Debt Limit - A Guide to The Federal Debt Made Easy

The United States debt limit explained. A satirical short film taking a look at the national debt and how it applies to just one family.

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Kate Obenshain - Sequester Blame Game Analzyed

Kate Obenshain is a conservative political commentator and Vice President of Young America's Foundation.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama brushed off a Republican plan Tuesday (2-26-2013) to give him flexibility to allocate $85 billion in looming spending cuts, wanting no part of a deal that would force him to choose between the bad and the terrible.

"These cuts are wrong. They're not smart, they're not fair. They're a self-inflicted wound that doesn't have to happen," Obama said at Newport News, VA (2/26/13) What he did not say was that 'Sequestration was his idea and was signed and passed into law by him.

Aired 2/26/2013

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Crystal Wright - Sequester was Obama’s Idea - Make him Own it!

President Obama is good at spending money and very adroit at blaming Republicans for the many failures of his presidency. Four years under his belt and another four to go and Obama continues the blame game with gusto. Now Obama is topping his own standard of hypocrisy and blaming the $1.2 trillion sequester on Republicans when the idea was Obama’s in 2011.

“And that’s why it’s so troubling that just 10 days from now, Congress might allow a series of automatic, severe budget cuts to take place that will do the exact opposite,” declared his Royal Highness Obama.

Let’s get this straight, it’s Congress’ fault sequestration, also known as the automatic spending cuts, is about to happen even though it was Obama’s idea? Apparently, Obama also never said in November 2011: “I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts, domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.”

Oh, well he’s Obama and the media doesn't hold him accountable to a record much less his words. The first round of $85 billion in yearly automatic cuts for the next ten years is set to rip March 1, 2013. In his usual haughty tone of denying culpability, Obama continued:

“So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction -- people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again."

If the sequester isn't “fair”, why didn't the president get serious about solving the problem of government spending and debt in 2011 during the debt ceiling talks? Instead, Obama proposed the sequester to which Republicans in Congress objected in favor of serious budget belt-tightening?

In the summer of 2011, Obama waged a PR war demanding Republicans in Congress raise the nation’s debt ceiling (its ability to borrow) so Obama could spend more money. Republicans said they would only raise the debt ceiling (now $16.5 trillion) if Obama agreed to cut government spending. When the two sides couldn't agree to significant cuts and Obama rejected House Speaker Boehner’s offer to raise $800 billion in taxes, the White House proposed “sequestration.”

If the sequester, again OBAMA’S IDEA (see page 326, The Price of Politics), isn't “smart” and “will hurt our economy” why didn't Obama deal with it in January 2013 instead of demanding $600 billion in tax increases on higher earners over 10 years. This amounts to $60 billion a year, which will pay down less than 5% of Obama’s $1trillion yearly deficits/over spending habit.

Obama didn't want to deal with the sequester in January so Congress kicked the can down the road until March 1, 2013. Voila, here we are less than 10 days away from sequestration with the Commander in Chief once again demanding action from Congress, as if he is a bystander to government not part of it. Half of the $85 billion in cuts would come from Defense and the other half from discretionary domestic spending, which is only a 5% cut. The Wall Street Journal calls it The Unscary Sequester, reminding readers Hurricane Sandy aid was $60 billion to put things in perspective.

We've seen this act before from Obama: 2012 and 2010 Bush tax cut stand off, 2009 stimulus, Obamacare, Dodd Frank, etc. His script is always the same, “Congress do it, do it now. Republicans you are getting in my way, you are bad. I’m the first black president. I deserve anything I want and will not be held to the same standards of my predecessors.”

This is what Obama is saying and he’s getting away with it. Why? Because Obama enjoys a “fawning media” who perpetuates his preposterous narrative and because Republicans are lousy at PR.

Republicans fail to stay on message. Instead of telling their own story, Republicans always chase Obama’s narrative of himself and the GOP. Over the past four years, particularly during the 2012 presidential race, Obama was deft at changing the subject from his failures to the gender, race and class wars, Bush, Romney’s taxes, etc.

How does the GOP beat a media maverick like Obama? First, Republicans need to let sequestration happen and force Obama to take responsibility for the mess he’s created. Second, House Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell need create a consistent message and tell their team to stick with it!

For example: “This president refuses to get serious about the real issues facing this country and instead wants to play the blame game, passing the buck like he’s not a part of the problem but a bystander to it.”

