Hey Folks, We Need to Talk

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"the War on Poverty", Acheivement, compassion, dependency, fdr, general-welfare-clause, government freebies, great-depression, handouts, Individual rights, Indoctrination, limitations, limitless, Personal responsibility, The "New Deal", The Other America

All the images that pass before our eyes … starving babies, homeless Veterans or single moms, so many struggling to make it … No, not in some remote third world country RIGHT HERE, in America – the wealthiest nation ever! It’s virtually impossible to wrap our heads around it. It’s overwhelming and heart wrenching. Surely, we can do better! Something more has to be done, right? No question! But what?

In response to those who hold that the”General Welfare clause” of the Constitution means taking care of the people, America, as a government,  has tried several different programs over the past few decades to help those in need to find their way to the American Dream and alleviate suffering. “The New Deal,” inspired by the Great Depression, opened the hearts and minds of Americans under FDR (D), way back in 1933–1937.But did it solve the problem of poverty in America? Short answer, no!

Neither was the “War on Poverty” initiated under President Johnson a success. More recently, the policies and programs of President Obama have done exactly the opposite of their so-called intent. They have found more people, not fewer, in the unemployment lines, applying for food stamps and other social programs.

In his January 1964 State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” In the 50 years since that time, U.S. taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs. Adjusted for inflation, this spending (which does not include Social Security or Medicare) is three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution. Yet progress against poverty, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau, has been minimal, and in terms of President Johnson’s main goal of reducing the “causes” rather than the mere “consequences” of poverty, the War on Poverty has failed completely. In fact, a significant portion of the population is now less capable of self-sufficiency than it was when the War on Poverty began.

It’s a funny thing about human nature that philosophers seldom seem to consider well … There are specific things that motivate humans to productivity and achievement, and certain things which subdue those inclinations. The “war on poverty was a costly, tragic mistake,” the article, “Why the War on Poverty Failed: Handouts Provide the Wrong Incentives,” begins. “Possibly the most influential policy book in history, The Other America Michael Harrington’s The Other America, published in 1962. (Harrington died in 1989.) was cited again and again by the politicians, activists, and administrators who set up welfare programs in the 1960s. In it we find the fallacies that sent reformers down dark and tangled paths into today’s social tragedies.”

The tragic error of this thinking is in the assumption poverty is strictly a lack of material goods. “While the state of neediness we call poverty does involve a lack of material resources, it also involves a mass of psychological and moral problems, including weak motivation, lack of trust in others, ignorance, irresponsibility, self-destructiveness, short-sightedness, alcoholism, drug addiction, promiscuity, and violence.”  The article continues, “It was a perspective that led to intolerance. Since poverty was so simple to remedy—the activists reasoned—it was unethical not to act. “In a nation with a technology that could provide every citizen with a decent life,” Harrington thundered, “it is an outrage and a scandal that there should be such social misery.”⁴ For the activists, welfare programs did not involve complex relationships and intractable problems about which honest people could disagree. They were simple moral imperatives, and anyone who opposed them was seen as selfish and insensitive. (This dogmatic view has by no means disappeared from so-called liberal circles.)”

Yes, poverty is wretched wherever it appears, but the rational answer (contrary to the sentimental response) is not handouts or “freebies.” The answer is the proverbial “hand up,” instead of the “hand out!”

• Basic education and training, which sadly is no longer flourishing in our public schools, does more to cripple our children than prepare them for a productive adult life.
• Trade schools, long hidden by some pseudo-intellectual pride, hunger for eager students, but are shunned by a populace who want to start as CEO’s, rather than work their way up the ladder.
• Food banks, soup kitchens, and clothing closets are a great start to elp the hurting and many communities have such things, but more are needed, not from government, but from us … you and me.

The Biblical concept of compassion isn’t issued to the government, but to the individual. The Golden Rule (you remember, Do unto others …?) is not for governments, but people, whether people of faith or not … people helping people. Governments have no idea how to help as evidenced by 80 years of welfare programs initiated in an vain attempt to curtail poverty. The secret to overcoming poverty, in most cases, is personal responsibility, we all ought

Now, we have an avowed “democrat socialist”(whatever that is) asking for our votes so he can increase taxes on the wager-earner so he can also increase the number of programs handing out “stuff”to those now trapped in a unemployment and dependency on the government programs that were supposed to free them from poverty.

