Inauguration Day 2013

President Barack Obama offered an inaugural speech calling for unification of purpose regardless of political party. This is the sort of speech we all expect in an inaugural presentation. Sadly political divisions in the nation are more like chasms. He knows that there are major differences between the political parties and other groups in the country. Listen to Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity and there is affirmation of the split between the political parties.

Thus he tried to put the best face on a country that is seriously broken by geographic, religious, and racial disagreements. Never mind the breach between rich and poor or the labor unions battling the employers. When state leaders voice intentions to nullify or just plain ignore federal law and many who voice desires to succeed from the union, the president’s job will be about holding the nation together.

This may seem as all too negative. The president’s speech about one purpose was an “A” effort towards healing our differences.

Fiscal Cliff Soap Opera Episode 2 – Standby

Just like “As the World Turns,” The Fiscal Cliff is a soap opera and it’s never over. With that thought in mind a television network ought to provide daily updates with clips of the latest foolish words from the president and the congressional leaders of both parties. This is evident by the news items that the next fiscal events to be confronted are sequestration and the debt ceiling with a backdrop of over spending. However, we know that the settling of those issues will not be the end of the story. Our elected officials seem to take a delight in providing the rolls of the devious, the treacherous, and the good guys. Like a good soap opera you never know what the next installment will bring.

“We are here for you. And we will not forget. We will follow up to make sure that you get all the help you need until you’ve rebuilt,” Obama said at an afternoon news conference.

Sixty Billion Dollars was the proposed federal aid for Sandy Super storm victims. Somehow the Speaker of the House overlooked that spending bill on New Year’s day. N.J.’s governor Chris Christie went on the attack against Speaker John Boehner and the G.O.P. After hugs and hand holding with the president and now this attack is Gov. Christie about to change political parties? To me he seems more like a moderate Democrat than a Republican.

The facts:

Sequestration is $110 Billion out of a Federal budget spending plan of $3.8 Trillion. That would be 110/3800 and that equals less that 3%. The 2013 United States federal budget is the budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2013, which is October 2012–September 2013. The sequestration is scheduled to take effect March 1.
The debt limit ceiling will be reached at about the same time as the sequestration. The Federal government borrows approximately 31¢ of every dollar spent. The fiscally responsible are asking how long can America continue this borrowing pattern. I am one of them.
The political parties fight each other even when they know the other group is correct. When the speaker of the House tells the leader of the Senate “Go f*** yourself” you know the political system is in failure mode.

Fiscal Cliff – The Soap Opera Continues

McConnell, Reid point to fiscal stalemate

Tune in to the political programs on television and radio and all you hear is talk about the Fiscal Cliff. It’s been a continuing story where missing one or two episodes really means nothing.

My question is what fiscal cliff?

The U.S. government spent $3.563 Trillion in 2012. The total revenue was $2.435 Trillion. It does not take a mathematical genius to understand that the revenues will have to increase and the spending will have to decrease. Brooking Institute figures are similar to those provided by the Heritage Foundation.

The automatic spending cuts amount to $1.2 Billion in one year. That leaves spending at $3.443 Trillion assuming the budget does not increase one cent in 2013. Why the whining? That is hardly a cut.

From The Center for Public Integrity

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/12/05/11891/fact-check-facing-facts-fiscal-cliff

Some facts to consider:

The scheduled tax increases, if allowed to take effect, would net an additional $536 billion in fiscal year 2013, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, raising more than $5 trillion in 10 years. Nearly 90 percent of Americans would pay more in taxes, TPC says, with the average increase being nearly $3,500.
The automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect would cut $1.2 Trillion over 10 years, split roughly in half between domestic and military spending. That works out to $1.2 Billion a year.
A temporary payroll tax cut enacted for 2011 was extended through 2012, but is now set to expire at the end of this year.
Tax increases contained in the Affordable Care Act on upper-income taxpayers will go into effect: a 3.8 percent tax on unearned income, 0.9 percent increase in Medicare payroll taxes and a higher income threshold for deducting medical expenses.
The Alternative Minimum Tax, which was designed to make sure wealthy Americans pay a minimum tax, was never indexed to inflation on a permanent basis.

If all that happened, taxes would increase an average of $3,466 per household, according to the TPC. Middle-income households — those earning nearly $40,000 to about $64,500 a year — would see an average increase of $1,984. Is this going to stop all spending? NO!

Once again it’s the whining. It is the result of this thinking. You can cut anywhere you want just don’t impact me.

Consider these four likely impacts listed by The Week magazine.

– Higher cost of lattes because a dairy subsidy will lapse. It appears we have had a dairy subsidy for about 30 years. Starbuck’s will suffer (maybe). Who knew?

– The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will be laying off thousands of screeners at the airports. That will result in less screening. It is a wasteful program that has never caught a single terrorist.

– If a deal isn’t reached, and the economy creeps back toward recession, demand for fuel will fall (because presumably, Americans won’t have money to go anywhere), slashing gas prices. That is a good thing!

– According to Money Morning, during the debt-ceiling crisis last year, there was a 30 percent increase in the price of gold — a cost-climb we are likely to see again should the latest negotiations fail. Another good thing for all of us that bought gold!

