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 |
| SS & MORE PART 37 EXTRA | June 07, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 38 | June 12, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 39 | June 19, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 40 | June 26, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 41 | July 03, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 42 | July 10, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 43 | July 17, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 44 | July 24,2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 45 | July 31, 2012 |
| SS & MORE PART 46 | Aug. 07, 2012 |
IN THIS ISSUE
1. Republican & Democrat conventions.
2. Presidential Debates.
3. Misc. Tid Bits.
4. Jobs & taxes.
5. Romney's economic plan.
6. Now we know, Republicans want to raise our taxes.
7. Five adjectives why don't vote Republican.
8. Parting Thought.
"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.
~~~
REPUBLICAN & DEMOCRAT
NATIONAL CONVENTIONS
The Republican Convention is first and will be held on August 27-30, 2012 at the Times Forum in Tampa , Florida
The only other information that I have about this convention is that the former President, George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Chaney will not attend the convention.
~~~
The Democrat Convention will be held on September 3, 4, 5, and 6 at the Warner Cable Arena on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th.
President Obama's acceptance speech will be on the 6th, at the Bank of America
Other program notes:
Elizabeth Warren will speak at the convention on September 5th and President Clinton will make the nominating speech on that evening.
Vice President Biden will speak on the 6th and President Obama will give his acceptance speech on the evening of the 6th.
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES
October 3 - 11 - 16 - 22
The 11th will be VP debate
| October 3, 2012 | Topic: Domestic policy The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time Location: University of Denver in Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Moderator: To be announced The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic. |
| October 11, 2012 Vice Presidential | Topic: Foreign and domestic policy The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time Location: Centre College in Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates Participants: Vice President Joe Biden and the GOP Vice Presidential nominee Moderator: To be announced |
| October 16, 2012 | Topic: Town meeting format including foreign and domestic policy The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time Location: Hofstra University in Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Moderator: To be announced |
| October 22, 2012 | Topic: Foreign policy The format for the debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time Location: Lynn University in Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Moderator: To be announced |
~~~
TID BITS
Let me ask you, who controls the House of Representatives? You know the answer; it's the Republicans, of course. Why do I ask that? I ask, so that you know exactly who is accountable for the present rating of Congress.
As of 8-2-2012, the approval rate was a record low setting 12%. The disapproval rate was reported to be 79%. Now I am no statistician, by a long shot, but it seems to me that those two ratings should come to 100%, but, of course, they come to 91%. Oh well, such as the way things go in Washington
Romney had, what he called, a Presidential Score Card at one of his stops today 8-2-12. Didn't get a chance to see much of it, but Romney was making an issue of the fact that the score card showed poor action regarding creating jobs. I don't know how in the world he could come up with that, because for the last 29 months the Obama Administration has added 4.5 million job. Now that is certainly going in the right direction and I would hardly call that "poor action."
As of 8-3-12 Congress is in recess for five weeks. They will return to do more of the same, NOTHING, on September 10, 2012.
Romney's tax plan is such that it is impossible for anyone to determine what it will do. Tax Policy Center
~~~
JOBS & TAXES
July jobs report was really good news. It showed an increase of 163,000 new jobs. However, another report, and the President announced, that the private sector added 172,000 new jobs. That brings the total new jobs created in 29 months, to 4.5 million. Our country is certainly going in the right direction. President Obama's Administration has created more new jobs in a little under four years, than President Bush did in eight years.
The Bush tax cuts delivered the weakest job growth of the post-war period, as well as,
a ballooning federal debt. And according to a new report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the price tag of that weak growth was more than $1 million in tax breaks for the average millionaire over the last nine years:
– If one adds up the average tax cuts that households with incomes between $200,000 and $500,000 received in each of the last nine years, the total exceeds $74,000.
– The sum of the average annual tax cuts delivered to households with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million exceeds $189,000 each year, over the last nine years.
– The sum of the average annual tax cuts delivered to households with incomes over $1 million in each of the last nine years exceeds $1.1 million. The average tax cut these individuals received was more than $110,000 in each of these years.
Do we want more of the same or worse? I don't think so, but that is exactly what we will get if we get a Republican President and Congress. WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN.
~~~
ROMNEY'S ECONOMIC PLAN WOULD KILL 60,000 JOBS IN 2013 ALONE.
by Pat Garofalo
THINK PROGRESS / NEWS
Published Friday 3, 2012.
Romney claims his "...plan will turn things around and bring the economy roaring back with 12 million new jobs by the end of my first term."
U.S. last month, but that the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 8.3 percent. Mitt Romney, of course, seized on the latter data point, calling it “a hammer blow to middle-class families.”
“Yesterday, I launched my Plan for a Stronger Middle-Class that will bring more jobs and more take home pay. My plan will turn things around and bring the economy roaring back, with twelve millions new jobs created by the end of my first term,” Romney said.
