THE ECONOMY CONTINUES TO SLOWLY GROW--RECOVERY MAY NOT BE THE RIGHT WORD--YET
One thing is sure. Whoever is elected president will be able to once again say "I inherited a real mess!" Even if Mitt Romney is elected, his task will be formidable--especially if he ends up with a split Congress (right now, that is a very real possibility). It will take all of his leadership talent to generate positive traction if he must get legislation through Harry Reid and a Democratic Senate. Furthermore, the deficit hangs over the economy like a "sword of Damocles" making everything harder to accomplish. Cutting spending inevitably means putting still more Americans out of work (even if they are government workers), and considering that the government outsources much of its work to the private sector, Federal spending cuts flow through to hit private sector jobs, and non-government growth has to ramp up fast to compensate for that effect.
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THERE IS REASON FOR OPTIMISM--IF THE RIGHT PEOPLE ARE IN CONTROL
Curtailing the "handouts" that are more wasteful or fraudulent is a good starting place. Cutting government employment by attrition and freezing all new hiring is another. IF a new administration comes in, then staffing will be done differently--hopefully better. Even then, don't forget that all those bureaucrats draw paychecks and spend that money, so this will be an economic drag. So will the ending of the Payroll Tax Credit. Defunding many of the parts of Obamacare will help, since it will curtail spending against a plan that needs to be replaced. There is so much redundancy and waste in government, that ("simply"--but nothing is simple in DC) consolidation will allow the necessary work to get done, with fewer people. The problem is that it appears the Democrats will hang onto the Senate Majority--unless a "landslide" (miracle) for Romney happens. They will slow up everything, either out of ignorance or spite.
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GROWTH AND THE VELOCITY OF MONEY IS WHERE THE RECOVERY CAN REALLY HELP
Ipingf business doesn't think they have enemies in DC, they are likely to spend more and hire more. If Romney can take presidential actions to reverse onerous regulations and change the climate for business, American businesses will grow. When he can make other changes (getting Congress on board will take longer)…then more growth initiative will come along. Freeing up the domestic energy industry, approving the Keystone Pipeline, granting permits to drill in public lands where there is no harm will add many jobs. As public money is shut off so it can't squeeze out private investments, some of the trillions of dollars sitting in banks and on company balance sheets will start to flow. However, the key to all of this is to increase the velocity with which money turns through the American economy. The more people who spend it and reinvest it (not paying taxes or complying with tortuous regulations), the more times that money generates growth (and growth-related tax revenue--which is the key to growth and jobs in the American economy.
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POLICY WITH CHINA NEED NOT BE "BELLIGERENT"--JUST VERY FIRM AND UNYIELDING--WE BOTH NEED EACH OTHER--FOR DIFFERENT THINGS
Just as Mitt Romney emphasized the importance of being very firm with Iran on their nuclear weapons development, it is critical to be very firm with China. The Chinese are smart and pragmatic--and tough. They will only come around and start behaving like a global "fair trader" if they see that their bad (favoring them, not us) behavior will not be tolerated. A few countervailing duties on their favorite, high value exports, will go a long way to getting that message across. Americans cannot and do not want to work for the low wages that Chinese workers will accept, to do menial jobs. Similarly, low wage agricultural jobs in the farming areas (Southern) US are also going unfilled, since states like AL have cracked down on undocumented (illegal) workers.
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GROWTH REQUIRES BETTER TRAINED WORKERS--AND THAT IS BEST DONE LOCALLY (EVEN INDUSTRY SPECIFIC), NOT NATIONALLY
People can freely move, but not if they have families or property that they are unable to leave behind where they are now. Jobs training is very industry, and geography specific. Education is the foundation, but jobs require appropriate training, beyond what our secondary schools provide. Trade Schools and Apprenticeship programs used to fill these nicely until the myth that "everyone deserves a college education" was created. Not everyone wants … or can handle … or needs a college education. Trades people need to know how to connect pipes and wires and build and repair things using their hands and their training. They don't need to be able to explain the physics behind water, sewer, heating, electrical and mechanical systems. They will need to learn how to use increasingly sophisticated electronic devices (tablets, smart phones, meters and computers, since these are now as essential as wrenches and pliers.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEBATE COMING UP, COULD BE A BIGGIE…
The Obama administration did pretty well on foreign affairs while it kept the Bush people and policies in place. After the "Apology Tour" by Obama, his foreign policy has continued to decay and now appears to be unraveling totally--at least as far as the Middle East/Africa is concerned. This is a part of the world where there is often no "good" group or leader to be afflicted with--just the "least bad one." This was clearly the case years ago in Afghanistan. The countries in the Middle East, and the militants who either control them or aspire to do so, simply consider the Obama pacifist, appeasement as a sign of weakness and vulnerability. If anyone doubts that, Egypt and Libya has proven it this past month. Once a group gets away with something terrorist-like, others are emboldened. But no one can convince Obama of the error of his ways--he's in the middle of a campaign and he simply cannot afford to be as wrong as he was in Libya!
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THE LIBYA COVERUP IS GAINING SOME TRACTION, AS MORE INFORMATION COMES OUT--OBAMA & BIDEN EITHER LIED, HID THE TRUTH (OR WERE IRRESPONSIBLE) AND MISLED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
There was an hour-long special Friday night on Fox News, which revealed a lot more about this terrorist attack and how it developed. If you missed it, go looking for it: Death and Denial in Benghazi was the title (I think).
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CHARACTER INSIGHTS: A SNAPSHOT OF HOW OUR "CARING" PRESIDENT TREATS OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS' FAMILIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npj4qYaFbKg&feature=plcp (Not verified, but received from a good source.)
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ONE OF OBAMA'S "MISDIRECTIONS"--AN EXCELLENT (BUT LONG) EXPLANATION OF THE LILLY LEDBETTER ACT AND ANOTHER OBAMA "MISDIRECTION"
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AND THEY MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF ROMNEY'S USE OF THE TERM "BINDERS OF WOMEN" INSTEAD OF "BINDERS OF WOMEN'S RESUMES!"
What crap this president and his cronies are pulling. He's riding the success of the stock market, and the misstated unemployment drop, and most of all the dependent masses he has placed in his debt. That group of Americans is the biggest problem in the upcoming election.
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AN UNLIKELY ENDORSEMENT FOR MITT ROMNEY--THE OBSERVER IS NORMALLY A LEFT LEANING PUBLICATION!
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THAT'S ENOUGH FOR ONE WEEK. WATCH THE DEBATE MONDAY NIGHT WITH YOUR FINGERS CROSSED.
FIND EVERYONE YOU CAN THAT IS FOR ROMNEY AND MAKE SURE THEY GET TO THE POLLS AND VOTE--IF YOU HAVE TO PICK THEM UP AND TAKE THEM THERE.
Stay tuned for more excitement…
BEST, JOHN
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