Great news: The US fiscal gap just jumped $11 trillion … to $222 trillion

Forget the trillion-dollar deficits for a moment.  Forget today’s $15 trillion in national debt.  The real fiscal disaster isn’t our present — it’s our future, and it just got significantly worse.  Bloomberg economists Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns report that our “fiscal gap,” the measure of future liabilities to future revenue, grew by the same amount as our present public debt to reach $222 trillion.  That’s trillionwith a T:

Republicans and Democrats spent last summer battling how best to save $2.1 trillion over the next decade. They are spending this summer battling how best to not save $2.1 trillion over the next decade.

In the course of that year, the U.S. government’s fiscal gap — the true measure of the nation’s indebtedness – rose by $11 trillion.

The fiscal gap is the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue. It captures all government liabilities, whether they are official obligations to service Treasury bonds or unofficial commitments, such as paying for food stamps or buying drones. …

The U.S. fiscal gap, calculated (by us) using the Congressional Budget Office’s realistic long-term budget forecast — the Alternative Fiscal Scenario — is now $222 trillion. Last year, it was $211 trillion. The $11 trillion difference — this year’s true federal deficit — is 10 times larger than the official deficit and roughly as large as the entire stock of official debt in public hands.

Via: HotAir

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Labor chief Trumka vows stronger ground game for elections

The nation’s largest labor federation says it is ready to unleash a new and improved political program ahead of the November elections with expanded outreach and more volunteers than past years.

AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka on Thursday outlined a strategy that will emphasis grass-roots efforts over TV ads, vowing that at least 400,000 volunteers — 100,000 more than during the 2008 election season — will hit the streets nationwide this autumn.

“You won’t see us doing all the ads, all the anonymous ads,” he said during a briefing with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “We turn out people at the grass-roots level, something [anti-union groups and candidates] can’t do. And this time we’re going to try to do it even better.”

“That’s where we’re going to shine this time.”

New laws allow labor activists to have more contact with voters in non-union households — a demographic Mr. Trumka vows not to ignore.

“It used to be that we would do a door-knock, and there’d be 500 houses in a small community, and if 100 were union, we had to skip 400 houses. Now we’re going to be able to go to those 400 houses, talk to them about the issues,” he said.

Via: The Washington Times

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Arrested illegals who were released charged with 16,226 subsequent crimes

President Barack Obama‘s decision not to deport some arrested illegal immigrants has enabled a crime wave — but no American or immigrant victims have been publicly identified, and GOP politicians have mostly remained mute.

Illegal aliens who have been released from custody between 2008 and mid-2011 have been charged with 16,226 subsequent crimes, including 19 murders, 142 sex crimes and thousands of drunk-driving offenses, drug-crimes and felonies, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

“Rather than protect the American people he was elected to serve, President Obama has imposed a policy that allows thousands of illegal immigrants to be released into our communities,” said a statement from Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House judiciary committee.

The criminals “were in the government’s custody, were identified as illegal immigrants and then let go because this administration has refused to request the resources to hold them and deport them,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Via: Daily Caller

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Rep. Steve King considering bill to repeal everything Obama has signed

If Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has his way, everything President Obama has signed into law would be repealed, and he is considering a bill to do just that, The Hill reported Wednesday.

"King put forward this suggestion to an Iowa audience on Tuesday, when he also reiterated his threat to sue the Obama administration for its June decision not to deport younger illegal immigrants," Pete Kasperowicz wrote.

He also told a group of about 60 people in Humboldt County that he intends to sue the administration over an executive orderstopping the deportation of certain illegal immigrants.

''I am bringing him to court and we're going to defend the Constitution of the United States and the separation of powers,'' he said.

According to the Messenger, King's lawsuit may be filed before Labor Day.

"He said Tuesday that he decided to sue the president the day the executive order was announced," the Messenger reported.

King said that President Obama violated the Constitution by usurping Congress' role in the lawmaking process.

''He has prosecutorial discretion, but he does not have the ability to grant blanket amnesty to entire classes of people," he added.

