This is unreal. Thank God someone had the background,
intelligence,
and determination to put this together. This took an enormous amount
of work. I have to forward this to everyone I know. Please remember
that we hold a great deal of power...we can vote!
Barack Obama's 32 Month Report Card
by Rich Carroll
Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail your
liberal friends and/or relatives.
Mr. Hope and Change wants to create a nation humbled; humiliated,
casting–aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where we the
people are government controlled. This would be a system that
genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and
punishes those who strive to succeed.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79
on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase.
The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office
from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump. Long term unemployment
soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to
6,400,000. Staggering hope and change isn't it?
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to
43,600,000, and the number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from
11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011. The number of
unemployed blacks has risen from 12.6% at the end of George Bush's
term to 15.8% today, a 25.4% increase, and finally, our national debt
is up 34.4% from 10.627 trillion to 14,278 trillion *
Keep these figures in mind as we recount the number of firsts for this
presidency:
First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then
deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has
never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the
United States .
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally
obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease
implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a
third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel–ready jobs and
later admit there was no such thing as shovel–ready jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of
companies to his union supporters.
First President to by–pass Congress and implement the Dream Act
through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the
deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those
with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand–over $20 billion to one of
his political appointees.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to encourage racial discrimination and intimidation at
polling places.
First President to have a law signed by an auto–pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law
unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly
speak–out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state
they are allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath
to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN)
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been
properly issued years ago.
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri–corps for
catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half
years in office.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to coddle American enemies while alienating Americas allies.
First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to
salute the U.S. Flag.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights
and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by
the taxpayer.
First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a
year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat the Holy Qur'an tells us, and openly admit
the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the
most beautiful sound on earth.
Remember that 32 months of Obama White House we the people have
accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as
during the rest of our nation's entire history, as the Obama's plan
their next extravagant vacation to the Indonesian Island nation of
Bali .
Hope and change anyone ?????????
* sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wall Street
Journal, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept of Labor, Standard &
Poors/Case–Shiller, Federal Reserve, US Treasury, Heritage Foundation.
and determination to put this together. This took an enormous amount
of work. I have to forward this to everyone I know. Please remember
that we hold a great deal of power...we can vote!
Barack Obama's 32 Month Report Card
by Rich Carroll
Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail your
liberal friends and/or relatives.
Mr. Hope and Change wants to create a nation humbled; humiliated,
casting–aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where we the
people are government controlled. This would be a system that
genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and
punishes those who strive to succeed.
A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79
on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase.
The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office
from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump. Long term unemployment
soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to
6,400,000. Staggering hope and change isn't it?
American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to
43,600,000, and the number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from
11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011. The number of
unemployed blacks has risen from 12.6% at the end of George Bush's
term to 15.8% today, a 25.4% increase, and finally, our national debt
is up 34.4% from 10.627 trillion to 14,278 trillion *
Keep these figures in mind as we recount the number of firsts for this
presidency:
First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then
deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has
never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the
United States .
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally
obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease
implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a
third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel–ready jobs and
later admit there was no such thing as shovel–ready jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of
companies to his union supporters.
First President to by–pass Congress and implement the Dream Act
through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the
deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those
with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand–over $20 billion to one of
his political appointees.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to encourage racial discrimination and intimidation at
polling places.
First President to have a law signed by an auto–pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law
unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly
speak–out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state
they are allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath
to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN)
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been
properly issued years ago.
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri–corps for
catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half
years in office.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to coddle American enemies while alienating Americas allies.
First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to
salute the U.S. Flag.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights
and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by
the taxpayer.
First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a
year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat the Holy Qur'an tells us, and openly admit
the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the
most beautiful sound on earth.
Remember that 32 months of Obama White House we the people have
accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as
during the rest of our nation's entire history, as the Obama's plan
their next extravagant vacation to the Indonesian Island nation of
Bali .
Hope and change anyone ?????????
* sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wall Street
Journal, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept of Labor, Standard &
Poors/Case–Shiller, Federal Reserve, US Treasury, Heritage Foundation.
*
*
DO A SEARCH ON THE BLOG FOR OBAMA AND HIS AL RAZA INFESTED
ADMIN.
IF YOU’RE NOT LA RAZA SUPREMACIST, YOU ONLY GET A JOB IN
OBAMAland OF CORRUPTION IF YOU’RE A CRIMINAL BANKSTER!
OBAMA IS BUSH’S THIRD TERM!
*
Rather than Hope and Change,
Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s
battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics.
*
Every time it seems is if the
Obama Administration cannot sink any lower in its efforts to deceive the
American taxpayer, the limbo stick comes out, and Americans get to see, once
again, just how low the Obama Administration can go. Team Obama's Regulations
Review seems to be a colossal fraud, during the course of which, agencies are
actually increasing the regulations affecting individuals and businesses.
*
Banks, hedge funds and other
financial firms lavishly backed his presidential bid, giving him considerably
more than they gave to his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain.
Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are
employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG
($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).
*
There was some press
speculation that Daley’s departure was related to Obama’s decision to base his
reelection campaign on attacking congressional Republicans for obstructing his
supposed jobs initiatives, combined with doses of populist rhetoric about
defending the middle class and fighting Wall Street. Whatever electoral
calculations may have been involved, however, the shift in White House
personnel does not reflect any change in the right-wing, pro-corporate policies
of the Obama administration.
On the contrary, the
appointment of Lew underscores the incestuous relationship between the Obama
White House and Wall Street. All three of Obama’s chiefs of staff—Rahm Emanuel
(2009-2010), Daley (2011-2012) and Lew—are multi-millionaires who made their
fortunes as top executives of major banks.
