Thoughts From A Conservative Mom

Posts Tagged ‘Unemployment’

Last month, M. Stanton Evans pointed out that America’s demographics currently favor the Republicans in future elections:

As shown by demographer Eric Kaufman of the University of London, religious couples across all cultures are for obvious reasons (including but not limited to abortion) having more children per family than are the secular-irreligious, whose birthrates are below replacement — which means a declining population.

“After 2020,” says Kaufman, the devoutly religious of all faiths “will begin to tip the culture wars to the conservative side.”

The liberal-counterculture Democrats will of course continue fighting this war in the schools and through the media, but have only one major demographic weapon to counter the fertility gap that is working relentlessly against them.

That weapon is illegal immigration. As the population trends move steadily conservative, the liberals must bring into the country and enfranchise new voters who will reliably cast Democratic ballots.

That, and that alone, is the real issue in the battle over immigration and why the Democrats are so bent on gaining amnesty for illegals. All the rest is window dressing.

Read more at IBD

No wonder they’re pushing so hard for amnesty.   The question is, why are Republicans so stupidly eager to help them?

Immigration reform could be election bonanza for Democrats

Republicans Promote Amnesty While Dems Refuse To Secure Border, Recruit Illegal Immigrants Onto Welfare

Homeland Security ‘Welcome’ Materials Recruit New Immigrants Onto Overburdened Welfare Programs

Case Worker: Illegal Aliens Got Food Stamps by the “Vanload”

Report: Illegals Get $4B a Year in Cash Refunds From IRS

A Problem-solving Approach to Immigration

Welcome to the “new normal” under Obamanomics.  In Europe, where Keynesian economics and Democratic Socialism has dominated for decades, unemployment rates are in the 20′s.   For the younger generation, they’re even higher.    Yet, instead of learning from their mistakes, Obama and the Democrats insist on repeating them.    Millions of innocent people are being hurt in the process.

The Associated Press reports:

After a full year of fruitless job hunting, Natasha Baebler just gave up.

She’d already abandoned hope of getting work in her field, working with the disabled. But she couldn’t land anything else, either — not even a job interview at a telephone call center.

Until she feels confident enough to send out resumes again, she’ll get by on food stamps and disability checks from Social Security and live with her parents in St. Louis.

“I’m not proud of it,” says Baebler, who is in her mid-30s and is blind. “The only way I’m able to sustain any semblance of self-preservation is to rely on government programs that I have no desire to be on.”

Baebler’s frustrating experience has become all too common nearly four years after the Great Recession ended: Many Americans are still so discouraged that they’ve given up on the job market.

Older Americans have retired early. Younger ones have enrolled in school. Others have suspended their job hunt until the employment landscape brightens. Some, like Baebler, are collecting disability checks.

It isn’t supposed to be this way. After a recession, an improving economy is supposed to bring people back into the job market.

Read more at Fox News

Sadly, until we get rid of Obamanomics, the jobs won’t be coming back.  Business aren’t hiring because they never know when they’re going to be hit with a costly new regulation or tax.   Entrepreneurs aren’t willing to take the risk to start a new business in such a hostile business climate.

Donald Lambro at Human Events predicts that we’re in for “Four More Years of Pain“:

President Obama heads into the third month of his second term, still unable to find a cure for a sluggish economy, weak employment numbers and his own slipping job approval scores.

Second terms are usually challenging for presidents who have won re-election without having the slightest idea about what they will do over the next four years. And that’s what we are witnessing now with Obama, whose biggest problem is the anemic, job-challenged economy.

[...]  The depressing headlines of the past few days tell a sad tale of what the economy is like under his presidency:

– “Weekly Jobless Claims Get Weaker as Outlook Dims” was the gloomy headline over a Reuters news wire story Thursday morning on the CNBC website.

“The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to its highest level in four months last week, suggesting the labor market recovery lost some steam in March,” Reuters reported.

– “Hiring Is Weaker at Private Companies,” a Washington Post headline blared Thursday.

“Companies hired at the weakest pace in five months in March as recent strong demand for construction jobs evaporated and growth in the vast services sector slowed, signs that the economic recovery could be hitting a soft patch,” the newspaper reported.

That’s the conclusion of the ADP National Employment Report Wednesday, which showed “that private employers added 158,000 jobs last month.” The ADP job survey said “the gain was the smallest since October.”

A separate report Wednesday on the services industry, the economy’s largest job sector, showed that employment growth “pulled back in March.”

You do not hear any of these reports on the nightly TV news because the networks cherry-pick reports that feed the White House line of a continuing economic recovery.

