The Puppet Masters Are Spinning Liberal Strings Ahead Of Obama Speech

Word has been sent from the mother ship to their liberal allies on how to spin Barack Obama's speech tonight.

Via The Daily Caller:

The White House talking points, as leaked to TheDC, are below:

• based on bi-partisan ideas;
• it is fully paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share; and
• it will have an impact on job and economic growth NOW — just as soon as Congress acts.
• Every day, people in this country are working hard to meet their responsibilities. The question now is whether Washington will meet theirs.
• The time for obstruction and gridlock is over. Congress needs to put country ahead of politics.
• The American people know that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the American middle class has been under attack for decades.
• That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis.
• The President is rebuilding the economy the American way — based on balance, fairness and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street where hard work and responsibility pay and gaming the system is penalized.
• It’s an American economy that’s built to last and creates the jobs of the future, by forcing Washington to live within its means so we can invest in small business entrepreneurs, education, and making things the world buys, not outsourcing, loopholes and reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.

Liberal Spin: it is fully paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share

Translation - Tax Increases.

Liberal Spin: and it will have an impact on job and economic growth NOW — just as soon as Congress acts.

Translation: Congress needs to act even NOW on my plan even though I, Barack Obama, have not produced a written plan and submitted to Congress.

Liberal Spin: Every day, people in this country are working hard to meet their responsibilities. The question now is whether Washington will meet theirs.

Translation: Do as I say not as I do.

Liberal Spin: The time for obstruction and gridlock is over. Congress needs to put country ahead of politics

Translation: I, Barack Obama say this even as I use this "jobs speech" as a campaigning tool for my reelection bid in 2012.

Liberal Spin: The American people know that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the American middle class has been under attack for decades.

Translation: Please forget about the 21 tax increases, I Barack Obama, have signed into law over the last 2 1/2 years which attacks the middle class.

Liberal Spin: The President is rebuilding the economy the American way — based on balance, fairness and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street where hard work and responsibility pay and gaming the system is penalized.

Translation: Forget that I, Barack Obama, wish to penalize those that work hard, employ millions and provides jobs to the masses by strangling them with regulations, choking their ability to expand and grow which would help lower the 9.1 percent unemployment rate we see today.

Liberal Spin: It’s an American economy that’s built to last and creates the jobs of the future, by forcing Washington to live within its means so we can invest in small business entrepreneurs, education, and making things the world buys, not outsourcing, loopholes and reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.

Translation: Please forget that I, Barack Obama, have raised our national deficit by more than any other president in history, by my out-of-control spending, trillion dollar healthcare law, failed $787 billion stimulus bill, etc.... so I can "spend more" aka "invest" aka "more stimulus".

Zero Job Growth In August, Unemployment Still At 9.1 Percent; Real Time Unemployment 'U-6' At 16.2 Percent

The Employment Situation Summary released by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that job growth has come to a screeching halt and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent and the economy showed zero job growth in August.



As I note in these reports, the summary also shows that 2.6 million people not working are not included into that 9.1 percent official figure.

About 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, up from 2.4 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the real time unemployment called the U-6 which counts the unemployed in addition to those marginally attached to the workforce or working part-time for economic reasons has risen from 16.1 to 16.2 percent.



Areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:



Alabama- 10.0%

Arizona 9.4%

California- 12.0%

Connecticut 9.1%

D.C.- 10.8%

Florida- 10.7%

Georgia- 10.1%

Idaho- 9.4%

Illinois 9.5%

Kentucky- 9.5%

Michigan- 10.9%

Mississippi- 10.4%

Nevada- 12.9%

New Jersey- 9.5%

North Carolina- 10.1%

Oregon- 9.5%

Rhode Island- 10.8%

South Carolina- 10.9%

Tennessee- 9.8%

Washington 9.3%



Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)



Barack Obama has not sent Congress a written jobs plan, no tangible proposal, but no worries, he will be making a speech about his "plan" on September 8, 2011. A speech that Obama has already attempted to use as a campaigning tool by trying to force a pre-scheduled televised GOP debate on September 7, 2011 to be moved to accommodate his campaign speech on jobs.



That attempt failed.



The Politico reports that the White House is "furious" that their political ploy didn't work.



Headline of the day in regards to the whole speech debacle goes to Outside The Beltway with "White House Officials Upset That Republicans Playing Politics Interfered With Their Attempt To Play Politics."



