United States. Russia votes against the United States every chance it gets and is playing nice with China and Pakistan who have been rumored to support Iran in it’s nuclear pursuit. They have also threatened to target U.S. defense missile sites. And those are just the major ones. We have terrorist regimes building in Sudan and Somalia as well as many other countries in the Middle East. The United States is facing a grave threat of terrorism and we need an administration prepared to handle it. After all is said and done in Benghazi….do you feel our current administration is prepared to handle a large-scale terrorist attack or to even prepare against it? Records leading up to the attacks in Libya showed that U.S. forces were begging for more security multiple times at the embassy which was outright denied, multiple times. The administration spent weeks telling the American people that the attack was a protest from a YouTube video. Then the story unfolded. There was an internal meltdown at the State Department and President Obama barely had a meeting with officials when he learned of the attack before he left for a slew of fundraisers. We still haven’t figured out who exactly was in control of the situation and Hillary Clinton tells us to essentially shutup because, “what difference does it make?!” How our government protects its citizens in regards to national security makes a big difference. This is why we can’t afford to let the true story of Benghazi die. We must not let our fears of starting another war get in the way of preventing another terrorist attack. Senator Lindsey Graham agrees. If we continue to let the Obama administration cover up their mistake, we will suffer for it. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Economy, Foreign Policy, Obama, Obama Libya Leadership, 2013-03-21T22:35:41+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/boehner_obama_and_ryan_agree_on_the_debt http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/boehner_obama_and_ryan_agree_on_the_debt#When:21:38:49Z The leading politician in the House has concluded that the tax hikes are ending and the debt crisis in not immediate. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz during an exclusive interview that the idea that we are in an immediate debt crisis is not true and that the tax increase debate is over. From ABC News:  “The president believes that we have to have more taxes from the American people. We’re not going to get very far,” Boehner said. “The president got his tax hikes on January 1.  The talk about raising revenue is over.  It’s time to deal with the spending problem.” Boehner said the United States does not face an immediate debt problem, agreeing with recent comments by President Obama – but he added debt is an issue that will have to be addressed. “We do not have an immediate debt crisis – but we all know that we have one looming,” he said. “And we have one looming because we have entitlement programs that are not sustainable in their current form. They’re going to go bankrupt.” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) also agreed with Boehner on CBS News’s “Face The Nation” that America is not in an immediate debt crisis saying, “We do not have a debt crisis right now, but we see it coming.” So Obama, Boehner and Ryan agree on something! …Not that it is much to celebrate or anything. We are unsure whether Boehner and Ryan meant that we aren’t facing an immediate showdown in Congress over the debt or that our debt is tamed right now. In an effort to not get into semantics, we’ll just say this about the national debt: When our government has overspent the money it takes in by $16 Trillion, that is an immediate crisis. When our leaders spend $10 billion per day, that is an immediate crisis. When the interest alone on our debt costs $3 Trillion, we are in the midst of an immediate crisis. One last question from Obama, Boehner and Ryan: If we’re not in an immediate crisis…then what are we in? Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, 2013-03-18T21:38:49+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/senate_democrat_budget_gets_a_dress_down http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/senate_democrat_budget_gets_a_dress_down#When:21:20:15Z Sparks flew Thursday, and it wasn’t just at CPAC. Republicans on the Budget committee had an 11-hour dress down of the Senate Democrats latest budget that includes $1 trillion in new taxes and uses double counting to achieve savings. The plan was put up for questioning and the point of contention throughout the hearing was over the Democrats claim that the budget saves $4 trillion.  The author of the budget, Sen. Patty Murray, claims the budget achieves $975 billion in cuts from FY 2104-2023. She counts $240 billion we haven’t spent on the Afghanistan war, a combined $515 billion in savings from domestic and mandatory spending, and assumes a drawdown of interest payments. The problem is that they do away with the sequester, or in other words, take away the cuts that were put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The Washington Examiner explains further: The problem is that these paper spending cuts are more than offset by the proposal to spend $960 billion to replace the automatic sequestration spending cuts as well as the $100 billion in new stimulus spending. The deficit reduction that does exist comes in the form of tax increases. The budget says, it, “Achieves $975 billion in deficit reduction by closing loopholes and eliminating wasteful spending in the tax code that benefits the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.” But it doesn’t specify which loopholes will be closed.” Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was the loudest critic of this budget gimmick. From Politico: “You can’t flip-flop baselines around here all over the place,” Sessions told the staff. When a staffer compared the Senate base to Ryan’s baseline, Sessions wasn’t pleased. “Mr. Ryan’s budget is honest and it’s paid for and this is not,” Sessions shot back. Sessions argued that the Democratic proposal would only reduce the deficit by $700 billion. “When the American people are hearing this, they’re hearing our colleagues announce with great pride that they’re reducing the deficit by $1.85 trillion,” Sessions said. “I’m deeply disappointed it does not do that. It makes no change in the debt course of America, leaving us on an unsustained path.” Sessions repeatedly called the budget proposal a “lie” and “false.” The Democrats on this committee spent more time bashing House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget that actually balances the budget and addresses entitlement reform. We assume that was a way for them to divert the conversation off of the fact that their budget does nothing but increase spending and raise taxes.  We’ll give Senator Sessions the final word: “We believe this budget does not meet the challenge of time, it does not put us on a path that is sound.” 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Deficit, Economy, Keep Congress Accountable, 2013-03-15T21:20:15+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/senate_democrats_unveil_first_budget_in_4_years http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/senate_democrats_unveil_first_budget_in_4_years#When:19:46:28Z Today marks the end of the four-year streak Senate Democrats were on of failing to produce a budget. Senate Democrats finally unveiled their budget blueprint, led by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), which includes a mix of spending “cuts” and $1 trillion in new taxes. Cut them some slack though, it's always a rough start when you take four years off. Not only does this budget collect an additional trillion dollars in new taxes ($620 billion in new taxes from the fiscal cliff deal), but also it fails to cut spending. It repeals the sequester, spends an additional $100 billion on more economic stimulus, and simply lowers the rate of growth in spending. It also fails to reign in our deficits: From the Hill: “Murray argues that her budget cuts $1.85 trillion from deficits over ten years. But once the sequester cuts are turned off, Murray’s budget appears to reduce deficits by about $800 billion, using the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline. The Murray budget does not contain net spending cuts with the sequester turned off.” The budget raises taxes and closes all of the loopholes, for individuals and corporations and achieves these so called “cuts” through money that we have yet to spend from the Afghanistan war. Apparently that chalks up $482 billion in “savings.” Let’s pause for a moment of quick reflection. Let’s say you declare that you want to buy a new $30,000 car. Then, a week later, you decide you don’t want to buy it anymore and start cheering, “I just saved $30,000!” People would think you were an idiot. This is how a Democrat achieves “savings.” They count money we were planning to spend that we decided not to spend as savings. It’s ridiculous. Back to the new Democratic budget: it will include $493 billion in other “cuts” and absolutely no reform to our entitlement programs. Somehow, Murray argues that when you count the apparent $2.4 trillion in savings from the last Congress, her budget presents $4 trillion in deficit reduction. In sum, here is some simple math to help you understand Senate Democrat’s latest budget. A Cut in the rate of growth from last Congress + Money we haven’t spent yet + $1 trillion in new taxes +  = A magical budget the reduces the deficit by $4 trillion. This new budget is a joke, along with all Senate Democrats. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Keep Congress Accountable, Stimulus, 2013-03-12T19:46:28+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/89304000_americans_not_in_labor_forceor_force http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/89304000_americans_not_in_labor_forceor_force#When:21:11:50Z The unemployment rate dipped to 7.7% for February, from 7.8% in January, the lowest level since 2008 – hold your cheers though, there is a good explanation for this. From CNN: “The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in February, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. That's much stronger growth than in January, when employers hired a revised 119,000 workers. The gains were broad-based as offices, restaurants, construction firms and hospitals all added jobs. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dipped to 7.7%, as 12 million workers were counted as unemployed. The drop was partly because more people said they got jobs, but also because 130,000 people dropped out of the labor force.” This has been a trend for almost 2 years now: the unemployment rate continues to drop because more people are dropping out of the labor force. If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be more like 11.1%.  When Obama first took office, the labor participation rate was 65.7%; it’s 63.5% now – of course the unemployment rate is going to go down when you aren’t counting the actual number of people who are actively seeking work. CNS News has the astonishing number of Americans “not in the labor force:” “The number of Americans designated as "not in the labor force" in February was 89,304,000, a record high, up from 89,008,000 in January, according to the Department of Labor. This means that the number of Americans not in the labor force increased 296,000 between January and February. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) labels people who are unemployed and no longer looking for work as “not in the labor force,” including people who have retired on schedule, taken early retirement, or simply given up looking for work. The increase marks the second month in a row, after rising in January from 88.8 million in December.  Those not in the labor force had declined in December from 88.9 million in November.” This is not a recovery; this is the new normal: high taxes, shrinking middle class, government dependency, and the loss of the American dream. Budget, Economy, Job Creation, Obama, Stimulus, 2013-03-08T21:11:50+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/is_obama_losing_the_sequestration_pr_battle http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/is_obama_losing_the_sequestration_pr_battle#When:23:29:43Z Obama’s poll numbers take a post-sequester dive. That is the main headline from the Washington Times. His approval rating tumbled to its lowest level in Gallup’s three-day average since his reelection.  The poll shows his approval rating averaging 46% from the week ending in March 2nd, when it was 51% the week prior. Another poll taken by CBS and the Wall Street Journal has the public dividing blame for the sequester, 38% to Republicans and 33% to Obama. Could this mean that the public is starting to doubt Obama’s sequester scare tactics? The fact checkers sure are. From POLITICO: “Fact-checkers have had their hands full in recent weeks as the Obama administration has tried to detail the expected impacts of automatic sequester cuts. As POLITICO’s Glenn Thrush and Carrie Budoff Brown report on the home page, the White House now has pulled back from issuing doomsday scenarios after some of their claims fell flat. Here are six such claims: “You know, those Capitol janitors will not get as much overtime. I’m sure they think less pay, that they’re taking home, does hurt.” — Gene Sperling, director of the White House economic council, on ABC News’ “This Week.” Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post Fact Checker “On the issue of the janitors, if you work for an hourly wage and you earn overtime, and you depend on that overtime to make ends meet, it is simply a fact that a reduction in overtime is a reduction in your pay.” — White House spokesman Jay Carney Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post Fact Checker “If the sequester hits, federal prosecutors will have to "let criminals go." -- President Barack Obama Mostly False from Politifact.com “Federally assisted programs like Meals on Wheels would be able to serve 4 million fewer meals to seniors.” — White House fact sheet on the impact of sequestration Two Pinocchios from the Washington Post Fact Checker "There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips" because of sequestration. -- Education Secretary Arne Duncan on "Face the Nation." Mostly False from Politifact.com “70,000 young children would be kicked off Head Start” – White House fact sheet on sequester “Up to 70,000 children would lose access to Head Start and early Head Start services.” – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius” Two Pinocchios from the Washington Post Fact Checker Let’s hope the public starts to realize that the only one to blame is the President, himself.  Bailouts, Budget, Obama, 2013-03-07T23:29:43+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obama_administration_asks_agencies_to_make_cuts_painful http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obama_administration_asks_agencies_to_make_cuts_painful#When:18:36:15Z As we said last week, President Obama has the ultimate authority to direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) what cuts to implement in regards to sequestration. He has the authority and choice to either cut $85 billion in wasteful and duplicative programs, or to make cuts from areas that are needed, like air traffic controllers. Since this President has made a habit of putting politics before the good of his country, he has chosen to keep the waste and manifest a crisis to make Republicans look bad. Among his list are cuts to food inspectors, air-traffic controllers, and first responders. Among those left off of his list include: the $1.5 million for beef jerky development; the 127 programs to encourage high-school students to learn science, technology, engineering and math; or the iPhone application that lets you know when it’s time for a coffee break. Cutting such programs could save almost $68 billion over 10 years. That almost equals the entire sequester ($85 billion). Not only has Mr. Obama abandoned his duties to lead the country into economic prosperity, he is orchestrating a crisis…on purpose. His administration has directed agencies to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible, starting with his own residence. From the Washington Times: “The White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president’s home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions. Announcement of the decision — made in an email from the White House Visitors Office — came hours after The Washington Times reported on another administration email that seemed to show at least one agency has been instructed to make sure the cuts are as painful as President Obama promised they would be. In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of. “We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.” It doesn’t stop there. Last week, before the cuts were even implemented, Obama directed DHS to release hundreds of illegal criminal aliens into the streets as a means to scare the public into thinking these cuts will prevent security officers from doing their job. Now he’s slashing meat inspectors over the beer jerky development research group. Who knew $85 billion cut from a $16 trillion in debt country would cause so much drama? Another question to ponder is why is this behavior acceptable? As the leader and commander-in-chief, your job is to protect Americans, not unleash terror on them because you want more taxes. The Obama administration has declared their strategy for 2014 is to divide and conquer Republicans, take back the House, and cement Obama’s legacy. Apparently, that comes with a cost, and unfortunately; Americans will front it. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Ethics, Job Creation, News, Obama, Taxes, 2013-03-06T18:36:15+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_record_for_government_revenue_hit_in_2013_is_it_worth_it http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_record_for_government_revenue_hit_in_2013_is_it_worth_it#When:20:01:57Z Almost everything in life comes with a price and most of the time, we justify the dollar amount we pay for an item. That watch you didn’t need? Worth it. The same pair of shoes in a different color? Necessary. But sometimes, we spend money on an item that begs the question: was this worth the money I paid? We ought to ask the same question in regards to what we spend on our federal government. We learned last week that there are plenty of places to cut government spending other than air traffic controllers like subsidies to study shrimp on a treadmill and grants to China. This week, we are about to learn that the amount of money we spend on waste has set a new record. From CNS News via the Congressional Budget Office: “Federal revenue will return to its pre-recession levels in 2013, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), setting a record for the most money the government has ever taken in. In its latest Budget and Economic Update, the CBO forecasts that federal revenue will top $2.7 trillion in 2013, slightly higher than the $2.6 trillion the government collected in 2007, when the last recession officially began. Government revenues had fallen by nearly $500 billion during the recession to $2.1 trillion in 2009, contributing to the $1.5 trillion deficit that year. However, federal revenues have been recovering since the recession ended in June 2009, and the CBO now projects that they will slightly eclipse their pre-recession peak. In fact, the $2.7 trillion in revenue will be the most money the federal government has collected in history.” That’s $2.7 trillion for the government to spend on whatever it wants and we’re still running trillion dollar deficits?! Not to mention, Obama and the Democrats still say they want more revenue. Over half (57.4%) of the United State’s budget is dedicated to entitlement programs such as Medicare, Social Security, Obamacare Subsidies and Food Stamps. The rest of that goes to Defense, independent agencies such as the Department of Education, and to pay off our interest on the national debt.   Considering the fact that over half the budget is spent on entitlement programs and the other half is spent on pet projects like shrimp on a treadmill studies, is our government worth what you are paying them? If not, it’s time to do what you do with all of your regretful purchases: return it and get your money back. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, 2013-03-04T20:01:57+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/lets_sequester_the_shrimp_studies_instead http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/lets_sequester_the_shrimp_studies_instead#When:19:20:04Z One major point being left out of this sequester madness is who directs which programs get cut. Mr. Obama wants you to believe $85 billion worth of cuts in a $3.6 trillion annual budget will have to come from teacher layoffs, mass chaos at airports, unattended nukes, and of course jailbreaks. He isn’t lying either – cuts can certainly come from those areas, but that’s only if he makes the call. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the office responsible for devising and submitting the president’s annual budget proposal to Congress. They assist the President in overseeing which programs get cut. This means that if sequester goes through on Friday, the House “obstructionist” Republican Party will have no say in which programs get cut. President Obama has the authority to decide what gets the boot. The Wall Street Journal explains: “Programs, projects and activities are a technical category of the federal budget, but the sequester actually occurs at the roughly 1,200 broader units known as budget accounts. Some accounts are small, but others contain hundreds of PPAs and the larger accounts run to billions of dollars. For the Pentagon in particular, the distinction between PPAs and accounts is huge. This means in most cases the President has the room to protect his "investments" while managing the fiscal transition over time. Congress might have intended for the sequester to apply to PPAs, but they also wrote a sloppy law at the 11th hour. The Budget Control Act of 2011 disinterred the lapsed sequester rules of the Gramm-Rudman Deficit Control Act of 1985, though without anyone looking at the details. Gramm-Rudman said the sequester applies to accounts, not PPAs, under a temporary "part-year" budget. As it happens the government is operating under just such a continuing resolution now, not a normal appropriations bill. If Congress returned to regular order in 2014 or later, the sequester would indeed trickle down to PPAs. The White House has even more discretion than this. When Gramm-Rudman led to a 4.3% sequester in 1986, Congress passed a special bill that created the category of PPAs and spent 1,119 pages defining what they were for 1986. Congress has never done anything of the sort since, and thus as the government has grown PPA definitions now vary among Cabinet departments and sometimes even account to account in the same department.” Obama has the ultimate workaround in these cuts, and should  House Republicans give him the ultimate flexibility to decide what gets cut, we have a few suggestions. 1. Consolidate the more than 1,300 duplicate government programs that cost at least $364.5 billion (more than triple the sequester). 2. Stop funding the $130 million National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine that studies yoga. 3. Stop giving $50 million worth of grants to countries like China, who spent $141,450 to study swine manure. 4.  Or the millions of dollars being paid to federal workers to not work for the government. There’s more where all of that waste came from. Now you know whom to blame should you be waiting in a 3-hour line at the airport in the coming days.  We are counting down the hours until the sequester is over and the bloated U.S. government gets back to it’s importance business of studying shrimp on a treadmill. Budget, Deficit, Economy, Obama, 2013-02-28T19:20:04+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obama_administration_releases_illegal_immigrants_from_prison http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obama_administration_releases_illegal_immigrants_from_prison#When:21:47:23Z Democrats have long scoffed at the notion that we need guns in order to protect us from our own government. It only takes 237 years and suddenly they forget that our country was founded on freedom from oppression and tyranny from the government. They forget what Thomas Jefferson said regarding guns: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government" Recently, Obama and the Democrats have used tragic events where criminals turn their firearms on the innocent to rally a ban on guns. When Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians used the Thomas Jefferson argument as a reason for arming citizens, the Democrats mocked it.  Legendary journalist, Tom Brokaw said that the belief that you need to fight against a tyrannical government is, “the most far-reaching thing you can possibly imagine.” Well, sometimes the most far-reaching thoughts become realities and the way the Obama administration is handling our nation’s spending has become pretty tyrannical. Who knew a 2% cut in a bloated $3.6 trillion budget would be so dangerous? As a means to scare Republicans into agreeing to caving on spending cuts and agreeing to tax hikes, President Obama has argued that the sequester that was his idea in the first place will: cause mass chaos at airports, harm the disabled and the poor, degrade extreme weather forecasting abilities, and cause wildfires, terrorism, and unattended nukes. Now, he has released illegal immigrant criminals into the streets ahead of the cuts that haven’t even kicked in yet. In what the New York Times dubs as a “highly unusual effort,” the Obama administration has ordered waves of illegal immigrant criminals from prison around the country: “Federal immigration officials have released hundreds of detainees from detention centers around the country in recent days in a highly unusual effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said Tuesday. The government has not dropped the deportation cases against the immigrants, however. The detainees have been freed on supervised release while their cases continue in court, officials said.” Three things: 1. When the government spends money on things like a $130-million-a-year National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine that studies herbs and yoga, was this really necessary? 