Isn’t 80 years of failure enough to make a statement to try another tact? It isn’t the rich that are the bad guys here. It is our own greed that as crippled the most successful, productive, innovative, creative, and compassionate culture it the world, and ALL of us are guilty of the same greed, both the have’s and the have not’s!

America, use your HEAD to choose our next president. Use your HEART to make a personal investment in your neighborhood and your neighbors. Vote for individual rights and personal responsibility!

Paul wrote, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up” (Romans 15:1–2)

Excellent reading:

• Economic policies highlight partisan divide among governors
• Was the New Deal a success or failure?
• The War on Poverty After 50 Years
• Why the War on Poverty Failed
• What does the General Welfare Clause really mean?
• Allen West: Government Handouts a Form of Slavery
• Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits
• Uncovering the Bad Math (or Logic) of an Economic Analysis Embraced by Bernie Sanders

 

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The Spirit of “Paul Revere’s Ride”

Tags

courage, education, globalists, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, leadership, lofty ideals, obama, patriotism, Paul Revere's Ride, personal sacrifice, work

In third grade, I was required to memorize and recite the first three stanzas of this epic poem classic. (Do schools ever do this any more?) It was the spark that ignited my fascination with the search for the New World, the great experiment known as AMERICA.

The spirit of Paul Revere’s Ride goes beyond the poetic perfection of the rhyme and meter achieved by Longfellow, even beyond the historical relevance, to the heart of one man, a Patriot, sometimes referred to as “any-man.”

America, too, is much more than her geographical dimensions, her conglomerate of peoples and tribes and nations all mixed together into One People. America is even more than her founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of America.

America is an idea. It is BIG and BOLD. It is unique in the world. It is INDEPENDENCE – depending on no one else for anything, and she promotes independence in her people and around the world. It is pride, but not arrogance. It is generosity, but not manipulation. It is compassion, but not lawlessness. It is unique in ideal because it seeks “equality” for all, under the law. It is contrary to human nature, but still possible, if we are willing to WORK for it, willing to sacrifice for it, willing to swim against the stream for it. It’s easy to be mediocre, middle of the stream, average. Not so easy to be the best, the strongest, the leader because leaders are RESPONSIBLE for & to those they wish to lead.

“My legacy will be an America brought down to the level of the rest of the world.”
~ Barack Obama ~

Why the Globalists Selected Obama to be President

I wish “Paul Revere’s Ride” was required reading, not only for third graders, but for each and every adult citizen of this nation. Please read it … aloud, if possible, and let it stir your heart, your love for the IDEA of AMERICA. And then, share that Spirit … the spirit that says we can be AMERICA again. We can be strong, but compassionate, A NATION OF LAWS, and not men. We can be innovative, yet controlled. We can rein in our spending as a government and reduce the waste and overlap of offices. We can return to the perimeters of the Constitution, if we are willing to count the cost of NOT doing so.

Surely, if evolution is fact, then shouldn’t the human race be bettering itself instead of seeking mediocrity and the lowest common denominator?

Read … and share!

The Landlord’s Tale. Paul Revere’s Ride

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in ‘Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade, —
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay, —
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! As he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, —
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, —
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Click HERE to jump to amazon to buy a copy for your shelf or for your children or grandchildren!

Historic Presidency – Historic People

Tags

"In God We Trust", 2016, “2016: Obama’s America”, Benghazi, citizenship, Common Core, deception, Dinesh D'Souza, failure, fema-camps, foreign born, freedom, Hillary Clinton, IRS, Keystone Pipeline, militia, NDAA, NSA, obama, One nation under God, police state, survival, tyranny, US Constitution

Corey James wrote “Quit trashing Obama’s accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. He has an impressive list of accomplishments:

• First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
• First President to have a social security number belonging to another man, from a state he has never lived in.
• First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.
• First President to violate the War Powers Act.
• First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
• First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
• First President to spend a trillion dollars on “shovel-ready” jobs when there was no such thing as “shovel-ready” jobs.* * * *
• First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
• First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
• First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. including those with criminal convictions.
• First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
• First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
• First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.
• First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
• First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
• First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
• First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
• First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
• First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
• First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
• First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
• First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
• First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
• First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
• First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 102 to date.
• First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
• First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
• First President to go on multiple “global apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours.
• First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.
• First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
• First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.* * * *
• First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.* * * *
• First President to repeat the Holy Quran & tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
• First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”
• Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.* * * *
• First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs. Arizona).

