New York Times Errs In Reporting Protest
Sep 13, 2009 Political
There was a huge protest in DC with an estimated 1.3 to 2 million** people descending on the Capitol to protest out of control government and its out of control spending. The protests were about the health care overhaul as well as the stimulus, the cap and trade and all the other items that have led to a deficit of 1.3 TRILLION dollars. People have awakened to how out of control government is, a condition that is not specific to any one party. Government has been out of control for years and Republicans have been as bad as Democrats when it comes to fiscal responsibility.
We now have the party of big government and the party of bigger government from which to choose.
The New York Times though, saw it differently. They reported that the protest was against Obama. This is how most liberals (except those who were at the protest) see any condemnation of government. It, to them, is against Obama.
As President Barack Obama flew to Minnesota on Saturday to rally support for his health care plan, a sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against Obama since he took office, a culmination of a summer-long season of protests that began with opposition to the health care overhaul and grew into a broader dissatisfaction with government. Statesman.com (reprint of NYT story) [emphasis mine]
The protest was not against Obama and was not a conservative only event though I am sure his ego leads him to believe this. Certainly the partisan NYT holds this view as does the Washington Post which reported that:
Tens of thousands of conservative protesters, many complaining that the nation is racing toward socialism, massed outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, angrily denouncing President Obama’s health-care plan and other initiatives as threats to the Constitution.
The protest no doubt consisted mostly of conservatives but there were many liberals and moderates as well. The common thinking in the ivory towers of the media is that no logical person would oppose this government (and in their view, Obama) so it must be the conservatives who are protesting.
Lost in all of this are the Democrats in Congress who oppose the legislation. They have the numbers to get done what they want but are unable because their own oppose the legislation. This is because their constituents, people of all political beliefs, let them have an earful during the August recess.
The media wing of the Democratic party would have America believe that the only people opposed to the government’s actions are conservatives and that the protests are against Obama. Both of these statements are incorrect and show a lack of journalistic integrity.
Americans of all political stripes are concerned about the out of control spending of the government and of the way that item after item is rushed through with little debate and with no one reading what the bills contain. People are also tired of being lied to.
Americans do not want the bills for the government’s inability to exercise fiscal restraint passed on to their children and grandchildren.
People have had enough and are demonstrating to show politicians their distrust and dissatisfaction.
They have that right under our Constitution in the same Amendment that allows freedom of the press.
It is too bad that the press lacks the integrity of the people who protest.
**This number is from earlier reports that were attributed to ABC News. ABC is saying it never made those estimates. The numbers now reported are from 75,000 to healthy 6 figures depending upon who you ask. The issue in the post is how the news attributed this to a protest against Obama by conservatives, which is a lie. But since someone was kind enough to point out the number issue I wanted to make it clear.
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Tags: deficit, lies, Obama, protest, spending, washington dc
Debt Ceiling Continues To Rise As Congress Continues To Spend
Aug 10, 2009 Political
The Democrats went nuts when George Bush asked them to raise the debt ceiling. To be fair, the party not in power usually raises hell when the majority party asks for the ceiling to be raised. Both parties are guilty of spending more rather than spending less and this causes havoc with our budget process. The Obama administration is adding to the debt at record levels (the previous record was set last year by Bush and the Democratically controlled Congress) and there appears to be no end in sight. On top of the stimulus that did not stimulate, Obama and the Democrats are pushing for a health care overhaul that will tremendously increase the US debt burden. Obama has been in office for 7 months and already his Treasury Secretary is asking that the debt ceiling be raised:
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is “critically important” that they act in the next two months. WSJ
The federal deficit grew by $181 billion in July and will likely continue to grow. Tax revenues are way down because of the bad economy and the Obama Administration has spent a fortune on a stimulus package that added to the burden and produced no positive results. The cap and trade legislation will further burden taxpayers, including those in the middle class (particularly those in the middle class) and the health care overhaul will likely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Congress will likely approve the increase in the debt limit and the vote will probably be party line (or close to it) as it usually is.
The funny thing is that the very same Democrats who balked when Bush wanted to increase the limit and claimed he had no plan to reduce the deficit are the ones asking for an increase when they have no plan to reduce the deficit. By all accounts the Democrats will only continue to add to the problem.
