Archive for the ‘Issues’ Category
Colo. state Rep. Ramirez rips Pres. Obama on failure to lead
January 31st, 2012 | 
Author: Colo. state Rep. Ramirez rips Pres. Obama on failure to lead
Here’s what state Rep. Robert Ramirez, R-Westminster, told us afterward…
“He’s spending our money to campaign,” said Ramirez. “When is this man going to become president? Three years now, not one time has he been president. Even Bill Clinton, a man that I don’t really respect in a lot of ways, took the time to stop campaigning and be president of the United States. George Bush also made mistakes, but he was president of the United States. And gosh sakes, we had Ronald Reagan, for sure.
“But President Obama has not stopped. Every State of the Union has been a campaign speech. The speech the other night about, “Oh, let’s just work and put America back on track”…it’s not about America being on track to him. Mr. President, it’s time to get the engine started, it’s time to stop planning, and it’s time to start doing. Now. You have made nothing but mistakes. You have done nothing but spend taxpayer money and put us farther in debt. And I, for one, as an American, as an Hispanic American, am not proud to say you are my president.”
http://www.whosaidyousaid.com/2012/01/colo-state-rep-ramirez-rips-pres-obama-on-failure-to-lead/
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Obama says adding $4 trillion to debt is unpatriotic
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents — #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” – Barack Obama, July 3, 2008
CBS News, August 23, 2011:
The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama’s watch. The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion. It’s the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.
The national debt increased $4.9 trillion during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. The debt now is rising at a pace to surpass that amount during Mr. Obama’s four-year term…The Gross National Debt now stands at 97.6 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product – the total value of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S.
The GOP’s suicide march
By Charles Krauthammer, Published: January 19
“Are you better off today than you were $4 trillion ago?”
— former presidential candidate Rick PerryIt’s the campaign line of the year, and while the author won’t be carrying it into the general election, the eventual nominee will.
The charge is straightforward: President Obama’s reckless spending has dangerously increased the national debt while leaving unemployment high and the economy stagnant. Concurrently, he has vastly increased the scope and reach of government with new entitlements and oppressive regulation, with higher taxes to come (to offset the unprecedented spending).
In 2010, that narrative carried the Republicans to historic electoral success. Through most of 2011, it dominated Washington discourse. The air was filled with debt talk: ceilings, supercommittees, Simpson-Bowles.
What’s the incumbent to do? He admits current conditions are bad. He knows that his major legislative initiatives — Obamacare, the near-trillion-dollar stimulus, (the rejected) cap-and-trade — are unpopular. If you can’t run on stewardship or policy, how do you win reelection? Read the rest of this entry »
11 stunning revelations from Larry Summers’s secret economics memo to Barack Obama
11 stunning revelations from Larry Summers’s secret economics memo to Barack Obama
By James Pethokoukis
January 23, 2012, 3:08 pm
A lengthy piece in The New Yorker looks at policymaking in the Obama White House. A key source for writer Ryan Lizza is a 57-page, “Sensitive & Confidential” memo written by economist Larry Summers—eventually to be head of Obama’s National Economic Council—to Obama in December 2008. Here’s some of what I learned about Team Obama’s thinking as the financial crisis was exploding, followed by quotes from the memo itself:
1. The stimulus was about implementing the Obama agenda.
The short-run economic imperative was to identify as many campaign promises or high priority items that would spend out quickly and be inherently temporary. … The stimulus package is a key tool for advancing clean energy goals and fulfilling a number of campaign commitments.
2. Team Obama knows these deficits are dangerous (although it has offered no long-term plan to deal with them).
Closing the gap between what the campaign proposed and the estimates of the campaign offsets would require scaling back proposals by about $100 billion annually or adding new offsets totaling the same. Even this, however, would leave an average deficit over the next decade that would be worse than any post-World War II decade. This would be entirely unsustainable and could cause serious economic problems in the both the short run and the long run.