[...]  Thankfully, there are economic reporters who resist touting the White House line that everything is rosier under Obama’s policies.

“We’re approaching the four-year anniversary of the economic recovery, and it still doesn’t feel like much of one, what with the unemployment rate at 7.7 percent and wages stagnant over the past five years,” Neil Irwin, the Post’s veteran economic analyst, recently reported.

Read more at Human Events

Obama is so blinded by ideology that the tragic results of his policies on display all around him aren’t enough to convince him that his policies need to change.

The American workforce collapses on top of the young

Record 89,967,000 Not in Labor Force; Another 663,000 Drop Out In March

People Not In Labor Force Soar By 663,000 To 90 Million, Labor Force Participation Rate At 1979 Levels

Weak: Economy Adds Just 88k Jobs in March

Moody’s Chief Economist Previously Cited By White House Blames Obamacare For Jobs Numbers

Media Can’t Blame Dismal Jobs Report on the Sequester

Devastating Job Numbers Undermine Rationale for ‘Immigration Reform’

Hopenchange!

Wynton Hall reports at Breitbart:

Even as the Obama White House prepares for a star-studded White House concert featuring Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper, and Justin Timberlake, figures from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that roughly 50 million Americans—one in six—now live below the poverty line.

Additionally, one in five American children have fallen below the poverty line; the last time poverty levels were this high, Lyndon Baines Johnson was president.

“In the last three years, there’s been a great change in the kinds of people we are serving,” said Director of Community Services at Catholic Charities of Baltimore Mary Anne O’Donnell. “There are increasing numbers of people who owned a home, lost their jobs, end up living in their car and are coming with children to our soup kitchen.”

The U.S. government defines a family of four earning under $23,021 as living in poverty. Income used to compute poverty status does not include non-cash benefits, such as food stamps and housing subsidies.

Welfare program enrollments have exploded under President Barack Obama. Americans on food stamps now outnumber the combined populations of 24 U.S. states, costing taxpayers more than double the amount spent on food stamps five years ago. In January 2009, 31.9 million Americans received food stamps. Today, that figure is 47.79 million.

Read more at Breitbart

U.S. sees highest poverty spike since the 1960s, leaving 50 million Americans poor as government cuts billions in spending

More American Families Reduced To Food Banks And Food Stamps

Why we are on the brink of the greatest Depression of all time

Peter Schiff Warns of the Coming Collapse of the Dollar: “We’re not even near the bottom yet”

Cramer: We‘re ’Two Stages From a Financial Collapse So Huge It‘s Hard to Get Your Mind Around’

‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ Author: I’m Preparing For Economic Collapse, Stocking Up on Food & Guns

You can’t make this stuff up!  And no, it wasn’t an April Fools joke!

Terence P. Jeffrey reports at CNS News:

President Barack Obama, who has increased the national debt by $53,377 per household, has proclaimed April“National Financial Capability Month,” during which his administration will do things such as teach young people “how to budget responsibly.”

“I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices,” Obama said in an official proclamation released Friday.

[...]  The proclamation on the White House website links to two other government websites: the site for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and MyMoney.gov, which includes materials from 21 federal agencies.

Listed among the “popular topics” on MyMoney.gov is “Managing Debt and Credit,” which includes a link to a page on the Federal Reserve’s website called “Getting the most from your credit card.” Tip 2 on that page is: “Stay Below Your Credit Limit.”

When Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, the total debt of the federal government was $10,626,877,048,913.08. As of the close of business on March 28, 2013, the total debt of the federal government was $16,766,988,432,792.62—an increase of $6,140,111,383,879.54 since Obama took office.

That means that under Obama the federal debt has increased $53,377 for each one of the 115,031,000 households the Census Bureau says there are now in the United States. The president is required by law to submit a budget proposal for the next fiscal year by the first Monday in February.

Thus far, Obama has not submitted his budget proposal for fiscal 2014.

Read more at CNS News

Jeannie DeAngelis observes at Clash Daily:

It’s the liberal way to perceive yourself as diametrically opposed to what and who you actually are. Therefore, Barack Obama being a financially incapable liberal is precisely the reason why the man who has yet to submit a budget proposal for 2014 feels he’s qualified to teach young people “how to budget responsibly.”

