December 26, 2010
Don’t forget what President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress did in 2010 – and tell everybody who will listen! And if they do not get outraged, then they are sleeping under a rock and they can’t get out.
December 26, 2010
December 19, 2010
The perfect conservative
December 19, 2010
He was not born into a royal family, but He left a royal impression on the world.
For 30 years, He learned the ways of the world without becoming of the world. He then changed the world for the better.
He was not born into a royal family, but He left a royal impression on the world.
For 30 years, He learned the ways of the world without becoming of the world. He then changed the world for the better.
December 12, 2010
Go ahead, lame duck Congress: Make our day!
December 12, 2010
For the first time, the president listened to the majority of the people and was willing to extend the existing tax rates for everyone. Many people do not like the backdoor welfare that he attached to the so-called deal that Congress is now considering, nor did we like extending unemployment benefits for another 13 months without identifying the off-sets in spending.
For the first time, the president listened to the majority of the people and was willing to extend the existing tax rates for everyone. Many people do not like the backdoor welfare that he attached to the so-called deal that Congress is now considering, nor did we like extending unemployment benefits for another 13 months without identifying the off-sets in spending.
December 5, 2010
Washington is leaking oil
December 5, 2010
My first car as a teenager was an old car with a lot of problems, but at least it was functional. It had an oil leak and I could not afford to get the leak fixed. It was cheaper for me to add oil occasionally to prevent the engine from totally locking up, or worse yet, catching fire.
My first car as a teenager was an old car with a lot of problems, but at least it was functional. It had an oil leak and I could not afford to get the leak fixed. It was cheaper for me to add oil occasionally to prevent the engine from totally locking up, or worse yet, catching fire.
November 28, 2010
Liberals hate tax facts
November 28, 2010
Here we go with the liberal rhetoric again. You’ve seen the Democrats whine that keeping the “Bush tax cuts” would stuff the pockets of the richest Americans, while doing nothing to help the middle class. But that simply isn’t the truth.
Here’s the truth:
Here we go with the liberal rhetoric again. You’ve seen the Democrats whine that keeping the “Bush tax cuts” would stuff the pockets of the richest Americans, while doing nothing to help the middle class. But that simply isn’t the truth.
Here’s the truth:
November 21, 2010
Don’t be VAT stupid
November 21, 2010
There’s one message from the 2010 elections that many so-called policy makers, political elites and analysts did not hear. Namely, the American people are not as uninformed and stupid as they think we are.
There’s one message from the 2010 elections that many so-called policy makers, political elites and analysts did not hear. Namely, the American people are not as uninformed and stupid as they think we are.
November 14, 2010
Let Obama win one . . . for now
November 14, 2010
President Obama’s defeats did not just start with the 2010 midterm election results. They started in December 2008, when President-elect Obama said “deficits don’t matter”. Well, he discovered that deficits do matter, because the American people were paying attention. They overwhelmingly rejected the runaway spending of this administration and this Democrat-controlled Congress.
President Obama’s defeats did not just start with the 2010 midterm election results. They started in December 2008, when President-elect Obama said “deficits don’t matter”. Well, he discovered that deficits do matter, because the American people were paying attention. They overwhelmingly rejected the runaway spending of this administration and this Democrat-controlled Congress.
November 7, 2010
Can Obama see that unemployment is an urgent problem?
November 7, 2010
If you are one of the nearly 15 million people who want to work and can’t find a job, you are not impressed that 151,000 new private sector jobs were created in October. That’s because it represents less than 1 percent of the workforce while 9.6 percent are still unemployed, which is nearly four million more than when President Obama took office.
If you are one of the nearly 15 million people who want to work and can’t find a job, you are not impressed that 151,000 new private sector jobs were created in October. That’s because it represents less than 1 percent of the workforce while 9.6 percent are still unemployed, which is nearly four million more than when President Obama took office.
October 31, 2010
After Tuesday . . . the long road ahead
October 31, 2010
Conservative Republican control of the House is step one. Taking control of the Senate is step two, regardless of whether we do it in 2010 or 2012. And step three is electing a conservative president in 2012. It will not be as easy as one-two-three, but it can be done and it must be done to take back our government.
Conservative Republican control of the House is step one. Taking control of the Senate is step two, regardless of whether we do it in 2010 or 2012. And step three is electing a conservative president in 2012. It will not be as easy as one-two-three, but it can be done and it must be done to take back our government.
October 24, 2010
How to counterbalance China’s ascendance: Reinvigorate real American strength of growth plus liberty
October 24, 2010
I spent last week in China as part of a board meeting with some of our joint venture business partners based in China. It was my first time in China, and some of my preconceived notions were shattered, as is the case for many people who visit there for the first time. But other perceptions were confirmed.
I spent last week in China as part of a board meeting with some of our joint venture business partners based in China. It was my first time in China, and some of my preconceived notions were shattered, as is the case for many people who visit there for the first time. But other perceptions were confirmed.
October 17, 2010
October 11, 2010
It’s weird that these racist right-wing tea party wackos seem to like me so much
October 10, 2010
By Herman Cain
I am an American Black Conservative (ABC).
Since April 15, 2009 I have spoken at over 30 citizens’ movement events, which have included Tea Party rallies, prosperity conferences and other conservative gatherings. At those events I have yet to find the racists and extremists that the liberals continue to say exist. In fact, I and my message of “Take Back Our Government” have been enthusiastically received.
Not to be boastful, but to illustrate my point, last Saturday at the Virginia Tea Party convention of over 2,300 attendees, I received no less than five standing ovations during my 20-minute keynote address. Following my speech over 100 people waited patiently in line for an hour and a half to get my autograph and their picture taken with this ABC.
Many of those who waited shared their stories of being at a Tea Party event for the first time. Others talked about how they were inspired to keep working hard supporting the right candidates, and to believe that we can take our government back from the liberals.
I was particularly moved when one lady told me that she was so fearful about the future of this country for our children and grandchildren that she quit her job to be more active in the movement. She said her husband made enough money to take care of the family, so she could do more to help take care of the future.
Maybe the racists, Astroturf, un-American, teabagging and shameless extremists stayed home that day, or they simply do not exist in the citizens’ movement.
As Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center said recently, “Name-calling is all the Left has left.” He’s right! The liberals are befuddled as to how to stop this movement. I have bad news for liberals if they are listening. You can’t stop it, because it’s the awakened voice of “We the People”.
I continue to address this topic because the liberals and the mainstream media continue to try to demonize and demean the citizens’ movement with name-calling, degrading characterizations and scare tactics. Most recently, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean even said that those Tea Party people are scaring people with their radical and extremist views, and their support of extremist candidates.
You are right Mr. Dean. The citizens’ movement is scaring liberals and establishment candidates right out of office.
And as far as the Tea Party people and candidates they support being extreme, I suppose wanting fiscal discipline in Washington, wanting reduced regulations on the free-market system, passing laws that adhere to the Constitution of the USA and listening to the voting public must be what the liberals call extreme and scary.
The Obama Administration, Democrats and the mainstream media must not consider it extreme to go against the will of the majority of the voting public in passing health care and financial regulatory deform bills, to not read legislation before they vote on it, to spend this nation into bankruptcy and to not pass tax legislation before the current law expires at the end of 2010.
Tea Party people are not racists. They are not extremists. They are not right wing wackos. They are the true patriots in this country. If liberals want to see for themselves, they should just go and attend an event. They are everywhere, and they are not going to end on Election Day.
The liberals and the political elites are losing, and it is anticipated that they will lose big on November 2, 2010. That would be a big win for “We the People”.
Since April 15, 2009 I have spoken at over 30 citizens’ movement events, which have included Tea Party rallies, prosperity conferences and other conservative gatherings. At those events I have yet to find the racists and extremists that the liberals continue to say exist. In fact, I and my message of “Take Back Our Government” have been enthusiastically received.
Not to be boastful, but to illustrate my point, last Saturday at the Virginia Tea Party convention of over 2,300 attendees, I received no less than five standing ovations during my 20-minute keynote address. Following my speech over 100 people waited patiently in line for an hour and a half to get my autograph and their picture taken with this ABC.
Many of those who waited shared their stories of being at a Tea Party event for the first time. Others talked about how they were inspired to keep working hard supporting the right candidates, and to believe that we can take our government back from the liberals.
I was particularly moved when one lady told me that she was so fearful about the future of this country for our children and grandchildren that she quit her job to be more active in the movement. She said her husband made enough money to take care of the family, so she could do more to help take care of the future.
Maybe the racists, Astroturf, un-American, teabagging and shameless extremists stayed home that day, or they simply do not exist in the citizens’ movement.
As Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center said recently, “Name-calling is all the Left has left.” He’s right! The liberals are befuddled as to how to stop this movement. I have bad news for liberals if they are listening. You can’t stop it, because it’s the awakened voice of “We the People”.
I continue to address this topic because the liberals and the mainstream media continue to try to demonize and demean the citizens’ movement with name-calling, degrading characterizations and scare tactics. Most recently, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean even said that those Tea Party people are scaring people with their radical and extremist views, and their support of extremist candidates.
You are right Mr. Dean. The citizens’ movement is scaring liberals and establishment candidates right out of office.
And as far as the Tea Party people and candidates they support being extreme, I suppose wanting fiscal discipline in Washington, wanting reduced regulations on the free-market system, passing laws that adhere to the Constitution of the USA and listening to the voting public must be what the liberals call extreme and scary.
The Obama Administration, Democrats and the mainstream media must not consider it extreme to go against the will of the majority of the voting public in passing health care and financial regulatory deform bills, to not read legislation before they vote on it, to spend this nation into bankruptcy and to not pass tax legislation before the current law expires at the end of 2010.
Tea Party people are not racists. They are not extremists. They are not right wing wackos. They are the true patriots in this country. If liberals want to see for themselves, they should just go and attend an event. They are everywhere, and they are not going to end on Election Day.
The liberals and the political elites are losing, and it is anticipated that they will lose big on November 2, 2010. That would be a big win for “We the People”.
October 4, 2010
The Democrats’ class warfare crap
October 3, 2010
By Herman Cain
President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress believe it is practically immoral to allow people who have made a lot of money to decide how they want to spend it. It is equally immoral for some people to think that they are entitled to other people’s money through the force of the government.
Class warfare has been a winning tactic for Democrats for a long time, but a lot of voters are waking up to the false promise of that old tired song. Some people are realizing that they might be “rich” one day. They are asking the question that, if they work their anchovies off to make some real money, then why should the government take it and redistribute it to those who did not want to take risks and work 24/7 for themselves and their families?
Studies have shown for decades that a majority of people who start out in the lowest economic quintile (20 percent) will advance at least two quintiles higher over time with some of them making it all the way to the top quintile. My dad was one on those achievers.
My dad walked off his father’s small dirt farm with just the clothes on his back to pursue his American dreams. His only equity was sweat equity! At one point in his life he worked three jobs to try to improve his economic situation. He was a barber, janitor and chauffeur all at the same time.
When my dad died at the age of 56 in 1982, his net worth was $982,000. He started with nothing! We used the capital gains on his estate to take care of my mom who had multiple sclerosis until she died 24 years later. After mom passed, I wrote an estate tax payment to the government for $1.3 million dollars, since we had invested wisely and Dad’s estate had grown in value.
So that’s one reason I am sick and tired of people whining about what the rich ought to pay! The Declaration of Independence says “the pursuit of happiness”. It does not say anything about a guarantee or a Department of Happy.
I am also sick of the lie press secretary Robert Gibbs and other Democrats are claiming that by not taxing those families making over $250,000 a year, we will add $700 billion to the deficit. It’s a lie because it is based on static analysis, which is the method bureaucrats use when they are trying to dupe the taxpayers into another tax increase. Show me the analysis!
And another thing! For the president to tell people at one of his staged backyard town hall meetings that he needed to raise taxes on those families to help reduce the deficit and the national debt is simply disingenuous. The American people have been screaming for over a year for the government to stop the spending! But he and his Democrats in Congress have been deaf to the public.
The president and the Democrats have no positive accomplishments to boast about leading up to the 2010 congressional elections. So they play the race card, the class warfare card and politics of personal attacks.
Most people who are able to generate a modest amount of wealth usually donate a large portion of their wealth to charitable and community-based organizations. That’s where it does the most good because it is closest to where the need is based. Going through the mechanism of government redistribution is inefficient and unfair.
Two thirds of those “evil rich” people making over $250,000 a year are small businesses that employ nearly two-thirds of the workers in America. A caller reminded me last week that if those businesses have to pay more in taxes, some of their workers might lose their jobs.
Abraham Lincoln said, “You don’t help the poor by hurting the rich.” This administration is determined to hurt the rich and make more people poor.
By Herman Cain
President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress believe it is practically immoral to allow people who have made a lot of money to decide how they want to spend it. It is equally immoral for some people to think that they are entitled to other people’s money through the force of the government.
Class warfare has been a winning tactic for Democrats for a long time, but a lot of voters are waking up to the false promise of that old tired song. Some people are realizing that they might be “rich” one day. They are asking the question that, if they work their anchovies off to make some real money, then why should the government take it and redistribute it to those who did not want to take risks and work 24/7 for themselves and their families?
Studies have shown for decades that a majority of people who start out in the lowest economic quintile (20 percent) will advance at least two quintiles higher over time with some of them making it all the way to the top quintile. My dad was one on those achievers.