He was brought in, replacing
interim White House head Peter Rouse, to reassure the corporations and banks
that Obama would fully implement their agenda of deregulation and austerity and
to conciliate the Republicans. His appointment signaled a further shift to the
right by the Obama administration.
Daley resigns as White House chief
of staff
By Barry Grey
11 January 2012
11 January 2012
President
Barack Obama on Monday announced the resignation of his chief of staff, William
Daley, and the appointment of the current budget director, Jacob Lew, to
replace him. Daley is expected to become
co-chair of Obama’s reelection campaign, where he will use his Wall Street
connections to raise millions in campaign cash from the financial industry.
According
to numerous reports, Daley’s departure, coming after a bit less than a year at
the top White House post and at the start of an election year, took Obama by
surprise. Only last October Daley had said he would remain until after the 2012
elections.
However,
it had been widely reported that Daley was the focus of tensions within the
White House, and last November, after the administration failed to secure a
“grand bargain” deficit-cutting deal with the Republicans, Daley announced he
was giving up day-to-day management of White House affairs.
There was some press
speculation that Daley’s departure was related to Obama’s decision to base his
reelection campaign on attacking congressional Republicans for obstructing his
supposed jobs initiatives, combined with doses of populist rhetoric about
defending the middle class and fighting Wall Street. Whatever electoral
calculations may have been involved, however, the shift in White House
personnel does not reflect any change in the right-wing, pro-corporate policies
of the Obama administration.
On the contrary, the appointment of Lew
underscores the incestuous relationship between the Obama White House and Wall
Street. All three of Obama’s chiefs of staff—Rahm Emanuel (2009-2010), Daley
(2011-2012) and Lew—are multi-millionaires who made their fortunes as top executives
of major banks.
Emanuel,
who resigned in September 2010 to run for mayor of Chicago, made more than $18
million in the two-and-a half years he spent at a Chicago investment firm
between a stint in the Clinton White House and six years in the House of
Representatives. He left Congress in 2009 to run the Obama White House. Emanuel
was the top recipient in the House of Representatives of campaign contributions
from hedge funds, private equity firms and the broader investment industry
during the 2008 election cycle.
Daley, son and brother of
Chicago’s longest-serving mayors, headed the Commerce Department under Clinton
and then joined JPMorgan Chase, where he made millions as the bank’s Midwest
chairman and head of its global lobbying department, where he worked to block
Obama’s new consumer financial protection bureau.
Long
considered a representative of the right wing of the Democratic Party, even as
the party as a whole lurched ever more to the right, Daley was tapped by Obama
following the Democratic rout in the 2010 congressional elections. He was brought in, replacing interim White
House head Peter Rouse, to reassure the corporations and banks that Obama would
fully implement their agenda of deregulation and austerity and to conciliate
the Republicans. His appointment signaled a further shift to the right by the
Obama administration.
Lew
is a longtime Washington insider, having served as a top adviser to the late
House Speaker Tip O’Neill in the 1980s and director of the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) in the final years of the Clinton administration. He was
deputy director of the State Department under Hillary Clinton in 2009 and 2010,
until he left to become OMB director for Obama.
Prior
to joining the Obama administration, Lew spent three years as a top executive
at Citigroup. (The man he replaced as budget director, Peter Orszag, accepted a
multi-million-dollar position as a high-level Citigroup official within months
of leaving his post in the Obama administration).
In
2008, at the time of the financial crash, Lew was chief operating officer of
Citigroup Alternative Investments, an internal private equity, hedge fund and
real estate investing arm of the bank. Lew’s unit invested heavily and
profitably in the hedge fund managed by billionaire John Paulson, which made
billions of dollars by betting that the subprime housing market would collapse.
Paulson
was named by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations as well as the
Securities and Exchange Commission as playing a central role in securities
fraud committed by Goldman Sachs. Both federal bodies charged that Goldman made
millions by selling subprime-backed securities to investors, without telling
them that the underlying mortgages had been hand-picked by Paulson, who was,
along with Goldman, betting that the securities would collapse.
For
his contribution to the financial collapse, Lew received a salary of $1.1
million. Two weeks before he joined the Obama State Department, and after
Citigroup had received $45 billion in taxpayer bailout money, Lew was awarded
an additional $900,000 bonus by Citigroup.
Lew
headed up the Obama administration’s efforts to forge an agreement with
congressional Republicans over the spring and summer for $4 trillion in
deficit-reduction over the next decade. The White House and the Republican
leadership created a crisis over the deadline for raising the federal debt
limit in order to push through unprecedented cuts in basic social programs.
Under
Lew’s direction, the administration sought to outflank the Republicans from the
right, including in its budget proposal cuts in Social Security as well as
billions in reductions in Medicare and Medicaid. The deal collapsed as a result
of Republican opposition. In the end, the two sides passed a scaled-down plan to
slash $2.4 trillion, including sweeping cuts in food stamps, home heating
assistance, public health and housing. The agreement excluded any tax increase
on corporations or the rich.
Both
the Democrats and Republicans acknowledge the August 2011 deal to be a mere
down payment on more massive cuts to be enacted after the November elections.
Copyright
© 1998-2011 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved
*
*
Obama's Regulatory Reform Sham Continues
By Lurita Doan
5/30/2011
President
Obama's much-praised efforts at regulatory reform remain a sham. This past
week, while the President traveled overseas, the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) in conjunction with rolled out its review of proposed changes to government regulations.