2. Raise your hand if you feel safe knowing unknown “supervisors” are watching these prisoners? 3. If the goal was to cut spending by releasing prisoners, who is paying these “supervisors” to look after these criminals? When we have reached a point in our country where our trusted public servants are releasing criminals into society as a tactic to get more of our money, it’s time to start thinking twice about Thomas Jefferson’s words. Update: The White House is now blaming Janet Napolitano’s ICE agency for the release saying, "This was a decision made by career officials at ICE without any input from the White House, as a result of fiscal uncertainty over the continuing resolution, as well as possible sequestration." Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer gets the last word: “Who is running this country?!” Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Gun Control, Job Creation, Obama, 2013-02-27T21:47:23+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obamas_sequester_scare_tactics http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/obamas_sequester_scare_tactics#When:20:23:55Z Anytime President Obama calls a press conference to discuss the looming sequester to our $16.5 trillion in debt government, you can expect him to begin with an opening statement that makes him appear to be concerned with our national debt and then move on to how Republicans want to gut all of the programs that will literally harm children and the elderly. Today, he’s arguing that Republicans want to burn your house down.  Obama said the following at his press conference today: "People will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again," Obama said, appearing in front of a slew of emergency responders.  He used the presence of the first responders — whose jobs he said were on the line as a result of the cuts — to issue a direct challenge to Republicans. "Are you willing to see a bunch of emergency responders lose their jobs because you want to protect some special interest tax loophole?" Obama said. Obama said that the sequester "won't help the economy, won't create jobs, and will mean hardship for a whole lot of people." So did someone forget to remind Obama that this sequester was a) his idea in the first place and b) something he signed into law? Nevermind that, the more important point is who the President strategically chose to place behind him during the speech. The first responders standing behind him represented his refusal to address mandatory spending (entitlements) and play to his base: government workers. He wants the public to believe that firefighters will be laid off unless Republicans vote for another tax increase. The sequester was passed and signed into law by Mr. Obama as a compromise between both sides that included addressing our entitlements and tax reform. Republicans caved and allowed tax hikes to take affect for anyone making over $400,000/ year. Now its’ time for the President to hold up his end of the bargain and hand over the necessary cuts to the biggest driver of our debt – and that’s not your local firefighters. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Entitlement Reform, Job Creation, Obama, Taxes, 2013-02-19T20:23:55+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obama_made_no_phone_calls_the_night_of_terrorist_attack http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obama_made_no_phone_calls_the_night_of_terrorist_attack#When:23:00:15Z On September 11th, 2012, four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya by Al Qaeda terrorists. Months before the attack, there were 230 security threats in Libya that were so bad, U.S. personnel in the area requested more funding for security - a request that was denied. Three days before the attack, the security officer at the US Consulate said the situation there was scaring everybody. The day before the terrorist attack, an Al Qaeda leader called for “vengeance” against America. All of the warnings were right in front of America’s foreign policy leaders' eyes. Then, September 11th 2012, four Americans were killed including our ambassador to Libya. The very next day, President Obama headed to a fundraiser and his administration began to cover-up the biggest scandal since Watergate.  Now we have learned that when Obama learned of the terrorist attack, he made not one single phone call to anybody: “President Obama didn’t make any phone calls the night of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the White House said in a letter to Congress released Thursday. “During the entire attack, the president of the United States never picked up the phone to put the weight of his office in the mix,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, who had held up Mr. Obama’s defense secretary nominee to force the information to be released.” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin E. Dempsey and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have all testified before Congress each giving conflicting testimonies. When Clinton was questioned on the administration’s response to this, she screamed, “What does it matter, Americans died?!” Susan Rice explained that this whole matter was just very complicated and “confusing.” Rice also said that the biggest tragedy of the entire situation is that Congress has spent too much time on the talking points that this was because of a Youtube video and not enough time on the fallen. That makes hardly any sense. The reason Congress is focusing on the talking points that this was sparked from a YouTube video is because the administration denied it was a terrorist attack for 10 days! Not only that, but Obama left for a political fundraiser the day after the attack and made no one single phone call during the attack that could have prevented some of deaths. This shows a lack of leadership, concern, and ability to prevent terrorist attacks in the Obama administration. Can you imagine if we had these kinds of warnings before 9/11/01? John Stewart questioned Ambassador Rice on this, but he didn't go deep enough. Part of figuring out how to prevent this from happnening in the future is to figure out where everybody went wrong. The "Youtube video" question is part of that and shows that the Obama administration is where we went wrong. Watch below:   The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Foreign Policy, Obama, 2013-02-15T23:00:15+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/democrats_we_dont_have_a_spending_problem http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/democrats_we_dont_have_a_spending_problem#When:22:51:24Z Our nation is currently $16.5 trillion in debt; with President Obama adding more debt than all U.S. President’s combined. We spend 25% of what our economy produces. Our spending is so out-of-control that our credit has been downgraded. You wouldn’t know that if you listened to Democrats lately. First, it was reportedly Obama during the budget negotiations: “Boehner added that President Obama continues to maintain that America’s federal deficit is caused not by governmental overspending but by “a health-care problem.” Said Boehner, “They blame all of the fiscal woes on our health-care system.” Boehner told Obama, “Clearly we have a health-care problem, which is about to get worse with Obamacare. But, Mr. President, we have a very serious spending problem.” Obama eventually replied, “I’m getting tired of hearing you say that.” Then it was Pelosi: “So if you recognize that, which cuts really help us and which cuts hurt our future. And cuts in education, scientific research and the rest are harmful. And they are what are affected by the sequestration. So, it is almost a false argument to say that we have a spending problem. We have a budget deficit problem.” Then it was Democratic Senator Steny Hoyer: “Does the country have a spending problem? The country has a paying for problem. We haven't paid for what we bought, we haven't paid for our tax cuts, we haven't paid for war.” And now it’s Democratic Senator Tom Harkin: “First of all, I want to disagree with those who say we have a spending problem. Everyone keeps saying we have a spending problem. And when they talk about that, it’s like there’s an assumption that somehow we as a nation are broke. We can't afford these things any longer. We’re too broke to invest in education and housing and things like that. Well look at it this way, we’re the richest nation in the history of the world. We are now the richest nation in the world. We have the highest per capita income of any major nation. That kind of begs the question, doesn’t it? If we’re so rich, why are we so broke? Is it a spending problem? No.” The Democrats have been in the majority since 2007. Since then, we’ve had no budget, record unemployment, debt, and poverty, and more debt than all Presidents combined. Its leaders like those mentioned above who are the reason we do in fact have a spending problem. Budget, Deficit, Economy, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, 2013-02-14T22:51:24+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obamas_progressive_plan_for_america http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obamas_progressive_plan_for_america#When:21:25:30Z President Obama delivered his laundry list State of the Union last night where he doubled down on over $130 billion worth of progressive programs he wants to pass while stressing it wouldn’t add a dime to our deficit. Before we get to that, let’s begin with the start of his speech. Obama: “So, together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and we can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger.” If by stronger, he means weaker, then yes, we are stronger: It has been the norm for Presidents to use the State of the Union as an opportunity to update the American public on the shape of the country, that was until President Obama took office. Every speech he gives is about what he wants for America instead of what’s best for America. Last night, he made it clear that he wants a big spending government that minorities and women only can rely on. Here are some token moments from the speech. Obama touted himself as a deficit reducer saying both parties worked together to reduce the deficit by $2.5 trillion. He failed to mention that he compared that number to the 2011 baseline (which would leave out the cost of Stimulus and Obamacare), most of it came from tax hikes on anyone making $400,000 or over, it is a reduction in the rate of spending, AND the cuts have yet to materialize. It’s also worth mentioning that the CBO estimates the public debt — that is, the amount the federal government owes the public — will approach $20 trillion in 2023. That is an increase of more than $8 trillion from its current level of $11.6 trillion. He then went on to laying out his Progressive proposals that “won’t add a single dime to our deficit.” Among them were: 1. Spending on more green energy 2. Spending on a road-building program called “Fix-It-First” where he said taxpayers only pay for some of it (??) 3. Spending on a refinancing Housing plan. 4. Mandate States to pay for universal “high-quality” preschool 5. Mandating companies to raise the Minimum Wage Raise 6. Decreasing the time you have to wait to vote After reading this, you would think that entities like the “government” “states” and “corporations” are these mysterious buildings on a high hill in a far away land that are funded by a money tree in the backyard. That’s hardly the case. Taxpayers fund all governments and corporations. All of these glorious spending proposals Obama says we must have are funded by taxpayers – that’s YOU. The biggest question we need to ask our President is: how are you going to pay for all of this? For a closing thought, Mr. Obama also said (in regards to minimum wage): “This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank, rent or eviction, scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. And a whole lot of folks out there would probably need less help from government. In fact, working folks shouldn't have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up, while CEO pay has never been higher.” Since when did the American dream become a minimum wage job from the government? We’d be much better off lowering the minimum wage, incentivizing companies to do business in the U.S., and get people into well paying jobs. We are currently dealing with serious threats from North Korea and Iran, impending debt, a healthcare law that is crippling business, and a record unemployment rate. Someone tell us how high-quality preschool and shorter voting lines are going to protect us from getting nuked by North Korea, put 88 million people back into the workforce, and reduce our upcoming debt of $20 trillion. Budget, Commercials, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Education, Energy, Entitlement Reform, Housing, Job Creation, Obama, Stimulus, 2013-02-13T21:25:30+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_7_million_americans_to_lose_employer_insurance_under_obamacare http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_7_million_americans_to_lose_employer_insurance_under_obamacare#When:21:36:56Z President Obama in 2009: “no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.” Virtually every promise made under Obamacare has been broken and here is another one to add to the list. From the Washington Examiner: “In 2022, by CBO and JCT’s estimate, 7 million fewer people will have employment-based health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act,” the CBO announced in its new budget outlook released on Tuesday. This is up from an estimate of 4 million last August, mostly reflecting the effects of tax changes.” How does this happen, you ask? Well, many companies offer health insurance to their employees. Under the new law in 2014, companies can choose whether or not to offer healthcare plans if they have 50 or fewer employees. If they don’t, workers will be able to buy coverage from the government insurance marketplace. This means that 7 million workers will be forced to choose a new doctor and a new healthcare plan. If you are wondering what a public insurance marketplace looks like, visit your local post office and DMV to get a taste. This law is simply an utter disaster. Budget, Deficit, Economy, Health Care, Obama, Obamacare, 2013-02-07T21:36:56+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_gdp_shrinks_to_.01_for_q4 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_gdp_shrinks_to_.01_for_q4#When:22:23:47Z “The economy is getting stronger!” “It’s outpaced Reagan’s economy.” “The private sector is doing fine.” These are all statements from President Obama and his team during the campaign trail. The majority of the American public must have believed him as they elected to keep the Obama economy for another four years. Why, we’ll never understand. Take a look at what the first Obama economy looked like. (Information courtesy of the House Committee on Ways and Means).   