While King's proposal would certainly undo Obamacare, Think Progress said it would also end the Bush-era tax cuts that Obama extended in 2010, defund the military, strip Medals of Honor from 9/11 first responders and cancel plans to honor President Ronald Reagan.

Via: Examiner

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Gingrich slams Obama on welfare revamp

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused President Barack Obama and his “even more radical” appointees on Wednesday of plotting to destroy the work requirement in the 1996 welfare reform law.

Obama and his aides “have a real fight and it is a fight they can’t possibly win,” he said.

“This happens to be an issue that is devastating for liberals… [many voters are] really offended by government giving away money for nothing,” Gingrich said during a press conference arranged by the Republican National Committee.

Obama’s deputies are pushing back against Mitt Romney’s new focus on the July decision by the department of Health and Human Services to relax welfare-to-work rules.

Romney said Tuesday the change is an “insult” to hard-working Americans.

In July, HHS invited states to conduct “demonstration projects” that could exempt welfare recipients from long-standing work requirements.

Obama’s aides say the new proposal won’t reduce the popular requirement that welfare recipients also work, and they argue that officials will only approve projects that actually boost work rates by 20 percent.

Via: The Daily Caller

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IRS told employees to ignore potential fraud in program used by immigrants

IRS supervisors ignored employees who tried to warn agency higher-ups of fraud in a program designed to collect taxes from immigrants, resulting in the agency paying out potentially bogus refunds.

The Treasury inspector general for tax administration said the IRS even eliminated some methods employees had used to figure out questionable refund requests, and that the agency doesn’t have the ability to verify applicants’ identity or foreign status.

Investigators “found an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications,” said J. Russell George, the inspector general.

The IRS pays out $6.8 billion in refunds to taxpayers who file using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), who are generally immigrants, here both legally and illegally. The amount of fraud was not stated.

The agency said it has put new checks in place to try to crack down on fraud, with employees getting training from the Homeland Security Department on how to verify documents when an immigrant applies for an ITIN.

Via: The Washington Times

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Over 100 Million Americans on Federal Welfare

A new chart set to be released later today by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details a startling statistic: "Over 100 Million People in U.S. Now Receiving Some Form Of Federal Welfare."

"The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare. 

Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."

The data come "from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. (These figures do not include other means-tested benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or the health insurance premium subsidies included in the President’s health care law. CBO estimates that the premium subsidies, scheduled to begin in 2014, will cover at least 25 million individuals by the end of the decade.)"

This is not just Americans, however. "These figures include not only citizens, but non-citizens as well," according to the committee.

Via: The Weekly Standard

Illegal Aliens CAN Vote, Military CAN’T?

Why is the Obama Campaign trying to disenfranchise military votes and at the same time, trying to make sure that illegal aliens remain on state voter rolls? Why are both political parties pandering for the Latino vote? Can illegal aliens vote now? The answer is yes, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

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As Obama’s so-called Department of Justice sues numerous states to block military votesfrom being counted in the upcoming November election, they are also suing states to keep them frompurging known illegal voters from voter registration files.

Just in case you needed iron-clad proof that Obama’s Democrat Party is as anti-American as Stalin’s Russia, this should do it for you. Directing the DOJ to use all of its power to block the vote of men and women who pay with their blood for every right to vote, while at the same time demanding that people not even in the U.S.A. legally, have their votes counted. That should cover any questions you might still have about Obama’s anti-American agenda for change.

And as usual, the good ole ACLU is engaged in protecting the illegal alien vote, but they are nowhere to be found in the fight to protect the military vote. There’s no link for the ACLU defense of the military vote, sorry.

Via: Right Side News

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Report says Obama amnesty plan will add 1.76 million new workers

A pro-amnesty group is forecasting that up to 1.76 million young illegal immigrants would get work permits under President Barack Obama’s de facto amnesty announced in June, amid a stalled economy and near-record levels of unemployment.

That estimate is twice as large as the 800,000 new workers predicted by White House officials.

Another 800,000 illegal immigrant youths will be eligible for the de facto amnesty once they graduate, said the report, released Aug. 7 by the Migration Policy Institute, a well-funded, D.C.-based pro-amnesty group.

