White House to Blame for High Gas Prices

With Hurricane Isaac’s slamming the American gulf coast putting a temporary halt to oil production and refinery output, consumers can expect to see higher prices at the pump.

Just in time for the Labor Day holiday.

Before Hurricane Isaac came along, gasoline costs were at an almost four month high.  The nationwide average rose to $3.75 a gallon on Aug. 26.  “We expect the national average price of gasoline for Labor Day this year to be the highest ever for the holiday,” said Michael Green, a spokesman for AAA.  Drivers could be paying $4 a gallon by the end of September.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/gasoline-rising-to-holiday-record-as-storm-surge-pressures-obama.html

Oct. 3 is the date of the first presidential debate.

The timing could not be better for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney or worse for the White House and its hopes for re-election.

By any measure, the administration should be on the defensive over escalating gasoline costs and the hardship higher pump prices will cause average American families.  The White House has been consistently hostile towards traditional fuel industries, and has persistently sought to curtail exploration, development and production capacity since 2009.

The current administration has actively sought to discourage drilling on federal land.  Since the 2010 BP gulf oil spill it has gone out of its way to stifle offshore exploration.  The EPA has made it a regular course of business to impose costly regulations on the development of oil, natural gas and coal.

The White House has wasted hundreds and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing non-competitive technologies.  Solyndra, a solar-panel manufacturer, received a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, then filed bankruptcy and fired 1,100 workers.  There are many other such examples.

The predictable White House solution will be to release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.  This will be a typical response from the current administration:  Divest precious national resources in hopes of achieving the desired political result without solving the real problem or offering a viable solution.

Instead of effectively stimulating the American economy by assisting exploration, development and production of cheap, efficient energy, the White House is obsessed with squandering national treasure on inefficient, uncompetitive energy options that are incapable of surviving without a government backstop.

Odds are that the White House will blame it all on Hurricane Isaac…or on George W. Bush.

American Energy Means American Recovery

There is widespread consensus that America needs to become energy independent. America’s ever growing dependence on foreign energy puts her at ever-greater risk in a world that is increasingly unstable. Given the current political upheavals in the Middle East, this reality is slapping America in the face with increasing costs at the pump, which are contributing to the cost of goods and services to consumers.

“progressives” feel a compulsive obsessive need to force Americans into accepting their “green energy” fantasy. Three plus years of actions taken by the current administration and fellow “progressives” show a willingness to achieve this end at all costs, come what may. Stiffer standards on auto emissions and mileage, crushing EPA regulations on energy providers, opposing development of domestic energy resources, copious deficit spending on inefficient and noncompetitive solar, wind, tide and bio-fuel technologies litter the landscape of the White House’s failed energy policy.

While such “progressive” measures theoretically “promote” development of “green” energies, they dictate a highly impatient, frantic pace that is crippling the American economy at a time of tremendous fragility. They force the issue at the worst possible time.  During a stubborn, recovery resistant recession that is quite possibly teetering on the brink of a full-blown depression.

America’s public and industrial infrastructures are based on the use of petroleum, natural gas and coal, as well as limited nuclear power. Nearly every vehicle that is driven on American roads burns gasoline or diesel fuel. Public transportation relies on fossil fuels as well. Natural gas, heating oil and coal are used in furnaces to heat homes and places of business. Coal and nuclear power generate electricity, which powers countless devices; the uses of which are taken for granted every day. Coal, natural gas and petroleum products power American’s industrial complex, the base of the economic engine. America’s economy depends heavily on existing energy. The methods of providing and consuming energy are deeply ingrained into American business, industry, home life and recreation.

Expecting to change the methods of powering a society of over 300 million people overnight is impractical. It will take time to finish such a task. More time than most of the general public realizes. While whatever conversions that make sense are taking place, what energy is going power manufacturing, delivering and installing windmills, solar panels, turbines, generators and the power grid needed to provide “green” energy to the public? Will it be the “green” energy that is still under development? No. The energy that’s going to be used will be traditional fuels.

Why does America continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign energy while there is undeveloped energy in its own country? Why doesn’t America keep those billions of dollars at home, in its own cash starved economy?

At a time when millions of Americans are looking for work and its economy is starving for liquid capital, why doesn’t America take advantage of its own wealth of natural resources? Why aren’t Americans drilling for oil and natural gas or digging for coal? Why aren’t people working building refineries and power plants? Why aren’t people delivering gas, coal and natural gas to consumers? How many peripheral jobs will be created in the process? For every new oil well, power plant, refinery or mine there will be new roads built, followed by restaurants, stores and housing. All generated by the only force capable of powering America’s economic recovery: the private sector.