“The sequester makes no cuts to mandatory or entitlement spending which according to the Congressional Budget Office , are the main drivers of our unsustainable debt for the next 75 years.”

“Since he became president in 2009, Obama has added $6 trillion to our debt, which stands at $16.5 trillion. He has refused to cut government spending even though the Congressional Budget Office warns our debt threatens the country’s future.”

“If unemployment remains above 7.5%, as the Congressional Budget Office projects through 2014, it will be the longest period in 70 years and the sixth straight year under Obama’s presidency the jobless rate has stayed above 7.5%.”

With a lousy record like Obama’s: persistently high unemployment, largest debt since World War II, and a faltering economy, Obama shouldn't have gotten re-elected much less be blaming Republicans for anything. But Obama is better at spinning his version of reality. It’s time for the GOP to step up its game or stay in the corner and get punched.

Crystal Wright

Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, D.C. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website, conservativeblackchick.com. Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Wright is the principal owner of the Baker Wright Group, LLC , a full service public relations firm, specializing in communications counseling, media relations, message development, media training and crisis communications. The firm’s approach is straight forward counseling: an unvarnished approach to public relations.

Visit Crystal's Website by clicking HERE

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RG - What is the "Sequester"? UPDATED

"First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.
The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it."
Barack Obama (Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy)

NOTE: Originally published Friday, October 26, 2012
What is the "Sequester".

Barack Obama wanted the 'Debt Ceiling' raised in 2011 so that he could spend more money. Congress and the White House came to an impasse and the idea of "Sequester" or Sequestration was proposed. The "Sequester" is nothing more than automated spending cuts that begin in January 2013 and is already law.

The end result was a Super Committee composed of members from both sides of the aisle, from both chambers, whose job was to make the tough decisions.

In the end, all the committee voted to do was vote on a package of $1.2 trillion dollars in cuts that would go into effect in 2013 - if Congress didn't agree on deficit-reduction package by Nov. 23 of 2012. (Click HERE for article on Obama wants to spend more Money.)

Who proposed the "Sequester"?

Famed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward disputed Obama's statement that the idea was birthed by Republicans in Congress.

"What the president said is not correct," Woodward told Politico. "And it's refuted by the people who work for him."

In his book The Price of Politics, the reporter who gained fame from the Watergate scandal outlined that it was White House Office of Management Director Jack Lew and Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors who took the sequestration proposal to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They also presented it to House Republicans.

Initially, no one thought a deal could be reached to avert hitting the debt ceiling, but when reality started to unfold, the sequestration was the only option left standing.

"The president tells the American people the sequester proposed by his White House 'will not happen,' but he has never offered a plan to prevent it. The president says he's for helping small businesses, but he's pushing a plan that will raise their taxes. The credibility of anything the president says about 2013 is being demolished by the reality of his actions right now, in 2012."
Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

UPDATE - February 19, 2013:

Fresh off his weekend golf trip with Tiger Woods, President Obama attacked Republicans this morning for refusing to raise taxes as part of a deal to avert the looming "sequester" cuts -- which his administration championed and he signed into law.

"It was the White House. It was Obama and Jack Lew and Rob Nabors who went to the Democratic Leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, and said, '[the sequester] is the solution.'"
Bob Woodward

UPDATE Obama Super Committee:

Not only was Sequestration Barack Obama's Idea - Barack Obama 'Promised' to Veto ANY attempt by Congress to 'Stop' Sequestration.

President Barack Obama says he will veto any effort to get rid of automatic spending cuts that would take effect in 2013 if Congress can't find other ways of trimming government deficits. Those spending cuts include significant reductions to the Pentagon that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said would be devastating to the military. Obama issued his threat Monday an hour after leaders of Congress' deficit-reduction supercommittee announced that they had failed to reach agreement on cutting the debt. The inability of the committee to meet its deadline means the government is facing about $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts in January 2013. Obama said the threat of those reductions should remain in place to maintain pressure on Congress find a compromise. (Monday, November 21, 2011)

What is the Result of Sequestration?

It should be remembered that Barack Obama and his Administration will decicide where the cuts take place. If 1st Responders are laid off - it was Barack Obama who decided they should be laid off.

The result of the 2011 debt ceiling deal, wast to cut $1 trillion in government spending over the next decade outright and then put responsibility for finding another $1.2 trillion on Congress.

