Mirror, Mirror on the Wall... Street

Friday, July 13 the Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, took to the airwaves in a futile attempt to “get the records straight” demanding an apology from President Obama for publicly unmasking Romney for his self-claim assertions that he is a “job creator.” Romney is demanding an apology from President Obama for saying the truth, regardless that so far he has repeated lies after lies about President Obama and we are yet to see, read or hear an apology from him. He believes he is too grand to provide an apology.

Romney is claiming that he left, and this he has repeated incessantly, on February 1999. He claims that is the year he left Bain Capital to be in charge of the Utah Olympics. While it is true that he was in charge of the Olympics, what is not true is that he left the company for good and made no decisions about the company after that date. Several documents have surfaced that proves otherwise and list him as CEO, President and Managing Director of Bain Capital during 2000 and 2001. Mitt Romney have said that while he was in Utah overseeing the Olympics he had to travel to attend board meetings and while this is normal, after all he was the owner of that company, what it is not normal is for him to think that anyone is going to believe that as such, he had no saying on the decisions or the course the company was going to take. That it’s inconceivable and if true, a greatly irresponsible behavior towards his investments and that of the investors that placed their trust on Mitt Romney as the owner of that company. If true, is that the kind of President America needs? A President that will not lead but blindly delegate and that will assume no responsibility if anything goes wrong? I don’t think so, we had a president like that before: Ronald Reagan, but at least when Reagan pulled that one off he had Alzheimer.


I honestly believe that his refusal to show his tax returns from 2000 and 2001 is because we will see that he listed Bain Capital as his employer. Nothing else remains to be known but that fact, we all now he off-shores his money, that he has Swiss accounts and a stash of money hidden in the Cayman Islands. We all know he outsources jobs and encourage other American companies to do the same. All there is left for us to know and for him to hide is that he lied about Bain Capital and the his Tax Returns will provide the irrefutable proof that he has not been truthful and expose him as the liar he truly is.

From 1999 to 2002, Bain Capital bought, drove to the ground and destroyed many companies.  During that time thousand of workers were laid-off and hundreds of jobs were outsourced to China and India while making millions of dollars in the process. Business is business and we can’t criticize him for that. However, Mitt Romney should take responsibility for being a great contributor to the demise of the economy, for being a job creator overseas but definitively not in America. He made his bed, let him lay on it instead of desperately trying to disengage from that particular period. Romney's involvement with Bain during that period will debunk his rhetoric as “a job creator.” He is no “job creator” at least not in America; here he is a job destroyer.

 

For those that still believe that Mitt Romney is a good candidate, we just have to evaluate where most of his investments are, according to his Public FinancialDisclosure Report, signed in 2011, where we can see that he has several million dollars invested in Goldman Sachs and Bank of America among others. We can conclude that, without a doubt, Mitt Romney will remove all regulations from the banking industry. Those regulations on Wall Street are not helping him make more money and that is all he truly cares about. Deregulating Wall Street will serve him well as he truly is a Wall Street guy not because he is rich, but because he is a big component of Wall Street and its collapse.

I can’t comprehend how regular folks out there can back this guy up… a man that all of his life has worked at destroying this country not giving a damn to move it forward and caring only on how much more money he can make. I wonder what deals will he make and what treaties will he sign with China that will allow him to increase his wealth even more at the expense of the American people and the country.

Sources:  

Mother Jones - The Mystery of Romney's Exit from Bain

Mother Jones - Stericycle 13D 1999

The Washington Post - Cash, Advice on Tap at Romney's Old Firm

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

msnbc news

abc News

Sacrificial Lamb

We can find real and solid evidence of what truly matters for Romney and what his core values are under the Regulations tab on his website.

Mitt Romney begins by saying: “Multiple factors contribute to America’s faltering performance. But a major part of the problem over successive presidencies, and one that the Obama administration has sharply exacerbated, is the regulatory burden on the economy. Regulations function as a hidden tax on Americans, with the federal government’s own Small Business Administration placing the price tag at $1.75 trillion annually—much higher than the entire burden of individual and corporate income taxes combined.”

