Barack Obama

So, the big news of the day wasn’t that Jodi Arias was deservedly found guilty of first-degree murder or the unfolding story of the horrific kidnappings in Ohio, but rather what transpired on Capitol Hill throughout the day.

While the establishment news was dominated at times by an enraptured bonbon audience enthralled with coverage of Arias and the evil-doer Ariel Castro; what the American public learned today is that the Obama Administration, the State Department, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice and others engaged in a deliberate campaign to deceive the American people about a terrorist attack on the 11th Anniversary of 9/11 in Benghazi, Libya. In other words: a cover up of the murder of four Americans in a foreign land who were there just doing their jobs serving their country.

A spontaneous protest? No. An anti-Muslim YouTube video? Nope.

President Barack Obama doesn't believe in a balanced budget. It's unbelievable, but it's true.

This week President Obama flat-out rejected the idea of balancing the budget in 10-years time.

President Obama: “My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we are going to be bringing in more revenue.”  (George Stephanopoulos, “President Obama Won’t Balance Budget ‘Just For The Sake Of Balance,’” ABC News, 3/12/13)

Even the budget the President plans to unveil in April won’t balance, at any point! When asked by George Stephanopoulos whether his budget would be “balanced at any point,” Obama replied “no.”

President Barack Obama keeps talking about folks paying their “fair share.” It’s nothing but a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

Way back in July 2011 ThinkFY posted this piece about President Barack Obama’s call for the wealthy to pay their fair share during the debt limit stand-off with the House Republicans. It was an appropriate post tackling the whole issue about so-called grand compromises, tax hikes and entitlement reform. Worth a read if you have some spare time.

Now back to business. With the sequester in effect, President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats continue to call for tax hikes – on top of the $600 billion they already raised at the end of 2012 – it seems appropriate to revisit this false notion that the rich don’t pay their fair share.

Let’s consider some facts just published by The Associated Press that Democrats will find very inconvenient:

The across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration or the "sequester," are set to go into effect tonight at midnight. The cuts are $85 billion for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 (which ends in September) and $1.2 trillion overall during the course of the next 10 years.

No one likes these cuts. They were proposed by the Obama Administration and were allegedly designed to force compromise to avert them. Of course no one seems able to find a way forward, thus the cuts will happen.

Part of the reason there is no compromise is the Republican Party refuses to move on the President’s demand to raise more taxes without a complete overhaul of the tax code. Recall, Republicans already agreed to raise taxes by $600 billion to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at the end of 2012.

Not surprisingly, the Financial Times is reporting that “The US was more reliant on the Middle East for its oil imports last year.”

Politicians, from President Barack Obama on down, talk a great deal about energy independence, but there’s only one man who stands in the way of easing our overreliance on oil from countries who are ruled by despots and don’t like us very much. His name is Barack Obama.

With the stroke of a pen, Obama could green-light the Keystone XL pipeline. But, he hasn’t. After punting on the decision in November 2011, he ultimately decided against it in January 2012.

Washingtonians were greeted with unwelcome news last Friday when they learned that the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, long a hazardous site, found storage tanks were leaking “nuclear and chemical waste.”

“At least six underground-storage tanks each holding tens of thousands of gallons of nuclear and chemical waste are leaking at the Hanford nuclear reservation, the nation’s most contaminated Cold War weapons-production facility.”  (Craig Welch, “6 Nuclear-Waste Tanks Leaking At Hanford,” The Seattle Times, 2/22/13)

“And federal officials say more of the aging steel waste tanks also may be dribbling out nuclear material left over from a half-century of atomic bomb-building.”  (Craig Welch, “6 Nuclear-Waste Tanks Leaking At Hanford,” The Seattle Times, 2/22/13)

Are health insurance premiums increasing at a lower rate? If so, is it because of ObamaCare?

Well, according to Sam Baker over at The Hill, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says both are true.

“The number of double-digit hikes to health insurance premiums has fallen dramatically because of President Obama's healthcare law, the Health and Human Services Department said Friday.”  (Sam Baker, “Hikes In Health Insurance Premiums Fall,” The Hill, 2/22/13)

Newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry is settling into his new diplomatic role. He’s about to embark on his first trip abroad as Secretary of State on Sunday and he just delivered his first foreign policy speech.

What can we discern from Kerry’s first trip overseas and his first foreign policy speech? Well, to get to that it should be noted Kerry’s speech was about “climate change,” and his first trip will be to several countries in the Middle East, but will not be stopping to say hello to our only real ally in the region, Israel.

In about a half-hour from now, President Barack Obama will blast Republicans for not striking a deal to avert the impending spending cuts known as sequestration. The President and his allies will push the theme, once again, that Republicans only look out for the well-to-do and don’t care about the poor and middle class.

“According to a White House official, Obama hopes to aggressively pressure congressional Republicans, depicting the choice over the sequester as one between protecting healthcare and national defense or protecting tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans.”  (Justin Sink, “Obama To Press GOP On Sequester Deal As Deadline Approaches,” The Hill, 2/19/13)

Gas prices have hit an historical high for this time of year. There’s been 32 straight days of gas price hikes. The price at the pump has soared “51 cents in just two months.”

What’s going on here? Well, why there are certainly a lot of market factors in play here, there is one glaring reason why we have to endure such high prices for our petrol. The Obama Administration, House and Senate Democrats and their liberal friends at Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters simply do not care.