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Rick Perry Favored By Republicans And Tea Party Supporters

Gallup's new numbers are out and Rick Perry seems to at the front of the pack still, among Republicans who identify "government spending and power" as the set of issues most important to them as well as a smaller lead against Romney among Republicans who say "business and the economy" is their top issue.



Findings also show that Perry is more popular among Tea Party supporters than any other candidate as well.

Rick Perry's candidacy has attracted strong initial support from Republicans who identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement. Perry leads by 21 percentage points over the closest contenders among this group, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Among Republicans who say they do not support the Tea Party movement, Romney and Perry are essentially tied.



These results are based on an Aug. 17-21 Gallup poll, which showed Perry overtaking Romney as the front-runner for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination among all Republicans nationwide.



The poll finds that 58% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement, with 36% saying they do not consider themselves supporters. Included among the group of Tea Party supporters is a smaller group -- representing 12% of Republicans -- who say they are "strong" supporters of the movement. Among this smaller group, Perry's lead is even greater, 46% to 16%, over Bachmann, with all other candidates in single digits.



In Gallup's July measurement of Republicans' nomination preferences, before Perry officially entered the race, Romney held a slight edge over Bachmann among Tea Party supporters, 29% to 23%. Romney led Paul by 25% to 16% among nonsupporters.

The breakdown is explained over at Gallup on the lead Perry holds over Romney on the Government spending and business and economy issues, but there is no doubt that 3 weeks into his official campaign, Perry has slid into the candidate of choice for many.



NRO explains why Perry is popular with those that recognize his name already and why he will become more popular as more match him up against Romney and others.

• As “America’s jobs governor,” Perry is a one-man antidote to Obama’s venomous policies, which have held unemployment above 9 percent for 25 of the last 27 months. Across all 50 states, between June 2009 and June 2011, the Dallas Federal Reserve calculates that 49.9 percent of America’s net new jobs arose in Texas. July was its eleventh straight month of payroll expansion, with 29,300 Texans finding work. Nearly eleven years into Perry’s governorship, Texas inarguably is No. 1 in job growth.

During Romney’s single four-year term, however, the U.S. Labor Department ranked Massachusetts No. 47 in job growth. Employment increased just 0.9 percent between January 2003 and January 2007. At that time, U.S. job growth was roughly 5 percent, reports WSJ.com’s Brett Arends. Romney did keep Massachusetts ahead of Ohio and Michigan — two Rust Belt job sieves — and Louisiana, crushed by Katrina.

Read the whole thing.



Job growth and the economy are going to be two of the most important issues for the 2012 GOP nomination and for the 2012 presidential election and Perry stands far above all other GOP candidates as well as above Barack Obama on records alone.



Unless unemployment is drastically reduced and/or the economy grows at an impossible rate over the next year, Obama has nothing to campaign on except his speeches which are nothing like those he charmed voters with in 2008, because now there is a record behind him and it is ugly.



Obama's signature issue, Obamacare is still opposed by the majority of Americans and his unprecedented spending spending spree and deficit increases in the last two and half years have failed to stimulate the economy or produce the job growth promised with unemployment still over 9.0 percent.



No doubt as more Americans, especially Independents, learn more and are able to compare Perry's record with everyone else in the field of candidates and Obama, Perry's national lead will increase.



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VIDEO: The Obama Economy Is Killing Jobs, Restaurant CEO Explains

Video below via Heritage of Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants explaining how Obama's policies are bad for job growth:

CKE, which owns and franchises 3,182 restaurants in 42 states and 23 foreign countries under the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s brand names, employs about 70,000 people in the United States. As Puzder explains, his company is “a job creation machine,” but he fears that Obamacare, or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), will be the wrench that grinds it to a halt.

Listen to the 2:39 minute video, then read the whole Heritage piece which covers Mr. Puzder's statement to Congress as well as detailing his points.



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Perry Vs Obama: Putting America Back To Work

Back to work



Since Rick Perry's South Carolina speech declaring his intention to run for president in 2012, his main focal point has been getting Americans back to work. In every speech he has mentioned it. He has put his plan out there.



It has been one of his most used expressions at every stop, in every conversation.



Today I see Barack Obama thinks it is a good expression, one that resonates with the public, so his weekly address is even titled "Getting America Back to Work."



Nice thought, but who is the public going to give more credence to when it comes to jobs and job growth?



The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, who has presided over a state that is responsible for approximately 37 percent of all the nations jobs created or the man, Barack Obama, that has presided over a country that hasn't seen unemployment under 9 percent since his first year in office?



No-brainer!



