Cliff jumping with Obama

Why are Republicans playing the Democrats' game that the "fiscal cliff" is all about taxation?

House Speaker John Boehner already made the preemptive concession of agreeing to raise revenues. But the insistence on doing so by eliminating deductions without raising marginal rates is now the subject of fierce Republican infighting.

Where is the other part of President Barack Obama's vaunted "balanced approach"? Where are the spending cuts, both discretionary and entitlement: Medicare, Medicaid and now Obamacare (the health care trio) and Social Security?

Social Security is the easiest to solve. So you get a sense of the Democrats' inclination to reform entitlements when Dick Durbin, the Senate Democrats' No. 2, says Social Security is off the table because it "does not add a penny to our deficit."

This is absurd. In 2012, Social Security adds $165 billion to the deficit. Democrats pretend that Social Security is covered through 2033 by its trust fund. Except that the trust fund is a fiction, a mere "bookkeeping" device, as the Office of Management and Budget itself has written. The trust fund's IOUs "do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits." Future benefits "will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures."

And draining the Treasury, as 10,000 baby boomers retire every day. Yet that's off the table. And on Wednesday, the president threw down the gauntlet by demanding tax hikes now — with spending cuts to come next year. Meaning, until after Republicans have fallen on their swords, given up the tax issue and forfeited their political leverage.

Ronald Reagan once fell for a "tax now, cut later" deal that he later deeply regretted. Dems got the tax; he never got the cuts. Obama's audacious new gambit is not a serious proposal to solve our fiscal problems. It's a raw partisan maneuver meant to neuter the Republicans by getting them to cave on their signature issue as the hold-the-line party on taxes.

The objective is to ignite exactly the kind of internecine warfare on taxes now going on among Republicans. And to bury Grover Norquist.

I am not now, nor have ever been, a Norquistian. I don't believe the current level of taxation is divinely ordained. Nor do I believe in pledges of any kind. But Norquist is the only guy in town to consistently resist the tax-and-spend Democrats' stampede for ever higher taxes to fund ever more reckless spending.

The hunt for Norquist's scalp is a key part of the larger partisan project to make the Republicans do a George H.W. Bush and renege on their heretofore firm stand on taxes. Bush never recovered.

Why are the Republicans playing along? Because it is assumed that Obama has the upper hand. Unless Republicans acquiesce and get the best deal they can right now, tax rates will rise across the board on Jan. 1, and the GOP will be left without any bargaining chips.

But what about Obama? If we all cliff dive, he gets to preside over yet another recession. It will wreck his second term. Sure Republicans will get blamed. But Obama is never running again. He cares about his legacy. You think he wants a second term with a double-dip recession, 9 percent unemployment and a totally gridlocked Congress? Republicans have to stop playing as if they have no cards.

Obama is claiming an electoral mandate to raise taxes on the top 2 percent. Perhaps, but remember those incessant campaign ads promising a return to the economic nirvana of the Clinton years? Well, George W. Bush cut rates across the board, not just for the top 2 percent. Going back to the Clinton rates means middle-class tax hikes that yield four times the revenue that you get from just the rich.

So give Obama the full Clinton. Let him live with that. And with what also lies on the other side of the cliff: 28 million Americans newly subject to the ruinous alternative minimum tax.

Republicans must stop acting like supplicants. If Obama so loves those Clinton rates, Republicans should say: Then go over the cliff and have them all.

And add: But if you want a Grand Bargain, then deal. If we give way on taxes, we want, in return, serious discretionary cuts, clearly spelled-out entitlement cuts and real tax reform.

Otherwise, strap on your parachute, Mr. President. We'll ride down together.

Source  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/ct-oped-1203-krauthammer-20121203-20,0,7748066.story

President Obama arrives in Bangkok

President Barack Obama on Sunday launched a three-day tour through Southeast Asia in Bangkok, where his motorcade departed the airport and made the trek along wide open highways into the center of the city, then past the Government House which was decked out in bunting and a large sign reading “Welcome to the Honorable Barack Obama.”

We arrived outside the Wat Pho Royal Monastery, a colorful and ornate Buddhist temple in the Phra Nakhon district.