Tough choices are part of life.

Democrats Have the Upper Hand

Tonight John Boehner, Speaker of the House, was unable to obtain a vote in favor of his “Plan B” to avoid the fiscal cliff. This is surprising to me as the only people who would experience a raise in their marginal tax rates would be those with annual taxable incomes of over $1 million.

So Mr. Boehner confirmed to everyone that he does not speak for the Republican Party caucus when it comes to tax and budget legislation. This leaves one slim chance for the Democrats to prevent falling of the cliff. To accomplish this will require some Republican congressmen along with some Democratic congressmen that would result in a majority. It is the opportunity for the President to push through legislation that would be more favorable to him with some compromise.

This can only happen with GOP participation. That is the big “IF.” The consequence of failure will be some sad days in January.

There is one thing we know. This entire situation was caused by our broken political system. Not just American but the rest of the world is wondering, what has happened to the United States?

Gloat

Why are Democratic pundits gloating over the election results? Barack Obama did not win by an overwhelming majority.

The final results from the presidential election are impressive when looking at the Electoral College (332 to 206) but not so impressive when looking at the popular vote (65,258,278 or 50.9% to 60,658,920 or 47.3%). Thus .9% gave the president a win. Hardly a landslide.

Despite that narrow victory Democratic pundits are gleefully hashing out the mistakes made by Mitt Romney and his campaign election team as if they were utterly incompetent.

Wikipedia lists these landslide victories among the popular vote. These were wins worth gloating over.

26.2% : Warren Harding‘s 60.3% to James M. Cox‘s 34.1% in the 1920 presidential election
25.2% : Calvin Coolidge‘s 54.0% to John W. Davis‘s 28.8% in the 1924 presidential election
24.3% : Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s 60.8% to Alf Landon‘s 36.5% in the 1936 presidential election
23.2% : Richard Nixon‘s 60.7% to George McGovern‘s 37.5% in the 1972 presidential election
22.6% : Lyndon Johnson‘s 61.1% to Barry Goldwater‘s 38.5% in the 1964 presidential election

So while I disagreed with Mitt Romney’s opinions on women’s rights (from pay to abortion and contraception), his lack of concern for 47% of the population, his solution to illegal immigration (self deport), and his confrontational views in foreign policy; almost half of all Americans gave him their vote.

Mr. President stop gloating. You do not have a mandate.

35 Days to Fiscal Cliff Hell

Some of this posting is based upon an article titled, “Fiscal Cliff Could Cost America 277K Jobs in January” posted on this website.

While addressing the House Financial Services Committee in February of this year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke coined the term “fiscal cliff,” describing, “a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases” scheduled to occur on January 1, 2013.

Just a few days ago President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and minority leaders were all talking as if an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff was a realistic possibility.

Today’s news reports are that little progress has been made.

Should Congress fail to act, allowing the tax cuts to expire and budget cuts to take effect, the results could be drastic, increasing the annual federal tax burden on the average family of four by about $2,200, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The major components of the fiscal cliff are the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts, federal unemployment benefits, and social security payroll tax cuts, on top of automatically triggered spending cuts associated with the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Cuts associated with the Budget Control Act could result in the loss of 277,000 federal jobs, according to a report from the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis. The report assesses the impact the Budget Control Act would have on all agencies subject to cutbacks including Agriculture, Commerce, Education, EPA, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, State, NASA, Transportation and Interior. While the cuts would only reduce federal spending from 22.9% of GDP to 22.4% of GDP, according to the CBO, they would cause significant job losses for federal health inspectors, Federal Aviation Administration workers, and FBI agents.

The president does not appear to be willing to write a piece of proposed legislation to avert going over the fiscal cliff. This was my complaint about his management style throughout his first term. It was no Barack Obama who wrote the Affordable Care Act. It was members of the Democratic Party leadership in the houses of Congress.

If the sequestration occurs both political parties deserve blame. The president should not be campaigning as he did during much of his first term. He should be negotiating with congress. His failure to bring this self inflicted event to a satisfactory conclusion will dog his next four year term.

Abraham Lincoln and the Never Ending Civil War

Perhaps the title of this post should be “Is this the and of the United States?”

The American Civil War, also called War Between the States , fratricidal four-year war (1861–65) between the federal government of the United States and 11 Southern states that asserted their right to secede from the Union. The war ended 147 years ago.

After all of these years since the end of the Civil War the South is still re-fighting every battle and every event connected with the confederacy. Steven Spielberg’s new movie simply titled Lincoln says we have not gotten over the war or the events that led up to the war.

The new Steven Spielberg movie is based upon the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It’s an enthralling book. Even someone who is not particularly interested in reading history books will find this biography a compelling read.

The troubling part of this story is that citizens of all 50 states have submitted petitions to secede from the United States and that happened just this year. Seven southern state petitions have collected significant number of signatures. The leading is Texas with over 101,000. Major numbers of petition signers are residence of Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Happily Anti-Secession Petitions are Gaining Clicks, Too! The thought is that those wanting to secede should be stripped of their citizenship and deported. I would agree with that thought. Perhaps Mexico will take them.

