GOP: A Party Searching For A Strategy

President Obama's approval ratings are sagging.  Most Americans believe the economy stinks. Consumer confidence is flagging.  The stock of Republicans should be rising, right?  Instead the GOP brand has lost some of its sheen because of a void of ideas and leadership.

The party's lowpoint may have been the Republican National Committee's chief squawking about plans by two networks to air fawning series on presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Who cares about a Hillary tube love fest?  Further proof the party has lost its way. 

The most critical issue facing Republicans is a leadership vacuum. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are mealy-mouthed, boring and bereft of bold ideas. While colleagues may hold them in high esteem, the duo has been the perfect antidote for voters' insomnia.

A few well-meaning Republicans have tiptoed into the chasm, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.  But they speak for themselves, not for the entire party.  And that has been the problem because voters are getting mixed signals from a chorus of Republican voices.

During the current Congressional recess, Republicans need to reassess their strategy, create a cogent message and reshape their agenda to address a few key issues that resonate with voters. They must silence the cacophony of competing messages and unify behind themes that ignite voter enthusiasm. Right now the GOP is chasing issues like a Kardashian panting after a wealthy bachelor.

Based on past performance, a new direction may be too much to expect of this crop of Republicans. The blame lies entirely with Boehner and McConnell. Republicans must start by designating someone else in the House and Senate to speak for the party. Egos will be shattered, but victory often demands sacrifices.

Once the titular leaders are in place, the party must reclaim the higher ground by focusing its message and actions on three issues:

• OBAMA CARE:   The new health law is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters.  Rasmussen pollsters found 54 percent of likely voters view the healthcare reform unfavorably. However, defunding Obama Care is a dumb idea because Democrats hold the advantage by virture of their control of the Senate and of the White House. Instead, the GOP should force Democrats to defend a law that has been poorly implemented, ineffectively communicated and grossly more expensive than original estimates. The more voters experience the law, the more they will dislike the quality of care.  The GOP needs to hammer Democrats on healthcare while offering an alternative plan that is simple, cost-effective and patient-friendly to replace the flawed reform.  Voters want answers not just objections to current law.
• ECONOMY:  A stunning 54 percent of Americans believe the U.S. economy remains in a recession, according to a Marist Poll.  Only 29 percent think they will be better off next year. Yet Republicans have quit talking about the economy, although it remains the top issue with voters according to the Gallup Poll. The GOP needs to develop an economic plan that creates incentives for businesses to invest and rewards small firms that create jobs.  Nothing more complicated.  
• NATIONAL DEBT: Congressional battles over government funding leave most Americans confused and angry.  However, there is universal sentiment that the country's debt has grown too big at $16.9 trillion and mounting.  That's why the deficit matters.  Talk of a government shutdown only strengthens Obama's hand because the president has the opportunity to cherry pick the programs slated for the budget axe.  What's needed is a coherent plan to reduce the deficit. Fortunately, one already exists.  It is called the One Percent Spending Reduction Act, a bill to shave one penny out of every dollar of federal government expenditures.  It can be easily explained and understood by voters.

If Republicans slither back into the cesspool of Washington politics with the same disjointed messages, the same worn-out ideas and the same tired leadership faces, then the party deserves to be soundly rejected by voters. Without change, they will fumble a golden opportunity to recapture the upper hand now enjoyed by President Obama. 

Brash ideas not parsed language are needed.  Dynamic leadership not weak-kneed posturing is required.  Unity not mutiny is necessary. Wake up Republicans before the dinosaur replaces the elephant as the party symbol.  Time to be relevant again.  

Obamacare: Why AARP $old Out Seniors

The American Association for Retired Persons (AARP), an organization that represents seniors, owes its members an explanation of why it lobbied for healthcare reform that will strip billions of dollars from Medicare, threatening the solvency of the entitlement program.

Under Obamacare, the federal government will siphon an estimated $575 billion from Medicare to fund other parts of the healthcare law. The shearing will weaken Medicare, already burdened with an unfunded liability of $38 trillion.

AARP, with a membership of 35 million, used its financial and political muscle to help shove through Obamacare in 2010.  At the time, independent polling showed a majority of seniors did not support government takeover of the healthcare industry.

In exchange for its backing, the interest group obtained a sweetheart financial deal in the new healthcare law.  Under Obamacare, AARP will have a competitive advantage in peddling what's called Medigap insurance, which covers services and treatments Medicare doesn't.

That's no small matter because one-fourth of all seniors are currently covered by Medicare Advantage plans offered by private insurers. These firms are AARP's largest competitors in the field of Medigap insurance.  Changes inserted into Obamacare gifted AARP with a financial windfall.

