Federal Welfare Spending Up an Amazing 32% Under Obama

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Federal welfare spending has grown by 32 percent over the past four years, fattened by President Obama’s stimulus spending and swelled by a growing number of Americans whose recession-depleted incomes now qualify them for public assistance, according to numbers released Thursday.

Federal spending on more than 80 low-income assistance programs reached $746 billion in 2011, and state spending on those programs brought the total to $1.03 trillion, according to figures from the Congressional Research Service and the Senate Budget Committee.

That makes welfare the single biggest chunk of federal spending — topping Social Security and basic defense spending.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee who requested the Congressional Research Service report, said the numbers underscore a fundamental shift in welfare, which he said has moved from being a Band-Aid and toward a more permanent crutch.

“No longer should we measure compassion by how much money the government spends but by how many people we help to rise out of poverty,” the Alabama conservative said. “Welfare assistance should be seen as temporary whenever possible, and the goal must be to help more of our fellow citizens attain gainful employment and financial independence.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Perfect Response to Obama’s Claim Regarding Pipeline Encircling Earth: “You Didn’t Build That!”

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Leases and production are down on federal lands, the EPA is waging war on coal, and as for building enough pipelines to encircle the earth, we’d settle for just one from Canada to the Gulf.

When President Obama, in responding Tuesday to Mitt Romney’s chiding about failing to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, claimed that his administration has added enough new oil and gas pipelines to “encircle the Earth and then some,” we felt a perfect response from Romney would have been, “You didn’t build that.”

In fact, energy companies have built some 55,000 miles of pipeline, including one from Canada, mostly requiring only state and local permits, and they have operated with an admirable safety record.

Keystone XL would be just as safe, creating 20,000 jobs up front. But Obama’s blockage has been about catering to his environmentalist base, not reducing gas prices or creating jobs.

Keystone XL is part of Romney’s plan for North American energy independence. As the Institute for Energy Research points out, Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures released last week reveal that the U.S. buys an average of 869,000 barrels a day of oil from the Venezuela of thuggish President Hugo Chavez.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Wrong Again: Tax Cuts Do Increase Government Revenue, Deficits Due to Spending

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By Paul Sperry. The historical tables in the back of the latest “Economic Report of the President” show that the Bush tax cuts generated more, not less, federal revenues — a phenomenon that also held true for Presidents Clinton, Reagan and Kennedy.

All four leaders, two Republicans and two Democrats, slashed taxes for top individual earners or investors. And once these rate reductions took effect and began stimulating economic activity, record individual income-tax receipts poured into the U.S. Treasury. (See the charts above.) Revenues increased even after adjusting for inflation and population growth.

Kennedy’s major tax cut, which included chopping the top marginal rate to 70% from 91%, became law in early 1964, after his untimely death. It promised to grow the economy and close the budget gap.

“Coming at a time of substantial deficit in the federal budget, this was a startling proposal to many observers,” said New York University economist Richard Sylla, co-author of “The Evolution of the American Economy.”

To the shock of many naysaying Democrats, the plan worked. The economy grew at an average 5.5% clip, and unemployment fell to 3.8%. In turn, the annual deficit shrank to $1 billion from $7 billion as individual income-tax receipts nearly doubled. (See the chart.) Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Spending, Not Bush Tax Cuts, Drives Deficit

By John Merline. President Obama often talks about the need for a “balanced” approach to deficit reduction, by which he means tax hikes in addition to spending cuts.

At the recent presidential debate, for example, he said, “We’ve got to reduce our deficit, but we’ve got to do it in a balanced way — asking the wealthy to pay a little bit more along with cuts.”

The only problem with this approach is that the massive projected deficits over the next 10 years aren’t the result of too few taxes. They are entirely the result of too much spending.

Here’s the proof: According to the latest budget forecast from the Congressional Budget Office, even if every expiring tax cut were kept in place permanently — including all the Bush tax cuts and various other expiring cuts from last year and this year — and even if the alternative minimum tax were permanently indexed to inflation, federal revenues would still rise to 18.6% of GDP by 2022.

To put that figure in perspective, from 1948 and 2008, federal revenues averaged 18% of GDP. Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Hopeful Todd Akin Gets Another Boost: McCaskill’s Husband Allegedly Cut Business Deals in Senate Dining Room

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Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s husband used the U.S. Senate Dining Room to cut business deals selling tax credits tied to stimulus money, a whistle-blowing executive inside his company alleged on an audio recording exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller.

“The thing that irritated me about this was he [McCaskill’s husband Joseph Shepard] entertained these outside investors in the Senate Dining Room,” the whistle-blower said. “That’s where he closed the deal.”

