Obama gave a new speech today and the taxpayers got to shell out millions for yet another trip. Earlier this week, the big “O” traveled to West Point, New York to outline his strategy for the Afghan war and today, he appeared in Allentown, Pennsylvania to speak on the new unemployment figures that were released this morning. Maybe I am out of touch with reality but I remember back when sitting Presidents made important State trips infrequently and speeches to the American people, especially on policy, were issued via a special broadcast from the Oval Office.
This President has been faced with harsh criticism for his handling of nearly everything from the war in Afghanistan through healthcare and most especially, his apparent inability to take meaningful action has affected millions of displaced workers in this fragile economy. Proving his lack of experience, rather than address the issues with real solutions, he does the only thing he knows how to do….he goes back on the campaign trail. People loved him back then and he longs for that excitement again. His speeches during the campaign were moving but campaign speeches merely points a finger at the problems we all know exist; they do not however, solve any of them.
Obama’s appearances are not only becoming boring due to the sheer number of them but also add to his list of distractions as pundits lambaste the President for his out and out waste of taxpayer money. After all, wasn’t it Obama that ridiculed Wall Street executives for their use of private jets? In fact, as the bailout money began flowing from Washington, Obama proclaimed that “The party was over” for Wall Street waste and opulence. The Pentagon estimates the cost of operating the President’s Boeing 747 at roughly $100,000 per hour to shuttle our rock-star President around the nation on his four year “Feel-good” tour. That is the figure for his air travel alone and it does not include the support aircraft that bring the advance security team, the President’s car, his staff and other needed equipment to the site of his newest speech.
The White House estimates the cost of Presidential trips at between $200,000 and just under $600,000 however, that figure does not say it all. The last multiple stop trip that Bill Clinton took cost the defense department (the DOD operates the Presidential and support aircraft) roughly $50 million dollars. That was just DOD expenses for the trip which incidentally, are not factored into the White House disclosures of the cost of Presidential travel. It would seem to me that since the National Debt has just topped $12 Trillion dollars, the Budget Deficit for 2009 was $1.4 Trillion dollars and thanks to the reckless printing of money by the Federal Reserve which has cost the dollar 17% of its face value, it is high time someone told Obama that “his party is over” and it’s time for this President to “telecommute” instead of boarding a jet.
Incidentally, Obama has added $1.4 trillion dollars to the National Debt in his first year in office. That is nearly as much as Reagan added in all eight years he was in office combined and more that Bill Clinton added during his eight years in office. The only President that rivaled Obama as a “spendaholic” would be George W. Bush who added just over $1 trillion dollars to the debt during his last year in office. The major difference between George Bush and Barack Obama is that Conservative Republicans blasted Bush for his spending policies and for turning his back on conservative fiscal ideals. Democrats just can’t bring themselves to criticize one of their own even when they bring shame to the Party as Bill Clinton and Charlie Rangel have, or when their fiscal policies are destroying what is left of a fragile economy, as Barack Obama is doing now. Democrats are forever in denial where their own failings are concerned and would rather find new ways to blame Bush for what is going on rather than accept the reality that they have held both houses of Congress way too long for Bush to have done anything without their express consent.
They just don’t understand that we already knew what Bush was and we were as angry with him as we are with Obama now. Perhaps the major difference, and what should scare the hell out of Congress, is that more Americans are finally realizing Congress holds the purse of the nation. A President can ask for anything he wants but Congress has to sign the check for it and that means that Congress bears the ultimate responsibility for every penny that has been spent or wasted since this nation was formed. That is not to say that the President’s overall agenda isn’t a disaster for America; it is, but we also recognize that his agenda would remain a Marxist pipe dream if it were not for the army of progressive socialists in Congress that are willing to scrap capitalism right along with Obama and his inner circle of union thugs and radical environmentalists.
Today, President Obama was nearly giddy as he proclaimed that the unemployment rate dropped a whopping two tenths of one percent. Woo Hoo! We only lost 11,000 jobs this month. You’re kidding ….right? I don’t need to remind people that we are weeks away from Christmas and most gains in the job market right now are temporary positions to meet a short term demand for labor and even that demand is far below what is usual for this time of year. The stimulus is such an unmitigated failure that Washington rarely mentions it now. The web site that tracks the jobs “created or saved” if rife with inconsistencies if not outright fraud and it is apparent that the only created jobs this White House can claim with certainty are Obama’s three dozen Czars and Michelle Obama’s staff of twenty-two “assistants” at an annual cost to the tax payers of $1.7 million dollars. Just to place that in perspective, the first lady with the highest number of staff members after Michele Obama was Hillary Clinton and she only had three assistants. But hey, that was only Hillary and she wasn’t doing the important work for America that Michelle is doing. After all, those magazine covers and appearances on Sesame Street are critical for American pride!