The
reform will affect at least 30 federal agencies and is designed to "always
consider costs and ways to reduce burdens for American businesses when
developing rules; expand opportunities for public participation and public
comment; and ensure that regulations are driven by real science." An
elegant White House web page, accompanied by an online, explanatory video,
supported by an in-person appearances from OMB Director Jacob Lew and Cass
Sunstein, and countless, premature victory laps around Washington cannot disguise
the emptiness of many of the proposed reforms. For, what has been released is
just the plan for the plan.
According
to the hype, after 120 days of effort, federal agencies have come forward with
"groundbreaking" ideas--not for ways to cut costs to taxpayers by
reducing regulations--but with ideas on how to generate ideas on how to
implement potential regulatory review and reform.
What
a lot of hullabaloo about something that hasn't happened, and which, if the
timelines identified in the 30 agency plans are anything to go by, will
not happen until 2012--long after the current debt ceiling has exploded and too
late to provide significant contributions to the federal budget and deficit
debate.
Any
talk from Sunstein about billions in savings is premature at best and possibly
constitutes a deliberate attempt at fraud since changes will be proposed to be
implemented in 2012 or later--so that it will be difficult to measure
accountability and results until long after the November 2012 presidential
election.
Reading
some of the agency plans housed on the White House website shows that much of
what the White House is calling an "unprecedented, government-wide
review" is little more than a rehash of policies, planning and strategies
proposed during the Clinton and Bush Administrations. Many of those actions,
which were identified by Obama's predecessors, have been left languishing
during the Obama Administration because they called for tough actions.
Every time it seems is if the
Obama Administration cannot sink any lower in its efforts to deceive the
American taxpayer, the limbo stick comes out, and Americans get to see, once
again, just how low the Obama Administration can go. Team Obama's Regulations
Review seems to be a colossal fraud, during the course of which, agencies are
actually increasing the regulations affecting individuals and businesses.
The
Regulations Review process is adding to the size of government by creating new
review committees, adding to the cost of government because none of these
review bodies operate free of cost, and Sunstein and his team seem to be
banking on the fact that few will read the hollow reports, so that the Obama
Administration can present their "savings" howsoever they choose.
Then
there is the issue of transparency. For example, the Department of Education's report along with 29 others listed
on the White House site can only be commented on by providing personal Facebook
information, thus eliminating commenter anonymity, which will certainly affect
the content of the feedback, and forcing non-Facebook users to search for
alternative means to provide comments to the Obama Administration.
In
another example, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) report of
regulatory reform spends almost approximately 9 pages of its 12-page report
discussing the plan for the plan and spends less than three pages listing
recommended regulations considered for regulatory reform. Of the five reforms
listed, three of the five comprise regulation reforms were begun and completed
during the Bush Administration.
One
of the recommendations (#4, p.10) a review of the GSA Multiple Award Schedule
(MAS) pricing clause was an idea conceived, a Blue ribbon commission formed and funded and with findings
completed during the previous Administration. These findings from the
independent commission have been waiting for the current GSA Administrator to
act upon for the past two years.
Instead,
at no small expense to the American taxpayer, the current team at GSA seems to
be saying: let's just kick that can down the road because confronting the
challenges of this out-of-date, ineffective rule is just too scary. So, in this
plan for the plan, the current team at GSA promises to look at the pricing
clause problem with a date uncertain in 2012 for possible resolution. In the
case of GSA's blatant misrepresentation, claiming credit for proposing new and
"unprecedented" regulatory reform reviews based partly on a
recommendation that the Obama Team will launch the Pricing Clause review is
nothing other than a fraud, and an easily exposed one at that.
By
contrast, the Department of Education report and the Department of Homeland
Security report identify in their reports that much of the to-be-discussed
regulatory reform was initiated during the Bush Administration.
For
the Obama Administration to claim that the Regulatory Review chicanery
comprises a "defining moment" is an insult to the American taxpayer
who has to foot the bill, and the folks in government who have put their names
on these reports should be ashamed.
*
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-his-bankster-thugs-running.html
*
OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM, A LOVE STORY BETWEEN THE ACTOR
PRESIDENT, AND HIS BANKSTER DONORS!
Records show that
four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry
giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207)
and Citigroup ($358,054).
*
Well, Obama’s got Bush’s war profiteer whore, Dianne
Feinstein, and the Saudis’ whore Hillary Clinton, why shouldn’t he have Bush’s
architect for BIG BANKERS’ WELFARE, Timmy?
Obama's Wall Street cabinet
6 April 2009
A
series of articles published over the weekend, based on financial disclosure
reports released by the Obama administration last Friday concerning top White
House officials, documents the extent to which the administration, in both its
personnel and policies, is a political instrument of Wall Street.
Policies
that are extraordinarily favorable to the financial elite that were put in
place over the past month by the Obama administration have fed a surge in share
values on Wall Street. These include the scheme to use hundreds of billions of
dollars in public funds to pay hedge funds to buy up the banks’ toxic assets at
inflated prices, the Auto Task Force’s rejection of the recovery plans of
Chrysler and General Motors and its demand for even more brutal layoffs, wage
cuts and attacks on workers’ health benefits and pensions, and the decision by
the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to weaken “mark-to-market” accounting
rules and permit banks to inflate the value of their toxic assets.
At
the same time, Obama has campaigned against restrictions on bonuses paid to
executives at insurance giant American International Group (AIG) and other
bailed-out firms, and repeatedly assured Wall Street that he will slash social
spending, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The
new financial disclosures reveal that top Obama advisors directly involved in
setting these policies have received millions from Wall Street firms, including
those that have received huge taxpayer bailouts.
The
case of Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council and Obama’s
top economic adviser, highlights the politically incestuous character of
relations between the Obama administration and the American financial elite.
