Category Archives: Unemployment

A time for serious people…

Providence City Council Majority Leader Seth Yurdin

Providence City Council Majority Leader Seth Yurdin

Listening to Providence City Council Majority Leader Seth Yurdin yesterday, reminded me that freedom has no enemy like ignorance, willful or otherwise. As many cities and towns now rush to initiate their own responses to the Sandy Hook tragedy, it is increasingly clear that politics will be at the forefront, with fact and reason struggling to keep up. I would only ask Mr. Yurdin what his thoughts are concerning gang violence (as well as many other types of violence) in our capital city, and also what he thinks are the root causes of much of that violence. I’m very sure he would migrate directly back to the question of firearms, and completely ignore the fundamental and obvious issues of broken families, poverty, unemployment, education, drugs and host of other factors which ultimately drive that violence. Accordingly, and in the absence of any recognizable moral code or self-discipline, Yurdin will exploit the Newton nightmare to its fullest potential, and take the political train as far down the track as possible, extracting as much opportunistic face time as he can along the way. I would simply ask those voting in the affirmative on the recent gun control resolution, to get off their irresponsible behinds, get the facts, and then get out into their communities to do the business of the people. Enough with the self-promoting band aid politics! Disgraceful…

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Stand Fast!!!

boehner_angle_ap_imgJohn Boehner was re-elected for a second term as Speaker of House yesterday, but not without some drama. From what I am hearing, Boehner just cleared the threshold requiring a second round of balloting, with 220 votes. Apparently, there were as many as nine Republican defections.

My take on this is simple. At no time in recent memory has it been more important for our elected representatives to stand on sound fiscal principle. The days of “bi-partisan” shenanigans at the expense of our children must come to an end. And unlike many dreamers out there, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with “inclusiveness” under one tent or another. I am not confused nor will I be swayed from the reality that “We the People” have allowed Washington to financially undo The United States of America. I ask the Speaker to lead in a way which will make him synonymous with our nation’s revival, not its demise.

With the election over, and as we await an Inauguration to mark the peaceful transition from one term to another for President Obama, I remain hopeful Americans will wake from their dreams of utopian bliss and realize our wounds are by and large self-inflicted. And in doing so, chart a new course back to that which makes this, the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

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Sequestration 101…

alan-simpson-erskine-bowles_gi_topAs both sides debate the fiscal cliff right to the very edge of disaster, “We the People” are poised to absorb the blow of Washington’s inexcusable dysfunction. On the one hand, you have Speaker Boehner who just realized he will indeed be held to account by members of his own party for his lack of fortitude and leadership of recent. On the other hand, President Obama enjoys main stream media neutrality, (and even their support), while he chips (spends) away at what’s left of our fragile economy. We are truly on the brink as a nation.

With the election now behind us, we can see the Obama second term taking shape. For the record, while I vehemently disagree with the President’s ideological stance, I do admire Mr. Obama for his political courage. He simply and truthfully pushed a radical and un-Constitutional agenda on a largely complacent electorate, grievously compromised by revisionism and a lack of historical appreciation for our beloved Republic. He seized on the political moment, took the ball down field and is preparing to go in for the touchdown. Sadly, the loser in this critical play-off game will be The United States of America. I have a sickening feeling about the consequences of being right on this one.

Nevertheless, I think it’s important for folks to understand the simple basics of what is about to happen, and in comparative terms to their own lives.

Most credible experts agree that if sequestration is allowed to go forward, and taxes are allowed to go up on all Americans, the economy will contract approximately 3.5 percent. Now as the U.S. economy itself is only growing at an anemic rate of under 2 percent, and the nation is carrying over $16 Trillion in debt with a real unemployment number of about 9 percent, this is critical. Let’s try and look at this as if it were an average middle class family today. Your monthly bills are around $4000.00, but you’re only bringing in about $2900.00 since your spouse was laid off, and her benefits have long expired. (You’re also on the short list to be laid off in the coming year because your employer will not be able to cover his “Obamacare” costs and penalties, and will have to downsize his workforce). You’re borrowing additional money to make up the difference and pay the interest on your credit. Your “projected income” over the next ten years will not keep up so you have to borrow even more money, expanding your debt profile by amounts you cannot account for without cutting your expenses, changing your spending habits “or” borrowing even more money. For the average family, this will eventually lead you to the point where no one will lend you any more money because they know you cannot possibly pay it back, (and you can’t simply print more). Are you following me?? You will now be forced to cut back in ways that you could never have imagined. Your quality of life will be dramatically altered as you may very well be forced into bankruptcy and your credit rating will be destroyed. You will likely lose your home and your car to foreclosure and/or repossession, and your wages may be garnished as debt collectors come for what little you have left. I know that you all are beginning to see this in the appropriate context. Now what the heck do you think it means for our country? What it means is this “cliff” is more like a black hole from which we may never return, but with one major difference for the federal government. They enjoy a luxury you and I do not, the power to tax until the well runs dry to correct the short-fall, ala France, Greece and Spain and their crippling tax rates.