Despite those tepid numbers, the majority of Americans believed that tax hikes, borrowed money, and Stimulus would be what sealed the deal on a booming economy. On December 12, 2012, Bernanke announced he would continue to print money. On January 2nd, 2013, the Republican-led House voted to increase taxes on anyone making  $400,000 and over. And On January 3rd, Obama signed the bill that would increase government spending by $332 billion over ten years. Yes, Obama’s economic equation of tax hikes + government spending + printing money equals a sound economy is what Americans voted for. Clearly, the GDP report for quarter 4 proves that may not be working: “The Commerce Department reported GDP fell 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. Weak conditions abroad and flagging U.S. competitiveness caused exports to contract by $27 billion, and businesses anticipating a further slowdown slashed inventories by $40 billion. Friday, forecasters expect the Labor Department to report the economy added 160,000 jobs in January; however, employment tends be a lagging indicator and flat or negative GDP growth will cause unemployment to rise sharply in the months ahead. The tax and spending package implemented January first reduces prospects for improved growth and jobs creation, as the U.S. economy and workers continue to suffer from insufficient demand.” To put this into perspective, quarter four was during all of the Christmas and retail spending increases. These few months are normally when the economy sees a tick up in growth. Not this time. Welcome to the Obama recovery otherwise known as, the new normal. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Job Creation, Obama, Stimulus, 2013-01-30T22:23:47+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_president_obamas_misdirected_solution http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_president_obamas_misdirected_solution#When:17:09:32Z Last week, President Obama announced aggressive new legislation to tighten regulations on gun ownership. These plans are coupled with nearly two-dozen executive actions already signed by the President. This move was sparked by the recent tragedy in Newtown, CT, where shooter Adam Lanza killed 26 students and faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School using three weapons: a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, a Glock 10 mm handgun and a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun. The former is the civilian version of a military-grade semiautomatic gun capable of shooting 45 rounds per minute.  Some of President Obama’s plans seem like reasonable solutions like background checks to what has proven to be an epidemic of shooting after senseless shooting, not to mention a nation of devastated and panicked citizens crying for an answer. However, is this the appropriate response? More importantly, will it even work? Senator Marco Rubio doesn’t think so. He says that the legislation, which includes universal background checks, a ban on assault military-style weapons and a limit on gun magazines isn’t going to serve the cause intended by the President. “The impetus for all of this is the shooting in Connecticut, right; that’s what led to this. And yet nothing he’s proposing would have prevented Connecticut. So it appears to me like this is stuff they’ve always wanted to do and now this has created the political climate to do it. It’s not going to solve the problem,” Rubio says. Rubio is not the only one who doubts the functionality of the President’s proposals in the reality of 2013 America. In a recent op-ed, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., cites the D.C. gun ban of 1976 and its “unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454.” In the end, this ban was lifted because: “the gun control laws irrationally prevent only law abiding citizens from owning handguns.” On the surface, it may seem that President Obama’s more reasonable regulations would help to prevent future shootings, but the reality is that they could not have prevented the horror that befell Newtown or other mass shootings that have shattered the lives of far too many Americans. Instead there are issues other than gun control—in particular, mental health law—at hand that need addressing, and the president is misdirecting his attention. Let’s remember prohibition; that didn’t prevent people from drinking. President Obama needs to stop punishing law abiding citizens for the works of criminals. Gun Control, Obama, 2013-01-24T17:09:32+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/congress_is_still_down_in_the_polls http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/congress_is_still_down_in_the_polls#When:23:51:34Z The latest Public Policy Polling study has America laughing about how little liked our Congress is, falling less favorable, according to data, than lice, root canals and even the much ridiculed soft-rock band, Nickelback. Although these results are fairly hilarious, there is a statement being made here, and it indicates the true feelings of the American public (whether or not they are glazed in comedy).  Tom Jensen of PPP  cites the reason for these odd comparisons to be the following: “We hear all the time ‘Congress has a 9% approval rating,’ and those polls are fine, but it’s kind of hard to put them into terms of understanding in your everyday life.” So now we know: Congress only has a 9% favorability rating, lower than the favorability of even colonoscopies in this country. For real. That seems pretty dismal a statistic at the beginning of this new year, regardless of how common low numbers such as these may be in recent years. With Democrats in control of the Senate and Republicans of the House, the blame for this overwhelming dissatisfaction falls squarely on the shoulders of all our elected officials, despite the fact that Senate Democrats are the ones doing nothing. One easy way for Congress to remedy their failure in the eyes of the American people is to get to work on the number one issue on the minds of voters: the deficit. Despite the fact that this is a high priority for Americans, Congress continues to skirt around the matter rather than getting down to the business of fixing it. In the past few years we have applied band-aid after band-aid to the enormous national spending problem, all the while applying no real solution. We raised the debt ceiling, and now we have caved and raised taxes. These are not remedies, and even though this has been proven time and again, Congress continues to simply ignore the obvious resolution: cut government spending to reduce the deficit. This epidemic of turning a blind eye to an evident answer and to the real root of America’s problems can be summarized in Obama’s statement earlier this week: “We don’t have a spending problem.” Perhaps the reason for the staggeringly low approval rating is simple:  Congress is not tackling the most important issue on the mind of its constituents, and therefore is not doing its job. But don’t worry. Americans view Congress more favorably than Ebola virus and Fidel Castro. So at least there’s that.  2012 Presidential Elections, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, 2013-01-15T23:51:34+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_obamas_lack_of_diversity http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_obamas_lack_of_diversity#When:21:07:14Z It wasn’t that long ago when Barack Obama and Joe Biden wouldn’t shut up about how Mitt Romney would drag women’s rights back to the 1950’s, take away their suffrage, and how he pretty much was anti-women entirely. Of course, that was during the same time Obama had an administration packed full of men and paid them more than the women that were there. Fast-forward to his second term and nothing has changed. From The New York Times: “In the days since, Mr. Obama has put together a national security team dominated by men, with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts nominated to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the secretary of state, Chuck Hagel chosen to be the defense secretary and John O. Brennan nominated as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Given the leading contenders for other top jobs, including chief of staff and Treasury secretary, Mr. Obama’s inner circle will continue to be dominated by men well into his second term.” From NBC: “For starters, Susan Rice’s and Chuck Hagel’s potential nominations to top cabinet jobs were allowed to twist in the wind for weeks, with Rice eventually pulling out of consideration for secretary of state and Hagel now in real fight to win confirmation as defense secretary. In addition, the White House yesterday announced that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was leaving the administration -- on the very day the New York Times ran a piece observing the lack of women in the administration. And also yesterday, the White House said Attorney General Eric Holder, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shineski are staying in a second term, but it didn’t announce what’s happening with the other cabinet secretaries, which then set off mini-feeding frenzies “are you staying, are you going?” for the cabinet secretaries not included on this seemingly arbitrary list.” Even the corrupt Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) thinks Obama’s lack of diversity is outrageous: ““It’s embarrassing as hell. We’ve been through all of this with [2012 GOP presidential nominee] Mitt Romney. And we were very hard with Mitt Romney with the women binder and a variety of things,” Rangel said on MSNBC. “And I kind of think there’s no excuse with the second term.” We beg to differ with Rangel. What’s truly “embarrassing” about Obama as President is the entitlement state he has created, the bloated government he has grown, the more debt than all Presidents combined he has racked up, the taxes he has raised on every American, and the cover ups his administration have participated in to distract the American people from his lack of leadership. Packing his administration full of men while paying them less than women while accusing Romney of taking away women’s rights is just hypocritical. Let’s get it straight. 2013-01-10T21:07:14+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_obama_says_we_dont_have_a_spending_problem http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_obama_says_we_dont_have_a_spending_problem#When:23:22:54Z After four straight years of trillion dollar deficits, more debt than all President’s combined, and the creation of a $2 trillion entitlement system, President Obama has declared that the government does not have a spending problem. Yes, ladies and gents, that’s a direct quote.  