WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED ON FACTS (OBOF)
&
THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)
YEAR THREE
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Name
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Published
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OVERVIEW
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 14
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Dec
18, 2012
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 15
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Jan. 02, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 16
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Jan. 08, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART
16 EXTRA
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Jan. 11, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 17
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Jan. 15, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 18
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Jan. 22, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 19
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Jan. 29, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 20
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Feb. 05, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 21
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Feb. 14, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 22
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Feb. 20, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM
PART 23
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Feb. 27, 2013
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IN THIS
ISSUE
1. What about Sequester?
2. Republicans warn against Greece
3. Obama's four steps for manufacturing.
4. Showdown fatgue.
WHAT ABOUT
SEQUESTER
&
WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH IT?
Let us start today by
trying to see where we are and how we got here.
As I am sure most of you know, Friday, March 1, 2013 is the date that
Sequester takes effect, if Congress does nothing to stop it. Yes, Congress is the
one place that has both the authority and responsibility to act. I use the word "act" instead of
Govern, because I am not sure Congress knows what the word "Govern"
means.
First, what is
Sequester and how did it come about? In
August 2011, after a long and difficult battle over raising the Debt Ceiling,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), put together a deficit reduction
plan, so terrible, that no one would ever let it happen, but would let everyone
allow the Debit Ceiling to be raised at the time. That plan is called "Sequester."
While everyone, back
in August 2011, thought it would never happen, it now appears as though the
Republicans are planning to let it happen.
They claim that it is President Obama's plan and that he has not put
forth any plan to override Sequester.
That just isn't
true. The President has put forth a plan
that is a BALANCED PLAN. That means that there are spending
cuts and some revenue enhancement. The
revenue enhancement portion is made up of closing some tax loopholes for oil
companies and others that making so much profit that they simply do not need
these loopholes. Speaker Boehner, says
that the President got more revenue when the Bush tax cuts expired. He says that the Government will receive more
revenue now than ever.
That simply is not
true. It is true, that dollar wise,
there will be more dollars, BUT, when applying
inflation, it is nowhere near more revenue than ever before. Besides that, the President compromised on
the Bush tax cuts and let them become permanent for everyone that made up to
$400,000 a year, instead of the $201,000 it originally was to be.
Speaker Boehner said
today, the 26th, that the House had put through two bills on this budget and he
wasn't going to put through a third until "the Senate gets off their ass
and does something." The truth is
that those bills were put through last year and did not relate to the
Sequester. Bills, of this type, have to
be started in the House of Representatives.
The Republicans in the
House of Representatives say, that the President had not put forth any plan
when he actually has. The real problem
is that they will not accept a balanced plan that has new revenue in it. They simply are making up lies.
It should be noted
that President Obama has already cut $1.2 trillion in spending over ten years
and has offered another $1.8 trillion in his balanced plan.
The 2012 House of
Representatives spent less time in-session than any House of Representatives in
our history. What is happening, in this
regard, in 2013? They are going down the
same road. On February 26, 2013 they
came back to session after a 10 day recess.
They are scheduled to close the session at 3:00 P.M. on Thursday,
February 28th. After a 10 day recess,
they come to work, if you can call it that, three days and adjourn, probably,
as it looks now, on the 26th, without doing anything to stop Sequester.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat
Minority Leader in the House of Representative, said
‘At Some Point We’ve Got To Do Some Governing’
What
an apropos statement at the right time.
At
this point, the night of the 26th, nothing is happening and nothing is
scheduled to happen. The President has
said again today, that his door is open.
Boehner will not talk to the President.
As of now, it certainly appears that Sequester
will take effect. After that, later in
March, comes the next battle over Extended Resolutions to keep the Government
running, providing there is something left to run. Then sometime around July or August, there
will be another battle about raising the Debt Ceiling. Lot 's of fun ahead ha ha.
Last
week, I told you, along with information from Dr. Allen W. Smith, about Ayn
Rand and her philosophy. Since then, I
have purchased three of her books - "The Virtue of Selfishness,"
"Return of Primitive - The Anti-Industrial Revolution,"
"Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology." Needless to say, I have
not yet read these books, but I have read enough to know, that in a few words,
she does not believe in Democracy and that Government should be handled by a
small group of people.
All of
the Republican policies and actions fit right in to what she believes and
proposes. Keep in mind that we know that
Speaker Boehner, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, Congressman and past Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan,
and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are all known to be students of Ayn
Rand. Their actions tend to lead us
right down her path of professed Government.
