Obama flaunts political power on college tour

The president likes to clothe his progressive beliefs in a comfortable toga of poll-tested generalities.

But on last week’s education “reform” tour, he stripped down to his ideological skivvies, oiled up his rhetoric, and flaunted his political power to enthralled academics, administrators and journalists.

He made clear that whoever has the gold writes the rules, to an audience of students and academics who know that 70 percent of students are funded by $150 billion in federal dollars.

“Taxpayers are often providing those families and students assistance, we want to make sure taxpayers are getting a good deal,” he said, while describing his ambitious plan to rate universities’ and colleges’ performance at a test to be drafted and graded by Obama’s progressive monitors.

Government expertise trumps the universities’ autonomy, and government’s priorities top Americans’ free-market preferences, Obama insisted.

“I’m in my second term so I can say it. … I believe, for example, that law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three year. … The third year they’d be better off clerking or practicing in a firm, even if they weren’t getting paid that much,” said the president, who was acting as the nation’s law-school-dean-in-chief.

And also as the nation’s concerned-parent-in-chief.

“I know a lot of stories of people who are LGBT who come out to their parents, and their parents are supporting them financially for college, and when they come out their parents cut out that support,” said one of the attendees. “I was wondering if maybe in the future part of your affordability for college would be able to include LGBT people?”

Via: Daily Caller

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How Detroit Almost Killed My Business

Of all the depressing facts about the once great City of Detroit, this to me is the most upsetting:  In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.  Today, there are less than 27,000 (Hat tip Zero Hedge Blog).

Government -- federal, state, and local -- made this happen. I know this from experience. Government corrupted the Detroit work force. That corruption drove away my company too.

Until 1984, I was a business owner in the city, employing about 20.  I moved my business 60 miles away.  I didn't want to leave, but I was, in effect, forced to. 

Many think that crime spurred the exodus of business out of Detroit.  Not in my case.  To combat crime we would build a stronger "fort." We called it "fort building" because if my neighbor put heavy wire screen on his windows, the thieves would break into my shop.  If I bricked up my windows in response, my neighbor might be broken into.  This escalated to the point where many businesses eventually put fencing topped with barbed wire around their buildings.  Still, although "fort building" was expensive, it was far cheaper than moving. 

Detroit's abysmal educational system did not drive me away either. As it happens, my particular business did not require highly educated people. So I could hire high school graduates not literate enough to fill out an application form.

Via: American Thinker

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Despite Promises of Transparency, Obama Administration Suppresses Report That Would Detail Rise in Welfare Dependence

Washington, DC - A day after his inauguration, President Obama promised his Administration would be defined by its openness and transparency, proudly declaring, "I will also hold myself, as president, to a new standard of openness….Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."  Sadly, the Obama Administration has failed to live up to the President’s lofty rhetoric, and its record on transparency is littered with broken promises.  The latest example is the Administration’s withholding of Federal data about welfare receipt and dependence on government benefits.  Under a 1994 law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is required to issue annual reports on the degree to which Americans are dependent on various welfare benefits.  This 1994 law was authored by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), passed by the Democrat-controlled House and Senate, and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.  Yet after nearly four years, the Obama Administration has never once issued this report.   
  
The 1994 law requires HHS to issue this report to leaders of key Congressional committees with jurisdiction over various welfare programs: the House Committees on Ways and Means; Education and the Workforce; Agriculture; and Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committees on Finance; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.  Today, the Republican House Chairmen and Senate Ranking Members of these Committees sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius asking for an immediate response as to (1) why HHS has failed to issue this report during her nearly four years as Secretary, and (2) when HHS expects to finally issue this report.  A copy of the letter is availablehere.

If issued, this report would reveal that dependence on government benefits has risen sharply during the Obama Administration.  All the more troubling is the fact that, while suppressing this annual report on welfare dependence for nearly four years, HHS recently took action to illegally waive work requirements for welfare recipients, which will result in even more welfare dependence.   

In their letter to Secretary Sebelius, the Chairmen and Ranking Members wrote, “HHS has failed to issue even one of these annual reports required by law during the nearly four years you have been Secretary.  It also means that the 2009 annual report is now more than 1,000 days overdue.” 

Via: Committee on Ways and Means

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Obama And The Triumph Of Cargo Cult Economics

Over the past four years the American middle class has suffered an unprecedented decline. At this writing the labor for participation rate is the lowest since 1981 and for men it is the lowest since that statistic has been gathered. Household income has plummeted by 7.3% equating to over $4,000 per family. The number of persons on food stamps has nearly doubled in a mere four years. The unemployment rate continues to decline only by statistical legerdemain and reducing the number of people actively looking for work by demoralizing them.

Instead of taking firm action to preserve the middle class, the Obama regime has engaged in a full frontal assault on the middle class in order to reduce it to a state of government dependency.

Our home loans are no longer held by local banks, they are secured by the United States government. Superficially private sector jobs in industry sectors chosen to be winners by government bureaucrats only exist because of extravagant government subsidies… and some of those jobs being created in foreign countries. The agricultural sector is being wildly distorted in the service of ethanol production. Students are being inveigled into taking out loans to acquire an education that is either irrelevant or superfluous in the modern world (really, a master’s degree in jazz flute? What did you think was going to happen?)

As we’ve chronicled over the past month, the economic strategy pursued by the Obama regime is nothing more that cargo cult economics (here | here | here | here). Simply put, the regime has attempted to bolster the middle class using exactly the same method that Neolithic South Pacific islanders have used to continue receiving food and supplies from the United States. Instead of building a bamboo C-47 they are creating the trappings of a middle class society, e.g. a college education, a job, etc., without strengthening the underlying economy which supports it.

