Tag: Economy

That’s it?!?! — GDP grew 2% in 3rd Quarter

You gotta be kidding me! That’s the best that this President can do?

Via The NYT:

The economy grew at a annual rate of 2 percent in the third quarter, as more positive consumer activity and a healthier housing sector outweighed the effects of the drought, caution on the part of businesses and weaker exports.

The new figure, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, is the government’s first estimate of growth in the third quarter. It compares with the 1.3 percent pace of growth in the second quarter. In the first quarter of 2012, the economy also grew by 2 percent.

The report, stronger than expected, came amid fears that companies are clamping down on spending in the face of fiscal uncertainty in Washington, a recession in parts of Europe and a deceleration in demand from China. Some economists fear all these factors will keep a lid on any pickup in growth in the final quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.

Exports, for example, decreased by 1.6 percent in the latest quarter, compared to a 5.3 percent increase in the second quarter.

The slow pace of growth since the end of the last recession has been a dominant theme in the presidential race, with Republicans pointing to recent data as evidence that the economy is moving too slowly to make a meaningful dent in unemployment.

In recent days, government data and earnings reports from corporate bellwethers have suggested that companies are becoming more cautious. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that orders for nondefense capital goods, excluding aircraft, were flat in September, disappointing experts who had forecast a slight gain.

But there were several elements of good news for the White House in Friday’s report. Consumer spending rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2 percent, compared to 1.5 percent in the second quarter. Residential investment increased at an annual rate of 14.4 percent in the third quarter, versus 8.5 percent in the second quarter, a positive sign for the housing sector.

Notice it says, “Strong than expected.” Another word for “unexpectedly!” Honestly, this is a paltry growth record. It is the best we are going to see, however; as long as we have a Marxist in the white house.

Needless to say, I happen to believe that America can do better than this; which is why I am voting for Mitt Romney.

Another good reason this President has to go

This guy lived like king, while people like me, suffered.

For the record, I do not blame this President for my issues. My issues pre-dated him in the White House. But, it’s the optics of the whole thing. The story is good, however. Go read.

That’s okay, I doubt this President will get reelected; you don’t kick your base to the curb repeatedly and mock the Netroots and get elected. 

(H/T Insty)

Video: CBN NewsWatch: October 24, 2012

On CBN Newswatch, Oct. 24:

  • On the campaign trail
  • Catholic vote not as cut and dry for candidates
  • Ind. Senate candidate standing by rape remarks
  • Monster energy drink blamed for five deaths
  • ….and more.

Trade Deficit is still high, now at $44.2 Billion

Here is hoping that Mitt Romney does do something about China. There are many doubters on that; But I am holding out hope.

The Department of Commerce reported:

[T]otal August exports of $181.3 billion and imports of $225.5 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $44.2 billion, up from $42.5 billion in July, revised. August exports were $1.9 billion less than July exports of $183.2 billion. August imports were $0.2 billion less than July imports of $225.7 billion.

June was revised from $42.0 billion. The trade deficit was larger than the consensus forecast of $44.0 billion.

The first graph shows the monthly U.S. exports and imports in dollars through July 2012.

via Calculated Risk: Trade Deficit increased in August to $44.2 Billion.

Take a look at the charts:

Oh yeah, we’re getting hosed.
More graphs of we the American people, getting hosed.

Again, I say; we’re getting hosed. It is time for a trade reform.

 

Chart: Obama’s Spending versus Bush

It is an updated one, via InstaPundit. Show this to Democrats when they try to blame our budget problems on Bush’s wars. This will prove that they are, as always; full of crap.

Reuters: Private Sector adds 162,000 new jobs

An interesting report from Reuters:

(Reuters) – Private employers added 162,000 jobs in September, topping economists’ expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 143,000 jobs.

August’s private payrolls were revised down to an increase of 189,000 from the previously reported 201,000.

If the best that the economists are shooting for is 150-160K jobs per month; that is setting the bar awful low.

What happened to all the jobs that were supposed to be created by the President’s stimulus program?  I thought that when a Democrat was elected into the White House that all of the World’s problems would end for everyone? That the oceans would rise and the World would come together as one?

