What’s New Today
Story # 1 is signs of desperation on why the left is terrified of
Paul Ryan. #2 is two videos capturing
truth and spin by the Democrats. #3 is a
video commercial from the RNC with simple but devastating logic. #4 Romney surges with young voters. #5 shows you what is being cut by Obama in
Medicare. #6 is the Onions version of
why the Democrats are scared of Ryan. #7
is a comparison of Obama and Reagan and the economy they inherited. It seems Reagan had the worse economy and the
better results. Finally #8 is reporting
a new sex scandal in the DHS.
Today’s
Thoughts
Priorities: Mother Jones:
Obama has attended, on average, one
fundraiser every 60 hours while running for reelection. He’s
finally paying attention to jobs—his job.
The choice is
yours. You can vote for the party that is relying on
“dogs on the roof” jokes or telling a
black audience the other side wants you back in chains or the party that
wants serious reform of Medicare and
Social Security so that they can survive and wants to cut the deficit and balance the budget.
Here’s
the difference between Obama and Romney. Obama says he doesn’t like the specifics of the Romney/Ryan Budget. Compared to Obama’s plan….Oh, that’s
right, he doesn’t have one.
Morning
Joe: They were discussing David Axelrod and how he looked haggard and
worried. Their best guess was that
Axelrod thought they needed to win this
election before the conventions by burying Romney in negative advertising and
completely outspending him. This hasn’t worked and they know that Romney has more money than they do and will
outspend them from the convention to the election.
Rasmussen
Poll 8/15/12: Romney
leads 47% to 43% for Obama with 4% wanting someone else and 7%
undecided. Since undecideds tend to go
to the challenger, I estimate the race
is currently 52% Romney and 45% Obama.
Lie of the Day
On Tuesday's broadcast of NBC's Nightly
News, anchor Brian Williams took a
look at Rep. Paul Ryan's first few days on the hustings as Mitt Romney's new VP
pick. And what did he see? He saw a
"not so warm welcome to the Big Leagues" for Paul Ryan.
1. Signs of Desperation
Why
the left is terrified of Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan
terrifies the American Left.
Which precisely explains the tones of hysteria coming from the Obama White House.
The real question is why the Chicago
Thugs have suffered such a public meltdown over Mitt Romney's choice of the
young Wisconsin Congressman to be his vice-presidential running mate.
And there is an answer. Three specific answers, actually.
• Ronald Reagan:
President Reagan today is an American hero. Poll after poll has Americans
placing him in the pantheon of great American presidents, and occasionally at
the top of the list.
The admiration for Reagan has become such a part
of American historical bedrock that even President Obama and likeminded
professional leftists have essentially given up the ghost. When they mention
Reagan at all, it is generally to play a
sly game of casting Reagan as a moderate, pretending to salute him while
taking a shot at some Republican for not being more like Reagan. Obama played this game four times in one
speech back in April, effusively praising Reagan while casting Mitt Romney
as some sort of wild-eyed extremist.
No one is
fooled.
Ronald Reagan was and remains the Left's worst
nightmare.
Why?
Because it
was Ronald Reagan who both understood conservative philosophy and was
repeatedly turning it into effective policy. It was Reagan who began the
massive historical deconstruction of a century's worth of the Left's ideas on
everything from economics to national security -- repeatedly proving them as
unworkable as they were dangerous. Not to mention that he trounced Jimmy
Carter, Walter Mondale, and, through his vice president in 1988, Michael
Dukakis. Three consecutive political
landslides in which Reagan so changed America that by 1992 Bill Clinton ran as
a "New Democrat" -- essentially portraying himself as Reagan-lite.
The game has changed with the addition of Ryan but contrary
to the leftist media, not in Obama’s favor.
I really pity Biden when he debates Ryan. He was bested by Sarah Palin in 2008. He will be eviscerated by Ryan.
2. Videos: Obama Admits cutting Medicare and promised to cut
benefit further if needed
It’s better from Obama’s own lips
(watch the video above). Of course
Axelrod has said that it is a Republican lie which you can watch at the video
below.
