Big Government

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Obama getting a pass for actions similar to those that ended Nixon’s presidency

“The painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be,” – Jonathan Turley, constitutional law expert

While perusing the daily newspaper this morning, my attention was drawn to the This Day in History column featuring President Richard Nixon’s Aug. 8, 1974 resignation.

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Forty-one years ago, President Nixon resigned the presidency. (ahharsfnewws.com)

Over the years I have often considered Nixon’s transgressions to be foolish and clumsy to say the least, but it led to his impeachment and key members of his administration went to jail.

Hardly a day goes by, however, that I don’t see the actions of President Obama equally or more egregious than those of Nixon. But when you look back to the 1970s, reporters Woodward and Bernstein had the backing of their powerful newspaper, The Washington Post, to uncover the deeds of Nixon and his men.

You can ask, where the Woodward’s and Bernstein’s are today, but you soon come to your senses and realize that Nixon openly scorned the media and President Obama owns the media. Today, The Washington Post might tweak the Obama administration by giving the president or Hillary Clinton four Pinocchio’s. Continue reading →

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Liberals split on which war to accuse the GOP of supporting; going to war with Iran or the war on women

RTX1N6N8cropped (jonathanernstreuters)

Acting more like the commander-in-cheap, the president compared Republicans to Iranian hard-liners in his speech at the American University. (jonathanernst/reuters)

The president continues to say that the only alternative to his nuclear deal with Iran is war, and used a ridiculous analogy in making his case that Republicans want to go to war with Iran.

“Many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal,” he told an American University audience yesterday. Need he be reminded that 29 Democrat Senators, including Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, were among those voting in favor of the Iraq resolution?

Acting more like the commander-in-cheap, he likened the Republicans to the hard-liners in Iran saying, “It’s those hard-liners chanting ‘Death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal. They’re making common cause with the Republican caucus.” How insulting! How unstatesman like.  Someone failed to tell him that they’ve already selected a new host for The Daily Show. Continue reading →

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Another jobs promise by the president

“The Clean Power Plan will drive significant new investment in cleaner more modern and more efficient technologies, creating tens of thousands of jobs.” – President Obama

Just how stupid does the president think we are? His $800 billion stimulus was supposed to “save or create more than 3.5 million jobs,” but 1.5 million jobs were lost in the two years following the stimulus enactment. He later had to admit that “shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.”

green_jobs_banner (21stcenturyapprecticveshipworkforce3one.org

I wonder if the people protesting in Washington DC for more green jobs were aware that the EPA would be hiring some 800 people to serve as regulators, who will be killing jobs across the country. (21stcenturyapprecticeshiiopworkforce3one.org)

The $20 billion in green technology funding was supposed “to create the jobs of the future,” but those “efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed,” reported the New York Times. A $500 million Labor Department program to train workers for green jobs was designed to place 80,000 workers in energy efficiency or renewable energy careers, but reportedly just 8,000 found work in the two years following the program start. Continue reading →

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Liberal Arizona Republic columnist says Medicare exists because of LBJ’s “courage”

Writing in The Arizona Republic, liberal columnist Linda Valdez took the occasion of Medicare’s 50th anniversary to laud the “courage” of Lyndon Johnson, for signing it into law.

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President Johnson signed the Medicare Bill in Independence, Missouri in 1965 and gave the first signing pen to former President Harry Truman. (lbjlibrary.org)

Of course, she failed to mention that when he signed the Medicare bill in 1965, the initial cost was $3 billion, and it was estimated that the cost would increase to just $12 billion in 1990. Actually, it grew to $110 billion by 1990. Last year the cost went up to $511 billion. And a funding crisis looms.

We have spent some $15 trillion on LBJ’s war on poverty, however, 46 million people live in poverty today, and another 20 million live on less than half of the poverty level. His prediction of “victory of prosperity over poverty” is long forgotten. Continue reading →

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Hillary Clinton is the Peter Principle personified

In 1968, Dr. Laurence J. Peter caused a stir in the business world with the publication of his book, The Peter Principle, a treatise in which he explains how individuals reach their “level of incompetence.”

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Cover of the original edition of The Peter Principle, (money.howstuffworks.com)

If ever there was someone who fits Peter’s definition, it’s Hillary Clinton.

Clinton joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock in 1977 after graduating from Wellesley College and Yale Law School.  Just two years later, she was coincidentally named the first female partner at the firm when she became the first lady of Arkansas. This, after never arguing a case in court for the firm.

She was first lady of the United States during Bill Clinton’s 1993-2001 tenure as president. In 1993, Bill asked her to lead a massive task force to draft a plan to develop a health insurance system to control costs while expanding coverage.

Documents have shown that her effort was seen as secretive, unworkable and behind schedule toward the end of the year. White House advisors were quoted as saying the bill was “not only confusing, but frightening.”   Another cited the Congress as being “petrified” by the issue.

