Blogs For Victory

A (Temporarily) Lost Debate

November 28, 2012November 28, 2012Mark Noonan52 Comments

We certainly haven’t convinced a majority of our fellow Americans on this basic issue:

…Sixty percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll support raising taxes on incomes more than $250,000 a year, long a popular option overall, but also a divisive one: While 73 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents are in favor, far fewer Republicans, 39 percent, agree…

…Sixty-seven percent in this poll…oppose another suggestion, raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. And on this idea, strong opposition surpasses strong support by more than 3-1, 49 to 14 percent…

So, at the end of the day, a solid majority are in favor of raising taxes on “the rich” while an even more solid majority are opposed to the basic, common-sense idea of raising the age of Medicare eligibility in order to preserve the Medicare system. People are in favor of something which won’t help and opposed to something which would. Whatever else we did in 2012, we utterly failed to make a dent on the issue of fiscal reform of the United States government.

I think our failure on taxes is that our absolute opposition to all tax increases has painted us in to a corner where Democrats (aided by the by-lined Democrats in the MSM) can label us as extreme. To be sure, opposing tax increases has been, is and will remain a key GOP principal because we know that you can never feed the Big Government beast enough. No matter how much money you give to it, it will be blown through and more demanded. We’d have a $6 trillion a year budget if we hadn’t held the line on taxes all these years. But one must not allow rigidity to overcome good sense – we should have seen four or more years ago that as long as there are people with more money than they know what to do with the Democrats would be able to successfully campaign on an “make the rich pay their fair share” slogan. That most of these super-rich are liberals and that Democrat tax proposals will hit the super-rich lightly, if at all, is irrelevant: we handed them an issue and ideological rigidity against tax increases prevented us from a counter-offensive which can preserve low marginal rates (vital, as we know, for economic growth). This is the genesis of my “wealth tax” proposal – a tax aimed at the very richest and not at productive capital, but at money just squirreled away in tax shelters of various types. Had we come out with a wealth tax for the 2012 campaign it would have been us attacking Democrats and deflecting their attack on us – at worst, it would have been a wash and it may have worked out to our credit…and we’d be in a much stronger position right now to fight for lower marginal rates to be maintained.

Our failure on entitlement reform stems from the failure on taxes – as a party which has been successfully painted as defending low taxes for the rich, any and all reasonable reforms of entitlements can be (and have been) cast by the Democrats as a callous disregard for the poor and middle class by a party which is only interested in defending low taxes for the rich. Yes, I know this isn’t true, at all – but it is how we’ve been painted and it is something we must change if we are to succeed. Remember, Obama won’t be President forever – eventually we will be back in power. When we get there if we haven’t convinced a majority of Americans to back us on entitlement reform then there’s no point in winning. If we don’t reform entitlements then even if we some how manage to avoid fiscal collapse in the next five years or so then we are still absolutely stuck with the fact that entitlements will soon eat up almost all government revenues. That is unsustainable. But we can’t offer ourselves as reformers of entitlements until the people trust us as defenders of the poor and the middle class. That we already are (no greater enemy of the poor and middle class than a tax hiking, entitlement expanding liberal who pretends there is no crisis), but the people don’t know it – don’t understand it; don’t buy it.

To get the people firmly on our side we have to be seen as firmly on their side. To be sure, it is almost certain that things will just get worse and worse as Obama’s 2nd term unfolds. Nothing which was wrong in 2008 has been fixed and nothing will be fixed as long as Obama is President – he’s apparently unaware of the problems or just doesn’t care about them. Whatever the case, the problems won’t be solved. But it won’t be enough for us to just be “not the Democrats”…we have to be seen as something which will change the course from the Democrats and in a manner which is easily understood as helping the poor and middle class. This, in turn, requires a ruthless turning away from big business, from those who have, and a relentless pointing out of the plight of the poor and the middle class and a relentless education of the same that it is the Democrats who have, on purpose, done all this to them. My “wealth tax” proposal is one method. Another is to go gangbusters, once again, for school choice. Yet another is to point out that Uncle Sam can use Medicare money to help people take care of their old folks rather than shoving them off – at twice the cost – to sub-standard nursing homes (and telling oldsters and their kids that we’re going to keep them at home will resonate as more and more people get old). On and on like that – show them that we are not for the rich, that we are for the poor and the middle class…that we will get them better results without taking anything away (do not campaign against “free stuff” – in time, with rational economic policies, less and less free stuff will be needed until we reach a tipping point where only a tiny minority is getting free stuff…but if you go out there and complain about the free stuff then all you do is automatically alienate everyone who is getting free stuff…including those who would rather not but just don’t see any other way: really, we have to stop being the Stupid Party and learn how to play a long game).

