The Truth About Federal Spending Under President Obama

The Romney campaign would have you believe that the Obama Administration has increased  Federal spending by leaps and bounds during its time in office.  You get the impression Obama has been handing out money left and right.   It's a total fabrication; a scare tactic designed to frighten you into voting Republican.  Don't you believe it. Compared to his predecessor, Obama is remarkably frugal.

Notice on the graph above how Obama compares to George W. in terms of increase in government spending.  Interesting to note that the Carter Administration leaves both men in the dust when it comes to spending.

The truth is that President Obama inherited  the worst situation since the Great Depression and he has essentially turned things around without breaking the bank. Check out the facts at the Obama-Biden website, where you can get more information and lend your support to the President's re-election campaign. Obama is doing a good job.  We need four more years.

What Independent Sources Say

"… federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since President Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s." The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch

"[Romney's claim] is utterly false. The truth is that spending has slowed markedly under Obama." Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post

"Obama's budget plans to bring spending down to 22.5 percent of GDP in 2016—which is about where it was in the Reagan years… " Ezra Klein of The Washington Post

chart and information source: Obama-Biden Campaign website

Ginsu Romney Slices, Dices and Cuts Any Way You Want

The Romney does it all and Zina Saunders tells you all about it.What would you expect to pay for the amazing Romney. It not only slices, dices, and cuts both ways every time, it can also suck up to any idiot with a checkbook and is a world class dog trainer.

 I love Zina Saunders. She has a razor sharp mind and a rapier tongue herself. Watch the video. You'll see what I mean

Jamie Dimon Goes to Capitol Hill Today

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, is going to be grilled by a Senate Committee today. Among other things, he'll be asked to explain how JPMorgan Chase managed to lose more than $2 billion  in  risky trades.  That's billion with a B.

 What I want to know is why does Dimon still have a job, let alone bonuses and benefits that would keep a small country afloat for years? Why is there no regulation and where does the buck stop anyway?

I can't watch the hearings live today, but I'll be checking on how they went when I get home tonight and I sure hope that there are a few ethical senators left to call a spade a spade. Here are a few things I know for sure.

1. Nobody is worth the kind of obscene pay packet Jamie Dimon  and his ilk receive, no matter how brilliant they are at creating arcane financial instruments and manipulating markets.
2. Corporate CEO's are not job creators.  The little people are. The American economy is fueled by millions of little people buying the goods and services they need to get by every day.  When the little people have money they buy stuff and the economy booms  and more jobs are created. So why are we giving corporations and rich people tax breaks at the expense of the real job creators?
3. Government is not a dirty word . Regulation is a necessary tool to insure fairness and confidence in the markets.  Removing the firewall between banking and brokerage put in place by FDR has been a disaster. Time for the Federal Government to rebuild it.

Jamie Dimon is going to say that this was an isolated incident and investors were not hurt and so on and on, but the bottom line is that a financial system which does not create real value is useless and vulnerable to corruption.

 These guys do not create jobs. They move arcane financial instruments around like carnival con men working a shell game.  The buck needs to stop somewhere.  I don't see why Jamie Dimon's office isn't a good place for responsibility to begin.

  Let's see what happens today in Washington.

afternoon update:  Click here for a pdf of Dimon's prepared remarks  about what he claims was an " isolated incident."  No surprises here.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

This cartoon, found on Pinterest and originally from The Political Carnival, is  too good not to share-- no additional comment from me except to say that sometimes I think the GOP has not only lost its way but also its collective mind. And THIS is the kind of voter identification law that makes sense.

The inmates really are running the asylum

Source: thepoliticalcarnival.net via Denis on Pinterest

 

Who Needs Big Government?

Who needs big government?  Well, for starters, unless you are part of the global elite, YOU do.  Government performs some very necessary functions that cannot be left to private markets-- like regulating Wall Street and Big Corporations and like keeping banks and credit card companies from cheating consumers, not to mention building roads and keeping the public safe.   Who doesn't need it is the crowd that own congress and the supreme court and sees you, the great unwashed, as the problem.

 I'm talking about people like the Koch Brothers, Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, and  big oil, big pharma and big corporate everything.  Now that the Supreme Court has decreed that corporations are people, the fix is in.  You and I are about to be sacrificed on the altar of big power and big profits. Your only hope is to vote for Obama this November. The alternative is unthinkable.

These same entities are creating big super PACs and spending big bucks on telling the big lie this election year in order to get Obama out of the White House and bring back everything Bush. The big lie is that big government is responsible for all our problems and that  Obama is responsible for a skyrocketing national debt. They want to tell you that government regulation is the reason the economy is in the toilet, not two wars and ongoing tax breaks for the rich.

 Don't you believe it.  According to no less an authority than Robert Reich:

Obama isn't adding to the debt every day. The debt is growing because of obligations entered into long ago, many under George W Bush - including two giant tax cuts that went mostly to the very wealthy that were supposed to be temporary and which are still going, courtesy of Republican blackmail over raising the debt limit.

In reality, government spending as a portion of GDP keeps dropping.

As I said, I don't know who's financing this big lie, but there's good reason to think it's some combination of Wall Street, big corporations, and the billionaire Koch brothers.
According to the reliable inside-Washington source Politico, the Koch brothers' network alone will be spending $400m over the next six months trying to defeat Obama, which is more than Senator John McCain spent on his entire 2008 campaign.

Read the rest of Reich's article for Al Jazeera English here.  It's very interesting and if you have a brain in your head, it will make you madder than hell. Too bad it takes Al Jazeera to call a spade a spade and tell America what is really going on. Where is that  American media with the supposed liberal bias when you need it? Thank you Al Jazeera

Syria's War on Terror

source

Yesterday, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad engineered yet another horrific country-wide massacre of the innocents . Reports are that at least 55 innocent civilians were killed ,with the highest death toll being in the town of Dara, where 20 people were mowed down in a pre- dawn bombardment. Today, there is more shelling and violence centered around the town of Homs.( check out the video below for actual footage of the shelling) Chaos and violence reign in Syria as the civilian population continues to be mercilessly massacred by its own government.

The Assad regime is sticking to its  terrorist story, no matter how absurd, and insists that the attacks are all the work of outside agents and foreign terrorists.  Not since Rowanda and Bosnia has the world sat on its hands and watched such evil unfold. In the name of humanity, this carnage has got to stop. The good news is that the world may be about to make a concerted effort to get Assad out of Dodge..About time if you ask me.

Reports are that there is a lot going on behind the scenes.  The Kofi Anan plan may be dead, but Russia's Vladimir Putin now seems to be  stepping up to the plate to broker a political solution based on Assad stepping down and going into a comfy exile somewhere nice ( leaving Russia with increased influence, Iran sans its base from which to harass Israel, and Putin covered in glory).

 At the same time, the United States has mentioned that military action is definitely not off the table  and a United Nations force is being assembled to rattle a sabre here and there. Check.  Your move, Syria. Start packing, Assad.  This is the best offer you are going to get.

Wifers are the New Birthers. Just Ask Bill Maher

Leave it to Bill Mahar to nail the right wing conspiracy theorists right where they live.   The other night on "Late NIght" he brought up the newest conspiracy theory-- wiferism--and asked the question " How many wives does Mitt Romney really have?"

 The video clip from the show is hilarious.  Hey, relax folks-- it isn't a slam at Mitt or his religion-- it's a riff on racist conspiracy theorists who are sure Obama was born in Kenya in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

God  bless America-- especially in an election year-- and God will have to help us all get through it without a breakdown too.  Oh well, at least some of us can still laugh.