Tag: Obama

The most divisive president in U.S. History.

The Obama Strategy: Little White Lies, Bald-Faced Lies, and Statistics

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

ObamalyingIf you are like me, you grew up hearing that there are 3 types of lies in this world. Hence the title of today’s blog.

Little White Lies: I have always believed that these are “plain, old” lies, like those told in the heat of the moment to protect yourself when you are caught red-handed or, you can’t think of anything else to buttress your argument.  I have been trying to think of some examples of just a plain, old lie.

I suppose that a good example of a lie would be : “Sarah Palin said ‘I can see Russia from my house.”

That was, unfortunately, a pretty effective lie. It was actually, now irrelevant, comedienne Tina Fey, of  Saturday Night Live and 30 rock mediocre fame, who uttered those words, during a SNL Skit. I say former, because her attempts at being a movie star have both bombed bigger than Hiroshima. Payback’s a …well…you know.

Ms. Fey’s impersonation was grabbed by the Democratic Party, and all of its minions, and used to further their meme that Gov. Palin was nothing by a stupid Alaskan Snowbilly.

Of course, informed Americans know that the Left’s stereotype of the Arctic Fox is about as far from the truth as Michael Moore is from the Jenny Craig Diet Plan. Unfortunately though,  low information voters (You know…pookie and ‘dem) lapped the false meme up like a kitten laps up a bowl of milk, thanks to the 24/7 barrage of propaganda supplied by the Main Stream Media, and Vichy Republicans, who did not like her because she was an outsider from Flyover Country. It never mattered that she ran the largest state in the nation, and actually ran it in the black. Oh, no. That information was never emphasized by Obama’s Propaganda Platoon: the Main Stream Media, Organizing for Obama,and Hollyweird.

This little lie, as they always do, led to bigger lies, once Obama ascended to the Throne of the Regime.

Bald-faced lies: These are lies, which a professional prevaricator, like Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) can speak without blinking an eye, while smiling at the camera with all the warmth and sincerity of Robert Young in Father Knows Best. (Look it up, kids)

Here are some of the lies which The Lightbringer and his Administrative Angels have laid on us:

If the Supreme Court throws out the federal health care law, it “would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”

“For the first time since 1990, American manufacturers are creating new jobs.”“Preventive care … saves money, for families, for businesses, for government, for everybody.”

“Thirty million Americans, including a lot of people in Florida, are going to be able to get healthcare next year because of that law.”

Obama- “I made a bunch of these promises during the campaign. … We’ve got about 60 percent done in three years.”

Obama Admin.- Under President Barack Obama, the United States has “doubled our exports.”

The president’s proposed budget “will help reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade to the lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower was president.”

About the Sequester:

“If the sequester hits, federal prosecutors will have to “let criminals go.”

“Federally assisted programs like Meals on Wheels would be able to serve 4 million fewer meals to seniors.”

“There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips” because of sequestration.

“70,000 young children would be kicked off Head Start” –

“Up to 70,000 children would lose access to Head Start and early Head Start services.”

Statistics: Back during the Clinton Administration, Bubba never made a decision without checking the poll numbers on the subject beforehand. During Obama’s First and now, Second Terms, the Pollsters are blatantly weighting their poll samples, both ideologically and geographically,  to make sure they reflect the results that this Administration, the Democratic Party, and their puppet masters, like Mr. Soros, want to hear.

For example, “gay marriage”. If you looked at all the Polls, and listen to all of the Liberal Talking Heads on the cable news channels discussing them, you would think that America is 99.98% behind LeRoy and Festus gettin’ hitched. However, when you take a look at a map showing the results of state referendums on the subject, you see that while 9 Northern States approved it, 30 other states stood firmly against changing the definition of marriage, refusing to treat a sexual preference as a civil right.

Polls are one of the ways in which Liberals and reality travel on two divergent paths.  Too much weed during their wonder years is another reason, but, that’s a subject for another blog.

Because low information voters tend to believe every poll they see, and they do not take the time to look at the sampling, polls are a very effective tool with which to sway the uninformed masses.

So, there you have it. A political strategy to radically change American values and culture, through a propaganda campaign of lies, one more outrageous than the last, spoken and spread, until citizens believe them to be the truth.

Wow. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? What was that guy’s name? You know…the one with the funny mustache.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Of Palm Sunday and Two Very Different Entries Into Jerusalem

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

palm sunday1Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

anda on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” – Matthew 21:1-9

Today is Palm Sunday. The day when we, as Christians, remember our Savior’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, riding on the back of a donkey. Churches this morning across our nation will celebrate with hymns and anthems proclaiming the greatness of our Holy and Sovereign Lord, as children spread palm branches down the aisles of their church.

As the most important week in our Christian Faith begins, an important week in our nation’s relationship with God’s Chosen People is drawing to a close.

President Barack Hussein Obama, (mm mmm mmmm) has wrapped up his visit to the Holy Land.  While there, this prince among men has managed to torque off both the Israelis and their Muslim neighbors, alike.

In Obama’s Key Speech of the week, given last Thursday, he said,

…the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.

…Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable – that real borders will have to be drawn.

…Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see.

As I have written before, the Palestinians are the gypsies of the Middle East. They have never had a homeland. There has never been a country named Palestine.

However, the previously-mentioned, prince among men, is determined to give them one, anyway.

Before he left DC for The Holy Land , Obama met with two pro-Hamas Groups, as beforeitsnews.com reports,

President Barack Obama met with several controversial anti-Israel Arab groups ahead of his visit to the Jewish state on March 20. Obama held an “intimate” gathering Monday with Arab American leaders and others to solicit advice and ask questions in preparation for his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week.

I doubt there was a similar meeting with Jewish leaders before a trip to Saudi Arabia, but hey the man did say that he would stand with the Muslims. That’s one place where he kept his word.

Included in the meeting was Haris Tarin, D.C. director of the controversial Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a Muslim-American group that has falsely accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs and has asked for Hamas and Hezbollah to be removed from the list of United States-designated terror groups.