The unemployment figures Obama proclaimed victory with today are as false as his sincerity and as empty as his promises of hope and transparency. Once the shortfalls from this year’s holiday shopping season are fully reported, the temporary jobs will disappear along with a number of stores that needed a strong showing this Christmas to break even for the year. Don’t forget that the rise in jobs lost since the stimulus bill became law equaled roughly 3 million jobs and that brought us from 7.6% to 10.2% unemployment. What do you suppose will happen if the healthcare bill passes and the economy loses an additional 5 million jobs as forecast by independent analysis?
I would be wary of that unemployment figure anyway. It does not reflect the real jobless quotient otherwise known as the “U-6 Index”. The U6 index is the number of people collecting unemployment benefits plus those that have been permanently displaced and have resorted to taking several part time jobs or jobs that pay substantially less that what they were making before in an effort to remain solvent. That index places the actual unemployment figure at 17.6% and that is reminiscent of the economic conditions present during the great depression. Some people are generally appreciative that Congress has once again, extended unemployment benefits to states with high unemployment rates but I suspect that this too, is a clever rouse.
Consider this….Democrats know they are in trouble in the upcoming mid-term election. If unemployment does not begin to improve by then, Democrats face sweeping losses in the House and Senate. What if the extensions of unemployment benefits are timed to expire months before the election? Having the unemployment rate fall too early would give the Republicans time to react and adjust their campaign to new issues. But what if the 2010 campaigns are focused solely on the economy and there is a miraculous improvement in the unemployment figures just before November? I suspect Congress will pass more unemployment benefit extensions to continue the money flowing to states with high unemployment until the third quarter of next year and then end the extensions claiming fiscal necessity.
Ending the extensions of benefits certainly will not help the people that collect that money but it will have a drastic effect on the unemployment figures. As vast numbers of people begin to exhaust their benefits, they are dropped from the unemployment rolls. The index that the White House reports unemployment with would begin to show huge drops in the unemployment figures not because these people suddenly found jobs, but because they are no longer eligible for benefits. Since the main stream media hates to report anything that would detract from Obama’s image, it would be months before anyone realized the scam and saw that while those that collect unemployment had dropped to 7%, the U6 had skyrocketed above 25%.
I know that sounds like a stretch but are these honorable people I am talking about? When you look at the poll figures it is clear that most people have a serious trust deficit with the Washington elite and for good reason. In fact, if I were invited to a dinner at the White House or at the Congressional Progressive Caucus, I probably wouldn’t bring my wallet or jewelry, I wouldn’t let Desiree Rogers wave me through security and I certainly wouldn’t drink anything but water from a sealed bottle.
Paul
This President has been faced with harsh criticism for his handling of nearly everything from the war in Afghanistan through healthcare and most especially, his apparent inability to take meaningful action has affected millions of displaced workers in this fragile economy. Proving his lack of experience, rather than address the issues with real solutions, he does the only thing he knows how to do….he goes back on the campaign trail. People loved him back then and he longs for that excitement again. His speeches during the campaign were moving but campaign speeches merely points a finger at the problems we all know exist; they do not however, solve any of them.
Obama’s appearances are not only becoming boring due to the sheer number of them but also add to his list of distractions as pundits lambaste the President for his out and out waste of taxpayer money. After all, wasn’t it Obama that ridiculed Wall Street executives for their use of private jets? In fact, as the bailout money began flowing from Washington, Obama proclaimed that “The party was over” for Wall Street waste and opulence. The Pentagon estimates the cost of operating the President’s Boeing 747 at roughly $100,000 per hour to shuttle our rock-star President around the nation on his four year “Feel-good” tour. That is the figure for his air travel alone and it does not include the support aircraft that bring the advance security team, the President’s car, his staff and other needed equipment to the site of his newest speech.
The White House estimates the cost of Presidential trips at between $200,000 and just under $600,000 however, that figure does not say it all. The last multiple stop trip that Bill Clinton took cost the defense department (the DOD operates the Presidential and support aircraft) roughly $50 million dollars. That was just DOD expenses for the trip which incidentally, are not factored into the White House disclosures of the cost of Presidential travel. It would seem to me that since the National Debt has just topped $12 Trillion dollars, the Budget Deficit for 2009 was $1.4 Trillion dollars and thanks to the reckless printing of money by the Federal Reserve which has cost the dollar 17% of its face value, it is high time someone told Obama that “his party is over” and it’s time for this President to “telecommute” instead of boarding a jet.
