Tag Archive: Economy


ObamaCare Side-Effect: Fewer Hours, More Gov’t Aid

 

 

 

 

” ObamaCare was sold as a way to achieve several goals: affordable care, guaranteed coverage, protections against bankruptcy.

But before such promises have a chance of being realized, the health reform appears to be delivering something else: Germany-style work-sharing.

Economists hailed Germany’s work-sharing for reducing unemployment during the recession. ObamaCare may be having a similar effect. But there are differences that make the health reform’s labor side-effects much more questionable.

Over the past year, retailers have cut average weekly hours for nonsupervisory workers by 2%, the sharpest such decline in more than three decades. Meanwhile, rank-and-file employment is up 132,000, or 1%, over the same period.

Some 2.3 million workers might have their hours cut due to ObamaCare’s employer mandates, even if there’s no negative impact on total hours worked, a recent study from the University of California at Berkeley Labor Center estimated.

The other part of the equation involves more government benefits for those facing shorter hours. This will come starting in 2014 from ObamaCare health subsidies. Households working less may also get additional benefits, such as food stamps.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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U.S. Homeownership Rate Falls to Lowest 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 a year earlier, while vacancies for owner-occupied houses fell to 2.1 percent from 2.2 percent.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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30 Reasons To Dislike Barack Obama

 

 

 

 

” As a conservative, picking out things you don’t like about Barack Obama is kind of like pointing to the wettest part of the ocean. It also goes beyond politics. Not only is Barack Obama wrong politically, he’s not a good guy, “cool,” or even moderately likable. To the contrary, he’s one of the nastiest, least admirable people in politics and he gets by based on a phony persona he created when he ran for President in 2008 — along with the help of press corps liberals that work to protect him like they’re on his payroll. Based on his performance and his personality, Barack Obama deserves to be the least popular man ever to sit in the White House.

1) Nobody but an ass would say“It’s very rare that I come to an event where I’m like the fifth- or sixth-most interesting person.”

2) He’s a former (maybe, who really knows?) coke-snorting pothead who governs with all the care and due diligence you’d expect from a coke-snorting pothead.

3) Barack Obama actually said, “The private sector is doing fine.” Given that the private sector has never at any point been doing fine since he became President, he’d have to be dumb, dishonest or delusional to say something like that.

4) He is a bigger liar than Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter put together. There’s nothing the man says you can count on his meaning unless he’s saying something nice about himself.” 

 

Read The Whole Thing

 

 

 

 

Gallup: Only 4% Of Americans Think Gun Control Is An Important Problem

 

 

 

” Only 4 percent of Americans think guns and gun control are an important problem facing the country, according to Gallup, and far more Americans are concerned about the economy, unemployment and the federal debt.”

 

 

 

” Respondents answered in the following order:

 

Economy in general                                      24%

Unemployment/Jobs                                     18%

Dissatisfaction with Government                16%

Federal budget deficit/Federal debt             11%

Healthcare                                                     6%

Ethical/Moral/Family decline                            5%

Immigration/Illegal aliens                                4%

Education                                                       4%

Guns/Gun control                                            4%

Situation with North Korea                              4%

Lack of Money                                                  3%

Welfare                                                            2%

Lack of respect for each other                         2%

Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness                        2%

Foreign aid/Focus overseas                              2%

Taxes                                                                 2%”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tunnel People That Live Under The Streets Of America

 

 

” Did you know that there are thousands upon thousands of homeless people that are living underground beneath the streets of major U.S. cities?  It is happening in Las Vegas, it is happening in New York City and it is even happening in Kansas City.  As the economy crumbles, poverty in the United States is absolutely exploding and so is homelessness.

The New York Post followed one homeless man known as “John Travolta” on a tour through the underground world.  What they discovered was a world that is very much different from what most New Yorkers experience…

 
 

In the tunnels, their world is one of malt liquor, tight spaces, schizophrenic neighbors, hunger and spells of heat and cold. Travolta and the others eat fairly well, living on a regimented schedule of restaurant leftovers, dumped each night at different times around the neighborhood above his foreboding home.