From the Wall Street Journal: “What stunned House Speaker John Boehner more than anything else during his prolonged closed-door budget negotiations with Barack Obama was this revelation: "At one point several weeks ago," Mr. Boehner says, "the president said to me, 'We don't have a spending problem.' " I am talking to Mr. Boehner in his office on the second floor of the Capitol, 72 hours after the historic House vote to take America off the so-called fiscal cliff by making permanent the Bush tax cuts on most Americans, but also to raise taxes on high earners. In the interim, Mr. Boehner had been elected to serve his second term as speaker of the House. Throughout our hourlong conversation, as is his custom, he takes long drags on one cigarette after another. Mr. Boehner looks battle weary from five weeks of grappling with the White House. He's frustrated that the final deal failed to make progress toward his primary goal of "making a down payment on solving the debt crisis and setting a path to get real entitlement reform." At one point he grimly says: "I need this job like I need a hole in the head." Let’s take a moment to refresh President Obama’s memory. He’s the only President to run trillion dollar deficits for years in a row. He’s spent more money than every single President combined. He spent $800 billion on a Stimulus program that failed, and almost $2 trillion on a new entitlement system known as Obamacare. Check out this graphic from the Heritage Foundation for an accurate depiction of government spending under President Obama: To borrow from Boehner, this country needs Obama’s spending like they need another failed recovery. Clearly. 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Obama, Obamacare, 2013-01-08T23:22:54+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_republican_plan_b_fails_what_next http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_republican_plan_b_fails_what_next#When:21:31:52Z Republicans pulled their “Plan B” tax bill off the floor late Thursday night citing lack of support to raise taxes on millionaires and extend them for everyone else. Now it’s time for President Obama and his fellow Democrats to either act or own the fiscal cliff. As Boehner and McConnell both said yesterday, Democrats have shot down all of their fiscal cliff offers. First, Boehner offered to raise revenue by $800 billion by closing loopholes and Obama said there’s no way he would sign that law unless it included actual tax hikes. Boehner came back to the President with raising taxes on everyone making $1 million, instead of $250,000 and up. The President said no on that as well. What Obama wanted was almost $2 trillion in tax hikes, no guaranteed spending cuts, and an immediate increase in spending. Harry Reid wouldn’t even bring Obama’s plan to the floor for a vote. So now we are stuck with a Republican House that continues to propose fiscal cliff offers and a Democratic Senate and President who refuse to compromise. It’s also worth mentioning that the offers they are refusing to compromise on were plans both Obama and Pelosi endorsed last year in May. Boehner went out on a limb and broke a commitment and belief that Republicans do not believe in raising taxes to negotiate with Obama and Obama offered him nothing. We’ve been saying all along the Obama’s intention was to divide Republicans and let them own the fiscal cliff. It’s high time the GOP learns how to message to America that the Democrats can own the fiscal cliff. You have a Senate who has failed to pass a budget in four years, a President who has failed to offer the country anything more than a massive tax hike on the job creators in this country, and a Republican House who have offered proposal after proposal. Let’s also keep in mind that this tax hike funds the government for less than a week. Yep, the Democrats can own this fiscal cliff. Boehner should tell Obama and the Democrats to either act or own. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Elections, Obama, 2012-12-21T21:31:52+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/mcconnell_on_fiscal_cliff_obama_wants_to_soak_everybody http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/mcconnell_on_fiscal_cliff_obama_wants_to_soak_everybody#When:22:50:11Z President Obama said if Republicans moved on tax increases and gave him more revenue, he would compromise on spending. Boehner moved, offering the President a tax deal that would allow all taxes on millionaires to increase. This was a plan that even Pelosi endorsed in May 2011. We think that giving Obama straight revenue that funds the government for four days regardless of entitlement reform is a bad deal, but we think the fact that Obama refuses to accept this deal is even worse. It’s clear that he truly wants to soak the entire American public to pay for his government. Speaker Boehner announced that the House would be voting on “Plan B” saying, “I did my part.” He explained at a press conference today that the White House continues to say no to every offer Republicans have made, including offers that were endorsed by him and his party. Now, it’s time for the Democrats to act. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a floor speech today echoing Boehner’s remarks and they are worth listening to and reading: “For more than a year, President Obama and Democrats in Congress have known as well as I do that every single taxpayer is scheduled to get slammed with an automatic tax hike on January 1. And for an entire year they’ve been running out the clock. “Think about it: for President Obama, there is no better outcome than for taxes to go up on everybody — everybody. Why? “Because the only way to pay for the big government this President wants is by raising taxes on everybody — the super-rich, the rich, middle class, lower class, you name it. “If all you do is whack the so-called rich, you only get enough money about a week of government. So let’s be clear about something: he wants to soak everybody. That’s the only way to do it. And that is exactly what he gets if we do nothing. If that wasn’t obvious before this week, it should be perfectly obvious now. “Here we are less than a week before Christmas, and what’s this President doing? “What’s his quarterback here in the Senate, the Majority Leader doing? “They’ve been playing Lucy and the Football with the American people for months. They’ve said no to every single proposal that’s been offered to avoid this tax hike — including their own. They’re running out the clock. Moving the goal posts. Sitting on their hands. They aren’t doing anything. “Well I say ‘Enough’. Enough. The time for games is over. “This President may want to soak the American people to fund his vision of a social welfare state. But we’re not going to let him do it.” McConnell couldn’t have said it better. Obama put this ridiculous proposal for almost $2 trillion in tax increases out there and Senate Democrats wouldn’t even vote on it. House Republicans gave Obama two different deals that were both endorsed by himself and Pelosi at one point and they still refuse to accept it. Enough is enough. Let Obama take us over the fiscal cliff, it’s clear that’s what he really wants anyway. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Elections, Obama, 2012-12-20T22:50:11+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_boehners_plan_b_gets_a_quick_rejection http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_boehners_plan_b_gets_a_quick_rejection#When:22:15:32Z When Charles Krauthammer argued that Obama’s fiscal cliff plan was “nothing but a power play,” we agreed. After he demanded Republicans give him everything he wanted and Harry Reid refused to vote on everything Obama wanted, it was clear that Obama and the Democrats wanted Americans to go over the cliff so that they could blame Republicans. Today’s news is just another example of how unserious Obama and his fellow Democrats are about a deal and how intent they are on dividing Republicans. Speaker Boehner laid out a plan that gave President Obama all of the tax increases he wanted in exchange for, well..nothing: “Mr. Boehner said the plan would include legislation to extend current income-tax rates for all people earning $1 million or less a year, mirroring the latest offer from Republicans to the White House over the weekend. The speaker's "Plan B," as he called it, was immediately rejected by the White House and Senate Democrats. An aide to Mr. Boehner said the legislation, which was announced at a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference Tuesday morning, was designed to be a "precautionary measure to ensure taxes don't rise for most Americans on Jan. 1." It doesn't include any spending cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare or Social Security, the aide said, noting that House Republicans have already approved legislation that would shift the $55 billion in defense cuts scheduled to start in January to other areas of domestic spending in the federal budget.” This plan was actually endorsed by Pelosi back in May, which speaks volumes and the fact that the White House immediately rejected the offer backs up Krauthammer’s claim the Obama’s sole intent is to divide and conquer Republicans. The bigger issue at hand is what is going on with Republicans. Did the Obama smack down in November not teach them anything? They need to band together and call Obama out for what he’s doing. They need to go on the Today Show every morning and say, “The President’s tax hike funds our government for four days. We’ll go off the cliff before we agree to that. Sorry we’re not sorry.” If the President were as serious about a compromise as he says he is, he would have accepted the Republicans first offer. It’s clear he’s not, so it’s time for Republicans to stand up and fight for something a little better than an automatic tax hike on the taxpayers who create jobs for our economy. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Elections, Entitlement Reform, Job Creation, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, Taxes, 2012-12-18T22:15:32+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obamas_fiscal_cliff_plan_is_truly_nothing_but_a_power_play http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_obamas_fiscal_cliff_plan_is_truly_nothing_but_a_power_play#When:20:11:13Z Congress and President Obama have made, “no progress” on the fiscal cliff negotiations. We wonder why? There’s a logical explanation to that and it starts with the word compromise. In order to dodge one of the biggest tax increases in our history, Washington has to come up with compromise. Democrats control the Senate and Executive Branch and Republicans control the House. President Obama and the Democrats proposed a plan: $1.6 trillion in tax hikes with no spending cut guarantees. House Republicans proposed their plan worth $2.2 trillion: $800 billion in tax revenue, $600 billion in health savings, and $600 billion in other cuts split evenly between mandatory and non-mandatory spending. That was as of Monday, December 3rd, 2012. A lot has happened since then to explain the lack of progress. Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner (who’s no stranger to tax trouble) told Republicans there would be no deal at all without tax hikes. Boehner and McConnell were in disbelief with what they were hearing. In 2011, Obama said: “What we said was give us $1.2 trillion in additional revenues, which could be accomplished without hiking tax rates. It could simply be accomplished by eliminating loopholes, eliminating some deductions and engaging in a tax reform process that could lower rates generally while broadening the base.” Despite that fact, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all but begged the Democratic leader of the Senate to take Obama’s plan up for a vote. Reid refused and objected the vote. This explains Obama’s entire strategy. If Obama’s sole strategy was to get the Democratic Senate to pass his plan, why, someone please explain why Reid would refuse to bring it up to a vote. The answer is simple and Charles Krauthammer could not have put it better: “Such nonsense abounds because Obama’s objective in these negotiations is not economic but political: not to solve the debt crisis but to fracture the Republican majority in the House. Get Boehner to cave, pass the tax hike with Democratic votes provided by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and let the Republican civil war begin. It doesn’t even matter whether Boehner gets deposed as speaker. Either way, the Republican House would be neutered, giving Obama a free hand to dominate Washington and fashion the entitlement state of his liking. This is partisan zero-sum politics. Nothing more. Obama has never shown interest in genuine debt reduction. He does nothing for two years, then spends the next two ignoring his own debt-reduction commission. In less than four years, he has increased U.S. public debt by a staggering 83 percent. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the real marker of national solvency, it has spiked from 45 percent to 70 percent. Obama has never once publicly suggested a structural cut in entitlements. On the contrary, he created an entirely new entitlement — Obamacare — that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will increase spending by $1.7 trillion over 11 years. What’s he thinking? Doesn’t Obama see looming ahead the real economic cliff — a European-like collapse under the burden of unsustainable debt? Perhaps, but he wants to complete his avowedly transformational social-democratic agenda first and let his successors — likely Republican — act as tax collectors on the middle class (where the real money is) and takers of subsidies from the mouths of babes. Or possibly Obama will get fiscal religion and undertake tax and entitlement reform in his second term — but only after having destroyed the Republican opposition so that he can carry out the reformation on his own ideological terms. What should Republicans do? Stop giving stuff away. If Obama remains intransigent, let him be the one to take us over the cliff. And then let the new House, which is sworn in weeks before the president, immediately introduce and pass a full across-the-board restoration of the George W. Bush tax cuts. Obama will counter with the usual all-but-the-rich tax cut — as the markets gyrate and the economy begins to wobble under his feet. Result? We’re back to square one, but with a more level playing field. The risk to Obama will be rising and the debt ceiling will be looming. Most important of all, however, Republicans will still be in possession of their unity, their self-respect — and their trousers.” Republicans ought to heed this warning: stand firm and let President Obama own the fiscal cliff. Do not allow him to divide the Grand Old Party so that he may implement his ultimate Liberal agenda. The future of our party depends on it. 