In the interest of national security and job creation, America should put Americans back to work delivering American energy to Americans. This is the best way to become energy independent. Forcing “green energy” on America overnight will only lead to economic destruction.

The Job Sinkhole

Today the American unemployment rate remains unchanged at 8.2 percent.  The economy is still five million jobs shy of the breakeven point as America continues to drown in a sea of growing government red ink while struggling to tread water under the overburden of oppressive big government regulations.

Since the start of the seemingly never ending “great recession”, the nation has lost 8.8 million jobs.  It has regained only 3.8 million, less than 44 percent.  According to the most recent Labor Department report, employers added only 80,000 jobs in June.  The economy averaged 75,000 jobs a month in the second quarter, one-third of the pace in the first quarter.  This makes the third straight month of weak hiring, clearly showing that the economy is still struggling under the weight of the current administration’s failed economic policies.

Thanks to the brilliance of barrack hussein obama’s economic plan, over the course of the past two years, America’s alleged recovery has gone from adding an average of 161,000 per month to 150,000 per month, to 75,000 per month.  If a recovery was actually taking place, those numbers would be going up instead of down, right?  Instead a sinkhole is swallowing up hope for millions of Americans of finding a job.

Was there not a pledge made in 2009 by the self-imagined, self-appointed intellectual elites working in the White House that if American taxpayers funded the $878 billion “stimulus” package, unemployment would not go above 8 percent?  Was there not a promise that the “stimulus” would have unemployment down to 5.5 percent by now?  As it turns out the “stimulus” wasted taxpayer dollars, rewarded the current White House occupant’s “progressive” political cronies within the inefficient, unproductive, largely imaginary “green energy industry”, and made little to no dent in the jobless rate.  Claims of 4.4 million new jobs created must be met with severe skepticism, as should the equally dubious “jobs created or saved by the stimulus” claim. The unemployment numbers have never reflected that.

There are far too many people who know the real story because they are living it.  Claims made to the contrary by the obama re-election campaign do not matter because they do not match the reality people are living.  Regardless of what is loaded on the teleprompter, reality cannot and will not be explained away.  People living in the real world are not buying the administration’s theoretical cash for clunkers economics approach.  Taking money from successful businesses, skimming off the cost of doing business in Washington DC, then sending the remainder back to your favorite campaign bundlers who are running phony business fronts is not an economic recovery plan.  That is known as money laundering, Chicago style.

How long is it going to be before the current White House occupant and/or his surrogates start popping up like Whack-a-Moles on the Sunday morning political talk shows blaming all of this on George W. Bush?

Did someone say this Sunday?

Throwing Good Money After Bad

The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 69,000 jobs last month, the lowest number since May of last year. Concurrently, the unemployment rate increased for the first time in eleven months. The “official” jobless rate rose to 8.2%. Additionally, it reported that in the past two months 49,000 fewer jobs were created than originally stated. The Bureau of LaborStatistics also revealed that in America, 766,000 fewer women are employed today than in January 2009, when the current administration first took office.

As a result, the U.S. Stock Market dropped. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the news “devastating” and the White House blamed George W. Bush, claiming they “are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression”. The White House keeps insisting that their economic policies are helping America dig out of “the deep hole caused by the recession”.

Three years and five months into his term, barack obama still has no answers as to how to get America’s economy growing at anything faster than a snail’s pace. That’s bad for America. It could also devastate his re-election chances. That prospect is good for America.

Since he took office all obama has done is sign extreme, far left fringe, anti-business, anti-energy, anti-growth “progressive” legislation into law. Bills passed by the ilk of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd or farmed out to the likes of the George Soros funded Tides Foundation. His only personal efforts were appointment of the Simpson Boles Commission, whose suggestions he summarily dismissed, and his budgets, which for the past two years have yet to receive a single vote in the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by his own Party.