He asks, “How did we reach this state of affairs?” and blames the Federal government and regulations for everything that has gone wrong lately. He desperately tries to portray big corporations and Wall Street as the victims of a blood-sucking vampire named Barack Obama. While these poor corporations and the good people of Wall Street are doing their best to amass more and more wealth regardless of how they obtain it, the sinister government persists in regulating and obstructing them in their effort to make even more money by cheating and stealing from the worthless middle-class. Why would President Obama want to regulate the banking industry and corporations? What does President Obama knows about the market and banking? Does President Obama know more than Wall Street or has the same interest they do to succeed? Wall Street and other corporations are capable of regulating themselves as the responsible companies they are, we must believe this and forget the economic chaos that began just 5 years ago because another puppet thought the exact same thing.

Romney wants to repeat George W. Bush's tactics, but I think he will be even worse and certainly more dangerous than G.W. Bush ever was, if that is possible.

Romney will repeal every one of President Obama’s mandates – even the good ones. We must understand that if it was signed by President Obama, a moderate Democrat that happens to be black, then by default whatever he signed into law must be repealed, period.

Romney also promises to repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. He will not change it, he will repeal it. Mitt Romney doesn’t believe in regulating Wall Street, as it is his opinion that the economic crisis was not Wall Street’s fault, rather it was the people’s fault for not being savvy enough to know that the bankers were screwing them. He believes that it was our irresponsible desire for a better life that forced bankers to reaffirm that we could afford those houses on our salaries.

It was our mistake for the banks to tell us the price of our houses were going to increase and it was our fault that these banks broke our mortgages in many parts which in turn they sold to various countries around the world making it impossible to collect or sell when the economy crash happened. It was our fault to think that it was safe for our 401K savings to be placed on their hands. Bankers had nothing to do with it. Wall Street's false speculations to drive the prices of stocks and commodities had nothing to do with the economic crash… if anyone is to blame it must be the stupid little investors that believed them!

Among the many things the Dodd-Frank Reform Act ensures is that there will never be another bank “too big to fail” where we, the citizens of this country, will have to help with our tax money those that ripped us off. The irresponsibility of Wall Street drove our economy, and that of the world as well, to the biggest economic crisis since the Big Depression which effects we are still feeling to this day. But Mitt Romney doesn’t want Wall Street to be regulated; he wants to repeal the one regulation that is keeping Wall Street and most banking institutions at bay. It is the Dodd-Frank Reform Act that has forced credit cards companies to be transparent about what they charge us. It is the Dodd-Frank Reform Act that keeps the lavished expenses of bankers under control. But Mitt Romney wants Wall Street and bankers to be like whores out of control, there's no fun if they are restrained. Romney doesn’t want to reform this regulation, he wants to annul it.

Not so with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act signed by George W. Bush, he just wants to reform it. This is a good bill despite that it was signed by Bush. In a nutshell, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (better known by SOX) is intended for Public companies to accurately maintain and present their financial reports, preventing fraud that will affect not only the companies but also the investors. This is bill was sponsored by Senator Paul Sarbanes [D-MD] and Representative Michael G. Oxley [R-OH-4] after the financial scandals of Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems, WorldCom and who can forget, Enron. Well, Mitt doesn’t want to repeal it but wants to amend it. I wonder what changes will he make, but I can assure you he will go easy on his friends!

We heard this litany before. We heard it from George W. Bush who lifted most of the regulations that were in place for Wall Street and the banking industry and which is what caused the economic collapse of 2007… and Mitt Romney wants to follow Bush’s steps! There are idiots out there that have forgotten who’s to blame for the condition our country is in and what’s worse, they’ve forgotten what brought us to where we are today: deregulation.

