It's an Elephant's Job

Vote Republican in 2020 to get the United States' economy back on track.

(cartoon political ad circa 1928)

Progress Report on the Obama Presidency

Here is a brief progress report on the economic aspects of the Obama administration. Some of the numbers in the following graphic had to be updated as they didn't seem quite right, but they are still bad.

Number 4. in the graphic is wrong due to perhaps being outdated. The federal debt of the United States is now 100% of GDP. This means that the debt of all the citizens of the U.S. due to government spending is equal to the production (in terms of dollars) of the economy over one year. And as you can see in the chart below, that debt is growing by more than a trillion dollars per year. Who thinks that's sustainable? It is crippling, actually. What can we do? Elect people to Congress and the Presidency who want to tackle the debt.

An updated figure from the labor department says that Number 5. in the graphic is now 63% of the population is employed, which is up, but 8 million of these workers are working part time when they want more hours according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These people are often referred to as under-employed.

Additionally, according to Gallop, the home ownership rate is 62% as of April 2012, so I don't know where the number in Number 8. in the graphic above comes from, but 62% is still a lower home ownership rate than all of the Bush years.

In a country where we spend 1.5 trillion dollars more per year than we take in in revenue, how can the following chart be justified? Surely millions of these people on food stamps don't actually need food assistance. How many are illegal aliens? How many are employed citizens gaming the system? This administration has marketed the food stamp program like no other administration before it, in fact markets all of its assistance "products" like Coca-Cola markets Coke. No wonder the numbers are up.

 

Why didn't President Barack Obama get voted out of office during the last election if his economic numbers are so bad? Because the phrase coined by James Carville, "It's the economy, stupid" doesn't hold sway with a large portion the voting public anymore. Mr. Obama was re-elected by people who think a generous, big government that gives more than it gets and over-regulates big business is a good idea.

The numbers show that the housing market is still weak, unemployment is still high, gas prices are still high, electricity prices are up, health insurance costs are up, and the cost of food is up. It has taken many years for the slight improvements to the economy that we have at this point, which is worse than any other recovery from a recession.

Unfortunately, the economic policies of this administration (of which these examples represent just the tip of the Titanic crushing iceberg), if continued, will sink this ship. In the short term, the only relief on the horizon are the 2014 congressional elections, where fiscally responsible senators and representatives must be placed into office.

Vote Out the Golfer in Chief - 22 Reasons to Say Goodbye

This is the week of the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, which will be a factory of lies and smears of Mitt Romney and Republicans, and at the same time there will be no playing up of the non-existent Obama administration accomplishments because there is nothing good to say. Everything this president has done has put a restrictor plate on the American economic engine.


If you are thinking about voting for Barack Obama for president, think first about these facts.

• Less people are working in the U.S. now than in 2008/2009, though there are many more people. The administration tells you about jobs created in a month but they don't seem to factor in that 350,000+ people file for NEW unemployment claims every week.

• 50% of college graduates can't find a job.
• The only place you can get a college loan is through the government. There is no competitive market any longer.
• Unemployment has been above 8% for more than 4 years.
• The debt is 5 trillion dollars larger than it was 4 years ago.
• Obama (The Golfer in Chief) has golfed more than almost any other president (more than 100 times).
• 49 million Americans are on Food Stamps.
• Obama, who has said that he would bring America together has caused America to become more polarized, more partisan than it has ever been by not compromising at all, by not working with Congress, by lying about what he will do, by imposing laws in a dictatorial fashion (DREAM "act"), and by name calling more than any other president before him.
• Obama has continuously dissed America's friends and sided with its enemies.
• Obama attacks the successful people in America, creating class warfare.
• Obama pushed hard for Obamacare which will make healthcare more expensive generally, will cripple health insurance companies, impedes on the rights of individual Americans, and will reduce the quality of health care overall, and enlarges government and government's role in our lives.
• Obama has made massive cuts in the military, weakening America's ability to defend itself.
• Gasoline is $1.50 to $2.00 per gallon higher than when he took office and has been so fairly consistently for his term in office. In a sense, this is equivalent to a 50% tax on fuel under his administration. This would not be the case if he had a more pro-American energy policy.
• He wants to tax carbon, thereby raising energy prices for consumers.
• He placed a 3.8% tax on the sale of your home to help fund Obamacare.
• Has OK'd the use of government funds to do research with stem cells from fetuses.
• Supported partial birth abortion when he was a senator in Illinois.
• Sued Arizona for enforcing laws against illegal immigration. Sued Ohio for early voting rights law for military voters. Sues Florida for trying to clean up its voter registrations by removing non-US citizens.
• Has just given defacto amnesty to a large number of illegal immigrants.
• He wants taxes raised on wealthy Americans, who already bear most of the tax burden, but this will actually hurt small businesses who hire a large portion of the workers in this country.
• He has been very weak in his response to the dangerous country of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
• His requirements for automobile mileage are raising the cost of buying cars and trucks.

