Obama's Debt Ceiling Press Conference: Congress "Shellacked" On Taxes & Jobs!

Where Is The Obama From 2008 Campaign Trails?

HE'S BACK!

Except Today He Sounded Like A Bold U.S. President Who Knows Exactly Where He's Headed & Knows Exactly What To Do!

This Morning's White House Press Conference Also Proved That Unlike Most GOP Congressional Leaders & Some Democrats, Pres. Obama REALLY Does Care About The American People NOT Just Winning Another Campaign.

Obama Proved He's Sincere & NOT An Opportunist!

Attention GOP Leaders On Capitol Hill:

The Ball Is Now In Your Court!

But Beware Because American Voters Are NOT Stupid!

We Are Watching & Waiting.

If GOP Leaders Continue To Protect Billionaires & Millionaires By Playing Around With The American Economy & Continue To Filibuster Badly Needed Jobs Bills, They Will Pay Big Time In November 2012!

Bye Bye GOP!!!

RE-ELECT OBAMA IN 2012!

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Obama: Republican Leaders Must Bend on Taxes

President Obama said Wednesday that he believed Republicans would concede to tax increases as part of a deficit reduction package in time to avoid a default on the nation’s debt, and voiced exasperation at the lack of progress in negotiations between the administration and Congressional leaders.

“Call me naïve,” he told reporters at a midday news conference in the East Room of the White House. “But my expectation is that leaders are going to lead.

He accused the Republicans, who last week dropped out of negotiations on the budget, of avoiding tough decisions and said they were playing a dangerous game that could significantly affect the nation’s struggling economy and capital markets and slow down private efforts to create jobs.

Mr. Obama repeatedly mocked tax breaks that he said were for “millionaires and billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners,” saying that voters would not look kindly on Republican lawmakers who defended such breaks at the cost of cuts in popular programs like health care, education and food safety.

But he did not explicitly say that he would reject a deal that did not eliminate such breaks, saying that he believed his adversaries would eventually agree to what Democrats have called a “balanced approach” that included trillions of dollars in spending cuts along with tax increases.

“If you are a wealthy C.E.O. or hedge fund manager in America right now, your taxes are lower than they have ever been. They are lower than they have been since the 1950s. And they can afford it,” Mr. Obama said. “You can still ride on your corporate jet. You’re just going to have to pay a little more.”

Questions about the looming debt deadline dominated the early part of the news conference, the first in several months for the president. But Mr. Obama was also asked about a series of other domestic and foreign policy issues.

On the American intervention in Libya, Mr. Obama defended his administration’s actions against Congressional critics who say the military activities there violate the War Powers Act, which requires Congress to give its formal approval.

“We have engaged in a limited operation to help a lot of people against one of the worst tyrants in the world,” Mr. Obama said, deflecting a question about whether he believes the War Powers Act is constitutional. “This suddenly becomes the cause célèbre for some folks in Congress? C’mon.”

On the issue of same-sex marriage, Mr. Obama declined to say whether he had changed his mind about his personal opposition. But he said New York’s decision to legalize same sex marriage was a “good thing.”

“That’s exactly how things should work,” he said, noting that different communities will come to different conclusions on the issue. “I think we are moving in a direction of greater equality, and I think that’s a good thing.”

Mr. Obama said his administration had done more than all of his predecessors combined to advance the rights of gay men and lesbians in America. Mr. Obama is scheduled to host a gay pride event at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

But his remarks are likely to disappoint gay activists, who were hoping that Mr. Obama would say that his personal opposition to gay marriage had ended. In the past, the president has said his position is “evolving.”

On the economy, Mr. Obama sounded dire warnings about the consequences of delaying a resolution on the debt negotiations, and expressed exasperation with Republicans in Congress, saying they needed to “do their job” instead of blaming him for a lack of leadership.

In a remarkable display of frustration, Mr. Obama said he was “amused” by Republican comments that he had not offered a clear direction in the effort to cut the budget and increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

“They are in one week, they are out one week,” the president said, in a week that the House is out of session. “You need to be here. I’ve been here. I’ve been doing Afghanistan and Bin Laden and the Greek crisis. You stay here. Let’s get it done. All right, I think you know my feelings about that.”

Mr. Obama compared the lack of resolution in the debt talks to his daughters’ ability to get their homework done a day early.

“They’re not waiting til the night before. They are not pulling all-nighters,” Mr. Obama said. “They need to do their job. They need to go ahead and make the tough choices.”

Mr. Obama also mocked Republicans in Congress who have questioned whether the Aug. 2 deadline set by the Treasury Department for a default on the debt has been hyped for political reasons. He said the people making those claims would force the government to pick and choose who they would pay and who they would leave hanging.

“This is not a situation where Congress is going to say we won’t buy this car or we won’t take the vacation. They took the vacation. They bought the car. And now they are saying, maybe we don’t have to pay,” Mr. Obama said. “If the United States government, for the first time, cannot pay its bills, if it defaults, then the consequences for the U.S. economy will be significant and unpredictable. And that is not a good thing.”

In his opening statement, Mr. Obama said his administration was making efforts to spur job creation, but challenged Congress to pass bills that would help private companies add to their payrolls. He cited bills that would make it easier to get patents on inventions, expand loans to private businesses for hiring and pass long-delayed trade deals.
“I urge Congress to act on these ideas right now,” he said.

On the debt talks, Mr. Obama said he was open to extending payroll tax cuts and other tax breaks that would help spur economic growth in the short term. “I think that it makes perfect sense for us to take a look at can we extend the payroll tax cut another year?” the president told reporters. “What we need to do is to restore business confidence and the confidence of the American people that we are on track.”

