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As the race for the mid-term election reaches its pinnacle point on November 2nd, the focal point of this election has been on one singular issue; the economy. The economy has dominated the coverage, with each candidate running for U.S. Congress and the Senate stating what he or she will do to revive the stagnant U.S. economy.
The publics overriding concern this election has been the economy and unemployment. Afghanistan and terrorism have ranked near the bottom of concern for most people. The economy is foremost in people’s minds and they want Washington to solve this now!
Left completely out of the debate is any mention of Afghanistan, Iraq, or what should our policy be toward China. Considering that China artificially keeps its currency at a lower level against western currency, therefore making its imports in to the U.S. cheaper, but more expensive for U.S. imports. This equates to job losses for U.S. citizens, and guess what - not even mentioned in any campaign.
In 2011, international trade deals will need to be re-negotiated with Latin America, Korea and other nations. Other nations such as China are moving in to fill the gap left by the U.S., preventing the creation of jobs in the U.S. and again - no mention of it in any campaign.
Immigration gets a mention only in campaign commercials, but no serious discussion on solutions of what Mexico’s responsibility should be?
“Has there been a serious exchange between any candidates—Tea Party, Republican, Vegetarian, Libertarian, Democrat, Bureaucrat—about what we should be doing with Iran?” asks Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham South Carolina (who is not up for reelection this year). He said, “Have you seen one commercial about whether our Afghan strategy is good or bad? We’re within days, literally, of a major shift in power in Washington,” Graham told an audience in the capital recently, “and you would never know that this nation is involved in two wars, and looming threats face us all that could change the course of humanity and mankind.”
In December, the White House will conduct its planned Afghanistan strategy review to provide an assessment of the counterinsurgency strategy begun by General Stanley McChrystal, and now overseen by General David Petraeus. This after the president committed an additional 30,000 troops as part of his planned surge strategy articulated in December 2009. Items barely mentioned by either candidate or even the president.
Failure to focus on foreign policy has haunted the United States in the past. At the end of World War I the U.S. rejected the League of Nations and retreated inward and allowed a resurrected Germany to threaten world peace. At the end of the Cold War, and the stunning victory in the Gulf War, the U.S. moved to focus on internal domestic matters.
American leadership is pivotal in world politics, even President Obama campaigned on building global leadership, partnering with allies and reaching out to America’s enemies. The president has failed to convey to the public the need for active involvement in world affairs. Rarely has the president spoken on Iraq, Afghanistan, or any foreign issues except when it reaches a crisis point. The president then pivots to other topics, leaving the situation to simmer, turning a blind eye to the heated climate, until the situation escalates to a boiling point.
After removing itself from its bloody intervention in Somalia, and having forced the Russians out of Afghanistan, the U.S. retreated back to focusing on domestic issues. Without U.S. leadership, the Taliban was able to take over and allow Al Qaeda to rise, and before September 11th terrorism was seen as a minor issue to Americans and U.S. policy makers.
The U.S. needs to force candidates running for U.S. Congress and the Senate to address how they would deal with these pressing issues. If the president is not addressing them, then how can we expect anyone else to?
Sometimes it takes an event to wake America up to the dangers around us.
Foreign Policy and the 2010 Midterms Elections
Next week Americans vote in the mid-term elections, where the economy and other domestic issues have dominated the headline’s. Almost scant attention has been paid to the war in Afghanistan. Polls have repeatedly shown that an increasing number of Americans are more concerned with jobs and the economy than some far distant war, with which most Americans have little or no connection.
Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the war, are reluctant to criticize the president for escalating the conflict. Republicans support the war, criticize the troop deadline, but don’t want to be on record of supporting the president.
Whatever happens on Tuesday, the war in Afghanistan and other foreign policy issues will dominate the headlines. In December, the Afghan strategy review will be released. Next year, most of the military’s senior generals on the Joint Chiefs of staff will be retiring, along with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
The president will be making major foreign policy decisions, but with a substantially reduced majority in the Senate. The president has not really focused on foreign policy issues, and when he does, its only when he is forced to. Next year will be a very crucial year in how the president deals with all these foreign challenges, and each has bearing on domestic policies.
2011 will be a crucial year!
With the mid-term election just a week away, the public is concerned with only one thing- the economy; so why do we continually stifle the growth of small business?