What’s next, Bill and Hillary Clinton running a Marital Cohesiveness and Fidelity Seminar? How about first daughters Sasha and Malia, who took not one but two spring break vacations, sharing with the younger set how to spend a week at the Atlantis in the Bahamas and River Run in Sun Valley, Idaho on a limited budget? Sorry, but if Barack Obama is financially capable, then outgoing MSNBC host Ed Schultz is qualified to host a new “Eradicate Bias in the Media” show.

Then again, this is the president who is expert at exempting himself from what he insists others do. That is why a person who clearly has no understanding of sound financial principles can say with a straight face: “I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices.”

Wait! When Obama says “all Americans” does “all” include himself and the $10 million dollar vacationer he’s married to, or does “all” just mean everybody except Mr. and Mrs. Obama?

Either way, the president must truly believe that he’s an authority on stretching a dollar, because in his “National Financial Capability Month” proclamation, he said that his “[a]dministration is dedicated to helping people make sound decisions in the marketplace.” That marketplace, by the way, is the same marketplace that he’s currently in the process of destroying. It could be that President Obama thinks that the soundest way to save money in the marketplace is to exchange the marketplace for something altogether different.

Read more at Clash Daily

Federal Government Goes Deeper in Debt to Warn Young People About Dangers of Overspending

What Awaits Young Americans

What Can Washington Politicians Learn From America’s Moms?

Federal Budget vs. Household Budget: How Do They Compare?

To Pay For Current Spending Commitments, U.S. Government Would Have To Raise Taxes 64%

US Gov’t Is Bankrupt, System of Republican Constitutional Gov’t Is At Stake

In Cyprus, politicians are trying to bail themselves out by stealing directly from people’s bank accounts.   In America, the government is more subtle.

It’s been stealing from us for years – through inflation.  Thomas Sowell explains:

One of the big differences between the United States and Cyprus is that the U.S. government can simply print more money to get out of a financial crisis. But Cyprus cannot print more euros, which are controlled by international institutions.

Does that mean that Americans’ money is safe in banks? Yes and no.

The U.S. government is very unlikely to just seize money wholesale from people’s bank accounts, as is being done in Cyprus.

But does that mean that your life savings are safe?

No. There are more sophisticated ways for governments to take what you have put aside for yourself and use it for whatever the politicians feel like using it for.

If they do it slowly but steadily, they can take a big chunk of what you have sacrificed for years to save, before you are even aware, much less alarmed.

That is in fact already happening.

When officials of the Federal Reserve System speak in vague and lofty terms about “quantitative easing,” what they are talking about is creating more money out of thin air, as the Federal Reserve is authorized to do — and has been doing in recent years, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a month.

When the federal government spends far beyond the tax revenues it has, it gets the extra money by selling bonds. The Federal Reserve has become the biggest buyer of these bonds, since it costs them nothing to create more money.

This new money buys just as much as the money you sacrificed to save for years. But more money in circulation, without a corresponding increase in output, means rising prices.

Although the numbers in your bank book may remain the same, part of the purchasing power of your money is transferred to the government. Is that really different from what Cyprus has done?

Read more at Investors Business Daily

Adam Taggart of Peak Prosperity blog warns:

Through the centuries – in historic cultures like that of Yap Island who used giant, immovable stone disks for commerce, to today’s United States, whose Dollar fiat currency exists primarily in digital form – “money” is able to be exchanged for goods and services because society agrees to accept it (at a certain rate of exchange).

But what happens when a society starts doubting the value of its money?

Fed, the Great & Powerful

The podcast goes into the mind-blowingly simple process by which new money is created in America by the Federal Reserve (or the “Fed”). That is to say:

1. The Fed holds a meeting
2. Those in the room decide how many more dollars they think the world needs
3. Someone walks over to a computer and adds that many dollars to the banks, with a few clicks of the keyboard

The banks then, if they want to, lend this new money out into the economy on a fractional basis, adding even more “thin air” dollars to the nation’s money supply.

This unique ability in America lends the Fed enormous power. The power to create new money from nothing. With no limit.

And with that power, the Fed can control and/or influence economies and markets the world over.

Should such power exist? And if so, should a single private entity owned by the major players in the banking system be allowed to wield it?

Such power certainly has its dangers.

[...]  Money is not wealth. It is merely a claim on wealth.

You can’t print your way to prosperity. History is abundantly clear on that.

With the clarity of hindsight, it’s now obvious how the Fed has now painted itself into a corner.

[...]  Cyprus has awakened the world to the reality that central planners can appropriate their money with the bang of a gavel. And while we don’t yet know with certainty how things will unfold in Cyprus, we can project that events there have shaken society’s confidence in the soundness of fiat currency in general. If we know it can be confiscated or devalued overnight, we are less likely to unquestioningly accept its stated value. This doubt that strikes at the very foundation of modern monetary systems.