Even as the Dow hits record high after record high, poverty in New York City continues to rise at a very frightening pace.  Incredibly, the number of homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased by a whopping 19 percent over the past year.”

 

HT/THE INTERNET POST

 

 

 

 

 

 

US CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION MEMBERS: AMNESTY WILL ‘DISPROPORTIONATELY HARM’ BLACK COMMUNITY

 

 

 

” Three members of the United States Commission on Civil Rights wrote on Thursday to Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) to express their belief that amnesty or legalization of some 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. will hurt the black community.

“Such grant of legal status will likely disproportionately harm lower-skilled African-Americans by making it more difficult for them to obtain employment and depressing their wages when they do obtain employment.” 

“The increased employment difficulties will likely have negative consequences that extend far beyond economics,” the authors warn.

The Commission members cite a 2008 briefing their body held on this topic which found illegal immigration “has a disparate impact on African-American men because these men are disproportionately represented in the low-skilled labor force.” “

 

 

 

 

Even Piers Morgan Criticizes Obama Over Lavish Vacation Spending

 

 

 

 

” On Wednesday, April 3, President Obama announced he would be returning 5% of his paycheck to the federal treasury in a show of shared sacrifice with federal workers facing furloughs because of the sequester. The news came as he once again flew about the country pushing his anti-Second Amendment policies and only days after another lavish vacation indulged by the first family was in the news.

Morgan lambasted Obama’s attempt to spread the pain of austerity to his own household calling it a “pointless exercise” and despaired that the President wasn’t doing something more substantive.

Early in January a calculation of tax dollars spent on Obama vacations came to over 20 million tax dollars. But Keith Koffler estimated that the even the $20 million price tag for the first family’s lavish vacations was actually way too low because it didn’t take into account things like flying the President’s advance teams around the world to prepare Obama’s destination for his impending arrival.

Morgan’s ratings have been cratering for some time despite his oft-repeated high dudgeon on guns. Last month his ratings sunk to a new low finding only 87,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic.”

 

 

 

For some perspective on Dear Leader’s sacrifice click on the link below . 

 

 

 

Illustration by Glenn McCoy

 

 

 

 

Washington D.C. Living In Economic Bubble Where Everything Is Great

” As mentioned before, there really are only two types of places doing well in this economy. States with their own energy booms, like North Dakota and Texas.

And Washington D.C.

D.C. is doing spectacularly well thanks to the green gold gushing out of the Treasury and into the pockets of a whole lot of bureaucrats and contractors making a ton of money for literally doing nothing. (See if you can find where all that Stimulus money went.)

So it’s not surprising that when D.C. people say that there is a recovery, they mean it. ”

 

 

The fifteen richest counties in America :

 

No. 1: Loudoun County, Va.   Median household income: $119,540
100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 51.6% 81,900
M. Romney GOP 47.1% 74,794

 

 

No. 2: Fairfax County, Va.   Median household income: $103,010
100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 57.3% 6,636
M. Romney GOP 41.1% 4,762

 

 

No. 3: Howard County, Md.   Median household income: $101,771

100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 59.5% 84,017
M. Romney GOP 38.3% 54,094

 

 

No. 4: Hunterdon County, N.J.  Median household income: $97,874

100.0% Reporting M. Romney GOP 58.9% 36,979
B. Obama (i) Dem 40.0% 25,148

 

 

No. 5: Arlington County, Va.   Median household income: $94,986

100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 69.2% 81,178
M. Romney GOP 29.4% 34,433

 

 

No. 6: Douglas County, Colo.  Median household income: $94,906

100.0% Reporting M. Romney GOP 62.6% 93,930
B. Obama (i) Dem 36.0% 54,093

 

 

No. 7: Stafford County, Va.   Median household income: $94,317

100.0% Reporting M. Romney GOP 53.7% 32,429
B. Obama (i) Dem 45.0% 27,130

 

 

No. 8: Somerset County, N.J.  Median household income: $94,270

100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 52.0% 70,168
M. Romney GOP 46.8% 63,159
No. 9: Prince William County, Va.  Median household income: $92,655
98.9% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 57.4% 103,161
M. Romney GOP 41.4% 74,371