My dad walked off his father’s small dirt farm with just the clothes on his back to pursue his American dreams. His only equity was sweat equity! At one point in his life he worked three jobs to try to improve his economic situation. He was a barber, janitor and chauffeur all at the same time.
When my dad died at the age of 56 in 1982, his net worth was $982,000. He started with nothing! We used the capital gains on his estate to take care of my mom who had multiple sclerosis until she died 24 years later. After mom passed, I wrote an estate tax payment to the government for $1.3 million dollars, since we had invested wisely and Dad’s estate had grown in value.
So that’s one reason I am sick and tired of people whining about what the rich ought to pay! The Declaration of Independence says “the pursuit of happiness”. It does not say anything about a guarantee or a Department of Happy.
I am also sick of the lie press secretary Robert Gibbs and other Democrats are claiming that by not taxing those families making over $250,000 a year, we will add $700 billion to the deficit. It’s a lie because it is based on static analysis, which is the method bureaucrats use when they are trying to dupe the taxpayers into another tax increase. Show me the analysis!
And another thing! For the president to tell people at one of his staged backyard town hall meetings that he needed to raise taxes on those families to help reduce the deficit and the national debt is simply disingenuous. The American people have been screaming for over a year for the government to stop the spending! But he and his Democrats in Congress have been deaf to the public.
The president and the Democrats have no positive accomplishments to boast about leading up to the 2010 congressional elections. So they play the race card, the class warfare card and politics of personal attacks.
Most people who are able to generate a modest amount of wealth usually donate a large portion of their wealth to charitable and community-based organizations. That’s where it does the most good because it is closest to where the need is based. Going through the mechanism of government redistribution is inefficient and unfair.
Two thirds of those “evil rich” people making over $250,000 a year are small businesses that employ nearly two-thirds of the workers in America. A caller reminded me last week that if those businesses have to pay more in taxes, some of their workers might lose their jobs.
Abraham Lincoln said, “You don’t help the poor by hurting the rich.” This administration is determined to hurt the rich and make more people poor.
September 27, 2010
A presidency in free fall
September 26, 2010
By Herman Cain
In less than two years, this presidency has produced an unprecedented turnover rate of top administration advisors, a failed stimulus spending bill, failed economic policies that have left the economy stalled, much higher than expected unemployment, a hugely unpopular health care bill, a financial regulatory deform bill, a list of expensive poorly executed populist programs that flopped, out-of-control federal spending, uncertainty about success with the war in Afghanistan, and increased tensions with Iran, North Korea and China.
Millions of voters have come to realize that this presidency lacks leadership, direction, decisiveness, economic urgency and, most of all, solutions. This combination of deficiencies has produced a more than uninspired citizenry, except for the most loyal and misled supporters of the president.
And just like the Obama supporter who confronted the president at a supposedly friendly town hall meeting last week, people are exhausted from listening to all of the failed attempts to spin failures into successes with speeches and media sound-bites.
A disheartened Obama supporter called my radio show last week and asked if I could name one thing that Obama had done right, since it seemed to him that all I talk about are the things that have not worked. I honestly tried to think of something significantly positive, but I could not. There have been too many disappointments and broken campaign promises.
This presidency is in free fall, which means this nation is in free fall.
But after further reflection, there is something this presidency has inspired. With the help of an incompetently led Congress, Obama has successfully awakened a citizen’s movement that has stunned the political establishment in both parties.
The political establishment and the Obama media call it those Tea Party People. They can’t seem to understand why people are upset. Maybe they’re not listening.
The administration, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, other Democrats, the Obama mainstream media and other liberals have responded to the citizens’ movement with nothing but name-calling attacks on the Tea Party people. Those tactics have not worked. In fact, they appear to have further energized the citizen’s movement. Demonization and intimidation of “We the People” is not working.
The free fall of this presidency started with an unmanageable management structure. Fifteen cabinet heads and dozens of czars is not a logical way to structure a leadership team.
Two of the president’s top economic advisors have left in less than two years, and the third of four, Larry Summers, has announced that he is leaving. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, is expected to leave soon to run for Mayor of Chicago, while senior advisor to the president David Axelrod has confirmed that he will be leaving sometime in 2011 to work on Obama’s re-election campaign. That might be the uphill political challenge of the century.
Many congressional Democrats running for re-election are distancing themselves from the president, the health care deform bill and the Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill bill. And they don’t even talk about all of the spending, which has not been the solution to economic growth. In fact, they want to spend more!
And now the Democrats have decided to wait until after the November elections to pass legislation on the expiring current tax rates. This is a signal that the president and the Democrats are going to raise taxes. We just do not know whether it will be on all of us or some of us.
Instead of a parachute, this president and Congress are determined to put this economy and nation into a nose dive.
By Herman Cain
In less than two years, this presidency has produced an unprecedented turnover rate of top administration advisors, a failed stimulus spending bill, failed economic policies that have left the economy stalled, much higher than expected unemployment, a hugely unpopular health care bill, a financial regulatory deform bill, a list of expensive poorly executed populist programs that flopped, out-of-control federal spending, uncertainty about success with the war in Afghanistan, and increased tensions with Iran, North Korea and China.
Millions of voters have come to realize that this presidency lacks leadership, direction, decisiveness, economic urgency and, most of all, solutions. This combination of deficiencies has produced a more than uninspired citizenry, except for the most loyal and misled supporters of the president.
And just like the Obama supporter who confronted the president at a supposedly friendly town hall meeting last week, people are exhausted from listening to all of the failed attempts to spin failures into successes with speeches and media sound-bites.
A disheartened Obama supporter called my radio show last week and asked if I could name one thing that Obama had done right, since it seemed to him that all I talk about are the things that have not worked. I honestly tried to think of something significantly positive, but I could not. There have been too many disappointments and broken campaign promises.
This presidency is in free fall, which means this nation is in free fall.
But after further reflection, there is something this presidency has inspired. With the help of an incompetently led Congress, Obama has successfully awakened a citizen’s movement that has stunned the political establishment in both parties.
The political establishment and the Obama media call it those Tea Party People. They can’t seem to understand why people are upset. Maybe they’re not listening.
The administration, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, other Democrats, the Obama mainstream media and other liberals have responded to the citizens’ movement with nothing but name-calling attacks on the Tea Party people. Those tactics have not worked. In fact, they appear to have further energized the citizen’s movement. Demonization and intimidation of “We the People” is not working.
The free fall of this presidency started with an unmanageable management structure. Fifteen cabinet heads and dozens of czars is not a logical way to structure a leadership team.
Two of the president’s top economic advisors have left in less than two years, and the third of four, Larry Summers, has announced that he is leaving. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, is expected to leave soon to run for Mayor of Chicago, while senior advisor to the president David Axelrod has confirmed that he will be leaving sometime in 2011 to work on Obama’s re-election campaign. That might be the uphill political challenge of the century.
Many congressional Democrats running for re-election are distancing themselves from the president, the health care deform bill and the Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill bill. And they don’t even talk about all of the spending, which has not been the solution to economic growth. In fact, they want to spend more!
And now the Democrats have decided to wait until after the November elections to pass legislation on the expiring current tax rates. This is a signal that the president and the Democrats are going to raise taxes. We just do not know whether it will be on all of us or some of us.
Instead of a parachute, this president and Congress are determined to put this economy and nation into a nose dive.
September 19, 2010
We’re in a spending nightmare
September 19, 2010
By Herman Cain
There’s an old saying that, when you are in a hole, stop digging.
The president, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled Congress are in a deep political ditch, and they won’t stop digging.
The Health Care Deform bill was passed by Congress and signed by the president against the will of a majority of the American people. Passage of the Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill bill passed the House against the will of the people, and the members who signed it did not even read it.
The $862 billion non-stimulus bill has not worked as advertised, so they passed another emergency $26 billion “jobs bill” (code for more payoffs to the unions). Last week, the Senate passed a $30 billion so-called small business loan fund that the House will pass and the president will probably sign.
Now the president has proposed another $50 billion stimulus bill for roads, rails and runways to give the appearance of doing something to stimulate the economy, when he and his advisors have shown no clue as to how to stimulate the economy.
The president does not seem to care that 55 percent of voters polled do not agree with this latest so-called stimulus, and that people have awakened to the fact that all of this spending is not working.
And! Harry Reid has added an amnesty provision to a defense appropriations bill. First, it is totally illogical to attach an amnesty amendment to this bill. And calling it the “Dream Act” does not mitigate the billions of dollars it would add to the spending nightmare we are in right now.
Secondly, Reid’s amendment is clearly a desperate attempt to try to attract Hispanic voters in the upcoming November elections. It rewards the children of illegal immigrants who have managed to stay in this country long enough without getting deported. And of course, we would not want to punish the children just because their parents came to this country illegally as the liberals would argue.
Obama and Reid have obviously forgotten that nearly 15 million people cannot find jobs because the Democrats’ spending policies have not stimulated the economy. They are ignoring the latest report that 44 million people (one of seven) are surviving below the poverty level. The national debt of nearly $14 trillion ($45,000 per man woman and child living in the USA) is not sustainable, while this Congress and president continue to generate trillion dollar annual deficits, and propose programs that would only make the situation worse.
President Obama convinced Democrats to walk the plank on the failed non-stimulus bill and the health care legislation, so most Democrats running for Congress are not running on the spending bills or their legislative accomplishments. They know that voters are not happy with the spending or the health care legislation, and that they are in a hole politically.
At the same time, their leaders are asking them to dig the hole even deeper.
Some incumbent Republicans are also in a hole, and are being upset in primary elections. Just ask Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Mike Castle (R-Delaware). They were defeated by non-establishment candidates Joe Miller and Christine O’Donnell, respectively.
Political arrogance, reckless spending and passing reckless legislation have defined this administration and Congress. Voters are fed up and waking up – and will show up at the polls in November 2010 and beyond.
This nightmare is destroying America, but voters are no longer asleep.
By Herman Cain
There’s an old saying that, when you are in a hole, stop digging.
The president, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled Congress are in a deep political ditch, and they won’t stop digging.
The Health Care Deform bill was passed by Congress and signed by the president against the will of a majority of the American people. Passage of the Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill bill passed the House against the will of the people, and the members who signed it did not even read it.
The $862 billion non-stimulus bill has not worked as advertised, so they passed another emergency $26 billion “jobs bill” (code for more payoffs to the unions). Last week, the Senate passed a $30 billion so-called small business loan fund that the House will pass and the president will probably sign.
Now the president has proposed another $50 billion stimulus bill for roads, rails and runways to give the appearance of doing something to stimulate the economy, when he and his advisors have shown no clue as to how to stimulate the economy.
The president does not seem to care that 55 percent of voters polled do not agree with this latest so-called stimulus, and that people have awakened to the fact that all of this spending is not working.
And! Harry Reid has added an amnesty provision to a defense appropriations bill. First, it is totally illogical to attach an amnesty amendment to this bill. And calling it the “Dream Act” does not mitigate the billions of dollars it would add to the spending nightmare we are in right now.
Secondly, Reid’s amendment is clearly a desperate attempt to try to attract Hispanic voters in the upcoming November elections. It rewards the children of illegal immigrants who have managed to stay in this country long enough without getting deported. And of course, we would not want to punish the children just because their parents came to this country illegally as the liberals would argue.
Obama and Reid have obviously forgotten that nearly 15 million people cannot find jobs because the Democrats’ spending policies have not stimulated the economy. They are ignoring the latest report that 44 million people (one of seven) are surviving below the poverty level. The national debt of nearly $14 trillion ($45,000 per man woman and child living in the USA) is not sustainable, while this Congress and president continue to generate trillion dollar annual deficits, and propose programs that would only make the situation worse.
President Obama convinced Democrats to walk the plank on the failed non-stimulus bill and the health care legislation, so most Democrats running for Congress are not running on the spending bills or their legislative accomplishments. They know that voters are not happy with the spending or the health care legislation, and that they are in a hole politically.
At the same time, their leaders are asking them to dig the hole even deeper.
Some incumbent Republicans are also in a hole, and are being upset in primary elections. Just ask Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Mike Castle (R-Delaware). They were defeated by non-establishment candidates Joe Miller and Christine O’Donnell, respectively.
Political arrogance, reckless spending and passing reckless legislation have defined this administration and Congress. Voters are fed up and waking up – and will show up at the polls in November 2010 and beyond.
This nightmare is destroying America, but voters are no longer asleep.
September 13, 2010
Liberal SIN tactics gone wild
September 12, 2010
By Herman Cain
The Obama Administration and congressional Democrats have intensified their tactics of trying to Shift attention away from their hugely unpopular legislative blunders. They’re Ignoring the fact that their economic policies and programs are not working. And they’re Name-calling their critics to try to minimize their anticipated losses in the November elections.
The liberals’ SIN tactics are not new, as I have written about them in previous commentaries. They have just turned up the volume.
To shift attention away from their not-so-proud legislative feats, the Democrats did not hold many town hall meetings during the congressional August recess. They did not want to get hammered by their constituents like they got hammered during the 2009 August recess. In fact, they did not even want to face their voters because, in 2009, the Democrats were trying to sell the unpopular health care deform legislation, and in 2010 they had voted it into law.
Add that massive legislative mistake to the out-of-control spending and failed economic policies of this administration, and it adds up to having nothing to boast about leading up to the November mid-term elections.
So with the help of an accommodating mainstream media, they shifted the focus to Middle East peace talks (which have been going on since Jimmy Carter was president), the New York Mosque controversy and the question of when President Obama is going to give his next hollow speech on creating jobs.