This list could actually go on. If you care that this country remain a country where the freedom of the individual is valued and where government is a smaller (not a larger part of your life) then you really should vote for Mitt Romney for president. It's not about what Mitt Romney can do FOR you, it's about what Barack Obama is doing TO you and TO this country.

Stimulus Doesn't Work

Click to view larger image

This chart by Obama administration economists Jared Bernstein and Christina Romer was amended by James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). It really shows the failure of the Obama administration's economic policies, especially the economic stimulus plan.

Romney/Ryan 2012

The choice yesterday by Governor Mitt Romney of conservative Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential candidate is a brilliant one and it's a winning ticket for the Republicans in 2012, not to mention everyone else. This choice shows that Mitt Romney is concerned about America's stagnant economy and will help to unleash businesses to grow. A successful businessman and a budget knowledgeable Washington politician are the right cure for what ails the flagging economy.

Did you know that Paul Ryan is just 42 years old but has been in Congress for more than 12 years? He is also chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Both of these men are for less government, something important to many Americans, including the Tea Party who will probably embrace the choice of Mr. Ryan. Less government and less ambition for what government should do will equal lower taxes for everyone, solidify America's credit rating again, and strengthen the economy. An unleashed business sector will increase revenues to the government, reducing borrowing and improving the U.S. debt and deficit positions. Salaries and job growth will rise because companies will be selling more products. The stock market will rise because companies will be doing better.

Additionally, both of these men care about smart healthcare reform and will work to repeal and/or neuter the costly and invasive Obamacare.

It is indeed time for America to come back. Romney and Ryan will lead this country toward a better 21st century and do it from the front, not from behind.

Obama Administration Gives Administrative Amnesty to People in the U.S. Illegally, but Not Committing Other Crimes

It's called selective enforcement of the laws of the United States of America, and it is not something the director of the Department of Homeland Security or the Executive office should be engaging in - and especially not announcing it to the world. "Oh, we won't be enforcing these particular laws, so... you're good." The people behind this outrage are sworn to uphold the laws and Constitution of the U.S. I state here and now that it's treacherous and treasonous, because it erodes the rule of law and the power of Congress and the Constitution. It is plain circumvention to support a liberal political intention. What they could not get through the legislative process last year, because it was unpopular, they have initiated by executive fiat.

Why can't the liberal numbskulls in this country get it through their heads that illegal is illegal? Why also do they insist on calling illegal aliens (or illegal immigrants) just plain immigrants, as if they had gone through the same legal process of getting into this country that legal immigrants do? Or they are often referred to as "undocumented" immigrants, as if they somehow overlooked getting a visa or passport, or as if some bad Tea Party person came along and stole these poor, downtrodden people's documents. It really is like we're in Bizarro World!

Do we want laws that enforce the borders of our country or not? If it is OK for people to come to the United States and stay at will, then change the law to reflect that idea. But as it stands now the laws make it illegal for foreign nationals (aliens, as they are called to the left's annoyance) to come into this country without asking whether they may do so. What's wrong with that? And do you know why we don't make it legal for people to cross the border at will and stay here legally? Because the vast majority of Americans want border security and additionally don't want to throw their tax dollars away supporting every down-on-their luck poor person that breaks into this country expecting to get rich. We just cannot afford it.

But this "rule change" from the Obama administration is going to make coming here illegally MORE ATTRACTIVE to people outside this country, since it is now de facto okay for them to do so. There won't be consequences for being illegal. And the burden on the taxpaying citizens of this country will increase.

On top of not pursuing the illegal immigrants, they will be allowed to apply for work permits, which will allow them to compete legally for jobs with the 30 million Americans looking for work. Good news for job hunters! Not.

My suggestion to La Raza, Robert Menendez(D) NJ, Janet Napolitano, and every other illegal alien supporter, if you don't want to break up families, then suggest they don't do something that's illegal in the first place. Don't rob a bank, don't commit tax fraud, don't commit document fraud, and don't break into a sovereign nation expecting that the citizens of that nation will look the other way.

Let's get out of Bizarro World before it becomes the New World Order.

If You Want Employment to Rise, Buy American

The headline of this article makes a certain amount of sense, don’t you think? More on common sense in a moment. But first some good news.