Romney claim that his plan will create 12 million jobs is one that his economic advisers have been echoing. However, a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis found that Romney plan would actually kill 360,000 jobs next year alone:
In a white paper outlining his economic platform, Believe in America
Several of Romney’s proposals entail no change in policy, so its unclear how they would create jobs. Several others — including tax incentives for outsourcing — would actively undermine U.S. Massachusetts
163,000 jobs created is encouraging, albeit too few to substantially bring down the unemployment rate. But the unemployment rate would be a full percentage point lower were it not for the hundreds of thousands of public sector layoffs that have occurred as a result of budget cutbacks. And Romney would double down on those sort of austerity measures, slicing the budget while cutting taxes for the rich under an economic ideology that has failed to produce results.
~~~
NOW WE KNOW, REPUBLICANS
WANT TO RAISE OUR TAXES.
BILL SCHER
CAMPAIGN FOR
/ OP-ED
“Nearly every Republican in the Senate, nearly every Republican in the House and the Republican nominee for President Mitt Romney, all support tax plans which would cut taxes for the 2% of households that earn more than $250,000, but also raise taxes on millions of Americans among the poor and middle class.”
It is often stated as fact that Democrats always want to raise taxes and Republicans always want to lower taxes.
We now know this to be false.
Nearly every Republican in the Senate, nearly every Republican in the House and the Republican nominee for President Mitt Romney, all support tax plans which would cut taxes for the 2% of households that earn more than $250,000, but also raise taxes on millions of Americans among the poor and middle class.
Meanwhile, Democrats recently passed tax cuts designed for the poor and middle class only, in President's Obama recession-stopping Recovery Act.
And Congress could have easily extended both the Bush and Obama tax cuts for those in the 98% ... if the House Republicans didn't just reject the Senate Democratic bill.
Republicans have been alluding to their belief that rich people pay too much and poor people pay too little for some time, without being blunt enough to get into trouble. "47% of Americans don't pay income taxes" they cry, "broaden the base."
Instead of acknowledging the payroll, state and local taxes that most still pay, Republicans have tried to suggest that lower-income people are getting a free ride, while the wealthy "job creators" need special treatment or else they'll have no choice but to park their money overseas and create jobs somewhere else.
But now it's no longer mere coded rhetoric. Republicans have put it in writing.
The House Republican bill. The Senate Republican bill. The Republican presidential nominee's plan. They all "broaden the base." They all make the poor and the middle class pay more -- despite having an economy with weak demand. They all take money from the 98% and give it to the 2%.
The Democratic vision on taxes is a different one, progressive, fair, and sufficient to invest in America
We have a choice. Now we know.
~~~
Five Adjectives that Scream “Don’t Vote Republican!”
There are more than five, of course, and voting Democrat may not be much of an improvement, but attaching these adjectives to the comically contemptible GOP seems more than appropriate.
OBSTRUCTIONIST
In 2010 Mitch McConnell said: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." He didn't mention the economy, or education, or jobs, or the housing market. Instead, the goal is to beat Obama, whatever misery it might cause 200 million Americans.
For the past two years the Republicans have obstructed proposals that would have helped most Americans. They fought the middle-class tax cut because it would only apply to the first quarter-million of income. They killed a jobs bill that was supported by two-thirds of the public. They rejected a bill to disclose information about big campaign donors. They disrupted the routine process of increasing the debt ceiling, thus triggering the first-ever downgrading of the U.S.
Along the way they found time to obstruct other bills that conflicted with their 'austerity' mentality: a Pay Equity Bill that would have provided greater pay equality for women; a bill to limit student loan rates; a transportation bill that Senator Dick Durbin called one of the "easiest bills to do on Capitol Hill"; a demand for a $16 million cut in the FAA budget that led to a $25 million PER DAY shutdown.
Republicans in Congress, by relying on questionable filibuster rules and delay tactics, have built a "road to gridlock" in the halls of our government. They have been even less productive than the "do-nothing" Congress of Harry Truman. As observed by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling, their recalcitrance "disables the government to the point where it can no longer carry out its moral mission -- the protection and empowerment of everyone equally."
And it all makes the Obama Administration look really bad.
VINDICTIVE
Despite obstructing every proposal Obama has sent their way, Republicans have the temerity to pass the blame for Congressional failures onto the President and the Democrats. Most of the criticisms border on the absurd. They accuse him of "class warfare" for proposing to tax incomes over $1 million. They blame him for failing to avoid reductions in military spending. They accuse him of single-handedly losing the country's AAA credit rating.
The President has even been blamed for "strangling the economy" in Ohio U.S.
The venom is directed not only at political opponents, but also at the public. Social security, a popular and well-run program, is constantly targeted for cuts. Medicare, just as popular, is also threatened, even though private insurance administrative costs are three times higher. The U.S.
When Republicans run out of spite and accusations, they turn to ambiguities, which allow insults to be fashioned for no particular reason. Mitt Romney blasted Obama's policies for creating "more uncertainty." House Speaker John Boehner lamented the "economic uncertainty that is destroying jobs." House Majority Leader Eric Cantor referred to the "cloud of uncertainty" hanging over small and large employers."
