The Economy Is Going To Implode

By Ann Barnhardt - A partial explanation in layman's terms of the causes of the end of the world as you know it, and a few suggestions for those of you who will be tasked with the rebuilding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bA_NbYSaGM 

Congress Do Your Job – The Benghazi Murders are Still on our Frontburner

Who knew the attack on the Benghazi compound was a terrorist attack?

Obama, Clinton, General Petraeus, General Ham, Leon Panetta, General Dempsey, Gregory Hicks, Jarrett, Rice, Charlene Lamb, Jay Carney, President Mohamed Magariaf, CIA, Al Qaeda

http://www.ldjackson.net/congress-do-your-job-the-benghazi-murders-are-still-on-our-frontburner/

White House Attacks CBO Over Minimum Wage Report

President Obama’s chief economist on Tuesday blasted the Congressional Budget Office for a report on the impact of raising the minimum wage, claiming the non-partisan CBO’s findings do not represent the best latest economic thinking on the subject.

The CBO report found that the president’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, a 39 percent increase over the current rate of $7.25, would cost the economy about 500,000 jobs. The job losses would be offset by increased wages for 16.5 million workers, nearly a million of whom would be lifted above the federal poverty line.

However, in a lengthy blog post on the White House web site, Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Betsey Stevenson, a member of the Council, wrote, “The bulk of academic studies, have concluded that the effects on employment of minimum wage increases in the range now under consideration are likely to be small to nonexistent. CBO also agrees that the employment effect could be essentially zero, but their central estimates are not reflective of a consensus of the economics profession.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/white-house-attacks-cbo-over-234100833.html 

Obama(S)care: Con Artists and Criminals in Charge

Question: If Obamacare officials cannot prevent accused embezzlers from infiltrating their offices, how can they protect enrollees from grifters, con artists and thieves in the federal health insurance exchange system?
Here in my home state, a director of Connect for Health Colorado -- the state-sponsored Obamacare health insurance exchange -- was just put on administrative leave. No, Christa Ann McClure did not go on leave over the chronic problems plaguing the cursed Connect for Health website. She's on leave because she has been indicted for filching funds from her last employer in Montana.
No, the guardians of Obamacare didn't smoke her out on their own. McClure 'fessed up only after the local Billings (Mont.) Gazette newspaper reported on the charges against her. She was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 16. But her current state government employers did not find out until last week, when McClure finally informed them because the press had published the indictment.

http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2014/02/19/obamascare-con-artists-and-criminals-in-charge-n1796871?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl 

The Left Has Been Wishing Non-Work On The Poor For 200 Years

Incredible legerdemain has been coming out of the Barack Obama policy shops. Taking the cake is the administration’s response to the Congressional Budget Office report showing that Obamacare will reducejobs for lower-earners. Here’s the official spin: unfortunates (as we used to call them), bolstered by health insurance provided by the government, will now be able to enjoy some leisure instead of sticking to the drudgery of menial work.
Under the umbrella of Obamacare, the poorare free to…find themselves.
We might think these justifications of the health-care monstrosity peculiar, but they have a pedigree. The left has been trading on these ideas ever since the industrial revolution got going in the first half of the 19^th century.
The principal figure, as always, was Karl Marx. Marx (writing in the 1840s) noticed that what economists would call the “capital-labor ratio” was increasing mightily as the industrial revolution made progress. With every passing year, one unit of output came care more and more of machines than human labor.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/briandomitrovic/2014/02/18/the-left-has-been-wishing-non-work-on-the-poor-for-200-years/ 

Democrats in Denial Over Obamacare

For nearly three years, the Democratic approach to the political unpopularity of President Obama's health care law was denial. Deny it played a significant role in the party's historic midterm losses in 2010. Insist, in the face of contradictory evidence, that as more voters experienced the benefits of the law, the more popular it would become. Deny it would be a major issue at all in the 2014 midterms.

The latest version of the argument points to polling showing that voters don't want to repeal the law but prefer to see it fixed—perfectly in line with the newly adopted positions of vulnerable Democratic officeholders. In a memo leaked to the press, Democrats argue they can neutralize their health care vulnerabilities by promoting their desire to fix the law and blaming Republicans for intransigence in seeking a full repeal. But dig a bit deeper past the talking points, and it's unclear what they want to fix—beyond their broken poll numbers.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/against-the-grain/democrats-in-denial-over-obamacare-20140218 

How Hillary Clinton sicced the FBI on the White House travel office

As speculation that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will run for President in 2016 heats up, the question that must be asked is: Hillary 2016, prison or POTUS?
Recently, the Washington Free Beacon reported on statements found in archival documents by one of Hillary Clinton’s closest friends, Diane Blair, painting a portrait of Hillary as a ruthless First Lady.
Without question ruthless is an accurate description except not only is Hillary ruthless, she is lawless.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/17/how-hillary-clinton-sicced-the-fbi-on-the-white-house-travel-office/#ixzz2tfzdhben

The Failure of Obama's Aristocracy of Merit

The roots of American liberalism are not compassion, but snobbery. That's the thesis of Fred Siegel's revealing new book, "The Revolt Against the Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class."
The standard account from liberal historians over the years, and more recently in bestsellers by Glenn Beck, is a linear story: Government expansion starts with the Progressives of a hundred years ago, accelerates through the New Deal and the Great Society, and is followed up by the Obama stimulus and Obamacare.
Siegel says it's more complicated than that. And he argues that literary figures contributed as much to the liberal mindset -- maybe more -- than public policy wonks.

http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2014/02/18/the-failure-of-obamas-aristocracy-of-merit-n1796263 

Kerry Generates 12 Tons of CO2 on Trip Discussing Climate Change

Secretary of State John Kerry spent his weekend discussing climate change in Indonesia:
“We should not allow a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and science and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific facts,” Kerry told the audience gathered at a U.S. Embassy-run American Center in a Jakarta shopping mall. “Nor should we allow any room for those who think that the costs associated with doing the right thing outweigh the benefits.”
This is part of a six-day Kerry trip through Seoul, South Korea; Beijing, China; Jakarta; Indonesia; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, then back to Washington.
In case you’re wondering, flying first class from Washington to Seoul to Beijing to Jakarta to Abu Dhabi and then back to Washington runs up roughly 12.16 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to CarbonFootprint.com, which uses data from the EPA and Department of Energy.

