🚀 go-pugleaf

An ad from the Romney campaign mocks President Obama�s proposal to
create a �Secretary of Business,� but misrepresents the president�s
proposal.
 
The ad says that �his solution to everything is to add another
bureaucrat.� But in fact, Obama�s plan actually seeks to consolidate
more than a half dozen agencies, trim the federal workforce by as many
as 1,000 to 2,000 employees and save $3 billion. In short, it
specifically seeks to reduce bureaucracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mFH2fowIc0Q

According to the narrator in the video: �Barack Obama says he may
appoint a Secretary of Business. His solution to everything is to add
another bureaucrat. Why not have a president who actually understands
business? � Mitt Romney understands business, knows how to create jobs
and get our economy moving.�
 
The ad is a response to a comment that President Obama made in an Oct.
29 interview on MSNBC�s �Morning Joe� show (ironically in the context
of talking about initiatives he thinks could garner bipartisan
support). As the full comments make clear, Obama�s proposal to create
a secretary of business is part of a plan to consolidate several
federal programs in order to eliminate some bureaucracy.

Romney reiterated the campaign ad�s jab in a speech in Roanoke, Va.,
on Nov. 1 (later passed around by the Romney campaign in a press
release), saying that Obama is �trying to figure out some way to
suggest he�s got some new ideas� and that he �came up with an idea
last week, which is he�s going to create the department of business.�
 
�We don�t need a secretary of business to understand business,� Romney
said. �We need a president who understands business, and I do.�
 
It�s not true that Obama �came up with [the] idea last week.� Back in
January, Obama called on Congress to reinstate the president�s
authority to reorganize the government and announced that his first
action with that power would be to consolidate six agencies � U.S.
Department of Commerce�s core business and trade functions, the Small
Business Administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative,
the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation,
and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency � into one department �to
promote competitiveness, exports and American business.�
 
�For too long, overlapping responsibilities among agencies have made
it harder, rather than easier, for our small businesses to interact
with their government,� according to a White House press release.
�Those redundancies have also led to unnecessary waste and
duplication.�
 
The White House plan came after a March 2011 report from the
Government Accountability Office � titled �Opportunities to Reduce
Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and
Enhance Revenue� � found a number of redundant and overlapping
government programs including 52 programs in four agencies � Commerce,
HUD, SBA and USDA  � that can fund �entrepreneurial efforts.� (page
42)
 
The White House says it expects its plan will save $3 billion over 10
years, with 1,000 to 2,000 positions eliminated through attrition.
 
In February, Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman and Democratic Sen. Mark
Warner introduced the Reforming and Consolidating Government Act of
2012.
 
�Any plan a president proposes under this legislation must decrease
the number of executive agencies and result in cost savings,�
Lieberman told the Washington Post in March.
 
Obama�s plan got at least some bipartisan support. The Washington Post
story quoted Republican Sen. Tom Coburn as saying that he was �fully
supporting the president�s idea.� Nevertheless, while hearings were
held on the bill, it stalled in committee.
 
Some may take issue with Obama�s plan to add another Cabinet-level
position for a secretary of business � as the Wall Street Journal�s
editorial board did on Oct. 29 � but to mock it as simply �add[ing]
another bureaucrat,� ignores the very intent of Obama�s plan, which
seeks to consolidate redundant government programs and shrink
government bureaucracy.

http://factcheck.org/2012/11/campaign-funny-business/

On 11/2/2012 12:11 PM, TheWatcher@here.now wrote:
> Whoppers of 2012
> The biggest falsehoods from the presidential campaign.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/28/father_of_navy_seal_killed_in_libya_a_pack_of_lies_from_the_obama_administration.html

WOODS: This news that he disobeyed his orders does not surprise me. My 
son was an American hero. And he had the moral strength to do what was 
right, even if that would professionally cost him his job, even if it 
would potentially cost him his life. He was a hero who was willing to do 
whatever was necessary, to respond to their cries for help. If, in fact, 
those people from the White House were as courageous and had the moral 
strength that my son, Ty, had, immediately, within minutes of when they 
found there was the first attack, they would have sent, they would have 
given permission, not denied permission for those C130s to have gone up 
there {�] I don�t know much about weapons, but it�s coming out right now 
that they actually had laser targets focused on the mortars that were 
being sent to kill my son and they refused to pull the trigger, they 
refused to send those C30s.

