Froma Harrop and The Immigration Issue

 Harrop's article in the New Orleans Advocate of 9/15/23 titled, "Obama tried to fix the border and we can, too" tells the story how President Obama was the most effective in addressing the border crisis.  The letter tells how the democratic controlled U.S. Senate passed comprehensive immigration legislation on a bipartisan vote on President Obama's watch only to see in fail in the GOP controlled House because they refused to give the legislation a hearing or debate it and just let it die.  The article was on target but the media in general failed to tell that story timely and failed to use the story every time the GOP opened it's mouth about immigration reform.  

 

PolitiDose commentary told the story timely and in more detail in it's commentary dated 4/5/2018 titled, Immigration Rhetoric Grows Louder as Trump and Others Follow The Lead of The Fox News Network.  The media is so willing to run with the GOP's misinformation and lies about the problems instead of calling them out for missing an opportunity to legislate immigration reform legislation in 2013.  That is when the democratic controlled U.S. Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform named above by a vote of 68-32.  Fourteen GOP senators voted with the majority democrats.  That vote took place 10 years ago.  Just think how far along the nation would be on the subject if the GOP controlled House had followed the Senate and voted yes.  It should be noted at the time the bill passed the Senate the CBO said the bill would increase the GDP.  And the George W. Bush Institute said the bill is bullish on the U.S. economy.  

The GOP will try to use immigration as an issue during the 2024 election but don't expect the regular media to take them to task for killing comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and their lack of action as a party when they are in power.  Trump and the GOP talked tough on immigration when in power but did nothing and had no plans to introduce any bill of legislation to address the situation.  They just kicked the immigration issue down the road using their extreme rhetoric as usual.  

PolitiDose commentary will be there during the 2024 election and continue to expose the GOP's anti-American ideology and lies concerning immigration reform.  So stay tuned to PolitiDose, your daily dose of political commentary. 

This commentary written by Joe Lorio  

Mark Ballard's Non Informative Commentary About A Possible Government Shutdown In Washington.

 In a New Orleans Advocate article of 9/10 under Louisiana Politics, Ballard talks about a possible government shutdown when Congress returns to work this week.  It is a familiar story of the GOP's threat to shut down government when the democratic party controls the White House and use government spending as their lies and misinformation to threaten the process.  It is a different story when the GOP controls the White house and they not only increase spending to record levels, they also increase deficit spending to record levels and never talk about shutting down the government when in control.

Ballard notes that the Treasury Department reports that federal spending now stands at $5.3 trillion for the present fiscal year that ends September 30, 2023.  But Ballard fails to note that under Trump and the GOP, federal spending for Trump's 3rd fiscal year came in at $6.5 trillion and in Trump's 4th and final fiscal year federal spending hit $6.8 trillion.  Both were records.  So Biden's fiscal year which ends at the end of this month will come in under $6 trillion which means his administration will once again reduce federal spending.  And for the record, Biden's first fiscal year, federal spending was $6.2 trillion, down 8% from Trump's $6.8 trillion federal spending.  When it comes to reducing federal spending, the democratic party can walk the talk, the GOP can not.

Shutting down the government has been a play thing for the GOP since the Newt Gingrich era.  However, play things go along with fairy tales.  No GOP administration has reduced year to year federal spending since President Eisenhower in 1955, but President Obama did in fiscal 2010, 2012 and fiscal 2013.  And President Joe Biden did in fiscal 2022 and may likely do so again in fiscal 2023.  In the past 43 years the largest reductions in federal spending took place on President's Clinton and Obama's watch and the largest increases by far took place on Reagan's, Bush 41, Bush 43 and Trump's watch.  

Mark Ballard's article was a rehash of previous GOP threats to shut the government down and was non-informative in nature.  Bill Cassidy and the GOP in congress who support the government shutdown were all silent the four years that Trump and his party were setting spending records.  They were all ditto heads without plans or policies.  Instead, they followed an extreme agenda of tax cuts for you know who when it was not necessary that reduced government revenues that were needed to finance needed services.  

The media will  continue it's negative reports on GOP threats to shutdown the government and fail to report the true facts, especially when it comes to increased spending.  The public will hear only one side of the story every time as they are hearing now.  This writer wonders if that is how they like it.

This commentary written by Joe  Lorio 

The U.S. Economy, Job Creation and The Unemployment Rate For August 2023.

 The U.S. Economy added 187,000 jobs in August as reported by the Labor Department and the unemployment rate came in at 3.8%, it was 3.5% in July.  It was the 31st straight month of positive job growth and the 19th straight month of unemployment in the 3% range, the best showing since the Kennedy-Johnson administration over 60 years ago.  The Department also announced that wages grew 0.2% in August over July and that year to date wages are up 4.4%.  