Romney also attacks the EPA. He mentions EPA and the Obama Administration’s war on “carbon dioxide.” For those that don’t know what the war on “carbon dioxide” is, it’s nothing more than the regulation of the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by a utility plant or the use of carbon dioxide in hydraulic fracturing or what is commonly known as fracking. That is what Romney is complaining about, particularly that the EPA is opposing fracking in areas where there are serious risks of contaminating the potable water in the area. Mitt Romney says he will ask Congress to change the environmental laws to be more “cost efficient,” in other words, rush the permits for drilling anywhere, in any fashion as long as there is an oil company that wants to extract oil, even if it poisons our water supply. And, on top of all that, he will ask the government to provide a few years for companies to comply with whatever environmental rules and guidelines he leaves in place; no rush, let the corporations take their sweet time complying with environmental regulations.

His “concern” is how much the government is spending by enforcing regulations. He makes no mention about how many lives can be saved by these regulations or that the regulations imposed on Wall Street will save us from another collapse in the future. And when I say save “us” I don’t mean the country I mean us, the citizens who through our hard work and by contributing with our unfair share of taxes are the ones that bailed out these fat cats after they ripped us off. No, Romney conveniently leaves those “little” details out of his website. For Romney companies' wealth and well being will always be a priority above that of a citizen and, if you read his website you will realize that he doesn’t hide this fact, he might not express it clearly but he doesn't hide it. He knows that the followers from the Republican Party are supporting him merely because they hate “the black guy in the white house.” These people will not bother to interpret what he is saying they will simply swallow whatever he pushes down their throat.

Under his Plan section, he promises to “tear down” the majority of the regulations created by the Obama administration. He also promises to change the “federal bureaucracy” in order to “ensure economic growth” as the most important factor when new regulations are created. In other words, money and not health, money and not the environment, money and not people is his number one priority.

Out of all the regulations implemented by the government, only the ones created by the Obama administration will be annulled, previous ones will be “carefully scrutinized” but not necessarily repealed.

Romney says that he will repeal Romneycare, oops! Sorry, Obamacare. It doesn’t matter that the Health Care plan signed by President Obama was based on Mitt Romney's own health care plan. The Koch brothers hate it and therefore, so does he. It is for that fact that Mitt Romney doesn’t deserve any respect. When a person is capable of hating and criticizing their own creation to please those that contribute financially to their campaign, which means that they are willing to sell their soul to the devil to get what they want. This type of people has no dignity, no self-respect and no values.

The worst part of his “plan” is the regulatory zero cap. That simply means that in order for a new regulation to be implemented, all previous regulations will be null and void and only the last one is valid. Let’s say that there is a regulation that prohibits certain ingredients in our food because it has been proven they cause dangerous or life threatening side effects. A new regulation is created that doesn’t mention all the prohibited ingredients – perhaps because companies are no longer using them. The prohibition of these ingredients will no longer be prohibited because they will not be in the new regulation and the previous regulations where repealed. This concept will come in effect for every single regulation that exists. Romney is proposing the regulatory zero cap to save money. If the government were to ensure that this oversight would not happen, then it will have to spend millions hiring an army of readers to go through each and every regulation (some regulations are 800 pages or more) with a fine comb to make sure that what is vital remains in the new regulation. This will not only be time consuming but also will be a tremendous risk for the safety of the country, the environment and the citizens.

Of course, he is also proposing a reform on the legal liability system “to prevent spurious litigation,” but if the regulatory zero cap comes into effect, most future litigation will not be "spurious" it will be the result of Romney's irresponsible and greedy behavior that caused the assault on the environment and the health of the citizens. Mitt Romney wants to change the laws so whatever happens as a result of the zero cap regulations, we won't be able to litigate, fight back or be compensated.

That is Romney, the Koch brothers, Citizen’s United and the GOP for you. For them money is god and we are the sacrificial lamb.