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Elections, Entitlement Reform, Health Care, Job Creation, Obama, Stimulus, 2012-12-07T20:11:13+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_the_gop_should_stand_firm_against_bad_policy http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_the_gop_should_stand_firm_against_bad_policy#When:21:37:39Z How many more beatings do Republicans need to get before they learn how to take a position and stand firm? Forget the failure to message correctly, we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands. This is the Grand Ole Party, not the party of timid defensive players. President Obama and his fellow party are demanding we increase taxes on the job creators of this country that will fund the government for FOUR DAYS without any guaranteed spending cuts is outrageous. The fact that we have a Republican party that appears to be ok with this is even more outrageous. We’re in a $16.34 trillion debt (that Obama owns most of) and it’s somehow acceptable to discuss a tax hike that pays for 4 days worth of government spending? Apparently so. Dr. Milton R. Wolf wrote a recent op-ed for the Washington Times saying that Democrats tax hike is proof that they have no serious intention to solve our economic crisis: “These are pathologically unserious people. Their goal is not to solve the current fiscal crisis. Their goal is to use the crisis to grow government and further their statist agenda, which, incidentally, created the crisis in the first place. Recall Democrat Rahm Emanuel’s unmasked moment of clarity: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Now, in hopes of enacting their panacea of tax increases, Democrats offer spending cuts that everyone knows never will happen. What’s worse, the president calls for $255 billion in more spending. Only a Democrat would claim increased spending will reduce the deficit, and only a Republican would fall for it. The Democrats’ lust for tax increases goes far beyond simple class warfare, as atrocious as that alone is. Democrats are fully aware that the rich already are paying more than their fair share. The wealthy (top 10 percent) may earn 50 percent of the income, but they pay 70 percent of the federal taxes. If that’s not fair, what is? Eighty percent? One hundred percent?” He then argues that Republicans should do exactly what they did during Obamacare: refuse to support bad policy and allow Democrats to take the blame for it. We couldn’t agree more. Boehner ought to tell his party and fellow Americans that taxing those that already pay 70% of all federal income taxes more to pay for four days worth of spending is unacceptable. Let the Democrats explain to voters how we really weren’t one tax hike away from a booming economy. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, Taxes, 2012-12-05T21:37:39+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_irs_implements_new_obamacare_tax_take_159_pages_of_rules http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_irs_implements_new_obamacare_tax_take_159_pages_of_rules#When:22:30:13Z As if the fiscal cliff wasn’t scary enough, we now get to see the unveiling of all of the Obamacare surprises since the government takeover of healthcare is now the law of the land. The IRS released new rules for investment income taxes earned by high-income individuals, and it only took them 159 pages worth of rules to do so. From Reuters: “The 3.8 percent surtax on investment income, meant to help pay for healthcare, goes into effect in 2013. It is the first surtax to be applied to capital gains and dividend income. The tax affects only individuals with more than $200,000 in modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), and married couples filing jointly with more than $250,000 of MAGI. The tax applies to a broad range of investment securities ranging from stocks and bonds to commodity securities and specialized derivatives. The 159 pages of rules spell out when the tax applies to trusts and annuities, as well as to individual securities traders. Released late on Friday, the new regulations include a 0.9 percent healthcare tax on wages for high-income individuals. Both sets of rules will be published on Wednesday in the Federal Register.” This proposed tax will be effective starting on January 1st, and is estimated to raise $317.7 billion over 10 years.  If a taxpayer makes $90,000 from investment income and their gross income is $270,000, the 3.8% surtax applies to the $70,000 and the individual would pay $2,660 in surtaxes. So what does this mean for you? One word: investment. Companies (including small businesses) invest in the stock market as well as various accounts. This takes almost $3,000 out of the economy (for this examples sake) from one individual. Or in other words, if this tax is expected to raise $317.7 billion, that means $317.7 billion is being used for more government spending instead of economic investing. If you tax a company on what they would use to invest in the economy, they aren’t going to keep investing. It’s really not that complicated. These taxes don’t just affect the higher-income earners. There are 19 more Obamacare taxes expected to hit the middle class. It’s official: Obamacare is one of the worst laws in U.S. history. 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Health Care, Obamacare, Taxes, 2012-12-04T22:30:13+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_the_house_offers_fiscal_cliff_deal http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_the_house_offers_fiscal_cliff_deal#When:22:38:50Z Now that the election sulking is over, it’s time to move onto the biggest issue facing our country: the fiscal cliff. Unfortunately, the beginning of the 2013 offers us anything but a fresh start ,with over $600 billion in tax increases at stake. With a combination of the Bush Tax Cuts expiring, the payroll tax holiday, the expansion of the AMT tax, the sequester, and a $16.39 trillion limit in our national debt being hit, it’s sure to be a crazy holiday season. The White House and Congress were at a stalemate, but House Republicans just put a fair offer on the table. Let’s see how long it takes President Obama to distort this. After President Obama offered a deal that included $1.6 trillion in new taxes with no spending cut guarantees, House Republicans put a $2.2 trillion offer on the table: “The proposal, unveiled by senior GOP aides Monday during a briefing in the Capitol, assumes $800 billion in fresh governmental revenue through tax reform, $600 billion in health savings and changes to an inflation formula that determines benefit levels across government programs, including Social Security. There’s also $600 billion in other savings, split evenly between mandatory and discretionary spending. “With the fiscal cliff nearing, our priority remains finding a reasonable solution that can pass both the House and the Senate, and be signed into law in the next couple of weeks,” stated the letter, which was signed by all seven GOP leaders. Politically, the counteroffer helps Republicans blunt a White House talking point that the GOP didn’t have a plan of its own — a criticism that grew louder after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner delivered a plan to congressional leaders last week.” First of all, it’s hilarious that an Obama spokesperson would have the audacity to criticize Republicans for not having a plan when they have produced no jobs plan, no entitlement reform, no tax reform, etc. AND, their own party that controls the Senate has failed to produce a budget in four years. Second, the plan that they did propose shouldn’t even be considered a plan seeing as though it calls for $1.6 trillion in new revenue without any commitment to cutting our over $16 trillion deficit. See the comparison of the two plans below. (House Republicans sent this chart to the White House.) At least these House cuts are legitimate and don’t count savings from the Budget Control Act that was negotiated in 2011. Republicans ought to stand firm on this and not roll over to a fat $1.6 trillion check worth of fresh cash for Obama and the Democrats to spend as they choose. Budget, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Economy, 2012-12-03T22:38:50+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_where_do_we_go_from_here http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_where_do_we_go_from_here#When:22:36:41Z There will be no shortage of reasons provided for what happened with Tuesday’s election. Republicans everywhere are scratching their heads wondering just how an administration so bad was able to earn a second chance. Never had an incumbent been reelected with unemployment this bad. Never had there been an incumbent reelected with this poor a first term record. That is, until Tuesday. How did it happen? Take a look at the following three deciding factors: message, demographics and perception. Message Clearly, a majority of the American people did not buy what the GOP was selling. The Obama campaign did a great job (with the help of an extremely strong ground game) of getting people motivated enough to get out and vote for their message or man, whatever it took. By contrast, not enough Americans believed in Mitt Romney or the “moderate” message he represented in order to defeat the President. The Dems held the enthusiasm mark once again. This is a huge problem for the Republicans. For the past eight years, the Republicans have been trying to move to the center, thinking that would be the best way to combat a changing United States demographic. The first time, a rock star candidate, riding a wave of emotion and popularity, defeated them in a historic election. This time, they were defeated because their message didn’t resonate enough to overturn one of the weakest incumbent’s since Carter in 1980. Americans chose the status quo of a bad economy, high unemployment, failed foreign policies and an unprecedented national debt instead of what the GOP presented. That should scream loudly in the ears of the Republican Party. It is time for the GOP to get back to true conservative policies and people. It is time to put everything on the table for evaluation and move back to the right in their candidate choices in 2014 and 2016. The current watered-down, centrist and safe message, tactics and leaders will fail again the next time around. Mitt Romney is a great man and certainly qualified to lead this country, but he isn’t what the people wanted and it’s time to stop pandering to the masses. Moving to the center is not going to get it done. Erick Erickson of RedState.com, echoes the case for a move back to the right. Reagan beat Carter by being drawing bright lines and simply explaining why his way was better. Romney never really tried that, then picked a Vice Presidential nominee who had done that and promptly taped his mouth shut. Over the past two years the GOP has atrophied into a party of intellectual lightweights in the House and Senate. They have run on “saving the free market”, but actively collaborated with the Democrats to drive-up the national debt to more than $16 trillion. Major conservative groups on the outside have, instead of reinforcing conservatism, continued their Bush era habit of reinforcing the party line. Just go back to the primary and look at the major conservative influencers who went quickly to Mitt Romney before the field had even fully shaped up. He was the Republican, not the conservative. Even worse, look at the rest of the GOP field. Romney, the man so weak anybody could beat him, beat the rest of the field. That speaks volumes about the rest of the field. Once in the arena for President, Romney failed to define and articulate a conservative foreign policy beyond a muddling of the Bush policy. He failed to truly advocate any reforms of the fiscal house, even muzzling Paul Ryan. And the party went right along with it. Demographics Philip Klein, of the Washington Examiner, points out that Romney won about the same percentage of white voters Tuesday night as Reagan did back in 1980 – and yet, still lost big to an Obama campaign that reached out to the new American demographic. In 1980, Reagan won white voters 56 percent to 36 percent, with third party candidate John Anderson taking 8 percent of the vote. He ended up beating Carter by 10 points and winning 44 states. Romney has won white voters by the same 20-point margin, 59 percent to 39 percent. But the big difference is that in 1980, whites