Back in mid-August, it was reported that the Obama Administration was considering denying Taiwan’s request for new F-16C/D fighter jets out of political pressure from Communist China. At the time I pointed out that denying Taiwan’s request could be direct evidence of our national security coming under direct threat as a result of our dependence on China’s willingness to gobble-up U.S. debt.
Well, we don’t have to speak hypothetically anymore, as Bill Gertz of The Washington Times reports, “The president decided against selling Taiwan 66 advanced F-16 C/D model aircraft, despite several requests from Taipei and Congress.”
So why did Obama decide against selling these advanced fighter jets to Taiwan? Money, money, money… borrowed money that is.
Are you ready for some football!? The NFL season kicks off tonight on NBC with the defending Super Bowl champs, the Green Bay Packers, hosting the previous years’ Super Bowl champs, the New Orleans Saints. But while you’re settling in to enjoy pre-game festivities, eat hot wings, drink beer and celebrate the fact that there is even an NFL season to begin with, you’re going to be interrupted by President Barack Obama.
First of all, you’re probably wondering why the headline says "energy glut" when we’re so dependent on foreign sources of oil. Before I get there, the MSNBC/Politico debate had a few good moments on energy policy, specifically by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry, on America’s energy policy. All three made the case for unleashing our own natural resources to spur job creation, promote economic growth and secure our country from oil cartels and despots.
The argument made this evening by the Republican Presidential contenders is sound (and now back to the “glut” headline). As former Governor George Allen recently said, “We are number one in the world when it comes to energy resources. You would never know it. The Russians are second; Saudi Arabia is number three.” Skeptical? Read PolitiFact’s “Truth-O-Meter” on the subject, which rated Allen’s comments “true.”
This evening, MSNBC/Politico put on quite a show at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. With pointed questions seemingly designed to force Republican candidates for President of the United States to attack one another, specifically Texas Governor Rick Perry, one in particular on “science” seemed utterly bias.
Former Governor Jon Huntsman was asked about his chief strategist's comments regarding the Republican Party becoming the “anti-science party.” Huntsman demurred, sort of like former Governor Tim Pawlenty did when asked about his ObamneyCare comment in the first major debate. But the heart of the matter was to attack Perry and his stance on alleged climate change, or as it used to be called, “global warming.” What’s funny about the whole line of thinking is - from the perspective of liberal outlets like MSNBC - that climate change, global warming, or whatever, is as sure a thing as the sky is blue.
Nouriel Roubini, an economic adviser to President Barack Obama, was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal’s “The Big Interview,” a few days ago and made some pretty startling claims:
Nouriel Roubini: “Karl Marx said it right, at some point Capitalism can self-destroy itself because it cannot keep on shifting income from labor to capital without not having excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand, and that’s what’s happening. We thought that markets work, they’re not working, and what’s individually rational, every firm wants to survive and thrive and thus slashing labor costs even more, my labor costs are somebody else’s labor income and consumption. That’s why it’s a self-destructive process.”
Click here to watch the whole clip for yourself.
Just before our nation celebrated Independence Day, I tried to put some perspective on economic growth and job creation through Texas’ ability to grow its economy despite the Great Recession. Governor Rick Perry’s stewardship of Texas over the course of the last decade has seen the Republic of Texas grow into the second largest economy in the country. Texas has added a net of “more than 1 million” new jobs in the past decade. Approximately 40% of all the new jobs created nationwide since the so-called end of the recession have been in Texas. The reason for all this economic expansion and job creation stems from an environment that is business-friendly, pro-growth, keeps taxes low, and is “diversified” in “oil and high-tech.”
By now you’ve heard that Senator John Kerry (D-MA) was on NBC’s "Meet The Press" yesterday morning and tried to lay the blame for the decision by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) to downgrade our nation’s credit rating on the Tea Party. I posted the video clip earlier here if you haven't seen it.
Others have been attempting to blame the Tea Party as well. For instance, Democrat National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said of John Kerry’s assertion, “truer words [have] never been spoken,” and went on to call the Tea Party “tyrants.”
President Obama’s political mastermind David Axelrod said “this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade.”
In the wake of the widely expected downgrade of America’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, Democrats are predictably trotting out their tried-and-true call for tax increases.
“Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the nation's credit rating reinforces Democrats' call for increasing tax revenue, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday.” (Jamie Klatell, “Reid: S&P Downgrade Backs Dems’ Call For More Revenue,” The Hill, 8/5/11)
Shot: July 1, 2010: Nancy Pelosi Unemployment Benefits “Biggest Stimulus”
Pelosi: “Let me say about unemployment insurance, we talk about it as a safety net and all that. One of the biggest stimulus’ to our economy, economists will tell you, this money is spent quickly, it injects demand into the economy and is job creating. It creates jobs faster than any other initiative you can name because again it is money that is needed for families to survive and it is spent so it has a double benefit. It helps those who lost there jobs but it is also a job creator…”
Chaser: August 5, 2011: Barack Obama Unemployment Benefits “Create Jobs Right Now”
During the White House press briefing on August 4, 2011, Carol E. Lee of the Wall Street Journal asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about creating jobs, to which he said the White House doesn’t create jobs, but then admitted tax cuts (not tax increases) is a policy that could help spur economic growth.
Lee: “Sort of to follow on that, why should Americans believe that the White House can create jobs when the unemployment rate has been so stagnant and the record is sort of anemic?”
Carney: “Well, the White House doesn’t create jobs. The government together -- White House, Congress -- creates policies that allow for greater job creation. And that can be through tax cuts, for example, for working Americans.”
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