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The President’s Employment Problem

The President’s Employment Problem

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bored-tv-watchingPresident Obama has a huge problem: jobs. As in, lack of them. As in, not creating any. He promised them on the campaign trail, and he promised them as part of the $1.2 trillion stimulus package he signed a year ago. After one year in office, with a huge majority in Congress, he has accomplished remarkably little, which is a relief to a Conservative. He has spent an inordinate amout of time, resources and energy wrangling over socialized medicine and cap and trade, and the unemployment remains stubbornly high. Tomorrow, employment data will be released for January. Weekly initial jobless claims for unemployment insurance has been running about 470,000, and this week the number hit 480,000. The employment sector will not grow until initial jobless claims fall below 400,000. We're still a long way off. There are two factors in play. The President has been jawboning big business for the last three years, while on the campaign trail and since his inauguration. Business will not hire workers without some stable signs of an increase in aggregate demand, and as long as this administration sends a [...]
The President’s Employment Problem

Obama’s State Of The Union Promise: Can He Cut Programs?

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President Obama 2010 SOTUAs we end the President's first year in office, we still struggle with folks on the left complaining bitterly that those of us who share a conservative ilk are out to see Obama fail. Never mind the fact that all I seem to hear during a Republican administration is a cacophony of angry vitriol, outright lies and attempts by Congress to undermine the critical work of the President, and I'll accept the fact that there are many on the right who see nothing but red when they discuss the current resident of the White House. But my goal is strictly to see America -- Americans -- be successful, and that means that I want to see the President be successful as well. But the President’s speech tonight leaves me wondering. There’s no doubt it brought a sense of euphoria to those in need, to those who continue to promote a liberal agenda. The beginning and end of the speech brought a broad stroke of hope and confidence in who we are as a nation, as any good presidential speech should. He made some good proposals. Some of which will make Congress uncomfortable to consider. Some of which will be hard to execute. Earmark transparency. Budget freezes. Cutting programs. He made some popular proposals. Jobs programs. Small Business Lending programs and tax credits. Tax credits on capital investments. Bank investment reforms. Additional taxation of large banks. And he continued to press for Health Care Reform that Americans don’t want. I will likely disagree with much of the spending [...]

2010 US State Of The Union Preview

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Tonight
Art will be a featured guest at the Des Moines Register's web site tonight during the President's speech in an online chat. You can join us at this link starting at 7:45 PM.
Well, friends, tonight could well be one of the most anticipated State Of The Union Addresses in many years. In a period of disappointment following the grand illusion of hope put forth by the President and Congressional Democrats, tonight's speech may well a pivotal driver to the 2010 Congressional Elections.

Health Care

Look for President Obama to sound confident and yet cautious on this topic. He may well fire barbs at the Republicans in Congress, but the fact is that House and Senate Democrats had the ability to make this happen months ago if they had the intestinal fortitude to put personal pride, personal gain and "pet ideas" aside and come to a consensus on what most of us would agree is a critical issue in America. But the President won't point any of that out.

The Economy

There will be more demands to poor money into the hands of businesses and citizens... unfortunately it will likely be more of the same non-stimulating "stimulus" money, feeding [...]
The President’s Employment Problem

Haiti Vs New Orleans

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HaitiFrom the Palm 700P….

Hey Glenn:

London Times: Haiti earthquake: a few more rescues, but aid still slow.“Nobody can go anywhere without security in the city. No aid workers can go anywhere without taking risks with security. That adds to the difficulty of delivering the aid because you not only have to have transport – which is rare – you also have to have some sort of security with you, or you are taking a risk. People are getting angry, people are getting hungry and thirsty.” This is sounding kind of familiar.

As I mentioned before, disaster relief isn’t like ordering a pizza. It’s hard to get aid into a place where the infrastructure has been wrecked and ordinary social order broken down. I’m seeing some people start to go after Obama on this in an obvious echo of the Katrina-based criticism of Bush. I understand the appeal of payback, but I don’t see any evidence that Obama has blown it here; this stuff is just hard. Of course, the press won’t go after him the way they went after Bush, but that’s a given.

Thing is, that’s exactly the point. I said to David in [...]

The President’s Employment Problem

Hello 2010!

