Obama’s Imaginary Senate Recess

Yesterday, Barack Obama engaged in one of the most unprecedented assaults on the Constitution.  He appointed Richard Cordray as the first chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and named three new members to the National Labor Relations Board, even though the Senate did not approve them and is not in recess.  Obama employed absurd casuistry to suggest that the Senate has in fact been in recess for weeks:

Here are the facts:  The Constitution gives the President the authority to make temporary recess appointments to fill vacant positions when the Senate is in recess, a power all recent Presidents have exercised.  The Senate has effectively been in recess for weeks, and is expected to remain in recess for weeks.  In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called “pro forma” sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds.  But gimmicks do not override the President’s constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running.  Legal experts agree.  In fact, the lawyers who advised President Bush on recess appointments wrote that the Senate cannot use sham “pro forma” sessions to prevent the President from exercising a constitutional power.

You might have been at the golf course on December 23, Mr. President, but here are the real facts.  On that day, during a “gimmicky” pro forma session, the House and Senate passed a sweeping tax extenders bill, which granted tax cuts to almost every worker, unemployment benefits to millions of the jobless, and reimbursement payments to hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers.  That is much more consequential than a few agency appointments.  If Congress can do all that during a “recess,” they certainly have the ability to advise and consent on a handful of executive branch nominations.

And if a pro forma session is indeed considered a recess, can we now vitiate the ridiculous two-month extenders package?  What if Congress would send you another stimulus bill to sign during a “gimmick” pro-forma session; would you reject it?  As you know, Mr. President, many consequential things can occur during those few “seconds.”

Update: House Democrats seem to disagree with Obama.  They held a press conference calling on Republicans to come back to Washington and join them in working on the conference committee for the extenders package.  That’s some recess going on there.

What Does $40,000 Mean to You?

Obama's pathetic $40 Social security tax cut is nothing compared to his $40,000 debt increase


Obama has been running around all day making a fool of himself as he promotes his $40 Social Security tax cut.  Yes, the tax plan that will create a new class warfare Social Security Taxable Wage limit in order to accommodate his totally unworkable two-month extension.  Obama has even set up a new web page asking people “what $40 per paycheck would mean to you.”

Republicans should respond by setting up a web page asking every taxpayer to explain how a $40,000 increase in their share of debt will affect their finances and those of their grandchildren.

You see, while the media has been focusing on Obama’s two-month Social Security tax cut, they have ignored another big story.  Our national debt has surpassed 100% of GDP.  With Q3 GDP revised downward, our economy now stands at $15.081 trillion.  Our total federal debt is over $15.14 trillion.

How much of that debt is Obama responsible for?

When Obama took office, the total federal debt stood at $10.6 trillion.  Obama’s share of the debt increase is roughly $4.5 trillion.  There are approximately $112.7 million taxpayers.  That means that the individual share of the Obama debt is about $40,000.

So while Obama is bragging about his $40 tax cut, he is obfuscating the fact that he is increasing more entitlement spending along with the package.  This will only increase the $40,000 share of debt for every taxpayer.

We know that $40,000 is not much for the commander-in-chief of all class warfare, but what does it mean for you?

GOP Must Block Maria del Carmen Aponte from Becoming Ambassador to El Salvador

What is worse than an Obama radical czar?  An ambassador to a sensitive South American country that had an affair with a Cuban spy.

Last August, stymied by Jim DeMint’s Senate hold, Obama used a recess appointment to name Maria del Carmen Aponte ambassador to El Salvador.  She was originally selected as ambassador to the Domincan Republic during the Clinton administration, but she withdrew her name after refusing to take a polygraph test concerning her relationship with Cuban spy, Roberto Tamayo.  Nonetheless, radical rejects of the Clinton administration are the very people whom Obama loves to recycle.  Aponte’s recess appointment expires at the end of the year, and the Senate may vote on her permanent appointment as early as Monday afternoon.

While everyone is focused on the Middle East, few people are focusing on one of the most serious threats that hearkens all the way back to the Monroe Doctrine.  There is a disturbing trend, known as the “Pink Tide”, of radical socialist tin-pot dictators obtaining power throughout Latin America and aligning themselves with Chavez and Castro.  Many of these countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, have already joined Venezuela in an unholy alliance against Iran.  They are also strengthening ties with Iran.

There are many smaller developing nations in the region that have fallen to the Pink Tide, and El Salvador is one of them.  We need to engage these countries from a position of strength and lure them away from their alliance with Chavez and his Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the newly formed Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).  It goes without saying that those who are vested with such diplomatic power should not side with our enemies.  Then again, the commander-in-chief sides with the Pink Tide anyway.