This should come as no surprise, because Barack Hussein Obama has kept MPAC and its founder pretty close, despite a history of support for terrorism.

Also in attendance was the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a group that has called Israel an “apartheid state” and once presented an award to the author of an essay titled, “Zionism is a Form of Racism.”

ADC also has a predictable record of defending Hamas.In 1994, then-ADC President Hamzi Moghrabi said, “I will not call [Hamas] a terrorist organization. I mean, I know many people in Hamas. They are very respectable … I don’t believe Hamas, as an organization, is a violent organization.”

Then, as  his trip was drawing to a close, Obama, despite having to stop White House Tours, Regional Airports,and benefits for our Armed Forces, found some money to give HIS chosen people, as reported by The Times of Israel,

The US State Department announced on Friday that nearly $500 million in aid had been unblocked for transfer to the Palestinian Authority, months after Congress froze the funds in late-2012.

“To date, we have moved $295.7 million in fiscal year 2012 money… and $200 million in fiscal year 2013 assistance,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

The announcement came on the heels of US President Barack Obama’s first trip to Israel and the West Bank since assuming office in 2009.

However, Obama’s embracing of the Muslim Radicals hasn’t helped his popularity with them any. Yesterday morning, the official Twitter account of Hamas posted the following message,

Alqassam Brigades @AlqassamBrigade

#Obama: The #Jewish organ grinder’s #monkey.#Obamainisrael http://www.qassam.ps/opinion-6776-Obama_The_Jewish_organ_grinders_monkey.html … pic.twitter.com/rmsSAHx4qg

9:03 AM – 23 Mar 13

Obama, with all of his passion regarding his sympathetic claims that the Middle Eastern Muslims are not getting a fair shake and his vocal activeness regarding procuring a “Homeland” for the Palestinians, does not seem to realize that the Islamic Barbarians don’t respect his civilized sucking up.

Quite frankly, they view the current President of the United States as a dhimmi tool, to be used and discarded, after he has served his purpose.

And, if he doesn’t start paying attention to Genesis 12:1-3, things are not going to get any better…for him,or our nation:

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare: Will the Last American Doctor to “Retire Early”, Please Turn Out the Lights?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamadoctorI was literally raised by 3 doctors. No, I’m not some genetic experiment, like Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the movie “Twins” with Danny DeVito. I was born a severe asthmatic, caused by being born a month premature to a Mother 3 days before her 40th birthday.

These three men worked in the same clinic in Mid-town Memphis, TN. They later went on to become the chairmen of the Medical and Surgery Departments at a local hospital.

Some of my most vivid memories involve laying in one of their examination rooms, with oxygen strapped to my face, as my beloved Daddy waited nervously, by my side.

Asthma treatment back then, consisted of a swig of nasty-tasting yellow Triaminic Syrup, a shot of Epinephrine, an antibiotic shot (usually a Mycin drug), a prescription for prednisone to alleviate the inflammation, and a prescription for an anti-biotic (again, usually a mycin drug). Thank goodness, back then (1960s through early 1970s) Sears, where both of my parents worked, had a really good insurance plan.

My asthma persists to this day, but it has never stopped me. Once I got to high school, I became a gym rat, playing, and later, coaching and playing basketball and working out 6 days a week as a young man. However, at 54, that’s all behind me now…literally.

That being said, I owe my life to those three men of medicine, and the Greatest Healthcare System in the World.

Unfortunately, that Healthcare System, thanks to the megalomaniac who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, is about to go the way of the Dodo Bird.

The latest news revolving around the advent of this American Healthcare Destroyer, known as Obamacare, involves a survey which shows that 6 in 10 of American doctors plan on retiring within 1-3 years of this unwanted program’s inception.

How can a state-run Healthcare System function without any doctors? Answer:  it can’t.

I remember when I was singing with a 15 voice youth choir in the UK, back in July of 1978. My choirmaster’s husband, had some bad l”kippers (lox) one morning for breakfast, and got food poisoning. The hotel sent for a doctor and a nice young Pakistani fellow arrived. When asked how he wound up being a doctor in the UK, he replied that since the British Government took over healthcare, the older doctors had left the profession, and the British Government had to offer special incentives to foreign doctors to move to the UK and fill the empty slots.

Welcome to your future, America.

It has also come forward this week, that Obama and his minions are having trouble coordinating the establishment of the individual State Insurance Exchanges. These are the committees, made up on local hack politicians,  which were to be easy to use, like ordering pizza online, allowing users to fill out basic information, have the government database verify their eligibility, and then enable them to choose among competing insurance plans.

The lofty goals which Obama set for these exchanges have now been replaced with lowered expectations.

According to Henry Chao, an official at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services who is overseeing the technology of the exchanges,

The time for debating about the size of text on the screen or the color or is it a world-class user experience, that’s what we used to talk about two years ago. Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.

“A third world experience” is evidently what Obama had in mind all along.

But, hey…no worries. We’ll all be blessed with really good, cheap health insurance, right?

Wrong.

According to wsj.com,

The possibility of higher premiums has become the latest focal point of the political tussle over the health law, which marks its third anniversary Saturday. Republican lawmakers have held hearings on the issue, and six GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce committee wrote last week to more than a dozen insurers asking them to turn over internal analyses on the law’s impact on premiums and costs.

The insurance industry has also been talking publicly about big potential premium increases in lobbying for tweaks to the law.

The individual market includes about 15 million people, and around 18% of the roughly 149 million with employer coverage were at small companies, according to 2011 figures from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The individual market is expected to grow to around 35 million people by 2016 as a result of the law.

In a private presentation to brokers late last month, UnitedHealth Group Inc., UNH -1.09% the nation’s largest carrier, said premiums for some consumers buying their own plans could go up as much as 116%, and small-business rates as much as 25% to 50%. The company said the estimates were driven in part by growing medical costs not directly tied to the law. It also cited the law’s requirements that health status not affect rates and that plans include certain minimum benefits and limits to out-of-pocket charges, among other things.

