Obama, the Fiscal Cliff, and Saddam Hussein

As Obama makes his lame remarks about the fiscal cliff, he's using middle class families as props, standing behind him, smiling and laughing and adoring him.

Oh, come let us adore him!

It reminds me of Saddam Hussein surrounding himself with children. What a great guy!

I am so disgusted by the Obama cult of personality. I'm sick of his class warfare and his outright lies.

Obama's staged pep rally is nauseating.

It's painful witnessing the downfall of my country.

2013 - oh, goody.

'Let It Grow'

For your holiday listening pleasure, to make your Christmas merry--

"Let It Grow"



Lyrics:

Oh the fiscal cliff sure is frightful
Shrinking government is doubtful
'Cause Republicans can't say no
Let it grow! Let it grow! Let it grow!

I never had plans for stoppin'
I needed votes so I just bought them
Removed the debt ceiling, and watch me go
Let it grow! Let it grow! Let it grow!

When I finally say goodbye
You won't recognize this place
GOP better hold on tight
To stop entitlements you'll have to use mace

The U.S. is quickly dyin'
The leader of the Free World is good-byin'
But the uninformed love me so
Let it grow! Let it grow! Let it grow!

Ho, ho, ho!
Merry Christmas!

Parody performed by the great Paul Shanklin.
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Other holiday favorites:

"Baracka Claus is Coming to Town"

"Forward: Obama Phones Ringing"

"Jolly Old St. Obama"

"Santa Baby"

"Welfare Wonderland"

Obama and the Fiscal Cliff

We know Obama is prepared to go over the fiscal cliff.

He's not negotiating with Republicans. Obama just wants it to look that way.

The clueless will buy his BS lines and Obama can blame Republicans for his mess.

Obama - good; Republicans - bad.

Under Obama's "tax the rich" plan, the fiscal crisis wouldn't be averted. That's a total joke. It's not a plan at all.

Amid all the political and media hoopla about the "fiscal cliff" crisis, there are a few facts that are worth noting.

First of all, despite all the melodrama about raising taxes on "the rich," even if that is done it will scarcely make a dent in the government's financial problems. Raising the tax rates on everybody in the top two percent will not get enough additional tax revenue to run the government for ten days.

It's disgusting that Obama is lying to the American people and the Leftist media are allowing him to get away with it. They're enabling the deception.

And what will the government do to pay for the other 355 days in the year?

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting "the rich" to pay "their fair share" is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics. Taxing "the rich" will produce a drop in the bucket when compared to the staggering and unprecedented deficits of the Obama administration.

No previous administration in the entire history of the nation ever finished the year with a trillion dollar deficit. The Obama administration has done so every single year. Yet political and media discussions of the financial crisis have been focussed overwhelmingly on how to get more tax revenue to pay for past and future spending.

The very catchwords and phrases used by the Obama administration betray how phony this all is. For example, "We are just asking the rich to pay a little more."

This is an insult to our intelligence. The government doesn't "ask" anybody to pay anything. It orders you to pay the taxes they impose and you can go to prison if you don't.

Obama should be honest and quit distorting reality.

He should tell the American people that his plan to soak the rich will be utterly ineffective. It's all smoke and mirrors.

Obama should tell the truth.

The real cliff he's leading us over is so much deeper than he's willing to admit.

SNL: John Boehner, Obama, Fiscal Cliff (Video)

Saturday Night Live opened with a bit mocking Speaker of the House John Boehner.

He was depicted as weak, a helpless victim, a buffoon.

Why not mock Obama, the real bully?

That won't happen until hell freezes over.

Hell is guaranteed not to freeze for four years.

Here's video.

Paul Ryan and Charlie Sykes (Audio)

Listen to Charlie Sykes interview Paul Ryan.

Congressman Paul Ryan reflects on his bid to become the next Vice President of the United States and offers his perspective on the fiscal cliff negotiations, in which he is a key cog for the GOP.