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The Miracle Of Jobs Growth In Texas

Just read an excellent piece over at Political Math about the "miraculous" jobs growth in Texas over the last decade from a non-Rick Perry supporter. Yep, someone that doesn't like Rick Perry for our next president and was prepared to dig into the raw data and prove why Texas's job growth numbers were not spectacular, then proved the exact opposite.



He doesn't credit Rick Perry with the tremendous growth that has occurred in the decade Perry has governed the state of Texas, but he does counter the liberal arguments that are being spouted across the media and liberal blogosphere.



Teaser:

So I was going to drive my point home that Texas was nothing special by looking at their raw employment numbers and reporting on those. That's when I saw this:

Go read the rest, see the charts and the raw data provided.



H/T Just Karl.



Follow that up with Kevin D. Williamson's facts and figures on the same topic over at NRO.



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Obama's Answer To Job Killing Regulations? ADD 350+ MORE!!!

Recently two more job creators, employers, went very public on why businesses are not expanding and not employee more people.

Bernie Marcus co-founder of Home Depot stated in an interview "Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling."

Democratic Steve Wynn, CEO of casino company Wynn Resorts said that the Obama administration is the "greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime," then he went on to say "Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America."

Those are just the latest of small business owners and big business employers, telling it like it is, showing people why unemployment is continuing to rise, why businesses are terrified of the Obama's administration"s constant threats. How the job killing regulations are killing any chance of job growth in America.

So, it amazes me to see U.S. News & World Report publishing an article stating that the Obama administration added $9.5 billion in red tape in July.

At Tuesday's GOP Senate caucus lunch, the lawmakers said that they will renew their efforts, supported by business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In a memo Barasso handed out to the lawmakers, he claimed that the administration in July only has put in $9.5 billion in new regulatory costs by proposing 229 new rules and finalizing 379 rules. Among those he cited were EPA, healthcare reform, and financial regulatory reform rules.

Is it any wonder we are at 9.2 percent unemployment, our US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, stocks are tumbling, gas prices are up, food costs are up, foreclosures are up, home sales are down and Obama's polling numbers are tanking?

Obama is so far in over his head it is pitiful.

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28 States Register Unemployment Increases: Updated- States At Or Above National Average

The United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic News Release of Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary for June shows that 28 states and DC have registered an increase in unemployment numbers, 8 states have shown a decrease and 14 states show no rate change.

[Update]

Areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:

Alabama- 9.9%
Arizona- 9.3%
California- 11.8%
D.C.- 10.4%
Florida- 10.6%
Georgia- 9.9%
Idaho- 9.4%
Illinois 9.2%
Kentucky- 9.6%
Michigan- 10.5%
Mississippi- 10.3%
Nevada- 12.4%
New Jersey- 9.5%
North Carolina- 9.9%
Oregon- 9.4%
Rhode Island- 10.8%
South Carolina- 10.5%
Tennessee- 9.8%
Washington 9.2%

Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)

[Update #2] Finance Yahoo reports that mass layoffs are making a comeback.

Putting pressure on an already lousy job market, the mass layoff is making a comeback. In the past week, Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Borders announced a combined 23,000 in job cuts. (See: Another Retailer Bites the Dust: Borders Doomed by Amazon Deal, Davidowitz Says)

Those announcements follow 41,432 in planned cuts in June, up 11.6% from May and 5.3% vs. a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Meanwhile, state and local governments have cut 142,000 jobs this year, The WSJ reports, and Wall Street is braced for another round of cutbacks. This week, Goldman Sachs announced plans to let go 1000 fixed-income traders.

Howard Davidowitz, CEO of Davidowitz & Associates states "There has never been in a situation in my lifetime where a guy increases the debt by 40%, GDP growth is on the way down, Food Stamps are up, millions more are unemployed -- and to accomplish this we spent $4 trillion."

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Democratic Steve Wynn: Obama Admin Greatest 'Wet Blanket' To Business, Progress And Job Creation

The other day I published comments from a small business owner who explained how the Obama administration tax increase proposals would cause suffering and perhaps financial ruin for small business owners.

Today we see the POV of a huge business owner, who explains how damaging Barack Obama's administration has been to business, progress and job creation.

H/T to Business Insider for linking to Seeking Alpha who provides a transcript of a quarterly conference call where Steve Wynn, the CEO of casino company Wynn Resorts, lays into the Obama administration and pulls no punches.

For the record... Wynn calls himself a "Democratic" businessman.

I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating.

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.

It doesn't get any more blunt than that.