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/371280/kerry-generates-12-tons-co2-trip-discussing-climate-change-jim-geraghty 

Why Obama's Executive Orders Are Lawless

When Barack Obama took the oath of office, he agreed, before God and our country, that he would "...preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  In doing so, he also agreed to Article Two, Clause Five of the Constitution which states that the President must "faithfully execute the laws of the land".  The word "faithfully" in that statement is clearly defined by Webster's Dictionary as "strict or thorough performance of one's duty." Faithfully does not mean that the President can arbitrarily execute the laws of the land.  Nor, does it say he can ignore those parts of the Constitution he doesn't like.

In our power-balanced system of government, only Congress has the right to create or amend laws; and, once signed into law they become the responsibility of that President and all future President's to "faithfully" execute and uphold them.  If, however, the law is somehow unconstitutional, the courts can strike it down; but, not the President. Therein lies the problem with a number of executive orders issued by Obama.  Especially those associated with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that he, himself, signed into law.  If he didn't like the mandates of the ACA, including the dates of implementation, he should have vetoed it.  That was his right under our Constitution.  But, instead, by signing it into law, he agreed to "faithfully" execute it.

http://cuttingthroughthefog.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-obamas-executive-orders-are-lawless.html 

The United States of Decline

America is unraveling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim.
For starters, Obama now rules by decree. Reportedly for the 27th time, he has changed the rules of Obamacare singlehandedly, with neither congressional approval nor even ceremonial resolutions to limit his actions. Obama needs no such frivolities.
“That’s the good thing about being president,” Obama joked on February 10. “I can do whatever I want.” In an especially bitter irony, Obama uttered these despicable words while guiding French president François Hollande through Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson — a key architect of America’s foundation of limited government.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/371248/united-states-decline-deroy-murdock 

When The Government Targets Constitutionalists

A friend sent me a link to an article on MediaTrackers.org, "Ohio National Guard Training Envisions Right-Wing Terrorism."
I have to say that I was outraged but not really surprised. That a state's National Guard training exercise would employ a scenario in which the "bad guys" were supporters of the Second Amendment and "limited government" is just a reflection of the regime's ongoing campaign to ridicule and demonize those who cherish the Constitution (not to mention the regime's defiance of the Constitution itself).
It reminded me of a Missouri Highway Patrol memo made public a couple of years ago in which troopers were cautioned that anyone displaying a Gadsden ("Don't Tread on Me") flag might be a potential right-wing terrorist.

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2014/02/when_the_government_targets_constitutionalists.html 

‘Obama makes up his own rules’

Last month, President Obama declared he’ll “act on my own,” that he doesn’t need Congress to exercise his power.
“We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation. I’ve got a pen . . . and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions,” he asserted. “One of the things that I’m going to be talking to my Cabinet about is how do we use all the tools available to us.”
He’s already made good on his promise to act unilaterally — delaying the ObamaCare mandate on businesses again last week and changing the rules for immigration enforcement.
But what Obama didn’t say is that, behind the scenes, he’s radically increasing the government’s reach. His tools aren’t laws or even executive orders — it’s thousands of new pages of new rules in the Federal Register, the nation’s official book of regulations, controlling everything from home finance to car deals to city zoning.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/15/barack-obama-makes-up-his-own-rules/

The IRS targets political speech again

The Internal Revenue Service is used to being universally disliked every April 15. But this year, the widespread denunciations have started early, and for good reason.
In November, the agency issued proposed new rules that are supposed to keep social welfare organizations from abusing their legal privileges by engaging in excessive electioneering. The effort came in response to complaints from Democrats about a 2012 surge in political spending by such tax-exempt groups, by the conservative Koch brothers and others to influence elections.
The IRS wants to curb such efforts, and it doesn't display much concern about the likely effect on free speech. But groups that engage in political advocacy, including the nonpartisan kind, are genuinely alarmed.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-internal-revenue-service-free-speech-edit-0217-20140217,0,6769791.story 

United Auto Workers Find Death in Tennessee

In a close vote, yet one that was widely expected to be favorable to the union, workers at the Tennessee Volkswagen plant rejected an offer by the United Auto Workers to unionize the Volkswagen operations in the state by a 712-626 vote against union.
“Last week's vote at the plant - which was 53 percent to 47 percent against the UAW,” writes Reuters, “dealt a body blow to the union, which has been unable to expand into auto plants in the U.S. South, even as its ranks have declined elsewhere.”

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2014/02/17/united-auto-workers-find-death-in-tennessee-n1795979 

How About A Bit Of Truth About The Economy

"Despite an increase in U.S. population of almost 10 million people from January 2008 to today, there are 1,154,000 fewer Americans working now than six years ago. Those considered long-term unemployed (unemployed for 27 weeks or more) totaled 3.6 million."

"Unfortunately, the bad news that is good news for the banksters is really bad news for the middle class. According to the Fed, half the U.S. population has seen a 40 percent decrease in wealth since 2007. That’s because the banksters get their hands on the newly printed money before inflation steals it away. But that’s not so for the rest of us."

"Peter Schiff, who predicted the 2007 collapse in August 2006 — way before almost everyone else saw it coming — says we’re headed for a worse economic crisis than we had in 2007."

"Schiff points out that the market gains experienced recently, with the Dow first topping 17,000 on its way to setting record highs, are giving investors a false sense of security.

“It’s not that the stock market is gaining value… it’s that our money is losing value.  And so if you have a debased currency… a devalued currency, the price of everything goes up. Stocks are no exception,” he said.  "It appears to me that we are very close to economic and social collapse.  But times can yet wobble along for months or even a few years.  It is a certainty that things will get visibly worse in many ways, especially now that the endgame is here."

http://personalliberty.com/2014/02/10/more-phoniness-from-the-phony-regime/

Pelosi, Marx, and 'Job Lock'

Did you ever wonder what inspired Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrats to spout off about the liberating freedom Obamacare provides people to escape from job drudgery and find their inner poet, photographer or musician? Is it merely aristocratic contempt for the work that lesser people provide? After all, somebody has to sweep the floors, clean the sewers, and grow the crops. Obviously, society needs unpleasant tasks performed, and we owe respect to those who do them.
Actually, the Pelosiites are pursuing a dream rooted in Karl Marx. The major work in which Marx expounded on what a communist society would look like is titled The German Ideology, written in 1845. Here is a famous passage from it in which Marx expounds on the virutes of liberation from job lock that communism supposedly would provide (courtesy of Marxists.org):

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/02/pelosi_marx_and_job_lock.html#ixzz2tUSyWDWJ

Obama signs increase in U.S. debt ceiling

President Barack Obama signed legislation on Saturday that raises the U.S. debt limit through March 2015, taking the politically volatile issue off the table with congressional elections coming up this November.

