But the truth is that it really changes very little and has the potential to backfire. It is still a State issue so his announcement really affects only campaign funds. There is no legislation on the books by either the House or the Senate to challenge the definition of marriage. Obama also isn’t due to appoint another Supreme Court judge unless he gets reelected. By then his position could change, as it has done several times on this particular issue, because it no longer politically matters.

In truth, it doesn’t put an extra dollar in people’s pockets. It doesn’t give anyone a job. It doesn’t make the job market any easier. It isn’t stopping businesses from going bankrupt. It doesn’t fix the banks. It doesn’t fix the deficit. It doesn’t wipe out the debt. It is really just more hot air and empty promises from a President whose accomplishment list consists of exactly one item.

The real question is what is the next item of distraction on the list? I can guarantee that it won’t be the economy.

But if there is one thing that the President is good at, it is the art of distraction. Well, that and telling people exactly what they want to hear. That’s always been a mark of his Presidency. Unfortunately, there is so little follow up on his promises that 99% of them turn out to be completely false.

Oh and there are plenty of excuses, most coming down to “the Republicans aren’t working with him”. Please. He is being to sound like a whiny child who is full of excuses on why they didn’t do their chores. One of his job requirements is to get both sides to work together.

You can’t do that if you keep blaming one side for all of your problems –  even though you had the majority for the first two years in office and all you managed to get done was a 200- page bill on health care that very well could get struck down by the Supreme Court. Because someone (again not his fault) forgot to read the U.S. Constitution before writing it. For a supposed Constitutional lawyer, the knowledge he is showing about the Constitution would get him an F in any class. Personal responsibility clearly isn’t one of his messages.

Speaking of which, the health care law promises to be a big distraction in June when the Supreme Court issues its decision on the matter. As important as this decision is, the President will likely milk it as long as he can if he gets a favorable outcome. If it doesn’t, he will once again come up with a myriad of excuses on why it failed. Either way, it is likely to dominate  the conversation for at least a month.

This next few months, the President will be campaigning on distraction. That is his forte. He will avoid talking about the economy at all costs because it really isn’t improving at all. The way for Republicans to win in November is to keep from getting sucked into whatever the news item of the week is and to continue focusing on President Obama’s major weakness, the economy.

(White  House photo)

President Obama’s

Yes, it is great that Osama Bin Laden is dead. Yes, it was a big military victory. But the reviews are mixed on whether he should really be celebrating such a victory.

We are still in Afghanistan. So killing Bin Laden changed absolutely nothing on that particular front. There is no visible exit date or announcement of troop pullouts. We are still in there despite the Presidential promises that he would move troops out. Americans are still dying for an ambiguous war with no visible purpose and no defined goals.

The terrorists still hate us. Nothing has really changed on that score either. It is kind of confusing. President Obama won’t release the pictures of a dead man, yet his campaign makes a big deal over the fact. What happened to keeping Americans safe overseas? Isn’t that the whole purpose of not releasing the pictures? And exactly how will reminding the terrorists of Bin Laden’s death prevent future acts of  retaliation?

On the other side, President Obama kind of needs some good publicity. So praising his greatest accomplishment is certainly within his purview. He really can’t run on anything else at this juncture.

Both the Arizona immigration bill and the health care bill are in front of the Supreme Court. Depending on the rulings, either case could bring a huge black eye to the President. Starting this reminder early is probably a good thing for his image. However, it might be a little earlier to start this type of  “good guy defeating the bad guy” image.

He can’t run on the economy. Growth is slow at best. Rising food prices and higher gas prices are plaguing his Presidency. As long as gas prices stay up, his message on the economy falls flat despite any job number reports or unemployment rate numbers. The much simpler message of “I am spending less on my family because I have to spend more on gas,” is louder and clearer than any Presidential speech.

He can’t run on jobs because all of his job stimulus packages have basically failed to create any. At best, he can claim a delay in a few layoffs, but that is pretty much it. Everything else on job creation is pure speculation because no one really kept track of where the money went.

Energy is a failure. If it had just been Solyndra, then it could have been chalked up to anomaly. But there are others and the failure rate is becoming a pattern. It is almost as if, if  the government gave you some funds in the green energy department, you have permission to go bankrupt.