The president declined to comment on a controversial decision by the National Labor Relations Board to go to court to contest a decision by Boeing to build a nonunion plant in South Carolina. The decision by the independent agency has been criticized by Republicans as an infringement on right-to-work states and on the right of corporate managers to decide where to do business. The case is before a judge in Seattle.

But the president acknowledged the political sensitivities of the issue at a time when people are clamoring for the kinds of jobs that the Boeing plant would create. “If they are choosing to relocate here in the U.S., that’s a good thing,” Mr. Obama said. “What defies common sense is the notion that we would be shutting down a plant or laying off workers because labor and management can’t come to an agreement.”

Asked about concern in the military that the policy on how to handle terrorist suspects captured abroad was unclear, Mr. Obama said that his “top priority” was “to make sure that we are apprehending those who would attack the United States, and that we are getting all the intelligence that we can.”

But he said that “frankly, there are going to be different dispositions of the case depending on the situation.”

Pressed a second time on his personal views of same-sex marriage, Mr. Obama declined to elaborate, saying, “I’m not going to make news on that today” and telling the reporter who asked, Laura Meckler of The Wall Street Journal, “Good try, though.”

Later, Mr. Obama added: “I’ll keep on giving you the same answer until I give you a different one. And that won’t be today.”


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Sources: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NY Times, Google Maps

Obama May Lose Liberal Base Support Over Tax Cuts Deal

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Obama Faces Liberal Revolt Over Tax Cut Deal


The battle over extending the Bush-era tax cuts has emerged as a defining moment for liberals disenchanted with President Obama, who they increasingly see as unwilling or unable to back up his campaign promises.

Mr. Obama vowed as a candidate to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for incomes below $250,000 for a couple or $200,000 for an individual - but let the cuts, which lapse at the end of the year, expire for incomes above those thresholds.

Republicans want the cuts extended for all income levels, including the wealthiest Americans. Though the American people favor Mr. Obama's position according to the latest CBS News poll, the White House and congressional Democrats appear poised to accept a temporary extension of all of the cuts this week.

The White House's apparent willingness to give in to the GOP on the tax cut issue - despite Democrats' large majorities in both houses of Congress (at least for a few more weeks) - is striking many on the left as emblematic of a president who they say has repeatedly failed to fight for what he believes in.

Liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich this weekend explained "the baffling Obama presidency" in part by arguing that Mr. Obama "has seemingly surrendered his once-considerable abilities to act, decide or think." The president's attempts to seek out compromise instead of holding fast to a position, he wrote, has rendered him "indistinct" and "weightless."

Over at the liberal Huffington Post, meanwhile, the talk has turned to rallying around a serious primary challenge to Mr. Obama. While such a challenge is unlikely to materialize, the discussion reflects the level of disenchantment with Mr. Obama among the activist left.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist nor have a PhD in political science and sociology to see clearly that Obama has abandoned much of the base that elected him," wrote Clarence B. Jones Sunday in a column calling on liberals to consider rallying around someone else in 2012. "He has done this because he no longer respects, fears or believes those persons who elected him have any alternative, but to accept what he does, whether they like it or not."

Daniel Roche, a 2008 Deputy Field Organizer in Nevada for Mr. Obama, is quoted in an email from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee saying that if the president "capitulates on this, there really is no point in voting for him in 2012."

"The difference between voting for a Republican and voting for someone whose default negotiation strategy is rolling over and dying whenever the Republican Party says mean things is marginal," he said. "This should be a ridiculously easy fight to win."

For liberals, the first half of Mr. Obama's term has been a long and so-far unfulfilled wait for something to rally around. The so-called "public option" never made it into the health care bill; "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" remains as military policy; immigration reform efforts have barely moved forward; the Guantanamo Bay prison facility remains open. Now comes the fight over the Bush-era tax cuts, which, barring a surprise outcome, marks one more disappointment for those who want to see the president fight for what he believes in.

"Like the public option, which enjoyed similar bipartisan consensus among voters, progressives are pushing President Obama to fight for both a policy winner and a political winner," Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said. "...President Obama has shown a complete refusal to fight Republicans throughout his presidency even when the public is on his side -- and millions of his former supporters are now growing disappointed and infuriated by this refusal to fight. Obama is demobilizing the troops and demoralizing the public right before he seeks re-election."

What liberals want to see is for Mr. Obama to stand firm on the issue, in part by arguing (perhaps in a holiday primetime address) that an America drowning in debt can't afford to give a handout to the richest Americans. As the Times noted Sunday, the $60 billion per year that would be saved by not extending the cuts for high earners would save as much as the elimination of earmarks, a federal pay freeze, a ten percent cut in the federal workforce and a 50 percent cut in foreign aid - combined.

From the White House's perspective, however, drawing the ire of what Robert Gibbs once dismissed as the "professional left" may well be worth it. The Republicans, after all, hold most of the cards: With the help of a handful of Democrats and the filibuster rule, they can (and have) blocked Senate Democrats' efforts to extend the cuts only for those making less than $250,000 (or, in a separate vote, less than $1 million). Lacking the votes to push through their position through the Senate, the White House and Democrats are left to either let the cuts expire for all Americans - which they see as bad for the economy, not to mention potential political suicide - or accept the GOP's terms, at least for a year or two.

And, the White House is stressing to reporters, it's not like they won't get anything for their trouble: The deal being negotiated between the White House and members of Congress will likely include a vote on extending long-term unemployment benefits (which expired last week) as well as some tax cuts important to the White House. The negotiation reflects the compromise necessary to get things done in Washington, they argue (behind closed doors, anyway) - and what's so bad about acknowledging political reality?

