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.
September 27, 2010
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.
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