There isn’t much left really for him to run on.

Personally, I think this ad is far sadder than it is triumphant. The death of a single man can’t possibly eclipse all of the problems Americans are currently facing in their lives. But since this is all Obama has to campaign on, he might as well play it up since it’s his single greatest accomplishment the entire three years he has been in office.

President Obama

The Buffett rule is one of the tax increases that he is trying to garner support for. There are a few millionaires in favor of this tax. Now, their support is a little puzzling on this issue. Either this is blind support for President Obama or they can see that this particular bill is doomed for failure anyway. Whatever the reason, it is clearly so that they can enjoy some good publicity which increases their profits.

The good news is that bill will probably never see the light of day. Not only is it doomed by the actual amount it collects (less than five days of running the government), but it actually has very little support. There is actually more support among both Congress and the American people for the millionaires just to write checks directly to the IRS to cover some of the National debt.

By the way, the IRS is still waiting for Warren Buffet’s check that matches Virginia’s Representative Scott Rigel’s contributions to paying down the debt.

Of course, the Buffett rule isn’t the only tax increase on the table. The next one is actually sitting before the Supreme Court. Yes, I am talking about Obamacare. Regardless of your political position regarding the mandate clause, the fact remains that people are going to have pay for health care regardless of if they want it or not. The collection stage of the fine falls directly on the shoulders of the IRS who get to evaluate if you are paying what you should be paying for health care. Even if they don’t exactly call it a tax, it is still more money out of your pocket at the end of the day.

The problem here is that Obamacare does nothing to control the actual costs. As has already been seen, the price tag on health care just keeps shooting up. Unlike other countries that do have standardized health care, the President has no actual power to set the prices of procedures or the prices doctors can charge for a visit. Instead, Congressional authority exists only to the extent of how much they reimburse services in the public plans of Medicare and Medicaid. Thus, they have very little influence on keeping costs down. Doctors are still free to choose to treat whoever they want and accept whatever insurance company they want to bargain with. So what is really happening is that doctors are moving away from the public plans because they simply aren’t covering their costs.

Even if you add in the fact that more people are going to be paying into the system, you still run into the same basic problems regarding price. There is the potential for more demand on health care services which drives up costs by the simple economic principle of supply and demand. The other basic problem is the possibility of shortages which also has a substantial effect on price.

The last important potential tax increase is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in 2013. Now there has been a lot of debate surrounding their necessity. But regardless of whether you see this as a good or bad thing for the government, the bottom line is still the same, more taxes.

President Obama may come up with some catchy slogans or some kind of political rallying cry. But his political platform is clear. He is campaigning on the promise to raise taxes in his next four years. Which is something that no other President in American history has ever done.

(White House photo)

Oil is one of those entities that everyone uses in some way or other. Its sheer flexibility has made it hard for the alternative energy sources to compete with it. As the price goes higher, the spending power of consumers decreases. This is because gas is a necessity.

Oil prices are determined by three factors: the amount of supply, the world-wide demand, and the speculators.

The effect of the speculators is a point of argument among economists. As to how much they affect gas prices, there is no clear consensus. Until there is one, there is little anyone can actually do about their role.

Supply is determined by two factors, how much a country is producing and how easy it is to get the product onto the market. Production isn’t usually a problem unless there is a sabotage of oil wells like Iraq had a few years ago. But it is how oil gets to the market that can turn into a political power play. Take Iran, which has more than once threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. If this happens, it means that it will be harder for supplies to hit the market. As supplies go up, there is a downward pressure on prices.

Demand is really determined by the total amount needed world-wide. So, even if the U.S. is using less oil than it normally would, demand could still go up due to an increase in demand in other countries such as India and China. As overall demand goes up, there is an upward pressure on prices. Sometimes, I don’t think that the President actually gets this particular concept. It is not the U.S. demand that counts but the demand of every country added together.

While it is true that President Obama has less power over gas prices, it is not true to say that he is completely powerless to act. Neither is Congress for that matter. In fact, there are a couple of options for both the President and Congress to really look at.