According to liberal Times columnist Paul Krugman, what's so bad is that Mr. Obama is essentially giving into GOP blackmail - and "if Democrats give in to the blackmailers now, they'll just face more demands in the future."

"So Mr. Obama should draw a line in the sand, right here, right now," he writes in his column today. "If Republicans hold out, and taxes go up, he should tell the nation the truth, and denounce the blackmail attempt for what it is. Yes, letting taxes go up would be politically risky. But giving in would be risky, too -- especially for a president whom voters are starting to write off as a man too timid to take a stand."

Such a potentially cathartic move would indeed be high risk, however - another promise Mr. Obama made during the campaign was not to raise taxes on the middle class. Republicans have been effective in blaming Democratic policies for the still-struggling economy, and while it's hard to know exactly how it would play politically if Mr. Obama let taxes for everyone rise, it's clear the GOP would aggressively cast the situation as the latest example of financial mismanagement by the party in power. The GOP is the stronger force in American politics at the moment, and it can be particularly difficult to enter a duel when it feels like the other side has all the momentum.

And despite the criticism from the "professional left," the White House knows that the perceptions of pundits like Krugman and Rich don't necessarily translate to the general public. According to the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, 90 percent of blacks still approve of the president, as do 82 percent of Democrats and 79 percent of liberals. That's not exactly the numbers one might expect for a man whom voters - at least in the Democratic base - "are starting to write off."

Still, there is a danger in the opinions of so-called "opinion makers" eventually trickling down to the general public. In his column Sunday, Rich compared Mr. Obama to Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is popular in his state despite its blue tint. (It should be noted that Christie has more executive control than Mr. Obama does, which makes it easier to stick to your guns.)

"...the core of Christie's appeal at home is that he explains passionately held views in concrete, plain-spoken detail," he writes. "Voters know what he stands for and sometimes respect him for his forthrightness even when they reject the stands themselves."

That's a quality sorely lacking in Mr. Obama, Rich and others say - even when he has the public on his side. And, they say, it has fed into the notion that the president is a wishy-washy Washington politician instead of a true champion of the middle class.

Perception is not necessarily reality, of course. The White House can point to financial reform, the health care bill, and the stimulus package as important liberal achievements, and Mr. Obama said even as he made his campaign promises that he was open to compromise in order to move forward. But for a president who has over the course of two years yet to deliver a single clear victory for the Democratic base that got him elected, the debate over tax cuts looks like the latest in a string of missed opportunities.


Sources: CBS News, CNN, Meet The Press, MSNBC, Youtube

Obama Extends Homebuyer Tax Credit For 3 Months

Pres. Obama Signs 3-Month Extension Of Homebuyer Credit


President Barack Obama Friday signed a law giving consumers already in the process of buying a home three extra months to close the deal and still get a popular tax credit from the government.

Homebuyers with contracts signed by April 30 who failed to go to closing by the original June 30 deadline will now have until September 30 to complete their purchases.

The measure is meant to support the battered U.S. housing market which still faces tough headwinds despite low mortgage interest rates.

The Senate late Wednesday approved the measure just hours ahead of the earlier deadline and one day after House of Representatives quickly approved the measure.

The $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers and $6,500 credit for others purchasing a new primary residence was a highly popular temporary measure by the Obama administration to jump start home sales during the economic recession.

The Senate had earlier tried to extend the deadline but failed amid partisan bickering over unrelated legislation.

Real estate agents said as many as 180,000 homebuyers would miss the June 30 deadline because banks and settlement offices were struggling to deal with the volume of people rushing to close on their deals signed before April 30.

Critics say the three-month extension is an invitation for fraud, providing prospective home buyers time to back date contracts to a date before April 30 and subsequently closing on those contracts by the new September 30 deadline.

"The IRS reminds taxpayers that special filing and documentation requirements apply to anyone claiming the homebuyer credit," the Internal Revenue Service said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who faces a tough re-election fight in November in Nevada, where the U.S. foreclosure crisis is most pronounced, pushed for the three-month extension.

The National Association of Realtors Thursday said contracts for pending home sales fell by a record 30 percent to an all-time low in May, the first month of sales without the homebuyer tax credit since it was introduced two years ago to spur housing demand.

Hampering a recovery in the housing sector is a weak jobs market.

The U.S. Labor Department earlier on Friday said overall employment fell for the first time this year in June as thousands of temporary jobs ended.


Sources: CNBC, Trulia, Youtube, Google Maps

Tax Day 2010 Best Ever! Voters Enjoy Lowest Taxes In Years! Tips

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Today Is The Best Tax Day Of Your Life


Almost nobody likes tax day, but people may look back nostalgically on tax day 2010 and those of earlier years because, almost certainly, taxes are going up in the future, and they may go up a lot. With hindsight, tax day 2010 may seem almost dreamy.

Why?

For starters, almost half of U.S. households aren't paying any income taxes on their 2009 earnings. The exact figure is 47 percent, says the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, two think tanks. Among elderly households, 55 percent pay no income tax; among all households with children (including those headed by single parents), the nonpaying share is 54 percent.

By contrast, only 38 percent of married couples filing jointly don't pay. (Of course, this doesn't mean people pay no federal taxes; about three quarters of households pay more in Social Security payroll taxes than in income taxes.)

The personal exemption and standard deduction, combined with the child tax credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, shield many poor and middle-class families from the income tax.

In 2009 they got extra protection from President Obama's Making Work Pay tax credit, which was $400 for single workers (phasing out at $75,000 of income) and $800 for a couple (phasing out at $150,000 of income). Without that credit, probably only 40 percent of households or less wouldn't have paid income taxes.