Now we can debate all day about why both parties have politicized the argument in the manner they have, and many a short-sighted partisan fool will do just that. But it will not change the fact that our country’s economy is a mere shadow of what it was. And it certainly won’t change the fact that our elected officials at every level have screwed us to the point where they themselves have now thrown up their hands in utter frustration for lack of ideas or an appropriate and non-political solution.

Ya know, I remember reading the Erskine/Bowles report and listening to them talking about how their recommendations would be painful on all levels, and that was if we adopted those recommendations. The fact that President Obama and Congress have chosen to ignore them, leaves me to wonder if our economic wounds are now fatal.

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“Here’s fourteen bucks, and I’ll see ya’ at the polls”…

minimum_wage(1)Apparently my home state is among those that will raise the minimum wage come 1/1. Across the country there are a number of states which will do the same. But Rhode Island is a great example of the “wrong headedness” which dominates what I like to call the “Obama political landscape” these days.

Let’s put aside for a moment, the idea that minimum wage positions are not meant to be permanent or what many would call “living wage”, but rather starter or entry-level positions, which is what my dad taught me and what I believe to this day. And let’s also put aside the predictable politics of the Left as they fish for support among the uniformed/brainwashed. I would just like to know how in the world an extra $14.00 per week is going to make a significant difference in someone’s, or some family’s bottom line. Now firstly, save that Barrington rich guy stupidity. I’ve seen my share of hard times, and I don’t need a life lesson from any misguided “occupy type” or Progressive sycophant. But in a state legendary for its inhospitable business climate, excruciating tax burdens, and regional cost of living disparities, one would think our elected officials would be hard at work on a more substantial and “maybe even” long term approach.  Alas, Rhode Island will now make it even harder for small business out ahead of “Obamacare”. Moreover, when we hear our Rhode Island Delegation to Washington talk about jobs, one has to ask why in the world you would take away what little incentive there is left for companies to hire. And why in the world would you incentivize those companies to do more with “less” people.

In the face of such dire economic circumstances, Rhode Island offers the same tired and ineffective foolishness. “Here’s fourteen bucks, and I’ll see ya at the polls”…

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I will see you on the field in 2013…

untitled… As we attempt to take stock of Christmas 2012, there is obvious angst in America, and with good reason. I will be honest and tell you, I’m going to take a page from Bill O’Reilly’s book, and be “much tougher on the opposition this year”. For too long many of us have given a pass to those whose intentions we know to be anything but honorable, both in the political and news media arena. The truth and the facts have been watered down to accommodate a very vocal, disingenuous and agenda driven minority. Our heritage and culture are in danger of extinction, and our future is in question because we allow the argument to be framed as the enemies of freedom would have it. Our children will not live in their grandparents United States, as we parents have allowed their “inheritance” to be squandered in the name of a false utopia, predestined for failure by historical truth and example. No, I have decided there is far too much at stake, and little to be gained by simply allowing Progressivism to extinguish the torch of Liberty so many have died to protect. 2013 must be different. “We the People” must acknowledge and accept that we have dropped the ball, and time is no longer on our side. We must make a choice, or become just another failed nation which cast off freedom in favor of being ruled.

In the midst of a maelstrom of economic strife, albeit not just of one party’s making, President Barack Obama was elected and promised “Hope and Change” in 2008. He stood in the glow of history and eloquently described a new road for our country, a road paved with bi-partisan thinking and cooperation. Instead, we are on track to double our debt, and our economy is now on the brink of yet another crippling and potentially far more debilitating recession. Moreover, we have never seen a more uninformed and divided America, nor have we known a president more focused on ideological change and partisan politics, as this one. Now some may try and answer this with cries of racism and other baseless accusations, but I submit to you that there has not been an administration in U.S. history which has done more to promote that which they lament with such fervent gusto.

I’m sorry, but no more lies. No more acceptance of what common sense and sound principle tells us is wrong simply for the sake of “consensus”. In the end, a “consensus” of wrongheaded individuals who offer up the same tired, debt laden, and counterproductive so-called solutions, only prolongs the inevitable failure of a structure built on a compromised foundation.