For the President, tapping into the oil reserve is certainly a possibility. This will put downward pressure on prices because he is essentially adding to the domestic supply. He can also issue more permits for exploration and drilling. In other words, he should seriously look at ways to dramatically increase the domestic supply chain. This will save on shipping costs from overseas and fund companies that are directly in the U.S. Yes, there are some environmental issues here and that group is squarely in President Obama’s pocket so this option is quite unlikely.

Congress can do its own part with what would be a highly controversial but likely well-received plan. They could in fact temporarily repeal the gas tax. Prices would naturally be lower if the gas tax were no longer added to the cost. Although, I will admit that such a plan is unlikely to even be a serious consideration. If there is one obvious thing, Congress loves to spend money and this will hurt their revenue. They can also streamline EPA regulations to make them far more uniform and cut out some of the refining costs.

No matter how well the media spins high gas prices, the truth is that the cost will be seen and felt on a daily basis. There is nothing that President Obama can really do to counter that. It will be seen in the higher cost of groceries, the higher cost of consumer products, airlines, summer vacations and so many other things. Those who are on a very tight budget are going to get hit even harder.

Despite the seemingly good economic numbers, higher oil prices will continue to trump those. It could completely stop the economy in its tracks. If this continues, the election won’t be about the health care bill, the controversy over birth control or even Iran, it will be about  gas. The price of gas is likely one of the very last things that voters will see on their way to the polls and this will end President Obama’s reelection campaign.

President Obama

So what’s the real problem? The fact that President Obama is trying to get companies to give free birth control to individuals. On the surface, it looks good and sounds good until you start looking at the financial implications of such a plan. It is these implications that basically make the entire plan unfeasible. Because the question then becomes: who is going to pay for these free birth control pills? According to President Obama’s plan, that would be employers and insurance companies.

Again sounds good right? The employer and/or insurance company pays everything and doles out free pills. That is until you get your insurance bill; then you realize that those free birth control pills have also raised your insurance rate. So while it might be free at the pharmacy counter, it really isn’t free. This is because the costs of supplying those pills get rolled into the overall plan.

The counter argument is that, well, not every woman needs birth control pills. But if you are part of a package insurance plan, then you are probably already paying for services that you would never use. So, the extra costs of birth control pills will basically get thrown in there as well, causing rates to go up. Individual plans might fare better on this regard, but still those extra costs are going to get added in somewhere. Insurance companies are out to make money. If this means charging you more to make up for a Federal mandate, then they will do it. Don’t be fooled in this regard.

Oh wait? Wasn’t there some sort of promise made by President Obama not to raise rates? Yes, this mandate would be just another broken promise by a politician.

Now, let’s look at the employers who would have to cover the cost as well. Depending on the insurance plan and company, the employers will also have to take an additional look at the costs of this added expense. In short, it just adds to the cost to insure women. If an employer is looking at the overall costs of hiring a single man over a single woman and the insurance costs are higher for the woman because of the mandate, who do you think they will hire? Obviously, it will be the cheaper one. Could you prove discrimination in this case? No, it would in fact be impossible. Just this alone puts women at a disadvantage on the job market.

As far as the legality goes, the lawsuit arguments will be based on the First Amendment. There will certainly be lawsuits if this goes into effect. More than likely, it will wind up in the Supreme Court. Now, if you look at the past history of the Supreme Court on First Amendment issues, you will see that they have sided with the First Amendment numerous times. One of the more recent cases First Amendment cases was The Westboro Church vs Military Funerals where the Supreme Court ruled the protests could happen. The chances of the President winning based on the past precedent of First Amendment Supreme Court rulings are very small even with the liberal judges.

The problem is not that women should get birth control. The problem is the President mandating who should pay for it regardless of who receives it. The end result is higher costs. It might be all zeroes on the cash register but don’t be fooled because that money is going to come from somewhere.

I’m referring, of course, to the battle being waged over the Obama Administration’s overt dismissal of the “conscience clause” tradition, in its push to require Catholic hospitals to provide for contraception-related medication for women.  For those of you who haven’t realized it from the Left’s trashing of Rick Santorum regarding birth control…the Catholic Church considers contraception to be against the faith.