I guess not. 🙄

Anyone that votes for this President again, is a dad-blasted idiot. I mean, what the hell has he honestly done for the unemployed in this Country? I mean, the only people who have made out like bandits, and I do mean quite literally there; are the damned unions and special interest groups. (READ: Minorities, Green Energy and the like…)

It is a damned disgrace; which is why I am casting my lot with Romney. Neoconservative or not, I am voting for him. Because we can do better than this nimrod who is in there now.

Hope and Change, my fat white ass! 😡

 

 

Drop in voter registration in Ohio

Despite what has happened locally here and how I feel about it; I must continue on writing and blogging about what I consider to be important.

It seems that in Ohio, there has been a decline in voter registration, especially in Democratic Party strongholds. This is also signaling a national trend. Here is the Story and Video via Fox News Channel:

The Video:

The Story:

“Don’t boo, vote,” President Obama often says in his stump speech whenever crowds boo a Romney plan.

The off-hand call to vote may be by design. It comes amid a precipitous decline in Democratic voter registration in key swing states — nowhere more apparent than in Ohio.

Voter registration in the Buckeye State is down by 490,000 people from four years ago. Of that reduction, 44 percent is in Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.

“I think what we’re seeing is a lot of spin and hype on the part of the Obama campaign to try to make it appear that they’re going to cruise to victory in Ohio,” Cuyahoga County Republican Chairman Rob Frost said. “It’s not just Cuyahoga County. Nearly 350,000 of those voters are the decrease in the rolls in the three largest counties, Cuyahoga, Hamilton and Franklin.”

Frost points out that those three counties all contain urban centers, where the largest Democrat vote traditionally has been.

Ohio is not alone. An August study by the left-leaning think tank Third Way showed that the Democratic voter registration decline in eight key swing states outnumbered the Republican decline by a 10-to-one ratio. In Florida, Democratic registration is down 4.9 percent, in Iowa down 9.5 percent. And in New Hampshire, it’s down down 19.7 percent.

“It’s understandable that enthusiasm is going to wane a little bit from that historic moment (in 2008),” says Michelle Diggles, the study co-author and senior policy adviser for Third Way. “You can only elect the first African-American president of this country once.

Of course, there are other reasons why people are just not happy anymore with the Democrats:

One Democratic Party consultant told Fox News that independents in Ohio may be leaning Democratic – an effect that may be tied to the bailout of Chrysler and GM. One of eight people in Ohio work in businesses directly tied to the auto industry. The state has been carpeted with Obama ads that point to his bailout of the industry and it’s managed bankruptcy.

I do not mean to toot my own horn; but in this case, I must. I predicted that stuff like this would happen on my old blog. When the bailouts happened, and when the healthcare bill was pushed through. The truth is Independents are simply running away from Obama. Another thing too that this report did not cover; is that some Democrats are simply not happy with the Obama Administration. This is for a number for reasons: The continuation of Bush’s polices on the war on terror and the war is one. The failure to close the prisons in Gitmo is another. The continuing of the war in Afghanistan is another. Also too, Ohio is also a union State and when Obama’s chief of staff at the time, said “F*** the big three!”, many in Ohio heard about that too. This all makes for a unpopular President.

Also too; the economy in Ohio, here in Michigan; and nationally, just plain sucks. There are many small businesses in Ohio, many of whom are faithful Democrats; and they are just looking at their bottom lines and are looking at this President and wondering, “What on earth are they doing to us?” To be fair, it is not all of Obama’s fault. The Federal Reserve with it’s QE1, QE2 and now QE3 is not helping the situation at all. When the fed prints more money, inflation happens, which drives the prices of everything up and this, in turn, hurts businesses. Which, in turn, hurts the economy. Bill Clinton learned this lesson early on, and made adjustments. Jimmy Carter and this President, did not. For that, they are paying a price at the polls.

I should also mention that this current foreign policy debacle in Libya, and Egypt and the rest of the Arab World is also weighing heavy on the minds of people as well. As it was in 1979, with the Iran hostage crisis. Now, Iran is being a problem again. Which is very ironic.