The Elephant in the Room

The Koch brothers and the extreme religious fanatics, usually Evangelists, own the GOP who are following the desires of their true masters and ignoring the needs of their constituents. The GOP is evolving from a Party that loved this country, even when they have always shown favoritism for Corporations it was never to the point of sacrificing the well being of the regular American, the working class to a Party that is only loyal to the elite and fortunate few, the 1%.

For the last twelve years, the Republicans have been giving tax breaks to large corporations, the famous trickle-down economics that has never worked but that the Republicans keep insisting stimulates the economy. For twelve years the largest corporations have paid little or no taxes but have received a hefty sum from the government to promote job creation. Basically, the working class is giving the wealthy money to create part-time or under paid jobs for the working class. The working class is the one paying the taxes that provide these incentives, does that make any sense to anyone? You don’t believe me? Let me begin by saying that for 2011, the total Revenue of the United States collected from Individual income taxes was of $1,091 billion vs. $819 billion from corporate taxes. There alone is a huge discrepancy. At a time where unemployment is high and salaries are low, the working class is the one providing the largest amount of revenue for the country. Let’s not forget that those billions are only from income tax, after the government takes those taxes from us, we still have to pay sales taxes, state taxes etc. Corporations pay sales taxes too, but since they have the ability to purchase in bulk the sales taxes they pay are usually lower plus they can claim an infinite amount of things as expenses and losses, the regular working person can't. So no matter how you slice it, the working class is being squeezed to the max for every penny the government can get from them, and the GOP likes it that way just fine. They don’t want to fairly tax Corporations or the wealthy; at least we can say they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them but a country cannot flourish economically when its economy it’s mostly carried on the shoulders of the weakest. It is unsustainable.

The GOP is constantly claiming that the tax cuts they request are for small businesses. When we hear this, we all think of the mom and pop’s store in our neighborhoods, but we are wrong. Most people don’t know what constitute a small business, the ones benefiting from these tax cuts. Everything that I write here can be traced and confirmed and I will supply the links to support my statements.

The list of the top 200 “small” business listed in Forbes magazine even includes oil companies. I must admit that these oil companies are not Exxon, Mobil or BP but still it is not what most Americans consider small business. The list of small businesses show sales ranging from a minimum of $5 million dollars to $750 million, that is definitively not a mom and pop’s store, yet the tax cuts are geared towards them.

Another thing I heard from the Right is that Democrats are against development, growth and capitalism. I have no idea where they get their information (well, yes I do) but this is not true. Democrats are considered progressives and as such we are in favor of progress, whether this progress is manufacturing, science, development or anything else if it is to improve the lives of all of us. We are not against capitalism, we want everyone to have a chance at succeeding in life and have a fair shot at a better future. What we are vehemently against is for the working class to be abused, taken advantage of on the name of capitalism. There is a big difference there. There is no excuse for a CEO to get a salary in the millions of dollars, a great retirement plan, stocks, bonuses, expenses paid etc. while the worker gets more responsibilities, lower benefits, longer hours and their salaries see little or no changes, and if they get a raise is at best an extra dollar an hour. That is simply a modern way of slavery and that is what Democrats are against. I will never understand a middle class worker justifying such injustice.

Republicans don’t understand what Regulations and Unions do either. They like to blame the high unemployment rate on this. Nothing could be further from the truth.

President Ronald Reagan, the GOP’s demigod, inherited an unemployment rate of 8.5, and during the first year of his administration it peaked to 10.8; we can say that this was not his fault since he inherited an unemployment that was increasing from Jimmy Carter. To his credit, he managed to bring down the unemployment to a 5.4, which is commendable. Of course, we all know that Ronald Reagan would be considered too liberal to be part of the GOP as they are today. President Bill Clinton inherited an unemployment rate of 6.3 and after implementing some tougher regulations he managed to leave the White House and pass to President George W. Bush an unemployment rate of 4.0 and a sound economy. During the eight years that the country had to endure all the damage inflicted by G.W. Bush, he left office with an economy in shambles, an unemployment rate of 5.0 and rising as well as the collapse of Wall Street and the banking industry. This collapse didn’t happen by chance, it started by Reagan deregulating the banking industry and culminated with Bush deregulating almost any other industry, it was and still is the GOP opinion that businesses can regulate themselves even when the results has been a complete failure of our economic system. Yet, the GOP it is still pressuring for deregulation.

