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Analyst: Even Dollar Stores Struggling In ‘Obama Depression’

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More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn.

While the demand at stores like the 99-Cent Store or Dollar Tree is still relatively high, the biggest chains in the nation have fallen short of Wall Street’s expectations for several months, a trend that may prove even more ominous for the economy at large.

“I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of Americans,” top retail analyst Howard Davidowitz told KNX 1070.
America’s three largest discount chains — Dollar General Corp., Family Dollar Stores Inc. and Dollar Tree Inc. — all recently missed their quarterly earnings targets.

Davidowitz pointed to the weakness of the dollar and a gloomy consumer outlook as some of the factors behind the stores’ slump.

 Read More at CBS Los Angeles

Republican Deals With Obama Are Killing Us

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Writing a syndicated column in 2011 is night and day different from when we started writing for publication in the 1990′s. The overriding change is the volume and immediacy of feedback. In the 1990′s we would receive the occasional letter applauding or challenging our thesis, facts and motives. Today we find our email inbox and comment sections so full it is difficult to read it all.

We take our readers seriously, and even if we don’t personally respond, we read and ponder their many times insightful thoughts. Ironically, as hard as we work to provide clarity through our own words, sometimes they fail to accurately convey our passion and hopes for America.

After last week’s column was posted, we were accused of hoping for the collapse of the country. We couldn’t be more misunderstood by a reader. We see collapse coming, and like Paul Revere we ride the countryside in the hope that the country will mobilize to meet the dangers.

Here are three reasons we are frightfully concerned about the future of the economy and country:

The first is the dedication of John Boehner to cutting deals with Barack Obama. The Republican majority wasn’t returned to Congress so that they could strike a mega-deal to balance the budget on the backs of the people. The growth of government must be stopped before it consumes what meager wealth the country has left. The current grand scheme as reported would increase taxes in exchange for budget cuts someday off in the future. We have seen how this bargain works. Taxes go up, but spending never goes down.

Read More at Floyd Reports by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, Floyd Reports

Rick Perry is running

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Recently, I wrote about how someone not currently in the race for the Republican nomination who could beat Barack Obama in 2012 with one television ad campaign.

That’s Rick Perry, the governor of Texas.

Maybe I convinced him, because, from what I hear, he’s going to jump into the GOP presidential sweepstakes very soon.

Now, I want to be clear. I am not endorsing Perry. I think he’s a great candidate who can beat Obama. But there are several others running who are great candidates who can also win the presidency. I’m not one of these people who thinks Obama is invulnerable or unbeatable – far from it. The fact that an unnamed Republican candidate beats Obama in the polls today suggests he is all but toast right now.

But let me say this about Rick Perry: His entry into the race will change the dynamics of the Republican primary season.

Read More at WND by Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily

Will Obama Go Fascist on the Debt Ceiling?

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Barack Obama has sometimes been fond of branding his Republican foes “hostage-takers,” but officials in his administration have found a new hostage in their negotiations over raising the debt ceiling: the U.S. Constitution. The president’s advisers and several “unbiased” media outlets are suggesting if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, Barack Obama can force the nation to continue borrowing money. The Founding Fathers required all expenditures originate in the House of Representatives, but Obama officials are wrapping his actions in the 14th Amendment. For the first time in living memory, the president is threatening to commit an impeachable offense if he does not get his way.

CBS News has reported the debt ceiling impasse leaves “the option of a congressional end-run by President Obama a possibility.” Reporter Whit Johnson said, “The stalemate in Washington has some asking if President Obama could simply bypass Congress and order the Treasury to keep borrowing.” Obama or his spokesman Jay Carney has been asked twice about the possibility and, despite an incredibly misleading headline from the Associated Press, neither rejected the possibility. (Carney merely said, “I don’t think that I want to get into speculation about what might happen if something does or doesn’t happen”; Obama replied, “I don’t think we should even get to the constitutional issue.”) MSNBC’s Powerwall dared the president to carry it out, claiming it would be smart politically.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has never shown much regard for financial laws, claims the president has this power under the Fourteenth Amendment. The fourth clause states:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

Geither made his comments at a “Playbook Breakfast” hosted by the online publication Politico, which has previously urged Obama to rule by decree. In December, John F. Harris and James Hohmann wrote, “Republican gains in Congress make it essential for him to use new avenues of power.”

Geithner is not alone in his inversion of the Constitution. Economist Bruce Bartlett intoned, “Given that the Supreme Court in recent years has been unusually deferential to executive prerogatives – I feel certain President Obama would be on firm constitutional ground should he challenge the debt limit in order to prevent a debt default.” What began as too-clever-by-half musings on left-leaning websites quickly filtered into the administration’s talking points.

Read More at Floyd Reports  by Ben Johnson, the White House Watch

Congressman Calls Obama’s Debt Ceiling Proposal “An Impeachable Act” (Video)

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Not all Republicans are rolling over in the face of President Obama’s unconstitutional usurpation of power. Rep. Tim Scott, R-SC, said if the president moves forward with a plan to raise the debt ceiling without Congressional authority, he would consider it “an impeachable act.” Scott told the Tea Party group LowCountry 9.12 on Tuesday:

This president is looking to usurp congressional oversight to find a way to get it done without us. My position is that is an impeachable act, from my perspective. There are a lot of things people say, “Are you going to impeach the president over that?” — No. But this? This is catastrophic. This jeopardizes the credibility of our nation if one man can usurp the entire system set up by our Founding Fathers over something this significant…There will be a revolt among the American people, and that’s what it takes.