By mid-1994 her healthcare overhaul plan had all but collapsed and died without a congressional vote. While her senior aides had advised her to consult closely with members of Congress, build bridges with business leaders, communicate clearly to nervous voters, and move swiftly, she failed. Continue reading →

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Finally, teachers are saying “no” to the NEA

rebecca frederichs (reason.com)

Orange County California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs’ name appears in the case to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. (reason.com)

Word that the Supreme Court will hear Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association in October was welcome news to this writer. For years I have been writing op-eds and letters to editors about the use of union dues to fund political candidates and issues. It amounts to political extortion.

In a piece I wrote four years ago, “Teachers Unite,” I included the following quote from a farewell speech given by National Education Association (NEA) retiring general counsel Bob Chanin. In view of the renewed effort by California teachers, it needs to be reprinted here.

Posing the question as to why the NEA has been such an effective organization, Chanin said,

“It is not because of creative ideas, it is not because of the merit of our position, it is not because we care about children, it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. The NEA and its affiliates are effective because we have power and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe we are the union that can most effectively represent them, the union that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”

At the conclusion of his speech, I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach as teachers in the audience wildly applauded. You can see the speech by clicking here. Continue reading →

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Myth of no equal pay for women debunked

We have laws on the books to cover illegal immigration, the registration of guns, the use of marijuana and any number of issues of the day, but the government chooses not to enforce them, unless it suits them.

Now Hillary Clinton is picking up the Obama mantra that we need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. She blames its failure on Republicans who do not support equal pay for equal work for women. Not true. It’s just that Republicans recognize that equal pay for women has been the law of the land for more than a half-century.

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Typical of the low-information crowd, Patricia Arquette perpetuated the myth and needed a script at the Oscars to say, “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.” (usmagazine.com)

While Democrats continue to support the myth that women earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, since 1963 it has been unlawful for an employer to pay a female less than a male employee for equal work. In addition, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sex discrimination in wages. And, workers employed by a government contractor or subcontractor, like Boeing, are covered by Executive Order 11,246, which prohibits gender-based pay discrimination.

In addition, 46 states also have antidiscrimination laws mandating equal pay for equal work. Continue reading →

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The myth of the disappearing middle class

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the disappearing middle class, primarily in campaign speeches by candidates for president.

Hillary Clinton has begun using the term “everyday Americans,” most likely because she doesn’t want to spell out who she classifies as middle class. She’s not alone. Most candidates do not want to define how they determine middle class income because it depends on so many factors, and you can be thought of as “out of touch” if you float an income range as middle class.

Middle-Class(last resistancer.com)

Cartoon courtesy of lastresistance.com

Determining whether you are middle class comes down to self-identity. “The middle class label is as much about aspirations among Americans as it is about economics,” wrote Patricia Cohen, “but a perspective that was once characterized by comfort and optimism has increasingly been overlaid with stress and anxiety.” Continue reading →

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Hillary aims economic message at low-information crowd with renewed attack on business

It was vintage Hillary as she unveiled her “Growth and Fairness Economy” at New York’s progressive New School this week.

It was all there, designed to trigger further animosity toward business. The economy is stacked in favor of those at the top …. high corporate profits and CEO salaries … inequality … wage stagnation. And it’s those “mean-spirited” Republicans that are to blame.

images (business insider.com)

Hillary Clinton chose New York’s progressive New School as the venue to deliver her vision for the economy. (businessinsider.com)

Her message is directed at the low-information crowd, who like hearing someone attack “those greedy CEO’s,” who they believe are responsible for their lot in life. This is how she intends to be their “champion.”

It’s unfortunate that the average worker has little or no idea what makes the economy tick. Take the subject of profit, for instance. In numerous polls over the past five decades, people have been asked, “Just a rough guess, what percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average company makes after taxes?”

The average response in the most recent poll was 36 percent! Believe it. The average profit margin is just 6.5 to 7.5 percent. Continue reading →

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Obama cronyism again on display

Two years ago, Obama proudly appointed Katherine Archuleta to be his director of the Office of Personnel Management and Budget as the first Latina to hold that position. It was said that she shared his vision for diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce and will help “create more effective policymaking and better decision-making …”

In this June 16, 2015, photo, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Katherine Archuleta testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the OPM data breach. The Obama administration is increasingly confident that China’s government, not criminal hackers, was responsible for the extraordinary theft of personal information about as many as 14 million current and former federal employees and others, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Obama crony appointee Katherine Archuleta resigned as director of the Office of Personnel Management and Budget after ignoring years of warnings by the IG. (washingtontimes.com)

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the expertise to run the 5,000-person department, even when OPM’s inspector general had issued warnings of outdated security policies and procedures in 2009, 2012 and again last year.

One day she had the president’s “full confidence.”  The next day, she resigned “of her own volition.” Continue reading →