Friday, October 12, 2012

The Vice Presidential Debate - What an Independent Witnessed

I understand that the Democrats were a little hurt after the first Presidential Debate between Romney and Obama. The President showed little emotion or little enthusiasm at all while Romney clearly delivered an intelligence response to all the questions.

 Last night it was like night and day. Vice President Biden was the wild man. He reminded me of the crazy old man at the Dairy Queen, drinking his coffee at 6am and debating the issues of the day with his farmer friends. He was rude. He was loud. He was borderline nuts. If laughing while your opponent is speaking means winning a debate then so be it. If yelling and ranting when it is your turn to speak means winning a debate then so be it.

 Last week Romney won the debate with class. Delivering solid answers in an intelligent way. If you think Biden won last night then he won in the exact opposite way. It was the crazy old man approach. He was even yelling at the poor moderator sometimes. A clear lack of class. I guess that is why Obama has kept Biden under wraps the last four years and not let him run around making alot of statements in the media. It was obvious the Democrats were desperate. The display last night clearly energized the left. The right were turned off for sure for the poor display from Biden.

The issue is not the left or right voters. They already have their mind made up. The issue is the independents who may not be leaning one direction or the other. What did they see last night? A young, intelligent Paul Ryan against a ranting, laughing old man. That should be what is taken away from the Vice Presidential Debate. What did an independent see?

Friday, September 14, 2012

The Arab Spring turns dark


The Arab Spring.  What was hoped to be a time of enlightenment and progress has turned out to be nothing other than a plunge into deeper darkness.  From Khadafi to this?

A poor, backwards part of the world is devolving into further chaos.  Over 20 countries are in deep states of protest and rioting.  The time is coming that this will have to be dealt with.  Unfortunately, our President is too busy fundraising to do much on the subject.  He has not even been in Washington DC for days.

Another attack on American property or embassy will have to be answered.  It must be dealt with in force.  The question is does President Obama have the guts to act?  I am not so sure.  So far we have done absolutely nothing.

These people are crazy.  They are full of hate towards the United States and everything we stand for.  We should not stand by and allow these scum-of-the-earth act as such.  The crowds are chanting "Death to America".

At the very least we should stop sending foreign aid to the Middle East.  We send $1.5 billion to Egypt alone every single year.  What an absolute waste.  Especially when we have $16 trillion in debt ourselves.  Afghanistan gets $3.9 billion!  Pakistan hates us, yet we will send $3.1 billion their way this year. 

One of the stated purposes of our foreign aid is "to promote democracy".  How is that working out?  These people hate us.  The Islamic radicals are in charge.  The Muslim Brotherhood is in control.  These people are whackos.

The Middle East is a ticking time bomb.  It will eventually explode.  One of our closest allies Israel will need to be defended and we will rise to help them without doubt. 

Could we be on the verge of another World War?  Possibly so.  The Middle East radicals will stand together .  We will stand with Israel and Western Europe will stand with us as well. 

Is this where we are headed?  Possibly not in the very near future, but I fear this lies within our time horizon.  Let's hear your thoughts in the comments!

How will Obamacare impact small businesses?

Just how will Obamacare impact small businesses? We have heard all kinds of stories from both sides of the table. Republicans and Democrats all have their own take on Obamacare.

At the recent International Franchise Association convention held in Washington this week we got some ideas from the small business owners that will be directly impacted. That's where Atlanta Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken franchiser David Barr pulled out his powerpoint showing how funding Obamacare will cut his profits in half overnight.

With simple math the small business folks understood, he spelled out that their only choice is to slash employee hours so they aren't eligible for company-paid health care or stop offering insurance and pay the $2,000 per employee fine. Barr has 23 stores with 421 employees, 109 of whom are full-time. Of those, he provides 30 with health insurance.

Barr said he pays 81% of their Blue Cross Blue Shield policy, or $4,073 of $5,028 for individuals, more for families, for a total bill of $129,000 a year. Employees pay $995. Under Obamacare, however, he will have to provide health insurance for all 109 full-time workers, a cost of $444,000, or two and half times more than his current costs. That $315,000 increase is equal to just over half his annual profit, after expenses, or 1.5% of sales.

