What’s New Today
Story #1 talks
about risk takers and free riders. #2 is
another look at Obama’s comment about small business owners not building their
business. #3 looks at the political
ramifications of this statement. #4
wonders who is on offense and who is on defense right now in the political campaign. #5 is another look at polls. Remember always check the demographics. But within the demographics we learn Obama is
struggling with independents. #6 is
about Obama’s plans for a second term.
#7 is about Chicago school teachers and the coming strike. #8 is an story about China’s economy slowing
down. This doesn’t look good for the
world economy.
Today’s
Thoughts
Majority Leader Harry Reid: “If this flood of outside money continues, the day after
the election, 17 angry old white men will wake up and realize they’ve just
bought the country.” The problem for
Reid is this is a different group of
angry white men than the ones who bought it in 2008.
Young Americans love tax cuts--even for
the wildly successful. A new
McClatchy-Marist poll revealed 69 percent of young people (ages 18-29) favor tax cuts for all Americans, while
only 29 percent oppose.
"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan
1. Risk takers and Free riders
In his war on American
exceptionalism, President Obama has turned the sights on exceptional Americans.
If you've built a successful business,
it wasn't your dream or your sweat — somebody else made it happen.
The unbridled disdain President
Obama has for the entrepreneurs who work hard and risk everything was made
plain when he told supporters in Roanoke, Va.: "If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else
made that happen."
This was stunning news and a
colossal slap in the face to the millions of small-business owners who get up
every day and by the sweat of their brow and the drive of their ambition still
pursue the American dream in spite of the obstacles and hurdles this
administration has put in front of them.
In Obama's collectivist world view,
we are all ants on a socialist ant farm. We are sheep being led by a government
shepherd. Wealth, as we now know, is not
to be created but to be redistributed in the manner of the Marxist slogan — to
each according to his need and from
each according to his ability.
Your success, Obama says, is not
your own. There "was a great
teacher somewhere in your life," he tells us, and that somebody
"invested in roads and bridges."
Is it a coincidence that virtually
the only people President Obama gives credit to for anything are teacher and
construction unions?...
This certainly shows that Obama has never really had to work
hard for anything in his life. He’s
always had someone to give it to him so he thinks that is the way the world
works.
2. More on Obama painful ignorance of enterprise
America's
leading small business association has slammed Barack Obama for showing 'an utter lack of understanding' of the
country's entrepreneurs when he told them: 'If you've got a business - you
didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.'
In
a hard-hitting statement to Mail Online, the National Federation of Independent
Businesses (NFIB) president Dan Danne said: 'What a disappointment to hear
President Obama's revealing comments challenging the significance of America's
entrepreneurs.
Mr
Danne added: 'His unfortunate remarks over the weekend show an utter lack of understanding and appreciation for the people who
take a huge personal risk and work endless hours to start a business and create
jobs.'
President Obama said in a speech at the weekend that governments and not individuals create jobs, telling entrepreneurs: 'If you've got a business - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.'
He
added: 'You didn't get there on
your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was
just so smart.'
The inflammatory campaign speech
comments underline the extent to which Obama believes that the state rather
than ordinary citizens create jobs and wealth.
If Obama truly believes that it is
government that creates jobs and it were true, than his time in office has been
an even worse failure than it looks.
Just in deficit spending, it has cost over $1.3 million per job if that
were the case. Obama has always worked
for a paycheck coming from someone else.
He’s never had a situation where he was the last one paid (the owner of
a business).
This morning I participated in a
media phone call organized by the Romney campaign. It was led by John Sununu and focused on President
Obama’s astonishing claim that “If you got a business—you didn’t build that.
Somebody else made that happen.” Sununu was joined by four small business
owners.
Sununu was nuclear. He said that Obama’s comments show three related things:
1) The President doesn’t understand how America and business work. No wonder
his administration has failed to create jobs. 2) Obama’s crony capitalism:
he thinks the way to create jobs is for the government to pick winners and
losers, and slide money to Obama’s bundlers and allies. 3) Obama’s attitude
toward small business also reflects where he comes from, the “murky political
world” of Chicago where politicians and felons are interchangeable.
Sununu wrapped up by saying that not
only were Obama’s comments insulting to entrepreneurs, they show he has no idea
how the economy functions. He said he wished Obama would learn how to be an
American.
Sununu then introduced four small
business people, all of whom did a great job of pushing back against Obama’s
casual dismissal of their hard work. Kyle Kahler and his brothers and sisters
own a tool and die company in Ohio. He
pointed out that if all it took to have a successful business is a road in
front of your building, as Obama seems to believe, then everyone would have
one. Instead, building a small business requires, more than anything else,
sacrifice. Kahler and his family went without new cars, vacations and so on so
that they could reinvest money in their business. In the end, the business
succeeded and has paid millions of dollars in taxes as well as millions in
payrolls. Obama, he said, is ignorant. The government is getting a free ride on
the backs of businesses, not the other way around….