Without an increase in the statutory debt limit, the U.S. government would have soon defaulted on some of its obligations and would have had to shut down some programs, an historic event that would have caused severe market turmoil.

On a long holiday weekend in a desert resort area in southern California, Obama put his signature on the legislation without fanfare, while behind closed doors at the Sunnylands retreat.

It was a quiet end to the latest chapter in what has been one of the more challenging aspects of his presidency, as he and his fellow Democrats have repeatedly sparred with Republicans over increasing the country's borrowing authority.

Extending the debt ceiling to March 2015 means the issue may not get caught up in election-year politics.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-signs-increase-u-debt-ceiling-002434591--business.html 

The Army’s $5 Billion New Uniform Already Being Replaced

In 2004, the Army decided to scrap the two traditional camouflage uniforms that had long been used by the military—one meant for woodland environments, another for the desert—and claimed to have come up with a universal pattern that could be worn anywhere and blend in with any environment. The $5 billion dollar experiment with the universal pattern is over as the Army is phasing out the uniform after less than a decade of use. But many soldiers and observers are wondering why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start during a period when the money could have been spent on other critical needs, like potentially life saving improvements to military vehicles and body armor.
Less than a decade after the so-called Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP, was introduced the Army is back to the drawing board, set to announce a new camouflage pattern and standard uniform to be worn by the more than million members of the active duty and reserve forces.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hero-project/articles/2013/10/14/the-army-s-5-billion-new-uniform-already-being-replaced.html 

Federal lawmakers seek Cover Oregon investigation

Four federal lawmakers — including Oregon Rep. Greg Walden — are asking for a federal investigation into how Cover Oregon spent $304 million building the state’s health care exchange.
“Although the roll out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been problematic nationwide, no state has had more complication than Oregon,” according to a letter lawmakers sent to the General Accounting Office. “The catastrophic breakdown of Cover Oregon is unacceptable and taxpayers deserve accountability.”
Walden announced the news at a press conference Thursday morning in Medford with state Rep. Dennis Richardson, R-Central Point. Richardson hosted a second press conference at the Capitol in the afternoon.
Cover Oregon launched Oct. 1 without a fully functioning website. Oregonians who wanted insurance have had to apply using 19-page paper applications, and it's unclear whether the website will work as intended before open enrollment closes March 31.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20140213/UPDATE/302130064/Federal-lawmakers-seek-Cover-Oregon-investigation 

Obama Will Use Executive Action to Push Immigration, Wage Hike

In an address to House Democrats, President Obama promised that if congress fails to act on a number of issues such as immigration and the minimum wage, he is not going to wait around because “America does not believe in standing still."

Obama emphasized that instituting a universal minimum wage hike, increasing unemployment benefits, establishing retirement security, and comprehensive immigration reform will help the working classes improve their lives. Furthermore, according to the President, his policies will allow them to share in America’s growth, which lately has been enabling the wealthy more than the working class. 
"The single most important thing we have to do, not just as a party, but as a country, is make sure that there is opportunity for every single person, that we are focused every single day … making sure that if you are willing to work hard and take responsibility that you can get ahead," Obama told his fellow Democrats.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/15/Obama-Will-Use-Executive-Action-to-Push-Immigration-and-Wage-Reform 

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month.

Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month..... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

** YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS !!!!!

To prevent this, go to the following website where you will be able to register up to three phone numbers.

          https://www.donotcall.gov/ 

It is the National DO NOT CALL list and it will block your number(s) for five (5) years

After you have entered you number(s), you will receive an email providing a link you must click on, for each number you registered, to complete the process. This entire registration takes less than a minute.

You can call the following number from your cell phone:    888-382-1222.
However, in this process you must call from every individual cell phone you want blocked. You cannot register another number different from your cell number.

Sometimes You've Just Got to Laugh

According to the 2010 Census, the city had a permanent population of 343,334, up from 328,809 recorded in the 2002 Census, making it Russia's largest resort city. It is one of the very few places in Russia with a subtropical climate, with warm to hot summers and mild winters.

You are holding the Olympics in a subtropical climate and you are complaining about it being warm?
Or how about the reason it's so cold in the U.S.? I think Arctic ice melt was one of the reasons. The winters of the 1970s were comparably cold. The winter of '76-'77 was one of the warmest on record in Alaska and much of the Arctic, with near record high Arctic sea ice. So why is it that time, at the height of the ice age scare, it wasn't the same thing as being pushed now? The reason: because there is no difference – it's natural and cyclical, and since we came out before the fact with a cold and stormy winter, modeling it after 1917-1918 and 1993-1994, obviously it's something that has happened before.

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/23393 

Where Is the Red Line of Impeachment?

In the business world, a diligent board of directors would have long ago fired CEO Obama.

Sometimes it takes only a year of less than expected earnings to result in the termination of a corporate CEO.  A couple of underperforming years and a few reasons more, and a CEO would have his bags packed and stowed underneath his buck-stopping desk.  A long list of problems -- especially one suggesting even a hint of fraud -- that fails to generate a satisfactory board response would stir shareholders and lenders to demand the resignation of not only the CEO and other key employees, but also its directors.  For without remediation, the company's stock prices would tumble as shareholders divest and banks pull the plug.

Our government's CEO is Barack Obama, its board of directors is Congress, its workforce consists of a growing multitude of Big Government bureaucracies, and its bank is the unaccountable monopoly of the Federal Reserve.  Anymore, hardly anyone with any power in that vast organization seems to represent the interests of We the People (the shareholders).  