Last
year, Summers pocketed $5 million as a managing director of D.E. Shaw, one of
the biggest hedge funds in the world, and another $2.7 million for speeches
delivered to Wall Street firms that have received government bailout money.
This includes $45,000 from Citigroup and $67,500 each from JPMorgan Chase and
the now-liquidated Lehman Brothers.
For
a speech to Goldman Sachs executives, Summers walked away with $135,000. This
is substantially more than double the earnings for an entire year of
high-seniority auto workers, who have been pilloried by the Obama
administration and the media for their supposedly exorbitant and
“unsustainable” wages.
Alluding
diplomatically to the flagrant conflict of interest revealed by these
disclosures, the New York Times noted on Saturday: “Mr. Summers, the
director of the National Economic Council, wields important influence over Mr.
Obama’s policy decisions for the troubled financial industry, including firms
from which he recently received payments.”
Summers was a leading
advocate of banking deregulation. As treasury secretary in the second Clinton
administration, he oversaw the lifting of basic financial regulations dating
from the 1930s. The Times article notes that among his current
responsibilities is deciding “whether—and how—to tighten regulation of hedge
funds.”
Summers is not an exception.
He is rather typical of the Wall Street insiders who comprise a cabinet and
White House team that is filled with multi-millionaires, presided over by a
president who parlayed his own political career into a multi-million-dollar
fortune.
Michael
Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs,
worked for Citigroup and received more than $7.4 million from the bank from
January of 2008 until he entered the Obama administration this year. This
included a $2.25 million year-end bonus handed him this past January, within
weeks of his joining the Obama administration.
Citigroup
has thus far been the beneficiary of $45 billion in cash and over $300 billion
in government guarantees of its bad debts.
David
Axelrod, the Obama campaign’s top strategist and now senior adviser to the
president, was paid $1.55 million last year from two consulting firms he
controls. He has agreed to buyouts that will garner him another $3 million over
the next five years. His disclosure claims personal assets of between $7 and
$10 million.
Obama’s
deputy national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, was paid $3.9 million by a
Washington law firm whose major clients include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and
the private equity firm Apollo Management.
Louis
Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, made $227,155 last year
from IndyMac Bancorp, the California bank that heavily promoted subprime
mortgages. It collapsed last summer and was placed under federal receivership.
The
presence of multi-millionaire Wall Street insiders extends to second- and
third-tier positions in the Obama administration as well. David Stevens, who
has been tapped by Obama to head the Federal Housing Administration, is the
president and chief operating officer of Long and Foster Cos., a real estate
brokerage firm. From 1999 to 2005, Stevens served as a top executive for
Freddie Mac, the federally-backed mortgage lending giant that was bailed out
and seized by federal regulators in September.
Neal
Wolin, Obama’s selection for deputy counsel to the president for economic
policy, is a top executive at the insurance giant Hartford Financial Services,
where his salary was $4.5 million.
Obama’s
Auto Task Force has as its top advisers two investment bankers with a long
resume in corporate downsizing and asset-stripping.
It
is not new for leading figures from finance to be named to high posts in a US
administration. However, there has traditionally been an effort to demonstrate
a degree of independence from Wall Street in the selection of cabinet officials
and high-ranking presidential aides, often through the appointment of figures
from academia or the public sector. In previous decades, moreover,
representatives of the corporate elite were more likely to come from industry
than from finance.
In
the Obama administration such considerations have largely been abandoned.
This
will not come as a surprise to those who critically followed Obama’s election
campaign. While he postured before the electorate as a critic of the war in
Iraq and a quasi-populist force for “change,” he was from the first heavily
dependent on the financial and political backing of powerful financiers in Chicago.
Banks, hedge funds and other financial
firms lavishly backed his presidential bid, giving him considerably more than
they gave to his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain.
Alongside
Wall Street, the Obama cabinet is dominated by the military, including three
recently retired four-star military officers: former Marine General James Jones
as national security adviser; Admiral Dennis Blair as director of national
intelligence, and former Army Chief of Staff Erik Shinseki as secretary of
veterans’ affairs.
These
are the deeply reactionary political and class interests that are represented
by the Obama administration.
Friday’s
financial disclosures further expose the bankruptcy of American democracy.
Elections have no real effect on government policy, which is determined by the
interests of the financial aristocracy that dominates both political parties.
The working class can fight for its own interests—for jobs, decent living
standards, health care, education, housing and an end to war—only through a break
with the two parties of American capitalism and the development of a mass,
independent socialist movement.
Tom
Eley and Barry Grey
*
Obama’s Economic Advisers:
International Socialists, Union Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime
Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and Campaign Cronies
Posted on February 24, 2011 by Ben Johnson
http://floydreports.com/obama%E2%80%99s-economic-advisers-international-socialists-union-thugs-nbc-execs-soros-scholars-subprime-lenders-amnesty-shills-and-campaign-cronies/
*
Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union
Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and
Campaign Cronies
*
WALL STREET’S RAPE AND PILLAGE OF A NATION… and it ain’t
over!
*
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-than-5-million-households-had.html
*
THE LOOTING OF A NATION BY WALL ST BANKSTERS:
More than 5 million households had their wealth wiped out
since 2005
By Andre Damon
28 July 2011
28 July 2011
The
typical US household lost 28 percent of its wealth during the economic crisis,
with one third of these being totally wiped out, according to a recent analysis
of Census Bureau data carried out by the Pew Research Center, “Wealth Gaps Rise
to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics”.
While
the study headlines racial disparities, the most striking findings concern the
general impoverishment of all sections of the population. The percent of US
households who have a net worth of zero dollars or below—meaning they have more
debts than assets—grew from 15 percent in 2005, to 20 percent in 2009. This
means that 5.6 million households, or about 15 million people, had their wealth
totally wiped out during the first part of the economic downturn. These figures
come from an analysis of Census Bureau survey data for 2005 and 2009.