In a speech last week proposing another $50 billion in spending to stimulate the economy, the president tried to characterize congressional Republicans as the party of “no”, because they oppose wasting more money on ideas that simply have not worked. The president wants us to just ignore the fact that the $862 billion non-stimulus spending is not working, along with a list of failed pop tart programs such as cash for clunkers.
In an interview last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said he had nothing to do with this bad economy or the massive foreclosures in his home state of Nevada. Maybe he forgot that, as Majority Leader, he determines what gets voted on in the Senate, and that he encouraged his fellow Democrats to vote for the non-stimulus bill and the health care deform bill.
On top of failed policies and bad bills, the Democrats can’t stop the ever-growing Tea Party movement. I call it the citizen’s movement because there are many organizations active in this voter pushback against the arrogance and elitist attitude of this administration and Congress.
The liberals’ attempted name-calling intimidation has not worked in trying to discourage this massive voter outrage. Nancy Pelosi kicked off the name calling assault in 2009 calling us Astroturf, because we did not represent real grassroots people. I don’t think Nancy has ever been to a Tea Party rally. We will see if they are Astroturf in November.
When Harry Reid called us un-patriotic, it didn’t slow down the movement. Accusations of racism by the NAACP backfired. And even being called crazy by some Democrats did not work to discourage the growth of the movement to take back our government, because we are crazy about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
And now the so-called Democrat strategists (The Hill News) have devised another name to describe the tea party people in an attempt to use fear to excite their base, and to discourage this unstoppable citizens’ movement.
Insurgent tea party people! Wow! That leaves me shaking in my boots. I am scared to death of those people. I am one of those people, and I am sick and tired of being called names, over-taxed, over-regulated, and overlooked when it comes to my constitutional liberties.
If that is how they define insurgent, then call me insurgent.
By Herman Cain
The Obama Administration and congressional Democrats have intensified their tactics of trying to Shift attention away from their hugely unpopular legislative blunders. They’re Ignoring the fact that their economic policies and programs are not working. And they’re Name-calling their critics to try to minimize their anticipated losses in the November elections.
The liberals’ SIN tactics are not new, as I have written about them in previous commentaries. They have just turned up the volume.
To shift attention away from their not-so-proud legislative feats, the Democrats did not hold many town hall meetings during the congressional August recess. They did not want to get hammered by their constituents like they got hammered during the 2009 August recess. In fact, they did not even want to face their voters because, in 2009, the Democrats were trying to sell the unpopular health care deform legislation, and in 2010 they had voted it into law.
Add that massive legislative mistake to the out-of-control spending and failed economic policies of this administration, and it adds up to having nothing to boast about leading up to the November mid-term elections.
So with the help of an accommodating mainstream media, they shifted the focus to Middle East peace talks (which have been going on since Jimmy Carter was president), the New York Mosque controversy and the question of when President Obama is going to give his next hollow speech on creating jobs.
In a speech last week proposing another $50 billion in spending to stimulate the economy, the president tried to characterize congressional Republicans as the party of “no”, because they oppose wasting more money on ideas that simply have not worked. The president wants us to just ignore the fact that the $862 billion non-stimulus spending is not working, along with a list of failed pop tart programs such as cash for clunkers.
In an interview last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said he had nothing to do with this bad economy or the massive foreclosures in his home state of Nevada. Maybe he forgot that, as Majority Leader, he determines what gets voted on in the Senate, and that he encouraged his fellow Democrats to vote for the non-stimulus bill and the health care deform bill.
On top of failed policies and bad bills, the Democrats can’t stop the ever-growing Tea Party movement. I call it the citizen’s movement because there are many organizations active in this voter pushback against the arrogance and elitist attitude of this administration and Congress.
The liberals’ attempted name-calling intimidation has not worked in trying to discourage this massive voter outrage. Nancy Pelosi kicked off the name calling assault in 2009 calling us Astroturf, because we did not represent real grassroots people. I don’t think Nancy has ever been to a Tea Party rally. We will see if they are Astroturf in November.
When Harry Reid called us un-patriotic, it didn’t slow down the movement. Accusations of racism by the NAACP backfired. And even being called crazy by some Democrats did not work to discourage the growth of the movement to take back our government, because we are crazy about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
And now the so-called Democrat strategists (The Hill News) have devised another name to describe the tea party people in an attempt to use fear to excite their base, and to discourage this unstoppable citizens’ movement.
Insurgent tea party people! Wow! That leaves me shaking in my boots. I am scared to death of those people. I am one of those people, and I am sick and tired of being called names, over-taxed, over-regulated, and overlooked when it comes to my constitutional liberties.
If that is how they define insurgent, then call me insurgent.
September 6, 2010
Of course businesses are hoarding cash; they’d be crazy not to
September 5, 2010
By Herman Cain
According to the Federal Reserve, businesses are hoarding about $1.8 trillion in cash. There are three reasons for that phenomenon. It’s their money. It’s their money. And it’s their money.
It’s their money to pay down debt. It’s their money to pay dividends to their stockholders. It’s their money to make an acquisition, or save some reserves in case the economy gets worse. In all likelihood the economy is going to get worse.
It’s also their money to burn at the company picnic if they choose.
But the White House and liberals want businesses to just spend it to create jobs to help mask the failed economic policies of this administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. A Washington Post article by Jia Lynn Yang on July 15, 2010 was titled “Companies pile up cash but remain hesitant to add jobs”.
Hesitant? How about no way in this environment of uncertainty!
The likelihood of tax increases, more federal spending of money we do not have, banks tightening their lending requirements, the continued housing and construction crises, the unfolding negative effects of the forced health care bill, the threat of more anti-business legislation, national security threats and a persistently stalled economy encourages uncertainty and discourages economic growth.
Unlike government, businesses spend money to make money instead of creating jobs they do not need or ones that are too risky. It’s called good business.
Last Friday, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate for August 2010 was 9.6 percent. This is an added indication that economic and spending policies are not working, and that businesses would rather sit on their cash than spend it recklessly.
Commenting on this latest bad economic news, the president said “We are confident we are headed in the right direction.” Maybe he has forgotten that unemployment went up after passage of the non-stimulus spending bill and has remained high ever since. Or maybe he hopes voters will forget.
To repeat myself and the sentiment of many others, the president, his administration and most members of Congress still don’t get it, and they are certainly not listening to any ideas other than their own. You stimulate the creation of jobs by reducing an employer’s cost to keep people employed (less taxes), and by reducing the cost of a business to grow their business (fewer regulations), and then leave taxes low and cease the regulatory onslaught on American businesses (more certainty). If these things happen, then the economy will grow and jobs will be created.
Job creation is not a complicated phenomenon, but the president and the Democrats have been convinced that less taxes is bad, and more regulations are good. It’s just the opposite and there is plenty of historical evidence to prove it.
During the president’s State of the Union address, he restated his commitment to job creation. When the Economic Report of the President was released last February, he restated his commitment to job creation. Last week when the president gave his speech on the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, he restated again his commitment again to stimulating economic growth.
Mr. President, businesses are not going to start spending their hard-earned cash on business expansion based on speeches and promises. That’s not hoarding cash. It’s just good business.
By Herman Cain
According to the Federal Reserve, businesses are hoarding about $1.8 trillion in cash. There are three reasons for that phenomenon. It’s their money. It’s their money. And it’s their money.
It’s their money to pay down debt. It’s their money to pay dividends to their stockholders. It’s their money to make an acquisition, or save some reserves in case the economy gets worse. In all likelihood the economy is going to get worse.
It’s also their money to burn at the company picnic if they choose.
But the White House and liberals want businesses to just spend it to create jobs to help mask the failed economic policies of this administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. A Washington Post article by Jia Lynn Yang on July 15, 2010 was titled “Companies pile up cash but remain hesitant to add jobs”.
Hesitant? How about no way in this environment of uncertainty!
The likelihood of tax increases, more federal spending of money we do not have, banks tightening their lending requirements, the continued housing and construction crises, the unfolding negative effects of the forced health care bill, the threat of more anti-business legislation, national security threats and a persistently stalled economy encourages uncertainty and discourages economic growth.
Unlike government, businesses spend money to make money instead of creating jobs they do not need or ones that are too risky. It’s called good business.
Last Friday, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate for August 2010 was 9.6 percent. This is an added indication that economic and spending policies are not working, and that businesses would rather sit on their cash than spend it recklessly.
Commenting on this latest bad economic news, the president said “We are confident we are headed in the right direction.” Maybe he has forgotten that unemployment went up after passage of the non-stimulus spending bill and has remained high ever since. Or maybe he hopes voters will forget.
To repeat myself and the sentiment of many others, the president, his administration and most members of Congress still don’t get it, and they are certainly not listening to any ideas other than their own. You stimulate the creation of jobs by reducing an employer’s cost to keep people employed (less taxes), and by reducing the cost of a business to grow their business (fewer regulations), and then leave taxes low and cease the regulatory onslaught on American businesses (more certainty). If these things happen, then the economy will grow and jobs will be created.
Job creation is not a complicated phenomenon, but the president and the Democrats have been convinced that less taxes is bad, and more regulations are good. It’s just the opposite and there is plenty of historical evidence to prove it.
During the president’s State of the Union address, he restated his commitment to job creation. When the Economic Report of the President was released last February, he restated his commitment to job creation. Last week when the president gave his speech on the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, he restated again his commitment again to stimulating economic growth.
Mr. President, businesses are not going to start spending their hard-earned cash on business expansion based on speeches and promises. That’s not hoarding cash. It’s just good business.
August 30, 2010
CEO is not in Obama’s DNA
August 29, 2010
By Herman Cain
While House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) urged President Obama last Tuesday to fire his economic team, a real CEO would have made that move months ago.
A real CEO would have also developed and implemented a new strategy to stimulate the economy as soon as it became apparent that the old one was not working.
Even worse, the administration is in denial about the fact that its economic policies are not working. This is evidenced by Vice President Joe Biden’s spin tour trying to convince people that their policies are working using concocted measurements such as “jobs saved”, and the latest addition to their spin vocabulary – “lives touched”.
I am one of many writers who warned that we could not spend our way to prosperity, but the administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed the $862 billion non-stimulus bill anyway. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on members of Congress back during the August congressional recess to spend another $26 billion to help save some more union jobs.
President Obama is now floating the idea of spending another $30 billion to stimulate community bank lending to small businesses. Add this idea to the growing list of poorly executed and ineffective pop-tart programs such as cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, cash for air (air conditioning system upgrade), and the Home Affordable Modification Program, and it’s no wonder the administration is making up new words to avoid talking about their failed programs and policies.
Even though a majority of the voters did not want the health care legislation to pass, the president forced it through anyway. And instead of people liking it more and more as we find out what’s in the bill, Nancy, more and more people are disliking the bill. Even though the job-killing Cap and Trade legislation was not read by anyone voting for it, the House passed it anyway.
Thankfully, because of a huge outcry from the voters to their senators, the Cap and Trade legislation is in full retreat in the Senate. It’s never dead with the current leadership in Washington, so we will take retreat for now.
Starting with President Obama’s unmanageable management structure, with dozens of czars plus traditional Cabinet secretaries, and now a parade of failed programs and policies, he is either too out of touch with reality, has no idea of which changes need to be made or truly believes in the incompetent people he has surrounded himself with. Or maybe the president can blame it all on an equally incompetent Democrat-controlled Congress.
Unfortunately, it’s all of the above.
We have a president incapable of making the right management moves, developing a new workable economic strategy, or worse yet, not even knowing that these changes are necessary. It’s not in his DNA.
So if the president is not listening to the voters, he is certainly not going to listen to the Minority Leader.
That makes November that much more critical. We will remember.
By Herman Cain
While House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) urged President Obama last Tuesday to fire his economic team, a real CEO would have made that move months ago.
A real CEO would have also developed and implemented a new strategy to stimulate the economy as soon as it became apparent that the old one was not working.
Even worse, the administration is in denial about the fact that its economic policies are not working. This is evidenced by Vice President Joe Biden’s spin tour trying to convince people that their policies are working using concocted measurements such as “jobs saved”, and the latest addition to their spin vocabulary – “lives touched”.
I am one of many writers who warned that we could not spend our way to prosperity, but the administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed the $862 billion non-stimulus bill anyway. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on members of Congress back during the August congressional recess to spend another $26 billion to help save some more union jobs.
President Obama is now floating the idea of spending another $30 billion to stimulate community bank lending to small businesses. Add this idea to the growing list of poorly executed and ineffective pop-tart programs such as cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, cash for air (air conditioning system upgrade), and the Home Affordable Modification Program, and it’s no wonder the administration is making up new words to avoid talking about their failed programs and policies.
Even though a majority of the voters did not want the health care legislation to pass, the president forced it through anyway. And instead of people liking it more and more as we find out what’s in the bill, Nancy, more and more people are disliking the bill. Even though the job-killing Cap and Trade legislation was not read by anyone voting for it, the House passed it anyway.
Thankfully, because of a huge outcry from the voters to their senators, the Cap and Trade legislation is in full retreat in the Senate. It’s never dead with the current leadership in Washington, so we will take retreat for now.
Starting with President Obama’s unmanageable management structure, with dozens of czars plus traditional Cabinet secretaries, and now a parade of failed programs and policies, he is either too out of touch with reality, has no idea of which changes need to be made or truly believes in the incompetent people he has surrounded himself with. Or maybe the president can blame it all on an equally incompetent Democrat-controlled Congress.