The Federal Reserve announced that inflation is now at the 3% level, down from the 9% level previously recorded.  The negative voices within the Feds, the GOP and Corp. America are now saying that raising the interest rates are the cause of the lower job numbers and the higher we raise them will slower wage growth and lower inflation.  Those negative voices have a corrupt economic mentality.  They represent the same voices that supported the tax cuts of Reagan, Bush 43 and Trump that deprived the government of trillions of dollars of revenue and each administration gave the country an economic recession.

The Feds under Reagan raised interest rates to the double digit level and unemployment stood in the 10% range for 10 straight months, the highest sustained level of unemployment in over 60 years.  Bush 43 left office with one of the worst Job creation records since the great depression and the economy lost 2.7 million jobs on Trump's watch, the worst job creation record since the great depression.  The negative voices seem to want the country to revisit those times of hardship for the people.

The economy is still performing and creating jobs, employment ads are still running ahead of pre COVID times and inflation is still falling.  What the country needs to hear is the positive news that put America back to work and how it can continue to work for the people.  Failed policies of the past and negative voices with extreme rhetoric have never moved the country forward.  And that really says it all.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Florida State Defeats LSU 45 - 24 In Sunday Nite Football 2023.

 The Seminoles from Florida State teed it up Sunday Nite against the Tigers of LSU in Orlando, Florida, just a hop, skip and jump from the Magic Kingdon but there was no Magic available for the Tigers of LSU.  Florida State dominated LSU in the second half scoring 31 unanswered points which turned out to be an embarrassing moment.   

The embarrassment extends to the coaching staff and the players who were out coached and out played.  The Seminoles were a more physical team than LSU and during several plays pushed LSU players around like they were flies.  Coach Kelly acted like he thought the game was a preseason one when early in the game LSU had first and goal from the one yard line and then inside the 5 yard line and decided to go for it on 4th down instead of attempting a field goal.  The result was zero points.  Did Kelly forget it was LSU's first game of the season that counts?

The only thing we now know about LSU after the first game against a team they played last year is they lost again, this time big time and ugly and by 3 touchdowns;  LSU did not play well overall;  Their many good running backs (according to sports writers) were not a factor in the game; The offensive and defensive lines have too many questions still to answer;  The defensive backs were burned time and time again;  The quarterback was again the team's leading rusher (which is not good); The coaching staff did a poor job preparing the team; The team showed no progress from last year's game against the same team.

This writer's predictions for the 2023 season that were made in commentary after LSU completed its 2022 regular season came true after Sunday's game.  And so did its commentary a few weeks ago about this season.  Sunday's game leaves a lot of questions to be answered especially in light of LSU's schedule which can be described as lighter than last year's schedule.  The only team on LSU's schedule that had a winning record in SEC play last year is Alabama.  All other SEC opponents on the schedule had a break even or losing record last year in SEC play.  LSU had a 6-2 record in SEC play last year.  That tells this writer that LSU's 2023 schedule should not be thought of as overbearing.  

The question now is how will LSU respond after Sunday's embarrassment and disappointment.  Having the potential does not count, results do.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Bidenomics and Demonomics Are One and The Same Economic Policy.

When it comes to the economy and economics for the past 90 years of Presidential terms, one would think the media and so called business community would understand best why the economy under President Biden has done so well especially at creating jobs, lowering unemployment and being responsive.  The record for the past 90 years tells the story of what is taking place.  And it was all written in PolitiDose commentary in December 2020 and January 2021 before Biden took office.  And as of this writing the negative voices, the media and the business community still don't understand why the economy has been so strong for the past 30 months.  

The media is well known for going with the negative talking points of recession for the past year only to be out of step with the facts.  The ignorance is shameful because it is all misinformation and if they studied the economic information and policies of past democratic administrations in the past 90 years they would find a precedent for what is taking place in the economy today.  Just take one economic stat: No GOP administration who followed a democratic administration created as many jobs as the democratic administration it followed.  Not even Reagan.  The economy created 10.3 million jobs under President Carter in 4 years.  Under Regan's first 4 years 5.3 million jobs were created.  

There is no economic stat where a GOP administration can claim to have done a better job than the democratic administrations in that 90 year period.  The record is clear, the past can be used to determine the future and PolitiDose commentary was there to predict the economic failure of the Bush 43 and Trump administrations and how President's Obama and Biden would reverse the economic damage inflicted by those two GOP Presidents.

And those who are too ignorant to explore and report the facts, continue the ignorant behavior for almost 3 years, shame on you.  For a more detailed commentary on past administrations economic facts check PolitiDose Commentary dated March 19, 2021 titled, "Presidential Leadership" The Economy and Fiscal Matters the Last 40 Years.  The bottom line facts tell us that democratic administrations are better at governing fiscal and economic matters because they govern by policies to meet the  issues.  The GOP govern by an extreme ideology that is anti-American in nature and therefore never relates to the real issues.  Yes my fellow Americans, understanding the mistakes of the past is still the key to a better future.  Trump and his ditto head GOP are still living in the failed past.  

This commentary written by Joe Lorio