Media, Politics

Hiding Isn’t Helping President Obama

With one government department after another being found breaking the law, lying about it and/or covering it up, and a growing number of Americans losing trust in their government, President included, where is the President? He’s still campaigning. Indifferent to the calamity and loss of trust all around him.

He has a unique problem, which explains why he is hiding. For the last 5 years he has not governed. He has been on the never-ending campaign trail. “Fighting” for this, that, and the other. Which explains why all the problems we have to live with are not sticking to the one man in charge. He, with support of a compliant media, is telling us that he is trying to fix these problems. Never admitting that the problems he is fighting to fix are ones he has created through his own policies and administration.

For someone who once bragged that if someone brings a knife to a fight, he’ll bring a gun, he is showing a huge yellow stripe down his back.

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama Wants A ‘Living Wage’, Wink To Big Labor

From The White House Monday, President Obama made another stab at spreading the wealth around. Using the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, the wealth envy warrior is pushing what he calls the Paycheck Fairness Act. President Obama said . . .

Now is the time for Congress to step up and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. … Now is the time to make sure that we are putting in place a minimum wage that you can live on.

There’s a couple of problems with that. First of which is, one has to have a job. You could have a $20/hr minimum obama_houdiniwage, but what good is it doing you if you don’t have a job?

Creating jobs used to be his priority. At least that’s what he’s been telling us for about 5 years now. His rhetoric alone seems to insulate him from any responsibility of his actions which, have given us nothing but trillions of so-called stimulus spending, over $16 Trillion in new and record debt, high unemployment and the lowest labor participation rate since Jimmy Carter. What jobs are being created are low paying, and not enough in number to break even with retirements and population growth.

Second, and more importantly, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate that employers pay “a living wage” to anybody. Playing on your emotions with the notion of something fair does not give him the Constitutional authority to compensate for his inability to set the framework for a vibrant and growing economy.

Now to the real reason the President is harping on raising the minimum wage. It is just another attempt at quid pro quo to BIG LABOR. Like any sleight of hand magician, when he is shows you one hand with the fairness appeal, look for what the other hand is doing.

Raising the minimum wage does nothing to create jobs. The result is that raising the minimum wage not only puts the poorest, and lowest skilled workers in the unemployment line, it ends up artificially pushing up ALL labor costs, causing inflation in every area of the economy. But it does mean pay increases for BIG LABOR. You see, the big contracts are tied to the minimum wage. When it goes up, their wages also go up. And in the case of the public sector unions, the taxpayers’ overhead also goes up. So the union “working people” with $22/hr jobs will get a raise. Isn’t that special?

Link: Obama calls on Congress to hike minimum wage, close gender pay gap  |  Labor Union Self Interest: Facts Behind Organized Labor’s Push to Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

 

Immigration, Politics

78% Back Tougher Asylum Law

Seventy-eight percent of Swiss voters embraced changes made to the asylum law last September as applications soared to their highest level in over a decade. Switzerland, with a population about the size of the state of Virginia, is experiencing  a surge. Attributed in part to the Arab Spring uprisings, the surge is the highest number since the height of the Balkans war in 1999, when nearly 48,000 people sought refuge in the country. Among other things, the law limits the right to family reunification to spouses and children. They also discontinued using Swiss embassies for asylum seekers to apply. Meaning they would have to get to Switzerland to apply.

The takeaway is the message that the Swiss are making. That it’s OK to have an immigration/asylum policy that is good for the country and good for the immigrant. Instead of one that is bad for the country.

Link: Tougher asylum law backed by large majority – The Local.

Economy, Europe, Politics

Economic Imbecile Has Company

It doesn’t do any good to know that the U.S. isn’t the only country blessed to have an economic imbecile as its president. France has one too!

French President François Hollande said this during a state visit to Japan . . .

You must understand that the crisis in the eurozone is over.

If only to serve notice that the global economic problem just got more complicated.

via François Hollande: the eurozone crisis is over | World news | The Guardian.

Economy, Fair Tax

Leo Linbeck, Jr. Dies, Philanthropist, FairTax Co-Founder

More than just a co-founder of the FairTax. Leo Linbeck, Jr. was a visionary and philanthropist. It was his efforts along with two other wealthy friends, Robert McNair and Jack Trotter, that shared the vision of a tax system that was fair, simple, transparent, and conducive to economic growth. Never before has anyone thought that a tax system, by definition, could be conducive to economic growth. It was their joint efforts, and their $22 million that paid for the years of research that ultimately ended up as the FairTax. The most thoroughly researched tax system that treats taxpayers with respect, and none of it done with taxpayer dollars.