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2014/02/where_is_the_red_line_of_impeachment.html

Janet Yellen's Problem

Stock markets cheered Janet Yellen's maiden congressional testimony this past week, as the new Fed chair emphasized the word "continuity" and offered no boat-rocking surprises. Continuity? I assume she means a steady diet of tapered bond purchases that will lead to the end of QE3 this autumn. In other words, investors seemed to think QE has run its course, probably overstayed its welcome, and that it's time the Fed got out of the bond-buying business, since that policy isn't doing much good and may be doing harm.
Ever the Keynesian who subscribes to the non-existent, long-term trade-off between employment and inflation, Ms. Yellen did express worries about long-term layoffs and the shrinking size of the labor-participation rate. She's right about that. The labor situation is subpar.
The employment-to-population ratio is only 58.5 percent, way below its year-2000 peak of 65 percent. The participation rate is a low 62.8 percent, way below its modern average. The Joint Economic Committee estimates that jobs are 4.5 million below the employment trend line since 1960, and 7 million below Ronald Reagan's recovery rate. And average monthly private-payroll increases are only 178,000 in Obama's recovery. Compare that with the Reagan monthly rate of 330,000.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/larrykudlow/2014/02/15/janet-yellens-problem-n1795307 

Why the White House Is Panicking

After delaying the employer mandate to provide Obamacare health insurance to all full time employees for a year, the administration has delayed the mandate for medium size business for a second year. It has also relaxed the mandate for large businesses (they only have to cover 70% of their workers the next year).
All of this is lawlessness of course. The statute clearly says that the mandate is supposed to kick in this year. So why is President Obama taking the extra-constitutional step of letting employers temporarily off the hook?
The reason is not hard to understand. Millions of workers are in danger of losing their jobs or their other fringe benefits (such as matches to a retirement savings plan) or being forced to work part-time. Many of them are employees of hotels, restaurants and large retail stores. And these workers just might take out their anger on Democratic candidates in next fall's election.

http://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2014/02/15/why-the-white-house-is-panicking-n1795221 

Obama Has Declared Total Victory On Dismantling The Debt Ceiling

President Barack Obama said in a statement late Wednesday night that he was "pleased" that both chambers of Congress had passed a "clean" debt-ceiling increase. Obama's statement came after a tenuous vote in the Senate, during which Republicans struggled to find enough votes to advance the legislation to a final vote.

In his statement, Obama made clear that he expects the debt ceiling to be de-weaponized as a potential tool for political leverage in the future.

Here's Obama's full statement (emphasis added):

"I’m pleased that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to pay for what they’ve already spent, and remove the threat of default from our economy once and for all. The full faith and credit of the United States is too important to use as leverage or a tool for extortion. Hopefully, this puts an end to politics by brinksmanship and allows us to move forward to do more to create good jobs and strengthen the economy. Instead of wasting time creating new crises, Congress should be focused on creating new jobs and opportunities. That’s what the American people deserve from their representatives in Washington, and that's what they should get."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-declared-total-victory-dismantling-134926241.html 

Federal Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Nebraska’s Ban on Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Aliens

Two days, two victories for opponents of illegal immigration in the state of Nebraska.
Just yesterday TRN reported on the landslide victory in a Fremont, NE vote to bar illegal aliens from being able to rent housing.
Today, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit challenging Nebraska’s authority to deny driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who have received temporary authorization to live and work in the United States by Barack Obama.
The ruling could have a major impact across the nation as states come under well-funded pressure to hand licenses to illegals under the controversial program.

http://toprightnews.com/?p=1460 

The Fable of Hawaiian Frankencorn

"Anybody you see around here dressed in a Tyvek suit will be someone from Greenpeace," David Stoltzfus joked as we surveyed the thousands of carefully numbered corn plants growing in the stony rust-colored soil of a former sugar cane plantation just a few miles inland from the spectacular Wailea Beach. Stoltzfus, who heads Monsanto's Piilani seed production farm on Maui, was referring to the white disposable coveralls that protesters wear for the TV cameras when "decontaminating" biotech crop fields.
Hawaii is the epicenter of a furious campaign to shut down production farms that yield genetically modified seed. It was September, and I was there to see for myself the "Frankencorn" that haunts activists' choleric imaginations.
Anti-biotech signs and literature were scattered across the Hawaiian Islands. The Crystals and Gems Gallery in Hanalei, a trendy little town on Kauai, displayed several protest posters and offered fliers urging a ban on biotech crops. The gallery is the sort of place where, when my wife picked up an attractive stone and asked a clerk what it was, the reply was, "Do you mean, 'What does it do?' " Apparently, that particular rock can dispel negativity.

http://reason.com/archives/2014/01/15/the-fable-of-hawaiian-frankenc

WSJ: Poorer counties facing especially high premiums, few choices, little competition through ObamaCare

“My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. That’s how the market works. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company. And without competition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down.”
So sayeth President Obama, but so far, his crowning legislative achievement has directly resulted in a whole lotta’ restrictions on consumer choice, while his brand of top-down government-led “competition,” well… isn’t, really.
On top of the narrower provider networks that many Americans are now facing as insurers scramble to control costs while complying with ObamaCare’s new rules, the WSJ just did an analysis of the healthcare offerings in 36 states that found that hundreds of thousands of Americans in poorer counties are discovering they have limited choices of health insurers and are looking at higher premiums through the online exchanges. For many, in fact, their ObamaCare-offered policy options are going to come from a monopoly of their local insurance market:

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/13/wsj-poorer-counties-facing-especially-high-premiums-few-choices-little-competition-through-obamacare/ 

US Drops to 46th in Press Freedom

According to Reporters Without Borders, America dropped 13 spots on the World Press Freedom Index 2014, designed to rank 180 countries in terms of the freedoms journalists enjoy and the regulations placed on them by government authorities.

The Index, published Feb. 11, shows that America now ranks number 46, below countries like South Africa and France. The Index has been published annually since 2002, but the 2014 ranking for America marks one of the most significant declines ever reported.
According to Christophe Deloire, the Reporters Without Borders Secretary General, the World Freedom Index is based on seven criteria: the level of abuses, the extent of pluralism, media independence, the environment and self-censorship, the legislative framework, transparency and infrastructure.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/02/12/American-Journalists-Are-Losing-Ground 

The Left Abandons Truth & Has No Ethics

This is despicable.    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/02/dems_declare_war_on_inspector_general_uncovering_irs_scandal.html

It's okay for the left to dig up dirt and hurl invectives true or false towards conservatives and republicans but they yell and scream when it happens to one of theirs.    http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-frets-over-brutal-attack-hillary-anti-clinton-web-site

The left's philosophy appears to be welfare checks good, 40 hour work week bad.   http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/work-and-life-under-obamacare/

An example of leftist/progressive minded ethics.   http://cnsnews.com/commentary/michelle-malkin/culture-corruption-postscript-hilda-solis-files

A brief Benghazi update.   http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/11/mike-morell-man-middle-benghazi-talking-points-scandal/?

Say what?  Not a true word ever comes out of her mouth.   http://www.redstate.com/2014/02/12/we-did-not-treat-president-bush-this-way/

George Burns

Federal spending and debt are out of control

If America does not change course, the future will be dramatically worse. Now more than ever, it is crucial that Americans understand what our nation's spending, taxes, and debt mean for them and their families. The Heritage Foundation's Federal Budget in Pictures offers a unique tool to learn about the federal budget in a clear and compelling way.

http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/ 

Ignore the propaganda. Things are more complicated.