The ‘stimulus”, misrepresented as financing for “shovel ready projects”, was, among other wasteful ventures, redistribution of taxpayer’s money to his political cronies involved in mismanaged “green energy” companies. Or to States deep in debt due to over zealous, business killing regulations and historically discredited tax and spend policies. Those States were in desperate need of revenue to pay the bloated cost of pensions and benefits owed to their unionized government employed political campaign financiers and foot soldiers.

obama overstepped his Constitutionally limited power as Chief Executive by interfering in bankruptcy proceeding for GM and Chrysler. The Harvard Law School graduate “determined” that hundreds of years of bankruptcy court precedent would not sufficiently suit his political needs and thereby dictated that the financial interests of secured bondholders would be seized and transferred to his union supporters in the UAW.

his foreign policy has been an utter disaster. Yes, he was convinced by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that it would be OK to “get” Osama bin Laden. Something for which obama has been most eager to accept sole credit. But that opportunity was set up by a number of people working within the U.S. intelligence community for close to a decade…not to mention the coordinated effort of U.S. Special Forces and other branches of the military involved in carrying out the operation. Since then, his White House has somehow managed to leak enough information about the top-secret operation to get a friendly Pakistani intelligence operative imprisoned for a few decades. That will certainly provide a most powerful recruiting inducement to potential operatives going “forward”, won’t it? Philosophically driven by a strong desire to shift America’s image in the world away from that created by his predecessor, obama enacted a new doctrine. One that focuses on systematically killing via predator drone rather than capturing the enemy and obtaining useful national security information by submitting them to enhanced interrogation techniques. Better to deprive people of life than to submit them to physical discomfort. Only “progressives” would consider that a move to the moral high ground.

If that’s not enough, his “most significant achievement”, obamacare, is about to be ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The list could go on and on and on…and on, but is it really necessary to list all the committed atrocities about which obama’s opponents are already aware? That his supporters will vehemently deny?

At this point it would be very profitable to play poker with those still donating to obama’s re-election campaign. They seem quite unaware of a mistake that accomplished gamblers vigorously and conscientiously avoid: “Throwing good money after bad.”

Green Death

Eight regions of Spain have had their credit ratings cut as uneasy Spaniards moved their money overseas. Spooked by the questionable state of their banks, Spanish savers are now moving their money abroad faster than records have ever shown. Spain’s credit rating has been downgraded two notches and nearly 25% of Spaniards are unemployed

The Spanish newspaper La Gaceta ran a full-page article exposing the truth about Spain’s “green jobs” agenda, which just happens to have been cited many times by barack obama as the way “forward” for the United States. “Green energy” has now been exposed as a costly disaster that has undone Spain’s economy.

The Spanish Administration confessed “the increase of the electric bill is principally due to the cost of renewable energies.” It has now become officially recognized that the price of electricity, as well as increases in Spain’s debt are due to the extra cost of solar and wind energy. Additionally, the Spanish administration now admits that each green job that was created cost more than 2.2 traditional jobs in the private sector.

All evidence to the contrary, the obama administration insists on moving full speed ahead with its ill imagined, full frontal assault on the American energy industry, coupled with increased promotion of their “green jobs” fantasy.

Not only is coal America’s cheapest source of energy, the United States owns some the world’s largest coal deposits. Newly enacted EPA regulations now force a reduction in utility CO2 emissions to 1,000 pounds per megawatt of electricity. This regulation effectively bans construction of new coal-fired plants and will invariably lead to hikes in electricity costs. Since only natural gas meets the new emissions standard, the country’s electricity providers will be forced to pay the cost of converting to natural gas. One way or another, electricity prices will “necessarily skyrocket”.

Despite administration claims, obama’s hostility towards fossil fuels has led to reduced opportunities for domestic oil production. obama continues to call for the elimination of targeted tax breaks oil companies have been receiving for decades. The general public is largely unaware of the fact that those tax breaks are targeted chiefly for exploratory activities. Drilling for oil is an expensive, uncertain business venture. Even successful fields have limited lifespans. Besides, hiking taxes on new exploration is counter-intuitive to increasing production.

In addition to his open aggression towards traditional fuels, obama plans on “investing” more of American taxpayer money by doubling down on spending for wind farms, solar energy, homegrown biofuels and energy-efficient cars and buildings. The history of the administration’s “investment” strategy is fraught with peril.

Here are a few of the “green” “sustainable energy” failures that have already been supported by the current administration’s “investments”. Remember, all this financing was done using your tax dollars. Well, not exactly. It has been done with tax dollars to be re-paid to the Federal Reserve Bank and China by your grandchildren and great grandchildren. Plus interest:

Evergreen Energy-Which has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying it’s “impossible to maintain operations” due to funding shortfalls. This announcement came after the company received $5.3 million in “stimulus” funds.

Amonix Inc.-A manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the “stimulus”, laid off about 200 employees only seven months after opening a factory in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home State of Nevada.

