The Stimulus That Wasn’t: Five Years Later, It’s Clear Obama’s Stimulus Was A Waste Of Taxpayer Dollars

On February 17, 2009, Obama Signed The Stimulus Into Law, Promising It Marked “The Beginning Of The End” Of America’s “Economic Troubles.”“President Obama on Tuesday signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law… ‘Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles,’ Obama said before signing the bill at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. ‘But it does mark the beginning of the end – the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won’t be able to pay next month’s bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation.’” (Jeanne Sahadi, “Stimulus: Now For The Hard Part,” CNN’s Money, 2/17/09)

FOR EVERYONE – INCLUDING OBAMA – THE STIMULUS FAILED TO LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS

In 2010, Obama “Admitted That The Enormous Sums Of Money” In The Stimulus “Had Fallen Short.” “Yet he also admitted that the enormous sums of money had fallen short. ‘If we’re honest, part of the controversy also is that despite the extraordinary work that has been done through the Recovery Act, millions of Americans are still without jobs. Millions more are struggling to make ends meet. So it doesn’t yet feel like much of a recovery. And I understand that. It’s why we’re going to continue to do everything in our power to turn this economy around.’” (Richard Wolffe, Revival: The Struggle For Survival Inside The Obama White House, 2010, p. 155)

According To Obama’s Former Chief Of Staff Bill Daley, The Obama Administration Gave Up Defending The Stimulus Program Two Years After It Was Passed. ” Then, early in 2011, with unemployment hovering above 9 percent, Obama’s aides made a calculated decision to stop expending the president’s political capital to defend the program, either by its name or the generic term stimulus, said Bill Daley, Obama’s chief of staff at the time.” (Hans Nichols, “Stimulus Back In Obama’s Vocabulary After Year On Don’t-Say List,” Bloomberg, 10/26/12)

• Daley: “You Could See The Investments, But You Couldn’t See The Returns On Those Investments.” “‘It was pretty obvious that people didn’t see a difference in the economy yet,’ Daley said. ‘You could see the investments, but you couldn’t see the returns on those investments.’” (Hans Nichols, “Stimulus Back In Obama’s Vocabulary After Year On Don’t-Say List,” Bloomberg, 10/26/12)

FactCheck.org: “It’s Accurate To Say The Stimulus Has Failed To Live Up To Initial Expectations.” “CBO’s high estimate is still short of the 3.5 million jobs that Obama had said would be created by the end of 2010, so it’s accurate to say the stimulus has failed to live up to initial expectations.” (Lori Robertson, “Dueling Economic Ads,” Fact Check, 6/30/11)

Via: GOP.com

Continue Reading....

A Destructive President

President Barack Obama never admits to a mistake. Instead, egregious lawlessness is fluffed away as "not a smidgen of scandal" in relation to the IRS targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups. Instead of being a great leader, Obama distances himself and lets his appointees hide behind the law or simply exempt themselves from total disclosure. Thus, Lois Lerner can refuse to answer any questions or testify when she is brought before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Cindy Thomas, who was in charge of the IRS's Exempt Organization office and who illegally released confidential information about nine conservative organizations, can be promoted.

How else does Obama evade taking responsibility for his actions? Even though the president claimed he had no knowledge of the gun running program known as Fast and Furious, he claimed executive privilege. But one cannot assert executive privilege over documents that one has allegedly never seen. This is just one in the litany of obfuscations by Obama. And instead of taking responsibility for Fast and Furious, Obama falsely attributes the program to President Bush. Operation Fast and Furious began in October 2009, nine months after Obama took office. In fact, under President Bush there was a program known as Operation Wide Receiver, an "entirely separate program that implemented tactics in a profoundly different way;" furthermore, Operation Wide Receiver ended in 2007.

Via: American Thinker
Continue Reading...

[VIDEO] Obama: Growing up means grossly overpaying for health insurance, or something

Growing up can certainly be a tough proposition, even without the government forcing young adults to buy comprehensive health insurance that they’ll never use. Paying thousands in premiums while having deductibles that all but guarantee they won’t see any benefits at all from those plans is just part of the maturation process, Barack Obama explained to Charles Barkley in an interview for the cable channel TNT. After all, we older folk have lots of aches and pains — and you can’t expect us to cover the cost of our own risk, can you?

“Folks our age, I mean I wouldn’t call us old yet –” Obama started.

“We’re knocking on the door.”

“We are knocking on the door. So once you are 50, you wake up sometimes — does this happen to you, Chuck? — you wake up and something hurts and you don’t know exactly what happened. Right?”

“Everything hurts when I wake up,” said Barkley.

“When you were young, you know, you had to actually have an injury before something hurts. We’d like to encourage more young people to sign up, partly because since they’re healthier, their premiums are actually generally going to be fairly cheap. They can find good options for less than their cable bill, less than their cell phone bill. And it’s just part of growing up — is making sure you’re taking care of your body, your health. If you have a young family, you have to make sure that your family’s protected with health insurance, as well. This allows you to do it,” said Obama.

