What Obama could sacrifice to protect Social Security
When Barack Obama delivers on his threat to delay or withhold Social Security checks and veterans' benefits, we should know why they were sacrificed. Here is a list of about $2 trillion in select expenditures which the President could likely sacrifice to protect our elderly and veterans:
Obama Beneficiary: Cost:
ObamaCare $1.5 trillion
Planned Parenthood (annually) $330 million
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac $145 billion
Amtrak $1.9 billion
Unspent Stimulus/ War Chest $60 billion
National Endowment for the Arts $133 million
National Endowment for the Humanities $140 million
The Post Office $1.0 billion
Vacant Federal Properties $25.0 billion
Medicare Fraud $47.0 billion
National Broadband Coverage Map $350.0 million
Federal Employee Flight Upgrades $146.0 million
Beach Re-sanding $3.0 billion
Payments Not to Use Land (conservation) $2.0 billion
International Abortions/Population Control $650.0 million
Libya Kinetic Military Action $750.0 million
Consumer Protection Bureau $329.0 million
United Nations $6.4 billion
NPR/Corporation for Public Broadcasting $451.0 million
Renewable Energy Tax Credits (mostly wind) $6.9 billion
Tax Credits to IRS employees/Others $513.0 million
Federal Weatherization Programs $5.0 billion
99 Week Unemployment Benefits $100.0 billion
Total $1.9 - 2.0 trillion.
Clearly, in tough times, choices must be made. These are some of the choices Barack Obama and his party might favor over seniors and veterans.
Our Bully President in the Pulpit
What is a person who picks on the weak and helpless? I think the appropriate term is "bully." Why then haven't media sources denounced President Obama as a bully for picking on Social Security recipients -- threatening to cut off their monthly stipends?
But only with real, structural reforms will we realize economic growth and job creation.
Within days of President Obama's decision to bully Social Security recipients, Facebook and Time Warner were reported by the AP's Michael Liedtke, July 12, to have agreed to raise the country's awareness about bullying and to encourage people to report instances of bullying behavior. The AP story notes that 13 million students, one-third of the U.S. student population, are estimated to be victims of bullying.
Who in the media will take note of the bullying by President Obama of the more than 54 million Americans on Social Security, used by the president as pawns in his zeal to increase the debtceiling?
President Obama reportedly has threatened Republicans that he will cut-off Social Security checks if GOP members of Congress refuse to raise the debt ceiling limit by August 2. If the U.S. Treasury will have sufficient funds to send out Social Security checks in August, without regard to action on the debt ceiling, why has President Obama issued this threat?
Is it intended to warn Republicans that they will be blamed for the president's action to cut off checks to Social Security recipients? Is it intended to get Social Security recipients to pressure Republicans to agree to raise the debt ceiling? In either circumstance, it would appear that President Obama is playing politics with the lives of Social Security recipients, picking on the economically-weakest members of society for self-serving purpose.
This Social Security recipient has no income other than his monthly Social Security check, and no nest egg to crack. Having, however, used this egg metaphor, another one quickly comes to mind: that President Obama accepts the leftwing concept that omelets are not made without breaking some eggs, provided that the omelets are made not from jumbo or extra large eggs, but from the smallest eggs in the carton.
Where are the Republicans to denounce as the mark of a bully the president's near-gleeful rush to threaten Social Security recipients with a cut-off in funds?
And what could be the purpose of another increase in the debt ceiling other than license to this neo-aristocratic administration to take the country deeper into debt, deeper into a debt to be paid, in the main, by the rapidly-dwindling middle class. Madison explains what the Obama Administration is up to, in the opening line of Federalist No. 57: "the ambitious sacrifice of the many, to the aggrandizement of the few." Madison, later in Federalist No. 57, suggests that our leaders should stand with the people -- or tyranny is unavoidable.
Will Republicans stand, now, with the people, or is the present bullying of Social Security recipients by President Obama to degenerate into naked tyranny in 2013?
Conservative Leaders Say Pass Cut, Cap, and Balance
Memo
To: Republican Colleagues/Conservative and Tea Party Leaders
From: Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah/ Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Treasurer and Pass the Balanced Budget Amendment Chairman Ken Blackwell
As Tea Party activists from across the state have organized a Congressional office blitz demanding support for the Cut, Cap, and Balance proposal, it is important to focus on what this epic battle is all about: Jobs and Economic Growth
As Moody's and other credit rating agencies threaten to downgrade Treasurys, it is clear that:
CCB = AAA
Cut Cap and Balance will send a signal to markets that Congress is finally getting serious about unsustainable debt. This predictability and increased stability leads to:
* MORE capital investment
* MORE economic growth
* MORE jobs
* LESS uncertainty, as America maintains AAA rating
But only with real, structural reforms will we realize economic growth and job creation.
While opponents use a carnival of horrors and emotion to oppose CCB, their true motive is to raise taxes and grow government. This will not undermine economic growth and prevent us from expanding our tax base through business development, investment and additional job creation.
CCB reduces the pressure for tax increases, while creating the stability investors need to put capital and employees to work here in America.
Out of every proposal on the table, only CCB results in actual reform. Every other proposal kicks the can down the road while playing chicken with financial disaster and ensuring an immediate downgrade in our nation's credit rating.
The Constitution's purpose is to limit the powers of government. By adding a BBA to the Constitution, the people will reinforce that it is a charter of negative rights, which will continue to defend our liberty against government well into the future.
IT'S TIME TO GET SERIOUS MR. PRESIDENT
With the nation careening toward a genuine fiscal crisis, and the markets acting accordingly, it is time for serious grown-up reforms that shrink the size of government and put this nation back on sound economic footing.
Instead of getting serious about reducing our deficits and debt, the President is storming out of negotiations. One White House plan put up no more than $2 BILLION in discretionary spending reductions for next year, when our nation has an annual deficit of over $1.5 TRILLION. Facing a once in a generation economic crisis, the President and his liberal allies have determined it is more productive to scare seniors into thinking they won't receive their social security checks and markets into thinking a default is imminent, rather than coming up with solutions to our nation's spending binge.
There is a real solution out there for the President and Congress to embrace. The Cut, Cap, Balance plan is a reasonable and necessary effort to rein in spending and balance our budget. The American people understand that our economy needs this. By cutting spending, capping spending, and sending a BBA to the states for ratification, we can restore our Constitution and the economic growth that families and businesses need.
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