Across the country, politics enacted by Washington, state, and local government, make it extremely difficult for small businesses to operate and to be established. This election candidates continually strive to state how many jobs they have saved or created, but how much is rhetoric, and how much is fact.
Elected officials in both political parties need to understand that small businesses account for 80% of all jobs in America, but all too often politicians grovel at the feet of major corporations and leave small business in the cold.
If this country wants a revived economy; then help small business!
The mid-term elections are days away. The public is currently bombarded by an onslaught of campaign commercials which oftentimes paint a distorted caricature of the candidates and their positions.
Both political parties say the other party is too extreme. Democrats blame the Republicans for the current economic mess while Republicans charge Democrats for out-of-control government spending and a skyrocketing national debt.
The real culprit for the economic stagnation and high unemployment is both Democrats and Republicans. Each party is equally at fault for the financial mess we are in. In other words, this economic meltdown is the result of both Democrats and Republicans caring more for their own constituencies then for the American people.
The country is facing enormous challenges with persistent unemployment and record debt. The U.S. need only look across the ocean toward Europe and witness the calamity of their out-of-control government spending on entitlement programs. For decades European nations had generous benefits of entitlement programs which guaranteed them a cradle-to-grave benefit plan.
Unfortunately, the U.S. is currently heading down the same misguided path as the Europeans, spending lavishly on earmarks and entitlements without an established payment plan. The cancer of deficit spending has spread to states and local governments across the country. How can the U.S. ever expect to recover economically when some of its largest states are virtually broke and show no signs of improvement?
California is one of those states that is virtually broke. It boasts a $1.8 trillion economy and 13 percent of the U.S. economic output, but it’s penniless. Why!
This fiscal malaise is not only affecting the Not-So Golden State but also Nevada, New York, and others as well. All are broke and they're showing no signs of getting better. Why!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. However, Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same period. Instead of treating businesses like they the enemy, Texas actually made it viable for businesses to grow. And they didn't do with new taxes and more regulations, either.
President Obama came into office on the mantra of “Change We Can Believe In.” Yet, the only change we have seen thus far is increased unemployment, more regulations and a health care reform bill that is weighed down in costs.
Let's hope by next week the new crop of legislative leaders will quit pointing the finger at each other and get to work in fixing this economic mess.
According to federal regulators, the federal bailout for Fannie and Freddie Mac could double in size in the next three years. Both federally controlled mortgage fiance` giants would probably need at least another $73 billion dollars, and perhaps need as much as $215 billion from taxpayers.
Fannie and Freddie were seized by federal regulators in September 2008 as the crisis in the housing market threatened to topple them. The Bush administration pledged $200 billion to keep them solvent. Early on, the Obama administration doubled that number to $400 billion, and then late last year made an unlimited pledge of support.
The interesting part of this whole story, and barely covered by the media, is last week President Obama named Tom Donilon as National Security Advisor, replacing General James Jones. Tom Donilon was the top lobbyist for Fannie Mae during the housing bubble, and helped prevent any restrictions or curbs into its practices in the housing market. Donilon was a lobbyist for O'Melveny and Myers, where Fannie Mae was a client. Seeing his influence and contributions to our national debt, it's frighting to think what he will bring to our national security.
This again goes counter to what the president stated during the campaign, that no lobbyist would be working in his administration; that promise has gone by the way side. The taxpayers are the real victims. Ironically, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were conveniently left out of the recently passed financial overhaul legislation this summer. If they don't think that the national debt is a security threat now- hold on to your hat.
In the spring, the president signed his signature legislation of his administration by enacting comprehensive health care legislation, which changed the very nature of health care in this country. The main focal point of the this new legislation was the expand care for millions of uninsured Americans; now we are seeing the unintended consequence of health care reform.
On Monday, Boeing, the largest employer of jobs in Seattle, Washington, and America’s number one exporter of manufacturing, has sent a letter to its non-union employee’s and is asking workers to pay more for their health care plan.
Boeing is the latest in a long list of major companies who have began to shift more of health care cost to its workers as a direct result of the signature issue and crowning accomplishment of President Obama’s first two years in office. Earlier, McDonald's had raised questions about whether a limited benefit plan that serves some 30,000 of its employees, would remain viable under the law. That prompted the administration to issue McDonald's a waiver from certain requirements under the law.