Unfortunately, it’s all of the above.
We have a president incapable of making the right management moves, developing a new workable economic strategy, or worse yet, not even knowing that these changes are necessary. It’s not in his DNA.
So if the president is not listening to the voters, he is certainly not going to listen to the Minority Leader.
That makes November that much more critical. We will remember.
August 22, 2010
Dems scramble for a new message since the nation still hates ObamaCare
August 22, 2010
By Herman Cain
Three cheers for Politico.com! The liberals tried to keep it secret, but thanks to Politico, they are busted! The Health Care Deform legislation has bombed with even their liberal constituency. And now they are trying to spin - as in distract, deceive and lie – their way to public acceptance of bad legislation.
As expected, the mainstream media is providing plenty of distractions so people will not focus on this critical story, and cause Democrats to get “beat up” again during the August recess as they did in 2009. If they have the nerve to even face their constituency, they may as well get ready for another whupping.
Distractions such as the president’s vacations, the proposed mosque in New York City, slow processing of damage claims from the BP oil disaster, a special session of Congress to spend more money we do not have, a research project paid for by taxpayers to determine the effects of cocaine on monkeys, speculation that Hillary Clinton might be Obama’s running mate in 2012, the president’s low approval ratings and many more stories might be interesting. But not critical.
National security, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our stalled economy, tax increases on January 1, 2011, Social Security and Medicare, an exploding national debt and the impact of the health care legislation are critical stories we ought to hear about in the news every day. But we don’t.
We should hear stories everyday telling us that:
The health care legislation has not grown more popular because a growing number of people are not as stupid as the president and the Democrats think we are. In fact, it was clear that a majority of voters did not agree with the legislation before it was passed, but the president and the Democrats forced passage anyway. And now, they are trying to put lipstick on that pig!
Repealing the health care legislation is more than just a push. A majority of voters polled firmly believe the health care legislation should be repealed. Representative Michelle Bachman (R-Minnesota) has already introduced repeal legislation, even though it will go nowhere with this Congress and this president.
Thus, we have one more big reason to remember in November.
The last page of the secret presentation encourages Democrats to barrage voters with a long list of benefits, use complex language or insider jargon, and say the law will reduce costs and deficit.
In other words, distract, deceive and lie.
By Herman Cain
Three cheers for Politico.com! The liberals tried to keep it secret, but thanks to Politico, they are busted! The Health Care Deform legislation has bombed with even their liberal constituency. And now they are trying to spin - as in distract, deceive and lie – their way to public acceptance of bad legislation.
As expected, the mainstream media is providing plenty of distractions so people will not focus on this critical story, and cause Democrats to get “beat up” again during the August recess as they did in 2009. If they have the nerve to even face their constituency, they may as well get ready for another whupping.
Distractions such as the president’s vacations, the proposed mosque in New York City, slow processing of damage claims from the BP oil disaster, a special session of Congress to spend more money we do not have, a research project paid for by taxpayers to determine the effects of cocaine on monkeys, speculation that Hillary Clinton might be Obama’s running mate in 2012, the president’s low approval ratings and many more stories might be interesting. But not critical.
National security, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our stalled economy, tax increases on January 1, 2011, Social Security and Medicare, an exploding national debt and the impact of the health care legislation are critical stories we ought to hear about in the news every day. But we don’t.
We should hear stories everyday telling us that:
- There is no such thing as a “jobless economic recovery” as the administration is claiming. Just ask the nearly 15 million people who cannot find jobs! The administration’s economic policies are not working.
- Raising taxes on any group in any way is going to make our economic situation worse! Just look at history.
- The Social Security system, Medicare and Medicaid are economic disasters and getting worse. The new health care legislation is another disaster.
- The national debt is unsustainable according to the Congressional Budget Office and a lot of other smart people in this country, but none of them appear to be in the Obama Administration or congressional leadership.
“The confidential presentation (prepared by Senate Democrats, senior staff and an official with the White House) provided to POLITICO by a source on the call, suggests that Democrats are acknowledging the failure of their predictions that the health care legislation would grow more popular after its passage, as its benefits became clear and rhetoric cooled. Instead, the presentation is designed to win over a skeptical public and to defend the legislation — in particular, the individual mandate — from a push for repeal.”
Repealing the health care legislation is more than just a push. A majority of voters polled firmly believe the health care legislation should be repealed. Representative Michelle Bachman (R-Minnesota) has already introduced repeal legislation, even though it will go nowhere with this Congress and this president.
Thus, we have one more big reason to remember in November.
The last page of the secret presentation encourages Democrats to barrage voters with a long list of benefits, use complex language or insider jargon, and say the law will reduce costs and deficit.
In other words, distract, deceive and lie.
August 15, 2010
There’s a lot to remember in November
August 15, 2010
By Herman Cain
By Herman Cain
As primary elections are settled around the country, it is not too early to start remembering what people should remember in November. With all of the distractions coming out of Washington through the filter of the media, it is easy for people to forget come Election Day.
This writer will not forget. Here are some of the things this administration and Congress have done to deceive, mislead and insult the American people:
TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program): $750 billion
When the financial institutions started paying the taxpayers back with interest, the Democrats, led by Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), wanted to use the interest for other purposes instead of paying down debt as specified in the legislation. This is just dishonest – to tell the public one thing and then change the law later to be able to add to the national debt instead of reducing it.
Stimulus spending bill: $862 billion
This was a deceptive bill. It was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent and create jobs. It did not. Instead, the administration concocted a “saved jobs” concept to help disguise the deception. Gross Domestic Product growth is still sluggish, and unemployment has remained high at 9.5 percent. Businesses are in a state of “survive” rather than a growth mode because of all the uncertainties created by the administration and Congress. Even though the stimulus bill has not worked, the administration and Congress keep spending and plan on raising taxes.
Health Care Deform legislation: $1 trillion
The president and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed this legislation against the will of the majority of the American people. Currently, an even larger majority of Americans want this legislation repealed and the president and Congress continue to ignore their wishes. And more insulting, Democrats voting for the legislation did not read it. Speaker Pelosi even said “We must pass it so we can then tell you what’s in it”.
Cap & Trade & Tax & Kill bill
No members of Congress read this bill either as it sailed through the House with only Democrats and one freshman Republican voting for it. Fortunately, the outcry by the people caused it to not go through the Senate as fast and it is still on the back burner, where it should die a quiet death. This legislation is a tax on our economy and businesses, and is based on faulty science which has been exposed. The Democrats and the president want to pass it anyway.
Annual Deficits
The largest annual deficit for President George Bush was during his last year in office ($455 billion in FY 2008). The annual deficits under President Obama’s first two years of FY 2009 and FY 2010 were $1.7 trillion and $1.6 trillion, respectively. This is why the national debt is growing so fast. President Obama said in December 2008: “Deficits don’t matter”. They do matter to the American people and the future of this country.
National Debt is nearly $14 trillion
Nearly $4 trillion has been added to the national debt since President Obama took office less than two years ago with a Democrat-controlled Congress. This is in contrast to the $4 trillion added to the national debt during eight years of the Bush administration. The Congressional Budget Office and others have warned that this is unsustainable, but the president and the Democrats continue to ignore these warnings.
Financial Deform legislation
This legislation is another unnecessary new bureaucracy created by the same two Members of Congress (Senator Dodd and Rep. Frank) who chaired Congressional Committees that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fail. Their failure was the catalyst for the financial meltdown of 2008 and 2009. Get this! The new legislation excludes Fannie and Freddie from oversight by the newly created bureaucracy. Fannie Mae is now seeking a second bailout of $1.5 billion after 12 straight quarters of loses, and Freddie Mac is asking for $1.8 billion of additional bailout money.
Another $26.1 billion
Speaker Pelosi called Members of Congress back from August recess to pass this “emergency” jobs bill. Sixteen billion dollars went to the states that had done the worst job of managing their Medicaid program, and $10 billion were targeted to save teacher jobs. Right! One caller last week appropriately called it a “snow jobs” bill.
The political arrogance, waste of taxpayers’ money and abuse of power by this administration and Congress has been unprecedented. If people remember in November, we can make an unprecedented change of control in Congress.
It’s November or never.
August 8, 2010
New four-letter word for you liberals: SIIN
August 8, 2010
By Herman Cain
By Herman Cain
In a previous commentary I revealed three of the most often-used tactics of liberals. They shift the subject, ignore the facts, and resort to name calling.
Recently, a caller to my nightly radio show invoked a new tactic, which most people know exists, but it is not often used so openly and brazenly. It’s attempted intimidation.
After explaining to listeners how the policies of President Obama and the Democrats in Congress had failed to stimulate the economy, with stalled growth and systemic high unemployment, caller G suggested that since I had lost my bid for United States Senate in 2004, and since John McCain had lost to President Obama in 2008, that I should just “sit down and shut up”.
I assured her that there was no way in my lifetime that that was going to happen.
Although it probably did not register with her, I also told her that when we reach a point where we cannot disagree with or criticize our elected so-called leaders, then our constitutional republic will have become a nation of tyranny. That’s also not going to happen.
Liberals are so desperate to deflect attention away from the failed policies of this administration and this Congress that people such as caller G are now openly using attempted intimidation, since name-calling is not working like it used to.
The name-calling campaign started with Speaker Pelosi calling Tea Party people ‘Astroturf’ in early 2009. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called us ‘un-American’, and so-called actress JaneaneGarofalo called us “tea baggin racists”. The latest attempt by the racially focused NAACP to label Tea Party people as racists backfired. And now the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has launched a campaign to try and label Tea Party people as Republicans, while other Democrats in Congress just call us crazy.
We are crazy! We are crazy about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the free market system, and the United States of America.
So the latest tactic by caller G was an attempt to intimidate me and other voices who dare criticize President Obama, ineffective policies and bad legislation.
Ironically, the next caller (caller A) directed her comments to caller G and the other listeners, and stated that “Mr. Cain cannot shut up because that’s how I know what’s really happening. I am tired of this administration pouring warm water on my leg and telling me it’s raining.” (You can substitute any phrase in your imagination for the pouring warm water phrase. POML comes to mind for me.)
After I got my uncontrollable laughter back under control, I thanked caller A for her encouragement, and hoped that caller G was still listening.
President Obama has called this time leading up to the November elections “silly season” in politics. No, the desperate liberals are making it stupid season, because people are tired of the SIIN tactics.
If intimidation is the latest tactic in the liberal’s playbook, then that’s good for conservatives if they get up, get out and vote in the upcoming mid-term elections.
Conservatives who favor less government and lower taxes are winning the public discourse with facts, logic and common sense. Because liberals can’t handle the facts, logic is non-existent, and they have an allergic reaction to common sense.
SIIN is the liberal’s new four letter word, but the conservatives and Tea Party people have a new ‘N’ word.
November is coming!
August 1, 2010
Sudden death economics
August 1, 2010
By Herman Cain
By Herman Cain
“Our economy is on a government-induced lose-lose trajectory of financial destruction between federal spending and tax revenue. It’s a Mathematically Assured Depression (MAD). The only unanswered question is when.”
- Herman Cain, March 9, 2009 commentary
I do not enjoy bad news predictions. But the president, his administration, Congress and the major mainstream broadcast media are focused on everything except the coming financial disaster we face. It’s not that the other issues are not critical. The financial crisis could be catastrophic.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued another warning last week that the growing federal debt is unsustainable! It is a real crisis! As stated in the CBO report, “A growing level of federal debt would increase the probability of a sudden fiscal collapse”.
This did not just start under the Obama Administration, but it has clearly accelerated during this administration. Consider the following statistics:
When President Obama took office in January 2009, the national debt was $9.5 trillion, which is nearly $32,000 for every man, woman and child living in this country. The national debt as of this writing is nearly $14 trillion, which is $45,000 for every man, woman and child living in this country. That’s a historic increase in a historic short period of time!
That debt does not die when we die. Our children and grandchildren will have to pay our foreign creditors back, if we can avoid a total financial collapse.
As the president and Congress continue to spend like crazy, they continue to pay lip service to wanting to get spending under control. Their words do not match their actions.
For example, Senate Democrats tried to pass a $30 billion “drop in the bucket” package to help stimulate lending to small businesses. Over $600 billion of the stimulus bill has not worked, so the Democrats wanted to throw another $30 billion on top of the $846 billion stimulus spending. The majority of Republicans voted against it because it was new spending, when the money could have been taken out of unspent stimulus funding.
Of course, the president blamed the Republicans for being partisan obstructionists.
The anticipated December 2010 report by the Debt Commission appointed by the president will be nothing more than so-called justification to raise taxes even more than they will automatically increase on January 1, 2011 if Congress does absolutely nothing. Whether or not only the “rich” gets hit remains to be seen.
The CBO report and analyses by other organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation, indicate that the administration and Congress are playing “sudden death” with our economy, which has huge national security implications.
The notion that raising taxes will solve the problem is misguided and factually false based on sound historical analysis. And the belief that this economy will not slow down even further with tax increases is equally misguided.
Admittedly, this is not an inspiring or entertaining topic. In fact, it is downright scary. It is even scarier that a large number of voters are equally oblivious and blind to this clear and present financial danger. What happened in Greece and other European countries can happen here.
The big difference is that Uncle Sam does not have a “sugar daddy” to bail us out.
The 2010 congressional elections are sudden death for control of the House of Representatives. If real Republicans take control, there is some real hope of slowing down the destruction of our economy.
