As usual, it appears that the biggest issue in the upcoming election will be the economy. Yes, Obamacare, illegal immigration, full rights and civil trials for terrorists, the Ground Zero Mosque, voting irregularities (much more on that in the next day or two), and many other things are also still on the table...but the economy is the biggie.
So how is the economy doing after the 'summer of recovery' that Obama and the Dems promised us after throwing away trillions of dollars?
Well...if this is a recovery, it's hard to imagine what a downturn might look like. Unemployment is still riding close to 10% (if you factor in those who have given up even looking for a job, it's actually over 17%). Record numbers of Americans depend on the government for basic needs. The only job growth that has occurred in the past three years is that of public sector (i.e. government) employees, and even those are about to disappear because they weren't real jobs in the first place. In that same timeframe, the true engine of of real economic growth, the private sector, has hemorrhaged almost 10 million jobs!!! We are currently living through the longest stretch of 9%+ unemployment since the Great Depression. We're looking at the worst Presidential jobs record in history, including Herbert Hoover himself. Even mainstream media outlets are now wondering if this is indeed the beginnings of a total collapse.
Interestingly, the recession of the late 1970s/early 1980s looked a whole lot like the one that hit in 2008. The main difference is the recovery and how that recovery came about. Ronald Reagan cut taxes and reigned in the size of government, opening up new avenues for private investment and entrepreneurialism. Barack Obama is raising taxes and expanding government like a bad rash, locking down investment with heaping new regulations and threatening businesses within a hair's breadth of their very existence. Which worked better?
And we all know how the economy took off like a rocket a year or two later, prompting two decades of huge economic success. Kind of a no-brainer, really.
What's the adminstration's response to these facts? There have been many, actually:
- Hey, it could be worse (I agree: the longer Obama and the Dems stay in charge, the worse it's going to get)
- Lie about how bad the deficit really is
- You mere citizens are just too shtoopid to comprehend Obama's genius in terms of what he's done, so they don't need to explain it to you
- It's all the bankers' fault!
- Um, you remember all those shovel ready jobs we shelled out hundreds of billions of stimulus dollars for? They didn't exist. Oops. But don't worry about that, we've got things under control now...just ignore us while we send $1 BILLION in stimulus checks to dead people...- Heck, sometimes they just turn off the microphone of the guy asking the question!
And even the administration itself admits those jobs aren't coming back. Now, let's have a little history lesson, shall we? I love visuals. They're so easy, fast, and impacting. Let's take a visual look at the unemployment rate over the past 15 years, which includes the Republican leadership of Congress up until 2007, when Nancy Pelosi and the Dems took over:
Hm, very interesting. I think I see a trend. How's about we remember the lesson this time and simply acknowledge that Democrats cannot be entrusted with the leadership of this nation? At least, not if we want this nation to be an economic juggernaut rather than an anemic European socialist state. Our next chance to change hands is Tuesday, so don't miss it.
Of course, not every state is suffering quite so badly. Guess which state has actually created almost 120,000 private sector jobs over the past year? Texas. Why?
What does Austin know that Washington doesn’t? At its simplest: Don’t overtax and -spend, keep regulations to a minimum, avoid letting unions and trial lawyers run riot, and display an enormous neon sign saying, “Open for Business.”
Yes, it really is that simple, and it works every time. Unfortunately for us, Barack Obama and his radical Leftist Democrat Congress are doing precisely the opposite.
Over the past two years, the Obama administration and the Democrat Congress has racked up a mind-boggling $3 TRILLION in new debt. Keep in mind this is after Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress pledged to refuse any additional deficit spending in 2007. We weren't in terribly great shape before, but this is like emptying a small lake into a 5-gallon bucket and wondering why the carpet is getting wet. In fact, they're so anti-business that the Dems have even demonstrated the sheer gall to attack Reps for ***GASP!!!*** meeting with business leaders.