Reporters were led to the open archway of a room with a golden Buddha and dark marble floors. This was the Eastern Viharn Phra. A faux tree towered behind the statue and the ceiling was painted red with gold medallions.

A few minutes later head monk Chaokun Suthee Thammanuwat, wearing a bright orange robe over one shoulder, led Obama, dressed in dark gray suit, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a royal blue pantsuit and gold necklace, into the room.

Reporters couldn’t hear what they were saying as they circled the Buddha; the monk appeared to be explaining things for a few minutes before they left.

We were then taken to another large hallway dominated by a huge reclining gold Buddha, which stretched the length of the building.This was the Viharn of the Reclining Buddha, and we were instructed to remove our shoes before entering. Again the monk led Obama and Clinton for a stroll past the giant figure, which dwarfed them all.

Our third stop was in the courtyard where the trio strolled past a number of colorful spire-like columns. This was the Phra Maha Chedi Group. The place was empty of tourists for the president’s private tour.

This reporter overheard Clinton say: “What a peaceful place,” and Obama responded: “If you have 80,000 people here it’s not so peaceful. This is kind of a treat.” Obama was  making a joke about the budget, saying to the monk, “Yes we’re working on this budget, we’re going to need a lot of prayer for that.” And they laughed.

The motorcade left about 10 minutes later, headed for the hospital to visit the king.

Source  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/18/president-obama-arrives-in-bangkok/

Obama turns to Reddit for last-minute votes

With just a few hours left in the election, President Obama turned back to Reddit in a last-minute plea for votes.

Obama made headlines in August when he used Reddit, an up-and-coming social news site, to interact with young, tech savvy voters in a question-and-answer session. On Tuesday, he went back to Reddit to remind readers to vote.

"I'm checking in because polls will start closing in this election in just a few hours, and I need you to vote," Obama said on Reddit, the self-proclaimed "front page of the Internet."

"If you’ve voted already, don't stop there -- spread the word to your friends, roommates and neighbors. Think of it as upvoting," Obama said, referencing Reddit's "upvote" feature that lets users vote on what they consider the most important news.

Last time Obama used Reddit, more than 200,000 users checked in on the webpage for the question-and-answer session at the same time -- blowing past Reddit's previous record.

The thread created today by Obama received nearly 400 comments in less than 25 minutes. Many users commented with support while a few vouched for Obama's opponent, Mitt Romney.

Meanwhile in other parts of the Web, Romney used Twitter to keep directing voters to a page on his campaign site with information on the election and where to vote.

"With your help, we will turn our country around and get America back on the path to prosperity," Romney tweeted around 3 p.m. "Please vote today."

Source  http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-obama-reddit-election-20121106,0,4784123.story

Obama’s foreign donors

In September, the Obama campaign got 1.8 million donations from small contributors who did not break the $200 threshold requiring that their information be reported to the Federal Election Commission. They gave the campaign 98 percent of the $181 million it raised that month, a figure vastly higher than its take in any previous month.

Is the Obama campaign financing itself through foreign money funneled in through a website owned by a private businessman, living in China, that uses the name Obama.com?

In 1997, we learned — too late — that the Clinton campaign had relied heavily on thinly disguised Chinese government money for much of its early blitz of issue ads in the 1996 election. The early intimations of funding fraud in the campaign (Al Gore’s exploits with the Buddhist monks) shaved off half of Clinton’s margin, cutting his lead from 14 to 7 points in the weeks before the election. But the full dimensions of the scandal were not apparent until then-Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) held hearings the following year revealing the depth of the campaign’s reliance on foreign money.

Now, in the last month of the 2012 race, Newsweek magazine has raised serious questions about Obama’s fundraising and its possible reliance on foreign donors and outright fraud to generate its funding. 

Newsweek raises questions, in particular, about Robert W. Roche, the co-founder and chairman of the board of Acorn International Inc., a media and branding direct-sales company based in Shanghai. He also owns the Obama.com website, which appears on the Internet throughout the world. Roche’s site links to Barackobama.com, the official campaign site, where it invites people to donate to the campaign. Obama.com gets 2,000 visits a day, two-thirds of which are from foreigners. Is it a giant money-laundering operation to feed foreign money into the Obama campaign?

Despite the disclaimer on the campaign site stating that foreign nationals cannot donate to Obama, the suspicion remains that Roche’s vigilance in assuring that Obama.com is on the Internet throughout the world has led to a significant influx of foreign cash into the coffers of the president’s reelection effort.

It will be too late to wait until 2013 to find out. The House Oversight Committee should immediately investigate, using its subpoena power, to see if there is, indeed, a flow of foreign money, via Obama.com, into the president’s campaign.

Roche, by the way, has visited the White House 11 times during Obama’s tenure, according to the visitor log.

These questions arise because the Obama campaign, unlike Romney’s or, for that matter, Hillary Clinton’s in 2008, refuses to ask donors for their CVV number (the number on your credit card that one is often asked for after giving one’s name and expiration date). The CVV is designed to assure that the donor is actually physically holding the card.

The Obama campaign is no stranger to fraudulent donations funneled in through phony names. In 2008, The Washington Post reported that Mary Biskup was reported to have donated more than $170,000 to the Obama campaign in small donations. But Biskup says she never gave any money to the campaign. Some other donor must have given the money in her name.

Given these past problems and the Obama campaign’s sudden influx of small donors, Newsweek wonders why the campaign does not require CVV numbers to minimize the chances of fraud. 

The magazine noted that the campaign’s past scandals “make it all the more surprising that the Obama campaign does not use … the card verification value [system].” The magazine added that “the Romney campaign, by contrast, does use the CVV — as has almost every other candidate who has run for president in recent years.”

Let’s find out the facts before the election. If a president who promised ethical transparency is using small donations — too small to trigger the federal reporting requirement — to funnel in foreign donations, we need to know. Before Election Day.

Source  http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/261109-obamas-foreign-donors

Presidential campaign is nice, and then again not

In a split-screen race for the presidency, Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama were on their best campaign behavior in public Tuesday, all the while slashing away at each other in paid television ads.

In separate appearances in New York, they swapped criticism on foreign policy. But they did it politely, without mentioning each other by name. 

Romney found fault with Obama's approach to education, but did so after paying a public compliment to Arne Duncan, who has the administration's Cabinet portfolio for the subject. 

There was an outbreak of self-deprecating humor from Romney, as well, as he received a glowing introduction from former President Bill Clinton before speaking to the annual Clinton Global Initiative.

"If there's one thing we've learned this election season, it's that a few words from Bill Clinton can do any man a lot of good," joked the Republican candidate for the White House, referring to the former' president's strong speech on Obama's behalf at the Democratic National Convention earlier this month.

"All I got to do now is wait a few days for that bounce to happen," Romney quipped. 

Joking or not, it was as close as the Republican challenger has come to publicly acknowledging recent polls showing Obama moving ahead in several battleground states and gaining ground in national surveys.

Cut to the television ads, and the political reality both campaigns are trying to create for voters 

in battleground states. 

Of the five commercials the Obama campaign says it is airing most frequently, one accuses Romney and running mate Paul Ryan of backing a plan for Medicare that would raise out-of-pocket costs for seniors. Another says the Republican challenger favors tax cuts for millionaires that could be paid for by reducing existing tax breaks for education expenses.

A third says Obama, not Romney, has pushed back against China's unfair trade policies. A fourth asserts that part of Romney's personal fortune is invested in China and says he's never stood up to the country. "All he's done is send them our jobs," it says. 

The Romney campaign listed six ads currently airing, four of which criticize Obama. 

"Dear Daughter. Welcome to America," says the announcer in a commercial that shows a young baby. "Your share of Obama's debt is over $50,000." 

Two spots feature coal miners accusing the administration of pursuing policies that go after their industry. "Obama said he was going to bankrupt any new power plants that opened up ... He's keeping his promise," says a miner shown in one. "I've got two young grandsons. I'm scared for their futures, let alone mine."

A fourth accuses Obama of failing to "stand up to China" and asserts, "His policies cost us 2 million jobs."

In the world not made up of television commercials, one report released during the day showed consumer confidence climbing to the highest level since February. A second report said home prices increased in July as sales rose and foreclosures fell. 

Taken together, that amounted to encouraging news for the president, given that the slow-growing economy and 8.1 percent national unemployment are the public's top issues in the race for the White House.

Whatever the economic news itself, voters increasingly say the country is heading in the right direction. In an Associated Press-GfK poll taken at mid-month, 48 percent of registered voters said they expect the economy to improve in the next 12 months, compared to only 41 percent who said so in a survey in August.

Additionally, 41 percent of registered voters said in this month's poll that the nation is heading in the right direction, up from 34 percent saying the same in August. 

Obama's handling of the economy, still tepid, is better than it has been. The latest AP-GfK poll finds 48 percent of registered voters approve of the president's handling of the economy, while 49 percent disapprove. In June, 56 percent disapproved and 43 percent approved. 

Romney spoke first during the day, speaking to Clinton's organization. 

He said the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya two weeks ago was caused by a terrorist attack, something Obama has refrained from saying. 

"Many Americans are troubled by the developments in the Middle East," Romney said. "Syria has witnessed the killings of tens of thousands of people. The president of Egypt is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. ... And Iran is moving toward nuclear weapons capability. 

"We feel that we are at the mercy of events, rather than shaping events," he added. 

Although Romney did not overtly criticize Obama's foreign policy in the speech, as he had on Monday, his words took on a sharper edge when he suggested to CNN during an interview that the White House had misled the American people by not characterizing the violence in Libya as a terrorist attack. 

"The White House's failure to acknowledge that the assassination of our ambassador was a terrorist attack, a terrorist event, suggests that they are trying to paper over the seriousness of what's happening in the Middle East," Romney said. 

In his New York speech, Romney said that if he is elected, he will create "prosperity pacts" in the Middle East, private-public partnerships designed to remove barriers to free markets around the region. He said developing countries would receive U.S. assistance "focused on developing the institutions of liberty, the rule of law and property rights." 

Obama, in a speech later in the morning to the U.N. General Assembly, said the recent assaults on U.S. citizens in Libya "were attacks on America" and called on world leaders to join in confronting the root causes of the rage across the Muslim world. 

But in a slap at Romney, Obama said "let us remember that this is a season of progress" in the Arab World, where autocratic leaders have been deposed in several countries. 

In another jab, he said, "Among Israelis and Palestinians, the future must not belong to those who turn their backs on peace." 

Obama didn't mention it, but Romney says on a videotape that recently came to light that "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace. The pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."  

Source  http://www.mercurynews.com/presidentelect/ci_21624776/romney-obama-focus-us-posture-abroad

Clinton delivers for Obama – and himself

There’s nothing like an almost-depression to put the sins of philandering Bill Clinton in perspective. Your choice: an Oval Office sexcapade vs. full employment, a house that’s not underwater and some hope of retiring by 75.

Clearly, America’s chosen. Most of us have forgiven the seducer-in-chief, whose favorability ratings — along with Hillary’s — reached 66 percent in July. That compares to 41 percent for the struggling president whom Clinton called “cool on the outside” last night.

But there was nothing cool and calm last night about Bill Clinton, basking before the swooning faithful. He remained the powerful, passionate, coy, charming, talk-a-dog-off-a-meat-wagon Southern boy who used to jog to McDonald’s and lick secret sauce from pudgy fingers, all the cameras tolling. And last night he showed he still can convince us he feels our pain — and knows how to ease it.

“Are we better off then when he took office?” he asked, stealing the line used over and over at last week’s GOP convention. Yes, he answered himself. Then he went right down the list: jobs added since Obama saved the economy from a free fall into depression. A saved auto industry that Romney wanted to go bankrupt. He praised the cost savings from so-called Obamacare — something I’ve never heard from Obama himself. Clinton praised Obama’s willingness to compromise and reach across the aisle.

“Heck, he even appointed Hillary.”

Like Obama, Clinton said, “I have never learned to hate (Republicans) the way the far right who controls their party seems to hate our president.”

And then he answered the other question hanging over Obama’s re-election. He said the economy Obama inherited was in such drastic shape that “no one...no one” could have fixed all the damage done in just four years. Said Clinton, “I believe it with all my heart.”

