[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
- by Kim Strassel, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2012
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443931404577551344018773450.html
What's the difference between a calm and cool Barack Obama, and a rattled and worried Barack Obama? Four words, it turns out.
"You didn't build that" is swelling to such heights that it has the president somewhere unprecedented: on defense. Mr. Obama has felt compelled—for the first time in this campaign—to cut an ad in which he directly responds to the criticisms of his now-infamous speech, complaining his opponents took his words "out of context."
That ad follows two separate ones from his campaign attempting damage control. His campaign appearances are now about backpedaling and proclaiming his love for small business. And the Democratic National Committee produced its own panicked memo, which vowed to "turn the page" on Mr. Romney's "out of context . . . BS"—thereby acknowledging that Chicago has lost control of the message.
The Obama campaign has elevated poll-testing and focus-grouping to near-clinical heights, and the results drive the president's every action: his policies, his campaign venues, his targeted demographics, his messaging. That Mr. Obama felt required—teeth-gritted—to address the "you didn't build that" meme means his vaunted focus groups are sounding alarms.
The obsession with tested messages is precisely why the president's rare moments of candor—on free enterprise, on those who "cling to their guns and religion," on the need to "spread the wealth around"—are so revealing. They are a look at the real man. It turns out Mr. Obama's dismissive words toward free enterprise closely mirror a speech that liberal Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren gave last August.
Ms. Warren's argument—that government is the real source of all business success—went viral and made a profound impression among the liberal elite, who have been pushing for its wider adoption. Mr. Obama chose to road-test it on the national stage, presumably thinking it would underline his argument for why the wealthy should pay more. It was a big political misstep, and now has the Obama team seriously worried. The president at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va., July 13.
.And no wonder. The immediate effect was to suck away the president's momentum. Mr. Obama has little positive to brag about, and his campaign hinges on keeping negative attention on his opponent. For months, the president's team hammered on Mr. Romney's time at Bain, his Massachusetts tenure, his tax returns. "You didn't build that" shifted the focus to the president, and his decision to respond to the criticisms has only legitimized them and guaranteed they continue.
The Obama campaign's bigger problem, both sides are now realizing, is that his words go beyond politics and are more devastating than the Romney complaints that Mr. Obama is too big-government oriented or has mishandled the economy. They raise the far more potent issue of national identity and feed the suspicion that Mr. Obama is actively hostile to American ideals and aspirations. Republicans are doing their own voter surveys, and they note that Mr. Obama's problem is that his words cause an emotional response, and that they disturb voters in nearly every demographic.
It's why Mr. Obama's "out of context" complaints aren't getting traction. The Republican National Committee's response to that gripe was to run an ad that shows a full minute of Mr. Obama's rant at the Roanoke, Va., campaign event on July 13. In addition to "you didn't build that," the president also put down those who think they are "smarter" or "work harder" than others. Witness the first president to demean the bedrock American beliefs in industriousness and exceptionalism. The "context" only makes it worse.
This gets to the other reason the Obama campaign is rattled: "You didn't build that" threatens to undermine its own argument against Mr. Romney. Mr. Obama has been running on class warfare and the notion that Mr. Romney is a wealthy one-percenter out of touch with average Americans. Yet few things better symbolize the average American than a small-business owner. To the extent that Mr. Romney is positioning himself as champion of that little business guy and portraying Mr. Obama as something alien, he could flip the Obama narrative on its head.
It would be all the more potent were Mr. Romney to use "you didn't build that" to launch his own economic narrative. One unexpected side effect of "you didn't build that" is that it has emboldened the GOP to re-embrace and glory in free enterprise (so abused since the financial crash). And the president's disparaging attack on business has also made voters more open to a defense of it.
Meaning, it's a perfect time to marry emotion with some policy. Mr. Romney has explained why the president doesn't get it. The next step is to explain why his own tax policies, regulatory proposals, and entitlement plans are the answer for those who actually do the building. The president is on defense. We'll see if Mr. Romney can keep him there.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
#278 (7/30) - "Olympic Organizers and BBC Disrespect Israel"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
[A PERSONAL NOTE: The following news item was not covered by any mainstream media outlet I know of. Please read about it and afterwards I hope that you'll add your name to the petition referred to in the article as I have.(By the way, Liberty Counsel is a Christian ministry headquartered in Central Florida but well-known nationally. You can find out more about them at www.libertycounsel.org)
ALSO, you might not be aware but appeals to include a moment of silence at the opening ceremonies for the Israelis and one German officer killed by the terrorists at the Munich Olympics 40 years ago was DENIED by the Olympic committee. I suppose it was more important not offending "Palestine" where the terrorists were from than honoriing the innocent victims of their actions! Incredible! - Stan]
The following is from Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, alert@libertyaction.org, 7/28/2012
The Olympics opening ceremonies took place last night – yet intensifying controversies involving Britain, Israel, and the Middle-East are taking center stage!
The British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) Olympic website intentionally omitted Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Israeli page of the BBC 2012 Olympic website refers to Jerusalem as the “Seat of government, though most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv.” Further, the website lists “East Jerusalem” as the “Intended seat of government” of “Palestine,” even though there is no nation in the world recognized as “Palestine.” [This makes it purely political that "Palestine" is represented as one of the nations at the Olympics!]
The BBC omission is blatant discrimination and the result of a wrongful political agenda that does not belong in the Olympic games and venues!
Mark Regev, Foreign Press and Public Affairs Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the omission “discrimination” in a letter to Paul Danahar, BBC Middle East Bureau Chief. Here’s what Regev said…“Every country (and non-country) participating in the London 2012 games appears with its background information about the country, including mention of the capital city. Every country (and non-country), except Israel. Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, and, accordingly, we respectfully request the immediate rectification of this matter.”
++Israel disrespected. Palestine praised!
Prior to Israel’s protest, the BBC website listed Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and clearly censored the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
To increase the intentional insult, the photos in sections identifying the nations of Iran, Syria, and Libya as Olympic participants depict peaceful cultural scenes, while the picture for Israel shows an Israeli soldier confronting a protestor!
Following several letters from Mr. Regev, the BBC modified the website to list Jerusalem as the “Seat of government” for Israel and Jerusalem as the “Intended seat of government” for “Palestine.” These changes still do not rise to the level of a courteous, decent treatment of Israel as a nation.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said…“We cannot accept those who deny our history, our sovereignty, and our right to determine our own capital… Irrespective of the BBC’s political agenda, Jerusalem is, was, and always will be the capital of Israel.”
Since King David made Jerusalem a capital city, the Holy City has played a key role in the government, culture, religion, and history of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital city! The BBC should list this fact on its Olympics website, like it has done for every other country.
++The Olympics should transcend politics.
Liberty Counsel has developed a special “Stand with Israel” open letter that will be delivered to the BBC New York office; the International Olympic Committee (IOC) offices; the Israeli Embassy in Washington; and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C.
This outrageous discrimination against the sovereign state of Israel cannot be tolerated! Time is very limited for us to stand with Israel – and demand that this overt politicization of the Olympic games be rectified immediately. Click here to read and add your name to the open letter which will be delivered next week:http://www.libertyaction.org/349/petition.asp
++The Obama administration is fueling the tension.
In a press briefing Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked what this administration considers to be the capital of Israel – Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Carney nervously laughed and evaded the question, never giving a forthright answer!
The Obama Press Secretary repeatedly stated, “Our position has not changed,” and “You know our position,” but refused to acknowledge Jerusalem is the capital of the nation of Israel.
Just 70 years after six million Jews were massacred in Europe, this week’s events in Washington and London have shown that the stench of anti-Semitism still lingers in the air.
Join Liberty Counsel in standing with Israel and putting the IOC, the BBC, and the U.S. State Department on notice that Americans will not stand for this anti-Semitic discrimination, while also notifying the Israeli Ambassador to the United States that millions of Americans deplore what is happening and resolutely stand with Israel.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
[A PERSONAL NOTE: The following news item was not covered by any mainstream media outlet I know of. Please read about it and afterwards I hope that you'll add your name to the petition referred to in the article as I have.(By the way, Liberty Counsel is a Christian ministry headquartered in Central Florida but well-known nationally. You can find out more about them at www.libertycounsel.org)
ALSO, you might not be aware but appeals to include a moment of silence at the opening ceremonies for the Israelis and one German officer killed by the terrorists at the Munich Olympics 40 years ago was DENIED by the Olympic committee. I suppose it was more important not offending "Palestine" where the terrorists were from than honoriing the innocent victims of their actions! Incredible! - Stan]
The following is from Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, alert@libertyaction.org, 7/28/2012
The Olympics opening ceremonies took place last night – yet intensifying controversies involving Britain, Israel, and the Middle-East are taking center stage!
The British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) Olympic website intentionally omitted Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Israeli page of the BBC 2012 Olympic website refers to Jerusalem as the “Seat of government, though most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv.” Further, the website lists “East Jerusalem” as the “Intended seat of government” of “Palestine,” even though there is no nation in the world recognized as “Palestine.” [This makes it purely political that "Palestine" is represented as one of the nations at the Olympics!]
The BBC omission is blatant discrimination and the result of a wrongful political agenda that does not belong in the Olympic games and venues!
Mark Regev, Foreign Press and Public Affairs Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the omission “discrimination” in a letter to Paul Danahar, BBC Middle East Bureau Chief. Here’s what Regev said…“Every country (and non-country) participating in the London 2012 games appears with its background information about the country, including mention of the capital city. Every country (and non-country), except Israel. Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, and, accordingly, we respectfully request the immediate rectification of this matter.”
++Israel disrespected. Palestine praised!
Prior to Israel’s protest, the BBC website listed Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and clearly censored the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
To increase the intentional insult, the photos in sections identifying the nations of Iran, Syria, and Libya as Olympic participants depict peaceful cultural scenes, while the picture for Israel shows an Israeli soldier confronting a protestor!
Following several letters from Mr. Regev, the BBC modified the website to list Jerusalem as the “Seat of government” for Israel and Jerusalem as the “Intended seat of government” for “Palestine.” These changes still do not rise to the level of a courteous, decent treatment of Israel as a nation.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said…“We cannot accept those who deny our history, our sovereignty, and our right to determine our own capital… Irrespective of the BBC’s political agenda, Jerusalem is, was, and always will be the capital of Israel.”
Since King David made Jerusalem a capital city, the Holy City has played a key role in the government, culture, religion, and history of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital city! The BBC should list this fact on its Olympics website, like it has done for every other country.
++The Olympics should transcend politics.
Liberty Counsel has developed a special “Stand with Israel” open letter that will be delivered to the BBC New York office; the International Olympic Committee (IOC) offices; the Israeli Embassy in Washington; and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C.
This outrageous discrimination against the sovereign state of Israel cannot be tolerated! Time is very limited for us to stand with Israel – and demand that this overt politicization of the Olympic games be rectified immediately. Click here to read and add your name to the open letter which will be delivered next week:http://www.libertyaction.org/349/petition.asp
++The Obama administration is fueling the tension.
In a press briefing Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked what this administration considers to be the capital of Israel – Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Carney nervously laughed and evaded the question, never giving a forthright answer!
The Obama Press Secretary repeatedly stated, “Our position has not changed,” and “You know our position,” but refused to acknowledge Jerusalem is the capital of the nation of Israel.
Just 70 years after six million Jews were massacred in Europe, this week’s events in Washington and London have shown that the stench of anti-Semitism still lingers in the air.
Join Liberty Counsel in standing with Israel and putting the IOC, the BBC, and the U.S. State Department on notice that Americans will not stand for this anti-Semitic discrimination, while also notifying the Israeli Ambassador to the United States that millions of Americans deplore what is happening and resolutely stand with Israel.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Sunday, July 29, 2012
#277(7/29)- Sunday Special - "Why Evil? Why This Evil? - Thoughts on Aurora"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
[NOTE: This Sunday, July 29, please watch the inspirational program “Pathway to Hope”on Truth That Transforms (In Orlando, check your local listing (one at 5 pm) or watch it at truthinaction.org . It describes the effort to not just reach 20million children with the gospel by 2015 but how kids are also being trained to reach other kids with the gospel("Evangelism Explosion for Kids")! - Stan]
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The following is from Breakpoint.org.- by John Stonestreet, July 25, 2012 [Please check out the link at the end of the following article to read a truly miraculous story of one of the survivors.]
The late Christian philosopher Ron Nash called the problem of evil and suffering the most perennially difficult issue Christians have to face. And as much as we might like to ignore the problem, events like what transpired in that Aurora, Colorado, movie theater Thursday make that impossible.
Ignoring evil is a fundamentally wrong approach for Christians. Christianity is a worldview that claims to explain the world as it actually is, and the only world you and I have ever lived in is the one that is deeply and broadly impacted by evil. Plus, to remain silent in the midst of events like this is to ignore the conversation that the culture is having with — or about — God right now. C. S. Lewis thought that suffering was God’s “megaphone,” and it’s true.
Of course, this conversation about God’s existence and goodness in the light of evil is not easy. Simplistic platitudes like “time will heal” or haphazardly lobbing Romans 8:28 grenades can be like rubbing Christian-ese salt into gaping, emotional wounds. Remember, Job’s friends were pretty helpful for their suffering friend: Until they opened their mouths.
It’s important to remember that while Christianity offers an explanation for the existence of evil per se, when Christians offer specific reasons for specific evil, they over-speak their biblical and theological qualifications. Applying logical answers for the existence of evil to the emotional and personal struggles associated with a particular evil is to miss how Jesus Himself confronted it.
In the face of His weeping friends whose brother had just died, Jesus wept too. In fact, He wept despite knowing that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead and turn the family’s weeping into celebration. Why would He weep if He knew all this? Because it was the world He had made and the people He had fashioned in His own image that were broken.
To paraphrase the title Neal Plantinga used for his book on the impact of human sin, this world is “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be.” And because we live in a world that often veers so distinctly from the good design and order given it by God, trying to offer a tidy explanation for this evil or that evil is futile.
And at the same time, it’s quite valid to ask why we recognize evil as such. Why do we recognize the actions of the gunman as disordered but honor the three men who lost their lives by shielding their girlfriends? Or 21-year-old Stephanie Davies, who chose to apply pressure to her friend’s severe wound rather than save her own life?
You see if ours is merely a world “red with tooth and claw” — that is, if ours is a creator-less world that arose by chance, and nature has no rhyme or reason — then heroic acts would be indistinguishable from despicable ones.
But no. Our ability to recognize evil as evil reveals something about how we are made.
And still the final word we Christians can offer is one we must offer: God is not absent. He is present in the world of human suffering, and He Himself suffered too. Here I quote the English minister Edward Shillito, after seeing the carnage of World War I:
If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow,
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.
The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.
[bold and itaclics emphasis mine]
ALSO, if you have yet to view it, please check out the article at:
http-::bstrait.wordpress.com:2012:07:22:a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story It describes the story of one of the survivors, a story that can only be describe as miraculous!
[NOTE: This Sunday, July 29, please watch the inspirational program “Pathway to Hope”on Truth That Transforms (In Orlando, check your local listing (one at 5 pm) or watch it at truthinaction.org . It describes the effort to not just reach 20million children with the gospel by 2015 but how kids are also being trained to reach other kids with the gospel("Evangelism Explosion for Kids")! - Stan]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is from Breakpoint.org.- by John Stonestreet, July 25, 2012 [Please check out the link at the end of the following article to read a truly miraculous story of one of the survivors.]
The late Christian philosopher Ron Nash called the problem of evil and suffering the most perennially difficult issue Christians have to face. And as much as we might like to ignore the problem, events like what transpired in that Aurora, Colorado, movie theater Thursday make that impossible.