Hearing that Paul Ryan has come to terms with the results of the election makes me realize that I haven't.

I still feel sick when I think about what almost was and what is.

Instead of fearing the future under Obama, I would be hopeful and anticipating the new administration.

So many of my family's economic decisions would be different if Obama had lost and change for the better was a reality.

Still, I'm thankful Paul Ryan remains in Washington, working to improve our country.

I'm sick that the smug Obama is playing politics with our lives.

"Fiscal cliff" this, Obama.

'Jolly Old St. Obama'

Another song to make your Christmas merry--



Lyrics:

Jolly old St. Nicholas
You have been replaced
The followers have sold their soul
To me for other gifts
Christmas Eve just stay at home
Make some other plans
That suit of yours, it don't fit me
So sell it if you can

Johnny gets more food stamps
Pedro gets to stay
Susie gets an Obama Phone
Patients get to wait
ObamaCare is comin' soon
So trim down if you can
Michelle insists you lose the weight
She don't like fat old white men

When the clock is striking twelve
On this New Year's Eve
I'm jumping off that fiscal cliff
And taking you with me
All your reindeer you will find
Missing from their stalls
Their emissions don't pass EPA
And we indicted you and Mrs. Claus

After that the 21st
Is my inauguration
I've been chosen once again
To add more regulation
GDP is slowin' down
Things are almost fair
Rest assured I will not stop
Till everyone's suckin' air


Uh, has Boehner called yet?
He'll give in.
You wait.

Parody performed by the great Paul Shanklin.
___________________

Other holiday favorites:

"Baracka Claus is Coming to Town"

"Forward: Obama Phones Ringing"

"Santa Baby"

"Let It Grow"

"Welfare Wonderland"

Krauthammer: Geithner's 'Insulting' Deal (Video)

Charles Krauthammer gives his take on the "fiscal cliff" deal offered by Timothy Geithner yesterday.

Here's video:

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It's not just a bad deal. This is really an insulting deal. What Geithner offered, what you showed on the screen, Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he had lost a civil war.

The Democrats have won by three percent of the vote and they did not hold the House. Republicans won the House, so this is not exactly unconditional surrender, but that's what the administration is asking of the Republicans.

This idea there not only are no cuts in this, there's an increase in spending with a new stimulus. I mean, this is almost unheard of. I mean, what do they expect? They obviously expect the Republicans will cave on everything. I think the Republicans ought to simply walk away.

The president is the president. He's the leader. They are demanding that Republicans explain all the cuts that they want to make. We had that movie a year and a half ago where Paul Ryan presented a budget, a serious, real budget with real cuts.

Obama was supposed to give a speech in which he would respond with a counter offer. And what did he do? He gave a speech where he had Ryan sitting in the front row. He called the Ryan proposal un-American, insulted him, offered nothing, and ran on Medi-scare in the next 18 months. And they expect Republicans are going to do this again?

The Republicans are going to walk on this, and I think they have leverage. Yes, for Congressional Democrats, it will help them in the future if Republicans absorb the blame, because we're going to have a recession.

But Obama's not running again, unlike the Congressional Democrats. He's going to have a recession, 9 percent unemployment, 2 million more unemployed, and a second term that's going to be a ruin.

I do find Obama's cockiness and arrogance and flat-out incompetence to be stunning.

I can't help but think of what might have been.

Everything would be so different right now if Romney and Ryan had won.

Obama News Conference

Obama, the self-proclaimed most transparent president in U.S. history (What a load!), will face the press for his first news conference since MARCH.

From the New York Times:

Finally, President Obama is holding a news conference.

The last time the president stepped on a podium to take questions from reporters was in June, at the Group of 20 economic summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. And even then, he took only three, leaving the press assembled before him grumbling that even Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, had answered more queries from journalists at the meeting.