Call your senators and urge them to vote no on Maria del Carmen Aponte.

Reagan's Recovery vs. Obama's "Recovery"

The media is truncating the latest GDP report, which shows a mild improvement in economic growth.  Aside for the fact that the internal numbers of the report aren't nearly as promising as the top-line 2.5% figure, the historical context of such a lackluster recovery is jarring.  Compare our current economic recovery to the same time period following the 1981 recession during Regan's presidency:

 (Courtesy of Market Watch)

Indeed!

Obama at UN: Arabs Build Bombs; Israelis Build Homes -It’s all the Same

Not surprisingly, Obama doubled down on his message of moral equivalence between Israel and the so-called Palestinians in his UN General Assembly speech.  Yes, he tossed out some politically motivated bromides about our deep friendship with Israel, but overall, he continued to view the two sides equally.

Obama’s overarching theme was that peace in the Middle East is “so hard” to achieve.  He asserted that there will be no peace unless “each side learns to stand in each other’s shoes,” and they “sit down together, to listen to each other, and to understand each other’s hopes and fears.”  As he uttered these puerile platitudes, I was attempting to conjure up an image of such a conversation.  It would go something like this:

Hamas/Fatah guy: “I fear those Jews and their settlements with every fiber of my being.  There will be no Jews living in our state, nor will they live in the remaining parts of Israel, once we inevitably destroy them.  Oh, how I hope all those homes will be within missile range.  Oh, how I regret that I have but one body to blow up for my religion.”

Israeli:  “Oh, how I fear for my children, while missiles fly over their schools.  Oh, how I hope there comes a day when Palestinians will love their children more than they hate us; when they will allow Jews to live peacefully and prosperously in “their” land, as they do in ours.”

The Simple Math of Obama's Ponzi Scheme

Well, 32 months into his presidency, Obama has finally released his jobs and deficit reduction plans.  Surprisingly, he is not attempting to obfuscate his true motivation this time.  As Obama said yesterday, it is “simple math.”

It’s $1.57 trillion in comprehensive tax hikes + $1.08 trillion in non-existent war spending + $430 billion in phantom savings on interest payments + $320 billion in savings from cuts to healthcare providers (the inevitable sequestration will already cut DocFix), throwing granny off the cliff with tighter rules from the death panel, and a magical willingness to cut waste and fraud + $250 billion in other mandatory savings, most of which will never materialize – the $447 billion stimulus 2.0 = $3.2 trillion.

OK, simple enough; however, there is one important detail of the ‘Obamaian formula’ that has not been advertised.  As part of the Stimulus half of the plan, Obama will cut payroll tax revenues by $240 billion, or 36%, of the entire annual revenue (projected at $685 billion) of the so-called Social Security trust fund.   Where is that money going to come from?  How will they fill the SS shortfall, which is already projected to be $50 billion?

You guessed it: general fund revenues.

Obama’s Fuzzy Stimulus Math

Obama proposes 36% cut to Social Security revenue

Let’s forget the fact that Obama’s entire Stimulus 10.0 is a counterintuitive proposal that doubles down on the very failures that precipitated this speech.  Let’s also disregard the fact that enshrining unemployment insurance as a permanent handout will perpetuate unemployment.  And more union-induced, short-term money drops on infrastructure will do nothing but stimulate traffic jams.  Let’s focus purely on the very numbers that the administration has offered –numbers that would undoubtedly be revised upward, if the plan is passed.

Total package – $447 billion


- 50% payroll tax cut for every employee, dropping the rate from 6.2% to 3.1%= $175 billion
-Obama also proposed cutting the employer payroll tax in half on the first $5 million of a firm’s payroll in 2012. About 98% of firms have payrolls of $5 million or less.= $70 billion
-National infrastructure bank = $10 billion
- Pork project handouts to unions for roads, rails and bridges= $50 billion
-An unprecedented extension of unemployment insurance benefits to be extended for another year, beyond the 99 weeks= $62 billion.
-Handouts to public school teacher unions, even though we already spend more per capita on education than any other country=$35 billion
-Refurbishing schools, a responsibility of local government=$25 billion
-Handouts to community colleges=$5 billion
-Rehabilitate vacant property=$15 billion


Despite the steep cost, Obama claims that it will all be paid for.  How will he pay for it?