The fact of the matter is that liberal Democrats genuinely don't understand how to create jobs. They think it's done by government when the reality is exactly the opposite. Check out this recent debate moment from Connecticut to illustrate:
You see, this is what happens when you have the most progressive, radical Leftist government in decades. When you base your economic policy decisions on things like gender and ethnic quotas, environmentalist wacko screeching (despite all real-world evidence that this is a bad idea), and political pandering or triangulation rather than actual history and economics, it's a train wreck waiting to happen. Actually, in this case, it's a train wreck that has already happened, and we're trying to deal with the clean-up now.
One of the biggest failures of this Democrat Congress is the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Specifically, that they were set to expire at the end of this year. Everyone knew it, and Republicans were pushing hard to get those tax cuts extended or made permanent. Dozens of rank-and-file Democrats agreed with them, but unfortunately for all of us, the Democrat leadership closed up shop early and skeedaddled out of town to avoid having to vote on it. That's right, by not taking action to extend those tax cuts, the Democrats have effectively raised taxes on every American man, woman, and child who earns a paycheck.
You see, Obama's current best plan is to tax the 'rich' into making the nation whole again. Just one wee little problem - you simply cannot tax the 'rich' enough to make our economy whole. Literally. Obama's plan would require the 'rich' pay a tax rate of 134% for a decade (and ignore the vacuum that would leave in the real world functioning of the economy at the same time) to close the current deficit. It cannot be done, period. So, Obama's plan of trying to rob Peter to pay Paul isn't a viable long-term option because at some point you always run out of other people's money. The White House says that allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire is what 'every' objective economist says is the best way to get out of the hole we're in. Hm, they must have neglected to ask the several hundred economists (including a Nobel laureate), all of whom disagree on that small point, and who signed an official letter attesting that fact.
But there will be other ramifications to the Dems' economic failures, too. Kiss your free checking goodbye. Watch out for your 401k accounts. Save up your gas money. These things are all potential targets for the lame duck Congress. This bunch of radical Leftist Democrats may get thrown unceremoniously out of office by the American people, but they could very well leave with their middle fingers defiantly flying since they've got nothing left to lose. Just watch out, and remember who did this to the nation.
How will those tax increases hit you? Just get ready to have less money from each paycheck, and expect the price of darn near everything to go up. For those of us in Missouri, we can expect to see almost 14,000 jobs lost each year for the next decade and tax increases of almost $5,000 a year per household over the next decade. Go here if you want to check the numbers for yourself. This is the gift that Obama and the outgoing Democrats wrapped up nice and special for you while they're flying the coop and flipping you the bird.
And here's the final shiv to the ribs - the Tax Commission or Blue Ribbon panel, or whatever they're called. Several months ago, Obama called together a bunch of hoity-toity former politicians to 'study' our current economy and make some recommendations for what needs to happen. In a completely unamazing coincidence, they're going to issue their 'findings' shortly after the election. I'll bet you any amount of money that their recommendation will be to raise taxes in order to try to shrink the deficit and national debt (which won't work for the reasons stated above). Of course, Obama and the lame duck Dems will 'reluctantly' go along with it because it's such an urgent mission (never mind the fact that they took months to come to that conclusion), and ram it through before the new Republican-led Congress is sworn in next January. They're banking on the old guard Washington Republicans to refuse to buck the system too much and fall right into the trap, so once again it's up to us, We The People, to knock some sense into their heads and get them moving in the right direction.
Let's be real. America's primary economic problem really isn't even spending or deficits...it's the politicians. The only hope we have is to throw them out and put in new people who came from US, from the normal, every day, hard working, honest people like you and me.
This election is historic for a number of reasons. I believe we are skating on the edge of a sword blade, and at this point our nation could topple either way. If we do not bring some fiscal sanity back into this nation's leadership immediately, this nation's economic future is forfeit. We absolutely must not allow an elected representative who helped contribute to this mess to remain in office, regardless of which party he or she may be in. It's time for new blood, blood from among us rather than Washington 'elites'. Professional politicians have proven their utter unreliability, incompetence, corruption, and failures. Now it's time for We The People to get busy pulling America out of the mess they made.
Go vote on Tuesday...your economic future quite literally depends on it.
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