The GOP has also made sure to paint a devil out of Unions. Unions are the only force that can truly look after the worker. The only reason why companies can’t get away with hypothetical murder is because of Unions. The regular worker can’t afford legal representation against giants such as multinationals, many times they are not educated enough to negotiate for themselves a raise or defend their seniority within a company or an abusive and dangerous work conditions and that is when Unions come in. Without Unions large corporations would take advantage of workers – after all, all that matters for them is their shareholders, can you imagine what these companies would do to us if we didn’t have Unions?

To demonstrate how compassionate these corporations are, one only has to look at the cost of living during the last 30 years. It has increased 300% during that time. Three hundred percent, that is a lot. In the same token, the minimum wage during the same time span has increased by a little more than 100% ($3.35 in 1980 to $7.25 today); there is no way that a person earning minimum wage can survive on one salary, and everything keeps raising, everything except salaries.

I can’t understand a moderate Republican. I can’t understand how can they shoot themselves on the foot and continue supporting a Party that keeps stealing from the poor to give to the rich; the party that believes that only the wealthy deserve a break, good medicine, a good education and a sound future. Can some one explain it to me?

We must vote Democrat in November. President Obama deserves four more years but we must help him by giving him a Congress that will help this country, not obstruct any progress!  

Vote for Obama and Vote 100% Democrat in 2012!

The Path to Prosperity... But Whose?

Paul Ryan has presented in Congress what he calls “The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal.” This Budget Report has been in the news too much lately, which piqued my curiosity to know what exactly was in it. As most of us do, I tend to listen to what others have to say and I confess that at times, I am too lazy to do my own research. Having Medicare and Medicaid jeopardized by this proposal, I overcame my apathy and decided to read it and scrutinize it myself to reach my own conclusions. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, after all this is a public blog and all views are welcome, but ultimately it is mine and I always say things as I see them if you don’t like it, move on.

Anyone who reads this report lightly and without giving it too much thought or analyzing the significance of what is being proposed, would think that he is presenting a great remedy for what ails our economy today. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The tax reforms Mr. Ryan is proposing, will mostly affect the lower income families. He is proposing a maximum cap of 25 percent for those that make an obscene amount of money, including the new “people” on the block: Corporations. The rest of us, which are the ones being over-taxed and practically sustaining this economy, will pay 10 percent across the board. This approach doesn’t sound too bad, except that his proposal still includes and “improves” incentives for the "job creators" and we all know what that really means. Corporations will still be getting large sums of money in the form of tax breaks for them to honor us by giving us a job, usually at minimum wage and at times not even a full-time position (avoiding having to offer us health benefits.) Basically these companies will be getting cheap labor, which at times and thanks to the “incentives” these workers wages will be paid by the working class in the form of taxes paid, which in turn the government will pay the Corporations to hire new workers, and the vicious cycle keeps repeating itself. It is sickening!

In this report, Ryan also proposes an Energy reform, which not surprisingly, offers to lift all precautionary regulations. He is proposing to remove the Environmental Protection Agency and allow the private sector to develop sources of “American-made” energy. We have seen how "responsible" the private sector is when it comes to the environment and safety. It is well known that when it comes to the environment and safety, if unregulated, corporations will be more interested in saving money and how much profit they can make if they overlook the impact their projects will have on the environment and safety. I cannot say that all corporations behave this way, but sadly, most of them do. They must be regulated.

