Friday, October 30, 2009
Biden Touts 1 Million Jobs Created - Are you Sure?
Flanked by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, Biden said that he could confidently claim: "We have created over a million jobs."
The vice president conceded, however, that the administration's rapidly assembled numbers and the stimulus-tracking Recovery.gov website were only an approximate picture of the country's employment situation.
"We know this is not 100 percent accurate," he said. "Further updates and corrections are going to be needed."
But, he continued: "My message today is we're on track."
Earlier in the week, the White House parried charges in an AP article that it had inflated job-creation numbers by approximately 5,000 jobs in a study purporting to show the earliest stages of stimulus spending had created or protected some 30,000 positions. - Politico Story
Not only are they not 100% accurate, the last report showed they were wrong or inflated by some 20%. That means that if he claims nearly 1 Million it is more likely somewhere around 800,000. Not bad really. We only lost several Million in that same time frame so creating much less than what you lose is OK in the Obama White House.
30 Lawmakers Probed in Ethics Investigation
A leaked document shows that House ethics investigators are probing the activities of nearly three dozen lawmakers — an ethical dust storm that will empower the Republicans and could imperil efforts to get health care reform through the House next week.
The House ethics committee said Thursday that it was opening two new investigations — one into the foreclosure scandal of Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) and one involving financial questions about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and her husband.
But shortly after the committee met, chairs Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) interrupted proceedings on the House floor to say that an internal document on secret committee proceedings had been leaked to The Washington Post — and that it would name the names of many other members who had drawn the attention of either the committee or the Office of Congressional Ethics.
According to the Post, the document identifies more than 30 House members.
Much of the investigative interest swirls around lawmakers' relationship with the PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm that pumped campaign contributions to members and obtained earmarks for its defense clients.
Reps. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) had been implicated in the PMA case previously, but the leaked document showed that investigators are also interested in Reps. Jim Moran (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), according to the Post.
The Department of Justice is also looking into allegations that Paul Magliocchetti, a former Appropriations Committee staffer and founder of PMA, used “straw men” donors to improperly funnel campaign funds to Murtha - Politico Story
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Report Shows White House Inflated Jobs Created Figure for Stimulus
The government's first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.
The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.
For example:
- A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.
- A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.
- A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.
There's no evidence the White House sought to inflate job numbers in the report. But administration officials seized on the 30,000 figure as evidence that the stimulus program was on its way toward fulfilling the president's promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
Republican critics say they don't understand how some stimulus projects will create any jobs, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Chip Reid; for example, half a million dollars to study social networks like Facebook, and $219,000 to study the sex lives of female college freshmen.
The reporting problem could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls. - CBS News Story
White House's TARP on Steroids Proposal
Lawmakers from both parties are attacking a White House proposal that would grant the federal government sweeping powers to wind down financial firms – an authority one Democrat derided as “TARP on steroids.”
With Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner listening in a House hearing room, bailout-weary lawmakers are spending Thursday morning picking apart a proposal by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) that seeks to grant this “resolution authority” to the government, similar to the authority the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has over U.S. banks that become insolvent.
“Let’s not adopt ‘TARP on steroids,’” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said in a release before the hearing started.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) slammed the bill’s proposal that when the government has to front money to cover the costs of winding down a dying firm, other big financial firms will pay the bill via a fee assessed after the fact.
Gutierrez argued that the firms should pay into a fund, “Now, today, not after the fact.”
“They should pay for future insurance policy payouts. The fund should be set up just in case their behavior … raises its ugly head again,” he said.
Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the committee, complained that Frank released the draft text Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours before the hearing, giving neither members nor witnesses enough time to digest its contents. - Politico Story
White House Trying to get Out of FOX Mess?
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Michael Clemente, Fox News' senior vice president for news, met at the White House for about 20 minutes on Wednesday morning, sources said.
Gibbs reached out to Clemente on Monday, the sources said.
The contents of the meeting remain private. A Fox source said that the marching orders are to “continue doing what we’re doing – reporting the news, asking tough questions and providing analysis/opinion on shows like O’Reilly, Beck and Hannity. - Politico Story
My guess is that the White House found out that this is a fight it can't win. They are trying to find a way out without getting egg all over their face. Too Late!!!!
White House Attack on FOX News starts to Unravel
Asked by CNN's Campbell Brown whether Fox had an ideological slant, Jarrett replied firmly: "Of course they're biased. Of course they are."
But the top aide quickly walked that statement back when Brown pressed her to judge MSNBC's political leanings.
"You know what, this is the thing. I don't want to — actually, I don't want to generalize all Fox is biased or another station is biased. I think what we want to do is look at it on a case-by-case basis. And when we see a pattern of distortion, we're going to be honest about that pattern of distortion," Jarrett said.