3. Obamanomics was pricier than advertised. Read the rest of this entry »
Holder’s Texas Defeat
The Supreme Court delivered a wallop to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday on the Justice Department’s recent federal posturing on the Voting Rights Act. In its unanimous decision, the Justices also sent a warning to civil-rights groups that further reviews of the law may be on the agenda.
In Perry v. Perez, the Justices rejected a series of election maps redrawn by a lower court in Texas to replace a map created by the Texas legislature to account for population growth and four new Congressional seats. The Supreme Court noted that the lower court had “exceeded its mission” and it sent the maps back to the drawing board.
Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Texas is one of nine states required to get preclearance from a federal court or the Justice Department for any changes in election law. While that petition was pending, the maps drawn by lawmakers were challenged on grounds that they diluted minority voting strength. A federal court in San Antonio then drew up interim maps that differed radically from the original set, creating a scenario more favorable to Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »
Lawmakers share ideas for session
The state legislative session started this week, and lawmakers representing Adams County are ready with bills reflecting their political and personal outlooks.
Democratic Rep. John Soper, facing term limits in House District 34, has a proposal born of his own frustration. ”I went to pay a deposit for my daughter and they said they wouldn’t take currency,” Soper said. “It’s just a petty little thing but it rubbed me wrong.” Under Soper’s plan, if someone incurred fees for a cashier’s check or money order because a business refused to accept legal tender, the business would be responsible for paying those extra costs. ”Usually I run bills for other folks,” said the outgoing lawmaker. “This year I’m going to run one for me.”
Republican Rep. Kevin Priola also is ready with a bill stemming from personal experience. Priola, an off-road-vehicle enthusiast who represents House District 30, wants to allow the titling and plating of such vehicles so they can be used on dirt roads in the wilderness. As the situation exists now, an off-road vehicle rider can go four or five miles along a permitted trail, then be legally prevented from riding a short distance to the next trail. “It’s a real barrier to access,” Priola said. “Look at the map. It’s almost like a Swiss cheese effect.”
The Worst Economic Recovery Since The Great Depression
1/12/2012
The record of President Obama’s first three years in office is in, and nothing that happens now can go back and change that. What that record shows is that President Obama, with his throwback, old-fashioned, 1970s Keynesian economics, has put America through the worst recovery from a recession since the Great Depression.
The recession started in December, 2007. Go to the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research (www.nber.org) to see the complete history of America’s recessions. What that history reveals is that before this last recession, since the Great Depression recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously lasting 16 months.
When President Obama entered office in January, 2009, the recession was already in its 13th month. His responsibility was to manage a timely, robust recovery to get America back on track again. Based on the historical record, that recovery was imminent, within a couple of months or so. Despite widespread fear, nothing fundamental had changed to deprive America of the long term, world-leading prosperity it had enjoyed going back 300 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Old regime county commissioner to leave office rather than face voters again
Adams County Commissioner Skip Fischer announced this week that he will not seek reelection for a third term. One of two commissioners now on the board with ties to the county’s scandalous history, Fischer saw the writing on the wall and will slip into history rather than go down in defeat in November.
As a commissioner representing the county’s District 1, Fischer did manage to avoid many of the scandals that plagued current commissioner Alice Nichol and former commissioner Larry Pace. Fischer however was intimately involved and voted on many questionable deals that have come to light.
The list of scandals that have disgraced the county in recent years is long and not-so distinguished. While Nichol and Pace were truly the bad seeds on the board, Fischer found himself caught in the middle. Read the rest of this entry »
Free People, Free Markets: Principles of Liberty class
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CO Illegal Immigrant Tuition Bill Introduced Again
DENVER – Colorado lawmakers will try again to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who graduated from state high schools.
Democratic Sen. Michael Johnston of Denver is introducing the legislation Wednesday. Five previous attempts have failed but lawmakers have made modifications over the years to make the proposal more appealing to Republicans. This time the bill would give colleges the option to opt-out of giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition.
The out-of-state tuition rate can be three times more expensive than the in-state rate. Supporters of the legislation say the higher rates illegal immigrant students have to pay is a roadblock to education. Republicans say the bill incentivizes illegal immigration.