As we have grown accustomed to by now the GOP, and in particular in this report, Ryan is proposing to get rid of the National Labor Relations Act. It is no secret that Republicans despise Labor Unions, and we should not be surprised that they keep attempting to remove any representation that workers have to fight the injustices perpetrated by the freshly introduced “people” in this nation. In Ryan’s own words “Because a majority of union members in the United States now works for the public sector, organized labor has become an increasingly powerful force on behalf of bigger government and higher taxes. Policymakers must make sure America has a public sector that works for the people it serves – not the other way around.” The question I have is, since corporations are now people, when he refers to “a public sector that works for the people” which people is he referring to, the workers or the corporations?

In the same breath, he continues to mention all the benefits that will entail getting rid of the NLRA, which according to him will increase revenues and fees by lifting moratoriums and bans on energy supplies, again claiming that the energy corporations (oil companies) are environmentally responsible. I wonder what planet Mr. Ryan lives on!

Mr. Ryan didn’t overlook protecting the banking giants either. Wall Street and the financial companies will also see a protection from this “reform.” This path to prosperity ensures that the financial institutions will be free to do whatever they want once more and help them get rid of the government ‘micromanagement’ which has impede their rapid growth. He closes this section with these words: “to ensure that the costs to the private sector and to the taxpayer do not outweigh their benefits, and that regulations are both essential and not unduly burdensome.” If this passes, we will be back to building a castle from a deck of cards!

There is one section of this report that I kind of agree with, that is if my understanding of it is correct. Mr. Ryan proposes a freeze in the federal workforce for the next three years, I am not necessarily pleased with that but, if what follows is true, then I am all for it: “The federal government’s responsibilities require a strong federal workforce. Federal workers deserve to be compensated equitably for their important work, but their pay levels, pay increases and fringe benefits should be reformed to better align with those of their private-sector counterparts.“ Ryan goes on saying that "Immune from the effects of the recession, federal workers have received regular salary bumps regardless of productivity or economic realities." As far as I know, Congressmen and women ARE Federal employees and this means that they will lower their own salaries and hopefully their raises will be based on merit, which it's long overdue. Of course, I know he is referring to the ‘lower class’ Federal workers and not the fat cats sitting in Congress but if this portion goes through, we can demand the same be applied to them.

The farmers did not escaped unharmed on this “path to prosperity.” The report proposes to reduce the help that farmers receive from the government. While we know that there are giants in the farming industry that really do not deserve a hand from the government and yet they take it, we also know that many family owned farms do need help or they will be overtaken by the giants. We need to help our farmers, the ones that are struggling to continue to supply us with fresh and organic vegetables and grains. These farmers are just beginning to make a positive impact in our health and they deserve any help they can get, otherwise we will continue ingesting GM foods, and there would be only one winner, Monsanto.

We all know that most crops are solely dependent on Mother Nature. We have seen what drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, cold weather, floods and natural disasters can do to crops. Well, Ryan is proposing that the government stops the crop insurance offered to farmers, making a farmer responsible for “management risks” as other businesses do. The difference between a farmer and, for example, a banker is that the farmer cannot control nature; the banker can control the market.

What brought me to read the report in the first place was the healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid reforms. According to Ryan, the current system that we have is displacing “the family, civic and religious institutions that serve communities across the nation.” Really, how? The only thing that comes to mind is the now infamous contraceptives and the 'right" for a religious institution to tell a woman that no contraceptives will be included in her insurance because what goes against the views of the employer supersedes the right of any woman.  This report gives an institution more rights than a human being.

After reading the section in its entirety, and you can do the same by following the link I’ve provided, I concluded that what its being proposed – regarding Medicare and Medicaid – is simply what has been proposed so many times before: privatization of these services. The report is proposing that the government with a voucher or check will cover your private insurance premiums. If the person selects a coverage that is higher than the value of the voucher, he or she will have to assume the difference. If you choose a lower coverage, then you will get a check from the government for the difference. The people that have money will be able to afford better plans and those that don’t will have to accept the less desirable insurance. It’s like having a PPO or a HMO, simple.

Mr. Ryan ensures that under this reform, insurance companies will not be able to deny services or increase their premiums for pre-existing conditions. I believe that has been taken care of by President Obama’s Healthcare Reform.

