Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Republicans Take Over US Senate Gaining Seven Seats


I said it would be a cold day in Hell when the US Senate went Republican.  Well, if you consider this place Hell, it was cold this morning and calm, which flew in the face of ninety degree weather and Santa Ana winds blowing they had predicted.  It was a complete Democratic melt-down on Election Day.  The Republicans indeed picked up at least seven US Senators.  This following paragraph says it all.   By late Tuesday, Republicans had won at least 10 of the day’s 13 closely contested Senate races, more than the margin they needed to control the Senate for the first time since 2007. GOP candidates held on to seats in Georgia (Michelle Nun, highly favored, goes down), Kansas (Pat Roberts defeats independent Ormandy) and Kentucky (Mc Connell reelected and Grimes, as promising as she was, went down), and took seats held by Democrats in Iowa (meaning Joni Ernst, the hog castrater, defeated Brayley)  , Colorado (Cory Gardner feats Udall alias Mark “the uterus” Udall, where his play for women voters failed) , Arkansas (Cotton won)  Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia and North Carolina (another highly contested race).  But there were melt downs in all four key governor’s races in my mind.  Lex Luther of Florida defeated Charlie Christ.  Rick Scott is in for another term.  The dreaded Scott Walker of Wisconsin was reelected,  and the biggest heartbreaker of all Pat Quinn lost to Rouner, and also Wendy Davis lost in Texas to that Abott fellow- - the devil incarnate.  Governor La Page was reelected in Maine. If there was ANY bright spot - - Scott Brown lost in New Hampshire- - a lower priority race in my mind.  The Republicans also are slated to pick up twelve House seats, so I was wrong there, too.  But marijuana initiatives gave thumbs up to the weed in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC so there is a rising tide of legal marijuana.

The minimum wage was just voted to be raised in four red states, Alaska, Arkansas, South Dakota and Nebraska.  How strange it is that they will vote to raise the pay in their own state, but send people to congress that will prevent it from ever happening nationally.  It’s like people love their Kynnect medical care in Kentucky but put a guy back in power that will “rip out Obama Care, root and branch” in Mc Connell.  The idea of Grimes not tying herself to this accomplishment in Kentucky- is nothing sort of silly.  It’s also nothing short of silly that people who ARE prospering from this economy like “Made in America” on ABC news- - that these people and others would not be summoned up to say “You people don’t have it so bad”.  Again, we know that the Republicans are the ones dragging their feet on all economic stimuli.

We have Governor Christie doing what he does best, sitting in the lime light on the Today show giving his expert analysis - - or is that anal-isis.   We’re going to hear the words “schlacking’ and “Republican rout” a lot today.    Now it’s predicted that President Obama may indeed “work with” the Republicans just like Clinton did when he deregulated Wall Street after the election of 1998.  I only hope we don’t see an equivalent disaster this time, such as the President suddenly deciding he’s now all for the XL Trans Canadian Pipeline.   They say that the Republicans have the biggest majority in the house picking up an additional thirteen seats, that they’ve had in eighty years.  With a little luck maybe we can bring back the chaos of 1929.  I’m going to make it a point to be mentioning Hartman’s “Crash of 2016 Book” more often now.  So you were bored with steady economic growth and other good news that has been enumerated - - so now I say “I don’t care”.  It’s a case of “Fall Mountains - - Just Don’t Fall on Me”.

Stewart Sutcliffe and Dennis Wilson paid me a visit this morning.  Dennis “wanted to see how I was” because he’s bumbed about the elections and he assumed (correctly) that I was, too.  There are tons of headlines on Sirius A about the election not that it’s a done deal.  The people there think we have gone completely nuts.  Stu pointed out that Obama’s track record is really not the sort – “as little as I think of him personally” that would warrant such a Republican rout.  It makes no sense, but here for blog readers, is the list of fourteen things you didn’t know about the accomplishments of the past six years- making it a better world than you might think.  But the President showed such a wholesale lack of character in not fighting for or defending his own ideas driven by the most craven of emotions playing "not to lose" yesterday - - and we know when football teams play "not to lose" they lose.  So the President kept secret what the insurance rates would be for Obama Care next year rather than discuss it, or the immigration executive order he backed out of thinking he was "playing it smart" and also not appearing with hardly any democratic candidates,  President Bush would have never lost a chance to appear for Republicans during his term.   One might wonder whether the President is downright delusional and today he's waking up from a hangover.  This is strictly my own oppinion.  Now of course the Republicans are forced to do something they've never had to do and that's to actually Lead- - - in Some direction.   It's easier to block the agenda of others than to actually try and get your own stated "campaign promises" adopted.

