18 things to know before you vote

The following is an email that has been sent to me somewhere in the neighborhood of a half dozen times from various people. Read first, then after the row of asterisks, my thoughts.

#1 Today there are 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment.  That is an all-time record high.

#2 When Barack Obama was elected, the percentage of unemployed Americans that had been out of work for more than 52 weeks was less than 15%.  Today, it is above 30%.

#3 There are 1.2 million fewer jobs in America today than there were when Barack Obama was inaugurated.

#4 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million.  Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.

#5 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hovering close to an all-time record high.

#6 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent.

#7 Since Barack Obama has been president, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has increased by 90 percent.

#8 Since Barack Obama has been president, home values in the United States have declined by another 13 percent.

#9 Under Barack Obama, new home sales in the U.S. set a brand new all-time record low in 2009, they set a brand new all-time record low again in 2010, and they set a brand new all-time record lowonce again during 2011.

#10 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by more than 6 million.

#11 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to46 million.

#12 The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

#13 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in "extreme poverty" is now sitting at an all-time high.

#14 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850.  Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1700 an ounce.

#15 Since Barack Obama became president, the size of the U.S. national debt has increased by 44 percent.

#16 During Barack Obama's first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

#17 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

#18 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average ofmore than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

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Any Dems who happen by will have the instamatic unstoppable reaction of how the economy tanked under Bush.

At which point any Repubs who stop by will point out the economy was booming under Bush when he had a Repub Congress, but when the Dems got control of Congress spending skyrocketed, the economy tanked, etc.

And then when Obama had a Dem Congress he wrecked our economy for centuries just as his hero FDR had done before him. 

As an aside, earlier today I was pointing out it was a coin toss who was the worst Pres of all time, FDR or Obama. Both brought us destructive entitlement programs that will never go away and that our descendents will be paying the price for as long as this country exists. 

As much as I despise FDR, that was unfair to him. People who lived through it say he brought hope to this country in the early years of WWII. 

With all that said...while there are accuracies to some of the numbers above, like most statistics there are deceptions as well.

Take #17. Washington had a secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, who actually had this country in the black. Unlike the economic assassins we have in politics these days, he had the good sense to know the government should be neither in the black nor the red, that they should have just enough to efficiently run the essential business of the country. 

Instead of taking more, more, more, he took less and kept the budget close to net zero.

But more to the point...think about how much money existed in the United States at that time compared to today.

Yes, the deficit is a horrific, ruinous, out of control monstrosity that is a millstone around the neck of every working, tax-paying person in this country. And when it goes to support immorality, non-workers, people gaming the system, pork-filled Federal projects, etc. it compounds the problem.

I have felt that pain. I have gotten raises that cost me money because the raise jumped me into the next tax bracket...and was less than the extra amount I paid in taxes. Meanwhile the minimum wage raised again, and when it did gas prices went up, bread, milk, egg prices went up, food at McDonalds went up...I ended up making more gross money than ever before but bringing home less, while watching people I knew were living exclusively on welfare walking around in brand spanking new Air Jordans, driving new cars, eating better than I was...and these were people I knew personally and knew my hard work was supporting. Clinton, you still suck. 

With that aside, the truth is there is more money in the country than ever before also. So yes, the budget must be brought back into control...and yes, Obama is spending money at a ruinous rate (with, it must be pointed out, the connivance of his Republican "foes" and the help of a thankfully ousted Destructocrat Congress), but the numbers appear larger than their relative difference.

I think the real nugget above is #13.

The Democrats are alleged to be "the party of the poor". Yet it was under their watch with majorities in Congress and the sitting Pres that the poorest of the poor became the largest group it had ever been.

Of course, the more clever among us will note that is tracking income...and that "the elderly" who presumably are retired and living off their savings are included. 

The funny part is I have actually had my living conditions improve under the current Demo-Pres/Repub Con make-up. Of course, that is in no small part because the place I now work does really well in bad economic times; when people cannot afford a house, they rent and when they rent, apartments get built in huge numbers. What is bad for the people in general is great for me...

Speaking of which, I note that Mortgage Applications are down yet again, but homes are selling quickly. This just in; math is not the best subject for USA students...fewer people are buying more houses...very interesting, Doctor Jones.

In the end, if you read between the lines, this rant is an indictment of both political parties. Both are destructive and yet, somehow, the country keeps chugging along. 

Vote all the bums out in their next election. Not one incumbent should survive the next election. Neither party should survive the decade. Lets have real change we can believe in; real people instead of politicians running the country.