Incidentally, Obama has added $1.4 trillion dollars to the National Debt in his first year in office. That is nearly as much as Reagan added in all eight years he was in office combined and more that Bill Clinton added during his eight years in office. The only President that rivaled Obama as a “spendaholic” would be George W. Bush who added just over $1 trillion dollars to the debt during his last year in office. The major difference between George Bush and Barack Obama is that Conservative Republicans blasted Bush for his spending policies and for turning his back on conservative fiscal ideals. Democrats just can’t bring themselves to criticize one of their own even when they bring shame to the Party as Bill Clinton and Charlie Rangel have, or when their fiscal policies are destroying what is left of a fragile economy, as Barack Obama is doing now. Democrats are forever in denial where their own failings are concerned and would rather find new ways to blame Bush for what is going on rather than accept the reality that they have held both houses of Congress way too long for Bush to have done anything without their express consent.
They just don’t understand that we already knew what Bush was and we were as angry with him as we are with Obama now. Perhaps the major difference, and what should scare the hell out of Congress, is that more Americans are finally realizing Congress holds the purse of the nation. A President can ask for anything he wants but Congress has to sign the check for it and that means that Congress bears the ultimate responsibility for every penny that has been spent or wasted since this nation was formed. That is not to say that the President’s overall agenda isn’t a disaster for America; it is, but we also recognize that his agenda would remain a Marxist pipe dream if it were not for the army of progressive socialists in Congress that are willing to scrap capitalism right along with Obama and his inner circle of union thugs and radical environmentalists.
Today, President Obama was nearly giddy as he proclaimed that the unemployment rate dropped a whopping two tenths of one percent. Woo Hoo! We only lost 11,000 jobs this month. You’re kidding ….right? I don’t need to remind people that we are weeks away from Christmas and most gains in the job market right now are temporary positions to meet a short term demand for labor and even that demand is far below what is usual for this time of year. The stimulus is such an unmitigated failure that Washington rarely mentions it now. The web site that tracks the jobs “created or saved” if rife with inconsistencies if not outright fraud and it is apparent that the only created jobs this White House can claim with certainty are Obama’s three dozen Czars and Michelle Obama’s staff of twenty-two “assistants” at an annual cost to the tax payers of $1.7 million dollars. Just to place that in perspective, the first lady with the highest number of staff members after Michele Obama was Hillary Clinton and she only had three assistants. But hey, that was only Hillary and she wasn’t doing the important work for America that Michelle is doing. After all, those magazine covers and appearances on Sesame Street are critical for American pride!
The unemployment figures Obama proclaimed victory with today are as false as his sincerity and as empty as his promises of hope and transparency. Once the shortfalls from this year’s holiday shopping season are fully reported, the temporary jobs will disappear along with a number of stores that needed a strong showing this Christmas to break even for the year. Don’t forget that the rise in jobs lost since the stimulus bill became law equaled roughly 3 million jobs and that brought us from 7.6% to 10.2% unemployment. What do you suppose will happen if the healthcare bill passes and the economy loses an additional 5 million jobs as forecast by independent analysis?
I would be wary of that unemployment figure anyway. It does not reflect the real jobless quotient otherwise known as the “U-6 Index”. The U6 index is the number of people collecting unemployment benefits plus those that have been permanently displaced and have resorted to taking several part time jobs or jobs that pay substantially less that what they were making before in an effort to remain solvent. That index places the actual unemployment figure at 17.6% and that is reminiscent of the economic conditions present during the great depression. Some people are generally appreciative that Congress has once again, extended unemployment benefits to states with high unemployment rates but I suspect that this too, is a clever rouse.
Consider this….Democrats know they are in trouble in the upcoming mid-term election. If unemployment does not begin to improve by then, Democrats face sweeping losses in the House and Senate. What if the extensions of unemployment benefits are timed to expire months before the election? Having the unemployment rate fall too early would give the Republicans time to react and adjust their campaign to new issues. But what if the 2010 campaigns are focused solely on the economy and there is a miraculous improvement in the unemployment figures just before November? I suspect Congress will pass more unemployment benefit extensions to continue the money flowing to states with high unemployment until the third quarter of next year and then end the extensions claiming fiscal necessity.
Ending the extensions of benefits certainly will not help the people that collect that money but it will have a drastic effect on the unemployment figures. As vast numbers of people begin to exhaust their benefits, they are dropped from the unemployment rolls. The index that the White House reports unemployment with would begin to show huge drops in the unemployment figures not because these people suddenly found jobs, but because they are no longer eligible for benefits. Since the main stream media hates to report anything that would detract from Obama’s image, it would be months before anyone realized the scam and saw that while those that collect unemployment had dropped to 7%, the U6 had skyrocketed above 25%.
I know that sounds like a stretch but are these honorable people I am talking about? When you look at the poll figures it is clear that most people have a serious trust deficit with the Washington elite and for good reason. In fact, if I were invited to a dinner at the White House or at the Congressional Progressive Caucus, I probably wouldn’t bring my wallet or jewelry, I wouldn’t let Desiree Rogers wave me through security and I certainly wouldn’t drink anything but water from a sealed bottle.
Paul
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