Category Archives: Media

Economy, Media, Politics

Smaller Government Wins 2 to 1

You would never know it by listening to what comes out of The White House or the President’s mouth. But, according to this Washingtonbudget_cuts Post / ABC News poll, cutting government spending is exactly what a vast majority of Americans want.

You can tell it pains the WaPo to say exactly what’s in their poll, because they don’t. You have to look at the graphic to see that not only do most “adults” support a five percent across the board cut in federal spending 61 to 33 percent, but they also oppose an eight percent cut in defense spending by a 60 to 34 percent margin. And those numbers reflect Democrats, Liberal Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.

What the Post says in print is “Some 55 percent of liberal Democrats also back the eight percent slashing of the U.S. military budget included in the sequester.” That falls in line with the administration’s liberal bent. But in its entirety, the poll shows that the American people support the exact opposite of what Barack Obama is doing.

2013-03-06Cuts2

h/t Rush Limbaugh, “We are not on the losing side when it comes to the majority of thinking in this country.”

Link: Cut government spending? Sure….in theory.

Media, Politics

Organizing for Action And Sequestration, Update 3/2/2013

Obama-Jim-MessinaThe Obama campaign (which hasn’t ended), as opposed to the Obama presidency (which hasn’t started), presents their lies to the low-information voters over ‘sequestration.’ And I’ll throw in the low-information media in the same camp. Actually, they know better, but bend over when it comes to helping President Obama.

Here’s a letter I received from Jim Messina, the Chair-sweetie of the (non-partisan?) Organizing for Action PAC over sequestration, which he now characterizes as “Republican obstructionism.” This isn’t a right-wing talking point. This is his OFA document. The truth is in italics.

Ross —

This is what Republican obstructionism has come to:

Obama’s inaction doesn’t become Republican obstructionism.

Tomorrow, if congressional Republicans don’t act, dangerous self-inflicted budget cuts known as the sequester will rip a hole in our nation’s budget and indiscriminately cut programs vital to millions of Americans like you.

First of all, there is no budget. Hasn’t been a budget in four years. Secondly, there are no budget cuts. They represent a modest decrease in the increase in future spending. See chart below. These would be the same budget cuts that Obama proposed, and successfully got bi-partisan support for in the debt ceiling agreement two years ago. If he were honest, he would blame Republicans for ‘compromising’ with him.

The only reason Republicans won’t stop these devastating sequester cuts is because they want to protect tax loopholes for millionaires, billionaires, and corporate jets.

To quote Justice Alito, NOT TRUE. Another lie for the low-information voters and Obama kool-aid drinkers. In the big debate over the “Bush Tax Cuts” expiring, Republicans offered using the ending of the so-called “tax loopholes” (which are tax law, not anything shady or illegal) in order to get the revenue that Obama said he wanted. But Obama didn’t want that. Apparently, it was HE, not Republicans, that wanted to protect tax loopholes for millionaires, billionaires, and corporate jets. So he chose to leave them alone and raise the tax rates on everyone instead. Now he is trying to move the bar by coming back for them. On the “balanced approach side,” cutting spending, in order to avoid “dangerous self-inflicted budget cuts,” Senate Republicans offered President Obama the freedom to exercise his discretion to cut anything he wants, instead of the across-the-board cuts that he signed into law. And he refused the offer. Why do you suppose he would do that?

It’s hard to believe they let it come to this point. Beginning tomorrow, March 1st, we’re going to feel the impact.

You better believe this is exactly the point Obama wants. A contrived issue he can use to beat Republicans over the head with.

President Obama has a balanced plan to prevent the harmful sequester, reduce the deficit, and protect the middle class.

More higher taxes, more borrowing, more redistribution of wealth. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Democrat’s bill would add $41.5 billion to the deficit in 2013, $15.9 billion in 2014, and $5.2 billion in 2015 before its tax increases are scheduled to begin lowering yearly deficits. However, because it raises spending more than it raises taxes, it would still add a total of $7.2 billion to the deficit and $5.8 trillion to the national debt. All of which will destroy the middle class and every other class. This is what passes for balanced, responsible? He likes balance? Try this. I’ll take your so-called tax loopholes, in exchange for returning to the lower tax rates back to working people. 

Stand behind that plan and tell Republicans to act in the best interest of their constituents:

Did I say non-partisan?

http://my.barackobama.com/Tell-the-GOP-to-Act

More soon,

Messina

Jim Messina
Chair
Organizing for Action

P.S. — If Congress fails to act, this fight doesn’t end tomorrow. We’ll need to put even more pressure on Republicans to stop these budget cuts and pass a balanced plan. Join this fight now.

—————-
Let’s finish what we started. Chip in $25 or more to Organizing for Action, the grassroots movement that will get the job done.

