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President Obama has offered cuts in Social Security and Medicare to break the impasse over debt reduction in exchange for Republican support for increase in tax revenue.
The President has given speeches about reining in entitlement spending, but has never fully laid out his own plan for where cuts in entitlement spending will come from, he even failed to implement any recommendations from his own Debt Commission.
The real questions is what are in the details, as all discussions have been behind closed doors with little transparency, as the President campaigned on in 2008.
The nation is facing a $14 trillion dollar debt and a stagnate economy, unfortunately the one issue missing in this entire debate is job creation? If the nation seriously wants to put a dent in the ballooning federal debt then it needs to get America back to work.
Currently the unemployment rate is 9.1%, but that doesn't factor the underemployed. Tomorrow, the Labor Department releases June's unemployment rate and it will be interesting to see what the jobs report for June will be.
http://militarybriefingbook.com/topic.cfm?topic=U.S.%20Politics
Last week President Obama announced he will begin troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, but one issue left unanswered is the whereabouts of U.S. Army Soldier Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl went missing on June 30, 2009, and days later it was reported that he was captured by the Taliban, as of right now little is known of his treatment and only sporadic information has been released by the Taliban.
Everyone seems more concerned with how detainee's at Guantanamo Bay are treated, but has anyone taken the time to find out how Bowe Bergdahl is being treated. Has the International Red Cross visited him? It seems everyone is more concerned with the treatment of detainee's then about this soldier.
As a nation, we will be celebrating the nations birth, but let's not forget our brave men and women serving in harm's way, and especially the family of Bowe Bergdahl.
Lets pray for the safe return of Bowe Bergdahl.
http://militarybriefingbook.com/topic.cfm?topic=Russia%20and%20Eurasia
Partisan bickering continues, and President Obama has jumped right into the caldron of the debate over the federal debt. Yesterday, President Obama's news conference was filled with more rhetoric as he continues to blame the other side instead of upholding the dignity of the office he holds.
The American people deserve better from Washington. Both sides placed the United States in this precarious situation and both sides have to work together to solve our mounting debt. If the President wants to be serious about debt reduction, then why hasn't he submitted his own plan on debt reduction or how to rein in the enormous cost of entitlement spending?
The Ryan plan offered by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan offers a Republican alternative, but so far the President has offered nothing! The President has even failed to accept one recommendation from his own debt commission.
Time is running short, but all we get is partisan warfare and both parties setting the stage for the 2012 presidential elections. Americans deserve better!
http://militarybriefingbook.com/topic.cfm?topic=U.S.%20Politics
Last night President Obama announced his decision to bring home 10,000 U.S. forces from Afghanistan this year and 23,000 by the end of next summer. The reduction was far deeper than what military commanders in the field wanted, especially to have all the surge forces home by the end of next summer, which is right in the middle of the fighting season.
The president had made his decision to play to his political base and what was expedient without regard to what his military commanders had recommended.
The last part of the President's speech was devoted towards the need to focus on reviving the U.S. economy and doing nation building in the United States. Unfortunately, the President's own policies have contributed to the economic stagnation after having spent close to $4 trillion dollars, which included almost $1 trillion dollar stimulus policy that failed to revive the economy as the President stated it would.
President Obama is correct in saying that the economy needs to be the nation's number one priority, but the President has failed to deliver his own plan to reduce the federal debt, especially how to rein in entitlement spending. He has left that decision to others.
Again the President is only looking to his own re-election and not what is in the best interests of the nation.
http://militarybriefingbook.com/browse.cfm?category=Russia%20and%20Eurasia&subcategory=Central%20Asia
Tomorrow night President Obama will be announcing his Afghan drawdown strategy, and thee is wild speculation on how many military forces will be returning home. Military commanders want a limited reduction with the bulk of the reduction coming after next years fighting season.
The President is facing enormous pressure from his base to begin a rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan. The interesting part of the whole Afghan debate is that those who want the U.S. to leave Afghanistan had a different opinion back in 2008. In the 2008 presidential elections many debated we should send more troops to Afghanistan where the real threat to the U.S. was, not in Iraq.
Now these same politicians sound a different tune. You have to go back in time and read what both Democrats and Republicans all said regarding Afghanistan. Many have never even been there, and if they do visit Afghanistan they see and hear what they want to hear.
The U.S. has to have abroad strategy for the region and not focus only on tactics, which is the case today. We have to remember the last time the U.S. left Afghanistan and what followed afterward.
If we make a mistake we will again face the repercussions.
http://militarybriefingbook.com/browse.cfm?category=Russia%20and%20Eurasia&subcategory=Central%20Asia
In a rare dressing down, President Obama received a chilly reception from the nations business leaders and manufacturing executives. Many have complained that the president's own economic policies have contributed to the stagnate business climate in the U.S.
As business leaders voiced their grievances, the often heard complaint was the byzantine environmental regulations, failure to pass free trade deals, and the presidents consistent blaming of business for the state of the nation's economy, all contributing factors for businesses to refrain from expanding.
Currently, thousands of new regulations are in the pipeline that will have a direct impact on how business will operate in this country. The nation's largest single exporter, Boeing, is in a protracted battle with the National Labor Relations Board, which is preventing Boeing from moving a recently completed facility in South Carolina. The NLRB is trying to get the plant declared illegal because South Carolina is a right-to-work state, thus jeopardizing jobs in South Carolina.
The president's own policies have constricted the growth of business and prevented the economy from expanding and creating the necessary jobs needed to sustain a viable economic recovery.
If the president wants sustained economic growth, then end the byzantine environmental policies that have constricted economic growth, reform tax polices that impede business expansion, and help small business get the needed capital to expand and create jobs.
On Monday, it was reported that entrepreneurs have started up the fewest new businesses in more than a decade, this should be a wake up call to where the economy is headed.
http://militarybriefingbook.com/topic.cfm?topic=U.S.%20Politics
When President Obama announced his troop surge into Afghanistan in December of 2009, part of his strategy was that by July 2011, he would begin withdrawing U.S. forces from that country. That time is now due, as next month the president will begin his Afghan troop withdrawal, and the question now is how many troops will leave Afghanistan?
Everyone has an opinion on what should happen next month. Democrats want substantial troop reductions and eventually an end to the war. Republicans want it to be conditions based, but now more Republicans have been signaling that it's time to leave.
The one element that is missing in the entire debate is what is the U.S. strategy for the future of the region and for Afghanistan? Right now everyone is talking tactics and not strategy! No matter who you ask, they will be speaking about tactics in regard to how many troops should be withdrawn, even the president has been missing in what is his strategic goal for the region.
If the U.S. consistently focuses only on a tactical decision as it factors how many troops to withdraw, the U.S. will be making a strategic miscalculation of epic proportion, much like the strategic mistake that took place when it abandoned the same country after the Russians were forces to withdraw in 1989.
U.S. foreign policy the past couple of years has been missing a broad strategic vision. The presidents strategy seems to be "I am not George Bush!" The president needs to articulate a strategy on what his administration wants to accomplish in Afghanistan, and for that matter the broader region. If not we will suffer the consequences.
http://militarybriefingbook.com/browse.cfm?category=Russia%20and%20Eurasia&subcategory=Central%20Asia