The new estimate says the de facto amnesty would add as may workers to the legal rolls as the economy has created during the last 12 months, or during all of 2011. Currently, roughly 23 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, or have dropped out of the workforce.

The officials unemployment rate is currently 8.3 percent, and that number is much higher among young people and minorities.

For example, half of African-Americans in New York are unemployed, and almost half of adults aged 18 to 24 are unemployed. Unemployment among Latinos is also high, with 10.3 percent recorded in July as formally unemployed and still looking for work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The new estimates was released after administration officials relaxed the eligibility rules for the controversial amnesty plan, which was first announced by Obama in a June Rose Garden speech.

Via: The Daily Caller

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E-MAILS SHOW GEITHNER, TREASURY TERMINATED PENSIONS OF NON-UNION WORKERS

In what may contradict testimony by Obama administration officials under oath and may be a violation of federal law, The Daily Caller obtained emails that show Timothy Geithner’s Treasury Department “was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company,” and the move, according to The Daily Caller, “appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.”

As The Daily Caller notes, “Under 29 U.S.C. §1342, the PBGC is the only government entity that is legally empowered to initiate termination of a pension or make any official movements toward doing so” and “the White House and Treasury Department have consistently maintained” the PBGC “independently made the decision to terminate the 20,000 non-union Delphi workers’ pension plan.”

These emails contradict sworn testimony by several Obama administration figures and is yet another example of Obama’s administration misleading lawmakers, the courts, and the public -- as they did with Obamacare -- when it came to these pension cuts. 

Via: Breitbart

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Wife of steelworker in new Obama Super PAC ad still had job and health insurance after he lost his

I wonder if Bill Burton and crew knew about this and greenlit the smear anyway or if they didn’t care enough to even find out. Why would they? The point of calling Romney a murderer is to keep him on the defensive; the more ridiculous the charge is, the more media/online oxygen it sucks up and the less air there is for Mitt’s own attacks on O to breathe. They tried a straightforward offensive against Romney’s complex private equity record a few months ago but the results were inconclusive. Now they’re trying again with a bolder, simpler narrative: Romney’s layoffs literally killed people. If you’re a low-information voter who pays attention to this stuff in bits and pieces, a story you’re half-listening to about a rich guy and a steelworker and a plant closing and a young wife tragically dying from cancer sounds really bad, even if it’s a gross smear. In fact, the grosser the smear, the more compelling the half-listened-to story seems. Right, Harry?

Question: Knowing what we know now about the timeline of all this, what’s left of the accusation in the original smear ad? What is it, precisely, that Bain is being faulted for doing or not doing? They shouldn’t have closed down the plant because … it was unfair to expect the workers who were laid off to ever find new jobs with insurance? It was negligent not to predict that some workers’ wives might get laid off too and wouldn’t find a new job for years before they became ill? There appears to be no actual policy or business critique here. It’s just a string of events spread over five whole years, with certain key data omitted, and you’re supposed to infer causation without really being told why or how. This is what the Unicorn Prince has come to after promising four years ago to heal America or whatever. Perfect.

Via: Hot Air

Propaganda Minister Jay Carney: Being President “Restricts” Obama’s Ability To Campaign…

                   

Reporter: At this point, the president has had to attend so many more fundraisers than, say, George W. Bush had during this point in his reelection campaign. Does that impact the president’s ability to do his day job?

Jay Carney: Well, it does not. It certainly is part of running for president and running for reelection. But as we’ve discussed here, it is a simple reality that even as he is a candidate for reelection, he continues to be president of the United States. And the demands of the job restrict his capacity, in some instances, to focus entirely on the campaign. He simply cannot do that. So he, and we, carefully allocate his time, working with the campaign, and when matters of state trump campaign requests for his time, that’s a fact that he has to live with and we have to live with because that is his primary responsibility.

Via: Weasel Zippers

KILLING WELFARE REFORM: OBAMA RUNS ON CLINTON LEGACY WHILE DISMANTLING IT

President Obama spent nearly a trillion dollars of our children's and grandchildren's in a Kenyesian binge that not only hasn't lowered unemployment or created economic growth, but likely got in the way of what would've been a stronger economic recovery had Obama simply done nothing. This is a difficult economic record for a sitting president to run for reelection on but with the help of a corrupt and complicit media, Obama's not only a couple of points ahead of his challenger in the polls. he's pulling off the neat trick of running on Bill Clinton's record even as he dismantles Clinton's legacy -- including welfare reform.