Ignoring evil is a fundamentally wrong approach for Christians. Christianity is a worldview that claims to explain the world as it actually is, and the only world you and I have ever lived in is the one that is deeply and broadly impacted by evil. Plus, to remain silent in the midst of events like this is to ignore the conversation that the culture is having with — or about — God right now. C. S. Lewis thought that suffering was God’s “megaphone,” and it’s true.
Of course, this conversation about God’s existence and goodness in the light of evil is not easy. Simplistic platitudes like “time will heal” or haphazardly lobbing Romans 8:28 grenades can be like rubbing Christian-ese salt into gaping, emotional wounds. Remember, Job’s friends were pretty helpful for their suffering friend: Until they opened their mouths.
It’s important to remember that while Christianity offers an explanation for the existence of evil per se, when Christians offer specific reasons for specific evil, they over-speak their biblical and theological qualifications. Applying logical answers for the existence of evil to the emotional and personal struggles associated with a particular evil is to miss how Jesus Himself confronted it.
In the face of His weeping friends whose brother had just died, Jesus wept too. In fact, He wept despite knowing that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead and turn the family’s weeping into celebration. Why would He weep if He knew all this? Because it was the world He had made and the people He had fashioned in His own image that were broken.
To paraphrase the title Neal Plantinga used for his book on the impact of human sin, this world is “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be.” And because we live in a world that often veers so distinctly from the good design and order given it by God, trying to offer a tidy explanation for this evil or that evil is futile.
And at the same time, it’s quite valid to ask why we recognize evil as such. Why do we recognize the actions of the gunman as disordered but honor the three men who lost their lives by shielding their girlfriends? Or 21-year-old Stephanie Davies, who chose to apply pressure to her friend’s severe wound rather than save her own life?
You see if ours is merely a world “red with tooth and claw” — that is, if ours is a creator-less world that arose by chance, and nature has no rhyme or reason — then heroic acts would be indistinguishable from despicable ones.
But no. Our ability to recognize evil as evil reveals something about how we are made.
And still the final word we Christians can offer is one we must offer: God is not absent. He is present in the world of human suffering, and He Himself suffered too. Here I quote the English minister Edward Shillito, after seeing the carnage of World War I:
If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow,
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.
The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.
[bold and itaclics emphasis mine]
ALSO, if you have yet to view it, please check out the article at:
http-::bstrait.wordpress.com:2012:07:22:a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story It describes the story of one of the survivors, a story that can only be describe as miraculous!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
#276 (7/28) - News Items/ Prayer Requests Since Sun. July 23
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?; Yeah! Today, I got the names of the 5athletes at the Olympics - from Romania, Russia, and the Phillipines - I will be praying for throughout the games. I encourage YOU to go to the website: olympics.athletesinaction.org and sign up on the Prayer Strategy page or email your name to prayer@athletesinaction.org.
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DAILY URGENT! - Summer Olympics in London - Be sure to be praying for any plans of any terrorist groups for the Olympics to be discovered in a timely way by authorities and effectively thwarted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syrian Conflict Draws In Christians - July 23
Syria’s conflict, increasingly characterized as a Muslim sectarian war, is now also threatening to engulf the country’s estimated 2 million Christians.
As clashes between government forces and rebels spread over the weekend from the capital Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo-Syria’s two largest urban centers that are home to sizable Christian communities-the Christians and other minorities are being forced to take sides. Several Christian residents and antiregime activists in Damascus say the regime is now arming male loyalists in parts of the capital dominated by Christians and Druze and Shiite minorities.
Christians account for nearly 10% of the population. They have generally remained neutral or stood by the Assad regime, which has characterized itself as a secular government holding together a nation of diverse faiths
They say at least 200 Russian-made AK-47s have been handed out in one Christian neighborhood in Old Damascus since Thursday, a day after a bombing killed four top regime officials including the defense minister Gen. Dawoud Rajha, a Christian.
A recent wave of kidnappings, intimidation and revenge killings in the town of Qusayr, in an area of Syria where religious groups have lived side by side for centuries, provides a cautionary example of what may lie ahead for other heavily Christian areas particularly in urban centers. "We have nothing against the Christians and Alawites," said Mohammed Idriss, 30, a farmer and taxi driver who also fled the area. "It’s just the vile regime that has exploited this."
Few Christians from Qusayr share his optimism. The Christian men in Lebanon believe that Christians will have no place in Syria if Mr. Assad leaves power - saying that the recent animosity has uncovered the true feelings their former neighbors had kept hidden for years. "We ate from the same plate," said one of the displaced Christians. "And then they stabbed us in the back." (Source: Wall Street Journal)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•For God’s protection over the Christians in Syria and neighboring Lebanon.
•For the testimonies of Christians among their Muslim neighbors as they tell of the only Hope for humankind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel: Syria-Hezbollah Weapons Transfer 'Cause for War'
CBNNews.com Tuesday, July 24, 2012, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2012/July/Israel-Syria-Hezbollah-Weapons-Transfer-Cause-for-War/
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said the transfer of Syrian chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon would be a cause for war...If the transfer is made, "We will act decisively, and without hesitation or restraint," he continued. "It will be a completely different ball game and we hope for the understanding of the international community."
A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman admitted Monday that Syria has chemical weapons but said they would not be used against Syrian citizens. On Tuesday, opposition leaders claimed that President Bashar Assad's forces had moved chemical weapons to airports on Syria's borders.
As the Lord leads, please pray:
* That, should the Syrian government fall, there would be in place a clear way to secure the weapons in question as the danger they pose should they fall into the hands of terrorists is incalculable. [When the Libyan government fell recently, there was nothing put in place to secure about 20,000 surface-to-air-missles, with most taken by unknown persons. Imagine what jusst ONE of those could do to an airliner!]
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Iraq Insurgents Kill Nearly 100 After Declaring New Ramadan-Timed Offensive- July 23
In a coordinated display intended to show they remain a viable force, Iraqi insurgents launched at least 37 separate attacks throughout the country on Monday morning, setting off car bombs, storming a military base, attacking policemen in their homes and ambushing checkpoints, Iraqi authorities said.
At least 99 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the single bloodiest day this year, according to local Iraqi officials in the many areas where attacks took place. The attacks, coming in the early days of Ramadan, the month-long Muslim religious rite, were predicted Sunday in an audio message attributed to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakir Al Baghdadi, and posted on the group’s Web site. Mr. Baghdada vowed that a new offensive, which he called Breaking Down Walls, would begin soon. Mr. Baghdadi said in the Qaeda statement that "we are returning again to dominate territories we used to dominate, as well as more." He depicted the attacks as part of a battle launched by Sunnis against the country’s Shiite leaders and people. (Source: New York Times, Reuters)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the threats to maintaining civil authority in Iraq.
•About the increasing influence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Pakistan and through the region.
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As refugees surge, some Syrians turned away from Jordan- July 21
Jordan has been praised for welcoming tens of thousands of fleeing Syrians. The United Nations refugee agency has registered roughly 35,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, but there are reported to be far more Syrian refugees along its borders, upward of 140,000 people. The latest round of violence has sent thousands more Syrians streaming to the Jordanian border, seeking help. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the growing violence within Syria.
•About the attempts of the UN to find a solution to the Syrian civil war.
•For the thousands of refugees crossining he borders into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey.
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Drought to Drive Up Food Prices Next Year - July 25
The worst drought in the United States in nearly a half-century is expected to drive up the price of milk, beef and pork next year, the government said Wednesday, as consumers bear some of the brunt of the sweltering heat that is driving up the cost of feed corn.(Source: New York Times)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the impact on already-stressed family budgets of increased costs in food.
•For others who are directly impacted by the drought - not only farmers, but trucking and rail delivery systems, grocers and others.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAILY URGENT! - Summer Olympics in London - Be sure to be praying for any plans of any terrorist groups for the Olympics to be discovered in a timely way by authorities and effectively thwarted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syrian Conflict Draws In Christians - July 23
Syria’s conflict, increasingly characterized as a Muslim sectarian war, is now also threatening to engulf the country’s estimated 2 million Christians.
As clashes between government forces and rebels spread over the weekend from the capital Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo-Syria’s two largest urban centers that are home to sizable Christian communities-the Christians and other minorities are being forced to take sides. Several Christian residents and antiregime activists in Damascus say the regime is now arming male loyalists in parts of the capital dominated by Christians and Druze and Shiite minorities.
Christians account for nearly 10% of the population. They have generally remained neutral or stood by the Assad regime, which has characterized itself as a secular government holding together a nation of diverse faiths
They say at least 200 Russian-made AK-47s have been handed out in one Christian neighborhood in Old Damascus since Thursday, a day after a bombing killed four top regime officials including the defense minister Gen. Dawoud Rajha, a Christian.
A recent wave of kidnappings, intimidation and revenge killings in the town of Qusayr, in an area of Syria where religious groups have lived side by side for centuries, provides a cautionary example of what may lie ahead for other heavily Christian areas particularly in urban centers. "We have nothing against the Christians and Alawites," said Mohammed Idriss, 30, a farmer and taxi driver who also fled the area. "It’s just the vile regime that has exploited this."
Few Christians from Qusayr share his optimism. The Christian men in Lebanon believe that Christians will have no place in Syria if Mr. Assad leaves power - saying that the recent animosity has uncovered the true feelings their former neighbors had kept hidden for years. "We ate from the same plate," said one of the displaced Christians. "And then they stabbed us in the back." (Source: Wall Street Journal)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•For God’s protection over the Christians in Syria and neighboring Lebanon.
•For the testimonies of Christians among their Muslim neighbors as they tell of the only Hope for humankind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel: Syria-Hezbollah Weapons Transfer 'Cause for War'
CBNNews.com Tuesday, July 24, 2012, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2012/July/Israel-Syria-Hezbollah-Weapons-Transfer-Cause-for-War/
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said the transfer of Syrian chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon would be a cause for war...If the transfer is made, "We will act decisively, and without hesitation or restraint," he continued. "It will be a completely different ball game and we hope for the understanding of the international community."
A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman admitted Monday that Syria has chemical weapons but said they would not be used against Syrian citizens. On Tuesday, opposition leaders claimed that President Bashar Assad's forces had moved chemical weapons to airports on Syria's borders.
As the Lord leads, please pray:
* That, should the Syrian government fall, there would be in place a clear way to secure the weapons in question as the danger they pose should they fall into the hands of terrorists is incalculable. [When the Libyan government fell recently, there was nothing put in place to secure about 20,000 surface-to-air-missles, with most taken by unknown persons. Imagine what jusst ONE of those could do to an airliner!]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iraq Insurgents Kill Nearly 100 After Declaring New Ramadan-Timed Offensive- July 23
In a coordinated display intended to show they remain a viable force, Iraqi insurgents launched at least 37 separate attacks throughout the country on Monday morning, setting off car bombs, storming a military base, attacking policemen in their homes and ambushing checkpoints, Iraqi authorities said.
At least 99 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the single bloodiest day this year, according to local Iraqi officials in the many areas where attacks took place. The attacks, coming in the early days of Ramadan, the month-long Muslim religious rite, were predicted Sunday in an audio message attributed to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakir Al Baghdadi, and posted on the group’s Web site. Mr. Baghdada vowed that a new offensive, which he called Breaking Down Walls, would begin soon. Mr. Baghdadi said in the Qaeda statement that "we are returning again to dominate territories we used to dominate, as well as more." He depicted the attacks as part of a battle launched by Sunnis against the country’s Shiite leaders and people. (Source: New York Times, Reuters)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the threats to maintaining civil authority in Iraq.
•About the increasing influence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Pakistan and through the region.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
As refugees surge, some Syrians turned away from Jordan- July 21
Jordan has been praised for welcoming tens of thousands of fleeing Syrians. The United Nations refugee agency has registered roughly 35,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, but there are reported to be far more Syrian refugees along its borders, upward of 140,000 people. The latest round of violence has sent thousands more Syrians streaming to the Jordanian border, seeking help. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the growing violence within Syria.
•About the attempts of the UN to find a solution to the Syrian civil war.
•For the thousands of refugees crossining he borders into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey.
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Drought to Drive Up Food Prices Next Year - July 25
The worst drought in the United States in nearly a half-century is expected to drive up the price of milk, beef and pork next year, the government said Wednesday, as consumers bear some of the brunt of the sweltering heat that is driving up the cost of feed corn.(Source: New York Times)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the impact on already-stressed family budgets of increased costs in food.
•For others who are directly impacted by the drought - not only farmers, but trucking and rail delivery systems, grocers and others.
Friday, July 27, 2012
#275(7/25) - "Squawking over Chick-fil-A "
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
[NOTE: By now, you've probably heard about the criticisms and even boycotts being launched against Chik-fil-A because its founder dared to speak about his biblical values regarding traditional marriage. On the other hand, do you also know about the politically correct advocacy by other companies (read article below). They do it for profit; Mr. Cady of Chik-fil-A merely exercises his freedom of speech and his business is threatend and so is his religious freedom. Welcome to the world of the New Tolerance, ie. "We'll tolerate anything except what we disagree with." Don't be surprised when this is where all those hate speech laws lead our society!; P.S. - If you go out for a meal next Wednesday, August 1, consider purchasing a meal at a Chik-Fil-A. Supporters, including Billy Graham, will recognize that as a day to express appreciation to Mr. Cady for his biblical stand. - Stan]
"Of Causes and Commerce" - Breakpoint.org, Eric Metaxas - July 24, 2012
Life used to be a lot simpler. When you were hungry or needed to buy some pens, you simply bought a sandwich at a deli or went to the stationery store. The notion that where you ate or bought pens might be a politically-significant act didn’t cross your mind.
Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case.
This fact of life is illustrated by two recent stories. The first is a partnership between Office Depot and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” foundation. Proceeds from the sale of certain items including “Kindness Sticks,” “Bravery Bracelets,” and “empowerment” gift cards with slogans such as “Be Brave,” and “Be Yourself,” will go to support the foundation’s mission. That stated mission is “to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.” Which is really another way of saying that the mission is to actually promote homosexuality as a positive, healthy lifestyle.
The second story involved a very different kind of company: Chick-fil-A. The company’s president, Dan Cathy, ignited what CNN dubbed a “social [media] storm” when he pleaded “guilty as charged” to being characterized as supportive of the traditional family.Do I need to tell you what happened next? The company, which openly espouses biblical values, was called “hatemongers.” Hollywood, not surprisingly, got in on the act. Ed Helm of ”The Office” joined those calling for a boycott. And now the mayor of Boston has vowed to keep Chick-fil-A out of his city.
Over at the Atlantic Monthly, Jonathan Merritt criticized those calling for a boycott of Chick-fil-A. After citing examples of Chick-fil-A’s service to communities and its dedication to its employees, Merritt asked, “In a nation that’s as divided as ours is, do we really want our commercial lives and our political lives to be so wholly intermeshed?”
In a better world, the answer might be “no.” In that better world, buying pens and eating lunch would be a politics-free experience. All that would matter is whether we’re getting value for our money.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck with the one we have. In this one, big corporations like Office Depot will embrace all sorts of fashionable and politically-correct causes if they think it will help their stock price. They are asking to us to patronize them because they “care” about the politically correct thing. This is why Office Depot publicly joined forces with Lady Gaga and her campaign for “empowerment.”
And this is why Kraft produced an Oreo cookie with rainbow-colored filling. Unfortunately, I’m not kidding.
In other words, they, not consumers, introduced politics into the equation, thus running the risk that people might object to the politics they were embracing.
Now, I’m not calling for a boycott of Office Depot. But there’s no reason why we shouldn’t take their “advocacy” into consideration when we need office supplies; is there?