President Obama has proposed that the credit be renewed for 2011. But given the massive federal budget deficits, there's a good chance that the credit will someday expire.

So that's one pressure for higher taxes. But it's peanuts compared to the real threat: an aging America. As almost everyone knows, the huge baby-boom generation is edging—or collapsing—into retirement. Its first members, born in 1946, turn 65 in 2011, when they will qualify for Medicare.

Some have already taken Social Security as early as 62 at a reduced rate. Boomers collecting benefits, combined with uncontrolled health costs, are the underlying engine for rising federal spending and endless budget deficits.

To which there's at least one obvious solution: raise taxes. By all estimates, the budget outlook is daunting. The latest projections of the Congressional Budget Office reckon the cumulative deficits under President Obama's policies to be $12.7 trillion from 2009 to 2020.

In 2020 the estimated annual deficit will be $1.25 trillion, or 5.6 percent of the economy (gross domestic product), despite assumed "full employment" of 5 percent.

And the deficits get larger with every succeeding year. Given unavoidable uncertainties, these precise projections are likely to prove wrong. But their basic message seems incontestable: there's a large and growing gap between the government's promises and the existing tax base.

How big a tax increase would be needed to close the gap? Well, huge. To put things in perspective, all federal taxes (income, payroll, and excise) averaged 18.1 percent of GDP from 1970 to 2009.

Under CBO's assumptions about Obama's policies, taxes in 2020 would already be slightly higher, at 19.6 percent of GDP. But on top of that, there'd need to be a further tax boost approaching a third to balance the budget, because spending is projected at 25.2 percent of GDP. Needless to say, this would be the largest tax burden in U.S. history, even including World War II.

A recent study by Rosanne Altshuler, Katherine Lim, and Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center shows what this would mean for income tax rates. Their study uses earlier and somewhat more optimistic CBO projections.

Moreover, the study assumes only that the budget deficit is cut to 2 percent of GDP—not that it's balanced. Still, income tax rates would have to rise sharply to reach even this goal. If all income tax rates were increased proportionately, today's lowest rate of 10 percent would go to 15 percent and the highest rate of 35 percent would go to 52 percent.

If only today's top two tax rates of 33 percent and 35 percent were raised, the new top rates would be 86 percent and 91 percent. At those astronomical levels, the study says, the well-off and wealthy would work less and pursue aggressive tax avoidance. Tax revenues would suffer.

These bleak estimates demonstrate why politicians of both parties have avoided confronting the government's long-term budget deficits. Anything they might do—raising taxes or cutting retirement benefits such as Social Security and Medicare—risks a public backlash.

Some experts urge new taxes, such as a value-added tax or energy taxes. Others talk of "broadening" the income-tax base by eliminating or reducing tax breaks (deductions, credits, or exemptions).

But of course, none of these steps would be popular. Hardly anyone wants to pay higher taxes, and most big tax breaks (the home-mortgage interest deduction, credits for college tuition, the charitable deduction) benefit major constituencies.

Almost all the pressures on taxes are in the same direction: up. It will be hard for President Obama to keep his promise not to raise taxes on households with incomes below $200,000 (for singles) and $250,000 (for couples).

It will be hard for economic conservatives or the tea party to achieve meaningful tax reductions. Just about everyone will be tempted to deplore federal budget deficits—and do nothing about them. But this escape route may close; many economists warn that endlessly large deficits risk big jumps in interest rates. Someday, higher taxes may be unavoidable.

So, the lesson for tax day 2010 is simple: enjoy it while you can. It's not going to get any easier.




Sources: Fox News, MSNBC, Newsweek, Youtube

Pres. Obama Signs HIRE Act Jobs Bill Into Law

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Obama Signs Multi-Billion-Dollar Bill To Create Jobs


President Barack Obama offered hope Thursday that a growing US economy may soon bring more jobs, as indicators pointed to a still-fragile recovery from the "great recession."

Signing into law a 17.6-billion-dollar measure designed to boost hiring, Obama said the economy was "beginning to move in the right direction," but admitted ordinary Americans were still bearing too great a burden from the economic crisis.

"Our economy is growing again and we may soon be adding jobs instead of losing them, the jobs bill I?m signing today is intended to help accelerate this process," Obama said in a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

Addressing employers who have been slow to create jobs amid continued economic uncertainty, Obama said: "If you hire a worker who?s unemployed, you won't have to pay payroll taxes on that worker for the rest of the year."

The legislation also includes infrastructure investments for items like highway construction and help for states to build schools.

As US unemployment levels hover near double digits, the White House has struggled to claw back some of the estimated eight million jobs that have been lost since the economy entered recession in December 2007.

On Thursday, the Labor Department reported new claims for unemployment insurance benefits dipped only marginally last week, with 457,000 Americans beginning to ask the government for help, down 5,000 from the previous week.

According to Ryan Sweet, a senior economist with Moody's Economy.com, employment is trending in the right direction, but the slow speed of change is "dashing any expectation that jobs will roar back."

For the Obama administration, speeding that recovery has become all the more urgent as the country faces midterm elections in November that will decide whether the president's Democratic Party keeps control of Congress.

But with the unemployment rate not expected to ease quickly, Obama and his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, have begun to focus on more modest indications of recovery -- pointing to increased hours put in by workers and firms shifting employees to a full-time schedule.

Geithner earlier this week said more than 100,000 new jobs would need to be created each month in order to dent the unemployment rate.

"It's about explaining to people that you are not going to take unemployment from 10.1 percent back to the good old days of five percent quickly," said Ted Gayer, co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

The midterm elections are also making it more difficult for Obama to pass more sweeping measures to spur employment.

