Obama’s plan to fund pre-K will run itself out of money

President Barack Obama, astutely aware that people like kids and don’t like smokers, wants to fund his universal preschool programs through increased tobacco taxes.

The only problem? People don’t smoke enough to keep the program running.

The president’s preferred policy — which he has touted in numerous speeches this year — would support existing early education in the 50 states as well as establishing news ones modeled after the federal Head Start program. The policy costs about $80 billion over the next 10 years, and would theoretically be paid for via a 98 percent increase on tobacco

But after the first ten years, tobacco taxes will no longer generate enough revenue to pay universal pre-K’s annual $8 billion price tag, experts estimate.

The issue is that U.S. smoking rates have steadily declined over the last 50 years–making tobacco taxes an unsustainable funding source for the president’s pet programs, according to Scott Drenkard, a research fellow at the Tax Foundation’s Center for State Tax Policy.

“Outside the ten year window, its predicted the revenue source will be much smaller than what the spending needs to be to keep this program running,” said Drenkard in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. “In a general sense, this is a budget trick.”

So far, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has balked at raising taxes to pay for universal pre-K programs, which have not generally been shown to yield academic and social gains for enrolled students in the long run. Instead, the administration has used discretionary funds in other federal programs–including Race to the Top and even Obamacare — to push early education. (RELATED: Obama skirts Congress, funds universal pre-K through Obamacare)

But even if the president did get his way, there wouldn’t be enough money to pay for the program in the none-too-distant future.

Via: Daily Caller

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CORNEL WEST: OBAMA ONLY GIVES 'WONDERFUL SPEECHES'

Cornel West said the only thing that has been positive about President Barack Obama is that he has "given some wonderful speeches."

West made his comments to Al Jazeera America host David Shuster in a 30-minute interview program that aired on Monday. 

The liberal scholar, who has relentlessly attacked Obama from the left, said that, while Obama "gives some wonderful speeches," he did not even support the public option during the health care reform debate. 

West criticized Obamacare for being a "bonanza" for special interest groups and drug companies. He even accused Obama of being a war criminal and running a "killing machine." 

"Thank God he has magnificent children," West said. 

Via: Breitbart

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Obama, race and class

Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama, the two most important black leaders in American history, operated in vastly different eras and political arenas — under a strikingly similar set of ground rules.

King and Obama — born 32 years apart — both learned that an African-American leader needs to link racial equality to the broader cause of economic justice that included white, working- and middle-class Americans in order to avoid failure, backlash and marginalization.

To that end, Obama will spotlight his fallen hero’s unfinished economic agenda when he celebrates the 50th anniversary of King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech on Wednesday, leveraging an event most Americans view as strictly a racial milestone into something bigger — and more useful to a struggling president: A rationale for his second-term agenda.

(PHOTOS: 20 March on Washington moments)

Obama’s ability to blend class and race messages — to select the most aspirational elements of each — is a key to understanding his success. It’s his go-to power move, the political equivalent of a LeBron crossover dribble, the strategy that helped him bridge the gap between prophet and president.

“For Obama, economics is a safe way to talk about race,” said Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a three-volume history of the King era widely regarded as the definitive chronicle of the civil rights movement.

“Even though he’s the first black president, he’s in a tiptoe stance on race — that’s a phrase I borrowed from King’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail.’ It makes him nervous. He can’t even ask the most basic question which he’s begging to ask: To what degree is the partisan gridlock that is frustrating his attempts to govern racially driven?” says Branch.

Via: Politico

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SOWELL: President Obama - A Truly Great Phony

Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on his application.

"No," the chairman said. "I know him too -- and he is one of the truly great phonies of our time."

The man was indeed a very talented phony. He could convince almost anybody of almost anything -- provided that they were not already knowledgeable about the subject.

He had once spoken to me very authoritatively about Marxian economics, apparently unaware that I was one of the few people who had read all three volumes of Marx's "Capital," and had published articles on Marxian economics in scholarly journals.

What our glib talker was saying might have seemed impressive to someone who had never read "Capital," as most people have not. But it was complete nonsense to me.

Incidentally, he did not get the grant he applied for.

This episode came back to me recently, as I read an incisive column by Charles Krauthammer, citing some of the many gaffes in public statements by the President of the United States.

One presidential gaffe in particular gives the flavor, and suggests the reason, for many others. It involved the Falkland Islands.

Argentina has recently been demanding that Britain return the Falkland Islands, which have been occupied by Britons for nearly two centuries. In 1982, Argentina seized these islands by force, only to have British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take the islands back by force.