And let’s be clear: The people who turn buying pens and eating Oreos into a politically-significant act have no ground to complain when a privately owned business like Chick-fil-A publicly proclaims that it is pro-family.
So the next time you’re hungry, by all means feel free to take into consideration Chick-fil-A’s commitment to the traditional family and giving back to the community. After all, it’s still a free country.
[bold and italic emphasis mine]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey, Boston: leave Chick-fil-A alone"By: Michelle Malkin 7/25/2012 http://www.humanevents.com/2012/07/25/michelle-malkin-hey-boston-leave-chick-fil-a-alone/
[NOTE: By now, you've probably heard about the criticisms and even boycotts being launched against Chik-fil-A because its founder dared to speak about his biblical values regarding traditional marriage. On the other hand, do you also know about the politically correct advocacy by other companies (read article below). They do it for profit; Mr. Cady of Chik-fil-A merely exercises his freedom of speech and his business is threatend and so is his religious freedom. Welcome to the world of the New Tolerance, ie. "We'll tolerate anything except what we disagree with." Don't be surprised when this is where all those hate speech laws lead our society!; P.S. - If you go out for a meal next Wednesday, August 1, consider purchasing a meal at a Chik-Fil-A. Supporters, including Billy Graham, will recognize that as a day to express appreciation to Mr. Cady for his biblical stand. - Stan]
"Of Causes and Commerce" - Breakpoint.org, Eric Metaxas - July 24, 2012
Life used to be a lot simpler. When you were hungry or needed to buy some pens, you simply bought a sandwich at a deli or went to the stationery store. The notion that where you ate or bought pens might be a politically-significant act didn’t cross your mind.
Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case.
This fact of life is illustrated by two recent stories. The first is a partnership between Office Depot and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” foundation. Proceeds from the sale of certain items including “Kindness Sticks,” “Bravery Bracelets,” and “empowerment” gift cards with slogans such as “Be Brave,” and “Be Yourself,” will go to support the foundation’s mission. That stated mission is “to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.” Which is really another way of saying that the mission is to actually promote homosexuality as a positive, healthy lifestyle.
The second story involved a very different kind of company: Chick-fil-A. The company’s president, Dan Cathy, ignited what CNN dubbed a “social [media] storm” when he pleaded “guilty as charged” to being characterized as supportive of the traditional family.Do I need to tell you what happened next? The company, which openly espouses biblical values, was called “hatemongers.” Hollywood, not surprisingly, got in on the act. Ed Helm of ”The Office” joined those calling for a boycott. And now the mayor of Boston has vowed to keep Chick-fil-A out of his city.
Over at the Atlantic Monthly, Jonathan Merritt criticized those calling for a boycott of Chick-fil-A. After citing examples of Chick-fil-A’s service to communities and its dedication to its employees, Merritt asked, “In a nation that’s as divided as ours is, do we really want our commercial lives and our political lives to be so wholly intermeshed?”
In a better world, the answer might be “no.” In that better world, buying pens and eating lunch would be a politics-free experience. All that would matter is whether we’re getting value for our money.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck with the one we have. In this one, big corporations like Office Depot will embrace all sorts of fashionable and politically-correct causes if they think it will help their stock price. They are asking to us to patronize them because they “care” about the politically correct thing. This is why Office Depot publicly joined forces with Lady Gaga and her campaign for “empowerment.”
And this is why Kraft produced an Oreo cookie with rainbow-colored filling. Unfortunately, I’m not kidding.
In other words, they, not consumers, introduced politics into the equation, thus running the risk that people might object to the politics they were embracing.
Now, I’m not calling for a boycott of Office Depot. But there’s no reason why we shouldn’t take their “advocacy” into consideration when we need office supplies; is there?
And let’s be clear: The people who turn buying pens and eating Oreos into a politically-significant act have no ground to complain when a privately owned business like Chick-fil-A publicly proclaims that it is pro-family.
So the next time you’re hungry, by all means feel free to take into consideration Chick-fil-A’s commitment to the traditional family and giving back to the community. After all, it’s still a free country.
[bold and italic emphasis mine]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey, Boston: leave Chick-fil-A alone"By: Michelle Malkin 7/25/2012 http://www.humanevents.com/2012/07/25/michelle-malkin-hey-boston-leave-chick-fil-a-alone/
Thursday, July 26, 2012
#274 (7/26) - "AIA Prayer Requests for the Olympics"
[My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
[NOTE: Below are the prayer requests of just one of probably many Christian outreaches at the Summer Olympics which officially opens tomorrow. At the end of the list of requests is a unique opportunity to sign up to be a Prayer Partner and pray for 3-5 athletes there BY NAME. I hope that you'll choose to be involved in the upcoming events in the most special way. ALSO, it goes without saying that we need to be in constant prayer for the protection of all the athletes and spectators as this could easily be a target for terrorists who seek a world-wide stage for their evil. Just recall the attack on the Jewish athletes at a past Olympics.- Stan]
Athletes in Action (Cru’s (formerly Campus Crusdade for Christ)sports ministry) is planning fruitful outreaches around the 2012 London Olympic Games.
PRAY THAT:AIA staff will have direct access to the athletes while acting in unique positions in London: chaplains in the village, advisors,counselors, coaches, trainers, and other administrative positions. Their goals for the Games are to:
*Share Christ with the athletes of every team of every sport participating in the London Olympics.
*Identify and network with Christian athletes from around the world.
*Reach 2,500 Olympic athletes through chaplaincy, Olympic breakfast, and personal initiation.
*Expose 200 million people to the gospel through a “Struggle & Triumph” sports DVD.
*Deliver sport ministry training and tools to 200 churches in 6 European cities.
*Train 50 AIA leaders from 25 countries for national sport ministry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
** They are enlisting 3,000 people to serve as Olympic Prayer Partners for the 2012 London Games. Each person will be assigned the names of 3-5 Olympic athletes to pray for during the weeks leading up to and during the Games. Their sport and country represented will also be provided. AIA’s heart is that Prayer Partners will be able to take each specific athlete before the Lord and ask His blessing over their Olympic experience, His provision for their physical health and safety, and His dominion over their spiritual lives as they have the opportunity to encounter the various chaplains and ministry personnel who will be present at the Games.
While there are many outreach efforts planned, the ultimate goal is to minister to each athlete competing and bring the light and love of Christ to them. We know that prayer is vital to the success of this major endeavor!
Participating is easy: Visit the website at olympics.athletesinaction.org and sign up on the Prayer Strategy page or email your name to prayer@athletesinaction.org.
[NOTE: Below are the prayer requests of just one of probably many Christian outreaches at the Summer Olympics which officially opens tomorrow. At the end of the list of requests is a unique opportunity to sign up to be a Prayer Partner and pray for 3-5 athletes there BY NAME. I hope that you'll choose to be involved in the upcoming events in the most special way. ALSO, it goes without saying that we need to be in constant prayer for the protection of all the athletes and spectators as this could easily be a target for terrorists who seek a world-wide stage for their evil. Just recall the attack on the Jewish athletes at a past Olympics.- Stan]
Athletes in Action (Cru’s (formerly Campus Crusdade for Christ)sports ministry) is planning fruitful outreaches around the 2012 London Olympic Games.
PRAY THAT:AIA staff will have direct access to the athletes while acting in unique positions in London: chaplains in the village, advisors,counselors, coaches, trainers, and other administrative positions. Their goals for the Games are to:
*Share Christ with the athletes of every team of every sport participating in the London Olympics.
*Identify and network with Christian athletes from around the world.
*Reach 2,500 Olympic athletes through chaplaincy, Olympic breakfast, and personal initiation.
*Expose 200 million people to the gospel through a “Struggle & Triumph” sports DVD.
*Deliver sport ministry training and tools to 200 churches in 6 European cities.
*Train 50 AIA leaders from 25 countries for national sport ministry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
** They are enlisting 3,000 people to serve as Olympic Prayer Partners for the 2012 London Games. Each person will be assigned the names of 3-5 Olympic athletes to pray for during the weeks leading up to and during the Games. Their sport and country represented will also be provided. AIA’s heart is that Prayer Partners will be able to take each specific athlete before the Lord and ask His blessing over their Olympic experience, His provision for their physical health and safety, and His dominion over their spiritual lives as they have the opportunity to encounter the various chaplains and ministry personnel who will be present at the Games.
While there are many outreach efforts planned, the ultimate goal is to minister to each athlete competing and bring the light and love of Christ to them. We know that prayer is vital to the success of this major endeavor!
Participating is easy: Visit the website at olympics.athletesinaction.org and sign up on the Prayer Strategy page or email your name to prayer@athletesinaction.org.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
#273 (7/25) - "Let’s Be Honest About Outsourcing"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
- Amy Payne; July 19, 2012; http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/19/morning-bell-lets-be-honest-about-outsourcing/
Both candidates in the presidential race have been accusing the other of “outsourcing.” It’s one of those words that is loaded with negative meaning, implying that the perpetrator is un-American. But does America have an outsourcing problem? What is popularly referred to as “outsourcing” is the practice of offshoring business functions, including building facilities and employing workers in other countries. Liberals often argue that “sending jobs overseas” is harming America’s economy.
They are missing two important truths: The reality of jobs in America, and the ways to bring even more jobs to the home front.
Jobs in America
•The U.S. actually leads the world in manufacturing. Yes, you read that correctly. We produce 21 percent of global manufactured products, while China comes after at 15 percent. According ot the National Association of Manufacturers, “manufacturing supports an estimated 17 million jobs in the U.S.—about one in six private sector jobs.”
•Big manufacturers are building new plants here. BMW is adding 300 new jobs to its South Carolina plant this year, and Airbus recently announced it will employ 1,000 at a new plant in Alabama. (Both South Carolina and Alabama are right-to-work states, meaning that workers aren’t forced to join unions.)
•Multinational corporations still employ more Americans. U.S.-based multinational corporations employ 22.9 million Americans—more than twice as many people as they employ in China, Mexico, and all other countries combined.
•There is no “giant sucking sound” of jobs and money fleeing the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total value of foreign investment in the United States exceeds the value of U.S. investments in other countries by more than $4 trillion. Foreign-owned multinational corporations employ 5.5 million people in the United States.
•“Insourced” businesses are a tremendous boon for the U.S. economy. “Insourced” jobs—jobs brought to America by foreign-based companies—account for nearly 5 percent of private-sector employment. These businesses buy more than $1.8 trillion in goods and services from local suppliers and small businesses in the areas where they locate.
How to Boost American Jobs Even More
With an 8.2 percent unemployment rate, America still needs more jobs. There are many steps policymakers could take that would make locating—or relocating—in the U.S. more attractive to businesses.
A quick look at the Index of Economic Freedom, produced by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, reveals America’s competitive disadvantages.
Hong Kong, ranked No. 1 in the Index, has an economy that has been growing at 7 percent. That’s astounding. In contrast, U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 was a paltry 1.9 percent.
There are several reasons why Hong Kong is No. 1 and America is No. 10. Hong Kong’s top corporate tax rate is only 16.5 percent, compared to the U.S. rate of 35 percent. Hong Kong’s trade regime is one of the world’s most competitive and efficient, with a zero tariff rate. And its regulatory environment is “highly supportive of business efficiency.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., runaway regulations growing by the day make doing business vastly more expensive and difficult. The government is holding back the economy through regulation and its nonstop deficit spending, as Heritage’s Bryan Riley explains: "Excessive federal spending and the resulting budget deficit continue to be a problem. Foreign investors spent more than $400 billion on U.S. Treasury securities in 2011. This is another way to say that the government borrowed more than $400 billion from foreign investors. Those dollars could have been invested otherwise in the private sector of the U.S. economy or spent on U.S. exports."
While concern about outsourcing is misplaced, there are many ways the U.S. could attract even more jobs than it already does. Increasing our own economic freedom would spur growth in the economy, bringing greater prosperity and new enterprises to our shores.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
- Amy Payne; July 19, 2012; http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/19/morning-bell-lets-be-honest-about-outsourcing/
Both candidates in the presidential race have been accusing the other of “outsourcing.” It’s one of those words that is loaded with negative meaning, implying that the perpetrator is un-American. But does America have an outsourcing problem? What is popularly referred to as “outsourcing” is the practice of offshoring business functions, including building facilities and employing workers in other countries. Liberals often argue that “sending jobs overseas” is harming America’s economy.
They are missing two important truths: The reality of jobs in America, and the ways to bring even more jobs to the home front.
Jobs in America
•The U.S. actually leads the world in manufacturing. Yes, you read that correctly. We produce 21 percent of global manufactured products, while China comes after at 15 percent. According ot the National Association of Manufacturers, “manufacturing supports an estimated 17 million jobs in the U.S.—about one in six private sector jobs.”
•Big manufacturers are building new plants here. BMW is adding 300 new jobs to its South Carolina plant this year, and Airbus recently announced it will employ 1,000 at a new plant in Alabama. (Both South Carolina and Alabama are right-to-work states, meaning that workers aren’t forced to join unions.)
•Multinational corporations still employ more Americans. U.S.-based multinational corporations employ 22.9 million Americans—more than twice as many people as they employ in China, Mexico, and all other countries combined.
•There is no “giant sucking sound” of jobs and money fleeing the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total value of foreign investment in the United States exceeds the value of U.S. investments in other countries by more than $4 trillion. Foreign-owned multinational corporations employ 5.5 million people in the United States.
•“Insourced” businesses are a tremendous boon for the U.S. economy. “Insourced” jobs—jobs brought to America by foreign-based companies—account for nearly 5 percent of private-sector employment. These businesses buy more than $1.8 trillion in goods and services from local suppliers and small businesses in the areas where they locate.
How to Boost American Jobs Even More
With an 8.2 percent unemployment rate, America still needs more jobs. There are many steps policymakers could take that would make locating—or relocating—in the U.S. more attractive to businesses.
A quick look at the Index of Economic Freedom, produced by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, reveals America’s competitive disadvantages.
Hong Kong, ranked No. 1 in the Index, has an economy that has been growing at 7 percent. That’s astounding. In contrast, U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 was a paltry 1.9 percent.
There are several reasons why Hong Kong is No. 1 and America is No. 10. Hong Kong’s top corporate tax rate is only 16.5 percent, compared to the U.S. rate of 35 percent. Hong Kong’s trade regime is one of the world’s most competitive and efficient, with a zero tariff rate. And its regulatory environment is “highly supportive of business efficiency.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., runaway regulations growing by the day make doing business vastly more expensive and difficult. The government is holding back the economy through regulation and its nonstop deficit spending, as Heritage’s Bryan Riley explains: "Excessive federal spending and the resulting budget deficit continue to be a problem. Foreign investors spent more than $400 billion on U.S. Treasury securities in 2011. This is another way to say that the government borrowed more than $400 billion from foreign investors. Those dollars could have been invested otherwise in the private sector of the U.S. economy or spent on U.S. exports."
While concern about outsourcing is misplaced, there are many ways the U.S. could attract even more jobs than it already does. Increasing our own economic freedom would spur growth in the economy, bringing greater prosperity and new enterprises to our shores.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
#272 (7/24) - Why Has Free Checking Been Disappearing?
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. What is YOURS?]