The whistle-blower, Craig Woods, was a longtime high-ranking official within Shepard’s business empire, serving first as chief financial officer and then as vice president and chief underwriter for Missouri Equity Investors LLC and JA Shepard Companies.

His LinkedIn page indicates he left the company in January 2011, a few months before debriefing a Republican operative who made the recording.

According to the McCaskill campaign, Woods pled guilty in the 1990s in two different cases of felony larceny and spent some time in prison after that.

Read more from this story HERE.

Heartbreaking Letter From Mother of Fallen Vet Calls Obama Admin. “Unadulterated Evil” & Top Generals “Pompous,” Oath Breakers

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Karen and Billy Vaughn tragically lost their son to the war in Afghanistan. They recently were featured on Hannity and other programs attacking Obama for “putting a target” on their son’s back. The Vaughns also outed the Obama Administration for “consoling” families of dead Navy SEAL’s with form letter & electric pen signature.

What follows is a powerful letter penned by Mrs. Karen Vaughn just a couple of days ago:

Today, like every day, I miss my son. I miss his laughter. I miss his smile. I miss his sense of humor and impeccable timing. I miss our conversations. I miss his passion and intensity. I miss the way he could go from zero to one hundred when someone spoke an improper word about something important to him. I miss his crazy driving and most of all I miss his heart, which was so overflowing with love and compassion.

I also miss what will never be. I miss the fact that one day his daughter will walk down the aisle and he won’t be there. I miss on Reagan’s behalf, that his daddy will never watch him score a touchdown, learn to drive a car, or fall in love. I miss that Kimberly will never again be able to share the amazing joys that only parents understand…. “Reagan learned to tie his shoe today,” or “Chamberlyn rode the bike without training wheels.” I especially miss all the Christmas mornings for the rest of their childhoods when they run down the stairs, but daddy is not there.

I miss what would have been….family vacations, memories, laughter, pictures, love.

I miss that my daughters will have to bury Billy and I one day and their big, strong, larger-than-life brother won’t be there to walk beside them and help them through.

Today I attended the funeral of another fallen special forces operator. As I listened to his family and teammates describe this amazing man, I couldn’t help but think: “Why is it always the men like him who fall?” The great ones who walk among us who were “too good for this world” according to Hebrews 11:38. And then I realized; only the greatest among us would storm the gates of hell for the undeserving; the pot-smoking punk still living in his parent’s basement, the disrespectful teen who can’t be bothered to pull his pants up or answer with a “yes sir” or “no ma’m, the “occupier” who cries on the street for justice but rapes the woman protesting beside him, the list goes on….Forever.

And then this evening I received the email below and my heart sank lower than I thought was possible:

Dear Karen,

My name is Cheryl Sitton and my son, SSG Matthew Sitton, was KIA on 02 August 2012. On 04 June 2012 he wrote an email to Congressman Bill Young seeking support and help in reference to the senseless and deadly missions he was required to put his men through. He told of how they were required to perform foot patrols in empty compounds and grape rows littered with IED’s just to meet a set mandate of a certain number of patrols for a certain amount of time. He shared how they had to patrol in urine and feces soaked uniforms just to meet this mandate. And all with no end state in mind.

Congressman Young took Matt’s letter to the Pentagon for it only to fall on deaf ears. Two months later my son and his 1st Sgt Russell Bell were killed in the exact way Matt had warned and feared for his men.

Cheryl Sitton

There’s more, but as I read this first portion, I felt like I could literally vomit. I want to scream. I want to hit the pause button and fight for these men until someone listens! Please, for the love of God…. listen! And ACT!

Billy voiced our hearts on Hannity’s America this past Wednesday perfectly when he said, “We want some high ranking military officer to have the courage to risk all and scream out, “What is happening to our warriors?” Somebody, please have the courage to protect our warriors instead of protecting this commander in chief and his cronies.”