With Argentina today beset by domestic problems, demanding the return of the Falklands is once again a way for Argentina's government to distract the Argentine public's attention from the country's economic and other woes.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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L.A. Mayor Declares State of ‘Emergency’ As Movie, TV Production Flees Hollywood

Los Angeles’ new mayor has vowed to help stanch the flow of film and TV production jobs out of Hollywood, starting with the appointment of a film czar at City Hall. But to make a real difference, Eric Garcetti needs to convince skeptical state pols to combat the lure of rich tax incentives from outside California.

SEE MORE: From the August 27, 2013 issue of Variety

Two days after this year’s Oscars, Hollywood’s councilman Eric Garcetti, then running for mayor of Los Angeles, staged a media event at Sunset Gower Studios.

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Only a smattering of reporters and photographers showed up, perhaps because the gathering was to address “runaway production,” a buzzword that means little for those outside the industry and, for insiders, is a timeworn term for a chronic, unresolved problem alongside piracy and studio accounting.

But Garcetti, a series of location managers and other crew workers who spoke in late February tried convey a message of urgency: Hollywood’s homegrown industry is being ceded to other states and countries whose favorable tax credits are increasingly luring away movie and television production at an alarming rate. As competition both in the U.S. and abroad continues to grow, the state’s market share and longtime stronghold on production jobs and spending are fast evaporating.

PHOTOS: Tax Incentive Hot Spots

“I am starting to see people who have never made a feature film in Los Angeles,” Chris Baugh, location manager for Oscar winner “Argo,” which actually shot in L.A., told the small group outside a soundstage. “In fact, they are afraid to. They are concerned that it is too expensive and too difficult.”

Via: Variety

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Forget The ‘Fearsome Foursome’: The NFL’s Top Players Are Being Sacked By Tax Liabilities; At Home & Away

With the NFL’s regular season set to begin next week, players around the league anxiously await the arrival of their first big game check of the season.

For many rookies, who collect signing bonuses well before the season begins, their first check signifies what they hope to be a profitable and prosperous career on and off the field.

This season’s NFL rookies, however, will be shocked to find out that the earnings for their first few games might as well be handed over to tax collectors – a fact of which veteran players are all too aware.

For players earning over $1 million in base salary per season, their federal income tax rate is 39.6 percent.

Add with the additional 3.8 percent Medicare surtax levied with the passage of the Affordable Care Act – “Obamacare” – that’s a combined top marginal federal income tax rate of 43.4 percent. With that in mind, care to guess how many games they have to play to pay off the tax collectors?

The answer is a whopping seven games. That’s one game shy of half the regular season just to pay federal income taxes.

And that’s before factoring in state income tax liabilities for home games and “jock taxes” for away games.

Depending on where the team is located and which teams they play this season, players could easily see their earnings for over half the season handed over to the various state and federal tax collectors.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Touré: Conservatives ‘Damage Conversation’ on Race Linking Trayvon, Lane Murders

In the punditry game, compelling and unique points of view are currency. MSNBC host, columnist, and author Touré is among the best at articulating provocative and compelling points of view. Rarely do I find myself agreeing with him (though it has happened on more than one occasion), but I almost never find myself thinking that he has posited a thought that has little or no constructive value. This is one of those times. 

On Monday, Touré excoriated conservatives – though he was not talking about conservatives, per se, but merely those who disagree with the assertions he was about to make – who have insisted that characterizing the murders of Delbert Barton and Chris Lane by primarily African-American teenagers represents the other side of the racial coin. Touré added that this “vile” tactic employed by conservatives is an effort to hijack and “damage the conversation” on race. This statement must be met with protest: conversations take place between two parties of relatively equal standing. What Touré appears to be advocating for is a one-sided lecture on race.

Touré opened his Monday monologue with a correct assertion: there is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence that suggests the murders of Barton and Lane had anything to do with race. He is also right that it is misguided for some conservatives to see these murders as an opportunity to score political points against a media which credulously reported that there was a racial element to the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.

RELATED: Fox’s Kirsten Powers: Does Jesse Jackson Have to Comment on Every Crime in the Country Now?

On Fox News Watch, Daily Beast columnist and Fox News Channel contributor Kirsten Powerscorrectly chided conservatives for calling on America’s civil rights leaders to speak out about the murders of Lane and Barton. “Do we now expect Jesse Jackson to comment on every single heinous crime that happens in the country?” she asked.

Touré cited Powers’ objections to attack conservatives, and the Republican Party (linked, though not synonymous), for adopting a “vile new tactic.” That is, to invoke Belton and Lane to engage in “signal jamming” to confuse and disrupt the sacrosanct “conversation on race.”

