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Subscribe to RSSMitt Romney is hoping a decisive win in Illinois will quiet talk that the Republican nominating fight could end in the first contested RNC since 1976. The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd shares his first reads of the day.
All eyes on Illinois… Tonight’s primary gives Romney an opportunity to change the perception about the GOP race, even if he can’t change the math on getting to 1,144… Caution about tonight’s race: The statewide presidential preference vote doesn’t determine delegates; voters have to select pledged delegates for each candidate… Polls close at 8:00 pm ET… Obama and Romney have opposite fundraising problems… Paul Ryan’s Budget, Part 2… But don’t forget: Ryan voted against Simpson-Bowles.
*** All eyes on Illinois: The earliest Mitt Romney could win the 1,144 delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination, per our count, is May 29, and that’s assuming he wins every single delegate after today. If you assume that he wins a 60%-40% split of the remaining the delegates, Romney won’t get to 1,144 until June 26, when Utah holds its primary. And if Romney and Rick Santorum continue to trade victories as they’ve been doing over the past month -- with Santorum winning his demographic strongholds and Romney winning his -- Romney would fall about 50 delegates short of the magic number, according to our math. So that’s the delegate reality for the former Massachusetts governor: He leads, he isn’t going to lose his lead, yet crossing the finish line won’t be easy or come quickly. Romney can’t change the math, but he can change the perception of the race. And he gets another chance to do so in today’s Illinois primary.
Don Emmert / AFP - Getty Images
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves to supporters at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
*** How Romney can change the perception: Every time Romney has had an opportunity to put the race away -- by winning in South Carolina, by winning convincingly in Ohio, by winning just one Deep South state Tennessee, Alabama or Mississippi -- he’s failed to do so. But by decisively winning tonight in Illinois (and we’re talking about a double-digit-plus victory and breaking 50%), Romney can deliver a perception blow to Santorum, extinguishing the former Pennsylvania senator’s “insurgent fire,” as the New York Times puts it. And sweeping the April 3 contests -- with the crown jewel being Wisconsin -- would serve as an exclamation point. That probably would finally get the Haley Barbours, the Mitch Danielseseseses (say it with us), and the Paul Ryans (more on him below) off the sidelines. But if Romney only ekes out a single-digit victory tonight after outspending Santorum 7-1, and if he loses Wisconsin, then this demographic split would be for real. And that means this GOP race would go into June or beyond.
*** How Illinois awards its delegates: Per NBC’s John Bailey, Illinois allocates its delegates (54 which are up for grabs tonight) in an unorthodox way. While there is a statewide preference vote for president, the actual delegates are individually elected in each congressional district. So when a voter goes to fill out a ballot, there’s a section where they will vote for a presidential candidate and then there’s a second section for delegates with the delegates’ pledged candidate printed next to their name -- for example: JOHN SMITH (ROMNEY). Each district is given between two and four delegates, and that’s weighted based on how strongly Republican a district has voted in the past. Do note: Santorum failed to file delegate slates in four Illinois districts -- the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 13th districts -- so he’ll miss out on a combined 10 delegates. By the way, Romney’s delegates are listed first on every Congressional District ballot. Why? They were the only ones to file their full slate of delegates in the first hour of filing. The rest of the delegate candidates are listed in order that they were filed with the state. Translation: Santorum’s slates (where available) are last.
*** What else you need to know: Polls close in Illinois at 8:00 pm ET… In addition to tonight’s 54 delegates, the state will elect 12 more delegates at its June convention… Early voting has been going on in Illinois for nearly a month… Last cycle, Illinois held its primary on Super Tuesday, so the race was still competitive at the time: Nearly 900,000 Republicans turned out (899,422 to be exact), and John McCain won the state with 47.5% of the vote, Romney finished second with 29%, and Mike Huckabee was third with 16.5% (McCain nearly SWEPT the delegates, by the way)... And in this year’s advertising race in Illinois, Team Romney (the campaign plus the Super PAC) outspent Team Santorum nearly 7-to-1, $3.6 million to $527,000.