[NOTE:Here's a link to a blog describing the incredible story of the recovery of a young Christian who was seriously injured in the Colorado shooting. >
http:bstrait.wordpress.com:2012:07:22:a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story: - Stan]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[NOTE: Remember those banking regulations that Congress passed after the banking scandals in '08. Did they help? Read the following and decide for yourself.- Stan]
"Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations Strangling Economy"- Amy Payne, July 20, 2012
Has your bank raised its fees or stopped offering free checking accounts in the last couple of years? If so, you can thank the regulatory boondoggle that is the Dodd-Frank financial law. Since its passage two years ago tomorrow, the number of large banks that offer free checking has declined sharply. In 2009, 96 percent of them offered free checking, but just 34.6 percent did in 2011.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) argued that their namesake would save America from another financial crisis—but most of the law’s provisions have little or no connection to the most recent crisis.
For example, Dodd–Frank does not end bailouts and taxpayer support [1] for big banks. Under the act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is permitted to purchase the assets of a failing firm, guarantee the obligations of a failing firm, take a security interest in the assets of a failing firm, and borrow on the failed firm’s total consolidated assets. (For Bank of America, that would be $2 trillion in bailout authority to be paid by taxpayers.)
Congress has proven, in fact, that it grossly misdiagnosed the factors responsible for the financial crisis, while ignoring primary culprits such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [2]. But in its haste to appear relevant and on top of things, Congress has unleashed a staggering amount of new regulations that are actually harming—not helping—the economy.
There’s a reason the financial regulation law has been called “Dodd-Frankenstein.” This monstrous creation will swell the ranks of regulators by 2,849 new positions, according to the Government Accountability Office. It created yet another new bureaucracy called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that has truly unparalleled powers.This new bureau is supposed to regulate credit and debit cards, mortgages, student loans, savings and checking accounts, and most every other consumer financial product and service. And it’s not even subject to congressional oversight.
Frighteningly, the CFPB’s regulatory authority is just as vague as it is vast. More than half of the regulatory provisions in Dodd–Frank state that agencies “may” issue rules or shall issue rules as they “determine are necessary and appropriate.” This means, as The Economist put it, “Like the Hydra of Greek myth, Dodd-Frank can grow new heads [3] as needed.” Congress avoided making real law here and passed the responsibility for “fixing” the financial sector to these newly minted bureaucrats. And that hasn’t been going too well.
As Heritage’s Diane Katz explains in a two-year checkup of the law[4]:" As of July 2, 63 percent of the deadlines have been missed, which has intensified the cloud of uncertainty enveloping the finance sector—and the economy—since passage of the act. Thousands of businesses do not know what the government demands they do differently or when they must do it.
The results of this haphazard regulation are dire, Katz says, because “consumers will experience tight credit, higher fees, and fewer service innovations. Job creation will suffer.” She adds that “financial firms of all sizes are shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for regulatory compliance officers and attorneys rather than making loans for new homes and businesses.”
So the law that was supposed to fix the financial sector—and created something called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—is hurting consumers rather than “protecting” them. Congress should repeal Dodd-Frank before it can do any more damage. See our Dodd-Frank Fact Sheet[1]
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/20/morning-bell-dodd-frank-financial-regulations-strangling-economy/
URLs in this post:
[1] bailouts and taxpayer support: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2012/07/dodd-frank-still-wrong-for-america
[2] Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/05/geithner-draws-wrong-dodd-frank-lessons-and-forgets-fannie-mae/
[3] grow new heads: http://www.economist.com/node/21547784
[4] two-year checkup of the law: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/07/unhappy-anniversary-dodd-frank-hits-the-terrible-twos
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
[NOTE:Here's a link to a blog describing the incredible story of the recovery of a young Christian who was seriously injured in the Colorado shooting. >
http:bstrait.wordpress.com:2012:07:22:a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story: - Stan]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[NOTE: Remember those banking regulations that Congress passed after the banking scandals in '08. Did they help? Read the following and decide for yourself.- Stan]
"Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations Strangling Economy"- Amy Payne, July 20, 2012
Has your bank raised its fees or stopped offering free checking accounts in the last couple of years? If so, you can thank the regulatory boondoggle that is the Dodd-Frank financial law. Since its passage two years ago tomorrow, the number of large banks that offer free checking has declined sharply. In 2009, 96 percent of them offered free checking, but just 34.6 percent did in 2011.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) argued that their namesake would save America from another financial crisis—but most of the law’s provisions have little or no connection to the most recent crisis.
For example, Dodd–Frank does not end bailouts and taxpayer support [1] for big banks. Under the act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is permitted to purchase the assets of a failing firm, guarantee the obligations of a failing firm, take a security interest in the assets of a failing firm, and borrow on the failed firm’s total consolidated assets. (For Bank of America, that would be $2 trillion in bailout authority to be paid by taxpayers.)
Congress has proven, in fact, that it grossly misdiagnosed the factors responsible for the financial crisis, while ignoring primary culprits such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [2]. But in its haste to appear relevant and on top of things, Congress has unleashed a staggering amount of new regulations that are actually harming—not helping—the economy.
There’s a reason the financial regulation law has been called “Dodd-Frankenstein.” This monstrous creation will swell the ranks of regulators by 2,849 new positions, according to the Government Accountability Office. It created yet another new bureaucracy called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that has truly unparalleled powers.This new bureau is supposed to regulate credit and debit cards, mortgages, student loans, savings and checking accounts, and most every other consumer financial product and service. And it’s not even subject to congressional oversight.
Frighteningly, the CFPB’s regulatory authority is just as vague as it is vast. More than half of the regulatory provisions in Dodd–Frank state that agencies “may” issue rules or shall issue rules as they “determine are necessary and appropriate.” This means, as The Economist put it, “Like the Hydra of Greek myth, Dodd-Frank can grow new heads [3] as needed.” Congress avoided making real law here and passed the responsibility for “fixing” the financial sector to these newly minted bureaucrats. And that hasn’t been going too well.
As Heritage’s Diane Katz explains in a two-year checkup of the law[4]:" As of July 2, 63 percent of the deadlines have been missed, which has intensified the cloud of uncertainty enveloping the finance sector—and the economy—since passage of the act. Thousands of businesses do not know what the government demands they do differently or when they must do it.
The results of this haphazard regulation are dire, Katz says, because “consumers will experience tight credit, higher fees, and fewer service innovations. Job creation will suffer.” She adds that “financial firms of all sizes are shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for regulatory compliance officers and attorneys rather than making loans for new homes and businesses.”
So the law that was supposed to fix the financial sector—and created something called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—is hurting consumers rather than “protecting” them. Congress should repeal Dodd-Frank before it can do any more damage. See our Dodd-Frank Fact Sheet[1]
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/20/morning-bell-dodd-frank-financial-regulations-strangling-economy/
URLs in this post:
[1] bailouts and taxpayer support: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2012/07/dodd-frank-still-wrong-for-america
[2] Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/05/geithner-draws-wrong-dodd-frank-lessons-and-forgets-fannie-mae/
[3] grow new heads: http://www.economist.com/node/21547784
[4] two-year checkup of the law: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/07/unhappy-anniversary-dodd-frank-hits-the-terrible-twos
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
Monday, July 23, 2012
#271 (7/23) - Not So Fast, Secretary Sebelius!
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. Whart is YOURS?]
"Facts Deflate Sebelius’s Defense of Obamacare" - by Alyene Senger; July 12, 2012; http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/facts-deflate-sebeliuss-defense-of-obamacare/
It must be a tough job defending Obamacare, but someone’s got to do it. This week, that someone is Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post.
A Decrease in Health Care Costs? Not So Fast
Sebelius says national health expenditures have increased only by about 4 percent annually over the past two years, significantly less than in previous years.
Sure—health care costs did, in fact, slow somewhat over the last few years. But the trend started before Obamacare even became law. The real reason for slowed growth in health care costs, as Administration officials themselves explain, is the poor economic climate.
Sebelius goes on to tout that health care costs are “projected to stay level as a share of gross domestic product from 2009 all the way through 2013.” Why stop at 2013, Madam Secretary? Well, as Heritage has pointed out, that’s because 2014 is the year that the most expensive spending provisions of Obamacare kick in. The Medicare actuary has the real story: the next decade will experience “overall acceleration in projected national health spending growth to 7.4 percent, which is 2.1 percentage points faster than would be expected in the absence of health reform.”
Sebelius actually claims that Obamacare lowers premiums. But an annual employer survey shows that premiums for employer-based coverage grew faster from 2010 to 2011 than they did they year before. Not only that, but Kaiser Family Foundation CEO Drew Altman even stated that Obamacare was responsible for between one and two percentage points, or approximately 20 percent, of the premium increase.
Relief for Small Businesses? Not Really
According to the Secretary, “new tax credits in the law are saving hundreds of thousands of small companies thousands of dollars each on their insurance costs.”
But the truth is that, despite original estimates that 4 million small businesses would be eligible for and benefit from Obamacare’s small business tax credit, only 28,100 employers claimed the full credit amount. The Government Accountability Office even concluded that the credit was not big enough to incentivize employers to offer coverage and was too complex and time-consuming to file for.
The tax credit eventually phases out in 2016, and it doesn’t make up for the overall impact of Obamacare on small business owners, which includes new taxes, penalties, and other regulatory burdens that inhibit growth.
Obamacare Strengthens Medicare? Not Quite
Last but not least, Secretary Sebelius argues that under Obamacare, “Medicare is stronger than ever.” She claims that the Medicare savings achieved in Obamacare extends the solvency of the program. But the Secretary and supporters also argue that the new spending in the law is paid for by using these same Medicare savings.
The Secretary also attributes lower Medicare Advantage premiums to Obamacare.
But what she neglects to let readers know is that Obamacare all but destroys Medicare Advantage plans by cutting $145 billion from them. Heritage analysis predicts, “About half will lose Medicare Advantage coverage entirely. Others will stay in Medicare Advantage, but at reduced benefit levels and possibly in different plans that do not meet their needs as well.”
Sebelius says it best herself: “People are entitled to their opinions, but not to their own facts. And the facts in this case are clear.” However, the facts aren’t on the side of Obamacare.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
"Facts Deflate Sebelius’s Defense of Obamacare" - by Alyene Senger; July 12, 2012; http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/facts-deflate-sebeliuss-defense-of-obamacare/
It must be a tough job defending Obamacare, but someone’s got to do it. This week, that someone is Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post.
A Decrease in Health Care Costs? Not So Fast
Sebelius says national health expenditures have increased only by about 4 percent annually over the past two years, significantly less than in previous years.
Sure—health care costs did, in fact, slow somewhat over the last few years. But the trend started before Obamacare even became law. The real reason for slowed growth in health care costs, as Administration officials themselves explain, is the poor economic climate.
Sebelius goes on to tout that health care costs are “projected to stay level as a share of gross domestic product from 2009 all the way through 2013.” Why stop at 2013, Madam Secretary? Well, as Heritage has pointed out, that’s because 2014 is the year that the most expensive spending provisions of Obamacare kick in. The Medicare actuary has the real story: the next decade will experience “overall acceleration in projected national health spending growth to 7.4 percent, which is 2.1 percentage points faster than would be expected in the absence of health reform.”
Sebelius actually claims that Obamacare lowers premiums. But an annual employer survey shows that premiums for employer-based coverage grew faster from 2010 to 2011 than they did they year before. Not only that, but Kaiser Family Foundation CEO Drew Altman even stated that Obamacare was responsible for between one and two percentage points, or approximately 20 percent, of the premium increase.
Relief for Small Businesses? Not Really
According to the Secretary, “new tax credits in the law are saving hundreds of thousands of small companies thousands of dollars each on their insurance costs.”
But the truth is that, despite original estimates that 4 million small businesses would be eligible for and benefit from Obamacare’s small business tax credit, only 28,100 employers claimed the full credit amount. The Government Accountability Office even concluded that the credit was not big enough to incentivize employers to offer coverage and was too complex and time-consuming to file for.
The tax credit eventually phases out in 2016, and it doesn’t make up for the overall impact of Obamacare on small business owners, which includes new taxes, penalties, and other regulatory burdens that inhibit growth.
Obamacare Strengthens Medicare? Not Quite
Last but not least, Secretary Sebelius argues that under Obamacare, “Medicare is stronger than ever.” She claims that the Medicare savings achieved in Obamacare extends the solvency of the program. But the Secretary and supporters also argue that the new spending in the law is paid for by using these same Medicare savings.
The Secretary also attributes lower Medicare Advantage premiums to Obamacare.
But what she neglects to let readers know is that Obamacare all but destroys Medicare Advantage plans by cutting $145 billion from them. Heritage analysis predicts, “About half will lose Medicare Advantage coverage entirely. Others will stay in Medicare Advantage, but at reduced benefit levels and possibly in different plans that do not meet their needs as well.”
Sebelius says it best herself: “People are entitled to their opinions, but not to their own facts. And the facts in this case are clear.” However, the facts aren’t on the side of Obamacare.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Sunday, July 22, 2012
#270 (7/22) - Sunday Special - "Freedom’s Holy Light"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept.19th. What is YOURS?]
[NOTE: As always, please be sure to watch this week's broadcast of "Truth That Tranforms" (Orlando, 5 pm, ch. 55.1) or check it out at www.truthinaction.org This week's program is the 2 part of a video presentation entitled, Attack on Freedom." This gripping TV special powerfully illustrates the chilling way Christianity is being systematically driven out of public life in America. Don't miss seeing it! - Stan]
[NOTE: As we consider the senseless massacre this past Friday in Colorado, and as we see the dangerous direction of our country (and the world), it’s natural to feel the sense of hopelessness and fear of the future we felt after 9/11 almost 11 years ago. AND YET AMERICA ENDURES. I trust you know that I present the information I do on my blog not to frustrate people but to instead cause us to take seriously what is going on and not be indifferent about things happening in our country as so many believers tend to be. Also, remember that we as believers are never without hope because we have a sovereign God who nevertheless calls us to bewatchful and prayerful. Those were Jesus' words to His disciples as He was about to agonize in the garden of Gethsemane before going to the cross (Mat.26:41). Even in the darkness of the cross, the Son of God felt abandoned by His Heavenly Father but God was still working in the darkness. He was then, and so He is today. (I came across that thought in a book I just finished and highly recommend entitled “Shattered Dreams ” by Larry Crabb.) – Stan]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
- by Dr. D. James Kennedy, posted July 1, 2012 by Truth In Action Ministries, http://www.truthimpact.me/index.php/2012/07/freedoms-holy-light/
Marx and Lenin promised to give the world a “new man.” He was to be noble and selfless — concerned for the well-being of others. He was to tower above the rest of puny mankind.
Well, they gave the world a new man. But that new man, created by years of atheism and repression, turned out to be a monster who systematically had cut out of his being his heart and his conscience, all sense of morals and ethics, and has been reduced to nothing more than a tiger in the jungle. He had no compassion or compunction — and was capable of doing to other human beings things that you could not even dream of in your worst nightmares.
You see, what Marx and Lenin forgot is that only the Spirit of God can make people better. It is only where the Spirit of the Lord is that there is liberty and the power to exercise that liberty for the good of others.
Unfortunately, America as a nation has forgotten that truth. So much so that over the past several decades even our own Supreme Court has taken from our young people the Bible, prayer, the Ten Commandments, and even — the Creator! And we wonder why there is the dramatic rise in crime and every sort of evil in our country.
They have forgotten what Ben Franklin said: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have need of masters.” Only where the Spirit of the Lord is can there be true liberty. Freedom can exist only where men and women in whom there dwells the Spirit of Christ, which produces godliness and morality.
James Madison,called the Father of our Constitution, said: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
And yet our Supreme Court ruled that these same Ten Commandments could not be posted on the walls of our schoolrooms in Kentucky, and thus for all other states as well, because: “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments.” (Justice John Paul Stevens, Stone v. Graham, November 17, 1980.) [Remember: just because they wear black robes, doesn't mean they are smart. Sometimes, they can truly reason as idiiots. - Stan]
Malcolm Muggeridge, an incisive critic and columnist in England, very precisely put his finger on the problem. He said: "Since the beginning of the Second World War, Western Society has experienced a complete abandonment of its sense of good and evil. The true crisis of our time has nothing to do with monetary troubles, unemployment, or nuclear weapons. The true crisis has to do with the fact that western man has lost his way."