Statement from Americans For Fair Taxation® on the passing of chairman and co-founder

Leo E. Linbeck, Jr.

Linbeck-SMFairTax® giant devoted the past 20 years to championing fair and transparent federal taxation

HOUSTON, TX – June 8, 2013 – Americans For Fair Taxation® (AFFT) announced today the passing of its Chairman and Co-founder Leo Edward Linbeck, Jr.

“The American people have lost a giant who championed simple and fair taxation for everyone,” said Cynthia T. Canevaro, AFFT national campaign manager. “Leo Linbeck, Jr., has devoted 20+ years passionately advocating for fair and transparent federal taxation for all citizens regardless of income or social standing.  He was committed to replacing the income tax, a system that favors special interests while punishing taxpayers at every level, with a national consumption tax that taxes citizens not on what they earn, but on what they spend on new goods and services.”  The Plan includes the repeal of the 16thAmendment and the elimination of the IRS.

Linbeck was a nationally known Houston businessman and philanthropist.  He was a longtime Chairman of Linbeck Construction Corp., a firm founded by his father in 1938 and ranked in 2012 by ENR as the sixth largest building contractor in the U.S. specializing in general building construction for the private sector.  At the time of his death, he also served as Chairman of Aquinas Corporation, a holding company for the Linbeck Group.

In 1995, Linbeck joined forces with Robert C. McNair, founder, chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans NFL team, and Jack Trotter (now deceased), to found Americans For Fair Taxation®.  The grassroots organization works relentlessly to build national support for the FairTax®, a national consumption tax plan that treats every person equally and allows American businesses to thrive while generating the same tax revenue as the current four-million-plus word income tax code.

“Leo Linbeck recognized 20 years ago the destructive nature of the income tax and how unfair, overly complex, and impossible it is to administer.” said Canevaro. “He poured his time, resources, energy and unwavering passion into advancing the FairTax; a system that allows Americans to keep their whole paycheck while only paying taxes on what they spend, not what they earn.”  She added,  “We have truly lost an American hero and Patriot, one whose vision will live on among FairTax supporters nationwide. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Bette, the entire Linbeck family and the legion of friends who now mourn his passing.”

 

We at Fair Tax Nation are saddend by the passing of Mr. Linbeck, Jr. We will continue our work to make his dream come true — to pass the Fair Tax.

Marilyn Rickert

Energy, Fair Tax, Politics

10 Items Whose Prices Have Jumped the Most in the Past 10 Years

You’re paying 145% more to heat your home and about 100% more to put a gallon of gas in your car today than you did 10 years ago. And you can thank the EPA anddollar environmentalist wackos for the top two.

All of them, except possibly #9, are the result of either government regulation or the political influence of labor unions and special interest contributions. You lose.

  1. Fuel oil and other fuels (for home): 145%
  2. Gasoline (all types) for cars: 108%
  3. College tuition: 88%
  4. Hospital services: 85%
  5. College textbooks: 83%
  6. Elementary and high school tuition and fees: 67%
  7. Beef and veal: 64.8%
  8. Eggs: 58%
  9. Veterinarian services: 63%
  10. Tax return preparation and other accounting fees: 51%

Sure makes the case for smaller government and the FairTax doesn’t it?

Link: 10 Items Whose Prices Have Jumped the Most in the Past 10 Years

Economy, Florida, Media, Obamacare, Pensacola, Politics

In Support Of Private Sector Health Insurance

The hubris of supporters, media included, of the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare, never ceases to amaze me. It begins to look foolish when deception is combined with ignorance. Case in point is writers like these who demagogue the private health insurance industry, portraying them as greedy corporatist one-percenters. Their buzz words. Making money hand over fist.

The health insurance industry isn’t the one to demonize for having excessive profits. On its face, that anyone has the right to decide whether a profit is excessive is preposterous. That’s what fascist economic models are all about. In a free-market economy, consumers, not politicians,  decide who survives and who fails in the marketplace. And the profits, if any, are for the owners and investors, the ones who took the risk to offer a product, or service, to sell. Their profits do not belong to the government. Works that way in every industry not government-controlled. Former lefty talk show host Sen. Al Franken and current lefty talk show host Mike Papantonio can tell you about the ups and downs (mostly downs) of Air America Radio.