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2010-imageGoodbye 2009! Hello 2010! Nearly everyone I talk to expresses relief at the end of 2009. It would be a good year to forget, that is, if we didn't have to deal with the consequences of decisions and actions that will reverberate throughout the rest of our lives. But it's a new year now, so no doom and gloom. I'll leave that to our President, and let me point out that he's good at it! I'm not one to make resolutions, but there are several that I've made this year:
  • Read more
  • Write more
  • Laugh more
    • [...]
The President’s Employment Problem

Nepolitano: The System Worked

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Janet NapolitanoNot in my wildest dreams would I believe that a US official could be so stupid as to say something like this in the face of unrelenting facts. And intriguing enough is that it happened on CNN, whose reporting tends to be as supportive of the Obama administration as possible. Of course, this is coming from the leader of the same department that earlier this year targeted "right-wing extremists" as high-risk for recruiting new members and conducting terrorist activities. About the only spin one could put on this is that "...the system worked, but it's broke". That perspective behind a statement like this is part of the problem. Saying that everything worked like it's supposed to but it's not supposed to work that way just leaves one wondering how much thought is going into the design of the process that is supposed to be protecting our country. Clearly the system is broke. To think that someone who has been identified as a terrorist risk like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could be allowed onto a passenger jet without careful screening is just insane... and there are 500,000 people on the list he was placed on a month ago! As I shared in my piece at the Des Moines Register yesterday, the entire focus [...]
The President’s Employment Problem

Mitch McConnell’s Speech December 21

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As discussed and promised on The Conservative Reader Report on December 22, here is the full Senate Minority Leader’s speech (Mitch McConnell of Kentucky) just prior to the Monday’s Cloture vote.  If you don’t have 13 minutes, you can see a 3 minute...
The President’s Employment Problem

The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal

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healthcare-reformWe are going to try and keep it simple on this one. The bill stinks. Put aside the fact that it expands Medicare. Put aside the fact that it establishes coverage mandates (you will be forced to buy health insurance somehow). Put aside the fact that it is a colossal power grab for an industry that has been well managed by the states for a long time. Put aside the fact that it will increase taxes. Put aside the fact that it will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for everyone (and they sold this to us originally as being needed to stop the soaring cost of insurance!). Put aside the fact that it will wreak havoc on the tax code, balloon the size of the IRS and increase the size of corporate tax management teams (which will increase consumer costs in all industries). Put aside the fact that this bill is overloaded with earmarks... in a bill that was intended to bring equality in health care. Put aside all of those issues and focus on the one true deception that will be broadcast throughout the weekend and coming weeks: that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the bill will have a reducing impact the deficit. The lie here is that although the Federal deficit will [...]
The President’s Employment Problem

Health Care Reform The Big Topic on TCR Report

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KimLehmanOn The Conservative Reader Report today we will have Kim Lehman, President of Iowa Right To Life and Iowa's Republican Committee Woman to the RNC, on our show along with Shane Vander Hart, conservative uber-blogger from Caffeinated Thoughts and guest blogger on The Des Moines Register's political web page. Our focus today will be all about the Health Care Reform Massacre about to be perpetrated by the United States Senate. The show starts at 3:00 Central on Des Moines Local Live Internet Radio.
The President’s Employment Problem

Rosa Parks, Robert Graetz, Liberty and Justice

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rosa_parksToday is the anniversary of the day that Rosa Parks made waves in Montgomery Alabama in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. What Rosa did that day sparked a movement resulting from pressure that had been building for almost 100 years. African Americans, who had been freed from slavery by Abraham Lincoln, were forced to endure a century of contempt, disdain and abuse from white Americans. Our society, although founded by men who rejected the concept of social classes, was maintaining a dual class existence and legally forcing people of color to live a servile existence. This was wrong. By the power and grace of God, this finally changed in America as a result of the boycotts, rallies, legal wranglings, and efforts of the Federal Courts and finally Congress. Although one may believe strongly in the sovereignty of the states, clearly the rights of United States citizens was being abridged by the actions and/or inaction of many of those states, and the Federal government needed to act. When I contemplate these events, it always amazes me that human beings can be so incredibly dysfunctional. It certainly makes greater sense to me to see an individual here or there who is so stupid that they actually think they are superior to others. But to think that large swathes of our society would actually continue to look down on others because of a history that is over two generations old, and especially in a time following the horrors of Nazi Germany, that they could continue to look upon other humans as just wild cattle that had been let loose and whose status as free men and women had to be tolerated. How could our country reach this point? I think the answer to [...]
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