Cyprus is meaningful in the way that it shines a light on both the importance of hard assets and the risk it poses to market stability. It certainly increases the risk of our prediction of a 40%+ stock-market correction by September, as investors begin to realize that current high values are simply the ephemeral effect of too much money, instead of a sign of true value.

At this point, prudence suggests we prepare for the worst (by parking capital on the sidelines, investing in our personal resilience, etc.) and add to our hard asset holdings (like precious metals bullion, productive real estate, etc.) as insurance to protect our purchasing power. The dollar may strengthen for a bit versus other currencies and perhaps the financial markets, but the long-term trend is a safer and surer bet: Dollars will be inflated. There will be more of them in the future than there are today. So, while our dollars still have the purchasing power they do, we should use the window of time we have now to exchange paper money for tangible wealth at today’s prices.

Read more at Zero Hedge

Fire Up The Presses! Fed Prepares To Print More Monopoly Money

Baby Boomers to Suffer From Dollar’s Decline

The Government Is Expropriating Private Wealth at a Rapid Rate

Politicians steal your money through inflation

The Immorality of Government Inflation

Fed Up with the Fed

It’s been three years since Obamacare was rammed down our throats, and damage is already apparent, even before it is fully implemented.

Paul Bedard warns at the Washington Examiner:

Over one-third of the 9.1 million full-time jobs among America’s diverse business franchises could be cut back or eliminated by Obamacare as small businesses struggle to maintain profitability while coughing up money to pay for Washington-mandated health care coverage, according to the International Franchise Association.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

John Merline at Investors Business Daily lists other nasty features that are finally coming to light:

Cause premiums to skyrocket. In December, state insurance commissioners warned Obama administration officials that the law’s market regulations would likely cause “rate shocks,” particularly for younger, healthier people forced by ObamaCare to subsidize premiums for those who are older and sicker.

“We are very concerned about what will happen if essentially there is so much rate shock for young people that they’re bound not to purchase (health insurance) at all,” said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.

That same month, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said ObamaCare will likely cause premiums to double for some small businesses and individuals.

And a more recent survey of insurers in five major cities by the American Action Forum found they expect premiums to climb an average 169%.

Cost people their jobs. The Federal Reserve’s March beige book on economic activity noted that businesses “cited the unknown effects of the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff.”

Around the same time, Gallup reported a surge in part-time work in advance of ObamaCare’s employer mandate. It found that part-timers accounted for almost 21% of the labor force, up from 19% three years ago.

Meanwhile, human resources consulting firm Adecco found that half of the small businesses it surveyed in January either plan to cut their workforce, not hire new workers, or shift to part-time or temporary help because of ObamaCare.

Tax the middle class. IBD reported in February that much of the $800 billion in tax hikes imposed by ObamaCare will end up hitting the middle class, including $45 billion in mandate penalties, $19 billion raised by limiting medical expense deductions, $24 billion through strict limits on flexible spending accounts, plus another $5 billion because ObamaCare bans using FSAs to buy over-the-counter drugs.

Read more at Investors Business Daily

It’s never too soon to repeal Obamacare

Obamacare Costs, Victims Increase As Full Implementation Nears

A Surgeon Cuts to the Heart of the ObamaCare Nightmare

Why Health Care Spending Will Explode Under ObamaCare: Evidence From Medicare

Three Years Later, Obamacare Is Even Less Popular

Obamacare at Three Years: A Broke Program for Early Retirees

Media Reports On ObamaCare Problems… Three-Years Late

Top Ten ObamaCare Horror Stories the Media Are Covering Up

Obamacare May Cost Small Business ‘Whiners’ 65% of Annual Profits

6 in 10 Docs Plan to Retire Early Due To Obamacare

CBO: 7 Million To Lose Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare

Buy Insurance Or Pay A Fine – Rules for Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Officially Released

Obamacare Regs Slam Middle Class Families With Fines If They Can’t Afford Insurance, Cheapest Plan Will Be $20K Per Family

Will Employers be Blamed for the Latest Obamacare Outrage?

Obamacare official: “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience

Seriously??

Wynton Hall reports at Breitbart:

During a Thursday luncheon with Republicans, President Barack Obama reportedly was unable to dine on the lobster feast set before him. Daily Caller obtained audio of Collins explaining the reason why.