Good and evil provide the theme of the drama of our moral existence, and when we lose sight of that, and when we call evil good and good evil, destruction is not far hence. We need to take our stand — to rise up. We need to shake off the lethargy that exists in the Church as well as the nation.
Now, the wheels of God grind very slowly, and sometimes people suppose that because they move so slowly that God will not deal with sin. That, too, is a very grievous error. God will deal with sin. Even though he may repeatedly be merciful and gracious to us, there comes a time when His patience is expended, and there is nothing left but destruction. The hour is late; the day is fast spent. Awake thou that sleepest and Christ will give you light—the Holy Light of Liberty, and giving it to us, He may give it and continue it in our land.
[bold and italics emhasis mine]
[NOTE: As always, please be sure to watch this week's broadcast of "Truth That Tranforms" (Orlando, 5 pm, ch. 55.1) or check it out at www.truthinaction.org This week's program is the 2 part of a video presentation entitled, Attack on Freedom." This gripping TV special powerfully illustrates the chilling way Christianity is being systematically driven out of public life in America. Don't miss seeing it! - Stan]
[NOTE: As we consider the senseless massacre this past Friday in Colorado, and as we see the dangerous direction of our country (and the world), it’s natural to feel the sense of hopelessness and fear of the future we felt after 9/11 almost 11 years ago. AND YET AMERICA ENDURES. I trust you know that I present the information I do on my blog not to frustrate people but to instead cause us to take seriously what is going on and not be indifferent about things happening in our country as so many believers tend to be. Also, remember that we as believers are never without hope because we have a sovereign God who nevertheless calls us to bewatchful and prayerful. Those were Jesus' words to His disciples as He was about to agonize in the garden of Gethsemane before going to the cross (Mat.26:41). Even in the darkness of the cross, the Son of God felt abandoned by His Heavenly Father but God was still working in the darkness. He was then, and so He is today. (I came across that thought in a book I just finished and highly recommend entitled “Shattered Dreams ” by Larry Crabb.) – Stan]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
- by Dr. D. James Kennedy, posted July 1, 2012 by Truth In Action Ministries, http://www.truthimpact.me/index.php/2012/07/freedoms-holy-light/
Marx and Lenin promised to give the world a “new man.” He was to be noble and selfless — concerned for the well-being of others. He was to tower above the rest of puny mankind.
Well, they gave the world a new man. But that new man, created by years of atheism and repression, turned out to be a monster who systematically had cut out of his being his heart and his conscience, all sense of morals and ethics, and has been reduced to nothing more than a tiger in the jungle. He had no compassion or compunction — and was capable of doing to other human beings things that you could not even dream of in your worst nightmares.
You see, what Marx and Lenin forgot is that only the Spirit of God can make people better. It is only where the Spirit of the Lord is that there is liberty and the power to exercise that liberty for the good of others.
Unfortunately, America as a nation has forgotten that truth. So much so that over the past several decades even our own Supreme Court has taken from our young people the Bible, prayer, the Ten Commandments, and even — the Creator! And we wonder why there is the dramatic rise in crime and every sort of evil in our country.
They have forgotten what Ben Franklin said: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have need of masters.” Only where the Spirit of the Lord is can there be true liberty. Freedom can exist only where men and women in whom there dwells the Spirit of Christ, which produces godliness and morality.
James Madison,called the Father of our Constitution, said: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
And yet our Supreme Court ruled that these same Ten Commandments could not be posted on the walls of our schoolrooms in Kentucky, and thus for all other states as well, because: “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments.” (Justice John Paul Stevens, Stone v. Graham, November 17, 1980.) [Remember: just because they wear black robes, doesn't mean they are smart. Sometimes, they can truly reason as idiiots. - Stan]
Malcolm Muggeridge, an incisive critic and columnist in England, very precisely put his finger on the problem. He said: "Since the beginning of the Second World War, Western Society has experienced a complete abandonment of its sense of good and evil. The true crisis of our time has nothing to do with monetary troubles, unemployment, or nuclear weapons. The true crisis has to do with the fact that western man has lost his way."
Good and evil provide the theme of the drama of our moral existence, and when we lose sight of that, and when we call evil good and good evil, destruction is not far hence. We need to take our stand — to rise up. We need to shake off the lethargy that exists in the Church as well as the nation.
Now, the wheels of God grind very slowly, and sometimes people suppose that because they move so slowly that God will not deal with sin. That, too, is a very grievous error. God will deal with sin. Even though he may repeatedly be merciful and gracious to us, there comes a time when His patience is expended, and there is nothing left but destruction. The hour is late; the day is fast spent. Awake thou that sleepest and Christ will give you light—the Holy Light of Liberty, and giving it to us, He may give it and continue it in our land.
[bold and italics emhasis mine]
Saturday, July 21, 2012
#269 (7/21) - Prayer Items Since July 17th
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. What is YOURS?]
Colorado Gunman Kills 12 and Hurts About 38 July 20
A terrifying shooting at an Aurora movie theater overnight left 12 people dead and about 38 people hurt.Police said a gunman with a gas mask on and dressed in black shot and killed dozens and dozens of people. Authorities say the suspect, James Holmes, 24, killed 10 people inside the theater complex and that three others died after they were taken from the scene. Sources: CBS Denver, Denver Post, Reuters, NBC News)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
=For the families who are grieving the inexplicable loss of their loved ones.
=For those who have been injured, and the medical teams attending them.[One is a Christian girl named PETRA who is recovering from a wound to the head.]
=For the family of James Holmes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Russia, China Veto U.N. Security Council Resolution on Syria July 19
Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday that threatened Syrian authorities with sanctions if they did not halt violence against an uprising, thwarting Western hopes for tough action as the crisis in Syria escalates. It was the third time that Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, and China have used their veto power to block U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and halt the violence in a 16-month conflict that has killed thousands of people.
As efforts to forge a diplomatic solution appeared to collapse, Syrian rebels clashed with forces loyal to Assad in Damascus, a day after the killing of three close allies of the president led to fresh warnings that the situation was spinning out of control...(Sources: BBC News, Reuters)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the escalating situation in Syria.
•For wisdom for America’s diplomats and President Obama as they assess whether to take action beyond sanctions.
•For the people of Damascus and other cities who are fleeing to Lebanon or Turkey as refugees.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel Blames Iran in Deadly Bulgaria Bus Blast - Wednesday, July 18
A bus carrying Israeli youth exploded Wednesday in a Bulgarian resort, killing at least six people and wounding more than 32, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "an Iranian terror attack" and promised a tough response. No group immediately claimed responsibility. But Israelis often have been targeted in attacks outside their country, and Wednesday’s bombing coincided with the 18th anniversary of the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina that killed 85 people.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the blast was "clearly a terrorist attack initiated probably by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or another group under the terror auspices of either Iran or other radical Islamic groups." Netanyahu noted that Wednesday’s attack followed similar attacks or attempted attacks in India, Georgia, Thailand and Kenya and Cyprus in recent months. He said that once again, "all signs point to Iran," though he did not offer any evidence to back up the claim. "This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading across the world," Netanyahu said. "Israel will react strongly to Iran’s terror." Tehran did not immediately issue any comment.(Source: CBS News, BBC News, Associated Foreign Press, Jerusalem Post)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•That the response of the nation of Israel to the attack on the bus will be measured yet appropriate.
•For the grieving families of the deceased, and for those who are injured.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bernanke Pleads with Lawmakers to Avoid ’Fiscal Cliff’ - July 17
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pleaded with lawmakers Tuesday to take action swiftly to avoid taking the nation’s economy over a "fiscal cliff." In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke said the economy has leveled off and warned Congress it will add to economic instability if it does not take action to avoid steep tax hikes and spending cuts set to begin in January. "Fiscal decisions should take into account the fragility of the recovery," Bernanke said. "That recovery could be endangered by the confluence of tax increases and spending reductions that will take effect early next year if no legislative action is taken."
Addressing the cliff is the "most effective way Congress could help to support the economy right now." The George W. Bush-era tax rates are set to expire on all income brackets on Jan. 1, and spending cuts for defense and non-defense programs are also set to begin that month. If lawmakers fail to act, Bernanke said, they could see a repeat of the drama from last summer, when stocks plunged amid uncertainty over whether the nation’s debt limit would be . With a newly worried tone, Bernanke called on lawmakers to come together as soon as possible to address the nation’s finances (Sources: The Hill, Reuters, Wall Street Journal)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•For members of the Federal Reserve Board as they work on monetary policy for the U.S.
•For members of Congress to act in the best interests of all of the American people.
•About Americans being preared for another recessionary dip if some actions are not taken quickly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRS gearing up for new responsibilities in health care July 08
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama’s health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2½ years, when they’ll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance.
That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.(Source: Associated Press, MSNBC)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
· About the implications of new regulations supporting the health care law.
· That Congress will be able to find a way to keep this new tax from being imposed on aleady heavily burdened Americans.
Colorado Gunman Kills 12 and Hurts About 38 July 20
A terrifying shooting at an Aurora movie theater overnight left 12 people dead and about 38 people hurt.Police said a gunman with a gas mask on and dressed in black shot and killed dozens and dozens of people. Authorities say the suspect, James Holmes, 24, killed 10 people inside the theater complex and that three others died after they were taken from the scene. Sources: CBS Denver, Denver Post, Reuters, NBC News)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
=For the families who are grieving the inexplicable loss of their loved ones.
=For those who have been injured, and the medical teams attending them.[One is a Christian girl named PETRA who is recovering from a wound to the head.]
=For the family of James Holmes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Russia, China Veto U.N. Security Council Resolution on Syria July 19
Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday that threatened Syrian authorities with sanctions if they did not halt violence against an uprising, thwarting Western hopes for tough action as the crisis in Syria escalates. It was the third time that Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, and China have used their veto power to block U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and halt the violence in a 16-month conflict that has killed thousands of people.
As efforts to forge a diplomatic solution appeared to collapse, Syrian rebels clashed with forces loyal to Assad in Damascus, a day after the killing of three close allies of the president led to fresh warnings that the situation was spinning out of control...(Sources: BBC News, Reuters)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•About the escalating situation in Syria.
•For wisdom for America’s diplomats and President Obama as they assess whether to take action beyond sanctions.
•For the people of Damascus and other cities who are fleeing to Lebanon or Turkey as refugees.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel Blames Iran in Deadly Bulgaria Bus Blast - Wednesday, July 18
A bus carrying Israeli youth exploded Wednesday in a Bulgarian resort, killing at least six people and wounding more than 32, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "an Iranian terror attack" and promised a tough response. No group immediately claimed responsibility. But Israelis often have been targeted in attacks outside their country, and Wednesday’s bombing coincided with the 18th anniversary of the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina that killed 85 people.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the blast was "clearly a terrorist attack initiated probably by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or another group under the terror auspices of either Iran or other radical Islamic groups." Netanyahu noted that Wednesday’s attack followed similar attacks or attempted attacks in India, Georgia, Thailand and Kenya and Cyprus in recent months. He said that once again, "all signs point to Iran," though he did not offer any evidence to back up the claim. "This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading across the world," Netanyahu said. "Israel will react strongly to Iran’s terror." Tehran did not immediately issue any comment.(Source: CBS News, BBC News, Associated Foreign Press, Jerusalem Post)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•That the response of the nation of Israel to the attack on the bus will be measured yet appropriate.
•For the grieving families of the deceased, and for those who are injured.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bernanke Pleads with Lawmakers to Avoid ’Fiscal Cliff’ - July 17
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pleaded with lawmakers Tuesday to take action swiftly to avoid taking the nation’s economy over a "fiscal cliff." In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke said the economy has leveled off and warned Congress it will add to economic instability if it does not take action to avoid steep tax hikes and spending cuts set to begin in January. "Fiscal decisions should take into account the fragility of the recovery," Bernanke said. "That recovery could be endangered by the confluence of tax increases and spending reductions that will take effect early next year if no legislative action is taken."
Addressing the cliff is the "most effective way Congress could help to support the economy right now." The George W. Bush-era tax rates are set to expire on all income brackets on Jan. 1, and spending cuts for defense and non-defense programs are also set to begin that month. If lawmakers fail to act, Bernanke said, they could see a repeat of the drama from last summer, when stocks plunged amid uncertainty over whether the nation’s debt limit would be . With a newly worried tone, Bernanke called on lawmakers to come together as soon as possible to address the nation’s finances (Sources: The Hill, Reuters, Wall Street Journal)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•For members of the Federal Reserve Board as they work on monetary policy for the U.S.
•For members of Congress to act in the best interests of all of the American people.
•About Americans being preared for another recessionary dip if some actions are not taken quickly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRS gearing up for new responsibilities in health care July 08
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama’s health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2½ years, when they’ll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance.
That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.(Source: Associated Press, MSNBC)
As the Lord leads, please pray:
· About the implications of new regulations supporting the health care law.
· That Congress will be able to find a way to keep this new tax from being imposed on aleady heavily burdened Americans.
Friday, July 20, 2012
#268 (7/20) - "Military Madness Matinee "
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. What is YOURS?]
[NOTE: Have you wondered how Presient Obama plans to pay for his fourth TRILLION dollar national defecit (never before in history) and his other reckless spending in the midst of our failing economy? That budget deal agreed on last year provides a clue. To "save money" for his domestic programs the President is bent on reducing our military strength to dangerous levels. It's already been estimated that just to keep our entitlement programs going in a few decades, we won't have ANY money for our national defense! Does that make sense to you? - Stan]
- Brian Slattery,June 21, 2012
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/21/military-madness-matinee/
Whether in Washington, D.C., or Wichita Falls, Texas, people are wondering nervously how the automatic defense cuts of sequestration will impact the U.S. military. While varied groups and individuals struggle to find solutions to preserve national security, one organization with significant influence in the matter—the Obama Administration—has refused to seriously address these concerns. In so doing, it fails to uphold its constitutional responsibility to provide for the common defense.
The Administration has recently championed national security victories such as the cyber-attack on Iran, the successful strike on Osama bin Laden, and the terrorist intelligence gained in the aftermath of that attack. No one is arguing the significance of these events. Yet throughout its tenure, the Administration has worked to reduce the size and scope of the military. What the President needs to realize is that the desire to cut now will have serious consequences for the future.
House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon (R–CA) recently released a video illustrating the catastrophic effects sequestration will bring to America’s armed forces. He urges the Senate and the Administration to come to the table and work with the House of Representatives to find a solution, stating, “Sequestration isn’t something that happens in January. It is happening now.” The video shows men and women in uniform preparing for an unclear future, attending job fairs and worrying about the massive drawdown in end strength that sequestration will necessitate.
Even worse, these dramatic cuts will put additional stress on the men and women who are already struggling to perform with limited resources. While the Department of Defense and every other federal agency should be striving to run operations more efficiently, the cuts posed by the Administration go beyond trimming waste—they reduce the military’s ability to protect America.
These shortcomings are, regrettably, already being seen across the services. In the Army, soldiers have to improvise to provide armor for their vehicles. In the Air Force, father and son pilots fly the same aircraft 30 years apart. In the Navy, ships are breaking down and cannot sail. The service members of the Armed Forces willingly serve and protect the U.S. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure they can continue to do so.
These cuts are looming over everyone in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. However, the President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) refuse to back down from their positions. Obama has made it clear that he will veto any attempt to overturn the cuts. Reid has indicated that he will not “back off the sequestration.” They need to understand what McKeon and other defense advocates have been arguing for months: The government needs to fulfill its constitutional responsibility and overturn these dramatic cuts before it is too late.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"White House National Security Strategy: Distract from Real Concerns"- Brian Slattery, July 12, 2012 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/white-house-national-security-strategy-distract-from-real-concerns/
"The President can champion a few instances of success all he wants, but it is clear that America’s security is not a priority in his Administration. Ronald Reagan once reflected, “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.” Congress should take note of this as it considers President Obama’s attempts to reduce national security to historic low levels of funding."
[NOTE: Have you wondered how Presient Obama plans to pay for his fourth TRILLION dollar national defecit (never before in history) and his other reckless spending in the midst of our failing economy? That budget deal agreed on last year provides a clue. To "save money" for his domestic programs the President is bent on reducing our military strength to dangerous levels. It's already been estimated that just to keep our entitlement programs going in a few decades, we won't have ANY money for our national defense! Does that make sense to you? - Stan]
- Brian Slattery,June 21, 2012
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/21/military-madness-matinee/
Whether in Washington, D.C., or Wichita Falls, Texas, people are wondering nervously how the automatic defense cuts of sequestration will impact the U.S. military. While varied groups and individuals struggle to find solutions to preserve national security, one organization with significant influence in the matter—the Obama Administration—has refused to seriously address these concerns. In so doing, it fails to uphold its constitutional responsibility to provide for the common defense.
The Administration has recently championed national security victories such as the cyber-attack on Iran, the successful strike on Osama bin Laden, and the terrorist intelligence gained in the aftermath of that attack. No one is arguing the significance of these events. Yet throughout its tenure, the Administration has worked to reduce the size and scope of the military. What the President needs to realize is that the desire to cut now will have serious consequences for the future.
House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon (R–CA) recently released a video illustrating the catastrophic effects sequestration will bring to America’s armed forces. He urges the Senate and the Administration to come to the table and work with the House of Representatives to find a solution, stating, “Sequestration isn’t something that happens in January. It is happening now.” The video shows men and women in uniform preparing for an unclear future, attending job fairs and worrying about the massive drawdown in end strength that sequestration will necessitate.
Even worse, these dramatic cuts will put additional stress on the men and women who are already struggling to perform with limited resources. While the Department of Defense and every other federal agency should be striving to run operations more efficiently, the cuts posed by the Administration go beyond trimming waste—they reduce the military’s ability to protect America.
These shortcomings are, regrettably, already being seen across the services. In the Army, soldiers have to improvise to provide armor for their vehicles. In the Air Force, father and son pilots fly the same aircraft 30 years apart. In the Navy, ships are breaking down and cannot sail. The service members of the Armed Forces willingly serve and protect the U.S. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure they can continue to do so.
These cuts are looming over everyone in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. However, the President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) refuse to back down from their positions. Obama has made it clear that he will veto any attempt to overturn the cuts. Reid has indicated that he will not “back off the sequestration.” They need to understand what McKeon and other defense advocates have been arguing for months: The government needs to fulfill its constitutional responsibility and overturn these dramatic cuts before it is too late.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"White House National Security Strategy: Distract from Real Concerns"- Brian Slattery, July 12, 2012 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/white-house-national-security-strategy-distract-from-real-concerns/
"The President can champion a few instances of success all he wants, but it is clear that America’s security is not a priority in his Administration. Ronald Reagan once reflected, “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.” Congress should take note of this as it considers President Obama’s attempts to reduce national security to historic low levels of funding."
Thursday, July 19, 2012
#267 (7/19) - "California 'Stimulated' To Further Bankruptcy"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
[NOTE: We've all heard stories of how the '09 Federal Stimulus money was wasted. Well, now we have another example of how it is used to tempt states (in this case one already facing bankruptcy)to engage in projects that will further put them in severe debt. And all for an Administration idea that has already been shown to be unworkable - in China. When will peopl wake up! - Stan]
"Transportation Secretary Wants Us to Be Like Communist China"- By Amy Payne On July 9, 2012
China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable [1] last week:"The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million. In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don’t do it that way in America."
His comments are stunning. Yes, that’s how Communists do it: A few people make decisions for the country and control the money, land, resources, and workers. And how has that worked out?“Rather than demonstrating the advantages of centrally planned long-term investment, as its foreign admirers sometimes suggested, China’s bullet-train experience shows what can go wrong when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow [2] — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states.” That sounds like a direct rebuttal to LaHood, but Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane wrote that back in April 2011.
The Telegraph (U.K.) reported in February [3] that 70 percent of China’s railway projects had been suspended, as its railways ministry attempted to continue deficit financing while facing slow ticket sales. Last year, a deadly train crash brought safety concerns and corruption at the highest levels of the railway [4] to light.
The bottom line is that high-speed rail is like pouring money down a hole. China’s official institutions aren’t known for transparency, but according to the Voice of America, “Even the [Chinese] national research institution, the Academy of Science, reported last year that at current investment and estimated passenger numbers, the trains will never collect enough in fares to repay construction loans [5].”
LaHood—and President Obama—advocate high-speed rail in America by evoking the image of thousands of workers on the project. It’s part of their stimulus-funded plan to get America back to work. But once again, China’s experience demonstrates that government spending on infrastructure has not helped the Chinese economy [6]. The Obama Administration has an ally in California Governor Jerry Brown (D), however. On Friday, Democrats in the California state Senate narrowly approved funding for the first stage of a high-speed rail line there. They faced a deadline for getting $3.3 billion in federal stimulus money [7], which drove the timing of the vote. The state is now authorized to start selling $4.5 billion in bonds.
The key is that this first stage is barely a beginning, as CBS Sacramento columnist Aaron McLear explained:"The plan sold to voters cost $46 billion; now the state says it will cost $68 billion, hoping that the federal government and private investors make up the bulk of the cost. But as the non-partisan research group California Common Sense pointed out this week, when one factors in typical large infrastructure project overruns, the cost is closer to $99 billion, with $82 billion of that funding unsecured. If the Feds don’t pick up half the tab the cost soars to $203billion [8].
That’s a pretty big “if”—”if” the funding comes in. One Democratic state senator who voted against the project exposed this reasoning: “Is there additional commitment of federal funds? There is not. Is there additional commitment of private funding? There is not. Is there a dedicated funding source that we can look to in the coming years? There is not [9].”
Basically, California lawmakers are just hoping it works out. And they’re ready to tax Californians—and the rest of America—to make that happen. Californians are wise to their situation, and they’re not too keen on diverting endless amounts of money into this hole. Polls show public support for the rail plan has dropped [7] below 40 percent.
Despite public opinion, LaHood declares that the opposite is true, like a character out of Orwell: “There’s no turning back on this. We’re not going to turn back. And you know why? Because that’s what the people want. [1] That’s why… there’s no stopping high speed rail.”
But as the suspension of Chinese railway projects shows, there is stopping it when bullet trains collide with fiscal reality. The states of Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio actually turned down federal money for similar projects, declining to tie their state budgets to the money pit of high-speed rail. They realize that their taxpayers would be on the hook [10] subsidizing the rail line long after the initial infusion of federal cash.
We need less centralized control of transportation, not more. Congress should give states more control [10] over the transportation dollars their drivers already pay in federal gas taxes. States can identify their transportation problems and priorities much better than Washington. Secretary LaHood could not be more wrong.
[bold and italics emphasis mine] ______________________________________________________________
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/09/morning-bell-transportation-secretary-wants-us-to-be-like-communist-china/
URLs in this post:
[1] The Cable: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/05/obama_s_transportation_secretary_hails_chinese_infrastructure
[2] gives orders that all must follow: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chinas-train-wreck/2011/04/21/AFqjRWRE_story.html
[3] reported in February: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9095729/Chinas-high-speed-rail-project-runs-out-of-steam.html
[4] safety concerns and corruption at the highest levels of the railway: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8980879/China-bullet-train-crash-caused-by-design-flaws-and-sloppy-safety.html
[5] trains will never collect enough in fares to repay construction loans: http://www.voanews.com/content/corruption-threatens-chinas-high-speed-rail-plan-117575273/136169.html
[6] government spending on infrastructure has not helped the Chinese economy: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/business/global/chinese-official-calls-for-control-of-housing-prices.html?_r=1
[7] federal stimulus money: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57468129/not-everyone-on-board-with-calif-rail-plan/
[8] $203 billion: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/07/06/dangerous-bullet-train-politics-for-brown/
[9] There is not: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gk8y5vEUY0_iF-BnRKfC78Auz2FQ?docId=30c12924ad3f49b599d9c29804e4831a
[10] taxpayers would be on the hook: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/05/state-cant-afford-free-rail-money
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
[NOTE: We've all heard stories of how the '09 Federal Stimulus money was wasted. Well, now we have another example of how it is used to tempt states (in this case one already facing bankruptcy)to engage in projects that will further put them in severe debt. And all for an Administration idea that has already been shown to be unworkable - in China. When will peopl wake up! - Stan]
"Transportation Secretary Wants Us to Be Like Communist China"- By Amy Payne On July 9, 2012
China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable [1] last week:"The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million. In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don’t do it that way in America."
His comments are stunning. Yes, that’s how Communists do it: A few people make decisions for the country and control the money, land, resources, and workers. And how has that worked out?“Rather than demonstrating the advantages of centrally planned long-term investment, as its foreign admirers sometimes suggested, China’s bullet-train experience shows what can go wrong when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow [2] — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states.” That sounds like a direct rebuttal to LaHood, but Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane wrote that back in April 2011.
The Telegraph (U.K.) reported in February [3] that 70 percent of China’s railway projects had been suspended, as its railways ministry attempted to continue deficit financing while facing slow ticket sales. Last year, a deadly train crash brought safety concerns and corruption at the highest levels of the railway [4] to light.
The bottom line is that high-speed rail is like pouring money down a hole. China’s official institutions aren’t known for transparency, but according to the Voice of America, “Even the [Chinese] national research institution, the Academy of Science, reported last year that at current investment and estimated passenger numbers, the trains will never collect enough in fares to repay construction loans [5].”
LaHood—and President Obama—advocate high-speed rail in America by evoking the image of thousands of workers on the project. It’s part of their stimulus-funded plan to get America back to work. But once again, China’s experience demonstrates that government spending on infrastructure has not helped the Chinese economy [6]. The Obama Administration has an ally in California Governor Jerry Brown (D), however. On Friday, Democrats in the California state Senate narrowly approved funding for the first stage of a high-speed rail line there. They faced a deadline for getting $3.3 billion in federal stimulus money [7], which drove the timing of the vote. The state is now authorized to start selling $4.5 billion in bonds.
The key is that this first stage is barely a beginning, as CBS Sacramento columnist Aaron McLear explained:"The plan sold to voters cost $46 billion; now the state says it will cost $68 billion, hoping that the federal government and private investors make up the bulk of the cost. But as the non-partisan research group California Common Sense pointed out this week, when one factors in typical large infrastructure project overruns, the cost is closer to $99 billion, with $82 billion of that funding unsecured. If the Feds don’t pick up half the tab the cost soars to $203billion [8].
That’s a pretty big “if”—”if” the funding comes in. One Democratic state senator who voted against the project exposed this reasoning: “Is there additional commitment of federal funds? There is not. Is there additional commitment of private funding? There is not. Is there a dedicated funding source that we can look to in the coming years? There is not [9].”
Basically, California lawmakers are just hoping it works out. And they’re ready to tax Californians—and the rest of America—to make that happen. Californians are wise to their situation, and they’re not too keen on diverting endless amounts of money into this hole. Polls show public support for the rail plan has dropped [7] below 40 percent.
Despite public opinion, LaHood declares that the opposite is true, like a character out of Orwell: “There’s no turning back on this. We’re not going to turn back. And you know why? Because that’s what the people want. [1] That’s why… there’s no stopping high speed rail.”
But as the suspension of Chinese railway projects shows, there is stopping it when bullet trains collide with fiscal reality. The states of Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio actually turned down federal money for similar projects, declining to tie their state budgets to the money pit of high-speed rail. They realize that their taxpayers would be on the hook [10] subsidizing the rail line long after the initial infusion of federal cash.
We need less centralized control of transportation, not more. Congress should give states more control [10] over the transportation dollars their drivers already pay in federal gas taxes. States can identify their transportation problems and priorities much better than Washington. Secretary LaHood could not be more wrong.
[bold and italics emphasis mine] ______________________________________________________________
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/09/morning-bell-transportation-secretary-wants-us-to-be-like-communist-china/
URLs in this post:
[1] The Cable: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/05/obama_s_transportation_secretary_hails_chinese_infrastructure
[2] gives orders that all must follow: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chinas-train-wreck/2011/04/21/AFqjRWRE_story.html
[3] reported in February: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9095729/Chinas-high-speed-rail-project-runs-out-of-steam.html
[4] safety concerns and corruption at the highest levels of the railway: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8980879/China-bullet-train-crash-caused-by-design-flaws-and-sloppy-safety.html
[5] trains will never collect enough in fares to repay construction loans: http://www.voanews.com/content/corruption-threatens-chinas-high-speed-rail-plan-117575273/136169.html
[6] government spending on infrastructure has not helped the Chinese economy: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/business/global/chinese-official-calls-for-control-of-housing-prices.html?_r=1
[7] federal stimulus money: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57468129/not-everyone-on-board-with-calif-rail-plan/
[8] $203 billion: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/07/06/dangerous-bullet-train-politics-for-brown/
[9] There is not: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gk8y5vEUY0_iF-BnRKfC78Auz2FQ?docId=30c12924ad3f49b599d9c29804e4831a
[10] taxpayers would be on the hook: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/05/state-cant-afford-free-rail-money
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
#266 (7/18) - We Need Jobs, So He Insults Job-Creators?
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. What is YOURS?]
[NOTE: There was a time in America when being successful was a good thing. But President Obama has continually made it difficult for people who are key to our country recovering economically and now he comes out and insults their achievements. It sure does appear he's playing to people's envy of those who are successful, but then why would a "Christian" President want people to break the 10th Commandment? Do you know another leader who would so pit one group in their society against another, especially one who ran for office claiming to be a uniter of people? Shameful!- Stan}
'Obama Tells Entrepreneurs “You Didn’t Build” Your Business'- By Amy Payne July 16, 2012
That sound you hear is silence—as millions of small business owners and entrepreneurs were left speechless this weekend from President Obama’s latest insult. The slap in the face to hard-working Americans conveyed Obama’s belief that it takes a village—a heavily subsidized village—to create that venture you’re profiting from:"Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen." [1]
Obama pushed his policy goals of infrastructure (aka stimulus)spending and “government research” as part of a collectivist utopia “doing things together.” It’s simply stunning that he would tell Americans, “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that.”
After all, could individuals be resourceful and hard-working enough to create whole new enterprises? Obama said: "Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart." It is this view of successful businesses—essentially, “You owe us”—that drives Obama’s continued attacks on the country’s job creators in the form of tax hikes and regulations.
It’s a tough time to be a business owner and entrepreneur in America. Surveys show small business owners are struggling [2], and they are not expanding or hiring because of tax and regulatory uncertainty. Federal agencies, from Health and Human Services to the Environmental Protection Agency, are regulating them to death. And just last week, President Obama announced his latest economic plan was to hit job creators with a tax increase.
The President’s plan to raise taxes on earnings above $200,000 ($250,000 for joint filers) would hit 1.2 million small-business employers who pay their taxes through the individual income tax, known as flow-through businesses [3]. These businesses that are creating jobs earn almost all—91 percent—of the income earned by flow-through employer-businesses.