Beacon Power Corp-Sought bankruptcy protection in 2010 after they received a $43 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

Ener1 Electric-A car battery manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

These are all in addition to Solyndra-A solar panel maker that received a $535 million loan guarantee, then famously filed for Chapter 11 protection.

This is a mere taste of problems found when centrally planned big government intrudes into the free market. Not only is the spending inherently wasteful, the fact that these companies were in large part operated by big donors to obama’s political campaign points to the corruption involved when an ideologically captive, politically driven politician makes investment decisions based on cronyism. Two thirds of all energy loan guarantees or grants made by the obama administration’s Department of Energy have gone to his campaign donors or donation bundlers. Can you say quid quo pro?

All government energy subsidies should end. Energy companies should be free to compete without government interference. If and when “green” “sustainable energy” becomes a competitive solution, consumers will reward “green” companies that used private capital to successfully situate themselves in the market by purchasing their products. That’s how a free market works. That’s what’s made America the greatest economic success in the history of human civilization.

Grasping at Energy Straws

In February 2012 New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer called upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to request Saudi Arabia increase their oil production to make up for potential disruptions in the world’s oil supply resulting from Iranian saber-rattling. Schumer’s unhidden rationale was that such a pledge from the Saudis would drive down gasoline prices in America

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/216057-schumer-saudi-arabis-plan-to-increae-oil-output-will-lower-gas-prices

This ill-advised strategy was clearly politically driven. While the idea of higher gasoline prices, and the accompanying increase in the price of gas dependent goods and services is consistently rejected by average Americans, this is a blatantly partisan call for a short-term fix. This temporary, non-solution, suggested in order to perpetuate the false narrative that America’s economy is improving thanks to “progressive” policy decisions does absolutely nothing to reduce America’s dependency on foreign oil. Quite to the contrary, it exacerbates it.

On March 15, 2012 Reuters reported that during British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent trip to the U.S. the current White House occupant proposed releasing emergency oil reserves as a way to reduce world oil prices.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/15/uk-obama-energy-spr-idUKBRE82E00U20120315

Were the White House to make such a decision, it would be yet another desperate attempt to lower gas prices by whatever means possible. Tapping into the emergency oil reserves is a bad idea. Those reserves are there for use during a pressing national emergency. Tapping in to them every time there’s an increase in the price of a barrel of oil is both gross mismanagement and a misguided misapplication of the stockpile. Not only will the reserves need to be replenished with what might well turn out to be more expensive oil, tapping into them now does nothing to address the long-term problem.

“progressives” continue to grasp at short-term straws frantically trying to make themselves look good in the eyes of low information, sound bite voters. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to win the 2012 election, even if decisions made to make themselves look good in the short term are not sound long term solutions. As radical “progressive” political strategist and leftist hero Saul Alinsky dictated: the ends justify the means.

In the interest of national security and job creation, the United States should put Americans back to work delivering American energy to Americans. This is the best way for America to become energy independent while boosting the economy. Trying to force “green energy” on America’s economy overnight will only contribute to the collapse of that economy. Evidence: Spain’s troubled financial situation and extremely high unemployment.

America doesn’t need a broken economy. America doesn’t need short-term price fixes driven by partisan political decisions. America needs and deserves sound, long term solutions that will result in energy independence.

Drill here. Drill now.

ABC News That’s Not So New

One of the breaking headline news stories online from ABC News just today, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 reads: Green Firms Get Fed Cash, Give Exec Bonuses, Fail.

http://news.yahoo.com/green-firms-fed-cash-execs-bonuses-fail-200314806–abc-news.html

Ronnie Greene and Matthew Mosk, for ABC News, aggressively reporting news with an edge, convey how companies like Solyndra, Ener1and Beacon Power took money from the Department of Energy, paid bonuses to executives, then proceeded to file for bankruptcy. How unfortunate for Greene, Mosk and ABC News, that that edge of theirs is so desperately in need of major sharpening. Conservative journalists have been writing about this very topic, reporting this information about these companies for months.

More disturbing is, even when ABC finally does report this story, they still fail to report that many of the executives who received bonuses were contributors to “progressive” political campaigns. For example: Beacon Power’s CEO F. William Capp contributed to the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign as well as the campaigns of two Massachusetts Democrats. George Kaiser a primary Solyndra investor, company executives and board members all contributed to the 2008 presidential election campaign.

Where has ABC News, that great bastion of investigative journalism been all these months? Where was this distinguished member of the Fourth Estate?