Via: Mediaite.com

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Obama, Holder, Jarrett Meet With Al Sharpton And Black Leaders At White House To Enlist Their Help Pushing Obamacare…

Readout of the President’s Meeting with African-American Faith Leaders

This morning, the President met with African-American faith leaders to discuss the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and how civil rights and equality are closely tied to voting rights and closing the gap on education, unemployment, and access to health care.  The faith leaders from major African-American church denominations are in Washington to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.  The President noted that while the country has made enormous strides in the decades since the March, more work remains to be done to ensure that our country is more fair, more free, and more just than it was 50 years ago.  The President noted that his Administration is continuing to fight to ensure that the right to vote is protected, and he also discussed the upcoming start of open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace, and that the difficult but critical work of enrolling millions of Americans in health exchanges around the country continues.  Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 7.3 million African Americans with private insurance now have access to expanded preventive services with no cost, and nearly 7 million African Americans without health insurance will newly have access to quality, affordable health insurance options in 2014.  The faith leaders told the President about their plans to work with their congregations and partners to inform people about the Marketplace.  The President thanked the leaders for their prayers, and said that he looks forward to continuing to work with them.  The President and the faith leaders concluded their meeting with a prayer.

A photo of the meeting is available here.

African-American faith leaders in the meeting included:

• Dr. Carroll Baltimore, President, Progressive National Baptist Convention
• Bishop George Battle, Senior Bishop, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Bishop John Bryant, Senior Bishop, African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Bishop Thomas Hoyt, Senior Bishop, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
• Bishop Michael Kelsey, Executive Treasurer, Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship
• Rev. Alvin Love, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
• Rev. Otis Moss, Jr., Progressive National Baptist Convention
• Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder/President, National Action Network
• Rev. Stephen Thurston, President, National Baptist Convention of America
• Dr. C.T. Vivian, President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner, Executive Director, Skinner Leadership Institute 

Administration Officials in the meeting included:

• Attorney General Eric Holder
• Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President
• Melissa Rogers, Executive Director, White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State

Via: White House Press Release

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Only in Massachusetts: Special Report: RMV putting drivers deemed 'immediate threats' back behind the wheel

Two Bay State motorists deemed “immediate threats” to public safety after being involved in crashes that killed two kids — and a T bus driver caught playing chicken in her rig — are all back on the road because of lax registry rules, a Herald review found.

The survey of terrible motorists comes weeks after another reckless driver had been cleared to get his license back when authorities say he tore through Chatham near an ice cream parlor, killing one and maiming others.

“It’s bad enough when it happens once, but if it’s happening over and over and over again, then that’s a problem,” said Dalton Skerritt, who was shocked to hear Franklin Speed Jr., the driver who killed Skerritt’s wife and 1 1⁄2-year-old daughter in a horrific 2002 Roslindale crash, has been cited for multiple motor vehicle violations since he got his license back in 2004. “There’s two people dead. I would hope that he would change his behavior and not go back to the same ways that could harm people. If he’s going out and still getting tickets, then we have to intervene with laws and policies to help educate and prevent so it doesn’t happen again.”

A Herald review of Registry of Motor Vehicles records found:

• The RMV reinstated Speed’s license on Dec. 7, 2004, despite his lengthy record of drug and motor vehicle violations. Speed was deemed an immediate threat May 1, 2002, after witness accounts reported he crossed a double yellow line into oncoming traffic in the fatal crash. He was found not guilty of criminal charges for the 2002 crash but continued to collect motor vehicle citations — most recently in May for an improper turn in Dorchester, driving records obtained by the Herald state.

• Pierre R. Jeudy was given his license back Sept. 29, 2011 — less than three years after hitting a Brockton mother and her three children crossing the street in 2009. The RMV revoked his license as an immediate threat April 1, 2009, after the crash, which killed 3-year-old Christopher Mitchell. Jeudy, who had eight driving violations on his record, was later found not guilty of motor vehicle homicide.

Via: Boston Herald

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At RNC event, speaker says African Americans have taken a back seat to gays, immigrants

The Republican National Committee commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March of Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech with a luncheon Monday.

The most rousing speech of the luncheon came from Bob Woodson, the head of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprises. Woodson criticized black leaders over Trayvon Martin, the black Florida teen who was shot to death by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was acquitted in Martin’s death. Woodson, who is black, said groups including gays and immigrants have been prioritized over poor black people in American society.

“Everybody has come in front of them on the bus — gays, immigrants, women, environmentalists,” Woodson said. “You never hear any talk about the conditions confronting poor blacks and poor people in general.”