~~~
While Republicans Warn Against ‘Greece ,’ That Is Exactly Where Austerity
Budgeting Will Lead US
FROM FLOYD:
What will happen if
Sequester is allowed to occur? Well, I
have heard a number of various takes on this question, as probably you have
too. Fortunately, there is positive
proof as to what will happen. Europe is
going through the results of the same, extreme, austerity that the Republicans are
trying to put us through, by deliberately letting Sequester occur. The
following, very vividly, lays out what will happen and why this is the wrong
road to take. All of Europe
is reeling through austerity, instead of growth. You really need to read this and keep it in
mind.
February 26th, 2013
Indebted America is in danger of turning into destitute Greece Washington
The
Republicans actually want to impose Greek-style budget-slashing on the United States
Nearly every
day, House Speaker John Boehner or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or
Senator Rand Paul or Rep. Paul Ryan, or almost any other prominent Republican
insists that the only way to improve the economic prospects of the American
people is to impose drastic budget cuts on them. While these Republican leaders
don’t love the sequester budget, because
it cuts too deeply into defense programs, they are eager to impose similar cuts
or worse on every domestic function, from health care and education to food
safety and infrastructure.
Unwilling
as they usually are to name specific cuts, the Republican plans that have emerged lately are
indeed similar in scope and impact to those imposed by European central bankers
on Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and other beleaguered states across the
continent (and imposed by the British government on the United Kingdom
Enacting
the same fiscal policies in this country would, presumably, induce the same
effects. Yet despite their enthusiasm for extreme austerity the Republican, Tea
Party, and assorted media soothsayers almost never want to discuss what has
happened in Europe as a result of those same
policies. It is not always possible to ignore the unhappy reality of renewed
recession, from England to Italy
Just last
weekend, the British were jolted by news that Moody’s had downgraded investments
in their country’s sovereign debt from its traditional AAA status.
Why would
the bond rating agency do something like that? Principally because the
miserable budgeting of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron’s government has mired
the United Kingdom in negative growth, with no prospect of reducing its debt,
which keeps growing. So the scheme that was
supposed to improve the fiscal outlook for the British has merely lowered their
credit rating. That wasn’t supposed to happen — in fact, the austerity plan was designed to preserve Britain’s AAA rating
— but it was inevitable, as soon as Downing Street chose budget-balancing over
growth.
The same
downward trajectory can be marked wherever the leaders of dominant Germany
So
damaging has this process become for all of Europe
that the Germans finally began suffering the ironic consequences in the last quarter
of 2012. Their export-led growth strategies cannot work when their neighbors,
reduced to poverty, can no longer purchase German goods. If German exports pick
up again this year, it will only happen because customers in the U.S. and China
Until now, the United
States has escaped the fate of Europe ,
remaining the “sole bright spot” of steady growth in the global
economy, because President Obama resisted the fiscal extremism of
his Republican adversaries, and contrived to ward off recession with necessary
spending. Now sequestration, with all of
its dire social and economic effects, will provide a taste of what is to come
under Republican austerity: a shrunken nation with a dim future.
~~~
Obama’s Four Steps
For
Manufacturing
Dave
Johnson
Campaign For America’s Future / Op-Ed
Published: Sunday 17 February
2013
The President has opened the doors to
discussion of manufacturing policy.
In the State of the Union
(SOTU) speech President Obama emphasized the importance of manufacturing to our
economy. Wednesday in Ashville he expanded on his plan, outlining four steps in
particular. The President has opened the
doors to discussion of manufacturing policy. The question is, how much can be accomplished
over Republican and “deficit hawk” obstruction?
In the SOTU, President Obama talked about manufacturing’s
importance to our economy, saying,
The American people
deserve a tax code … that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas and lowers
tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that are creating jobs right here in
the United States of America.[. . .] Our first priority is making America a
magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.”… There are things we can do, right now,
to accelerate this trend. Last year, we
created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown , Ohio America
Wednesday the President visited Asheville, North Carolina
the President outlines his manufacturing proposals in more detail, describing
four steps in particular.
Excerpts from Remarks by the President on
Manufacturing — Asheville, NC,
After shedding jobs for
more than 10 years, our manufacturers have now added about 500,000 jobs over
the past three years. (Applause.) And I
mentioned this last night — Caterpillar, which I know you guys supply, they’re
bringing jobs back from Japan Mexico China , Intel is opening
its most advanced plant here in the United States America
There are things
we can do right now to accelerate the resurgence of American
manufacturing. Number one — we can create more centers for high-tech
manufacturing in America Youngstown ,
Ohio
So last night, I announced the launch of three more institutes. And I’m
calling on Congress to help us set up 15 institutes –- global centers of
high-tech jobs and advanced manufacturing around the country. (Applause.)
The
second thing we need to do is make our tax code more competitive. Right now,
companies get all kinds of tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas, but
companies that stay here get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the
world. That doesn’t make any sense. So what I’m proposing is that we reform our
tax code, stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, reward companies
that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America. That makes
sense. (Applause.)