were 88 percent of the electorate, whereas in this election, they were just 73 percent. Black voters represented 10 percent of the electorate in 1980, and Carter won 83 percent of them. This year, black voters were 13 percent of the electorate, and went 93 percent for Obama. But the big leap was among Hispanic voters, who jumped from 2 percent of the population in 1980 to 10 percent in 2008. And Romney is only winning 30 percent of Hispanics. Simply put, white voters make up a smaller percentage of the electorate these days. No longer can a Republican candidate simply appeal to this demographic and ignore Hispanics and African-Americans. And that’s the way it should be anyway. It is time for the GOP to join the 21st century and come up with a way to present their platform to these two groups and women. Obama held an 11-point advantage over Romney with women, down only one point from the 2008 election; so much for the GOP effort to appeal to the female vote. Erickson says the Republicans must address immigration reform if they want to be relevant to a changing populace. At the same time, Romney made a conscious decision to blow off Hispanic voters. Yes conservatives, we must account for this. The Romney campaign to the Hispanic community was atrocious and, frankly, the fastest growing demographic in America isn’t going to vote for a party that sounds like that party hates brown people. That does not mean the GOP must offer up amnesty. It does mean that a group that is a natural fit for the GOP on social issues must in some way be made to feel comfortable with the GOP. Perception Finally, there is a lot of talk about how the mainstream media and their liberal bias are responsible for the dumbing-down of the American people. Pundits point to Benghazi and Obama’s checkered personal history as two examples of issues that should have made a bigger difference in the minds of voters. This is a cop out and should not be used as an excuse for losing again. It is the responsibility of conservatives to shout their message from the mountaintops and make sure people know the truth. If the networks are covering up a scandal, then GOP leaders need to speak up. Whether it is Fox News, talk radio, blogs or social media, the resources are there for the truth to be known. It is time to stop blaming others and form a better game plan. The next two years are crucial in the life of the 21st century Republican Party. Will it continue to flounder in the land of moderate mediocrity, allowing the Democratic Party to lead this country down the road of Socialism and big government? Or will it pull back to its true conservative roots, policies and leaders who will not compromise in order to gain popularity. After all, what is popular is not always right. What is popular is often easy. Easy doesn’t get the job done. Easy doesn’t endure. Easy gets you beat by an inferior opponent. The GOP has settled for easy the past decade and the children of this country deserve better. Where do we go from here? That is becoming painfully clear. 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Elections, Obama, 2012-11-07T22:36:41+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_rightchanges_closing_2012_election_blog http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_rightchanges_closing_2012_election_blog#When:17:05:28Z $1.815 billion. That is the total amount of campaign spending combined from both candidates as of October 17th, 2012. Voters and potential voters have been saturated with a thousand reasons why they should move AmericaForward or Believe in America. The candidates have made their case, at a steep price for sure, and now it’s come to an end. We think everyone is welcoming the end to the campaign rhetoric. The only thing left is you and the booth. Rather than make the case with facts, data, and numbers, we want to leave you with one piece of advice: vote with your gut. Are we really one tax hike away from jobs galore? Is Bush truly the one to blame? Is government-controlled healthcare part of the American dream? Is ending the taxpayer subsidy for Planned Parenthood anti-women? Is forcing employers to pay for birth control an issue of women’s rights? Was more debt than all President’s combined worth the economy we’re in now? Is adding more rules to the private sector an incentive for creating jobs? Is it really fair for half of Americans to not pay taxes? Are you truly confident in the current administration’s ability to keep us safe? Have things gotten so bad that we’ve become used to the new normal? Can a President run a surplus with our budget when he runs a deficit in his campaign? Do you want a President who tells his base to vote for revenge? Does all you want consist of getting by with a decent job, or do you want endless opportunities? Do labor unions truly have students and teachers interests as their first priority? Is it acceptable for a President and a Democrat Senate to refuse to pass a budget in over 1,200 days? Do we really want to live in an America where the government controls almost everything we do? How is the change you were promised working for you? Do you really believe in your heart of hearts that Mitt Romney is an evil rich guy who has an evil plan to stick it to the poor, give it to the rich, hurt women, and pursue every policy imaginable to ruin our economy and ruin America? Tune out the back and forth between both sides before you enter the voting booth. Vote with your gut. This isn’t a Republican Moment. This is America’s moment. 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Elections, Obama, 2012-11-06T17:05:28+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_voter_fraud_in_pennsylvania http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_voter_fraud_in_pennsylvania#When:16:21:36Z It looks like the 2012 Election Day is off to a great start with reports of voter fraud taking place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania early Tuesday morning. Multiple reports on Twitter, Fox News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the National Review are citing as many as 25 polling stations have removed court-appointed election inspectors from their voting sites on the authority of the Head Judge of Elections in that voting ward. Twitchy Politics lists several tweets with specific locations and wards where up to 70 ejections have taken place. The Inquirer’s Tom Fitzgerald lists each guilty ward and division: Romney war room reports minority (R) inspectors kicked out of some polling places in Phila. GOP lawyers ready. This has happened at the following locations: Ward 32, Div 13, Ward 43, Div 14, Ward 56, Div 1, Ward 56, Div 22, Ward 32, Div 28, Ward 12, Div 17,         Ward 39, Div 1, Ward 24, Div 9, Ward 18, Div 25, Ward 43, Div 14, Ward 29, Div 18, Ward 65, Div 19, Ward 20, Div 1, and Ward 6, Div 11. Just as the news was beginning to spread around the country, Fox News is reporting a Pennsylvania judge is moving to correct the fraud immediately. What is interesting is this appears to be common in Pennsylvania, only not usually involving this many inspectors. A Pennsylvania judge is issuing an order to reinstate Republican election officials across Philadelphia who allegedly were ejected or refused entry by on-site Democratic voting chief judges, GOP officials tell Fox News. One Republican official claimed that "just under 70" Republican election officials were blocked from Philadelphia polling sites Tuesday morning by Democrats on site. One of them, the official claimed, "was shoved out of the polling place."  "For this many inspectors to be ejected from polling places is rare, even for Philadelphia," the official told FoxNews.com.  Republicans claim they are obtaining a series of court orders to seat the so-called election "inspectors," and sheriff's deputies will be available to escort them.  Despite the high number of officials who were allegedly booted, the dispute itself is not uncommon for Philadelphia. Fred Voigt, legal counsel for the city commissioners, said these kinds of face-offs happen "with regularity" in the City of Brotherly Love.  "It happens all the time," Voigt said. He said court-appointed Republican officials typically show up on Election Day and end up squaring off against stand-in officials at the polling sites filling in the open seats. "There are no cool heads here," Voigt said.  The on-site election officials are responsible for verifying the identity of voters, and monitoring for signs of fraud or disenfranchisement. Does it really matter how many inspectors are removed? The removal of one court-appointed official is against the law. Why is this allowed to occur at any degree? This is just one more example of how certain people feel they can throw out the Constitution and other laws of this land in the name of what best serves their own interests. When did the Bill of Rights become optional? 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Obama, 2012-11-06T16:21:36+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_polling_samples_wont_reflect_voter_turnout http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_polling_samples_wont_reflect_voter_turnout#When:02:53:24Z In the final days before Election Night, various polling agencies always come out with their final word on who leads nationally and in key states. Consequently, there are always accusations of bias and false polling samples as each side looks to spin the numbers in their direction. Many of the swing state polls show Obama leading Romney, despite Romney holding edges in party excitement, attendance at recent rallies and the data from early and absentee voting. A closer look at the polling numbers shows these pollsters may be in for a big surprise come Tuesday night. The big question is whether or not the voter samples these pollsters are using are representative of who will turn out to vote on Tuesday. In 2008, Obama rode a huge wave of bi-partisan support to defeat John McCain. A big part of that was a huge advantage in early and absentee voting and big support from Independents. McCain actually won the day-of vote tally by three points, but Obama took the early vote by 15 points and went on to a double-digit win. The underlying key: the Democratic ground game brought an unprecedented number of early and absentee votes to Obama in 2008. But will those same people do it again in 2012? The answer is “no; not even close.” This is bad news for the President in that historically, the GOP wins the day-of vote every time. If the Obama camp cannot get out a similar number of early voters this time around, Romney will win. Add to this the large number of Independents who are supporting Romney, according to these very same polls, and you have a recipe for a comfortable win for the challenger. Cox Radio’s Jamie Dupree takes a battleground state-by-state look at the polling data and reveals what one discovers by looking past the headline. Here’s a summary of what the data tells us: OHIO: In Cleveland, 42,511 early votes have been cast, a drop of about 14% when compared to the same time four years ago; In 2008, 151,296 Democrats requested absentee ballots - as of November 2, Democrats had requested 122,771, a drop of 6% - but Republicans had increased their requests from 36,232 to 52,535, a jump of 45%. That same pattern can be seen in other key counties in Ohio, like in Columbus where Republicans absentee ballot requests are up 6%, while Democratic absentee ballots are down 17%. The difference is even more dramatic in Dayton, where Republicans trailed in absentee ballots requested in 2008 by almost 5,000, but now they own the edge by over 6,000 - Democratic absentee ballots in that county are off by 65% from 2008. In Cincinnati, Republicans have expanded their absentee advantage from 1100 ballots in 2008 to 3,000. In Toledo, Democrats led by 5700 absentee ballots in 2008 but this year the GOP owns a 600 ballot request edge. Now one caveat about these figures - you aren't registered to a specific party in Ohio - instead, the way you are classified as Democrat or Republican depends on which party primary you voted in last. Still, the lower numbers in some key counties for absentee ballot requests by Democrats can't just be ignored. VIRGINIA: A review of absentee ballot data found several key counties for Obama in 2008 are simply not producing the votes that were seen four years ago. In Arlington County, right next door to Washington, D.C., which delivered a 72-27% majority for Obama four years ago, so far there are 23,412 absentee ballots in - well short of the 34,232 that were sent in for all of 2008, about a 20% decline. The numbers are about the same in Fairfax County, another key county for Democrats in the Washington, D.C. area that went 60-39% for Obama - back in 2008, 100,691 absentee ballots were returned - as of Friday, the numbers were only at 64,259. Basically, the counties won by Bush in 2004 and McCain in 2008 are faring much better in terms of absentee ballots than counties won by Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008. For example, Salem City, Virginia broke a record for early voting; that city went to McCain in 2008. IOWA: Back in 2008, Iowa Democrats did their job in early voting, running up an 18% edge. This time, their advantage is 10%, one reason why Republicans are so optimistic about winning the state's 6 Electoral Votes. Democrats as of Monday have returned 42.2% of the absentee ballots, 32.1% for the GOP and 25.6% for Independent voters. COLORADO: A review of the available data seems to give an edge to the GOP. Republicans have cast 37% of all early votes to 34.6% for Democrats - back in 2008, it was Democrats who had a slight edge. Obviously the wild card is the high number of independent ballots that are already in - about 28% of the vote - and which side they back. Late polls from Colorado have shown Romney doing better with independents than earlier in the campaign. And at least in early voting, the GOP has an edge in several swing counties like Arapahoe, Jefferson and Larimer. The Democrats have been touting their ground game for the past few months and how it will be key to an Obama victory. However, the numbers are not showing the same kind of early and absentee voting turnout as the President enjoyed in 2008. When you also consider Romney’s advantage among Independent voters, it looks more and more like Romney will emerge victorious after Tuesday. In 2008, Obama’s message drove people to the polls in mass numbers. Four years later, the buzz is gone and the message has failed. Expect the final voting numbers to go against the grain of these polls and get ready to welcome Mitt Romney as the 45th President of the United States. 