Speculation’s been rampant this week about what was in it for Clinton to show up last night. It looked to me like he enjoyed himself immensely during his biggest, best, latest moment in the sun. The New York Times [NYT] reported yesterday that Clinton talks frequently about living on borrowed time. At 66, he’s outlived most men in his family. Of his foundation, he said, “We trying to build it to make sure it’ll still run if I drop dead tomorrow.”

It does occur to you, watching him: He’s not so robust anymore: But it occurs to you, too, how often we’re blind to a politician’s enormous talent until years after he exits the stage. Bill Clinton wowed ’em in Charlotte last night. He wowed anybody watching. And if Barack Obama pulls off a second term, Bill Clinton can expect — and will get — lots of credit.

Source  http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20220906speech_fits_the_bill_clinton_delivers_for_obama__and_himself/

Obama pledges to work with Congress on violence

In one of his most expansive responses yet to gun crime, President Barack Obama on Wednesday embraced some degree of control on the sale of weapons but said he would also seek a national consensus on combating violence. He said responsibility for curtailing bloodshed also rests with parents, neighbors and teachers to ensure that young people "do not have that void inside them."

Speaking just six days after the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead, Obama pledged to work with lawmakers of both parties to stop violence, not only the sudden massacres that have bedeviled the nation, but the steady drip of urban crime that has cost many young lives.

"We should leave no stone unturned and recognize that we have no greater mission that keeping our young people safe," Obama said in a speech to the National Urban League.

Obama called for stepped-up background checks for people who want to purchase guns and restrictions to keep mentally unbalanced individuals from buying weapons. He says those steps "shouldn't be controversial, they should be common sense."

But he also added: "We must also understand that when a child opens fire on other children, there's a hole in his heart that no government can fill."

Obama's speech represented a bookend to a four-day trip that began in Colorado on Sunday when he visited with survivors of the theater massacre.

For Obama, the address to the National Urban League was a necessary overture to a voting bloc that overwhelmingly backs him but that has sustained much of the brunt of the economic downturn.

In his speech Obama promoted his economic and health care policies, tailoring what has become a standard campaign speech to his African-American audience. He drew attention to initiatives that have helped Americans in general, and African-Americans in particular.

But, as he did during his 2008 campaign, he also pressed personal responsibility.

He said young Americans are competing against kids in Beijing and Bangalore. "You know, they're not hanging out ... they're not playing video games, they're not watching 'Real Housewives,'" he said. "I'm just saying. It's a two-way street. You've got to earn success."

Ahead of Obama's remarks, the Urban League played a video showing photos of famous African-Americans that culminated with images of the president and his family the night of the 2008 election. The crowd of several thousand responded with thunderous applause that was sustained as Obama walked on stage and peppered with chants of "four more years."

Obama spoke on the same day that the Senate gave him a political victory by passing an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for households with less than $250,000 in earnings. The president has made retaining current tax rates for middle-class taxpayers a central piece of his economic policy while rejecting Republican efforts to extend the current tax rates for all. Under Obama's plan, taxes for wealthier Americans would rise. 

The Senate measure, however, was expected to go no further because of the Republican-dominated House.

While enthusiasm among some Obama supporters has faded since 2008, support for America's first black president remains high among African-Americans. In a recent Associated Press-GfK poll, 82 percent of black adults said they would vote for Obama. His approval rating among blacks was 87 percent.

Obama skipped an appearance at the NAACP earlier this month, raising questions about whether his campaign was taking black voters for granted. The White House blamed a scheduling conflict and sent Vice President Joe Biden to address the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

Republican challenger Mitt Romney also addressed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, raising eyebrows when he told the crowd: "If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him."

Obama announced that he would sign an executive order on Thursday that creates a new office to bolster the education of African-American students. The White House says the office will coordinate the work of communities and federal agencies to ensure that these youngsters are better prepared for high school, college and career.

Obama also was raised campaign money at two separate stops in New Orleans: an intimate 20-person event at the cost of $25,000 per person, and a larger event at the House of Blues for 400 people, with tickets starting at $250.

Obama raised at least $6 million at events this week in California, Oregon and Washington. The president started the trip Sunday with a stop in Colorado to meet with survivors and families of the victims of last week's movie theater massacre.

Source  http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Obama-pledges-to-work-with-Congress-on-violence-3734326.php