“He honestly did look longingly at it,” said Collins. “But apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

Read more at Breitbart

Collins described the forbidden feast for the Daily Caller:

“University of Maine recipe for healthy lobster salad — I pointed that out to the president in keeping with the first lady’s initiatives and Fox Family Potato Chips made in Aroostook County where I’m from and wild blueberry pie full of anti-oxidants, see this was a healthy lunch as well. We did have a little ice cream on the pie too, also made in Maine, Gifford’s Ice Cream.”

Read more at the Daily Caller

I think this is a serious case of projection.  If Obama honestly believes that people on the other side of the aisle would resort to poisoning him over political differences, it’s obviously because in his world, the ends justify the means, and he assumes that Republicans must be just as morally bankrupt and willing to resort to evil and violence as his team is.

Class Warrior Obama Dines At Swanky $260 Per Plate Restaurant

Obamas cost Americans $1.4 BILLION last year, in contrast to just $57.8 Million for Britian’s royal family

Obama and the Socialist Bourgeoisie

End the Ruling Class Entitlement Complex

Worthless <censored><censored><censored>!!!

Elizabeth Harrington reports at CNS News:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he would not include language to defund Obamacare in the continuing resolution bill when it returns to the House, stating, “our goal” is “not to shut down the government.”

Read more at CNS News

Why on earth are they so afraid of a government shutdown?  It certainly didn’t kill us in the 90′s – most people can’t even remember how (or if) it even affected them!

Maybe what they’re REALLY afraid of is Americans realizing that their lives can go merrily along just fine – and a lot freer – without Big Government interference every step of the way.    That we really don’t need them as much as they need us (and our money) to legitimize their existence.

Thankfully, it appears there are at least a few Republicans in Washington with some spine left:

All Republican members of the Senate voted to defund Obamacare as an amendment to the Continuing Budget Resolution. The vote definitely puts a little heat on certain Dem. Senators up for re-election in 2014.

House Republican leadership recently pushed through a Continuing Resolution that included funding for Obamacare, despite the protests of many members of the GOP. Speaker Boehner and House Majority Whip Eric Cantor received flak in conservative circles for rushing through a hasty vote.

The House of Representatives possesses the “power of the purse” under Constitutional law, so it is not required to fund the executive branch’s activities. It would be extremely rare to withhold funding for government programs, but if there ever was a program as unethical and fiscally ruinous ever devised, it would be Obamacare.

Read more at Independent Journal Review

Senate Republicans Do What Boehner, Cantor, and McCarthy Wouldn’t

Mark Levin calls for ouster of John Boehner [VIDEO]

House RINO’s Fully Fund Obamacare, Including HHS Assault On Religious Freedom

Boehner Folds: ‘Obamacare is the Law of the Land’

Obamacare Costs, Victims Increase As Full Implementation Nears

CBO: 7 Million To Lose Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare

Obamacare Regs Slam Middle Class Families With Fines If They Can’t Afford Insurance, Cheapest Plan Will Be $20K Per Family

Nanci Pelosi said we had to “pass the bill to find out what’s in it.”

Well, now we know what’s in it, thanks to a photo tweeted by Senator Mitch McConnell:

The stack of regulations is 7 feet tall…so far.   The regulations are still being written by bureaucrats, who do not have to submit them for a vote by the people or their representatives.

Obamacare Costs, Victims Increase As Full Implementation Nears

Defunding Obamacare Before It’s Too Late

States worry about rate shock during shift to new health law

CBO: 7 Million To Lose Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare

Buy Insurance Or Pay A Fine – Rules for Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Officially Released

Obamacare Regs Slam Middle Class Families With Fines If They Can’t Afford Insurance, Cheapest Plan Will Be $20K Per Family

House Dems Push Once Again For ‘Public Option’ To Undermine Insurance Companies, Pave Way For Single-Payer

This was the Republicans’ LAST CHANCE to stop the horror of Obamacare from being fully imposed on the American people, and they folded like a deck of cards.

Terence P. Jeffrey reports at CNS News:

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 267-151 on Wednesday to approve a $982-billion continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through the rest of fiscal 2013 that fully funds the implementation of Obamacare during that period.

The House Republican leaders turned aside requests from groups of conservative members to include language in the bill that would have withheld funding for implementation of all of Obamacare, or, alternatively, that would have withheld funding for the Obamacare regulation that requires health-plans to provide cost-free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

Read more at CNS News

Every last RINO who voted for this should be primaried out of their seats.   They are traitors against the American people, the constitution, and liberty.

