Polls Opinion by the Editor of 'Obama in the White House' Blog

Opinion of the Editor....


Each month new labor statistics come out, and for the most part, they show a continued growth in jobs since President Obama has been in office. Now the statistics show 146,000 jobs added in November, bringing the unemployment rate down to 7.7%. It sounds so great, but all you have to do is dig into the reports a little more to find out that not every state is feeling the goodness. How about Nevada, with the worst unemployment rate, setting at 11.5%, then Rhode Island at 10.4%. To me, it is utterly amazing how this country seems to respond on polls. Then you look at North Dakota at 3.1% and Nebraska at 3.8% unemployment rates. The country is divided, and unless the U.S. Congress gets their act together, rates may just rise again, and going over the 'fiscal cliff' will not help things. If it happens, what will the law makers say was the cause? The Republicans will say that it wasn't them who let the economy go over the cliff, but it was President Obama. The President and the Democrats will point fingers at the Republicans. The U.S. was downgraded in their credit rating from AAAA to AAA just a year ago because the Congress couldn't get their act together. Do the law makers realize this? But instead of tackling the problem staring them in the face, for starters the Congress decided to go home early this week. Some of the representatives will go home and talk to their constituents to try and understand what they want their representatives to do, but others will just go home to rest from their "hard job" of 'doing-nothing.
I am sick and tired of the polls, as you look at them one way, for example seeing that the unemployment rate is dropping, but if you look at the whole picture, you will see that almost half as many Americans just stopped looking for work, so they are not counted anymore. The Democrats know this, the President knows this, and the Republicans know it. When will it be time for the Congress to really give Americans some real good news about what we really need to hear, instead of constantly make everyone feel scared, worrying what will happen next? Why must Americans enter the Christmas season not knowing what is going to happen to their 401K's after the holidays?
What I've learned is that you cannot trust the lawmakers anymore. The President is standing his ground, to prove his point that the Congress cannot continue to temporarily fix the problems. Permanent tax cuts need to be put in place and this President doesn't need to visit this issue again in his second term. The Congress must also realize that they are now put on the spot, not President Obama. He will be around for the next 4 years, and the Congressional leaders who will be up for re-election in 2014 may be gone in just 2 years if we go over the cliff. The leader of the House Boener is feeling the heat right now from the American people, but he doesn't know what heat is unless he continues to not get things done, especially if he doesn't find a way to get his House to approve a tax plan that President Obama will sign.
If things are not done, the President will have the power to do things on his own, but at this time he seems willing to let the American process work. It has to work, but it is really disheartening that all you hear in the news is what the Congress doesn't do.  Will there ever come a time when the Democrats and Republicans will agree on something?

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Is the Fiscal Cliff Real, and What Are the Effects

There is a question floating around whether President Obama will be responsible for pushing the country over the fiscal cliff. The answer is 'NO'. At the present time, both Democrats and Republicans are in a face-off and in the present situation, noone is going to win. The Republicans are not willing to sign off on a permanent tax hike on the rich, people making over $250,000, but seem to be willing to let the middle class pay higher taxes instead. The Democrats don't seem to want to budge from the President's stance, which is to provide take breaks for the middle class and tax hikes for the rich. The Senate has already passed a bill to support the President's stance on taxes, but the House, led by Speaker John Boehner is not willing to even bring the vote to the floor.
The President has the upper hand after winning re-election, and will have even more clout to raise taxes on the rich if the Republicans fail to act soon. Even more-so, if the Republicans fail to act prior to next year, they stand a great chance in loosing the House in 2014. The ironic thing here is that the tax cuts will take place for the middle class, and most likely will be retroactive to Jan 1 if the tax cuts are not given to the middle class before January. Tax cuts are pretty certain to take place anyway.
In a scenario of no tax cuts through 2013, which seems to be virtually impossible, what would happen if there were no tax cuts for the middle class? For starters, by summer the country will plummet into another depression, one that the country may not be able to recover from and up to 700,000 jobs could be lost.

Here's a short list....

1) Starting at the top affecting the 1%'ers and stock market investors will be the maximum rate on long-term gains which will be increased from 15% to 20%. But in an unbelievable turn of events, maximum rates on dividends will go sky high to nearly 40%.

2) Dividend taxes on the two lowest income brackets who now pay 0% will rise to 10% on long-term gains, and almost 30% on dividends. If you are an investor, your life has to really suck right now. The future in investments are bleak unless Congress acts very soon.

3) Like other analysts, Macroeconomic Advisers NOV.29th article predicts that the “Doing Nothing” approach would cripple the short-term economy: Unemployment would rise to 8.5 percent by the end of 2013; the stock market would fall about 15 percent in the beginning of the year and barely recover; and GDP growth would be anemic.

4) After 2013, economic growth starts to pick up again, but the severe fiscal contraction from the “fiscal cliff” would lower GDP growth and raise unemployment for the next decade. 2013 will most likely be a living hell for most.

After all the stir about the effects of the fiscal cliff, how tone deaf are the Republicans? Republican Newt Gingrich leads the pack.

All you have to do is look at a blog post on 'Gingrich Productions' belonging to Gingrich.  He believes that the fiscal cliff is just something made up by the Democrats and the news media, and is just a figment of our imagination. It's probably just as much as a figmant in his eyes as his manning the moon with human population which is now just a figment of our imagination. To read his outlandish post in his blog, go to this URL for the full text.... http://www.gingrichproductions.com/2012/11/there-is-no-fiscal-cliff/

Read more about the fiscal cliff on another article on this blog at

http://www.obamainthewhitehouse.us/2012/11/the-effects-of-pending-fiscal-cliff.html

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McCain and Company continuing to Push the Country towards the 'Fiscal Cliff'

Continuing with a relentless attack on the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, the three Senators earning the name of the 'Three Stooges' are continuing to display their shameful behavior. Do they really have a case against the Ambassador? The real answer is 'NO'. But what this whole scenario represents is a continued GOP war against Barack Obama, which apparently will last for the next four years. No American who is familiar with the shenanigans of  Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte would even believe that this is really about Susan Rice. But she has become the scapegoat of the first Republican offensive against President Barack Obama since the Presidential election.
These tactics are nothing new from the Republican Senators, and to me it's just amazing how this governing group would be allowed to deliberately attempt to do everything they can to make President Obama look bad. This is so obvious to the voters. Presently, these good for nothing Senators are still holding out on the tax cuts for the middle class just because they are not for the rich gaining more responsibility to do their fair share with raised taxes, similar to the rates that the upper class owned during the Clinton presidency. But what will happen if the fiscal cliff is not avoided will be that the Republican ignorance will backfire on them. Continued 'do-nothing-tactics will earn these Senators a loss for their Senate seat in 2016.
The bottom line here is that the Senators refuse to believe that they must deal with a democratic president named Barack Obama for the next four years. What they don't realize is that if they do not start delivering in Congress for the betterment of the people and not for their own personal interests, their actions will affect every person, regardless if you are from the middle class or not.

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