What the president failed to address in his approach to health care reform is how this would be paid for, for as we all know, you can’t get something for nothing. The current reform measure signed by the president does nothing to control cost and only adds another unfunded entitlement program to an already ballooning national debt.
As time passes we will see more ill effects of this health care reform legislation, and more businesses like Boeing will force workers to pay for the cost of their health care. Washington simply refuses to acknowledge that businesses have to be competitive with the competition or they will not be able to survive.
Too often Washington passes major legislation to curry favor with a limited group, as was the case with the Bush administrations prescription drug plan in 2003, and 2004. Now the Obama administration is doing exactly the same thing that he criticized the Bush administration from doing. Nothing in this reform measure control costs.
The president never included tort reform, prevention of insurance companies from competing across state lines, or any wellness into health care reform. Many of our health care problems are self inflicted, with two-thirds of Americans over weight and one-third obese. Most of the diseases which are preventable account for 70% of all health care spending. Unfortunately, under the president’s health care reform measure, none of these items were in it or even discussed.
All this has unintended consequences for Democrats and especially Senator Patty Murray, who is in a tough re-election fight in Washington State against challenger Dino Rossi. In a recent debate she commented that she supported health care legislation, and she helped write health care reform. Voters might want to hold her and other Democrats responsible for passing legislation that does nothing to control health care costs, stifles job creation, and adds billions to an already ballooning debt, which will now threaten the security of this country.
You can’t get something for nothing!
With only weeks away from the mid-term elections, campaign commercials have flooded the airwaves from both parties which have been contradictory or misleading. Both political parties have pursued a strategy of blaming each other for the financial crisis and the slow rate of recovery of the nations economy.
The real problem seems to be that both political parties have contributed to the financial mess we find ourselves in. President Obama routinely blames the polices of the Bush administration for the financial crisis, and there is some validity to this. President Bush pursued a reckless policy of expanding government programs which exploded the national debt.
In 2003, President Bush pushed through Congress a prescription drug program purely on partisan votes that had no intention of being paid for, and left the nation with additional entitlement spending, which only added to the federal debt.
President Obama, created the stagnation of making the cure worse than the disease. His policy of over regulation, higher taxes, pursuit of health care reform that never would reform the system, and only gave America an entitlement program which is not paid for, and even now its impact on businesses is being felt.
Both administrations increased the national debt and with it threatens our national security. It should cause Americans concern when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State, and Defense Secretary all state the national debt is America’s greatest security threat.
The fiscal mess in Washington has now spread like a cancer to state and local governments. How can the nation rebound from its financial mess when many of the largest states are wallowing in fiscal quicksand of government overspending and anti business policies which have contributed to high state of unemployment.
Many states are saddled with high pension cost which were never paid for, and now the states are facing these increased unfunded liabilities which have stifled economic growth.
Too often Washington blames big business for moving jobs overseas, but what have they done to retain business in this country? California is the largest state in the purchase of autos, but does not manufacture an auto’s - why not?
If America wants to transform its economy, then start helping small business. Create the environment where entrepreneurs can invest in the new businesses of tomorrow. If we don’t, then we will suffer the consequence of a California style economic meltdown!
Yesterday, a federal judge ordered an immediate end Tuesday to the Pentagon enforcement of its ban on openly gay service members, rejecting the Obama administration's argument that an injunction to stop the "don't ask, don't tell" policy might harm military readiness.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips in California marks the first time that the controversial policy-which forbids the military to ask about a service member's sexual orientation but retains a ban on gays serving openly--has been halted.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates declined to answer directly when asked Wednesday whether the administration should appeal. But he said he wants to proceed with his preferred approach: to allow the Defense Department to complete, by Dec 1, a review of how to integrate gay men and lesbians in the armed forces, followed by an act of Congress that would overturn the don't ask, don't-tell law.
Gates said the Pentagon needed until Dec 1. to study and resolve questions such as whether heterosexual troops would be required to share housing with gays and whether the military would be required to provide benefits for partner of gay service members.
No matter what this issue will continue into next year.
On Friday, President Obama chose Tom Donilon to replace outgoing National Security Adviser General James Jones. The major media affiliates commented on this choice and how there were some potential friction between Tom Donilon and the miltiary.