To me, I�m an attorney. This may not be the legal test of murder, but to 
me, that is not only cowardice, but those people who made the decision 
and who knew about this decision and lied about it � are murderers of my 
son. That is a very strong statement for me to make, but for their 
benefit, they need to clear their conscience. They need to stand up and 
they need to change the direction of their lives. I want to say right 
now, you know who you are. I totally forgive you, but I hope years from 
now, you change the direction of your life.

KELLY: Charlie, do you feel like you are getting straight answers from 
the administration on this?

WOODS: This is all a pack of lies. That is one thing as the father whose 
son who was killed, I do not appreciate lies. I do not appreciate 
cowardice, and I do not appreciate lies. I�m a loving person. I love my 
son and I want to honor him, and I hope I�m not speaking too strongly, 
but I am very glad the facts are coming out right now. The reason I am 
even speaking up, our family had made the decision not to say anything, 
but after the facts came out that in real-time, the White House, minutes 
after the first bullet was fired, they watched my son, they denied his 
pleas for help. My son violated his orders in order to protect the lives 
of at least 30 people. He risked his life to be a hero. I wish that 
leadership in the White House had that same level of moral courage and 
heroism that my son displayed with his life.

On 11/2/2012 12:15 PM, TheWatcher@here.now wrote:
> An ad from the Romney campaign mocks President Obama�s proposal to
> create a �Secretary of Business,�

He already HAS a secretary of Commerce, you unrelenting statist enemy of 
the people!

http://online.wsj.com/

The brain trust behind President Obama's re-election campaign has a new 
idea, and what a revelation it is. A week from Election Day, Mr. Obama 
has disclosed to the voters that in a second term he'll create more 
private jobs by creating . . . one more government job.

Specifically, and all of a sudden, Mr. Obama wants a new Cabinet-level 
post that will be known as the Secretary of Business. "I've said I want 
to consolidate a whole bunch of government agencies," he said Monday, in 
a performance that captured his Presidency in miniature. "We should have 
one Secretary of Business, instead of nine different departments that 
are dealing with things like getting loans to SBA [the Small Business 
Administration] or helping companies with exports. There should be a 
one-stop shop."

Mr. Obama then blamed Republicans for opposing this inspiration that no 
one had ever heard of until he disclosed it to the hosts of MSNBC's 
"Morning Joe." He said his re-election "clears away a lot of the 
ideological underbrush," and that the GOP will then join him to "start 
looking at a whole bunch of issues, as I've said, has historically not 
been that ideological."

Mr. Obama said Republicans haven't wanted to streamline government 
because they're supposedly "protective about giving up their 
jurisdiction over various pieces of government." This will be news to 
Paul Ryan and the tea party.

Maybe Republicans would have opposed the Secretary of Business if they'd 
learned about it somewhere besides cable news, but who knows? The 
reasons could include turf, but also the fact that the government 
already has an agency with a "focus on expanding the American economy 
and job creation" and that "invests in America's long-term growth and 
competitiveness"

It's called the Department of Commerce, with its very own Secretary, and 
the quotes in the preceding paragraph are how the White House describes 
its mission in its 2013 budget. Mr. Obama wants to expand Commerce 
spending by 5% to some $8 billion annually. Extra credit goes to anyone 
who can name the acting Commerce Secretary. No Googling.

Perhaps nobody knows who Rebecca M. Blank is because the real Secretary 
of Business in Mr. Obama's first term has been Valerie Jarrett, his Hyde 
Park confidante turned White House fixer. Ms. Jarrett knows nothing 
about business or the economy, with the possible exception of the 
political economy of the Chicago wards, which may explain why the 
Administration's idea of helping business has been to dispense subsidies 
and other favors to politically favored donors and their green energy firms.

As for real CEOs, they started out giving the President the benefit of 
the doubt but grew disillusioned as Mr. Obama unleashed a torrent of new 
regulations and pursued his liberal social agenda instead of nurturing 
an economic recovery.

As CEO complaints grew, the White House famously challenged the Business 
Roundtable and Business Council to identify pending rules that were 
harming job creation and economic growth. The lobbies responded in 
summer 2010 with a 54-page compendium, but they got no substantive 
response. Even after Republicans took the House in 2010, the White House 
did virtually nothing as Mr. Obama chose to campaign for re-election as 
the populist scourge of rapacious capitalists.

But now, after four years, he wants a Secretary of Business. Believe it.

Hawaiian Whopper

An ad by Republican Senate candidate Linda Lingle in the Aloha State
is telling a real whopper � about us.
 
Her ad says that FactCheck.org rated a claim made by her opponent as
�the worst political deception of the year,� and it shows our logo
with a headline reading �Whopper of the Year.� The fact is we have
never run a headline saying that, and have never singled out any one
political falsehood as the worst.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wlqFHkfxwLs

Lingle�s ad takes aim at a claim made in an ad by Rep. Mazie Hirono,
her Democratic opponent � that Lingle�s plan would turn Medicare �into
a private-insurance voucher program that could raise seniors�
out-of-pocket health care costs over $6,000.�
 
It�s true that we�ve criticized such claims when made by President
Obama and other Democrats. And it�s also true that we have included
that claim among several Democratic and Republican �Whoppers of 2012�
� although that was an article we posted Oct. 31, several days after
Lingle�s ad started, and it was not on our list in 2011 as the Lingle
ad claims. Nor was it the �Lie of the Year� that our friends at
PolitiFact.com singled out in December 2011, if that is what the
Lingle campaign was thinking.
 
�Whopper of the Year�?
 
On Oct. 15, the Hirono campaign released a TV ad comparing Lingle�s
Medicare plan to one proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, and embraced by GOP
presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
 
The ad says, �Mitt Romney and Linda Lingle, turning Medicare into a
private-insurance voucher program that could raise seniors�
out-of-pocket health care costs over $6,000.�

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LR1egXAeCI&feature=player_embedded

The Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare involves giving future Medicare
beneficiaries the option of choosing either traditional Medicare or a
private health insurance option through a health care exchange. The
beneficiaries would buy their insurance with the help of a
�premium-support payment� from the federal government. Lingle has said
that her Medicare Choice plan for beneficiaries would work in a very
similar fashion.
 
But the claim that this could raise seniors� health care costs �over
$6,000? is based on a Congressional Budget Office analysis of Ryan�s
2011 proposal, which is now outdated. The current Romney-Ryan plan
ties the government subsidies to the cost of the second-cheapest plan,
which can�t rise faster than GDP plus 0.5 percent. That�s a more
generous offering than Ryan�s original proposal. And while the CBO
said that it was possible �beneficiaries might face higher costs�
under the new plan, it didn�t attempt to say how much due to some
uncertainty.
 
In response, the Lingle campaign released an ad saying that Hirono�s
claim had been labeled the �worst political deception of the year.�
The citation for that claim is our �The Whoppers of 2011� article. But
the campaign got ahead of itself because the claim about the potential
for rising health care costs for seniors was not on our list in 2011.
It made our list of the �Whoppers of 2012, Final Edition,� which was
published more than a week after the Lingle ad first aired on Oct. 20.
Democrats� claim that Republicans would �end Medicare� made our 2011
list, which is a completely different claim.
 
Furthermore, we didn�t call either claim the �worst political
deception of the year,� or the �whopper of the year,� as the ad
suggests that we did. Our whoppers lists are a roundup of the most
egregious claims during a campaign season. We don�t single out one
particular claim over another.
 
The Lingle ad also repeats the misleading claim that the Affordable
Care Act, which Hirono voted for, cuts Medicare funding by $716
billion. The �cuts� are actually reductions in the future growth of
Medicare spending � not benefits � over a 10-year period. The Obama
administration hopes to achieve its goal by reducing the growth of
payment levels to hospitals as well as Medicare Advantage. Those
spending reductions are projected to extend Medicare�s solvency
through 2024.

Republican Mailers Mislead in New Mexico

New Mexico�s Republican Party misleads in two mailers attacking the
state�s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, two-term Rep. Martin
Heinrich.
 �One mailer states that �New Mexico workers have a jobs problem.� But
the state�s unemployment rate is 6.4 percent, well below the national
rate, or the 8 percent figure the flier displays.
 �Another flier claims that Heinrich voted for the Bush-era tax cuts
to expire for �everyone.� Heinrich actually supported a bill that
preserved the tax cuts for everyone except high-income taxpayers. What
he opposed was a compromise measure that also extended the tax cuts
for those at the top.
 �The same mailer claims: �Raising taxes, as Heinrich wants to do,
would cost another 4,300 jobs in New Mexico.� That prediction is based
on a business-backed study that assumes the government will increase
spending if it lets tax cuts expire for high-income taxpayers.
Heinrich said he wants to reduce the deficit with that money, a course
of action the study did not examine.
 �A mailer fails to tell the whole story when it claims Heinrich�s
vote for the stimulus allowed insurance company AIG to award executive
bonuses using bailout money. Heinrich never had a chance to vote up or
down on the bonus issue. A Senate version of the stimulus bill banned
AIG from awarding bonuses. But that ban was removed before the bill
returned to the House for final passage.
 