Thursday's jobs bill that emerged from the poisoned political atmosphere in Congress is much smaller than some advocates had hoped, and Obama is pushing for more packages to spur job creation in the private sector.

The bill passed the Senate in a 68-29 vote, drawing support from 11 Republicans.

"I hope it is a prelude to further cooperation in the days and months to come, as we continue the work of digging out of this recession and rebuilding our economy in a way that works for all Americans," Obama said.

Sources: MSNBC, Yahoo News

"Buy American!" Helping U.S. Small Businesses Key To Job Growth

Buy American Act



The Buy American Act (BAA - 41 U.S.C. § 10a–10d) passed in 1933 by Congress and signed by President Roosevelt, required the United States government to prefer U.S.-made products in its purchases. Other pieces of Federal legislation extend similar requirement to third-party purchases that utilize Federal funds, such as highway and transit programs.

In certain government procurements, the requirement purchase may be waived if the domestic product is more expensive than an identical foreign-sourced product by a certain percentage, if the product is not available domestically in sufficient quantity or quality, or if doing so is in the public interest.

The President has the authority to waive the Buy American Act within the terms of a reciprocal agreement or otherwise in response to the provision of reciprocal treatment to U.S. producers. Under the 1979 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Government Procurement Code, the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) 1996 Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), the United States provides access to the government procurement of certain U.S. agencies for goods from the other parties to those agreements. However, the Buy American Act was excluded from the GPA's coverage.

The Buy American Act is not to be confused with the very similarly named Buy America Act, which came into effect in 1983. The latter, a provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982, is 49 U.S.C., section 5323 (j), and applies only to mass-transit-related procurements valued over US$100,000 and funded at least in part by federal grants.[1]


Sources: CNN, Wikipedia

Did Pres. Obama Earn "C" Or "D" On Stimulus Funds Promises?

In Feb. 2009 Pres. Obama traveled the country pitching his Economic Stimulus Package idea.

Check out the videos and article (courtesy of CNN & MSNBC) below to analyze how the Stimulus has actually fared not only in Elkhart, IN but nationwide and why Obama only deserves a "C", actually at best a "C-", in keeping his promises.

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Obama Has Miles To Go To Keep All Promises



If there were a report card for the promises President Barack Obama made a year ago in this struggling city in northern Indiana, he would probably get a C. It’s a passing grade, but it’s not the strong performance that people might have hoped for in a town with one of the highest jobless rates in the country.

One year ago, on Feb. 9, 2009, Obama went to Concord High School in Elkhart to promise jobs for the city and for the nation. He argued the case for the $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which Congress would pass just four days later.

Now, a year later, some statements he made in that speech have proven true and a few have proven to be dubious. For several others, it’s too soon to judge.

Like the president himself, the Recovery Act and the Economic Recovery itself haven’t yet fully met expectations.

So, with unemployment near 10 percent and elections eight months away, congressional Democrats are reacting. House Democrats passed a second Stimulus, dubbed the “Jobs for Main Street Act.” At about $159 billion, it’s less than one-fifth the size of the stimulus enacted last February.

The Senate is set to begin action on its own job creation bill this week.

Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., whose district includes most of the city of Elkhart, voted for the first stimulus bill in 2009, but against the second bill last December.

"We still have a lot of ARRA funds to spend," Donnelly said. "We’re working non-stop to create jobs, but I want to make sure that we give the Stimulus Funds the opportunity to get out there, and be felt, and create jobs. I said, ‘Why don’t we just let the stimulus work its way through, rather than adding on even more debt?’”

Some argue the reason to not wait is the 14.8 million unemployed Americans as of January. The Labor Department reported on Friday that the unemployment rate dipped from 10 percent to 9.7 percent last month, but businesses shed 20,000 jobs.

Here are some of the statements Obama made in that speech, and how they're working so far.

Preventing more Job losses:

* Obama told his Elkhart, Ind. audience on last February that “if we don't act immediately, millions of more jobs will be lost. The national unemployment rates will approach double digits not just here in Elkhart, (but) all across the country.”

Since the president spoke on that day, more than 3 million jobs have been lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Job losses are no longer running at a pace of nearly 700,000 per month, as they were when Obama spoke in February, however.

“The Recovery Act has already funded about 2 million jobs across the country, and remains on track to meet the President’s goal of 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year,” said Jim Gilio, White House spokesman for the Recovery Act.

Gilio said that direct stimulus spending (as opposed to tax cuts) for projects overall are expected to double in the first two quarters of 2010 and thus “there is even more employment bang for the buck to come.”

In Elkhart County, meanwhile, the unemployment rate has declined from 18 percent last February to 14.8 percent in December, the last month for which the BLS has local data.

But the labor force has shrunk in Elkhart, and around the nation, too. There were 4,365 fewer jobless in Elkhart County in December than there were when Obama spoke last February — a drop of 24 percent in the number of unemployed. But there were also 4,017 fewer people with jobs, a decline of 5 percent in the number employed.

Unemployment Benefits:

* Obama promised to help the jobless back in February with “an additional $100 per month in unemployment benefits that will go to more than 450,000 Indiana workers, extended unemployment benefits for another 89,000 folks who've been laid off and can't find work.”

The president has delivered on this promise.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, by the end of September, the Recovery Act will have paid out $58 billion in unemployment benefits, 17 percent of the total stimulus outlays.

Creating or saving Jobs:

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* Obama predicted in his Elkhart speech that “the (Stimulus) plan that we put forward will save or create 3 to 4 million jobs over the next two years,” adding that “we'll create or save nearly 80,000 badly needed jobs for Indiana right here over the next couple of years.”

