Musings on the Week
Musings on the Week
February 7, 2015
Politics - “Let us not seek the
Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not
seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for
the future.” John
F. Kennedy.
Politics
– Obama offered fake partisanship, offering
to work with the opposition, provided it was
reasonable, since to him only his ideas were reasonable, so the offer was
meaningless.
Politics
– Democrat’s biggest political problem is their “fundamental
transformation to socialism” can now be judged by results that are anemic at best and
long-term destructive.
Politics
– Obama is exporting his community organizing campaign staff to assist
leftists to mobilize “stupid” voters in Canada, Israel, and Egypt to elect governments like
“ours.”
Politics
– President Obama is anti-Israel, and not just by the
contempt shown to Prime MInister Netanyahu, but every
conceivable situation the benefit of the doubt goes to
its enemies.
Politics
- This week’s
distractions from the stagnant economy and ObamaCare:
the hoax linking vaccinations to autism and moral equivalence of Islamic terrorism and Christianity.
Politics
– Public Policy Polling found that Hillary
Clinton can’t break 50% approval against any major GOP candidate, with an
unfavorable opinion held by 48% of all respondents.
Politics
– Political parties have polarized but Conservatives
are seen as lifting the Republican Party while Progressives/Liberals are viewed as pulling the
Democrat Party down.
Media
– Contrary
to popular misconception, Islam does not mean peace but
rather submission to the commands of Allah alone, and does not include
freedom of speech.
Politics
- “One of the
penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being
governed by your inferiors.” Plato.
Budget
– Obama’s budget was “dead
before arrival” increasing spending, increasing taxes,
increasing debt and punishes businesses with higher taxes driving them
out of the country.
Budget
– After bragging that he reduced the deficit, his latest
budget increases the deficit to pay for ever increasing spending and the
increasing burden of servicing the higher debt.
Budget
– The budget debate should be focused on how to
reduce the size and scope of government, not how to expand already out-of-control spending.
Economy - The 2014 GDP growth of 2.4%
illustrates the anemic economic recovery with the low
labor participation rate and flat wages
masking the long term impact.
|
November 2008 |
January 2015 |
Change |
Annual Federal Spending |
$2.87T |
$3.597T |
+$.72T |
Total National Debt |
$9.97T |
$18.11T |
+$8.14T |
Food Stamp Participation (000) |
30,800 |
46,500 |
+15,700 |
Average Price/Gallon Gas |
$2.21 |
$2.54 |
+$.33 |
Labor Force Participation Rate |
65.9% |
62.9% |
-3.0% |
Not in Labor Force (000) |
80,220 |
92,120 |
+11,900 |
Employed (000) |
144,100 |
148,201 |
+4,101 |
Employment Population Ratio |
61.4% |
59.3% |
-2.1% |
Unemployed (000) |
10,538 |
8,679 |
-1,859 |
Unemployed - 27+ wks (000) |
2,219 |
2,800 |
+581 |
Average Weeks Unemployed |
18.9 |
32.3 |
+13.4 |
Unemployment Rate (U3) |
6.8% |
5.7% |
-
1.1% |
Underemployment Rate (U6) |
12.6% |
11.3% |
1.3% |
Income
– More than 60% of the jobs created since Obama took
office have been in health care or food service or as a temp,
while construction and manufacturing have downsized.
Income
– Politicians confuse the intent of
“minimum wage”
rates for entry level employees with “living wage” rates required by an experienced employee
sufficient to support a family.
Taxes
– President Obama’s proposed
changes to inheritance and capital gains taxes would raise the estate tax rate in the U.S. to the highest in the
industrialized world.
Healthcare
– ObamaCare subsidizes
health coverage of some Americans while making it more expensive for
others with higher premiums and deductibles, and less choice in doctors.
Immigration
– The Immigration Services processed approximately 982,000 new work permits in the last five years and of these, 957,000 were aliens who entered the country unlawfully.
Immigration
– The DOJ reveals that criminal convictions that were won against 1,000 of
the 36,007 foreign criminals who were released out
into our country by officials in 2013.
Environment
– Carbon dioxide has some warming effect on the
earth’s climate, but science shows that its direct effect is tiny and
declines dramatically as carbon dioxide levels rise.
Education
– Obama’s student loan program had a $21.8
billion shortfall last year, the largest ever recorded for any government
credit program, increasing the deficit by nearly 5%.
Sexuality –
As predicted, once homosexuality has been legalized and mainstreamed (same-sex
marriage), the rest of the sexual aberrations (polygamy,
pedophilia, incest, bestiality, transgender, etc.) as expected are now demanding
the same treatment.
Politics
- “Politics is war
without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” Mao
Zedong.
Foreign
Policy – Obama has successfully transformed the United States from the
keeper of Pax Americana into a diminished global role
as a defanged doormat for emerging despots.
GWOT
– Deaths from terrorism have risen 500% since
9/11/2001, with the major players being the so-called
Islamic State in the Middle East, Boko Haram in Africa, and al-Qaeda.
GWOT
– If Prisoners of War are repatriated at the close of
hostilities, why is President Obama illegally releasing
the Guantanamo detainees prematurely to fulfill a campaign promise?
Defense
– More than 2.6 million Americans have served in the
Global War on Terrorism since 9/11, with many men and women serving
multiple deployments in the Middle East.
Iran
– An Obama legacy will be welcoming Iran as the
newest member of the nuclear arms club enabled by administration dithering buying sufficient
time for weapon’s development.
David Coughlin
Hawthorne, NY
http://www.returntocommonsensesite.com/