This narrative serves America well save for two minor flaws: It’s a lie and it hurts people. Confirmation bias and ex post rationalization are human universals, not the exclusive province of the political right. Every day, the best interests of vulnerable people are sacrificed on the altar of leftist faiths as ironclad any conservative presuppositions.

Take Medicaid, a policy issue I touched on recently in these pages. The vast majority of Democratic policymakers and sympathetic journalists take it on faith that the good intentions that inspire the program and the vast sums we invest in it add up to something that improves poor people’s lives. When progressives discuss red states’ reluctance to volunteer for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, they almost describe a clear trade-off: Conservatives’ contempt for social assistance and the GOP’s austerity fetish are on one side, and the medical destinies of needy Americans are on the other. Shame on the heartless Scrooge who could possibly prioritize the former!

But leftists rarely pause to interrogate the premise, to actually verify that signing humans up for a complex and convoluted financial product is in fact synonymous with boosting their well-being. It’s hard to fault laypeople for leaning on this commonsensical assumption. But in 2014, every serious student of policy should be aware of the growing evidence that calls it into question.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/02/12/the-party-of-science-has-absolutely-no-clue-what-its-talking-about/ 

Baby Boomers Give Up, Drop Out of U.S. Labor Force

When Robin McLane’s generation hit public schools in the 1950s, there were never enough classrooms or teachers to accommodate the bulge, she said. So she’s not surprised about the latest shock that boomers are delivering to the U.S. economy.

“People all around me, relatives and friends, are either retiring, or they’re finding it’s very difficult to find work anywhere from 55 on,” said the 65-year-old, who lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and retired from her job as a high school literacy specialist in June. “For me, I was ready to move on.”

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/02/11/320105.htm 

Don’t Celebrate Eric Holder’s Pending Departure

Nobody should celebrate the announcement that Attorney General Eric Holder will be leaving the administration this year. Whoever replaces Holder will be just as radical and ideological. What the replacement will enjoy, however, is a clean slate. Some will naively assume a new attorney general means a fresh start and an attorney general better than Holder.
Don’t fool yourself. The best thing that could happen for President Obama is for Holder to go and be replaced by someone just like him. He’ll get the good without the bad.
Holder’s replacement will be just as radical as Holder.  We’ve seen it over and over.  Replace the radical and lawless Hilda Solis at Labor with the even more radical and lawless Tom Perez.  Replace Leon Panetta with the certifiable Chuck Hagel.
If the Senate Republicans were willing to go to war over any replacement, and if the House was willing to defund the most radical decisions of DOJ, it might be different.
But we know that isn’t going to happen.

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2014/02/12/dont-celebrate-eric-holders-departure/?singlepage=true

The tyrannical liberalism of New York's Governor Cuomo

An editorial in National Review Online got to the essence of the issue:

Governor Cuomo is the perfect example of the modern Democrat, who cherishes “diversity” and “open dialogue” above all things—so long as he never has to encounter anybody who is not exactly like him nor hear a point of view with which he disagrees. It is one thing to have strong political views, but another for a governor, the highest executive power in the state, to declare those who do not share his preferences to be personae non gratae. It is thuggish and backward, precisely the sort of thing that the struggling Empire State can ill afford.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/-Extremists--in-New-York-7808 

The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character

Stumbling into a barroom brawl was the last thing I’d intended. Lined up on one side: sculptors of a hagiography that is now conventional wisdom crow about a noble conquest over totalitarian dictators. The other side bellows: “Nonsense! In defeating one monster, your heroes merely helped create another, sullying us with their atrocities and burdening us for decades with a global security nightmare.” The first side spews that its critics are deranged, defamatory conspiracy-mongers. The critics fire back that these “court historians” are in denial; their heroes did not really “win” the war, they just helped a different set of anti-American savages win—in the process striking a deal with the devil that blurred the lines between good and evil, rendering the world more dangerous and our nation more vulnerable.

To readers of American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character, this heated debate will sound familiar. American Betrayal is the bestselling author and syndicated columnist Diana West’s cri de coeur against Anglo-American collusion with Stalin’s hideous Soviet Union in the war that vanquished Hitler’s hideous Nazi Germany. The controversy swirling around the book exposes a chasm on the political Right: on one side, admirers of Franklin Roosevelt’s World War II leadership; on the other, detractors who blame FDR’s indifference to Communism (and, particularly, Communist infiltration of the U.S. government) for the rise of what Ronald Reagan dubbed “the evil empire.” The resulting acrimony is what put me in the mind of the aforementioned brawl I wandered into twenty years ago, involving a different, albeit related, episode: the Central Intelligence Agency’s collusion with the Afghan mujahideen, which hastened the Soviet death throes.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Red-herrings-7774 

New Signup Numbers Show Why Obamacare May Be Impossible To Repeal

For Republicans who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there is a major problem: many people may hate the law, but just as many like it.
“The thing that bothers me is people constantly forget that all politics is local, and that there’s great variation in the extent to which the law is accepted or is going to work. It’s state by state,” says Austin Frakt, an associate professor of public health at the Boston University School of Public Health and co-author of the popular Incidental Economist blog. “It’s not fair to say we’ll repeal the whole thing because there’s half the states that are cool with it.”
That may be even more true today than it was before, as the Obama administration released new figures saying that, through January, a total of 3.3 million people had signed up to get health insurance either through the federal government’s Healthcare.gov website or through the insurance exchanges run on the state level. That includes 1 million who signed up in January alone.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/02/12/new-signup-numbers-show-why-obamacare-may-be-impossible-to-repeal/ 

Some details still fuzzy on Obama’s minimum wage for federal contractors

President Obama will sign an executive order Wednesday raising the minimum wage for all federal contractors, but questions still surround how many workers will benefit from the move and how departments and agencies can comply without budget increases.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told reporters Wednesday that the order, which will raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, will benefit “hundreds of thousands” of workers doing business with the federal government but could not offer a more precise figure.
The order will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015, and each new federal contract thereafter will have to comply with the new wage requirement. With that in mind, Mr. Perez said the number of contractors benefiting will rise over time.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/12/some-details-still-fuzzy-obamas-new-federal-contra/#ixzz2tCUEAo00