How is Obama’s “Hope and Change” working out for you?”

I believe Obama should be arrested and impeached for only a few of his “Great Accomplishments.” For being best President in many of his Democratic followers eyes… I feel this Great Nation in being misled in an immorally direction away from what it was originally founded on. I pray for the safety and promising future for our children. I pray our children do not become as greedy, ungrateful, anti-christian and un-patriotic as I see our current leaders leading their lives.

I commend you for reading all of this. And, I hope it has empowered you with knowledge and opened your eyes more.

Thank you,
Daniel S. Hudson
— feeling patriotic.

BENGHAZI

Tags

Benghazi, Special Ops Speaks

Debt Ceiling vs Spending Cuts

Tags

Congressional talks, Debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, government-spending

*Blogger’s Note: Thanks to the inept media, the American population is deluged with inaccurate information concerning the debt ceiling, and everything else. It will take a huge effort on OUR part to counter their efforts and inform the people accurately! Let us BEGIN!

Chart of the Week: Government Spending Drives Debt Limit Higher

Michael Sandoval via The Foundry
January 6, 2013 at 2:28 pm(0)

Even though Congress and President Obama reached a fiscal cliff deal, the fallout will continue to be felt by individuals, investors, married couples, and small businesses earning $400,000 and above (for couples, $450,000 and above).

And that does not include the impact on all workers hit by the payroll tax holiday expiration, as The Heritage Foundation’s Emily Goff pointed out before the holidays.

The fiscal cliff deal, however, does little to address the critical point of the debt problem — our nation’s spending. Instead, the deal relies on tax increases, and even increases spending by extending unemployment benefits, according to Goff.

It’s precisely that spending problem and skyrocketing debt, Goff writes, that will emerge as the next “cliff” — the looming debt limit fight likely to appear at the end of February.

Only “extra-extraordinary debt-ceiling tools,” according to The Heritage Foundation’s J.D. Foster, postponed the debt limit crisis that technically occurred on New Year’s Eve. The debt limit stands at $16.394 trillion:

Geithner’s missive lists and describes Treasury’s “extraordinary measures” used in similar past episodes to preserve the current level of deficit spending after reaching the debt ceiling. These measures, essentially cash and debt management techniques, normally provide Treasury with about a $200 billion cushion. With trillion-dollar budget deficits, this cushion might be expected to last about two months before available resources would be insufficient to cover all government obligations.

Geithner’s list of extraordinary measures is missing one item that has never before been employed: prioritizing federal spending. It is the item behind the sign “Break Glass Only in Case of Emergency.”

According to Obama Administration projections, the government is expected to take in an average of $230 billion per month in 2013 while spending an average of $300 billion. Suppose the government were to reach the debt limit and exhaust the tools that Treasury acknowledges. The last emergency financial management tool Geithner could use would be to prioritize federal spending so as to allocate incoming receipts to the government’s highest priorities — what might be called real-time executive fiat budgeting or, perhaps more accurately, a forced balanced budget.

Foster provides a more detailed explanation of options available on the debt limit in this primer from early 2011 — immediately preceding the last debt limit showdown on Capitol Hill.

As the chart above demonstrates, spending, not additional tax increases and stop-gap measures, must be addressed in order to bring our debt under control. Reforming entitlement spending — primarily Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — will be the only way to bring a lasting solution. Foster, along with Heritage’s Alison Acosta Fraser, outline six entitlement reform measures designed to deal with the debt limit.

O-M-G Please Read and then Watch video of FREEDOM WORKS in Columbus, OH

Tags

Columbus, Freedom Works, Glenn Beck, Hurricane Sandy, OH, Time to Rise Again!, zero sum nation

Tuesday 6 November 2012 America’s Rebirth begins

Friday, Nov 2, 2012

Glenn Beck and Matt Kibbe held an event in the key swing state of Ohio to fire up people there and across the country with just four days left before the 2012 Election. Watch it in the video player above, and tune in Monday at 8pm ET on TheBlaze TV for a special broadcast of the program with behind-the-scenes footage.

Glenn opened the his keynote speech by reading a letter that he was given from a listener who was struggling with personal demons and ended up losing custody of his son and ended up living in a storage unit. In the letter, he described his struggles as well as how Glenn inspired him to get up and start turning his life around. He wrote a motto and committed to following it every day: The moment a man stops trying to do his very best is the moment a man starts to do his very worst. Today, the man who wrote Glenn that letter has turned his life around. He has rebuilt his life, advanced in his career, and gotten custody of his son back. He has rescued his credit and on his way to being debt free.

