Economic Issues – Page 2

Watch Weld. Amazing Interview!

Here’s one for the history books. A man actively running for national office came within a hair’s width of fully endorsing a competing ticket!

Last night Libertarian VP candidate William Weld, the former Republican Governor of Massachusetts, gave an explosive interview to Rachel Maddow.

He didn’t officially endorse Hillary, but he walked up to the line and his toes were touching that line. Aside from that, he blasted Trump in clear and damning language. “I fear for the country,” if Trump wins, he told Maddow.

Equally importantly, he spoke glowingly and effusively about Hillary, a woman he’s known for decades. And as a former U.S. prosecutor (U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts) he also decisively dismissed the FBI’s botched handling of Hillary’s email case.

Rachel Maddow seemed somewhat flummoxed by what she was hearing, and it made for compelling television.

Weld’s running mate, Gary Johnson, must be pissed, but Weld knows the stakes are too high for political selfishness.

BRAVO, Governor Weld!

Watch it. Get everyone to watch it.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

The Easy Guide to Election 2016

The Easy Guide to Election 2016

It’s not complicated. You’re going to vote for Hillary Clinton because:

You know that climate change is the greatest threat to life on Earth and it is based on scientific observation, and is not a Chinese hoax.
You care about protecting a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
You know more than 30,000 Americans are killed by guns every year and you know that reasonable gun control will save some lives.
You know that trickle-down economics — tax cuts for the rich — has never worked.
Since, over the past 30 years the lion’s share of economic gains have gone to the wealthiest Americans, you know it’s time for that group to start paying their fair share of taxes.
You understand that the important work Planned Parenthood does deserves our support, not our scorn.
You want sensible regulations that protect your food, water and air.
And most importantly, you desperately want a smart, rational, experienced adult to lead our military and to possess the power to unleash our nuclear arsenal.

Those are the big issues and Hillary Clinton is on the right side of all of them. Delusional Donald Trump has shown us again and again that he stands firmly on the wrong side of each issue.

Your decision, therefore, is easy, clear and urgent.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

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The Rock-Solid Case Against Trump (and for Hillary)

Forget, if you can, about grabbing and groping. The case against him and for her goes far beyond the sleaze factor.

Here’s your eye-opening brick-by-brick summary of how this campaign looks right now. For Trump supporters, it’s brutal. Most of these articles have been posted to my Facebook page over the past two months, but seeing them all strung together like this is stunning.

Never has any major party candidate been so thoroughly repudiated by so many competent observers.

Every story here includes links to the sources.

The Arizona Republic

“Since The Arizona Republic began publication in 1890, we have never endorsed a Democrat over a Republican for president. Never.

Hillary Clinton is the only choice to move America ahead.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer

“The Enquirer has supported Republicans for president for almost a century … Our country needs calm, thoughtful leadership to deal with the challenges we face at home and abroad. We need a leader who will bring out the best in all Americans, not the worst.

That’s why there is only one choice when we elect a president in November: Hillary Clinton.”

USA Today

“The Editorial Board has never taken sides in the presidential race. We’re doing it now. … Donald Trump is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.”

No Fortune 100 CEOs Back Republican Donald Trump

From the Wall Street Journal: “Democrat Hillary Clinton has 11 contributors and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney had far more.”

Trump v. Clinton: Comparing the costs of their Economic plans (CBS News)

“The latest estimate shows Clinton’s economic plan would add $200 billion to the national debt over the next decade, while Donald Trump’s would add $5.3 trillion – or 26.5 times as much as Clinton’s – according to a new report from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.”

Military Officers for Clinton

“While only a tiny portion of military officers reach the rank of admiral or general, an even smaller sliver earn three or four stars.

Fifteen percent of Mr. Trump’s retired officer supporters are among those most senior officers.

Mrs. Clinton’s backers include nearly twice that number of highest-ranked officers.”

Dallas Morning News Endorses Democrat For President For First Time In Over 75 Years

“For all her warts, she is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president.

Hillary Clinton has spent years in the trenches doing the hard work needed to prepare herself to lead our nation.”

No Former Members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Support Trump

“In a WSJ (Wall Street Journal) survey, no former members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers—spanning eight presidents—openly support Mr. Trump”

The Atlantic

“For the third time since The Atlantic’s founding (in 1857!), the editors endorse a candidate for president. The case for Hillary Clinton.”

Foreign Policy magazine

“In the nearly half-century history of Foreign Policy, the editors of this publication have never endorsed a candidate for political office. We cherish and fiercely protect this publication’s independence and its reputation for objectivity, and we deeply value our relationship with all of our readers, regardless of political orientation.

It is for all these reasons that FP’s editors are now breaking with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton for the next president of the United States.”

50 G.O.P. Officials Warn Donald Trump Would Put Nation’s Security ‘at Risk’

“Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump ‘lacks the character, values and experience’ to be president and ‘would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.’

Mr. Trump, the officials warn, ‘would be the most reckless president in American history.’”

Here are all the major newspapers that have endorsed Hillary Clinton for president

From Business Insider: “This presidential election may have the most lopsided batch of newspaper endorsements the US has ever seen.

While Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has garnered the support of a long list of editorial boards, her Republican rival Donald Trump hasn’t received any.”

Whew. Quite a list, and it’s only a small fraction of what I could post!

How could any breathing, sentient voter still be supporting Trump?

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

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Donald Trump, Fear Monger

In almost every possible way, Donald Trump is the worst U.S. politician in more than a generation. He lies about everything, literally on a daily basis. In previous posts I’ve pointed out that independent fact checkers tell us that only around 10% of what he says is fully true.

What’s worse, he lies about things in a deliberate effort to instill fear. A few days ago he sent out this Tweet:

Inner-city crime is reaching record levels. African-Americans will vote for Trump because they know I will stop the slaughter going on!

Did you know there was a “slaughter” going on? And it’s happening at “record levels”!

Frightening … and false.

FBI statistics only go up to 2014, and there has been a slight uptick in violence recently, but we are nowhere near “record levels” of crime, not in the inner-cities nor elsewhere. PolitiFact rates this Tweet as a “Pants on Fire” lie. (Just one of many of his statements to receive that rating.)

crime stats

By the way, he never discloses exactly how he plans on making us “safe again.” He just tells us, with a straight face, that he is “the only one” who can do it.

How do people fall for this nonsense?

Trump understands that he cannot win on the merits of his positions (what are his positions?), nor his experience. So he screams that we are a third-rate country teeming with crime and violence. And of course on a daily basis he pushes the fear buttons when it comes to immigrants. Listen to his speeches and you apparently should be scared to walk out your front door because some Mexican or Muslim is lurking out there, waiting to kill you.

He is truly disgusting.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

Obama’s Stock Market

Obama’s Stock Market

Remember all the horrifying predictions about what would happen if Obama became president? Millions more will lose their jobs! Runaway inflation will destroy your savings, and gasoline would hit $7 a gallon – or more! And the stock market would surely crash! Obama, (and Obamacare) they said with certainty, is anti-business and the whole economy will tank.

You don’t remember? Well, I do, because those predictions were made daily and vociferously during the 2008 and then again for the 2012 re-election campaigns. Perhaps you don’t recall them because not one of them came true, causing the GOP soothsayers to now “forget” their own words.

This NY Times article focuses on just one aspect of Obama’s success, the U.S. stock market.

“The facts are inescapable: The Obama years have been among the best of times to be a stock investor, going all the way back to the dawn of the 20th century.

“Consider that had you been prescient enough to buy shares of a low-cost stock index fund on Mr. Obama’s first inauguration day, on Jan. 20, 2009, you would now have tripled your money. Stock market performance of this level has rarely been surpassed.”

Indeed. The facts are inescapable. You could have tripled your money!

I’m well aware that a president has limited impact on the economy in general, and the stock market in particular. Nonetheless, the scare tactics of the past have been proven wrong. Again. Keep that in mind for the coming election.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

Donnie’s Hidden Tax Returns

There are four possible reasons why Donald Trump refuses to do what every other presidential candidate in 40 years has done – release his tax returns.

1 – He earns far less than he wants us to believe. While a couple of years’ worth of tax returns do not by themselves show his net worth, they are decent indicators of the state of his financial affairs.

2 – He gives a ridiculously low amount to charity. We’ve seen the games he’s played with donations to Veterans. Despite a few well-publicized gifts over the years, there are many reasons to believe he’s a tightwad when it comes to sharing his wealth.

3 – The returns reveal embarrassing entanglements with sleazy domestic firms, or worse, with nefarious foreign firms or nations. The rumors are starting to fly, and the evidence is mounting, but since I pride myself on only posting verified information, I’ll say no more. For now.

4 – He pays little or no taxes. Which means, as Elizabeth Warren has said so well in this video, that you have been subsidizing his businesses.

So which of these is the most likely reason for Trump’s stonewalling? My guess is that it’s all four. Seriously. I am in the financial business, I devour news from many sources, and from my perspective the signs are all there that releasing his returns would be devastating.

His explanation that he is being audited and therefore cannot release them, by the way, has been debunked by every expert.

The Clintons, in case you’re curious, have been paying some serious taxes; close to $10 million on their most recent return, for a tax rate near 35.7% of AGI.

So come on Donnie. Prove me wrong. Put up or shut up.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

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A Stellar List of No-Shows

The GOP Convention is now up and running. But something will be missing, something that is unprecedented in American political history.

Specifically, just about every Republican with national name-recognition is shunning the convention! As a result, poor Donald has to have his own family stand to speak for him!

Look at the astonishing list of heavy-hitter absentees…

The most recent GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

The second most recent nominee, John McCain.

The two most recent Republican presidents, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush.

The man most pundits last year assumed was the front runner for the nomination, former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Even Gov. John Kasich (as governor of Ohio, he’s the HOST, for God’s sake!) won’t find time to stop by.

And an embarrassingly long list of leading GOP Senators and Representatives.

For any political party, the once-every-four years convention is supposed to be the best opportunity for the party leaders to loudly extoll the virtues of their nominee. Not this time.

