It's important to know that Republicans are not planning to take away the necessary government assistance programs. It's just necessary not to expand them and put more and more people on them. There's a huge difference here. If we have 60% of our nation on government assistance, what are we going to do? How can we afford? But supporting a lower percentage of poor people or people in temporary stress is okay. Just not promoting it and expanding it when we are broke as a nation, with a huge debt hanging over us.

Do you know the one question I never heard the Obama
administration ask of the bankers, mortgage brokers,
credit card CEOs and car makers during the financial
crisis?

What is the rock bottom Least will it take to keep
your business afloat? Not, how much do you need to
keep up appearances? Not, how much do you need to
keep your gymn membership and country club dues?
Not, how much do you need to take the wife on that
long overdue vacation to Oahu? Not, how much do you
need to give your executive staff a two billion
dollar bonus?

The question Obama's wonder boys Never asked: what
is the dead least amount of money will it take to
stay in business after layoffs, salary cuts and
perks are all withdrawn. When you are down to your
lowest necessary head count. When everyone has taken
a fifty per cent pay cut. When everybody is taking a
group discount at Supercuts. How much will you need,
Then? Obama never asked the most obvious question.

When you and I tighten our belts, we cut out
Everything. When the people who bought Obama his
Oval Office tighten Their belts, they take one less
helping of caviar. It wasn't the Russians who took
advantage of our most green and gullible president,
it was his own people on Wallstreet and in Detroit,
who stabbed him in the back. They came to Obama hat
in hand and he Filled them to the Brim.

He wasn't ready to be president, they knew it and
they took full advantage of it, And He, Defends
Them.

Sometimes I wonder if the republicans really want to win!

That's very critical,” Ryan said. “You see, by going after the root causes of poverty and trying to break the
cycle of poverty, you need economic growth, you need job creation, you need higher take-home pay.”

Republicans have constantly fought to repeal workers rights and to repeal the minimum wage?

Republican Policies ARE the root cause of poverty in the USA

Yeah really...all of you no load seniors and vets need to go get tax paying jobs so even more millionaires can have tax cuts...the nerve of half of you to keep living while not paying taxes...those lazy schollchildren need to be put to work also...the shame of it thinking you can go to 1st grade and not pay taxes....

Great. I am going to wait for the republican bill to END all tax breaks and subsidies for Big Oil, Big Energy, Outsourching jobs overseas, tax money for senators and congressmen health care, pension fund, housing, and travel. end to paying BIG FARMS and BIG LUMBER to produce stuff nobody buys....I'll just sit here and wait...shouldn't be too long...the republicans are so hot on this issue and so right...

Anyone who hands out required reading to staffers is a self-important person with serious control issues. Anyone who hands out Ayn Rand as required reading to anyone, and truly thinks that her philosophies are healthy for society, has some serious mental issues in general. While I have sympathy for Paul Ryan's family and staffers, I really don't think we need a wacko like him as one of our country's leaders.

Self Sufficiency? Ryan's rise to veep candidate was pretty easy considering he never really had a full time job outside of politics. I suppose he counts the time he was on his family's payroll as a consultant for their construction company as a job. Or maybe his stints as working as a waiter is where he earned the right to accuse others of living on government welfare. I am sure most people who do receive government help work more hours on real jobs in a year, than Ryan did in his whole life. Since his graduation from college, he has been on government aid in the form of lackey jobs in politics. The guy is a fraud.

To all nutcase teaparty members: FYI atleast 90% of you fall in the 47% that Mitt Romney has totally written off; so if you are a retiree and don't pay taxes you're part of the group. If your income is too low you're also part of that group. If you get your Social Security and Medicare, according to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan this is a government handout program. They believe that anyone that takes anything from the government is a mooch and blood sucking parasite on the American taxpayers. Mitt Romney said this and he stands behind his statement. So the only reason that you could possibly vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan is that Obama is black and you can't accept this.

"Self Sufficiency" Ironic coming from someone who has been feeding at the public trough for decades.

Ryan and Romneys plan for the 47% is to just throw them under the bus.

He just told seniors who have worked their entire lives and are now retired, that you are 'worthless crap because you are not working'. 'Don't expect government to give a damn about you. Because I don't'. The real Romney is now showing up. I thought retirement was a worthy goal. Now Romney says if you retire you are a low life POS.

Repubs on the vine do not understand - if you are not worth tens of millions now, he is going to throw you under the bus too. You are not one of 'his people' either. Get ready for a big disappointment.

Somebody please tell Mr. Ryan that 61% of those who have no tax liability HAVE JOBS. They pay no income tax because of legitimate tax credits & exemptions. In what sense are these people not self-sufficient?

I'm sick of Romney & Ryan and their elitist arrogance. Their whole campaign is based on appealing to peoples' prejudices & misconceptions.

Ryan and his kind hate the Poor and Middle Class They view them as lazy freeloading peons who deserve nothing says Ryan,let them eat cake! Greed is so good! White collar criminals are such hard working people says Ryan! My kind of people! Now tell me how I can put my investments in Cayman Island accounts Mitt.

I once knew a kind,compassionate,generous GOP politician,alas he's dead,last of his kind!

GOP retirement plan for the 99% of Americans: work until you die,enjoy! Your not worthy!

Waiting for Paul Ryan to give up ALL of his government perks. Don't want to be a moocher Paul do you? No government handouts for you! And about your mom,tell her to give up her Social Security! You can't have mom be a moocher either!

Romney's comments make it abundantly clear that the only "class warfare" in this campaign is that being practiced by the Republican party.

How about Lovie Ann Romney getting $77,00 in tax breaks for a dancing horse? Another government moocher!

How unfortunate that this country is becoming so divided. I guess the consolation it will soon be divided not by race but by those who are self sufficient and those who are not. It concerns me that almost 47% of Americans are receiving governement assistance and that there are commercials and outreach done by the government to encourage even more people to sign up for entitlement programs. Whatever happened to working hard, sacrificing and living within your means? Nowadays, it appears the mentality is I will let someone else take responsibility for my actions, while I blame those who have worked hard and sacrificed for not contributing enough to the pot to take care of me. It is troubling that generation after generation have been on some of these programs. It is also troubling that once one uses up the benefits in one program they slide into receiving benefits from another. I know for a fact that this does lower one's motivation to go out and find a job and to become self sufficient. I was unemployed for almost a year and needless to say, I wasn't making as much as working, but I was able to pay my bills. I had to force myself to get my *ss in gear because I was getting comfortable with staying up all night, sleeping until I woke up, with no alarm and doing the I ain't got no job routine. Though I am not even close to being a 1%, I don't resent them, I applaud them because if it were not for them, I would not presently be working my two jobs. One is a small company, and I am assuming he is a 1% or damn near. Neither I nor my friends have their own plane and a summer home, so I am thinking he is up there. Good for him and I thank him for giving me a job. Indeed, he doesn't pay me as much as he makes or as much as I think I deserve, but he does pay me. Enough of the class envy folks and take responsibility for your own freaking lives!!!!!

Obama unveiled his new campaign slogan on the Letterman show last night.

"Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you!"

Gee, maybe people could be more self-sufficient if their jobs weren't outsourced by people like his running-mate. Maybe they could be more self-sufficient if the companies making record profits would pay their employees a living wage.

Democrats need to change their party mascot from the donkey to the squirrel. They divert the media’s and the electorate’s short attention spans with fleeting, fuzzy objects — like the main canine character in the Pixar movie Up, who was easily distracted from his main thoughts and serious duties by every last little moving trifle. Embassy attacks? Quick, find a squirrel! Warnings ignored? Squirrel! American troops killed by long-plotting jihadis exploiting security weaknesses? Squirrel! Sabotage of the First Amendment by White House officials in the name of political correctness? Squirrel! Chronic joblessness, high gas prices, exploding dependency? Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel! As Election Day draws nearer, the Obama campaign and its surrogates in the Fourth Estate have infested the political arena with an army of tactical and rhetorical rodentia. One week, it’s GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney’s high-school hijinks. The next, it’s a heinous smear about Romney’s killing a steelworker’s cancer-stricken wife. Or it’s a hit job on multiple-sclerosis survivor Ann Romney’s therapeutic horse. Then it’s faux rage over Romney’s firm statement condemning the feckless White House response to the murders of our U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi. This week, it’s a “secret Romney video” shot undercover at a closed-door dinner with Florida donors in May. Unemployed Democratic operative James Carter IV (grandson of former president and malaise engineer Jimmy Carter) brokered the film to progressive Mother Jones magazine. Now, media lapdogs — the same ones who had conniption fits when the late Andrew Breitbart and conservative investigative journalist James O’Keefe used undercover video — are tripping over themselves to publish glowing profiles of Carter the Fourth and his impressive “furtive efforts” to secure the Romney tapes. Carter the Fourth found the cameraman on Twitter, invoked his family name, and convinced the mole to leak the tape to Mother Jones’s David Corn. To quote Joe Biden with all due sarcasm: BFD. But back to the bigger Big, Fluffy Distraction at hand: Let’s reflect for a moment on the Beltway hoo-hah over one small snippet from Romney’s nearly hour-long talk. Here’s the quote that has liberal finger-waggers and Republican wet-finger-in-the-wind windbags in meltdown mode: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney explained to an audience member who asked how the candidate was going to change the “we’ll take care of you” mentality of Obama voters. “All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. . . . And they will vote for this president no matter what.” This portion of voters consists of “people who pay no income tax,” Romney explained. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” He’s talking, of course, about the Peggy the Moochers and Henrietta Hugheses of the world: savior-based Obama supporters for whom the cult of personality trumps all else. He’s talking about the Sandra Flukes and Julias of the world: Nanny State grievance-mongers who have been spoon-fed identity politics and victim Olympics from preschool through grad school and beyond. And he’s talking about the encrusted entitlement clientele who range from the Section 8 housing mob in Atlanta who caused a near-riot to the irresponsible, debt-ridden homeowners who mortgaged themselves into oblivion and want their bailout now, now, now. Media wonks sliced and diced the words like hibachi chefs on bath salts. Beltway conservative scribes David Brooks and Bill Kristol denounced Romney as insensitive and out of touch. But Romney told hard political truths, which he’s proclaimed openly on the campaign trail before. When a heckler in March yelled that she wanted “free birth control,” Romney responded: “If you’re looking for free stuff you don’t have to pay for, vote for the other guy. That’s what he’s all about, okay? That’s not, that’s not what I’m about.” Gasp! He said he’s against freeloaders. Oh, the inhumanity. In another section of the “secret video” that libs don’t want to talk about, Romney received his biggest applause when he defended his success and lauded the wise words of Florida GOP senator Marco Rubio’s Cuban immigrant parents. “When he grew up here poor, they looked at people who had a lot of wealth. His parents never once said, ‘We need some of what they have. They should give us some.’ Instead, they said, ‘If we work hard and go to school, someday we might be able to have that.’” Let the parsers and panicky pundits chase their tails and hurl their nuts. This election is about America’s makers versus America’s takers. Romney should never, ever apologize for making that clear.