Glenn told the crowd America now faces a similar choice: Do we choose to stop being our best, and as a result start to become our worst? Or do we take a different path?

“We have become a zero sum nation,” he said. “One family goes up the ladder, another one has to come down.”

He explained that in a zero sum nation where people think that you can only do better at the expense of someone else, values like freedom, charity, merit and virtue are lost. As a result, America has become a handout nation, where people get trophies and awards just for showing up. Because this mentality believes that people can only improve their lot in life by taking from others, the solution becomes equality of outcome for everyone. When this happens, success, progress, and personal responsibility are all lose.

“That’s the choice we’ve been told we have to accept,” Glenn said.

Glenn, like many Americans, doesn’t believe that’s the way things have to be.

“This Tuesday you’re going to send a message to the whole world. On Wednesday we’re going to wake up to a new America,” Glenn said.

“Our choice on Tuesday is greatness, not mediocrity, but greatness. Not just holding on, but greatness. That is the choice: to be better than we ever have in our lifetime. It is an honor to be those people who strive to be so much more,” he said.

“We don’t want trophies for participation. We don’t want a prize just for showing up.We are the people that changed the world and now stand ready to change it for the better again! This is not something we hope for. This is something we do on Tuesday!”

Glenn also took time in his speech to touch on the events in Benghazi, pointing out that it was not the American way to leave people behind like that nor to order those who are able to help to stand down.

He also touched on New York City and the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that has seen many still trying to recover. Glenn said that despite the fact that many in New York treated he and his family like garbage over the past few years, he was proud to have been a part of Mercury One’s efforts to raise money for the relief. He announced on stage that the organization had raised over 1.2 million dollars in funds for the city because of donations from people like those in his audience Friday night.

“America this is your moment! Ohio this is your moment! This is the moment you lead us out! This is the moment where you give us courage and lead the way so America gets off the mat and knocks the bullies out.”

“This is the moment where your hands set the world free once again.”

Check out the video HERE please!

From Community Organizing to Mass Manipulation

Tags

Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Ambassador Susan Rice, American jobs, Benghazi, Congressional Research Service, Environment and Public Works, EPA, Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Job-Killing Regulations, means-tested, Obama tries to Rewrites History, obama-administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, VISION for America, Welfare Spending

Americans are finally coming to realization that much of the rhetoric of the President is just that – rhetoric! Sadly, it is rhetoric designed to herd the masses of the American people in the direction he (and his backers) believe will best enable their agenda to take hold. It is extraordinarily difficult for most of us to comprehend President Obama’s VISION for our future because it is so completely contradictory to our Founding documents (Declaration of Independence & US Constitution) and to the history of our experiment in personal liberty. In fact, the 2016 documentary visualizes President Obama’s vision well, but still, it is so foreign to our way of thinking. We must remind ourselves that President Obama was NOT raised as an American. He was not raised with baseball, apple pie, and freedom. His VISION for America, regardless of what he might say as he panders to the various and dwindling crowds as he campaigns, is to put her people – more and more of us – in shackles. VP Biden may have “gaffed” that comment weeks ago, but it is reality! The more Americans yield to his system-breaking “free stuff,” the fewer PRODUCERS actually work … which will lead to more Americans down & out, and so on. The cycle must be broken, and thoroughly broken! Help the poor become producers and the cycle is done! President Obama, along with any rational person, can understand this, yet it is not his goal! WHY?

In the articles below, it is clearly visible that our former community organizing President is still organizing … pushing his will, often by Executive Order, circumventing the elected Congress whose job it is to legislate, to accomplish his unpopular agenda.

WHERE ARE OUR REPRESENTATIVES??? WE-the-PEOPLE elected individuals to speak for us, to work for our best interest on the state level and in DC. WHERE ARE THEY? Why are they so silent as President Obama usurps Congressional authority and legislates from the Oval Office?

Morning Bell: Welfare Spending Shattering All-Time Highs

It’s been a pretty big year for welfare—and a new report shows welfare is bigger than ever.

The Obama Administration turned a giant spotlight on the welfare system in July when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proclaimed it had the authority to gut the work requirements from the welfare reform that had helped lift so many people out of poverty after 1996.