Most of the friction came from revelations in Bob Woodward's book, "Obama's War's", which highlight tension between the military and Tom Donilon, especially related to the fact that Mr. Donilon had never visited Iraq, Afghanistan, or had met any foreign leaders he routinely comments about.
The biggest area of concern, which was only mentioned in passing, was the fact that Mr. Donilon worked for the mortgage giant Fannie Mae from 2000 to 2005. In a government report, Mr. Donilon was accused of leading a campaign against investigations into accounting irregularities at Fannie Mae, which would later receive billions in financial bailout money from the federal government.
Is this the best person the president could have appointed for this sensitive position at a time when the U.S. has multiple challenges abroad? The president promised in his campaign that no lobbyist would be in his administration. So far, the Deputy Secretary of Defense was a lobbyist at Raytheon, now Tom Donilon, who was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae. I guess what is said on the campaign trail falls victim to partisan politics and governance.
It's no wonder the public is very cynical of politics, and perhaps why the presidents poll numbers are so low after saying one thing, and then doing something completely different.
The unemployment numbers just released by the Labor Department show that the nation's economy is stuck in a spiraling quicksand of pessimistic news on employment. Private employers added only 64,000 jobs, with the loss of 159,000 government jobs, and overall employers shed 95,000 jobs in September.
This should come as no surprise to anyone! Businesses across the country are sitting on some $3 trillion dollars in assets, but unwilling to unleash this capital for fear of what the unknown is. Right now Congress failed to extend or vote on the Bush era tax cuts set to expire on Jan 1, 2011. Congress left this vote until after the mid-term elections.
Failure to vote on whether to extend or even debate this issue has left uncertainty as what the tax rates will be for the next year. by not dealing with this issue, Congress, by its abdication of its responsibility, will have guaranteed that all Americans will receive a tax increase next year.
Washington just doesn't get it! If you want job growth then start helping small business, who create and employ 80% of Americans across the country. This president and his administration seem to be clueless on how an economy works. It's odd that no one on his economic team has ever run a business, I have more business experience then everyone who advises him. That's sad!
Help small business and you help America!
Yesterday, President Obama awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously to a Green Beret who sacrificed his life to save his fellow soldiers while battling insurgents in Afghanistan.
Staff Sergeant Robert Miller's unit was ambushed on Jan. 25, 2008, during a predawn reconnaissance mission in Gowardesh, by enemy fighters who assaulted them from above. Under withering fire, Staff Sergeant Miller charged forward and drew fire away from his fellow soldiers. Even after he was shot, he continued returning fire to allow his team to pull back.
President Obama presented the medal to Staff Sergeant Miller's family in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. "you gave your oldest son to America," he told the soldier's parents, Phil and Maureen Miller, "and America is forever in your debt."
Too often real heroes get overlooked in favor of Hollywood celebrities, the real heroes are those like Staff Sergeant Miller and the thousands of men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many other places around the globe. They should not be relegated to second tier status behind the entertainment industry. Let's remember that some gave all while others gave nothing!
Today, an argument brought before the U.S. Supreme Court will decide in Snyder v. Phelps, a case regarding the first amendment rights of free speech vs. those of privacy.
The argument has been brought to the highest court in the land by the parents of Marine Corps Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq in 2006. Members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, led by controversial minister Rev. Fred Phelps, traveled 1,000 miles to demonstrate at the funeral of Lcpl Snyder. Members of the church stood near where the funeral was held, waving signs that said "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "God Hates Fags" and "God Hates You."
A poem was placed on the internet entitled "The Burden of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder," which states that Matthew's parents "taught Matthew to defy his creator" and "raised him for the devil."
A Maryland jury ruled in favor of the Snyder family, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond overturned the damages from the previous court ruling, and the Snyder family appealed to the Supreme Court.
No one will know how the the U.S. Supreme Court will rule, but one has to be careful on tampering with free speech rights. However, too often groups hide behind the constitution to pervert their own agenda. The rights of the Snyder family were violated when Rev. Phelps and his followers disrupted the funeral of their son. The court must also look at the emotional strain on the Snyder family at the same time, having to lay their son to rest and then have to deal with protesters.
Rev. Phelps needs to confine his protest to those in Washington not our fallen heroes. How would you rule?