But the Obama Administration's political favors didn't end there.  The Health and Human Services Department has granted AARP a waiver, exempting the group from government oversight of the price it charges seniors for Medigap coverage.  Private insurers have no such arrangement.

If there appears to be a disconnect, that's because AARP leads a schizophrenic existence.  On one hand, it professes to be a non-profit, supposedly non-partisan, organization.  But it also has a marketing arm that sells for-profit services, including insurance, investments and retirement planning.

Although AARP rakes in millions of dollars from its members, the organization feeds at the government trough.  Last year, taxpayers forked over $585 million to AARP in federal grants and Medicare payments.  Without taxpayer assistance, AARP would scramble to break-even.

With a hand-picked Obama donor in charge at AARP,  the group scooped up an $18 million grant as part of the economic stimulus package in 2009.   It needed the money because the organization spends lavishly, including frittering away $80 million annually for lobbying activities.

Most AARP members are clueless about the organization's advocacy campaigns.  Membership mostly views AARP as a source for discounts at hotels, restaurants, pharmacies and other firms. They are in for a rude awakening once they discover the impact Obamacare will have on their health care.

As a result of Medicare reductions and new requirements imposed on physicians, seniors' access to health care services will be effected. Many physicians are already posting signs in their waiting rooms warning they will no longer accept new Medicare patients.

To make matters worse, Obamacare will trim the reimbursements physicians receive for treatment and services.  Medicare currently pays less than private insurers for the same treatment and services.  Obamacare will exacerbate the difference, forcing doctors to shun Medicare patients.

There are countless other adverse changes, including rationing of cancer treatment based on a patient's age.  Another revision puts new restrictions on emergency room admissions paid for by Medicare. Unless a patient's primary physician orders emergency care, the government will not pay.

As a result, seniors best days for health care are behind them.  Beginning in 2014, they will bear the burden of President Obama's costly $2 trillion experiment in government health care.  Seniors have suffered a cold calculated betrayal at the hands of profit-hungry AARP and the president.

Al and Jesse: Fixated On Race Not Solutions

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  They preened before television cameras after the high-profile trial of George Zimmerman, acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of a 17-year old black teenager.  But the self-anointed civil rights leaders are invisible in the battle to save black communities.

The two race agitators have failed the many African-Americans they profess to represent by turning a blind eye to the problems obstructing progress within the black community.  They have remained silent as black crime soared, children grew up fatherless and school graduation rates slumped.

Instead the faux leaders have moralized that African-Americans are victims of inherent racism that exists throughout society.  They have sermonized about the need for more government intervention and assistance to lift their people out of the depths of poverty and dependence.

Their grandstanding has done nothing to improve black communities.

Statistics offer a graphic but grim snapshot of what really plagues the black community.  These numbers were culled from published reports by the NAACP, Bureau of Justice, Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Health.

To put the figures in perspective, African-Americans make up 14 percent of the U.S. population, according to the latest census.     

• More than 72 percent of births to black women are out of wedlock.  Poverty rates for unmarried women are 70.8 percent compared to 29.2 percent for married households.
• A full 67 percent of black children under the age of 18 live in a household with a single parent, compared to 25 percent for whites. Black women are more often head of these households.
• Of all the women living with HIV in the country, approximately 66 percent are African-American women.  Most of the women (87 percent) contracted HIV by having unprotected sex.
• Only 61 percent of black students graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent for white and 91 percent of Asians. Education has the strongest influence on income and hiring.
• About 35 percent of black youths in grades seven through twelve are suspended or expelled at some point in their school career.  That compares to 16 percent for all other students.  
• One in 15 black men are imprisoned at some time in their lives, compared to one in every 106 white males.  The racial composition of U.S. prisons and jails is 60.2 percent African-American. 
• Forty-three percent of all murder victims are African-American.  An overwhelming number (93.1 percent) were killed by blacks.  

With issues like these in the African-American community, it is not surprising that unemployment in July among blacks was 12.6 percent, compared to 7.4 percent overall.  Twenty-eight percent of all African-Americans live in poverty, an increase since 2005.

But Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not the only ones who have been derelict.  The nation's first African-American president hasn't done much to raise the standard of living for blacks.  President Obama can only claim to have expanded food stamp benefits to more Americans than ever.

But handouts are not the catalyst needed to snap the cycle of poverty, crime and joblessness in the black community.  Fearless leadership is required to address the issues facing African-Americans, instead of allowing cowardly apostles of race to preach the gospel of victimhood.

In the meantime, don't look to Al, Jesse or Obama for forthright leadership.     

Obama's Secret War To Turn Texas Blue

Attorney General Eric Holder recently lobbed a political grenade into Texas as the Obama Administration stepped up his battle to break the Republican stranglehold on the Lone Star State. The vengeful Holder wants Texas to seek Justice Department approval for any changes in election laws.

Holder claims to be upset over Texas' voter ID law, despite a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of states to protect the integrity of elections through such means.  But Holder's maneuver is nothing more than a smokescreen for the administration's covert effort to turn Texas blue (Democrat).

The attorney general is angling to stick his nose into the state's redistricting plans so his department can manipulate the drawing of House districts to favor Democrats.  His legal posturing leaves no doubt this is about partisan politics, not the protection of voting rights.

What rankles Holder and his boss is this:  Republicans control both Texas Senate seats and have a lopsided majority in the House, claiming 24 of the 36 slots.  To make matters worse, some of the most vocal criticism of Obama's liberal agenda has been aired by Texas senators and representatives.
 
Obama and Holder are eyeing the 2014 mid-term elections, when they hope to reclaim the House of Representatives.  Republicans hold a 234-200 advantage in House seats.  With half of the House seats up for grabs next year, a Democrat victory would erase all opposition to Obama's radical agenda.

Obama political operatives have created a front organization, called "Battleground Texas," to raise funds, recruit volunteers and register voters in Texas.  Massive amounts of data have been collected by the group to zero in on Hispanics and women, traditional Democrat leaning groups.

Heading the organization are Jeane Brown and Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign's former national field director.  Major fundraising efforts are already underway, including a March event held in Washington, D.C. headlined by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a future gubernatorial candidate.

The effort obviously has the president's support.  Obama made ten trips to Texas, not including fundraisers, from 2009 to the end of last year, according to White House records.  He has already parachuted into the state twice this year to preach the Democrat campaign message.

What makes Obama and Democrats salivate is the decline of the white population in Texas and the growth of the Hispanic demographic.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics now comprise 38.1 percent of the Texas population, an increase from 32 percent in the 2000 census.

A Democrat demographer has forecast Hispanics will become a plurality in Texas as soon 2025. The prediction, based on census data and birth rate statistics, puts the Hispanic share of the population at 44 percent in 12 years.  Whites are estimated to be 38 percent.

However, Hispanic voter turnout in Texas has been traditionally low. In the last presidential election, only 38 percent of Hispanics turned up at the polls.  That compares to 48 percent of Hispanics nationwide.

That explains why Democrats are targeting Hispanics.  The Obama brigade wants to increase registration and voter turnout among this key demographic.    

Republicans are advised not to underestimate the Obama offensive.  The president's agents used the same tactic in Colorado to turn the former red state into a deep blue pocket of liberalism.  In 2007, Democrats took control of the state for the first time in more than 40 years.

The usual suspects have shown up to back the Democrat blitzkrieg in Texas.  Planned Parenthood officials have attended fundraisers. Clinton adviser Paul Begala was a featured speaker at one event. Hispanic community activists are also prominent in the camouflaged operation.

However, whispers of the Democrat cloak-and-dagger operation have reached Texas Republicans.

A  conservative organization, FreedomWorks, has announced plans to lead the fight to mobilize volunteers and activists to counter the Democrat chicanery.  Conservatives had better rally to defeat the president's political machine if they hope to keep taxes low, government small and freedom flourishing in Texas.

If Obama's surrogates succeed, there will be a lot of blue Texans.  

Lessons From A Bankrupt City

Detroit's bankruptcy filing spotlights the power of public sector unions to bully elected officials into voting for lavish retiree pension plans that saddle cities with crushing financial debt.  While Detroit has been the center of media attention, the city's problems are hardly unique.

In a recent report, economists from Rochester University and Stanford estimated that unfunded pension liabilities of cities and state governments are approaching $3 trillion nationwide.  With the economic downturn, more cities and states are hiking taxes in a desperate attempt to play catch-up.

In what has become an all too familiar scenario, public sector unions in the country have browbeat and threatened strikes unless city leaders rubber-stamp retiree pension and health benefit plans that no private business could afford.  Elected officials are often beholden to the unions because they supply bushels of cash and thousands of foot soldiers for their political campaigns.  

That certainly was the case in Detroit, a city dogged by a corrupt political culture controlled by Democrat Party chieftains and greedy unions, most notoriously the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (SFSCME).

Even before the recession, money problems stalked Detroit. The city was unable to dig itself out of its financial hole as thousands fled the inner city to escape soaring crime and spiraling taxes.  The tax base eroded as the population dwindled from 1.8 million in 1950 to its current 701,475.

City tax revenues shriveled, shrinking 30 percent in the last decade. Property taxes have dipped 20 percent since 2008.  As a result, 99,000 housing units stand vacant in the city.  About 40 percent of the streetlights don't work.  Two-thirds of city parks are closed.  Detroit was forced to shutter half of its 142 schools two years ago to ease a $327 million deficit.

Last year, Detroit had the highest rate of violent crime of any city with a population of 200,000 or more, according to statistics contained in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.  There were 411 homicides, the most in nearly two decades. Unemployment languished at 16.3 percent.

As decay worsened, the city went on a borrowing binge.  Unable to service the debt, Detroit leaders finally threw up their hands in surrender when they realized they could not pay $18 billion to more than 100,000 creditors.  The lion's share of that money is owed to the city's retired union workers.

The cash needed to fund the pensions and health benefits for 30,000 retired Detroit workers amounts to $9.2 billion.  City employees were guaranteed lifetime pensions and health benefits by elected officials.  Workers have now discovered those are nothing but empty promises.

Michigan's state constitution protects public sector pensions, a concession wrangled by power-hungry union bosses who bulldozed voters into approving the change.  However, federal bankruptcy rules allow pension changes, setting up a court battle over the issue of state's rights versus federal law.

The case will have far reaching impact on cities teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.  Chicago recently was slapped with a downgrade in its credit rating because the city has a $19 billion unfunded pension liability.  Los Angeles may be facing a pension liability of $30 billion, according to some estimates.

While Detroit is the largest city to file for bankruptcy, it is not the first.  Seven other municipalities have been forced to seek court protection from creditors since 2010.  Not surprisingly, three are California cities (San Bernardino, Mammoth Lakes and Stockton). State and city governments in California have unfunded pension liabilities totaling $329 billion.

Unless elected officials stand up to public sector unions, the problem will worsen.

Don't expect the unions to come to their senses.  In Detroit, the head of the big public sector union (AFSCME) refused to concede an inch. He balked at pension concessions and accused officials of wanting city employees "to have to work until they die."

That kind of union intransigence led to the current state of affairs. The answer is to reduce city and state governments by shaving the public workforce.  It will save not only pensions costs, but trim the city governments bills for health benefits and wages.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration continues to "monitor" the situation in Detroit.  The bet here is that the president will step into the bankruptcy breech to bail out the union.  It would not be far fetched for the president to provide federal loan guarantees or some other scheme to fund the union pensions.

As you recall, Obama did the same thing when he allowed Detroit-headquartered General Motors to bellyflop into bankruptcy, but he confiscated taxpayer dollars to rescue union pensions and benefits. And look how well that turned out for Detroit.

Job Reports: Distortion, Deception and Duplicity

Forget the IRS scandal, the Benghazi betrayal and the NSA spy hijinks. The Obama Administration has taken government skulduggery to a new level with the promulgation of dubious data and reports that conceal the depth of the nation's economic woes.

This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued figures and reports that strained the credibility of the government.  In both cases, a sympathetic media failed in its obligation to do more than simply regurgitate the administration's talking-points.

Print outlets festooned their newspapers with headlines about the creation of 195,000 jobs in June when the BLS published its monthly employment figures.  Hand-picked economic experts hailed the growth as affirmation of the nation's continuing rebound from the recession.

However, with just a modicum of journalistic enterprise, the media could have discovered that part time hiring was the major contributor to the increase in jobs.  Temporary workers, primarily employed at contract firms, now account for 12 percent of the labor force.

The number of temps has skyrocketed by more than 50 percent since President Obama declared the recession ended four years ago. On a net basis, the nation's economy lost a stunning 326,000 full time jobs in June.  Part-time workers now number a record 28 million.

Growth in part-time employment can be attributed to Obamacare, which requires firms with at least 50 workers to offer health insurance or pay a $2,000 fine per employee.  Although the mandate has been delayed for a year, small businesses are holding payrolls to 49 workers or less while farming out work to part-time employees.

Included in the BLS report was the news that unemployment remained steady at 7.6 percent. However, this figure does not count so-called discouraged workers who have given up their search for a job.  They are ignored in the government's official unemployment numbers spoon-fed to the lapdog media.

Excluding these "discouraged" workers makes a significant difference. As of June, that category accounted for 1 million people.  It represents a 20 percent increase from last June and indicates the growing dissatisfaction of people over the lack of job opportunities.

It takes some digging, but the real unemployment figure is buried in the BLS data tables.  Including the "discouraged,"  unemployment in June was 14.3 percent of the workforce. That represents a significant spike from May's figure of 13.8 percent.