This morning, a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) shows the staggering reality of the growing welfare state—echoing Heritage’s own research that reveals welfare spending is approaching the $1 trillion mark.

Roughly 100 million people—one-third of the U.S. population—receive aid from at least one means-tested welfare program each month. Average benefits come to around $9,000 per recipient. If converted to cash, means-tested welfare spending is more than five times the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the United States.

Despite the fact that welfare spending was already at record levels when he took office, President Obama has increased federal means-tested welfare spending by more than a third. Benefits under “means-tested” programs are calculated based on a recipient’s means to support himself; in other words, they are intended to assist low-income Americans. The character of this aid is hand-out more than hand-up. Able-bodied recipients rarely are required to work or prepare for work to receive aid.

Report: EPA Delaying Job-Killing Regulations to Aid Obama Re-Election

President Obama is putting off major environmental regulations until after the November elections in order to avoid the political blowback of the economic damage those regulations will cause, according to a new Senate report.

Environmental regulators in the Obama administration “don’t want this economic pain to hit American families just before the election because it would cost President Obama votes,” states the report, released by Environment and Public Works ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on Thursday, “so they have simply decided to punt, intending to move full speed ahead if they gain a second term.”

The report lists a number of major environmental regulations that are either in their nascent stages or have yet to be implemented. Collectively, those regulations “will destroy millions of American jobs and cause energy prices to skyrocket even more,” Inhofe said in a news release accompanying the report.

> > > READ MORE

Clinton, Obama Try to Rewrite History on Benghazi

For more than a month, Obama Administration officials have shifted blame for lack of intelligence or diplomatic security in Benghazi, Libya, where terrorist attacks on September 11 killed four Americans. But now, all of a sudden, both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and—during last night’s presidential debate—President Obama himself have decided to claim ultimate responsibility. These claims seem perfunctory, do not bear any consequences for either Clinton or Obama, and come more than a month too late.

Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith killed along with Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi terrorist attack

Not only that, but the President is also trying to rewrite history, claiming last night that he did say that it was a terrorist attack that cost the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three security personnel. In one of the tensest moments of the debate, the President evaded Mitt Romney’s question of clarification in which he asked, “You said…it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?”

For a point of clarification, President Obama in the White House Rose Garden the day after the attack mentioned “acts of terror” in a general statement. Furthermore, the Administration repeatedly blamed the attacks on the now-infamous YouTube video on several occasions—on September 16 with Ambassador Susan Rice on five Sunday morning shows, and on September 25 in Obama’s speech to the U.N. And don’t forget in his appearance on The View the day before.

> > > READ MORE

Please continue to talk to our friends and neighbors about the TRUTH! Please pray that TRUTH will overtake deception in our midst. Thank you!

Obama’s Budget Continues Unprecedented Deficits – in Pictures!

Tags

national debt, National deficit

For some of us, pictures make the economic issues more understandable, or at least … grasp-able! How can we know National Security when we are indebted to other nations? How can we continue to spend without accountability?

The Founders built into the three branches of our government what is supposed to work as a balance. Remember the EAGLE? Two wings! One wing looks around t discern the genuine NEEDS of the people while the other wing checks fr financial feasibility! (accountability) OOOPS! One wing broke someplace along the line and the accountability wing has been crippled and inactive! It is way past time to change that, fix that broken wing and learn to fly BALANCED again!

MORE INFO HERE

What’s going on at the Job Banks?

Aug. 21, 2012: Job seekers fill out applications at a construction job fair in New York. (AP)

Blogger’s Note: While this information came as no real surprise, it remains a startling ingredient in the mess President Obama has made of our economy. It’s one thing to tell little “white lies.” It’s a totally different thing to deliberately deceive the American people … and on multiple issues. It is outrageous and clearly demonstrates this administrations total and complete disregard and disrespect for the American people. ~ BBB

We Fund Dependency

Posted by John Stossel | October 03, 2012

“There are no jobs!” That is what people told me outside a government “jobs center” in New York City.

To check this out, I sent four researchers around the area. They quickly found 40 job openings. Twenty-four were entry-level positions. One restaurant owner told me he would hire 12 people if workers would just apply.

It made me wonder what my government does in buildings called “job centers.” So I asked a college intern, Zoelle Mallenbaum, to find out. Here’s what she found:

“First I went to the Manhattan Jobs Center and asked, “Can I get help finding a job?” They told me they don’t do that. ‘We sign people up for food stamps.’ I tried another jobs center. They told me to enroll for unemployment benefits.”