Jeff Alter, who leads United Health’s employer and individual insurance business, said the numbers represented a “high-end scenario,” not an average. “There are some scenarios in which a member could see as much as a 116% increase or over,” he said, though others, such as some older consumers, could see decreases. He said the company dwelled on the possible increases because it was trying to prepare brokers to speak with clients facing big jumps.

There is a push up on Capitol Hill to make Obama have to drop his present “Cadillac” health insurance coverage, in order to experience the horror of this bureaucratic monster which he has created, for himself.

That’s not going to happen. King Barry and Michelle Antoinette will continue to have their cake and eat it,too.

In the meantime, I hope you have your ice floe reserved. I do.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Holding the Easter Bunny for Ransom? The Devil You Say.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

obamaandtheeasterbunnyLast evening, as my bride was figuring out how to cook some chicken kabobs she had picked up at Kroger, I, of course, turned on the computer and headed over to The Drudge Report, where I saw the Headline “No Money for Bunny?”.

Upon reading the article, I learned that the Obama Administration has sent out a memo to those holding tickers to the annual Easter Egg Roll, slated for April 1st. While the memo does not actually say that The Manchurian President is cancelling the annual tradition, it does warn the ticket holders that the event might be cancelled, due to the sequester.

Finally, by using these tickets, guests are acknowledging that this event is subject to cancellation due to funding uncertainty surrounding the Executive Office of the President and other federal agencies. If cancelled, the event will not be re-scheduled. We will notify you if there are any modifications to this event.

Obama and his not-so-lovely missus were already politicizing the traditional event, having invited the family of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old who was gunned down by Chicago gang bangers, just one week after performing at Obama’s second inauguration.

Using the Easter Egg Roll as a photo op to push his Gun Confiscation Agenda, how…Machiavellian.

In 1878 President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House grounds to the displaced youngsters and the tradition of the Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn began. It has continued steadily ever since, interrupted only by bad weather and World Wars I and II.

Back in 1941, some 53,000 people attended the egg roll and 73 children ended up being separated from their parents. In modern times, generally under 20,000 attend the festivities.

Of course, if it happens, this would not be the first thing that Obama has petulantly cancelled due to the Sequester. He has already cancelled the White House Tour, needlessly penalizing America’s schoolchildren, and adults, too.

A government official, Charles Brown of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, had asked if he could spread any cuts from the sequester out, as to lessen the impact on his agency.  He received an e-mail in response, telling him

We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.

So, basically, boys and girls, we have a President of the United States, who is trying to make things as painful as possible for us, the very Americans he is supposed to be serving.

Yesterday, Obama mouthpiece Jay”bird” Carney was asked if the President would be forced to cut back his golf games and he and Mooch’s lavish vacations ,due to the Sequester. Carney’s reply forgot to take that left turn at Albuquerque (as Bugs used to say). It was all over the place.

Q All right. I wanted to follow up on this young woman’s question about the high unemployment out in places like Colorado, all around the country, especially in the minority communities — exceptionally high unemployment. And when there is government workers who may be furloughed, millions of Americans unemployed, and family budgets that have been cut, how does the President justify lavish vacations and a golf trip to Florida at taxpayer expense? And does he plan to cut back on his travel?

MR. CARNEY: I can tell you that this President is focused every day on policies that create economic growth and help advance job creation. We have presided over the past three years over an economy that’s produced over 6.3 million private sector jobs, and we have more work to do. And this President’s number-one priority is growth and job creation. When you come to —

In other words, FORE!

Y’know, I have seen snobbish, uncaring, self-serving politicians before. Heck, I’m from Memphis. We’ve had to deal with the Ford Family for years.

However, this fool takes the cake. Maria Antoinette would be jealous of the Obama’s shenanigans. This “man of the people” is  anything but. He and his wife are grifters, in the best tradition of Chicago’s fabled Backroom Politics. Political Dirty Tricks come as easy to them as breathing in and out.

So, today’s latest slight against The Lightbringer has tickled the He@@ out of me, if you will excuse the expression.

On Sunday nights, on The History Channel, a series titled “The Bible” has been running, which , naturally, follows Biblical History, bringing scriptures to life. It has turned out to be very popular. It is produced by Roma Downey, “Monica” of Touched By an Angel fame, and her husband, Mark Burnett.

Sunday night, the character of Satan, the fallen angel formerly known as Lucifer, The Light Bearer, was introduced.

I about had need of a Cardiac Cath, when I realized whom the character looked like.

obamasatan

Evil personified, Satan , the Adversary, looks exactly like President Barack Hussein Obama.

After all the under-handed, slimy, self-serving, political machinations the Manchurian President has pulled during his tenure as President of the United States, for the character of Satan to look exactly like him, leaves me with only one thing to say,

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Welcome to the USSA: Now, About That “Right to Privacy”…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamabigbro Your personal information is no longer personal.

Per Reuters.com:

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of “suspicious customer activity,” such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to FinCEN.

The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.

The planning document, dated March 4, shows that the proposal is still in its early stages of development, and it is not known when implementation might begin.

Financial institutions file more than 15 million “suspicious activity reports” every year, according to Treasury. Banks, for instance, are required to report all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000, as well as suspected incidents of money laundering, loan fraud, computer hacking or counterfeiting.

“For these reports to be of value in detecting money laundering, they must be accessible to law enforcement, counter-terrorism agencies, financial regulators, and the intelligence community,” said the Treasury planning document.

A Treasury spokesperson said U.S. law permits FinCEN to share information with intelligence agencies to help detect and thwart threats to national security, provided they adhere to safeguards outlined in the Bank Secrecy Act. “Law enforcement and intelligence community members with access to this information are bound by these safeguards,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Some privacy watchdogs expressed concern about the plan when Reuters outlined it to them.

