Monthly Archives: April 2012

April 29, 2012—SnyderTalk Editorial: Barack Obama is an Economic Disaster

Old Posts

Welcome to SnyderTalk!

________________________________________

Barack Obama is an Economic Disaster

It’s an undeniable fact that the economic problems President Obama inherited when he took office were created by presidents who preceded him.  That’s the way things work in our country and it’s the nature of our political system, but the problems confronting Obama in 2009 when he became president were spawned in 1977 when Congress passed The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).  Jimmy Carter was president at the time, and the CRA survived through Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush the father, Bill Clinton, and George Bush the son.

Bill Clinton did more than any other president to impose sloppy lending practices on the banking community, but George W. Bush gets most of the blame even though he actually tried to do something about it.  His efforts met tremendous resistance in Congress, and he didn’t push the issue the way he should have.  President Bush deserves criticism for not doing enough to deal with the housing bubble before it exploded, but President Clinton should get the lion’s share of the blame along with his liberal progressive comrades in Congress—people like Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut).

That said, the 2012 presidential campaign is not about George W. Bush because he is not on the ballot.  It’s not about Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush the father, or Bill Clinton either.  The 2012 presidential election will be a referendum on Barack Obama’s performance, so you can rest assured that Obamanistas will do everything they can to divert attention away from Obama’s performance and toward anything that will silence his critics.  Our job is to make sure they don’t get away with it.

Can our economy be fixed?

I’m a regular guest on a weekly radio talk show on WJJC in Commerce, Georgia—a town just outside the Atlanta area—titled “America in Crisis.”  I grew up in Athens, Georgia with one of the show’s co-hosts, John Gaissert, and I’ve gotten to know the other co-host, Craig Fischer, over the air.  One day John asked me if we could save our economic system, and I said “yes, but…”

Yes our economic system can be saved.  In fact, saving it isn’t difficult from a theoretical perspective, but in the real world saving it will be very difficult.  Here’s why:

  • The United States is the world’s richest nation in terms of energy resources, but we’re not developing the abundant resources we have.  We possess enough coal, oil, and natural gas to meet our energy needs for hundreds of years and to export our surplus energy thus tapping into an enormous tax revenue stream.  Why aren’t we doing it?  Answer: it’s because of people like Barack Obama.
  • We are borrowing vast sums of money to stimulate the economy at a time when our debt/GDP ratio is approaching 100% thus making the dollar a suspect currency at best.  Since we already have about $15 trillion in debt, that’s not a harbinger of great things to come, but we give scant attention to the stimulative effects of tax cuts on job creation and economic growth.  We are in the process of turning the United States into a socialist country at a time when capitalism is surging around the world—even in places like China.  What’s the problem?  Answer: people like Barack Obama.
  • Approximately 50% of our fellow citizens pay no federal income taxes and more than 40% of our fellow citizens take more money out of our system than they put in.  If that’s not evidence of a socialist system in the making, I don’t know what is.   Why are we moving down a path that has failed in every country where it’s been tried?  Answer: people like Barack Obama.
  • Healthcare spending in the United States is just under 18% of our GDP, and healthcare costs are spiraling out of control.  Healthcare costs alone can bankrupt this nation, and Medicare just keeps footing the rising bill for our seniors despite evidence that we can’t continue down this path without destroying our country.  We need reform, serious reform, but we’re not getting it.  Why?  Answer: it’s because of people like Barack Obama.

Rather than helping to solve our nation’s problems, President Obama has made them worse by doing everything in his power to stifle energy production, by showing callous disregard for our debt and deficit problems, and by shoving his socialist agenda down our throats against our will.  Obamacare is a perfect example of this, but it is by no means the only example.

We need a problem solver as president, and Barack Obama is not that person.  President Obama instinctively runs from problems until he can’t avoid them any longer, and then he tries to place the blame for our problems on others.  That’s not leadership, and that approach won’t get us out of the mess we’re in.

Budget Details that You Need to Know

A recent article in American Thinker by Greg Richards titled “Where the Budget Deficit Actually Came From” presents important information about our fiscal crisis and shows why we have a huge and growing debt problem.  For instance,

  1. There is no “Social Security Trust Fund.”  The SSTF is nothing more than IOUs from the federal government because SS surpluses have been used to pay for ongoing government operations and to hide our huge and growing deficit problem for years.  Even President Clinton’s so-called “budget surpluses” were just a mirage.  If unfunded SS liabilities had been factored in properly, there would have been no surpluses.  The SS surplus began a steep decline in 2008.  It will continue to fall and eventually will be eliminated completely as more and more Baby Boomers retire.  Simply stated, the day of SSTF chicanery is over, and it’s time to deal with the problem.
  2. Medicare spending is a huge problem.  It’s growing like Topsy, and there is no end in sight.  Left unchecked, rapidly increasing SS and Medicare costs will bankrupt this nation.  When you add interest on the debt, the problem only gets worse.
  3. At current levels, unemployment security spending in the United States is roughly 75% of defense spending.  Stated another way, we are paying almost as much to keep people unemployed as we are to defend our country.