We are indeed compromised in so many ways my fellow Americans. To deny this only makes you part of the problem. Instead, let us join together and face a storm unlike any we have ever faced. It will begin in our hearts, in our homes, and yes, in our churches. And it will only transcend to our cities, our states and to the nation, if it is shaped in the mold of a national movement to re-capture the “American Dream” we have lost. The reality is our “national death clock” has been sped up dramatically by irresponsible representation from local government to Washington, as well as a hijacking of the American self-reliant and entrepreneurial spirit our parents and grandparents passed on to us. We cannot and should not stand by and allow that spirit to be squashed by the naysayers and revisionists. This is not about party my friends. It’s simply “now or never” …

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A-123 Red Light!!!

The President has hailed many things as success stories, which supposedly relate to what is actually the fleecing of the American Tax Payer to the tune of almost $800 billion dollars, ( The American “Recovery” and Re-Investment Act). So it is like nails on a chalk board when I hear that voice from the past talking about companies like “A123” and how they were proof positive his (college try) was “and is working”. Even worse, A123 joins a growing list of companies and banks snatched up by the Chinese at bargain prices after being subsidized by “We the People”. It is simply unimaginable and frustrating to think that reasonable people can look at any of the cost to benefit ratios having to do with the 2009 “stimulus” plan, and not come to the conclusion that it has been an enormous and costly failure.

As we will see the Obama years inevitably yield a more economically and militarily compromised United States on the world stage, and as the nation continues its steady decline into “the new norm”, with a smaller work force, higher taxes for all, and inflation and gas prices more closely resembling those of Europe, it appears the President may indeed have been successful. Not in leaving a better America for our children, but rather in diminishing and reigning in the “arrogant, divisive and derisive” nation he has so openly and forthrightly criticized. Congratulations Mr. President, “mission accomplished“.

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Obama AWOL on fiscal talks…

In the face of economic challenges he himself has called the “worst since the Great Depression”,  The President of United States is “absent without leave” when it comes to addressing those challenges. His cavalier and irresponsible “I won the election” attitude, demonstrates what I have referred to all along as his “community organizer style of governing”. Regrettably, this is a time for real leadership from our President, leadership he pledged to provide and instead has now settled in for a long winters nap while planning his four million dollar holiday extravaganza.

With inflation creeping into the mix, a jobs report which proves only that the American work force is shrinking to historic lows, and a consumer spending and confidence index in the toilet this holiday season, the POTUS seems oddly cocksure and confident, predictably casting the “compromise” word to the trash heap of election year BS .

Admittedly, I have been torn between the notion of letting the country go over the fiscal cliff or allowing the president’s proposals to go forward. On the one hand, the country would suffer mightily if we go over this so called cliff, with unemployment skyrocketing and taxes reaching unprecedented levels for all tax-“payers”. On the other hand, if we allow the President’s policies to go forward, fiscal chaos and another recession are an economic reality for the nation. Doesn’t seem like much of choice now does it.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you unleash the power of a masterfully packaged, albeit ideologically flawed plan on our Constitutional Republic. Precious time is wasted on the nuances of party politics and class warfare, as the country’s true economic engine is starved of the very fuel which makes it run: the entrepreneurial spirit, hard work and ingenuity of “We the People”.

Consequently, and as a Constitutional Conservative, I feel nothing short of bound to an old amusement park rollercoaster I don’t want to be on. As the rickety ride screams at breakneck speed toward inevitable calamity, I can see a duly elected President who readily ignores fact, truth and history, in what can only be described as a political high-jacking of our national identity, pitted against an weak-kneed opposition party, held hostage by the inability of its elected representatives to secure a principled position and stand on that position for better or worse. Hang on…

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Demographically speaking…

Many things inspire my writing. I do not automatically fall in line with the “news of the day” folks as this is predictable to me and often not of great interest to my readers. It’s the story within the story I’m chasing, that in turn allows me to reconcile the events which affect us all.

I was reading on-line recently when I came across a very flattering sequence of photos showing the President with his wife and one of his daughters taking in a pro-basketball game. Smiles and hugs abounded, and Mr. Obama the man looked quite content with his life post-election. Unlike some who write as I do, I’m usually inclined to give the POTUS a pass in these situations because he is also a family man and should be able to enjoy his life, at least to the extent he can and within the context of his awesome “responsibilities”. Truth be told, that difficult balance goes with the job he fought so hard to keep.