4. Romney over 40% with Youth Vote for the first time
For the first time since he began
running for president, Republican Mitt Romney has the support of over 40
percent of America's youth vote, a troubling sign for President Obama who built
his 2008 victory with the overwhelming support of younger, idealistic voters.
Pollster John Zogby of JZ Analytics
told Secrets Tuesday that Romney received 41 percent in his weekend poll of
1,117 likely voters, for the first time crossing the 40 percent mark. What's
more, he said that Romney is the only Republican of those who competed in the
primaries to score so high among 18-29 year olds.
"This is the first time I am
seeing Romney's numbers this high among 18-29 year olds," said Zogby.
"This could be trouble for Obama who needs every young voter he can
get."
Zogby helped Secrets dig deeper into
his weekend poll, which we reported on earlier. The poll had Romney and Obama
tied at 46 percent.
Zogby has been especially interested
in the youth vote this election. In 2008, 66 percent chose Obama over Sen. John
McCain,the highest percentage for a Democrat in three decades. But their desire
for hope and change has turned to disillusionment and unemployment. Zogby calls
them "CENGAs" for "college-educated, not going anywhere."
In his latest poll, Obama receives
just 49 percent of the youth vote when pitted against Romney, who received 41
percent….
This is huge. The
Democrats felt that Ryan’s addition to the ticket with some creative (read that
as lying) ads about Medicare could peel off seniors from supporting
Romney. Not only hasn’t the happened,
but it appears young people are susceptible to being peeled off Obama. In 2008 he got 66% of the youth vote.
5. Medicare: What’s being cut by Obamacare?
The Romney
campaign has gone on the offense on Medicare, charging that the Affordable Care
Act “cuts $716 billion” from the entitlement program.
That $716 billion figure is one you’ll probably
be hearing a lot about during this election cycle. It’s worth understanding where it comes from and what the spending
reductions mean for the Medicare program.
First, where it comes from. On July 24, the
Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner,
detailing the budget impact of repealing the Affordable Care Act. If Congress overturned the law, “spending
for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that
2013–2022 period.”
As to how the Affordable Care Act actually gets
to $716 billion in Medicare savings, that’s a bit more complicated. John McDonough did the best job explaining
it in his 2011 book, “Inside National Health Reform.” There, he looked at all the various Medicare
cuts Democrats made to pay for the Affordable Care Act.
The
majority of the cuts, as you can see in this chart below, come from reductions
in how much Medicare reimburses hospitals and private health insurance
companies
The blue
section represents reductions in how much Medicare reimburses private, Medicare
Advantage plans. That program allows seniors to join a private health
insurance, with the federal government footing the bill. The whole idea of
Medicare Advantage was to drive down the cost of health insurance for the
elderly as private insurance companies competing for seniors’ business.
That’s not what happened. By 2010, the average
Medicare Advantage per-patient cost was 117% of regular fee-for-service. The Affordable Care Act gives those
private plans a haircut and tethers reimbursement levels to the quality of care
administered, and patient satisfaction….
The real issue is the IPAB.
It goes into effect in 2014 and they will be able to adjust
reimbursements to reduce Medicare spending.
Now we all know what happens when you impose price controls (think of
the 1979-1980 gas lines). Now rather
than simply freezing the cost reduce it.
6. Onion: I scare the s*#t out of you
When Mitt Romney selected me as his
running mate, I knew the Democratic
attack dogs would come out in full force. They would say I’m a right-wing
ideologue. They would say my views on entitlement programs are far too radical.
They would say putting me on the ticket immediately kills Mitt Romney’s chances
of becoming president because I’m a liability. But if we’re being honest with
each other—if we’re able to put aside the talking points for a few minutes and
say what we’re all actually thinking and feeling—I believe we can acknowledge the real truth here.
I’m young, I’m handsome, I’m smart, and I’m articulate. And that scares the
ever-loving shit out of you. You can pretend like you have this thing in
the bag, but you know good goddamn well that this race just got real
interesting, real fast.