There are liars, damn liars, and then there's the Robme/Lyin Ryan campaign.

Team Obama will tout the auto bailout as their signature, hmm only success. But like all of the economic success stories manufactured by the White House, the $85 billion government handout is a big fat farce.

“I said I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back,” Obama bragged on the campaign trail. Here’s the inconvenient story they won’t tell you: GM is once again flirting with bankruptcy despite massive government purchases propping up its sales figures. GM stock is rock-bottom. Losses continue to be revised in the wrong direction. According to the Detroit News, “the Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That’s 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.” The claims that GM paid back its taxpayer-funded loans “in full” — a story peddled in campaign ads narrated by Hollywood actor Tom Hanks — were debunked by the Treasury Department’s TARP watchdog this summer. GM still owes nearly $30 billion of the $50 billion it received, and its lending arm still owes nearly $15 billion of the more than $17 billion it received. Bailout watchdog Mark Modica of the National Legal and Policy Center adds: “In addition to U.S. taxpayers anteing up, Canada put in over $10 billion, and GM was relieved of about $28 billion of bondholder obligations as UAW claims were protected. That’s an improvement of almost $90 billion to the balance sheet, and the company still lags the competition.”

While the Obama administration wraps the auto bailout in red, white, and blue, it’s foreign workers and overseas plants that are reaping redistributive rewards. GM has increased its manufacturing capacity in China by an estimated 55 percent after the bailout, according to industry watchers. GM’s Dan Akerson crowed at the Beijing auto show earlier this year: “One of our aims is to help grow a new generation of automotive engineers, designers, and leaders right here in China.” The U.S. auto giant’s ventures with the Communist regime include Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co., Ltd.; GM China Advanced Technical Center; FAW-GM Light Duty Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd., in Harbin, Heilongjiang; FAW-GM’s Changchun plant in Changchun, Jilin; FAW-GM Hongta Yunnan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., in Qujing, Yunnan; and Shanghai Chengxin Used Car Operation and Management Co., Ltd. In Europe, the UAW’s appointee to the Government Motors board of directors, Steve Girsky, recklessly pushed the feds to hold on to GM’s failing German-based Opel AG. The Great American Auto Bailout has been subsidizing this hemorrhaging enterprise while Obama has failed to deliver on his 2008 campaign promise to salvage plants like the one in GOP vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. According to Forbes magazine, “GM Europe, comprised mostly of Opel and its sister brand, Vauxhall, lost $617 million in the first half of 2012, on top of a $747 million loss in 2011 and a $1.8 billion loss in 2010. In all, GM has lost almost $17 billion in Europe since 1999.”