The new tax increase could be equivalent to one employee per small business. According to calculations by The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, the average American with $250,000 or more in income can expect an average $24,888 tax increase [4] next year under Obama’s proposed policies. That $24,888 figure is often enough for a salary. So the President could be putting about 1.2 million jobs—perhaps even more—at risk with this tax hike.
Hitting private job creators while advocating more stimulus spending [5] and government jobs. That’s the President’s plan for the economy.
Meanwhile, businesses large and small suffer from the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world [6]. This has long made the U.S. an uncompetitive place for new investment and has driven new jobs to other, more competitive nations, meaning fewer jobs and lower wages for all Americans.
If the U.S. is to see economic recovery, we must encourage entrepreneurship [7]. Stopping the biggest tax increase in American history, Taxmageddon [8], would be a good place to start. It’s a $494 billion tax hike set to hit on January 1, when a number of tax policies expire and just a few of Obamacare’s new taxes kick in. Businesses are already hesitating on hiring decisions because of the impending effects of these taxes.
Democratic leaders are demanding tax hikes, however, and threatening to allow Taxmageddon [9] for the sake of politics—despite warnings that it would send the U.S. back into recession.
Real recovery will take even more than saving job creators from punishing taxes and regulations. It requires leadership that appreciates and values the long hours that America’s business builders put in and the personal sacrifices they make for their dreams. It will take leaders who say, “If you’ve got a business—you built that. And we want more of that in America.”
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/16/morning-bell-obama-tells-entrepreneurs-you-didnt-build-your-business/
URLs in this post:
[1] If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/jul/15/picketvideo-obama-if-youve-got-business-you-didnt-/
[2] small business owners are struggling: http://www.nfib.com/research-foundation/surveys/small-business-economic-trends?utm_campaign=SBET&utm_source=Releases&utm_medium=Releases
[3] flow-through businesses: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/07/obama-s-taxmageddon-tax-increase-would-hurt-job-creation
[4] $24,888 tax increase: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/13/obamas-small-business-tax-could-average-25000/
[5] more stimulus spending: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/08/obamas-summer-jobs-rerun/
[6] highest corporate tax rate in the developed world: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/30/no-fooling-u-s-now-has-highest-corporate-tax-rate-in-the-world/
[7] encourage entrepreneurship: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/25/what-facebook-and-five-guys-have-in-common/
[8] Taxmageddon: http://www.heritage.org/issues/taxes/taxmageddon
[9] threatening to allow Taxmageddon: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/democrats-threaten-gop-with-fiscal-cliff-as-tax-fight-rages-on/2012/07/15/gJQAvybLnW_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
[NOTE: There was a time in America when being successful was a good thing. But President Obama has continually made it difficult for people who are key to our country recovering economically and now he comes out and insults their achievements. It sure does appear he's playing to people's envy of those who are successful, but then why would a "Christian" President want people to break the 10th Commandment? Do you know another leader who would so pit one group in their society against another, especially one who ran for office claiming to be a uniter of people? Shameful!- Stan}
'Obama Tells Entrepreneurs “You Didn’t Build” Your Business'- By Amy Payne July 16, 2012
That sound you hear is silence—as millions of small business owners and entrepreneurs were left speechless this weekend from President Obama’s latest insult. The slap in the face to hard-working Americans conveyed Obama’s belief that it takes a village—a heavily subsidized village—to create that venture you’re profiting from:"Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen." [1]
Obama pushed his policy goals of infrastructure (aka stimulus)spending and “government research” as part of a collectivist utopia “doing things together.” It’s simply stunning that he would tell Americans, “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that.”
After all, could individuals be resourceful and hard-working enough to create whole new enterprises? Obama said: "Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart." It is this view of successful businesses—essentially, “You owe us”—that drives Obama’s continued attacks on the country’s job creators in the form of tax hikes and regulations.
It’s a tough time to be a business owner and entrepreneur in America. Surveys show small business owners are struggling [2], and they are not expanding or hiring because of tax and regulatory uncertainty. Federal agencies, from Health and Human Services to the Environmental Protection Agency, are regulating them to death. And just last week, President Obama announced his latest economic plan was to hit job creators with a tax increase.
The President’s plan to raise taxes on earnings above $200,000 ($250,000 for joint filers) would hit 1.2 million small-business employers who pay their taxes through the individual income tax, known as flow-through businesses [3]. These businesses that are creating jobs earn almost all—91 percent—of the income earned by flow-through employer-businesses.
The new tax increase could be equivalent to one employee per small business. According to calculations by The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, the average American with $250,000 or more in income can expect an average $24,888 tax increase [4] next year under Obama’s proposed policies. That $24,888 figure is often enough for a salary. So the President could be putting about 1.2 million jobs—perhaps even more—at risk with this tax hike.
Hitting private job creators while advocating more stimulus spending [5] and government jobs. That’s the President’s plan for the economy.
Meanwhile, businesses large and small suffer from the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world [6]. This has long made the U.S. an uncompetitive place for new investment and has driven new jobs to other, more competitive nations, meaning fewer jobs and lower wages for all Americans.
If the U.S. is to see economic recovery, we must encourage entrepreneurship [7]. Stopping the biggest tax increase in American history, Taxmageddon [8], would be a good place to start. It’s a $494 billion tax hike set to hit on January 1, when a number of tax policies expire and just a few of Obamacare’s new taxes kick in. Businesses are already hesitating on hiring decisions because of the impending effects of these taxes.
Democratic leaders are demanding tax hikes, however, and threatening to allow Taxmageddon [9] for the sake of politics—despite warnings that it would send the U.S. back into recession.
Real recovery will take even more than saving job creators from punishing taxes and regulations. It requires leadership that appreciates and values the long hours that America’s business builders put in and the personal sacrifices they make for their dreams. It will take leaders who say, “If you’ve got a business—you built that. And we want more of that in America.”
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/16/morning-bell-obama-tells-entrepreneurs-you-didnt-build-your-business/
URLs in this post:
[1] If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/jul/15/picketvideo-obama-if-youve-got-business-you-didnt-/
[2] small business owners are struggling: http://www.nfib.com/research-foundation/surveys/small-business-economic-trends?utm_campaign=SBET&utm_source=Releases&utm_medium=Releases
[3] flow-through businesses: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/07/obama-s-taxmageddon-tax-increase-would-hurt-job-creation
[4] $24,888 tax increase: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/13/obamas-small-business-tax-could-average-25000/
[5] more stimulus spending: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/08/obamas-summer-jobs-rerun/
[6] highest corporate tax rate in the developed world: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/30/no-fooling-u-s-now-has-highest-corporate-tax-rate-in-the-world/
[7] encourage entrepreneurship: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/25/what-facebook-and-five-guys-have-in-common/
[8] Taxmageddon: http://www.heritage.org/issues/taxes/taxmageddon
[9] threatening to allow Taxmageddon: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/democrats-threaten-gop-with-fiscal-cliff-as-tax-fight-rages-on/2012/07/15/gJQAvybLnW_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
#265 (7/17) - "Obama’s Imperial Presidency Guts Welfare Reform"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
[NOTE: Here is a story that the mainstream media last week buried under talk of the Presidential campaign. If it makes sense to you to change welfare reforms that have proven succcessful benefits the country - how people are not made more dependent on the government and the government forced into greater debt - then please explain it to me. Also, once again, the President bypasses Congress to get his own way, assuming authority he is not supposed to have. Whatever happened to the Constitution, to common sense?!! - Stan]
- By Amy Payne On July 13, 2012
The imperial Presidency [1] has overturned Congress and the law again. Not content to stop at rewriting immigration policy, education policy and energy policy, yesterday, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements [2] that were the foundation of the Clinton-era reform.
While this real news occurred yesterday, most of the media remained fixated on political ads and speeches, letting a major and unilateral shift in America’s welfare system go nearly unreported.
Welfare reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The Heritage Foundation played a pivotal role in building bipartisan consensus for the reform and providing many of the recommendations that became part of the law. The whole point was that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare aid.
This reform was very successful. [3] TANF became the only welfare program (out of more than 70) that promoted greater self-reliance. It moved 2.8 million families off the welfare rolls and into jobs so that they were providing for themselves. Child poverty fell, and single-parent employment rose. Recipients were required to perform at least 20–30 hours per week of work or job preparation activities in exchange for the cash benefit.
Now, Obama’s HHS is claiming that it can waive those work requirements that are at the heart of the law, and without Congress’s consent.
When it established TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from waiver authority. They explicitly did not want the law to be rewritten at the whim of HHS bureaucrats. In a December 2001, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service clarified that there was no authority to override work and other major requirements: “Effectively, there are no TANF waivers [2],” it reported.
But that did not stop the Obama Administration, which has been increasing welfare spending at an alarming rate already. President Obama has added millions to the welfare rolls [4], and his Administration has come under fire lately for its efforts to expand and add more Americans to the food stamp program.
This is a chronic problem: Over the past two decades, welfare spending has grown more rapidly than Social Security and Medicare, education, and defense. The TANF reform was one small step in the direction of reducing Americans’ dependence on government programs and getting them back on their feet. Cutting its work component is likely to unnecessarily swell the ranks of welfare recipients and with no way to pay for it.
Heritage experts Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley explained further in their comprehensive analysis of yesterday’s announcement [5]:"In the past, state bureaucrats have attempted to define activities such as hula dancing, attending Weight Watchers, and bed rest as “work.” These dodges were blocked by the federal work standards. Now that the Obama Administration has abolished those standards, we can expect “work” in the TANF program to mean anything but work. The new welfare dictate issued by the Obama Administration clearly guts the law.
Obama certainly didn’t tell people he was going to gut welfare reform when he was running for President in 2008—and why would he? “Welfare horror stories helped elect Ronald Reagan,” wrote [6] Mickey Kaus of The Daily Caller. “A promise to ‘end welfare as we know it’ elected President Clinton…And in 2008, Barack Obama didn’t dare suggest that he wanted to do what he has done today.”
While the 1996 welfare reform successfully moved people from welfare into work, it did not “end welfare as we know it.” Now, however, the Obama Administration has ended welfare reform as we know it. The President cannot hide his disastrous unemployment record by depriving Americans of the hope of a job. He should immediately reverse this course, and offer constructive ideas for economic growth rather than government dependence. (See Fact Sheet on Welfare Reform #[7] below)
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/13/morning-bell-obamas-imperial-presidency-guts-welfare-reform/
URLs in this post:
[1] imperial Presidency: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/22/morning-bell-imperial-presidency/
[2] guts the federal work requirements: http://www.foundry.org/2012/07/12/obama-guts-welfare-reform/
[3] This reform was very successful.: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2003/02/the-continuing-good-news
[4] added millions to the welfare rolls: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/confronting-the-unsustainable-growth-of-welfare-entitlements-principles-of-reform-and-the-next-steps?query=Confronting+the+Unsustainable+Growth+of+Welfare+Entitlements:+Principles+of+Reform+and+the+Next+Ste
[5] comprehensive analysis of yesterday’s announcement: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/obama-guts-welfare-reform/
[6] wrote: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/13/will-obama-get-away-with-it/#ixzz20UzC44br
[7] Fact Sheet on Welfare Reform: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/03/welfare-reform-the-next-steps
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
[NOTE: Here is a story that the mainstream media last week buried under talk of the Presidential campaign. If it makes sense to you to change welfare reforms that have proven succcessful benefits the country - how people are not made more dependent on the government and the government forced into greater debt - then please explain it to me. Also, once again, the President bypasses Congress to get his own way, assuming authority he is not supposed to have. Whatever happened to the Constitution, to common sense?!! - Stan]
- By Amy Payne On July 13, 2012
The imperial Presidency [1] has overturned Congress and the law again. Not content to stop at rewriting immigration policy, education policy and energy policy, yesterday, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements [2] that were the foundation of the Clinton-era reform.
While this real news occurred yesterday, most of the media remained fixated on political ads and speeches, letting a major and unilateral shift in America’s welfare system go nearly unreported.
Welfare reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The Heritage Foundation played a pivotal role in building bipartisan consensus for the reform and providing many of the recommendations that became part of the law. The whole point was that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare aid.
This reform was very successful. [3] TANF became the only welfare program (out of more than 70) that promoted greater self-reliance. It moved 2.8 million families off the welfare rolls and into jobs so that they were providing for themselves. Child poverty fell, and single-parent employment rose. Recipients were required to perform at least 20–30 hours per week of work or job preparation activities in exchange for the cash benefit.
Now, Obama’s HHS is claiming that it can waive those work requirements that are at the heart of the law, and without Congress’s consent.
When it established TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from waiver authority. They explicitly did not want the law to be rewritten at the whim of HHS bureaucrats. In a December 2001, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service clarified that there was no authority to override work and other major requirements: “Effectively, there are no TANF waivers [2],” it reported.
But that did not stop the Obama Administration, which has been increasing welfare spending at an alarming rate already. President Obama has added millions to the welfare rolls [4], and his Administration has come under fire lately for its efforts to expand and add more Americans to the food stamp program.
This is a chronic problem: Over the past two decades, welfare spending has grown more rapidly than Social Security and Medicare, education, and defense. The TANF reform was one small step in the direction of reducing Americans’ dependence on government programs and getting them back on their feet. Cutting its work component is likely to unnecessarily swell the ranks of welfare recipients and with no way to pay for it.
Heritage experts Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley explained further in their comprehensive analysis of yesterday’s announcement [5]:"In the past, state bureaucrats have attempted to define activities such as hula dancing, attending Weight Watchers, and bed rest as “work.” These dodges were blocked by the federal work standards. Now that the Obama Administration has abolished those standards, we can expect “work” in the TANF program to mean anything but work. The new welfare dictate issued by the Obama Administration clearly guts the law.
Obama certainly didn’t tell people he was going to gut welfare reform when he was running for President in 2008—and why would he? “Welfare horror stories helped elect Ronald Reagan,” wrote [6] Mickey Kaus of The Daily Caller. “A promise to ‘end welfare as we know it’ elected President Clinton…And in 2008, Barack Obama didn’t dare suggest that he wanted to do what he has done today.”
While the 1996 welfare reform successfully moved people from welfare into work, it did not “end welfare as we know it.” Now, however, the Obama Administration has ended welfare reform as we know it. The President cannot hide his disastrous unemployment record by depriving Americans of the hope of a job. He should immediately reverse this course, and offer constructive ideas for economic growth rather than government dependence. (See Fact Sheet on Welfare Reform #[7] below)
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/13/morning-bell-obamas-imperial-presidency-guts-welfare-reform/
URLs in this post:
[1] imperial Presidency: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/22/morning-bell-imperial-presidency/
[2] guts the federal work requirements: http://www.foundry.org/2012/07/12/obama-guts-welfare-reform/
[3] This reform was very successful.: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2003/02/the-continuing-good-news
[4] added millions to the welfare rolls: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/confronting-the-unsustainable-growth-of-welfare-entitlements-principles-of-reform-and-the-next-steps?query=Confronting+the+Unsustainable+Growth+of+Welfare+Entitlements:+Principles+of+Reform+and+the+Next+Ste
[5] comprehensive analysis of yesterday’s announcement: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/obama-guts-welfare-reform/
[6] wrote: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/13/will-obama-get-away-with-it/#ixzz20UzC44br
[7] Fact Sheet on Welfare Reform: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/03/welfare-reform-the-next-steps
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
Monday, July 16, 2012
#264 (7/16) - "Too Many Broken Promises in Obamacare"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. What is YOURS?]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- By Alyene Senger, On July 2, 2012
[Please got to site indicated by [1] below to see an incredible chart!] Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) almost called Obamacare’s individual mandate a tax, stopping mid-word to call it a “penalty” [2]. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and other spokespersons echoed this talking point. This is in spite of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that deemed the mandate unconstitutional under [3] both the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, but ruled that it could stand as part of Congress’s authority to “lay and collect taxes.”