100% of 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative

Today Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, confirmed that 100% of the established 501(c)(4) groups the IRS selected for audit were conservative.
But Obama says their was not a smidgen of corruption in the IRS.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
A Republican House committee chairman said the Internal Revenue Service targeted tax-exempt conservative groups for audits, widening the scope of GOP ire over the agency’s oversight of political activities.
House Democrats pushed back, saying Republicans were seeking to use the IRS controversy to score political points with their conservative base in an election year.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/02/confirmed-100-of-501c4-groups-audited-by-irs-were-conservative/ 

CBO Director: ‘Large and Growing Federal Debt’ Could Produce ‘Fiscal Crisis’

On the same day House Speaker John Boehner said he would bring a “clean” debt ceiling bill to the House floor—and join Democrats in voting for a 13-month extension of the debt limit—the head of the Congressional Budget Office declared that the “large and growing federal debt” could eventually increase the risk of a “fiscal crisis.” […]
CBO estimates that federal debt held by the public will equal 74 percent of GDP at the end of this year and 79 percent in 2024 (the end of the current 10-year projection period). Such large and growing federal debt could have serious negative consequences, including restraining economic growth in the long term, giving policymakers less flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges, and eventually increasing the risk of a fiscal crisis (in which investors would demand high interest rates to buy the government’s debt). …

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/cbo-director-large-and-growing-federal-debt-could-produce-fiscal-crisis 

Eric Holder to states: You all should really think about restoring voting for felons

There was a report out yesterday that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder signaled in an interview that 2014 would be his last year in office, but the Justice Department is now pushing back on that report, insisting that Holder’s tenure will continue indefinitely — although why the first-ever sitting attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress is so very at his leisure on the matter, I’m sure I don’t know.

“What I’ve said is, I’m going to be here certainly into 2014. Well into 2014,” Holder said, according to a partial transcript of the interview released today by the Justice Department.
The department provided the transcript to reporters in response to questions about a story in the Feb. 17 issue of the New Yorker by Jeffrey Toobin. In the story, Toobin writes, “Holder told me that he will leave office sometime this year.” …
Fallon later issued a statement saying, “The most the Attorney General has said is that he still has a lot he wants to accomplish on issues like criminal justice reform, voting rights and LGBT equality. He did not speak about his plans any further than that.”

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/11/eric-holder-to-states-you-all-should-really-think-about-restoring-voting-for-felons/ 

Obamacare creates new ways to prosecute American business

It’s been a bad week for Obamacare.  Incredibly, the White House has had to grant yet another delay in the employer mandate. This time, employers with between 50 to 99 employees who don’t already offer health insurance to their employees have until 2016 to comply with the shifting Obamacare requirements.  This latest delay represents another political calculation by the White House.  They are counting on the fact that the criticism they will face now for bungling incompetence and disregarding their own law is less than the criticism they would receive for damaging American business closer to the elections.
And the fine print of the latest announcement from the Administration is worse than the terrible headlines. This rule includes a provision that says you have to have the right motives for having a certain number of employees to be in compliance with Obamacare. Bear with me, that’s right: You must certify to the IRS – under the threat of perjury – that the reasons for your employee head count have nothing to do with your opposition to or avoidance of Obamacare. This president doesn’t just selectively enforce the law as he sees fit; now he is actually inventing new crimes.  It’s jaw-dropping that if you fall below 100 employees, the burden will be on you to prove that you meant no disrespect to Obamacare.  I can’t wait to see the video of the first Democrat who tries to defend this new threat of prosecution within Obamacare.  In fact, look for the White House to fix this and somehow drop this provision altogether.  It’s completely indefensible.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/02/11/the-insiders-obamacare-creates-new-ways-to-prosecute-american-business/ 

Obama's Fate

It's no surprise that Barack Obama's authoritarian streak is revealing itself at last. It was always there; clearly apparent in his rhetoric (e.g., his envy of Chinese president Xi Jin-ping's powers), his abuse of executive orders, his threats against Congress, his sultan with fly-whisk attitudes toward his opposition, and even his vacations, which reek more of third-world trash gamboling on the Riviera than any American leader (George W. Bush settled his mind by clearing brush in Texas, Reagan at his ranch in Santa Barbara. Obama unfortunately finds the brush already cleared in Martha's Vineyard and Hawaii.) The sole question that remains is how anyone can deny it.

Obama comes by his attitude toward government honestly enough. Just before the 2012 election I published a piece here at AT analyzing Obama's political background. He spent most of his formative years in Indonesia, exposed almost exclusively to the influences of Indonesian culture -- Islam, mass public corruption, and a political system based on two-fisted authoritarianism. Obama's political heritage is rooted in the postwar Islamic strongman role pioneered by Gamel Abdul Nasser, the leader of Egypt from 1953 to 1970, and then refined by numerous other such figures, including Achmed Sukarno and Mohammed Suharto  of Indonesia.

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2014/02/obamas_fate.html 

Not A Good Thing

You may not believe what you read and hear.  But, do carefully read and listen giving full consideration to the efficacy of the sources. 

Read what this Cuban refugee has to say about the state of our country.   http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/02/eyewitness-castro-oregon-senate-marxism-coming-marxism/

This professor explains at least why and how our current president is an active participant in bringing about what the above eye witness says he has already seen.   http://www.westernjournalism.com/listen-professor-exposes-obamas-communist-roots-mentor/

George Burns

This Has Been Mentioned Before But Here Is The Proof

Between Obama & the Senate (Harry Reid) government business is at a slow grind.  Even though both of them place the blame on Republicans, check this out and tell me if what they say is true.  Facts can be manipulated but they do not lie.  In this case both Obama and Reid along with many Democrats and leftist media have done so.  
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/370634/do-nothing-senate-doug-lamborn  
This is not to make Republicans look good.  It is to point out Democrat deception/lies.  
George Burns

Obama Finally Admits He Is A Tyrant

This man is irresponsible, incompetent, destructive of the American way of life and has finally openly admitted he does not care what  you and I think or want.  He has publically declared that as president he can do anything he wants.  Apparently honoring his oath to the Constitution, serving the people and interests of the nation means nothing to him.  Don't believe me?  Read this.  It is time we got serious about impeachment.   

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-thats-good-thing-president-i-can-do-whatever-i-want_778944.html 

Coalition for Safe Affordable Food

Representatives from nearly 30 farmer and food industry groups announced the formation of the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food Thursday afternoon. The coalition urges Congress to establish federal standards for safety and labeling of food and beverage products made with genetically modified organisms.

A federal labeling solution would have many benefits. It would avoid the confusion of a 50-state patchwork of labeling laws by affirming the Food and Drug Administration as the nation's authority for the use and labeling of GMOs. It would advance food safety by requiring the FDA to conduct safety reviews of all new GMO traits before they are introduced into commerce.