Palestinian will hate Israelis Forever

A letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Daily News

Israel Defends Itself

Most of us were brought up to defend ourselves when someone threatens us. Israel is no different. This mighty country is surrounded by countries wanting to wipe it off the map. This will never happen. In the Six-Day War, Israel went to war and won. They won the war and the land. To keep peace, they gave back land that was rightfully theirs. It didn’t work. They’ve been attacked by hundreds of rockets aimed at the country by militants in the Gaza Strip. Israel needs to enter Gaza and seek out the missile installations and put them out of commission. Their enemies will try to supply them with
more weapons, but in the meantime, there will be peace. And maybe, just maybe, it will stick. One can only hope.

Ron Sellz, Chatsworth, California

Let’s be clear. The fight between Arabs and Israelis is not easily resolved. Each group has valid arguments supporting their positions and objectives. The battle of Israelis goes back to the years before there was a State of Israel. This small country is only the size of New Jersey. It was created from what was a British Mandate authorized after World War 1. The Arabs hate the idea of a Jewish State that was agreed to by the United Nations.

Without going through all the wars that Israel has fought, that country is still hated by its Arab neighbors and has been confronted by terrorists who have only one objective; destroy Israel at any cost and drive its citizens into the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, who has lived in exile in Syria, said today, “Get out of our land.” Another spokesperson said Zionists cannot control even one inch of Palestinian land. The objective of Hamas is the total destruction of Israel.

My question: How can you negotiate with an enemy who retains its objective of total destruction of your country? The answer is, You can’t. The negotiated truce is just a temporary situation. Hamas still maintains its objective.

I do not see a solution to the Israel Palestinian confrontation ever!

David Bancroft

Soap Opera Government

What a wonderful way to distract the public from the issues that really matter. Most likely a series of worthless congressional hearings followed by more new regulations.

If ever there was a real soap opera it’s the events now surrounding David Petraeus. Now involved is General John Allen, Congressman Eric Cantor, Paula Broadwell, Jill Kelly, unnamed FBI agent, Holly Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and President Barack Obama.

The sequence of events as reported by blaze.com. This really could be made into a soap opera.

Spring 2012:

FBI starts investigation, intercepting Petraeus’ emails and reviewing older emails going back to his time in Afghanistan, where he was commander of U.S. Forces from July 2010 to July 2011 (Newsmax, Nov. 9).

Week of October 21:

Federal investigators interview Broadwell. (Reuters, Nov. 11).

Oct. 26:

Broadwell delivers speech at University of Denver, discussing details about how Petraeus handled the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and revealing possibly classified information about alleged Libyan militia members being held prisoner at that consulate and that situation may have been a potential catalyst for the attack (Fox News, Nov. 12).

Glenn Beck predicts that David Petraeus would take the blame on Libya: “Who have they tried to sell down the river every step of the way? The intelligence,” Glenn said. “You watch. Petraeus is going to be the fall guy. They’re going to have him step down. They’re going to point all fingers to him.” (TheBlaze TV, Oct. 26)

Week of October 28:

Federal investigators interview Petraeus. Prosecutors conclude afterward they likely will not bring criminal charges. (Reuters, Nov. 11)

Oct. 31:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office contacts FBI to inform them about information from an FBI whistle blower who told Cantor (R-Va.) in late October that Petraeus had been involved in an extramarital affair and was potentially putting national security at risk (New York Times, Nov. 10, 2012).

Nov. 6 (Election Day):

At about 5 p.m.: the FBI notifies Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who oversees the CIA and other intelligence agencies, about Petraeus. Clapper speaks to Petraeus that evening and again Wednesday and advises him to step down (Reuters, Nov. 11).

Nov. 7:

Clapper informs White House National Security Council official that Petraeus may resign and President Barack Obama should be informed. The president is told about it later that day (Reuters, Nov. 11).

Nov. 8:

At 11 a.m. A Petraeus meeting with foreign dignitaries scheduled for 2:30 p.m. is canceled and his visitors are informed he has to go to the White House to meet with Obama. Petraeus meets with Obama at the White House and offers his resignation, explaining the circumstances behind it. Obama did not immediately accept the resignation (Reuters, Nov. 11).

Nov. 9:

In a statement to CIA employees Friday, Petraeus said he submitted his resignation to President Barack Obama on Thursday and Obama accepted it Friday afternoon (CIA).

Fox News reported the affair was with his biographer and was discovered during the course of an FBI investigation on an “unrelated and much broader case.” According to Fox, journalist and biographer Paula Broadwell’s name came up during the investigation, which led to uncovering the affair (Fox News, Nov. 9).

Fox News analyst Ralph Peters, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, speculates that Obama administration knew of the affair and waited for the right moment to “play the card” (Fox News, Nov. 9)

Nov. 11:

A senior U.S. military official says Broadwell sent harassing emails to a woman who was the State Department’s liaison to the military’s Joint Special Operations Command. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, says 37-year-old Jill Kelley in Tampa, Fla., received the emails from Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell that triggered an FBI investigation. (TheBlaze/AP).

Nov. 13:

To be continued. Tune into to your local newspaper, favorite web site, or television station for the latest episode.