Today it has been reported that the unemployment rate has fallen to 8.8 percent, a one tenth of one percent drop from February. This is due to the economy adding 216,000 jobs in March, the second month in a row that jobs were added at that rate. Hopefully this number won’t be adjusted down in the coming days as is often the case with unemployment numbers. These figures are good news and come in spite of the President’s anti-business policies such as the Stimulus, Obamacare, Quantitative Easing, and the previous Congress’s neverending unemployment insurance extensions. It’s no surprise that Mitt Romney says in his USAToday opinion piece that the rate of new jobs production would be much higher (and the unemployment rate lower) by now if it were not for Obama’s policies. This is part of the common sense I was talking about earlier, and it’s a view held by a large and growing portion of the American population.

But we as Americans can (and should) do more to make the employment numbers rise in our towns and states. We can buy American-based services and products. We can buy local. It is only common sense. Do you think buying Japanese Playstations made in China will help U.S. unemployment numbers? Or would buying a Microsoft Xbox 360 be a better idea? Would buying a Toshiba laptop be a good idea? Or would buying an Apple, Dell, or HP product help more? Of course the latter would help more.

But we Americans don’t always do what is common sense when it comes to what we buy. Americans most often buy whatever is the lowest-priced product or service, generally not paying attention to (or caring) where something is made. For instance, if Moammar Gadhafi was selling gasoline at $2 a gallon in New York City right now, there’d be a line into the gas station as long as Fifth Avenue. That’s the way it is for many American consumers. Too often today there is no choice but to buy products made in China by foreign national companies. Although buying Korean cell phones and automobiles does involve employment for the people selling those goods in this country, there are not as many people employed as if the product were designed, made, and sold by an American company. In addition the tax benefits accrued by the various taxing authorities are fewer leading to lower tax revenues flowing into the various governing authorities. Not to mention greater debt and lower employment.

Is your neighbor out of work? Are you? What better way to support them than to buy American, and even better to buy LOCAL. Being from Michigan originally, I have always supported American automobile makers. Especially nowadays, the vehicles Detroit makes are stylish, and built with real quality. I had friends in the auto business, in addition to having a brother who works directly in that industry. I felt that if I ever bought a vehicle that wasn’t made in America, that I’d be doing my small part in diminishing the business that he depends on for his family’s bread and butter. It’s not much to ask of a family member or neighbor to support the company that employs them and provides a tax base to the state and local governments where you live, instead of supporting the workers and the tax base of some city, say in Germany.

If you lived in a town full of bakeries, some of them run by your relatives, would you buy bread from Denmark? If you lived in Idaho would you buy potatoes from Michigan? If you would, let me just remind you that you only have two feet that you can shoot.

Buying local, means, as much as possible, eating in your town, buying gasoline in the burg where you pay your real estate taxes, grocery shopping in your town, and buying your car and your cell phone where you live. This supports the businesses that pay taxes in your town, thereby keeping the pressure on raising your taxes lower.

It’s hard sometimes to find American-made options, but in the car market, it’s easy. Besides American automakers, there are many foreign companies that manufacture cars in the U.S. now, which is a good alternative for consumers who don’t like Detroit’s big three automakers. Honda makes many Accords, Civics and Acuras in the U.S., as does Toyota with their Camry, Hyundai’s Sonata, BMW’s Z series, Mercedes, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Subaru all make cars in the U.S. using American workers. These car buying options are good for those people wanting to support American jobs, and as with American automakers you have to look at them on a model-by-model basis to see if they are actually “Made in the USA”. Look at the sticker on the window for the country of origin.

Other options for American-made goods are bath towels which I found at Bed, Bath and Beyond which were luxurious and only slightly higher cost than their Chinese and Pakistani-made counterparts in the store. Oh, and buy American-made bottled water. There’s really no excuse for buying water from Fiji, or France, from an ecological standpoint or from an ideological standpoint. Same for beer and wine. There are so many super California wines that there is no excuse for buying wine from anywhere else. And small and large American breweries have a wide variety of tasty beers these days that employ American workers. Buy some American beer if you’re imbibing this weekend. You’ll feel great about it. Without going into everything that’s made in the U.S., some of the bigger items like appliances from Whirlpool, Maytag, and Kenmore are made in the U.S. as are most lawn tractors, and heavy equipment from companies like John Deere, Caterpillar, and Komatsu among others.

The more we Buy American, not because we are against other countries, but because we are for our neighbors, family members, and fellow citizens, the better the chance we’ll have of digging ourselves out of this jobless, economic funk that the U.S. currently finds itself in, despite the monetary policies of the government which continue to choke economic growth.

For more exhaustive lists of American-made products, check out these Made in the USA links:

http://www.usstuff.com/index.htm

http://madeinusa.com/