Via: Hot Air

Continue Reading.....

[CARTOON] President Obama’s Seal

Via: California Political Review

Wisdom Abandoned: American Children Thrown to the Wolves

American society is badly damaged by a lack of virtue and the rejection of wisdom--Does not Wisdom Call Out? Does not Understanding Raise her Voice?

A society cannot hope to survive without some recognition and preservation of collective wisdom. It is part of each culture’s duty to the coming generation to collect wisdom. We must instruct upon the difference between success and failure, upon character and virtue, and the difference between good and evil.

And yet we live at a time when anything which smacks of tradition is dismissed out of hand. And simple, common sense values which at one time “went without saying” are treated like sewage—only fit for disposal. Now, even the most basic of contrasts, such as that between men and women are dismissed as an unsophisticated joke.

It’s undeniable that American society has turned its back upon the concept of wisdom, allowing its children to drift in society’s open oceans without restraint, like so much flotsam and jetsam. As US society is in the midst of a radial rewrite of the code of cultural mores, the truths of previous generations passed down through centuries are now treated as a laughingstock, a historical fiction, a nonsense of sexist, racist and homophobic myths.

So what is the antidote to the changes now being seen which will certainly destroy the entire society soon—if not challenged and halted? Wisdom! But recovering wisdom is easier said than done. The Old Testament writers personified Wisdom as a female in such books as the Proverbs of Solomon, celebrated as the wisest man of antiquity. King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:5-6,

Get wisdom, get understanding;
do not forget my words or turn away from them.
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
love her, and she will watch over you.

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading.....

Exclusive: Kathleen Sebelius Won't Say Whether Still Fundraising To Promote ObamaCare

First in a series of stories on the Obama administration's outside fundraising efforts to promote Obamacare enrollment.

 

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other department staff may be continuing to solicit private donations to help an outside group promote the president's health care law as the administration works to boost enrollment figures after a troubled fall rollout.

News last May that Sebelius had asked business executives and nonprofit groups to donate toEnroll America, a nonprofit organization formed to help encourage millions of Americans to sign up for the new Obamacare insurance exchanges, provoked an uproar among Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Two GOP-led House committees launched investigations, and several Republican senators called on the Health and Human Services inspector general to investigate Sebelius' fundraising drive, which watchdogs have described as an unethical shakedown for cash.

Eight months after the news broke, Sebelius' spokeswoman last Friday sidestepped questions from the Washington Examiner on whether her boss has continued to solicit funds from outside groups for Enroll America's efforts.

“The secretary has engaged in a sustained, aggressive outreach campaign to reach as many Americans as possible during open enrollment,” HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in an emailed statement Friday afternoon.

“We're [sic] have been working closely with a range of partners groups across the country to reach the uninsured, and to help get them enrolled in quality, affordable health insurance,” Peters continued.

She did not respond to a follow-up question specifically asking whether Sebelius has continued the fundraising.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading....

SEN. MIKE LEE: OBAMACARE DELAYS 'SHAMELESS POWER GRAB'

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) blasted President Barack Obama on Sunday for his myriad Obamacare delays designed to circumnavigate the looming midterm elections and the Constitution.

"This is a shameless act, a shameless power grab that is designed to help the president and his political party achieve a particular outcome in a partisan election," Lee said onFox News Sunday.

Lee added, "The solution is for the president to come to Congress and make the case to Congress on the policy merits of this question that Congress needs to act. It is not the president's prerogative to simply make this the law by the stroke of the executive pen."

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), appearing on the same program, disagreed, saying that if Obama's actions were unconstitutional someone would have sued by now.

"If this were against the Constitution, someone would have sued by now and the president would have to stop," said Becerra.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading....

Eleanor Roosevelt is top U.S. first lady, survey says

(Reuters) - Eleanor Roosevelt was named the greatest first lady of the United States in a survey of historians released on Saturday, while Michelle Obama, in fifth place, edged out Hillary Clinton in sixth.

Roosevelt, whose husband, Franklin, served as president from 1933 to 1945, has come up No. 1 each of the five times the survey has been conducted by Siena College Research Institute since 1982.

In the top finishers after Roosevelt were Abigail Adams, Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolly Madison.

Least impressive, according to the survey, was Jane Pierce, the wife of 14th U.S. president, Franklin Pierce.

Although historians disagree over exactly when the title of first lady came into common usage, it has traditionally been given to a president's wife and is an unofficial, but potentially powerful, role.

Pollsters asked 242 historians and political scientists to rate 38 presidents' wives in 10 categories such as "courage," "integrity," "value to the country" and "accomplishments."

Current first lady Michelle Obama scored particularly high in the categories of "being her own woman" and "value to the president." Her weakest area was seen to be in her capacity of "being the White House steward."

Rounding out the top 10 after Clinton were Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Martha Washington and Rosalynn Carter.

Via: Yahoo News

Continue Reading...