Nevertheless, I read a contrasting article this morning about a women in Rhode Island who was laid off last year and has been struggling with the fact her unemployment benefits are quickly coming to an end. She has cashed in her life insurance and sold just about everything she owns to stay in the game. She reminded the interviewer that her bills are still due regardless of her employment status, and that her gas had been shut off at different times while she struggled to pay the bill. With winter approaching, my heart went out to this women as you could clearly see the anguish on her face in a photo taken for the article.

Now I know Liberals out there will defend the President on this one, and say that he cannot and should not be expected to live life as a recluse in mourning for those struggling in “the worst recession since the Great Depression”, as he himself describes it. Normally I would be inclined to agree with that analogy. However, “this President” has taken extraordinary pains to identify himself with a particular demographic in this country, all the while bashing another demographic and touting what he calls “progress” on the economic front.

So as the work force remains at historically low levels, and many finding work are settling for underemployment as opposed to no employment, and as our national debt continues to grow while a fiscal chasm looms ahead of the new year, and while so many Americans continue to struggle in an economic climate on which our President readily admits “We’ve got more work to do”, I would suggest to Mr. Obama that he at least try and appear a bit more introspective during this very difficult holiday season for many Americans.

http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2012/11/30/president-obama-headed-to-hawaii-for-4-million-dollar-christmas-vacation/

 

 

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Fiscal Fiasco…

Talks on the so-called “Fiscal Cliff” are collapsing as I knew they would. And despite the fact many Republicans appeared ready to roll over and play nice with the POTUS, it now seems pretty obvious the President wants to take a “perceived” mandate for a test drive down a one way, and John Boehner is having none of it. Notably, I seem to remember telling all of you this President was not the least bit interested in “bi-partisanship” or anything to do with real recovery. Simply put, his campaign style approach to securing his ideological intentions for our nation is right on track. And in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many of the President’s “fans” believe tax hikes on “rich folk” are going to put a chicken back in every pot.

Regrettably, I am beginning to see another of my predictions taking shape. This one however will be much more painful than anyone could have imagined. It will be this new and more dramatic economic downturn that may finally shake the Obama Presidency to its core. Who Americans will blame as a result is a question to be answered in the coming months and years. Nevertheless, Mr. Obama’s “political capital”, as it is often referred to by the pundits, may have a much shorter shelf-life in his second term.

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Reality Check 2012…

Even I thought I would have more time to check the reality of this election. Wrong… Now that the Liberal/Progressives have cemented their place within the future framework  of our country, it’s time to take stock of what that really means.

1. Moody’s has put the United States on notice that if a debt deal is not reached very soon they will downgrade our credit rating. They were also pointedly clear to the Fed, that any deal must not be a “kick the can down the road” application, but rather must contain “substantial and significant” measures, that would calm the fears of a watching world with regard to whether or not the U.S. will be a “worthy investment” moving forward. It is now painfully obvious that the simplistic and feel good “fair share” mentality, packaged and sold as the answer to our fiscal woes by this President and his supporters, will be nothing short of inadequate, and a shallow and fruitless approach to the goal of avoiding the fiscal chasm we face.

2. As anticipated, major corporations like Boeing are now preparing to cut staffing levels and work weeks, as well as substantially reduce their overhead (close area support operations), to offset the inevitable costs of “Obamacare”. The President’s signature law will, as predicted, result in skyrocketing healthcare costs to businesses large and small, and eventually diminish care for all Americans.

3. The Obama Administration, aided by a complacent and complicit main stream media, is now laying the foundation for a (major league) cover-up attempt surrounding the (bush league) handling of the Benghazi attack, which resulted in the murder of our Ambassador and three other American heroes. Moreover, the number of questions raised by the recent resignation of General David Patraeus only complicate the issue of any Administration transparency further. How this plays out over the next few months will be a significant measure as to where our nation is headed concerning the accountability of our elected officials. As of this moment, President Barack Obama’s Administration has set new and dangerous precedents along these lines, and appears to be re-writing our beloved Constitution.

As I watch all of this unfolding with lightning speed, and then add many of the pet causes of this now uninhibited ideological President, the words “elections have consequences” burn in my brain. I am also very curious to know how his supporters will react as the bottom ultimately falls away. Who will they blame? What solutions will they offer? Tax the rich some more? And what happens when they have no more to give?

For the first time in our history my fellow Americans, it is now indisputable fact that we will leave our children a lesser country than we inherited…

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.

“Sir Winston Churchill” 1874-1965

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