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Obama's Convoluted Logic: High Unemployment 'Evidence' Stimulus Worked

Video below:



Text via CNS:

“Now, without relitigating the past, I’m absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the Recovery Act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs.

“And part of the evidence of that is as you see what happens with the Recovery Act phasing out. When I came into office and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the Recovery Act was giving states help so they wouldn’t have to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. As we’ve seen that federal support for states diminish, you’ve seen the biggest job losses in the public sector--teachers, police officers, firefighters losing their jobs.”

Commentary:

I have said, multiple times, the $787 billion stimulus Obama and Democrats passed in February 2009 was nothing more than a band-aid slapped on a gushing wound.

Using any failing business as an example, whether it is a lack of sales, bad management, whatever the reason the business is losing money, if you pump more money into it, that business can keep it's doors open until the money runs out.

If the underlying causes of failure was not addressed and fixed, the business would again fail when the extra money runs out.

The stimulus did exactly that, it pumped good taxpayer money after bad into the economy. It did not address or fix the underlying problems and as the money ran out, or as Obama puts it, "phased" out... surprise, surprise, the problems are still there.

The stimulus only gave the illusion that there was some kind of recovery going on.

Obama likes to talk about how many jobs were created or saved by his stimulus plan but we never see him acknowledge or see the media ask about the one million private sector jobs that were destroyed/forestalled as a direct result of the stimulus package, leaving his stimulus package with a net loss of 500,000 jobs.

Unemployment was 8.1 in February of 2009, it is now 9.2 in June of 2011.

No worries though, Democrats want...wait for it....... another stimulus plan.

The evidence is in alright and Obama is right, the stimulus worked if the purpose of that stimulus was to create an illusion.

Unemployment Rises To 9.2. - Video Of Rubio: 'We Don't Need New Taxes, We Need New Taxpayers'

The Employment Situation Summary released by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that job growth has slowed considerably as the unemployment rate has risen by another percentage point bringing it to 9.2 percent unemployment.

As I note in these reports, the summary also shows that 2.7 million people not working are not included into that 9.2 percent official figure.

In June, 2.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:

Alabama- 9.6%
California- 11.7%
D.C.- 9.8%
Florida- 10.6%
Georgia- 9.8%
Idaho- 9.4%
Kentucky- 9.8%
Michigan- 10.3%
Mississippi- 10.3%
Nevada- 12.1%
New Jersey- 9.4%
North Carolina- 9.7%
Oregon- 9.3%
Rhode Island- 10.9%
South Carolina- 10.0%
Tennessee- 9.7%

Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)

NYT reports:

Economists said that the report was disappointing and reflected some of the headwinds facing the economy, such as higher energy prices, slack consumer confidence, government budget problems and supply chain disruptions from the earthquake in Japan. The debt ceiling debate may have also added to the uncertainties over tax rates and the possible impact on benefits.

The stock market fell sharply on the bleak jobs report.

“All that uncertainty is hanging out there,” said John Canally, economist and investment strategist for LPL Financial. “Unless hiring picks up, there is a reason to be concerned about whether we can grow at 2.5 percent for the rest of this year.”

Washington Democrats, including Obama continue to insist that "raising taxes" is paramount in the ongoing public battle over raising the debt limit while Republicans argue government needs to get it's spending habits under control and feel that regulations are stifling business growth as is the continued threat of raising their taxes.

Job growth, expansions, hiring and lowering the unemployment numbers are all dependent on businesses feeling safe and stable, something Washington is not offering them, therefore they are not growing.

This brings me a wonderful speech on the Senate floor made by Senator Marco Rubio as he discusses the whole debt issue, spending cuts, the reality of the taxes the Democrats want to add and after showing that all the Democrats' proposed tax increases, totaled up, would only cover "nine days and 23 hours of deficit spending."

The he moves along to jobs, which is right in line with what we are seeing today in the news about the unemployment numbers rising. (approximately 4:50 into the video at the bottom of this post, is where Rubio starts discussing jobs by way of creating the true revenue)

“So, here's the bottom line: These tax increases they're talking about. These so-called revenue enhancers, they don't solve the problem. So what do we do then? Because clearly we have to do two things.

"One, we have to hold the line on spending, if you keep digging yourself in the hole, the hole is going to bury you. But the other thing is, how do you start generating revenue for government so we can start paying down this debt? And that’s what the debate should be about.