History has such a strange way of repeating itself.

National Review offers Mitt Romney some good advice and everybody hates it

I saw the following this morning and I read the reactions to it and I honestly had to chuckle at it.

The National Review actually gave Governor Mitt Romney some rather good advice in a piece penned by the editors. The crux of it is here:

Americans are more likely to blame Bush for the financial crisis that started on his watch than to blame Obama for the slow recovery from it. And even before the financial crisis, the last period of Republican governance was not especially good for America’s middle class. Wages were flat for people in the middle of the income spectrum even when the economy was growing.

The Romney campaign acknowledges that the crisis began before Obama took office, but it has next to nothing to say about what Bush-era Republicans got wrong. The result is that Romney appears to be saying that everything was going swimmingly until Obama came along. That impression lends credence to Obama’s attempt to portray Romney as running for Bush’s third term. Romney’s silence about the errors of the Bush years is, on the other hand, understandable, since many Republicans continue to hold Bush in high esteem as a good man who tried to do a lot of good things. Since most Americans consider Bush a failure, Romney cannot embrace him either. So Bush has been an awkward non-presence in the campaign: the man who was not there.

Instead of an explicit repudiation or an embrace, Romney needs to move beyond the controversies of the Bush era. To do that, he has to alter his critique of Obama. What Romney should say is that our country has problems that have been building since long before Obama took office, and that what’s wrong with Obama is that he has either left them unaddressed or made them worse. The country’s looming debt crisis, its dysfunctional health-care system, and its irrational tax code are three of them. Romney will take on those challenges head-on. Those are the ideas he has been running on, after all.

….and of course, most on the right hated it. The American Thinker:

Hmm.  Really?  Romney saying that the economic crisis began before Mr. Obama assumed office means that it began under…George W. Bush?  Or did we miss something?  Why should Mr. Romney be pointing fingers at his fellow Republicans?

The NR editors say that Romney’s silence on the Bush years is “understandable”?  But, you know, maybe if Romney could take a few shots at Bush, well, that might not be so bad.  But the NR editors appreciate why Romney isn’t going to pull the trigger on that one. 

[…]

Most voters, who are living their lives for much more than politics and elections, aren’t likely to tune in to nuances.

Romney may win this critical election — let’s pray he does — but it will be due more to a bad economy, mounting troubles overseas, and the grace of God than to a good strategy, which should be based on rock-solid conservative principles and ideas, and not neutered arguments and finding fault with one’s own.

They were not the only one, One of Lew Rockwell’s writers was not impressed either:

Gee, maybe George Bush was a disaster after all!

The NR sycophants who cheered W’s every crime now realize that he’s a ball and chain. Hilariously, these failed “conservatives” desperately want the Ministry of Truth to work overtime:

“Since most Americans consider Bush a failure, Romney cannot embrace him either. So Bush has been an awkward non-presence in the campaign: the man who was not there. Instead of an explicit repudiation or an embrace, Romney needs to move beyond the controversies of the Bush era.” [Ah — Why do they hate us? Now we know: because Ron  Paul made Bush a presence, and calmly exposed his malefactions for all to see.]

A little late, children. Bush’s crimes are not “controversies,” they are realities — but today’s faux conservatives don’t understand metaphysics, they’ve bought into the Trotsky-Kristol-neocon dialectic instead. Nothing is real but power. Hence, Romney must use the Memory Hole, ignore the past, and look to the future.

FORWARD!

Uh, doesn’t that have a familiar ring to it? As in, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee?

Yes, they are always wrong. And no, they will never, ever apologize.

Now that takes talent; when you can manage to get your writings criticized by the grassroots right and by the ultra-libertarian/almost left-wing crowd, at the same time. You must be doing something right. Good job NRO!  Also too, it is good advice for Mitt Romney. He can acknowledge mistakes without shooting his own Party. It has been done before and can be done again. It just has to be done the right way.

New Romney Ad: “Too Many Americans”

Disclosure: I am one of those Americans. I have not worked, for someone else; since 2005. We can do better. Which is why I am voting for Mitt Romney in 2012. I hope you do the same.

(via YouTube)