An open letter to the undecided voter

The 2012 Presidential election is drawing near. And although there have been a total of 4 debates, numerous interviews and a plethora of information available on the candidates, some out there have yet to make up their minds. I'm just a guy with a blog. But that makes me no greater nor lesser an "expert" on politics than  the numerous professional talking heads who differ with each other on nearly every subject. The time draws near. Your vote will matter. Let's review.

First, lets have a brief history lesson. With Barack Obama's 2008 election, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives became in control of the Democratic Party. For the first two years of the Obama administration, the President had his way with every piece of legislation. ObamaCare. DONE! Stimulus package. DONE! Omnibus spending package. DONE! For the first two years of his Presidency it was complete one party rule. And Obama had one hell of a party. Yep, he got everything he wanted. But a funny thing happened on the way to "Recovery summer, 2010". The economy stalled and became stagnant. Unemployment rose. Food stamp usage rose along with it. The GDP plummeted. And who did Barack blame? George W. Bush. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to blame all of my problems on someone else. It makes me look weak and small - an affliction the current President doesn't suffer from. In the 2010 mid-term elections, the country rebelled and gave one of the largest thrashings ever to a party in control. The GOP gained 65 seats, close to a record. Regardless, the blame game continued into 2011. Unemployment rose yet again, Food stamp usage climbed . Poverty approached levels not seen in years. And household income dropped  $2200.00 a year.

In 2012, we saw productivity fall yet again to 1.3% down from the 3.3% it had been two years prior. In fact, it has fallen every year since 2009. 2012 was also the year the administration achieved the dubious honor of 40 straight months of unemployment over 8%. In August, 365,000 simply quit looking for work and food stamp usage rose from 32 million Americans in 2009, to a now staggering 47 million Americans. Real household income dropped $4400.00. The Democratic held Senate has not passed a budget in over 3 years.  The budget deficit was $480 billion when he arrived on the job. Under President Obama it has more than doubled to $1.1 trillion. Also in August, the National debt hit $16 trillion up form the $9 trillion when Mr. Obama took office. All of this, he would have you believe, is either not his fault or is a rousing success story.

In order to gain ground with the women vote, President Obama dictated that health insurance companies provide free contraceptives. To continue to have the Gay vote in his pocket, he announces that he is now for Gay marriage after declaring the exact opposite every year since his arrival on the scene in 2007. At the beginning of his administration, Obama claimed he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Its still open - and with an expensive soccer field manicured for the detainees.

Perhaps you voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 because you thought he was a trans formative figure. Perhaps you didn't like George W. and thought the junior senator from Illinois was a breath of fresh air. Maybe you thought it was a good time for the first black President. Or maybe you had you own good reasons. But 4 years later, can you really make the argument that the country is in better shape than it was? Has the agenda Mr. Obama put in place made the country a better place for businesses to grow, achieve and hire? Do you honestly think that asking the top 10% of wage earners to pay some more, will balance an annual  $1.1 trillion short fall? Social Security & Medicare are in serious difficulty. The President offers no plan on what he would do to solves these massive problems. None. Entitlements are not something he wishes to address or trim. He'd rather play the class warfare card and hope no one notices that he has had an epic fail at an epic cost. We deserve better than pretty speeches, old rhetoric and failed policies revisited. We deserve someone who has actually created jobs in the private sector and understands that those jobs are created by risk taking individuals, not government. We deserve someone who will address the hard issues and take a stand to preserve the institutions we rely on. We deserve a leader, not a theoretical tactician whose political agenda is to divide in order to pursue his goals. We deserve Mitt Romney. To choose otherwise at this point, is to deny reality in favor for bland, outmoded slogans. Barack Obama has had his chance. It is time to move forward... without him.

How to be a millionaire in one easy step.

Okay. This may be a tad personal, but I'm going to ask anyway. 'Are you a millionaire?' No? Well, don't be too upset - the overwhelming majority of people aren't millionaires either. But that doesn't mean you can't make yourself a millionaire. 'What do you mean make your self a millionaire?' It happens more than you think and it is sooo easy. In fact, you can perform this tasks in easy step with one simple equation. Allow me to elaborate.

We all know that the federal government likes to play fast and loose with numbers. For instance, unemployment goes down - but mostly because people quit looking for jobs. (365,000 in August, for instance.) That explains the U6 numbers for unemployed/underemployed remain the same at 14.5%. Then there's the counting of $500 billion dollars removed from Medicare and given to Obamacare, counting it twice then claiming a "savings" of $1 trillion. Pretty nifty, huh. However, that wont make you a millionaire, just a felon should you try that sort of math on your next 1040 form. No, I'm talking about making a million by not spending a million. Now follow closely, here goes.