A move like the FinCEN proposal “raises concerns as to whether people could find their information in a file as a potential terrorist suspect without having the appropriate predicate for that and find themselves potentially falsely accused,” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Rule of Law Program at the Constitution Project, a non-profit watchdog group.

Despite these concerns, legal experts emphasize that this sharing of data is permissible under U.S. law. Specifically, banks’ suspicious activity reporting requirements are dictated by a combination of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, which offer some privacy safeguards.

Speaking of records, are you aware that your medical records are in the process of being digitized?

JudicialWatch.org reports that

In a classic example of how government blows through your tax dollars, billions have been squandered on a faulty electronic medical records system that operates with no oversight and continues receiving big wads of cash from Uncle Sam.

It gets better; by the time it’s all said and done—in about four more years according to government estimates—American taxpayers will have been fleeced $6.6 billion! It’s all part of the Obama Administration’s hostile takeover of the nation’s healthcare system. The idea behind this plan is to switch medical records from paper to digital to create a centralized system that supposedly improves the quality of health care.

The overhaul won’t come cheap and the government is offering hospitals and doctors billions to switch to electronic medical records. The money has come largely from President Obama’s fraud-infested $787 billion stimulus which was supposed to jump start the economy and put Americans back to work. Instead the economy is a disaster as the nation suffers through a staggering $16 trillion (and growing) deficit and unemployment is at record highs.

This has not affected the cash flow to government programs, however. In this case the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the agency that cuts the checks to healthcare providers that agree to switch to electronic records. So far CMS has doled out $3.6 billion to 74,317 medical providers, but the agency doesn’t bother following up to assure the money is appropriately spent. In fact, CMS fails to verify if providers are meeting the required quality goals, according to a federal audit released this week.

Investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General warn in their report that the electronic records program is vulnerable to abuse. Furthermore, they say immediate efforts should be made to strengthen oversight and prevent tax dollars from being wasted. This is not an unreasonable request considering doctors receive up to $44,000 and hospitals a minimum of $ 2 million to switch from paper to digital records.

Here is the scary response, included in the HHS watchdog report, from the head of the CMS (Marilyn Tavenner) on the idea of requiring healthcare providers to prove they’re meeting quality requirements before they get U.S. tax dollars. It would be burdensome, Tavenner said, and it would “significantly delay payments.” Spoken like at true government bureaucrat!

Michelle Malkin adds:

Oversight is lax. Cronyism is rife. The job-killing and privacy-undermining consequences have only just begun.

The program was originally sold as a cost-saving measure. In theory, modernizing record-collection is a good idea, and many private health care providers have already made the change. But as with many government “incentive” programs, the EMR bribe is a tax-subsidized, one-size-fits-all mandate. This one pressures health care professionals and hospitals across the country into radically federalizing their patient data and opening up medical information to untold abuse. Penalties kick in for any provider that hasn’t switched over by 2014.

So, what’s it to you? Well, $4 billion has already gone out to 82,535 professionals and 1,474 hospitals, and a total of $6 billion will be doled out by 2016. But the feds’ reckless profligacy, neglect and favoritism have done more harm than good.

Don’t take my word for it. A recent report released by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General acknowledged that the incentive system is “vulnerable to paying incentives to professionals and hospitals that do not fully meet” the program’s quality assurance requirements. The federal health bureaucracy “has not implemented strong prepayment safeguards, and its ability to safeguard incentive payments postpayment is also limited,” the IG concluded.

Translation: No one is actually verifying whether the transition from paper to electronic is improving patient outcomes and health services. No one is actually guarding against GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). No one is checking whether recipients of the EMR incentives are receiving money redundantly (e.g., raking in payments when they’ve already converted to electronic records). No one is actually protecting private data from fraud, abuse or exploitation.

Little is being done to recoup ill-gotten payments. In any case, such “pay and chase” policing after the fact is a crummy way to run government in lean times — or in fat times, for that matter.

Allow me to summarize all of this for you. The bottom line is this: The Obama Administration is gathering information about us (The Proletariat) in a manner eerily reminiscent of the old Russian Politboro.

Americans are not going to be able to buy a Big Gulp or have a hangnail removed without the Federal Government knowing about it.

Ted Cruz, Republican Senator from Texas, hit the nail on the head, when he said,

I think President Obama is the most radical president this nation’s ever seen. And in particular, I think he is a true believer in government control of the economy and of our everyday lives. In my judgment, we are facing what I consider to be the epic battle of our generation, quite literally the battle over whether we remain a free market nation.

Hang tough, Americans.

Until He Comes,

KJ

“Sequester” Must Mean “Party” in Kenyan

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

marie-antoinette-obamaSo, here we are , in the middle of a sequester, which is predicted to last a decade. Obama has cut services to our Armed Forces, and other necessary government functions, in a macabre effort to make his own suggestion, sequestration, as painful to average Americans as possible, in order to (in his egocentric mind) garner popularity for his Tax and Spend Economic Policies.

TheHill.com reports that

President Obama warned Saturday that automatic spending cuts known as the sequester threaten to stifle the surge in job growth the nation saw in February.

Switching from the adversarial tone he has used to pressure Republican leaders in recent weeks, the president appealed to what he called the vision both parties share for the country.

“As Democrats and Republicans, we may disagree on the best way to achieve our goals, but I’m confident we can agree on what those goals should be,” Obama said in his weekly address.

He cited a vibrant middle class, an education system that gives more workers the skills to compete in the job market, a reformed immigration system and “safer streets for our children,” a veiled reference to gun-violence reforms.

Obama acknowledged that progress on these issues “won’t be easy,” but sounded an optimistic tone.

“I still believe that compromise is possible. I still believe we can come together to do big things. And I know there are leaders on the other side who share that belief,” he said.

The president touted the February jobs report from the Labor Department showing the economy grew by 236,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent.