This is a serious crisis, and the elected so-called leaders are not listening. I believe the voters are listening. They will remember in November.
July 25, 2010
Georgia shows: There is hope in the vote
July 25, 2010
By Herman Cain
The frustration and anger by conservatives about the direction of this country continue to grow. Even many moderates are starting to wake up to the failed policies and lack of leadership by the Obama Administration.
In the Georgia primary election last Tuesday, July 20, Republicans cast more ballots than Democrats for governor by a two-to-one margin. The other races on the ballot also showed that significantly more Republicans voted than Democrats, but the highest office on the ticket is a most telling sign about what could happen in November.
“Could happen” is the operative phrase, because Republicans could take back control of Congress if conservatives get out and vote the right way in November. The results in the recent Georgia primary are consistent with an on-going Gallup poll showing that conservatives outnumber liberals two-to-one. Moderates have a one-and-a-half head count advantage over liberals in the same poll.
I am not suggesting that Georgia is indicative of the entire country, but those results along with the Gallup poll provide a huge ray of hope for November.
The numbers are on our (conservatives) side, but we can’t stay home! We are the biggest danger to ourselves and the future of this country if we do not actively support good candidates, and encourage people to get out and vote in November.
I also encourage listeners and audiences to do three things if we are going to slow down the Obama-Reid-Pelosi socialism express in November 2010. Stay united. Stay informed. Stay inspired.
The recent accusation of racism by the NAACP toward the Tea Party movement was an attempt to divide and intimidate these citizen activists. The big government liberals also hoped the racism charge would discourage further criticism of the failed policies of this administration and Congress, as I discussed in my commentary last week. The accusation backfired because they had no credible proof of their claim.
Their baseless claim was highlighted by the baseless firing of a lady named Shirley Sherrod when then the NAACP, the White House and the Department of Agriculture had to backtrack and apologize after all of the facts were known. That incident diminished even further the credibility of the NAACP. This attempt to divide us did not work, but beware of future attempts, which start with name calling and false accusations.
Playing the racism card did not make people forget that the stimulus spending is not working and the economy is stalled. People are more informed than the Democrats think, because they think we are all stupid. Efforts by the White House to ignore Fox News did not work. Efforts to censor talk radio have not worked, because people can distinguish between facts and hate speech as the liberals claim.
Stay informed, because liberals love stupid people and they hate the facts.
And most importantly, stay inspired. Liberals want us to give up. They want us to believe that our votes do not count. They want us to believe that we can’t change control of congress, and that the United States of Europe is inevitable.
At dozens of rallies where I have spoken and proclaimed that “America is not going down that road” the reaction of the people has been enthusiastically the same. Not on our watch! The real change we want is coming in November.
The fight to take back our government is happening now. It is happening at Tea Party rallies, conferences, town hall meetings, in neighborhoods, get out the vote drives, on the Internet and support for conservative candidates all over this country.
This gives me great hope for our vote in November.
By Herman Cain
The frustration and anger by conservatives about the direction of this country continue to grow. Even many moderates are starting to wake up to the failed policies and lack of leadership by the Obama Administration.
In the Georgia primary election last Tuesday, July 20, Republicans cast more ballots than Democrats for governor by a two-to-one margin. The other races on the ballot also showed that significantly more Republicans voted than Democrats, but the highest office on the ticket is a most telling sign about what could happen in November.
“Could happen” is the operative phrase, because Republicans could take back control of Congress if conservatives get out and vote the right way in November. The results in the recent Georgia primary are consistent with an on-going Gallup poll showing that conservatives outnumber liberals two-to-one. Moderates have a one-and-a-half head count advantage over liberals in the same poll.
I am not suggesting that Georgia is indicative of the entire country, but those results along with the Gallup poll provide a huge ray of hope for November.
The numbers are on our (conservatives) side, but we can’t stay home! We are the biggest danger to ourselves and the future of this country if we do not actively support good candidates, and encourage people to get out and vote in November.
I also encourage listeners and audiences to do three things if we are going to slow down the Obama-Reid-Pelosi socialism express in November 2010. Stay united. Stay informed. Stay inspired.
The recent accusation of racism by the NAACP toward the Tea Party movement was an attempt to divide and intimidate these citizen activists. The big government liberals also hoped the racism charge would discourage further criticism of the failed policies of this administration and Congress, as I discussed in my commentary last week. The accusation backfired because they had no credible proof of their claim.
Their baseless claim was highlighted by the baseless firing of a lady named Shirley Sherrod when then the NAACP, the White House and the Department of Agriculture had to backtrack and apologize after all of the facts were known. That incident diminished even further the credibility of the NAACP. This attempt to divide us did not work, but beware of future attempts, which start with name calling and false accusations.
Playing the racism card did not make people forget that the stimulus spending is not working and the economy is stalled. People are more informed than the Democrats think, because they think we are all stupid. Efforts by the White House to ignore Fox News did not work. Efforts to censor talk radio have not worked, because people can distinguish between facts and hate speech as the liberals claim.
Stay informed, because liberals love stupid people and they hate the facts.
And most importantly, stay inspired. Liberals want us to give up. They want us to believe that our votes do not count. They want us to believe that we can’t change control of congress, and that the United States of Europe is inevitable.
At dozens of rallies where I have spoken and proclaimed that “America is not going down that road” the reaction of the people has been enthusiastically the same. Not on our watch! The real change we want is coming in November.
The fight to take back our government is happening now. It is happening at Tea Party rallies, conferences, town hall meetings, in neighborhoods, get out the vote drives, on the Internet and support for conservative candidates all over this country.
This gives me great hope for our vote in November.
July 18, 2010
Calling Tea Party people racist is a S.I.N.
July 18, 2010
By Herman Cain
The NAACP is doing the dirty work for the failed policies of the Obama Administration and the Congressional Democrats. Accusing the Tea Party movement as being racist shifts (S) the attention from the mishandling of the Gulf oil tragedy, the failed $862 billion stimulus spending bill, the lack of private sector job growth and an economy stuck on stalled.
The NAACP’s accusation also shifts attention away from the problems in the black community which they ignore (I) in their name calling (N) rhetoric, such as increased high school drop-out rates, increased incarceration rates, increased out-of-wedlock birth rates and unemployment rates among blacks that are 50 percent higher than the national average.
Although my invitation to the NAACP annual convention in Kansas City got lost in the mail, I suspect there were plenty of speeches blaming George W. Bush and greedy capitalists for those problems.
When NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell says “hardcore white supremacist organizations have participated in and occasionally lead Tea Party rallies”, the mainstream lapdog media jumps all over such a blatantly baseless claim. When asked what the claim was based on, she said academic research on the Tea Party movement.
Of the nearly two dozen Tea Party rallies at which I have been a keynote speaker, I have yet to see or hear of anyone doing a survey, poll or research asking attendees if they were white supremacists. Nor has any of the Tea Party organizers indicated that such research was ever requested or being done.
Although it was not a scientific test, at a Georgia Tea Party event I attended last Friday July 16, which included a live broadcast of my radio show, I asked all of the white supremacists and KKK members to raise their hands. There were none. When I asked a show of hands of all the people who want the big government spending to stop, the legislative abuse to stop and the coming tax increases to be stopped, the over 3,000 attendees almost cheered the roof off the place!
Since there have been thousands of Tea Party and citizen rallies across the country beginning in early 2009, those researchers obviously attended the ones I did not attend. I would love to see the research, or hear or see one audio or video clip of a Tea Party speaker uttering one racist word. It does not exist!
It is unfortunate that a once-relevant and impactful organization is looking for relevance in the wrong place, namely, race. It should be about solving problems and uniting people instead of dividing people with baseless claims of racism.
I have also been called a racist among other names for disagreeing with the president’s policies and those of the Democrat-controlled Congress. But that does not discourage me or other black conservatives from fighting for what we believe, or challenging so-called black establishment organizations such as the NAACP.
Tea Party people are not racist. They are patriotic Americans who want the greatest country in the world to remain the greatest country in the world. We are exercising our right to speak out against bad public policy, even if the president is black.
This isn’t about race. This is about results, and the results by this administration and this Congress are missing in action.
The NAACP has lost its relevance and its way forward. That’s a sin.
By Herman Cain
The NAACP is doing the dirty work for the failed policies of the Obama Administration and the Congressional Democrats. Accusing the Tea Party movement as being racist shifts (S) the attention from the mishandling of the Gulf oil tragedy, the failed $862 billion stimulus spending bill, the lack of private sector job growth and an economy stuck on stalled.
The NAACP’s accusation also shifts attention away from the problems in the black community which they ignore (I) in their name calling (N) rhetoric, such as increased high school drop-out rates, increased incarceration rates, increased out-of-wedlock birth rates and unemployment rates among blacks that are 50 percent higher than the national average.
Although my invitation to the NAACP annual convention in Kansas City got lost in the mail, I suspect there were plenty of speeches blaming George W. Bush and greedy capitalists for those problems.
When NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell says “hardcore white supremacist organizations have participated in and occasionally lead Tea Party rallies”, the mainstream lapdog media jumps all over such a blatantly baseless claim. When asked what the claim was based on, she said academic research on the Tea Party movement.
Of the nearly two dozen Tea Party rallies at which I have been a keynote speaker, I have yet to see or hear of anyone doing a survey, poll or research asking attendees if they were white supremacists. Nor has any of the Tea Party organizers indicated that such research was ever requested or being done.
Although it was not a scientific test, at a Georgia Tea Party event I attended last Friday July 16, which included a live broadcast of my radio show, I asked all of the white supremacists and KKK members to raise their hands. There were none. When I asked a show of hands of all the people who want the big government spending to stop, the legislative abuse to stop and the coming tax increases to be stopped, the over 3,000 attendees almost cheered the roof off the place!
Since there have been thousands of Tea Party and citizen rallies across the country beginning in early 2009, those researchers obviously attended the ones I did not attend. I would love to see the research, or hear or see one audio or video clip of a Tea Party speaker uttering one racist word. It does not exist!
It is unfortunate that a once-relevant and impactful organization is looking for relevance in the wrong place, namely, race. It should be about solving problems and uniting people instead of dividing people with baseless claims of racism.
I have also been called a racist among other names for disagreeing with the president’s policies and those of the Democrat-controlled Congress. But that does not discourage me or other black conservatives from fighting for what we believe, or challenging so-called black establishment organizations such as the NAACP.
Tea Party people are not racist. They are patriotic Americans who want the greatest country in the world to remain the greatest country in the world. We are exercising our right to speak out against bad public policy, even if the president is black.
This isn’t about race. This is about results, and the results by this administration and this Congress are missing in action.
The NAACP has lost its relevance and its way forward. That’s a sin.
July 11, 2010
Coming soon from the Democrats: The worst tax increases of 2011
July 11, 2010
By Herman Cain
All tax increases are bad, but there are some that are just plain unfair and punitive for no logical reason. The marriage penalty, the small business penalty, the retirement penalty, and the death penalty are in that category.
Everyone except the most clueless “mushrooms” of our society know that tax rates will return to 2000 levels if the Democrat-controlled Congress does nothing to stop them.
And they have shown a real skill for doing nothing but legislative carnage to this country in the last 18 months. That carnage has included the publicly unpopular Health Care Deform bill, the House-passed Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill (Jobs) bill, and the newly proposed Dodd-Frank Financial Deform bill. The full negative economic impact of those penalties on our economy continues to unfold.
Most people are equally unaware that these automatic tax increases come about because of a sunset clause in the 2000 tax decrease legislation. In order for the then Republican-controlled Senate to get enough Democratic votes to pass the legislation, they had to agree to the sunset clause. The Republicans were betting that the benefits of the tax cuts would be so obvious that the Democrats would not dare let them expire. The Democrats were betting that they could bad mouth the so-called “Bush” tax cuts enough that the “mushrooms” would believe the tax cuts were a big reason for our runaway deficits.
The Democrats won and they insured their bet by being the catalyst for exponentially escalating deficit spending. The Republicans got sucker punched by the Democrats again, because collectively they thought there was no way the Democrats would allow obviously unfair tax penalties to be re-instated. And just as the Democrats do not care if legislation is good or bad as long as it enhances their big government agenda, they do not care about fairness in the tax code.
Americans for Tax Reform reports that as of January 1, 2011 the standard deduction for married couples will no longer be double that for a single person. They are also penalized for having children, since the child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 per child to $500.
Small businesses (Subchapter S corporations) will no longer be able to expense equipment purchases up to $250,000. The new limit will be $25,000 which is equivalent to a tax increase. To add insult to injury, their business profits will be taxed at the higher personal income tax rates, if they make a profit.
Many retirees work and save all of their careers to be able to retire on dividends on their savings, stocks and bonds. These dividends will no longer be taxed at the long-term capital gains rate of 15 percent. They will now be taxed as ordinary income at a top bracket rate of 39.6 percent.
The dreaded death tax will return to a 55 percent top rate on estates over $1 million. It does not take very long to be worth $1 million when you start adding up the value of your home, automobiles, savings, investments and even life insurance proceeds. “Selling the farm to save the farm” is back.
The reality of these punitive policies is that they will not generate a net increase in tax revenues, because they discourage taking business risks to create jobs, as well as marriage, savings and dying. We cannot stop dying, but we do not need to be unfairly killed by taxes while we are alive.
Even worse, we should not be killing an economy that’s already on life support.
That will surely happen if the Democrats do nothing.