Too many American's, military service is an alien concept which has gone the way of the VCR, but for a few it's a way of life. Many of the elite campuses across the nation have banned ROTC from participating, including various Ivy league schools. Harvard has banned the Reserve Officers' Training Corps from campus since the Vietnam conflict, and the few students who participate--by traveling to MIT to take corps classes--feel an awkward distance from their own college.
Drew Faust, Harvard president, drew renewed attention to Harvard's awkward relationship with the military two weeks ago when he said, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps will be banned from campus until gay men and women are allowed to serve openly in the armed forces.
First the ban was in response to the Vietnam War, but that ended in 1973, why wasn't it reinstated? Now it's because of the military's policy on allowing gay men and women to serve openly. It will always be something!
It's too bad that we speak of freedom, and then in the very next breath condemn those who provide the freedom we so cherish. The armed forces of this nation are fighting for the very freedom we hold dear, but unfortunately the nation doesn't feel the same way. How many of us know someone in their immediate family who has served in both Iraq or Afghanistan? Or for that matter serve in the armed forces today? The military is for someone else's child. The situation above will not even cause a ripple of concern--how sad!
The partisan battle is heating up to a feverish pitch. Both political parties are jockeying for position over who is better at handling the nation’s economy. The President recently accused the Republicans of running the country into the ditch while Republicans say the Democrat spending spree is out of control.
However, one issue that has neither party taking any responsibility is the mounting federal debt. That is, the total amount of money owed by the government. Each party blames the other.
Ironically, one voice that no one would ever expect to join the debate is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. In a recent stop to the Midwest, Admiral Mullen stated to a group of business leaders, "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt."
Let me underscore that again: Our military’s top commander says the greatest threat to this nation’s security is our federal debt. Our National Debt topples at nearly $13 trillion. In two years the interest alone on the debt will equal the size of the Defense Department’s entire budget of $600 billion. In fact, our situation is so dire that we’ve had to reach out to China to finance over $800 billion of U.S. debt obligations.
The climate in Washington is saturated with partisan warfare as both parties fail to grapple this impending national crisis. The current administration claims they are not to blame for this economic mess; instead, it’s the previous administration’s fault. They consistently point out the tax cuts for the wealthy as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars which begun during the Bush era.
That argument has merit. The Bush Administration was reckless with the federal budget. When President Bush was inaugurated the National Debt stood at nearly $6 trillion. Adding to that debt was an onerous prescription drug plan - another unfunded entitlement program.
When President Obama was sworn in the National debt topped out at $10.6 trillion. However, this Administration has had its own share of generous spending policies, including the hundreds of billions of dollars financing the stimulus spending plan, cash for clunker program, bailouts for corporations and banks well as an unfunded health care plan.
In February 2010, President Obama signed an Executive Order to create a bipartisan debt commission of 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans on how to deal with the National Debt. It’s headed by retired Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who made it clear that everything is on the table including the highly controversial entitlement reform. They are to derive solutions to balance the federal budget by 2015.
If the commission is to have any success at all they have to include all elements of the budget. They must be willing to sacrifice any and all sacred programs. When push comes to shove, it’s not going to happen. We will never see sacred entitlement programs sacrificed on the National Debt altar. That’s why I believe this commission is more show than substance.
Leaders of both parties have endangered the security of this country by enacting spending bills that serve partisan interests at the expense of the country’s economic well being. Awash with debt the Obama Administration now wants another stimulus bill to help beleaguered state governments.
The cancer of reckless government spending has infected various states with the largest virtually bankrupt and groveling for more additional fiscal help, but doing nothing to solve the fundamental problem; government overspending.
California is the poster child for reckless spending! Look at the fiasco surrounding the Southern California City of Bell and its salary and pension payments to government officials.
If you research the spending practices of various state governments across the nation you will be shocked at the outrageous amount of questionable budgetary spending.
If the nation is going to recovery economically it has to curb its appetite for spending and spur economic growth and positive business policies. As much as the Administration thinks its economic agenda is moving in the right direction one only has to look at the anemic second quarter of 1.6 % growth.
I tend to agree with Admiral Mullen. The debt is threatening our national security. It’d be wise for government leaders to lend an ear and listen to the good Admiral. Otherwise, we will continue down the same dangerous road of economic stagnation – a road that dangerously threatens the security of this great nation.
