WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED ON FACTS (OBOF)

Name	Published
OVERVIEW	Dec. 28, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 1	Dec. 30, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 2	Jan. 10, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 3	Jan. 17, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 4	Jan. 24, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 5	Jan. 31, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 6	Feb. 07, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 7	Feb. 14, 2011
SPECIAL ISSUE	Feb. 18, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 8	Feb. 21, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 9	Mar. 01, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 10	Mar. 07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1	Mar. 14, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1A	Mar. 21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 2	Mar. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 3	Mar. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 4	Apr. 04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 5	Apr. 11, 2011
SS & MORE PART 6	Apr. 18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7	Apr. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7A	Apr. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 8	May 02, 2011
SS & MORE PART 9	May 09, 2011
SS & MORE PART 10	May 16, 2011
SS & MORE PART 11	May 24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 12	Jun. 06, 2011
SS & MORE PART 13	Jun. 20, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14	July 05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14A	July 18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 15	July 19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 16	Aug. 03, 2011
SS & MORE PART 17	Aug. 15, 2011
SS & MORE PART 18	Aug. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 19	Sept. 12, 2011
SS & MORE PART 20	Sept. 26, 2011
SS & MORE PART 21	Oct. 10, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22	Oct. 24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22 EXTRA	Nov. 04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 23	Nov. 07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 24	Nov. 21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 25	Dec. 05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 26	Dec. 19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 27	JAN. 03, 2012
SS & MORE PART 27A	JAN. 05, 2012
SS & MORE PART 28	JAN. 17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 29	JAN. 31, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30	Feb. 14, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL1	Feb. 21, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30 EXTRA	Feb. 23, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31	Feb. 28, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL2 - 59	Mar. 06, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31 EXTRA	Mar. 07, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32	Mar. 13, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL3 - 1	Mar. 20, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32 EXTRA	Mar. 24, 2012
SS & MORE PART 33	Apr. 10, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL 4 - 2	Apr. 17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 34	Apr. 24, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL5 - 49	May 01, 2012
SS & MORE PART 35	May 09, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL6 - 19	May 15, 2012
SS & MORE PART 35 EXTRA	May 18, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36	May 22, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36 EXTRA	May 25, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36
EXTRA II	June 01, 2012
SS & MORE PART 37	June 05. 2012

IN THIS ISSUE

1. From the President of the United States.

2. The job stall.

3. The first amendment up side down.

~~~

"VOTE, AN EDUCATED VOTE"

What is an educated vote? It is one that has been made with as much knowledge, based on facts, not misinformation, that an individual can obtain.

~~~

FROM THE PRESIDENT

of

THE UNITED STATES.

Floyd's note:

From time to time, I have given small amounts of financial support to the President's campaign. As a result, I, again from time to time, receive letters from the President and from some of his staff. They actually are fundraising letters, but just a few days ago, I received one from the President that sincerely impressed me so much that I am going to include it in this posting. I believe you will find it worth your time.

Up to now I haven't said much about the campaigns of both the President and Mr. Romney, but I am going to start to include, particularly, the distortions Mr. Romney's campaign is putting out.

The President's letter:

Dear Mr. Bowman

Americans now know exactly the choice in this campaign. Our job is to make sure they also know exactly the stakes.

Because this isn't just a campaign over who will occupy the White House for the next four years. It's about what kind of country this will be over the next generation or more.

The middle class has sacrificed enough over the last few decades. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Someone gave me a chance. And this election is about giving everybody a chance.

At a time like this, we've got to ask ourselves a central, fundamental question as a nation: What do we have to do to make sure that America is a place where, if you work hard, if you're responsible, that hard work and responsibility pays off?

We need to ask this question because there's a debate going on in this country right now: Can we succeed as a nation when a shrinking number of people are doing really, really well but a growing number are struggling to get by?

Or are we better off when everybody gets a fair shot, everybody does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules?

Floyd, this is not just another run-of-the-mill political debate. It's the defining issue of our time. It's why I ran in 2008. It's what my presidency has been about. It's why I'm running again. And it's why I need your help once more.

In 2008, we captured something special in the American spirit. And I can tell you that as I travel the country, that spirit is still there. You see it in our men and women in uniform as they're defending our country around the world. You see it in our places of worship.

It's a sense that we rise and fall together, and that it makes sense for us to be constantly thinking, not just about ourselves but about others, not just about today, but about the next generation.

We have to recapture that spirit in 2012. And the stakes could not be higher, because the contrast between the two parties is going to be even more pronounced in 2012 than it was in 2008.

Right now we have two competing visions of our future, and the choice could not be clearer. I am sure those on the other side are patriots, I'm sure they're sincere in terms of what they say. But their basic mission seems to be one in which a few folks are doing well at the top and everybody else is struggling to get by, but that's OK because somehow that's a formula for growth. And that vision, I believe and I know, is wrong.

My likely opponent in the election will tell you that investing in our future together will make our country weaker. I disagree. When we guarantee basic security for the elderly, or the sick, or those who are actively looking for work, that doesn't make us weak.

What makes us weak is when fewer Americans can afford to buy the products that businesses are selling.

What drags our entire economy down is when the benefits of economic growth and productivity go only to the few, which is what's been happening for over a decade now, and the gap between those at the very, very top and everybody else keeps growing wider and wider.

In this country, broad-based prosperity has neber trickled down from the success of a wealthy few. It has always come from the success of a strong and growing middle class. And our future prosperity must be built from the middle out, not the top down.

That's why I'm always confused when we keep having the same argument with folks who don't seem to remember how America was built.

These folks keep telling us that if we just weaken regulations that keep our air or our water clean, or protect our consumers, if we would just turn our investments in research and education and health care into tax cut, especially for the wealthy, then somehow the economy is going to grow stronger.

Here's the news: We tried this for eight years before I took office. At the beginning of the last decade, the wealthiest Americans got two huge tax cuts. Insurance companies and financial institutions got to write their own rules, or find their way around rules.

We were told the same thing we're being told now: This is going to lead to greater prosperity for everybody.

Guess what? It didn't.

Yes, the rich got much richer. Corporations made big profits. But we also had the slowest job growth in a century. The typical family's income fell even though the economy was growing. Health care premiums skyrocketed. Our entire financial system almost collapsed.

We spent the last three and a half years cleaning up after that mess. Now, I'm not a scientist, but I do know that if an experiment fails badly you learn from that. But you don't just keep on doing the same thing over and over. You go back to the drawing board and try something different.

But that's not what's been happening with these folks in Washington.

A lot of the folks who were peddling these same trickle-down theories, including Governor Romney, are doubling down on the same broken ideas. Instead of moderating their views even slightly, the Republicans running Congress have doubled down, and proposed a budget so far to the right it makes the Newt Gingrich's Contract with America look like the New Deal.

The middle class lose under this plan. Nearly 10 million college students would see their financial aid cut by an average of $1,000 each. There would be 1,600 fewer medical research grants for things like Alzheimer's and cancer and AIDS. Over 200,000 children would lose Head Start. Two million mothers and young children would be cut from a program that gives them access to healthy food.

But not everyone would lose out under this plan. They're proposing trillions in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans by turning Medicare into a voucher program with no guarantee that the voucher would cover seniors' costs. If costs go up faster than the value of the voucher, seniors are out of luck. It's a bad idea, and it will ultimately end Medicare as we know it.

This is not conjecture. I am not exaggerating. These are facts.

We have a much different approach when it comes to taxes ---an approach that says if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't afford for Warren Buffett to be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. That is not fair. It is not right.

We've got a different idea of how to grow the economy. We believe in the free market and individual initiative, but we alsol believe in giving back and investing in schools ---- investing in science and technology --- creating the infrastructure that grows the economy for the long term and strengthens the middle class.

We believe in making sure the vulnerable among us and our seniors have a basic safety net, because we never know which one of us might at some point be stricken with an illness or suffer a layoff.

Most of us know ourselves, or know somebody who knows what it's like to fall on hard times and who understands how important those safety nets are in order to get people back on their feet so they can succeed.

So we've got a lot at stake in this election. The good news is that we've got the truth on our side, and I think the values that we're going to be talking about over the next several months are not Democratic values or Republican values, they're American values.

And I think people are going to be, once again, choosing a better future and our best traditions. That's what we're going to be fighting for. We must continue to move the country forward and not back.

But Floyd, to win this debate and build the country over the next four years, I need your continued support. Because you can bet that the individuals and interests that stand to benefit from Governor Romney's plan are laying it all out--- including all the money you can count --- to stop us.

Floyd, I'm not counting on their support. I'm countin on yours.So please, help us take this message acre]oss this country. Rush a generous contribution of $50, $100 or even $150 to OBAMA FOR AMERICA today.

I said in 2008 that I am not a perfect man and I will never be a perfect President. But what I promised you was that I would always tell you what I thought. I would always tell you where I stood, and I would wake up every single day fighting for you as hard as I know how.

I have kept that promise, and I need your help to keep it again. Please don't delay. This isn't about one election. It's a fundamental choice about the kind of America we want to build, and I need you to continue to stand with me. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

P.S. We have always held certain beliefs as Americans. We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can't just think about ourselves. We have to think about the country and our fellow citizens. This sense of responsibility to each other and to our country isn't a partisan feeling. It's patriotism. And if we keep that in mind, and uphold our obligations to one another and to this large enterprise that is America, then I have no doubt that we will continue our long and prosperous journey as the greatest Nation on earth. But that isn't inevitable. It depends heavily on the choice we make in this election. That's why I urgently need your support today.

Floyd's note:

I really think that our only hope for the future is to re-elect President Obama. It has been estimated that the Republicans will have $1 billion to spend on this election. There is no way that the President can raise any way near that amount. But his grass roots supporters can make a difference. I urge you to try to give whatever you can. The average of all his donations is $51. There are a lot of us that give $25 and that helps a great deal too. That is my level of contribution. I try to do that once a month. Just key in Obama for America. org.

~~~

The Job Stall.

Robert Reich

NationofChange / Op-Ed

Published: Saturday 2 June 2012

The White House must be telling itself there are still five months between now and Election Day, so the jobs picture could brighten. After all, we went through a similar mid-year slump in 2011 but came out fine.

But, however, you look at today’s jobs report, it’s a stunning reminder of how anemic the recovery has been – and how perilously close the nation is to falling into another recession.

Not only has the unemployment rate risen for the first time in almost a year, to 8.2 percent, but, more ominously, May’s payroll survey showed that employers created only 69,000 net new jobs. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its March and April reports downward. Only 96,000 new jobs have been created, on average, over the last three months.

Put this into perspective. Between December and February, the economy added an average of 252,000 jobs each month. To go from 252,000 to 96,000, on average, is a terrible slide. At least 125,000 jobs are needed a month merely to keep up with the growth in the working-age population available to work.

Face it: The jobs recovery has stalled. What’s going on? Part of the problem is the rest of the world. Europe is in the throes of a debt crisis and spiraling toward recession. China and India are slowing. Developing nations such as Brazil, dependent on exports to China, are feeling the effects and they’re slowing as well. All this takes a toll on U.S. exports.

But a bigger part of the problem is right here in the United States, and it’s clearly on the demand side of the equation. Big companies are still sitting on a huge pile of cash. They won’t invest it in new jobs because American consumers aren’t buying enough to justify the risk and expense of doing so.

Yet American consumers don’t have the cash or the willingness to spend more. Not only are they worried about keeping their jobs, but their wages keep dropping. The median wage continues to slide, adjusted for inflation. Average hourly earnings in May were up 2 cents – an increase of 1.7 percent from this time last year – but that’s less than the rate of inflation. And the value of their home – their biggest asset by far – is still declining. The average workweek slipped to 34.4 hours in May.

Corporate profits are healthy largely because companies have found ways to keep payrolls down – substituting lower-paid contract workers, outsourcing abroad, using computers and new software applications. But that’s exactly the problem. In paring their payrolls, they’re paring their customers.

And we no longer have any means of making up for the shortfall in consumer demand. Federal stimulus spending is over. In fact, state and local governments continue to lay off large numbers. The government cut 13,000 jobs in May. Instead of a boost, government cuts have become a considerable drag on the rest of the economy.

Republicans will have a field day with today’s jobs report, taking it as a sign that Obama’s economic policies have failed and we need instead their brand of fiscal austerity combined with more tax cuts for the wealthy.

But that’s precisely the reverse of what’s needed.

ONE, VERY INTERESTING COMMENT.

larronm

June 02, 2012 9:08pm

The weakness in the US economic data is a mirage. BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) adjusts the data seasonally to account for the slump in construction. But this winter was abnormally warm, however, the BLS made their normal adjustments which over stated the payroll data for the winter months. Now they are subtracting construction payrolls to offset the normal seasonal uptick in hiring into summer. So the winter reports over stated the payroll gains and the current report is under stating them.

The employment data released by payroll giant ADP is less effected by seasonal changes and more accurate. (Reminder that BLS depends upon a survey of large companies for their data.) ADP's report shows private payroll gains in May of 133,000, up from 113,000 in April. They estimate nearly 150,000 private sector jobs per month over the last quarter. While that is still weak, it is not nearly as sad as the BLS report would indicate.

We should bear in mind that during the past 3 1/2 years the country has lost nearly 800,000 public sector jobs and continues to shed additional public jobs at all levels of government.

While there is no simple answer to our dilemma, additional public sector hiring would help shore up the employment picture. The passage of legislation authorizing expenditures for infrastructure improvements and other public works projects would be a major factor in returning the nation to healthy employment.

Finally, the housing industry is the most powerful economic engine we have and it remains mired in the doldrums due to the huge foreclosure inventory. Finding a way to clear out much of this log jam would free the housing industry to rebuild it's market and the broad reach of home construction and sales would bring us back to full employment. But, doing so would make President Obama look good in the public's eyes and we can't have that, can we? Not if he is to be defeated in November. Thanks for that insight, Senator McConnell. And, that's the name of that tune!

Floyd's note:

This article points out how you can read about the same story in different places with very different outcomes. The BLS shows April job increase as 69,000 and May as 96,000. The more realistic picture by ADP shows April at 113,000 and May at 133,000. That is a lot of difference and while it is a long way from where we would like to be, it sure looks better. Also, the fact that they have estimated that the private sector providing an average of 150,000 per month for the last quarter, is encouraging.

However, no matter how you slice it, as Reich says:

....."it’s a stunning reminder of how anemic the recovery has been – and how perilously close the nation is to falling into another recession."