By Herman Cain
All tax increases are bad, but there are some that are just plain unfair and punitive for no logical reason. The marriage penalty, the small business penalty, the retirement penalty, and the death penalty are in that category.
Everyone except the most clueless “mushrooms” of our society know that tax rates will return to 2000 levels if the Democrat-controlled Congress does nothing to stop them.
And they have shown a real skill for doing nothing but legislative carnage to this country in the last 18 months. That carnage has included the publicly unpopular Health Care Deform bill, the House-passed Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill (Jobs) bill, and the newly proposed Dodd-Frank Financial Deform bill. The full negative economic impact of those penalties on our economy continues to unfold.
Most people are equally unaware that these automatic tax increases come about because of a sunset clause in the 2000 tax decrease legislation. In order for the then Republican-controlled Senate to get enough Democratic votes to pass the legislation, they had to agree to the sunset clause. The Republicans were betting that the benefits of the tax cuts would be so obvious that the Democrats would not dare let them expire. The Democrats were betting that they could bad mouth the so-called “Bush” tax cuts enough that the “mushrooms” would believe the tax cuts were a big reason for our runaway deficits.
The Democrats won and they insured their bet by being the catalyst for exponentially escalating deficit spending. The Republicans got sucker punched by the Democrats again, because collectively they thought there was no way the Democrats would allow obviously unfair tax penalties to be re-instated. And just as the Democrats do not care if legislation is good or bad as long as it enhances their big government agenda, they do not care about fairness in the tax code.
Americans for Tax Reform reports that as of January 1, 2011 the standard deduction for married couples will no longer be double that for a single person. They are also penalized for having children, since the child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 per child to $500.
Small businesses (Subchapter S corporations) will no longer be able to expense equipment purchases up to $250,000. The new limit will be $25,000 which is equivalent to a tax increase. To add insult to injury, their business profits will be taxed at the higher personal income tax rates, if they make a profit.
Many retirees work and save all of their careers to be able to retire on dividends on their savings, stocks and bonds. These dividends will no longer be taxed at the long-term capital gains rate of 15 percent. They will now be taxed as ordinary income at a top bracket rate of 39.6 percent.
The dreaded death tax will return to a 55 percent top rate on estates over $1 million. It does not take very long to be worth $1 million when you start adding up the value of your home, automobiles, savings, investments and even life insurance proceeds. “Selling the farm to save the farm” is back.
The reality of these punitive policies is that they will not generate a net increase in tax revenues, because they discourage taking business risks to create jobs, as well as marriage, savings and dying. We cannot stop dying, but we do not need to be unfairly killed by taxes while we are alive.
Even worse, we should not be killing an economy that’s already on life support.
That will surely happen if the Democrats do nothing.
July 4, 2010
I return from vacation, and dang, you people are stressed out! But no wonder .
July 4, 2010
By Herman Cain
I did it!
I did not read, watch or listen to any news stories about what is going on in this country for seven days. There were no exceptions! Nada! Nor did I do any of my radio shows.
I took a vacation from the problems of America. I came back relaxed!
When I re-engaged with the news I realized just how stressed out America is with its problems. It was like looking at America’s problems from 50,000 feet and seeing the forest and not just the daily “trees” in the news. Although there was nothing new in the news, seven major stress points appeared to have only gotten worse in seven days.
The Gulf oil tragedy got worse. The first thing that flashed on the news program I watched was “Day 71” and the oil spill was still gushing. The oil was threatening the Louisiana shoreline, and the federal response was still slow and bureaucratic.
The Obama Administration is still in denial about the seriousness of Arizona’s southern border insecurity. Instead of providing serious support for Arizona and other border states, the administration put up some signs near the border warning people of the dangers, and pressed forward with their legal challenge to the new Arizona immigration law.
The war in Afghanistan has a new general in charge, but the outlook for “victory” is still bleak. It will be difficult even for General Petraeus because it is widely recognized that the Afghanistan government is corrupt, and the “rules of engagement” to protect civilians increases the dangers to our troops. The Taliban has only one rule of engagement: Kill!
The American debt crisis continues to get worse with the administration and the Democrat-led Congress still on a spending binge. Our crisis here is made worse by the situation in Europe, which could trigger another worldwide financial meltdown and the USA would not be spared.
A jobless economic recovery is not a recovery. As the administration continues to say the “stimulus” is working, the facts continue to indicate otherwise. Unemployment for June was just reported to be 9.5 percent with June job losses at 125,000, while 650,000 people dropped out of the labor force so they were not counted. Nearly 15 million people are still unemployed.
But President Obama says “we are headed in the right direction.”
The confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan were just Washington political theater. Political analysts believe she will be confirmed and will tip the balance of the Supreme Court to be more liberal-leaning than Constitutional-leaning.
This seventh major stress point was an “ah-ha” scary moment. Although the president’s approval ratings are down, the scariest statistic is the 45 percent of the public who think he’s doing a good job. Who are these people?
This means that all Obama has to do to get re-elected is to swoon six more percentage points of voters with a slick speech or political ad and he wins. That’s scary. It also means that those of us who are not part of the scary-45 percent have our work cut out for us.
The good news is that the numbers are in our favor. Conservatives out-number liberals two-to-one according to an ongoing Gallup poll, and moderates outnumber liberals nearly two-to-one.
We have to work harder at educating, mobilizing and inspiring people to vote the right way in November 2010 and 2012, because America’s problems are not going to take a vacation.
By Herman Cain
I did it!
I did not read, watch or listen to any news stories about what is going on in this country for seven days. There were no exceptions! Nada! Nor did I do any of my radio shows.
I took a vacation from the problems of America. I came back relaxed!
When I re-engaged with the news I realized just how stressed out America is with its problems. It was like looking at America’s problems from 50,000 feet and seeing the forest and not just the daily “trees” in the news. Although there was nothing new in the news, seven major stress points appeared to have only gotten worse in seven days.
The Gulf oil tragedy got worse. The first thing that flashed on the news program I watched was “Day 71” and the oil spill was still gushing. The oil was threatening the Louisiana shoreline, and the federal response was still slow and bureaucratic.
The Obama Administration is still in denial about the seriousness of Arizona’s southern border insecurity. Instead of providing serious support for Arizona and other border states, the administration put up some signs near the border warning people of the dangers, and pressed forward with their legal challenge to the new Arizona immigration law.
The war in Afghanistan has a new general in charge, but the outlook for “victory” is still bleak. It will be difficult even for General Petraeus because it is widely recognized that the Afghanistan government is corrupt, and the “rules of engagement” to protect civilians increases the dangers to our troops. The Taliban has only one rule of engagement: Kill!
The American debt crisis continues to get worse with the administration and the Democrat-led Congress still on a spending binge. Our crisis here is made worse by the situation in Europe, which could trigger another worldwide financial meltdown and the USA would not be spared.
A jobless economic recovery is not a recovery. As the administration continues to say the “stimulus” is working, the facts continue to indicate otherwise. Unemployment for June was just reported to be 9.5 percent with June job losses at 125,000, while 650,000 people dropped out of the labor force so they were not counted. Nearly 15 million people are still unemployed.
But President Obama says “we are headed in the right direction.”
The confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan were just Washington political theater. Political analysts believe she will be confirmed and will tip the balance of the Supreme Court to be more liberal-leaning than Constitutional-leaning.
This seventh major stress point was an “ah-ha” scary moment. Although the president’s approval ratings are down, the scariest statistic is the 45 percent of the public who think he’s doing a good job. Who are these people?
This means that all Obama has to do to get re-elected is to swoon six more percentage points of voters with a slick speech or political ad and he wins. That’s scary. It also means that those of us who are not part of the scary-45 percent have our work cut out for us.
The good news is that the numbers are in our favor. Conservatives out-number liberals two-to-one according to an ongoing Gallup poll, and moderates outnumber liberals nearly two-to-one.
We have to work harder at educating, mobilizing and inspiring people to vote the right way in November 2010 and 2012, because America’s problems are not going to take a vacation.
June 20, 2010
For one week, I am so outta here
June 20, 2010
By Herman Cain
I know you are not going to believe this commentary, but try.
I am not going to read, watch or listen to any news stories about what is going on in this country for the next seven days. The only exception would be if I overhear someone mention that there has been another national or natural disaster. Otherwise, nada! Nor am I doing any of my radio shows.
I am taking a vacation from the problems of America.
For one week:
I will not hear another toothless Obama speech.
I will not hear another liberal try and defend the president’s mishandling of the crisis in the Gulf, mishandling of the economy and national security.
I will not hear or read another analysis of President Obama’s leadership deficiencies, and there are many such analyses including mine.
I will not hear about another spending proposal by the Democrats to stimulate the economy, even though the first spending binge did not work.
I will not hear another warning about the unsustainable spending by the president and Congress, which they continue to ignore.
I will not hear about another tax proposal introduced in Congress to prevent further damage to a stalled economy, only to be rejected by the Democrats.
I will not hear about yet another grenade discovered in the Health Care Deform legislation, which raises taxes and impedes our choices and our liberties.
I will not have to endure more congressional bashing of British Petroleum for pure political theater, which has produced absolutely no benefit to solving the problem.
I will not have to endure more deceptive stories about an economic recovery, the ups and downs of the stock market, or the economic pain of the 15 million unemployed people who are suffering because of presidential, administration and congressional incompetence.
The last time I did a national news detoxification was in 2004, and when I came back I had decided to run for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, because I could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch what was happening to this country even then without trying to do what I could do. We owe it to our grandchildren.
Although I finished an impressive second place in that Republican primary race in 2004, I have been defending the pursuit of happiness ever since through commentaries, speeches, radio and TV. Who knows what moment of insanity about public office I might have this time after my news detoxification. I’m just saying!
This country would be better off if the president, his administration and Congress would take an extended vacation for the next four months and nine days until after the November 2010 elections. We could breathe a little easier about cap and trade legislation until we elected a new Congress. Businesses and the stock market might react positively without the uncertainty of that job-killing bill hanging over our heads.
As for the federal operating budgets, just authorize federal agencies to operate at last year’s levels until further notice. That would be an automatic freeze in federal spending. What a novel idea!
There is one thing Congress should do before they take an extended vacation, and that is to make the current tax rates permanent. It would provide some much needed certainty about taxes, which would cause businesses to start growing their businesses again. Yes, we would then see some real job growth instead of imaginary and saved jobs.
If voters could persuade Congress to kill the cap and trade bill and make the tax rates permanent while I am on vacation from America’s problems, my return would be like waking up to a wonderful dream.
If not, I will be returning to the same national nightmare we are in right now.
By Herman Cain
I know you are not going to believe this commentary, but try.
I am not going to read, watch or listen to any news stories about what is going on in this country for the next seven days. The only exception would be if I overhear someone mention that there has been another national or natural disaster. Otherwise, nada! Nor am I doing any of my radio shows.
I am taking a vacation from the problems of America.
For one week:
I will not hear another toothless Obama speech.
I will not hear another liberal try and defend the president’s mishandling of the crisis in the Gulf, mishandling of the economy and national security.
I will not hear or read another analysis of President Obama’s leadership deficiencies, and there are many such analyses including mine.
I will not hear about another spending proposal by the Democrats to stimulate the economy, even though the first spending binge did not work.
I will not hear another warning about the unsustainable spending by the president and Congress, which they continue to ignore.
I will not hear about another tax proposal introduced in Congress to prevent further damage to a stalled economy, only to be rejected by the Democrats.
I will not hear about yet another grenade discovered in the Health Care Deform legislation, which raises taxes and impedes our choices and our liberties.
I will not have to endure more congressional bashing of British Petroleum for pure political theater, which has produced absolutely no benefit to solving the problem.
I will not have to endure more deceptive stories about an economic recovery, the ups and downs of the stock market, or the economic pain of the 15 million unemployed people who are suffering because of presidential, administration and congressional incompetence.
The last time I did a national news detoxification was in 2004, and when I came back I had decided to run for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, because I could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch what was happening to this country even then without trying to do what I could do. We owe it to our grandchildren.
Although I finished an impressive second place in that Republican primary race in 2004, I have been defending the pursuit of happiness ever since through commentaries, speeches, radio and TV. Who knows what moment of insanity about public office I might have this time after my news detoxification. I’m just saying!
This country would be better off if the president, his administration and Congress would take an extended vacation for the next four months and nine days until after the November 2010 elections. We could breathe a little easier about cap and trade legislation until we elected a new Congress. Businesses and the stock market might react positively without the uncertainty of that job-killing bill hanging over our heads.
As for the federal operating budgets, just authorize federal agencies to operate at last year’s levels until further notice. That would be an automatic freeze in federal spending. What a novel idea!
There is one thing Congress should do before they take an extended vacation, and that is to make the current tax rates permanent. It would provide some much needed certainty about taxes, which would cause businesses to start growing their businesses again. Yes, we would then see some real job growth instead of imaginary and saved jobs.
If voters could persuade Congress to kill the cap and trade bill and make the tax rates permanent while I am on vacation from America’s problems, my return would be like waking up to a wonderful dream.
If not, I will be returning to the same national nightmare we are in right now.
June 13, 2010
Nobody’s in charge – Part 2
June 13, 2010
By Herman Cain
American’s number one expectation of its president is to keep us safe from our enemies. Our number two expectation is for the president to provide effective leadership in a crisis.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has gone from an ecological crisis to a human crisis for the families and businesses affected, and now a national crisis because of the consistent mishandling of the disaster, and the ripple effect of this disaster for decades to come.