Heinrich holds an eight-point lead over Republican opponent Heather
Wilson, according to the Albuquerque Journal�s latest poll. Wilson
previously held Heinrich�s seat in Congress, serving five terms before
she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2008. Heinrich and
Wilson are vying for the seat held by Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico�s
senior U.S. senator, who is retiring.
 
Jamie Dickerman, communications director for the Republican Party of
New Mexico, told us in an email that the organization �stands behind
the facts presented and the citations given� in the mailers.
 
Our thanks to Allen Stenger of Alamogordo, N.M., who uploaded the
mailers to our Spin Detectors page, through which we ask our readers
to help us monitor political claims and campaigns across the country.
Stenger, who is active in his local chamber of commerce, said he knew
the mailer misled when it claimed that New Mexico has a �jobs problem�
but cited the national unemployment rate.

On 11/2/2012 12:21 PM, TheWatcher@here.now wrote:
> Hawaiian Whopper

Or why Obama knows he's out of office come January 2013:

http://www.wnd.com/2012/09/secret-retirement-plans-does-obama-expect-to-lose/

SECRET RETIREMENT PLANS: DOES OBAMA EXPECT TO LOSE?

Insider reveals internal polls, luxury Hawaii estate ready for January

Are Obama insiders secretly making retirement plans for the Obamas with 
the expectation the president will lose his bid for re-election in November?

Very quietly, Obama�s chief financier, Penny Pritzker, has entered the 
Hawaii housing market to buy a retirement home for the president and his 
family that will be available not in 2016, but in January 2013, 
according to a confidential source within Pritzker�s Chicago organization

Pritzker, a wealthy Chicago business executive and heiress to the Hyatt 
Hotels fortune, served as national finance chairman for Obama�s 2008 
campaign and is the co-chairman of his 2012 effort.

The source told WND that highly confidential internal polls conducted by 
the Obama campaign indicate Obama cannot win re-election, despite public 
surveys that show him in the lead.

�The public polls are mostly political,� the source argued. �Obama 
radicals want Romney supporters to feel discouraged and give up. Truth 
is that Romney�s winning.�

Fed up with Obama? Get your personally autographed copy of the New York 
Times bestseller �Fool Me Twice� exclusively from WND!

The source further told WND that Pritzker is experiencing frustration in 
her fundraising efforts, as wealthy donors who contributed generously to 
Obama in 2008 are not even returning her phone calls.

The source said Pritzker is �reminding everyone how generous to their 
supporters the Clintons were when they left office.�

�Everything is for sale. Ambassadorships, government grants, stimulus 
money � you name it,� the source told WND.

�There�s nearly three months between the Nov. 6 election and the Jan. 20 
inauguration � plenty of time to hand out goodies to friends from the 
Oval Office.�

Aloha

Pritzker is telling potential donors that the Obamas have no intention 
of returning to Chicago when they leave the White House, according to 
the source.

On 11/2/2012 12:25 PM, john@rhosos.not wrote:
> Republican Mailers Mislead in New Mexico

So as an Arizona RVr you think this belongs in any of these other groups?

Here, a clue : nm.general, nm.ads, nm.jobs

HTH

HAND


...you paid Dem shill....

On 11/2/2012 12:25 PM, john@rhosos.not wrote:
>   New Mexico has a �jobs problem�

So does the entire nation - thanks to OBAMA!

http://online.wsj.com/

Negative $4,019
The Obama years have been brutal on middle-class incomes.

In January 2009, the month President Obama entered the Oval Office and 
shortly before he signed his stimulus spending bill, median household 
income was $54,983. By June 2012, it had tumbled to $50,964, adjusted 
for inflation. (See the chart nearby.) That's $4,019 in lost real 
income, a little less than a month's income every year.