But the award for government obfuscation goes to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  The BEA released this month what it called a revised estimate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of the country's economic output.

Their figures showed that the economy expanded at a feeble 1.8 percent in the first quarter.  The original estimate, delivered with much fanfare last month, fixed the number at 2.5 percent.  Later the same month the bureau shaved it to 2.4 percent.  The third revision received scant media notice.

A "revision" of this magnitude--from 2.5 percent to 1.8 percent--is unprecedented.  It merited serious news coverage because it signals a frail, unhealthy economy.  Normal GDP growth for the U.S. has historically been about 3.0 percent.

On the heels of these reports, the Commerce Department this month released figures showing retail spending climbed a paltry 0.4 percent in June.  It is the weakest rise since January.  Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.

What the Obama regime doesn't want you to know is this:  the economic rally has fizzled.  Job growth has stalled, except for part-time employment.  Real unemployment remains stubbornly high. Obamacare is negatively impacting hiring and reducing the number of hours worked by employees.

Despite the ominous signs, Obama appears supremely content to allow the economic decline of the country.  His answer to the crisis is to grow government assistance, adding millions of Americans on the federal rolls for food, disability, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and housing.

None of this is good news for most Americans.  But they deserve an honest appraisal of the nation's economy, not some embellished version adorned with government distortion, deception and duplicity.

How Team Obama Tried To Corrupt Justice

Even before George Zimmerman was saddled with a murder charge, President Obama and his co-conspirators in the media summoned the dark clouds of injustice to construct a narrative to stoke racial anger in an effort to influence the outcome of the investigation.

As the whole world knows by now, a Florida jury found Zimmerman innocent of second degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting of death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, an African-American.  The outcome was greeted with shrill protests by the usual suspects, including the NAACP.

The chain of events that preceded the trial are without precedent. From the time of his arrest, Zimmerman was mercilessly libeled and savagely slandered by a media intent on making the shooting all about race, despite no evidence to support their wretched thesis.

In the frenetic race to promote racial bias, the news media ignored the fact that the FBI interviewed three dozen people in the murder case.  It concluded its investigation by announcing it found "no evidence" of a racial motive in the shooting.  

That didn't stop the The New York Times from raising the specter of white-on-black crime.  To make its case, The Times referred to Zimmerman as "white," although his mother is Hispanic.  

President Obama practiced his own brand of racial prejudice with a mischievous reference designed to place the weight of his office behind the victim.  He infamously proclaimed that if he had a son, he would probably look like Trayvon Martin.

Imagine if George Bush had been president and made the same analogy, but inserted the name George Zimmerman. Indignation from the media and legal community would have boiled over with frothy derision.

Obama's intent was clear.  The president telegraphed prosecutors, judges, the police and potential jurors that he would be looking over their shoulders.  The message was received and the criminal justice system became convinced its mission was to convict Zimmerman at all costs.

The behavior by the prosecutors in the case was so wantonly unethical that even liberals couldn't remain silent.  Harvard Law professor and famed attorney Alan Dershowitz called for the prosecutors to be "disbarred" for misconduct.

In his assessment, Dershowitz was adamant that Zimmerman should not have been charged with second-degree murder because the evidence did not support it.  He pointed out that the prosecutors' attempts to layer on additional charges in the trial's waning stages were "utterly irresponsible."

The incorrigible media also looked the other way while Obama's Department of Justice deployed a secretive group to Florida to help drum up support to prosecute Zimmerman.  The justice agents worked in the shadows to assist in organizing rallies, marches and demonstrations for the victim.

The facts were obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request to Justice.  The department supplied 347 pages of documents, which detail the extraordinary intervention in the run up to the filing of charges against Zimmerman.

The department and its Community Relations Service spent $5,230.88 of taxpayer money to sway public opinion and to build support for prosecution.  To date, Attorney General Eric Holder has stonewalled requests to account for his department's shabby scheme to rig the investigation.

After the jury returned the verdict, the NAACP rushed online with a petition calling for federal prosecution of Zimmerman after the organization expressed "outrage" at the jury's decision.  The group wants the Justice Department to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.

It seems Messrs. Obama and Holder and the NAACP believe justice only works when the system does their bidding.  If it doesn't, then it is a travesty.  Their presumption stems from a bias against the courts, judges and police built on stereotypes held by the race-obsessed in our society.

Barrack Obama was once hailed as the president whose election signaled the end of racism.  The opposite has happened as the president has informed his decision-making by judging America and Americans through a black-and-white lens.

The once anointed unifier is now the divider.