I believe the mishandling of the oil spill is the combination of an ineffective management structure put in place by the president, as written about earlier, the standard bureaucracy when dealing with federal agencies, and now a blatantly obvious leadership void in the president’s abilities.
Byron York of the Washington Examiner pointed out that six administration agencies debated for three weeks the best approach for dealing with the disaster. A good leader would have been in the middle of the debate with all agencies involved to bring about a much earlier conclusion, which still has not been identified as the disaster is now in day 56.
Kirsten Powers, a self-described Democrat (for now), explained in the New York Post on May 27, 2010 that there was a plan developed in 1994 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for dealing with such a horrific disaster in the Gulf. The administration was unaware or chose to ignore the plan.
Peter Ferrara believes the presidents’ mishandling of the crisis, and his administration’s indecision in not allowing Governor Bobby Jindal to build temporary sand barrier islands off the coasts is malfeasance (misconduct and abuse of power). The administration wants to study it and do an Environmental Impact Study.
Sand in the ocean does not kill anything. Oil does. What is there to study?
David Axelrod, the president’s top senior advisor, told NBC’s Meet the Press that the president is going to demand that British Petroleum (BP) create a special account with “substantial” reserves to pay oil spill-related claims. Accounting standards require BP to do this anyway, and the BP Board of Directors is the only entity representing BP’s stockholders that can demand BP to do anything.
Oops! I forgot. The administration has a severe lack of business experience (less than 10 percent of administration personnel have any) in addition to the unfolding tragedy of no leadership.
Axelrod also said on Meet the Press that the president is going to give an Oval Office address on Tuesday night after his return to Washington, and then meet with BP executives, including the oil company’s chairman, on Wednesday.
One would think that a speech to the American people might tell us more after his meeting with BP executives instead of a speech before he meets with them. One would think that a direct conversation with the BP CEO real early in the disaster might have yielded some better coordination in the Gulf. We know there’s no leadership, but a little coordination would have been a great start 56 days ago.
And then there’s the blame game. I thought President Obama would have at least waited until the oil disaster was under control before blaming George W. Bush and the Republicans, but he could not resist.
While trying to console some families of the people killed during the initial explosion of the oil rig, the president said “So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hard-working smart people in place … to implement this thing.”
Mr. President, this thing is a disaster. Those smart people are not looking so smart, because nobody’s in charge.
By Herman Cain
American’s number one expectation of its president is to keep us safe from our enemies. Our number two expectation is for the president to provide effective leadership in a crisis.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has gone from an ecological crisis to a human crisis for the families and businesses affected, and now a national crisis because of the consistent mishandling of the disaster, and the ripple effect of this disaster for decades to come.
I believe the mishandling of the oil spill is the combination of an ineffective management structure put in place by the president, as written about earlier, the standard bureaucracy when dealing with federal agencies, and now a blatantly obvious leadership void in the president’s abilities.
Byron York of the Washington Examiner pointed out that six administration agencies debated for three weeks the best approach for dealing with the disaster. A good leader would have been in the middle of the debate with all agencies involved to bring about a much earlier conclusion, which still has not been identified as the disaster is now in day 56.
Kirsten Powers, a self-described Democrat (for now), explained in the New York Post on May 27, 2010 that there was a plan developed in 1994 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for dealing with such a horrific disaster in the Gulf. The administration was unaware or chose to ignore the plan.
Peter Ferrara believes the presidents’ mishandling of the crisis, and his administration’s indecision in not allowing Governor Bobby Jindal to build temporary sand barrier islands off the coasts is malfeasance (misconduct and abuse of power). The administration wants to study it and do an Environmental Impact Study.
Sand in the ocean does not kill anything. Oil does. What is there to study?
David Axelrod, the president’s top senior advisor, told NBC’s Meet the Press that the president is going to demand that British Petroleum (BP) create a special account with “substantial” reserves to pay oil spill-related claims. Accounting standards require BP to do this anyway, and the BP Board of Directors is the only entity representing BP’s stockholders that can demand BP to do anything.
Oops! I forgot. The administration has a severe lack of business experience (less than 10 percent of administration personnel have any) in addition to the unfolding tragedy of no leadership.
Axelrod also said on Meet the Press that the president is going to give an Oval Office address on Tuesday night after his return to Washington, and then meet with BP executives, including the oil company’s chairman, on Wednesday.
One would think that a speech to the American people might tell us more after his meeting with BP executives instead of a speech before he meets with them. One would think that a direct conversation with the BP CEO real early in the disaster might have yielded some better coordination in the Gulf. We know there’s no leadership, but a little coordination would have been a great start 56 days ago.
And then there’s the blame game. I thought President Obama would have at least waited until the oil disaster was under control before blaming George W. Bush and the Republicans, but he could not resist.
While trying to console some families of the people killed during the initial explosion of the oil rig, the president said “So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hard-working smart people in place … to implement this thing.”
Mr. President, this thing is a disaster. Those smart people are not looking so smart, because nobody’s in charge.
June 7, 2010
Liberals hate facts
June 7, 2010
By Herman Cain
Last week the political campaign propaganda season began, and President Obama fired the first shot at Republicans. In an effort to shift the subject from the Gulf oil disaster, the president went into campaign mode (again) when he said, "We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future."
Unfortunately, the facts do not substantiate the president's claim when we compare December 2008 economic statistics before Obama took office to where we are today.
December 2008 June 2010
National debt $9.5 trillion $13 trillion
Gross Domestic Product , or GDP $14.1 trillion $14 trillion
Unemployment rate 7.2 percent 9.7 percent
Unemployed workers 11.1 million 15 million
As you can see, none of these statistics improved. They all got worse. But maybe it depends on one's definition of "improved."
The president and the liberals would also like for us to not remember that the $826 billion in stimulus spending was supposed to keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. The unemployment rate has not been below 8 percent since the stimulus bill passed in early 2009. In fact, it has been consistently closer to 10 percent.
After the president declared in his State of the Union address last February that job creation would be a top priority, the number of government jobs has increased while private sector jobs have continued to decrease. Even when the administration was tempted to boast about the 431,000 new jobs created in May (oops!), we soon learned that 411,000 of those jobs were government Census jobs.
In that same speech, the president said, "We can't go back. We have got to move forward." You do the math! We are clearly not moving forward. Again, maybe it depends on one's definition of forward. On the other hand, maybe this is the direction the president and the liberals want to take this country – backward.
The president and the liberals said that the health-care deform bill would reduce the deficit and bring down health-care costs. After uncovering some of the administration's accounting gimmicks, the Congressional Budget Office has now indicated that the bill will cost $115 billion more than originally estimated over 10 years. That reduces the estimated deficit reduction to $28 billion.
If you think that will happen on a $1 trillion new bureaucracy, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you. It's being renovated!
The president and the liberals would also like for us to forget the fact that 63 percent of the voters want Obamacare repealed. This percentage has increased from 54 percent as people learn more and more about what's really in the legislation.
Ignoring the facts is one of the liberals' favorite tactics, because their agenda is not motivated by any facts at all. Their agenda is totally politically motivated for the purpose of concentrating more power to government rather than the people.
Campaign propaganda just does not work like it used to work. The facts are too compelling and easily accessible, and there are fewer and fewer uninformed voters. There are still too many clueless voters, but the intelligence trajectory is pointing upward. This is another encouraging sign for the elections in November 2010.
Unfortunately, the economic trajectory for the country is pointing downward, and the spending trajectory is pointing upward. That does not look like a stronger future as the president claims.
No matter how much the president and the liberals try to talk their way around the facts with propaganda and lies, the facts don't lie.
Liberals hate the facts.
By Herman Cain
Last week the political campaign propaganda season began, and President Obama fired the first shot at Republicans. In an effort to shift the subject from the Gulf oil disaster, the president went into campaign mode (again) when he said, "We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future."
Unfortunately, the facts do not substantiate the president's claim when we compare December 2008 economic statistics before Obama took office to where we are today.
December 2008 June 2010
National debt $9.5 trillion $13 trillion
Gross Domestic Product , or GDP $14.1 trillion $14 trillion
Unemployment rate 7.2 percent 9.7 percent
Unemployed workers 11.1 million 15 million
As you can see, none of these statistics improved. They all got worse. But maybe it depends on one's definition of "improved."
The president and the liberals would also like for us to not remember that the $826 billion in stimulus spending was supposed to keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. The unemployment rate has not been below 8 percent since the stimulus bill passed in early 2009. In fact, it has been consistently closer to 10 percent.
After the president declared in his State of the Union address last February that job creation would be a top priority, the number of government jobs has increased while private sector jobs have continued to decrease. Even when the administration was tempted to boast about the 431,000 new jobs created in May (oops!), we soon learned that 411,000 of those jobs were government Census jobs.
In that same speech, the president said, "We can't go back. We have got to move forward." You do the math! We are clearly not moving forward. Again, maybe it depends on one's definition of forward. On the other hand, maybe this is the direction the president and the liberals want to take this country – backward.
The president and the liberals said that the health-care deform bill would reduce the deficit and bring down health-care costs. After uncovering some of the administration's accounting gimmicks, the Congressional Budget Office has now indicated that the bill will cost $115 billion more than originally estimated over 10 years. That reduces the estimated deficit reduction to $28 billion.
If you think that will happen on a $1 trillion new bureaucracy, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you. It's being renovated!
The president and the liberals would also like for us to forget the fact that 63 percent of the voters want Obamacare repealed. This percentage has increased from 54 percent as people learn more and more about what's really in the legislation.
Ignoring the facts is one of the liberals' favorite tactics, because their agenda is not motivated by any facts at all. Their agenda is totally politically motivated for the purpose of concentrating more power to government rather than the people.
Campaign propaganda just does not work like it used to work. The facts are too compelling and easily accessible, and there are fewer and fewer uninformed voters. There are still too many clueless voters, but the intelligence trajectory is pointing upward. This is another encouraging sign for the elections in November 2010.
Unfortunately, the economic trajectory for the country is pointing downward, and the spending trajectory is pointing upward. That does not look like a stronger future as the president claims.
No matter how much the president and the liberals try to talk their way around the facts with propaganda and lies, the facts don't lie.
Liberals hate the facts.
May 30, 2010
Nobody’s in charge
May 30, 2010
By Herman Cain
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is plagued by finger pointing and government bureaucracy. Nearly 40 days after the tragedy in the Gulf president Obama made a “photo op” visit to Louisiana, while his administration Cabinet heads were still jockeying for “who’s in charge” when it is clear that nobody is in charge, not even the president.
Despite the unprecedented technical challenges of stopping the massive oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the lack of leadership in coordinating the various federal, state and local agencies and their respective functions in this ecological disaster is even worse.
This dangerous lack of leadership starts with the president and his unmanageable executive structure. This is bad for our nation, because it impedes the ability to get the right things done at the right time. Just look at the handling of the tragedy in the Gulf.
Or consider the months of delay by the president to send additional troops to Afghanistan in 2009. We will never know how many lives might have been saved with a more timely decision.
When president Obama took office he inherited a 9.5 trillion dollar national debt. It has increased by 3.5 trillion dollars in his first 16 months in office. It should not have taken 16 months to appoint a “debt reduction commission”. In the real world of business that decision is called a no-brainer. Just do it!
Or consider the token gesture of sending 1,200 troops to the southwest border, but not to enforce immigration laws according to the State Department at the urging of the Mexican government. Additionally, the president of Mexico blasted the new Arizona Immigration Law in a speech before the United States Congress, and then received a standing ovation from the Democrats. What an insult!
Since President Obama has also publically stated his disapproval of the new Arizona Immigration Law, and Attorney General Eric Holder is challenging the law, maybe Mexico is in charge of our southwest border.
Ordinary citizens can only sit on the sidelines and hope that our elected officials and their respective agencies get their act together in handling the disaster in the Gulf, but we can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for “just in time” leadership to address the coming economic disaster and other major problems we are facing.
We face national security threats from terrorists, our military is still fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tensions between North Korea and South Korea are about to erupt even more. Our economy is stalled, federal spending is out of control, Social Security and Medicare are financially dysfunctional, and the new health care “deform” legislation is only going to make economic matters worse.
The partisan divide in Congress is horrendous, because, thankfully, the Republicans have not caved to the ultra liberal agenda of President Obama and the Democrats. And also, thankfully, many people are waking up to the empty gestures by the president and the Democrats of reaching across the political isle seeking Republican input. The Democrats’ idea of input is for the Republicans to just cave and do things their way.
Again, here’s some good news! In addition to the Memorial Day recess, Congress has at least two more major recesses between now and the November 2010 elections. The more Congress is in recess the better off we are for now. Secondly, more and more people are starting to recognize this huge leadership void and will remember in November, and again in November 2012.
We are extremely thankful for the men and women who fought and died to defend this country throughout our history. Memorial Day should also be a reminder that it is up to us to defend this country from destructive forces both outside and within our borders. And some of them are in Washington, D. C.
We are still in charge of the ballot box, but we must elect some real leaders.
By Herman Cain
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is plagued by finger pointing and government bureaucracy. Nearly 40 days after the tragedy in the Gulf president Obama made a “photo op” visit to Louisiana, while his administration Cabinet heads were still jockeying for “who’s in charge” when it is clear that nobody is in charge, not even the president.
Despite the unprecedented technical challenges of stopping the massive oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the lack of leadership in coordinating the various federal, state and local agencies and their respective functions in this ecological disaster is even worse.
