White House Staff Untouched by Obama Recession

Kevin Lewis got an 89% raise before the freeze

President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, is doing his part in reducing our federal deficit.

Around nine months ago, he announced a "two year freeze" on the salaries of federal workers. And this was a nice gesture, considering the fact that federal workers now earn considerably more than equivalent workers in the private sector.

It was simply time to put a lid on the generous salaries and benefits federal workers were getting.

Federal workers are currently enjoying extremely high wages and very generous benefits while people working in the private sector are earning so much less, losing their benefits, and taking pay cuts due to the growing Obama Recession.

But the President is no dope. Just before announcing his "pay freeze for federal workers" he made sure his own White House staff got hefty raises to tide them over during this two year austerity period.

While the country suffered another round of dismal job growth news, the White House communications staffers are enjoyed some hefty pay raises.

Here are just a few examples:

• Kevin Lewis, director of African-American media, went from $42,000 to $78,000.

• Elizabeth Olsen, special assistant to the president and director of presidential correspondence, saw her $76,500 salary boosted to $110,000.

• Thomas Vietor, senior director and national security staff spokesman, is now raking in $105,000 per year—up from $78,000.

• Johanna Maska, deputy director of advance and director of press advance, was making $56,100 a year; she’s now earning $80,000 annually.

During the nineteenth century, presidents had few staff resources. President Thomas Jefferson, Anti-Federalist-VA, had one messenger and one secretary at his disposal, both of whose salaries were paid by the president personally. It was not until 1857 that Congress appropriated money ($2,500) for the hiring of one clerk.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, D-NY, expanded the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to a few dozen workers.

But in recent times, it has grown exponentially, and President Barack Hussein Obama is estimated to have some 2,000 to 2,500 persons serve in EOP staff positions with policy-making responsibilities, with a budget of $300 to $400 million.

Michelle Obama has 26 servants on her own staff

First Lady Michelle Obama is estimated to have at least 26 servants (i.e. "hand maidens") on her own staff.

Meanwhile, job growth stalled in June, with the U.S. economy adding only 18,000 news jobs in June.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent. The July rate was almost the same at 9.1%, indicating that the Obama Recession is still going strong.

Obama Makes History: US Treasury Notes Downgraded!

"This is all Bush's fault, not mine!"

NYC, Aug 5, 2011. Standard & Poor’s announced tonight that it has downgraded the sterling U.S. credit rating for the first time in their history.

S&P decided to lower the AAA rating, held by the United States for 70 years, to AA+ after a bipartisan debt deal signed into law this week failed to reduce concerns about the nation’s growing spending.

Analysts have said a downgrade could increase the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government and lead to tens of billions of dollars in more interest costs.

That could translate into higher borrowing for consumers and businesses, too.

A downgrade would also have a cascading series of effects on states and localities that rely on federal funding, including in the Washington metro area, potentially raising the cost of borrowing for schools and parks.

But the exact impact of the downgrade won’t be known at least until Sunday night, when Asian markets open, and perhaps not fully grasped for months. Analysts say the immediate term impact is likely to be modest because the markets have been expecting a downgrade by S&P for weeks

Standard & Poor’s has warned Washington several times this year that, unless the federal government took steps to tame its debt, its credit rating could be lowered.

Some analysts are worried about the impact of a downgrade on markets where Treasurys are held as collateral and the AAA rating is required. But most analysts don’t expect this issue to pose a major problem.

S&P’s action is the most tangible vote of disapproval so far by Wall Street on the deal between President Obama and Congress to cut the deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over 10 years. S&P has said that it wanted at least $4 trillion of deficit reduction.

The downgrade is likely to be used as a weapon by both Republicans and Democrats as they argue the other side has not taken deficit reduction seriously.

Other credit rating agencies — Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — have decided not to downgrade the United States credit rating.

But they’ve warned that, if the economy deteriorates significantly or the government does not take additional steps to tame the debt, they could move to downgrade too.

Yes, you idiot... you did it!

Read Michelle Malkin's column  about how President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, has completely bungled the American economy. The "birthday boy" can't skate anymore. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Obama Spending Spree: Debt Tops 100% of GDP

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama, D-Kenya,  signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country's spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.

Public debt subject to the official debt limit -- a slightly tighter definition -- was $14.53 trillion as of the end of Tuesday, rising from the previous official cap of $14.29 trillion a day earlier.

Treasury had used extraordinary measures to hold under the $14.29 trillion cap since reaching it on May 16, while politicians battled over it and over addressing the country's bloating deficit.

The official limit was hiked $400 billion on Tuesday and will be increased in stages over the next 18 months.

The last time US debt topped the size of its annual economy was in 1947 just after World War II. By 1981 it had fallen to 32.5 percent. Ratings agencies have warned the country to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio quickly or facing losing its coveted AAA debt rating.

Moody's said Tuesday that the government needed to stabilize the ratio at 73 percent by 2015 "to ensure that the long-run fiscal trajectory remains compatible with a AAA rating."

Unless President Obama's reckless spending is reigned in, interest on the National Debt will become a larger and larger percentage of the total budget, crowding out all other spending.

"I'll be long gone by the time that happens!"

 According to CBO estimates, interest payments on the national debt could total $5.5 trillion over the next decade, or about 79% of the new debt estimated to accrue between 2012 and 2021.

In fact, at our current rate of borrowing and spending by 2030 our interest payments alone could exceed all federal revenues, leaving nothing left for anything else. Heck of a job, Barack!

President Celebrates More Debt with a Birthday Bash

Chicago, Aug 3, 2011.  As the economy threatens collapse President Obama celebrates signing debt deal with lavish 50th birthday dinner. 

President Obama rushing off for a birthday party in his honor was probably not the most sensitive idea.

With the debt ceiling debate now behind him, President Obama is turning his birthday into a massive, nation wide campaign event and fundraiser, complete with a lavish bash in Chicago tonight and related fundraisers around the country.

Obama will travel to Chicago this afternoon and kick off the festivities with remarks to the hundreds of parties being held across the nation by members of Obama for America 2012.

The campaign is calling these gatherings “meetings across the country to continue laying the groundwork for the 2012 campaign” that just happen to coincide with the real Chicago-based bacchanals, but we know better. This is a national celebration.

Then the real fun begins at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, where guests will pay from $50 to the maximum donation limit of $35,800 to attend an initial party and fundraiser featuring about 1,000 guests. Performers will include Jennifer Hudson, Herbie Hancock, and the band OK Go.

Afterward, Obama will host a smaller gathering of several dozen people who shelled out the biggest bucks.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times reveals that Obama surrogates will be hosting special birthday themed fundraisers around the country today: Robert Gibbs will be in Boston, David Plouffe in Tampa; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City; David Axelrod in Los Angeles; and Donna Brazille will be in Oakland.

A separate party in the Rose Garden Thursday, the day of his actual birthday, cannot by law be money-related – at least not directly.

As an official downgrade of the country's crucial AAA rating inches closer, the leading Chinese credit agency announced a slide from A+ to A, citing doubts over Washington's ability to pay off its debts.

Meanwhile, yesterday's debt deal triggered gloom in Wall Street where the stock market is on its longest losing streak since the financial meltdown of 2008.

The Dow Jones yesterday had its worst day in more than two months, and closed below 12,000 for the first time since June 24.

President Obama Reverses Illegal Immigration Trend

A stampede of Mexicans are returning home

Dallas, Aug 2, 2011. President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya has accomplished something in 30 short months that former President GW Bush couldn't do in 8 full years. He is succeeding in sending illegal immigrants back home to Mexico.

It isn't very often that we get to report on one of President Obama's successes, since there are so few of them, so we relish this opportunity to report this one.

After a historic immigration wave, many Mexicans and other Latin Americans are preparing to return to their homelands amid the deepening Great Obama Recession here.

And now many Mexicans who reside in the U.S. are even seeking Mexican citizenship for their U.S.-born children in record numbers this year. 

And unlike the strong-arm tactics advocated by his conservative critics ("enforcing immigration laws, building a fence, and enforcing our borders"), President Obama has accomplished this without using any force or coercion. They are returning on their own, on a voluntary basis.

The key to the President's success was the complete collapse of the American economy. Thanks to the President's total incompetence in managing our economy many illegal immigrants are returning home to Mexico in record numbers. In fact, the Mexican government is now worried that they may have to deal with a crush on its social services and lower wages once the immigrants arrive.

The Mexican Consulate's office in Dallas is seeing increasing numbers of Mexican nationals requesting paperwork to go home for good, especially parents who want to know what documentation they'll need to enroll their children in Mexican schools.

"Those numbers have increased percentage-wise tremendously," said Enrique Hubbard, the Mexican consul general in Dallas.  "In fact, it's almost 100 percent more this year than it was the previous two years."

"My plan worked like a charm!"

The illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has dropped 11 percent since August of last year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Its research shows 1.3 million illegal immigrants have returned to their home countries.

Some illegal immigrants are leaving because the Great Obama Recession has led to fewer jobs, causing many laborers to seek work elsewhere.

Others are leaving because there are "too many other illegal immigrants" here competing for the same jobs.

At a local strip mall, 40 Hispanic immigrant day laborers gathered early in the morning hoping to snare work landscaping, moving furniture or painting houses. By noon, only one had been hired.

"In the old days, you wouldn't find a soul here at this time," said Braulio Gonzalez, a veteran day laborer who still lingered at midday Wednesday. "There are so many more people and so much less work. President Obama has ruined it for us, by destroying the U.S. economy. It's worse here than back home in Mexico now."

At many corners, day laborers who had agreed never to work for less than $15 an hour are underbidding each other when an employer shows up. Mr. Gonzalez says he lost a drywall job to a fellow immigrant willing to work for half that amount earlier this week. "Competition is fierce," says Mr. Gonzalez.

"There's no question there's a variety of suggestions that people are in fact returning," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "Remittances, which is the money immigrants send home to Mexico, have gone down dramatically over the past year. Again, probably part the economy, but also part enforcement, leading to fewer people being here."

Advocates for immigrants are disturbed by the trend. Albert Ruiz, an organizer for the League of United Latin American Citizens, agrees that more undocumented immigrants are going home, but says families are being torn apart in the process.

If a father is deported, Ruiz says, his family members in America are forced either to fend for themselves or follow him to a country where they've never even lived.

"So the mother is saying we should return home with the breadwinner of the family to Mexico, and the children are saying, I don't want to leave, I'm a U.S. citizen, I don't know that country," said Ruiz. 

Despite this, the President supports his Mexican friends

Mexican President Felipe Calderon plans to help returning nationals by providing food, medical care and temporary shelter if needed.

But reports are already out in Mexico that the large number of illegal immigrants returning home could drive down wages and put pressure on social services... the same concerns many Americans have with illegals living and working in the U.S.

Opinion: Why Obama Could Still Win in 2012

You can't blame him for being smug.

Every four years we hear the same cliche... "this is the most important election of our lifetime." But the upcoming Presidential election next year might really be the "most important" in America's history.

I say this because there is so much on the line, that the future of our nation will be hanging in the balance.

For the past three years President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, has totally botched his job, making every problem he inherited much worse.

The only way you can debate this point is to completely ignore the facts. Our economy is in much worse shape today than it was when Obama first took office, and he had a clear field for the first two years with supermajoritites in both houses of Congress.

If there was something Obama wanted and didn't get from Pelosi and Reid, then it was simply because he failed to ask for it. The President might have "inherited a mess" but he completely owns it now. He got every bill he wanted passed into law, and every single one of his initiatives has failed miserably.

These are facts that only the most partisan left wing leg tingler could take issue with. Obama had his chance, and he blew it. He had a blank check, and he squandered his opportunity, so it is time for a real change back to competent, experienced, and more rational leadership.

I say that 2012 election could be the last hope for America because we are truly at the crossroads.

Even though this President has dug us into a deep hole it may not be too late to reverse the damage and bring our nation back to prosperity. It might take two more decades to undo the damage he did, and pay off some of the huge debt he has amassed for our children, but it still can be done if we get the right leadership next year. If the President gets four more years to continue his foolish "borrow, spend, and hope things get better" plan, then America is doomed.

You see, President Obama is not a very bright man. He is a leftwing ideologue, who is simply using Keynesian policies that he doesn't understand, and that are obsolete in today's economy. Somewhere in his college days he heard some professor say "Keynesian economics pulled us out of the Great Depression" and he took this to be an absolute truth that should still work 80 years later.

So his entire "plan" consists of borrowing huge sums of money and spending it as quickly as possible, hoping it will somehow create lots of new jobs. Unfortunately, this is 2011 and not 1931. This time, it's not working, and he refuses to change course. He wants to borrow even more and spend it. This is the typical leftwing response whenever one of their ideas fails... "the plan was good, we just failed to spend enough money on it."

Failed President Carter debating future President Reagan

Many people, myself included, developed a false sense of reassurance by making parallels between the upcoming election in 2012 and the election of 1980.

We reasoned that Obama was this generation's "Jimmy Carter" and the voters will simply recognize his complete failure and replace him with a real President in 2012.

Just like how the nation rejected Jimmy Carter in 1980 and replaced him with one of the finest Presidents in our history, Ronald Reagan.

That thinking doesn't apply this time because too much has changed in the past 32 years:

1. The voters have been considerably dumbed down by public schools, the media, and our changing culture. Facts don't matter as much today. They have been brainwashed into thinking our most urgent problems are global warming, having more diversity, recycling, and other progressive causes. It was no accident that our schools stopped emphasizing math. Without understanding math, you can't understand the danger of a growing national debt.
2. Almost HALF the voters who elected Ronald Reagan in two landslides are now dead. They have been replaced by younger voters who have gone through the process described above, and the net result is a societal change in values to the extreme left. You can see this in the leftward drift in polls taken about gay marriage rights, the death penalty and abortion rights. It would have been impossible for someone with a blank resume like Obama to win in 1980. In 2008, he won easily. In 2012, he might win again.
3. The media is now much more bitterly partisan, and they lean hard left. True, there are a very few exceptions, like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, but fully 98% of media will spin the news to help the liberal agenda. Unlike 1980, they will not report "both sides of the story" but rather they see themselves as shills for the Liberal Democrat Socialists. They make absolutely no attempt to even appear non partisan, as they see their role as crusaders for a more progressive society.
4. The Democrats have skillfully expanded the number of voters who don't pay taxes, and who are dependent on more government benefits. These are people whose own best interests lie in expanding government spending. So, while we see 9.2% unemployed as a terrible thing.... they see it as 9.2% who will always vote for anyone who promises another extension of unemployment benefits. This also explains why every liberal solution involves "taxing the rich." Most voters aren't rich.
5. Thanks to uncontrolled borders, our immigrant population is much larger today. Most of these people eventually become voters, and they tend to vote for Liberal Democrats. And every President in recent memory has advocated "speeding up" the naturalization process, even by means of amnesty, to move our electorate further leftwards.
6. Big business has "switched sides" and is now firmly in the camp of the radical left. President Obama accomplished this by giving them generous taxpayer funded bailouts, huge tax breaks and lots of new loopholes, and by relieving them of their biggest employment expense... the cost of healthcare benefits for their workers. Essentially, the President has taken this cost off the backs of huge corporations and placed it squarely on the backs of taxpayers. No wonder huge corporations love him. President Obama has made it possible for them to mismanage their businesses, and still get generous bonuses, which are often paid directly by the taxpayers!

I'm not saying this to be an alarmist, just to lay out the challenge facing us next year. Unseating President Obama will be much more difficult than unseating Jimmy Carter, because so much else has changed. Too many powerful forces want to keep his policies in effect.

And the GOP will not win unless they offer a CLEAR alternative. Serving up another RINO will only result in an Obama landslide.

In a very odd way, the Democrat Party moving to the hard left has created a vacuum, and has drawn the GOP into the "soft left." There are precious few conservatives left in American politics today, and those remaining ones are routinely demonized by the media and the entertainment industry.

The campaign is in full swing to make every conservative as unelectable as Barry Goldwater, Dan Quayle and Robert Bork. Do NOT underestimate this. They have done it before, and they can do it again. Even many in the mainstream GOP are prone to dismiss the Tea Party Movements as "kooks" and "extremists" while those might be the only people left getting it right.

Beyonce Knowles has enough money to want higher taxes

Don't be too encouraged by President Obama's recent slide in approval rating polls. The media will put him back on top. They have the power to influence election results, and they aren't shy about using it.

God help us.

I just hope we have the energy and the will to prevail, and to turn our nation back onto a sensible course.

Because, if the ship sinks, then all the passengers will drown. Even the liberals. They just aren't smart enough to understand this.