Democrats blamed Bush’s tax cuts on the problem. When taxes are cut the revenue to the treasury increases but that is often ignored for the sake of political grandstanding. Obama has not cut taxes and the deficit is still rising out of control. That is what happens when they spend more money than we have.
Our government needs to go line by line, program by program and make meaningful cuts just like Obama promised to do. Until the out of control spending is reigned in there will be more and more debt and future requests to raise the ceiling.
That is no way to do business.
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Tags: debt ceiling, deficit, geithner, Obama, spending
Watch For The Insidious Tax Increases
Jun 20, 2009 Political
The Democrats are working on a health care plan for Obama who wants it done this year. They want this done very quickly because the longer they mess with it the longer the American public has to see what it really involves. Once people start kicking the tires and looking under the hood they will not like what they see.
Republicans have been shut out of the process and Democrats have reported they were told NOT to work with Republicans on this issue.
This is all on the Democrats and what they will do is triple even what Obama wanted to spend and they will raise taxes on everyone. The Democrats are not willing to say this and they are trying to hide it until they can push this through because they know higher taxes are not popular. Like Carlie Rangel said, they want to get the particulars out but not the taxes so people become happy with the plan. Then they will mention the taxes. They don’t want any negative press on it.
The Democrats are looking at a number of ways to tax YOU. They will tax everyone. Here are some things under consideration (this is not all inclusive):
The tax options include:
– Increasing the price of soda and other sugary drinks by 10 cents a can.
– Applying a potential 2 percent income tax increase to single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year and households earning more than $250,000.
– A new employer payroll tax could target 3 percent of employers’ health care expenditures.
– Taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits above certain levels – a less likely option but one that still is in the running. My Way News
The second item is specific to people who make certain incomes and that would be about the upper 3%. There are not enough wage earners in this category to pay for the cost of health care.
The other three items involve everyone. If you consume cola or other sugary drinks, you would be affected. If you have employer provided health insurance you might have to pay taxes on 3% of it or on all of it. The government will require it to be reported as income and then tax you. You will pay taxes on your health care benefit in order to pay for someone else’s health care. Incidentally, this will cause many employers to drop health care for their employees and force employees into Obamacare, just like he wants.
Obama said he would not raise taxes on those making under certain levels (that number changed several times) but it looks like his Democrats are working on methods of taxing nearly everyone.
The article discusses the different taxing schemes and the dishonesty of the Democrats. Remember, Rangel said that they did not want to disclose the taxes because they would get negative attention. This article shows they are still intent on keeping quiet about the huge tax increases:
The draft, being released at a news conference of the chairmen of the three committees with jurisdiction – Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor – was not expected to mention the potentially unpopular tax options. [emphasis mine]
The Democrats are well on their way to outspending the last 8 years and they will do so in record time. In order to do that they need to obtain money so the question they will be asking is; “What’s in your wallet?”
Related:
Who Are The Big Spenders? American Thinker
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Tags: Congress, health care, Obama, spending, tax increases, taxes
Democrats Now Realize Stimulus Will Fall Short
Mar 14, 2009 Political
The Democrats passed a spending bill that will end up costing more than a trillion dollars and in the run up to it they made a lot of claims as to why it was necessary. Obama said it had to be done immediately and promised that it would create or save (fraud alert: no one can measure a saved job) millions of jobs and that it would stimulate the economy. This monster passed even though many Republicans opposed it and said that it was full of wasteful spending. The bill was nicknamed the Porkulus bill.
The economy is not in crisis but it is in a tough down turn. The reality is that we could have done NO spending and the economy would recover. It would recover much faster if the government took a bold step and reduced the corporate tax to zero for a year and then brought it up by half at the end of the year. If we reduced capital gains to zero for a year and then brought them up to half it would have a big impact as well. If government felt it had to intervene it would have done better to have a smaller spending program with items that would provide immediate impact. Instead it went for a monster saying it was necessary to avoid a crash we could not get out of. After it was all done they started to lower expectations as to how long it will be to see a difference and then Obama said it really wasn’t as bad as he thought. They can’t cut taxes or follow what Republicans say because if it works they are done.