Its either become the party of the people, or perish. Our choice. We’ll see what we decide.

Teach The Principles

November 27, 2012November 27, 2012Cluster103 Comments

The contortions that many conservatives and GOPers have gone through over the last couple of weeks trying to make sense of the election has been amusing, frustrating, and a little disconcerting. I get the sense that some seem to believe that it was simply a function of the base not showing up, or that Romney was weak candidate, and/or that the 47% comment did us in, and that we need to stop denigrating the American voting public, which was George Will’s comment. Some of this I can agree with, but if denigrating the American voting public was the reason for our loss, then how did that same tactic result in Obama’s win? I find Will’s comment to be completely off base and simply a pandering comment to make sure he is invited to the next cocktail party.

This was an election of big choices, and our side lost. Romney clearly laid out stark differences between his approach and that of Obama’s. Romney was the first candidate that I can remember to courageously put Medicare reform on the table; he was the first candidate to speak to the need of tax reform and put forth a plan, and he was the first candidate to suggest real cuts in the budget, not just a slow down of growth rates. So in my opinion Romney was not weak – he had the right plan, and the American people chose to continue down the irresponsible path we are on. They made that decision based partly on the lies told to them by Obama, the Democrats and the liberal media (think: taxes on the rich and outlawing abortion), but more on their own historical and financial ignorance having been educated in failing schools steeped in liberal philosophy. A philosophy of which blames others for personal failure, and teaches that a large centralized state can, and will, take care of their needs.

We, as conservatives, should certainly plan our attack for 2014 and 2016, by articulating a message that resonates with the growing constituencies of single women and minorities, but if we are to preserve the ideals of this great nation in the long term, we need to begin a strategy of teaching conservative principles to our children, starting at the elementary levels. It’s much like raising a child as we all have done, and proving to them that conservative philosophy is the most compassionate towards others and offers the most rewarding personal life they will ever know. Those principles include, but not limited to:

1. Live within your financial means – large debt restricts personal freedom and destroys relationships and lives. Be responsible with your money, and if money is important to you, then pursue education and set goals.

2. Personal responsibility – bad decisions have consequences and you need to, and will, live with those consequences. Don’t blame others, and don’t repeat your mistakes. Good things happen to those who do their best everyday and make good decisions.

3. Learn how to fail – no person has ever won all the time. Learning how to fail builds personal strength and character and makes winning that much more rewarding.

4. Abstinence – abstain from drugs and excessive alcohol use. There has never been one successful alcoholic or drug user, and by engaging in this activity you can assure yourself of future health problems. Abstain from treating your body like an amusement park, whether that be sexually, or by putting ink and bolts into yourself. Treat your mind and body with respect – you only get one.

I am sure other conservative posters here can add to this list, and I hope they do, but these are four principles that I have taught my kids, and all three of them have turned out to be responsible, functioning adults. I desperately want to see this country get back to a shared sense of responsibility for moving our country forward. I look around me anymore and much of what I see is very disheartening – entitlement minded, financially illiterate, selfish, drug addicted, pierced and bolted ignorant masses, more interested in the latest brain dead Jay Z CD, or what the Kardashian’s are doing, and I suspect much of you see the same. The problem is, this is a growing constituency, so if we are to have long-term success, we need to begin building a more solid foundation of responsible, better educated children.

Expanding Middle Class?

November 27, 2012November 27, 2012Retired Spook15 Comments

There’s an interesting article in the on-line edition of the Washington Post this afternoon. Another in a long line of election post-mortems, but citing a figure that I’ve not seen or heard before:

Romney won voters earning between $50,000 and $100,0000 by 52 percent to 46 percent. That’s less than what Bush got in 2004 (he won that group by 12) but they were 28 percent of the electorate in 2012 and just 18 percent electorate in 2004.

I had to read that a couple time to make sure I was reading it right. In an economy that virtually everyone admits is the worst recovery from a recession since WW2, the number of people who have moved into the upper middle class has increased by over 55%. And half as many (percentage-wise) of these upwardly mobile Americans voted for Romney as voted for Bush in 2004. That made zero sense to me until I thought back to my response to Canadian Observer in the previous thread. Given that a single mother of 3 making minimum wage has as much disposable income as a married couple with 2 kids making $60,000 a year, that puts a lot more Americans (and Obama voters) in that $50,000 to $100,000 demographic. There’s probably another explanation, right?