The measure would help consumers make informed decisions by establishing federal standards for companies that wish to voluntarily label their own products. It would provide consistency by defining the term “natural” for use on food and beverage products.

Read more: http://www.mcphersonsentinel.com/article/20140209/News/140209381#ixzz2t2ka1Cu1

Obamacare’s $70 billion pay cut

In his State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to “give America a raise.” Well, it turns out that Obama is giving America a $70 billion annual pay cut, courtesy of Obamacare. That is the overlooked nugget in the new Congressional Budget Office report detailing the economic costs of Obamacare. While much attention has been paid to the report’s finding that Obamacare will reduce employment by as much as 2.5 million workers, buried on page 117 (Appendix C) is this bombshell: “CBO estimates that the ACA will cause a reduction of roughly 1 percent in aggregate labor compensation over the 2017-2024 period, compared with what it would have been otherwise.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-obamacares-70-billion-pay-cut/2014/02/10/f4de89d6-9259-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html 

Obama has just made yet another illegal change to Obamacare

Like many of his other changes to Obamacare, Obama made this change without it being being approved by Congress, which is illegal.
The New York Times reports:

The “employer mandate,” which was originally supposed to take effect last month, had already been delayed to Jan. 1, 2015, and now the administration says that employers with 50 to 99 employees will not have to comply until 2016 — allowing Democrats to placate business concerns and pushing the issue well beyond this year’s midterm elections.

In addition, the administration said the requirement would be put into effect gradually for employers with 100 or more employees. Employers in this category will need to offer coverage to 70 percent of full-time employees in 2015 and 95 percent in 2016 and later years, or they will be subject to tax penalties.

http://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/obama-has-just-made-yet-another-illegal-change-to-obamacare/ 

What Does This Supreme Court Justise Not Understand About "Illegal Immigrants"

Offensive or insulting to her or not, it is still illegal to cross our borders illegally.  Good grief...  Does she think calling a thief a robber is insulting?  How about someone who kills another being called a murderer?  All three are criminal acts for heavens sake.  The label fits.  The political correctness (PC) culture has now invaded the Supreme Court.  Will PC now be the basis for legal decisions?  What a mess the progressive crowd has made of our world.    

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/02/04/sotomayor-labeling-illegal-immigrants-criminals-is-insulting/#sthash.wUVhFM3y.dpuf    

George Burns

This is chilling, big time chilling !!!

Both the Bush and Obama administrations have stretched beyond belief the life or death powers of the president.  The Obama Department of Justice has released a memo justifying the power of the president to order the assassination of US citizens without charges or trial.  Please read this item to see how perverse both administrations view the powers of presidents over American citizens...they believe the president can on his own determine who are enemies of the state.  Bush started the whole sordid process but Obama has gone steps further.  This is truly a chilling piece.  It is far past time for the people to rein in our rogue government - make a stink with your elected representatives.  As the author notes "If you believe the president has the power to order US citizens executed far from any battlefield with no charges or trial, then it’s truly hard to conceive of any asserted power you would find objectionable."   

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo#sthash.52kz7DOt.dpuf   

George Burns

Employment Report: The U.S. Job Market Is a Mess

The U.S. labor market is a mess. Data released over the past few months has been anything but positive and, in some cases, conflicting. Optimists have pointed at declining headline employment, pessimists have pointed at declining labor force participation, and somewhere in the middle, Main Street is looking at low job creation and wondering not when but if the job market will ever fully recover.
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that payroll employment rose by 113,000 in January and headline unemployment fell by 0.1 percentage point to 6.6 percent. A consensus estimate showed that economists were anticipating closer to 180,000 new jobs for the month and for the headline rate to remain flat, at 6.7 percent. In a word, the results were weak — weaker than data released by payroll processor ADP on Thursday.
According to ADP’s National Employment Report, following December’s downwardly revised 227,000 job gain, U.S. employers expanded payrolls by 175,000 in the past month. “Cold and stormy winter weather continued to weigh on the job numbers,” said Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, whose firm helps compile the report. Taking a more optimistic tone, Zandi added that “underlying job growth, abstracting from the weather, remains sturdy.”

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/employment-report-the-u-s-job-market-is-a-mess.html/?ref=YF

Impeachable Obama: Freelancing the law

President Obama is determined to render the Constitution a dead letter and rule by executive fiat. Think of how he repeatedly, and illegally, has changed the law underpinning ObamaCare in response to unflattering prevailing winds.

But now, his proclivity for constitutional insolence has reached a new and dangerous low that threatens national security: His administration is dictating changes to a law that will make immigration possible for those who provided “limited material support” to terrorists.

Exemptions to the Immigration and Nationality Act, published in the Federal Register by the departments of Homeland Security and State, supposedly apply only if refugees and those seeking asylum are found to pose no threat to the United States. But that determination can be based solely on an applicant's word, says Jessica Vaughan, a former State Department official who now serves as policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/editorials/5547418-74/law-obama-immigration#ixzz2spbapSgb

The Numbers That Scare Senate Democrats

Voting with Obama 97% of the time is going to end some careers.

Three sets of numbers have emerged in recent weeks that bode ill for Democratic hopes to keep the U.S. Senate. The first came from new Federal Election Commission filings and news reports on campaign fundraising for the fourth quarter of 2013, and cash-on-hand on Dec. 31.
Seven states carried by Mitt Romney have Democratic senators whose seats are up in November. Overall in these states, the leading Republican candidates raised $6.5 million while their Democratic opponents—including four incumbents—raised $6.7 million during the last quarter. Five Republicans outraised their Democratic opponents, including in all three states (Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia) where the Democratic senators are leaving and in two of the four states (Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina) where Democratic incumbents are trying to hold on.
Republicans also whittled away at the Democratic cash-on-hand advantage in these states. Democrats had an $18.5 million to $11.5 million cash advantage at the end of September. By the end of December, Democrats had roughly $21 million, Republicans $15.5 million.

http://rove.com/articles/514 

Black Leaders Impeding Dr. King's Dream

The biggest impediment to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, dream of a society in which color is not considered important is the continued used of the extremely racist term "African-American". The term implies the descendants of slaves are a separate race whose members belong in Africa rather than the United States even though many have ancestors who were living in North America long before the American Revolution.