It will take until February 2011 to determine if the president was correct in his claims.

His own Council of Economic Advisors, in its Jan. 13 report, estimated that 48,000 jobs had been created in Indiana due to the Recovery Act. The CEA said the stimulus had “raised employment relative to what it would otherwise have been” by 1.5 million to 2 million nationwide.

The Obama administration’s view is that the Stimulus dollars are rippling through the economy: the public school teacher kept on the job due to Recovery Act money will spend her paychecks on groceries, car repairs, a new deck for her house — so the grocer, the car repair shop, and the carpenter all benefit from stimulus money. They will in turn spend their income on buying goods and services.

But Jackie Walorski, the Republican state representative whose district includes part of the city of Elkhart and southern Elkhart County, dismisses the Stimulus effect.

“Nobody was going to say ‘don’t bring money here if it’s available’ but it was a short infusion of cash,” she said. “It’s not a long-term fix and it hasn’t really produced a lot of sustainable, long-term tangible, counted jobs.”

Walorski is trying to unseat Donnelly in this November's election.

Donnelly defended the Stimulus by pointing to a $689,000 grant to the Heart City Health Center as stimulus money that had an immediate impact, allowing the clinic to hire a doctor and to serve more patients, and to a $39 million grant to Navistar to manufacture electric trucks in Wakarusa, a town just south of Elkhart.

Can you count the Jobs?

* Obama claimed in Elkhart last February that the federal government's Recovery.gov Web site “gives you a report on where the money is going in your community, how it's being spent, how many jobs (are) being created.”

He was somewhat wide of the mark.

Whatever the merits of Recovery.gov may be, it does not make the case that Obama and his aides are trying to make: that the combination of direct and indirect spending — the multiplier effect — has caused 1.5 million to 2 million jobs to be "created or saved."

Here's why:

Congress requires private-sector recipients of Recovery Act grants, contracts, and loans to submit their own estimates of the number of jobs created or retained by their funding.

But, as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the independent auditing arm of Congress, explained, “neither individuals nor recipients receiving funds through entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, or through tax programs are required to report.”

Of the $173 billion in funds paid out by the end of last October, only 25 percent were covered by the Recovery Act’s reporting requirement.

That’s one reason why there’s a discrepancy between the 48,000 Indiana jobs that Obama’s economic advisors claim have been created or saved by the Stimulus, and the figure for jobs created or saved in Indiana on the Obama administration’s Recovery.gov Web site: 15,278.


Tax Cuts:

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* Obama promised in Elkhart “immediate tax relief for 95 percent of American workers.”

The Recovery Act has delivered on that pledge.

Although they aren’t as visible as the $10 million, ARRA-funded project to widen U.S. highway 33 in Elkhart, for example, the tax cuts in the Recovery Act last fiscal year and this fiscal year are 14 times larger than the transportation projects funded by stimulus money.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 44 percent of the stimulus in FY 2009 and FY 2010 is in the form of tax cuts, ranging from a tax break for first-time home buyers to an $800 tax credit for married couples.

Mostly Private-Sector Jobs?

* The president pledged that “more than 90 percent of the jobs created under this Recovery Act will be in the private sector.”

That appears to be in some doubt, at least for now.

According to GAO, by Dec. 31, 2009, more than $78 billion in Recovery Act funds had gone to states and localities. More than three quarters of that was matching funds to the states to help pay for Medicaid, the insurance program for the indigent, and to the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund which helps states keep public school employees on the payroll.

The GAO said the Recovery Act’s Medicaid and education funds freed up money that the states otherwise would have had to spend from their own coffers. This allowed state and local governments to retain some employees that they otherwise would have let go.

States “most commonly reported using or planning to use these freed-up funds in fiscal year 2010 to cover increased Medicaid caseloads, maintain Medicaid eligibility levels, and finance general state budget needs,” the GAO said in a report last December.

Elkhart city officials estimate that to date $41 million in direct and indirect stimulus funding has created or saved 385 jobs in Elkhart, with the biggest single amount being the $14.3 million going to the Elkhart public schools.

That overpass the President Promised:

* The biggest unfunded stimulus request so far in Elkhart is a $65 million project to build a new downtown railroad overpass, the same one Obama mentioned in his Feb. 9 speech: “I know that a new overpass downtown would make a big difference for businesses and families right here in Elkhart.”

Elkhart applied for stimulus money under the U.S. Department of Transportation's TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grants program. The department will announce the winners of the grants in the next few weeks.

Plug-in Hybrids:

* Obama also promised his stimulus would include money “to develop the new battery technologies that will allow not just cars but potentially RVs as well to move into the next generation of plug-in hybrids.”

He returned to Elkhart last August to tout a $39 million grant to Navistar, which produces commercial and military trucks and designs and manufactures diesel engines for pickup trucks, vans and SUVs, among other things.

Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said he could not estimate how many jobs the project would create since it “will depend upon initial daily production rates, among other things."

"When the grant was announced, we stated that our electric truck production would initially create 700 jobs, but not necessarily all in Elkhart County. And some will be suppliers,” he said.

Another vehicle manufacturer, the Norwegian firm THINK, is planning to make electric cars in Elkhart, with Recovery Act help.

According to company spokesman Brendan Prebo, THINK received a tax credit of $16.9 million under the Advanced Energy Manufacturing program. The firm has also applied for a loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program. THINK expects to create 415 manufacturing jobs in Elkhart by 2013. The plant begins operations in the first quarter of next year.

The Obama administration has pointed to the THINK tax break as a prime example of what the president meant when he said in Elkhart last year, “I think it's important for us to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Elkhart.”