I’ll stop there, but I think a little explanation about point number 3 is in order.  I’m not a coldhearted person, and I understand the need for unemployment benefits.  That said, we have turned unemployment into a career for a large and growing number of people in our country.  For them, unemployment is little more than another welfare payment, and since the government continues to extend unemployment benefits, some of our fellow citizens feel no pressing need to find a job.

I liken this problem to the generational welfare problem we heard so much about in the 1990s.  If we don’t come to grips with it now, we will create a permanent underclass in the United States made up of the chronically unemployed.  That is far more callous than letting unemployment benefits expire after a reasonable amount of time.  The underemployment issue is important as well.  It will remain a problem until our economy improves and begins creating jobs again.

Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  He was right.  There is no better way to focus the mind than to remove artificial support.  President Obama has done nothing during his term as president to help solve these problems.  His signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, is anything but a solution.  In fact, it makes our problems worse because it imposes the cost of socialized medicine on the federal government—costs the federal government can ill afford to pay.  Alternatives to Obamacare that might have worked were never given any consideration by President Obama and his loyalists in the House and Senate led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  You can bet that President Obama condoned and/or motivated their intransigence.

President Obama has avoided our Social Security problem like the plague.  When he’s been forced to address it, he has done little more than demagogue the issue to win favor in the minds of senior citizens.  That isn’t leadership and it won’t solve our problem, but you can be certain about this fact.  Our deficit and debt problems will continue to grow until we get a grip on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending.  In fact, entitlement spending in general needs to be thought through from top to bottom.  President Obama’s lack of performance in these critical areas is a good reason not to re-elect him.

This is an excerpt from If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You’re Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You’re Not an Idiot.  You need to buy the book, read it, and share it.  Don’t take anything for granted.  If we fail to do our job, we will get four more years of Obama.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

To see other SnyderTalk editorials, click here.

________________________________________

________________________________________

Thomas Jefferson

“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

________________________________________

Email Distribution List:

I have created an email distribution list that I use to notify people when I post a new SnyderTalk.  If you would like to be on that list, send your email address to nhsny@yahoo.com, and put “add me to your distribution list” in the subject line.  If you know others who are interested in SnyderTalk content, tell them to send me their email address, and I’ll put them on the list.

________________________________________

Lamentations 1: 3-4

Judah has gone into exile under affliction and under harsh servitude; she dwells among the nations, but she has found no rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of distress.  The roads of Zion are in mourning because no one comes to the appointed feasts.  All her gates are desolate; her priests are groaning, her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is bitter.

________________________________________

His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important.  It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.

  • God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
  • “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
  • “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.  In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)

________________________________________

#####

#####

________________________________________

Hosea 4: 6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

________________________________________

Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming.  Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days.  Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall.  Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace.  With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

________________________________________

________________________________________

#####

Top 5 diggtm articles yesterday:

#####

________________________________________

#####

________________________________________

________________________________________

#####

________________________________________

What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life?  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

________________________________________

#####

Business:

World:

United States:

Opinions:

#####

________________________________________

Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now.  There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

________________________________________

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://www.tehrantimes.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide.  It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided.  They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make.  As they say, forewarned is forearmed.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

________________________________________

http://www.americanthinker.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://www.weeklystandard.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

If you haven’t been there already, you should take the opportunity to visit Natural Healthcare Store.  Each product selected for sale at Natural Healthcare Store undergoes rigorous research to make sure that it is the highest quality at an affordable price.

Natural Healthcare Store carries skin care, hair care, and oral care products.  Be sure to check out the Dead Sea products imported from Israel and support the Israeli economy with your purchases.  Natural Healthcare Store carries makeup, deodorant, and detoxification products.  It also carries supplements, weight loss products, and loose leaf tea.  Rounding out its product mix, Natural Healthcare Store carries natural household cleaning products.

Katie and I believe strongly in healthy living, and we use the products.  We’re proud to say that our daughter Melanie owns the store.

________________________________________

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://rt.com/news/

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://pjmedia.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://www.nationalreview.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

#####

#####

________________________________________

http://clickhere.igetpaidtodrinkcoffee.com/

“The scales at my doctor’s office said I weighed 201 when I began drinking the B-Skinny coffee. Today, four weeks later, my scales said I weigh 188. I love this stuff.” Pat Parks

________________________________________

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/

#####

#####

________________________________________

If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You’re Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You’re Not an Idiot explains why voters in the United States need to elect someone besides Barack Obama to lead them.  Whoever is elected President of the United States in 2012 will have to contend with the monumental problems that Obama’s misguided policies have caused both at home and abroad.  One thing is certain, though.  It should not be Barack Obama.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.