Number three — if you’re a manufacturing town, especially one
that’s taken a hit — that’s seen a company close up shop or a plant shut down —
I want to partner with local leaders to help you attract new investment. Because
once that investment starts coming in, things can start turning around. And
that means infrastructure gets modernized and research facilities get built,
and suddenly a community that was knocked down is getting back up, and they’re
attracting new manufacturers who want to come and expand and hire.…
Number four
— we’ve got to help our workers get the training to compete for the industries
of tomorrow. At least a couple of the guys that I had a chance to meet as we
were taking the tour told me they were out of work for a year — in one case,
two years — in part because we kept unemployment insurance in place so folks
could get back on their feet, they were able to go back to school, and now are
gainfully employed. No job in America
So those are four common-sense steps that we can take right
now to strengthen manufacturing in America
~~~
SHOWDOWN
FATIGUE
Robert Reich
NationofChange
/ Op-Ed
Published: Saturday 23 February 2013
If the spending cuts go through next week,
our fragile economy will slow further, causing more unemployment and misery.
We’re one week away from a massive cut in federal
spending—cuts that will hurt millions of lower-income Americans who’ll lose
nutrition assistance, housing, and money for their schools, among other
things. The cuts will furlough or lay
off millions of government employees, reduce inspections of the nation’s meat
and poultry and pharmaceuticals and workplaces.
It will eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people working
for government contractors and, according to Leon Panetta and other military
leaders, seriously compromise the nation’s defenses.
Bad enough, if the spending cuts go through next week,
our fragile economy will slow further, causing more unemployment and misery. When consumers don’t have the money to buy
enough to keep the economy moving and government pulls back this much,
businesses can’t justify keeping people on.
Yet the silence is
deafening. Republicans won’t deal. Obama has already cut $1.5 trillion out of the
budget but Republicans insist on far more. They want the White House to propose
major cuts in Social Security and Medicare.
Meanwhile, the Bush tax
cuts have been extended permanently to everyone earning up to $400,000. Only the richest 2 percent have to pay at the
rate they did under Bill Clinton, which was far lower than rich paid before
1981. That will generate $600
billion—less than half of the cuts Obama has accepted.
No one in their right mind would call this a balanced
approach to deficit reduction. Yet
Republican’s won’t even consider raising taxes on the most fortunate members of
our society. They won’t limit deductions
and loopholes that have driven down the super-rich’s tax rates to single digits
(remember Romney’s “carried interest” loophole for private-equity mavens?). So where’s the outcry? Why aren’t more people, up in arms? Why aren’t big businesses (including major
military contractors) and Wall Street screaming into the ears of the GOP? Where’s the outrage from Mainstreet?
I suspect most Americans are suffering showdown fatigue. After all, we got through the debt-ceiling
showdown of August 2011 and the fiscal-cliff showdown on January 1, and the
world didn’t end. So most people figure Washington
From Floyd:
Most Americans need to know and realize what has caused
the cuts that are scheduled to take affect Friday, March 1, 2013. It is, because of the debt-ceiling showdown
in August 2011. At that time, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, put
forth a plan that was so bad, if implemented, that no one would let it
happen. That plan is the Sequester
cutting that we are dealing with now.
So, you see, we didn't get through the debt-ceiling
showdown at all, instead we just kicked the can on down the road to March 1,
2013. That's what we are dealing with
now. As far as the fiscal-cliff is
concerned, the President compromised, and agreed to allow the Bush tax cuts to
become permanent for everyone having an income up to $400,000. I
don't think, and I hope, that the President will not compromise anymore than he
already has.
Others have bought the Republican-Fox News lies that the
deficit is our biggest economic problem, and government spending is to blame. So a massive, abrupt, and indiscriminate cut
in spending seems okay, it’s not okay. It
will hurt the most vulnerable members of our society, and much of the middle
class. Yet it would be even worse if
Obama and the Democrats were to give in to Republicans, and not demand more
from those who have never been wealthier. Inequality is widening again. All the
economic gains since the Great Recession have gone to the top. The richest 400
have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together. Why not
limit the mortgage interest deduction to $25,000 a year, so the rest of us
don’t have to subsidize mansion mortgages? Why not a wealth tax on assets in
excess of $5 million to pay for early-childhood education? Why not a small tax
on financial transactions (as Europe is now
instituting) to finance better schools? Why not the loophole that private-equity
and hedge-fund moguls live off of, to finance child nutrition and social
services for the poor? It’s no time for showdown fatigue. It’s time to fight.
~~~
If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you
again next Tuesday March 5, 2013.
God Bless You All
&
God Bless the United States of America
Floyd
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