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Elections, Obama, Polls, 2012-11-06T02:53:24+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_feds_low_interest_rates_hurting_americans1 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/rightchange_feds_low_interest_rates_hurting_americans1#When:21:31:30Z Governments involved in keeping interest rates artificially low encourage citizens to take unnecessary risks to try to achieve a return. By keeping savings rates below the inflation rate, it is becoming harder and harder for retirees and those living off a fixed income to meet their expenses. After four years of holding interest rates at virtually zero, Bernanke said in September he expects to keep the same low interest rate policy through mid-2015 which includes $40 billion of monthly mortgage- bond purchases in an effort to boost growth. With central banks across the world calling bonds, many investors have turned to corporate debt, whose default rates are running below historical averages, as alternatives to government securities. “The actions by the Federal Reserve have left no choice,” said Scott Colyer, the chief executive officer of Advisors Asset Management Inc., which oversees about $9.5 billion in Monument, Colorodo. “If they keep the pedal down” we may “have another year next year that rivals this one in corporate debt,” he said. Part of that is resulting from the Federal Reserve using its balance sheet to buy up high quality debts. Because the Fed is expanding its balance sheet — its cost of finance is virtually zero percent. By doing so, they dramatically distort debt market pricing, which favors the government over the private sector. Insurers have also been hurt by low interest rates, especially life-insurance companies whose cash-value policy and annuities work for many as high yielding savings accounts. Insurers largely invest in bonds, mortgages and other fixed income securities, and declining yields on their portfolios are forcing them to cut benefits, rates, and design less competitive products. These artificially low rates penalize savers, retirees, and major investment and insurance companies. These low rates will not last forever. As cheap capitol flows through the economy and prices increase, we will begin to feel the result of inflation due to the massive amount of Bernanke printing. The strength of the dollar hangs in the balance and we must restore fiscal sanity back to Washington. 2012 Presidential Elections, Bailouts, Budget, Economy, Elections, Obama, 2012-11-02T21:31:30+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_state_senate_races_down_to_wire_as_well http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_state_senate_races_down_to_wire_as_well#When:21:21:47Z With so much focus on the Presidential race, the individual state Senate races have faded into the background. But just who controls the U.S. Senate might be as important as who sits in the Oval Office come next January. Most experts agree there are eleven state races up for grabs next Tuesday: Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The GOP has 43 seats not up for re-election or “safe” in this year’s election. The Democrats have 46 seats in those categories. Each side is looking to get to a magic number of 51 to have a majority. A little bit of research and prediction simplifies things by shrinking the toss-ups states down to just four states. Looking at up-to-date polling data, we can assume Connecticut will be a win for the Democrats with Murphy holding a five point lead on McMahon. Pennsylvania is likely to swing blue as well, as Casey holds an average lead of five points over Smith. And while the Massachusetts race has had wild swings, it looks like Warren’s six-point lead over Brown will hold. That gives the Dems 49 seats. The Republicans look solid in Nevada as Heller is carrying a five-point lead over Berkley. Flake seems to be holding off Carmona in Arizona, keeping that state Red. North Dakota looks to be a seat for the GOP, with Berg up six over Heitkamp. And Indiana, even with the recent abortion controversy, appears to be a win for the Republicans with Mourdock up five on Donnelly. If these predictions are accurate, the GOP adds four seats to sit at 47. That leaves the states of Montana, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Ironic that the latter three of these states are also playing a huge part in who wins the Presidential election. Montana is anybody’s guess as Rehberg (R) and Tester (D) are all even in most polls at 48%. Ohio has seen each side hold 2-point leads, but now the Republican challenger Mandel and the Democratic incumbent Brown currently tied at 49%. Kaine (D) is leading Allen (R) by one point 49%-48% in Virginia with both sides expecting a boost from whoever wins their state for President. In Wisconsin, Republican Thompson is holding off Democrat Baldwin by a slim 2 points – a race that could also be impacted by the Obama-Romney battle. There are three final scenarios for who would control the Senate and they are impacted by who wins the White House. If Obama wins re-election, the Dems would only need to win one of those four true toss-up Senate races. VP Joe Biden would cast the tie-breaking vote if there were a 50-50 split. If the Republicans win all four and Obama wins re-election, the President would face an even tougher road the next four years as the GOP would control both houses of Congress. If Romney wins the election, the Republicans would only need to win three of the four races as Paul Ryan would cast the tiebreaking vote. There would no need to pick up all four seats. That would give the GOP the White House and both houses of Congress – a perfect scenario for an incoming president. It will be an uphill battle for the Republicans to pick up enough seats to get control, but with Romney riding a wave of momentum lately, you never know what might happen in these state races. If the presidential race is uncertain five days out, these Senate races are even more of a question. Don’t expect an answer Tuesday night either – it might take until mid-day on Wednesday before we know the final results. 2012 Presidential Elections, Elections, Keep Congress Accountable, Obama, 2012-11-02T21:21:47+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_jobs_report_unlikely_to_change_opinions http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_jobs_report_unlikely_to_change_opinions#When:21:15:12Z There has been much speculation and consternation over Friday’s release of the October jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Will unemployment continue to drop, giving Obama support for his claims that “things are getting better?” Will the number jump back over 8%, allowing the GOP to preach their “We can’t afford four more years” message? Those questions can now be answered as the BLS October data is such that both sides will claim victory, causing little to change in the minds of most voters. The report shows the U.S. economy added 171,000 non-farm payroll jobs in October, up from 148,000 in the adjusted September numbers. However, due to more people re-entering the job search market, the overall unemployment rate increased slightly to 7.9%. While the number remains under 8% for the second straight month, it is back up over the 7.8% rate when President Obama took office back in January 2009. Some interesting statistics of note are the long-term unemployment numbers (those without work for more than 27 weeks) and the average job growth over the past two years. The number of Americans suffering without a job for more than 27 weeks stayed the same at around 5 million people. The average job creation number for 2012 stands at 157,000 per month, compared to 153,000 per month in 2011. In other words, there seems to be very little improvement in the past year, much less the past four years. In a press release distributed Friday morning, Mitt Romney made the following statement regarding the jobs news: “Today’s increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill. The jobless rate is higher than it was when President Obama took office, and there are still 23 million Americans struggling for work. On Tuesday, America will make a choice between stagnation and prosperity. For four years, President Obama’s policies have crushed America’s middle class. For four years, President Obama has told us that things are getting better and that we’re making progress. For too many American families, those words ring hollow. We can do better. We can have real economic growth, create millions of good-paying jobs, and give middle-class families the security and opportunity they deserve. When I’m president, I’m going to make real changes that lead to a real recovery, so that the next four years are better than the last.” As of 9:30am on Friday, there has been no statement from the Obama campaign. Don’t expect that to last, as this is too important a news story for the White House to sit on. They will not allow people to make their own conclusions without attempting to spin these numbers in a positive manner. But the question remains, will this have an effect on Tuesday’s election? Doubtful. The needle did not move enough in one direction or the other to change the mind of someone undecided at this point. There does not appear to be any huge October or November surprise, as some expected. That means whatever has been trending for the last few months is likely to continue. Again, that appears to be bad news for the President. 2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Elections, Job Creation, Obama, 2012-11-02T21:15:12+00:00 http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_the_final_jobs_report http://www.rightchange.com/blog/comments/right_change_the_final_jobs_report#When:21:05:36Z On Friday Morning at 8:30, just four days before the Presidential election, the October jobs report will be released.  This report is coming at a key moment, and everyone knows it, as evidenced by the buzz around whether or not Hurricane Sandy would lead to a tardy release of the numbers.  Regardless of which candidate will get your vote, the fact is that this report could have the power to end the race for either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. September’s report came in with unexpectedly positive results, the unemployment rate dropping to 7.8% .  This upturn for U.S. jobs yielded a surge in President Obama’s numbers.  We could expect the same for either candidate if a dramatic report is issued, whether positive or negative. However, Reuters doesn’t foresee that happening.  They are predicting a “lukewarm” report with a higher jobless rate than last month, but with “job gains [that] are within the range usually considered sufficient to keep the unemployment rate steady.” In other words, we’re probably not going to stop the presses over this. Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, is quoted as saying: "Most people have an impression of the economy and their minds won't be changed at this late stage. Only a dramatic headline on either number in either direction might move the dial a bit more." Bloomberg would be pleased about the above, as they published an editorial late Tuesday urging voters not to let the jobs report choose the next president, citing the large margins of error in the BLS statistics and the fact that a “random-number generator” should not be responsible for putting a human being into office. Valid.  But both the Reuters forecast and the Bloomberg advice are not likely to change the fact that any voters who are left undecided when the report comes out (only 96 hours prior to voting time) will turn to the jobs numbers to help them made their choice.  In an election this close, those last minute votes really do count, and could mean the big chair in the Oval Office to Romney or Obama.  2012 Presidential Elections, Economy, Elections, Job Creation, News, Obama, 2012-11-01T21:05:36+00:00