So, now people are reading the health care bill, being unable to do so until long after the fact — thank you, Nancy Pelosi. “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” she said — swearing up and down that, were we to read it without all the squabbling, we’d love it.

Well…we read it.  And the authority it provided for the Secretary of Health & Human Services is now in clear violation of the “conscience clause” tradition.

In case you’re wondering, that tradition exists as an extension of the First Amendment’s provision that prohibits any federal law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  Forcing a religious institution to provide a service that flies in the face of one of its teachings is a slap in the face of the spirit of that freedom of religion.  Thus, laws which might otherwise have that effect tend to provide exemptions for faith-based institutions — a “conscience clause”.

The justification for the Administration’s policy is along the lines of, “Oh, we need to make sure that women being treated with plans from those hospitals will be able to have the care they need!”

There are two problems with this.  First of all, birth control is used to prevent impregnation when the women in question engage in intercourse.  When one understands that, one sees why it’s…not exactly much of a “health” thing.  Birth control is used to prevent something from happening, regarding something you choose to engage in.  It’s not “health” — it’s a matter of whether you choose to have sex or not!

The second problem is, even with that point aside — no one is preventing the women in question from getting birth control.  They could get the prescription from a non-Catholic institution.  They could get a health plan from a non-Catholic institution.  For goodness sake — you knew what you were getting when you got the plan.  You have no one to blame but yourself!

Now, the reason I feel hope is this: the Catholics do not stand alone.  I am not a Catholic — I would be considered an “Evangelical”.  However, Evangelicals are standing up for the rights of Catholics, here — as are Protestants of many a denomination.  Many Jewish groups are also joining the fight.  People of faith are coming together, to fight back against this attack.  The problems this president has faced with people of faith have deepened.

Interestingly enough…Hispanics are Catholic by a vast majority.  Considering how Hispanics are held to be an all-important voting block…that poses a greater problem.

Now, Barack Obama has “agreed” to back down on this issue — and strive to find a “compromise”.  Somehow…he’s not satisfying people — and for good reason: why on Earth did his own Heath Department do this in the first place?  Didn’t they think this was going to happen?  What could have possessed them to step on a faith so soundly?  Is it idiocy?  Is it incompetence?  Is it a desperate desire to secure the Leftist base — so heartily obsessed with abortion and other issues they smugly euphemize as “women’s health”?  An effort to bait people of faith, marginalizing those he has problems with by painting them as “extremists”?

If the latter, it doesn’t seem to be working.  Their beliefs are not nearly as “mainstream” as they seem to think.  Our side in the culture war is coming together.  And when it does…we win.

The last Federal Budget was passed by President George W. Bush. Yes, you read that right. President Obama has not had a Federal Budget passed since he took the office. If that shocks you, you should consider that for the first two years of his Presidency, President Obama had both a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. Of course, he is only responsible for signing it into law because the real responsibility is on Congress to get one passed.

In the last four years, that responsibility sits squarely on Senator Harry Reid’s shoulders.

The typical passage of a Budget works like most pieces of legislation. It is created in the House of Representatives through a committee. The committee votes on it and passes it on. It goes through a few changes and the entire House votes on it. Once it passes through there, it goes to the Senate.

From there, a committee in the Senate looks at it and crafts their own version. After the committee vote, it goes up for a vote to the full Senate. Once the Senate passes their version, representatives from both the House and Senate get together and compromise on the final version. Then it goes before both to get a final vote. Finally, the President signs it into law.

What has happened with the Budget is that is has essentially stalled in the Senate. This is because Senator Harry Reid won’t bring up the Budget to the full Senate to get a vote on it. Nor has President Obama put any type of pressure on Senator Harry Reid to get it passed.

If you are wondering why a Federal Budget is such a big deal, think about your household income and expenses. A budget essentially tracks all of your money and what you are spending it on. Without a working budget, your household can easily get into financial trouble because you don’t know where your money is going. The first piece of advice anyone is going to give you to dig yourself out is to make a budget.