Wall Street analysts had predicted a job spurt between 150,000 and 160,000. In response, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 67 points on Friday to close at an all-time high.

Obama noted the unemployment rate is now lower than when he took office after businesses created 6.4 million jobs over the past three years.

But he warned partisan battles in Washington could disrupt the recovery:

“The last thing we should do is allow Washington politics to get in the way,” he said. “You deserve better than the same political gridlock and refusal to compromise that has too often passed for serious debate over the last few years.”

He touted his recent outreach to Republicans, including a dinner with a dozen senators at the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Washington on Wednesday.

He said the group discussed “smarter ways to grow our economy and reduce our deficits than the arbitrary cuts of the so-called ‘sequester’ that recently went into place.”

Average Americans’ jobs are not coming back any time soon, under this Administration’s Failed Economic Policy.

However, Obama’s staff is doing just fine, thankyaverymuch.

Per FoxNews.com:

The latest 2012 salary figures released by the White House show 20 staffers were making the maximum $172,200. Many of them are well-known President Obama aides, including Press Secretary Jay Carney and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Most carry the title of “assistant to the president.”

But underneath them are dozens of “deputy” assistants and “special” assistants to the president, most making six-figure salaries — like the climate change advisers. A review of the 2012 salaries by FoxNews.com shows 139 White House staffers making $100,000 or more.

The White House often attracts top-tier lawyers, bankers, security experts and others who were making far more in the private sector. Any administration wants to offer good money in order to lure the right people into — or back into — public service.

But the payroll under the Obama White House has expanded since the Bush administration. The payroll went from $33 million in 2008 to $39 million in 2009. Since then, the Obama administration has scaled back its White House staff expenses, but the payroll was still at $37.8 million in 2012.

There are two more employees making the maximum salary now than in the final year of the Bush administration. Two ethics advisers each make close to $140,000.

The chief calligrapher makes $96,725. Another calligrapher makes over $94,000, while another makes close to $86,000.

On Friday, White House Deputy Press Secretary John Earnest said the White House will be affected by the sequester much like other agencies — and in some capacity will impose furloughs.

“We’re also faced with making some tough decisions when it comes to ongoing projects, when it comes to purchasing equipment and supplies. But we’re also a pretty personnel-heavy agency, if you will. So that means … there will be employees of components who work here at the White House that will be facing pay cuts, that will be facing furloughs,” he said.

Hey…no worries in the Former “People’s House”…the Obamas are not about to let poor stewardship of our nation’s economy and a minor problem like average Americans struggling to survive, stand in the way of a good par-tay!

According to Ben Shapiro, in an article, posted on Breitbart.com,

The same week that President Obama’s administration announced that due to sequestration, White House tours would be cancelled, sources at the White House announced that it would be hosting megastars Adele and Beyonce at Michelle’s 50th birthday party next year. “America’s First Lady will be holding a huge celebrity-packed party for her birthday at the White House next year and, as she adores Adele and Beyonce, she has asked them both to sing,” the source told the UK Daily Mail. The source did say that “The Obamas will pay Adele’s expenses as it’s a private party, not a State one.”

But will they pay all the expenses of the party? Security arrangements? Food? Cleanup? White House parties are expensive affairs.

It’s obvious that the White House’s priorities don’t lie with the people. They lie with the personal party predilections of the Obamas.

While the Secret Service protection during White House tours costs some $74,000 per week – the cost the White House brags it is saving on the cancelled tours — Air Force One costs $175,750 per flight hour, not including pilots, airmen, and Secret Service. (Some sources say the cost for the tours is $18,000 per week.) Obama has taken several pricey jaunts to locations including, most recently, Florida in the past few months. And those parties at the White House? They certainly cost a fair bit of money, but we’ll never hear how much; as the Washington Post put it back in 2012, “getting a straight answer about the cost of any White House party is almost impossible.”

There is little chance that the taxpayers will not foot some of the expense of Mrs. Obama’s magical 50th. And there is no chance that the “people’s house” will be open to the “people” nearly as much as it is to the Obamas’ celebrity superfriends in coming weeks.

As I’ve written before:

OUR Income = HIS Revenue

Let them eat arugula!

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Hypocricy: Abu Ghaith and Unmanned Drones

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

obamabillofrightsHave you ever thought about where our rights as Americans come from? Are they rights that are common and applicable to every individual born 0n this terrestrial ball? Or, are they unique to those of us, graced by God, with the gift of having been born in the greatest country on the face of His green Earth?

Evidently, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and his Attorney General believe that the previously mentioned rights are universal.

The Obama Administration has captured Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti member of Al Qaeda,a member of Osama bin Laden’s family, believe it or not, and, instead of interring him in Gitmo, where he belongs, they have conferred upon this enemy combatant the same rights as you or I, American citizens, have. Obama and Holder have brought him to the United States for a civilian trial in a Manhattan courtroom, ironically, one mile from Ground Zero, where he’s already appeared in court to plead not guilty to charges of conspiracy to kill Americans.

According to Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), in an op ed he has written for foxnews.com,

Enemy combatants should be interrogated relentlessly, not given Miranda warnings.

Enemy combatants shouldn’t be tried in civilian courtrooms in the middle of a densely populated city – creating a much softer target for a spectacular and symbolic terrorist attack than a fortified military base like Guantanamo Bay.

Moreover, if we’re going to make the legal argument at home and abroad that we’re at war, why play right into our critics’ hands by suddenly and arbitrarily treating our war like an episode of “CSI: New York”?

Our enemies, working with their allies on the international left, want America’s hands to be tied, for us to use police methods and – more importantly – police weapons and tactics even while they arm themselves to the teeth and work tirelessly to kill as many Americans as they can.

Already our military is under extreme pressure, even from some of our allies, to adopt a law-enforcement approach even in the conduct of our military operations in Afghanistan.

Our rules of engagement are sometimes so restrictive that they can lead to loss of American life and grant actual battlefield advantages to the Taliban.