Because Congress failed to agree on the mixture of lower spending and higher taxes to hit that figure, a mechanism in the debt ceiling-raising legislation causes automatic spending decreases to hit the $1.2 trillion figure: about $109 billion in lower government spending every year for the next decade.

1. Hits to defense programs of either 9.4 percent or 10 percent, depending on how they receive their appropriations from Congress ($55 billion).
2. Payments to Medicare providers will be reduced by 2 percent ($11 billion).
3. Cuts to non-defense spending (like elementary and secondary education or rehabilitation services and disability research) will be cut at either 8.2 percent or 7.6 percent (totaling $43 billion).

Barack Obama's long history of accusing others of lying.

Barack Obama has in all probability accused others about lying about his decisions and actions his entire life. Since Barack Obama entered politics most of those are well documented, including his position on the BAIPA (Born Alive Infant Protection Act) which he tried to block in Illinois and then accused others of lying about his actions - Obama later recanted and through a spokesperson admitting his accusers were not lying, his stalwart defense of Partial Birth Abortion etc.

Now Barack Obama is accusing Congress and Republicans for Sequestration, when the idea was proposed by his administration and saying Mitt Romney and others are lying - Mr. President YOU are the one who is lying!

RG (Retired Geek from VA)

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State of the Union Address 2013

Some of the lies and obfuscations Barack Obama said during the 2013 State of the Union address.

NOTE: Obfuscation (or beclouding) is the hiding of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, willfully ambiguous, hard to interpret and understand.

Barack Obama quotes 2013 SOTU:

“Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion.”

“Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.”

“Let me repeat--nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.”

“We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it.”

“That’s why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits.”

“As long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military in the world. We will invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., delivers GOP response to President Obama's 2013 State of the Union address.

Congressman Rand Paul speaks on behalf of conservative values, responds to President Obama's address.

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Lurita Doan - Democrats' Assault on Language

For months, pundits and politicians have been saying that Americans have a math problem. They have a point, for Mr. Obama routinely champions the idea that running annual deficits in excess of $1 trillion dollars can be continued, simply by requiring Americans to pay $200 billion in taxes more each year. Anyone with a 3rd grade grasp of math has long ago come to the conclusion that even if Mr. Obama gets his way, huge annual deficits will remain, and the nation cannot sustain the current level of profligate spending indefinitely. Somehow, contrary to all known mathematics principles, and contrary to all common sense, in the mind of our president, the math works.

Now, even our language is under assault. Americans are no longer arguing about increasingly misleading and dodgy ways to represent the budget numbers, but are now battling over the meaning of the words being used by both sides in these arguments.

Consider Mr. Obama’s primary contention that the millionaires and billionaires (defined, without any sense of irony, as those making $250,000 a year) need to pay “just a little bit more” in taxes. The president contends that raising taxes to 39% on the top 2% will generate $1.6 trillion dollars over 10 years with no adverse effects to job growth.

Barack Obama, has said "We can make another trillion or trillion-two, and ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more."




Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, has said: "people making all this money have to contribute a little bit more,"




Dick Durbin, Senate Majority Whip, has said; "let the tax rates go up to 39 percent", that's it's okay for the wealthy to pay "just a bit more".




According to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), "At a time when middle class families continue to struggle, it’s only fair to call on the wealthiest Americans to pay just a bit more toward their fair share,” Murray said after the vote".




Peter Orszag (former head of OMB) claims: calling for the wealthy to pay "just a bit more" in order to achieve needed compromise on taxes and debt, is a reasonable and moderate approach.

However, in the Democrat's lexicon, what constitutes "just a bit more" changes dramatically when referring to calls for cuts of $400 billion in entitlement reform. Suddenly, much smaller calls for cuts of $400 billion are defined as imprudent "hacking away", "a gusher" and "hemorrhaging.", Yet, the president's plan to raise $1.6 trillion (or about 4 times that amount) in new taxes are described as “just a little bit.”

Remember the Paul Ryan Budget that called for $1.4 trillion in cuts to Medicaid? That plan was quickly called a "draconian", effort to punish the poor and elderly. If $1.6 trillion is defined by Mr. Obama as “just a little bit”, how then can a smaller number be defined as a draconian slash designed to punish? But, all of this, Mr. Obama tells us, is in the pursuit of a “balanced approach”.