Obama Makes the Case for State Control of Surface Transportation

Abolishing the federal gas tax will spawn real innovation in road construction.
Earlier today, Barack Obama decried the gridlock that has prevented Congress from passing a long-term surface transportation bill (highway bill) as unacceptable and inexcusable.  He also asserted that we must formulate a policy in which funding would be directed to those districts that need it the most, instead of politically motivated pork, such as the bridge to nowhere (which he supported in the Senate).  Well, unknowingly, Obama has made a strong case for transferring surface transportation funding, and its accompanying revenue source; the gasoline tax, back to the states.

The Highway Trust Fund was established in 1956 to fund the Interstate Highway System.  The fund, which is administered by the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration, has been purveyed by the federal gasoline tax, which now stands at 18.4 cents per gallon (24.4 for diesel fuel).  Beginning in 1983, Congress began siphoning off some of the gas tax revenue for the great liberal sacred cow; the urban mass transit system.  Today, mass transit receives $10.2 billion in annual appropriations.  Additionally, funding is misallocated for all sorts of local pork projects, such as bike paths and roadside flowers.

This inevitable cycle of federal government mission creep has led to the depletion of the Highway Trust Fund in recent years.  Much like the so-called Social Security Trust Fund, Congress is forced to fund its assortment of profligate and superfluous transportation projects with general fund revenues because gasoline tax revenues are insufficient.  In 2008, the trust fund was completely depleted, impelling Congress to replenish the fund with an additional $35 billion over the past few years.

OK, Obama, Repeal the Entire Payroll Tax..But Save Social Security

After Labor Day, Obama plans to unveil his highly unanticipated jobs plan.  Much like his first jobs plan, this one will include massive stimulus handouts to special interests, prodigal infrastructure spending (as much as $556 billion), unprecedented extensions of unemployment benefits, and more welfare transfer payments.  Concurrently, he will inveigh against "rich" job creators and offer a healthy dose of vapid rhetoric regarding regulatory reform.  However, there will be something new – something more appealing to the skeptical electorate; extending the one-year cut in payroll taxes.

Obama intuitively knows that his failed Keynesian policies have been checkmated, and will no longer resonate with the public.  Accordingly, he plans to one-up Republicans in their own playbook, by offering a tax cut.  He will request that Congress renew the payroll tax cut for another year, keeping the employee's share of the tax at 4.2%.

While conservatives support any and every tax cut they can achieve, Obama knows that they are tepid regarding the payroll tax holiday.  Unlike most other broad-based, universal taxes, the payroll tax is used to fund a specific expenditure, and perhaps, the most important one – Social Security.  As Congressman Jeb Hensarling observes, “not all tax relief is created equal.” If we fail to collect such a whopping sum of the tax that purveys the trust fund, won't we bankrupt Social Security even further?  At a time when Social Security Disability Insurance is already running dry, Obama plans to bankrupt the old age trust fund by another $120 billion.

Oh, whoops, I forgot; there is no trust fund.  It has been run like a Ponzi scheme all along.

Perry vs. Obama at Age 22

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Chart of the Day

Anyone who thinks that Obama is a shoo-in for reelection is woefully uninformed and incorrigibly naive.

GOP Must Hold the Line Against Obama’s ATM Politics With Free Trade

Obama imposing his bad luck on job creation and economic growth 

As Obama travels through America’s heartland on his teleprompter tours bus, he is touting a new plan to create jobs.  While he has offered few specifics thus far, Obama is calling for the ratification of the free trade agreements (FTAs) with Columbia, Panama, and South Korea as vehicles for job creation.  The rest of his jobs (killing) plan will be released at some later date, possibly at the time when Huntsman releases his proposal.

This newfound support for free enterprise is quite perplexing, given that he has held the FTAs hostage for a pet welfare program, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), since the day he became president.
Democrats, at the behest of their Big Labor puppet masters, have held up the FTAs with three allied nations for over four years.  Now, amidst growing pressure to create jobs and keep up with other allied nations like Canada, Obama is willing to send the trade pacts to Congress on condition that they reauthorize the TAA.  The TAA is a subsidy program created in 1962, which arbitrarily rewards job training, relocation allowances, loans, grants, and unemployment pay to workers who supposedly lost jobs from FTAs.

So Obama is holding up a free market policy, which he readily admits will create jobs, for a program that indiscriminately throws money at obsolete jobs of special interests that are dubiously connected to FTAs.  What a jobs plan, Mr. President.

What Does an Obama Recovery Look Like?