Did I say non-partisan?

BL-sequestration-size-comparison

Media, Politics

The White House Wins M.R.I.O.T.D. Award

One month after President Obama sends an email, complete with video of FLOTUS, recruiting for his Organizing For Action PAC, The White House today says they’re not part of that. It’s just an independent organization.

The spin from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney . . .

OFA, which you are asking about, is an independent organization that, as reported in the press, will engage in advocacy and grassroots mobilization activities around public policy issues. It will not be engaged in political campaign-related activities.

We’ve heard this obfuscation before; depends what “is” is. This is community organizing on a country level. And they’re wanting tax exempt status?

The fledgling Organizing for Action says it will be nonpartisan and steer clear of election activity. But the line between issue disputes and electoral politics can be a fuzzy one. The first of an expected wave of ads on gun control, for example, has targeted only Republicans. And OFA board member Jim Messina, who managed Obama’s reelection campaign, has been talking with Democratic Party leaders, including those responsible for success in the 2014 midterm elections. {emphasis added}

Non-partisan? Here’s the letter President Obama sent me just a month ago.

Ross —

Today, a new grassroots organization is being launched: Organizing for Action.

Following in the footsteps of the campaign you built, Organizing for Action will be an unparalleled force in American politics. It will work to turn our shared values into legislative action — and it’ll empower the next generation of leaders in our movement.

Our work didn’t end on Election Day.

Organizing for Action will support the legislative agenda we voted on, train the next generation of grassroots organizers and leaders, and organize around local issues in our communities.

Watch this video the First Lady recorded about the next step of this grassroots movement, and say you’re in:

So for this blatant forked-tongue politics, which wouldn’t be possible if the media did its job, The White House wins the Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day (MRIOTD) Award.

Links: Obama’s new political group to lure unlimited donations |  Obama Donors Aren’t Getting Special Access For Checks To Organizing For Action: White House

Economy, Energy, Media, Politics

Buffett Railroad, Not XL Pipeline

Were it not for a caller to the Herman Cain radio show this morning spilling the beans on Warren Buffett’s railroad, vis-a-vie the XL bnsfpipeline, this story would have remained buried. It’s about BNSF Railway, a railroad transportation company wholly owned by Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway.

BNSF figures to be the major player in petroleum shipments from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to the Texas refineries. In other words, the XL pipeline route. And to ship east to Philadelphia refineries and west to refineries in California, Oregon and Washington.

rfkjrdc2Warren Buffett is a big Obama contributor and supporter. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But when you see Obama doing everything he can to not sign on to the XL pipeline, and last week the environmental lobby along with Robert Kennedy Jr. tying themselves to The White House fence in protest to the XL pipeline, you can see the forces at work. The only special interest group that supports Obama but wants the XL pipeline is Big Labor. Why? Because it means jobs.

So Obama has a tough call (money or jobs) to make. You have your quid pro quo to Warren Buffett and the environmental lobby on one hand, and creating hundreds of thousands of high-paying union jobs on the other. The latter would also strengthen our energy security in the long-term, cut oil dependency on the Middle East and Venezuela, will contribute to making the United States an oil producer instead of an oil purchaser, and would lower energy costs. Oil producers say shipping crude by pipeline in North Dakota adds up to $1.50 to its cost, compared to $2 or more a barrel for rail shipments. Also tied to the oil costs are food cost.

To the oil companies, it doesn’t matter one bit how the crude they produce is transported. It does matter to the folks that have to buy it. The lower the cost of transportation, the lower the cost of energy. The lower the cost of energy, the lower the cost of food, fuel, heating. The poor would benefit more from lower prices on food and energy than those eeevil one percenters would. Opening the Keystone XL pipeline should be a no-brainer. But  Obama won re-election. He doesn’t have to act like he cares for the poor or middle-class anymore.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, at least here on The Lunch Counter, let’s see if the media ever catches up and calls out Obama on being beholden to his favorite lobbyists/contributors as they are quick to say, “on the backs of the poor.”

Links: Buffett Railroad Sees Crude Cargo Climbing 40%  |  BNSF Railway  |  Warren Buffett cleans up after Keystone XL  |  No Keystone XL? Big Oil will just take the train   |  BNSF expands Bakken rail ability from N.Dakota, Montana

Economy, Media, Politics

The Sequestration Show

It would be funny, if the debt wasn’t so serious, watching all the hand-wringing going on, on both sides of the aisle and in the media, over the impending ‘cuts’ that are planned in the sequestration legislation. The legislation gymnastics that was cooked up in The White House.

What’s funny about it all is that there are no cuts whatsoever involved. The gymnastics and linguistics of it all is that, in their mind (media included), a cut is equal to increasing the debt by 7 trillion dollars instead of 10 trillion dollars. Give or take a trillion.

