Follow Barack Obama prior and during his tenure as the 44th President of the United States. Read about my personal observations along with every day facts as they happen. This blog will only submit factual information about the first black President, now in his 2nd term of office.
BARACK OBAMA MEMORIBILIA available right HERE at www.obamaitems.info

BARACK OBAMA IN THE WHITEHOUSE

Send E-mail to the Editor at: obamainthewhitehouse@mail.com
Click on the GOOGLE TRANSLATE BUTTON BELOW AND SELECT YOUR LANGUAGE

Search This Blog

Senate Vote on the Spending Bill Stalled until Monday

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Today, the U.S. Senate was supposed to vote on the funding bill which is supposed to carry the government for the next year. The vote has been extended until Monday. What is the reason for the delay? Most everyone assumes that the votes are there, and the Senate will pass the bill so that the legislation can go to the President's desk for signing. The President has already stated that he is in favor of the existing legislation that has just passed in the House, so I fully expect him to sign off on the bill.

   Still, Senators such as Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren, and others in the tea party such as Michelle Bachmann, and Ted Cruz, are in the record for opposing the bill The spending bill, now also calls for the rolling back of the Dodd-Frank bill, which now is being called a very bad bill by very concerned Democratic and Republican Senators.

   There are a number of reasons why the bill is considered tainted, and that outrage about it is rampant in the Senate. It is not known how the bill will fare when it is voted on by the Senate.


 Here are the three main reasons why the spending bill MUST fail....


First, there is a section of the bill, with a title  of "Prohibition against Federal government bailouts of swapped entities" which in other words means that the banks such as Citigroup, Morgan Chase and Bank of America will once again be able to make incredible risky investments. If they win, they make allot of money, but if they loose, the taxpayers of this country bail them out. For one thing, this is totally crazy and I still do not understand why the House passed such a bill. 

Second,  this bill which is a one trillion dollar bill, 60% of this discretionary money is slated to now go towards military spending. Never mind about the country's infrastructure, or that kids cannot afford to go to college, or child care is a total disaster. This is the same military that cannot even account or audit its own budget.

Third,  there is language in this bill which repeals a 40 year old Federal law protecting workers pensions. If this bill goes through, millions and millions of workers with 20, 30 and maybe 40 years on the job may find out that the pensions that they are expecting are now cut by 30, 40 and maybe up to 50 percent.

   So is this the way to protect working families? Is this bill a good bill?  It is appalling to me that the President of the United States is supporting this bill, but time will tell when it reaches his desk whether he will veto the bill or not. It is not definitely known that he can actually veto this bill at the moment, but if he gets a chance to see the bill on his desk, he may just change his mind.  Also, another possibility would be that if the Senate defeats the bill, they can in turn re-write the bill and send it back to the House. People are now discovering what is actually in the bill, and many people are showing their disgust. There is growing outrage that a growing majority of people do not like the bill, according to recent polls taken within the last 24 hours. But again, will Congress do the will of the people, or will the Congress just pass this bill for their own selfish interests, along with giving the mega-banks permission to again push out risky deals at the expense of the American taxpayer. This is what the President gets for bailing out the banks in the first place. . If the President could have only known that they would try it again since the last disaster, would he have bailed out the banks originally? I hardly think so. But at that time, since the House and the Senate were in Democratic hands, there would have been no possibility at that time for such reckless legislation to be passed.

   Whoever said that the Congress is in a lame duck session? Whoever they are, they must not be eating their own words. The Congress of the United States is more busy than it has been in the last 11 months. But there seems to be this sort of rush to do things, not taking in account the consequences of such destructive actions. This type of legislation by Senators in both houses is expected to grow even more at the turn of power in the Senate when the majority would now be held by Republicans,, as Congress will now become very active in the attempt to ramrod other disastrous bills past the President. Hopefully, you will see President Obama take out his veto pen and use it sparingly when needed. With all that is happening today, it makes you wonder why the people of this country continue to allow such lawmakers run the country. Whose side are the Senators on? They are on their own side, promoting their own selfish interests, but the voting public just does not seem to understand this, and these very same voters continue to elect Senators to Congress that could care less about their constituents.
   
   So while everyone waits for the next vote, I can't help but think what I plus others will now decide to do with their life savings, which consists of a 401K and a pension if the Senate passes the bill with all these riders attached that hurt the people and allow  banks to make incredible risky loans at the expense of the taxpayers if they screw up. . For myself, when the Senate does pass such a disastrous bill, I like many others may decide to immediately withdrawal the funds that I have in my accounts to protect the monies that I still have. The last time the banks almost went belly-up, I lost thousands of dollars in my 401K and it took many years for the money to return to my accounts. I am not willing to gamble my money again with the same possible outcome.

Read more...