Words do matter, and according to Socrates' Law of Identity, A=A. Or, as John Stuart Mill explains: "Whatever is true in one form of words, is true in every other form of words, which conveys the same meaning". So, if 1.6 trillion dollars is "gouging" and "draconian" when talking about entitlement spending cuts, then $1.6 trillion dollars is "gouging" and "draconian" when talking about tax increases.

We seem to have reached a sad impasse: even before members of Congress can agree on a course of action to avert the fiscal cliff, they need to agree on what words they use.

During the last election, Democrats proved their ability to inflame and to misdirect attention away from the president's failed policies, while obfuscating the very real financial crisis our country is facing. Inciting class warfare and racial tensions with the careful use of loaded words has become a Democrat stock in trade whenever there are difficult policy decisions to be made. The question is: how can Republicans negotiate with Democrats when the two parties clearly speak different languages?

Lurita Doan

Lurita Alexis Doan is an African American conservative commentator who writes about issues affecting the federal government.

Lurita has been involved in the business community through participation in many trade associations, membership in business organizations including the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (now Entrepreneurs' Organization) and Young Presidents' Organization, and involvement on charitable community activities.

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Michelle Malkin - Presidential Power Grab

With little consternation or lasting opposition, the Obama administration has dramatically usurped congressional power at the expense of popular will and the rule of law. Numerous dastardly bureaucratic coups -- motivated by the president's progressive and political agenda -- have amazingly failed to engender a serious response.

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Fiscal Cliff - The Economics

U.S. President Barack Obama will hold his first press conference today (Wednesday 11/14/2012) since winning re-election and will state his case for a whopping $1.6 trillion in tax hikes to fight the fiscal cliff.

Democratic and Republican policy makers returned to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday with just seven weeks left to come up with some sort of compromise. If the two opposing sides fail to reach an agreement and the nation falls off the cliff, a recession in 2013 is guaranteed, the Congressional Budget Office has warned on a number of occasions.

Negotiations with congressional leaders will convene Friday.

But while Washington takes its time to argue over the fiscal cliff, businesses can't wait any longer.

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The Day The Dollar Died

"The price of gold reaches an all time high,despite the devaluation of the dollar and the floating of the Japanese Yen….Germany suspends all monetary exchange indefinitely after buying billions of dollars in a desperate attempt to shore up the traditional currency-leader…International financial experts openly admit that the only way to stave off global economic economic chaos is to institute a new world money system… Computer technology enables every individual in the world to be issued a single credit card and to insure against loss, theft or forgery, its number can be photographically impressed upon the forehead and wrist,visible only under…."
Willard Cantelon Written in 1973

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RG - What is the "Sequester"?

"First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.
The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it."
Barack Obama (Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy)

What is the "Sequester".

Barack Obama wanted the 'Debt Ceiling' raised in 2011 so that he could spend more money. Congress and the White House came to an impasse and the idea of "Sequester" or Sequestration was proposed. The "Sequester" is nothing more than automated spending cuts that begin in January 2013 and is already law.

The end result was a Super Committee composed of members from both sides of the aisle, from both chambers, whose job was to make the tough decisions.

In the end, all the committee voted to do was vote on a package of $1.2 trillion dollars in cuts that would go into effect in 2013 - if Congress didn't agree on deficit-reduction package by Nov. 23 of 2012. (Click HERE for article on Obama wants to spend more Money.)

Who proposed the "Sequester"?

Famed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward disputed Obama's statement that the idea was birthed by Republicans in Congress.

"What the president said is not correct," Woodward told Politico. "And it's refuted by the people who work for him."

In his book The Price of Politics, the reporter who gained fame from the Watergate scandal outlined that it was White House Office of Management Director Jack Lew and Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors who took the sequestration proposal to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They also presented it to House Republicans.

Initially, no one thought a deal could be reached to avert hitting the debt ceiling, but when reality started to unfold, the sequestration was the only option left standing.

"The president tells the American people the sequester proposed by his White House 'will not happen,' but he has never offered a plan to prevent it. The president says he's for helping small businesses, but he's pushing a plan that will raise their taxes. The credibility of anything the president says about 2013 is being demolished by the reality of his actions right now, in 2012."
Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

What is the Result of Sequestration?

The result of the 2011 debt ceiling deal, wast to cut $1 trillion in government spending over the next decade outright and then put responsibility for finding another $1.2 trillion on Congress.

Because Congress failed to agree on the mixture of lower spending and higher taxes to hit that figure, a mechanism in the debt ceiling-raising legislation causes automatic spending decreases to hit the $1.2 trillion figure: about $109 billion in lower government spending every year for the next decade.