The term "African American" arbitrarily segregates people by skin color. The term treats people with dark complexions as if they only had African ancestors even if more of their ancestors came from somewhere else. For example, sportscasters call Asian ancestry golfer Tiger Woods "African American" even though his mother is Asian and his father had Asian and North American ancestors as well as African ancestors.
. The only inherent difference between black and white Americans is a half dozen genes that control skin color. A person can have a dark complexion even though a majority of skin color genes come from European ancestors because the genes that code for dark complexion are dominant and only a couple are needed for a relatively dark complexion. One of the genes that codes for a dark complexion is common among peoples of North America and Asia as well as Africa 

http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/science-becoming-religion/2014/feb/7/black-leaders-impeding-dr-kings-dream/ 

Clintons keep revenge list of Obama-backing Democrats

Forgive and forget? Not Bill and Hillary.
A system of political rewards and punishments devised by the political power couple set aside “a special circle of Clinton hell . . . for people who had endorsed [President] Obama,” according to “HRC,” a new book by Politico former White House bureau chief Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes of The Hill.
The most helpful Clintonistas were rated “1” under the Clintons’ rating system, while turncoat former allies, such as John Kerry, received “7’s.”
The Clinton camp would later “joke about the fates of the folks they felt had betrayed them,” the book said.
“Bill Richardson: investigated; John Edwards: disgraced by scandal; Chris Dodd: stepped down; . . . Ted Kennedy: dead,” an aide quipped, according to the book.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/09/clintons-keeping-revenge-list-of-enemy-dems-who-supported-obama/ 

The Intentional Buffoonery of the Progressive Left

Goldilocks wrote: So how are beginning workers and poor people supposed to advance economically?
Dear Comrade Goldi,
I can tell you one way to make it more difficult for “beginning workers and poor people” to advance. If you raise the minimum wage, they’ll be likely to be hurt worst, first.
People advance economically by gaining experience and thus bringing more value to an employer, not by passing capricious laws.
According to a BLS survey done in 2011, only 5 percent of workers who make hourly wages are at or below the federal minimum wage to begin with. Of the 1.7 million people who receive minimum wage salaries, 54 percent are aged 24 or below even as 80 percent of the workforce is 25 and above. So despite accounting for only 20 percent of the workforce, we see that minimum wages are more concentrated in those “beginning workers and poor people.”
When you are younger and lack skills you make less money.
Only a liberal would have difficulty understanding this obvious fact.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2014/02/09/the-intentional-buffoonery-of-liberals-n1791926?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Breached!! U.S. Surpassed the Debt Ceiling Today

Well, it’s official now: The U.S. government on Friday breached the current debt ceiling. Congress probably has until the end of February to raise the cap before the Treasury begins to default on its borrowing for the first time ever. 

The government’s borrowing cap of $16.69 trillion was suspended last October as part of a bipartisan budget deal that ended the 16-day government shutdown and gave Congress until early this year to pass a new budget and get the government’s fiscal house in order. Today was the deadline for reinstituting the old debt ceiling unless lawmakers and the White House could agree on a new, higher borrowing level. 

But with House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican members at odds over whether to demand concessions from President Obama – such as approving the Keystone XL pipeline or rescinding recent cuts in benefits for some military retirees – in return for voting to raise the debt ceiling, the government has officially exceeded its current borrowing authority by about $590 billion. As of this morning, the national debt stood at $17.285 trillion.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/breached-u-surpassed-debt-ceiling-174200508.html 

Here's Proof: the Obama Administration Doesn't Care Whether You Work Or Not

It was mildly surprising  when the Congressional Budget Office announced this week that the Affordable Care Act will result in some 2.5 million fewer Americans working than otherwise. What was shocking was that the Obama administration response revealed that the president is simply indifferent to whether you have a job or not. In the new Newspeak, a job equals confinement and unemployment is liberation.
If, as a senior White House official said, the news “reflects the fact that workers have a new set of options and are making the best choices that they can choose to make for themselves given those options,” wouldn’t it make sense to free even more workers from the tyranny of employment, say by offering permanent gold-plated unemployment benefits to all who seek them?
By the administration’s logic, an unemployment rate of 20, 50 or even 100 percent would be nothing to worry about, and might even be worth a hearty cheer, provided those who were unemployed were simply choosing not to work rather than being rejected by employers.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2014/02/05/heres-proof-the-obama-administration-doesnt-care-whether-you-work-or-not/ 

Weak jobs data renew growth fears

Back-to-back months of sluggish hiring suggest the economic recovery may have lost some momentum and could give the Federal Reserve second thoughts about continuing to throttle back a key stimulus program.

Employers added a modest 113,000 jobs in January after boosting payrolls by just 75,000 in December, the Labor Department said Friday. The two-month average was about half of last year's monthly pace of job growth and far below analysts' expectations.
Although analysts blamed the weak December hiring largely on frigid weather, there was little evidence the cold contributed to January's numbers. Construction payrolls, for instance, rebounded strongly last month and manufacturing employment also expanded solidly.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jobs-20140208,0,5547294.story#ixzz2sjHy11mX

An Obamacare Report Card

Perhaps the most unpleasant aspect of my otherwise quite enjoyable job as a college professor has been the requirement to assign grades to students. Given that we’re now about halfway through implementation of the Affordable Care Act—which even President Obama is happy to call “Obamacare”—it seems appropriate to assign midterm grades. These are not intended as a forecast of the final grade; moreover, implementation of Obamacare is the responsibility of many thousands of individuals, not just one. Nevertheless, as President Truman’s legendary Oval Office desk sign reminds us, “The buck stops here” when it comes to presidential leadership. So whether President Obama likes it or not, the public and historians are likely to base their assessment of his performance on how well his “signature piece of domestic legislation” is implemented.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/obamacare-report-card_778827.html

Targeting the IRS

What should conservatives do next about the Orwellian intimidation of political opponents using the IRS? Here is a partial action plan.
Lawyers for targeted tea party groups are hurling marshmallows at one of the most shocking abuses of power in our nation's entire history. Conservative groups and their lawyers are only stating the obvious in bland, vanilla talking points.
What we are missing with many Obama scandals is a Larry Klayman, the former head of Judicial Watch. How is it that other lawyers have learned nothing from Klayman's example of prying stunning revelation after revelation out of the Clinton Administration? They only have to copy Klayman's game plan. Klayman was so powerful that "The West Wing" series created a character based on him. Whereas James O'Keefe has inspired an army of imitators in video exposés, there is still only one overworked Larry Klayman. A "lawsuit" is not a dress which a made-for-TV lawyer buys at Nordstrom's before going before the cameras.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/02/targeting_the_irs.html#ixzz2sddo4pyu