~~~

The First Amendment Upside Down. Why We Must Occupy Democracy

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

by Robert Reich

Floyd's note:

I am including this article, because it really lays out where we are in a nut shell, so to speak. Even though it was originally written November 22, 2011, it certainly applies today.

You’ve been seeing this across the country … Americans assaulted, clubbed, dragged, pepper-sprayed … Why? For exercising their right to free speech and assembly — protesting the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top.

And what’s Washington’s response? Nothing. In fact, Congress’s so-called “supercommittee” just disbanded because Republicans refuse to raise a penny of taxes on the rich.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says money is speech and corporations are people. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision last year ended all limits on political spending. Millions of dollars are being funneled to politicians without a trace.

And a revolving door has developed between official Washington and Wall Street – with bank executives becoming public officials who make rules that benefit the banks before heading back to the Street to make money off the rules they created.

Other top officials, including an increasing proportion of former members of congress, are cashing in by joining lobbying power houses and pressuring their former colleagues to do whatever their clients want.

Millionaires and billionaires on Wall Street and in executive suites aren’t contributing all this money out of sheer love of country. Their political spending is analogous to their other investments. Mostly they want low tax rates and friendly regulations.

Why else do you suppose tax rates on the super rich are now lower than they’ve been in three decades, and why – even though the long-term budget deficit is horrendous – those rates aren’t rising? Why else do the 400 richest Americans (whose wealth is larger than the combined wealth of the bottom 150 million Americans) now pay an average tax rate of only 17 percent?

Why do you think Wall Street got bailed without a single string attached – not even being required to help homeowners to whom they sold mortgages, who are now so far under water they’re drowning? And why does the financial reform legislation have loopholes big enough for bankers to drive their Ferrari’s through?

And why else are oil companies, big agribusinesses, military contractors, and the pharmaceutical industry reaping billions of dollars of government subsidies and special tax breaks?

Experts say the 2012 presidential race is likely to be the priciest ever, costing an estimated $6 billion. “It is far worse than it has ever been,” says Republican Senator John McCain.

If there’s a single core message to the Occupier movement it’s that the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top endangers our democracy. With money comes political power.

Yet when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with all this, they’re told the First Amendment doesn’t apply. Instead, they’re treated as public nuisances – clubbed, pepper-sprayed, thrown out of public parks and evicted from public spaces.

Across America, public officials are saying Occupiers have to go. Even in universities – where free speech is supposed to be sacrosanct – peaceful assembly is being met with clubs and pepper spray.

The First Amendment is being stood on its head. Money speaks, and an unlimited amount of it can now be spent bribing and cajoling politicians. Yet peaceful assembly is viewed as a public nuisance and removed by force.

This is especially worrisome now that so many Americans are in economic trouble. The jobs recession grinds on, seemingly without end. Homes are being foreclosed upon. Qualified students cannot afford college. Or they’re forced to take on huge debt loads they can’t repay in a jobless economy. Schools are firing teachers. Vital social services are being axed.

How are Americans to be heard about what should be done about any of this if they are not allowed to mobilize and organize? When the freedom of speech goes to the highest bidder, moneyed interests have a disproportionate say.

Now more than ever, the First Amendment needs to be put right side up. Nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake.

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise I'll talk with you again on June 12, 2012 if not sooner with and EXTRA,

God Bless you all

God Bless the United States of Ameruca,

Floyd

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

OBOF SS & MORE PART 37

FROM THE PRESIDENT

of

THE UNITED STATES.

Floyd's note:

Up to now I haven't said much about the campaigns of both the President and Mr. Romney, but I am going to start to include, particularly, the distortions Mr. Romney's campaign is putting out.