“We already know these taxes they're talking about don't work. So, here's what works. Here is what I would suggest works in a balanced approach, using the president's terminology. Let's stop talking about new taxes and start talking about creating new taxpayers, which basically means jobs. Now, here in Washington, this debt is the number one issue on everyone's mind, and rightfully so. It is a major issue. But everywhere else in the real world, the number one issue on people's minds are jobs. And I'll tell you every other problem facing America -- a mortgage crisis, home foreclosure crisis, this debt problem -- all of these issues get easier to deal with if people are gainfully employed across America.

"And the impact that unemployment's having across this country is devastating. We hear about unemployment in facts and figures. They give us numbers, Sen. Ayotte, 'Oh, X percent people are unemployed.' Well, there's stories behind every one of those people. You know who a lot of these people are that are unemployed in America? They are people that have done everything they've been asked to do, and they've done it right. Maybe they served their country overseas, maybe they went to college and got a degree and now came back home. Maybe they worked for 10 or 20 years and did a really good job at work, and now, you know what, they can't find a job. Or maybe they were lucky enough to find a job after losing their original job, but it pays them half as much, and they work twice as long.

"That is the real face of unemployment in America, of people that are hurting. And our job here is to do everything we can to make it easier for them to find a job, not harder. And I think that's what we have to do when it comes to a balanced approach and when we talk about revenue.

“We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. And that's what we should be focused on, and that's what we're not focused on.

“So you look at all these taxes that are being proposed, and here's what I say. I say we should analyze every single one of them through the lens of job creation, issue number one in America. I want to know which one of these taxes that they're proposing will create jobs. I want to know how many jobs are going to be created by the plane tax? How many jobs are going to be created by the oil company tax that I heard so much about? How many jobs are created by going after the millionaires and billionaires the president talks about? I want to know: How many jobs do they create?

“Because I'll tell you, and I'm going to turn it over to Sen. Ayotte in a second. I'm interested in her perspective on this as a job creator, as the spouse of a job creator who runs a small business, as someone like me who just came off the campaign trail. Let me tell you something. I traveled the state of Florida for two years campaigning. I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I've never met a single job creator who's ever said to me I can't wait until government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job.

"And I'm curious to know if they say that in New Hampshire because they don't say that in Florida. And so my view on all this is I want to know how many jobs these tax increases the president proposes will create because if they're not creating jobs and they're not creating new taxpayers, they're not solving the problem."

Transcript of Rubios statement provided by RCP. Emphasis mine on certain portions of Rubio's words.

Video of Rubio's speech below:



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Video- RNC Ad, 'Change Direction' Attacks Obama On Spending And Taxes

The Republican National Committee has produced an ad called "Change Direction" which challenges Obama's economic decisions and record over the last two-and-a-half years.

Video below:




Transcript:

"He promised to change direction, $800 billion in stimulus, trillions got government healthcare, 2 million jobs gone, left turn after left turn America's heading the wrong way fast. Six million foreclosures, fourteen trillion in debt, $500 billion in higher taxes and the worst long term unemployment in generations. Don't let Obama drive us to disaster, change directions. "

The ad campaign will run for four weeks on national cable channels.

This comes amidst news that Obama's stimulus not only failed but could have made matters worse. Click all the links over at Hot Air and James Pethokoukis to see how much of a mess Obama's policies have truly created.

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Employment: Surber Math Vs Obama Math

I read a piece from The Hill where it says the White House "says stimulus boosted employment by as many as 3.6M jobs," using Obama mathematics.

Then after looking at discussions at Memeorandum under that Hill piece,I ran across Don Surber who uses the the Bureau of Labor Statistics site and shows a far different math equation:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 142.1 million Americans had jobs on January 20, 2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 139.8 million Americans had jobs in May 2011, the latest figures available.

Using Surber Math, that is a net loss of 2.3 million jobs.

Surber takes it a step farther:

By the way, there were 136 million Americans employed the day George Walker Bush became the 43rd president, again, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using Surber Math, that is a gain of 6.1 million jobs over an 8-year period.

Read Surber's entire piece.

In Surber's world 142.1 million minus 139.8 million is 2.3 million loss

In Obama's world 142.1 million minus 139.8 million is a gain of 3.6 million.

I really, really, really need Obama's calculator because I want a Hawaii vacation!!!

Employment And Wages Are Significantly Higher In Right-To-Work States

22 states have passed laws that allow employees in workplaces that have been unionized, the right to not join the union and still be allowed to work in those businesses. On average, the right-to-work states have better employment, higher wages and lower takes.

Via Investors.com

Graph obtained from Investors.com

Better Job, Wage Gains

It seems to be a good deal for the workers, too. The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.1%. In right-to-work states the average is 7.9% — 8.6% adjusted for population.