Daniel Horowitz observes at Red State:

Watching the filibuster, the thought occurred to me that this is exactly what should have been done with Obamacare in 2009/2010.  Why didn’t Mitch McConnell use every parliamentary procedure to block Obamacare?  More relevant to today, these same senators should engage in the same educational filibuster against funding Obamacare next week when the Senate considers the CR.   If nothing else, we’re long overdue for a national discussion over Obamacare, personal liberty, and free markets.  We need to take this #StandWithRand show and run with it.

Read more at Red State

GOP Leaders Break 72-Hr Pledge: Rush 269-Page $982B CR to Vote 48 Hrs After Posting

Boehner Folds: ‘Obamacare is the Law of the Land’

Obamacare Costs, Victims Increase As Full Implementation Nears

CBO: 7 Million To Lose Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare

Obamacare Regs Slam Middle Class Families With Fines If They Can’t Afford Insurance, Cheapest Plan Will Be $20K Per Family

Obama Administration: We Will Still Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith

Judge Napolitano: ‘Almost An Impeachable Offense’ If Obama’s Making Spending Decisions ‘To Hurt Us’

View on YouTube

Abdicating his constitutional responsibility to uphold the law and defend our nation against an invasion of illegal immigrants and criminals is grounds for impeachment, if not a charge of treason.

Arnold Ahlert writes at Front Page Mag:

In one of the most politically despicable moves ever perpetrated by a sitting administration, federal immigration officials have released hundreds of illegal aliens from prison in anticipation of budget cuts produced by the sequester. “As fiscal uncertainty remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration, ICE has reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE’s current budget,” said agency spokeswoman Gillian M. Christensen in a statement. Immigration officials further warned that even more releases are possible, if the anticipated cuts are realized.

In Arizona, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who revealed that more than 500 inmates were released in his county alone, put this ploy in the proper perspective. “President Obama would never release 500 criminal illegals to the streets of his hometown, yet he has no problem with releasing them in Arizona. The safety of the public is threatened and the rule of law discarded as a political tactic in this sequester battle,” he said.

[...]  In a coordinated scare tactic, DHS Secretary Janet A. Napolitano on Monday warned that, if the sequester occurs, as many as 5000 border agents will also be furloughed, increasing the chances that even more, and possibly more dangerous, illegal aliens will be roaming the countryside. “I don’t think we can maintain the same level of security,” Ms. Napolitano contended.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) cut right through the manufactured hysteria. In a letter sent to Ms. Napolitano, he outlined a host of alternative cuts Ms. Napolitano could make. Yet the most telling part of that letter was the revelation that DHS will have approximately $9 billion in unspent funds by the end of FY2013, “raising the question of why we would not start reclaiming these funds,” Coburn wrote.

[...]  Once again, the President of the United States has made it clear that he and his administration are prepared to implement their agenda by any means necessary. In this case, Obama, along with DHS and ICE officials, have now demonstrated that they are more than willing to potentially endanger American lives, rather than accept a “cut” that merely reduces the overall increase in government spending. The president undoubtedly sees such tactics as “negotiation.” Extortion is more like it.

Read more at Front Page Mag

Bryan Preston observes:

The president is also threatening to drop our border guard. In a rational age, these acts would be impeachable. Not too many years ago Californians recalled a governor for offering drivers licences to illegal aliens, and here we have a president flagrantly violating his oath to defend the nation.

Obama’s first sequester move: Releasing “waves” of illegal immigrants from detention centers

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Rips Obama For Releasing Illegal Immigrants Ahead Of Sequester Cuts, “The Height Of Absurdity”

Republicans Promote Amnesty While Dems Refuse To Secure Border, Recruit Illegal Immigrants Onto Welfare

Obama: No Border Security Before Path To Citizenship

Obama Quietly Grants Amnesty To Thousands Of Illegal Aliens

Obamacare doing less for fewer and costing more

View on YouTube

We tried to warn you….

First on Obamacare’s hit list…children in poverty:

Come January, many children currently enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will be compulsorily moved out of their current health plans and into state-run Medicaid plans – as a result of Obamacare.

Read more at the American Enterprise Institute

Next, seniors dependent on Medicare:

During the 2012 election campaign, Democrats denied that ObamaCare made $716 billion in cuts to Medicare in order to provide funding toward $1.9 trillion in new entitlement spending over the next ten years.

In an announcement on Friday, however, the Obama administration revealed that it would be significantly reducing funding for Medicare, a move that one health insurance analyst said “would turn almost every plan in the industry unprofitable.”