DELUSIONAL
Republicans have persisted in their 30-year delusion that tax cuts for the rich stimulate the economy and the job market. It is simply not true. Research by Piketty and Saez and Stantcheva confirms that there is a direct relationship between reduced tax rates and higher incomes, and that there is no relationship between tax cuts and GDP growth. As for the claim by Orrin Hatch that a tax increase on top earners would hurt small business, a recent Treasury analysis found that only 2.5% of small businesses would face higher taxes from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.
The image of wealthy job creators is also an illusion. Over 90% of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), the stock market, real estate, and personal business accounts. The Wall Street Journal admitted that the extra wealth created by the Bush tax cuts led to the "worst track record for jobs in recorded history."
The GOP "tax cut" plan would save tens of millions of dollars for billionaires. This when the richest 1% took 93 percent of all the new income in the first year after the recession, and when at least $20 trillion -- more than the U.S. GDP -- is stashed away tax-free in offshore tax havens by Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, most of them Americans.
As part of their delusion, Republicans have emphasized the need for austerity measures, including an end to the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the tax break on college tuition. Not a single Republican voted to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax relief to middle-class families.
All this when the child poverty rate in the U.S. has climbed to record levels, leaving us ahead of only Romania for last place among industrialized countries. And when we have 30 million long-term unemployed Americans, 50 million without health insurance, and 50 million on food stamps.
Evidence bursts the balloon filled with Republican hot air. In a survey of leading economists conducted by the University of Chicago 's Booth School
Instead, reputable studies have found that investing in health care or education will create jobs, and that increasing the minimum wage will stimulate consumer spending.
But the delusional Congressmen don't listen to the middle class anymore. A Princeton study concluded that "Senators appear to be considerably more responsive to the opinions of affluent constituents than to the opinions of middle-class constituents...Disparities in representation are especially pronounced for Republican senators."
HYPOCRITICAL
Hypocrisy has run rampant among Republicans, starting with their rejection of economic stimulus programs like the one they supported just four years ago. They reversed themselves on the individual mandate, which enjoyed widespread Republican support until Obama endorsed it. They dismissed the payroll tax cut that cuts the taxes they so despise. As noted earlier, they balked at the raising of the debt ceiling, even though it had been raised by Republicans many times before. They demand budget cuts to reduce the deficit while refusing to touch the bloated military budget. They condemn public education while insisting that every individual has an equal opportunity to succeed. They support prison privatization programs that are, according to the Orlando
Hypocrisy oozes from the pork that survives the Republicans' public demands for fiscal discipline. It flows from the criticism of unions for campaign spending, even though the Center for Responsive Politics estimates that only 2.7 percent of contributions came from labor unions and individuals representing labor organizations. And it reaches a shameful peak in the appeal for 'integrity' in elections through a Voter ID Act, which could eliminate the vote of millions of lower-income Americans.
Finally, the most common note of hypocrisy from Republicans: their call for lower tax rates coupled with a removal of loopholes. Can it work? A Johns Hopkins study suggests not, determining that Republican CEOs show a significantly higher level of tax avoidance than do companies run by CEOs with no clear political preference.
INEPT
Our do-nothing Republicans are like children pouting until they get their candy. Congressional experts Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein say "We have been studying Washington
On all counts of economic growth, progress is stifled by Republican ineptitude and inertia. Bloomberg reports that Democrats over the years have created more private-sector jobs, stimulated the markets to a greater degree, and presided over faster GDP growth.
Republicans are outrageously unpopular. A Gallup
And unless, as suggested earlier, they're playing dumb as an obstructionist tactic, they're lacking in intelligence, as evidenced by their stand on climate change. Global warming is universally recognized as a problem caused by humans. Except by Republicans. With their passion for individual rights, conservatives deny any fact that implies a failure in the free-market system. If global warming turns out to be true, excuses are being lined up, like this one from the U.S.
Cognitive dissonance strengthens erroneous beliefs in the presence of factual evidence. Thus the House of Representatives has voted over 100 times since 2011 to subsidize the oil and gas industry while weakening environmental, public health, and safety requirements. As summarized by Republican Senator James Inhofe, "God's still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous."
Adds Republican Representative David Schweikert: "You have the right as an American to be dumb."
A WORD ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS
"Impotent" comes to mind. The New York Times commented that "Many voters prefer the policies of Democrats to the policies of Republicans. They just don't trust the Democrats to carry out those promises."
But Americans, at the very least, deserve political representatives who won't stand in the way of national improvement simply for the purpose of making their opponent a one-term President.
~~~
PARTING THOUGHT
Nothing can help us face the unknown future with more courage and optimism than remembering the glory moments, and everybody has a few or them.
Eda LeShan
~~~
If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again on Tuesday 14, 2012, if not before.
"God Bless you all
&
God Bless the United States of America
Floyd
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