Americans are fortunate some Congressmen take their oath of office seriously. And Rep. Scott is right; it is going to take a citizens’ uprising to force Congress to do what is right. We have to be willing to do our part to hold the president accountable for his crimes. Congress must have the courage to do its part and begin impeachment. And Heaven knows, Barack Obama has done his part.

Read More at Floyd Reports by Ben Johnson, The White House Watch

Whistleblower Testifies Obama Obstructed Fast and Furious Investigation

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The chief congressional investigators of Operation Fast and Furious released explosive testimony from the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that they say indicates the Obama administration tried to stonewall Congress, deny witnesses the ability to testify freely, and fire employees who refused to conceal damning information. According to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson not only did the Justice Department play fast-and-loose with Fast and Furious, but other government agencies may have known – and funded – the straw purchasers the ATF program was designed to catch. The agency’s investigation, which has resulted in at least two deaths, may have been entirely unnecessary.

Scorn on the Fourth of July

Congressman Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley sent a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday, revealing that Melson gave a transcribed interview on the Fourth of July, with only his personal lawyer present. The news must have come as a shock to Holder. Melson’s testimony had been scheduled to take place July 13, with Melson’s counsel and Obama administration lawyers from the DoJ and ATF taking part.

According to the letter, Melson testified that the administration had not informed him of his legal right “to attend a voluntary interview with [his] own lawyer… rather than participate with counsel representing the Department’s interests.”

“We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement,” they wrote. “Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law.”

(Obstruction of) Justice Department

The Congressmen’s recounting of Melson’s testimony includes mistakes he admitted making, including not personally reviewing hundreds of documents relating to Fast and Furious until March of this year. “By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story,” they write.

Read More at Floyd Reports  by Ben Johnson, the White House Watch

Five Questions for President Obama’s Twitter Townhall

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The jobless rate in America hovers at 9.1 percent. The national debt ticks upwards of $14.3 trillion and small businesses collapse daily due to costly bureaucratic regulations. The President has failed to offer a viable plan that will put America’s economy back on a path to prosperity. It is in this context that President Obama invites questions about jobs and the economy via Twitter tomorrow afternoon for the nation’s first presidential Twitter town hall.

If you ever wanted to put President Obama on the spot for these things and more, the Twitter town hall may be your opportunity. The President will sit in the East Room of the White House for a live webcast answering the selected Twitter questions in a forum moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Dorsey recently announced that Larry Summers, the President’s former economic adviser, will join the board of directors of another company he started, Square.

The handle @townhall will summarize the President’s answers, though he will not respond via Twitter to the questions. According to the New York Times: “Twitter will select the questions, using curation tools and a group of Twitter users to help identify the most popular questions raised both before and during the event. Twitter will be relying on its own search and curation features as well as a company called Mass Relevance to help find questions and topics that are most frequently mentioned.”

So using the hashtag #AskObama, you should have the opportunity to ask the President all those burning questions you have about the broken economy, especially if enough of you ask the same question. The Heritage Foundation has a few questions for the President. We’d love for you to follow suit, or tweet these. It is important that conservatives make their voices heard using #AskObama tomorrow.

1. Background: Conservatives in the House of Representatives passed a serious budget proposal with necessary reforms and responsible steps. Liberals haven’t passed—or even offered—a budget in over two years, making their concerns voiced about America’s fiscal future seem false. The President’s own budget was defeated 97–0 in the Senate.

Read More at Heritage by Ericka Andersen, Heritage Foundation

 

Video: Obama Flake

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Golfing While the Constitution Burns

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When Barack Obama and John Boehner played golf this weekend, they played on the same team. How appropriate.

Barack Obama has violated the Constitution’s war-making power – reserved by Article I, Section 8, to Congress – from the moment he sent American troops into harm’s way without Congressional approval. He has been violating the War Powers Resolution since at least the 60th day of that campaign. And he has violated the most liberal reading of that act – the one Boehner has adopted as his own – since this weekend. Yet despite the letter Boehner authored last week, which the media presented as an “ultimatum,” Obama has neither obtained Congressional authorization nor removed our troops. Boehner’s letter weakly supplicated “I sincerely hope the Administration will faithfully comply with the War Powers Resolution,” but at least it seemed to set this weekend as a definitive cut-off point.

The “deadline” has come and gone, and Obama has not answered the most burning questions of the mission’s legality to anyone’s satisfaction. Instead, the president has thumbed his nose at Congress in general, Boehner in particular, and the American people at large, and the Speaker-cum-caddy has made no meaningful response whatsoever.

Obama insists the American role in Libya is too diminutive to constitute “hostilities,” so his action is perfectly legal. White House spokesman Jay Carney repeated his boss’s party line at Monday’s press conference, stating, “the War Powers Resolution does not need to be involved because the ‘hostilities’ clause of that resolution is not met.” However, soldiers in Libya are receiving an additional $25 a month in “imminent danger pay.” American drones still rain missiles down upon military targets. NATO is alternately bombing Muammar Qaddafi’s home and killing the innocent Libyan civilians they are purportedly protecting. (We had to kill the civilians in order to save them?) NATO admitted (at least) one of its bombs went off target on Sunday, killing nine civilians in Tripoli, while allied bombs allegedly killed 15 civilians in Sorman on Monday.

Not to worry, though; Defense Secretary Robert Gates said over the weekend, in a confidence-builder worthy of Churchill, “I think this is going to end OK.” Gates, who once opposed the Libyan adventure, has pulled a 180 on the matter.

Read More at Floyd Reports by Ben Johnson, the White House Watch