Avoiding the Fiscal Cliff

November 24, 2012November 24, 2012Retired Spook42 Comments

Well, the agenda media is tripping over itself speculating on how Congress and the President will avoid the fiscal cliff, and what the ramifications are if they do (or don’t).

An on-line AP article today makes some of the most ludicrous statements and assertions I’ve seen in a while, illustrating the fact that they haven’t got a clue as to what’s going to happen — or why.

President Barack Obama and leaders of the lame-duck Congress may be just weeks away from shaking hands on a deal to avert the dreaded “fiscal cliff.” So it’s natural to wonder: If they announce a bipartisan package promising to curb mushrooming federal deficits, will it be real?

Come on, now — this is Washington D.C. where perception is reality, and the MSM is all about creating perception.

Obama and top lawmakers could produce an agreement that takes a serious bite out of the government’s growing $16 trillion pile of debt and puts it on a true downward trajectory.

On what planet could (or would) they do that? Certainly not this one. Even during the Clinton administration when the budget was supposedly “balanced”, the debt never went down year on year. If they taxed the top 2% at 100%, they couldn’t even erase the current deficit, much less “take a serious bite” out of the debt.

Or they might reach an accord heading off massive tax increases and spending cuts that begin to bite in January — that’s the fiscal cliff — while appearing to be getting tough on deficits through painful savings deferred until years from now, when their successors might revoke or dilute them.

Now that sounds more like what we’re accustomed to from our political class.

Historically, Congress and presidents have proven themselves capable of either.

Not recently. Since 1961 the debt has done nothing but increase. In all fairness, the biggest jumps came during the administrations of Ronald Reagan ($2 trillion) and George W. Bush ($5 trillion). But Obama has already exceeded Bush’s total and is likely to exceed that combined $7 trillion well before the midpoint of his second term.

Passing a framework next month that sets deficit-cutting targets for each of the next 10 years would be seen as a sign of seriousness. But look for specifics. An agreement will have a greater chance of actually reducing deficits if it details how the savings would be divided between revenue increases and cuts in federal programs, averting future fights among lawmakers over that question.

Say what? Can anyone read that and not laugh?

Better yet would be including a fast-track process for passing next year’s tax and spending bills if they meet the savings targets so they can whisk through Congress without the possibility of a Senate filibuster, in which 41 of the 100 senators could kill a measure they dislike.

Is that the same Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in 3-1/2 years?

Raising money from higher rates, closing loopholes or a combination of the two would create real revenue for the government.

As opposed to what? Fake revenue?

The problem is many tax deductions and credits , such as for home mortgages and the value of employer-provided health insurance, are so popular that enacting them into law over objections from the public and lobbyists would be extremely difficult.

D’ya think?

With the price tags of tax and spending laws typically measured over a decade, delaying the implementation date can distort the projected impact of a change on people and the government’s debt.

But it does give the perception that they’re doing something.

Even more questionable are assumptions that overhauling tax laws will boost economic activity and thus produce large new revenues for the government. Many Republicans and ideologically conservative economists contend that’s the case, but most economists say there is no sound way to estimate how much revenue can be generated from strengthening the economy by revamping the tax system. Many believe the amount is modest.

Well then, we are just fluked!

Savings that come from weeding out waste, fraud and abuse, which sounds good but are difficult to find, or rely on one-time sales of federal assets should be treated with suspicion.

Of course — there’s no waste, fraud or abuse in the federal budget.

Deep cuts that take effect in the future, say after Obama leaves office in 2017, might be better than imposing them now and hurting an already weak economy by reducing spending.

Now were talkin’

How Old is the World?

November 22, 2012November 22, 2012Mark Noonan190 Comments

Turns out, they don’t just ask that of GOPers whom the Democrats have commanded the MSM to destroy – seems that our President was once upon a time asked the question. From Instapundit:

Q: Senator, if one of your daughters asked you—and maybe they already have—“Daddy, did god really create the world in 6 days?,” what would you say?

A: What I’ve said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible may not be six days as we understand it … it may not be 24-hour days, and that’s what I believe. I know there’s always a debate between those who read the Bible literally and those who don’t, and I think it’s a legitimate debate within the Christian community of which I’m a part. My belief is that the story that the Bible tells about God creating this magnificent Earth on which we live—that is essentially true, that is fundamentally true. Now, whether it happened exactly as we might understand it reading the text of the Bible: That, I don’t presume to know.