Woodson also criticized the “moral traitors” who mourned the death of Martin but notChris Lane, the Australian baseball player who prosecutors allege was shot to death in Oklahoma by three boys, two whom are black.

Conservatives have strongly criticized black leaders like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jacksonfor treating the cases of Martin and Hale differently.

Woodson said King would mourn for both equally.

“If Dr. King were alive today, he would not be just talking about justice for Trayvon Martin,” Woodson said. ”He would also give a prayer for this 18-year-old man, this little baby, who was shot in the face by two black kids.

Via: Washington Post

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Apple looks to build market share with the cheaper iPhone 5C

Early in September, Tim Cook will step on to a blacked-out stage and begin Apple's annual tradition: unveiling its latest iPhone.

It has become a familiar routine. Take one glowing rectangle with rounded corners; add a faster chip and some new features; leave hype to simmer; sell to adoring customers.

The iPhone created the smartphone market and became Apple's flagship product, making $18 billion in revenue in the past quarter.

Yet despite tens of millions of iPhones sold, Apple continues to lose market share toGoogle's Android. Many have questioned whether that matters, when Apple retains the bulk of the industry's profits.

More from the Financial Times:
Ballmer resignation unlikely to quell unease over Microsoft
UK solar power rush sparks local protest
Working round the clock is a poor use of time

Apple seems to have decided that it does. This year, it is thinking differently.

Cook will unveil two new phones: the iPhone 5S, an upgraded iPhone 5, and another, which the rumor mill has dubbed the iPhone 5C.

Via: FInancial Times

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Fed Up Yet?

There are more important things than whether the next Federal Reserve chairman will be a man or a woman.

AS SUMMER BECOMES fall, we commence the 100th anniversary of that most glorious of all the violations of the United States Constitution, the Federal Reserve. The legislation that eventually emerged as the Federal Reserve Act was introduced in the House in August 1913 and was enacted and signed in December. The Fed itself started doing business in 1914. It would seem that this is a dandy time to pause in our national rush to ruin so as to reflect on what the first century of the Fed has wrought.

The chairman of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress, Representative Kevin Brady, has been nursing a bill to create a Centennial Monetary Commission. The idea would be to look at all the questions related to how the Federal Reserve System has, or has not, worked. The Texas Republican is a cheerful, sensible, moderate fellow who has put out word that he wants the commission to be “brutally bipartisan.” Wouldn’t you know but that the Commission is given but a 14 percent chance of getting out of Brady’s own committee and a 2 percent chance of becoming law.

Instead, the press has been chasing the question of whether the next chairman of the Fed ought to be a woman. The New York Timesassigned two reporters to write a story called “In Tug of War Over New Fed Leader, Some Gender Undertones.” They disclosed that the pro-woman camp was for the vice chairman of the Fed, Janet Yellen, while the pro-man camp was for a former treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers. This led the New York Sun to issue a bemused editorial called “The Female Dollar.”

So how is the nation that Reagan likened to a shining city on a hill going to get at the various issues surrounding the Fed? Particularly now that the Fed’s craftiest congressional critic, Ron Paul, has left Congress? The Texas libertarian-Republican had been nursing a measure to require an audit of the Fed, one that would look not only at its holdings but also at how it does business, including internationally. The bill actually passed the House on a bipartisan vote. But it died in that graveyard of reform, the Senate, where Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, is trying to carry on his dad’s effort.

Via: American Spectator

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The Top 20 Things Hipsters Could Buy Instead of Obamacare

A couple of days ago, I gave hipsters a primer on why they shouldn't go out of their way to sign up for the Obamacare health insurance exchanges. In short, the health care exchanges feed on the supple, easy-to-insure flesh of the young and virile in order to pay out all of the many expenses associated with housing, feeding, caring for and picking up after Baby Boomers. 

Yep, the same generation who coined the phrase, "Never Trust Anyone Over 30" is happily proving their own remarkable foresight by fleecing their children bare to fund their high-rise loft senior living apartments. 

But I digress. There are a number of reasons, of course, to avoid state-run health exchanges like the zombie plague they are, but did you know that opting out of state-run health insurance could actually save you money? A National Center for Public Policy Research study showed that young Americans could save around $500 per year* if they opt out of the individual mandate and pay a measley $95 "objection fee." And of course, if as many young people burn their Obamacare draft cards as are expected, young Americans could actually force the system to collapse under its own weight. Theoretically, anyway. In practice, we see how easy the government lets go of things. **cough** Social Security **cough**.

Anyway, I'm here to show you the top 20 hipster things you could do with that $500 extra dollars per year.

Via: Freedom Works

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