The Government is making the exact same mistake. Without the Federal Budget, they don’t know where the money is going. As a result, the deficit keeps growing and growing. It won’t stop growing until Congress grabs back control of their finances with a Budget. At over $15 trillion dollars and counting, there is no country on Earth that can provide that type of money for a bailout. It just isn’t going to happen. Unfortunately, that’s reality and not a political viewpoint.

But more importantly, a Budget leads to accountability. A Federal Budget means governmental accountability. Accountability is the one thing that has been totally lost this administration. If you don’t have a Government that is accountable to the people, then all the “feel good political legislation” that gets passed before election day doesn’t mean a thing.

It is time that the American people stood up and held the Congress and the President accountable for the money that they are spending. It is time to demand that a Federal Budget gets passed. Otherwise, all of the promises spewed out by the President and Congress are just empty words. So, President Obama, let me ask you this. Where’s the Federal Budget?

But three years into his presidency, I think it is fair enough to come to the conclusion that while Obama may be a lot of things, a socialist is not one of them.

Socialism – what is it? These days people seem to call everything under the sun socialism, and things have veered a lot from what I learned in school – that socialism is government-run, often -owned, and -controlled industry.

The problem? While I know there are plenty of touters of Friedman economics who believe  that any type of government interference makes the possibility of a free market impossible, I think most practicing economists understand this to be a bit like the laws of physics – damn hard to apply to every day life due to gravity. What I mean is, if this is the defining characteristic of free market capitalism then all of our government consumer protection organizations are socialist.

This is a far cry from standard definitions of socialism and capitalism – this is extremism to the level of communism.

The problem is too many people confuse social services and social programs with socialism. Sure, if the government offers a service it can be difficult for private actors to compete. But that doesn’t mean they cannot.

I spent some time living in Sweden, often considered to be a bastion of socialism, and would you believe that five days a week I received two mail deliveries, one from the state run post office and one from the private run commercial post service. Private industry competes openly with government run business, is this socialism?

A government, voted by the people for the people, which sets laws and regulations to protect the people, is not socialist.

Passing a law that states every citizen must purchase health insurance or be fined, is not socialist. You can be fined. You can opt not to and pay the fine. You can opt to not pay your medical bills and have the taxpayers pay them instead. Sure, that is your right and your freedom.

Social Security is socialist because you cannot opt out, you pay into it automatically, and the government controls where your money goes. But let’s remember that Obama is not responsible for starting Social Security, and it has provided money for a lot of retirees over the years.

There have been no acts that Obama has passed in his three years in office that have changed the capitalist nature of the United States.

Even the buyouts of the banks, where the US took over part of the banks following the latest economic crisis, were not socialism. Just as according to plan, as soon as they had the funds, the banks bought themselves back. The purpose of the bank takeovers was to preserve capital so that the banks didn’t fail and people didn’t lose all their money, not so that the government could be active in the daily running of the banks. The purpose was purely capitalistic, not socialist.

Let’s also remember the initial TARP act, which lent money to the banks, was President Bush’s act, not Obamas.

Is Obama a socialist? No. Is America at risk to become a socialist country? No. Comparatively speaking the United States has fewer social programs than pretty much any other western nation in the world. Maternity leave, health care, standard practices in many democratic capitalist countries around the world are considered socialist by the people of the US and therefore do not pass through our system. Do you need any more proof?

(White House photo)

So, the number one expectation on this list will likely come as a surprise to some. The very first thing that Congress and the President should do at this moment is to get the budget passed. There hasn’t been a real government budget since President Bush left office. Yes, you read that right. President Obama has never had to work within a government budget. This is perhaps the biggest reason why spending is so out of control. There is no budget.

Every person who has ever spent money knows that the instant you lose track of what you’re spending, you lose control. Once you lose control, you get into financial trouble. Any financial adviser will tell you that one of the very first things you should do is to create a budget. In fact, the only way out of this mess is to make a budget.

This issue can’t really be stressed enough, because it really is the first step to getting out of the mess that the President and Congress have gotten the American people into. So, President Obama, quit the campaign trail, get back into Congress, pile the pressure on the Senate Democrats and get an actual budget passed.

In other words, for both Congress and President Obama, DO YOUR JOB.