1. Hits to defense programs of either 9.4 percent or 10 percent, depending on how they receive their appropriations from Congress ($55 billion).
2. Payments to Medicare providers will be reduced by 2 percent ($11 billion).
3. Cuts to non-defense spending (like elementary and secondary education or rehabilitation services and disability research) will be cut at either 8.2 percent or 7.6 percent (totaling $43 billion).

Barack Obama's long history of accusing others of lying.

Barack Obama has in all probability accused others about lying about his decisions and actions his entire life. Since Barack Obama entered politics most of those are well documented, including his position on the BAIPA (Born Alive Infant Protection Act) which he tried to block in Illinois and then accused others of lying about his actions - Obama later recanted and through a spokesperson admitting his accusers were not lying, his stalwart defense of Partial Birth Abortion etc.

Now Barack Obama is accusing Congress and Republicans for Sequestration, when the idea was proposed by his administration and saying Mitt Romney and others are lying - Mr. President YOU are the one who is lying!

RG (Retired Geek from VA)

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Barack Obama - One Term Presidency

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday (10/12/2012) defended the White House approach to the deficit as his department officially confirmed a fiscal 2012 deficit of $1.089 trillion.

That figure is $207 billion less than in 2011, and $238 billion less than forecast in February.

The fact the deficit remains above $1 trillion for the fourth year in a row, despite President Obama's pledge to cut it in half by now, is a major headache for Obama’s reelection campaign.

Obama Pledges to Cut the Deficit in Half By the End of His First Term in Office.

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Lurita Doan - Obama's Prophetic Greek Columns

Four years ago, Barack Obama chose to use ten, grandiose, Greek columns as the backdrop for his speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. The staging was a rather clumsy effort to substitute showmanship and theatre to help disguise Mr. Obama’s hostility towards American enterprise.

What many Americans watching the Obama speech four years ago may not have realized was that Obama’s fake Greek columns were a bad omen of things to come. Mr. Obama was about to put the United States on the same economic path as Greece.

Watching Greece try to solve its insolvency problems over the past three years offers a terrifying roadmap of Barack Obama's vision for America. Why? Many of the problems which led to Greece's collapse can be seen in Obama's policies and platform promises over the past four years.

For example, much of Greece's problems have been caused by an unsustainable and counterproductive growth in the public sector and in labor unions. The Greek unions' demands have become more exorbitant over the years and place an extraordinary burden on the Greek government which can no longer sustain the silly and irrational policies once promised. Sadly, Mr. Obama has not only borrowed fake Greek columns, but he has adopted the same economic nonsense.

Under Obama, the public sector has experienced explosive growth, even as federal spending has ballooned out of control. The bloated Stimulus spending, Dodd-Frank FinReg and Obamacare all come with requirements that expand the number of federal entities and the number of federal employees, while erecting additional bureaucratic burdens and increasing the regulatory madness that stifles economic growth. Add to that the increase in the number of czars and their staff supporting Obama's special interests’ lobbies, and it is easy to see that our country's current path isn't too far off from Greece.

Under Obama, the labor unions within the federal government and in the private sector have grown increasingly powerful, demanding more and more benefits, and providing less and less services in exchange. One only has to look at the stranglehold that teachers' unions have over education, and see the sad result. In 2011, America ranked 20th in the world in education, and 74th in the world with the number of students graduating with science and engineering degrees. Compare that to 20 years ago when U.S. was number 1 in the world.

Greece has been guilty of out-of-control spending. Their national deficit as a percentage of GDP has continued to escalate over the past decade. How is that so different than what Obama has endorsed as a path for the U.S.? Obama's profligate spending on a Stimulus that didn't stimulate and almost 5 trillion dollars spent in four years have brought this nation to the point where our public debt, exceeds our GDP and still, our nation’s government continues to demand increases to the debt ceiling to continue its deficit spending.

As if these similarities with Greece were not enough, consider long-sustained, and growing unemployment in the US, and the growing underground economy of illegal immigrants and workers who cannot be taxed, but who tax the social services systems of the country and require expanded entitlements. Is becoming more like Greece, with escalating unemployment, really the kind of hope and change that the American people wanted?

Lastly, add to this recipe for disaster, the U.S.' inability to balance our finances, relying instead on an ever-growing need of borrowing from other countries. Four years in office and still Mr. Obama has not yet offered a budget that does not require trillions of dollars in additional deficit spending during each year he has been in office.