 

 

No. 10: Morris County, N.J.  Median household income: $91,469
100.0% Reporting M. Romney GOP 55.3% 114,265
B. Obama (i) Dem 43.7% 90,313

 

 

No. 11: Nassau County, N.Y.  Median household income: $91,104
100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 52.9% 243,649
M. Romney GOP 46.2% 212,882

 

No. 12: Montgomery County, Md.  Median household income: $89,155
100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 70.9% 286,493
M. Romney GOP 27.4% 110,940

 

No. 13: Calvert County, Md.  Median household income: $88,862
100.0% Reporting M. Romney GOP 53.2% 22,413
B. Obama (i) Dem 45.0% 18,963
No. 14: St. Mary’s County, Md.  Median household income: $88,444
100.0% Reporting M. Romney GOP 56.9% 25,096
B. Obama (i) Dem 40.8% 17,982
No. 15: Charles County, Md.  Median household income: $87,007
100.0% Reporting B. Obama (i) Dem 65.0% 45,621
M. Romney GOP 33.7% 23,637

 

 

 Notice a trend ? It seems life for our “betters” just keeps getting better … 

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HOUSEHOLD INCOME TUMBLES DURING THE OBAMA “RECOVERY”

 

Household income tumbles during the Obama "recovery"

 

” The New York Times delivers some news so grim that it had to cook the headline to hide it: “Median Household Income Down 7.3% Since Start of Recession.”

Well, yes, but as the Times reluctantly admits in the very last paragraph of the story, 5.6 percent of that decline has occurred since the Obama “recovery” began.  And median annual household income just fell by 1.1 percent in a single month – February 2013 – after the Obama “recovery” has supposedly been in progress for years.  That’s after $6 trillion in deficit spending to “stimulate” the economy, supposedly for the benefit of the average household.

What’s behind this decline in household income, which has become so drastically pronounced throughout the Obama era? “

 

 

 

 

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Hunters Boycott Colorado Over Tough New Gun Control Laws

 

Hunters_Boycott_Colorado

 

 

 

 

 

Obama Wants $130 Billion to Bail Out Europe

 

 

 

” President Barack Obama wants to double the U.S. quota subscription in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to $130 billion from its current $65 billion level. This is the foreign aid organization that has been busy bailing out Greece, Portugal, and Ireland with $86.6 billion.

U.S. taxpayers have been responsible for about 20 percent of those bailouts, or approximately $17 billion so far, even as the Eurozone continues to crumble and the debt crisis spreads to Italy and Spain.

Obama’s call to double down comes afterformer Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had sworn under oath to the House Financial Services Committee in 2012 that “we have no intention to seek additional U.S. resources for the IMF.” “

 

 

 

 

 

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The Effects Of Sequestration On Federal Spending

 

 

 

 

” While the sequester is widely advertised as cutting spending over a ten year period, there is no actual reduction in overall spending levels. Rather, the sequester slows the overall growth in spending slightly between 2013 and 2023, with spending increasing by $2.40 trillion during that time period. Spending grows 51 percent, or $1.81 trillion, with sequestration between 2013 and 2021, the period when automatic spending procedures are to be enforced.”

 

 

 

ObamaCare is About to Make Five Guys’ Burgers Cost More

 

 

 

” Liberals’ response to this will be: Well, Five Guys are just doing it wrong. That’s always their response. The government is always benevolent and doing it right (even when it imposes laws that the majority did not want); the private sector is doing it wrong. Just because, so there. That’s what arguing with liberals over ObamaCare amounts to.

The fight over Obamacare, so far held at the 30,000-foot level, is about to hit home. The latest impact hot off the grill: prices of burgers and hot dogs at Five Guys, the national chain that started in Washington, are going to rise to cover the president’s mandated insurance coverage.”

 

 

Life On Los Angeles’ Skid Row Obamavilles

21 Photos

 

 

Homeless people rest on a public sidewalk in Skid Row on Feb. 28, 2013.