President Obama claims that at least $800 billion will be saved (and therefore available to spend elsewhere) by not spending that money on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sounds pretty good, right? Here's the problem. That money was never allocated. It was never funded. It was never going to be spent anyway. So how can you save that money? Answer? You can't. That's like saying you saved $90.00  by not buying those cute shoes you saw at Bon-Ton. You now fooled yourself into believing you have magically found $90.00! If you can perform that kind of fiscal magic with footwear, just imagine what you can do with a budget? In Washington, money not spent becomes money saved. And here's where the part about you being a millionaire comes in. I have recently decided not to buy a $1 million home. Therefore, I have actually saved $1 million. Or to put it another way, if I have curtailed my spending by $1 million, I must have saved myself $1 million. And to think, I didn't like math when I was in school.

These are the mathematical tactics used in Washington by people who are supposed to be so much smarter than you and I. They're not. They're just more imaginative - with our money. When you step in dog poop and somebody tells you its ice-cream - don't reach for a spoon. Just scape your shoe against the curb - because you should know crap when you hear it, smell it or step in it. There's a lot of foul smells coming out of D.C. these days. And its important that you know that even dog crap sprayed with Chanel #5,  is just dog crap covered up with expensive perfume, designed to make you see one thing but smell another.

Obama says high gas prices are a good sign. Huh?

During this weeks Presidential debate, President Obama made a comment that nearly made my skin shed. Regarding high gas prices, he said that the reason gas prices were so low ($1.90 a gallon) in 2009 when he took office, was because the economy was so bad. His logic, I assume, is that at $3.75 a gallon today, the economy is humming along. If pressed, I could probably think of something stupider to say, but for now focus on the comment made by the President.

The price of eggs are up 73%. Apple juice increased  43% and coffee 90%.  Corn based products are up 40%. Health care insurance up 35%. Apparently all of these increases are due to an economy that is just super! At least that's the story he's peddling. Only in an Obama World could that line of logic make sense. Silly me, I thought stable prices with modest increases were good. But not everything has gone up. Take a look at your home value. And even with historically low interest rates, homes just aren't selling and foreclosures reached record levels. Lets not even discuss your 401-k. Yep, if high gas prices are a sign of a booming economy, then the other things I mentioned must mean we're on our way to economic Nirvana!

I don't mind a politician lying to me. Hell, they do it all the time. I just don't want them to think I'm stupid. And judging by that ass-backwards logic Barry tried to lay on me - he must think I'm as daft as a retarded Spyder monkey on crack. I'm not. And don't let him think you are either.

Obama's recovery... isn't

The updated GDP (Gross Domestic Product) numbers are in and they ain't good. The government says the GDP is now revised down from 2.2% to 1.3%. To put that in comparison, the GDP was 3.3 in Bush's last year. That 3.3% was then called a recession. But the anemic 1.3% under Obama is considered a recovery. Go figure. Then again, unemployment under Bush's 8 year tenure averaged 5.25%. Just above the hallowed 5.2% under Clinton. It hasn't been that low since Bush left office but the President says the "private sector is doing just fine."  Apparently, the smartest man who's ever been President isn't real good at math.
The President labeled the summer of 2010 as "Recovery Summer."  That didn't work out too well, so they didn't name the summer of 2011 or 2012 anything. Good move. On "Late night with David Letterman", the President didn't even know how much the national debt was. ($16 trillion). Imagine a Republican getting away with that. They wouldn't. But Barack does.

After getting his $800 billion stimulus package, the $400 billion Omnibus spending bill and Obamacare passed through his, then veto-proof Democratic House and Senate, Obama claims he now needs 4 more years of the same to bring America roaring back. Are any of you liberals out there really buying into this? Honestly? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Liberal, white guilt put Obama in power 4 years ago and it may keep him there till 2017. But failure is not a basis for re-election. If nothing is done, the National Debt will be $20 trillion by the end of Obama's second term. Medicare will have only 6 or 7 more years of solvency and Social Security will be marching toward its own insolvency by 2032. This President doesn't even talk about those problems unless its to lambast the Republican's ideas. The absence of your own proposals is not a substitute for an agenda.

There's an old saying; "when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." The President is not only continuing to dig, but he's now using a steam shovel. He now says more borrowing is the answer, along with making the rich pay even higher taxes - not in an effort to reduce the debt, but to make things "fair".  Making people feel as though they are part of those being treated unfairly, is the apparent re-election philosophy of the Obama campaign. It may work. We'll find out shortly enough. Regardless, the GDP is still at 1.3% despite the massive spending and broken promises of four years ago. And should Mr. Obama win election - just look at the mess he's going to inherit.