Second on the list, probably of less importance, but still involving a huge military mistake by someone, is to deal with the spy plane in Iran. Again, this is the President’s job, as listed in the US Constitution as the Commander in Chief. Simply put, the spy plane is a military embarrassment that needs to be dealt with quickly. In fact it is so embarrassing, that it negates any of the past military victories that President Obama has had. Yes, it is even worse than GITMO and that’s saying a lot.

So, President Obama, get your military leaders on the phone, meet them in person, use whatever means at your disposal to get a plan in place to deal with that spy plane. All you are really being asked here is to DO YOUR JOB.

Third on the list is approval of the Keystone project. This project has been in the works for years and is likely President Obama’s only hope for the creation of real jobs (since clearly, all other proposals for job creation have either failed or have been sidelined). Not only is it a step toward energy independence, it is a political feather that can be placed in the Presidential cap. The environmental impact surveys have been done. The time to act is now. So, President Obama, if you want to keep your campaign promise of creating jobs, here’s your best chance for doing so. Delaying this will hurt America’s efforts toward creating energy sources closer to home. Approval of this will fulfill promises made during many, many Presidential speeches.

Since this is getting rather long, these three are the top expectations that should be accomplished before hitting the campaign trail. President Obama, GO DO YOUR JOB and stop the campaign until you get this done. You have plenty of cronies to sing your praises and raise money for you. You need to DO THE JOB you were elected to do.

Congress, the only way you can end the constant disappointment and bring at least some respect back is to do the one thing you are tasked to do by the US Constitution, pass a budget. So, Congress, do some compromising, take the first step to getting America back on a financially smart course, and DO YOUR JOB.

(White House photo)

Clearly, Social Security is one of those political hot topics that set off emotions. People, especially the elderly, don’t want anyone messing with Social Security. What this payroll tax is really labeled on most paychecks is the Social Security tax. The payroll tax terminology is really just political labeling designed to misdirect people from the fact that this tax goes directly into the Social Security fund.

By cutting this tax, you cut the funds going directly toward Social Security. That happens to be the unintended consequence of this particular tax cut. Which means that Social Security can turn “upside down” even faster than it is happening right now. “Upside down” is a political and/or economic slang term, meaning the amount of money going into a program is less than the amount of money being paid out by that program. For a business, it means a red bottom line. For a bank, it means a negative account balance.

In fact, the Social Security administration trustee report  for 2010 states that Social Security is upside down. The last time this was the case was in 1983.

Now, the other side of this coin is that it does give the economy a slight boost. People are getting and spending the money that they see in their paycheck. But this is still only a temporary effect. Because this tax cut cannot be sustained indefinitely. At some point, it will be impossible for the government to pay out Social Security checks with very little money coming in.

The other real problem is that this particular tax was sold as a way to help businesses. But businesses aren’t hiring based on a slight break in the Social Security tax. Businesses have a lot more expenses to weigh when they are going to hire someone. The Social Security tax isn’t even in the top ten of those expenses. So, in reality, zero jobs have been created directly due to this tax.

Then there is the question of how to pay for it. Frankly, I am against both sides on this one. The main reason is that any funds produced to cover the shortfall will wind up in the general budget and will not go back into Social Security. Whether there is a millionaire tax or a pay freeze, the results are exactly the same. There will not be a dime headed back into  Social Security. Unless Congress makes the direction of those funds eminently clear, then it will be the same general free-for-all spending spree that Congress is famous for.

Which means more borrowing to cover up the shortfalls in the Social Security system. Thus, the damage that has been done to the Social Security fund will be compounded. What it really means is that Social Security will not last nearly as long as predicted or indicated. Changes will have to come much, much sooner than even the experts are predicting.

Yes, there should be more money in people’s pockets. Yes, the tax rates should be lowered. However, is this payroll tax cut, AKA social security tax cut, really a good solution to both?

For a President who is so adamant against changing the programs of Social Security and Medicare, he sure is doing a lot to make sure that they do change by necessity. If anything, this discussion is another reason you should be putting away more funds for your retirement. At this rate, it won’t be long before there will be no Social Security at all.

(Photo: USCIS)