Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Republican Controlled U.S. House: A New Congress But The Same Conservative Anti-American Ideology

Wednesday, the U.S. House voted to repeal Health Care Legislation that was passed into law last year. All republicans voted to repeal, all but three democrats voted no. A typical republican vote on an issue that divided the people last year but had less support for repeal at the time of the vote according to all the most recent polls. The fact that the republicans took up the issue proved once again they care nothing about the country and its people.

The U.S. Senate nor the President will let the republican vote stand and rightly so. Conservatives once again in a new congress raised it ugly head and showed that they will do any thing to destroy the Presidents agenda and legislation that will move the economy forward, reduce the deficit and create jobs. They are not satisfied that their support of Bush's policies gave the country the worst economic meltdown and record job losses, they now use a new congress and their new majority to carry out the republican status quo.

That the republicans picked out a divisive issue as one of their first priority is not strange or new. They will continue to choose divisive issues as their game plan because they have no record of accomplishments to stand on or debate. President Clinton often remarked the republicans could only win elections by dividing the people. Clintons wisdom on the subject has proved to be the truth time and time again.

The second issue they are talking about now is to not extend the debt ceiling that is due soon unless the President agrees to budget cuts to offset the debt ceiling increase. When they controlled both houses of congress under the Bush administration for the first 6 years they had a chance to cut spending when they raised the debt ceiling several times and never did. In fact they gave the country record federal deficits and debt.

The republicans ran on an anti government platform in November and won even though they are part of the government. The voters seem to be satisfied that the republicans never had any answers for the problems the country faced. Now the voters will have to live with their vote for the next two years. The country and its people are lucky to have a democratic President in office at this time in our history.

The economy is once again responding to a democratic President's policies, jobs are being created again, unemployment will continue to fall and the middle class will once again see their hopes of a middle class recovery come true. And once again the republican party will have no hand in the recovery. They are repeating their failed past when they voted against President Clinton's deficit reduction and economic policies in 1993 that was passed by the democratic controlled congress without one republican vote in either house of congress. They predicted doom and gloom for the economy. Does that sound familiar now?

The people should also be ready for the republicans to once again use personal attacks as their method of operation. As this writer pointed out in the past, it is hell when you have no record to run on or talk about and worse when you use a phony conservative ideology. That says it all.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Economic Recovery Continues Under The President's Economic Policies

The unemployment rate for December came in at 9.4% down from 9.7% in November and the lowest in 19 months. The economy added 103,000 jobs in December and for the year 2010 over 1.1 million new jobs were created. One can compare that to the average of almost 1/2 million jobs lost a month in the last 14 months of the Bush administration.

The Labor Department announced the economy added 210,000 jobs in October, up from 172,000 previously reported and November's job creation was revised up from 39,000 to 71,000. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Senate panel he sees evidence that a "self sustaining" recovery is taken place.

According to an AP report dated Jan 10, Morgan Stanley economists said 4% GDP is likely in 2011. The growth had been projected to be between 2.25-2.50% earlier by many economist. The unemployment, job growth and the GDP is now coming in line with this writers predictions as published in politidose long before the economist changed their mind. The economic recovery is taking place despite the opposition by the republican party to the President's policies. The deal the President made with republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts has nothing to do with the economic recovery and the republicans just say no attitude for the past two years has once again made them a bystander to the recovery.

Like Clinton, once again it is a democratic President and his policies who turned around the greatest economic failure and record job losses since the great depression. The President needs to continue to be vigil and monitor the progress of the recovery and do those things necessary to continue a "sustained recovery" and job creation. Anything less is unacceptable.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Republicans Discover We Have A Constitution

John Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and his republican cohorts read aloud the U.S. Constitution before members of Congress last week. Boehner said the House will operate according to the Constitution. Their new found discovery of the Constitution is consistent with their phony ideology and their new pronouncements of cutting federal spending and the repeal of the Health Care legislation that was passed last year and signed into law by the President.

Never mind that Mr. Boehner, Mitch McConnel and the republican party controlled both houses of congress during the first 6 years of the Bush administration and had the opportunity and votes to (1) cut federal spending and (2) operate according to the Constitution during those 6 years and failed on both accounts. Instead the republican party and Mr. Bush gave the country record deficit spending and debt. They never saw a budget deficit they did not love. They also backed Mr. Bush's secret surveillance program which the courts found unconstitutional.