While we’re in the midst of an international argument over the law of armed conflict, we just handed our ideological opponents something more than a significant propaganda victory – we handed them a real-life example to use as the foundation for a new “customary international law” that is the form of binding international law created by nations’ actual policies and practices in fighting terror.

In addition, the Obama administration is demonstrating that it exists as an “imperial presidency.” One that is more arbitrary than the Bush administration it so self-righteously criticized. Under this Obama doctrine, the ultimate questions of war and peace, life and death, appear to follow no principle or pattern beyond the administration’s own whims.

This administration has failed to articulate a coherent approach to fighting deadly enemies. It brags about its “kill list” during a presidential campaign, yet after the campaign it doesn’t seem to mind when Egypt denies us access to the Benghazi suspects (by the way – where is the retaliation for that dreadful attack?).

Simply put, Bin Laden family members should not get their day in court in Manhattan.

The distinguished barrister is absolutely correct.

By conferring American rights on a barbaric, murderous, Islamic Terrorist, who would just as soon behead us Infidels as look at us, Obama has given our enemy the right to remain silent, which shuts down our intelligence agencies’ ability to get any information from him which may save American lives in the future.

Not to mention the fact that he is putting the people of New York City in danger from the very same Jihadists who killed over 3,000 in that very same city on that horrible day of September 11, 2001.

Furthermore, the Manchurian President has conferred upon this barbarian, rights and privileges bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers, in the magnificent document they wrote for us to govern ourselves by, known as the United States Constitution.

In the section which contains the first Ten Amendments to this living and breathing document, known as the Bill of Rights, are the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, it states,

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

By bestowing upon this murderous Islamic Thug, and those like him, the rights and privileges of the very citizens they are trying to slaughter, Obama and Holder have proven themselves to be the world’s biggest hypocrites.

Because, at the same time they are wrapping these murderous Muslims in a Constitutional blanket of rights, woven by our Founding Fathers, specifically for American citizens, they have been intimating the fact that they plan to violate the Constitutional Rights of actual Americans, by using unmanned drones to hunt them down and kill them on American soil without due process.

Which begs the question: Why are they protecting the rights of our enemies and are so loathe to protect the rights of American citizens, whom they are sworn to protect “from enemies foreign and domestic”?

Anti-American, treasonous, or just plain Impeachable…or all of the above?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Senator Rand Paul: Taking a Stand for Freedom

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

rand paulAs I woke up this morning, I learned that Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) had wrapped up, at the thirteenth hour, what had been nicknamed the Filiblizzard, brought about by the nomination of John O. Brennan to the post of CIA Director and the plans by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to use unmanned drones to hunt down and kill American Citizens on American soil.

The Washington Times has the story:

After years in the shadows, the administration’s secret drone program burst into very public view Wednesday with lawmakers grilling the attorney general over legal justification for targeted killings and Sen. Rand Paul launching an old-style one-man filibuster to demand answers from President Obama.

The Kentucky Republican held the floor for almost 13 hours, effectively blocking a vote on the nomination of John O. Brennan, whom Mr. Obama has tapped to be CIA director. He said he would relent only if the administration publicly vowed not to target Americans on U.S. soil.

“This is a long, drawn-out day, but it’s to try to get some answers,” Mr. Paul said after he crossed the eight-hour mark late Wednesday evening. “It’s to try to shame the president into doing the right thing.”

Democrats, who control the chamber, were forced to delay a vote on the Brennan nomination until at least Thursday, and it could go into the weekend, depending on what other blockades Republicans erect.

At issue is the administration’s argument that it can kill those it suspects have ties to terrorism, including U.S. citizens, without having to put them on trial.

The fulcrum of the debate is the drone program, started under President George W. Bush and expanded by Mr. Obama, which many lawmakers said gives too much power to the executive branch — and raises tricky questions about whether drones could be used to execute Americans in the United States.

The administration has only recently acknowledged the drone program and says it is seeking a public debate in order to find common ground on what Americans are ready to accept.

“I think there is going to be a greater effort at the transparency. A number of steps are going to be taken. I expect you will hear the president speaking about this,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told the SenateJudiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.

But he faced bipartisan demands for more information and more clarity on what is and what isn’t allowed.

“You can hear almost unanimous concern about transparency and wrestling with how to move forward here in a way that protects both our constitutional liberties and our security as a nation,” Sen. Christopher A. Coons, Delaware Democrat, told Mr. Holder.

Under close questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz, Mr. Holder repeatedly said American citizens on U.S. soil were not “appropriate” targets for extrajudicial executions.

Mr. Cruz said that wasn’t good enough.

“You keep saying ‘appropriate.’ My question isn’t about propriety. My question is about whether something is constitutional or not,” the Texas Republican said.

“Let me be clear: Translate my ‘appropriate’ to ‘no.’ I thought I was saying no, all right? No,” Mr. Holder said.

Mr. Holder also said he is not sure Congress could ban the president from using drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil.

But, of course, as Obama said, “I am not a dictator”. Yeah, right.

The longest spoken filibuster in American history was by Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who went on for 24 hours and 18 minutes in filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Thurmond began speaking at 8:54 p.m. on August 28, 1957 and did not stop until 9:12 p.m. on the 29th.

That rhetorical marathon took a lot of preparation, though. Here are some of the details, according to the Associated Press:

Thurmond took a steam bath earlier in the day to rid his body of excess liquid. This avoided the potential for any “accidents” in the chamber.

He went to the floor armed with cough drops and malted milk tablets.

He allowed others to make short remarks and ask questions during his time, allowing him to sneak off to the cloakroom to gobble a sandwich.

He had his aide wait in the cloakroom with a pail when he was about to step down from the dais in case of an emergency evacuation.

So far, Paul’s discussion has been much more lively than Thurmond’s speech, with heavy ad-libbing and contributions from seven different Senators, including Democrat Ron Wyden.