[...]   Regarding the cuts, America’s Health Insurance Plans’ (AHIP) president Karen Ignagni said, “Washington cannot tax and cut Medicare Advantage this much and not expect seniors to be harmed.”

Read more at Breitbart

Who’s pushing grandma off a cliff, again?

Young adults are not spared the bruising mandates of Obamacare, either:

Younger, healthier people, many of whom voted for Mr. Obama in droves, will see their insurance premiums climb sharply as Obamacare demands that insurers provide them with more medical coverage than they want or need.

[...]  Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna Inc. — the nation’s third-largest health insurance company — warned at the end of 2012 that Americans will face a “premium rate shock” when the president’s tidal wave of regulations kick in next year.

Mr. Bertolini predicts unsubsidized insurance premiums will shoot up by 20 percent to 50 percent, on average.

Those numbers may be just for the lucky ones. Some consumers will see their costs double. “We’re going to see some markets go up as much as 100 percent,” Mr. Bertolini told Bloomberg News.

Read more at the Washington Times

In less than a year, Americans will be hit with not only higher insurance premiums, but massive tax increases:

While much of the dialogue on healthcare reform centers on the federal mandate of health coverage for all Americans – which many conservatives call the largest tax increase in U.S history – less attention is being given to the massive sales tax increase on the purchase of health insurance also implicit within the legislation that will dramatically escalate costs for employers and consumers.

[T]he tax increases that remain on the books will cost taxpayers more than $675 billion over the next ten years. Chief among these will be the sales tax on the purchase of health insurance, totaling $101.7 billion, and making it larger than all the other industry-specific taxes combined.

“The health insurance tax will add a financial burden on families and small businesses at a time when they can least afford it, and it should be repealed, ” says AHIP, a trade association representing health insurance industry providers, in today’s call for the repeal of the health insurance tax before it can take affect.

Read more at Forbes

The costs and regulations are so onerous, some insurance companies are already warning they may not participate in the state exchanges at all:

Last month, the CEO of the nation’s largest health insurance company warned that he and his peers may balk at participating in Obamacare’s insurance exchanges — online, government-run portals where consumers and small businesses without conventional employer-sponsored coverage may shop for policies starting next year.

[...]  That’s ominous news for Obamacare. If insurers don’t participate in the law’s exchanges, then consumers who had hoped to secure affordable coverage through the new marketplaces will instead find few choices and high prices. Taxpayers could be hit hard, too, as higher premiums in the exchanges will require more public spending on subsidies.

Read more at Forbes

Due to rising costs, many businesses and individuals may simply choose not to buy health insurance:

[A]s ObamaCare’s official launch date approaches, even its backers are beginning to admit that the law could actually create powerful incentives for millions of people and thousands of businesses to drop their coverage, despite the mandate.

[...]  ”We are very concerned,” California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones told federal health officials at a December meeting, “if there is so much rate shock for young people that they’re bound not to purchase (health insurance) at all.”

The cause of this rate shock is simple: ObamaCare imposes what is called “community rating” on insurance companies, effectively forcing them to charge the young and healthy more so they can charge older and sicker consumers less.

[...]  ObamaCare also forbids insurance companies from turning anyone down — a reform called “guaranteed issue” — which also will provide an incentive for some to drop coverage, knowing they can get it back any time.

“Even with the tax penalty … some healthy people would avoid purchasing coverage until they are sick,” Howard Shapiro, director of public policy at the Alliance of Community Health Plans, told regulators .

The problem is that if the young and healthy drop coverage, the result would be what the industry calls a “death spiral.” Premiums will climb as the pool of insured gets sicker, causing still more to cancel their policies.

Read more at Investors Business Daily

Of course, the plan all along has been to bankrupt insurance companies and force the creation of a single-payer system.

Along the way to their Socialist Utopia, the poor, young and elderly are hurt, middle-class taxpayers get slammed, hours are cut, jobs are lost, and  religious freedoms are violated.

Ask them if they care.

Defunding Obamacare Before It’s Too Late

States worry about rate shock during shift to new health law

CBO: 7 Million To Lose Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare

Buy Insurance Or Pay A Fine – Rules for Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Officially Released

Obamacare Regs Slam Middle Class Families With Fines If They Can’t Afford Insurance, Cheapest Plan Will Be $20K Per Family

House Dems Push Once Again For ‘Public Option’ To Undermine Insurance Companies, Pave Way For Single-Payer

“For the people, by the people…” Yeah, right!

Regulations are treated as laws and enforced as such, but they are never voted on by the people’s representatives.  They are imposed by the “fourth branch” of government: bureaucrats from hundreds of agencies and departments (many of which are unconstitutional or abuse unconstitutional powers).