Budget Politics

image

” Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it do?

   The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.The example was deliberately extreme as an illustration. But, in the real world, the same general pattern can be seen in local, state and national government responses to budget cuts.”

Oops, Narrative Fail: State Dept Concludes Keystone XL Pipeline Will Not Harm Environment

 

 

” TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline will not harm the environment, the State Department — in a blow to environmentalists who want to block the project — wrote in a newly-drafted report on the latest proposed route.

The report comes to the dismay of environmental activists. “We’re mystified as to how the State Department can acknowledge the negative effects of the Earth’s dirtiest oil on our climate, but at the same time claim that the proposed pipeline will ‘not likely result in significant adverse environmental effects,’” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement. “

 

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Americans See Biggest Monthly Income Drop In 20 years

 

 

 

 

” Americans saw their income drop so dramatically in January that it marked the deepest one-month decline in 20 years.

Personal income decreased by $505.5 billion in January, or 3.6%, compared to December (on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis). That’s the most dramatic decline since January 1993, according to the Commerce Department.

It’s something of a combination of one-time events, though.

Monthly income was unusually high in December because companies paid out early dividends to avoid upcoming tax hikes. Companies like Wal-Mart (WMTFortune 500), Oracle (ORCLFortune 500), and Costco Wholesale Corp paid special dividends to their shareholders at the end of 2012, instead of waiting until 2013.”

 

Sequester This! President Obama’s Colossal Media Blunder

 

 

 

” President Obama has gone all-in trying to get Republicans to blink and serve up another round of tax increases in lieu of the looming spending sequester. Eschewing talks with Congress or any pretense of leadership, he is instead flying around the country burning $180,000 an hour on Air Force One laying out a parade of horribles that will descend upon us if the growth of federal spending were reduced by one iota.

Why is he doing this? Because the mainstream media are lapping it up. Poisoned meat coming to grocery shelves near you! Air traffic grinds to a screeching halt! Fires, murder, and mayhem in the streets as first responders are laid off! No visits to the Washington Monument! OK, it all makes for good copy.

Well, Jay, explain this to me: The most imperial president in American history, a man who boasts that he will rule by Executive Action if Congress refuses to pass legislation he favors, can’t figure out how to direct spending cuts in a way that does the least harm to the American people?”

 

 

See companion story :  After The Sequester, Bring On The Blame Game

 

” Just as every newsworthy weather event these days is blamed on global warming, every negative economic report between now and the 2014 midterm elections will be blamed on obstructionist Republicans, their ill-advised sequester, and their determination to ruin an otherwise recovering economy just to make Obama look bad. The only way to fix it? Hand total control of all three branches of government to the party that really knows how to party.”

 

 

 

From Smart Girl Politics

 

 

 

 

” Recently I’ve been thinking about young voters (age 18-29) and trying to understand why most of them are attracted to the Democrat Party. In 2008, 45% of voters age 18-29 identified as Democrat, and 27% identified as Republican (Soltis, 2009). I will admit that I’m not around this age group often, so I have no insight into the mind of a young voter. I have a three year old and a six year old. My kids think about Spiderman and Barbie dolls, not political parties.

In 2012, unfortunately President Barack Obama captured a large majority of the African-American vote, the Latino vote, and the Asian vote. He also captured 60% of voters age 18-29. (Mataconis, 2012). As a result, the rapid decline of this great nation continues. The majority of Americans think our country is headed in the wrong direction and that we aren’t better off than we were four years ago. So, what’s the attraction to the Democratic Party for young voters?

I have a few opinions:

  1. Its “cool” to be a Democrat. I think it’s safe to say that young people worry about being cool, or part of the “in” crowd. I guess it’s considered cool nowadays to look up to someone like Beyonce or Eva Longoria, both out-spoken Obama supporters. Some young adults may think it’s cool to put on a pair of skinny jeans and fairy boots or a cute black dress, go to a trendy bar that sells over—priced drinks (with little alcohol) and bash Republicans. Aren’t Republicans rich, evil white guys plotting world domination or toothless, uneducated, unwashed rednecks from the “slave states?” The Democrats are the cool crowd that cares about global warming, women’s rights, and income inequality. I guess it’s also way cool to have a President that smokes, shoots hoops, and cares more about March Madness than the national debt.