….The last
small business person was Renee Amoore,
who owns a health care and business consulting firm in Pennsylvania. She was white-hot, her voice quivering with
anger. Where did Obama get his comments, she asked. She is blessed, but she
is blessed because she has sacrificed. Obama’s statement is reprehensible, he
doesn’t know what is going on. He doesn’t understand business or the economy.
Romney understands business because he has lived it. People think that because I am an African-American woman I am
supposed to vote for Obama, she said. Well, I have been an African-American
woman for a long time, and I’m not voting for him. 23 million Americans are out
of work and incomes are falling. I’m working hard, Obama isn’t. He doesn’t
know what hard work is. Her husband suffers from ALS, and she is her family’s
sole support. I need Mitt Romney, she
said. Hope and change? I’m hoping for a change…
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/07/how-the-democratic-media-spin-the-news.php
Obama’s comment may be a deal breaker for a lot of people he
might have had on his team. It is
arrogant and ignorant on Obama’s part and he will regret it.
4. Obama’s playing defense, not Romney
…The Obama Campaign has unleashed ad after ad contending he was an outsourcer. The cable networks have talked and talked on the subject and the MSM has been divided between those who have said Mitt has to come clean and those who think the attacks are unfair but insist Mitt needs to answer them.
Either way, the MSM consensus is Mitt is playing prevent defense. As usual the MSM has it exactly BACKWARDS!
It isn’t the Mitt Romney team that is playing prevent defense, it is the OBAMA Campaign.
The Obama campaign knows what the score is. The Base is dissatisfied, Democrats pols have been running away from him, black voters are hesitating over Gay Marriage, the Obamacare decision while painted as a victory has energized the tea party activists, and the once vaunted Obama money machine is so weak when they aren’t begging brides for their dowry they’re forced to travel to foreign lands for donations.
And while the public knows the state the economy they are living in, the campaign understands they are not paying attention to the political side of the coin…at least not yet.
And THAT’s why the Obama campaign is spending their meager war chest and going all in on Bain in the middle of Summer.
The Democrats and their allies in the media understand that if this election becomes about the president’s record, it will be over before the first debate begins. They also understand that while people aren’t paying attention they see in passing the magazine covers, the Newspaper headlines and the various media stories as they surf the channels or see the TV screens that are now impossible to avoid as you go to the bank, the airport or the local watering hole. If those screens are full of the economy the kids will be learning how to say “President Romney” on their 2nd day back to school and the willingness of even the truest believer to open up their pocketbooks for the home stretch will be gone.
They aren’t spending their money in the middle of summer in the hopes of defining Romney to an audience that isn’t paying attention, they are spending the money NOW to keep their poll numbers from collapsing prior to the fall campaign season. This isn’t about getting ahead, it’s about treading water long enough for something ANYTHING to come along and save them…
http://datechguyblog.com/2012/07/16/demoralized-as-hell-the-obama-prevent-defense-editionbain-obama-prevent-defense/
I think this article is right on target. Once people start paying attention, does the fact that Romney is rich and invested his money wisely act as a positive or a negative? The fact that Obama’s plans for a second term involves spending even more money (kind of like a person in Vegas who can’t quit gambling because he’s lost too much already) and “responsibly” addressing the deficit (beyond increasing taxes I have no idea what this means) . Obama is toast when people start to pay attention and we get same old, same old from the Democrats.
5. Obama struggles with independents
TalkingPointsMemo today is trumpeting a
new McClatchy/Marist poll showing Obama
edging Romney on both the economy and foreign policy. The nationwide poll
of registered voters shows Obama ahead 2-points, 46-44, on being better able to
handle the economy and 6-points, 47-41, on being better able to handle foreign
policy. Overall, the poll shows Obama ahead of Romney 48-46.
Of
course, the poll's sample undercounts GOP voters. Republicans make up 29% of
the poll universe, a number far below their share of the electorate in recent
elections. The overall sample is D +7, which would mirror the 2008 electorate. There is no
way the composition of the electorate in 2012 is going to mirror 2008. Setting
aside that and the fact that the poll is of registered voters--both of which
suggest that Romney is probably a couple points ahead--the real story in the
poll is Obama's continuing struggle with Independents.
Among
true independents, who lean towards neither party, Romney is up 11-points over
Obama,
44-33. Only 45% have a favorable view of Obama and just 44% approve of the job
he is doing. Perhaps worse for Obama, Independents
reject his latest tax plan by a 15-point margin. 51% believe the Bush tax cuts should be extended for all income-brackets,
including the "top 2 percent", while only 36% believe, like Obama,
that the tax cuts should only be extended for the "middle class",
those make less than $250,000 a year….
