Sequester: Death Nail or Savior

Over the past few weeks we have seen the rhetoric of the Sequester ramp up and the blame game go into high gear. Sadly, the Sequester conversation could have been non-existent if Congress and President Obama enacted the results of Simpson-Bowles committee over two years ago. Trouble with Simpson-Bowles outcome is it was a true compromise; a compromise though that President Obama wasn't willing to extend. Unfortunately far to many Americans will believe the hype, the spin and the outright lies when it comes to Sequester.

Earlier in the year Congress put forth a tax bill that raised taxes on those making over $450,000 and did away with the payroll tax holiday. Granted President Obama wanted the top nominal rate to hit those making over $250,000 and the Republicans in Congress wanted it to be on those making over $1M, but a compromise was reached. Part of the compromise was that Congress and the White House work to bring spending under control.

To give enough time for Congress and the White House to cobble a plan, the Sequester was kicked down the road a bit and reset to go into effect March 1st. As Bob Woodward, probably one of the last true investigative journalists, points out in his Op-Ed from yesterday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-obamas-sequester-deal-changer/2013/02/22/c0b65b5e-7ce1-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_print.html) the brain child of Sequester falls squarely on the shoulders of the White House.

Woodward even points to an exact time and place that President Obama approved Sequester that White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew cobbled. Also pointed out is that Sequester was not to contain any revenue increases either. The agreement on Sequester was to kick the debate into 2013 as to not be an issue during the 2012 Presidential Election. The looming cuts that President Obama warned the American public about just a few days ago while flanked with men and women in uniform existed prior to the 2012 election as Sequester already hung in the balance.

Why do we give President Obama a pass? Why do people allow President Obama to blatantly lie to the American public?

So what really takes place on March 1st if nothing else is done? First off the $1.2 trillion in cuts takes place immediately and will be spread over the years til 2021. The spread will be evenly over those nine years which means that the cuts made in 2013 will be only $109 billion. The cuts will not touch existing war spending nor SSN or Medicaid. Think about that for a second $109 billion! We are running a deficit in this country of $1 Trillion a year for the past four years. How can President Obama be honest with himself as he stands before the American public claiming job loss when we will still roughly $800 billion more dollars this year than we take in?

Again take a look at the numbers. We spend over $1 trillion more today than we take in and Sequester will cut that by $109 billion dollars. Is the budget of the United States to the point that it cannot take a 10% haircut? If we cannot see a 10% reduction in the increases of debt then how are we ever going to be able to balance the budget and cut the deficit any let alone in half as President Obama promised he would have done by now?

Wake up America. Learn the truth of the spin that our Political Elite attempt to spin on us and realize that the media is not doing their jobs anymore.The Sequester will not put America back into a depression; rather $1 Trillion yearly deficit spending will!

Obama short sighted on summer job program

According to the Washington Post, “President Barak Obama promised Monday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787B stimulus plan this summer.” The big picture question is how many of these jobs will be permanent versus temporary. Back in March of this year, President Obama attended the graduation of 25 police recruits in Columbus, Ohio. At that time the Administration herald the graduation as a success of the stimulus bill. The trouble is at year end, those 25 fresh graduates will be out of a job because the Columbus City Council budget will be $120M in the red and cuts will need to be made.

America needs sustained growth in the job force. As the $787 stimulus bill was being rammed through Congress, with not one person reading it, the President’s administration was claiming the unemployment rates would not rise higher “than 8 percent”. As of the last week, we are 9.4% with the expectation that we will top out around 11%. The Washington Post further reports that, “Obama has claimed as many as 150,000 jobs saved or created by his stimulus plan so far.” Never mind the fact the economy has lost 1.6M jobs in the meantime.

At least the percentage is better than the less than 1% trimming of his $1.2T budget touted two weeks ago by the President. The vast majority of the 600,000 new jobs are for temporary work. The tasks slotted to see the majority of the 600,000 jobs are improvements in the national parks, upgrades to Veterans Affairs medical centers, establishment of new rural waste and water systems, and the cleanup of Superfund sites. The one potential long lasting job creation will be the funding to the Justice department for an additional 5,000 law enforcement jobs.
Why are we not creating sustaining jobs that will contribute to our nation’s health and recovery? Instead of focusing the temporary projects, see above; let’s focus on something more permanent and benefitual. President Obama stated in his address in Cairo last week that he had no trouble with Iran power themselves with nuclear power. Over 80% of France’s energy comes from nuclear power. Why are we not moving forward with nuclear energy?

If we repeal the Carter law on re-using spent rods, we can recycle the rods and use them an additional time thus reducing the waste product by nearly 80%. Experts say that if this is done, it would take over 100 years to fill up the approved storage site in the Yucatan Mountains. Besides, if the unmanned military space craft, which was announce yesterday, is successful we can eventually launch our waste into space.

The experts say it takes 8-10 years to build a nuclear plant that is fully operational. That is sustaining growth in job creation. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), a nuclear power plant generates “approximately $430 M in sales of goods and services in the local community and nearly $40M in total labor income.” Nuclear power plants employ between 400 to 700 permanent jobs while offering, according to NEI, “36 percent more than average salaries in the local area.” NEI estimates that during the construction phase a new nuclear power plant will create “1,400 to 1,800” jobs with a peak of 2,400.

So, why is nuclear energy not a top priority in the energy policy of President Obama? The numbers above are just for one nuclear site. Now if we start projects in every state we can increase the work force and establish roughly 35,000 permanent jobs and 900,000 jobs during the construction phase. Also, America would be creating a clean source of energy that will not increase our heating, cooling, and electric rates like the “cap and trade” energy policy of President Obama will do. Why stop at 1 new site per state? Nothing to stop us from expanding this policy to adding more and creating more jobs. California is looking at a huge budget deficit and already experiences rolling black outs, it would be two-fold for California. Let’s create jobs that have more bang for their buck.

Instead our President wants to start projects this summer that will create no revenue for the local communities and will only be a temporary job. I agree with the President that we need to secure our future on energy and become less dependent on coal. Then let’s get started. Lift the moratorium on nuclear power and repel Carters executive order on recycle spent rods so we can create sustaining jobs while creating an energy source that is “green”.

Bernanke Fires Warning

Yesterday Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned, during his testimony before the House Budget Committee, that “unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.” So, the $1.2T budget passed by Congress and signed by President Obama is not fiscally responsible? Imagine that. The notion that we can spend our way out of a recession is foolhardy.

The Washington Post reported that “Bernanke’s testimony to Congress reflected growing concern among economists and investors that the nation’s long-term fiscal imbalances could stand in the way of economic recovery by driving up the interest rates that the government, businesses and consumers pay to borrow money.” The age of 20% mortgage rate is near. Currently the Federal Reserve is printing money to pay off the debt to China and other countries lending America money. The continuation of this will lead to galloping inflation and send America into similar dire straits that Germany saw after WWI.

Have the scholars that run our country not learned anything from history? Our population is aging and the baby boomer generation is nearing the point of entitlement. Congress does need to take drastic measures, unfortunately too many of them feel it is bigger government. Government has bankrupt Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, and now the Highway fund. It is time to give Government back to the people and return to the core beliefs of our Founding Fathers.

Because if we do not, there will come a time within the Obama administration that we see tax brackets of Jimmy Carter returning. That will only hurt our economy and finally bankrupt America.