*** Opposite fundraising problems: Speaking of fundraising, Romney and Obama have opposite fundraising problems: Obama, as the Washington Post wrote yesterday, isn’t raking in as many high-dollar checks as he did in ’08, while Romney is lacking small grassroots donors. But if you had to choose between a stronghold of large donors or small grassroots donors, you’d probably choose the latter. Why? You can keep going back to small donors, while you can’t if someone has already cut you $2,500 checks for the primary and general. In fact, according to an analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute, two-thirds of Romney’s fundraising through Dec. 31, 2011 had come from donors giving $2,500. By comparison, just 16% of Obama’s fundraising comes from $2,500 checks. So it’s striking to see that the Romney campaign isn’t spending a single cent on advertising in the upcoming Louisiana (3/24) and Wisconsin (4/3), though the pro-Romney Super PAC has spent a combined $2 million in those two states. Is the Romney campaign -- which had $7.3 million in the bank as of Feb. 29 -- running out of cash? We’ll have an answer a month from now, when we’ll get March FEC numbers. (February FEC numbers are due today.)
*** A look at the upcoming ad spending:
Louisiana: Restore Our Future $612,000, Red White and Blue Fund $244,000, Winning Freedom $50,000, Santorum $32,000, Winning Our Future $2,900
Wisconsin: Restore Our Future $1.3 million, Santorum campaign $39,000
*** On the trail, per NBC’s Adam Perez: Romney fundraises in the Prairie State and attends his election night party in Schaumburg…Paul appears on The Tonight Show…Gingrich hosts a meet-and-greet in Shreveport, LA…Meanwhile, Santorum hosts his election night party in Gettysburg, PA
*** Paul Ryan’s Budget, Part 2: Besides today’s Illinois primary, the other big story in politics today is the rollout of the House GOP budget. In in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan previews this rollout. “Our budget's Medicare reforms make no changes for those in or near retirement. For those who will retire a decade from now, our plan provides guaranteed coverage options financed by a premium-support payment. And this year, our budget adds even more choices for seniors, including a traditional fee-for-service Medicare option.” NBC’s Frank Thorp reports that the budget also contains tax reform -- having just two income brackets (10% and 25%) and reducing the corporate rate to 25%.
*** Don’t forget: Ryan voted against Simpson-Bowles: In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Ryan touts this tax reform by saying it was supported by Simpson-Bowles. “Tax reforms based on lowering tax rates and closing loopholes go back to the Reagan administration, when Democrats served as the congressional co-sponsors of the landmark 1986 tax reform law. More recently, the chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission put forward a plan for lower rates and a broader base.” But here’s what undercuts that assertion by Ryan, as well has holding the high ground in the budget debate: He VOTED AGAINST Simpson-Bowles. Here’s something that was supported by Tom Coburn (R) and Dick Durbin (D), but Ryan voted against it. Yes, Ryan has since team up with Sen. Ron Wyden (D) on the altered Medicare proposal. But when he had the opportunity with Simpson-Bowles, Ryan put ideology ahead of bipartisan cooperation -- the exact thing he accuses the president and many Democrats of doing.
*** Biden being Biden: At a fundraiser last night in New Jersey, NBC’s Carrie Dann notes, Vice President Biden engaged in some hyperbole that might get some mileage from those interpreting Biden’s comment as a slight to the masterminds of D-Day or other notable military feats in the past few hundred years. Here’s what Biden said about the Osama bin Laden raid: "You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan. Never knowing for certain. We never had more than a 48% probability that he was there."
Countdown to Louisiana primary: 4 days
Countdown to DC, Maryland, Wisconsin primaries: 14 days
Countdown to Election Day: 231 days
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I suspect that Romney will win in Illinois. He's sure spent enough to buy the votes. If Santorum even manages to pull out a squeaker on him though he's going to end up looking foolish for having spent all that money.
Anything is possible and while I wouldn't vote for Santorum a lot of people are, just because he is the anti-Mitt candidate and the Republicans have very much become the party of voting against people, not for.
The failed leadership of Willard Mitt Romney while governor of Massachusetts is stunning. His state ranked 47th out of 50 in job creation, 4 straight years of manufacturing sector job losses, what few jobs that were created, public sector outpaced private sector 6 to 1 and the state's debt increased 16.5%. With a failed leadership record like that, it is no wonder that Willard won't talk about his record as governor.
I heard them claim this morning that he balanced the budget. I'm just curious,...how exactly? With low job creation,...
what spending cuts were made? and what taxes were raised?
me thinks conservatives won't like the answer to these and many other Mitt questions.
Clara: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: He presided over a series of spending cuts and increases in fees that eliminated an up to $1.5 billion deficit. ..the state ran surpluses of around $600–700 million for the last two full fiscal years Romney was in office... Romney generally used the bully pulpit approach towards promoting his agenda, staging well-organized media events to appeal directly to the public rather than pushing his proposals in behind-doors sessions with the state legislature. It has been reported that private sector jobs were outpaced by public sector by 1 private for every 6 public (puzzeling). During his term unemployment was under 5% and there were two jobs created for every one increase in population. The state ranked 47th in job creation, but not in unemployment percentage. This can be used as a positive or a negative depending on how you want to protray Romney.
thanks, CKSM; but are you saying he RAISED government revenues (taxes and/or fees)? (which was the hidden sarcasm in my post)
Conservatives no likey when asked to pay more for things,...
again, thanks!
CKSM -
Wikipedia information is as good as what you paid for it = $0.00. Anyone can post an opinion at Wiki. and call it fact
Check www.factcheck.org - you might get better info.
And a happy-first-day-of-Spring to you, too, anaxgnosis!
Thank you for the commentary @ #16.1.
To begin, I hope that you or David Walker or anyone else who doesn’t align themselves with a particular faith weren’t offended by what I wrote in response to David earlier. I am nothing if not pragmatic. Being black in America (and remaining sane, un-incarcerated and only moderately poor) sort of forces pragmatism on you.
I was one of those kids in those worthless, run-down shacks of public education fame who was deemed “bright” or “special”. I can tell you from first-hand (and jaw) experience that nobody cared about how well I read and understood Shakespeare or how quickly I picked up the Pythagorean Theorem…not as much as they cared whether they could intimidate you or frighten you. I learned to survive at about the same time that I learned to read. And I’m a pretty quick study.
Living life has a way of exacting its own measure of truth from each of us, depending on how we go about that business of living, anaxgnosis.
Sarcasm, of which I am particularly fond, can be lost in a forum like this. Trade-offs in nuance for expediency, and all that. I still try to slide some in every once-in-a-while, though. I gotta be me.
I admit it works better on some of those sports sites I hang around on (lower overall I.Q.’s involved on average and whatnot)…but still…
I don’t spend a lot of time looking for God. I don’t have to. As it turns out, I see evidence of him (or her…just so you know I’m not Rick Santorum’s love-child) just about everywhere I look. An avid nature-watcher might be inclined to agree with that.
Except on “Basketball Wives”. I refuse to believe that God or Buddha or anybody else has anything at all to do with that mess.
My mother did everything she could to give my brother and me some basis to believe in God. So you’re right…the idea got introduced to me long before I had any real say in whether or not I wanted it. Over the next twenty or thirty years or so of just waking up every day, though…I had more than a few occasions to not just question whether or not there was a supreme being…that would be letting him or her off the hook…but to poke fun at him/her or just out–and-out hate him/her…
Faith in something or someone is weird like that. Our minds tend to need something tangible and consistent (even if it isn’t totally conclusive) to hang our hats on. We don’t want to necessarily be TOLD precisely where to go or how to get there, on balance. Just point us in the right direction and we’ll manage it just fine from there.
You can gather that from some of the faithful who routinely post here, for instance. Just enough of a half of a fact is all it takes to send most of us on murderous character assassinations or convoluted theories of deteriorating or dystopian society.
You got me, sir (or madam). I’m certifiable. Crazy as Christmas in May (…which, when you look at the actual history and date some things accurately…). My fondest wish is that no jo, feisty redhead, independent redneck and Bob in VA all hold hands and skip off under a bright sunny sky into a wild prairie of poppies and forget how much they really hate each other’s guts. And that if they don’t do that, I’ll get a small measure of satisfaction from knowing that they’ll be spending a LOT of time (like all of eternity) working on their tans…
I don’t proselytize as a matter of course. So, I don’t make a point of discounting what brings a person to a place where he has the courage and conviction to consider the fortunes of someone or something other than himself or his well-being. I believe, anaxgnosis, that we are all headed in the same direction…and that too often, we make too big of a deal about where we’re coming from.
But go ahead and make fun of me. Just shows me how much you care.
Like I said, I don’t have to look very hard…
What needs to happen again in America is for another non-white leader to be elected.
I'm thinking of someone that comes from a Middle Eastern, Mexican, Oriental (Not Chinese), or any other background other than white.
By keeping people of different skin color in the office of the President of the United States of America will allow trade and business to boom in those sectors associated with the person of color that is in office instead of trade and business only being sectored to the white.
Putting a Muslim, Mexican, Japanese, etc. in office of the President of the United States will also slowly destroy the hate that is associated with America only being ran by white men. Once more countries see that America stands in front of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution of the United States of America in spreading liberty and freedom to all regardless of the person color of skin more countries will seek out America to trade with America instead of being hostile towards America.
We have to keep people of color and difference in the White House in order to spread freedom across the planet. With a Muslim or any other Middle Easterner that is an American in the office of the President of the United States of America will also make countries like Iran and Syria think twice about murdering their own citizens when said citizens decide that they want to protest.
The only way that we can win against the terrorists in the Middle East is put trust in their leadership here in America. Once this happens those who are made to believe that America is hateful country can simply turn and look at Washington D.C. and tell their terrorist commander 'If they hate us so then why is their a Muslim, Japanese, Mexican, etc. as their President?"
This is the only way to win against terrorism that is seeded in hate and that is to trust that which you think hates you and to learn that they really don't hate only that they want to be recongnized as being able to lead like any white man or woman is able to lead.
So whose on the side of terrorism again Ann Coulter? Is it the Democrats or is your racist mentality and sentiments of thinking your better because of your skin color than another?
Not a bad satire. I have seen better though.
Willard Romney can't stand up to Rush. How can one expect him to stand up to Russia?
Amazing how much damage the Bush family has caused to the Republican Party. They must have push back the Party at least 20 years, maybe more.
The subpar performance of this group of Republican candidates in this presidential cycle clearly shows how disappointed even then Republican voters are in their Party. Low turnout, split vote, candidates dropping off because a show of incompetence, candidates dropping off because they mistaken this process to a beauty contest and fielding the "office fool" as a candidate.
Not only have this bunch of clowns shown that they are not qualified to be President of the United States, they clearly demonstrated they are not even in the same class as President Obama.
It is clear by now to all Americans that President Obama will get his second term and hopefully his second chance to get is agenda through. As it should be the responsibility falls squarely on the citizens of this great country to give President Obama a responsible Congress to help him govern instead of impeding him to give Americans what they mandated him back in 2008. My follow Americans, please do not vote for your Party, vote for the best candidate in your district.
We don't need another war, another economic collapse and more begging for Arab oil. We need a clean economy, affordable healthcare for all, a strong coalition to the take care of our global military responsibilities and we a decent leader of sound mind and moral values in the White House.
Give President Obama his destined legacy.
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And yes, it is still very much about the Bush's and Republican Party record. How they literately self destructed and took a lot of American casualties with them.
Two unpaid wars, including one war of convenience to comply with the Saudi King's request to take out Saddam.
Deregulated the banking system to collapse.
Gave billions of dollars back to their handlers, the corporate executives, on the backs of the middle class.
Turning their back on the poor and people who do not look like them with no healthcare and future.
Make a good hard read on the Republican platform and translate that to real deeds and priorities that are not included.
Yes, it is still an accounting on the Bush's failed presidency, which we will be paying for a long, long time.
It is time to change direction back into the real world and President Obama is the only one on the ballot with a sound mind that gets it.
He gets nothing. He does nothing but vacation and increase the debt. Take a lunch break Obama staffers.
Vote for Romney. Then call your Proctologist and have him pull your head out of your Butt!
They all become delusional by the time they get this far into politics.
cult member romney can kiss my a$$. would not vote for that liar if hell did freeze over. the easter bunny would make a better president than this flip flopping lying sack of donuts. What complete idiot thinks Jesus & Satan are brothers ? Oh, romney, that's who. help sink america, vote for the cult member romney.
old hillary thunder thies any one got a cigar
Wow The Liberal Left Wing Socialists are out today trying to sell your children and grandchildren on the Chinese Market.
It will take many years to recover from the Obama Years and if this leech is re elected we will pay for this second Mistake from 08
Ummm. No. He needs 47% of the remaining *open* delegates. He can still get there by claiming unpledged delegates, super delegates, etc.
CA is an almost winner take all affair, and Santorum is not going to win there. In one swoop, Romney is gonna pick up 150 delegates there, maybe all of them if he wins 50% of the vote. Not to mention April 24, when NY, CT, RI, DE, PA all vote. Romney is gonna pick up 4 out of 5 there.
It's looking like he will pick up 75% of the open delegates today. That's gonna be par for the course in some of these states like CA, NY, OR, UT, CT, RI, DE, MD, etc, etc.
Oh please people! Get a grip on reality. Obama has sold America a bill of goods and the Libs just love the fact that their guy is getting away with it, at least until November. When the GOP gets it act together and finally settles down to one candidate, the true facts about the incompetent community activist in the White House who has had three years of on the job training at our expense (TRILLIONS!) will come to light. He's a total failure and needs to go back to his Socialist roots and teach like most of the 60's radicals ended up doing. Look who taught Barack... He's a living, breathing organism hatched in the social liberal laboratories found in most liberal institiutions of higher learning.
What disappointment I have in President Obama's job is that he hasn't stood up to the party of "no" He backed off on letting the unfunded "job creating tax-cuts" of President Bush expire at the end of its ten year term. Secondly, he bowed to political pressure and backed off of "single payer" national health. Medicare, despite all of the fraud and criminal activity operates at a 3% overhead. All insurance companies take 30% off the top for profit. (check sickforprofit.org) and tell me why an insurance execs earn 250 to 500 million dollars annually on the backs of folks who pay for health insurance. So yeah, I'm not wildly enthusiastic about President Obama's performance, but if you think things are bad now wait'll Santorum, Romney or Uncle Newtie get in office. Trickle down economics only and solely benefit the rich and the politicians they own. If for some reason I couldn't in good faith vote for President Obama I would write in Mickey Mouse. These tea-party folks are against the U.S. best interests and many of them border on treason.
If you think health insurance companies are gauging the consumer, maybe the focus should be on allowing new health insurance companies into the market. But, government regulation is a huge road block for new companies. We'd have an easier time paying for health insurance if it was simply insurance instead of a huge collection of frills. We can thank our government for that. Intead of fixing it, they are just complicating it and making it even more expensive.
Thank goodness we don't have single payer or "no choice" healthcare.
how ironic (OK, funny) is it that Romney, the fiancial genius, is running out of money. costs a lot more to buy an election than he counted on.
AND it takes a lot of 'little' people - you know, those donating $10 and $20 bucks a shot,...that is the problem with the 1%. They maxed out months ago!
Next up, we'll see some 'collusion' with the Super PACS, eh?
I want to HEAR the other parties. The currant 2 party system SUCKS ROYALLY!
We as AMERICANS are not meant to be Rich and Poor class. But we are getting CLOSE with these scum bags. I must say!
No, I think my first perception of Romney was spot-on!
Plastic, ill-at-ease, unable to speak easily, way to rich to relate to today's economic issues. He's proved these traits time and time again, every time he opens his mouth.
Yesterday he talked about pancakes - good God, what's up with him and food remarks. Food and geographic references do not a candidate make!
To the voters of Illinois: Vote for whomever you feel like in the primaries. It won't matter because none of them will be able to debate Obama and come out a winner. Santorum will look like a dufuss school boy and Romney will be too busy trying to bet everyone and what to eat (y'all). They haven't a clue on gas prices, the economy and women's health rights (let 'em stay pregnant and ignorant at home).
We need whoever wins the next election to Start
Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they
let go. They've got to give us somebody
who will stand up for the American people.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the
United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to
level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a
dirty word. Hum, maybe it’s that our so
called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are
exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street and CEOs promote
sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no
OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?
The so called “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by
"out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who
are a good part of the world’s customer base out of work. I’m not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people
and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and
packaging. I’m just an average Joe, but
I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so called leaders
(political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our
jobs.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and
regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we’re
importing them from. We could then use
the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art
manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home
for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both
parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money
and bring jobs back home. Bringing
manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would
be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be
working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting,
production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather
than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let’s keep that money and those jobs here in
the US.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens,
but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect American industry and
the jobs that those industries provide.
If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
We need to Stop Illegal immigration! They're not just doing jobs that Americans don't want. Do they pay taxes? Don't get me wrong most of these people work very hard, but are a drain on the system if they don't pay taxes, have healthcare coverage, learn the language or get paid wages that are in line with their American counterparts. Who's footing the bill for the education of their children and the infrastructure around them? We all know that the health care provided to uninsured illegals here in the states is being averaged into our hospital costs and our insurance premiums, which have proportionately increased along with illegal immigration over the last 20 years? These costs are also being passed along to Medicaid and Medicare, which means that not only are they increasing our insurance premiums, but that we're paying for them again with our tax dollars.