For all you policy wonks, the Wall Street Journal has a great interactive chart of metrics detailing the worse recover in American history.

So how's that $4.6 trillion in Stimulus working our for you?  This is another quintessential example of how interventionist policies exacerbate and elongate economic misery.  Sadly, we are all forced to be the guinea pigs for such failed experiments.  One would think that the millions who suffered in the gratuitously long depression of the 30's would have sufficed to prove the vices of Keynesian economics.  We now know that they will never learn.

Nothing Evinces Hypocrisy More than Obama's Oil Policy

President Obama has asserted ad nauseam that expanding oil drilling would not affect the price of oil and generate price relief at the gas pump.  He has scoffed at the 'drill, baby, drill' plan, denouncing it as insufficient in dealing with our "long-term" energy needs.  Now that his reelection prospects are beginning to wither, Obama is undergoing a foxhole conversion and easing his aversion to that "addictive" black substance.  Or, so it seems.

Last Thursday, after several weeks of steady decline in the price of oil, and following secret meetings with the Saudis, Obama had an epiphany.  Did he suddenly accede to calls for expediting drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska?  Did he agree to lift the permitorium on drilling in 97% of the Outer Continental Shelf?  Not a chance.  Instead, his Energy Secretary announced the release of 30 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), in conjunction with a 30-million-barrel release from other countries within the International Energy Agency (IEA).  The total release will be 60 million barrels, proceeding at a rate of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) for a month.

The administration cited the loss of 1.5 million bpd from cessation of production in Libya as rationale for this unprecedented move.  The problem is that the Libyan disruption occurred four months ago, inducing a sharp spike in the price of oil at the time.  Obama categorically rejected the idea of tapping the SPR to mitigate the upward trajectory in oil prices, even as the price of gasoline soared over the dreaded $4 mark.  Now that gas prices have declined over 40 cents and are trending down, due in part to the end of QE2, Obama decided that we are in an energy crisis to the degree that it warrants a release of the SPR!

While the steady drop in oil prices should clearly preclude any justification for the release, Obama felt that the precipitous drop in his approval ratings is tantamount to a national emergency.  What he lacks in perspicacity of judgment regarding economics, he compensates with cognizance of polling reports.

An Early Morning Laugh from the One

"If you were looking for a bunch of partisan rhetoric, I'm probably not your guy." -President Obama at a fundraiser in Florida (HT RCP Politics for video)

Compare that to this clip of Obama during the '08 campaign.

 This man's teleprompter says the darndest things.  Then again, three years of utter repudiation of ones policies can take the fight out of a man.

Obama Lied, AIPAC Died

AIPAC and other pro-Israel Democrats are at a crossroads.

At the AIPAC conference on Sunday, Obama continued to propagate his lies and ignorance regarding the history of U.S. foreign policy towards Israel.  Undaunted by recent criticism, Obama doubled down on his demand that Israel return to indefensible borders by creating a contiguous Palestinian state.  As such, he continued to display his ignorance of the geographical reality that a contiguous Hamas-Fatah state bordering Jordan and Egypt, as stipulated in both speeches, means a noncontiguous Israel.  I guess he can see a Palestinian state (and unicorns) from the White House.

He also regurgitated his cloddish platitude that Hamas must "accept the basic responsibilities of peace."  I could only imagine FDR declaring that the Nazis must change their ways and accept responsibility for peace.  Moreover, Obama's teleprompter continued to lie about the dangers of the "Arab Spring", especially in Egypt, to Israel's (and America's) security.  He even castigated them by saying, "If there is a controversy, then, it’s not based in substance."  Concurrently, he made sure to mention the names of his token liberal Jews like Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz so that everything would appear kosher.  It was also helpful that Imam Magid, an unindicted co-conspirator with Hamas, wasn't in attendance this time, as he was last Thursday.

As vacuous as Obama's intellect really is, he is not that ignorant of geography, nor is he credulous enough to believe that Hamas will put away its jihadi toys some day and accept Israel.  He knows exactly what his Palestinian fantasy will bring forth; he knows precisely how Israel will appear on a map with a contiguous terror state that borders Egypt and Jordan.  Nonetheless, his speech was warmly received (at least from AIPAC's leaders, if not some grassroots activists).  After all, AIPAC's leader, former Obama adviser and prolific fundraiser Lee Rosenberg, admonished them to behave.