So the “jobs” centers help people get handouts. Neither center suggested people try the 40 job openings in the neighborhood.

My intern persisted:

“I explained that I didn’t want handouts; I wanted a job. I was told to go to ‘WorkForce1,’ a New York City program. At WorkForce1, the receptionist told me that she couldn’t help me since I didn’t have a college degree. She directed me to another center in Harlem. In Harlem, I was told that before I could get help, I had to come back for an 8:30 a.m. ‘training session.'”

Our government helps you apply for handouts immediately, but forces you through a maze if you want to work.

“WorkForce1’s website says to arrive 30 minutes early, so I did,” Zoelle said. “A security guard told me the building was closed. At 9:15, Workforce1 directed 30 of us into a room where we were told that WorkForce1 directs candidates to jobs and provides a resource room with ‘free’ phone, fax and job listings and helps people apply for unemployment insurance and disability handouts. This seemed like the only part of the presentation when people took notes.

“One lady told me that she comes to WorkForce1 because it helps her collect unemployment. One asked another, ‘What do you want to do?’ The second laughed, ‘I want to collect!’ One told me, ‘I’ve been coming here 17 months; this place is a waste of time.’

“Finally, I met with an ‘adviser.’ She told me I lacked experience.

No need to work. President Obama will pay my mortgage, give me free food, a free home, and a free phone! Why would I work?

I know this. I asked for any job she thought I was qualified for, and she scheduled an interview at Pret, a food chain that trains employees. At Pret, I learned that my ‘interview’ was just a weekly open house, publicized on the company’s website. Anyone could walk in and apply. Workforce1 offered no advantage. Despite my ‘scheduled interview,’ I waited 90 minutes before meeting a manager. He told me that WorkForce1 had ‘wasted my time, as they always do.’ He said, ‘They never call, never ask questions.’ He prefers to hire people who seek out jobs on their own, like those who see Pret ads on Craigslist.'”

My intern learned a lot from this experience. Here are her conclusions:

—It’s easier to get welfare than to work.

—The government would rather sign me up for welfare than help me find work.

—America has taxpayer-funded bureaucracies that encourage people to be dependent. They incentivize people to take “free stuff,” not to take initiative.

—It was easier to find job openings on my own. The private market for jobs works better than government “job centers.”

Yet now New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to expand Workforce1, claiming that it helps people “find real opportunities.” I bet he never sends people in to find out whether they really do.

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Surprise! HHS pilot program to send 2 million poor seniors from Medicare into … voucher programs

BY ED MORRISSEY via HOT AIR

I know that every campaign promise Barack Obama makes has an expiration date … but this is ridiculous. The confetti is barely off the floor at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina after Obama’s acceptance speech, and already we find out that he’s flip-flopped. Remember this part of the speech, in which he attacks the Paul Ryan plan to apply free-market reform and cost controls to Medicare?

And I will — I will never turn Medicare into a voucher.

No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. They should retire with the care and the dignity they have earned. Yes, we will reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, but we’ll do it by reducing the cost of health care, not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more. And we will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over to Wall Street.

Expiration date — the very next day:

In his convention speech in Charlotte, President Obama vowed to block the Republican Medicare reform plan because “no American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.”

But back in Washington, his Health and Human Services Department is launching a pilot program that would shift up to 2 million of the poorest and most-vulnerable seniors out of the federal Medicare program and into private health insurance plans overseen by the states.

The administration has accepted applications from 18 states to participate in the program, which would give states money to purchase managed-care plans for people who are either disabled or poor enough to qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. HHS approved the first state plan, one for Massachusetts, last month.

Bear in mind that Ryan’s plan made the vouchers optional; seniors could choose the traditional government-run Medicare plan or opt for a private insurance plan from a federal exchange of approved insurers. Ryan also allows all seniors to choose, and didn’t force the poorest seniors to take the voucher option. Not only will Obama push just the poorest seniors into this plan, in some states they’d have to know to opt back in to traditional Medicare:

California is already counting on more than $500 million in budget savings from its own program this year. Most states are proposing to automatically enroll people. Those who don’t want to participate would need to opt out. The Massachusetts plan includes that feature.

Talk about leaving seniors — the poorest seniors! — “at the mercy of insurance companies.” And why has HHS decided to roll out this pilot program?

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