From an ad the Romney camp released today:

--

Under Clinton and the Gingrich congress that reigned him in, America saw boom times; an extension of an unprecedented economic growth period that started with Reagan's tax cuts in the early eighties and was interrupted only by a single short-lived and shallow recession that, ironically, would be the downfall of Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush.

Via: Breitbart

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OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PAVES THE WAY FOR SHARIA LAW

The most terrifying danger Americans face from a second Barack Obama term isn’t the economy, which is scary enough.

The most harrowing prospect is the Obama Administration’s passivity in the face of attempts to introduce aspects of sharia law into our legal system.  Now there is strong and open evidence of the Obama administration collaborating with Islamist activists to ensure the path toward sharia law is accelerated.

Just last week, Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, was asked this question by Trent Franks (R-AZ), a member of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution: "Will you tell us here today that this Administration's Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?"

Perez refused to answer. Four times.

And why would Franks target Perez?

Via: Breitbart

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Mooch: “Building Our Economy Starts With The Restaurants”…

(CNSNews.com) - Striking a similar theme to one her husband also struck last week, First Lady Michelle Obama said on Friday that President Barack Obama’s tax plan will help build the economy by building up restaurants.

“So I want you to remind folks that Barack has cut taxes for working families by $3,600, and he has cut taxes for small businesses 18 times--18 times,” Mrs. Obama said in Springfield, Mass. “Because what your president understands is that building our economy starts with the restaurants and the stores and the startups that create two-thirds of all new jobs in this economy. That’s what we need you to do.”

On Thursday at Loudon County High School in Leesburg, Va., President Obama had said that hiring new teachers will help the economy because those new teachers will go out and eat at restaurants.

Via: CNS News

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More Tips to Avoid Obamacare’s 3.8% Surtax

“It’s a tax that punishes people that have been diligent over the years and did the right thing,” says Certified Public Accountant Bob Keebler on the Medicare surtax that kicks in on Jan.1. 

As I wrote last week, the additional 3.8% tax is part of the president's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ak.a. “Obamacare,” and affects individuals Congress has decided are “wealthy:” single taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $200,000 or more and married couples with a MAGI of at least $250,000.

If you fall into one of these categories, you’ll pay 3.8% more in federal income tax on the lesser of your investment income or your “excess” MAGI- the amount that exceeds the $200,000 or $250,000 threshold.

“Congress has introduced a third dimension- this surtax- that will affect every investment decision and transaction you make,” warns Keebler, who holds a Master of Science degree in taxation and addresses tax professionals around the country.

Via: Fox Business

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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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Pelosi: Harry Reid’s accusation against Romney is ‘true’ and ‘a fact’

Rep. Nancy Pelosi D-Calif. is backing up  Sen. Harry Reid D-Nev. baseless accusation that Mitt Romney hasn’t paid taxes for ten years.

“Harry Reid made a statement that is true. Somebody told him. It is a fact,” Pelosi told The Huffington Post in a Sunday interview. “Whether he did or not can easily be disposed of: Mitt Romney can release his tax returns and show whether he paid taxes.”

Pelosi also added that “Harry Reid is a person who is, as we know, A, is a fighter, B, he wouldn’t say this unless it was true that somebody told him that.”

Reid has attacked Romney, in recent days – with permission from Obama’s re-election campaign – insisting that he was told by “an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for ten years.”

Via: Washington Post

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NASA rover 'Curiosity' lands on Mars

PASADENA, Calif. –  In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside a giant crater for the most ambitious dig yet into the red planet's past.

Cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory late Sunday after the most high-tech interplanetary rover ever built signaled it had survived a harrowing plunge through the thin Mars atmosphere.

"Touchdown confirmed," said engineer Allen Chen. "We're safe on Mars."

Minutes after the landing signal reached Earth at 10:32 p.m. PDT, Curiosity beamed back the first black-and-white pictures from inside the crater showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the afternoon sun.