Mr. Ryan ends his report by giving praise to the Republican Party’s god: Ronald Reagan and his Reaganomics: "In 1981, President Ronald Reagan inherited a stagnant economy and a tax code that featured 16 brackets, with a top rate of 70 percent.  When he left office in 1989, the tax code had been simplified down to just three brackets, with a top rate of 28 percent.  Reagan's major tax reforms, enacted with bipartisan support without raising taxes, proved to be a cornerstone of the unprecedented economic boom that occurred in the decade during his presidency and continued in the decade that followed." 

While it is true that Reagan inherited a “stagnant economy” this was primarily due to the global oil crisis that resulted from the turmoil in Iran. In 1979, as a consequence of massive protests and the imminent threat of a civil war, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini took over of the country. This event inflicted a significant impact on the production of oil and the global economy.

Reaganomics, according to Wikipedia, consisted of four simple pillars: Reduction of government spending; reduction of income tax and capital gain tax; reduction of economic regulations and control of the money supply to reduce inflation. That’s it. While it sounds perfect and we are all for “reductions” it is far from perfect, no matter how much the Republicans try to sanctify it, it is still bad economics.

During the eight years that Reagan was president, he single-handedly managed to raise our national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion. Thanks to Reaganomics, the United States shifted from being the largest international creditor to being the largest debtor, but you will never hear a Republican say that.

The same can be said about spending. Reagan’s GDP from 1981-1988 averaged 22.4%, 1.8% above the highest GDP from 1971 to 2009; public debt also saw a staggering increase during the Reagan's years, from 26% GDP when he took office to a whopping 41% (from $712 billion to $2,052 billion) by the end of his second term. Reagan holds the honor of being the only president who didn’t increase the minimum wage.

Reagan was not a man for the working class or the poor. If anyone thinks differently they hold the man in a very different light than he deserves.  In an interview Reagan gave to the New York Times by the end of his second term, he was asked about the homeless problem facing the nation, his response should be enough to know that while Reagan had charisma, his heart was as dark as his artificially colored hair. His reply to that question was: “[the homeless] make it their own choice for staying out there."

That statement personifies the core values of the Republican Party and we are foolish if we think that they could ever have a heart.


To see the names of the Congressmen and women supporting this proposal, click here.

Links:  To read the Report:  http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Pathtoprosperity2013.pdf

Reagonomics:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics

Edited by J. Schapiro

Passing Gas

I find it ridiculously humorous that the entertainers posing as newscasters in Fox News keep blaming President Obama for the price of gasoline.  Equally humorous is the fact that Newt Gingrich keeps promising that if elected he will bring those prices down.  If someone had any doubt of the lies the far right tell, those absurd claims and accusations should be enough to show the world what big liars they are.

First and foremost, crude oil belongs to the oil companies that own the wells, not the government of the United States, unless of course it is offshore drilling. Even in that case, only if it’s within 3 nautical miles off the coast. Nowadays, deep sea drilling occurs at distances greater than 3 nautical miles, so the Federal and State governments don't receive any profit from it. Most of the time the refineries where the crude oil is processed and turned into gasoline belong to the big gasoline companies but not one belongs to the government of the United States.  Then we have the gas stations, who are privately owned and under contract with the gasoline companies.  So far, I am sure, everyone agrees.

The law of supply and demand stipulates the price of a barrel.  The less the demand, the lower the price and vice versa.  Over 82% of the price we pay at the pump goes to pay for the extraction of the oil (68%), the refinery (7%), marketing and distribution (10%) and finally a portion is the mark up for the gas station (1%).  Around 14% of the total price is taxes.  We don’t have to be rocket scientists to see that the bulk of the price comes from the owners of the well, not the government, the refineries or the gas station owners.