A major question, though, is what exactly did Thurmond talk about for 24 straight hours? Most of the content of the then-55-year-old’s speech was about the right to a trial by jury.

Via Michael McGraw-Herdeg on Quora, here’s what Thurmond talked about for one straight day:

Thurmond read, verbatim, the voting laws of each one of the 48 states.

He read the U.S. criminal code

He read a Supreme Court decision, followed by more laws. A friend brought him a glass of orange juice.

He allowed Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson to conduct some minor Senate business, such as preparing to swear-in the new Senator from Wisconsin, with a promise that Thurmond will be allowed to resume his filibuster.

At 1:40 a.m., Thurmond talked about jury trials.

By 6:45 a.m., Thurmond was having a back and forth with an arriving Senator about the bill. The Senator then left for breakfast with President Eisenhower.

Thurmond fielded questions from sympathetic Senators looking to give his voice a break.

Thurmond read the Declaration of Independence.

Thurmond allowed Johnson to swear in the new Senator from Wisconsin at roughly 1 p.m.

Thurmond welcomed Italian dignitaries to the chamber and then resumed discussing jury trials.

Thurmond took questions from sympathetic Senators again, as well as abuse from adversaries.

A letter from the President Dwight D. Eisenhower momentarily interrupted the discussion of jury trials.

The Senator finished up with a summary of his opposition to the bill. “Mr. President, I urge every Member of this body to consider this bill most carefully. I hope the Senate will see fit to kill it. I expect to vote against the bill. [Laughter.]”

The Senate later passed the bill. Thurmond’s oratorical marathon didn’t change a single vote.

Senator Paul’s filibuster may not , either. But, at least he did something.

Which is more than I can say for the RINOs up on Capitol Hill.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Sequestration: Palin and the Petulant President

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

palin-newsweekobamababyObama has locked the American People out of  “The People’s House”.

The Washington Times reports that

The White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president’s home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions.

Announcement of the decision — made in an email from the White House Visitors Office — came hours after The Washington Times reported on another administration email that seemed to show at least one agency has been instructed to make sure the cuts are as painful as President Obama promised they would be.

In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of.

“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.

In a related story, posted at washingtonexaminer.com:

House investigators learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials developed plans to release about 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees, although Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has denied responsibility for the decision.

“An internal document obtained by the House Judiciary Committee shows that Administration officials at ICE prepared cold calculations to release thousands of criminal aliens onto the streets and did not demonstrate any consideration of the impact this decision would have on the safety of Americans,” committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced.

The ICE document contains a table that proposes “reduc[ing] invoiced daily population by 1,000 weekly.” Between February 22 and March 31st, this plan would drop the number of detainees from 30,748 to 25,748.

“The decision to release detained aliens undermines the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to keep our homeland secure and instead makes our communities less safe and more vulnerable to crime,” Goodlatte said. “[R]egardless of sequestration, DHS actually has plenty of funding to pay for the detention of criminal aliens. Unfortunately, it seems Administration officials are more interested in using sequestration to promote their political agenda than as an opportunity to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”

Napolitano said that it wasn’t her decision, even though ICE is part of DHS. “Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” she told ABC.

She also confirmed that the releases would continue. “We are going to manage our way through this by identifying the lowest risk detainees, and putting them into some kind of alternative to release,” Napolitano said at a Politico event, per The Daily Caller.

The New York Times profiled a “low risk” detainee released by ICE. The detainee was taken into custody “when it was discovered that he had violated probation for a conviction in 2005 of simple assault, simple battery and child abuse, charges that sprung from a domestic dispute with his wife at the time.” NRO’s Jim Geraghty asked, “If convictions for ‘simple assault, simple battery and child abuse’ make you ‘low-risk,’ what do you have to do for Janet Napolitano to consider you ‘high-risk’?”

Back on February 26th, Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin posted the following on her Facebook Page:

D.C.: Cut the Drama. Do Your Job.

Americans are sick and tired of yet another ginned-up crisis. D.C. needs to grow up, get to work, and live within its means. The real economic Armageddon looming before us is our runaway debt, not the sequester, which the President advocated for and signed into law and is now running around denouncing because he never had any genuine intention of reining in his reckless spending.

Remember that this sequestration deal came about because of the long debt ceiling standoff in the summer of 2011. It wasn’t the ideal outcome for anyone, but it did at least include real deficit reduction of about $110 billion per year for 10 years, which is still nowhere near enough to close our massive deficit. Keep in mind that since the sequester passed, the President has already hit American families and small business owners with his tax increases, or “more revenue” as he likes to call it. The American public doesn’t want tax increases; we want government to rein in its overspending.

If we can’t stomach modest cuts that would lower federal spending by a mere 0.3% per year out of a current federal budget of $3.6 trillion, then we might as well signal to the whole world that we have no serious intention of dealing with our debt problem.

If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us. We’re finished. We’re going to default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest.

If we ARE serious about putting our fiscal house in order, then let’s stop the hysterics, tighten our belts, and take our medicine.

Governor Palin was prophetic. It now appears that, instead of working with Congress to come up with a compromise, Obama would rather live up to the nickname I gave him in 2009, acting  like “The Petulant President” that he is.

Now, he is locking us, the ones he is supposed to be serving, out of the house that we built and are still financing. 

Obama is determined to make his “Chicken Little” pretentious predictions about the Sequestration come true, no matter how much they hurt the people he is supposed to be protecting from “enemies foreign and domestic”.

Instead, our anti-American President, though his idiotic “Smart Power!” Foreign Policy, and his clueless Domestic Policy of unconditional amnesty and Obamanomics, which is is putting us all in the Poor House, has himself become the enemy of the American People.

This is not Presidential Leadership. This is Presidential  Sabotage.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama’s Tax Revenues Set Record. Economy Still Stinks.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

monopoly2Obama’s second term economic policy is based on the Beatles song, Taxman:

Let me tell you how it will be. It’s one for you, nineteen for me.