Mr. Obama will presumably take more than three questions this time when he shows up in the East Room of the White House — the scheduled time is 1:30 p.m. Wednesday — now that he has won re-election. And reporters have been storing them up for five months, so there should be a broad array of topics.

Topping the list of subjects likely will be the affair that has upended the C.I.A. career of David H. Petraeus and is now threatening the career of Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of the war effort in Afghanistan.

...The president is also likely to be asked about the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11. While Mr. Obama addressed the issue during the second debate with Mitt Romney, he has not had a news conference since before the attacks, so the reporters who cover him have not had a chance to engage in a public back-and-forth on the issue.

Also likely is a focus on the debt negotiations with Congress that will soon be gathering steam, although asking Mr. Obama about that may just give him more space to repeat what he said last week — that he wants to see tax increases on the wealthy, and that he believes that exit polling shows that most Americans agree with him.

Though the president’s spokesman reaffirmed his $1.6 trillion target for new revenues on Tuesday, while Mr. Obama reassured progressives and labor leaders that he would stand firm against Congressional Republicans on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, expect plenty of questions about the “fiscal cliff.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah.

I want Obama to address specifics on the 9/11/12 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

I want to Obama to admit he lied in the second presidential debate when he claimed he called it a "terrorist" attack immediately, and Candy Crowley, moderator of the debate, had the transcript.

I want a reporter to ask for the release of the photo of Obama monitoring the hours-long attack in Benghazi from the situation room, just like the photos of him "taking care" of bin Laden and Superstorm Sandy.

I don't want to hear about Petraeus and Broadwell and Kelley and Allen and the shirtless FBI guy, other than how they relate to the colossal, inexcusable breakdown in Benghazi. I do want to know why the Petraeus affair was revealed when it was.

Obama supposedly didn't know anything about it. Why???

I want Obama to specifically explain to the American people why he blamed the 9/11/12 TERRORIST attack on an obscure YouTube video. I want Obama to address why he allowed Susan Rice to lie for him.

I hope the media are tough. It is their job. They should play an important role in protecting the American people from abuse by their leaders, by holding the leaders accountable and providing the truth.

I expect Obama to blather on and on and filibuster the way he always does at his infrequent news conferences. I don't expect any answers of significance from Obama because I don't think there will be questions of significance from the press.

Do you think Obama will sing Al Green to his media allies?



They're so in love. He owes them his reelection.
________________

UPDATE: Obama's first news conference in months and months is a joke. No hard-hitting questions, mostly touchy, feely crap.

He talks like he's still on the campaign trail.

That's unacceptable.

This personality cult stuff is an embarrassment.
_________________

UPDATE: The Benghazi cover-up continues. Obama says Susan Rice is being besmirched by John McCain and other Republican senators. He became angry and accused them of "going after the UN ambassador."

Obama, champion of helpless women!

Sen. Lindsey Graham responds to Obama's attacks.

Macy's Parade: Six New Floats (Video)

Ready or not, the holiday season is upon us.

The 86th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is just a week away.

Here's raw video of six new floats:



Another holiday tradition: Milwaukee's 86th Annual Holiday Parade, this Saturday at 9:30 AM, sponsored by Johnson Controls.

Johnson Controls volunteers will be collecting your non-perishable food items along the route to benefit the Hunger Task Force's Food For Families.

Please help Hunger Task Force and Johnson Controls make a difference this Holiday Season.

Enjoy the parades. Seize the day, because the fiscal cliff awaits.

Obama Doesn't Get It

From Hot Air:

A survey of small businesses by the US Chamber of Commerce shows that Obama’s own economic policies haven’t exactly contributed to their success:

Only one in five small businesses (20%) expect to add employees in 2013, according to the poll of 1,225 small business owners, conducted by Harris Interactive. The majority of small businesses say they are likely to keep the same number of employees over the next year – meaning there is likely to be little change in overall unemployment figures.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision on the President’s health care law, only 3% of small business owners report that the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law will make them more likely to hire new employees. Seventy-two percent said the health care law will make it harder for them to hire. When asked about the impact, several respondents said they will scale back their workforce to avoid triggering the employer mandate. …

Some additional findings from the survey:

•78% want government to get out of the way.