Via: Red State

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Biden Accuses Republicans Of “Buying Into Extremism”…

 Makes Middle Class Appeal In GOP-Voting Virginia Suburb

CHESTERFIELD, Va. — Vice President Joe Biden made a raw appeal to Virginia's middle class on Tuesday, blasting the GOP presidential ticket for pushing what he says is a blueprint for boosting middle-income taxes while giving trillions in tax breaks to the rich.

Biden said Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan represent a radical and obstructionist brand of conservatism that would sacrifice education and Medicare to help the wealthy.

"Look, folks, this is not your father's Republican Party," Biden said, portraying Romney as out of touch with ordinary people and Ryan as willing to wreck the nation's finances to protect the wealthy from tax increases.

Virginia Republicans countered that it's Obama's policies that will hurt economic growth and kill jobs.

"The president's proposed tax increases will not make the next four years any better than the last. They will only stifle growth and eliminate nearly 20,000 jobs in Virginia alone," said Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican Party in Virginia. Short argued that Romney's approach would lower tax rates for all and create 340,000 jobs in the state.

Appealing directly to the moderates who decide elections in Virginia, particularly in middle-class suburbs like Chesterfield, Biden evoked his former Senate colleague from the state.

"I would be dumbfounded if former Republican Sen. John Warner said anything like that," Biden told his audience of more than 500 people in a cramped tractor barn at a county fairground. "I would be dumbfounded. I worked with him for 30 years." Warner retired in 2009 after serving five terms. He was succeeded in office by Democrat Mark R. Warner.

Via:  The Huffington Post

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Gallup: Americans Rate Public Schools the Worst Place to Educate Children

(CNSNews.com) - A new Gallup pollreleased today indicates that Americans rate public schools the worst place to educate children.

In the national survey conducted Aug. 9-12, private independent schools, parochial and church-related schools, charter schools and home-schooling all rated higher than public schools.

Gallup interviewers asked respondents: "I’m going to read a list of ways in which children are educated in the U.S. today. As I read each one, please indicate--based on what you know or have read and heard--how good an education each provides children--excellent, good, only fair, or poor. How about: public schools, parochial or church-related schools, independent private schools, charter schools, or home-schooling?"

Only 5 percent said they believe public schools give children an excellent eduction.

Another 32 percent said they believe public schools give children a good education. But this combined 37 percent who said public schools give children an excellent or good education was the lowest among the different types of schools Gallup included in its survey.

Via: CNSNews

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Illinois to Spend More on Pensions Than on Education

The state of Illinois faces at least $83 billion in unfunded liability between its five pension systems, and is on track to spend more on its government pensions than on education by 2016, a new study released by Governor Pat Quinn’s office says.

The state budget office conducted the study based on a “district-by-district analysis” if the state does not enact comprehensive pension reform, the governor said in a statement. Governor Quinn released the study a few days after calling a special session dedicated to pension reform on August 17.

Illinois faces severe underfunding in its pension system. It reported a funded ratio of 43.4%, way below the 80% considered healthy. Based on fiscal 2010 data, Illinois had the lowest funded ratio of any state, according to a June 2012 report by the Pew Center on the States.

Via: Fox Business

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What's next Mr. President ?

Have you read the recent newspaper headlines Mr. President? If you have not, let me give you the highlights. We start with $14.3 million for retraining former Solyndra employees. Who was the one that approved that loan? You’re Department of Energy with Secretary Steven Chu at the helm. What a shock it went bankrupt and “We the People” lost $535 million. This next story looks interesting.  Super committee fails and where were you Mr. President during this time.  You were on one of your campaign bus trips disguised as a presidential event to talk about more plans but you never quite get to the real problems.  You are traveling to Hawaii and to foreign countries where you knock our education system and apologize about America’s shortcomings instead of our exceptionalism.  Let’s see?  Who runs the Department of Education? Another one of your socialist friends (Secretary Arne Duncan) and you wonder why our education system is in such disarray.

As we move on we see your $447 billion jobs bill that you said repeatedly "pass it now" "we can't wait". Well Mr. President this is not how to stimulate the economy. And to continue, your friend Jon Corzine is missing $1.7 billion of his client’s money . Did you not ask him for economic advice when you were first elected? He certainly knows how spend others money. Is that how you decided to spend the money “We the People” gave you in taxes, and not be held accountable again?  Leading by example you spend millions more of our tax dollars for travel and a Democrat Congressman is using constituent’s campaign funds for trips to weddings. This is what you call leading?

As we continue on we see that the debt reached $15 trillion last week.  Most people can’t comprehend this because they are too busy living in poverty which is now over 15%, and this includes some of the 47 million people now depending on food stamps to eat.  The unemployed continue to search for those non-existent jobs that you promised when you passed your first stimulus plan. Where are the jobs Mr. President?  The next headline has to be my favorite and it just reads “In Michigan, ObamaCare is already a job Killer”.  Where are the 800,000 new jobs that you promised when you signed this bill? And we will never forget those words uttered by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “We have to pass the bill so that we can find out what is in it.  And the newest statement by Pelosi who “wants to do for child care what we did for health care”.

In all fairness Mr. President we sometimes get jobs that are way over our heads and it’s nothing to be ashamed of if you can’t handle it.  If this is truly the case there are plenty of community organizer’s positions currently available in your home town of Chicago.  I hope that you are able to find a position that is better suited for you.

One more item that is important for the American people to ask themselves, what did Chris Mathews mean when he asked Obama, “Just tell us, commander. Give us our orders and tell us where we’re going. Give us the mission.”  This sums up your presidency all too clearly. What’s next Mr. President.