Now they are in a bind. The Republicans have been saying that the porkulus was full of political payoffs. It was full of things that will not stimulate the economy or create jobs and it was passed using the crisis to get it through with the purpose of making political payoff. All of this is an accurate assessment. The public is none too happy about the continuing loss of jobs and the slide of the stock market, Obama’s poll, and they are starting to get the message.
Democrats are seeing the different polls indicating that economists give Obama a failing grade and the online poll at MSNBC that gives him an F for what he has done so far. Obama and the Democrats have been saying that another stimulus might be needed but the public is not buying it. They know that the last one has not had time to work and that nothing should be passed until we see how this abortion is going to end up.
But the Dems, who backtracked on the second stimulus (at least publicly) really want to pass another one. They want to pass one with items that will affect the economy and jobs more quickly. They want to do what Republicans wanted to do the last time. They want to do this because they know the first bill will not provide what they promised and they need to do something to deliver or they will be toast.
Say no to a second stimulus. They said this one would work and Obama said it had to be enacted right away and then they said it might take a while. Well then we wait a while and not throw more money at this problem. We wait and see if what they said pans out. If that means they have to wait until next year then so be it.
They forced us to spend the money and now they are not going to use more of our money to cover their ineptitude and failures.
No more money on stimulus packages.
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Tags: Democrats, jobs, lies, Obama, payoff, porkulus, spending
The Contradictions Of Barack Obama
Mar 11, 2009 Political
Barack Obama is a charismatic man who is well spoken and is usually coherent so long as he has a teleprompter from which to read. Obama is a man of contradictions which might be a polite way of saying he is a liar.
Barack Obama pushed through a trillion dollar spending bill that he called a stimulus package. It was so critical it had to be done yesterday. The Congress acted so quickly that none of them read it. Obama then went on holiday and eventually signed it four days later.
Interestingly, after he spent wealth that has not yet been earned, he gave a speech where he said we had to spend money wisely and that there needed to be fiscal restraint. He promised that they would not spend money without a funding source (usually whomever he decides is rich). How contradictory is that? He says they won’t spend money they don’t have after he spends more money than anyone in the history of government and it was money that will not be earned until our grandchildren get jobs.
Today, Obama signed a 450 billion dollar omnibus package which wrapped up all the things Congress did not get to last year. It is the unfinished business for the year. I guess Congress was too busy taking all those days off last year to get this done. In this bill there were about 9000 earmarks. This is money that is wasted by our government. This is money we do not have and it is being spent after Obama said we would not do that.
About 126 million dollars in earmarks going to Massachusetts will be spent on structures honoring the Kennedys. That’s right folks, the US government is spending millions of dollars to stroke the egos in the Kennedy family. This is a blatant waste of money and Barack Obama should have vetoed the bill. He was obligated to do so by his own words. No, not the lie about spending money we don’t have but another, now apparent lie, he told during the campaign.
Barack Obama said that that he would fix the broken earmark process to ensure our money was being spent wisely. Then he allowed Congress to insert 9000 earmarks in a bill and he signed it. He did not keep his word about earmarks which is another one of those pesky contradictions.
I also read that Obama used a signing statement on the bill. That is something he said George Bush abused and all indications were that he would not do that. Guess it is different when you actually have to govern.
Interestingly, Obama and his minions claimed that this bill cleaned up last year’s mess and that things would be different when they submit their first official budget for next fiscal year (begins 1 October 2009).
This is a cowardly way of addressing the issue and it shows that Obama does not possess leadership skills. What better way for him to signal this change thing he talked about then to veto it and tell them to send it back when it had no earmarks? He could have sent a strong message to the American public and to Congress. Instead he allowed Congress to abuse him like a $2.00 hooker.
This man is clueless and he is spending us into a black hole. I never want to hear the Democrats cry about Bush and his spending again. Yes he spent a lot and I wrote about that several times but Obama is on a pace to well exceed Bush and he will do it in a much shorter period.
A community organizer is not a leader. Barack Obama has never been in charge of anything. He has never been a leader. He has never had to be the decision maker.
It shows.
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Tags: Congress, contradictions, Democrats, leadership, lies, Obama, Republicans, spending