Fourteen Facts About The Obama Presidency That Most People Don’t Know

People have many perceptions of how the US economy or the country as a whole is doing in recent years. Depending on your political views, you may think the country is doing exceptionally well or on the verge of collapse.
Listed below are 14 objective facts, without interjecting any opinion, about the state of America under the leadership of President Obama. Every statement is followed up with a link to a source where you can verify these facts for yourself.
1. We've now had 63 straight months of economic expansion.
That’s right, for 63 consecutive months the US economy has gotten progressively better. That includes 54 consecutive months of private sector job growth. Forbes magazine, no fan of President Obama, crunched the numbers and demonstrated how the economic recovery under President Obama has been better in just about every measurable way than the recovery under President Reagan.
2. We are currently enjoying the longest period of private sector job creation in American history.
Again, this statistic comes from the Forbes Magazine article listed above. In fact, we have now had 54 straight months of private sector job creation. That is the longest period of job creation since the Department of Labor has been keeping statistics. See the link below.
3. Unemployment has dropped from 10.1% in October of 2009 to 5.9% and projected to reach 5.4% by summer of 2015.
Not only has the unemployment rate dropped significantly, but since the recession ended, our economy as added over ten million new jobs. You can refer to the Forbes article above or check this article on PoliticsUSA.
4. The stock market continues to set new records since President Obama has been in office.
Since early 2009 there has been a steady trend in stock market growth. The Dow Jones Industrial averages reached an all-time high of 17,098 in August, 2014. Since most Americans have 401K retirement investments in the stock market, this stock market growth benefits millions of middle class Americans.
5. The Federal budget deficit is shrinking. It’s been reduced by two-thirds since 2009.
The $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit that Obama inherited in 2009 was in a large part due to the high rate of unemployment. When millions of people were put out of work in 2008 and 2009, it resulted in far less income taxes and less economic activity to generate federal revenue. As ten million people have been put back to work, there have been billions more tax dollars generated. As a result, the deficit has been shrinking each year. The 2014 deficit is projected to be around $500 billion, the smallest deficit since 2007 and roughly 1/3 of what it was in 2009.
6. Under President Obama, spending has increased only 1.4% annually, the lowest rate since Eisenhower was president.
You may have heard critics say that President Obama is spending money wildly and running up our debt. According to this article from Forbes, Obama has increased spending by 1.4% annually, far less than President Reagan (8.7%) or George W. Bush (8.1%). In fact, Obama has increased spending less than any president since Eisenhower.
7. For 95% of American taxpayers, income taxes are lower now than just about any time in the previous 50 years.
After President Obama took office, thousands of Tea Party members all over the country held rallies protesting Obama’s tax increases. At that time, President Obama had actually passed several tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Most of the Tea Partiers who were protesting had only seen their taxes decrease under Obama. Yet polls indicated that most Tea Party members wrongly believed their taxes had gone up.
In fact, the only people whose income taxes have gone up during Obama’s presidency are those making $400,000 per year or more. That's less than 2% of the population. Today, for the vast majority of people, tax rates are exactly where they were when Obama first took office or lower. The article below from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains this in greater detail.
8. Our dependence on foreign oil has shrunk due to record domestic oil production and improved fuel efficiency standards.
While some people claim that oil production has declined under President Obama, the truth is just the opposite. Oil production has reached record highs. The United States now produces so much oil that we export more oil and gasoline than we import.
9. At least 7 million more Americans now have health insurance than before.
Depending on whose numbers you use, between 7 and 10 million Americans acquired health insurance due to the Affordable Care Act. Now that those 7 to 10 million Americans have insurance, the rest of us are no longer on the hook to pay for their health care when they get sick. This saves the American people billions of dollars in the long run.
10. The Affordable Care Act has added years to the life of Medicare.
The Medicare trust fund had been on course to run out of money by the end of 2016. But due to cost savings from the Affordable Care Act and lower healthcare expenses, Medicare’s trust fund is now stable until the year 2030 without cutting benefits.
11. Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, we are seeing the slowest rate of increase in healthcare costs since 1960.
Contrary to the predictions from Republicans, health care costs have increased at a much slower pace since the passage of the ACA.
12. We currently have fewer soldiers, sailors and airmen in war zones than any time in over 10 years.
With the end of the Iraq war and the steady withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, we have fewer people in war zones now than any time since 2002.
13. There have been zero successful attacks by al Qaeda on US soil since Obama became president.
Despite Dick Cheney’s claim that if voters elect a Democrat as president, we’ll be “hit again and hit hard” by al Qaeda, we have actually been far safer from terrorist attacks on US soil in recent years than we were under the previous president. There have been several unsuccessful attacks against the US under both presidents, but under Obama, al Qaeda has been largely unsuccessful in striking the US on our home soil.
14. We now successfully catch and deport more illegal immigrants than ever before.
Despite the publicity from busloads of children who illegally entered the country, the numbers prove that President Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any other president.
All of the facts stated above can be confirmed through multiple sources, yet most Americans are not aware of all of this positive news. I invite you to do your own research and check these facts for yourself.
The truth is, most other presidents would envy President Obama’s record despite the fact that he inherited the worst economic crash since the Great Depression.
Here's a bonus. If you feel particularly ambitious, feel free to research these additional facts.
1.    Since Obama became president, our economy has gone from losing 800,000 jobs per month to adding 200,000 jobs per month. That’s a net improvement under Obama of about 1 million jobs per month!
2.    Before Obama became president, our financial system was in ruins and millions of people were at risk of losing their life savings. Now, the financial loopholes have been fixed and we are no longer at risk of another financial collapse.
3.    In 5 years under Obama the economy has created twice as many jobs as were created in 8 years under George W. Bush.
4.    President Obama passed credit card reforms that protects consumers from excessive fees, rate hikes, deceptive marketing and unreasonable due dates.
5.    Thanks to “Obamacare”, senior citizens have saved billions of dollars on prescription drugs.
6.    The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of your premiums on health care. As a result millions of Americans have received refunds from their health insurance companies.
Despite the unprecedented obstructionism and record number of filibusters used by Republicans to kill even the most routine legislation, the fact remains, in almost every measurable way, the American people are profoundly better off today than they were before President Obama took office.
SO YOU DETRACTORS CAN JUST SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!

No comments: