I want to go on with the issues that Governor Daniels brought up in his rebuttal to the President’s State of the Union Address of January 24, 2012. Daniels said - It is not fair and it’s not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements and encourage new job creation only to be shot down time and time again by the President and his Democratic allies. If the Governor is not on drugs perhaps he should be as I don’t know what world he’s living in. Yes, it was reported on January 22 that 51.4 million Americans are living in the same house with more than 2 generations but it’s because we still don’t have a Jobs Bill because Republicans won’t approve one. After the State of the Union ABC News said the President challenged Congress to give him a Jobs bill; called for colleges to stop raising tuitions, pushed for a plan to help struggling homeowners to refinance and his American Values package includes: Higher taxes for wealthier Americans (paying their fair share), Wall Street and government reform, and building an economy that works for everyone and not for a few. Per the Labor Department the private sector hired 1.28 million men and 600,000 women by the year ending in November 2011 (many jobs were in new small businesses); at the end of December the unemployment rate was 8.5% and by the end of January it was 8.3% (2.1% lower than when Reagan was in office and the lowest it has been in 3 years). On January 31 we heard this has been its strongest January in 15 years; the DOW overall up 3.4% and S&P up 4.4%. But Daniels says all this is worse, not better, I don’t believe him.
On December 27 per the New York Times and Moody Analysis from 2004 – 2010 the average American’s net worth went down 8% while Congress’ net worth went up 15%. I find it interesting that the richest US men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, are supporting a tax increase while the Republicans are trying to protect their big donors. Just recently a billionaire casino owner and his wife gave Gingrich $10 million for his campaign and don’t forget the billionaire Koch oilmen who gave over $100 million to the Tea Party just a few years ago. By the way, Forbes’ 2011 list of billionaires (1,210 world-wide) broke records in size and total net worth ($4.5 trillion). China doubled its number of 10-figure fortunes and Moscow now has more billionaires than any other city. Mexico's Carlos Slim widened his lead at No. 1 ($18 billion more than #2 Bill Gates), Warren Buffet came in at #3 and as I already said if you total up the family dollars of the 3 WalMart billionaires they’re richer than Gates but not Slim.
On January 17 we heard the Obama administration is requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose their financial relationship with doctors (there were previous stories about doctors conducting procedures because of their financial ties to various medical companies). On January 25 we heard that Rachael Ray and Michele Obama teamed up to get better lunches at schools but Congress blocked their request to limit French fries and pizza.
On January 19 it was reported that more than a dozen (Republican) Congressmen withdrew their support of the internet bill (see January 19, 2012 blog regarding the internet laws) thus killing it. We also heard that the White House said for every 65 tourists it equals one American job; since 2001 the US share of the global tourist industry shrunk from 17% to 11% in 2011; the President said it’s time to ease interview requirements, ease the number of consults and extend tourist visas; focus will be on tourists from China, India and Brazil as their economies are emerging. At first I was concern but then I thought about the improved security we now have and figured it would be okay to take the risk and create more jobs.
Daniels knocked the state of Europe. Apparently he forgot that because of the attacks on our soil our European allies have spent money trying to protect us from terrorism. Rightly so on November 30 the Federal Reserve and major central banks from all over the world joined together to help them. Although on December 2 Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said it will take years to resolve Europe’s crisis on January 19 Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of France and 8 other European countries. On January 29 we heard that Greece was close to a deal with a private creditor to avert their debt default. I give them more credit than us; we bail out our lending institutes, not vice versa, and I haven’t heard of any Republican cronies coming to our aid.
Daniels admitted that Republicans must work in ways they have not always practiced to bring Americans together and then said - No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. On January 20 there were Mayors from more than 70 cities joining forces to support same sex marriage and on February 2 it was reported that Washington State is getting close to becoming the 7th state to legalize such. Back in December there was a survey that showed 53% of the US population is in favor of same sex marriage and information saying that all the remaining Republican candidates except Ron Paul had signed the National Organization for Marriage pledge against same-sex marriage. Republicans want you to believe they want to unite the people and Obama is dividing us – yah right.
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