As a result, after four years of Mr. Obama’s inept economic leadership, America finds itself dependent upon foreign borrowings and the largess of other nations.

Americans are likely to see Mr. Obama, along with the other Democrat leaders, continue to advance this failed “Greek economic strategy”, believing that an economic day of reckoning will never occur. Democrat leaders do not seem to think they will ever need to turn to the American people, and confess that the government has made promises--wild, extravagant promises--that it cannot afford. Instead, Democrat leaders plan to increase the borrowings forever.

Make no mistake: Mr. Obama has foolishly put the country on the same economic path as Greece, and Americans will face the harsh realities of irresponsible government spending. We should have paid far more attention to those fake Greek columns Mr. Obama used as props four years ago; they were strangely and sadly prophetic.

Democrat leaders are now anxious to avoid any comparison to the Greek economic tragedy that they have so fully embraced over the past four years of economic mismanagement. So don’t expect to see those columns in Charlotte.

Obama cannot run a re-election campaign in 2012 based on his previous, record of failure, so he can only continue to make extravagant promises in exchange for votes. Nor has Barack Obama managed "to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet", as Mitt Romney pointed out in his acceptance speech at the GOP convention.

Three things are certain: whatever Obama promises at this year’s convention, (a) he won't be able to deliver on those promises without crushing 50% of America's taxpayers, (b) Obama's promised actions will diminish the prestige of America in the world and (c) these promises will involve spending more money that the government doesn't have.

My guess is that like any good conjurer, the Greek columns of old will be replaced by yet another backdrop to misdirect attention and help with Mr. Obama’s re election. Americans should not expect to see a backdrop featuring American heritage and historical images. Mr. Obama does not seem to hold the Constitution or the work of the early founders in high regard.

Perhaps the Greek columns of old will be replaced by something new--perhaps Aztec symbols and architecture? After all, Mr. Obama is determined to attract Hispanic voters and he may figure allusions to Aztecs will put him over the top.

Then too, the Aztec worship of the sun should play well with extreme, left-wing eco groups and help potential voters to forget about the Solyndra debacle as Mr. Obama doubles down on an energy policy that inhibits the use of our own natural resources in favor of huge and growing federal subsidies to favored constituents.

Of course, Mr. Obama will hope that no one will recall that failed leadership doomed the Aztec empire and led to its collapse.

Lurita Doan

Lurita Alexis Doan is an African American conservative commentator who writes about issues affecting the federal government.

Lurita has been involved in the business community through participation in many trade associations, membership in business organizations including the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (now Entrepreneurs' Organization) and Young Presidents' Organization, and involvement on charitable community activities.

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Paul Ryan Discusses the Fiscal Cliff

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) discusses efforts made to prevent the fiscal cliff from happening at the end of the year. "The president hasn't proposed a single solution [to the fiscal cliff] in any of his four budget submissions he sent to Congress,".

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Barack Obama's 'Biggest Lie So Far'

"Since I've Been President Federal Spending Has Risen at the Lowest Pace in nearly 60 Years."
Barack Obama

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Lurita Doan - Obama’s Pro-Growth Illusion

Barack Obama claims to be pro-growth. So does Greece, Spain, and almost everyone else. Why? Because admitting preference for the alternative—crushing, heavy-handed government interference that kills initiative and destroys wealth—is not attractive to any citizen of any country.

The problem lies in the meaning of “pro-growth”. As an unabashed capitalist, and as a supporter of free markets, I believe “pro-growth” means less government interference and more individual accountability where private sector businesses create the jobs and government pretty much stays out of the equation. But it's increasingly clear that our president has a much different idea and defines “pro-growth” far differently.

Of course, Barack Obama often says he is “pro-growth”—but the question to ask is: growth of what?

After three years in office, it seems rather clear that Obama believes in the growth of government. At the core of all of his policies is a belief that government can allocate resources more efficiently than can the private sector.

According to Obama, only the government can make wise “investments”. According to Obama’s view, private money and private investors are simply not as capable or as wise as is government in choosing the kinds of investments that will lead to growth and job expansion.

Not too surprisingly, Obama’s strange definition of “growth” is actually a call for a growth of government, growth of debt, growth of bureaucracy, growth of taxes and growth of government regulations. Barack Obama simply believes that taxpayers should be required (or compelled) to send more money to Washington where the political class can then decide how best to “invest” the money.

