From Zero Hedge: Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise, of which debt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day.
It also means that total US debt to nominal GDP as of Sept 30, which was $17.555 trillion, is now 103%. Keep in mind this GDP number was artificially increased by about half a trillion dollars a year ago thanks to the “benefit” of R&D and intangibles. Without said definitional change, debt/GDP would now be about 106%.
It also means that total US debt has increased by 70% under Obama, from $10.625 trillion on January 21, 2009 to $18.005 trillion most recently.
And now we wait for the US to become Spain, and add the estimated “contribution” from hookers and blow to GDP, once again pushing the total debt/GDP ratio below the psychological 100% level. Read more at Zero Hedge.
The White House has argued that President Obama’s executive amnesty order last week was made well within the existing law. But in remarks in Chicago tonight, President Obama went off script and admitted that in fact he unilaterally made changes to the law[2:22 in video].
Obama Admits: ‘I Just Took Action to Change the Law’
The Constitution gives the President of the United States ZERO POWER to make or changes laws. Maybe this is where President ZERO gets the idea he’s the only one allowed to do it? He did say that no Republican president after him should ever, Ever, EVER do what HE JUST DID!
Obama says we should be more like other countries, right? Well … only FIFTEEN PERCENT of the nations in the world grant citizenship just for being born within the borders! It is understandable that the wide open territories of the Americas would have had this rule, but we’re not there any more, are we? No nation in Europe allows jus soli. Why should we?
“Jus soli (Latin: right of the soil) is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship. As an unconditional basis for citizenship, it is the predominant rule in the Americas, but is rare elsewhere. … A study in 2010 found that only 30 of the world’s 194 countries grant citizenship at birth to the children of undocumented foreign residents.”
At a news briefing on Nov. 19, 2014, White House press secretary Josh Earnest claimed that President George H.W. Bush “expanded the family fairness program to cover more than 1.5 million unauthorized spouses and children. This represented about 40 percent of the undocumented population at the time.”
During an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” on Nov. 23, 2014, President Obama claimed, “If you look, every president — Democrat and Republican — over decades has done the same thing. George H.W. Bush — about 40 percent of the undocumented persons, at the time, were provided a similar kind of relief as a consequence of executive action.”
Much of the news media has repeated this “Bush did the same thing!” meme as “fact”, but it turns out that what Bush did fell far short of handing out free passes to 40% of all illegal aliens
The landmark 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act allowed nearly 3 million illegal immigrants to gain legal permanent residency. However, under typical immigrant patterns, families tend to not all arrive all together.
Thus some family members were able to qualify under the 1986 act while other members faced deportation. President Reagan first eased the rules to allow minor children to stay; in 1990, President Bush extended this to cover older children and spouses.
These new rules did not apply to all illegal aliens, but only to those with an adult member who had qualified for legal permanent residency. And they did not make legal residents of those who qualified; it merely allowed them to keep their families together as they moved through the naturalization process legally.
Over the next four years, only about 150,000 people applied for this special status.
Barack Obama’s slavishly uncritical media cannot turn
“illegal spouses and children of legal immigrants” into
“anybody Obama wants to turn into a new Democrat voter”
From SooperMexican:
I’m so old I still remember when comedians said Obama was just so venerable they couldn’t find anything about him to make fun of. How far we’ve come. In this week’s Saturday Night Live, the cold open features a retelling of the Schoolhouse Rock lesson on how a bill becomes a law now that Obama has forced an unconstitutional executive order on immigration!
The White House announced it is forging ahead with its fascistic EPA “climate” regulations AND taunting Republicans, saying there’s little they can do to stop it.
In other words, their response to our voting in a Republican majority is “Fuck You.”
Clearly, the Empty Suit’s disdain for us has in no way been diminished by having his butt kicked earlier this month.
McConnell noted, “They’ve been on a rampage all across the country. And I think coal is the most conspicuous example, but it’s happening in a lot of other areas and I think you’re going to see bipartisan support for trying to rein them in.”
Although we won’t have a veto-proof majority, passing bills and forcing Obama to veto them will keep this crap tied up and in the headlines. We also have the courts, where the EPA’s authority to limit emissions have been and will likely continue to be challenged.
Trey Gowdy (R-SC) was on Bill O’Reilly’s TV show to discuss the potential of the President’s signing an executive order giving amnesty to illegal aliens, bypassing Congress and effectively making his own law. O’Reilly then brought up the idea of impeachment and Gowdy’s response was priceless.
Here’s the key part of the exchange:
O’Reilly: [Judge] Napolitano claims it’s unconstitutional and impeachable, do you see anybody going down that road in the House?
Gowdy: Um, have you met Joe Biden? That’s my response to that, so no.
Nov 15, 2014: Trey Gowdy on Bill O’Reilly
Gowdy went further to give additional reasons why impeachment is not a good idea:
It’s a punishment, not a remedy.
Talk about impeachment is from the President and his allies, effectively a bait that Republicans won’t take.
So if Obama tries to create a new amnesty law via Executive Order (a tool meant for him to manage HIS OWN STAFF), he will have a fight on his hands, but Gowdy at least will not be yelling for impeachment.
Megyn Kelly laid out the four options she sees for a GOP response to Obama writing new laws all by his little lonesome.
With President Obama’s executive action on immigration all but certain by year’s end, Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Thursday laid out four options from which Republicans could choose in an attempt to stop him:
1. A lawsuit. Having already said “See you in court,” House Speaker John Boehner could opt to sue Obama over executive overreach. While legal scholars disagree as to whether such a lawsuit would be successful – and if so, it could drag out for years – the option is on the table.
2, Impeachment. While some Republicans have threatened to impeach Obama should he issue an executive action, this option would likely backfire. It would further divide the country, and more than likely, further alienate the GOP from independents and moderate Democrats.
3. Deny funding for the executive order. Various Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Sessions, who will become the new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee in January, have threatened to block funding for any executive order on immigration. This option would most likely result, to a lesser extent, in the same consequences as those of impeachment.
4. “Punish” Obama by blocking judicial nominees. Of all options, this one seems almost childish: “You did something we didn’t want you to do, so we’re going to do this completely-unrelated thing to you!” When has tit-for-tat ever made a bad situation better?
The bottom line is this: If we’ve learned anything from this President over the last six years, it’s that he’s going to do what he’s going to do – regardless of the consequences.
Moreover, while Republicans and others will continue to puff out their chests and threaten this and that, Obama will most likely not only get his way, it will improve his standing (and that of Democrats in general) among the liberal base. After all, isn’t that really what this is all about?
In Brisbane Australia, President Obama clumsily told Fox News’ Ed Henry that he ‘just heard about’ the controversy over Jonathan Gruberwhom he described as ‘some adviser who never worked on our staff.’
Tweets:
Apparently, he doesn’t talk with his press secretary, who answered questions about Gruber earlier this week.
So the White House paid “some adviser who never worked on our staff” $400,000 a year for what, exactly?
“I just heard about this” Obama. IRS targeting conservatives, DOJ spying on journalists, Gruber, Veterans Affairs scandal, Fast and Furious.
Ok, *now* it’s an official Obama scandal.
“Some adviser” Gruber visited White House officials 19 times; on July 20, 2009, with Obama in person.
Sergeant Schultz, “I know nothing.”
Top Obama adviser, David Axelrod, has chosen the Monty Python spin
Fox Airs New Gruber Video: Voters ‘Too Stupid to Understand the Difference’ [3:43]
Nov 2014: FOX News’ Megyn Kelly reports on the Gruber videos. Note how in the second Gruber video he is wearing a microphone. So much for his “off the cuff remark” spin.
“This bill was written explicitly so CBO would not score the mandate as taxes.” Yet when the bill landed at the Supreme Court, the Democrats were suddenly very much on board with, “Yes, it’s a tax.” Because if it wasn’t a tax, then Congress had no right to pass it!
“Credible, unbiased sources” … NOT! The administration paid Gruber $400,000 to pimp the bill. Obama used Gruber’s fakey language to “prove” the 2013 Lie of the Year that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”
3 Jonathan Gruber Videos: Americans “Too Stupid to Understand” [2:08]
“Clever exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter.” Note again that two of these three show him speaking while walking around in front of chalk boards with microphones. The backgrounds are similar, but his ties and microphones are different, so it’s clearly two separate presentations.
2014: Pelosi denies knowing who Jonathan Gruber is [2:04]
“His comments are a year old.” So WHAT?! He was talking about what he had done FIVE years before.
“9.5 million people will have health insurance who didn’t before.” This ignores
the FACT that 5+ million taxpaying American citizens who LOST policies they liked and wanted to keep and/or have had huge hikes in premium and deductibles.
the FACT that a huge percentage of these new enrollees are not taxpayers, are not paying premiums and/or are not even in the US legally,
the FACT that many uninsured Americans (like my husband) still cannot afford a policy, but now are being FINED for not having one!
TRY sneaking into Canada or Mexico and demanding they provide you with free health care. Go ahead, Nancy. Try it. I dare you.
2009: Pelosi tells Americans to read Gruber’s ObamaCare analysis [2:04]
So much for “I don’t know who he is”(at 1:00) …
Jonathan Gruber was used by the Democrats to pimp the bill; what was not revealed was that the man was being PAID by the WH to do so! Democrats knew the bill was horrible; that’s why they had to LIE and CHEAT to get it passed. That’s why Nancy Pelosi once said we had to PASS the bill so we could “find out what’s in it” [:53]
Remember when Obama promised ALL legislation would be online before Congress voted, so Americans could read it and tell their representatives what they thought about it? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
February 18, 2011: For a real life peek at just how arrogant Leftists are, watch Chairman Mark Larson (D-Burlington) read a letter from a Vermont constituent concerned about a single-payer system and the mockery of that ensues. (Keep in mind that every single thing this constituent cited has been proven again and again wherever single-payer has been tried.) Gruber snarks about the list of concerns: “Was this written by my adolescent children by any chance?” More laughter.
WASHINGTON, D.C.[DuffelBlog] — President Obama updated the White House’s relationship with the Military to “it’s complicated” on Facebook yesterday.
Citing differences of opinion with top military leaders, the president told reporters he wanted to “see other security advisers” but he wasn’t prepared to completely sever his relationship with top military brass.
“I just feel like we’re growing apart,” President Obama told Duffel Blog. “I think we both know this has been building for awhile. We’ve had some good times. We’ve had some bad times. But with the election and stuff, I think it’s time we just take a step back and re-evaluate the relationship and our expectations of each other, while leaving the door open for the future.”
White House Spokesman Josh Earnest later clarified that the president and top brass would still “hook up” when the need arose. “Basically,” Earnest said, “the relationship still allows for a ‘boots call,’ if the president needs some.”
Top military leaders apparently had no idea this was coming. Adm. James A. Winnefeld, Jr., reportedly iMessaged the president, “Wait. What?! You asshole! You didn’t even have the balls to tell us in person?! I can’t believe you would do this over Facebook where everyone can see without talking to us first!!!!!!!!!!”
“(>_<),” he added.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (@HagelParty) expressed his dismay via Twitter, “Typical. Glad HE knew this was building. I didn’t. #obummer #greyhairdontcare”
polination.blog 