Now, it’s not that we don’t get to vote on them.  We don’t even get to KNOW about them.  Does that sound like the system of representative government our founders intended:

Matt Cover reports at CNS News:

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 35 percent of major federal regulations – those with at least $100 billion in annual economic impact – were issued without a public notice from 2003 to 2010.

The GAO also said that 44 percent of non-major regulations were issued without a public notice, which is referred to as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).

“During calendar years 2003 through 2010, agencies published 568 major rules and about 30,000 nonmajor rules,” the GAO said in a December report to Congress. “[Federal] agencies published about 35 percent of major rules and about 44 percent of nonmajor rules without an NPRM during those years.”

The GAO found a large spike in this practice under President Barack Obama, with the percentage of major rules issued without public notice jumping from 26 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2009. The number of major rules issued this way also hit a high point in both 2009 and 2010. (Obama’s first year in office as president began in January 2009.)

“In particular, from 2008 to 2009, the percentage of major rules without an NPRM increased from 26 percent to 40 percent,” reported the GAO.

Read more at CNS News

Obama Admin. Slams Fragile Economy With Over $216 Billion In New Regulations

Here’s What Deregulation Looks Like in the Obama Administration: $2.5 Billion in Rules Wiped From the Books, $236 Billion Added

Obama Admin. Waits Until Weekend Before Christmas To Unveil Job-Killing Regulations Agenda

Data Shows Obama’s Anti-Business Regulations Responsible For Holding Back Entrepreneurs

Study: Obama’s regulations cost $46 billion a year

Surprise!

Remember when Obama made this statement?

“Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you…if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan.  Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.”

I’ll put it this way: if it begins with “let me be clear,” it’s guaranteed to be a lie.  ”Let me clear” is code for, “make sure you listen to my whitewash talking points to hide what’s REALLY going on.”

Now, four years later, Stephen Dinan at The Washington Times reports what we all knew was coming:

President Obama’s health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage — nearly twice the previous estimate, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.

CBO said that this year’s tax cuts have changed the incentives for businesses and made it less attractive to pay for insurance, meaning fewer will decide to do so. Instead, they’ll choose to pay a penalty to the government, totaling $13 billion in higher fees over the next decade.

Read more at the Washington Times

Health Insurance Rates Skyrocketing Thanks To ‘Affordable Health Care Act’

Buy Insurance Or Pay A Fine – Rules for Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Officially Released

Obamacare Regs Slam Middle Class Families With Fines If They Can’t Afford Insurance, Cheapest Plan Will Be $20K Per Family

House Dems Push Once Again For ‘Public Option’ To Undermine Insurance Companies, Pave Way For Single-Payer

I gotta be honest…I just didn’t have it in me to watch this year.   My BS meter was already maxed out, and every preview of the speech’s content pretty much assured me that a root canal would be preferable to sitting through this.

When I read the transcript, I toyed with the idea of going through it as I have in the past, debunking and translating the double-speak point by point.  But there’s nothing he said that hasn’t already been debunked and exposed multiple times before.  He really doesn’t have any new ideas…just the same old, tired, recycled talking points.

So I’m going to let the CATO Institute break it down for you.  I honestly can’t think of anyone better (apart from their apparent agreement with Obama that Al Qaeda is “on the run,” but that’s to be expected of Libertarians):

View on YouTube

Here’s the Tea Party response from Sen. Rand Paul:

View on YouTube

Senator Marco Rubio delivered the official GOP response.

Dr. Ben Carson gave some great commentary, as well:

View on YouTube

Mark Levin on Obama’s SOTU Address: A Castro-Like Speech in English

Sarah Palin’s response to the SOTU

Gingrich: Obama Gave ‘Most Pro-government Speech Since LBJ’

Rubio: Obama Sees Free Enterprise as Problem, Not Solution

Scalia: State of the Union Speech ‘Has Turned Into a Childish Spectacle’

State of the Union 2013: Heritage Experts’ Analysis

State of the Union lays out un-American agenda

In State of the Union, Obama puts government at the center of Americans’ lives

Obama Threatens Congress: If You Won’t Act On Climate Change, I Will

Obama Seeks 29 New Programs: ‘Nothing I’m Proposing Should Increase Deficit by Single Dime’

Obama’s SOTU Would Cost Americans $83.4 Billion Federal Spending

Obama Calls for Billions in New Spending, Minimum Wage Hike

Obama proposed tax increases will not solve debt problem