So we are so many staying away? What do they know that you might not?

While I sharply disagree with most of the policy positions of each no-show on the list, here’s what I do know. I know they each care deeply about America, and second, they know how government works. They know that Trump – the racist, thin-skinned, ill-informed blowhard with the worst rating on Politifact’s radar—cannot ever be entrusted with the levers of power.

Why would anyone think differently?

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

Obamacare and Jobs

The U.S. unemployment has stayed at 5.0% for a few months now. That’s very close to what economists consider “full employment.” Yet as recently as yesterday’s Republican debate, we heard several of their leading candidates say, again, that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is “a proven job killer.” They say it despite all evidence to the contrary. They say it with a straight face. They say it knowing it’s a lie.

Here are the facts in a nice easy to grasp picture.

That eye-opening chart is from an article published by the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. It’s accurate. But for those who might be suspicious, and since this blog is all about verifiable facts, check out all the amazing details from the Wall Street Journal, 1/8/16.

Here are a few highlights from the Journal.

Last year was the second-best year of job growth since 1999. The best year was 2014.
The share of Americans with jobs, known as the employment-to-population ratio, improved to 59.5%, the highest since May 2009.
As of December, the median jobless worker has been unemployed for 10.5 weeks, the shortest period since 2008 and a substantial improvement from 2010 when the typical jobless spell lasted 25 weeks.

And for those who say the jobs are part-time jobs, nope. “The economy has recovered all of the full-time jobs lost since the last recession hit eight years ago.”

Yes, the recovery could have been faster – and if the GOP had agreed to a bigger stimulus package years ago it would have been faster.

But now, whenever you hear a Republican complain about the ACA, or anything else under the Obama administration related to jobs, you know they are flat-out wrong!

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

The REAL Scandal at the IRS

Republicans often tell us that the government ought to be run more like a business. Ok. Then suppose there was a business that knew for sure that for every dollar it spent it would get six dollars back. What business would turn its back on that kind of spectacular return on investment?

Well, thanks to the GOP and their blind frenzy to cut spending, that is exactly the intensely weird situation we have. The tax engine of the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service, must slash $346 million from its budget over the next nine months. That’s on top of the more than $1 billion already cut from the IRS budget since 2010. According to an article in Bloomberg Business, the estimates are that “the government will fail to collect at least $2 billion this tax season, or about $6 lost for every $1 of budget cuts. Over the past four years, there’s been a $4 billion drop in money collected through IRS enforcement actions.”

So since there will be fewer enforcement actions, “the cheaters gonna cheat” – and the rest of us will pay for it, one way or another. Brilliant.

The IRS Commissioner says the cuts will delay tax refunds, and more importantly for the long term, will reduce needed investments in technology. Meaning, things will get worse.

Also thanks to the cuts, hundreds of thousands of poor, handicapped and elderly citizens will not get the help they depend on to file properly. They’re on their own.

I would love a Republican explain how these cuts makes sense.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

Ken

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Where is the Democrats’ Backbone?

You’ve not heard much from me this election cycle. Aside from personal reasons (all good, I’m happy to say) I am disheartened by the way Democrats are running their campaigns; if they lose, it will be because they are wimps.

I’ve been in a number of different states over the past few months, and I watch the local political ads. Democrats have a great story to tell, but they, or their high-priced consultants, focus on tiny snippets of issues, and send out attack ads instead of reminding the electorate of the big issues.

Worse still, Democratic candidates are working hard to distance themselves from the president.

Why? If a Republican president had exactly Barack Obama’s track record, the GOP would be highlighting these positives with intense and repetitive enthusiasm…

A massive improvement in the economy. In 5 years under Obama the economy has created twice as many jobs as were created in 8 years under George W. Bush. And the stock market has soared, adding billions of dollars to middle class nest eggs.
The Federal deficit is shrinking rapidly. It’s been cut by two thirds since 2009.
Income taxes on middle-income families are near historic lows.
Millions of Americans have health care for the first time. No one can be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.
Two wars ended or winding down.
The U.S. now produces so much energy we now are a major exporter of oil. And gasoline prices have fallen sharply (despite repeated GOP screams that under Obama prices would skyrocket).

And MANY more! For an eye-opening list of the major accomplishments under Obama, all carefully documented, click here.

If that was say, Mitt Romney’s list of accomplishments, the Fox-holers would be falling all over themselves in orgiastic glee. Their told-you-so’s would be deafening and non-stop.

But instead of reminding folks which party stands up for a higher minimum wage to keep working people out of poverty, women’s rights, minority rights, sane environmental laws, helping students with college debt, better education for all students, and so many other important issues, for the most part Democratic candidates and the ads they run stay mum about their party’s core beliefs and achievements! It’s a stupid strategy. And attack ads disgust everyone and turn people away from politics.

The polls indicate that Democrats are likely to lose control of the Senate next week. The silver lining is that in 2016 the Republicans have far more seats to defend, and it’s likely they will almost certainly cede Senate control back to the Dems after that election.

I just hope that between now and then the Democrats grow a spine.

Thanks for caring about the truth.

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