The Economy – The good news is that the unemployment rate has dropped to 9.5% or about 7.9 million unemployed people. The bad news is that the true unemployment rate is at 16.5% or nearly 15 million people without work. And what’s worse, the average worker is only putting in about 34 hours per week meaning many people are in temporary jobs. In other news, Nancy Pelosi is on record spewing her economic genius claiming the best way to create jobs is through unemployment checks. In other news, the Democrats passed a 1.12 trillion dollar pseudo budget. In essence they deemed a non existent budget as being passed so they can continue to spend taxpayer money. Finally, Virginia, a year after electing Bob McDonnell, is operating a surplus.
Swine Flu – The Swine Flu epidemic last year has cost us billions in wasted revenue. At least 40 million doses of the vaccine were thrown out because they manufactured too late. This is another example of why big government cannot be trusted to manage a crisis.
Oil Spill – Reports are surfacing that the Obama administration has been misleading the public about clean up efforts. One White House report said that 140 skimmers were operational in one region. A fly over indicated that only 31 skimmers were working. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) claims it is highly unlikely the spill will reach the eastern seaboard. Also, the Obama administration lost its appeal on the 6 month drilling moratorium that they have been trying to enact. Finally, some terrific news, BP is reporting the leak has been successfully capped!!
Lockerbie Bomber – Al Megrahi, the man who killed 289 people, served 10 years and was released because he was ill and only had 3 months to live. Well, as it turns out, Al Megrahi is doing well and can live years longer in freedom. What travesty of justice.
NASA – Charles Bolden, Obama’s NASA administrator, said on an interview on Al Jazeera TV that his main objective is to improve Muslim – U.S. relations. I kid you not, this absolutely crazy. Is this administration misguided or what?
Congress – The House has passed a plethora of progressive bills that the Senate will not take up because they no longer have a super majority.
Tax Hikes – When the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year those in the 10% bracket will now be at in a 15% bracket, 25% will be 28%, 28% will be 31%, 33% will be 36%, and 35% will be 39.6%.
White House – The White House payroll for 469 employees is nearly 40 million dollars.
Recess Appointments – Obama appointed Craig Becker, a union organizer as head of the National Labor Board. At the same time Obama appointed Donald Berwick, an expert on healthcare rationing, as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service. Since they are recess appointments they will avoid Senate confirmation hearings. Recess appointments are a common practice by Presidents (this is an abused Constitutional power that was placed in the Constitution because it was not uncommon for Congress to be in recess for 6 months in the 18th and 19th centuries). But generally, the president uses this power after the Senate has held a confirmation hearing and denies the appointee the post.
Elections – Obama’s approval rating is down to 38% for independents. This is down 20% since his election.
Citizens United – It seems all that progressive worrying about corporate spending on campaign finance is no big deal since unions are outspending corporations thus far in the upcoming midterm elections.
Financial Reform – The new financial reform bill has provisions to force quotas on big financial institutions to hire women and minorities. With Senator Brown from Massachusetts and Snowe from Maine jumping on the liberal bandwagon, the bill passed.
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