Between 1977-08, employment grew 100% in right-to-work states vs. the national average of 71% and 56.5% in non-right-to-work states. That's according to a January study that Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder did for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

In this period, real per capita income in the right-to-work states grew 62.3% vs. the national average of 54.7% and 52.8% for non-right-to-work states.

Vedder has studied right-to-work laws for decades and argues that this success is not a coincidence.

" I've been looking for ways to show that these laws don't really (impact) anything. But I haven't found it yet," Vedder said.

Numbers don't lie.

Devastating News For Obama: Approval Tanks, Misery Up, Scholar Talks Impeachment And More

A series of reported bad news items for Barack Obama this week, following a very bad month of similar news. Obama's bounce from the death of bin Laden is gone according to Gallup.

Via Rasmussen shows Obama's Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 with 23 percent strongly approving and 42 percent strongly disapproving with the overall numbers being 54 percent somewhat disapprove and only 45 percent somewhat approve.

Both polling organizations find that Obama drop is largely from Independents, which will be one of the blocs that determine the 2012 presidential election.

Gallup, in separate news, also finds that Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the country fell to 20 percent in early June from 26% at the start of May with 78 percent of Americans dissatisfied with the direction the nation is heading.

Investors Business Daily reports the Misery Index is climbing as well as showing;

***Federal outlays have risen more than 25% since Obama took office

***Annual deficits, meanwhile, have topped $1 trillion every year since Obama took office.

***Gross federal debt has climbed more than a third under Obama, topping $14 trillion. His budget plan puts it on a course to reach $20 trillion by 2016.

***The Fed has acted as the Democrat's big-spending enabler by buying hundreds of billions in Treasury debt through its quantitative easing programs — and in so doing, sowing more seeds of inflation.

Obama may not need any more bad news but he has it with CNS reporting that a Constitutional Scholar believes that Obama's taking the U.S. into war, without Congressional approval, a war that is costing almost $9.5 million every single day and Obama's violation of the War Powers Resolution as well as his claim that the WPA isn't relevant to our military involvement in Libya, is an impeachable offense.

Yesterday it was reported that a bipartisan group of House members have filed suit against Barack Obama over Libya as well. Kucinich leading the charge.

The hits keep coming and Investors Business Daily believes Obama is "beatable, and he knows it".

Not only does he know it now, but Ace reminds everyone, via video, that in 2009 Barack Obama even predicted his downfall:

"Flashback, Obama 2009: I'll Be a One-Term President If I Don't Fix This Economy In Three Years; I Will Be Held "Accountable".

Barack Obama does have one thing going for him and it is also the one thing that can guarantee his loss in 2012. 17 Months left until the 2012 presidential election.

He can admit his policies have failed and "change" course by lifting regulations, massively cut spending instead of publicly battling Republicans on it, spur job growth by assuring stability to job creators and quit threatening them constantly with higher taxes.... or he can continue down the path he has been going on and hand the election over to the Republicans.

It all depends on whether Obama thinks his base can reelect him alone or whether he understands he needs more than the 20-22 percent of the population that call themselves liberal.

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I am Sick Of Media Claiming Increase In Jobless Claims Is 'Unexpected'

Jobless claims rose again and the media is flapping it's jaws and claiming to be surprised or saying the rise was "unexpected".

How many readers are surprised? How many people truly find the news unexpected?

For those living under a rock let us point out the latest unemployment rate rose to 9.1.

There has been a very public battle between Democrats and Republicans in Washington to change the course of the last two-in-a-half years where Democrats want to throw more good money after bad to "stimulate" the economy (after the first stimulus package failed so spectacularly) as well as their stock-in-trade solution of raising taxes, and Republicans trying to pass a package that would Empower Small Business Owners and Reduce Regulatory Burdens, Fix the Tax Code to Help Job Creators, Increase Competitiveness for American Manufacturers, Encourage Entrepreneurship and Growth, Maximize Domestic Energy Production to Ensure An Energy Policy for the Twenty-First Century and Pay Down America’s Unsustainable Debt Burden and Start Living Within Our Means.

Media outlets are not supposed to be living under those rocks though, they are supposed to be caught up with the latest news and events, so when you see something like bloomberg's headline screaming "Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb in the U.S.", or Reuters with their first paragraph stating "The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly edged higher last week," you have to wonder why these people are still in business.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits increased 1,000 to 427,000, the Labor Department said. However, economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 422,000.

The rise kept first-time claims perched above the 400,000 mark for the ninth week in a row. Analysts normally associate a level below that with steady job growth.

"It's the same dismal trend continuing. It's not getting worse, but it's not getting better either," said Keith Hembre, chief economist at Nuveen Asset Management in Minneapolis.

Unexpectedly?

I am no economist, just a lowly blogger, yet I expected it.

In fact, yesterday I provided three graphs where people could see, at a glance, just how badly Obama's incompetence and policies have failed to stimulate the economy, failed brilliantly to create conditions for job growth. and has done more damage in just 2 1/2 years than any president has ever done.

Yes, that includes Jimmy Carter.

I am not the only non-economist that is not surprised and finds the recent bad news about the economy and jobless claims totally "expected".

Rasmussen shows consumer confidence is done, The Hill reports that one in three likely voters expect to be worse off when they go to the polls a year from this November, Wall Street Journal reports that the average job seeker gives up after five months, and remember the official 9.1 percent unemployment rate does not include the over two million workers that are able and want to work but didn't seek a job in the 4 weeks prior to the government unemployment survey. Last but not least 65 percent of likely voters believe the country is on the wrong track.

It was reported by CBS News recently that chronic unemployment is worse than that in the Great Depression with 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country being jobless for more than six months. Then we have the news that 1.7 million graduating college students in the 2011 class are facing the greatest unemployment numbers among their demographic in U.S. history.

All of that and more and the mainstream media keeps trying to convince their readers that the bad news coming out a mile a minute is "unexpected".

No wonder Sarah Palin calls them the "lame-stream media".

They are either lying to their readers, completely clueless and biased or too busy carrying Obama's water to bother with reporting the actual news without spin and then expecting their readers to buy their crap hook, line and sinker.

Either way I am sick of seeing the word "unexpected" in headlines and stories when the majority of the country damn well does expect the bad news because they are keeping up as the polling shows.

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Obama Administrations Incompetence At A Glance

Economic Policies for the 21st Century provides another graph of what the Obama administration claimed the $787 billion plus stimulus package would do to prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent in order to get public support for the passage. (It is now at 9.1 percent)

Three different graphs below will show, in a glance, how Obama's policies not only failed, but led to a decrease of jobs, compared miserably to Reagan's policies when he was handed a horrible economy and tripled our deficit.

Click image to enlarge



(H/T Gateway Pundit for deficit graph)

In the first graph above: The dark blue line on the bottom is what they claimed would be unemployment with the stimulus package that Obama and Democrats who controlled the House and Senate passed.

The light blue line is what they claimed unemployment would be without passage of the stimulus package.

The red line is what actually happened after Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill.

E21 explains:

In May 2011, using the latest figures available from the BLS, the unemployment rate reached 9.1%. In contrast, the Romer and Bernstein projections estimated that the unemployment rate would be around 8.1% for this month without a recovery plan, or 6.8% with a stimulus plan (which was ultimately passed). The actual unemployment rate has been consistently below Romer and Bernstein’s worse case scenario for the economy – and by a considerable margin. They projected that the unemployment rate would never climb above 9%. As time has passed, it turns out that only two months out of the last two years have seen an unemployment rate lower than 9%.

And the unemployment trajectory appears to be getting worse, not better. The last two months have seen unemployment grow; again, against projections that unemployment would decline every single month after August 2009 with a stimulus in place.

The second graph above from Liberty Works shows the comparison between Obama's policies and Reagan's and which policies produced results and which has failed miserably.

Like President Reagan, President Obama inherited an economy in crisis. But Obama came into office vowing to implement policy ideas that were exactly opposite the ideas that inspired the successful Reagan Presidency.

* Reagan cut income tax rates. Obama spent his first two years promising to increase tax rates on “the rich,” mostly small business owners and investors. In December he signed legislation that schedules his tax increase to take effect two months after the 2012 Presidential election

* Reagan cut “discretionary” spending. Obama dramatically increased it.

* Reagan reduced regulation and government intervention in the private sector.

* Obama has implemented waves of new regulation and under his leadership Congress passed legislation that will require new regulations of health insurance and virtually every detail of banking and finance – even ATM cards.

The result of ObamaNomics has been a slow, halting economic recovery compared to the extended economic boom that followed the recession of the 1980s.

The third graph shown above shows what Obama's failed and dangerous policies have done to America's deficit problem, he tripled it.

The Obama presidency has failed from one end of the spectrum to the other and instead of changing course and reducing spending, creating jobs, reducing regulations so businesses can grow and employ more people, and following Reagan's example on the economy, Obama keeps trudging along, lying, misleading and fighting against any policies that will help dig us out of the Obama hole we are in.