Democratic Senator Harry Byrd carried a copy of the Constitution in his pocket at all times and voted against the war in Iraq over WMD that did not exist because he pointed out only and act of congress can commit the nation to war. The republicans could have learned a lot from Senator Byrd concerning the Constitution. He believed it was a living document. The republicans use the Constitution like they use various issues to divide the American people. While Senator Byrd lived the Constitution, republicans were using it as a ploy.

The past is still the key to the future. In the past under Bush the republicans had a great opportunity to cut federal spending and never even tried. In fact their actions show their aim is to bankrupt the federal government with debt. Boehner and the republicans have already showed their hand. They want to kill health care legislation even though the CBO says to do so will add $230 billion to the budget deficit. That goes along with their objective of adding to the deficit in order to deprive the federal government of needed revenue.

The democratic controlled Senate needs to vote down the republicans right wing agenda and the President needs to stand fast, especially now with the economic recovery well under way.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The O'Reilly Factor of December 31, 2010: A Conscience and Disregard For The Truth

It must be hell when you are a conservative with a top rated T.V. show and you try to make a fool of your guest and the viewing public by misleading both concerning the facts of the subject matter. O'Reilly and Fox News think of themselves as elite and evidently enjoy the sad role they play. I can just hear them after the show saying, "we took our stupid viewers to the cleaners once again tonight, those fools."

O'Reilly on his show dated above told his guest Bill Maher and the audience that President Obama was the biggest spending President in the history of the United States. That was a blatant and out right lie and the numbers provided in this post below will prove so. What is behind the O'Reilly and Fox's failure to stand up for the truth? I have the answer, it chaps them both that the truth points our that Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 were not only the biggest spending Presidents of their time, but also the biggest deficit spenders and creators of debt when they were in office. O'Reilly and his bunch do not have the character or courage to report the truth or facts.

Federal spending, the budget and the national debt are published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Treasury Department on line and contain the final actual numbers by fiscal years. The federal government's fiscal year is October 1 thru September 30 and that is how the CBO carries the budget numbers for each administration. All numbers below are taken from the CBO and Treasury. Now lets examine O'Reilly's false charge and lie.

Total federal spending for George W. Bush's last fiscal year budget
that ended 9/30/09 ..........................................................................................$3.52 Trillion

Bush's record deficit for that same fiscal year .................................................1.416 Trillion

Total federal spending for Barrack Obama's first fiscal year budget
that ended 9/30/10 .........................................................................................$3.46 Trillion
a decrease in federal spending of 1.6%. No Republican President has
had a decrease in spending over the previous year in the last 50 years.

Obama's deficit spending for that same fiscal year ........................................1.294 Trillion


The National Debt stood at $5.807 Trillion on 9/30/01 at the end of
President Clinton's last fiscal year budget.

The National Debt stood at $11.909 Trillion on 9/30/09 at the end of
President Bush's last fiscal year budget. An increase in the national debt
of $6.1 Trillion on Mr. Bush's watch. An increase of 105%.

It should be noted Bush handled the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan outside the budget process so Bush's numbers are actually worse than shown. The bottom line is that the administration of George W. Bush as of this writing is still the biggest spending President in the history of the U.S., the biggest deficit spender and the biggest creator of debt. When you look at what Bush inherited when he took office, balanced budgets with record surpluses, record economy and job creation, lowest unemployment in over 30 years and compare that with the economic meltdown and record job losses that Obama inherited from Bush, it is easy to see that Obama has done a good job.

I would recommend that any one who is interested in the facts go to the CBO and Treasure site and you will find that only two Presidents have presided over a balance budget since 1969, Presidents Johnson and Clinton, both democrats. You will also find that since Reagan was elected, Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 are responsible for the greater part of the national debt as it stands today. Those three Presidents served for 20 years and failed to balance one federal budget.

What also chaps O'Reilly and the conservatives is the fact that the economy is on the right track and that once again it is a democratic administration's policies that are working and that will put America back to work. The republicans have no hand in that. For more information concerning how Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 has taken the middle class and our country to the cleaners with their massive spending and debt see my past commentaries listed below.


The National Debt: Betrayal and Devastation dated 12/06/09
Federal Spending: Facts vs. Myth dated 10/31/09
The Fiscal Legacy of George W. Bush dated 10/30/09
The Republican Cycle of Record Federal Deficits and Debt dated 8/3/08
The U.S. Economy: Which Party Performs Best Part I of III dated 1/27/08