"We landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful," said engineer Adam Steltzner, who led the team that devised the tricky landing routine.

Via: Fox News

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Obama says Amnesty is yours for $465

The Obama administration will formally begin granting some young undocumented immigrants legal status and work permits later this month under a controversial new policy first announced by President Obama in June.

The Department of Homeland Security today announced details of the application and approval process for the DREAM Act-like program, outlining specific eligibility requirements and a $465 fee. It will begin Aug. 15.

Illegal immigrants younger than 30 who came to the United States before age 16, have lived here for at least five years continuously, attend or have graduated from high school or college, and have no criminal convictions are eligible to submit requests for so-called deferred action (legalese for an official exemption from deportation).

Via: ABC News

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A New Era of Prohibition: The Rise of the Californian Nanny State

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his listeners that a man with a beam in his eye ought not to criticize another with a mere speck in his. The message: sort out your own crippling shortcomings before presuming to meddle in someone else’s. It’s good advice for an individual; it would be even better advice for the state of California. Good counsel, however, has a way of falling on deaf ears in the Golden State. While lawmakers have found themselves incapable of dealing with crippling budget deficits, a public-pension liability that hovers around a half-trillion dollars, and a business environment consistently ranked as the nation’s worst, they’ve decided that the state’s most pressing problem is its people—specifically, their culinary eccentricities.

On July 1, the state with the nation’s largest economy ushered in a new era of prohibition, banning the sale of foie gras, a French delicacy made out of the intentionally fattened liver of a duck or goose. As anyone who has ever patronized a Sacramento tavern while the legislature is in session knows, this is perhaps the first time in recorded history that state lawmakers regarded hepatic dysfunction as cause for alarm.

The ban was a long time coming. Like many of California’s logic-starved but passion-distended nanny state impulses, it traces its origins to the era of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the bill into law in 2004. As written, the law’s apologists point out, the statute isn’t quite an outright prohibition; it simply makes illegal within state borders the sale or production of foie gras produced by force-feeding the birds—the only method that has ever brought widespread success. The nearly eight-year window between passage and implementation was intended to allow time to develop alternative methods of production. Outlawing proven business models while waiting for a superior alternative to emerge from whole cloth is what passes for cultivating entrepreneurialism in California.

Via: CA Political Review

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NASA spacecraft speeding toward a landing on Mars

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — After an 8 1/2-month voyage through space, NASA's souped-up Mars spacecraft zoomed toward the red planet for what the agency hopes will be an epic touchdown.

The fiery punch through the tenuous Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph Sunday night marks the beginning of "seven minutes of terror" as the Curiosity rover aims for a bull's-eye landing inside a massive crater near the equator.

The latest landing attempt is more nerve-racking than in the past because NASA is testing out a new routine. Curiosity will steer itself part of the way and end on a dramatic note: Dangling by cables until its six wheels touch the ground.

That's the plan at least.

"Can we do this? Yeah, I think we can do this. I'm confident," Doug McCuistion, head of the Mars exploration program at NASA headquarters, said Saturday. "We have the A-plus team on this. They've done everything possible to ensure success, but that risk still exists."

Via: CNS News

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Clint Eastwood endorses Mitt Romney (Updated)

"Dirty Harry" star Clint Eastwood, who made waves when he appeared in the "it's halftime in America" Super Bowl ad, was at a Mitt Romney fundraiser tonight, per a pool report flagged by POLITICO's Ginger Gibson.

Per Gibson's pool report, Eastwood deadpanned, "I haven't endorsed Gov. Romney," and then laughed.  He later added he was kidding. "I think the country needs a boost somewhere," he added.

UPDATE: Romney appeared pleased by the endorsement from Eastwood, whose Chrysler ad during the Super Bowl earlier this year was widely seen as a tacit nod to President Obama, even though he never said anything specifically about the campaign.

From Gibson's report, a transcription of Eastwood's ode to his film Mystic River and how it brought him to Romney:

Romney: "There is a guy here from the world of acting, who has pursed his dreams in a very unsuual way, he stood up to the industry and did things his own way."

Via: Politico

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