The only thing the American voters can do now is ask themselves, did Obama make it better or make it worse and vote accordingly in 2012.

[Update] Must-read: The Economy Is Worse Than You Think

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One Graph That Says It All On Obama's Failure To Create Job Growth

Liberty Works provides the only graph needed to see the failure of Obama's policies to create private-sector job growth by comparing job growth from the first 15 months of the Reagan Job Recovery to the first 15 months of the Obama Job Recovery.

Liberty Works offers more byway of reading on the topic as well.




Since we are showing the graphs that say it all, let us remind you of the one from yesterday on our out-of-control deficit.

(H/T Gateway Pundit for graph)

'nuff said?

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Hiring Slows As Unemployment Rises To 9.1 Percent

The Employment Situation Summary released by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that job growth has slowed considerably as the unemployment rate has risen by another percentage point bringing it to 9.1 percent unemployment.

In May, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) increased by 361,000 to 6.2 million; their share of unemployment increased to 45.1 percent. (See table A-12.)

As noted in the summary, the 9.1 rate does not include 2.2 million persons considered "marginally attached to the labor force" because while those people wanted and were available for work they had not searched for work for the four weeks preceding the survey.

Out of that 2.2 million, 822,000 are considered discouraged workers not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available.

Job growth was expected to reach 160,000 but came in, before adjustment, at 54,000.

Areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:

Alabama- 9.3%
Arizona- 9.3%
California- 11.9%
Colorado- 9.2%
Connecticut- 9.1%
Florida- 10.8%
Georgia- 9.9%
Idaho- 9.6%
Kentucky- 10.0%
Michigan- 10.2%
Mississippi- 10.4%
Nevada- 12.5%
New Jersey- 9.3%
North Carolina- 9.7%
Oregon- 9.6%
Rhode Island- 10.9%
South Carolina- 9.8%
Tennessee- 9.6%
Washington- 9.1%


Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)

Recently we showed, in a two-part post which states showed private-sector job growth over the last decade and which states consistently showed private-sector job loss.

Red States Add More Jobs Than Blue States
Red States Add More Jobs Than Blue States- Part 2

When you have the 21 states and DC coming in at over 2 million private sector job loss over the last decade and 22 states considered red gaining jobs, it is logical to infer that certain policies work to create job growth and others do not work, the numbers do not lie. (Actual figures are in the Part 2 link above)

Other reports on unemployment numbers released today from CNBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal and The Politico.

Discussions surround those reports can be found at Memeorandum.

Yesterday we discussed the recently released Rasmussen Generic Presidential Ballot showing Barack Obama behind a generic Republican candidate by 2 percentage points and the bad economic news that has already hit the Obama administration, pointing out the ramifications of his failed economic policies heading into the 2012 presidential election year.


(Cartoon at the top by Eric Allie )

Generic Presidential Ballot Has Republicans Ahead Of Obama

Rasmussen hands Barack Obama more bad news in a week which economic news has already been devastating for him.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that in a hypothetical 2012 presidential matchup, a generic Republican candidate earns support from 45% of Likely U.S. Voters, while the president attracts 43% of the vote. Three percent (3%) favor some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

On average, 57.3 percent of the American public believes the country is on the wrong track. Home prices continue to drop by over 4 percent in the first quarter of 2011, unemployment is at 9 percent and Friday's report is not projected to be good. Added to that, the so-called recovery is faltering.

It never was a recovery. The massive stimulus package that Obama and the Democratically controlled House and Senate passed, simply put a band-aid on a gushing wound, postponed the inevitable and ended up costing more and worsening the job situation.

Quick analogy- Take a lot of money and pump it into a failing business without changing the way the company does business will do no more than help that business keep the doors open until they run out of the money that was pumped into it.

If you do not address the root cause of a failure, no amount of money is going to stop it from failing over and over again.

When businesses and/or corporations grow and expand they hire more people. Basic Job Growth 101.

The stark contrast coming into the 2012 election is clear.

Liberal Democrats , including Obama believe pumping more money into the economy aka "invest" will help it recover. Republicans believe spending less by cutting government spending and working on helping businesses grow will help the economy and encourage massive job growth.

You don't bite the hand that feeds you and Obama and liberals, like rabid dogs, continue to attack the very people that can help the economy recover, by threatening them with higher taxes or creating regulation after regulation to prevent them from growing.

Conservatives and liberals are walking, no running, in opposite directions, widening the gap between the two and by November 2012 the choice before the American people is going to be very very clear.

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