Thanks, Obama, For The Writing Topics [Reader Post]

I am very grateful to President Barack Hussein Hubris “kill list” Obama for providing a virtually endless source of topics about which to write. It’s like “shooting fish in a barrel.” For example, let’s examine this very small sub-set of topics:

1) Obama Phones: This Obama supporter kinda makes you proud, doesn’t she? She would be bad enough were she the end of the story, but she is not.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has had a program called Lifelinesince 1985, expanded in 2008 to include cell phones. That expansion increased costs from $772 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion in 2011. But wait, the story gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective). A major provider of the Lifeline cell phones is TracFone Wireless, whose president and CEO, Frederick Pollak, has donated at least $156,500 to Democrat candidates and committees in 2012, including at least $50,000 to the Obama campaign.

Abigail Pollak, wife of Frederick, is a campaign bundler for Obama who has raised more than $632,000 for Obama in 2012, and more than $1.5 million since 2007. She has personally contributed more than $200,000 to Democrat candidates and committees since 2008. The Pollaks hosted Obama at their Miami Beach home in June 2012, for a $40,000-per-plate fundraising dinner. They hosted an event with Michelle Obama in July 2008. The Pollaks personally donated a combined $66,200 to Obama’s election effort in 2008. Visitor logs indicate that the Pollaks have visited the White House seven times. Obama appointed Abigail, in 2009, to serve on the “Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of the American Latino.” Can anyone say, “quid pro quo?”

2) Unbelievable September Unemployment Report: The Wall Street Journal‘s U-6 rate analysis is quite telling, providing a much more realistic unemployment picture than the “official” U-3 unemployment rate alone. The U-6 unemployment rate considers the U-3 rate as well asmarginally attached workers, “those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic reasons, meaning they want full-time work but took a part-time schedule instead because that’s all they could find.” The number of part-time workers who would like full-time jobs grew by 582,000, representing about two-thirds of the increase in employment last month, and is larger than the drop in the number of unemployed. That’s why the U-6 stayed unchanged at 14.7% in September.

The U-3 unemployment rate is based on the size of the work force, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says grew by 418,000 in September 2012. The work force (the percent of the civilian population 16 or over, not in the military, prison, or an institution) in January 2009, was 65.7 percent, or about 160 million people. The September 2012, U-3 unemployment rate is based on a work force of 63.6 percent, or about 155 million. So, Mitt Romney was correct when he said, “… if the same share of people were participating in the workforce today as on the day the president got elected, our unemployment rate would be around 11 percent.”The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published table A-16, which illustrates what is currently happening to the US work force. Notice the “Persons who currently want a job” category, and how, in the last year, it has gone from 5.93 million people to 6.43 million people. Is the September report another example of BLS magic?

3) ObamaCare: Regarding The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), better known as ObamaCare, to quote John Hayward in a Human Events article, “The greatest legislative disaster of the new millennium, ObamaCare, just keeps getting worse.” When campaigning in 2008, Obama promised a drop family health insurance premiums by $2500 annually. But what has actually happened is that the premium amount rose by $3000 since Obama took office. Further, premium amounts have risen more rapidly during the Obama administration than they did during the last four years of the Bush administration. I guess we just did not, or could not, read the bill, as Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) suggested, to find out what was in the ObamaCare bill. But higher health premiums must be alright (said sarcastically) since Pelosi is very proud of it. We now find that ObamaCare has in it a little known provision inserted as a cost-cutting measure, but it will force hospitals to give the poor, elderly, and chronically ill substandard care. Hospitals that re-admit patients within 30 days after they were discharged will now have to, under the ObamaCare provision, pay fines as of October 1, 2012. But not to worry: Nancy Pelosi is still proud.

4) Deficit: Obama said in 2009, that he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his four-year term as president. We are now in FY2013, and the deficit STILL has not been cut, much less in half. Running all those pesky deficits must be Bush’s fault, that none of Obama’s economic policies could have had anything to do with them. But how can we know? The Senate, led by Harry Reid (D-NV) has not passed a budget in over three years, despite a budget requirement law that the Senate passed. Obama actually said that he would halve the deficit.

5) The Muslim World: Let’s not forget what has recently happened in Egypt and Lybia. Obama and his administration (particularly the State Department headed by Hillary Clinton) blamed the attacks on a movie (that very few have seen, none in the middle east) that unflatteringly portrays Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. If true, then why did the State Department removewhat was a “no credible information” memorandum from its website?  We now have, during Obama’s presidency, attacks on sovereign American territory. Obama, if true to form, will somehow blame Bush for the attacks. I thought that everything Bush did made the Islam world hate us, and that Obama was going to make the Islam world love us, or at least view us differently. If so, why all the violent protests, despite the United States government’s repudiation of the video? Some love.

6) Foodstamps: There are today a record number of US citizens receiving foodstamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). As this chart shows, the increase in foodstamps pre-date Obama, though he perfected the increase. Under the eight years of Bush, spending grew from $19 billion to $39 billion. That’s bad enough. But in only four years under Obama, the spending has grown to $85 billion, more than double Bush’s highest year. In fact, Obama has spent more ($290 billion) in four years than Bush spent ($237 billion) in eight years. Just what could Obama do with four more years?

I am quite sure that you can add many more topics. So, we should all thank Obama for an endless series of topics about which to write.

But that’s just my opinion.