    I have to be honest. This is truly something I don’t understand. When I think of the word “cool,” Dianne Feinstein, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi DO NOT come to mind. I think of Dana Loesch or S.E. Cupp. These ladies wear leather!! I know there is a huge age difference, but I seriously doubt that Nancy, Dianne, or Hillary EVER rocked a pair of leather pants! “

 

Read the whole thing 


 Sequestration Scares Are The Ultimate Washington Wink-Winks

 

 

 

” Put another way, the sequestration scares are lies, pure and simple. Not just bunk, not just distortions or mis-statements, but lies. And every professional politician – Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Independent – in this town knows it.

But the lie of sequestration goes even beyond predictable prevarications like LaHood‘s. The sequestration cuts are from the government’s “baseline” budget, which includes built-in spending increases every year.

So what the professional politicians bewail as a spending cut is actually nothing more than a reduction in the amount that spending will increase each year. The Washington Examiner‘s Byron York did a superb job earlier this week explicating this fact on Greta Van Sustern’s show and in a column that focused specifically on how the Pentagon plays the game.”

LIMBAUGH: ‘FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I AM ASHAMED OF MY COUNTRY’

 

 

Limbaugh Sequestration

 

 

 

See Also :

 

Did Rush Limbaugh Just Launch A Tea Party Revival Effort?

 

” Rush Limbaugh opened his show this afternoon proclaiming that for the first time in his career, he was ashamed of his country.

Why? Limbaugh explained that both political parties in Washington refused to stop spending and used alarmist scare tactics every time anyone proposed cuts to government programs.

“To be watching all of this, to have my intelligence – all of us – to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it is….it just makes me ashamed,” Limbaugh explained, “Seriously man, here we get worked up over 44 billion dollars – that’s the total amount of money that will not be spent that was scheduled to be spent this year.”

Limbaugh added that the government would continue to spend more money this year than last year in spite of the sequester cuts.”

 

 

Army Lays Out State-By-State Cuts In Report

 

 

 

Military Closings By State

 

 

” The Army estimates automatic budget cuts scheduled to take effect March 1 will have a $15 billion economic impact and affect more than 300,000 jobs nationwide, according to documents obtained by USA Today.

Hardest hit states include Texas, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Among the least affected: Delaware, Wyoming, Montana and Rhode Island.

The military faces $500 billion in budget cuts over 10 years from sequestration — automatic budget cuts. The Army anticipates that it will need to slash $18 billion in spending by the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30.”

 

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

 

Obama's Regulatory Nightmare

 

 

“A business-backed group chaired by former Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln is decrying what it terms “a regulatory tidal wave” under the Obama administration.

The Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations Coalition issued this infographic, meant to illustrate the increasing number of notices, proposed rules and final rules published each day in the Federal Register.

“About 2,000 new or proposed regulations are entered into the federal register each month –a rate that the business community cannot keep up with,” according to the group.”

Explaining To The Left (as if they’ll listen) Why Raising The Minimum Wage Does Not Pay For Itself

 

 

 

 

” On the one hand, this is so elementary, it’s hard to believe anyone argues with it. But when you’re dealing with ideological true believers, you know they will argue withanything you say if it doesn’t line up with the faith. So don’t assume you’ve won the argument just because you point this out: Raising the minimum wage will worsen unemployment because, plain and simple, it raises the cost of labor.

Not only that, but it raises by statute the cost of the least productive laborers out there. There’s a reason minimum wage earners get the minimum. Their contribution represents minimal value. An employer who decides to hire such a person is accepting lack of experience, lack of training and lack of maturity, and is deciding to invest some time developing the worker and getting whatever minimal contribution they can make until they see if the investment pays off in the person’s improvement. Usually you’re not talking about people trying to support a family. Usually you’re talking about a 16-year-old kid. If you make it even more expensive than it already is to hire such people, businesses simply will not do it.”

 

 

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