Government Shutdown Averted, but Obama Caves in to Republicans

Friday, December 12, 2014

   Thursday, December 11, 2014 truly will be a day to be remembered in this country. The Congress, namely the House voted in a matter of business to keep the government open. A resolution to keep it open had to be passed by Congress by midnight. At first, you might think that it is looking good that the resolution may pass, thus avoiding a government shutdown. But when you just look at the cover of the bill, it is just that. If you look into the bill in detail, you will find that the Republicans of the House have thrown in some previsions that actually hurt the country. Details of the bill will follow here, but make notice, if the bill now passes through the Senate today, the President will sign the bill. 
  It was a down to the wire vote last night in the house, and the 1.1 Trillion dollar plan was approved by a vote of 219 to 206. The voting, that was stalled because of open opposition by Senator Elizabeth Warren and House minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi who outlined what this bill will do to the American citizens if passed. 
The following is an excerpt of a speech given to the House by Nancy Pelosi, stating her concerns about the bill that was about to pass.

 "Here we are in the House, being blackmailed to vote for an appropriations bill. This is a moral hazard. We are being asked to vote for a moral hazard. Why is this an appropriations bill? Because it was the price to pay to get an appropriations bill." She continued to say, "What is it doing on an appropriations bill except to be, to have this bill being taken hostage. This is a ransom? This is blackmail. You don't get a bill, unless Wall Street gets its taxpayer coverage."

The banks would now be able to place risky bets, and put taxpayers on the hook for another bailout if those bets went wrong. 


Earlier in the day, President Obama endorsed the bill, that infuriated Nancy Pelosi, and also Elizabeth Warren, who also stood in front of the House to make her strong argument that the bill will hurt the country. Senator Elizabeth Warren and House Democrats led a dramatic fight to stop a big giveaway to the big banks, namely CitiGroup, Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. Six hours before a potential government shutdown, a GOP attempt to ramp through a spending bill that guts the Dodd Frank financial reform bill briefly stalled. House Democrats were meeting behind closed doors in an attempt to see this issue through.
Originally yesterday morning, Speaker Boehner said that he had the votes, but it was obvious as the day progressed that he would need Democratic support in the House to get the bill passed, that would move forward to the Senate today. He dismissed concerns about Wall Street giveaways. 
But then, the Democrats reunited to nearly get the bill to the House floor. Representative David Price stated that the bill will "blow a major hole in the Dodd Frank bill, putting taxpayers on the hook for some of the riskiest behaviors of Wall Street institutions". He was indicating the big banks. Representative Marcy Kaptur from Ohio, another Democrat, stated the following in her speech in front of the House. "Haven't those mega-banks hurt America enough, and what is this doing in this bill?"


Here is what Elizabeth Warren said...

"This fight isn't about Conservatives or Liberals. It's not about Democrats or Republicans. It's about money. If big companies can deploy their armies of lobbyists and lawyers to get Congress to vote for special deals that benefit themselves, then we"ll simply confirm the view of the American people, that the system is rigged. Nobody sent us here to stand up here for Citigroup. I urge my Republican colleges in the House to withhold their support from this package, until this risky giveaway is removed from the legislation. It is time for all of us to stand up and fight" 

What is interesting here is that the White House states that it would support the bill, putting Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi at odds with the President. You may ask whose side I am on, since I stiffly support the President with the writing of this very liberal blog. But since I would like to mainly consider my views here stating what I think what is right and what is wrong, I must enforce this fact with a statement saying that for once, I am AGAINST the thinking of the President of the United States. Yes, you are reading a statement from someone who truly supports the President in just about everything he's attempted in his Presidency, but this action to approve an appropriations bill attached to a government spending bill is not one of them that I support. Did the President and the Republicans in the House, including Democratic Senators think that people would not notice? Did they think that they would slide this bill past Elizabeth Warren, someone who knows about these issues more than ANY other Senator in the House? Do you think that she would just go along with the President because he is a Democrat, ignoring key Democratic principles to protect the middle class, something that the President has championed during his whole tenure of his term in office? Why is President Obama caving in to these types of principles, the exact ones that led to the financial collapse of the country just before President Obama took office? President Obama has slapped his Democratic leaders in the face with supporting such a bill as does the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, one that even includes harming the pensions of people. Maybe the President is concerned that Congress would even pass a worse package if it fails, since the Republicans are slated to take complete control of Congress in just a few short days. The President is giving the Republicans a Christmas present because if passed in the House, which it did, the bill is also very much favored in the Senate, which votes on the bill today.  
From what I see, the government needs funding to continue to operate and this is what pushed the President over the top, trying to make a few Republican friends in Congress during the rest of his lame duck session as President.
  In conclusion, you had Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren holding the line against the House GOP leadership, but President Obama and Harry Reid who like this bill because they believe that it is the best thing that they can have before the new GOP majority convenes in the new Congress. What the Republicans seem to be doing is to all they can to protest against President Obama's Executive Actions for immigration. But on the other side, people are saying that we gave Wall Street enough breaks the last time around, so why do this again!?!?!?!!!
Also, something that people may not know, is that spending by campaign finance and regulations would also change, that would insure that big party donors can give even more to the DNC and RNC. This is just as troubling. This it telling the American people that you must pay to play, and this is wrong. If you don't have money, you are not going to be elected, regardless of what your principles are. The political process has now even become more corrupt than it was and the corruption is now very open for the world to witness. 
So what does this mean about the power of the progressive caucus in the House and the Senate? First it showed that they were emboldened. The fact is that this bill was John Boehner's vote. Why couldn't he get enough of his own Republicans to take his side. He wants it to go on record as a bipartisan bill, supported by Democrats as well as Republicans. 
What this also shows since the bill was passed in the House is that you have two groups of people, who used to be on totally opposite sites, the progressive Democrats and the right wing tea party people who are actually agreeing on something. When was this ever going to happen in our lifetime? Here we are, just two weeks before Christmas and the Democrats have already caved into the Republicans, including President Obama and Harry Reid. 
What has happened in the House and what most likely will happen today in the Senate is something that is very hard to swallow, and the President will forever be criticized for such support on a bill that hurts the American people, just so he can keep the government running. The President of the United States was beat as he supported the Republican principles on this bill. 
Now you can only bet that it is a matter of time that the country will face similar circumstances as it experienced in 2007 with the financial meltdown of our economy, thanks to the lobbyists of mega-banks such as Citigroup, Morgan Chase and Bank of America, and now it looks like the citizens of the country will be help responsible to protect these banks if they fail yet one more time.