As a result, he said, "I'm not paying $444,000." Providing no insurance would result in a federal fine of $158,000, $29,000 more than he now spends but the lowest cost possible under the Obamacare law. So he now views that as his cap and he'll either cut worker hours or replace them with machines to get his costs down or dump them on the public health exchange and pay the fine.

"Every business has a way to eliminate jobs," he said, "but that's not good for them or me." But that's not all. His experience tells him that most low-wage workers he would have to cover under Obamacare won't take it because their $995 share is too high, meaning those the program was set up for won't see any benefit. And those who do will because they have major health issues, likely resulting in higher premiums to him.

This will be the norm throughout the United States. Every business owner will have to deal with the same issues. The result will not be pretty at all.

Check out the latest from the Investor Business Daily Obamacare List

Monday, September 3, 2012

Obama - The numbers don't lie on the first four years

One month after taking office in 2009 President Obama stood in the elegant East Room of the White House gave a finger-waving talk on fiscal responsibility and boldly pledged to halve the deficit in his four years. He would bring the deficit down from $10 trillion to $5 trillion.

Fail. Instead of reducing our national debt by 50% as he promised, President Obama has actually increased our national debt by 50% to almost $16 trillion.

Here is another Obama quote from an appearance on the Today show just after he took office in February 2009. “I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. … A year from now, I think people are gonna see that we’re starting to make some progress, but there’s still gonna be some pain out there. If I don’t this done in three years, then there’s gonna be a one-term proposition.”

Just take a look at these numbers and see if America is better off after four years of the current Presidency.

Unemployment - from 7.8% to 8.3%
Median Income - from $55,000 to $51,000
National Debt - from $10.6 to $15.9 trillion
Price of Gas - from $1.84 to $3.82

How can anyone decide to vote for such failure? I guess all the people who get their handouts from the government will surely vote Democrat, but otherwise??? Any hard working American cannot allow us to continue down this path to bankruptcy and failure. Just look at the failing countries of Greece, Spain and Italy in Europe. That's where we are headed unless we change.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Obama negative ads aren't telling the truth

President Barack Obama is at it again. This time he has launched a new set of negative ads directed at Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Even though the point of the ads have been depicted as untrue by the independent research firm factcheck.org.

The 30-second spot — titled "The Problem" — claims Romney condoned the Chinese "taking our jobs and taking a lot of our future." It's the latest in a steady drumbeat of negative attacks on Romney's record as a corporate buyout specialist, alleging he profited off of deliberately bankrupting companies and sending jobs overseas.

Obama is undeterred by independent fact-checkers that have debunked the thrust of his claims. "We have found no evidence to support the claim that Romney — while he was still running Bain Capital — shipped American jobs overseas," FactCheck.org concluded in a report last month.

Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler also concluded that while Bain-owned companies may have engaged in outsourcing, Romney's ties to the practice are tenuous.

Unfortunately it is the only way Obama can win re-election as he cannot stand on any of his policies. The economy is a total disaster and a majority of Americans are against his health care plan. Hopefully the public can see through his false claims.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Obama spending more time fundraising than running the country

Maybe if President Obama spent as much time actually running the country as he did fundraising our economy might be in a better place.  Instead, Obama has been hopping on Air Force One and running all over the United States to fundraisers.

Just in June alone he attended 33 different fundraisers!  That's over one a day.  How about actually staying in Washington and working on fixing our ailing economy and rampant unemployment.

Oh, and just who pays for all these Air Force One trips around the country so he can raise money?  Of course we do.  The American taxpayers.  So we are taking a double whammy on this one.  A President not doing anything in Washington and taking 33 trips last month on the taxpayers bill.

Friday, June 29, 2012

President Obama needs to read some Abraham Lincoln

President Obama needs to read this very profound passage from our great President Abraham Lincoln.  It seems we have lost sight of what made our country great and are embracing socialist ideals.  Americans are becoming an entitlement society.  Expecting handouts and freebies from our government and the current leadership is more than willing to reward the lack of initiative.  We are a great country because we earned it!