The truth is, ABC intentionally withholds this type of information because they’re under orders to avoid shedding negative light upon the “progressive” left’s Exalted Leader. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and especially MSNBC, along with a staggeringly high number of print publications were busy burying this story, along with other stories about Fast and Furious, the NDAA power grab, upwardly spiraling gasoline prices, high unemployment, rising inflation, ballooning deficits, exploding debt, or that it’s been years since “progressive” Democrats in the United States Senate followed the law and simply passed a budget. Additionally, since January 2011, under the leadership of “progressive” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate has tabled the two dozen or so Bills concerning budgets, job creation and energy independence passed by Conservative Republican in the House of Representatives. ABC News et al knowingly fail to report that Senate “progressives” are doing so in order to enable the “progressive” administration to pound a “do nothing Congress” while on the campaign trail. In short, instead of doing a responsible job and reporting the news, ABC and the rest have chosen a side. They’re all card-carrying charter members of the institutionalized “progressive” left’s government controlled press club. This “progressive” Party Pravda has collaborated with Senior White House Aid Valerie Jarrett and Media Matters for America to intentionally steer public opinion in favor of the White House.

Hail to the Chief.

“progressives” Don’t Care If Americans Suffer at the Pump

There’s widespread consensus in the United States that America needs to become less dependent on foreign oil. America’s growing, ongoing dependence on foreign sources puts her at ever-greater risk in an unstable world. This instability drives the costs higher.

“progressives” who feel an overwhelming compulsion to immediately replace America’s existing carbon economy with a green one couldn’t be happier with the higher costs. The current administration and fellow “progressives” continue to push America towards the green end, come what may. Stiffer regulations on auto makers, stifling EPA regulations on energy producers, refusals by the White House to permit development of domestic resources, quid quo pro government funded paybacks to big “progressive” campaign donors involved in green energy companies litter the landscape.

While such “progressive” actions may eventually “nudge” America towards green energies, they’re hurting the American economy at exactly the wrong time…the very moment when there’s a tepid turn towards possible recovery from a painfully deep recession that’s led to unacceptably high levels of long term unemployment.

America’s public and industrial infrastructures are based on the use of conventional fuels: petroleum, natural gas, coal and nuclear power. While there are moves to convert more public sector automobiles and mass transportation vehicles to natural gas, the overwhelming majority of Americans drive or ride in vehicles that burns gasoline or diesel fuel. Natural gas and heating oil are used in furnaces to heat homes and places of business. Coal, natural gas and nuclear plants generate electricity which powers countless devices, the uses of which are taken for granted every day. Coal, natural gas and petroleum products power American’s industrial complex, the base of her economic engine. Clearly, America’s economy depends very heavily on these existing sources of power. These methods of providing and consuming energy are all deeply ingrained into America’s businesses, manufacturing and home life.

It’s entirely impractical to expect to change the method of powering an entire society of over 300 million people overnight. It’s going to take a lot of time to finish such a task. More time than most people realize. Indeed, far more than is believed by those who continue living in “progressive” fantasyland. First, before making any such transition becomes practical, green energy alternatives must become economically competitive with conventional fuels. Today, they are not.

In the meantime, what energy’s going to be used in the manufacture, delivery and installation of all those windmills, solar panels, turbines, generators and power grid needed to provide renewable energy to the public, the renewable energy delivery system that has yet to be built? No, sorry. Traditional fuels will generate the energy that’s going to be used.

Why does America continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign energy? Why isn’t the United States keeping those billions of dollars at home, in its own economy? At a time when millions of Americans are out of work and the economy is starving for liquid capital, why isn’t the United States taking advantage of its own wealth of natural resources?

Why does this “progressive” government continuously oppose giving Americans jobs drilling for oil and natural gas or digging for coal? Why does this “progressive” government persistently fight putting people to work building refineries and power plants? What does this “progressive” government have against giving energy employees jobs delivering oil, coal and natural gas to consumers? How many peripheral jobs will be created in the process? For every new oil well, power plant, refinery or mine built there will be a need to build new roads, restaurants, stores, churches, schools, and housing. All brought to you courtesy of the private sector.

In the interest of national security and job creation, America should put Americans back to work delivering American energy to Americans. This is the only way the United States economy will be able to afford making whatever “investments” in green energy make economic sense.

Meanwhile, the very people who argue that they’re the ones who care about the little guy will force those little guys to pay increasingly higher gas prices until they’ve submitted to the prescribed “change”. Demonstrably, “progressives” don’t care if Americans suffer at the pump.