"What the administration has said very clearly is that we're going to speak truth to power," she continued. "When we saw all the distortions during the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death, when we've seen commercials go up on television that were distorting the truth, we're actually calling everybody out. This isn't something that's directed at Fox." - Politico Story
White House Fires Back at Edmunds for Analysis of Cash for Clunkers
The White House fired back Thursday to a report that claimed taxpayers paid $24,000 per vehicle sold under the government's "Cash for Clunkers" auto program, calling the study a "faulty" analysis that "doesn't withstand even basic scrutiny."
In a blog posted to the White House Web site, White House director of new media Macon Phillips disputed a report by the automotive information firm Edmunds.com, which raised questions on the overall effectiveness of the government plan.
"This is the latest of several critical "analyses" of the Cash for Clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV," wrote Phillips. "Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn’t withstand even basic scrutiny."
"Edmunds also ignores the beneficial impact that the program will have on 4th Quarter GDP because automakers have ramped up their production to rebuild their depleted inventories," he wrote.
The Edmunds report found that of the nearly 690,000 vehicles sold under the program, only 125,000 of the sales could be credited directly to the Cash-for-Clunkers program.
The rest of the sales would have happened anyway, despite the government program, the report said -- raising questions over its effectiveness.
The report also said that the average cost for a vehicle in August 2009 was only $26,915 -- minus an average cash rebate of $1,667.
Cash for Clunkers -- officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System -- was a $3 billion program intended to provide economic incentives to Americans to purchase a new, more fuel efficient cars when they traded in an older, less efficient vehicle.
The program was touted for giving a boost to auto sales while increasing the sales of more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Edmunds.com was quick to respond to the White House's criticisms, saying, "instead of shooting the messenger, government officials should take heart from the core message of the analysis: the fundamentals of the auto marketplace are improving faster than the current sales numbers suggest."
"Apparently, the $24,000 figure caught many by surprise. It shouldn’t have. The truth is that consumer incentive programs are always hugely expensive when calculated by incremental sales -- always in the tens of thousands of dollars. Cash for Clunkers was no exception," the firm said in a press release Thursday. "The White House claims that our analysis was based on car sales on Mars and that on Earth, the marketplace is connected. We agree the marketplace is connected. In fact, that is exactly the basis of our analysis." - FOX News
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Obama Kids Get Swine Flu Shot - While We Wait fo Supplies
A spokeswoman for Michelle Obama, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, tells the Associated Press that Sasha, age 8, and Malia, age 11, got the shot from a White House doctor last week after it became available to schoolchildren in the Washington area.
President and Michelle Obama are going to wait to get the H1N1 shot until members of higher priority groups have received their shots. The whole family, however, has gotten the seasonal flu shot. - CBS News
If you ever wondered what Nationalized or Government Run Health Care would be like, well here it is. The Swine Flu outbreak is a perfect demonstration of how it would work.
They all knew it was coming, vaccine was promised. Well it is here and there is little to no vaccine. Long lines and the Government is picking and choosing what classes of people get the shot. While in my area, the shots haven't been available just the nose spray. They are now shutting down all the clinics and it is only being offered to certain people. Hey, why not, the Obama kids must fit that program.
Government run health care at it's finest.
Deadly Attack on UN in Afghanistan
Gunmen attacked a guest house used by U.N. staff in the Afghan capital of Kabul early Wednesday, killing at least seven people including three U.N. staff, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility, saying it was meant as an assault on the upcoming presidential election.
Heavy gunfire reverberated through the streets shortly after dawn and a large plume of smoke rose over the city following the attack in the Shar-e-Naw district. Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman said seven people were killed, including some attackers.
U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards confirmed that three U.N. staff were among the dead and one was seriously wounded. He said 20 U.N. staff were known to be registered there but he was unsure whether all were there at the time of the attack. - ABC News Story
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dems Trailing in Most Election Polls
A slew of new polls released Tuesday showed Republican nominee Bob McDonnell with a comfortable lead in the Virginia governor’s race and Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican Chris Christie running nearly even in New Jersey.
Corzine trails Christie by three percentage points in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll and by four percentage points in the Public Policy Polling survey. The results of both automated surveys were released Tuesday.
Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, leads Corzine by 42 percent to 38 percent in the PPP poll of 630 likely voters. Independent candidate Chris Daggett won the support of 13 percent.
In the Rasmussen survey of 1,000 likely voters, Christie leads the Democratic governor by 46 percent to 43 percent, with Daggett attracting seven percent.
In his write-up of the survey, Rasmussen Reports CEO Scott Rasmussen concluded that at this point in the New Jersey race “there is no possible way to project what will happen on Election Day.”
In Virginia, both PPP and SurveyUSA released automated polls Tuesday showing McDonnell up by double-digits over Democratic nominee Creigh Deeds.
Deeds trails McDonnell by 17 percentage points—58 percent to 41 percent—in the SurveyUSA poll of 502 likely Virginia voters. In PPP’s Virginia survey, McDonnell leads Deeds by 12 points—52 percent to 40 percent. - Politico Story
Dem. Senator Reid's Health Care Plan Has Backfired
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was struggling Tuesday to drum up the support necessary to pass a health care reform bill that includes a government insurance plan, with key moderate Democrats backing away from the package ahead of a crucial vote.
Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that he would support a Republican filibuster against the bill unless it's changed. Key Democratic moderates including Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Ben Nelson, D-Neb.; and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., also said they were uncertain how they'd vote, expressing deep reservations about the public plan.
And Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the only Republican to have voted for any version of health care reform, reiterated Tuesday that she's "disappointed" in Reid's proposal and will not support the government option.
The wavering, and in some cases crumbling, support for the package demonstrates how much of a gamble the Nevada Democrat took by unveiling a bill Monday that includes the controversial government plan but has no Republican backing. And it's a reminder of the warnings made months ago by Senate Democrats like Kent Conrad, D-N.D., that a public plan simply does not have the votes to pass and should not be included in the final bill.
With a 60-vote Democratic majority, Reid would need all 60 of them to cut off debate and bring the bill for a vote. Though he was known to be short of the 60-vote threshold before Monday's announcement, some Democrats hoped that by calling it a fait accompli, he could convince those lawmakers with reservations about the bill to vote at least to cut off debate -- even if they planned to vote against the bill in the end. Then Reid would need only 51 supporters to pass the bill.
Though Reid's proposal was pitched as a compromise to appease conservative Democrats, lawmakers like Lieberman said they are still concerned it would add to the deficit and leave taxpayers on the hook for bailing out the government.
"If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage," Lieberman told reporters, adding that he's willing to vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate. - FOX News Story
Key Official Resigns over Afghanistan Policy
A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.
But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.
"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."
The reaction to Hoh's letter was immediate. Senior U.S. officials, concerned that they would lose an outstanding officer and perhaps gain a prominent critic, appealed to him to stay. - CBS News Story
Obama's Lack of Transparency - Broken Campaign Promises
When Barack Obama was running for president, he vowed to lead the most open and transparent government in history. Candidate Obama even promised to negotiate health care reform live on television.
Then it came time to govern, and President Obama has negotiated major parts of the health care bill behind closed doors. Earlier this year, he announced deals his administration had cut with drug companies and hospitals after brokering them out of public view. And now his top lieutenants are working in secret with leading Democrats to craft the health care bill that will be debated on the Senate floor.
All of the insider wheeling and dealing has good-government groups disappointed in an administration that promised more openness than it has delivered. Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation expressed the watchdog community’s frustration when he said, bluntly, “This is a broken promise. We didn’t get anywhere near the level of transparency that we were promised.”
Obama is learning what some political observers said during the campaign — that it’s unreasonable to promise open negotiations on an issue as complicated as health reform.
“I guess I just never believed it when it was promised. It seemed unrealistic,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Nobody can have all their negotiations in public because then you never get to ‘yes.’”
But that doesn’t mean Obama’s off the hook, Sloan said. The president needs to explain why he’s not living up to his campaign promise and should at least be briefing the public on what’s happening in the meetings, she said.
On the campaign trail last year, Obama promised an unprecedented level of transparency. - Politico Story
Dem. Deeds - Another Body in the Wake of Opposing Obama
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds said Monday that he hadn’t distanced himself from President Obama, even as senior Democrats in the state complained about the difficult political winds blowing in from across the Potomac River.
“I absolutely did not push the president away,” Deeds said before addressing a vote-rich retirement community in the northern Virginia suburb of Springfield.
With polls showing Deeds trailing by a significant margin to Republican Bob McDonnell just over a week before the election, White House officials and other national Democrats are grumbling about the quality of the state senator’s campaign and some of the steps he has taken to appeal to Virginia’s moderate electorate.
Asked Monday if the White House was happy with the Deeds campaign, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs pointedly declined to offer a vote of confidence.
“That’s not for me to pass judgment on,” Gibbs said.
As he has been throughout the campaign, Deeds is torn between wanting the assistance of a president who is still very popular with the party base and a Southern Democrat’s fear of being too closely associated with the more liberal national party. He equivocated during a debate when asked if Barack Obama was his kind of Democrat, has opposed the federal energy bill and said he would consider opting out of a public health insurance option. - Politico Story
The last paragraph tells you all you need to know as to why Obama has hung this Democrat out to dry. He doesn't go along with everything Obama wants. We all know that if you are not a yes man to the President, Goodbye. He and his bullies will try and take you down.
Obama Skates where Bush Got Blasted
A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser.
Snubbing the Dalai Lama.
Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers.
Freezing out a TV network.
Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too.
President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.
What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda.
It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news judgment, and an illustration that, in politics, context is everything.
Conservatives look on with a mix of indignation and amazement and ask: Imagine the fuss if George W. Bush had done these things?
And quickly add, with a hint of jealousy: How does Obama get away with it?
“We have a joke about it. We’re going to start a website: IfBushHadDoneThat.com,” former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie said. “The watchdogs are curled up around his feet, sleeping soundly. ... There are countless examples: some silly, some serious.”
Indeed, Bush got grief for secret meetings with the oil industry, politicizing the White House and spending too much time on his beloved bike. But it’s not just Republicans who notice. Media observers note that the president often gets kid-glove treatment from the press, fellow Democrats and, particularly, interest groups on the left — Bush’s loudest critics, Obama’s biggest backers.
But others say there’s a larger phenomenon at work — in the story line the media wrote about Obama’s presidency. For Bush, the theme was that of a Big Business Republican who rode the family name to the White House, so stories about secret energy meetings and a certain laziness, intellectual and otherwise, fit neatly into the theme, to be replayed over and over again. - Politico Story
Monday, October 26, 2009
Segregation in the Obama White House?
We asked Terry O'Neill, the new president of the National Organization for Women, what she thought of those Democratic women and others quietly complaining about a "boy's club" atmosphere at the White House, as exemplified by the president playing basketball earlier this month with 11 members of Congress and four Cabinet Secretaries -- all men.
As the New York Times and cable news chatter looked at whether the Obama White House is too fratty yesterday, President Obama brought along a woman golf partner for the first time in his 24 golf outings as president, domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes.
Is this much ado about nothing?
O'Neill says no.
"Relationships get built in those more informal settings," O'Neill told ABC News, "and the relationships have a huge impact on the influence an individual has. We know what happens when we segregated whether it by race or whether it by gender -- you end up with 1st class citizens and you end up with 2nd class citizens."
O'Neill told ABC News' Mike Callahan, "we need to see the White House leading the way for desegregating the work places all around the country and it is troubling." - ABC News Story
What is Obama's FOX News Strategy?
Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution scholar on White House press relations going back decades, says, "It makes them in the White House look terribly political, and political means petty in our lexicon."
The White House has also opened itself up to charges that it is creating an "enemies list," Ã la President Richard Nixon – a charge made on the Senate floor Wednesday by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R) of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate with a reputation for collegiality. He also cited recent administration criticism of the US Chamber of Commerce, the insurance industry, and the insurance company Humana, among others. - ABC News Story
Obama Continues Polling Struggles
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 29% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12 (see trends).
.....
Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove. The President’s total approval has been very stable, staying between 47% and 49% every day for two full weeks. Looking back a bit further, his ratings have stayed between 45% and 52% every day for nearly four months. - Rasmussen Reports Poll
Chamber Responds to Obama Fight
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue says a campaign by the White House and its allies to undermine his $200-million-a-year association has largely failed — and actually has helped raise even more money for its pro-business efforts.
In a 75-minute interview with POLITICO, Donohue dismissed recent defections by Apple and at least four other companies, which quit over the Chamber’s opposition to Democratic climate change legislation — as essentially meaningless. “Members come and go all the damn time,” he said.
That’s true. But rarely — if ever — have companies jumped ship in such a public way.
Donohue made plain he believes the White House, or at least its closest allies operating on the outside, are behind a very orchestrated campaign to embarrass and undermine the Chamber.
“People that are associated with those major pieces of legislation are somewhat frustrated and trying to marginalize the Chamber as well as people that work here,” he said.
The Chamber, like Fox News, says it’s making the best of a fight it did not choose. It’s unusual for a White House to take on critics so frontally, but aides to President Barack Obama said they decided in August they needed to be more aggressive in confronting their critics. And that revs up supporters on the left, who had hoped Obama would cater to them more quickly and gives the White House a foil to help argue its case.
POLITICO reported last week the White House wants to neuter the Chamber after clashes over health care, energy and financial regulation. Obama aides have been dealing directly with corporations and their CEOs rather than going through the Chamber, which has the slogan “Fighting for Your Business.”
Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett has made clear to reporters that the West Wing is displeased with the Chamber. But pressed on Jarrett’s comments, Donohue said: “Look, I am not getting in a fight with those guys.” He did, however, go out of his way to highlight a speech on the Senate floor by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who warned Obama against brandishing a Nixon-style “enemies list.”
“I thought it was a good piece of advice,” Donohue added.
The White House is also trying to marginalize others, including Fox News, in addition to the Chamber.
The fight with Fox News has been more pointed and sustained — and is much less likely to abate anytime soon, while the spat with the Chamber is more delicate for the White House. - Politico Story