•90% are concerned about the impending fiscal cliff and are worried that Congress will fail to take action to prevent it.

•Nearly 60% say that expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax rates and other business provisions, coupled with sequestration, will directly impact their business’ growth.

Obama is the enemy of small business owners.

Obama is the enemy of all Americans interested in economic prosperity.

Krauthammer: WI Protests, Obama 'Man of the Past'

Charles Krauthammer gives his views on the union protests in Madison and Obama's decision to get involved.

He believes the labor protests to be an "epic moment" and Obama to be defining himself as a "man of the past."

Video, from Breitbart:



Transcript

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think the president weighing in has really, has made this a real epic moment. What we're getting is sort of an earthquake in the country, where at the national and at the state level there's a sense in the country that we're headed over a cliff fiscally in continuing the old ways.

We look at what's happening in Greece and France and Ireland. We look at the mounting debt. We look at the threat to our economy. The national level - the Democrat reaction is status quo. The president's budget is completely status quo, offering nothing. And it's the Republicans who are now going to offer changes, even in entitlements, which is almost revolutionary. It's ironic because, of course, Obama ran as the man for hope and change against the status quo.

Now what we're seeing at the state level is exactly the same thing - governors trying to make a difference, trying to change the way business had been conducted, because all of them are headed into bankruptcy. And what I think this illustrates is how liberalism in the country has become classic reactionary liberalism.

In the days of FDR and until the mid-70s, it was, as Patrick Moynihan once said, it was the party of ideas - new ideas, New Deal, Great Society. And now, all it wants to do is to hang on to all the gains it has even as the world has changed - globalization, demographic changes. And Republicans are the ones who are in favor of change.

And with Obama hanging on to the budget as it is and his union allies in the states, I think he's really defining himself as a man of the past. And in the end, he could have a tactical success here politically, but in the end, it's a losing hand.

BRET BAIER: Instead of 'win the future,' you say 'man of the past'?

KRAUTHAMMER: It's not even a look at the future. It's hanging on to everything held on in the past, including these union advantages. And in the end, it will sink the country at the state and the national level.

I think Krauthammer nails it when he says that Obama and the Democrats and their union allies represent the status quo.

Obama and the Democrat-Union alliance offer a losing strategy and certain fiscal disaster.

Republicans are the true agents of change.

Scott Walker is a reformer. He and his allies offer real hope and change to win the future.

'Paul Ryan v. the President'

Obama has reason to fear Paul Ryan.

The truth is Obama's enemy, and Ryan tells the truth. He dismantles Obama's lies about health care reform.

How does Obama respond? He simply declares that the health care debate is over.

Oh really, King Barack?

This is still a free country, Mr. Imperial President.

In an editorial today in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Ryan is featured as a force that Obama and the Dems are unable to match.

Paul Ryan v. the President

The Republican dissects ObamaCare's real costs. Democrats stay mute.

'Every argument has been made. Everything that there is to say about health care has been said, and just about everybody has said it," President Obama declared yesterday as he urged Democrats to steamroll his plan through Congress. What hasn't been heard, however, is even a shred of White House honesty about the true costs of ObamaCare, or its fiscal consequences.

Nearby, we reprint Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's remarks at the health summit last week, which methodically dismantle the falsehoods—there is no other way of putting it—that Mr. Obama has used to sell "reform" and repeated again yesterday. No one in the political class has even tried to refute Mr. Ryan's arguments, though he made them directly to the President and his allies, no doubt because they are irrefutable. If Democrats are willing to ignore overwhelming public opposition to ObamaCare and pass it anyway, then what's a trifling dispute over a couple of trillion dollars?