President Obama, Harry Reid and every Senator that voted or supported  this bill should be ashamed of their actions, as they represent what is supposed to be leaders in a free world, not a country that is besieged by powerful money hungry people who think of themselves instead of the people that they are supposed to represent. Their voices here will be forever on record. 

Who knows...!!  A miracle may happen and the U.S. Senate will not pass the bill handed to them by the House, but in all likelihood, it will pass. The fallout from this bill will continue to happen, and the American people will be reckoned with the facts that will now affect their daily lives. Stay tuned here on this blog to continue to get the fallout and the details of what has happened and what will now happen because of the passage of this bill. 

Read more...

Chris Rock Sorely Criticizes President Obama

Monday, December 1, 2014


Comedian Chris Rock

In a recent interview of the comedian Chris Rock, he criticized President Obama on many things, initially saying that when Obama became President, "we got Shaq, not Michael Jordan." Then again, all Chris Rock is, is just an entertainer with his own personal views, as he sees it, explained in his shows. That's just my point. It is just his show. Just because he says something, that doesn't mean that people need to believe him. Recently, he answered a few questions in an interview with Frank Rich from New York magazine. Most of the questions asked by Frank Rich were answered in Chis's opinion. But one of the responses I seemed to be quite odd. The following is the question and then the answer by Chris, proving why he definitely could not qualify to be the leader of the free world, someone who cares about his fellow human beings.

Chris Rock begins to say the following, and then in quotes is his actual statement. 

The comedian said Obama's tenure could have gone differently if the President started from rock bottom, rather than trying to prevent the country from further devolving into an economic disaster.

"When Obama first got elected, he should have let it all just drop...Just let the country flatline. Let the auto industry die. Don't bail anybody out. In sports, that's what any new GM does. They make sure that the catastrophe is on the old management and then they clean up. They don't try to save old management's mistakes...Let it all go to hell knowing good and well this is on them. That way you can implement. You hire your own coach. You get your own players. He could have got way more done.
You know, we've all been on planes that had tremendous turbulence, but we forget all about it. Now, if you live through a plane crash, you'll never forget that. Maybe Obama should have let the plane crash. You get credit for bringing somebody back from the dead. You don't really get credit for helping a sick person by administering antibiotics."

Personally, I had taken offense by his comment concerning President Obama, and that he should have just let the "country flatline", or "let the auto industry die". Sure, it wouldn't affect him. He's pretty wealthy right now, and he doesn't have to worry about putting food on the table. Did he consider all of the tens of thousands of people that would have had to start their lives over if President Obama acted as Chris says that he should have?
Sure, it may have been easier to just blame the previous President for the economic disaster that plagued President Obama from day one of his presidency. But it was not the right thing to do just to make it easier for yourself to gain popularity of the people. Gaining popularity wasn't in the cards for President Obama. After all, he already had it, as he just won his first term as PONTUS. He is not about just gaining fame. During his whole Presidency to date of just a little over 6 years now, the only thing President Obama wanted to do was to do the right thing, to help the middle class, to take the country into a new direction in the hopes of improving the economy, and by letting things just flatline just to take all the credit, to me is just sick.
So kudos to you Mr. Chris Rock! You could NEVER concern yourself for the people you be-little, just because you have it all, but others must loose everything because you say so.
Mr. Chris Rock is just a comedian, thank God. He does and never will have the compassion for the American people that President Obama has for the people. Since becoming a successful comedian, Mr. Chris Rock hasn't had to do a serious thing during his who career. Stand-up comedy is his gig and let's hope that Mr. Chris Rock will never run for any political office someday.

Read more...

  © Free Blogger Templates Columnus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP