Obama for America's Downgrade

America's Credit Rating

Downgraded twice! As well as across the board.

Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to "AA-" from "AA"... In April, Egan-Jones cuts the U.S. credit rating to "AA" from "AA+" with a negative watch.... Moody's Investors Service currently rates the United States Aaa, Fitch rates the country AAA, and Standard & Poor's rates the country AA-plus. All three of those ratings have a negative outlook.

 

U.S. Dollar

Downgraded by Øbama's Fed printing $40 Billion a month out of the thinnest of air.

In its downgrade, the firm [Egan-Jones] said that issuing more currency and depressing interest rates through purchasing mortgage-backed securities does little to raise the U.S.'s real gross domestic product, but reduces the value of the dollar.

In turn, this increases the cost of commodities, which will pressure the profitability of businesses and increase the costs of consumers thereby reducing consumer purchasing power, the firm said.

 

American People's Incomes

Downgraded thanks to The Øbama Depression.

New figures from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household's real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama "recovery." Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession. Now, after 38 months of this "recovery," it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.

Yet it gets worse. Amazingly, incomes have dropped even more during the "recovery" than they did during the recession. In fact, they've dropped more than twice as much as they did during the recession. From the start to the end of the recession, the real median income of American households fell $1,413, or 2.6 percent. From the end of the recession to the present day, it has dropped $3,040, or 5.7 percent.

 

America's Middle Class

Downgraded every time Øbama lied and broke his promise to never raise any of their taxes.

Obama Promised He Wouldn't Raise Taxes On the Middle Class. He Lied.

CBO estimates that health insurance will cost $15,000 per year on average for families soon after Obamacare is fully implemented, rising rapidly from there. That is the individual mandate tax on the middle class and working people....

That adds up to the largest tax increase on the middle class in world history....

But if Obama is looking out for the middle class, why is he proposing to extend their Bush tax cuts for only one year? This is the first time Obama is implying that maybe the Bush tax cuts for the middle class may not become permanent either.

* * *

Due to Obama's war on free-market healthcare, all those who fail to buy Obama-approved health insurance will be subject to a tax. All those who purchase health insurance will have to pay several thousand dollars more in premiums as a result of Obamacare. Every American who purchases a medical device — from a wheelchair to a dental crown — will pay much more due to the Obamacare tax on medical devices. Some Americans who earn less than $200,000 receive what Obama refers to as "Cadillac insurance plans." They will be slapped with a 40% excise tax.

* * *

OBAMACARE: SEVEN NEW TAXES ON CITIZENS EARNING LESS THAN $250,000

* * *

President Obama's unspoken payroll tax increases

 

U.S. Economy

Downgraded America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to its now "depressingly weak" level.

GDP SLASHED TO 1.3%

The third reading on Q2 [second-quarter] GDP just came out and the report was ugly.

The headline growth number was revised down to 1.3 percent on an annualized basis.

Economists expected the number to be unchanged at 1.7 percent....

The personal consumption component was revised down to 1.5 percent.  Economists were expecting it to be unchanged at 1.7 percent....

The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected decelerations in PCE, in nonresidential fixed investment, and in residential fixed investment....

* * *

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in August fell by the most in 3 1/2 years, pointing to a sharp slowdown in factory activity....

The Commerce Department said on Thursday durable goods orders dived 13.2 percent, the largest drop since January 2009, when the economy was in the throes of a recession. Orders for July were revised down....

 

American Workforce

Downgraded in both quantity and quality.

Fewer Americans are employed today than when Barack Obama became president in January 2009. That's right, the actual number of people with jobs is down by 86,000 since Obama took over the economy. In August alone, 119,000 fewer workers have jobs.

So, a reasonable person might ask how can the unemployment rate drop from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent when fewer people are employed? The answer — the civilian labor force contracted by 368,000 people in August, and a total of 581,000 fewer Americans were in the workforce at all in August compared to July.

This wholesale exodus from pursuing the American Dream is a direct result of Obama's economic policy.

* * *

A fall in the jobless rate from a shrinking labor force offers an additional signal that the economy worsened last month....

The labor force fell to 82.6 million from 83.5 million. And the participation rate dropped to 70.9%....

Meantime, manufacturing payrolls lost 15,000.

The average workweek was unchanged at 34.5 hours. In an expanding economy, the average workweek would grow.

* * *

** Full-time employment's... down (yes, down) by 902,000 since March, and by over 1.4 million since Obama took office.

** 562,000 fewer married men and 700,000 fewer married women were employed in August than were when the recession officially ended in June 2009.