And then…just before I “thought” I was going to bed tonight, I decided to check our blog and found the following comment: “sorry you lost your son. But making his death a matter of Democrats v Republicans cheapens his loss.” And that was it. My reply? “Nothing will EVER cheapen the loss our family has endured. What grieves me most as Aaron’s mother (you know…the one who gave birth to him, rocked him to sleep hundreds, if not thousands of times, sat up with him when he had a nightmare or was running a fever, coached his pee-wee basketball team, sat at the dinner table year after year making sure his homework was done, loaned him the car for his first date, never missed a football game for 7 years (home or away), prayed with him when he received Christ, cried with him when his heart broke, shared every victory and every defeat with him, danced with him at his wedding to “Thanks Again,” hugged him goodbye for the final time in June of last year, and yes, buried him) is that he freely gave his life so someone like YOU would be ensured the freedom to visit HIS personal site for no purpose except to spew a disgustingly insensitive comment toward his parents. I pity you. You are a sad, sad human being. But….he died for you, so go ahead, tell me more about what I’m doing to cheapen his “loss.” (whatever that means)”

Here’s my point. It’s NEVER been about parties to this family. It’s about HUMAN BEINGS who are being sacrificed on the alter of narcissism and idiotic ideology where we call evil good and good evil!

I say…ENOUGH!

These great men (and great women) are fighting for and dying for …US. It has become glaringly clear to me that our high ranking military officials have no plans to defend those great patriots whose faces are actually marred by war. They’re far too busy securing their mortgages and pompous life styles to risk anything in order to fulfill the oath they took when they strapped up their boots for the very first time.

And this administration? Pure, unadulterated evil. Cover-ups, scandals, finger-pointing, football-spiking, lying, apologizing, throwing each other under the bus, and most importantly, risking our nation as we know it by REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE OUR ENEMY.

As my husband first said, and now I’ve repeated many times as I speak across the states….On September 11, 2001, our government was helpless to stop any one of the four attacks on our soil. BUT, on flight 93, a group of American citizens counted the cost, answered the call, stood up, gave ALL, and changed the history of this nation.

Billy & I have rolled a snowball. It needs to become an avalanche and we need your help.

We’d like to collect as many stories as possible from the men and women returning from or still on the front lines who aren’t able to speak for themselves. Please post the stories here, using anonymity where necessary. Please don’t use names unless the soldier is deceased, having nothing more to lose. America needs to know what’s happening to our defenders. They deserve a voice.

Read more from Karen and Billy Vaughn’s Blog HERE.

Romney Polling Better Than Reagan With Jewish Voters

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The IBD [Investor Business Daily] tracking polls have been shifting in and out when it comes to the Jewish vote, but over the last week it’s been a close race between Romney and Obama. And in some polls, even the share of every Republican in the last 100 years…

The Jewish vote, like the national vote, is somewhat cyclical. There’s a liberal share of the pie that is unwinnable, but also has no long term future for simple demographic reasons that are already taking hold in New York City. And there is a share that is up for grabs.

The cycle now appears to be shifting away from the Democrats who have blown the economy and the Middle East, both issues of concern to Jewish voters and all voters.

Romney may not beat Reagan’s share of the Jewish vote in the actual election, but right now he’s polling ahead of him…

A shift this major might have all sorts of implications for the future.

Read more from this story HERE.

Parent: Pro-Obama Teacher, “Indoctrinating Students with Islamic Teachings,” Cut Child’s Hand Open While Teaching “Islamic Hand Sign”

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An elementary school teacher in Chesapeake, Va. has been charged with simple assault after a parent claimed her daughter’s hand was cut open as a result of the teacher yanking her arm aggressively while trying to teach students an “Islamic hand sign.”

Officer Leo Kosinski, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Police Department, told TheBlaze that Tara Harris was criminally charged with a misdemeanor on Oct. 11 and released on a summons. The case is currently under investigation.

“It’s still a criminal charge. It happened at the school and it involved a student,” Kosinski said. The police department could not release any additional information.

Stephanie Bennett, the mother of the 10-year-old girl who was allegedly assaulted at Butts Road Intermediate School, told TheBlaze in an emotional phone interview that Harris has a disturbing trend of “indoctrinating” students with Islamic teachings. She also said the teacher openly campaigns for President Barack Obama in the classroom.

Read more from this story HERE.

Who’s Going to Win in November? The Experts Say It’s Anybody’s Guess

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If the presidential race seems like it’s hard to get a grip on, that’s because it is — the contest has gone through at least three distinct phases at this point, and where it might go over the final three weeks seems to be anyone’s guess.

In the lead-up to the conventions, President Obama appeared to hold a small lead on Mitt Romney. The national polls would vary slightly, but the president generally held an edge of a few percentage points. This narrowed to an exact tie in the RealClearPolitics average on Sept. 5 — the second day of the Democratic convention — indicating at least something of a post-convention bounce for Romney.

After Obama’s convention, the president got his lead back, and he eventually expanded his national polling edge to 4.3 percentage points in late September. While this was not Obama’s biggest lead of the cycle — he was up 4.7 points as recently as mid-August — it was enough to signal that, barring some big outside development or gaffe at a debate, the president was in a strong position to win reelection.