The President's letter:

Dear Mr. Bowman

Americans now know exactly the choice in this campaign. Our job is to make sure they also know exactly the stakes.

Because this isn't just a campaign over who will occupy the White House for the next four years. It's about what kind of country this will be over the next generation or more.

The middle class has sacrificed enough over the last few decades. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Someone gave me a chance. And this election is about giving everybody a chance.

At a time like this, we've got to ask ourselves a central, fundamental question as a nation: What do we have to do to make sure that America is a place where, if you work hard, if you're responsible, that hard work and responsibility pays off?

We need to ask this question because there's a debate going on in this country right now: Can we succeed as a nation when a shrinking number of people are doing really, really well but a growing number are struggling to get by?

Or are we better off when everybody gets a fair shot, everybody does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules?

Floyd, this is not just another run-of-the-mill political debate. It's the defining issue of our time. It's why I ran in 2008. It's what my presidency has been about. It's why I'm running again. And it's why I need your help once more.

In 2008, we captured something special in the American spirit. And I can tell you that as I travel the country, that spirit is still there. You see it in our men and women in uniform as they're defending our country around the world. You see it in our places of worship.

It's a sense that we rise and fall together, and that it makes sense for us to be constantly thinking, not just about ourselves but about others, not just about today, but about the next generation.

We have to recapture that spirit in 2012. And the stakes could not be higher, because the contrast between the two parties is going to be even more pronounced in 2012 than it was in 2008.

My likely opponent in the election will tell you that investing in our future together will make our country weaker. I disagree. When we guarantee basic security for the elderly, or the sick, or those who are actively looking for work, that doesn't make us weak.

What makes us weak is when fewer Americans can afford to buy the products that businesses are selling.

What drags our entire economy down is when the benefits of economic growth and productivity go only to the few, which is what's been happening for over a decade now, and the gap between those at the very, very top and everybody else keeps growing wider and wider.

In this country, broad-based prosperity has neber trickled down from the success of a wealthy few. It has always come from the success of a strong and growing middle class. And our future prosperity must be built from the middle out, not the top down.

That's why I'm always confused when we keep having the same argument with folks who don't seem to remember how America was built.

Here's the news: We tried this for eight years before I took office. At the beginning of the last decade, the wealthiest Americans got two huge tax cuts. Insurance companies and financial institutions got to write their own rules, or find their way around rules.

We were told the same thing we're being told now: This is going to lead to greater prosperity for everybody.

Guess what? It didn't.

Yes, the rich got much richer. Corporations made big profits. But we also had the slowest job growth in a century. The typical family's income fell even though the economy was growing. Health care premiums skyrocketed. Our entire financial system almost collapsed.

We spent the last three and a half years cleaning up after that mess. Now, I'm not a scientist, but I do know that if an experiment fails badly you learn from that. But you don't just keep on doing the same thing over and over. You go back to the drawing board and try something different.

But that's not what's been happening with these folks in Washington.

This is not conjecture. I am not exaggerating. These are facts.

We have a much different approach when it comes to taxes ---an approach that says if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't afford for Warren Buffett to be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. That is not fair. It is not right.

We believe in making sure the vulnerable among us and our seniors have a basic safety net, because we never know which one of us might at some point be stricken with an illness or suffer a layoff.

Most of us know ourselves, or know somebody who knows what it's like to fall on hard times and who understands how important those safety nets are in order to get people back on their feet so they can succeed.

So we've got a lot at stake in this election. The good news is that we've got the truth on our side, and I think the values that we're going to be talking about over the next several months are not Democratic values or Republican values, they're American values.

And I think people are going to be, once again, choosing a better future and our best traditions. That's what we're going to be fighting for. We must continue to move the country forward and not back.

But Floyd, to win this debate and build the country over the next four years, I need your continued support. Because you can bet that the individuals and interests that stand to benefit from Governor Romney's plan are laying it all out--- including all the money you can count --- to stop us.

Floyd, I'm not counting on their support. I'm countin on yours.So please, help us take this message acre]oss this country. Rush a generous contribution of $50, $100 or even $150 to OBAMA FOR AMERICA today.

I said in 2008 that I am not a perfect man and I will never be a perfect President. But what I promised you was that I would always tell you what I thought. I would always tell you where I stood, and I would wake up every single day fighting for you as hard as I know how.

I have kept that promise, and I need your help to keep it again. Please don't delay. This isn't about one election. It's a fundamental choice about the kind of America we want to build, and I need you to continue to stand with me. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

Floyd's note:

~~~

The Job Stall.

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