While Team Obama lambastes GOP rival Mitt Romney for outsourcing, Government Motors is now planning to invest $1 billion over the next five years — not in America, but in Russia. That’s on top of $7 billion total in China, close to $1 billion in Mexico, and $600 million for a shirt-sponsorship deal with Manchester United, the British soccer club. The DNC will put a rank-and-file U.S. autoworker on stage to back up Big Labor’s cheerleading of the deal. Rest assured, this human shield will not tell viewers how Obama and the union bosses colluded to pervert bankruptcy law and shaft some 20,000 nonunion Delphi auto-parts workers. The forgotten victims saw their pensions erode by up to 70 percent; their health benefits disappeared. The first lady is radio-silent. Here in Charlotte, Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett ducked questions about the Delphi injustice from the Washington Times. Only in a fantasyland where America has 57 states, “jobs” is a three-letter word, and bailouts are “achievements” does Obama’s rescue math add up. “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry,” Obama vows. God help the American worker.

EXELON HAS PRIVATE MEETINGS AND RECEIVED COVETED GRANTS FROM THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

Exelon Was One Of Only Six Electric Utilities Selected For A $200 Million Energy Department Grant And Received A Commitment For $646 Million With “Extremely Generous Financial Terms” From The Treasury Department. “In addition, Exelon, which provides power to more than 6.6 million customers in at least 16 states and the District of Columbia, was chosen as one of only six electric utilities nationwide for the maximum $200 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department. And when the Treasury Department granted loans for renewable energy projects, Exelon landed a commitment for up to $646 million allowing it, on extremely generous financial terms, to finance one of the world’s largest photovoltaic solar projects.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

“Records Show That Exelon Executives Were Able To Secure An Unusually Large Number Of Meetings With Top Administration Officials At Key Moments.” “White House records show that Exelon executives were able to secure an unusually large number of meetings with top administration officials at key moments in the consideration of environmental regulations that have been drafted in a way that hurt Exelon’s competitors, but curb the high cost of compliance for Exelon and its industry allies.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

Exelon’s Access And Success Leads Competitors To Lament That “[E]xelon Seems To Get Deference That I Can’t Get. “‘I would like to get some treatment in Washington like that,’ said Ken Anderson, general manager at Tri-State G&T, a Colorado-based power supplier that has been at odds with Exelon over environmental regulations. ‘But Exelon seems to get deference that I can’t get.’” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

“Exelon’s Top Executives Were Early And Frequent Supporters Of Mr. Obama As He Rose From The Illinois State Senate To The White House.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

Senior Campaign Adviser David Axelrod And Former Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel Both Have Ties To Exelon. “David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s longtime political strategist, once worked as an Exelon consultant, and Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor and Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff, helped create the company through a corporate merger in 2000 while working as an investment banker.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

John Rogers, Exelon Board Member And Family Friend, Is One Of Obama’s Biggest Campaign Bundlers. “By far the strongest link is with Mr. Rogers, the Exelon board member and family friend. A college classmate of Michelle Obama’s brother, he was co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s inauguration committee and still occasionally plays basketball with Mr. Obama. He is one of Mr. Obama’s biggest campaign donation bundlers, having raised more than $500,000, and has co-hosted several fund-raisers, including one in March that featured a performance by the Grammy-winning musician John Legend.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

William Von Hoene, Jr., Who Oversees Exelon’s Legal And Lobbying Team , Also Bundles For The Obama Campaign And Has Attended Meetings At The White House On Behalf Of Exelon. “Another Obama bundler is William A. Von Hoene Jr., who oversees Exelon’s legal and lobbying team out of Chicago, despite Mr. Obama’s rule against accepting contributions from lobbyists. Mr. Von Hoene is not a registered lobbyist, although records show he attended a White House meeting to push Exelon’s cause.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

Exelon Lobbyist Boasted That “It’s Nice” For Then-Exelon CEO John Rowe “To Be Able To Go To The White House And They Know His Name.” “But the relationship with the Obama administration was so strong that Exelon boasted about it after the election. ‘It’s nice for John to be able to go to the White House and they know his name,’ Elizabeth Anne Moler, then an Exelon lobbyist in Washington, told Forbes magazine, referring to Mr. Rowe, then its chief executive.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)

Before Retiring, Then-Exelon CEO John Rowe Visited The White House Eight Times, And In 2011, He Met With Top Administration Officials Including Bill Daley, Cass Sunstein, Lisa Jackson, and Gina McCarthy. “White House records show that Mr. Rowe, before his retirement, visited eight times, far more than chief executives of coal-centered companies like American Electric Power that were fighting parts of the rules that Mr. Rowe was supporting. Exelon’s efforts peaked in 2011, White House meeting records show. Mr. Rowe flew to Washington in March, and met with William M. Daley, then Mr. Obama’s chief of staff; Cass Sunstein, then the head of the White House office that oversees all federal regulations; Lisa P. Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Gina McCarthy, the agency’s top air pollution official. Exelon’s competitors were seeking extra time to comply with the rule, which the administration was under a court order to issue. Exelon and its industry allies argued against any extension.” (Eric Lipton, “Ties To Obama Aided In Access for Big Utility,” The New York Times , 8/22/12)