It’s okay to admit it.
You’re frightened to death of me. It might actually be healthy for you to face
your fears now rather than later, when Mitt and I are leading by a few points
in the polls and it looks like this thing might end badly for you. Face it: I’m
not some catastrophe waiting to happen, like a Sarah Palin or a Dan Quayle. On
the contrary, you have the exact opposite
fear. I’m a solid, competent, some might say exceptional, politician…
Sometimes the Onion will tell the truth that the MSM is
trying to hide from you.
7.President
Obama Campaign Narrative
The legend: that Obama began in 2009 from the worst
financial hole since the Depression.
Not true. The
economic hole in which Ronald Reagan began in 1981 was far deeper.
In January 2009, Obama inherited an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. Average inflation for the previous year was
3.8 percent. The rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage was 6 percent.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent and on
a steep uptick. The inflation rate was
13.5 percent. And the rate for a new home mortgage was 13.7 percent. The
purchasing power of those on fixed incomes had fallen by 30 percent under
Carter, throwing millions of seniors and others below the poverty line. There
were gasoline shortages and long, long lines at filling stations. Carter
himself described the mess the country was in as a “malaise.” Economists had to
coin a new word for it, “stagflation”– a supposedly impossible combination of
very high inflation with even higher unemployment. Carter based his presidential campaign on raising taxes on
millionaires, crusading against “the three-martini lunch” (more likely
among TV stars, agents, journalists, and others in the Manhattan crowd than
among businessmen; it was a small and petty campaign based on resentment).
Closing
out his fourth year in office in 1984, Reagan had brought the unemployment rate
down to almost 7.3 percent. By
the end of his second term, unemployment was 5.4 percent and the inflation rate
had plummeted to 4.3 percent. During his full eight years, the economic incentives he put in place led to the creation of 16
million new jobs and the formation of some 2 million new small businesses.
More Americans between the ages of 18 and 65 were employed than ever before,
and the labor force had grown to historic proportions, partly because of an
unprecedented number of women entering it….
…Closing out his fourth year in
office, President Obama has an 8.3
percent unemployment rate, the lowest
rate of participation in the labor force in 30 years (63.7 percent), and
more Americans out of work and out of the work force than in any of the
preceding 30 years. There are also over
7 million more persons in poverty now than when he took office, a jump from
39.8 million to 47 million. And yet he chose “Forward” for his campaign slogan.
Reagan had an unusually high respect for incentives
as a spur to job creation. Give
people an incentive, they jump through hoops to earn it. They take the risk of
forming small businesses by the tens of thousands, and they launch wholly new
industries.
By contrast, President Obama seems to hold incentives in contempt. Imitating
Jimmy Carter (with predictably similar results), he styles himself a “fairness president,” and sets up policies
designed to punish those with incomes above $250,000. His campaign is mostly against millionaires.
He will reap less investment, fewer inventions and new job-creating industries,
and lower tax revenues paid by the wealthy. He is already producing malaise…
Just about everything Obama and the Democrats say is not
likely to be true.
8. Sex Scandal in DHS
Both Barr and Schriro are named offenders in the growing sex scandal within Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security. DHS has gone from angrily denying that it has a sex scandal, to putting government workers on “voluntary” leave.
The top Homeland Security official accused of cultivating a “frat-house”-style work
environment has “voluntarily placed herself on leave” amid an internal
review, the department told FoxNews.com late Tuesday evening — just hours after
FoxNews.com contacted the agency about new allegations against her.
The official, Suzanne
Barr, is chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Two more ICE employees came forward this week to
complain about “lewd” conduct inside the agency, submitting sworn affidavits
that depict graphic comments made by two top officials working under DHS
Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The affidavits were given as part of a
discrimination and retaliation suit filed earlier this year by James T. Hayes
Jr., the head of the New York office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Here’s another scandal brewing in the Obama
Administration. It appears that
Napolitano gave unqualified people important jobs in DHS based on their
personal relationships with her.