Your at-a-glance guide to illegal Obamacare revisions

The adjective "historic" has been used to describe Obamacare from the moment it was proposed. Democrats and President Obama himself used the term admiringly, seeing in the 2000+ page bill an "unprecedented" (to use another favorite Obama term) commitment to take care of the health of all Americans. But with more people kicked off their existing health insurance plans than have received new coverage, Obamacare has been a gigantic flow and embarrassment. Even worse for the Democrats, it is an electoral liability going into the next midterm and presidential elections.

But Obamacare has been "historic" and "unprecedented" is another way: never before has a president unilaterally re-written a law passed by Congress and duly signed into law. The entire commitment to the rule of law, fundamental to our system of government, is being undermined.  And all of this is on-th-fly, in response to unanticipated problems shwoign up and causing political problems for the president and his party.

Because of the sheer complexity of Obamcare, it is difficult to get a handle on all these changes. But the RNC, to its credit, has produced an infographic that charts all of the 27 changes (so far)  imposed cuadillo-style by Barack Obama, contrary to the rule of law. Hat tip: Katie Pavlich, Townhall)

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading.....

In first, Minnesota poll finds Obama unpopular

Half of the residents of Minnesota now disapprove of President Obama’s performance, according to a new poll.

Results of The Star Tribune survey represent the first time that his approval rating has turned negative in the state since the president took office in 2009.

Obama’s job approval rating in the poll has fallen to 43 percent.

Men had an especially unfavorable opinion of the president. According to the poll, 60 percent of Minnesotan men disapproved of his job performance, compared to 40 percent of women in the state.

People under 34 had the highest approval rating for Obama, with 59 percent saying they thought he was doing a good job in office.  

The statewide poll reflects a broader disapproval of the president that has been swelling across the country. Current national polls show Obama’s approval rating is among the lowest it has been while he has been in the White House.

Gallup’s daily tracking poll has shown that the American public’s approval of the president has waned since a recent peak shortly after the 2012 election. According to that national poll, 53 percent of the nation disapproved of Obama's performance, while just 41 percent approved.

Obama easily won Minnesota in both the 2012 and 2008 elections. He won 53 percent of the vote against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) in 2012, and got 54 percent in state in 2008, against Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Via: The Hill

Continue Reading....

People with serious pre-existing diseases, precisely those the president aimed to help with ObamaCare, could find themselves paying for expensive drug treatments with no help from the health care exchanges.

 

Those with expensive diseases such as lupus or multiple sclerosis face something called a "closed drug formulary."

Dr. Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute explains,"if the medicine that you need isn't on that list, it's not covered at all. You have to pay completely out of pocket to get that medicine, and the money you spend doesn't count against your deductible, and it doesn't count against your out of pocket limits, so you're basically on your own."

The plan had claimed it would rescue those with serious pre-existing conditions.

"So it could be that a MS patient could be expected to pay $62,000 just for one medication," says Dr. Daniel Kantor, who treats MS patients and others with neurological conditions near Jacksonville, Florida. "That’s a possiblity under the new ObamaCare going on right now."

In fact, one conservative group, Americans for Prosperity, is running an ad on exactly this subject, featuring a woman with lupus, an auto-immune disease.

She starts by saying, "I voted for Barack Obama for president. I thought ObamaCare was going to be a good thing."

But Emilie Lamb says she later got a letter saying her insurance was canceled because of ObamaCare, pushing her premiums from $52 to $373 a month.

"I'm having to work a second job, to pay for ObamaCare,” she adds. “For somebody with lupus, that's not an easy thing. If I can't afford to continue to pay for ObamaCare, I don't get my medicine. I don't get to see my doctors."

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

The Golden ‘Hillary Papers’ Egg

The school of literary criticism known as reception theory holds that a text should be studied in light of its effect on its contemporaries, that a reader should be aware of the “horizon of expectations” in which a text is produced. I was reminded of this the other day as I observed, in amusement, fascination, and occasional pity, the reaction of the so-called mainstream media to Alana Goodman’s lengthy and rock-solid report on “The Hillary Papers.” This trove of previously unexamined transcriptions of conversations between Hillary Clinton and her best friend Diane Blair had been collecting dust at the University of Arkansas for years. Not anymore.

As far as Bill and Hillary Clinton are concerned, the media’s horizon of expectations is stunningly narrow. It encompasses on the one hand the belief that the “secretary of explaining stuff” is a national treasure beyond reproach, and on the other hand the expectation that the former secretary of state will be our next president. Stories that fall outside of this horizon are problematized, scrutinized, ascribed to partisanship, and read with the sort of incredulity reporters are supposed to apply to public figures such as the Clintons.

When the Free Beacon published “The Hillary Papers” last Sunday night, we knew the story would have to cross a high bar. The piece was scrupulously fact-checked. All of the documents we cited were loaded onto the Internet. Every effort was made to present as straightforwardly as possible the contents of the papers, which show Hillary Clinton as hardheaded, calculating, and, yes, ruthless. (Re-read the part where she axes a Supreme Court appointment out of spite.)

Via: NRO

Continue Reading....