In reality, and by those standards, if the government spent the same amount for each of the next 10 years as they will spend this year, they would call that a 10 trillion-dollar cut.

All of it is smoke and mirrors to put the real work, saving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, on the back burner. Kind of like putting their head in the sand.

2016 Election, Immigration, Media, Politics

Media, It’s Time To Start The 2016 Campaign

Within days of the 2013 State of the Union show, the media is out of the gate. They’ve already picked their targets to marginalize and to demagogue. Those would be the ones who would be most effective from a policy standpoint against a Democratic candidate with no discernible policy other than emotion, scare tactics, and identity politics.

Marco Rubio drinks water, looks foolish in an important video. Is it a career ender? And there are some people who like Rand Paul, but they (ostensibly) want to round up all illegals and send them back to Mexico. Which isn’t what Paul said.

Like HERE and HERE.

Rand Paul transcript:

I think people want a party that’s a little bit less aggressive on foreign policy, still believes in a strong national defense but less aggressive. They want — the young people want politicians who don’t want them in jail for 20 years for a nonviolent drug position charge. So, they want a little bit different phase. I think people want a little different phase on immigration frankly. They don’t want someone somebody who wants to round people up, put in camps and send them back to Mexico.

Besides all that, it provides the right distraction from Benghazi Gate and the President’s involvement, or lack thereof, the shrinking economy, continuing unemployment, and the exploding costs of the so-called Affordable Care Act, and the cutting off of coverage (what they said Republicans wanted to do) for those with pre-existing conditions. That’s the plan, whether it exists.

Media, Politics

How Politics Have Changed In America

Time was that after a hard-fought campaign, a President did his work from the oval office, used the bully pulpit in front of a TV camera, and lobbied congress either personally or through his surrogates and party leaders to persuade them to sign on to his agenda.

President Clinton and other liberals of that time, began to re-shape that model with the never-ending campaign. Political observers could not discern that the campaign that got him elected ever ended. The next thing to change was the dialog. With the campaign still in place, anything that the ‘other side of the aisle’ (Republicans) debated for was not merely wrong, but dangerous and harmful, if not downright criminal. Segments of the population became the tools of the Left. Things like “They want to starve children” became the narrative. And without challenge, the media carried it forward.

Not recognizing this shift, or discounting it as an aberration that would somehow naturally go away, the Bush administration that followed remained ‘old school.’ And much to their detriment, never standing up to the salacious attacks, never defending his positions, and never calling out people like Ted Kennedy for their lies and straw man arguments (Saddam Hussein did not plan 9/11), Republicans have again found themselves scratching their heads (see Karl Rove’s head), wondering what happened to them.

What happened to them is they have successfully been marginalized by a combination of their own non-combative ethos and the double team effort of progressives’ ethos and the media. If Republicans are going to ever win again, they’ve got to fight back.

All of which brings me to the letter received from President Obama’s community organizing wing of the White House called Organizing for Action.

 

On Tuesday, President Obama laid out a plan to create jobs and strengthen the middle class.

This isn’t going to be an easy legislative fight, but we’re not ones to sit out when the going gets tough — especially for a fight as important as this.

This Saturday, Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is hosting a tele-town hall to talk about the President’s proposed plan and what we can do to make it happen.

Sign up today to join the call this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

You’ll be joining supporters around the country — plus some of the staff at Organizing for Action — to get the info you need on the President’s plan and how we can get Congress to act on it.

The President is counting on us.

RSVP now for the tele-town hall on Saturday, and you’ll get all the info you need to join the call:

http://my.barackobama.com/Tele-Town-Hall     {join the fight 🙂 }

Thanks,

Stephanie

Stephanie Cutter
Organizing for Action

Link: When they feel the heat, they will see the light.

Economy, Media, Politics

Marco Rubio Drinking Water, 229 Million Hits

If you listened to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) deliver the Republican’s response to the President’s State of the Union show, you would have heard a reasoned, common sense, conservative approach to solving our nation’s problems. On the whole, the response was more ideological, more big picture, than the more specific, policy-oriented theme that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delivered in the Tea Party’s response.  Not surprisingly, the mainstream media (aka, the Obama-media) is not reporting the content of what he said. Instead, they have made hay over a sloppy production job and a not ready for prime time television personality. That’s all the excuse they needed to ignore what he said and to focus on how he looked. With this media, perception is reality. Rubio is a senator, he is not a TV personality with acting experience like say, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and Mister Teleprompter himself, Barack Obama.

Google ‘rubio water‘ and you’ll see 229,000,000 hits. If you want to know what he said, you’ll have to do your own digging.

Or see it right here.

Link: Tea Party’s response by Rand Paul