The “growth” that Barack Obama seeks, ultimately, is growth in government’s control over the lives of all Americans. As we have already learned from three years of watching our president try to apply this tragic economic theory, we have seen our economy stagnate as entrepreneurs and small businesses get squeezed. The only “growth” in Obama’s economy has been the growth of economically harmful and dangerous trends.

Obama has overseen a growth in the price of gas at the pump, growth in the nation’s dependency on foreign oil, growth in unemployment, growth in the number of people receiving and the amount of dollars allocated to entitlements, growth in the number of Czars designed to evade oversight from congress, even growth in the number of foreclosures.

In general, after three and a half years of the Obama administration’s “pro-growth” efforts, Americans are poorer and more dependent on the federal government.

Is this really what Americans are endorsing when they hear the term “pro-growth”? This is certainly not what the Founding Fathers envisioned.

Under Obama federal spending has grown from $1 trillion dollars in 2008 to almost $4 trillion dollars in just three years, without any growth in the economy, without any reduction in unemployment and without any significant improvement in the quality of life or opportunities for the future of Americans.

Under Obama, the public debt has grown to the point where it exceeds our nation’s annual GDP. Nowhere and at no time has this kind of equation ever been a recipe for economic growth.

LUnder Obama, the number of regulations affecting all aspects of American lives has grown. In 2011, the Obama administration put into place over 2000 different rules, statues or regulations affecting everything from the environment to the kinds of paper used for filing federal reports.

Under Obama, the number of czars has increased, even as the number of senate-confirmed leaders has dwindled. Coinciding with the increase in czars comes an increase in the bureaucracy, and an increase in the staff to support the czars, all paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Under Obama there has been growth in the number of unemployed, with minorities and teens hit the hardest.

Under Obama, the regulations affecting small businesses has created an environment of uncertainty and increased cost which discourages, rather than encourages, job creation.

Under Obama, Americans have seen an increase in the frequency of fear-mongering and race-baiting as a Democrat political strategy, designed to intimidate anyone who questions or criticizes Democrats’ flawed policies.

There has been growth under Obama—it’s just the wrong kind of growth. Lots of fine sounding rhetoric that fosters the illusion of growth. One thing seems clear--while we all seem to be speaking the same language the meaning varies greatly between what Obama says and what Americans understand.

When Barack Obama talks about his “pro-growth” agenda, Americans should start to ask just exactly what Obama hopes to “grow”.

Lurita Doan

Lurita Alexis Doan is an African American conservative commentator who writes about issues affecting the federal government.

Lurita has been involved in the business community through participation in many trade associations, membership in business organizations including the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (now Entrepreneurs' Organization) and Young Presidents' Organization, and involvement on charitable community activities.

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Crossroads GPS - Cutter Correction

"Today I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inheried by half by the end of my first term in office..."
Barack Obama - February 23, 2009

That simply did NOT happen. Not even close. The 2013 budget Obama rolled out in 2012 had more than one $1 trillion in deficit spending.

Deficit spending during Obama’s four years in the White House (based on his own figures) will be an estimated $5.170 trillion — or $5,170,000,000,000.00.

To help put that colossal sum of money into perspective, if you take the deficit spending under Obama and divide it evenly among the roughly 300 million American citizens, that works out to just over $17,000 per person — or about $70,000 for a family of four.

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Barack Obama's Empty Promises - Debt and Deficits

Although the national debt under President Barack Obama has increased $4 trillion since he took office in 2009, as a presidential candidate in 2008 Obama criticized then-President George W. Bush for adding $4 trillion to the national debt, saying it was “unpatriotic” and also “irresponsible” to saddle future generations with such a large national debt.

“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child,” Obama said on July 3, 2008, at a campaign event in Fargo, N.D.

“That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic,” said candidate Obama.

July 3, 2008

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Paul Ryan on solutions that stand in solidarity with the poor

Discussion following Paul Ryan's Whittington Lecture delivered at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.

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Bill Whittle - I'M TALKING TO YOU

At current spending rates, there will be no U.S. Economy by 2027. That's not Bill's opinion: that's the opinion of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, using the Obama Administration's own numbers, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner doesn't even bother to deny it.

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ObamaCare's Price Tag Nearly Doubles

“I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future. (Applause.) I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period.”
President Barack Obama

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