President Obama can’t lower these prices.  No president can.  Fox News knows this, Newt Gingrich knows this, Wall Street knows this and most of the 1% knows this.  The average American is so gullible (we know this from past experience, when they believed the infamous "death panels") that they do believe O'Reilly when he states that Pres Obama is driving the prices up or when NG promises to bring them down. These people suffer from what I call “selective amnesia” and even though they are an avid audience of Fox News, they forget not too long ago when George W. Bush was president and gas prices were rising, Bill O’Reilly explained to his audience that no president can change the price of gas... However, now that the president is a democrat, O’Reilly changes the rules to suit his purpose or party.

We want lower gas?  Let’s begin by being smart consumers.  If you are going to buy a new car, do the environment and your wallet a favor and buy a hybrid or electric car.  Try to drive as little as possible and stretch that tank of gas as much as you can and buy the cheapest gasoline brand, most likely that gasoline comes from the same well and the same refinery just under a different label.

Let’s change the supply and demand, remember if we demand less they’ll be stuck with the barrels of oil and will have to reduce the prices to move their product… Walk a little more; it’s good for the environment, your body and the price at the pump.  Pass the gas… you’ll feel better!

Oil companies lobbying in Congress by Party.

Edited by J. Schapiro

State of the Union Thoughts

“We will stand for the rights and dignity of all human beings - men and women; Christians, Muslims, and Jews. We will support policies that lead to strong and stable democracies and open markets, because tyranny is no match for liberty.” – President Barack H. Obama, State of the Union, January 20, 2012.

Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address. As usual, he provided us with a great speech, there’s no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama is one of the greatest orators of our time.

As Keith Olbermann pointed out, Obama was all over and most times in contradictory terms: raising taxes and reducing taxes, pro oil against oil, pro war, bringing our troops home; many missed the most important points in between the contradictions.

As I understood it, Obama is for drilling for oil in our land and seas but with stricter regulations and only until we can claim our independence from fossil fuel. Offering more assistance to renewable energy, promoting the development of alternative energy, which it’s good… but it is still like a spoon of sugar after swallowing a cup of vinegar. I am against drilling, in our land or our shores, we all have been witness to the environmental disasters these drillings can cause, but if it is until we can cut the subliminal umbilical cord from oil then we must then endure it but hopefully for a very short time. I dream of the day when we are no longer dependent of oil!

For me, the best and most important point in what it was a beautifully delivered speech was the tax reform he proposed and which I have advocated many times in the past, writing to the White House, creating Petitions and writing to Congress. It was long overdue for the multinational companies that the only thing they export is the much-needed jobs to be penalized for their conduct. I am very happy to see that Obama want to create a base tax for all companies, increasing these taxes to the companies that take the jobs that can be performed here somewhere else and rewarding those that create jobs here. It’s only logical! Why would companies that do not help this country and its citizens be the same as those that do?

I loved that Obama reminded everyone of who took care of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden… just in case the Right suffers from the usual delirious amnesia and forgets who made us safer from the radical Islam terrorists. In case they forgot, it was a Democratic President, it was a Democratic administration, and it was Barack Hussein Obama.

Obama went after Wall Street, China and Republicans in no uncertain terms. No more Wall Street negotiations without accountability, no more bailouts if a bank crash. No more unfair trade negotiations with China – our major lender, that took cojones! And he made it clear that this nation has to work together and stop the childish behavior to satisfy an ideology instead of for the betterment of this country. No more holding stocks of companies in their district, removing this way their personal interest when benefiting a particular sector. He made it clear.

All in all, it was a great speech. A speech suitable for a man who is seeking reelection, a man that has done a lot for this country even though there are many that refuse to see it, that only concentrate on the negative and not the positive. I wonder how many of us could have done as much as Obama given the circumstances he faced: a country in shambles, practically bankrupted, in a downward spiral with a bottomless pit and with overwhelming blockage to any solution he placed on the table. This man has endured one of the most difficult times a President could face and still has moved the country forward, not at gigantic steps as most want, he is a man, a family man, not the Messiah.