Obama’s lead was down to 3.1 points by Oct. 3, the day of the Denver debate — and we all know what happened then. Over the course of just a handful of days following Romney’s Mile High rout, Romney took his first national polling lead of the calendar year in the RCP average, reaching a high of 1.5 points on Oct. 10, a week after the debate. And then, over the past week, the race settled into effectively a national tie — as of midday Wednesday, Romney held a tiny 0.4% lead; that includes Gallup’s seven-day tracker, which showed Romney up 51%-45% Wednesday (that does not include any polling following Tuesday night’s debate).

While it has been a topsy-turvy race, it’s also been one without particularly commanding heights or punishing valleys. Since April 10 — when Romney effectively clinched the nomination — he has never topped 48% in the RCP average and never dipped below 43%; Obama has never exceeded 49.5% and never gone below 45.4%. That points to a pretty stable and polarized electorate.

Read more from this story HERE.

Heritage Releases Top 10 Examples of Wasteful Government Spending in 2012

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The Heritage Foundation along with Senator Tom Coburn, who just slammed his Senate colleagues for being part of the waste problem, created the following list of the top ten examples of government waste in 2012:

• A reality TV show in India. The Department of Agriculture’s Market Access Program spends $200 million a year to help U.S. agricultural trade associations and cooperatives advertise their products in foreign markets. In 2011, it funded a reality TV show in India that advertised U.S. cotton.

• Studying pig poop. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $141,450 grant under the Clean Air Act to fund a Chinese study on swine manure and a $1.2 million grant to the United Nations for clean fuel promotion.

• Amtrak snacks. Federally subsidized Amtrak lost $84.5 million on its food and beverage services in 2011 and $833.8 million over the past 10 years. It has never broken even on these services.

• Using military exercises to boost biofuels. The U.S. Navy bought 450,000 gallons of biofuels for $12 million—or almost $27 per gallon—to conduct exercises to showcase the fuel and bring it closer toward commercialization. It is the largest biofuel purchase ever made by the government.

• Conferences for government employees. In 2008 and 2009 alone, the Department of Justice spent $121 million to host or participate in 1,832 conferences.

• “RoboSquirrel.” $325,000 was spent on a robotic squirrel named “RoboSquirrel.” This National Science Foundation grant was used to create a realistic-looking robotic squirrel for the purpose of studying how a rattlesnake would react to it.

• Cupcakes. In Washington, D.C., and elsewhere across the country, cupcake shops are trending. The 10 cupcake shop owners who received $2 million in Small Business Administration loan guarantees, however, can only boast so much of their entrepreneurial ingenuity, since taxpayers are backing them up.

• Food stamps for alcohol and junk food. Though they were intended to ensure hungry children received healthy meals, taxpayer-funded food stamps were instead spent on fast food at Taco Bell and Burger King; on non-nutritious foods such as candy, ice cream, and soft drinks; and on some 2,000 deceased persons in New York and Massachusetts. Food stamp recipients spent $2 billion on sugary drinks alone. Improper SNAP payments accounted for $2.5 billion in waste, including to one exotic dancer who was making $85,000 per year.

• Beer brewing in New Hampshire. Despite Smuttynose brewery’s financial success and popularity, it is still getting a $750,970 Community Development Block Grant to build a new brewery and restaurant facilities.

• A covered bridge to nowhere. What list of government waste would be complete without a notorious “bridge to nowhere”? In this case, it’s $520,000 to fix the Stevenson Road Covered Bridge in Green County, Ohio, which was last used in 2003.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coburn Calls Out Senate Colleagues For Being Lazy, Biggest Waste in Government

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The Senate’s top waste-watcher says the federal government is bloated with extra spending — including in the halls of Congress itself, where he says senators and staffers are collecting salaries while failing to do very much work.

Twenty senators haven’t had a single amendment considered on the chamber floor this year, and some of the most powerful committees have all but taken the year off, said Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican.

The damning critique of his colleagues is part of Mr. Coburn’s “Wastebook 2012,” the latest installment in what has become an annual list of 100 curious federal spending decisions that Congress and federal agencies make each year. The book will be released Tuesday.

Making the 2012 list are a $1.5 million grant to the University of Utah to study building a better computer gaming joystick, $100,000 to send a three-member American comedy troupe on a tour of India, and part of a $325,000 grant used to build a robotic squirrel, all to test whether it could scare a real snake.

The National Institutes of Health spent $939,771 on a study to discover that a male fruit fly, given the choice between a young female and an older female fly, chose the younger.

Read more from this story HERE.