Lefty Huffington Post declares “Insurer Profits Are Up In The Wake Of Health Care Law They Oppose.” That, referring to a Bloomberg article entitled “Insurers Profit From Health Law They Fought Against.” Which morphs into this on far left Ring of Fire Radio1, “Health Insurance Make Threats to Spike Rate, Despite Record Profits.”

Faced with the reality that Obamacare is going to force insurance carriers to raise their premiums or go out of business, the meme is all about those mean rich insurance companies, already raking it in, and wanting to gouge consumers even more. One problem, and here’s where the ignorance and demagoguery comes in. The articles wrap their argument around net income and operating profit margins. Neither of which are net profit.

They don’t know what they’re talking about, and they’re spreading a false narrative to demonize insurers and idolize Obamacare.

What is a profit margin? It is the percentage of the income that is left over after all expenses. The numbers in the HuffPost/Bloomberg source are of operating margins and do not include expenses like interest payments, tax, depreciation, and amortization. After paying those expenses, you are left with the net, as in last, profit margin.

The profit margin for the Health Care Insurance industry is 3.5%. Ask yourself how they are to stay in business when the federal government under Obamacare expects them to hold or lower premiums, accept all pre-existing conditions, and add 20 or 30 million more policyholders on a 3.5% margin? It can’t happen. And that is Obama’s intent. It will cause the health insurance providers to drop that part of their business and insure something else or just fold. At that point, Obama reaches nirvana. A total single-payer government-run health care system that will be less efficient and more expensive than ever.

To add a little perspective that the Left doesn’t want you to know, here are the profit margins of other industries.

  • Beverages 25.9%. Included in that percentage are Breweries 37.3%, Soft Drinks 13%
  • Biotechnologies 16.1%
  • Banks 13.7%
  • Oil & Gas Drilling and Exploration 10.3%
  • Gas Utilities 7.7%
  • Food 7.2%
  • Electric Utilities4.9%
  • Oil & Gas Pipeline 4.1%
  • Health Care Plan Providers 3.5%

Law firms go from 5% to 60%, and average out at 30%. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how greedy, by their own standards, the Levin-Papantonio Law Firm is? Makes one wonder what their profit margin is?

endofstory

1Ring of Fire is hosted by Mike Papantonio, senior partner in the Levin-Papantonio Law Firm in Pensacola, FL. Specializing in mass torts, suing drug companies, car manufacturers, tobacco companies, personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice, slip and falls, and more.

Media, Pensacola, Politics

Feeling Vindicated?

Roll back to the 2008 presidential campaign for a moment and recall how the mainstream media refused to thoroughly vett Sen. Obama. There were few media resources that saw the candidate for what he really was. This blog was one that was waving the red flag about what we would be in for if Barack Obama was elected. Meanwhile, the political Left wasn’t interested in vetting him either. Instead, they just called us crazy.

Well, all that has happened. Government growing, private sector shrinking, debt out of control, the welfare state expanding, freedom and liberty have become enemies of the statists now in control, socialized medicine growing and failing simultaneously. So much so that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is doing fundraising to get Obamacare out of the toilet. Which makes me wonder, if the Health Insurance industry is so rolling in the dough, and Obamacare will lower our premiums, what is she doing shaking down companies for money so support it?

MMFlint
“This & no other is the root from which a tyrant springs: when he first appears he is a protector”—Plato http://t.co/PooOZ3mRvt
6/6/13 11:52 PM

Some things never change. The Progs are still calling us crazy. Being in denial seems to be their modus operandi. Which reminds me of the definition of the word stupid; doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Never thought I’d say this, but it seems that there may be hope for Michael Moore.

Links: Ring of Fire, Health Insurance , Crazy Science

 

Economy, Media, Politics

Obama’s Economy, Another Million Four Unemployed

The Dept of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report was “adjusted” upwards by 4,500.

In the last four weeks, 1,410,000 “workers” are out of work and have filed for unemployment.

In the week ending June 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 346,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 357,000. The 4-week moving average was 352,500, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 348,000.

That’s a recovery only Obama (and the MSM) can believe in.

Media, Politics

Ain’t No Sunshine, Secret Email Accounts

For the zillionth time. It’s what community organizers and like-minded statists do. This is exactly how you fundamentally change America. Alias and secret email communications. Out of reach of FOIA. Behind closed doors. Lying to the public. Breaching America’s trust is immaterial to this administration. As always with them, the end justifies the means.

Media? Shrug.

Transparency update: Sebelius, other Obama appointees, using secret email addresses; Labor Dept. tried to charge A.P. $1 million for FOIA docs

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.