** 22% of the 3.47 million private-sector jobs created since the recession's end have been at temporary help services.

** What about what the new jobs created actually pay? The National Employment Law Project recently reported that "Lower-wage occupations were 21 percent of recession (job) losses, but 58 percent of recovery growth. Mid-wage occupations were 60 percent of recession losses, but only 22 percent of recovery growth".... Their research proves that the Obama administration's economic policies are gutting the middle class.

 

Medicare Program

Downgraded by Øbama's Trillion-dollar cuts: $718 Billion now plus $250 Billion after the election.

The Ratio of Obamacare's Medicare Cuts to New 'Benefits' is Fifteen-to-One

First, the $716 billion estimate of Obamacare's net cuts to Medicare over the next ten years comes from the most recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office....

Obamacare's increases in net spending on preventive care and the prescription-drug program amount to $52 billion from 2013-2022, according to the CBO. Offsetting this new spending is $768 billion in net Medicare cuts elsewhere, a ratio of 15 to 1. [Also see OBAMA, AARP PARTNERS IN RIPPING OFF SENIORS.]

* * *

Long-time political reporter and author [Bob Woodward] claims that Obama has plans to cut more than $250 billion from Medicare in his next term, and has seen the memos detailing those proposals. [A claim, by the way, the White House has publicly confirmed.]

 

American Women

Downgraded in Øbama's real war on the women of America, including at the White House.

The poverty rate among women is the highest it's been in 17 years and nearly 5.7 million women are currently unemployed.

* * *

Obama's White House pays women less than men....

On President Obama's watch, women have lost 419,000 jobs... [and] shoulder $16,000 more in national debt as a result of his misguided economic policies.

 

Business Startups

Downgraded every year since Øbama began his reign of err0r.

The Economy Crushing Collapse Of Startup Jobs

by Tim Kane

Just last month, the Commerce Department released new data that allowed me to update my research on startup jobs through 2011. What I found is a U.S. startup scene even more troubled in 2011 than it was when the great recession ended in 2009. There were 170,000 fewer startup firms in 2010 than in 2009. As for the steady 3 million annual startup jobs created in previous years, that number fell to 2.5 million in 2009, then 2.3 million in 2010, and even lower in 2011 based on quarterly data.

Annually, there were 11 new entrepreneurial employees for each 1000 Americans from 1988 to 2008. This startup jobs rate for the three previous presidents was 11.3, 11.2, and 10.8, respectively. The rate has fallen by a third to 7.8 during the Obama presidency. Some might blame this drop on the recession, but the rate declined further in 2010 and lower still in 2011, supposedly years of recovery.

 

Durable Goods Orders

Downgraded to Biggest. Drop. Ever. since January 2009.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in August fell by the most in 3-1/2 years, pointing to a sharp slowdown in factory activity....

The Commerce Department said on Thursday durable goods orders dived 13.2 percent, the largest drop since January 2009, when the economy was in the throes of a recession. Orders for July were revised down....

Last month, the drop in orders reflected weak aircraft and automobiles demand. Boeing received only one aircraft order in August, down from 260 in July....

Transportation equipment tumbled 34.9 percent....

But shipments of these [non-defense capital] goods, which are used to calculate equipment and software spending in the gross domestic product report, fell 0.9 percent after declining 1.1 percent in July. The weakness suggested third-quarter economic growth would probably not improve much from the April-June's 1.3 percent annual pace.

Manufacturing... has been hit by turbulence from sluggish domestic and global demand.

 

Energy Production on Federal Lands

Downgraded by Øbama's obstinate obstruction of any new drilling, offsetting private-sector gains.

Last year oil production on.... federal lands, you know, the ones that President Obama controls... [is] down 11% [actually 14% now, with offshore production from federal areas down 17% from only a year ago, and a 9% fall in natural gas production which has dropped it to its lowest level in the last nine years]. At the same time, during the last quarter of 2011, permitting for drilling in the Gulf fell off a cliff. Then of course there is the languishing economy that reduces demand for oil in the first place.

 

America's Coal Industry

Downgraded in Øbama's real war on American coal workers.

But the coal industry is suffering even worse under the Obama Administration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposing stricter emission standards on coal to take effect in 2015 that require massive investments or closures of power plants. These EPA regulations have triggered the announced closure of 175 coal-fired generators over the next few years. Additionally, other new EPA regulations have caused the cancellation of plans to build new and cleaner coal-fired units. We already have the highest nominal electricity prices in history and prices are only poised to go higher.

 

Federal Budget

Downgraded to Nonexistent by Senate misleader Harry Reid (D-KKK) and his "light-skinned African American with no Negro dialect ('boy')" Øbama.

On Tuesday, federal debt held by the public was $11.25 trillion, more than the total indebtedness 1,248 days ago [i.e., when the Reid-misrun Senate last passed any budget]....

President Barack Obama has been president all 1,248 of those days. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been Senate majority leader all 1,248 of those days. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., watched from his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee as the Senate failed to pass another budget in those 1,248 days. Now, Alexander is "fed up" with the Senate's serial irresponsibility.

"I have tried every other means I know of to persuade senators to do their work on time, and it hasn't worked," Alexander said. "How can you balance a budget if you don't have a budget?"

Alexander this week signed on to co-sponsor the "No Budget, No Pay" Act in the Senate, joining 13 other senators to promote a bill that, if Congress hasn't passed a budget by Oct. 1 — as required by law — would withhold pay from our representatives and senators.

Alexander joins U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who added his name to the bill in March. The House version of "No Budget, No Pay" is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-South Pittsburg, along with 77 others.

"The Senate isn't doing its most basic job, and that's managing the people's money,"

 

U.S. Space Program

Downgraded from manned to totally unmanned.

Obama kills space program — ends America's dominance; kills 10,000 jobs

At Kennedy Space Center, staff were in a contemplative mood. Thousands are set to lose their jobs after the [last-ever American manned] mission as NASA enters a period of reduced activity.

"It is a sad time," NASA astronaut Terry Virts said, reflecting on what he called the "passion" of many of his coworkers. "The sad part about it is that we won't have an American ability to launch astronauts anymore."

The highly-anticipated flight of Atlantis is the 135th and last for the U.S. space shuttle program, leaving Russia's space capsules as the sole option for astronauts heading to and from the International Space Station.

 

College Education

Downgraded as long as over half of all college graduates can't find any decent jobs.

Today, college graduates face a grim economy. The U.S. economy is barely growing. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis — part of the U.S. Department of Commerce — Real Gross Domestic Product has increased by only 1.7 percent and 3 percent in 2011 and 2010, respectively. Unemployment has been high for several years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual unemployment rate has been 8.9 percent and 9.6 percent in 2011 and 2010, respectively. The Associated Press reported that in 2011, 53.6 percent of recent college graduates were unemployed or underemployed.

 

International Trade

Downgraded since Øbama hasn't initiated and implemented any new trade agreements during his regime's "watch," and is threatening to kill existing agreements.

Obama has actually hindered free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea negotiated by George W. Bush but not approved by Congress during Bush's presidency, acceding to [big] labor's wishes that he renegotiate the deals before sending them to Capitol Hill. The Colombia and South Korea deals, along with another Bush-negotiated agreement with Panama, were not submitted to Congress until October 2011, when they were finally ratified [but not yet implemented].

The failure to negotiate free trade deals is clearly U.S. policy. Instead of being fired, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk remains close to the president, anointed as the only senior Obama aide allowed to golf regularly with the president.

* * *

U.S. groups fear Mexican trade war over Obama tomato move

U.S. business groups said on Tuesday they were worried about a damaging trade war with Mexico if President Barack Obama's administration follows through on a preliminary decision to terminate a 16-year-old tomato trade agreement....

The decision surprised Mexican officials and tomato producers, who have offered to renegotiate the pact.

 

Green Energy

Downgraded after Øbama's waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars "redistributed" to campaign-contributors' failed "projects."

Since taking office, Obama has invested billions of taxpayer dollars in private businesses, including as part of his stimulus spending bill. Many of those investments have turned out to be unmitigated disasters — leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions. Consider just a few examples of Obama's public equity failures:

Raser Technologies....

ECOtality....

Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP)....

First Solar....

Abound Solar, Inc....

Beacon Power....

SunPower.... Brightsource.... And, of course, let's not forget Solyndra — the solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees and went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers on the hook....

Hoover Institution scholar Peter Schweizer reported in his book, "Throw Them All Out," [that] fully 71 percent of the Obama Energy Department's grants and loans went to "individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama's National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party." Collectively, these Obama cronies raised $457,834 for his campaign, and they were in turn approved for grants or loans of nearly $11.35 billion.

* * *

The wind industry has actually lost about 10,000 jobs since 2009, even though it doubled its domestic production, the American Wind Energy Association reports. And Republicans were quick to point out that as Obama blocks the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas, the oil and gas industry has added 75,000 jobs since the start of his term.

Obama spent $90 billion of his stimulus package on green energy projects, including weatherization of buildings and development of electric vehicles. Yet, by the end of last year, just 16,100 people landed new jobs in the so-called green industry, Labor Department statistics show, far short of the 200,000 jobs the White House projected it would help create each year.

 

Americans' Freedom of Speech

Downgraded as Øbama arrests citizens exercising it as part of his futile and naïve attempt to appease violent muslims.

Filmmaker's Arrest Puts Chill On Free-Speech Rights

By most accounts, [Nakoula Basseley] Nakoula is an odious person. But with 4.9 million parolees on U.S. streets, many of them dangerous and also in violation of their paroles, we're dubious of the firepower and police presence that was suddenly needed to haul in a nonviolent "filmmaker."

We're suspicious, since it was Nakoula's badly made film the Obama administration blamed for the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, leading to the deaths of four Americans — including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Just last week, in his address to the U.N., President Obama said the "future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam"....

Nakoula's right to free speech, however odiously expressed, has been violated so that Obama can score points with the Muslim world.

Nakoula is a precedent. First him, then you.

* * *

[T]he Obama administration has expressed support for anti-blasphemy measures that are completely incongruous with the freedom of speech as protected by the U.S. Constitution....

Whether defined as hate speech, discrimination or simple blasphemy, governments are declaring unlimited free speech as the enemy of freedom of religion. This growing movement has reached the United Nations, where religiously conservative countries [i.e., islamic states] received a boost in their campaign to pass an international blasphemy law. It came from the most unlikely of places: the United States.

 

Americans' Privacy

Downgraded as Øbama makes President Bush look like a piker when it comes to spying on U.S. citizens.

DOJ domestic phone, email, Internet surveillance of Americans skyrocketed under Obama

A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union shows a dramatic increase in the U.S. Department of Justice's electronic surveillance of Americans under the Obama administration....

[B]etween 2009 and 2011, warrantless electronic surveillance requests by the Justice Department to spy on phone communications increased 60 percent from 23,535 to 37,616.

The number of people whose phone calls were subject to such surveillance during that same time period tripled....

DOJ surveillance of Internet communications, while rarer, increased 361 percent between 2009 and 2011.

 

America's Credibility

Downgraded increasingly since Øbama began discouraging her friends and encouraging her foes non-stop, from day one.

Raul Castro's daughter Mariela conveyed Cuban support by singing Obama's praises a few months ago during her tour of San Francisco. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is an ardent supporter who has praised Obama publicly. Even Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad and the Iranian hard-line have made it known that they prefer Obama.

The Moscow Times explained this week in an op-ed why Vladimir Putin wants Obama to win over Romney.

Obama came into office with promises of boosting America's image in the world, but he's totally failed in that. A recent report found that America's approval rating among Muslims was 36 percent when President Bush was in office. Now, under Obama, we've fallen to 15 percent.

Where Obama has a made a favorable impression, however, is in the backrooms of the world's dictatorships and socialist regimes, in which he is viewed as a tool for tyrants and strongmen to get what they want out of the United States.

 

National Security

Downgraded and endangered by Øbama's politically motivated leaks of classified information.

In a series of stories that were published in the New York Times, and in a movie production that was set to make a two-hour pre-election infomercial for President Obama, a person or persons within the administration leaked all kinds of sensitive national security information to the media. These persons leaked the names of active Navy SEAL special operators to Hollywood producers, they leaked details of ongoing cyber operations against Iran, and they leaked details about how the president decides when and where to kill terrorists. None of this information should have leaked. All of it hurt our nation's security in one way or another. All of it, if leaked by someone not in the president's inner circle, would get the leaker jailed and charged with serious crimes. No one has been fired, no one has been jailed. Presumably the leaker or leakers still have access to sensitive information and can still leak it whenever they choose. Or are ordered to.

 

U.S. Presidency

Downgraded by all of Øbama's lies, scandals, betrayals, law-breaking, cover-ups, scams, diversions, and constant efforts to divide the country.

[Just listing half of them would take a whole nother blog, not just a new blog post.]

 

Constitutional Government and the Rule of Law

Downgraded worst of all; and will continue to be up until noon on January 20, 2013, when Downgrader-in-Chief Øbama's miserably failed regime becomes nothing more than a painfully bad memory.

Labels: 2012: end of an err0r, liberals are always extreme, miserably failing liberals (BIRM), Obama's War on the Constitution, Obama's War on the Middle Class, The Obama Depression, Worst. pResident. Ever.

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