At his press conference yesterday, Mr. Obama claimed that "my proposal would bring down the cost of health care for millions—families, businesses and the federal government." He said it is "fully paid for" and "brings down our deficit by up to $1 trillion over the next two decades." Never before has a vast new entitlement been sold on the basis of fiscal responsibility, and one reason ObamaCare is so unpopular is that Americans understand the contradiction between untold new government subsidies and claims of spending restraint. They know a Big Con when they hear one.

Mr. Obama's fiscal assertions are possible only because of the fraudulent accounting and budget gimmicks that Democrats spent months calibrating. Readers can find the gory details in Mr. Ryan's pre-emptive rebuttal nearby, though one of the most egregious deceptions is that the bill counts 10 years of taxes but only six years of spending.

The real cost over a decade is about $2.3 trillion on paper, Mr. Ryan estimates, and even that is a lowball estimate considering how many people will flood to "free" health care and how many businesses will be induced to drop coverage. Mr. Obama claimed yesterday that the plan will cost "about $100 billion per year," but in fact the costs ramp up each year the program exists. The far more likely deficits are $460 billion over the first 10 years, and $1.4 trillion over the next 10.

What Mr. Ryan calls "probably the most cynical gimmick" deserves special attention, which is known in Washington as the "doc fix." Next month Medicare physician payments are scheduled to be cut by 22% and deeper thereafter, though Congress is sure to postpone the reductions as it always does. Failing to account for this inevitability takes nearly a quarter-trillion dollars off the ObamaCare books and by itself wipes out the "savings" that the White House continues to take credit for.

Some in the liberal cheering section now claim that this Medicare ruse isn't Mr. Obama's problem because it was first promised by Republicans and Bill Clinton in 1997. But then why did Democrats include the "doc fix" in all early versions of the bill to buy the support of the American Medical Association, only to dump this pricey item later when hiding it would make it easier to fake-reduce the deficit?

The President was (miraculously) struck dumb by Mr. Ryan's critique, and in his response drifted off into an irrelevant tangent about Medicare Advantage, while California Democrat Xavier Becerra claimed "you essentially said you can't trust the Congressional Budget Office." But Mr. Ryan was careful to note that he didn't doubt the professionalism of CBO, only the truthfulness of the Democratic gimmicks that the budget gnomes are asked to score.

Yesterday Mr. Obama again invoked the "nonpartisan, independent" authority of CBO, which misses the reality that if you feed the agency phony premises, you are going to get phony results at the other end.

The President also claimed the reason his plan is in trouble, and the reason Democrats must abuse the Senate's rules to ram this plan into law, is that "many Republicans in Congress just have a fundamental disagreement over whether we should have more or less oversight of insurance companies." So most of Mr. Obama's first year in office has been paralyzed over nothing more than minor regulatory hair-splitting. This is so preposterous that the President can't possibly believe it.

Congress's spring break begins on March 29, and Democratic leaders plan on jamming this monster through Congress before then. Americans have to hope that enough rank-and-file Democrats aren't as deaf to fiscal honesty as this President.

This is priceless:

"The President was (miraculously) struck dumb by Mr. Ryan's critique...."

The WSJ is very impressed with Ryan, reprinting his remarks from last week's health care summit.

Dissecting the Real Cost of ObamaCare

By PAUL D. RYAN

The following are remarks made by Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, about the cost of the House and Senate health-care bills at President Obama's Blair House summit on health care, Feb. 25:

Look, we agree on the problem here. And the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff.

Mr. President, you said health-care reform is budget reform. You're right. We agree with that. Medicare, right now, has a $38 trillion unfunded liability. That's $38 trillion in empty promises to my parents' generation, our generation, our kids' generation. Medicaid's growing at 21 percent each year. It's suffocating states' budgets. It's adding trillions in obligations that we have no means to pay for . . .

Now, you're right to frame the debate on cost and health inflation. And in September, when you spoke to us in the well of the House, you basically said—and I totally agree with this—I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future.