This dangerous lack of leadership starts with the president and his unmanageable executive structure. This is bad for our nation, because it impedes the ability to get the right things done at the right time. Just look at the handling of the tragedy in the Gulf.
Or consider the months of delay by the president to send additional troops to Afghanistan in 2009. We will never know how many lives might have been saved with a more timely decision.
When president Obama took office he inherited a 9.5 trillion dollar national debt. It has increased by 3.5 trillion dollars in his first 16 months in office. It should not have taken 16 months to appoint a “debt reduction commission”. In the real world of business that decision is called a no-brainer. Just do it!
Or consider the token gesture of sending 1,200 troops to the southwest border, but not to enforce immigration laws according to the State Department at the urging of the Mexican government. Additionally, the president of Mexico blasted the new Arizona Immigration Law in a speech before the United States Congress, and then received a standing ovation from the Democrats. What an insult!
Since President Obama has also publically stated his disapproval of the new Arizona Immigration Law, and Attorney General Eric Holder is challenging the law, maybe Mexico is in charge of our southwest border.
Ordinary citizens can only sit on the sidelines and hope that our elected officials and their respective agencies get their act together in handling the disaster in the Gulf, but we can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for “just in time” leadership to address the coming economic disaster and other major problems we are facing.
We face national security threats from terrorists, our military is still fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tensions between North Korea and South Korea are about to erupt even more. Our economy is stalled, federal spending is out of control, Social Security and Medicare are financially dysfunctional, and the new health care “deform” legislation is only going to make economic matters worse.
The partisan divide in Congress is horrendous, because, thankfully, the Republicans have not caved to the ultra liberal agenda of President Obama and the Democrats. And also, thankfully, many people are waking up to the empty gestures by the president and the Democrats of reaching across the political isle seeking Republican input. The Democrats’ idea of input is for the Republicans to just cave and do things their way.
Again, here’s some good news! In addition to the Memorial Day recess, Congress has at least two more major recesses between now and the November 2010 elections. The more Congress is in recess the better off we are for now. Secondly, more and more people are starting to recognize this huge leadership void and will remember in November, and again in November 2012.
We are extremely thankful for the men and women who fought and died to defend this country throughout our history. Memorial Day should also be a reminder that it is up to us to defend this country from destructive forces both outside and within our borders. And some of them are in Washington, D. C.
We are still in charge of the ballot box, but we must elect some real leaders.
May 23, 2010
Seven deadly problems we’re not solving
May 23, 2010
By Herman Cain
Most people are able to avoid committing all of the seven deadly sins (vanity, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth), but our government has managed to solve none of the seven deadly problems that could destroy the future of our nation – health care costs, financial reform, Social Security, Medicare, national debt, immigration law and lack of real job growth.
These seven deadly domestic problems have three things in common. First, inept politicians and bureaucrats have consistently worked on the wrong problem. They have put political agendas and political pandering ahead of what’s best for the people.
Much has been written about the fact that we do not have a health care crisis in America, we have a health care cost crisis. The recently passed health care deform legislation does not address the real problem, nor will it bring down the deficit as we have been falsely told. The right steps to solve the right problem have also been written about extensively, but those steps would get in the way of the all-out power grab we are seeing from this administration and the Democrats in Congress.
Congress is about to pass financial reform legislation, which will also be another “deform” bill, because it establishes another un-needed oversight bureaucracy to oversee all financial institutions except Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One would think that the two entities that were the catalyst for the financial meltdown over a year ago would be included in any so-called reform legislation even if the new bureaucracy is un-needed. But, we are not supposed to think.
Secondly, these same politicians provide lip service to the least informed voters who usually continue to re-elect them, while they let the problems grow for decades. The Social Security and Medicare systems are in desperate need of modernization. This could start with the novel idea of just using payroll taxes for their originally intended purpose of providing benefits, but legislation introduced by Senator Tom Coburn a few years ago to do that failed with 85 votes against.
And thirdly, we know how to solve all of these problems, but we do not have the leadership or political courage in Washington, D.C. to solve them. Instead, problems go unsolved, or we get incremental band-aids and, worse yet, more problems are created. The exponential increase in the national debt is simply irresponsibility on steroids!
The biggest problem with federal immigration laws is that they are not being enforced. So when the state of Arizona passed a bill to empower its law enforcement authorities to do what the federal government was not doing, the president and the administration spoke out against it. The new Arizona immigration enforcement law is not discriminatory as many have claimed, and if they would actually read it they might discover that for themselves.
Real job growth is not going to happen in this economy until the private sector receives some real economic stimulus. Many alternative ideas such as lowering the federal corporate tax rate, suspending taxes on repatriated profits, removing the uncertainty about tax increases, and suspending payroll taxes for a period of time have been made to this administration and the Democratic leaders, but those ideas have been sentenced to committee in Congress and they can’t get out.
Collectively, these seven deadly un-solved problems have us headed for the same type of economic and social turmoil we are seeing in Greece. It’s just a matter of time, and there is no “sugar daddy” to bail Uncle Sam out.
There is some good news! The informed voters are showing tangible signs of not continuing to tolerate the Washington D.C. culture of corruption, cronyism and complacency by electing a different breed of representatives.
As this new mood of the electorate continues into November 2010 and beyond, we might be able to avoid a disastrous future. We might even be able to send some of the seven heavenly virtues (faith, hope, charity, courage, justice, temperance and prudence) back to government.
Let’s dream big!
By Herman Cain
Most people are able to avoid committing all of the seven deadly sins (vanity, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth), but our government has managed to solve none of the seven deadly problems that could destroy the future of our nation – health care costs, financial reform, Social Security, Medicare, national debt, immigration law and lack of real job growth.
These seven deadly domestic problems have three things in common. First, inept politicians and bureaucrats have consistently worked on the wrong problem. They have put political agendas and political pandering ahead of what’s best for the people.
Much has been written about the fact that we do not have a health care crisis in America, we have a health care cost crisis. The recently passed health care deform legislation does not address the real problem, nor will it bring down the deficit as we have been falsely told. The right steps to solve the right problem have also been written about extensively, but those steps would get in the way of the all-out power grab we are seeing from this administration and the Democrats in Congress.
Congress is about to pass financial reform legislation, which will also be another “deform” bill, because it establishes another un-needed oversight bureaucracy to oversee all financial institutions except Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One would think that the two entities that were the catalyst for the financial meltdown over a year ago would be included in any so-called reform legislation even if the new bureaucracy is un-needed. But, we are not supposed to think.
Secondly, these same politicians provide lip service to the least informed voters who usually continue to re-elect them, while they let the problems grow for decades. The Social Security and Medicare systems are in desperate need of modernization. This could start with the novel idea of just using payroll taxes for their originally intended purpose of providing benefits, but legislation introduced by Senator Tom Coburn a few years ago to do that failed with 85 votes against.
And thirdly, we know how to solve all of these problems, but we do not have the leadership or political courage in Washington, D.C. to solve them. Instead, problems go unsolved, or we get incremental band-aids and, worse yet, more problems are created. The exponential increase in the national debt is simply irresponsibility on steroids!
The biggest problem with federal immigration laws is that they are not being enforced. So when the state of Arizona passed a bill to empower its law enforcement authorities to do what the federal government was not doing, the president and the administration spoke out against it. The new Arizona immigration enforcement law is not discriminatory as many have claimed, and if they would actually read it they might discover that for themselves.
Real job growth is not going to happen in this economy until the private sector receives some real economic stimulus. Many alternative ideas such as lowering the federal corporate tax rate, suspending taxes on repatriated profits, removing the uncertainty about tax increases, and suspending payroll taxes for a period of time have been made to this administration and the Democratic leaders, but those ideas have been sentenced to committee in Congress and they can’t get out.
Collectively, these seven deadly un-solved problems have us headed for the same type of economic and social turmoil we are seeing in Greece. It’s just a matter of time, and there is no “sugar daddy” to bail Uncle Sam out.
There is some good news! The informed voters are showing tangible signs of not continuing to tolerate the Washington D.C. culture of corruption, cronyism and complacency by electing a different breed of representatives.
As this new mood of the electorate continues into November 2010 and beyond, we might be able to avoid a disastrous future. We might even be able to send some of the seven heavenly virtues (faith, hope, charity, courage, justice, temperance and prudence) back to government.
Let’s dream big!
May 16, 2010
Optimism in the midst of bad news
May 16, 2010
By Herman Cain
We learned some more bad news last week about ObamaCare. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has now reported that ObamaCare is projected to cost an additional $115 billion, and will exceed $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
This latest revelation about ObamaCare is just another installment on a coming financial and health care disaster. The legislation was supposed to reduce the federal deficit, according to the president and the Democrats in Congress, but it will not.
I will repeat a previous observation. No social program in the history of the United States of America has ever hit or come in below projected budget.
As more and more people have gone from “concerned” to “fearful” about the future of this country due to fiscal irresponsibility and the current lack of effective leadership in Washington, D.C., there are still some compelling reasons to be optimistic about the future of our nation.
The Founders of this nation did not put “In God We Trust” on all of our currency by accident. It was a bedrock belief, and it still is today despite the liberals’ attempt to have people believe otherwise. The president’s declaration on his first world apology tour that we are not a Christian nation is dead wrong. We are indeed a Christian and God-believing nation, based on the faith of an overwhelming majority of Americans.
Disagreeing with the president makes me a racist according to liberal political correctness. But I guess it depends on their definition of racist, because the last time I looked in the mirror I was still a very black American not afraid to speak up and speak out.
Even though the Democrats’ latest legislative actions have ignored the will of the people, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, those founding documents still confirm that we the people are in charge of this country. We just have to exercise our voices louder and stronger for those founding conservative principles, and vote the right way at voting time.
Too many people were fooled by President Obama’s promise of “hope and change” without knowing what kind of change he was talking about. Now they know, and many of them, not all, will make some changes in November 2010 and November 2012.
The recent elections of Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey and Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts are two more compelling reasons for optimism. They were not supposed to win, but the majority of the voters thought otherwise.
We can also be optimistic about the fact that Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Majority Leader in the Senate, is trailing at least three Republicans running in the primary race to be decided in June. That’s no guarantee that a Republican will win in November because of dirty politics and Harry Reid’s sizable campaign war chest, but this is the first time in a long time that the chances have been this great.
I also continue to be encouraged by the consistent Gallup poll result that conservatives outnumber liberals two to one, and moderates outnumber liberals nearly two to one. That means that if only half of the moderates have seen the light on this president and the Democrats, then conservatives can win in November and re-establish some balance of power in Congress. Right now there is no balance of power. It’s all about the Democrats’ insatiable grab for power.
In a recent commencement speech at Hampton University, the president said that people having access to too much information was putting a strain on democracy. On the contrary, people who are becoming smarter about what they are being told by the president and the Democrats are helping to liberate our representative democracy.
Oops! I disagreed with the president again. My bad!
Optimism in a sea of bad news is our real hope for the right kind of change.
By Herman Cain
We learned some more bad news last week about ObamaCare. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has now reported that ObamaCare is projected to cost an additional $115 billion, and will exceed $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
This latest revelation about ObamaCare is just another installment on a coming financial and health care disaster. The legislation was supposed to reduce the federal deficit, according to the president and the Democrats in Congress, but it will not.
I will repeat a previous observation. No social program in the history of the United States of America has ever hit or come in below projected budget.
As more and more people have gone from “concerned” to “fearful” about the future of this country due to fiscal irresponsibility and the current lack of effective leadership in Washington, D.C., there are still some compelling reasons to be optimistic about the future of our nation.
The Founders of this nation did not put “In God We Trust” on all of our currency by accident. It was a bedrock belief, and it still is today despite the liberals’ attempt to have people believe otherwise. The president’s declaration on his first world apology tour that we are not a Christian nation is dead wrong. We are indeed a Christian and God-believing nation, based on the faith of an overwhelming majority of Americans.
Disagreeing with the president makes me a racist according to liberal political correctness. But I guess it depends on their definition of racist, because the last time I looked in the mirror I was still a very black American not afraid to speak up and speak out.
Even though the Democrats’ latest legislative actions have ignored the will of the people, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, those founding documents still confirm that we the people are in charge of this country. We just have to exercise our voices louder and stronger for those founding conservative principles, and vote the right way at voting time.
Too many people were fooled by President Obama’s promise of “hope and change” without knowing what kind of change he was talking about. Now they know, and many of them, not all, will make some changes in November 2010 and November 2012.
The recent elections of Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey and Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts are two more compelling reasons for optimism. They were not supposed to win, but the majority of the voters thought otherwise.
We can also be optimistic about the fact that Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Majority Leader in the Senate, is trailing at least three Republicans running in the primary race to be decided in June. That’s no guarantee that a Republican will win in November because of dirty politics and Harry Reid’s sizable campaign war chest, but this is the first time in a long time that the chances have been this great.
I also continue to be encouraged by the consistent Gallup poll result that conservatives outnumber liberals two to one, and moderates outnumber liberals nearly two to one. That means that if only half of the moderates have seen the light on this president and the Democrats, then conservatives can win in November and re-establish some balance of power in Congress. Right now there is no balance of power. It’s all about the Democrats’ insatiable grab for power.
In a recent commencement speech at Hampton University, the president said that people having access to too much information was putting a strain on democracy. On the contrary, people who are becoming smarter about what they are being told by the president and the Democrats are helping to liberate our representative democracy.
Oops! I disagreed with the president again. My bad!
Optimism in a sea of bad news is our real hope for the right kind of change.
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