The
study found that, after adjusting for inflation, the median wealth of US
households fell from $96,894 in 2005 to $70,000 in 2009, a drop of 28 percent.
The majority of this is attributable to the precipitous fall in real estate
values, by about 30 percent between 2006 and 2009 and even more since.
The
fall in home values has been compounded by falling wages. Between 2005 and
2009, workers’ average hourly earnings fell, on an inflation-adjusted basis, by
5 percent, according to the Labor Department.
Indebtedness
has grown as rapidly as wealth has fallen. Between 2005 and 2009, unsecured
liabilities grew 33 percent for the population as a whole, the study found.
Meanwhile,
the share of household wealth held by the wealthiest ten percent of households
grew from 49 percent in 2005 to 56 percent in 2009.
Racial
minorities have been particularly hard hit, including by the fall in housing
values. The net worth of Hispanic households fell by a staggering 66 percent,
from $12,124 in 2005 to $5,677 in 2009. The net worth of black households has
likewise tumbled 53 percent. Among Hispanics, unsecured debt grew by 47
percent.
The
level of inequality between whites, blacks, and Hispanics is now at the highest
level in 25 years, and no doubt longer. The racial differentiation is partly
attributable to geography. While whites saw the values of their own homes fall
by 18 percent and blacks by 23 percent, the home values of Hispanics fell by
more than half.
As
the report notes, “In 2005, more than two-in-five of the nation’s Hispanic and
Asian households resided in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada,
the five states with the steepest declines in home prices.” For Hispanics
living in these states, the report noted, “median net worth tumbled from
$51,464 in 2005 to $6,375 in 2009, a loss of 88 percent.”
These
racial divergences, however, mask the more fundamental growth of inequality
between the working class and the wealthy of all races. The report notes that
the wealthiest 10 percent of blacks now controls 67 percent of the wealth for
that group, compared to 59 percent before the downturn. For Hispanics,
likewise, the wealthiest 10 percent controlled 72 percent of wealth in 2009, up
from 59 percent in 2005.
The
number of unemployed, meanwhile, grew from 7.9 million to 15.2 million between
2005 and 2009. Rising unemployment, too, has disproportionately affected
minorities. Unemployment has affected blacks and hispanics disproportionately,
with the unemployment rate for blacks currently at 16.5 percent and 11.6
percent for hispanics.
The
staggering fall in wealth has had an transformative effect on American society,
contributing to the millions of foreclosures and personal bankruptcies.
According to figures from Realtytrac.com, there were 10 million foreclosures
between 2005 and 2009, the years covered by the survey.
*
UNDER OBAMA, THE RICH GET RICHER, AND JOBS GO TO HIS LA RAZA
PARTY BASE!
WALL ST PROFIT SOAR! SO DOES FORECLOSURES, UNEMPLOYMENT,
POVERTY FOR AMERICANS… AND ILLEGALS OVER OUR BORDERS!
ONE WAY OBAMA SERVICES HIS CORPORATE PAYMASTERS IS TO ASSURE
THEM THAT HE WILL SABOTAGE E-VERIFY, HOLD OUR BORDERS OPEN FOR HORDES OF
ILLEGALS HEADED FOR OUR JOBS, AND CONTINUE NON-ENFORCEMENT OF LAW PROHIBITING
THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS. IN FACT, OBAMA’S SEC. of LABOR IS A LA RAZA
SUPREMACIST HILDA SOLIS WORKING FOR ILLEGALS, MEXICANS THAT IS.
THERE IS A REASON WHY OBAMA, THE LA RAZA DEMS, MEXICO AND
THE U. S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE WANT OPEN BORDERS…it’s all about keeping wages
DEPRESSED!
*
As dozens of major
corporations announced increased second-quarter profits this week, the US
working class was hit with a disastrous new round of mass layoffs.
*
Profits soar amid mass layoffs
By Andre Damon
23 July 2011
23 July 2011
As dozens of major
corporations announced increased second-quarter profits this week, the US
working class was hit with a disastrous new round of mass layoffs.
On
Monday, book seller Borders announced that it would liquidate all of its
stores, laying off 10,700 workers. That same day, Cisco, the telecom equipment
maker, said it would cut its workforce by 11,500. Within 24 hours, Lockheed
Martin, the aerospace company, announced that it would eliminate 6,500 jobs.
At
the same time, Caterpillar, the maker of construction equipment, said its
profits were up 44 percent in the second quarter compared to last year. Office
equipment maker Xerox saw its profits grow 41 percent in the same time.
General
Electric’s profits were up 17 percent, PepsiCo’s were up by 18 percent, and
McDonald’s, the fast food company, saw a 19 percent increase, reaching a new
record.
The
energy and mining companies did even better, benefiting from rising gas prices,
which reduced the real incomes of American workers by billions of dollars.
Halliburton, the oil contractor, said its profits were up by 53 percent in the
second quarter compared to a year earlier, while fellow oil contractor
Schlumberger said its profits were up by 64 percent.
Most
of the major banks likewise said their profits were up significantly in the
second quarter. Goldman Sachs announced $1.09 billion in profits, up 57 percent
from last year. But even this huge increase was considered a “disappointment”
for traders.
JPMorgan
said its second-quarter profit was up by 13 percent, despite setting aside a
$1.3 billion charge-off for lawsuits it expects in relation to its trafficking
of fraudulent mortgages. Citigroup reported a profit of $3.34 billion, up 24
percent from a year ago.