Dubbing the individual mandate a tax saved the President’s health care law, but it’s a concept that President Obama himself has strongly denied. In a 2009 interview, President Obama argued that his individual mandate was not a tax increase, stating [4], “I absolutely reject that notion.” But after last week, President Obama must now admit it’s a tax or admit the mandate is unconstitutional. It’s can only be one or the other.
The mandate is in fact a tax, and it’s just one of many new taxes that hit the middle class in Obamacare. Lo and behold, another broken promise. President Obama claims that the mandate is holding people responsible, keeping with that spirit, here’s a reminder of the other promises the President and his health care law are responsible for breaking:
Promise #1: “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” [5]
Reality: The individual mandate is far from alone on Heritage’s lengthy list [6] of Obamacare’s new taxes and penalties, many of which will heavily impact the middle class. Altogether, Obamacare’s taxes and penalties will accumulate an additional $500 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period. Yesterday, a senior economist for The Wall Street Journal revealed [7] that 75 percent of Obamacare’s new taxes will be paid for by American families making under $120,000 a year. Among the taxes that will hit the middle class are the individual mandate, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning, and an increase of the floor on medical deductions from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent.
Promise #2: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” [8]
Reality: Research continues to show that as many as 30 percent of employers [9] will dump their employees from their existing health care coverage. The Administration itself has admitted that “as a practical matter, a majority of group health plans will lose their grandfather status by 2013.”
Promise #3: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.” [8]
Reality: As Heritage analysts explain [10], “A close examination of what [the Congressional Budget Office] said, as well as other evidence, makes it clear that the deficit reduction associated with [Obamacare] is based on budget gimmicks, sleights of hand, accounting tricks, and completely implausible assumptions. A more honest accounting reveals the new law as a trillion-dollar budget buster.”
Promise #4: “I will protect Medicare.” [8]
Reality: A Heritage Factsheet [11] shows the various ways Obamacare ends Medicare as we know it, including severe physician reimbursement cuts that threaten seniors’ access to care and putting an unelected board of bureaucrats in charge of meeting Medicare’s new spending cap.
Promise #5: “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.” [12]
Reality: Obamacare does not accomplish universal coverage; it leaves 26 million [13] Americans without insurance. Moreover, Heritage research outlines 12 ways that Obamacare will increase premiums [14] instead of reducing health care costs. Requirements that plans allow young adults to stay on their parents’ coverage and offer preventive services with no cost sharing are already leading to higher growth in premiums.
When polled, 70 percent [15] of Americans held an unfavorable view of the individual mandate. It’s doubtful that calling it a “tax” will dramatically change their opinion. Now that Obamacare and its broken promises remain the law of the land, it’s up to the American people to see to it that the law is ultimately repealed by Congress. Then, they can move forward with real reform that puts patients’ needs first.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/02/morning-bell-too-many-broken-promises-in-obamacare/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/obamacaretaxes120702.jpg
[2] stopping mid-word to call it a “penalty”: http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2012/07/pelosi-almost-calls-health-law-penalty-a-tax-127829.html
[3] unconstitutional under: http://www.foundry.org/2012/06/28/obamacare-silver-linings-a-limited-victory-for-limited-government
[4] stating: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/obama-in-2009-its-not-a-tax/
[5] “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U&feature=player_embedded
[6] Heritage’s lengthy list: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-new-taxes-destroying-jobs-and-the-economy
[7] revealed: http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/30/wsj-chief-economist-75-of-obamacare-costs-will-fall-on-backs-of-those-making-less-than-120k-a-year/
[8] “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.”: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/15/politics/main5090277.shtml
[9] as many as 30 percent of employers: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/06/08/huge-number-of-businesses-to-drop-health-insurance-thanks-to-obamacare/
[10] Heritage analysts explain: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-the-budget-playing-games-with-numbers
[11] A Heritage Factsheet: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2012/01/obamacare-obama-ends-medicare-as-we-know-it
[12] “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/obama-campaign-promise-tracker.htm
[13] 26 million: http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/infographic/2012/03/millions-remain-uninsured-under-obamacare
[14] Heritage research outlines 12 ways that Obamacare will increase premiums: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/09/obamacare-increases-health-insurance-premiums
[15] 70 percent: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8302.cfm
[Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- By Alyene Senger, On July 2, 2012
[Please got to site indicated by [1] below to see an incredible chart!] Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) almost called Obamacare’s individual mandate a tax, stopping mid-word to call it a “penalty” [2]. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and other spokespersons echoed this talking point. This is in spite of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that deemed the mandate unconstitutional under [3] both the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, but ruled that it could stand as part of Congress’s authority to “lay and collect taxes.”
Dubbing the individual mandate a tax saved the President’s health care law, but it’s a concept that President Obama himself has strongly denied. In a 2009 interview, President Obama argued that his individual mandate was not a tax increase, stating [4], “I absolutely reject that notion.” But after last week, President Obama must now admit it’s a tax or admit the mandate is unconstitutional. It’s can only be one or the other.
The mandate is in fact a tax, and it’s just one of many new taxes that hit the middle class in Obamacare. Lo and behold, another broken promise. President Obama claims that the mandate is holding people responsible, keeping with that spirit, here’s a reminder of the other promises the President and his health care law are responsible for breaking:
Promise #1: “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” [5]
Reality: The individual mandate is far from alone on Heritage’s lengthy list [6] of Obamacare’s new taxes and penalties, many of which will heavily impact the middle class. Altogether, Obamacare’s taxes and penalties will accumulate an additional $500 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period. Yesterday, a senior economist for The Wall Street Journal revealed [7] that 75 percent of Obamacare’s new taxes will be paid for by American families making under $120,000 a year. Among the taxes that will hit the middle class are the individual mandate, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning, and an increase of the floor on medical deductions from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent.
Promise #2: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” [8]
Reality: Research continues to show that as many as 30 percent of employers [9] will dump their employees from their existing health care coverage. The Administration itself has admitted that “as a practical matter, a majority of group health plans will lose their grandfather status by 2013.”
Promise #3: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.” [8]
Reality: As Heritage analysts explain [10], “A close examination of what [the Congressional Budget Office] said, as well as other evidence, makes it clear that the deficit reduction associated with [Obamacare] is based on budget gimmicks, sleights of hand, accounting tricks, and completely implausible assumptions. A more honest accounting reveals the new law as a trillion-dollar budget buster.”
Promise #4: “I will protect Medicare.” [8]
Reality: A Heritage Factsheet [11] shows the various ways Obamacare ends Medicare as we know it, including severe physician reimbursement cuts that threaten seniors’ access to care and putting an unelected board of bureaucrats in charge of meeting Medicare’s new spending cap.
Promise #5: “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.” [12]
Reality: Obamacare does not accomplish universal coverage; it leaves 26 million [13] Americans without insurance. Moreover, Heritage research outlines 12 ways that Obamacare will increase premiums [14] instead of reducing health care costs. Requirements that plans allow young adults to stay on their parents’ coverage and offer preventive services with no cost sharing are already leading to higher growth in premiums.
When polled, 70 percent [15] of Americans held an unfavorable view of the individual mandate. It’s doubtful that calling it a “tax” will dramatically change their opinion. Now that Obamacare and its broken promises remain the law of the land, it’s up to the American people to see to it that the law is ultimately repealed by Congress. Then, they can move forward with real reform that puts patients’ needs first.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/02/morning-bell-too-many-broken-promises-in-obamacare/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/obamacaretaxes120702.jpg
[2] stopping mid-word to call it a “penalty”: http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2012/07/pelosi-almost-calls-health-law-penalty-a-tax-127829.html
[3] unconstitutional under: http://www.foundry.org/2012/06/28/obamacare-silver-linings-a-limited-victory-for-limited-government
[4] stating: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/obama-in-2009-its-not-a-tax/
[5] “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U&feature=player_embedded
[6] Heritage’s lengthy list: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-new-taxes-destroying-jobs-and-the-economy
[7] revealed: http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/30/wsj-chief-economist-75-of-obamacare-costs-will-fall-on-backs-of-those-making-less-than-120k-a-year/
[8] “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.”: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/15/politics/main5090277.shtml
[9] as many as 30 percent of employers: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/06/08/huge-number-of-businesses-to-drop-health-insurance-thanks-to-obamacare/
[10] Heritage analysts explain: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-the-budget-playing-games-with-numbers
[11] A Heritage Factsheet: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2012/01/obamacare-obama-ends-medicare-as-we-know-it
[12] “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/obama-campaign-promise-tracker.htm
[13] 26 million: http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/infographic/2012/03/millions-remain-uninsured-under-obamacare
[14] Heritage research outlines 12 ways that Obamacare will increase premiums: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/09/obamacare-increases-health-insurance-premiums
[15] 70 percent: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8302.cfm
[Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
#263(7/15)- Sunday Special- "A Moment to Be Clear; Courage, not Silence"
[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. What is yours?]
[NOTE: As always on Sunday, I encourage you to watch the television program "Truth That Transforms" which this week is the first of a 2-part special on how our religious freedoms are being threatened in this country.(Orando, 5pm., ch. 55.1 or check your TV listings; also check it out at www.truthinaction.org or go to: http://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/2012/07/specials-to-stand-for-freedom/) - Stan]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint.org, July 02, 2012;http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19721
Before the Second World War, the rise of Adolf Hitler forced German Christians to make a choice. Some attempted to make peace with the Nazis, engaging in dialogue and endless discussions. Most in this group ended up allowing their churches to become accomplices.The other main group advocated staying on the sidelines and simply obeying the government, saying that gospel witness was just too important to be muddied up with controversial political stances. In both cases, Hitler had little to fear from these pastors — and he knew it. “They will submit,” the Fuhrer said derisively. “...they are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs, and they sweat with embarrassment when you talk to them.”
Of course, Hitler overlooked Christians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who risked their lives to boldly oppose Nazi injustice.
No, we’re not facing a Hitler, but the stakes are still very high. You’re no doubt aware of the battle over marriage raging across the country. And it’s time to make a choice: Speak out, or acquiesce.On one side are those of us who say that marriage is and always has been the union of one man and one woman. On the other are those who want to redefine marriage as between any two people, including two men or two women. In every state where voters have been given a choice, marriage as Western civilization has always understood it has been affirmed.
Well, the battle has moved to Minnesota. This November, an amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman will be on the ballot. You would expect pastors in the Land of 10,000 Lakes to take a clear stand.
Unbelievably, a couple of evangelical stalwarts are electing to sit this fight out — choosing not to endorse the amendment. Leith Anderson, a former pastor and President of the National Association of Evangelicals is one. John Piper, of Bethlehem Baptist Church, is another. During a recent sermon, Rev. Piper said “Don’t press the organization of the church or her pastors into political activism...Expect from your shepherds not that they would rally you behind political candidates or legislative mandates, but they would point you over and over again to God and to his word.”
I’m all for pointing people to God’s Word—surely we need that! But is attempting to protect marriage from a dangerous redefinition mere political activism? Anderson warned that “churches should seek to be nonpartisan in their approach to teaching moral truths.” Agreed! But defending marriage is not a partisan activity!
As our late friend Chuck Colson said, marriage is a central pillar of our civilization, and if we allow it to be redefined, the religious liberty of all will be imperiled. I talked about this recently on BreakPoint — pointing to Canada, where so-called gay “marriage” is legal, and where a Catholic bishop was charged with a human-rights violation for writing a letter to his flock about the Catholic Church’s stand on marriage! In Denmark, by law, gay couples, may now get married in any church they want! Don’t think that can’t happen here.
Look, I understand we’ve been rightly criticized for, at times, politicizing the gospel. But the fact that we have sometimes gotten our civic engagement wrong doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to get it right! We believers simply cannot sit this one out.
I urge you, join the half a million Christians and sign the Manhattan Declaration in defense of marriage, life, and religious liberty. [Please go to the right side of THIS blog sit and look under "Let Your Voice Be Heard" and click on the Manhattan Declaration link.]
As Bonhoeffer and like-minded German Christians knew, there comes a time to choose. Pastors: Choose courage, not silence.
[boldanditalicsemphasis mine]
[NOTE: As always on Sunday, I encourage you to watch the television program "Truth That Transforms" which this week is the first of a 2-part special on how our religious freedoms are being threatened in this country.(Orando, 5pm., ch. 55.1 or check your TV listings; also check it out at www.truthinaction.org or go to: http://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/2012/07/specials-to-stand-for-freedom/) - Stan]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint.org, July 02, 2012;http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19721
Before the Second World War, the rise of Adolf Hitler forced German Christians to make a choice. Some attempted to make peace with the Nazis, engaging in dialogue and endless discussions. Most in this group ended up allowing their churches to become accomplices.The other main group advocated staying on the sidelines and simply obeying the government, saying that gospel witness was just too important to be muddied up with controversial political stances. In both cases, Hitler had little to fear from these pastors — and he knew it. “They will submit,” the Fuhrer said derisively. “...they are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs, and they sweat with embarrassment when you talk to them.”
Of course, Hitler overlooked Christians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who risked their lives to boldly oppose Nazi injustice.
No, we’re not facing a Hitler, but the stakes are still very high. You’re no doubt aware of the battle over marriage raging across the country. And it’s time to make a choice: Speak out, or acquiesce.On one side are those of us who say that marriage is and always has been the union of one man and one woman. On the other are those who want to redefine marriage as between any two people, including two men or two women. In every state where voters have been given a choice, marriage as Western civilization has always understood it has been affirmed.
Well, the battle has moved to Minnesota. This November, an amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman will be on the ballot. You would expect pastors in the Land of 10,000 Lakes to take a clear stand.
Unbelievably, a couple of evangelical stalwarts are electing to sit this fight out — choosing not to endorse the amendment. Leith Anderson, a former pastor and President of the National Association of Evangelicals is one. John Piper, of Bethlehem Baptist Church, is another. During a recent sermon, Rev. Piper said “Don’t press the organization of the church or her pastors into political activism...Expect from your shepherds not that they would rally you behind political candidates or legislative mandates, but they would point you over and over again to God and to his word.”
I’m all for pointing people to God’s Word—surely we need that! But is attempting to protect marriage from a dangerous redefinition mere political activism? Anderson warned that “churches should seek to be nonpartisan in their approach to teaching moral truths.” Agreed! But defending marriage is not a partisan activity!
As our late friend Chuck Colson said, marriage is a central pillar of our civilization, and if we allow it to be redefined, the religious liberty of all will be imperiled. I talked about this recently on BreakPoint — pointing to Canada, where so-called gay “marriage” is legal, and where a Catholic bishop was charged with a human-rights violation for writing a letter to his flock about the Catholic Church’s stand on marriage! In Denmark, by law, gay couples, may now get married in any church they want! Don’t think that can’t happen here.
Look, I understand we’ve been rightly criticized for, at times, politicizing the gospel. But the fact that we have sometimes gotten our civic engagement wrong doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to get it right! We believers simply cannot sit this one out.
I urge you, join the half a million Christians and sign the Manhattan Declaration in defense of marriage, life, and religious liberty. [Please go to the right side of THIS blog sit and look under "Let Your Voice Be Heard" and click on the Manhattan Declaration link.]
As Bonhoeffer and like-minded German Christians knew, there comes a time to choose. Pastors: Choose courage, not silence.
[boldanditalicsemphasis mine]
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