Unfortunately, AIPAC has been run by hard-core Democrats for years.  Recently, as support for Israel among Democrats has taken a nosedive, AIPAC leaders have taken it upon themselves to ensconce this inconvenient truth by providing cover for Democrats.  It's time for AIPAC to confront the inconvenience and reveal that it is the moral and intellectual clarity of conservatism-the very ideology that they reject-that will save Israel.  Republicans should also blow the cover off the notion of bi-partisan support for Israel and expose the duplicity of AIPAC and the Democrats by proposing tough anti-PLO/Hamas legislation.

Zingers and Musings of a Crazy Week

-Obama's domestic stimulus failed so badly in creating job, so he is taking his circus show on the road.  He is proposing job stimulus for Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the Al-Qaeda backed rebels in Libya.  Talk about Keynesian economics!

- Obama doesn't care if we crack the debt ceiling.  He just wants to ensure that Egypt doesn't breach their debt ceiling.  Consequently, he has agreed to forgive $1 billion in debt.  If only China would be so charitable!

- There are no more homes left to foreclose upon, so Obama is going to kick Israel out of their land and foreclose on their homes.  Who will buy up the mortgages?  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, of course!

-For all of those who were apprehensive about the Patriot Act, fear not.  Obama has instructed his Housing Czar to divert all satellite surveillance technology to Israel so he can monitor housing construction.  He will also instruct his Labor and Health Czars to certify that the construction workers receive health insurance and are paid minimum wage.

- Obama has done such a good job securing our borders from the 12 million illegal aliens that he is teaching Israel the ropes about border security.  And, no alligators allowed.  Some have suggested that Netanyahu should tell Obama to recede to the 1848 borders and cede the Southwest to Mexico.  Given Obama's track record, I'm worried that he will take him up on the challenge.  After all, he will have a chance to rid himself of his biggest enemy states; Arizona and Texas!  I'm wondering if Obama is aware of Israel's 967 B.C. borders?  That would really teach Bashar Assad a lesson.  Then again, Obama thinks he is too big to fail.

- Obama threatened Syrian President Bashar Assad that if he doesn't shape up, he will really regret it.  Obama will really stick it to him by....forcing Israel to hand him the Golan Heights!

Obama's Oil Drilling Subterfuge

We've been here before.

Many liberals in the media are expressing shock over Obama's apparent willingness to increase oil production.  We all know that he is full of ..., I mean ethanol, and they do too.

Those of you who were befuddled at the news that Obama will 'expand drilling' in Alaska are not missing anything.  Obama has pulled this political chicanery a number of times.  Whenever a specific proposal that he so adamantly opposes becomes too popular to ignore, he announces his support for it by promising to implement inconsequential reforms.  To that end, he declared during his Saturday radio address that he is "directing the Department of Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic".

So we are to believe that the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and ANWR, all of which are impounded from drilling leases by the administration, are more sensitive than Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve?  Caribou, baby, Caribou in ANWR; drill, baby, drill in ANPR?  Think again.

Here is the report from The Hill:

Joe Walsh’s Smackdown of Obama on Immigration

It's better alligators than Hollywood celebrities.



Like no other president in American history, President Obama supports the domineering use of government over every facet of our lives.  Yet, when it comes to one of the few core functions of government, like border security and the regulation of immigration, he is suddenly tepid about asserting power.  Worse, he uses the power of executive agencies to disregard and subvert immigration laws that were duly passed by Congress.  Now he is denigrating those who suffer from gang violence along the border and those who seek to fulfill our core constitutional responsibilities.

Earlier this week, Obama thought that he would interject his “White House Correspondents’ Dinner level of intellect” into our national security, by accusing Republicans of desiring an alligator-filled moat along the southern border.  Today, Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL) offered a superlative smackdown of Obama’s immigration speech in El Paso through an open letter to the President:

Strike Back at Obama and O'Malley-Sign Petition Against Tuition for Illegals

Earlier today, both President Obama and Governor O'Malley launched an assault on the very essence of our nation; our immigration system.  Obama called for full blown amnesty, even though he has already granted defacto amnesty through administrative fiat.  Governor O'Malley, seeking to take advantage of the media surrounding Obama's immigration speech, signed the the bill granting in-state tuition for illegals in Maryland.

Such disregard for our borders and sovereignty is inexcusable.  This is an issue that should resonate even with supporters of big government.  A nation without border is not a nation at all.  Please show Obama and O'Malley that we will not tolerate their repudiation of our fundamental laws.

Volunteer to circulate the petition

Sign your name electronically.

Remember to sign your name exactly as its written on you voter registration card.  Also, you must print the bill on the back of each petition.