The oversampling of Democrats is a key
to Obama being close in the polls. With
a plus 7 democratic demographic, Obama is up 2 points. Since about 90% of Democrats will vote for
Obama this means he is probably down by 5% in the real world.
6. Obama’s Plans for a second term
I already covered a clip of Obama’s major speech at a campaign rally in Ohio earlier today, but for regular readers familiar with my feelings on the manner in which President Obama mistakenly employs the word “investments” — you’ll understand why I can’t let this one go.
His “vision” for a second term, apparently, includes a charming-sounding multitude of brand-new government “investments”: for education, and more teachers; for solar/wind/biodiesel and other such “energies of the future” (yes, I know what you’re thinking — apparently he can see what’s going to happen in the future where the market cannot, he’s just that brilliant); for basic research and science for technological innovation; for rebuilding our infrastructure and putting construction workers back to work; and etcetera.
But it was only after he listed all of those lovely ways in which the federal government plans to spend more of our money on our behalf, did President Obama get around to the single largest impediment to our economic progress and our national security: Our tremendous national debt. And while he was most verbose about his many ideas for spending more money and increasing the federal government’s role in our lives, the extent of the president’s plan for reducing our debt and deficit amounted to, “Let’s do it in a responsible way.” …Uh huh. Kind of like all of that responsible spending in which you’ve actively engaged, adding more to the deficit in your first three years than President Bush so “unpatriotically” did during his entire two-term tenure?...
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/16/obamas-plan-for-a-second-term-investing-a-lot/
So he’s planning on increasing spending but reducing our debt in a responsible way. News for Obama: increasing spending is not responsible with the kind of debt we current have.
7. Chicago Teacher’s Union looking to go on strike
The Chicago Teachers Union made headlines a few months ago when it was revealed that the union was demanding a 30 percent raise in its new contract proposal.
Such an enormous raise – regardless of the supposed justification – would be unthinkable in a district with a $665 million budget deficit and a 9.8 percent unemployment rate.
The school board countered with an offer of a two percent raise, which would still be a burden on the district’s overstretched budget.
As a result, both the CTU and Chicago Public Schools requested an “independent” fact finder to look at both sides’ proposals and suggest some sort of compromise.
This morning, the fact finder is expected to release his report, which calls for a 15-20 percent raise for CTU members in the first year of the contract, according to the Chicago Tribune.
And the union is expected to reject that recommendation.
Thumbing its nose at a massive raise – which incidentally has no relationship to job performance – will likely not be received well in a community that is enduring some of the worst unemployment rates in the country.
The Tribune reports:
“The Chicago Teachers Union had gone into negotiations asking for a wage increase of nearly 30 percent over two years. Sources said the union realizes that the price of a major pay hike in terms of lost jobs and working conditions would be too high.
“Union officials now face the task of explaining to members why it would reject a salary increase that is less than they asked for but significantly higher than the 2 percent first-year raise CPS initially offered.”
Sources tell EAGnews.org that the union will be assembling its leaders Wednesday to formally accept or reject the fact finders report. At that meeting, it will also likely set a date to strike.
Why won’t the union schedule a vote of members to see how they feel about a 15-20 percent raise. My guess is that they would jump on it, but union leaders are not asking their opinion. They seem determined to go out on strike, probably just as school is set to begin in September…
http://townhall.com/columnists/kyleolson/2012/07/17/chicago_teachers_union_thumbs_nose_at_proposed_20_raise
Chicago is a cesspool of democratic politics. It’s no wonder the country is doing so bad under Obama. This is what he considers normal.
8. China’s Economy Slows, Hits Worst Level since Crash
China’s second quarter GDP numbers are in, and the news isn’t very promising. Growth dipped to 7.6 percent—the lowest level since the country emerged from the depths of the financial crisis at the start of 2009, and down from 8.1 percent in the first quarter. Part of the slowdown has been attributed to weak demand for Chinese exports in Europe and the U.S.
Despite this poor result, some Chinese-based economists believe the true growth rate is at least half a percentage point lower than what the official statistics say. Chinese economic data is notoriously unreliable and other proxy measures, such as electricity output, are essentially flat. Meanwhile, foreign investors are looking elsewhere in Asia for stability. China is increasingly viewed as a place for investors who want some risk in their portfolio.
There was a hint of good news for Chinese officials in the latest figures: inflation, which has been a major concern in the past two years, is under control, allowing China’s reserve bank to cut interest rates for the second time in two months. And consumption as a share of GDP is up significantly in the past 12 months, allaying fears that China’s economy is precariously tilted towards investment at the expense of domestic consumption….
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/07/16/chinese-growth-at-lowest-since-global-financial-crisis/
We need to keep an eye on China. Lower sales to Europe and the USA is a good gauge as to the world economy.
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