Which is actually a pretty good answer – a bit better than Rubio’s which also wasn’t too bad. Of course, we don’t know if President Obama has “evolved” on this issue or decided it was above his paygrade. We’ll need a follow up question – which I’m sure the MSMers will ask at his next press conference in 2015 or so.

The proper answer is, of course, “as old as it is, I suppose” because no one really knows. You see, the main trouble with pre-historic events is that they are, well, pre-historic. What happened wasn’t written down in contemporary documents and so we can’t review the material and come to a conclusion about what happened. We can make some surmises from what we can analyze in the here and now, but we can’t know how it all came about. One of the troubles we have in studying the distant past is that there is so little evidence for us to go on – and so, all too often, the scientists studying it grasp on to whatever scrap of evidence they can find and run entirely too far with it (this is especially true of paleontologists and their tiny collection of bones). So much of what happened in the past has entirely vanished – there are a lot of wild guesses about what our primitive ancestors did, for instance, but I find no real profit in looking in to the matter – we’ll never really know. I’m just grateful that, apparently quite early on, one of them figured out how to make beer.

The fundamental problem with evolution as it is expressed these days it not in the concept that a positive thing called an ape slowly turned in to a positive thing called a man – that is something which no theology can have the slightest problem with. The error comes in when a proponent of evolution insists that it was all blind, random chance – first off, the chances of it happening are so vastly small as to be nearly zero: it is a greater miracle that we exist by blind chance than the miracle that we exist because the Word called us in to existence. Secondly, if it was all blind chance then everything is merely the result of a prior cause; there is no free will and thus no actual thought…including the thought that we evolved. You see, if all results are merely the blind working out of forces beyond anyone’s control (as they must be if there is no Creator) then there is no validity to the thought that we evolved by blind chance: the random atoms in your brain just happened to be worked in to a position where your mind spits out the “it all evolved blindly” thought; but a slight alternation in the atoms a billion years ago and you’d have spit out the thought that we all grew out of a rock in the garden – and neither thought is worth commenting on because each are equally meaningless. The thoroughgoing evolutionist cuts his own intellectual throat.

To me it is just plain as a pikestaff that God created the universe and ordered it towards a certain end. I really don’t grasp how anyone can think differently – one thing happening can be ascribed to random chance but the tens of billions of things which must have happened to result in my typing on a computer in 2012 makes me highly suspicious that there is an Author to the play I am acting in. I don’t know if this Author spoke everything in to existence in 6 days or if he decided to go about it through 6 billion years – and to me the whole debate is rather academic. At the end of it all we are, indeed, here and have to do the things we must do. The only thing which irks me in this debate is the insistence upon some that in our public life we subscribe to an asinine theory saying that there can be no God in the process of life. That is just to shut down a massive area of intellectual inquiry – it is a closing of the mind and made doubly irritating because the people who are shutting their minds say they are doing it in the name of openness.

Thoughts on the “Black Friday Strike”

November 20, 2012Mark Noonan89 Comments

A lot of people are getting fed up with the way America’s retailers are forever pushing back the start of “black Friday” – that Friday after Thanksgiving which represents the largest retail sales day of the year. Starting some years ago, retailers started opening up earlier and earlier on Friday morning, offering “door buster” deals for those people willing to get there at the crack of dawn. Trouble is, each retailer tried to out-do the other – and now we have a lot of major retailers who are planning on opening on Thanksgiving Day, itself.

I’m not quite sure where this bright idea came from – given that I work in corporate America, my guess is a second-level corporate exec managed to produce some numbers which alleged that opening up an hour earlier you can grab some tiny percentage more of consumer’s disposable income – income which might be spent at other retailers if everyone opened up at the same time. I highly doubt that this opening up earlier and earlier actually increases sales – more than likely it just spreads the sales out over a longer period of time. At any rate, the corporate execs who thought it up are, likely, the products of business schools who are rising to the top not based on skill or ability but simply on the fact that when they first were inserted in to junior management post-college they were befriended by someone a step higher on the corporate ladder and just rose along with them year by year (with only those entirely screwing up along the way losing their place on the ladder). Essentially, they are just “managers” who don’t actually know what it is their troops do for a living (anyone who has worked long in corporate America is continually astounded by how executive decisions bear little connection to reality – but before any of you liberals out there consider this an indictment of the private sector, I point out that the level of senior obtuseness is vastly higher in government); most importantly, the corporate executives who are commanding their troops to give up their holiday for the sake of a 0.01% increase in gross sales won’t be there while the troops are at work – for the most part, they’ll be home with their families, enjoying Thanksgiving.

