Posted on 05/09/2014 8:01:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - America remains adrift under Barack Obama's presidency, without any sustained or effective focus on the sea of troubles that afflict our nation.
Obama goes through the ceremonial motions of being president, while ignoring the consequences or making excuses about the most serious, long term challenges we face here at home. Instead, he is devoting more and more of his time delivering political speeches attacking his adversaries and raising money for besieged Democrats who face severe election losses in the fall.
Meantime, the U.S. economy all but stopped growing in the first three months of this year; the nation's labor force has been shrinking at an alarming rate; U.S. exports have fallen; and the housing market, a critical sector in the U.S. economy, has been "flattening," a worrisome sign that Fed Chairman Janet Yellen said Wednesday could prove more "protracted than currently expected."
You rarely hear much about the decline in the quality of education from this president. But a national assessment of high school seniors released this week said they had shown zero improvement in math and reading over the course of Obama's presidency.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the test scores "troubling."
But, well, the president has been so busy dealing with other
things: the environment and questionable claims about climate change, raising the minimum wage that the Congressional Budget Office says will kill 500,000 jobs, and pressing for higher tax levels on the nation's investors, businesses and job-creators.
He has been necessarily occupied with trips to storm-devastated communities that included tornado victims in Ark. and a horrific landslide in Oso, Washington.
In between he's been making announcements that could have been better left to senior officials, like his decision to dispatch a team of military and civilian advisers to assist Nigeria in the search for abducted school girls who were seized three weeks ago by terrorists.
Now, he's on a three-day fundraising trip to California to build the party's campaign coffers, a task that will no doubt increasingly occupy his time in the months ahead.
There is more at stake here than just raising hundreds of millions of dollars for Democratic campaigns across the country. The remainder of his presidency is on the line, if Republicans succeed, as many election trackers believe, in winning the six seats needed to take control of the Senate.
That would put Congress firmly in GOP hands for the last two years of his administration, blocking whatever is left of his agenda.
If he still has one.
To be sure, it's hard to point to anything of substance that he's achieved in his second term, beyond fighting a rear-guard battle in behalf of his unpopular and problem-plagued Affordable Care Act.
Recently, he took the time to go into the White House press room to boast that eight million people have signed up for Obamacare, surpassing the administration's earlier target of seven million.
But growing doubts were raised this week about whether eight million people have really signed up for Obamacare, as he alleged. The White House hasn't produced definitive data to back up the accuracy of that number.
The question is, how many of those who have signed up for coverage have paid their first premium. The New York Times reported Tuesday that several large insurers say "about 80 percent" have paid their initial premiums for the coverage to officially take effect.
Moreover, health insurance officials say the eight million who signed up included a very large number of duplicate enrollments by people who attempted to enroll numerous times but were stymied by problems with the website, the Times said.
"Insurers have many duplicate enrollments in their system for which they never received any payment," said Mark Pratt, senior vice president of America's Health Insurance Plans.
"It may be a matter of months before insurers know how many people activated their coverage by paying their share of premiums," he said.
There's another big question about Obamacare that's not getting much attention, and that is whether enough younger, healthier people are signing up to make Obama's program financially viable.
Data released last week by the administration said that little more than a quarter of the eight million who signed up were 18 to 34 years of age -- far less than the number of younger, healthier people needed to keep policy premiums from rising.
That percentage is "significantly below the 40 percent level that some analysts consider important for holding down rates by balancing the greater medical spending generated by older enrollees,"
the Wall Street Journal reported.
If the share of younger enrollees remains about the same in the months to come, this means that Obamacare health insurance rates will climb sharply to pay the bills.
"Insurers right now are setting rates for 2015, and the age data will be a key factor in their decision," the Journal pointed out.
"Some insurers say that despite seeing a late surge in younger enrollees, their sign-ups still skewed older overall than they had expected," the newspaper said.
If that happens, as many forecasters had predicted, the cost of Obamacare will skyrocket, resulting in the loss of millions of enrollees and the finances to pay for it.
That can result in only two outcomes. Taxpayers will be made to foot the bill, which could surge into the hundreds of billions of dollars, or the entire program will collapse like a house of cards.
The Gallup Poll says that life for many Americans has become painfully difficult, with 47 percent saying they are "struggling," and
4 percent "suffering."
The sad part about this is that a majority of them most likely voted for Barack Obama.
It’s obvious that we haven’t “redistributed” enough stuff yet.
On the one hand, among the many Official Positions of the US Military are “to run to the sound of the guns, “ and “ - - we leave no man behind. - - - “.
On the other hand, the US Commander in Chief’s Official Policy has been, and is now, to “Lead from Behind.”
Which is the hand that offers the most protection to those we hire to be put in harm’s way to protect us?
IMHO, the two hands are mutually exclusive.
After THE TRUTH is revealed by Trey Gowdy’s Select Committee, severe punishment must be meted out that will serve as a deterrent to any future Commander in Chief who tries TO MAKE SURE THAT IT DOES HAPPEN AGAIN.
To cease to severely punish the guilty, is to cease to have reason for Law and Order.
Currently, B. Hussein Obama is Guilty of Treason until proven Innocent.
No need to flame me, as ONLY in US politics is someone Guilty until proven Innocent.
The rest of us must comply with the Law of the Land: Tell the Truth, accept responsibility for one’s actions, and comply with THE LAW.
This is in glaring contrast to what the Obama Administration’s, (and the Democrats who still support Obama), Rules of Conduct have actually been for the last 5 years as follows:
LIE, DENY AND REFUSE TO COMPLY.
The choice is clear for the Democrats: seek the truth with Select Benghazi Committee Chairman Gowdy, or continue to embrace the CULT OF OBAMANATION.
BTW, Democrats in the US House: ALL of y’all are up for re-election this November - - - - .
Problem solved.
“I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” - Barry Sotero
No growth during first quarter...remarkable string of luck during the Reagan recovery with all that balmy weather during those winters.
I guess that’s why Obama sent advisors to Nigeria,someone said something about there being Goodluck down there
Can I make an observation? Even if the real number of those who signed up is 8 million, aren’t we still far short of the 40 to 50 million uninsured in this country being insured???
Obama did his victory lap, and the media lapped it up, when they hit the target of sign ups. I’m just confused, because if we have 40-50 million uninsured in this country, don’t we still have tens of millions uninsured? And wasn’t the goal of Obamacare to cover everybody? And based on that, isn’t the 8 million number representing an abject failure????
Nothing about increased government tyranny, government monitoring of citizens, or the stasi state. Pretty typical inside the GOP-E beltway interpretations.
LEADERSHIP, WE HAVE NONE!!!!!
The fact we’re in steep decline is the desired result of Obama and those who voted him in.
“The fact we’re in steep decline is the desired result of Obama and those who voted him in.”
And they’d vote him into a 3rd term if they could.
We are doomed. We are one major event from chaos.
Back in 2009, shortly after the coronation of the Current Occupant now squatting in the White Hut, I was the recipient and one of the distributors of an email that depicted The Won as an airline pilot, seated in the cockpit, as he came on the intercom as the Captain speaking.
He was explaining his relative inexperience, but that he would not make the kind of mistakes that any of his predecessors may have made, he couldn’t be bothered with those old outmoded GPS guidance signals, but not to worry, he had never made a mistake as a pilot, and we should all just sit back and enjoy the ride.
And concluded with “What could possibly go wrong?”
Now we know.
OSD
"I do think that at a certain point, you've taken enough vacations." - Steely Tom
Gee, look at that. Funny about that 46% number, isn't it?
47%
Yup, the Democrats are trashing this country while Boehner and McConnell do, or at least say very little.
Nothing new. We have been in decline for decades. Obama is just another cog on the wheel of self destruction.
He’s done what he intended to do, which is set America on its course for demise. Everything, and that means everything, that he’s done has been detrimental to America, and that can’t be coincidence when it’s everything.
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