This
renewed growth in profits comes at the same time as the sharpest growth in
unemployment since 2009. Between March and June, the unemployment rate grew by
0.4 percentage points, to 9.2 percent. In the same period, the number of
unemployed people grew by 545,000.
Apple,
the world’s largest music retailer and a leading manufacturer of mobile
electronics, announced a 95 percent increase in profitability. In its earnings
statement, the company said that it was sitting on a cash hoard of $76 billion.
This staggering sum, amassed by a single company controlled by a few large
shareholders, could put two million people to work full-time for a year.
US
corporations have combined cash reserves of $2 trillion. That is enough money
to put all the unemployed people in the United States to work for four years,
even without any profit generated from their labor.
But
fresh off of what is for many a record-breaking second quarter, the companies
are refusing to use their newly accumulated cash to hire. In fact, planned mass
layoffs have only accelerated.
Even
after the disastrous second quarter, the jobs situation is getting worse.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc, the executive placement company, said
earlier this week that the number of planned job cuts grew by 11.6 percent,
reaching 41,432 last month. This was the second consecutive monthly increase in
planned mass layoffs.
New
claims for unemployment benefits have likewise moved upwards. After dipping in
April to 385,000, the lowest level since 2007, they have steadily grown,
reaching 418,000 last week.
The
disastrous employment conditions in the private sector are only exacerbated by
the aggressive budget cutting carried out by state and local governments, under
the whip of cuts to federal assistance.
State
and local governments have cut 165,000 jobs so far this year, on top of the
quarter million workers they laid off in 2010. But this is only the beginning:
analysts expect hundreds of thousands more layoffs this year as cuts in federal
aid intensify.
These
planned layoffs will only be compounded by the massive federal spending cuts
currently being discussed between the Congress and the White House, which would
eliminate between $3 and $4 trillion from federal spending. This would mean
hundreds of thousands of federal job cuts.
The
fact that American corporations were able to accumulate record profits while
hundreds of thousands were thrown into the ranks of unemployment is not a
coincidence. These profits were generated through the impoverishment of
workers, who, desperate for any work available, have increasingly accepted
lower wages and worse conditions.
Despite
the abysmal employment conditions, mass joblessness has disappeared as a
political issue in the United States, with the entire political establishment
pushing for cuts to government spending. This absurd and irrational setup is a
product of the monopolization of political life in the United States by the
super-rich, who are carrying out a full-scale assault on the social conditions
of the working class.
In
contrast to the ruling class’s anti-social and destructive policy, the working
class must present its own political program. The trillions of dollars sitting
on the balance sheets of the corporations must be expropriated and used to
provide jobs and desperately-needed social services.
This
program requires a new mass political movement, completely independent of the
Democrats and Republicans, to break the political stranglehold of the
corporations, and reorganize society on the basis of social need, not private
profit.
*
OBAMA’S AMERICA: Open & Undefended Borders!
*
OBAMA HAS FILLED HIS
ADMINSTRATION WITH PRIMARILY LA RAZA PARTY MEMBERS.
Here’s his Sec. Labor, HILDA
SOLIS:
While in Congress, she
opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien
benefits (including driver's licenses and in-state tuition discounts), embraced
sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security
officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass
amnesty. Solis was steeped in the pro-illegal alien worker organizing movement
in Southern California and was buoyed by amnesty-supporting Big Labor groups
led by the Service Employees International Union. She has now caused a Capitol
Hill firestorm over her new taxpayer-funded advertising and outreach campaign
to illegal aliens regarding fair wages:
*
Michelle Malkin
The
U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor
President
Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers.
What you need to know is that this longtime open-borders sympathizer has always
had a rather radical definition of "American." At a Latino voter
registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted
to thunderous applause, "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized
or not."
That's
right. The woman in charge of enforcing our employment laws doesn't give a hoot
about our immigration laws -- or about the fundamental distinction between
those who followed the rules in pursuit of the American dream and those who
didn't.
* Obama Administration Challenges Arizona E-Verify Law
The
Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a 2007 Arizona law that punishes employers who
hire illegal aliens, a law enacted by then-Governor Janet Napolitano. (Solicitor General's Amicus
Curiae Brief).
Called the “Legal Arizona Workers Act,” the law requires all employers in Arizona
to use E-Verify and provides that the business licenses of those who hire
illegal workers shall be repealed. From the date of enactment, the
Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups have been trying to undo
it, attacking it through a failed ballot initiative and also through a lawsuit.
Now the Chamber is asking the United States Supreme Court to hear the case (Chamber
of Commerce v. Candelaria), and the Obama Administration is weighing in
against the law.
*
“I’m not here to punish bankers!” BARACK OBAMA ON THE FLOOR
OF THE SENATE, IN THE FACES OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/07/obamas-pledge-to-wall-st-rich-will-get.html
*
OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM – WHO PAYS FOR HIS BANKSTERS’
BAILOUTS AND MASSIVE GOV SUBSIDIZED BONUSES… GOT TO CUT FROM THE PEOPLE, BUT
FIRST, OBAMA WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR AMNESTY AFTER AMNESTY, OPEN &
UNDEFENDED BORDERS, AND CONTINUED NON-ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS THAT WILL ENABLE
EMPLOYERS TO HIRE ONLY ILLEGALS ON THE CHEAP!
THAT IS WHY OBAMA IS DETERMINED TO FLOOD OUR COUNTRY WITH
MORE ILLEGALS!
THERE IS A REASON WHY THE U. S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE, FRONT
FOR BIG BUSINESS, AND MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500, GENEROUS DONORS TO THE MEX
FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA, WANT OBAMA’S OPEN BORDERS AND NON-ENFORCEMENT…
depressed wages!!!!