Our tax dollars and insurance premiums should not be used to recoup the cost of healthcare given to illegal immigrants, who shouldn't even be here in our country in the first place.
To the people that disagree, we should ask them should this:
If a few illegal immigrants knocked on your door and demanded that you pay some medical bills for them, would you pay them?
All we hear about is the Republican primary but everyone should get out and vote because many local and Congressional races are being held today - many important to the people represented.
From all the polls it sounds as though Mitt Romney will probably win the primary here due to his huge super pack contributions. It seems money is more important in political results today than in actual voter turnout. Both candidates have probably lost the vote of many women based on the extreme bills and votes of Republicans around the country in recent weeks.
Mitt Romney has his problems, mostly not relating well to ordinary people. He seems insincere, and very uncomfortable with stiff gestures and measured words. He has changed his views back and forth from his days as governor of Massachusetts or his last presidential bid. Changing his mind or saying what he thinks people want to hear is not giving a strong message - it is just an indication of saying anything for a vote.
Rick Santorum seems to open himself up for criticism every time he speaks - whether it's about his beliefs, or how he feels Americans should live based on his beliefs, or his strong connections of church and state based on those same beliefs. He is now stating important issues, such as the economy, are not that important to him or to his platform. Trying to explain himself minutes or hours later doesn't matter - he's already made his point.
Here's my perception ..
The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.
The latest posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department shows the National Debt now stands at $15.566 trillion. It was $10.626 trillion on President Bush's last day in office, which coincided with President Obama's first day.
The National Debt also now exceeds 100% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services.
Enough.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/03/gop-obamas-debt-now-exeeds-that-of-bush/1
"Ryan touts this tax reform by saying it was supported by Simpson-Bowles"...and Paul Ryan VOTED AGAINST Simpson-Bowles. WTF is this wingnut talking about? The GOP are morally and intellectually BANKRUPT.
Devastating Health Insurance Cost Increases
We just got a notice that the cost of the healthcare coverage that we provide to our employees is increasing by 33% for those of us with the PPO plan and 36% for our employees who selected the cheaper HMO version of our plan. Yet our company has had to hold or reduce our own prices over the last 4 years and even going back into the late 90's we were lucky if we could even increase our prices 3-4% a year. How do these insurance companies justify these types of increases? Last year was the only year that their increases were even close to within reason and that's only because they were being challenged. If health insurance premiums increased double or even triple the rate of inflation we'd probably be able to accept it, but the ridiculous annual increase percentages over the past 10-12 years have been devastating to our business and our employees. Something needs to be done.
I didn't vote for President Obama and I know that the plan that they passed is not ideal, but at least he had the guts to take this issue on. I run a business that employs just over 20 people and neither our company nor our employees can afford this anymore. We're paying 65% and our employees are paying the balance. About 15 years ago we were paying 100%, then about 10 years ago had to cut it to 75% and then a few years back to 65%. I consider myself an independent voter, but going back to the Reagan days and with the only exception having been Perot, I've always voted Republican. So I'm not a lefty, yet I believe that every U.S. Citizen deserves basic healthcare coverage.
It doesn't matter who fixes it - Just fix it period.
All this single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull crap has got to go! This is the problem with our country. It shouldn't be about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and it's citizens.
I find it amazing that one thing that is constantly ignored in these discussions, is the fact that the health care provided to uninsured illegals here in the states is being averaged into our hospital costs and our insurance premiums, which have proportionately increased along with illegal immigration over the last 20 years. These costs are also being passed along to Medicaid and Medicare, which means that not only are they increasing our insurance premiums, but that we're paying for them again with our tax dollars.
Our tax dollars and insurance premiums should not be used to recoup the cost of healthcare given to illegal immigrants, who shouldn't even be here in our country in the first place.
To the people that disagree, we should ask them should this:
If a few illegal immigrants knocked on your door and demanded that you pay some medical bills for them, would you pay them?
It shouldn't be all about Democrats or Republicans!
It should be about doing the right thing for our country and the majority of it's citizens.
Both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide. (Under Clinton jobs to China, Under Bush I & II influx of illegals or cheap easily abused labor into the US and jobs to Mexico/NAFTA)
We need whoever wins the next election to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it's that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street and CEOs promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?
The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work. I'm not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I'm just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we're importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let's keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.