Green Failures

Here are a few of the latest companies to join the growing list of “green” “sustainable energy” failures that have been supported by the current Administration’s deficit “stimulus” spending. All this financing has been done using your tax dollars…well, actually tax dollars to be paid in the future by your grandchildren and great grandchildren to China. Plus interest:

Evergreen Energy-Which has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying it’s “impossible to maintain operations” due to funding shortfalls. This announcement comes after the company received $5.3 million in “stimulus” funds.

Amonix Inc.-A manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the “stimulus”, will lay off about 200 employees only seven months after opening a factory in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home State of Nevada.

Beacon Power Corp-Sought bankruptcy protection last year after they received a $43 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

Ener1 Electric-A car battery manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy last Thursday, three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

These are all in addition to Solyndra-A solar panel maker that received a $535 million loan guarantee, then famously filed for Chapter 11 protection weeks ago.

This should be quite the political embarrassment for the current White House occupant, who has championed these loans as a way to create “green energy” jobs. When you total up the costs to taxpayers for just these five companies, it comes to $707.7 million. Although it’s a recognizable reality that we now live in an insane world where politicians throw the phrase “trillions of dollars” around like nobody’s business, even a cocaine addict would take a very long time to blow $1 million, much less $707.7 million. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

These are some of the myriad of problems found with centrally planned big government intruding into the free market. Not only is the spending inherently wasteful, the fact that these companies were in large part operated by big donors to Democratic political campaign points to the corruption involved when ideologically captive, politically driven politicians make investment decisions based on cronyism. Can you say quid quo pro?

All government energy subsidies should end, leaving energy companies free to compete without government interference. If and when “green” “sustainable energy” becomes the best competitive solution, consumers will reward “green” companies that used private capital to successfully situate themselves in the market by purchasing their products. That’s how it works. That’s what makes America the greatest economic success in human history.

Why obama is Toast

 

 

 

This just in from the Associated Press:

The Commerce Department said Thursday new-home sales fell last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold in a healthy economy.

About 302,000 homes were sold last year. That’s less than the 323,000 sold in 2010, making 2011 the worst year on records dating back to 1963.

http://news.yahoo.com/home-purchases-fall-2011-worst-ever-sales-152515874.html

This doesn’t bode well for the current White House occupant, who’s staking his re-election on a two pronged strategy of attacking Republicans and spinning the impression that, thanks to his policies, America’s economy is on the right track and on the road to recovery.

Numbers like these certainly won’t help him implement the second portion of this strategy. If the trend is up, as the White House, their surrogates in the “progressive” Democratic Party and the “progressive” Party Pravda keep telling us, why were there fewer new homes sold in 2011 than in 2010?

This speaks to the bigger reason why occupy Oval Office’s re-election changes are diminishing. People in America are not as stupid as the self appointed, self-imagined “intellectual elite” believe them to be.

Just because a bunch of self interested, self seeking snobs with highfalutin college degrees thumbtacked to their office walls altered the variables in the equation by which inflation rates are calculated doesn’t mean that people can’t and won’t see the truth. Bureaucrats in government can release all the doctored numbers it’s possible to cipher, desperately trying to convince people to deny their own cognitive abilities and take what they’re being told at face value…that there is no inflation. I guess them there fancy pants geniuses with them there Ivy League deeeegreeeees truly believe that average people, Joe and Josie six pack if you will, don’t see the cost of gasoline and food going up when they fill up their cars and go to the grocery store.

The “intellectual elite” keep trying to convince those dummies populating fly over America that thanks to massive big government spending and increased regulation through the stimulus, Dodd/Frank, and obamacare, unemployment numbers are going down and people are finding jobs. If you just happen to be one of the millions of folks who can’t find a job, haven’t been able to find a job after months or years of searching, live with someone who’s experiencing the same dilemma or hear from someone who just lost the good paying job with benefits they’d had for years, you’re absolutely, positively, definitely the exception to the rule.

The economic crash of 2008 was the direct result of the failed leadership of George W. Bush and failed Republican policies. The Tea Party is Astroturf. Tea Partiers are violent, extreme racists. The Tea Party spit on us. Occupy Wall Street is legitimate. Occupy Wall Street is a spontaneous grassroots movement. Newt Gingrich can’t win a general election. Mitt Romney’s a part of the isolated, evil rich 1%. Rick Santorum has no chance.

There’s no doubt about it. We have spoken, you will believe.  The world’s a safer place! The world’s impression of the United States is better now that we’re in charge! America’s more respected now! Believe us…trust us…we’re the smart ones (read: not you).  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ!

Oh brother.