*
Wsws.org
Underlying the rise of the
financial aristocracy—which exercises control over the entire political
system—is the failure of the world capitalist system as a whole. In amassing
its wealth, this tiny layer of the population, concentrated above all in the
United States, has overseen a vast destruction of industry and social
infrastructure. The ruling classes of every country now openly proclaim that
the maintenance of their system depends upon an unprecedented destruction in
the living conditions of the broad masses of the population.
*
Obama’s budget and the rot of
American capitalism
15 February 2011
On Monday, the Obama
administration released its proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2012. After
committing trillions in federal bailouts to the banks and billionaires, the
White House is demanding cuts that will devastate the working class, and
particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sections.
The
$1.1 trillion in cuts for the next decade proposed by the White House is to be
only the starting point for further cuts, as spokesmen for both big business
parties acknowledge. Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat, declared,
“We’ve got to do substantially more than $1 trillion worth of deficit reduction
in the next decade.” Republican House Speaker John Boehner said, “There’s no
limit to the amount we’re willing to cut.”
Democrats
and Republicans agree on gargantuan military spending, an uninterrupted flow of
funds to the financial aristocracy, and continued tax breaks for corporate
America and the wealthy. As a top White House official told the press at a
background briefing on the budget, “The debate in Washington is not whether to
cut or to spend. We both agree we should cut. The question is how we cut and
what we cut.”
The
Obama budget projects that the ten-year cumulative deficit will reach a
staggering $10.4 trillion. By attempting to wring such vast sums from the hides
of the population, the ruling elite is trying to set American society back to
conditions not seen for generations.
Programs
to be cut include not only those targeted by Obama and the Republicans in the
current budget debate—home heating assistance, Pell Grants, WIC, Head Start,
etc.—but the much larger entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare,
which will face cuts later in the budget process.
The
social impact will be incalculable. As hundreds of thousands of people face the
bitter cold of winter without heat and gas, Obama is proposing halving the
grossly inadequate federal assistance that is available. As students graduate
with record debt and no job prospects, the administration is proposing
significant cuts in government aid. Such gross indifference to social distress
is repeated in every sphere.
Significant
cuts to Social Security and Medicare—which amount to denying America’s elderly
their right to pensions and health care—would have an even broader impact.
Behind
the “debate” in Washington and the media over the budget is a massive lie—the
claim that the budget deficits are a product of excessive social spending.
Obama’s budget director Jacob Lew summed up this grotesque falsification an
op-ed column published in the New York Times February 6, under the
headline, “The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us.” Lew claimed that the causes of the
projected budget deficits were “decisions to make two large tax cuts without
offsetting them and to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit without
paying for it, combined with the effects of the recession…”
This
list is notable for what it leaves out: the cost of two wars, in Afghanistan
and Iraq, which runs into the trillions; and the bank bailouts, where more
trillions in public funds were placed at the disposal of the financial
aristocracy, with no questions asked. The military budget by itself accounts
for the lion’s share of the ten-year deficit: more than $7 trillion of the
projected $10 trillion.
Lew’s
more fundamental omission, however, is the grotesque class inequality that
pervades American society. The top one percent of the US population owns over
one third of the country’s wealth. The greatest wealth, however, is
concentrated in an even smaller layer. Indeed, the $1.1 trillion in proposed
cuts—which will have a terrible impact on the lives of millions of people—is
somewhat less than the combined wealth of only the 400 richest Americans.
The
arguments presented by the ruling elite for the cuts are staggeringly
hypocritical. As they drown in floods of cash, they insist that no money is
available for workers’ most basic needs.
Workers
must reject this argument out of hand. They are not responsible for the orgy of
swindling and profiteering that produced the 2008 Wall Street crash and pushed
the world economy into the deepest slump since the Great Depression. On the
contrary, an essential feature of the speculative binge was that the share of
national income received by workers has shrunk to the lowest level in nearly a
century.
Underlying the rise of the
financial aristocracy—which exercises control over the entire political
system—is the failure of the world capitalist system as a whole. In amassing
its wealth, this tiny layer of the population, concentrated above all in the
United States, has overseen a vast destruction of industry and social
infrastructure. The ruling classes of every country now openly proclaim that
the maintenance of their system depends upon an unprecedented destruction in
the living conditions of the broad masses of the population.
These
measures will provoke mass opposition. The revolutionary struggles in Egypt—in
which protests and strikes of millions of workers and youth forced the
resignation of a US-backed dictator that ruled the country for more than 30
years—point to the forms of struggle that will spread worldwide in the coming
period. Mass unemployment, record inequality, and the corruption of the
political system are common to Egypt and the United States, and are in fact
universal. At the foundation of this system is the principle that economic life
must be subordinated to private profit and the maintenance of the wealth of
those who control the giant banks and corporations.
The
working class can secure its interests only through the overturn of the
capitalist system as a whole—that is, the reorganization of economic life to
meet social need. In every aspect of its policies and of its social being, the
ruling class itself makes the case for socialist revolution.
Patrick
Martin
*
Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and Campaign Cronies
Posted on February 24, 2011 by Ben Johnson
http://floydreports.com/obama%E2%80%99s-economic-advisers-international-socialists-union-thugs-nbc-execs-soros-scholars-subprime-lenders-amnesty-shills-and-campaign-cronies/
*
Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union
Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and
Campaign Cronies
*
FROM CREOLE FOLKS
Obama Seeks Brother of "Chicago
Mob Boss" for Top White House Post
The
roaches and con-artist, fake journalist on cable news are all lying about
William Daley being all this and all that, this man is an open borders, down
with America, free trade globalist. MSNBC and Gretta "the
Scientology" Van Susteren from Fox News are knowingly deceiving the
public about D. Issa & his letter to "business owners"=which they
made into such a BIG DAM DEAL, but no one says anything whenBarrack
Hussein Obama, comes around with all of these shady bankers, hedge fund
managers and Wall St. Tycoons, which he puts in his cabinet. All of
Obama's meeting with Wall Street asking, "What can I do for you?" is
never something covered by Keith Oberman or Rachel Maddow.
(Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level administration post, possibly White House chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said.
*
Obamanomics:
How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends,
Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P
CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making
You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs
up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you
wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and
Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming
he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory
robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
Congressman
Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.”
And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics
is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the
Obama years.”
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows
up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit
exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam.
Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger,
somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book
names the names—and it will make your blood boil.
*
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers.
Investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:
* The
Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with drug companies spell
corporate profits and more government control
*
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
*
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
*
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
*
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as the federal government
swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts
deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create make-work government jobs,
this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down
to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and those
somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will make
your blood boil.
*
Praise for Obamanomics
Praise for Obamanomics
“The
notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of
progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by
day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is conservative
muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is exploiting the big
business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it to entrepreneurs,
taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide to the Obama
years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
“‘Every
time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute
observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama
administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s
populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone who
wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
“Every
libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large
corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to
read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions
of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul
—Congressman Ron Paul
“It’s
understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But
as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more
sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing
everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual,
which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
*
·
Hardcover: 256 pages
·
Publisher: Regnery Press (November 30,
2009)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 1596986123
·
ISBN-13: 978-1596986121
*
*
Obama's
Green Robber Barons
By
Michelle Malkin
1/25/2012
Had
enough of fat cat Barack Obama, his jet-setting wife and his multi-millionaire
Chicago consigliere/real-estate mogul Valerie Jarrett attacking the
"rich"? Well, brace yourselves. You'll be hearing much more from the
White House about the "wealthy few" who aren't paying their
"fair share" as Obama's re-election campaign doubles down on
class-war demagoguery.
As
usual, there's always a set of immunity charms for the privileged friends and
family of the ruling class. When it comes to all the Green Robber Barons who've
reaped an obscenely unfair share of billions of tax dollars from the Obama
administration, the envy trumpeteers will be quieter than a nest of mute church
mice.
Obama's
State of the Union address defiantly pitched a new round of clean energy spending
orgies to help the "middle class." But how have the serial
bankruptcies and near-bankruptcies of several federally subsidized solar
companies -- all under Obama's watch -- helped anyone but an upper-crust elite
of eco-crats and their lobbyists and consultants?
Bankrupt
Solyndra, billionaire George Kaiser. In the wake of the half-billion-dollar
Solyndra stimulus bust, company officials revealed plans to hand out hefty
bonuses totaling $500,000. Months before the politically connected solar energy
manufacturer went belly up, it was doling out bonus payments of between $40,000
and $60,000 to several executives. Last week, a local CBS News crew caught
employees at the Silicon Valley headquarters trashing solar panel glass tubes
worth an estimated $10 million.
The
now-abandoned Taj Mahal complex cost ordinary Americans more than $733 million.
But billionaire Democratic donor and frequent White House guest George Kaiser,
whose nonprofit foundation was Solyndra's biggest investor, is still sitting
pretty. He and the other private investors of Solyndra will recoup their losses
ahead of taxpayers. And while they blast their GOP opponents, double-standard
Democrats will remain AWOL on the glaring tax-avoidance strategies of the
wealthy Kaiser Family Foundation.
Bankrupt
Beacon Power, fat Democratic coffers. This green energy storage plant filed for
bankruptcy last fall after a $43 million injection of Obama Department of
Energy loan guarantees. Federal election record filings show that CEO William
Capp contributed to the 2008 Obama campaign, as well as several left-wing New
England Democratic candidates. Beacon Power lobbyist Steve Wolfe was a former
aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Beacon sought bankruptcy shelter two days
after the White House responded to fiscal watchdogs' demands for a review of
the DOE's shoddy loan monitoring programs.
Bankrupt
SpectraWatt, red-faced Goldman Sachs. A solar cell company based in New York,
SpectraWatt went belly up last August despite a half-million-dollar federal
stimulus boost and lucrative backing from politically connected Goldman Sachs
-- whose ties reach deep into the Obama Treasury Department, Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, White House National Economic Council and 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave. itself. The eco-failure was dumped in a fire sale for less than $5
million.
Teetering
Nevada Geothermal, cheerleading Harry Reid. Despite $150 million in federal DOE
and Treasury Department subsidies -- not to mention personal lobbying by Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid -- this alternative energy project is on the brink
of failure. A Deloitte and Touche audit grimly concludes that the company
"has incurred net losses over the past several years, has an accumulated
deficit of $44.0 million and an anticipated inability to retire its long-term
liabilities." According to CBS News, the company's latest SEC filings warn
of multiple defaults.
My
scouring of White House visitor logs shows nine visits from another Green
Robber Baron, Illinois-based Exelon's CEO John Rowe, who met with the president
and former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel multiple times. As Forbes magazine
reported: The clean energy company "has very deep ties to the Obama
Administration. Frank M. Clark, who runs ComEd, helped advise Obama before he
ran for president and is one of Obama's largest fundraisers. Obama's chief
political strategist, David Axelrod, worked as a consultant to Exelon. Obama's
chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, helped create Exelon" -- where he raked in
more than $16 million over two years.
Remember:
"Fairness" is in the eye of the wealth redistributors.
Michelle
Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax
Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is
malkinblog@gmail.com.