Prebo noted that THINK was looking at the United States as a manufacturing location prior to the announcement of the Recovery Act's incentives, but the ATVM program encouraged the company to build more vehicles in the U.S. sooner than it would have otherwise.

However, the Recovery Act “had very little impact on the selection of Elkhart specifically. I would attribute our decision to select Indiana almost wholly to the efforts of the state,” he said.

Building Schools:

* “We'll also put people to work rebuilding our schools,” Obama promised in Elkhart. “This school is a terrific school, but I know there's work to be done here.”

Public school construction is one place where Obama had hoped the Recovery Act would create jobs but where it hasn’t — at least not directly.

Obama referred three more times in the speech to what he saw as the need for stimulus money to pay for building and rehabilitating public schools.

The House version of the stimulus bill included $20 billion for school construction. But the Senate deleted those funds. This was done largely at the urging of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican whose vote was needed to get the 60 to pass the bill.

Collins’ decisive role last February was an early indicator that even with large Democratic majorities in Congress, Obama’s agenda for Elkhart and the rest of America would hinge on a few Republican Senators. From health insurance reform to a second stimulus bill, they remain as crucial today as they were last February.


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Sources: MSNBC, CNN, Recovery.gov, TIME, Politifact, Freaking News, Google Maps

Obama Urges Congress To Pass SBA Loan Expansion Bill

Obama Proposes Expansion of Small Business Loans


The President is proposing that Congress pass two temporary expansions of critical Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs. These are both legislative proposals designed to help small businesses through what continues to be a difficult period in credit markets.

The President is proposing that Congress pass two temporary expansions of critical Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs. These are both legislative proposals designed to help small businesses through what continues to be a difficult period in credit markets.

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1. Expand SBA’s existing program to temporarily support refinancing for owner-occupied commercial real estate loans:

Eligible small businesses will have commercial first mortgage loans or existing 504 first mortgage loans that are maturing in the next year. In order to qualify, businesses will have to be current on all loan payments for the previous year. Lenders that are refinancing mortgages for existing customers will make a loan for up to 70 percent of the current property value; and SBA will help finance the remaining 20 percent. For new lenders taking on a refinancing project, SBA will take on a greater share of financing, up to 40 percent.

SBA’s proposal for a temporary, zero-subsidy CRE refinancing program would be funded through additional fees for refinancing projects, not through a Congressional appropriation. This proposal will help refinance up to $18.7 billion each year in commercial real estate that might otherwise be foreclosed and liquidated.

2. Temporarily increase the cap on SBA Express loans from $350,000 to $1 million:

The President is proposing to temporarily increase the maximum SBA Express loan size to $1 million, which would expand the program’s ability to help a broad range of small businesses. Unlike traditional 7(a) loans, lenders can use their own paperwork for SBA Express loans, which can be structured as revolving lines of credit. Currently, these Express loans are capped at $350,000 and carry a 50 percent guarantee. Fees would cover virtually all of the added costs of this proposal.

These proposals complement the President’s broader small business agenda - a key part of his overall jobs plan. The other elements of the small business agenda include:

• Extending small business expensing and bonus depreciation for 2010. Eliminating capital gains for small businesses in 2010.

• A Small Business Jobs and Wages Tax Credit that would cut taxes for more than 1 million small businesses by paying up to $5,000 for every net new job and covers payroll taxes on overall wage increases in excess of inflation.

• A $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund to provide capital for community banks and an incentive to increase lending to small businesses.

• Additional SBA lending proposals, including an extension of the Recovery Act programs that eliminate fees and raise guarantees on 7(a) loans and permanent increases in the maximum loan sizes for major SBA programs.


Sources: Fox News, CNN

Charlotte Businesses Still Practicing Employment Discrimination..."Qualifications"

Having lived in Charlotte, NC for a number of years (my native home is Brooklyn, NY) I've experienced (along with many other Minorities who reside in the South), the ugly face of Employment Discrimination.

Time will not permit me to disclose the number of College-Educated, Intelligent Minority (mainly African-American) applicants who've had to settle for low paying Call Center jobs due to Charlotte companies using "certain Qualifications" as an excuse for not hiring them.

However these same companies would then hire less qualified White applicants.

Here are 3 strong examples of how deeply rooted Charlotte's Employment Discrimination is:

1) Upon completing Paralegal school years ago, I was repeatedly told by Charlotte Law Firms "we desire someone with at least 3 to 5 years of experience".

Yet these same Law Firms would repeatedly hire White applicants who possessed absolutely Zero Legal work experience to fill Paralegal, Legal Assistant or Legal Secretary job vacancies.


2) An North Carolina EEOC Employment Discrimination Case Mediator once shared with me that one of Charlotte's biggest banks (no it wasn't BOFA, it was Wachovia) had more Racial Discrimination complaints filed by its Minority employees than any other business located in the Southeast.


3) Three years ago Charlotte Call Centers were full of Black employees who possessed Bachelor or Master Degrees. These employees accepted such low paying jobs because despite having graduated with high GPAs, they could not find jobs that paid well nor could they afford to relocate.

Double Standard you say?

No just plain Employment Discrimination!

What about the local NAACP you ask?

Forget it!

Charlotte's so-called NAACP chapter is Extremely Divisive, Elitist, Weak and too busy chasing 100-year-old Mortgage Deed schemes to care about such important matters as Employment Discrimination.

Now on the heels of Pres. Obama and Congress rolling out a new Tax Credit bill to spur hiring, many Charlotte businesses once again are using those same old Racist "certain Qualifications" as an excuse NOT to hire Minority applicants.

Of course Charlotte's local newspaper, the Charlotte Observer (community nickname: "Charlotte Disturber") seems to be helping those companies by publishing articles like the one I included below.