CSMonitor.com has the story:

An impasse over the shape of the federal budget keeps boiling down to this basic plotline: Democrats say the solution to high deficits must include more tax revenue, while Republicans say the fundamental problem is spending.

Failure to reach a middle ground has prompted automatic spending cuts known as the “sequester” to go into effect. This wasn’t Plan A, or even Plan B, for either side.

As the politicians look for a way forward, conservative lawmakers say that new budget projections make their case for them. Federal tax revenue is forecast to hit a record $2.7 trillion this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“Spending is the problem, which means cutting spending is the solution. It’s that simple,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State on Saturday, as she gave congressional Republicans’ weekly address to the nation. She cited the CBO forecast of record revenues.

Case closed?

Not so fast. The budget numbers tell a more complicated story – one that makes fiscal politics difficult for both parties.Yes, if $2.7 trillion in revenue materializes this year, that would set a record. It would surpass the prior peak of $2.6 trillion, set back in fiscal year 2007 before the recession began.

But that doesn’t mean federal tax receipts are fully back to normal.

Economists generally compare taxes and spending to the size of overall economy. That’s because demands on government often increase as the economy grows and population rises. And the value of tax receipts needs to be adjusted for inflation, to give a real sense of purchasing power.

Tax revenue will total 16.9 percent of gross domestic product this year, the CBO predicts, compared with 18.5 percent of GDP in 2007. It looks as if it will take another year, until 2014, for tax revenue to get back to 18 percent of GDP, which has been the average level since 1973.

But here’s the big issue: There’s no level of tax revenue or federal spending that’s automatically the “right” level. Yesterday’s averages don’t tell us what tomorrow’s should be.

And most signs point toward difficult choices ahead. Entitlement programs including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are taking up an ever larger share of federal spending.

Is spending “the problem”? Yes, in one sense. If federal outlays could be steered permanently back to their 35-year average of 21 percent of GDP, much of the national-debt problem would be solved.

But the answer is no in another sense. In polls, Americans are generally reluctant to see cuts in those major entitlement programs. They don’t call Social Security or Medicare “the problem”.

That is because Baby Boomers, like myself, understand how a great president can turn around this nation’s economy. We lived through it and we told our children how it happened.

When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he faced actually much worse economic problems than President Obama faced in 2009. Three worsening recessions starting in 1969 were about to culminate in the worst of all in 1981-1982, with unemployment soaring into double digits at a peak of 10.8%. At the same time America suffered roaring double-digit inflation, with the CPI registering at 11.3% in 1979 and 13.5% in 1980 (25% in two years). The Washington establishment at the time argued that this inflation was now endemic to the American economy, and could not be stopped, at least not without a calamitous economic collapse.

All of the above was accompanied by double -digit interest rates, with the prime rate peaking at 21.5% in 1980. The poverty rate started increasing in 1978, eventually climbing by an astounding 33%, from 11.4% to 15.2%. A fall in real median family income that began in 1978 snowballed to a decline of almost 10% by 1982. In addition, from 1968 to 1982, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 70% of its real value, reflecting an overall collapse of stocks.

President Reagan campaigned on an explicitly articulated, four-point economic program to reverse this slow motion collapse of the American economy:

1. Cut tax rates to restore incentives for economic growth, which was implemented first with a reduction in the top income tax rate of 70% down to 50%, and then a 25% across-the-board reduction in income tax rates for everyone. The 1986 tax reform then reduced tax rates further, leaving just two rates, 28% and 15%.

2. Spending reductions, including a $31 billion cut in spending in 1981, close to 5% of the federal budget then, or the equivalent of about $175 billion in spending cuts for the year today. In constant dollars, nondefense discretionary spending declined by 14.4% from 1981 to 1982, and by 16.8% from 1981 to 1983. Moreover, in constant dollars, this nondefense discretionary spending never returned to its 1981 level for the rest of Reagan’s two terms! Even with the Reagan defense buildup, which won the Cold War without firing a shot, total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989. That’s a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%.

3. Anti-inflation monetary policy restraining money supply growth compared to demand, to maintain a stronger, more stable dollar value.

4. Deregulation, which saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices. Reagan’s first executive order, in fact, eliminated price controls on oil and natural gas. Production soared, and aided by a strong dollar the price of oil declined by more than 50%.

These economic policies amounted to the most successful economic experiment in world history. The Reagan recovery started in official records in November 1982, and lasted 92 months without a recession until July 1990, when the tax increases of the 1990 budget deal killed it. This set a new record for the longest peacetime expansion ever, the previous high in peacetime being 58 months.

During this seven-year recovery, the economy grew by almost one-third, the equivalent of adding the entire economy of West Germany, the third-largest in the world at the time, to the U.S. economy. In 1984 alone real economic growth boomed by 6.8%, the highest in 50 years. Nearly 20 million new jobs were created during the recovery, increasing U.S. civilian employment by almost 20%. Unemployment fell to 5.3% by 1989.

The shocking rise in inflation during the Nixon and Carter years was reversed. Astoundingly, inflation from 1980 was reduced by more than half by 1982, to 6.2%. It was cut in half again for 1983, to 3.2%, never to be heard from again until recently. The contractionary, tight-money policies needed to kill this inflation inexorably created the steep recession of 1981 to 1982, which is why Reagan did not suffer politically catastrophic blame for that recession.

Real per-capita disposable income increased by 18% from 1982 to 1989, meaning the American standard of living increased by almost 20% in just seven years. The poverty rate declined every year from 1984 to 1989, dropping by one-sixth from its peak. The stock market more than tripled in value from 1980 to 1990, a larger increase than in any previous decade.

For all of you Liberal idiots who dared tried to compare the Manchurian President to the Gipper:  Y’all need to quit smoking the Hopium.

Obama failed efforts toward “fixing” our economy, remind me of Rosanne Barr singing the National Anthem: tone-deaf, flat, and extremely painful.

Until He Comes, 

KJ