Since the Congressional Budget Office can't score your bill, because it doesn't have sufficient detail, but it tracks very similar to the Senate bill, I want to unpack the Senate score a little bit.

And if you take a look at the CBO analysis—analysis from your chief actuary—I think it's very revealing. This bill does not control costs. This bill does not reduce deficits. Instead, this bill adds a new health-care entitlement at a time when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have.

Now let me go through why I say that. The majority leader said the bill scores as reducing the deficit $131 billion over the next 10 years. First, a little bit about CBO. I work with them every single day—very good people, great professionals. They do their jobs well. But their job is to score what is placed in front of them. And what has been placed in front of them is a bill that is full of gimmicks and smoke-and-mirrors.

Now, what do I mean when I say that? Well, first off, the bill has 10 years of tax increases, about half a trillion dollars, with 10 years of Medicare cuts, about half a trillion dollars, to pay for six years of spending.

Now, what's the true 10-year cost of this bill in 10 years? That's $2.3 trillion.

[The Senate bill] does [a] couple of other things. It takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offsets. But that's really reserved for Social Security. So either we're double-counting them or we don't intend on paying those Social Security benefits.

It takes $72 billion and claims money from the CLASS Act. That's the long-term care insurance program. It takes the money from premiums that are designed for that benefit and instead counts them as offsets.

The Senate Budget Committee chairman [Kent Conrad] said that this is a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

Now, when you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does [is treat] Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare, not to shore up Medicare solvency, but to spend on this new government program.

. . . [A]ccording to the chief actuary of Medicare . . . as much as 20 percent of Medicare's providers will either go out of business or will have to stop seeing Medicare beneficiaries. Millions of seniors . . . who have chosen Medicare Advantage will lose the coverage that they now enjoy.

You can't say that you're using this money to either extend Medicare solvency and also offset the cost of this new program. That's double counting.

And so when you take a look at all of this; when you strip out the double-counting and what I would call these gimmicks, the full 10-year cost of the bill has a $460 billion deficit. The second 10-year cost of this bill has a $1.4 trillion deficit.

. . . [P]robably the most cynical gimmick in this bill is something that we all probably agree on. We don't think we should cut doctors [annual federal reimbursements] 21 percent next year. We've stopped those cuts from occurring every year for the last seven years.

We all call this, here in Washington, the doc fix. Well, the doc fix, according to your numbers, costs $371 billion. It was in the first iteration of all of these bills, but because it was a big price tag and it made the score look bad, made it look like a deficit . . . that provision was taken out, and it's been going on in stand-alone legislation. But ignoring these costs does not remove them from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending does not reduce spending. And so when you take a look at all of this, it just doesn't add up.

. . . I'll finish with the cost curve. Are we bending the cost curve down or are we bending the cost curve up?

Well, if you look at your own chief actuary at Medicare, we're bending it up. He's claiming that we're going up $222 billion, adding more to the unsustainable fiscal situation we have.

And so, when you take a look at this, it's really deeper than the deficits or the budget gimmicks or the actuarial analysis. There really is a difference between us.

. . . [W]e've been talking about how much we agree on different issues, but there really is a difference between us. And it's basically this. We don't think the government should be in control of all of this. We want people to be in control. And that, at the end of the day, is the big difference.

Now, we've offered lots of ideas all last year, all this year. Because we agree the status quo is unsustainable. It's got to get fixed.

It's bankrupting families. It's bankrupting our government. It's hurting families with pre-existing conditions. We all want to fix this.

But we don't think that this is the . . . the solution. And all of the analysis we get proves that point.

Now, I'll just simply say this. . . . [W]e are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I've got to tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them.

So what we simply want to do is start over, work on a clean-sheeted paper, move through these issues, step by step, and fix them, and bring down health-care costs and not raise them. And that's basically the point.

Ryan's words are worth repeating:

Now, I'll just simply say this. . . . [W]e are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I've got to tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them.