Stopping Employment Discrimination especially in Southern states needs to be fought vehemently by the Obama Administration.

Due to Racist Governors and Corrupt State Officials (Southern States) Federal Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws by the U.S. Dept of Justice appears to be the only way Employment Equality and Fair Hiring will be practiced in this country.

If Pres. Obama takes up this challenge created so many years ago by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps he will win back some of his Black Voter support for both the 2010 and 2012 elections.

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Right Workers Still Hard To Find


Within a week of posting two job openings recently, The Steritech Group Inc. collected more than 200 resumes - about double the response of years past.

In November, the Charlotte food-safety and quality-assurance company hired a second recruiter to keep pace with its growth and deepening pool of applicants. And today, those recruiters say they're working harder than ever to find the right employees.

Many companies around the region are still slashing jobs and cutting pay. But those winners in this recession - companies able to grow as others have faltered - face a new challenge to find qualified job candidates among the growing stack of resumes.

"We commonly get questions about, 'How can you have a hard time finding people when there are so many people out of work?'" said Jennifer Courtney-Trice, Steritech's vice president of human resources. "In reality, it's still pretty tight when you're looking for good, quality candidates."

Government data released Friday show the Charlotte area's unemployment rate rose to 12.1 percent in December from 11.9 percent the month before. That's significantly higher than the state jobless rate, 10.9 percent, and the national average, 10 percent.

Charlotte has suffered more than other places in part because of the financial crisis in late 2008, which shook its big banks and fueled a wave of layoffs.

But some companies are hiring. International appliance maker Electrolux, outdoor equipment company Husqvarna and battery firm Celgard recently announced major expansions in the Charlotte area. A recent Charlotte Chamber report found that, despite the nearly 33,000 job losses in Mecklenburg County since the recession began, firms created more than 15,500 new jobs last year - the most since 2003.

As more jobs become available, though, and unemployment remains elevated, companies are becoming flooded with applicants. National data show there are more than six candidates for every available position across the country, and local hiring managers say they're seeing hundreds - many of whom aren't qualified for the jobs posted.

6 candidates per job

While there have always been some unqualified applicants, the sheer number of unemployed and the ease of Internet filing has made the problem worse for many companies, they say.

"When you have unemployment as high as it's been, there's a feeling that it's easy to fill jobs," said Michael Steinitz, Carolinas district president of staffing and consulting firm Robert Half International. "Actually, it's quite the opposite."

According to a recent survey from Robert Half and CareerBuilder, 44 percent of the resumes employers receive come from unqualified candidates. Almost half of the hiring managers surveyed cited under qualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge.

In addition, some of the best candidates still have jobs and are reluctant to leave in an uncertain economy, the survey found.

"It's as hard as ever," Steinitz said.

At Red Ventures, an Internet-marketing firm based in Fort Mill, S.C., recruiters have been inundated with applications for their openings, including about 40 postings in the corporate office, company co-founder Dan Feldstein said.

300 applications in a day

A job posted there one recent afternoon drew 300 applications by the end of the day, he said.

"As you can imagine, with the online world, there is very little incremental cost to a candidate to apply," Feldstein said. "There are more qualified people than ever, but there are more people than ever."

As a result, it's taking longer to find the "superstars," and Red Ventures has begun interviewing additional recruiters to help, he said.

Recruiters at Steritech, which is headquartered in south Charlotte and has 800 employees in the U.S. and Canada, face similar challenges.

The company has grown dramatically in recent years. It hired 175 people in 2009 and has already added 24 this year.

Steritech had about 60 job openings on a recent day, up from around 30 typically, said Courtney-Trice, the HR vice president.

Of the 100 or so applications she sees for each position, there are just three to five quality candidates, she said.

An electronic recruiting system, which asks candidates questions about their willingness to travel, experience and background, helps, as does the second recruiter.

But Steritech hasn't been willing to alter its multi-step hiring process, strict requirements - including a good cultural fit - and standards.

That, Courtney-Trice said, simply means "we are having to work harder."




Obama Unveils Tax Breaks To Spur Jobs Growth, Hike Wages



In an effort to spur job creation, President Obama unveiled Friday a $33 billion package of tax breaks aimed at encouraging businesses to hire workers and give employees raises.

The proposal would provide a $5,000 tax credit for each worker hired in 2010 and subsidize wage increases by reimbursing Social Security tax increases for businesses that expand their payrolls.

The tax breaks would be capped at $500,000 a business, meaning that they would mostly benefit small firms, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the plan. The tax break on pay increases would apply only to workers making $106,800 or less.

Obama made the announcement during a visit to the Chesapeake Machine Co., a Baltimore firm that makes custom industrial equipment.

With the nation’s unemployment rate at the highest level in a generation even as the economy begins to recover from a deep recession, the tax breaks are intended to give an added incentive for businesses to hire workers, Obama said.

The proposal is also intended to give a political boost to Obama, who has been under pressure to do more to create jobs. Administration officials have said for months that the president’s plans to revamp health care, foster development of clean energy and boost education funding are aimed at the nation’s long-term economic growth.

But with unemployment and flat wages lingering as problems even as the larger economy begins to heal, the president and his allies in Congress have been searching for ways to accelerate job creation and wage growth.

“Now’s the perfect time for this kind of incentive because the economy is growing but businesses are still hesitant to start hiring again,” Obama said.

The president’s plan is similar to several proposals circulating on Capitol Hill and is estimated to benefit more than 1 million businesses. The administration did not offer an estimate of the number of jobs the tax breaks would create.





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Sources: Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, MSNBC, WSJ, Roland Martin.com, Youtube, Google Maps