Continue reading →

California: A Liberal Failure

November 20, 2012Mark Noonan30 Comments

From Powerline:

…Today, California is the most spectacular failure of our time. Its government is broke. Productive citizens have been fleeing for some years now, selling their homes at inflated prices (until recently) and moving to Colorado, Arizona, Texas and even Minnesota, like one of my neighbors. The results of California’s improvident liberalism have been tragically easy to predict: absurd public sector wage and benefit packages, a declining tax base, surging welfare enrollment, falling economic production, ever-increasing deficits. Soon, California politicians will be looking to less glamorous states for bailout money. Things have now devolved to the point where California leads the nation in poverty…

Where California (and Detroit, and Chicago) are now is where Obama and his liberals want to lead us tomorrow – a place of bloated, corrupt government, spreading poverty compelling spreading dependency on government and a tiny, fabulously rich ruling elite living in guarded enclaves. Is it part of plan? In a certain sense, yes – liberals don’t believe in people doing for themselves, so their policies are all designed to take control away from people and give it to government. The problem is that when you do that the ability to create wealth withers away until all the wealth is concentrated in people who either inherited it or got it from government while the mass of people wallow in welfare-drugged poverty.

The good news is that liberalism is completely collapsing – Obama’s re-election is not the glad morn of a new liberalism; it is the death rattle of the liberalism brought to us in FDR’s New Deal. In the end, it is probably better that Obama won – this way the complete failure of liberalism will rest upon the liberals, themselves. While they will continue to blame Bush – and anything else they can point a finger at – I believe that by 2016 the finger of the people will point squarely at the liberals. As long as we craft a positive program of reform and get a reasonably decent nominee, we’ll send them packing – and likely for good.

Keep the faith, keep fighting – and save as much money as you can: its going to be a rough four years.

Going “FORWARD”, What Positions Favor Progressives?

November 17, 2012November 20, 2012Retired Spook187 Comments

This post originated a couple threads back with Cluster offering the following challenge:

“Bring it on liberals. There is not one position in your favor and I look forward to bashing you about the head for the next four years.”

One of our resident Leftist Useful Idiots, thetruthshallsetyoufree, responded with:

Except for all those positions that favored liberals on election day, of course. Good point.

JR responded with:

Small-minded as you are, TruthSSYF, it’s clear you fail to see the irony in that. Absent mass forced reeducation camps, the only thing this election will result in is death and despair. And there are those of us who, if it’s the last thing we do, will see to it that you and those who share your views will be on the receiving end of that paradigm. I don’t think you have the slightest grasp of what lies ahead, but it ain’t gonna be pretty. It is gonna be fun to watch, though.

And I responded with:

Not really a good point, Truthie, as JR points out. Besides winning the presidential election and increasing the Donk majority in the Senate, what positions on November 6th favored Liberals? No President in the last 75 years has been re-elected with the unemployment rate as high as it is — and it’s going higher. No other President has been re-elected with economic growth as weak as it is since they began keeping such statistics in 1930, and Obama’s policies will ensure that it’s only going to get weaker. No other President has been re-elected with the right track/wrong track numbers so stacked against him. The number of GOP governors (30) is at a 12-year high. The GOP-controlled House still controls the purse strings. I haven’t spoken to a single Conservative since the election whose resolve has been anything but strengthened.

Other than free contraceptives and free abortions, what, pray tell, does a second Obama term offer anyone except those with their hands out? As JR alludes to, our side still has most of the guns, and the U.S. military will never, I repeat, NEVER side with Obama. And if you think that Obama’s cute little Kiddie Corps is going to be anything other than cannon fodder, you’re more delusional that I thought.

This exchange, probably close to the end of a dead thread got me to thinking; is there anything that really favors the Progressive agenda going “forward”? Do Progressives now believe they can just do what they want the next 4 years without repercussions? The House of Representatives does still hold the purse strings, but what if Obama continues to just bypass the House with executive orders? Will the nearly 60 million people who voted against him just lay down and do nothing? What, if any, policies will Obama pursue going “forward” that will result in more liberty and more prosperity?

Update: I’m not getting any takers on the final question of the post, and, admittedly, it asks for someone to have a crystal ball. So let me rephrase it: what policies going “forward” would you like to see Obama pursue that you believe will have a positive effect on liberty and prosperity?

Proggies Act Surprised ….. We Told You So!

November 16, 2012tiredoflibbs21 Comments

“On Obamacare……

As a result of obAMATEUR’s re-election and the highly improbability that ObamaCare being repealed, we’ve had several businesses come forward and state that this is going to affect the number of workers they have and hours they can work – two of them are CEO of Papa Johns John Schnatter and Applebees franchisee owner Zane Tankel. While these aren’t the only two, they are the latest business owners who have publicly stated the harmful impact that ObamaCare will have on their businesses, their workers’ jobs and benefits.

The proggies are “shocked”. They took to Twitter to demonize these business owners (hey they learned from the professional agitator using Alinski, his mentor’s tactics) , and pushing for others to boycott their businesses. Hey you proggies – Can’t say you weren’t warned! Business owners have been out there telling you exactly what you had coming to you if obAMATEUR was re-elected and ObamaCare stayed the law of the land. Of course, you chose not to listen to those warnings. It doesn’t make it these business owner’s problems! We told you so!!!

On to raising taxes……..

obAMATEUR is consumed with obsession about raising taxes on the “rich”. We hear it in the press about his “wanting to make a deal” with Republicans for the so-called “balanced approach”. All we have heard so far is the raising taxes on the “wealthy” – some balanced approach! The complicit media (aka the propaganda arm of the White House) has done nothing but interview Republican and talk about raising taxes. They have yet to question the obAMATEUR about the other half of the “balanced approach” – spending cuts. Recently, on Good Morning America, they stated concern how “spending cuts will affect the economy”! Excuse me? We have seen MASSIVE government spending stagnate an economy. We have proof that tax cuts work – several instances in fact. Even the CBO disagrees with the lopsided “balanced approach” on raising taxes – Raising taxes has nothing to do with our fiscal cliff and getting our finances in order..

“Just how much deficit reduction would Obama’s tax hikes on the rich necessarily accomplish?

Nothing, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Letting tax rates rise to Clinton era levels for those families making over $250,000 a year would only raise $824 billion over ten years. That is not even enough revenue to undo the sequester that Obama promised “will not happen” during his final debate with Mitt Romney.”

If we gave you your way and CONFISCATED ALL THE WEALTH of the so-called targeted “wealthy”, you would have enough money to run the government for a few months. That’s it!!! We have a spending problem in this country. This pResident who has ran up the debt than the first 42 presidents COMBINED! Again, it is not our problem that you PREDICTABLY ignored FACTS and re-elected this buffoon. We told you so!!!

More recent higher jobless claims ….

We now have 439,000 new jobless claims for the first full week after the disastrous reelection of the “one we have been waiting for” – the obAMATEUR and I do mean AMATEUR! Pennsylvania and Ohio led the pack. Two unionized states. Two crucial states won by obAMATEUR. The obAMATEUR sycophants are trying to put the best possible spin on these numbers — saying that they’re due to layoffs from Hurricane Sandy. What utter CRAP!. Layoffs in Ohio? Pennsylvania? Heavy union states? We had New Jersey turn away NON UNION ELECTRICAL WORKERS, as an example of their dedication to union labor even in a disaster such as this!!!!

These layoffs are the direct result of re-electing this anti-business failure (a failure at everything he has put his hands on) of a pResident. Businesses have been struggling that last four years. There has been no recovery. There have been BILLIONS of dollars spent by these businesses to comply with new regulations coming from this White House and the EPA. The EPA will soon unleash the flood of new so-called “clean air” rules that will send energy costs through the roof. Taxes on small business owners are going to rise. Capital gains taxes on investors – going up. There is absolutely NOTHING on the horizon with four more years of obAMATEUR that gives one iota of hope for a better business and economic climate ahead. So … it’s time to go lean … and that’s just what these businesses are doing. They’re shedding employees to get under the ObamaCare threshold. They’re looking for ways to get more efficient so that they can rid themselves of unnecessary workers. As a result we see jobless claims are on the rise .. the highest number since the middle of 2011.

The obAMATEUR, his sycophants, drones and lemmings want to blame it on the storm. Well .. .they’re half-right. It’s a storm all right, but not Hurricane Sandy. It’s the storm of taxes and regulations that are coming with the reelection of an anti-business, tax and spend president.

Elections have consequences. Here’s your pink slip. Enjoy. And if you’re an obAMATEUR voter, I’m enjoying it right along with you. You did it to yourselves. We told you so!!!